Scycraft F1 Tunnel w/ Evinrude Xflow

[PARKER RABE]

Damn , he'll yeah !!!!!! Man I would love to come to that !!!! That's so cool

[mwe14]

I think it is going to be great! And I did capsule training in 2013 as part of the driving school I took at the race in Bay City, but I do need to do it again. They are running a driving school and capsule training at the race in Laporte. I believe the dunk test is early Friday morning before the racing starts.

[PARKER RABE]

Dam that's killer ....!

[mwe14]

I made it to Laporte and had a great time at my first Formula 1 race! We got there on the Thursday evening and went straight to work finishing rigging the boat, the seat and safety harness still had to be installed, as well as a few other rigging things to finish up. The Mendana Racing crew and Grand Prix boats made me a great carbon and kevlar seat, delivered it to me at the race and helped with installation. I can't say enough good things about all of them and their work! I was ready just in time to get on the water for some testing at the end of the day on Friday.

On Friday evening downtown Laporte was shut down for a parade. Every team towed our boats through downtown and ended up at a block party where we were able to meet with the locals and talk about our boats and racing. It was great to see how into it all the locals get, especially the kids. I probably had 30 kids sit in my boat for pictures and a lot of them (maybe 8 or 9 yrs old) recognized all of the boats and pointed out right away that mine hadn't raced there before lol. It was great seeing so many kids that excited about racing and boats in general!

Issues with the trim plagued me all weekend, I could not trim up when under full throttle, like the pump or batteries weren't strong enough. Changed the trim pump, didn't fix it. I didn't realize it until we got home after the weekend but I think I had the wiring and hoses hooked up wrong so the high pressure side was to the down and low pressure to up... DUH. Long story short I ran the whole weekend with basically no power trim. Just set it slightly above neutral and left it.

The 2 rookie heats were pretty cool and a lot of fun. It was nice to get comfortable on the course with a smaller pack of boats to run with. With such a large field of F1 boats, there was not enough dock to do a normal dock start so we ran rolling starts with a pace boat for all races. I thought that was pretty cool, and something different. My qualifying hot lap was nothing spectacular, but I felt I actually drove better in a full pack of boats with people to chase and gauge my turning points from. In the first full F1 10 lap heat I started dead last in 21st and managed to make my way up into the pack and finished in 15th. I was really happy with that considering my limited power (roughly 250hp) and non existent racing experience prior to that weekend. The second heat I started in 20th and it was very similar to the first for the most part. Myself and the boat both made it back safely, however I unfortunately can't say the same for the engine... I was feeling comfortable in the boat and running with the other boats, and my boat felt great... I had moved back up to 15th position when half way through the last lap my engine just stopped, and would not turn over. Got towed in, took the boat back to the pits and lifted the cowling to see the #3 rod sticking out of a fist sized hole in the side of the block, and what looked like gravel filling the cowl pan. With 4 or 5 boats beside me it was too loud to hear any warnings from my engine, even if I had, by the time you hear them it's usually too late. Needless to say it was an early end to my weekend, and I cheered on the rest of the drivers from the beach for the 3rd heat and final.

I will post pictures of the races and what's left of my engine, and more info in the next day or two.

I am currently exploring my options for new power and will keep this updated. Looking into a 2.5 EFI horn power head to replace my 2.5 carb that self destructed.

[gmjim]

Thanks for the great report on the weekend, I fully enjoyed reading it, great work. 20 -30 total boats at an f1 meet here in Aus would be an excellent turnout, did you say there was 20 rookie boats? wow!
sounds like your driving is going super mate well done.
on a side note I would like to see a pic or two of the new seat!

[mwe14]

No, sorry. There were were 21 boats total running in Formula 1, 7 rookie drivers including myself.

I'll take some pictures of the seat in the boat today and post them.

[mwe14]

Pictures coming soon, but thought I'd share this clip of me running during the Friday test session in Laporte.



This was my first time driving on a course with other boats, still getting used to the course and comfortable in my boat.

[Trimmed Out15]

Video is not available

[mwe14]

Sorry, should work now.

[Dave Strong]

Nice going, just hanging on the outside being safe.

Dave

[mwe14]

I'm actually the blue and white boat you can see on the inside there, #14. The video is taken from the back of one of the other boats.

[PARKER RABE]

Good deal man , proud of you!!!!! Sorry bout the motor tho that sucks!

[mwe14]

Thanks! I'm not happy about the engine either but have another one on it's way for next weekend's race near Montreal.

After I got the boat back to the pits from the heat race in Laporte, this is what I found under the cowl...

There was metal everywhere, including all of the carbs.

Needless to say I spent the rest of the weekend watching the races from the beach.
Some more pictures I took tearing it down when I got home.



The front half is cracked, has a hole right through, and is dented and banged up from the rod hitting it.


I didn't see any obvious signs of detonation, or leaning out. The head and piston top look pretty good aside from the edges where they were beaten together by the loose rod.
The way the rod broke it looks like it had been cracked for a while (one side looked smooth and polished from vibration, and the other rough like a fresh fracture) and just let go right at the wrist pin.




I know we run these engines fairly hard but I still expected to get more than 2 hours of run time out of a "fresh" powerhead.

On a happier note, here's a picture of the seat before installation. It was made for a Grand Prix and required a little bit of trimming for the Seebold capsule, but it fit nicely. I'll get a couple pictures of it in the boat soon.

[shadowcat]

great to meet you and your family here at Valleyfield for a few days-your doing a great job- keep up the good work!

[PARKER RABE]

get that new powerhead on there . gotta make the next heat!