The next Tuesday, March 24, I got the bad news. I had low compression on cylinders 4 and 5. At that news, my heart sank. I couldn't imagine what had caused the problem, but I knew the fix was not going to be cheap. I authorized them to figure out what had gone wrong. A day or two later Russell, one of the owners, called and let me know that they had found the problem. I had a break in the head gasket between cylinders 4 and 5. Here's was things look like:
This is the break between cylinders 4 and 5 as it lay on the mechanics bench at Car Tender. Sorry about the resolution, this was taken with my iPhone.
This photo is centered on cylinder 4 with #3 to the right and #5 to the left. Notice that there are scorch marks between all of the cylinders at the thinnest spot.
This is centered on cylinder 5 with 6 to the left and 4 to the right. Again, there is evidence of scorching between all cylinders.
In a sense I was relieved. This was the least expensive possibility in my mind. Still not cheap, but significantly cheaper than pulling the motor, disassembling it and rebuilding it. He reviewed for me all the checks he had made as he pulled things apart; the head was straight and flat, the block was straight and flat, the head bolts showed no signs of being stretched unnaturally, everything appeared to be in order.
The thing that bothered me most about this is that Car Tender put that head gasket in about 15 months and 21,000 miles ago. Wouldn't you know it, they have a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty on repairs! They are going to give me a 20% discount, which is nice, but what I really want is two things; one, to understand why this happened so quickly (the first head gasket lasted 155,000 miles), and, two, to fix it so that it doesn't happen again for another 155,000 miles (or more). Right now, all we have are theories; one suspect is the fuel injectors. Perhaps they are running in an almost-lean condition. If that were the case then the cylinders would be running hotter than they should be and that might account for the burn-through and scorching. They're sending the injectors out to be tested today (I think). We'll know more in a day or two.
While they are in there with the top end of the motor disassembled, I asked them to look at the cam chain and tensioners. It's a pretty hefty piece and will usually last a couple hundred thousand miles, but as long as they have almost all the labor done to get at it, they might as well check. They're recommending that I replace it, which makes good sense to me, but also adds $1750 to the bill.
So, my rough running engine is going to end up costing me $4-5,000 to fix in the end (once you add Washington state taxes, etc). That has pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of my One Lap hopes for this year. The last nail before that was when Bill called and left me a voice mail (I had left my phone at home by accident that day) on March 25, letting me know that he would not be able to do One Lap as my co-driver this year. His financial situation had changed for a number of reasons and he couldn't justify the expense of playing with cars at this point. I can certainly understand that and had been expecting to hear that from him. Francis, my son and co-driver for the past six One Laps, who had previously said he wouldn't go this year (which was why Bill was) said that he would do it with me.
When I looked at the finances, I didn't see a way that I could really justify it and still meet all our other financial obligations. Hey, if I win the Megaball lottery this week, I'll go. But first, I'd have to buy a ticket! I am supremely bummed out about not going; but I was also very concerned that it would have been pretty foolish from a financial standpoint this year.
There's always next year, at least, there will be as long as they continue to hold the event. I really wanted to drive Sebring and Daytona this year. Those tracks would have been a blast. Bummer.
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