<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Asa,</span></div><div><span></span> </div><div><span>Don't forget about the harmonic balancer, it may have shifted or the mail bolt holding it on my have come loose.</span></div><div><span></span> </div><div><span>Jim</span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <div class="hr" style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: 0px; line-height: 0; font-size: 0px;" contenteditable="false" readonly="true"></div> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Asa Jay Laughton <asajay@asajay.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b>
tpr@teampanteraracing.com <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, September 17, 2013 7:04 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [TPR] Asa back at home<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>I dropped Bullet off at home about 12:45 and then I came home. Here is<br>my wrap-up of the Pantera on course this year.<br><br>Somewhere past 90 MPH the Pantera had a bad vibration. It was low<br>pitched and I could feel it in the seat of my pants. It was bad enough<br>at the start I nearly pulled off just three miles into the course. I<br>pressed on for another couple of miles slowly bringing her up to 120 and<br>it didn't feel any worse, so we prayed and kept going.<br><br>I pushed up to about 130 in the trap and it felt about the same. At<br>some speeds it seemed to smooth out a little but it did get worrisome. <br>What is it? I don't know, but my gut feel is that
it's an imbalance in<br>the engine, either due to something being out of balance, or something<br>like compression being off on one cylinder, or a bad plug, plug wire,<br>cap, rotor or maybe a lifter not working as well as it should.<br><br>Best case is wheels/tires out of balance, or a half-shaft out of<br>balance. I'll start there as those are easy to do and probably need to<br>be done again anyway. I have a great shop in town who works on the<br>half-shafts, and I think they can do a high-speed balance on the<br>wheels/tires. I'll check into it in the coming weeks.<br><br>Next, I'll start looking around for a used portable engine analyzer. If<br>I can find one, great. If not, well, I'll start hunting around some of<br>the performance shops for some dyno time and see what we can find there.<br><br>I would like to say overall the car ran fine, and for the most part it<br>didn't disappoint. But there -is- some kind of
stumble, even at low<br>speeds, which leads me to believe something is wrong with the engine. <br>I've got all winter to figure it out.<br><br>Be that as it may...<br>Chalk up another successful trip from Spokane, WA to Ely, NV. Add an<br>average run of 119 MPH (5.5 seconds off time), with a trap that should<br>come close to 130 and I'd say I had a good run.<br><br>Oh and one more thing:<br>At 70-75 MPH on the Interstate, my temp gauge runs a needle width or<br>more below 230 with no overheating. I checked that last year and it was<br>fine. Oil pressure at that speed is near 75. That is normal freeway<br>running. However, on course at 120, the temp climbed to the needle<br>touching 230 and the oil pressure was just a needle or so above 35.<br><br>My guess is that I was running a higher temp in the engine which was<br>thinning the oil. I'm thinking the engine may have been running lean,<br>it's hard to tell without an
02 sensor or A/F gauge. One thing for<br>certain, if I want to run faster, I'll need to mod the cooling system<br>and most likely add an oil cooler.<br><br>I took an oil sample immediately after the race and will send it in for<br>analysis. I'll let you know how it all comes back.<br><br>Asa Jay<br><br>Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired<br>& Shelley Marie<br>Spokane, WA<br>****************************** <br><a href="http://www.racingagainstautism.com/" target="_blank">http://www.racingagainstautism.com/</a><br><a href="http://www.teampanteraracing.com/" target="_blank">http://www.teampanteraracing.com/</a><br><a href="http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism" target="_blank">http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism</a><br><br><br>On 9/15/2013 4:12 PM, Teampantera wrote:<br>> AJ and I both finished...my Bosch elec fuel pump for Efi started going south right after passing.canyon/narrows...its never been a problem in last
couple 2-3 years but....<br>><br>> Soon as fuel pressure falls below 43 pounds the efi computer shuts down engineso engine doeant grenade...yea good thing....but..<br>><br>> when I lost fuel pressure (luckly Mike Trusty recommended I get a fuel pressure gauge) the engine SHUT DOWN.....I was aberaging 145+ at Narrows....so every time fuel pressure fell below 43 engine shut down completly...<br>><br>> I'd throw it in neutral and about 5-10 seconds later the fuel pressure would go back up and engine would fire up again...I did that like a DOZEN times but it worked and I finished.....I think I was far enough ahead of my goal speed that I only lost about a total of 5 mph or a 135 average. In the last 20 miles. I was just so happy to FINISH so no complaints what so ever.<br>><br>> AJ said his run went okay.....but he had a unidentifed high.speed vibration above +/- 120 or.130...he can clear that up<br>> Later
when he gives his summary report but he thought it might have been his tire guy didnt get high speed balancing right....and yea it could be a dozen other things too and we wont.know until he gets home amd can tell us.<br>><br>> AJ and the Major drove back to Ely for awards banquet there tonight and then they are headed back to Washington....and Peter, Mark and I are back in Vegas. Will find out tonight how we really did but happy we finished!!<br>><br>> Mark and AJ got.lots of photos so they will follow for sure.<br>><br>> David in Durango <<a href="mailto:adin@frontier.net" ymailto="mailto:adin@frontier.net">adin@frontier.net</a>> wrote:<br>><br>>> Standing out on the high desert waiting for a green light?<br>>><br>>> Sounds like good odds. You certainly have some good support - we should see <br>>> a trophy or two?<br>>><br>>> Seems the Pantera would qualify as a vintage car - mine
is 40 years old (and <br>>> getting better every day!)<br>>><br>>> No matter what - BE SAFE!<br>>><br>>> All the dogs on the porch want to see pictures! Good luck w/ the rail <br>>> project - I want a tour!<br>>><br>>> Peace out.<br>>><br>>><br>>> ----- Original Message ----- <br>>> From: "Teampantera" <<a href="mailto:teampantera@yahoo.com" ymailto="mailto:teampantera@yahoo.com">teampantera@yahoo.com</a>><br>>> To: <<a href="mailto:tpr@teampanteraracing.com" ymailto="mailto:tpr@teampanteraracing.com">tpr@teampanteraracing.com</a>><br>>> Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2013 11:35 PM<br>>> Subject: [TPR] The Competition<br>>><br>>><br>>>> In AJ' 120 division class (his goal is to nail 120 and can go a sfast as <br>>>> 140) there are only 7 entries...compare that to 24 entries in the 110 <br>>>> class. His
competition includes many veterans...there is a awsome 1969 AMX <br>>>> and a race prepared Caddy CTS-V. The rest are one vette, 1 mustang, 1 87 <br>>>> Firebird, and race prepared ASA truck<br>>>><br>>>> In my 140 (165 Tech) group they are all veterans and include two Porsches <br>>>> (911t & 89 928S), one 600HP Shelby GT500, a Mustang Cobra, a Z06, one <br>>>> camaro, and two other C6 Vettes but not one vintage car.<br>>>><br>>>> And only 7 vintage pre-74 entries out of 127 total entries...we should all <br>>>> be proud of having two non race car panteras here this weekend.<br>>>><br>>>> I EXPECT to finish tomorrow. And I EXPECT Asa will WIN something...his <br>>>> Pantera looks so good and sounds even better.<br>>>><br>>>> Hanging out in JB's "Cafe Finito" all weekend was awsome too. He fed us, <br>>>> had
cold brewskys and some stuff called Bud Light ;-))))<br>>>><br>>>> To have our buddies here helping us was so big I can NOT even begin to <br>>>> describe how good it made me feel.<br>>>><br>>>> So big thank you to Peter, John, Mark, and AJ's dad who is a <br>>>> firecracker....I dont even believe the Major fathered Asa....what I think <br>>>> happened was Bullet just adopted Asa or found him under a rock <br>>>> somewhere.... ;-)))))<br>>>><br>>>> But the Major who I will write much more about next week is a USAF legend <br>>>> flying among other jets a F-111 and of course the B52 (BUFF)...There is no <br>>>> combat veteran that ever called in and actually got and then saw and <br>>>> heard a B52 arclight bomb run who could not be impressed.<br>>>><br>>>> Okay guys...hitting the sack and next week starting
the new high speed <br>>>> (bullet) rail project in Central Valley (Fresno)...20 miles from Sequoia <br>>>> and Kings Canyon Nat Parks...so super excited..first one in the nation.<br>>>><br>>>> Old Dawg<br>>>> _______________________________________________<br>>>> TPR mailing list<br>>>> <a href="mailto:TPR@teampanteraracing.com" ymailto="mailto:TPR@teampanteraracing.com">TPR@teampanteraracing.com</a><br>>>> <a href="http://teampanteraracing.com/mailman/listinfo/tpr_teampanteraracing.com" target="_blank">http://teampanteraracing.com/mailman/listinfo/tpr_teampanteraracing.com</a><br>>>><br>>>> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus <br>>>> signature database 8803 (20130915) __________<br>>>><br>>>> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.<br>>>><br>>>> <a href="http://www.eset.com/"
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