Death of a Friend

After 287,000 miles the original engine finally gave up and died. I have to say it was quite a bit less spectacular and eventful than I imagined it would be. No explosion, no thrown rod, no sudden drop in oil pressure followed by the engine seizing. More of a quiet peaceful death. Allow me to elaborate.

I was at Carolina Motorsports Park last weekend for a NASA track day. By the end of the say Saturday I was somewhat concerned about tire wear, so I decided to rotate my tires before hitting the track Sunday morning. While I had the tires off the car, I went ahead and swapped in new front brake pads. Due to the cold weather, cold tires, and a need to bed in the new pads, I took it easy the first session out. That would give my tires and the track time to warm up and actually grip and the brakes time to adjust. The second session I went out with more confidence. Roughly five minutes into the session, as I was coming in to the braking zone for turn 11, I heard a metallic rattling noise coming from behind me. That’s not a noise I’m used to hearing, so I made a quick check of the dash to see if anything was wrong. Nothing looked unusual, so I continued through 12 and 13 where the noise reappeared. Still nothing on the dash, and it went away as I accelerated down into 14. I was starting to get concerned, though, and when the noise came back in14, I decided to pull in the pit and see what was wrong. I hadn’t had the opportunity to let the brakes cool, so I just pushed the clutch in and coasted down pit lane. About the time I got behind the wall the engine just shut off. Fortunately I was paddocked close to pit lane and was able to coast the car back to my spot.

While in paddock one of my friend’s dad asked me to start it up so he could hear what was wrong. The car reluctantly fired up, knocked badly then died. Even though I had driven the car to the track, I decided to have the car towed to a shop. I called AAA and they sent a truck to get the car. Fortunately I was able to catch a ride with one of my autocross friends.

I’m still not sure what’s wrong with the car, but I do know this: the cost for me to rebuild the engine will be enough that it’s actually cheaper for me to buy a new engine. So that’s what I’ve done. I sourced a new engine from a Canadian company, and it just so happens that it’s a JDM supercharged corolla engine – the kind that makes 165 hp. That should be good for an additional 15 horsepower at the wheels.

While most people would probably see losing an engine as a bad thing, I’ve not felt that way in this case. The engine died while on track, being pushed to its limit. And I’m getting a much newer engine with more power out of the deal. While I don’t like having to shell out all this money, it’s going to be a much better and more reliable car for it. Here’s to an old friend. She gave everything she had for me.