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JACK ROUSH, TOP ENGINEERS DIAGNOSE ATLANTA ENGINE FAILURES
Huntersville, NC (March 12, 2003) - Immediately following the race Sunday in Atlanta that saw four of the six teams that use Roush engines fall from the race, Jack Roush summoned his team of top level engineers in Livonia, Mich. and set out for Concord, NC on a mission to search out, identify and remedy the causes that forced the cars from the race.
Roush was relieved when the engine teardown revealed that only overly aggressive engine tuning and oil starvation triggered the engine failures.
The good news is that none of the very substantial horsepower gains that we have been making caused any of our problems. The bad news is that the tuning mistake was my own. Now I know how Rick Hendrick's engine guy felt after Talladega last fall, said Roush.
?I hurt pistons on the #6, #21,and #97 by tuning for fuel economy that just wasn't attainable for Atlanta and the #99's problem derived from a new oil pan that resulted in oil starvation, continued Roush.
We'll increase the piston-to-cylinder wall clearance somewhat, and enrich the carburetor modestly to solve the fuel tuning problem. Weve got some room in the carburetor due to our exceptional fuel mileage history. To solve the 99's oil starvation problem we'll slightly increase the oil-tank volume and perform a minor change to the new oil pan.
So we'll be fine in the future with both of these changes.
We've had good finishes this year and two of our drivers have led in the points, said Roush. It would be even better, but Kurt got in an accident at Las Vegas. Also, Las Vegas was the last race that we ran with the 2002 crankshaft configuration which we had earlier discovered couldn't keep up with our horsepower gains.
Unfortunately one of the last of the obsolete crankshafts chose to fail on Mark's car in Las Vegas. We received our supply of the updated crankshafts, which had been strengthened 30 percent in the area of Mark's failure, just in time for Atlanta.
It will be great to have all of that behind us, as we mount championship efforts for all of our drivers throughout the year.
Huntersville, NC (March 12, 2003) - Immediately following the race Sunday in Atlanta that saw four of the six teams that use Roush engines fall from the race, Jack Roush summoned his team of top level engineers in Livonia, Mich. and set out for Concord, NC on a mission to search out, identify and remedy the causes that forced the cars from the race.
Roush was relieved when the engine teardown revealed that only overly aggressive engine tuning and oil starvation triggered the engine failures.
The good news is that none of the very substantial horsepower gains that we have been making caused any of our problems. The bad news is that the tuning mistake was my own. Now I know how Rick Hendrick's engine guy felt after Talladega last fall, said Roush.
?I hurt pistons on the #6, #21,and #97 by tuning for fuel economy that just wasn't attainable for Atlanta and the #99's problem derived from a new oil pan that resulted in oil starvation, continued Roush.
We'll increase the piston-to-cylinder wall clearance somewhat, and enrich the carburetor modestly to solve the fuel tuning problem. Weve got some room in the carburetor due to our exceptional fuel mileage history. To solve the 99's oil starvation problem we'll slightly increase the oil-tank volume and perform a minor change to the new oil pan.
So we'll be fine in the future with both of these changes.
We've had good finishes this year and two of our drivers have led in the points, said Roush. It would be even better, but Kurt got in an accident at Las Vegas. Also, Las Vegas was the last race that we ran with the 2002 crankshaft configuration which we had earlier discovered couldn't keep up with our horsepower gains.
Unfortunately one of the last of the obsolete crankshafts chose to fail on Mark's car in Las Vegas. We received our supply of the updated crankshafts, which had been strengthened 30 percent in the area of Mark's failure, just in time for Atlanta.
It will be great to have all of that behind us, as we mount championship efforts for all of our drivers throughout the year.
