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Crew chief
Drew Blickensderfer answers fan questions once a week.
Submit your question
here. |
Oct.
8, 2009 |
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2009 Q&A
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Q |
Drew, what happened to the motor in Kansas?
Thanks, and good luck in California.
Ray Barbara,
San Jose, Calif. |
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A |
An inner valve spring broke on the number 2
cylinder.
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Q |
I know engine failures are a rarity at RFR. I
was just wondering what kind of “forensics” or
tests they do on a blown engine? Do they take it
back to the shop to look at it to determine the
source of the failure? You cats had an awesome
car, sorry for the engine!
Jennifer
Douglass, Laurel Springs, N.J. |
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A |
Lots of time and effort goes into the finding
the issue in blown motors. The engine shop will
send the broken parts out to be inspected and
catalog batch and parts numbers from the broken
parts to make sure no current or upcoming motors
have the same parts/batches of parts from the
failure.
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Q |
Hey Drew, I was wondering what causes the car to
overheat and blow out water?
Ashley Cote, Oakland, Maine |
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A |
Overheating is caused by not enough air passing
across the radiator for whatever reason. Here in
California it is caused a lot of times by debris
getting on the grille.
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Q |
Drew, the new Ford-specific NASCAR motor seems
like it will offer more options on how to adjust
the car. How will you obtain that knowledge
prior to the 2010 season... to get the full
benefit that you will receive, i.e., adding tape
or removing tape to change the handling of the
car.
Don Shultz, Summerset, S.D. |
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A |
I think there is a good chance the 17 will see
the engine in a race car before the end of the
season. That will give us a chance to get a jump
on 2010.
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Q |
Does a tire/equipment test like the one at
Richmond this week give you any advantage for an
upcoming race? Or were the circumstances behind
this test so different as to not yield usable
results with the current car and/or tire? Do you
go to the track when the team is testing, or do
you send an engineer?
Kennedy Robertson, Columbia, S.C. |
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A |
It can help sometimes. This week we went to the
test, but most of it was to run tires for
Goodyear so it didn’t give us a chance to work
on new stuff. I always go to the tests.
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