Team Stampie $50 Q45 Challenge build

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I'm trying to get all the little details this year.

I feel like I've got more done today than I have in a month. Pat was going to help me roll the rear fenders at the hotel. He text me saying he forgot his fender roller but had a hammer. Well E36 M3 I was born to berkeleying hit E36 M3 with a hammer.  Off came the rear wheels.

Before

After

That took about 45 minutes and beat the snot out of me.

I posted in the Challenge pictures thread but this happened yesterday.

I started it up to get it off the broke trailer and left it idling for about 30 minutes to test the cooling fan effectiveness. I moved it so we could unload some of the extra parts. Lucky for us Lil Stampie was throwing trash away and Grandma Stampie and I were at the back when we heard a loud boom. I thought the transformer about 20 feet away had blown. In what seemed forever but was probably just a second a huge stream cloud came out from under the hood. It was so loud that the neighbor across the street came out to make sure we were ok. We could have gotten another radiator but that would have taken at least an hour to drive across town and back. Then I was wondering what caused it in the first place and didn't want that to happen again on the track. This morning I was thinking and remembered a few days ago Lil Stampie and I ran the engine for a bit. When I had him shut it down I heard more bubbling in the overflow than normal but the car wasn't overheating. I think maybe a head gasket failure is pressuring the system. Don't know if that's possible but I'll investigate it more later. The good thing is we get to enjoy the Challenge without all the rush and work of having a car. 

In reply to Stampie :

Definitely uncoddled.  I’m very sad that I made the grown-up decision to stay home.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

You were missed. 

Stampie said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

You were missed. 

Past tense?  Like you’re over it, you don’t miss me anymore?

In reply to AngryCorvair :

Take what you can get, man.  He could have said worse.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

You sure are needy. I'll give you a hug next time I see ya. 

If it was just excess pressure that caused it  I would imagine that the cap would vent it.  I wonder if instead the tank’s crimp onto the core just gave up the ghost. 

In reply to jfryjfry :

It also blew off the hose - with the clamp still attached - so it seems like it was overpressured?

Pressure relief valve failed for sure, but why so much pressure? I vote head gasket(s).

In reply to TurnerX19 :

I'm voting with you.

This was the most fun Challenge I've been to. It was nice to show up without the pressure of having a car to run. It was also the hardest I've worked at a Challenge. Don't know if I helped much but I tried to jump in with teams that were having issues. It was fun to get to know people like Robbie and Ian better and learn more of their personalities. It was also cool to see the builds up close and personal while helping them. It gave me several ideas. Anyway I'm kinda glad the Q45 tried to spit out it's radiator. That allowed me to experience the Challenge from a different perspective. 

While the Stampie clan didn't take a car, Lil Stampie still came home with an award. It took a lot of skillful driving but he won.

Congrats to lil stampie and big stampie.  I am sure it was pretty cool as a father to see him upfront getting an award!

In reply to pimpm3 :

Honestly it was very cool. I was surprised he went up so willingly. Learned later that he thought I was right behind him until he got up there and it was too late. 

And all things come to an end. Said goodbye to her today. I'm sure she'll be taken care of.