The race is on - Namrups 65 Daytona Coupe build

[Skuzzy]

Looking good there Namrups and congrats on passing inspection for tracking!

[Namrups]

My painter asked what color I wanted and I said red and white. He showed me a couple of red swatches and I picked one. For the white I told him pick one. I have no idea what the exact colors are called. To me they are "red and white".

[Namrups]

Looking good there Namrups and congrats on passing inspection for tracking!

Thanks Skuzzy. Excited about taking it on the track.

[Namrups]

Bad news.... an exhaust valve broke in my engine. Spent the morning removing the engine:


Will be taking it back to Mike Forte for repair.

[edwardb]

Not nice. At least it was toward the end of the season.

[Skuzzy]

Well that is a bummer.

[Blitzboy54]

Holy cow! You got it out quick.

I stopped by and helped get the hood off, you guys made quick work. I hope Mike is able to help you out. Engine shouldn't implode in 6500 miles.

[JimStone]

That stinks! Hope you're up and running soon!

[Namrups]

Not nice. At least it was toward the end of the season.

On the bright side I now get to do some changes in the engine bay!

[Namrups]

Well that is a bummer.

Ya wasn't in the plan!

[Namrups]

Holy cow! You got it out quick.

I stopped by and helped get the hood off, you guys made quick work. I hope Mike is able to help you out. Engine shouldn't implode in 6500 miles.

Came out a lot easier than I had hoped!

[LateApex]

Could you talk a bit about how or when the failure occurred ? Was this at the track?

This is the second valve train hard failure / issue I have heard about recently, in Coupes, with Mike's engines. Just curious ... $h!t happens - yes ...

[Namrups]

I was on NY rt 10 about 4.2 miles south of I-88. It's a 2 lane road that winds thru the mountains. Great road for driving. I was doing 55 - 60 mph when all of a sudden the motor started missing badly. Before I could find a safe area to pull off the road I heard what sounded like a coffee can filled with bolts being shaken. I immdiately hit the clutch, the engine died and I rolled off the side of the road on to what little shoulder there was. The tow truck showed up 6 hours later.

[Namrups]

After getting the car home we removed the valve covers to look for damage. Didnt see any. We then removed the spark plugs to try to turn the engine over by hand. We could not get the plug for cylinder #3 out. We tried to turn the moter over by hand but it would only turn so far and come to a hard stop in both directions. After taking the header off we scoped the 3rd cylinder and found the exhaust valve had broken off.

[PNWTim]

That's a bummer. Interesting to note though - nice to have access to all the bellhousing bolts. That's a somewhat rare treat.

[luey2011]

so sorry to hear that. you will be back on the road in no time

[Namrups]

Took the engine to Mike Forte's today. As he said he would, he brought it right in and started to tear it down to see if we could find out what happened. The valve cover was removed and nothing looked bent or broken. The head was removed and this is what we found:

That's the valve sitting in front of the head! The rest of the head looked ok. Rocker arms, push rods and springs all ok.


The piston has been beat up and the cylinder wall looked "repairable" with just a very minor score mark. None of the other pistons were damaged. No sign of detonation. At this point it looks like the valve just busted off.


At this point we left the engine there and started back home. Mike will continue to tear it down.

On the way home I received a text from Mike showing the lifter for that valve. It would not come out without pounding on it. It shows score marks. Looks like the lifter froze in the open position and allowed the valve to hit the piston and cause the damage. I don't know if the block can be repaired or not. Mike is still looking into it. Also don't know what would have caused the lifter to freeze in place. Watch this space....

[burchfieldb]

Ouch! Sorry to see this Scott, that is not good. I feel like this is par for the course when you get a bunch of non-OEM parts to make an engine run, made by different manufactures. I blue printed my engine build, came across quite a few things that were not in spec and had to make modifications. They are not quite the same as the original engineered parts since they are reversed engineered a lot of times. I hope I do not run into this down the road as well, mine has only been running on the engine stand for the last 2-3 years.

[Namrups]

Ouch! Sorry to see this Scott, that is not good. I feel like this is par for the course when you get a bunch of non-OEM parts to make an engine run, made by different manufactures. I blue printed my engine build, came across quite a few things that were not in spec and had to make modifications. They are not quite the same as the original engineered parts since they are reversed engineered a lot of times. I hope I do not run into this down the road as well, mine has only been running on the engine stand for the last 2-3 years.

Mike Forte has been building and selling engines for 40 years. This seems like a freak thing. Mike said he has never seen a lifter fail like that before. I'm sure we will solve the issue and get the engine rebuilt.

[David Ferguson]

There's an old expression that engine builders have only two responses -- "They all do that" and "I've never seen that before".

Sorry for your loss.

[Namrups]

The failed lifter was part of the Ford supplied short block package so I can't blame the builder. Nothing he did wrong. Just a bad part.

[David Williamson]

Wow. At least it is the end of the driving season and hopefully the repairs are covered by Ford.
David W

[Blitzboy54]

Listen, if your going to break something, break the S*** out of it.

[Namrups]

I do not have a glove box in my dash. I have been thinking about how I can use the hollow inside of the doors to hold misc. small items and my reg/insu papers. I use that space now but when it rains the water can get in there and the stuff slides around a lot. I have come up with an idea. I have designed and am in the process of 3D printing an insert that I can slip in and face mount to the existing edge. As my 3D printer is small I have to print the insert in two pieces that will be glued together. Then the face frame will be glued to that. The process of printing the two inserts is estimated to take 53 hours on my printer (for just one door). Might be time to invest in a bigget/faster printer. I will update as I progress.

[LateApex]

Wow. Nice 3D printing!

Where is the water in the doors coming from? The hinge area? I have not experienced that yet, but then we don't get as much rain in CO :-)

I placed a couple of rectangular pieces of sound insulation in my doors. Then I fabricated door cards from plywood, which I then covered with leather. A couple of small leather tabs, and some velcro tape, and I have door cards that stay in place. I am not using those spaces for anything constructive, like car paperwork or sunglasses. Instead I have a nice heavy cloth bag that hangs from the PS seat belt shoulder straps to catch odds and ends.

Once upon a time I was considering weep holes in the foot boxes (and now maybe also in the door cavities) But as long as I am a fair weather driver, I'll postpone that exercise.

Sounds like you have spare time on your hands :-) I am coming into Winter here, and suspect I'll also address my list of little tweaks and improvements as soon as the the snow flies !

[Namrups]

Wow. Nice 3D printing!

Where is the water in the doors coming from? The hinge area? I have not experienced that yet, but then we don't get as much rain in CO :-)

I placed a couple of rectangular pieces of sound insulation in my doors. Then I fabricated door cards from plywood, which I then covered with leather. A couple of small leather tabs, and some velcro tape, and I have door cards that stay in place. I am not using those spaces for anything constructive, like car paperwork or sunglasses. Instead I have a nice heavy cloth bag that hangs from the PS seat belt shoulder straps to catch odds and ends.

Once upon a time I was considering weep holes in the foot boxes (and now maybe also in the door cavities) But as long as I am a fair weather driver, I'll postpone that exercise.

Sounds like you have spare time on your hands :-) I am coming into Winter here, and suspect I'll also address my list of little tweaks and improvements as soon as the the snow flies !

The seal around my doors is not the best. When going thru heavy rain (which I have done a number of times) the water gets into the door thru the hinge cutout. Not a lot but enough to get anything in there damp. Not good for paperwork. At 72 years old and retired, I do have a lot of spare time on my hands. Time to use doing the things that I bypassed to get the car on the road. Door cards are still an option. Have not decided yet.

[Namrups]

Just a short update on my door inserts:

https://youtu.be/NB-Wjik0v4o

[Namrups]

Got a chance to work on the door inserts between 3d printing of christmas gifts and wrapping!!

Glued/welded the two sides together after completing the flocking.


Here's a pic of the "welded" joint. Used an old soldering iron. It was just hot enough to melt the two sides of the joint together.


The two pieces of the frame will be glued/welded together.


You can see how I added corner fill pieces and where I marked the corner for the 2" radius. I used my Dremel tool to form these corners to fit the cars opening.




I have some stick on carbon fiber vinyl that I am going to play with to see if it will stick to the frames. I think it would look good on the doors. Will update what I findout.

[PNWTim]

That's pretty cool that you flocked the inside. That's a little bit of art on it's own. Looking forward to see how it looks/works once installed.

[Namrups]

That's pretty cool that you flocked the inside. That's a little bit of art on it's own. Looking forward to see how it looks/works once installed.

I wanted to cover the inside so that it didn't look cheesy. The easiest solution I could come up with was the flocking. Makes it look like felt and should help to reduce any rattling of any items stored there.

[burchfieldb]

Looking good Scott. Sadly, I am way far behind on my build. Life happens and too many small projects on the car. My new goal is spring of 2026 to get it on the road.

[lewma]

Looks great Scott!

[Namrups]

Looking good Scott. Sadly, I am way far behind on my build. Life happens and too many small projects on the car. My new goal is spring of 2026 to get it on the road.

Stay positive and you'll get there!

[Namrups]

Looks great Scott!

Thank you sir!

[Namrups]

Just another short video showing my attempt at covering the frame with vinyl.
https://youtu.be/P9QBBmkTZzM

[lewma]

Scott
I've used that same vinyl in multiple places on my build. Seems to hold well. I also hit it lightly with the heat gun to get it to form better around curves. Not sure if you already did that or not.

mark

[Jeff Kleiner]

Well done Scott!

Jeff

[Namrups]

Did try the heat gun.... disapointing results.

[Namrups]

I think I have a solution!

[Kbl7td]

Honestly I would sand it semi smooth and then hydro dip it, easy to do at home. Then clear it.