clarkspeed

Yes to networking! And let everyone know you are looking. Ahhhh, interviewing. All the standard stuff still applies. Appear clean, tidy, engaging, look into the eyes, confident, alert, sincere. Suit, tie, short hairut, no tatoos, are not as important as they used to be (depending on company) but you better look sharp. Give honest answers to best of your ability, never lie about your skills. A better answer is "I'm familiar with it from XX and believe I can learn that skill quickly". Be Professional : I once had a guy tell me he had to end the interview early because his girlfriend was waiting outside in the car. Show some personality, most interviews are for "fit" as much as ability. And remember you are interviewing them also. Some thoughtful questions will help you and show you are interested. The best of all if you can sit with another engineer doing the same job but that doen't always happen. You might take any job right now but at least you will know what you are getting into. Canned interview questions will stil come up, "describe a difficult situation at work?", "what is your greatest weakness?" blah blah blah. Get a book on these, study them, and have your answers ready. I still get these questions sometimes when I apply for a job. There is no excuse for tripping up on one of these. Above all, practice, practice, practice until it is one of your strengths. Remember as a young engineer, you are trying to sell yourself as a hard working, dedicated, flexible, and fast learning employee. That's what every manager wants. And the hard truth is, if you become a really really good interviewer, and have a decent degree, and have some experience at a known company, you will always get a job even if you suck as an engineer.

I'll chip in again. Got a BSME 25 years ago. Been in management for 15. BS degree only means you are trained as a problem solver. You can take that in any direction if you are patient. I thought I wanted to be a designer out of school, but I have been a manufacturing, industrial, and quality engineer. Didn't know I liked it until I tried it. I've never designed anything and use no skills I learned in college. It's all about creating opportunity. You have more than a high school grad. A little lab work or inputing data for a company and you are ahead of the guy with none. You will learn things even doing the most mundane tasks. If you are willing to learn and work hard you will succeed and create other opportunities. Either other tasks, responsibilities, promotion, or other job offers. I feel the market and profession of engineering is still strong. Yes it is harder to get started, but there is still demand for young hungry professionals. Too many old guys are retiring.

I agree. Get a job in your field. Will make your next job a step higher. If you want to work on cars, volunteer for an amateur race team (SCCA, circle track, whatever) and spend your nights and weekends learning.

Love the BSR paint. Looks like you even painted the numbers in. I thought about BSR for my next car, but may do an IMSA pace car tribute instead.

Read the strut thread in the FAQ section.

Do your gland nuts fit the 280 housings? Those struts come with nuts for VW threads.

I will post this again. PMC your short posts and pictures are worth a 1000 words.

Yes, good thread. The take-away for me is you can never be too careful on new engine start up. Like Tony mentioned, I also use a modified air tank to flood the bearings and cam on first crank. I previously thought it might be overkill.

My head always looks like that when I get it back from the builder also. But after a dozen test fittings and mutiple rotations for clearance checks it gets rather dry again. I always give it another good coating before starting.

Question for MadKaw: When you did your experiment with both cam and spray bar oiling did you enlarge the orifice in the block any? My understanding is the orifice maintains pressure on the lower end in case of catastrophic failure on the top side. By doing so it limits the volume of oil that can be pumped into the head.

RL MT90

What is a good source for the S15 boxes? I did some Google searches and didn't see many options.

All good ideas from above. Hope you can drive this to root cause. I've never seen this and I have torn up a few cam/rockers in the past. After my last build , I found 2 of the spray bar holes were clogged (cam not drilled). I ran 2 hours on track before it was discovered. Some cam discoloration and light scoring but no damage. There is a lot of oil sloshing around up there.With those light valve springs I would think you have more margin before damage. I always coat the cam with high zinc assembly lube and use a zinc additive in petroleum based oil on breakin. High zinc synthetic thereafter.

Another poor man's option is to cut off the spring perch and reweld it lower.

I now use an digital angle finder on the control arms to set my ride height.

Check the water temp sensor. Resistance could be off. It triggers the cold start enrichment. Just a guess.

I gapped mine to the Ross piston specs. My normal engine builder said it was way too much.

You are really doing some great stuff down there. Thanks for sharing and participating in these forums.

The large body Bosch pumps are a great upgrade. Such good quality, I don't have a problem buying used ones off ebay. Most of the part numbers are for different inlet/outlet configurations. So if you adapt to you pump, you can order the same part number again.

I actually bought some 1/4-20 aluminum bolts for interior pieces and such.

I saw a formula SAE car once with variable runner length on 4 trumpets. A simple trumpet tube sliding in a custom intake runner. The trumpets were mounted on a movable wall of a plexiglass box with linkage and a servo controlling. I think the box prevented leak by on the tubes. It looked pretty cool when they reved the engine.

Did you take the piston/head clearance back to 023?

Your piston to head to clearance is fine, but the valve to piston clearance with cam at desired setting also matters. Usually checked with a pre-assembly. Even so, the one time I missed timed a cam the tapping went away after a few revs when the valves made there own pockets in the pistons and slightly bent. Then it showed with comp check.

Might have one in our shop in Orlando. Want to drive that far?

Mine basically had all the doubler plates cut out around the perimeter and the hinge supports. And vents installed.