We ended up on the grid for quite a while idling, but nothing was showing as over heating...after about 20 minutes of very mild track time the engine started cutting out - bad. The motor would drop out all at once, check engine light flash on - engine wasn't dead, but the tach dropped to "0"...If I gave it a little gas it would light back up and lurch forward.
I pulled off the track and onto the return road - then the car died...it would restart but then kill instantly. I got pushed out of the way and popped the hood...no indication of overheating, etc. - gauges all looked good except the flash of the check engine light when the engine would drop out. I turned off the master power switch I have (hood light drain) and left the hood up to cool. After about 20 minutes I started it up and drove it about a 1/4 miles to get it in some shade and let it cool further...after about two hours I went over and took a drive around the infield roads and things seemed fine...I cut the day short to be sure to get home in daylight.
The drive home went OK, I held a nice easy 65 MPH pace and took the freeway to keep things cool, plus stopped twice (about every hour) to let it cool - no indication that I needed too, but seemed to be prudent. I talked to Corvette racer Doug Rippie of Waverly, Mn at the track and he, without hesitation, thought my distributor was the problem - heat/moisture related, basically confirming what I thought must be the problem based on the tach dropping to zero with the motor still running - or at least not needing a "key" restart to refire. Adding in the new distributer.
Then we got to town and did some "City" driving...the problem hit again - hard! First an engine drop, then a lurching relight of the motor with a push of the gas pedal (tach at 0 - check engine light on) this got to be a big problem in traffic and I pulled over...let it cool and then jumped on a freeway to get better air flow and get my butt home. The problem became worse (weather was a mild 70-75 degrees all day) total engine drop out, then a lurching relight going down the freeway...I could keep it running, but from here on it got more and more frequent I just barely got home and coasted into my drive way with a dead car...after about 20 minutes it started right up and I parked it in the garage...of course this morning it fired right up and runs fine. As addtional info when I drove it home from the shop it ran fine, but I was in a very heavy thunderstorm...which added to my comfort that the new Delphi was "water tight".
The new Delphi distributer has a 12 month warrenty, I plan to demand a new distributer be installed, but I'm a bit concerned that this may be an ECM - heat related issue. I also noticed this morming that I have a wee bit of oil pooling above the distributer, which apears to be coming from that front of the manifold pan gasket, but I don't think this is reaching the distributer...at least not "in mass".
I have not had a chance to check the fault codes, I may have lost some when I shut of the main power switch at the track, but I should have some stored form my drive home....
...looking for comments - suggestions of what else to consider.
Thank you
Jim
HwyStar
Adams' Apple
