NickS Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 (edited) They are available in the info section of the website at http://www.camaromustangchallenge.com/info.html - I have posted MS Word and HTML versions. I expect to be adding them in Adobe PDF format in the next couple of days. There are two changes to these versions of the rules, which will be in effect starting at the April 5-6 event at Thunderhill: 1. Allow duct for driver cooling to be mounted on the drivers side. 2. Allow use of a spec Canton oil pan & pickup in lieu of an oil pressure accumlator or accusump. For additional detail see section 8.18.1 Notes: Item #1: This was discussed at CA speedway and the wording was altered to acommodate driver preference. Item #2: We, the directors, met on a conference call a couple of nights ago to discuss the concerns that were raised about road race pans. The basic premise behind CMC has been to contain costs and keep the cars equal and competitive. Outside of safety related rules, almost all proposed changes to the CMC rules are evaluated on the basis of their cost and effect on the compeitive balance between the various cars that has been established. To that end after discussing the concerns that were raised about using stock oil pans (with and without oil pressure accumulators) and looking at the cost of the currently allowed oiling system modifications (Accusumps), we decided to go ahead and allow the use of a spec Canton oil pan and pickup in lieu of an oil pressure accumulator / Accusump. The basis of our decision was that the spec Canton pan was available for all of the eligible vehicles and the cost of the pan and a pickup was about the same price or less in some cases as an oil accumulator / accusump is after factoring in the cost of mounting brackes, fittings and steel braided line. Thanks to everyone for their input on this subject, we really appreciate the discussion and hearing everyone's opinions on this. Let us know if you have any questions / comments. - CMC Directors Tony Guaglione, Don Trask, Jeff Trask, Ben Pfaff and Nick Steel Edited April 9, 2003 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg R. Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 Thank you to all the directors for your prompt attention to this issue! We all appreciate your efforts to keep this series as cost effective as possible. Greg #12 Mustang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady in Nomex Posted March 19, 2003 Share Posted March 19, 2003 I don't understand the "in lieu" - since I already have the Accusump, I can't get the Canton pan unless I decide to get rid of my Accusump. I have done some research on this topic, and as I understand it (please correct me if I am wrong), a baffled pan like the Canton and an Accusump have different functions. An Accusump cannot control where oil goes in the engine like a baffled pan can. Since an Accusump controls only volume (and thus helps decrease oil temp) oil can still go up and contact the crankshaft in high g turns, which causes foaming. This can give false oil pressure readings due to the air and oil mix. This is not a good thing. I have some concerns and questions: 1) If the Canton pan turns out to be a better option than the Accusump I have a $175 investment in my car I can no longer use and now I will have to spend that amount again. 2) Can someone describe the differences between the stock pan and the Canton (besides the baffling)? Does it have increased capacity? Is the aftermarket pickup you get with it advantageous over stock? 3) I am having trouble understanding why we have to pick one or the other since this is not a performance enhancing mod. I understand this is a low budget series; however, if you look through the rules certain options have always been available to us to increase reliability and safety as pointed out in the "motor failure" discussion. I think it is better to have both - I don't think anyone would argue that point. To protect your expensive motor is money well spent and money left to spend on events instead of rebuilding motors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racercosmo1548534707 Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 I completely agree with Julie on this one. This would be like having a rule that says you can wear a 3 layer driving suit, or a 2 layer suit and nomex underwear, but not both. These are solely safety modifications, albeit for the engine not the driver. I understand cost containment, but the big picture needs to be looked at. Which is more expensive, a pan and Accusump, or a new engine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Julie - If you decide that the pan is a better, I'm sure you can sell your entire accusump setup to another CMC racer for a decent price. The Canton pan has more capacity in comparison to the stock pan. I think its around 7 quarts vs 5.5. If I understand things properly, the pickup for the Canton pans is longer to accomdate the deeper Canton pan. My thoughts on Accusumps and Road Race pans: Our motors are stock and frankly put, we don't turn a butload of RPM. The TPI GM cars are shifted at 4800 - 5000 rpm, the 302 Ford motors go to about 5500. We run skinny tires that aren't all that sticky, so we don't generate huge amounts of side loads that would slosh the oil around and uncover the pickup and cause foaming. This is going to be my 3rd season road racing and CMC is the only group I've run with, so I don't have a lot of experience with other engine types in other series. During that short period in time, here are some things I've noticed: The #26 (I think) Mustang (aka Musturd) of Jeff Trask has 3 seasons on the motor and Jeff drove that car like it was stolen. The #21 Camaro, which was formerly owned by Don Campbell and before that Tony Guaglione had 27k race miles on the original factory motor before it was premtively pulled for a rebuild by Don last year. The #50 Camaro of Jason Swindle, formerly owned by Perry Kincy & Richard Pryor had 45k race miles on the original factory engine before it was pulled premtively for a rebuild My #45 Camaro has the original engine in it with 71k miles on it, 8k of those are race miles. I'm going from memory here, so please correct me if I'm wrong: At the time he moved to Texas, Todd Covini's convertible Mustang had a little over 100k miles on it and 3 seasons or racing on it including a 12hour endurance race. What do these cars all have in common? They all ran the factory stock oil pan without an accusump (Note: 2 of the cars have added accusumps during the rebuild). In the 2 whole seasons I've been running CMC, here are the motor failures that I can recall (Please feel free to jump in and correct me. I am doing this from memory here...): Don Trask - Hole in the oil pan and block from rod breaking at Laguna Seca in the #38 Don Trask - Hole in the oil pan and block from a rod breaking at Willow Springs in the Pfaff #70 Julie Bergman - Holed / Cracked piston in a relatively fresh motor Tony Guaglione (I'm gonna need more that one line for this) 1. Blown headgasket lead to holed piston in a junkyard engine in the yellow mustang. 2. Spun bearing after 20 min of runtime on a freshly built motor in the yellow mustang. 3. Spun rod bearing in a motor with about an hour run time on it in the 1993 Camaro (Crappy assembly was the likely culprit based on some other stuff Tony found when he tore the motor down). 4. Melted piston due to lean condition in the red black & white Mustang. Greg Robinson - Lean condition holed a piston and worn bearings on a fresh motor Sam Stowell - about 4 motors due to holing pistons and overheating problems. Don Campbell in Dave Morin's #68 Camaro - motor failure of a new GM crate motor with less than one day of run time on it. I don't recall the details, butI do remember that it invovled a lot of oil *everywhere*. Brad Simpson - motor failure due to spun bearing and shrapnel bouncing around in the block. (This car did have a road race pan on it) The basic point I'm trying to make here is that CMC has been around for 5 or 6 years so far, and with the nubmer of cars that have been campaigned and the number of races that they have run in, the nubmer of motor failures is pretty low. Here's my opion on things and I'm speaking as both a driver/car owner/crew chief/mechanic in the series and as a CMC director here. Based on the experience I have had with my car over the last two years, I think an accusump is a good, cheap, piece of insurance to guard against momentary pressure loss, not to mention the ability to pre-oil the bearings when you cold start the motor. I don't think a CMC car needs a road race oil pan. We just flat out do not generate enough side load and don't spin enough RPM to warrant the extra capacity and cost of the pan. On the other hand, I respect the opinion that other folks have who feel that road race pans are needed and I dont think its fair for me to stand here and say "I don't think road race pans are needed, therefore I won't support allowing them". However on the other hand, CMC is built around containing costs and keeping the racing inexpensive and affordable for the Clubbie racers (which is what 99% of us are here). So we have to strike some sort of balance between those two points of view. Since an Accusump costs about the same as the spec Canton pan and pickup, that comprimise is to allow competitors to choose either an Accusump or an oil pan, but not both. I know that its impossible to please all of the people all of the time and this is doubly true with racers. There are some folks, such as my self, who don't feel that pans are needed. There are folks who feel that both an Accusump and a pan are needed to prevent motor failure. This is the best comprimise that we can come up with. WHile it will not make everyone happy, it will give people options - You have the option to either A) run the stock pan only B) run the stock pan with an accusump C) run a spec Canton pan with no accusump. My suggestion is that we should run the rest of this season with this "Either Or" rule and see where we are at the end of the season and we can bring the disscussion back up again at our end of the year meeting after we have had almost a full season of racing with the new pans. - Nick Camaro #45 CMC Director Some other information of note: The cost figures we are working with: A Canton pan for a fox body 302 Mustang, SN95 5.0L Mustang , 5.0L GM motor and 5.7L GM motor is $287. The oil pickup is about $30. That puts the total cost of a pan at $230. A 3quart Accusump is $180, mounting brackets are $20, steel braided hose is roughly $60 and the fitings required are roughly $60 = $320 Costs for the pans comes from www.racenetperformance.com via Tony and costs for the Accusump come from Jegs / Summit and just about every other place I recall looking. The subject of allowing road race oil pans came up in the end of the year meeting we had at Sears Point. It was brought up by Don Campbell and there was quite a bit of interest in the subject on the part of the drivers present at the time. During our 2003 rules discussion, I brought the discussion of oil pans with the CMC directors. Our initial reaction was to not allow them as we already allow the Accusumps and we didn't feel there was a need to further increase costs. After kicking it around for quite some time we decided that if a Canton pan was no more expensive than an Accusump then we would allow one or the other but not both. I priced out the Canton pans and I determined that pricing for a Canton pan and pickup for was going to be a little over $420, which was considrerably more than an accusump so we decided not to allow the Canton pans at the time. Well it turns out that I was working with the retail pricing for the pans and not street prices, which as you can see above, are a lot less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmc38camaro Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Here's the most economical source I have found for Canton pans and accusumps. http://www.carshopinc.com/product/CAN.shtml Regards, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickS Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Thanks Mike. Ironically enough, I found that same company this morning via froogle.google.com - N Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david1548534706 Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 After reading all the back-and-forth on this topic, I figured it was time for another opinion to weigh-in. First, I'd lack to thank the Directors, and Nick Steel in particular, for taking a very thoughtful and measured approach to this dilemma. CMC rules, despite what some of us may think, are the culmination of a great deal of thought, experience, and careful consideration. They offer a balanced and very user-friendly approach to a sport that is not designed for the frugal. The premise is to offer rules that allow us to run the maximum amount of time on the minimum of expense. After years of running Playboy, Escort, World Challenge, Firehawk, GTU, SCCA Regional and Nationals, Vintage, and assorted Enduros with everything from an SU-fed 948 Sprite to a GTA; bear with me a moment. Responding to some specific comments that were made re: the above topic; (paraphrasing...) "we need road race pans to go road racing...". The pans you have in your cars are great for road racing! They are baffled, and have sumps big (and small...) enough to keep the pick-up covered under extreme conditions with enough oil to feed your engine with the requisite pressure. The problems occurred while we were oval track racing. You may want to revisit the oil pump in your particular motor. There is a delicate balance to be struck between pressure and volume and available supply. What bearing clearances are you running? For that matter, what cylinder clearances are you running? Oil drains back to your supply through simple gravity. This is affected by any number of factors; oil passage constrictions, G-forces, pressurization (positive or negative), proper ventilation, type of oil, viscosity, pressure drops or spikes (coolers, etc.), and driver input. In the supplied videos, the cars go through a right-left combination before heading for the banking. If the driver "bobbles" through the combination and isn't completely smooth, it is entirely conceivable to slosh most of the oil away from the pick-up immediately prior to launching the car on a 125 mph+ foray for over a mile on a banked roadway. In many series, but particularly in Firehawk (whick experience I equate most closely with CMC) you spend a lot of time, due to the equivalency of the cars, off-line and making rapid transitions. We never had oiling problems. We would, however, touch crossmembers, exhaust, and oil pans (even filters...) on FIA curbing without even trying hard. "We must protect our expensive motors." Given the rules, I hope not that expensive. Granted, much more than and Accusump or the Canton pan and pick-up, but, heh, that could apply to any number of "safety" or "longevity" fixes. I had a problem with my 8.5" rearend, so I need a 9" Ford and spool. Nobody makes a steel crank for my 5 litre, so I need a 4-bolt 350". Etc., etc., etc... Don't look to spend money, when a little ingenuity will go farther. Listen to your Directors and the voice of experience. These are production based cars, and there will always be a compromise between performance and reliability. This series is as fast and as fun as you can have within a very reasonable budget, with lots of track time and racing throughout the field. Balancing cost and performance always comes back to the Racers caveat; "Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?" Thanks for listening. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Pryor1548534703 Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Jeez, Dave...with that much wisdom, you must be a really old guy....and I agree with your basic premise....problems occur when you start to make your equipment "more equal"....the five years we ran Camaros in SCCA SSGT we took delivery from the dealer, bolted in a roll cage and safety gear and went racing with absolutely no engine failures...now the stock auburn diffs were a separate matter but our local GM dealer loved to warrantee them for us...I think the CMC directors are walking a very fine line trying to contain costs in the series (which is a big factor in its tremendous growth and popularity) and are doing a wonderful and conscientious job...thanks to all....richard pryor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony G Posted March 21, 2003 Share Posted March 21, 2003 OK,here is my two cents...and before I start I want to thank everyone for thier opinions and comments. For one, I have never seen a CMC motor go bad because of a pan or oiling problem. All the motors that went out at Cal Speedway were from other issues,mainly lean conditions. I am NOT going to put a road race pan on my car..I simply don't think its needed. I do like the Accusump idea a little better for several reasons that I wont go into. So its your choice, but the main thing I want everyone to know is...Don't get used to changes...I hate changes. CMC is bound to its rules, which work better than anything else out there. Why do you think CMC is what it is...because of its awesome rules(ok ,great people too). This will never be an A/S class which had constant changes and drove itself into the ground. From now on any change in the rules will be almost impossible, unless we see it as a necessary thing to do. We worked hard on this,and now that you have what you wanted, lets please move on from here ( lets go racing). Thanks for your input. Regards, Tony Guaglione Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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