F.Peirce Williams/LAT
THE SECRET LIFE OF ENGINES
“We engines are
inspected, poked
and prodded
a lot, but we don’t
really mind ”
of the water cooling system and fill it
to an appropriate level. We make
sure the system is purged of any air
bubbles that might be in the cylinder
heads or the radiators.”
Then comes a gearshift check, with
the wheels offthe ground and running
through the gears to checkthe
paddleshift system. Afterthat, the
data is reviewed to make sure the
temperatures, pressures and sensors
are within the proper operating ranges.
“Every morning we go through that
procedure. It’s a complete functional
and electrical check, running through
the gears, bleeding and pressurizing
the water system, checking all the
switches, making sure all the
electrical connections are secure. All
the fluid couplings are checked so
there are no leaks. Also, we check the
physical mounting for the electronic
boxes and wiring harnesses, that
there’s no chafing, no loose wires,
that they’re secure and have
adequate cooling,” Goodloe says.
For the first session each day, the
36 IndyCarSeries #21
HONDA INDY V8 105
driver will do an installation lap, at
low speed, running up and down
through the gears. Then the body
work comes off again and the crew
will check for any leaks while the
engineer checks the data to ensure
all is well; Goodloe says some leaks
may not be possible to detect until
the engine has actually had some
load on it.
While the car is on track, the
engineers are seeing everything
through telemetry. The Honda
trackside engineers have their own
monitor forthe engine that allows
them to see what’s happening with
temperatures, pressures and other
measurements in realtime.
Afterthe car comes in, the ECU is
tethered to a computer and all the
data is downloaded for a more
thorough look. All the things that were
checked at the beginning ofthe day
are reviewed again.
“Most of the things we observe
on telemetry we look at again in
more detail,” Goodloe says. “We’re
looking for any indications there
might be something wrong, either
mechanically or with a sensor. We do
this every time the car goes out and
runs a few laps.”
OK, back to me, guys... Yeah, we
engines are inspected, poked and
prodded a lot, but we don’t really
mind. Even though we’re running at
10,000rpm all day, sometimes for
hours at a time, we live a pretty good
life. There’s nothing like the wind
blowing through your intake, even if
it is at more than 220mph.
CORRALLING 60,000 HORSES
Two engines for each race car at Indy
requires a big, big effort from Honda
Ed Carpenter practices at
the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway before the 500.
Although he used only one
Honda V8 engine for practice
and qualifying, it went into
two different chassis
Dan Streck/LAT
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.