Tom Bagguley: RMRW Day 1 Piston Swap
PreFace- Tom’s story should inspire everyone to get out and make a trip like this. This is Part 2 of a great adventure. To see his trip from the UK to Tulsa, Oklahoma, go back a few posts. You can also find his adventures on his Youtube Channel, Bagz96
After the LONG journey for me to just get to the START of RMRW. It didn't go smoothly…
Day 1 rolled around and I had a tough decision to make. I had someone use my credit card details without me knowing back in the UK and had spent almost all my fuel money. Bank couldn't do anything because I wasn't in the UK and I needed my card for what was left on it to be able to eat etc…
So I made the tough decision to call it, But considering I was already there I decided to get through tech and register to at least hang out at 2 tracks before stopping in Dallas before my flight home. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who offered to help, with fuel money, places to stay and food, It was truly amazing! I will never be able to thank everyone enough for those offers. The one that got me through came from the top, Mr Matt Frost himself gave me the money to cover the fuel cost for the event. Even to this day, It's almost August now and I just cannot thank Matt, June & RMRW crew enough for that. I will repay it once I am back on my feet because I don't believe in handouts like that but I truly needed it and it kept me in the event!
The first pass went alright, Needed to get back into the groove with racing since it was my first pass in the car since last October! Kept the car on low boost and just felt it out. I managed to go to a 14.0 at 98mph. Not a bad start! I drove back to the pits and noticed an odd… ticking noise… Jared Quin looked at me with a concerned face but I just said ill fix it with more boost!
I took the reference line from the compressor housing, Went straight to the top of the blow of valve and had a T to the top of the wastegate. With some holes drilled in to vent a little pressure off just to stop it from going all out…
Well, It WORKED!!
Well, it worked! Rather too well though, however, It spiked up to 15psi and I didn't have a low enough boost safety in it sadly. I backed off to 50% throttle from 1/8th mile and still went 12.51 at 123mph and all that with a 2.145 60” time! Incredible!
Though it was clear it was hurt. I got back and even rolling the motor over on the starter you could hear it have a dead hole… The compression test results also confirmed it. 150/160 across the board except number 7 which was down at 60… Caleb came and listened the following morning and said he wouldn't bother driving it because you could hear the piston slapping about in there… it was. It was at that stage I told Caleb I was waiting on Eric Wilson to drop me off a piston and rod for me to swap it right there in the pits at Tulsa… On the Tuesday drive day which we had 480 miles to drive before the following afternoon, on an engine which I have never had one properly apart before (Check the photo out of the only other LS which I took to bits, Al Mac’s 5.3 from the Monte on Sick Week 2022 when he sent 4 rods out on day 1!)
That morning I got the car into a shaded spot & went to town tearing it apart, The guys from Tulsa Raceway Park are SUPER awesome, They checked in on me multiple times throughout the day, Left the shop open and offered any tools and parts I needed which was super awesome. They also left the showers unlocked so I got a much-needed shower at the end of it all which was so needed!
As far as the swap goes, it was fairly straightforward, the little Harbor freight kit worked great, I lacked some tools like a torque wrench and another head gasket but Caleb loaned me a big breaker bar which was well received so I got my best-calibrated elbow out and went to town! Which now, Spoiler alert, it didn't have a single head gasket problem or rod bolt issue for the rest of my trip!
The “New” piston and rod were slightly different however, my setup had ARP hardware throughout which was nice to confirm, however, the replacement didn't so I had to be mindful of that!
7 Hour Piston Swap
I started the job at about 9:40am. I got it all finished up at 5pm! I didn't stop for food though so no lunch break but the long half-mile walk to the shop and back for a couple of 12-point sockets and some shade was a decent enough break ( I am used to working 9 hours with no breaks so it was nothing for me) so say 7 hours to swap a rod and piston with barely any tools and knowledge on this engine isn’t bad if I do say so myself!
Thankfully all I had to do was jack the engine up by an inch to be able to slide the pan out, otherwise, it would have been a lot longer having to remove the entire engine…
It took me another 2.5 hours to get all my tools together, bleed the cooling system and have a well-earned shower before I started my 480-mile drive… I hit the road, Taking it easy to start with because I didn't trust it one bit... But it was living and doing well, The First stop was an unofficial stop, but it was a checkpoint on my first ever RMRW event so I had to stop by, for nostalgia really, The muffler man at Bucks Route 66 gift shop! Then right after was the classic 2 laps of a “Traffic circle” better known as a roundabout here in the UK, Yes even at 8pm at night I still did my 2 laps!
Right as I completed my 2 laps my phone overheated so I had to resort to the GoPro for the next checkpoint photo, Which became a theme for me throughout the event with it getting to 125+ degrees inside the car… The Route 66 historical village with the beautiful train out front was the next stop. I took the chance to rest for a moment and eat some of the finest gas station pizza, again another staple of my trip haha! Onwards to another unofficial stop but a stop from my first RMRW event. This one holds a place in my heart because on this drive, on my first-ever event was where I got close to Crystal, Eric Cameron and Rich who I probably wouldn't be on this event right now if it wasn't for those guys, it was also the checkpoint I found that Queen Elizabeth had passed away… which I am not a patriotic guy at all but the others found it highly upsetting and even wrote on the back of my Charger which I had as a rental at the time! The world's tallest gas pump! This would also be the first minor problem I spotted on the car after doing all the work. I have always had problems with rad caps coming loose on this car, and it was just the same, it would work its way loose and just burp some coolant out every now and again, super quick fix and I always have a spare cap so that went on and problem solved!
I Couldn’t Keep My Eyes Open!
I drove until 2am until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore… I pulled over, popped a post in the group saying I was fine, just resting and tried my best to get some sleep… the Kirkey didn't help but that was the least of my worries, I had to roll the windows up because of the bugs, which in turn made an already unbearable temp even hotted….. I suffered for maybe 2 hours before I got annoyed and got back to driving… another 3 hours of driving I arrived at Forced Performance… A place I wanted to be at the day before now having one of their turbos, I had questions and advice I needed but in the end, I just hit the road to try and get some rest once I got to the track!
Post-Face: This story may be my favorite of the year so far. Tom is a great guy and documented this all on his channel, TB Racing, and I hope you find it and follow him.
