The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

For the last month I have been chasing issues related to the race 1UZ not idling below 3000 rpm.  "There MUST be an air leak" has been our guiding principle.  But . . . after taking off the entire intake track and checking EVERY place air could possibly be entering the engine we determined there was NO Fricking Way there could be air getting in.  Please do not suggest otherwise.  Yes, the throttle body is completely closed.  I said everywhere!

We looked everywhere.  Nothing.  We came up with all kids of good sealing solutions.  Still a too-fast idle.

Special aluminum washers were made to hold and seal the Subaru injectors in place and were checked on the running engine with soapy water, listened to with a tube, and every other means of detecting a leak.  No leak here.  So . . . .  what's up.  Our new working theory, based on the experience of several other racers here, is that the camshafts were not manufactured  with the indexing correct.  In other words, too much overlap is allowing the engine to pump air up into the intake manifold which in turn allows just enough air to run the motor.  It can happen, and has happened to a friend of mine here.  Kelford, I am sure, makes every effort to do good work, but they also assume that engines are put together by race engine builders who check the cams, index the cams, and dial in the cams.  We did not: we took them out of the box and installed them using the "locator pins and marks" that should have been right.  So now we mic the cams.