Here is the part of the bulletin that interests this post:
All Legend Car Engines with clear plastic seals, green (old style) seals, blue (old style) seals or silver (old style) seals must be sent in to the US Legends Engine shop (or INEX approved location) for inspection & re-sealing prior to the 2014 racing season. o The shipping fee for all engines remains capped at $200.00. Additionally your tech fee will be waived if the engine passes. Please contact the Engine Shop at 705-455-3896 ext. 228 to schedule an appointment sometime before the start of the 2014 season.
Note the underlined part.
Robert
So, INEX has now changed the time frame of the mandated re-certification of the INEX sealed engine to prior the 2014 racing season. Well that only did one thing, changed the amount of time you have to pay for shipping and possibly a "tech fee" to USLCI so they can change your seals.
This is still a bad deal, we all know that there are only a small percentage that build cheater engines behind the seals, but the majority of us are going to have to pay for the re-certification of every engine because of them.
There is nothing that cannot be checked at the track, the old seals removed and the new seals installed. There are bore gauges that go into the spark plug hole, a gauge for checking the holes of the cam gears, there is a profile tool for the cams and the pans can be pulled to inspect for lightened rods or cranks, carbs & headers removed to check for posting of the head. Hell if we really want to get technical the Whistler can be brought out of the closet and the compression ratio can be checked.
The only thing that cannot be checked without removing the cylinder head is the piston/deck height. If that one thing is all that is not checked, that one thing is not going to allow an engine to make any more than a marginal amount more horsepower due to the increased compression ratio. But that can be determined by the Whistler...
We now know the shipping is capped at $200, I just spoke with Brian in the engine shop and the tech fee is $150.00. If the engine is found to be legal, they are going to way the tech fee which includes the labor and gaskets required to put the engine back together. But from there if it is illegal, for any reason, the cost goes up from there.
So far just the shipping cost alone are going to eat up your $40.00 entry for five events alone and the engine has not even out of you car yet...
I will say this again, I know all of my posts will make it to those in charge at the mother ship, and I stand behind my comments. This is a raw deal that has been put in place, just like the other decision on brakes, because those who choose to cheat and beat all of the "regular" racers. Now the regular racers have to pony up the money to stay competitive in the brake department or pony up the money to stay racing with a sealed engine.
But, just like I have said all along,
"we are paying to play in their sandbox"The question is now... is it worth paying them to keep playing in their sandbox?Randy - RPM