Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Morrison and Garrett motors are not the same. We had both, Garrett ran all year Morrison didn't last one night, after a month of fighting with it we replaced it with a Garrett motor and had ZERO problems. Anyone can buy parts and bolt them together and call themselves an engine builder. Charlie is way beyond that, Morrison on the other hand.....

I know this has been talked about a bit, but as an FYI, I snapped this pic Sun morning in the parking lot. Looks like Parker on the valve cover to me.

 www.memorylaneracing.com

"Every time I pull onto the track with Dad,Uncle
Bobby,Mario,AJ,Gordy,JR...,I get goosebumps. Those
guys are my hero's.They always have been and they
always will be." 
Al Unser Jr.

 

I think it may be a bit early to throw an engine builder under the bus. I don't know anything about Morrison engines, although I did hear he had worked previously for Charlie Garrett. I've sat down and watched 75% of Hendrick engines blow up in a 400 mile race before, and I'm pretty sure Rick's engine shop/builder are among the best in the world.

Maybe it was a common part failure from a vendor part, when your spinning a pushrod engine at 8-9K rpms, you don't need to be far out of tolerance to have a problem? Maybe he did push the envelope just a hair too far and the motors need backed off a tick? That's very likely considering they were all flying when they had problems. Maybe the teams made a mistake (like Sammys 360 pump on a 410, don't need to be an engine builder to know that high performance engines die pretty quick running lean). If the problem continues, then I'd say those engines have issues, but at least give the guy/shop a chance to rectify it. Lance Dewease ran these motors all year last year, he won with the WoO, ran very good on the road, and was arguably the fastest driver in PA. It's hard to imagine any other sprint car engine in the country has to put up with more abuse then a full time PA 410 does, the majority of the races are run on big (real?) half miles where the stress is high and the RPM's are sustained.

I wouldn't throw Brian Morrison and his engines under the bus just quite yet. If you remember not only did Lance Dewease run his engines last year but so did "The Mad Man" Kerry Madson in the #3. He was wicked fast the whole year including almost winning The Kings Royal. Let's wait and see how Dollansky makes out over the next few months. Greg Hodnett struggled down in Florida with engine problems and he was running Cappetta engines just like Jac ran last year with the R19 and that team won 6 WoO races( 5 with Jac and 1 with Doug Esh). The season is still early.

Air/Fuel mixture is a key to keepign these engines running. Wrong pill and a piston is burnt. Did these engines actually blow or did they burn pistons?

As for the person above who said they had both Garrett and Morrison Engines and had problems with one but not the other.....Call Morrison and talk to him. His engines have won some WoO races, some BIG local PA races and I haven't heard a single driver who uses them complain.

Brian worked for Charlie for a long time. He must be good if Charlie refers people to Brian. Hmm....