Mercury Marine plant question

[LGAFF]

Was thinking if I can draft questions and the Registry will have me, maybe I will write an article for HOB, maybe I can get some pics out of him

[LGAFF]

Some proposed questions:

1)Interview:
2)Title:
3)Tell us about your background in engine building and your career at Mercury Marine
4)Can you remember the first time you heard about the LT-5 project?
5)Who was involved in rolling out the project at Mercury Marine and who did you work with on the project? How was the team at Mercury Marine assembled (how were they chosen?)
6)Did everyone in the plant know about the project before it rolled out?
7)How did Mercury prepare for production?
8)Was there a GM presence at the plant before production? What about working with outside vendors?
9)Was a preassembled LT-5 brought into the plant prior to starting production, or did you simply receive the parts from the foundry? How was training conducted?
10)What was the reaction when you saw the LT-5 for the first time? What did you think when you first heard the power numbers and RPM range?
11)Did GM reps ever relay what they saw the LT-5 as?....Ferrari beater, etc?
12)When the project first started at Mercury was there a lot of waste in testing the assembly line and machining? How long from flipping the first switch did it take to be up and running?
13)What was the extent of Mercurys involvement in machining?
14)How many engines were scraped due to defects or not meeting dyno expectations, was the entire engine scrapped or disassembled and the non-rotating parts(plenum, etc) reused?
15)With Dyno testing, what were the typical results? Can you talk about what the testing entailed and what was checked at that time?
16)With Dyno testing can you talk about typical faults and failures? Whats the Weakness of the LT-5?
17)Can you tell us about the cam failures, were those only seen at the factory or was there more to the failures?
18)During your experience, what was the most interesting thing you saw during the LT-5 development?
19)Based upon our prior conversation it seems that there was a lot of performance testing searching for HP improvement. Who coordinated these test, was it Mercury in house or GM backed? Where was this leading to for the LT-5?

20)HP and engine Performance: talk about pefromance testing failures and successes with the LT-5
-Porting
-Cam timing
-Engine Oiling
**Suggested fixes?
Increasing Compression: How was higher compression achieved? Whats the maximum a head could be ported?
-Cooling: Its documented that sustained max RPM runs leds to cooling system cavitations, was this a known issue
-Was forced induction ever considered
21)Who worked on the performance projects? Where there specific projects and goals: Racing Engines, high performance parts(one offs)
22)Did the team at Mercury play a role in the 24hr Endurance Run? Discuss?
23)The black motors: what was done by Doug Rippie and what was done by Mercury Marine?
24)Where any of the test cars or production cars brought to the factory?
25)Who was the most impactful person that you remember from the project?
26)What was the feeling about when it was announced that the LT-5 program would cease? Was there ever an attempt to continue production as a crate motor from GM or Mercury? What was the cost of production of an LT-5? Was a 2nd Gen motor ever discussed?
27)How long did it take to shut down the program and switch over the facility?
28)What was done with the old equipment? Cam boring machine?
29)Were there a lot of excess parts? How much of that was scrapped or ended up going home with employees?
30)What did the LT-5 project mean to you and the team?
31)Where do you see the LT-5 in automotive history will it go down as a unique piece of history or an experiment in excess?
32)What was the teams relationship with GM and Lotus?