Project VH45DE Coupe: Shakedown and Rod Knock

Yesterday I took the car up to Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs Int.
Raceway. I ran a couple of grip groups to get some heat into all the new components and make sure the chassis was solid. After that I hit up the drift group to get some real shakedown. First run out, I was playing around with angle and making sure there was no rubbing I was able to bomb the course with 100% confidence in the car. Same deal on the 2nd run. On the 3rd run, I started working on getting on the correct line and tracing the outside of the track and then I noticed the engine felt a little sluggish. By the 4th run it had terrible rod knock and low oil pressure and my day was done. Overall I’m not surprised it was a high mileage motor and I’m glad it went in shakedown and not in competition but now I have a long couple of weeks ahead of me to prep for top drift rd 1. Here’s some pics of the car leading up to and at shakedown.