Do not delete the kernel and the ftape.o file. I might want you run try some patches out or run a different test on your system. Increasing the trace level beyond 5 probably doesn't make any sense as it affects the timing of the driver in a way that it doesn't work well any more. Try to look at what ftape spews out at you. It may look in-comprehensible to you at first, but you can get valuable information from the logfile.
Most messages have a function name prepended, to make it easier to locate the problem.
State exactly what you did, and what happened on your system. Instead, you could describe the problem, and offer to send the log to the interested parties.