Awesome, that looks like so much fun. Nice top speeds in the straights.
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Awesome, that looks like so much fun. Nice top speeds in the straights.
A friend of a friend let me use his corner scales to get a baseline weight for my car before I start prepping it for TT next year. With a full tank and no driver, the car comes in at 3375lbs with a weight balance of 57/43. My guesstimate of 3400 was pretty close although the car is more nose-heavy than I thought.
According to the NASA TT4 calculator, the max avg hp I could have would be around 360whp. I want to pull my current motor and replace it with a 4-bolt 355 at some point, so I need to make a decision if I want to A) build the motor for 6.5k RPM with a larger cam, nicer lifters, etc., or B) regear the diff from stock to 3.23 and keep the revs under 6k. Part of me really just wants option A for the chop lol, but I know it's going to work the motor and accessories harder. Gonna think about it over the next couple days and before I do some black friday shopping.
Speaking of black friday, I ordered some Apex 18x10" EC7 wheels for TT use. I am also trying to pick up a big ~70 inch rear wing and some splitter quick releases since I need to shotgun a bunch of aero on the car if I want to be competitive.
Attachment 40789
Attachment 40790
That's pretty darn close to the advertised curb weight for a 6 speed Formula. Actual numbers rarely agree with advertised ones - nice. I wouldn't have guessed it was that nose heavy! Sticking your spare tire and jack back in would probably help to even our the rear balance!
The corner weights came out wierd. Passenger side battery and engines accesories all being to the right would explain the RF increase. But why is the LR 71LBS heavier?
Yeah it's not bad, I was guessing it would be close to stock since I knew most weight pulled out would be offset by track mods. Off the top of my head...Quote:
Originally Posted by rentedmule
Weight in:
- Autopower 4pt half cage and harnesses
- Kenny Brown triangulated subframe connectors
- Oil and power steering coolers
- Huge gated oil pan
- Strut tower brace
- Catch can
- Brake ducting
- Reinforced sway bar brackets
- C7 hub adapters
- CTSV Brembos on 14" rotors
- Tubular rear LCAs, panhard, torque arm
- Diff girdle
- Tow hooks
Weight out:
- Aluminum driveshaft and flywheel
- 2x fixed back racing seats
- No rear seats
- No AC (evaporator and condenser removed, HVAC box chopped)
- No sound deadening
- No ABS block
- Lightweight stereo and only 2x door speakers
- No airbags and aftermarket steering wheel
- T/A hatch with lexan spoiler
- PC680 battery
My hood is probably the same as stock weight since Trufiber says it's 35lbs.
I'm honestly not sure. I didn't measure with the sway bars disconnected so that could be influencing it. We did measure weights with me in the car and the fronts were closer.Quote:
Originally Posted by JOATMON
Total 3574
LF 1014
RF 1007
LR 821
RR 732
If you still have them it would be easy to swap positions to determine whether you have one that needs a strain gauge re-calibration.
Nolan
Nah I don't, but that's a good idea. I plan on weighing it again after all the aero and some more gutting. Hoping to keep it around the same weight but maybe shift the balance rearward slightly. I'll try swapping the plates around then.Quote:
Originally Posted by JOATMON
My black friday goodies are here already.
The 9 Lives Racing wing I got through their scratch and dent auction was an absolute STEAL at $130 + shipping. It's an EVO wing which is the newer and lighter extrusion. Wing measures 70", but I need to cut an inch off of one side since the mounts were welded slightly off center (hence the auction listing). Fixturing it in my mill is going to be interesting. Also need to have some endplates and mounts laser cut, but I'll get there.
For wheels, I went with gunmetal EC7s since the bronze ones are on production hold indefinitely. A little bummed at this because I really wanted to put a big bronze screaming chicken on my hood, but I'll have to settle for a silver one.
Attachment 40791
Attachment 40792
NICE!
shit mine weighs 3820 with me in it with a full tank and 24lb bottle. 3558 without me and a bottle.
bigwanggang
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cleaned up the spammer, sorry about that
So I slacked off all winter and am finally getting back to working on this thing. I had originally planned on having the car TT4 prepped by now, but that was definitely way too optimistic considering all of the other maintenance this thing needs. Here are the biggest issues that need addressing...
1. Clunk from the rear on left turns (sometimes) and occasional creaking. This was probably a couple different things, but I think my exhaust was contributing to it by banging around near the panhard support so I redid the hangers. Pulled my Spohn LCAs to replace the rod ends and found that 1 is super loose and another is binding pretty bad, so it needs new ones anyway. I also am going to make sure all of the cage bolts are tightened up.
2. Motor sounds like it has some gnarly piston slap, but it could also be a sticky lifter. I kinda doubt it's a knock since it completely goes away when warm, but gotdam does it sound like one when the car is cold. I can let it idle for 10 minutes and it still sounds awful, but it seems to go away after a little driving. I'm wondering how many days this thing has left.
3. My Opti is probably taking in water when it rains heavy since the car starts to miss like crazy. I almost got stranded coming home from Pocono and Pitt last year because of it. Not seeing any burns or cracking on my plug wires. Harness is plugged in tight. I also taped over the nostrils in the hood to prevent water from getting in the air filter, but that didn't seem to do anything. All vac lines appear in place, so my guess is that the cap isn't fully sealed.
4. T56 reverse is super grindy and pops out a bunch. I'm afraid I'm gonna lose it lol. Not sure if it's the syncro or if I broke a fork pad or something. I did flip the syncro assembly around to the unused side and replaced the fork pads when I last had it open, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Really don't want to pull this thing apart again.
5. Never ending brake cooling problems. I bought a decent 3D printer, so I plan on making some much larger pancake ducts with a 4" inlet and 3" outlet.
So I'm going to tackle 1, 3, and 5 right now which should have the car stable enough to run some nearby events assuming the current motor doesn't deteriorate further. I'm also going to get a 4-bolt 355 build rolling ASAP so I can hopefully drop something in the car around mid season and fix the T56 reverse problem then. The machine shops around here seem really booked out though, so I was thinking about using a block from a different project instead of the one I originally intended to use. I have a studded 4-bolt block that was supposed to get some forged 388 internals, but I am tempted to throw the 355 parts into it instead if I can get away without rehoning the block. This studded block was machined for some Probe SRS 2618 pistons that measure a little smaller than the 4032 Wisecos I planned on using in this car.
Probe on the left, Wiseco on the right:
Attachment 40816
Micrometer measurements look like this:
Probe
1 - 4.0264"
2 - 4.0264"
3 - 4.0265"
4 - 4.0264"
5 - 4.0265"
6 - 4.0260"
7 - 4.0265"
8 - 4.0262"
Wiseco
A - 4.0277"
B - 4.0274"
C - 4.0273"
D - 4.0275"
E - 4.0277"
F - 4.0271"
G - 4.0273"
H - 4.0271"
I zeroed my dial bore gage on a nominal of 4.0274" since that was the avg of the Wisecos. The piston to wall clearances for the avg piston measured approx halfway down the bore looked like this. The first number is parallel to the crank axis and the second is taken on the thrust face:
#1 - 0.0033 0.0031
#3 - 0.0031 0.0031
#5 - 0.0031 0.0029
#7 - 0.0029 0.0032
#2 - 0.0028 0.0033
#4 - 0.0031 0.0030
#6 - 0.0035 0.0031
#8 - 0.0032 0.0036
I ordered a spare head gasket and some head bolts so I can bolt a head on to see if the taper improves. I'm honestly not sure if the machining was done with a torque plate or not, but the distortion doesn't look that bad imo. My measurements were quick and dirty and could use some rechecking.
I could definitely match the Wisecos up to keep the piston to wall clearance around 0.0030-32ish across the board which seemed perfect... until I checked Wiseco's spec sheet in the box. They suggest a minimum of 0.0040" for some godforsaken reason. That seems like a 2618 spec, not 4032 so I am confused. I'll have to give them a call.
Alright, so Wiseco talked me out running them at 0.0030". Something to do with the barrel shape of their pistons is special blah blah blah. Sounds like cope to me, so I ordered some Mahles to see if I can get away with those without any honing.
I think I may have figured out my Opti issue since I noticed that the vacuum lines were backwards (d'oh). The hose leading to the intake manifold is supposed to connect to the bottom of the cap whereas I had it on the housing barb higher up. Guessing that condensation was building up at the bottom of the cap and getting sprayed everywhere by the incoming air.
Also, NASA decided to update the TT4 rules for the 2nd time this year and people are upset since the season officially starts Saturday lol. They changed the modifiers for a bunch of tires including the CR-S I was gonna run. It seems like it would make more sense to run the Toyo R which is just as fast and make +20hp. In my car's current fat form, I could make a max of 370whp avg which is probably like 380+ peak.
Attachment 40817
Attachment 40818
you got me thinking about not parting the 6spd car lol, nice work
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Get a track car and come to the track!!!!! (the one with turns)Quote:
Originally Posted by SSlowBoat
That would be the shit, you two shooting it out in the twisties. Bring on the videos!Quote:
Originally Posted by Catmaigne
Nolan
he would be my instructor lolQuote:
Originally Posted by JOATMON
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Couldn't help but notice that there seems to be quite a bit of difference in the compression ratio of the two pistons you pictured. The dished looks like you'd lose about a point of CR. The high clearance they are calling for on the 4032's sounds ass backwards. I'm far from a seasoned piston expert but I have used both types of forged in different types of engines. I remember running across this with the old TRW pistons. It made me think that you might be able to ball hone .001 out with out messing up the straightness of the cylinders???
a 4032 in a boosted or nitrous application is gonna expand way more than the other. we originally had those 4032 wiseco's in the initial ellwein 383 build, and karl ended up changing to a mahle forged when he redid it to 385 because of the piston slopQuote:
Originally Posted by JOATMON
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Yeah the Probes have a -12.8cc dish I think? They came with the studded 4-bolt block. I bought a forged 3.8" stroke crank from Scat, 6" forged Eagle FSI rods, and LE ported 21* Trickflows with a chamber on the small side (maybe 51cc?). Compression ratio would've been around 12:1 and the cam was a custom grind Comp from Lloyd that was basically the biggest hydraulic roller setup I could get away with. Plan was to shoot for 500whp NA through a T56, but that is way too much firepower for this car lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by JOATMON
So the Mahles are here and I measured a few real quick. All measurements were super consistent around 4.0271-4.0273" which is very impressive and the machine work looks mint. I think these will work no problem without having to rehone, but I need to wait until it gets a little warmer to officially measure the block bores with a head torqued down. Garage isn't heated and low temps will distort the measurements.
Attachment 40823
I also bought some Johnson 2110Rs (through Cam Motion's private label) which is totally overkill for what I'm doing, but I would rather spend the money on an overbuilt lifter than risk a shitty Delphi coming apart on me and potentially damaging my fresh motor. The Johnsons also have the oil band in the right place so no issues there. I will also be set up to run a larger cam than the 219/227 Lunati if I ever choose to hop in TT3.
Attachment 40824
Also bought some coated Durabond cam bearings too. Hoping that the coating helps the front cam bearing last a little longer since the water pump drive seems to really beat them up. Plan is to also use coated main and rod bearings too since this is a wet sump setup and the car will certainly pull more Gs with the aero and even more if I upgrade to Hoosiers at some point. Trying to protect my investment.
Dug the block out, got it on the stand, and took more measurements. I also measured all of the Mahles and it looks like the piston to wall clearance is going to be a little on the loose side around 0.0034-37", but I don't think that's a big deal for a motor that is going to be run this hard. The ideal range for the Mahle is 0.0027-33 so I'm not over the max by that much.
Noticed some scratches at the bottom of cylinder 1. Currently on the fence about getting the block decked or just throwing on a composite gasket and sending it. I would definitely get it decked if I planned on running an MLS gasket, but that isn't a necessity.
At minimum, the crank needs to be polished and the rotating assembly balanced before I can throw this thing together.
Attachment 40828
Attachment 40829
Attachment 40830
This car had been driving me insane with creaking from the right rear suspension on hard cornering. I tried so many things to get it to shut up and nothing seemed to work which was making me suspicious that the panhard mount was cracked. A close inspection didn't uncover anything though. I added rubber hose to the bottom of the rear springs, swapped endlinks, new rod ends on the LCAs, greased sway bar and shock bushings, retorqued everything in the suspension and the cage. I even pulled apart the rear interior to try to pinpoint the noise... It ended up being a noisy QA1 endura (x-series) rod end on that panhard that I replaced last summer. They're teflon lined and you're not supposed to grease them, but a little bit of silicone spray shut it up immediately. This seems to be recurring theme for current QA1 parts (they suck).
Also, my muffler came out of the hanger on the way to work this morning and was dragging. Haven't been able to catch a break lately, but I am hoping that is the last of the BS I have to deal with for now. Trying to get on track next Friday at NJ, but otherwise my first outing of the season will be at Pocono at the end of the month.
Change of plans....
Ditched NJMP and went up to Lime Rock with Brian instead. We're over here looking like the yin and yang of 90s GM shitboxes.
I ran a 1:00.9 which I'm happy with. I'll put up a vid soon.
Attachment 40837
Cool, the devil car and the cop car.
Here were the two fastest laps from the event. The second was a little spicy lol. Optimal was a 1:00.2, so I'm sure I could probably eek out a sub 1:00 with this setup by adjusting my lines and being a little more ballsy and precise through the uphill and downhill. I'm happy with what I ran especially considering it was my first time at this track and my first event of the season!
I also lost about 45min of track time due to my seat mount cracking halfway through session 2. Had to make an emergency run to the hardware store, but thankfully I was able to rig something together and catch the final session where I ran those 1:00s.
I'll have to make another trip up there this year for another shot at the mythical sub 1min lap. Track has little runoff and requires massive cojones to drive fast since there isn't much runoff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhZ_-h_KDTY
Thx for sharing, looks like it’s a lot of fun. Your driving skills appear sharper than ever.
Nolan