Haggard-hawk

[Catmaigne]

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???

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.

[Catmaigne]

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.

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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.

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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.

[Catmaigne]

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.

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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.

[Catmaigne]

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.

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[JOATMON]

Cool, the devil car and the cop car.

[Catmaigne]

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.

[JOATMON]

Thx for sharing, looks like it’s a lot of fun. Your driving skills appear sharper than ever.
Nolan