94 Rx7 Street/Track build A.K.A. greatwhitebuffalo

[Smokey]

Thanks buddy!

 

Of course as I continue to get faster....so does Andy. He made some setup changes to his car this year and they paid off big time. I get into the :35s...he gets into the :33s....it's like chasing a ghost sometimes!

[Aaron]

Damn impressive man! Looking forward to Audi club!

[Smokey]

Trying to get caught back up on this. Haven't been able to download and re-load the old photobucket stuff, but want to update going forward.

 

Getting ready for the July Audi Club event at Mid Ohio. Main goal for that event was to put together the differential cooler and be able to test it out. Using a Mocal cooler - this little guy:

 

Also using a Mocal pump which has brass pump gears as opposed to the diaphragm setups in some of the other pumps. Hoping this will give longer life and more reliability. Here's the pump mounted to the back of the rear subframe. As usual Tinman helped me fab up the pump and cooler. This car would never work without him.

 

Then put the lines together using -8AN push-lock line and fittings. Also put an in-line filter with an internal stainless element:

 

Coming out of the diff I have a nice contraption which allows me to put a thermo sensor in place. Looks a little goofy sticking out like this, but works.

Putting the lines together, I borrowed the Kool Tools push-lock tool from my buddy. This tool is worth its money FOR SURE! Makes putting the lines together a breeze.

 

for the filter I drilled and tapped my rear tow hook and then mounted the filter with a large cushion clamp to support it.

 

while working on line routing I took off the muffler guard which of course then the hanger broke off. Luckily my old harbor freight rivet gun came to the rescue.

 

Here's how the lines are routed. First they come out of the diff at the place the drain plug was:

 

Then the line routs up beside the gas tank and by the muffler. Fortunately my exhaust including the muffler is fully ceramic coated, but if you don't have that, you might consider a fire sleeve or other protection for the line.

 

That line then connects to the cooler which has another line that goes out and toward the driver's side where the filter is:

 

here is the filter where the lines make a 90 degree turn and go back toward the front and subframe.

 

the lines goes up and above the rear fender liner and back to the pump suction side

 

then there's only one pressure size which is a short line that leads back to the differential and uses the fitting that is already cast into the Greddy cover.

Edited September 2, 2017 by Smokey

[Smokey]

Other bits updating for the July event. First was while I was trimming back the fender liners I also took the opportunity to refresh my "wire harness protection" there....which is aluminum flashing zip tied around it. It can at least take some rubbing without causing issues.

 

I was also still having problems with the rear brakes being sticky. I got new hardware and rubber parts. I also switched lubes back there. Some people were saying the grease I was using could be causing the rubber to swell/stick, so I switched to this 3M silicone paste. The hardware was frustrating as i found out after this photo that some of the pins were slightly bent which was also attributing to poor movement of the rear caliper. I basically had to play around with the new and old hardware to find the best combo to put on the car. I also found that I had to not use the little rubber doughnuts on the end of the pins as they'd bind things up. Goofy.

 

I also replaced my troublesome idler pulley with a FFE unit. The new stuff was well built and came with a belt. I knew i had an aftermarket water pump pulley but didn't think it was bigger than stock. Evidently that was wrong:

 

I'll be honest....getting a proper sized belt was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE ASS. Parts store employees were less than helpful and going to different stores also revealed that they measure/code their belts differently. Took way way too long to get that sorted.

 

Also made an update in the interior. Moved the PFC commander from the ashtray position and to a commander holder so I could more easily monitor intake and coolant temps.

 

While this is great for viewing while driving, I f-ing despise the commander holder. Can't believe they're so popular. The fit with the glovebox is junk, the commander was loose and rattling around in the holder and required me to get creative to stop that. Doubtful I'll find a better solution this year though.

 

I also attempted to replace my trailer brakes for the event and one of the nuts on the back of the drums rounded off....ugh...gonna have to wait until later.

[Smokey]

July Audi Club event. Always a good event, well run yet still pretty laid back which is nice. Only one student which was Aaron from CR. We had a good time and he was able to get his best times at Mid Ohio which always makes instructing fun.

 

Overall the car did well. We struggled with weather and rain on and off. The rain was starting to clear and I'd be out right after lunch. 10 minutes before run time this happens:

Bummer. It seems to have rained on us a lot more this year than previously, but not much you can do about it.

 

The good news is that the diff cooler appeared to be doing its job. I would check case temperatures when coming in from the pits and was seeing only up to 180 degrees on the cover as opposed to 200-220 previously. It's not as scientific as using a proper gauge on the fluid but i want another gauge like I want a swift kick to the groin. I also rigged up a LED that's zip tied to my rollbar so I can see when the cooler kicks on. It takes longer to kick on than I honestly thought, but you can also tell that temp builds as the day goes on. Later in the day it'll come on earlier and earlier in the sessions. It also NEVER turns off once on, even when back in the pits. Tempature to turn on is 190 and to turn off is 160 so I'm not surprised, but thought it might get cooler during a cool-down lap and pit-in. Not the case. There's currently pretty limited airflow to it though.

 

Coolant temps got up to 100 and 101 in a couple of sessions and we had ambient temps in the high 80s and very humid. Just need to keep an eye on it and make sure it's not going to cause any issues.

 

Here's a longer video from the last session of the weekend. Andy and I went out nose to tail and our cars were pretty warm so we went right after it and not much warm up. As you can see he's still getting away albeit not by a ton. Then we catch traffic and I get balked...BTW guys...a S6 is a sweet car...not a good track car though! haha. This was a combined session with advanced drivers and instructors so I was a little less polite in traffic than I should have been.

[Smokey]

Next event is Indianapolis Motor Speedway with MORPCA. This is the 3rd year they've hosted an event at Indy and I wanted to try it out. Couldn't make the schedule work the previous years. The Indy road course itself isn't overly exciting, but....it's freaking Indy! To my knowledge this group is the only one that hosts a DE there.

 

Of course I also had a family vacation in-between Audi club and going to Indy so I had to turn the car around quickly in basically one weekend.

 

First thing was that I noticed my driver's side headlight cover wasn't aligning correctly....cracked....damn. Used epoxy to fix it for now and seems to have worked. Let's hope it holds cause getting a good paint match on new ones is a major pain in the ass.

 

I also wanted more airflow to the diff cooler. Unfortunately due to the small size none of the standard oil cooler fans would fit/work. I ended up finding a CPU fan that says it's waterproof and moves 65CFM. Not a ton, but better than most I've seen. Of course my fabrication skills are pretty much non-existant so this is what I came up with. Seems to be working so far. Fan puts out more air than I thought it would, but still not sure it's ideal. Indy will be the true test as it's gonna be hot and LOTS of time on throttle.

 

I also bled the brakes. I sent out the diff fluid from prior to the cooler to be tested and they came back with "high wear metals" especially for the low mileage...no surprise there. I'll send some more after the cooler to see if there's a difference.

 

Took the car for a shake down and things were going well. Ran it thru 2nd gear and into 3rd and came to a stop to have this idle surge greet me...damn

Untitled

 

All is well that ends well I suppose. I found the vacuum line I had plugged when removing the PCV valve had spit out the "plug" i had put in it. That'll cause an issue for sure.

 

While I was in there I also found/fixed 2 other issues I was having. First was that when going full throttle there was a "click" and resistance at the end of the throttle travel. I could feel it in the pedal but couldn't figure it out. Turns out that the zip tie I put on the MAS sensor line was just barely interfering with the throttle linkage...dumb stuff like that will drive you crazy. Turned it the other way and problem gone.

 

Also my oil fill neck was leaking and causing an oil leak that was driving me crazy. Now was the time to fix it if I was going in there anyway. I was getting leaking from the 2nd fitting which led to the PCV I've since removed. Also the o-ring at the base was pinched and leaking.

 

cleaned up fittings and capped off the 2nd

 

here's the solution for the PCV fitting on the intake manifold. Not ideal, but seems to work for now. The idle is still a bit lumpy, but workable for the weekend at least.

Untitled

[Smokey]

Heading to Indy. I had put a new fancy hinged license plate holder on my trailer so I could stop dragging the plate everywhere. Not sure exactly how this happened, but this is the condition of the plate when I showed up in Indy....weird. Back to the drawing board on that one. I eventually took off the bracket and drilled holes in the trailer frame below the tail light and mounted the hinge directly there for more clearance.

 

The Indy event is cool mostly because of the location and fanfare that surrounds the event. The MORPCA team does a great job with this event and dealing with all of the different rules of Indy. I rented a GP garage for the event. Here was the view from my garage....pretty cool

 

and being in the pro pit lane at Indy is just cool all around. When the cars stage and go out for sessions you drive right thru Gasoline Alley.

 

The track itself is laid out to run the opposite direction of the oval and has 14 turns. It's A LOT of time on full throttle with basically 3 very long full throttle zones followed by 3 heavy braking zones and 3 short tight sections. Here's a track map for those not familiar

http://indymotorspeedway.com/files/IndyCar_GrandPrix_Map.gif

 

As you can see it uses pretty much all of the front straight....it's the longest damn straight I've ever driven on. Places like Watkins likely have as long of a section on full throttle, but it's not all straight....that straight is like tunnel vision you can barely see the end of it when you get onto it.

 

Some cool parts of the event. After the first day of driving the club hosted a dinner at the Indy motorsports museum. Cool stuff in there we got to hang around.

Probably my favorite in the museum. lol

 

One thing I found hilarious was in the bathrooms at the GP garages was motorsports related graffiti

[Smokey]

After the 2nd day of running the instructors and volunteers were invited to a dinner at the Dallara factory. That was cool, they basically have the place setup like COSI for car guys. There is a theatre with Momo race seats to sit in for everywhere where it shows the history of Dallara. I didn't know he designed the Ferrari 333SP and was also involved in the Veyron. Then they have actual carbon tubs of cars you can play around with, suspensions, cars you can sit in, and even simulators running iRacing where you can run laps of the Indy 500 course.

 

back to the driving, the course is fast, but HARD on brakes and HARD on the LF tire. 2 of the 3 heavy braking zones lead to tight 90 degree or more right handers that you carry speed into and blast the LF tire.

 

Here you can see the slick I was running (last event for it) and how there's a swath of rubber missing from the outside. Look at the rubber that was being left on the inside and outside of the wheel as well. Brutal.

 

You can also see how much rubber was on the side of the car when I was done with the event.

 

I also had to change out the brake pads mid-event. You can see the abuse here. Good news it the Ferodo pads are pretty easy on rotors. This set has gone all year so far. The cooling is definitely helping too. The AP rotors live up the hype though. They're forged by Jesus or some shit and way better than the Wilwood and Coleman rotors I ran before.

 

I will say the only downside to this event is that it's crowded. I'm not sure i had one full clean lap all weekend. Also had some higher HP cars who would drag you down the straights and then not point when you caught them in the corners. Can be frustrating. Also, left the front of my car covered in more rubber than I've ever experienced from being right behind people running sticky rubber.

 

I did hook up with 2 guys with really fast BMWs. Both the e30 and e36 had S54 swaps (e46 M3 motor) along with full e46 brakes, ABS, and PFC big brakes for an e46 M3. Here's a session where I went out with them and ran together. As you can see no matter how I tried to run onto the front straight the e30 would gap me. I seemed to catch him on the brakes though and have a bit more corner speed.

[Smokey]

Next event. Watkins Glen. Once again pretty quick turn around with 2 weeks in-between events. I changed the transmission fluid and diff fluid and took samples of both to send to Blackstone. Haven't gotten the results back yet.

 

Also put in fresh brake pads front and rear. New Ferodo DS1.1s up front and Hawk DTC-30s in the rear. I typically run HT-10s or DTC-60s in the rear, but for Watkins I wanted a little less rear bias since it involves a lot of trail braking zones. I may play around with both compounds at Mid Ohio to see if I can really notice a difference or it's just mental. haha.

I had thrown a set of backup pads in the front at Indy and even those got run to the bones

 

Gave a fresh bleed of the brakes. I had to flip 2 of the Nittos because they took some abuse at Indy and were wearing unevenly. I also got a new set of slicks to run for the 2nd half of the season. Unfortunately one of them developed cracks in the sidewall when mounting....bummer. I didn't see them prior to mounting so I can't prove one way or the other. Had to get a replacement sent right to the track because I wouldn't have time to deal with it otherwise. This is the risk of running used race tires though.

 

I also tried to perform an old-shcool smoke test on the vacuum leak. Didn't really give me any new leaks to chase, but did give me a nice buzz huffing down a cigar to blow in there.

 

I picked up a used Improved Racing strut bar which I installed. I had to cob together hardware for the M/C brace since it didn't come with any, but it appears to be holding up.

 

I cleaned up most of the rubber off of the car. Bought this stuff to help with cleanup, and holy crap does it work. Must cause cancer or something because there's no good explanation of how it works so well. Spray on liberally, wait 30 seconds, wipe off.

 

before:

 

after:

 

Just like with Indy when I typically go to an event I start on Nittos and then move to slicks once i feel I'm up to speed. I told myself I wouldn't mount the slicks before I went as fast or faster than last year on the Nittos to make sure I wasn't slowing down and cheating with the tires. I was able to get down to the mid 2:09s on Nittos which is better than last year by over a second so no complaints there. Andy helped me mount the slicks while I was out with my student and I ran the first session on them Friday night. Got down to the 2:05s first session out on the sticky rubber ever at Watkins so I was happy with that.

 

I was prepping the car for the next morning. Filling gas, emptying catch can, filling oil, top up the meth tank, and torquing the wheels. As I torqued the wheels the VERY last lugnut snapped right the hell off.....FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

At this point it's 5pm Friday night in upstate NY so I'm not in a good position. NAPA was closed as they always are whenever you want some shit. I ended up finding an AutoZone 30 mins away that said they could get one from Buffalo the next morning. The other option was to drive up 2.5hrs each way to the warehouse and get it myself. I took the option to get it the next day. The other challenge was that I had a student so I couldn't just abandon him to go get parts. The student takes precedent. I was able to get the part the next day at lunch and get the car back together to run in the afternoon. I mounted the Nittos for the afternoon Saturday because I wanted to feel out the Duralast wheel bearing. Can't say I have a ton of faith in it, but it did well. I have to 2 spare Timkin units in the basement so I need to figure out if I want to change them out before the next event or just leave well enough alone and deal with it in the off-season.

 

Sunday morning I mounted the slicks again once i was comfortable with the wheel bearing. I was able to get some more free space and have more success with lap times. Watkins takes a lot of balls to get good times out of it because there are corners where you can't see the apex and/or exit when you enter and have to carry speed. The other is that I was able to work up to going flat out thru turn 2 so that'd mean going full throttle at the apex of 1 and holding it all the way to the floor until the braking zone at the back straight. May not sound all that scary or look bad in the videos, but I was gritting my teeth the first few times of doing it.

 

Here's a video where i ran a 2:04.00, then 2:04.11 and my miracle lap of 2:02.84 haha.

 

 

Of course as usual when I get faster, so does the infamous yellow GT3. But it's crazy impressive what his car can do. He's also pulling a full 6-7mph more than me down the back straight so I have to make it up in other places. Most notably I just barrel into the damn bus stop and make it stick.

[Aaron]

Wow, you were busy!!!

 

Looks like a blast. Jealous.

[carl1647545492]

 

Of course as usual when I get faster, so does the infamous yellow GT3. But it's crazy impressive what his car can do. He's also pulling a full 6-7mph more than me down the back straight so I have to make it up in other places. Most notably I just barrel into the damn bus stop and make it stick.

 

Cough Cough go single turbo

Edited September 3, 2017 by carl

[ph1tnessjunk1e]

Wow man that looks like so much fun!! I'm very jealous

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Smokey]

Wow, you were busy!!!

Yeah this year feels crazy busy. On top of the track events and needed prep I've also been squeezing in work on the DD/tow vehicle such as transmission service (drop pan, replace filter and 1-2 accumulator), diff fluids (still need to do rear), plugs/wires, oil changes etc. Also trying to do more karting with my son this year so trips down to circileville. Got a family vacation in there and trying to make sure I get to the gym to keep from getting too fat. This spring and summer has flown by.

 

Cough Cough go single turbo

That may eventually happen, but I'm trying my best to put it off. The amount of money it'll cost to do it right far outweighs the power I want/need out of it. We'll see how long I can hold out though as my current turbos are starting to smoke....doh

[Not Brian]

Opened

[zeitgeist57]

Dude, I must've missed Chris's exploits from his posts back in September. Damn...that's a labor of love.

[Smokey]

you have NO idea brother....

 

So, after Watkins Glen....

 

My plan after Watkins was to come back and have 2 events at my home track of Mid Ohio. First one was this past weekend. Friday I was helping the club out with instructor training where I pretend to be a student in various scenarios for an instructor-in-training. We used my car and were driving slow like a student might and the car felt down on power, but I also wasn't driving hard.

 

I was then able to go out on my own and instantly noticed that the car was down like 30-40hp it felt like. It didn't run rough, but it was like someone stuffed a rag in the intake or exhaust or something...just missing power all around. There's a slight surging to the power and it's not all that consistent which drives me nuts. I put the logger in for a session in the afternoon and confirmed that on the back straight driving the whole way to the same braking point that I was down about 8-9mph compared to my normal speeds there!!! I was also noticeably down on RPM at the end of the straight, so it was just down on juice somehow. This was frustrating because it ran great at Watkins (or at least I thought) and in the 2 weeks between events I only changed the oil (yes there's some in there I checked), changed rear brake pads, and bled the brakes.

 

I dragged the car back home Friday night to mess with it. The surging reminded me of what it felt like when I had fuel delivery problems in the past. I opened the tank and there was some dirt on the fuel pump sock, but nothing else seemed out of order. I put on an old one I had as a spare since I was in there. I then looked for oil in the intake or other signs that the turbos were toast. No oil and I was getting full boost all the way thru the RPMs so I think they're both working. I checked for missed rags in the intake just in case even though the car ran fine since the last time I had it open..haha. I looked for big boost leaks but didn't find any. I replaced the blockoff I had put together for the PCV since that was the last thing I messed with on the intake. Also found an older vacuum cap on the lower intake I replaced.

 

I figured that this wasn't a fuel delivery issue as if it was running lean that long on track I would have blown the motor for sure.

 

I also used a piston compression tester to verify I had even pulses on the rotors and didn't appear to have a broken apex seal. Could possibly be down on compression, but it'd be weird for that to spontaneously occur in 2 weeks of not driving the car I'd think. The leading plugs are darker than then trailing plugs but didn't look wet or anything goofy like it was flooded. Plus the car behaved like it was running rich so I'd expect the plugs a little dark.

 

Dragged the car back to the track Saturday. It seemed like 10% better, but I think that was just the cool air in the morning being the difference. I couldn't really do much at the track with it as I had a student I needed to ride with and attend to. Sat night I finally got a chance to chill and think about it more and it seems like an ignition issue with the leading coil. That'd explain why the motor doesn't run rough, but if the leading coil wasn't firing then it'd basically be like retarding the timing right? That'd also explain the darker leading plugs.

 

My car runs stock coils and a HKS twin power so I tried unplugging the twin power and going back to stock wiring, and it ran the same. So I'm thinking it's a coil issue but I need to dig into it to test them. Sunday at the track I tried the car with and without the Twin Power and it was the same so I don't think the twin power is the issue.

 

Anyone else ever have a similar issue? Car makes full boost all thru the RPM range but noticeably down on power.

 

The last chance to sign up for what was to be my last track event at the end of Sept is this weekend, so if I can't get it figured out by then I'm likely done for the year.

 

My goals for the year were to learn to drive on slicks and go faster at Mid Ohio and Watkins Glen. I went fast at Mid Ohio in the spring and smashed my expectations at Watkins so I'm happy with that. There's always going to be continual growth with driving technique and learning how to maximize the sticky tires so that goal will continue thru to next year.

[Smokey]

you have NO idea brother....

 

So, after Watkins Glen....

 

My plan after Watkins was to come back and have 2 events at my home track of Mid Ohio. First one was this past weekend. Friday I was helping the club out with instructor training where I pretend to be a student in various scenarios for an instructor-in-training. We used my car and were driving slow like a student might and the car felt down on power, but I also wasn't driving hard.

 

I was then able to go out on my own and instantly noticed that the car was down like 30-40hp it felt like. It didn't run rough, but it was like someone stuffed a rag in the intake or exhaust or something...just missing power all around. There's a slight surging to the power and it's not all that consistent which drives me nuts. I put the logger in for a session in the afternoon and confirmed that on the back straight driving the whole way to the same braking point that I was down about 8-9mph compared to my normal speeds there!!! I was also noticeably down on RPM at the end of the straight, so it was just down on juice somehow. This was frustrating because it ran great at Watkins (or at least I thought) and in the 2 weeks between events I only changed the oil (yes there's some in there I checked), changed rear brake pads, and bled the brakes.

 

I dragged the car back home Friday night to mess with it. The surging reminded me of what it felt like when I had fuel delivery problems in the past. I opened the tank and there was some dirt on the fuel pump sock, but nothing else seemed out of order. I put on an old one I had as a spare since I was in there. I then looked for oil in the intake or other signs that the turbos were toast. No oil and I was getting full boost all the way thru the RPMs so I think they're both working. I checked for missed rags in the intake just in case even though the car ran fine since the last time I had it open..haha. I looked for big boost leaks but didn't find any. I replaced the blockoff I had put together for the PCV since that was the last thing I messed with on the intake. Also found an older vacuum cap on the lower intake I replaced.

 

I figured that this wasn't a fuel delivery issue as if it was running lean that long on track I would have blown the motor for sure.

 

I also used a piston compression tester to verify I had even pulses on the rotors and didn't appear to have a broken apex seal. Could possibly be down on compression, but it'd be weird for that to spontaneously occur in 2 weeks of not driving the car I'd think. The leading plugs are darker than then trailing plugs but didn't look wet or anything goofy like it was flooded. Plus the car behaved like it was running rich so I'd expect the plugs a little dark.

 

Dragged the car back to the track Saturday. It seemed like 10% better, but I think that was just the cool air in the morning being the difference. I couldn't really do much at the track with it as I had a student I needed to ride with and attend to. Sat night I finally got a chance to chill and think about it more and it seems like an ignition issue with the leading coil. That'd explain why the motor doesn't run rough, but if the leading coil wasn't firing then it'd basically be like retarding the timing right? That'd also explain the darker leading plugs.

 

My car runs stock coils and a HKS twin power so I tried unplugging the twin power and going back to stock wiring, and it ran the same. So I'm thinking it's a coil issue but I need to dig into it to test them. Sunday at the track I tried the car with and without the Twin Power and it was the same so I don't think the twin power is the issue.

 

Anyone else ever have a similar issue? Car makes full boost all thru the RPM range but noticeably down on power.

 

The last chance to sign up for what was to be my last track event at the end of Sept is this weekend, so if I can't get it figured out by then I'm likely done for the year.

 

My goals for the year were to learn to drive on slicks and go faster at Mid Ohio and Watkins Glen. I went fast at Mid Ohio in the spring and smashed my expectations at Watkins so I'm happy with that. There's always going to be continual growth with driving technique and learning how to maximize the sticky tires so that goal will continue thru to next year.

[Smokey]

I didn’t make the last event of the year and I’m still having issues with the car that have me a bit baffled. The car will still build boost and pull thru the RPM range but it’s noticeably down on power. It backfires more than usual making me think it’s running rich or an ignition issue. Additionally something that has popped up is a bucking/breakup that occurs from around 1800rpm-3000rpm. Mostly at light throttle as that’s what I use at those ranges. Also the bucking gets worse in cold air. One night it was in the teens here and it wouldn’t even fully accurate thru a gear it got so bad. Funny thing though is that the car isles nice and smooth.

 

I’ve thrown parts at it to no avail. So far I have:

changed the fuel pump strainer/sock

checked for vacuum leaks

TPS readings verified by PFC commander

changed new spark plugs

changed new spark plug wires

swapped out another set of used coils (both passed resistance test)

swapped a good used ignitor

swapped a good used injector driver (or whatever that thing under the brake booster is)

swapped a good used coil wire harness

tested the remaining solenoids in the rats nest. Replaced 2 out of precaution/paranoia but they weren’t really bad.

Drained the gas and replaced it with fresh fuel

verified the throttle plates are fully opening and not loose or broken

verified the double throttle is working as intended but disabled to try anyway.

I also thought I had tried a different map sensor in there but when I went to re-try that I couldn’t find my 2nd one.

I had also tried at the track previously bypassing my HKS twin power without any change.

 

At this point it’s started snowing here so no more test drives until spring so I can’t really troubleshoot much else. I want to check the base timing but need to borrow a timing light to do it.

 

I also bought a rotary compression tester and verified compression. It’s not great but shouldn’t be causing issues I think.

front rotor was 98/94/99 corrected and rear rotor was 90/91/92 corrected. The car still hot and cold starts and idles fine.

[STEVE-O]

Did you copy and paste or where did you move that it snowed right now haha

[Smokey]

Here’s a video I took of a test drive after replacing the gas. When I first get on it after turning right you can hear the chugging down low and then it just runs slow thru the gears. Then after the railroad tracks you can hear/see the chugging/bucking more. Then when I turn into the neighborhood going up the hill it’s the worst and that was very light throttle.

 

 

[Smokey]

So I didn't go into winter completely on a bummer, not all was lost for the year. Even though I missed out on big car track time during the fall, I did pick up another toy and was able to still have some fast fun. My brother had bought my son a kart last year and this summer we went to our local car track more often to get him more comfortable. He's 5 so it's slow going, but we were able to make some good strides. My brother had bought a kart as well and I got a deal on one so I blew the rest of my available weekends driving to the kart tracks near-ish to us and karting. I have to admit it's fun as hell. It's not as cheap as most make it out to be, but I suppose when you compare operating costs to my big car it's nice....but when you're trying to budget for both it's not easy. Not sure I'll get into racing it much, but being able to go there with my son and doing it together is great.

 

[Smokey]

Alright. Getting back to this saga. The car still wasn't running right and I was running out of ideas. I knew I had to fix 2 things that were notably wrong though, the transmission was making a bunch of noise, and the turbos were smoking and getting old. If I needed to enlist the help of a professional I needed to make sure those things were up to snuff first to not detract from the real issues.

 

I started with the turbos. In taking the old ones off I immediately found an issue:

 

 

YIKES!!!! Those clearly weren't up to snuff. it's crazy how much the housing had not just cracked but worn away the iron. I later took them apart to see if the turbine blades had taken damage from any chunks and surprisingly they were good. Still went in the trash though they were hosed.

 

Surprisingly the gasket hadn't completely failed, but was not good to reuse and likely was letting some gas past

 

 

I bought a set of '99 spec turbos to replace them. In the interest of time I was hoping I could just get them and swap them on. Unfortunately they were damaged in shipping to me. Since I was going to have to disassemble them anyway to replace some parts, I decided it best to have the wastegate ported and the housings milled flat. I also had to go to a different manifold because a bolt broke off in the one that was on the car. Not worth trying to drill out. Here are the milled housings and I then block sanded the manifold surfaces.

 

 

Another mod to the manifold. I've always hated how jagged the exit for this pipe was. I'm sure it was so that the air coming out of it could better mix with the exhaust gasses, but it also seems like the small jagged edges would eventually break off. So I filed it down as best I could.

 

Also when putting in the studs for the downpipe, I use one of the shorter manifold studs for the lower rear hole. I find it makes getting the downpipe on the studs easier and also easier to get the nut on. Haven't ever had a problem with the nut staying on the shorter stud either.

 

Since everything was disassembled you have to mount/unmount the turbos a couple of times to get them clocked appropriately. Obviously it's pretty easy to get them close, but here's a good example of how having them off can affect the y-pipe fit

 

The y-pipe studs are so close to the intake manifold I couldn't get the metal crossover pipe to mount. Here's an example of it pulled further back. You just have to take a few test fits to make sure everything will work as much as possible.

 

Here's the final fit and all buttoned up

[Smokey]

As I had everything apart i also tested the various actuators and valves as a part of the turbo systems that I hadn't checked before when doing the solenoid testing. I found another issue which was that my turbo control actuator would work under vacuum, but not under boost. Looking inside where the actuator arm was it seemed like there was some melting going on and it just got too hot for too long. I was able to find a good used one pretty easily on the forums so I replaced that too.

 

Onto the transmission: I've long wanted a JDM trans for the shorter 5th gear. I looked at buying the gear and associated parts to rebuild mine, but with the time and money involved it seemed like a better option to just buy a used JDM trans. My other concern was I was getting short on time to get the car back together (as I always am) and I was worried I'd miss some small dumb step in the rebuild causing delays and ultimately I knew the trans wasn't the true issue I was having. So, the car went back into it's familiar state in my garage:

 

I've done the transmission job a few times now, so it's not too bad, just takes some time to get all of the ancillary stuff off, but out it came. Not the most fun on the floor with a floor jack, but it works.

 

Since i was in there I was going to replace the pilot bearing, throwout bearing, and scuff down any hot spots on the clutch and flywheel. The thing that gave me the most trouble was the pilot bearing. I've removed it in the past using the blind hole puller rented from Autozone.....except that Autozone no longer has that as a loaner tool!!! DOH. I bought a $35 dollar version from Amazon.....if you'd like to piss away $35 please feel free to do the same, but I recommend other options. The damn thing broke on the first attempt at removing the bearing.

 

I had tried other rental tools too and none fit or worked. I finally went to Harbor Freight and bought the $60 version of the same tool and it worked surprisingly well.

 

The JDM trans came with a broken speed sensor and not much else attached to it, so I needed to swap over the stuff from my old trans. I also have a bubble tech trans pan spacer, so I transferred that over too. Sealed everything up with HondaBond HT and also installed a new oil seal for the driveshaft. Tip: a flywheel socket is the perfect size to drive the driveshaft seal on the rear of the trans.

 

 

Got the trans back in and was ready to fire up the car again. Remember safety first.

 

 

The good news is that the car started up, the trans makes a noise in reverse, but otherwise shifts smooth. The bad news? The damn thing still didn't run right and would start bucking under load/boost....

[Smokey]

So at this point I was at the end of my rope. I was looking up C6 Z06s to buy and figuring out how much of a bath I was going to take selling this car off in a fit of rage. The good news is that before I made that rash decision I enlisted the help of professionals. I reached out to a local shop who doesn't pick up the phone, answer emails, nor want my business it seems. Then I got wise and called Banzai racing. Best decision I've made on this car in a LONG time. Not only will Elaine pick up the phone, but they understand how to run a business, make appointments, and stick to them. I described my issue and scheduled a diagnostic session with Chris with the knowledge that I'd likely need it on the dyno to fully diagnose.

 

I got my trailer and loaded the car up, woke up early and towed the car 3.5 hours to the middle of Indiana. I showed up for my appointment and Chris and Elaine were there waiting for me (I was first of the day). Chris looked the car over while I described my issues and talked through some of the things I'd tried. He checked some basic things and then we eventually put the car on the dyno where it showed the answer I needed. The car was going crazy lean when getting into boost and that's what was causing the bucking. But why? After looking over some more things we opened up the fuel tank and Chris was immediately able to spot the problem. When I had installed the fuel pump I didn't transfer the plastic standoff from the old pump to the new one. That standoff holds the o-ring up to the hard fuel line to keep its seal. My o-ring had slipped down just enough that when the fuel pressure rose during boost it would leak pressure out into the tank and go lean. Something that little and dumb on my part caused a lot of issues. Thankfully it didn't cost me a motor just my sanity.

 

After searching around the shop he was able to find me a replacement, put it in, and immediately we were back in business able to make full power pulls on the dyno again! Chris did let me know there were some things in the map he didn't really like, so I opted to have him clean up the tune as well since my primary issues were fixed. I had the car originally tuned 8 years ago local to me and it was done somewhat hastily. Driveability always was mediocre at best, but it ran great full throttle on track so I put up with it. I also had some lumpy boost that would fluctuate that I always attributed to the ported wastegate, but Chris was able to adjust the PFC boost settings and get the boost back to rock solid too! Now it's back to making the same power it did 8 years ago, with better drivability, and better boost control. Not only was I going home with a fixed car, but an improved one too! BEST DAMN MONEY I'VE SPENT ON THIS CAR IN A LONG TIME

[Smokey]

Now that I had the car running it was time to get it ready for the track (in-between karting weekends which makes things hectic).

 

I started with a job I should have honestly done during my trouble shooting and forgot....replaced the fuel filter. No pictures here. It's not a hard job, but no fun when you inevitably get doused in fuel as the filter is in the stock location above the diff.

 

Then I started to get some new goodies in for the car:

Needed new harnesses to meet PCA regs - dumb, but I'll comply

Went with the Flexi 2x2 for the driver and Clubman 2x2 for the passenger. The primary difference between the 2 is the ability to configure pull up or pull down on the hip adjustment on the Flexi and the ability to adjust the height of the sub straps. The hardware on the Clubman is a little more clunky too, but otherwise very similar. Here's the Flexi installed on the driver's side.

I had forgotten what a pain in the butt it can be to unbolt the seats to safety wire the clip-in harnesses for the sub belts, but hopefully I won't have to mess with them again for quite some time.

 

I also got new brake pads for the season (hopefully) for the front, and a new OLED commander for the PFC from Banzai.

 

The new commander is great and I should have done that years ago honestly. Much easier to see now at speed. My old one had gotten pretty dim.

 

I had bought the wide gas pedal that looks like the factory brake and clutch pedals last year, but never got around to putting it in because I was busy with other issues. So I took the time to put it in now

I will say that I immediately noticed that it was a hair higher than the stock pedal. Not the end of the world, but noticeable back to back. I still figured I'd give it a whirl at the track.

 

I'm also going to try out a thicker oil for this track event. I've noticed that if I go out on track for like a 1/2 session that i don't get any oil in the catch can. My theory is that when the oil gets very hot during the later parts of a session that it thins out and that's when the catch can fills up. So I'll give this thick ass honey stuff a try and see if it helps.

 

In other prep I needed to change out to the track brake pads, bleed the brakes with fresh Endless fluid, nut and bolt check suspension and brake components while under there, swap out the street wheels/tires for the Nitto/Forgestar setup, and put on the brake cooling ducts for the front which I take off on the street. I had forgotten what a pain those can be to get on so I fought with that for a while. I replaced the hoses with newer versions of the same just because the old ones were a bit ragged and getting some holes.

 

I even had some time to polish off the track gunk from last year I never took off cause I was busy trying to fix the car. Got the numbers put on for the event and was ready to roll.