Thanks for the nice words you wrote about us Larry.

This road racing that I have been introduced to through Robert Fuller and now Larry has me very-very interested in it. Actually, interested enough to build a car and give it a shot.

Great time hanging out with you Larry. We'll get the car gone over and have it ready for the next race, hopefully the first one it has ever finished!

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

David, if you've never raced a car on a circuit track, be warned ... it's VERY addictive.

l8r)

 

David: Go for it! I think it would be wonderful advertising for your shop and your various products & services. And, you just might win something. It would be great to have another Evo to root for.

 

THe pump issue is really strange and I don't have any answers. During the 25 hour when we went through three or four pumps (I can't remember how many), the pulley popped off the shaft each time, the belt broke, but the pump itself was fine.

Mitsubishi has an engineering center in Ann Arbor and two engineers came by my house to investigate. the pump issue. THey took pictures of the pumps, looked at the bed plates, asked questions etc. A couple of weeks later after consulting with Japan, the Mitsu engineers told me the problem was caused by incorrect belt tension. As a side note, I had the engine rebuilt and the builder didn't find anything unusual that would suggest that engine vibration caused the belts to fail.

So I had the Mitsu engineers inspect the car. I bought a RS belt from the dealer which took two freaking weeks to arrive, a new PS pump, idler pulley, crankshaft pulley and harmonic damper, water pump, etc. The only piece of the accessory drive system that's not new is the alternator. They checked the belt tension and said it was fine and thought the system was fine also.

This most recent failure was unique in that this time the pump failed but the pulley and belt remained intact. HMMMM. David sent the pump out to a friend of his to have a look and it'll be interesting to see if they find anything. We talked about running a fluid cooler, but that would entail petitioning the SCCA. THat's still an option..

What blows is that PS pumps for EVO are over $600. Ridiculous.

We'll keep you posted.

 

Larry, I think I could provide a good "guess" at what happened...from my own experiance and your description of your race day antics.... It is my understanding that the pump and rack combo utilize higher than usual pressures to provide the mechanical advantage and the precise feel the evo is so well known for....BUT there is no pressure relief valve in the system (to my understanding) as it would "numb the feel" As I was getting to know my evo I set up a figure 8 track at a local dry lake...and found the weak point in the system (the pump front seal) full opposite lock WITH a healthy dose of throttle = one dead pump...it sounds like you might have put this combo together with your early lap cold tire antics...I wasn't there but I know when the car jumps the rear out the throttle (ALOT OF IT) is the cleanest way out of the slide...This is all second hand and conjecture but after I avoided hitting the stops on my steering rack my pump probs dissappeared..ymmv.

robi

 

Interesting. I don't know if I had the steering at full lock while I was getting sideways. I was definitely on the gas, though. I'll have to check and see if you can hit full lock with both hands on the nine and thee positions of the wheel. I don't remember doing the hand-over-hand thing. It's possible, but I just can't remember.


BTW, the SCCA also has a class called ITE and is basically a run what you brung kinda class. Might be fun to do some enduros with the car. Oh wait, that means it would have to survive 40 straight laps. Bad idea

 

larryw: This is just an idea, but there are a lot of Evos getting flogged pretty hard in production class rallying, and they have to hold up for multi-stage, multi-day events.

Perhaps someone like Cascade Autosports or Vermont Sportscar, both respected rally car prep shops, could offer you some suggestions what you need to do to keep your power steering together at the track. Vermont Sportscar built David Higgins Evo 8 that walloped everyone in SCCA open class rally 2003, back when SCCA Pro Rally still existed.

 

I have some good friends that are currently looking at the problem with the pumps and blowing the front seal out, which appears to be what happened to this. I am hoping that something good will come from this and if it does we will have some modified power steering pumps that won't fail. I should have some type of idea in the next week or so.

Would love to prep this car for the ITE class for you Larry.

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

Larry, thanks for racing so all of the rest of us "track-day-junkies" can see what a racing weekend can entail.
I do many HPDE type events, and haven't ever had any type of ps failure...think I should be expecting one? I don't think the actual driving dymanics to the ps system change much between a HPDE and an SCCA weekend... just thoughts.
Can you dial out the understeer with firmer shock rates in the rear? I realize that you had your hands full with oversteer at the beginning, but surely there is a way to even out the handling throughout the entire race...
thanks again for the running commentary!