Looking to pick up an Evo 8 for track duties and for fun.
Currently I have a 600 whp Mustang Gt.
Before I had an Evo X that we had tracked and it was awful in reliability. Broke down every time we took it to the track but it was great when it worked.

So what is needed to make the car track ready? What are the common issues that occur when driving the car hard?

Thanks Guys!

 

I don't have an Evo but I do track my Mazdaspeed6. Heat will be your greatest enemy, you will have to run a conservative tune and pull timing aggressively if needed. I usually run 3-4 gallons of 104 octane as a precaution against KR.

I am on an ETS TMIC, my ECT are in the 190-210 range, but my BAT are 170-210 the whole session. The usual FMIC upgrade blocks too much airflow to the radiator and ECT shoot up to 230, no bueno. I am in the middle of a custom FMIC setup that will allow the radiator to breathe, but I still have a feeling I will need to inject meth to cool the charge air down to acceptable levels.

Other than that, I would suggest running Castrol SRF for brakes. You will spend more initially, but the fluid will last a whole season. I am done bleeding Motul after each day of tracking.

Not sure what clutch you have or how strong stock Evo clutches are, but I would budget for a replacement. I killed my stock clutch in 5 or 6 weekends, not because of power levels, but because of the nature of how ones drives at the track. The friction material was gone, I am now on an ACT 6 puck.

Also, make sure you have at least 2 full sets of tires. Get 8-10 identical wheels and run identical tires on them. Nothing sucks more than cording a tire mid-weekend and not being able to continue. With 8-10 tires, you can always swap wheels around and match whatever wear you need for a replacement tire. Pain of having an AWD car.

 

What specific problems did you have with your Evo?

Ive had my 2010 Evo X GSR for 2 years now, and have almost 40 track days over the past two seasons with it. 4 sets of tires, 4 sets of front pads, 2 sets of front rotors, one set of rear pads and rotors, regular oil changes, a mid season brake fluid flush and a seasonal flush of all fluids.

Factory clutch, factory trans, factory block and head. 24k on the clock when I bought it, and its got 32k now - Id say almost half of the last 8k miles are on track. Car is bolt-ons only and makes ~300/300 at the wheels. In my experience its been nothing but dead reliable as a track car.

 

On the older Evos it depends on how much power you are planning to run and how hard you push more than anything else. If you keep it sub 400wtq and push it within reason, it's bullet proof other than the usual wear stuff like brakes, rotors, tires etc. If you push it above there and are going all out that's a different story.

 

To help nail down what you need to make a bulletproof/reliable (if there is such an Evo) track car. We need to know what your goals are for power levels, street tires or r-comps, HPDE fun or competition, and your driving abilities. The first 2 are major in determining setup and planning. The second 2 not some much, but would determine what to do in what order. And lastly what are your local tracks? The only reason I ask is wear on certain components. For example my local track is Road Atlanta. Super fast, mostly right hand turns, and only 1 1/2 major braking zones. So brake cooling and fluid, with my power levels (330hp and street tires), isn't too crazy of an issue. But oil pickup starvation on the evo in high G right hand turns is. So I upgraded my oil pan and oiling system before needing to add brake cooling ducts.

The more we know about application and intensity of usage will really help us pin point the issues you will see.

Cheers!
CB

 

What oiling setup did you go with? Did you do any oil pressure datalogging at road atlanta?

 

Unfortunately I don't have any data. But someone moving to a dry sump setup sold me his AMS pan. It was more of a preventative measure rather than a issue I was seeing. I also relocated my cooler up front to open up space and get that thing away from debris. Balrok has recently purchased a modified stock pan that we will be removing his AMS pan to test. That we will have data for. And I'm pretty sure he has data on the AMS pan at road atlanta as well.

 

did he buy a buschur pan to try by any chance? i had one in my hands and the baffle design looked less than ideal for road racing so i sold it...

 

I was PM'ing with Balrok a couple months ago about this. Here's what he said. Hopefully he'll see the thread and chime in more:

"As far as the two pans, the Bush pan doesn't add but 1-2 psi so it's worthless. The AMS pan leaks no matter what you do so i'm not too impressed with it. There is an option in NZ but we haven't seen it stateside yet."

For now I'm currently just overfilling a bit. I'm not on rcomps, only 255 rs3, so hopefully the pressure loss isn't overly bad.

 

yeah i came to the same conclusions as he did then. wasnt aware of the NZ option so im intrigued. CBRD has also made comments to some of my evo track friends along the same lines...buschur and AMS not worth it and both seem more geared for drag racing.

 

Started a new thread so as not to clog yours .

 

Thats what I would like to find out.
From what I see the Oiling System is a Problem in these cars so that will have to be addressed.

Anything else?

 

i didn't have a problem with keeping the AMS pan from leaking. it did leak at first at the oil return because i didn't use new oem seal washers. after i put in new seal washers, it was bone dry. at least for the hand full of events that i did when it was on the car. i put the oem pan back on.

 

What are your exact plans and power goals? Street tires or R-comps?

 

we dont have any AMS pan issues either-

we use a VW/AUDI oil pan sealant that works wonders on these cars-

cb