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Got the new oil pan finished yesterday. Had a friend weld it up, tested it with dye penetrate, double checked for leaks with water, and threw some powder on it. Pretty happy with how it came out. I didn't have time to cut out a pickup surround with trap doors but it still has all of the factory baffling in it. I did lower the bottom of the pan about 1/4" as I think the pickup tube sits a bit too close to the bottom of the factory sump. Should put capacity right around 6qts now. Hopefully it's enough to keep from having any starvation issues. Going back to the track this weekend and the weather is supposed to be pretty nice.
I also found my coolant leak, it's a small one coming from one of the coolant lines on the turbo, conveniently facing the entire engine bay. Going to change out the hose which'll make that all kosher again.
The only coolant lines for the turbo that I have found to not leak are the OEM rubber hoses with the OEM spring clamps. Using universal hose and worm drive clamps always seems to leak after not very long.
The only coolant lines for the turbo that I have found to not leak are the OEM rubber hoses with the OEM spring clamps. Using universal hose and worm drive clamps always seems to leak after not very long.
Hahaha and that's exactly what I have right now. Thanks for the info, I'll see about swapping those out with OEM parts.
I pulled my hair out chasing a leak from, replaced rad hoses, heater hose, tstat housing gasket, etc. Thinking "the turbo water lines and clamps are only a couple months old, it can't be those"...haha
Went to Gingerman again yesterday. Was happy that the weather was better that it was supposed to be.
Unfortunately I cut my day short after half the sessions. The cables that hold up the front of my splitter both broke, twice. After the second time I decided to run without the splitter for the rest of the day but I found oil on it when I pulled it which I traced back to the pan leaking where it seals up to the rear main. There was some oil in the bellhousing and I didn't want to chance it contaminating the clutch and ruining it so I called it a day.
Was glad I could get a bit more seat time with the RC1s on the car and I still have some work to do with braking later on them. I'm still seeing oil pressure drop on right handers and it's also dropping on acceleration but I never saw it go below 40psi so I think I'm going to need to give it some more testing before I can say I'm in the clear. Also coming out of turn three on power I'm getting some pretty nasty wheel hop so I've got some thinking to do about what could be causing that.
I'm going back to Gingerman again in two weeks so in the next two weeks I'll need to reseal the oil pan, make a new splitter, and throw in some new plugs.
How low did the oil pressure drop before the oil pan upgrade?
Unfortunately I don't really have good data for that. The only track day I've done with the stock pan and an oil pressure gauge was wet and I was on street tires so oil pressure didn't really drop. Last year I didn't have an oil pressure gauge but I'd guess it was pretty scary.
Got my fire extinguisher setup installed today. Bought a 2.5lb bottle from H3R along with their billet tube mount. I'm super happy with where it's sitting, doesn't interfere with anything but very accessible.
Unfortunately I'm still fighting with this leaking turbo coolant line. I threw some new hose on along with a new spring clamp on the side that was leaking (top). Still leaking from the same side which bewilders me because I really had to fight the hose to get it on and the spring clamp is barely big enough to fit around the hose so it's definitely putting good tension on the hose. I might just have to double clamp it for the time being and hope that does the trick. Might change that over to an AN line in the future so I don't have to deal with this headache again.
Going back to Gingerman again on Saturday and it's supposed to rain pretty good so once again it looks like I'll be on my street tires
Speaking of fire extinguishers, I picked up one of these recently as a just in case item. Also probably won't pass any kind of competition tech but it's pretty darn nifty and fits in my glovebox.
Is there an issue with mounting the extinguisher right where it is? Seems like a side impact would push that right into you and possibly explode it?
Also, curious why you still have the fan in the front of your radiator with no AC? Am I missing something here?
No it probably wouldn't pass tech for a sanctioned racing body, but with the way the cage is routed, if that is getting pushed into me and still has enough force behind it to pop the bottle then I'm probably already a dead man.
If I ever jump into competition and need to pass tech then I'll just move it onto the main hoop right behind my shoulder. Still somewhat convenient but would take an extra few seconds to grab. In the event of a fire should there ever be one I want to snuff it out ASAP and having it mounted here is where I feel I can grab and go the fastest.
The AC fan is still there because IIRC it's still turned on at a certain temperature. Never really checked to see if that's true or not, I suppose I should keep an eye on it this weekend to see if it runs.
Originally Posted by razorlab
Yea I don't think that will pass tech.
Speaking of fire extinguishers, I picked up one of these recently as a just in case item. Also probably won't pass any kind of competition tech but it's pretty darn nifty and fits in my glovebox.
That's a neat solution. I really wanted to get one of the extinguishers that was filled with Halotron instead of dry chem but they're almost 3x the price. Most likely next year I'll get a better extinguisher, this was my better than nothing solution.
Edit: Second clamp on the coolant hose seemed to seal it up. Still going to move to an AN line in the future. Went out for a quick drive, not seeing any leaks which makes me happy. Though I did notice that the car does feel a bit slower that I remember, it's been a while since I've driven it on the E85 tune.
I need to start troubleshooting my UEGO wideband again. It was reading full lean before and the general consensus solution I found for that was faulty sensor. So I picked up a new sensor and things seemed normal for about 2 days before doing the same again so I'm thinking it's either a bad ground/noise (hopefully) or the gauge itself is pooched. If I can't get this figured out by saturday I'm gonna have to drive blind. On the bright side I still have my CEL setup to flash on knock so I'll know if I need to pull my foot out of it.
Last edited by Ayoustin; May 10, 2018 at 03:41 PM.
As I just said on ig, you are running an insane amount of aoa on your wing, see attached.
from what I recall, minimum setting on the wing is 6 degrees which is already 240 pounds of df at 100mph. Check what angle the foil is actually at, there is a point of diminishing returns where air won’t stay attached to the correct parts of the foil and you basically are just pulling around a giant air brake.
As I just said on ig, you are running an insane amount of aoa on your wing, see attached.
from what I recall, minimum setting on the wing is 6 degrees which is already 240 pounds of df at 100mph. Check what angle the foil is actually at, there is a point of diminishing returns where air won’t stay attached to the correct parts of the foil and you basically are just pulling around a giant air brake.
Thanks again, measured it earlier this morning, looks like it's around 26° right now so I'll look into pulling some angle out of it. The car does feel really planted right now, and when it does get away from me on the slicks the rear end is usually what's going first. Most of the tracks I'm driving on I'm not going above 130 on the main straights and I'd rather have more downforce for the lower speed (50-80mph) sections and lose a bit on the higher speed straights.
In other news I went back to Gingerman yesterday. Was really happy with the progress I made as a driver. I finally feel like my line is solid through 95% of the track and I spent a lot of time figuring out my braking zones and pushing deeper and deeper. Morning was raining and soaking but around 2pm it started drying up. Got one session in on the slicks and it started overheating about 3/4 of the way through the session. Fortunately it started overheating right before the pits so I was able to pull off before it got really hot. Got it in and it was puking out the overflow so I'm pretty sure the headgasket is fried again. Let it cool off and just like last time, it ran fine, only overheating if it's beat on, only pushes coolant under boost. Drove it almost 2 hours home without the temp needle budging at all. Literally exactly the same situation as last year.
I've already started pulling apart the front end, going to pull the engine out the front of the car this time. Without a lift I don't want to go out the bottom and coming out the top is a huge pain in the *** as I found out last time. I got the lines and fittings in for the turbo coolant lines so I'm going to get them routed properly before pulling the engine. Since I have to get fittings welded on the tstat housing and the water crossover pipe this weekend I probably won't have the engine out until early next week. Going to get the block and head decked this time to cover all my bases. Also will give me a chance to see how the rod bearings are faring, crossing my fingers for good news. I didn't see oil pressure dropping much below 40psi yesterday and I was moving pretty quickly.
I love how easy this car is to work on
Last edited by Ayoustin; May 15, 2018 at 02:28 PM.
Out the front? Ive always just drop trans out the bottom and engine out the top, both with a cherry picker. Its like Mitsu knew we needed space when they made the hood able to go fully vertical for engine clearance.
Out the front? Ive always just drop trans out the bottom and engine out the top, both with a cherry picker. Its like Mitsu knew we needed space when they made the hood able to go fully vertical for engine clearance.
Yea I just realized a few minutes ago that the core support isn't bolted on...
I had made the false assumption it was and was going to pull that and just bring the engine and trans out the front. Well that's annoying. Out the top again it goes I guess.
Edit: Now I may be second second guessing myself. IF it's bolted on then everything is coming out the front.
Last edited by Ayoustin; May 15, 2018 at 02:56 PM.
Apr 24, 2018, 07:04 AM
