Asphalt_Gundam - G body that turns

In reply to Harvey :

Yeah, nearly all cosmetic damage. I'll probably get the wrap fixed before NASCAR weekend at Road America in July so it's pretty again for that.

Autocross Week:

What a crazy trip. It's been over a week since getting back and I feel like there still hasn't been a second of slow down. So lets get going where I last left off.

Autocross Week: We made it over Monday morning fairly early and got set up for camping that night and nearly breezed through tech.....but the right side blinker wasn't ...well... blinking. After changing the bulb and still no change I was dreading starting to go through the wiring. Luckily Brian asked about an electrical tester, which, I purchased a spare of just for this trip. Quickly figured out that we had two dud bulbs since there was blinking power at the socket. Another spare bulb later and all was working as it should. Decided mid afternoon to drive the car and get it washed and make a B double E R U N. Car was filthy from Gridlife and needed a real scrubbing. We tried out the headsets for the first time on this short trip and it was immediately evident that the Rugged Radios was a HUGE WIN. They're great at eliminating most of the background noise of the car and it was great being able to listen to music at a normal volume and actually hear it plus being able to talk to each other without yelling.

After getting back we found out that Summit Racing was buying karting time for everyone. Heck yeah! Grab our helmets and meet over at PITT RACE's karting track. The plan was to run qualifier heats and put the top few lap times into a final wheel to wheel race at the end.

It was kinda a free for all. Couldn't get by anybody since nobody was being aware of others and didn't want to be overly aggressive. About lap 3 a guy spins right in front of me and with nowhere to go I pitch is sideways too and we bang sides pretty hard. A Quick "Sorry" from me and off I go. Finally some space on track. So I do the Time Attack thing and we get a checker a few laps latter. They call out the top 3 carts and I figured that was it, oh well. Well then they called kart 20 which was me...turns out the top 4 are being taken into the final race! Sweet I'm in! So we hand around while the next 3 qualifiers take place and a dominate kart number becomes a trend. Some guys are already getting way too competitive and that kart gets pulled anyway.

The Race: Despite my qualifying time holding up for 10th I get placed in the 15th position kart for the start of race. Coming to the green the thought in my head was "don't get pinched in other people's crap in T1" because with how competitive these guys are being there is bound to be a spin in turn 1 and I'm on the last row and its almost inevitable to happen in front of me. That plan went out the window when I had a run at the flag with the 2 rows in front of me being slow to react. I decide to go for it which only then ended in two guys getting together and boxing me in in T1....and there I sit waiting for them to move so I can go again....Great! One turn and I'm now dead last with a significantly larger gap to the leaders than before. I think to myself "just put your head down and run 20min of time attack laps". So I do. And you know what? I start passing people. Coming from Gridlife my mindset is don't hit others, give room, and race clean. I'm proud of how I drove. Gave one bump draft that the guy ahead didn't want to commit to, only had to softly bump a run one guy that was holding me up for 2 laps, and one curb jump. Why a curb jump? Well when the guy ahead turns to look at me...sees I have overlap...then turns in hard for the apex...my brain went "F*CK YOU"....I jumped that curb, kept the overlap, then angrily looked over at him and dared him to out brake me since I had the inside. I hit my mark, he was too late on the brakes and I breezed on by. By the end of the race I had moved up to 6th, improved my qualifying time by a second, and easily passed more karts than anyone else. It was an absolute blast and made the trip worth it right then and there!

Night life at Autocross Week.....well.....it was Brian and I. Definitely a different crowd than Gridlife.

Tuesday: Competition kicked off in the morning. We got the truck and trailer packed up and parked for the week and were now self sufficient out of the car. You can fit a LOT of Junk in the trunk if you know what I mean.

The Pitt Race course was fairly fast but everyone was struggling for front grip. It was weird because you both had grip and didn't at the same time. I made a good 10 runs or so before the heat set in after lunch and I just wasn't going to go any faster. We packed up and got an early start to the transit which was a great two lane back road drive up to Clearfield, PA for the night.

Wednesday: UMI Motorsports Park...This place is neat, I wasn't sure what to expect but was very interested in checking out and getting a feel for the track since I have an invite to King Of The Mountain in August.

While the track is old pavement a bit rough it has plenty of grip and the course worked very well with how the car is set up. I finished the day with 14 runs and within .4 of the class leader. I was real happy with that. Today's transit kinda sucked being interstate all the way with the stop being Summit Racing in Tallamage, OH. While the RPM was hanging out around 2900 the whole time the car made the 3 hr transit flawlessly. The Summit Racing store is a pretty cool speed shop setup and I even scored a Cool Shirt off their clearance rack for cheap.

Thursday: Dragway 41. Just Wow! Nice facility and an autocross course of over a mile in length. Took 30min to walk it. I had a blast all day making 10 runs (every last one we could take) and after hitting a cone in the first couple corners I figured I keep at it, ONLY to realize that I wasn't looking ahead. Started doing that and I ran my fastest time by a full 1.6 seconds. Well dang, should have been doing that all day.

We head out for the short transit over to Trick Flow....but don't make it. Less than 5 miles from there we take a street corner and "bang" "zing"......complete loss of drive. Full Panic mode at this is a busy street just off the hwy. Luckily a fellow competitor was only a few cars behind us. They jumped out and helped push my heavy car, up hill, to the nearest parking lot. Thanks, water, poor air quality and probably stamina too....I get working on the car. My guess was a drive hub failure and it was.

Most likely from the bump in the second turn at Dragway 41 where I could feel the rear coming off the ground. And of course this was a part that I knew would be impossible to find and should have a spare of....was on the list six months ago but that got lost somewhere in the move. Ok, well summit racing is basically around the corner and I can patch repair this with a different, more common part. But, they're not in stock at this warehouse.....Crap!!! After a couple hours of trying to just get moving or find parts we called it. Another competitor from MN, Chader (Orange Soda Racing on Youtube and Instagram), gave me a ride back to PITT RACE for the truck and trailer. Brian, while as disappointed as me that we weren't going to finish the event spun it as we were setting ourselves up for success finishing the week at Brainerd for Karmagedon (previously MAP Proving Grounds). Wouldn't you know it, before we were even out of OHIO I had parts lined up and on site in Brainerd at Paradigm Performance where I knew they'd have the ability to modify it to fit for me.

Friday: Made it to just south of Millwakee, WI before stopping at 3am. Got some sleep and made Brainerd around 5PM. Part was modified and installed on the car while on the trailer before we even went through the gate at BIR. Easy night, get some rest....or party till 2am, yeah, we partied.

Saturday: Kick of Triple Tuner Showdown (TTS) with drag racing. What did we learn? More HP makes the car faster. The 3 link launches like crap...and even spins tire in 3rd gear. I need to plan this part of the event better in the future. Ran this car's PB of a 13.4xx so that's ok I guess.

The afternoon had Autocross and even though the course was rough, tight, and nothing that suited my car at all I still had fun and ran an ok time. More party

Sunday: Get two practice sessions out on the road course. Line up with one of the ASM cars who's driver I didn't know but they also run GridLife and we run similar lap times. Had blast that 2nd session and ran my personal best 3 laps ever around the BIR competition course 2 behind and one in front of the ASM car. I felt completely at ease and chill about those laps too and with a .11 variation on those 3 it was really consistent too. I felt good going into the Standing Start. Ran my PB by a good margin at that too to finish out the weekend.

All In all. I would absolutely do this again. Crazy busy 12 day but also amazing fun, even with all the breakdowns. Total of 9 days of competition, 2052 miles on the truck and over 700 miles on the car.

Then..... After that nearly two week trip I headed up to Superior, WI for Autocross 2.0 at Brian's track, Black River Motorsports Park.

Had a great turnout with 28 cars running and well over 10 runs for the all day drivers. I got my first FTD ever by .3 but that wasn't the highlight. I had a great day because I jumped in and gave the new people who's never Autocrossed a quick "how to" and course walk then pretty much had someone in the passenger seat all day. Ended a little early because a plug wire fell on the header and lost a cylinder. Easy fix.

Been a while since an update. 

Went to Autobahn with Gridlife and promptly broke the car again Saturday afternoon. At least it was after giving a Vet a ride along. Patched it with nocones's new welder only to go blow all the teeth off 3rd gear... A destructive end to the month with 11days of racing in it.

Sorry no pictures.

Parts are ordered, transmission is back together and in the car last night but things still on the list include: pass seat slider (it bent to E36 M3), surge tank, add the accusump back on, oil change, gear oil change, rotate tires, repair 3rd link bracket with stronger version, remove rear toe out, and a few others...

On a more racecar note: did some mud/dirt racing last weekend. Had a blast and it was my first arrive/mod/drive experience.

And in more news.... collecting upgrades and needs for the enclosed trailer. Hopefully be ready for Road America in a couple weeks

In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :

That is one nice triple axle.  

It was great hanging out at Autobahn!

In reply to nocones :

Yes it was. Needs to happen again 

This bad boy is a fave......have you thought about gear vendors overdrive for when you do the multi day multi track there and back? Strictly from a transit perspective to turn the "R's" while in route?

In reply to 759NRNG :

I'm thinking putting the .64 od back in for transit events would be better than the .82

But it wasn't too bad. 3k was 75-80mph on the interstate and the car was just peachy doing it 

Would the .64od get you to 2450 at 75-80?

In reply to 759NRNG :

I think 65 was around that before I swapped to the lower OD

2.2 is an agonizing 60ft time for a car this fast. You get that 3-link sorted out and you could easily be below 1.8. 107mph is 12s territory.

In reply to GCrites :

Agreed. But 200tw low pro tires plus the 3 link (which is NOT good at launch) make it tough. Our running plan is swap to the 4 link and drag specific setup next time, then swap back for the autocross and road course 

In reply to GCrites :

But yes.

For reference my old big block Olds making similar power to the old engine (but more torque) ran a 12.57 with a 1.62 60ft on some borrowed slicks

Got the new 3rd link bracket welded on last night. Changes are no lightening holes and went up to 1/4" thick side plates and 3/16 backing plate. Then decided to add a front side gusset (nocones's suggestion). It's not really a triangle but it should spread the load out to about double the area of the actual bracket at the top of the axle.

Still amazed at how much force is going through that bracket on the brakes.....

I had been another couple weeks and my time was mostly spent getting the enclosed trailer setup.

Car got a little more work but mostly it was maintenance items as I didn't have much time to spare.

Gridlife ran at Road America last weekend as a support series with Porsche Carrera Cup for NASCAR Xfinity. It was a pretty awesome weekend full of new personal beats even if I had to keep working on the car. First off another fuel pump died. I had a spare and am pretty sure the problem is exhaust heat so I fabricated a heat shield after still being unable to get a surge tank functioning (the hose size I needed wasn't in stock). Anyway, car ran amazing after that and my fuel starve issues stopped....so definitely heat build up in the fuel. Alternator wasn't charging next session and I figured it tossed a belt...it did but that's because the mount broke. Repaired that with some all thread and was back in business.Then Friday I get flagged for smoke only to have my catch can puke leaving pit lane....right as the clutch failed. Catch can was just full but the clutch was a big problem. Made the call to rip the trans out and eventually found two broken rivets for the floater plate and the hub loose on the front disc. I track fixed it with a hammer (the loose hub rivets) and just so happened to find the right size shoulder bolts in my bins for the floater. Bolted it down tight, ground it down to clear and peened the threads a bit. After a lot of struggle without a clutch alignment tool the trans was back in and shifts better than it has in months. Must have been broken a while.

Saturday morning I crack off 2 more PBs before a miss fire develops exiting turn 14. I drive it back to T5 to exit and it's running like complete E36 M3 by then. Everything looks fine except the max rich AFR. I try to diagnose the problem but call it when it's too late to make the next session. Ended the weekend nearly 10 seconds faster than two years ago.

And...now that I'm home and tore into the engine last night...we have the problem....

In reply to Asphalt_Gundam :

that'll definitely make her run rough

A few more big take away's of the weekend I want to add.

1. Was not the NASCAR fan party hopping event I thought it would be....Gridlife Paddock was way more lively than anywhere else

2. The new surface at Road America is fantastic. Several areas that needed fixing are now great (bump on apex of kink comes to mind first). Track does get a little weird after rubbering-in during transition areas. However...when its green after a heavy rain....Absolutely Amazing to drive! Grip all over and consistent everywhere.

3. Probably partially in thanks to the above and that the weather wasn't fall cold/rain, my on track time was what I'd describe as Bliss! In 5 years of doing this stuff I've never felt the way I felt driving the laps I did last weekend anywhere! Other than me getting a little goofy Thursday in the heat of last session (going off) I felt like this was the first time ever that I drove my car around the course and had complete confidence in where I was placing it, the speed I was going, and driving my best. Sure I kept picking up speed over the weekend, but I never once "drove harder" and consciously told myself that would be dumb to do when the thought crossed my mind.

4. Road America is now 4-0 on me having a broken car on the way home

5. NASCAR and Porsche both had a lot of yellow flag laps.....

Plan is formulated.

It seems that control of the valvetrain was lost at high rpm. Indicated by the intake failing vs the exhaust (valve weight). The intake rockers were wearing and beginning to pull threads out of the polylocks. All the valve spring retainers and lock are crunched so tight together it is very difficult just to get the heads disassembled.

The springs are likely too soft for the long sustained rpm that is doing laps at Road America.

Fix: Full set of new valves (I don't trust any of them now), valves will be a little longer for more installed height options, New springs...something designed for high rpm and extended periods of time (aka Circle track vs Drag), new retainers and locks, thicker wall pushrods and ARP polylocks.

While I think I can just fix the heads and put the engine back together I'm not going to. I'll take it the rest of the way out and reinstall the old engine "ol'reliable" in the meantime as I want to check over the bottom end to make sure its ok. Last thing I want is to rush and have another failure with 3 more event weekends coming up this month.

Wow, there is so much win on this page. Well done making so much use of this car and solving the challenges that pop up!

Have you mentioned "ol reliable"  earlier?

In reply to 759NRNG :

Ol' reliable is the old engine. I haven't opened it up in 2 years and it hasn't skipped a beat. It came out of the car went in the corner, just in case...

Displacement? Cam? Cyl Hds? CR?

Old engine is 362 cu in, 10.3:1, ported stock heads, decent intake, cam is 228/236 @.50 with about.510 lift. Makes around 420hp at the crank

New engine is 384, 11.3:1, ported aluminum heads, big intake, 236/242@.050, .580 lift roller cam. Makes 520hp at the crank

AG, What trans are you running?