the weather was too fantastic to be stuck in an office yesterday, so i burnt some time off to play in the garage..
made decent progress.
these are the 3 elements in various stages of progress.... upper, mid and lower as pictured.
this is my primary method of bending the sheet...
Once i get the profiles on both sides of the element to fit with the ribs, i close down on the "U" bend at the front of the element and pinch it with clamps while putting some aluminum wood screws in to hold it.
I had to back my formula car on or remove the wing entirely (easy on that Lola) if I was towing over 50 MPH. Surprised me at first, I thought my hitch was failing!
TurnerX19 said:I had to back my formula car on or remove the wing entirely (easy on that Lola) if I was towing over 50 MPH. Surprised me at first, I thought my hitch was failing!
thanks for confirming... betting yours wasnt ~5ft wide either! Between towing and i do street drive it a lot, including interstate, will certainly have pivoting elements..
That reminds me of this story from Ralph Gilles about towing a Viper ACR!
The Dodge Viper ACR Creates So Much Downforce It Reduces MPG While Being Towed
dyintorace said:That reminds me of this story from Ralph Gilles about towing a Viper ACR!
The Dodge Viper ACR Creates So Much Downforce It Reduces MPG While Being Towed
that is funny. i find it amusing he tows that fantastic cargo, trailer aint bad either, with a Jeep, of all things. Seems a Ram 2500 would be way more appropriate in so many ways!
More wing progress. this is essentially the profile of the larger, bottom element.
Radius of the roll cage tubing was too small, so i ripped one of those yard/flowerbed curved timbers and slowly worked it over its curvature.
Got the 3 elements skinned and cleaned up (reusing the aluminum sheet from the old design)... Darn happy with the results.
Now on to the minor detail of mounting them...
Got the remodeled wing assembled today. Still need to make widgets to stop the elements from pivoting, oh, and mount it back on the uprights.
this would be the autox setting....
this would be more like street/track/towing position...
Generally, very pleased with how this came out. Esp considering i reused basically everything except some boards and aluminum screws.
I weighed it. Its 27lbs. Think thats a decent number too.
that wing is pretty friggin' awesome for "i bent the skin around a landscape timber"
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:that wing is pretty friggin' awesome for "i bent the skin around a landscape timber"
thanks. reckon it doesnt get any more 'grassroots' than that, come to think of it!
Its on! Need to make some fasteners for the adjustable brackets so i dont need tools to loosen/tighten.
Three "settings" for the main lower element:
Made these links from a couple of scrap sheets of 1/4" polycarbonate. Glued two sheets together to get it up to 1/2". Variety of settings for the joined upper two elements two. Figure only the extreme two options will be used, full Autox and full 'fuel mileage"...
Event 4 of our season was sunday. i designed and setup of hte course, which turned out to be a pretty darn good one! i had a hard time putting a clean run down. kept making small mistakes in different sections. The 'modified' field has gone from nonexistent in our region to pretty hot and i knew going in i was going to have to push it to get back on FTD. My 6th and 7th runs were clean, 39.9 and 39.3sec. The latter was good for 2nd overall behind my buddy's R1 powered locost. Never to upset to finish second to him! Thou, the margin was pretty large, nearly a full second.
The kart felt great, i am getting close to the comfort level in it i at its peak, just before the wall episode. It does have a slight push, the rear grip is superb. Not sure i will get around to making a video with events the next couple weekends!
Well, once again, Gainesville could have treated me better.
Thou, i am glad to not be scouring the internet for another C5 carcass this morning... .
The kart started puking and overheating in the autocross tech line first thing saturday morning. Its never done that. No obvious issues, other than the temp gauge was pegged. Oil on the dipsticked looked fine.
I bled and refilled it. It cooked again, immediately. Pulled the thermostat, ditto. Assumed it to a bad head gasket...
So, thats why the kart went back on the trailer and not out on course....
Back at home i pulled the spark plugs. they were fine. I did a coolant pressure test, that was fine. I did a compression test, that was fine... i did a coolant combustion/block leak test with the engine cool, that was fine..
This afternoon i will drive it around the hood, presumably it will overheat... then i will try the combustion/block test chemical test again, maybe it doesnt leak till the heads get warm? who knows....
Regardless, being a UF alum, i think G-ville should be nicer to me.
In other news, looking like some E46 ZHP action at our Jax Solo E5 event this saturday at FIRM....
Fantastic work on the wing. I've filed away your techniques for Guac.
Bummer on the bad luck - it'll turn around for you!
AxeHealey said:Fantastic work on the wing. I've filed away your techniques for Guac.
Bummer on the bad luck - it'll turn around for you!
Awesome, thanks, glad to have inspired!
Yesterday, in the rain.... i drove the kart around the hood a bit, naturally it started to overheat after just a few minutes. i pulled back in the driveway and put the block test chemical in.
that right there is a instantly positive test...
so, it passes with engine cool and fails with engine warm.
that concerns me a bit that its something more benign than a blown head gasket... But, time will tell. Tear down will commence later this week.
Yippie!
With the kart out of commission, the ole ZHP got the nod for our E5 at FIRM.
It was fun sliding around on the crappy tires, but distinctly not as exhilarating as piloting the kart.
Sunday kart engine teardown commenced.
Nothing to see really. Heads look fine. Sleeves look fine. Head gasket is hard to read, but nothign obvious. I have pulled the exh valves and will drop the intake valves out today.
Another racing/work buddy is going to come over dye penetrate test the cylinder heads on tuesday. Maybe that will show a crack... If we find nothing my intention is to put it back together with the assumption it was the head gasket..
Did you check the water pump to make sure it was still pumping the water??
jfryjfry said:Did you check the water pump to make sure it was still pumping the water??
i may pull it today to take a better look, but it turns fine... have pretty well ruled it out since the water lines were warm at the radiator ~ 10ft from the engine and the positive chemical test....
Well, the saga continues.
A motorsports friend and non-destructive testing/inspection industry expert was kind enough to come over yesterday and perform a dye penetrant test on the engine – looking for cracks that would not be detectable by the eye alone.
Nothing. Surfaces look great. Though that didn’t identify a cause it does rule out a lot. About the only other causes that I cant fully evaluate are true surface flatness and an extremely subtle head gasket weep. I have rudimentary tools sufficient to at least believe the surfaces are darn good if not satisfactory using hardware store straight edge and a 0.005 feeler gauge. You really don’t want more than 0.003 to 0.004 gap… Though 4 fairly experienced people have looked at the head gaskets and not seen anything suspicious, the 3 layer metallic gaskets are inherently hard to read since they transfer material from one sheet to the other…
At this point, i think there is sufficient evidence to accept the risk that i haven’t found any issue and reassemble the motor as-is. Figure I am only risking a new set of head gaskets and ~ 6 hours of effort. If that cures it great, must have been the head gaskets. If that doesn’t cure it…. no idea where to go from there….
I got the engine completely reassembled yesterday afternoon - evening. Took about 4 hours.
Nohting but refilling with water and some zip tie action before i turn the key and find out whether its happy or not... .
Fingers crossed indeed!
i hope it turns out to be nothing more than head gasket.
well.... whatever the root cause is, i sure didnt cure it. once up to operating temperature, it started to rapidly over heat. it took several iterations of cooling, setting up for the combustion trace test, warming, testing, but it did eventually give a positive tesult for exhaust/combustion in the coolant system.
i am going on a short vacation sunday. may pull plugs tomorrow. but otherwise, no intent on doing anything to it immediately. nor do i have any idea what i would do!
Enjoy your vaycay as much as possible. I know what you're going to be thinking about!
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