Blackened and installed. This whole area will get blackened also as it is visible through the grill.
Blackened and installed. This whole area will get blackened also as it is visible through the grill.
Now a mirror image of this for the drivers side.
Front view. I thought this would help with my mid grill sag but it didn't.
Almost finished from the bottom. I can't find my hose clamps and it needs better zip ties.
First short drive with the new diff, it is different. Right away I noticed a lack of backlash that all of my 8.8 and 7.5 rear ends had. Comparing them to my M3 and 525 that were smooth and silent I figured it was just a Ford vs BMW thing. Transitions from accel to coast are silent now and idling around in 1st with the rumpidy rump cam doesn't get all jerky.
It appears to break traction on the inside tire easier on a tight corner while accelerating but what happens next is amazing. Instead of pushing the front or sliding the rear it just smoothly adds traction, much more composed. I can't wait to see what it does on the track. If all goes well it will be next Monday at Gingerman.
In reply to akylekoz :
Brake ducts look nice, well done!
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks,
It's not the way most people run them but they should work as long as I don't switch to wider wheels.
My track day on the 19th is not going to happen
, But I'm going on the 16th instead. Time to tryout the bigger brakes with ducts and the new geared thing in the rear.
It appeared that this thing is pulling strong right up to the rev limiter. Timing gets pulled about 100 rpm before the limiter.
For fun I plugged in the tuner to see where it was set. 6375 D 6400N. Mine is a manual so I'm not sure how this works. Anyway I set them to 6775 and 6800. According to Brenspeed this cam, intake, long tube combo hits its peak at 6500. I still have stock valve springs so I don't plan to shift any higher than 6500 but this should at least let me get near peak power before timing gets pulled.
The PO of this car wanted a very safe rev limit, it's mine now so I'm gonna let her spin.
I did make it out to Gingerman to try the new bits. Thinking back to that day concerning brake upgrade and cooling ducts all I can say is I I never gave the brakes a thought the whole day. They just did their job that's a win.
Now the other change, going from a TracLoc clutch style diff to a Torsen was very noticeable. As in three full seconds faster lap times. I just kept getting on the gas earlier out of every corner. It's still a pig of a car compared to the Lemons car but now is equally as fun to drive. For the first time this car feels so happy to just hold a line with just a bit of slip. No more balancing between push and over rotate, it just grips as I unwind the wheel. I even tried to screw around in turn 4 where I would previously lose traction if pushing too hard. Now no matter what I did the rear would just growl and claw a bit as the Torsen did it's job while putting all of my measly hp to the ground.
Bottom line is that diff totally changed the personality of the car and I love it.
Lap record is now a 1:51, with real tires instead of 340TW old crusty tires I may get into the 1:50 club.
Pretty cool stuff. I really like what you've done with this car.
Nice!
Thank you, Thank you!
It is way too fun to drive on track right now.
What is this nonsense? My header gasket that's what!
That got swapped out for a MLS version. Not a bad job after removing the motor mount, mount bracket and steering shaft.
It had a few leaks.
Time to wake her up from a two year slumber.
Wash, take on a 5 hour road trip for my daughters field hockey game, swap in the track pads and fluid, tune for 93 octane.
This is in preparation for a track day at Gingerman on Sept. 9th.
Only change since the last outing was I changed the upper control arm bushing, axle side.
What makes these cars special and worthy of a spec series is exactly this. Put a way wet, apply minimal maintenance, rinse repeat.
Step one complete, a quick wash. Issues so far are two CELs, slow O2 and some other O2. Long tube headers causes the slow one occasionally, the other is new, probably killed one from too much cold running while shuffling cars around.
Some fresh 93 and matching tune later, she is running great. CEL stayed off for a 30 minute drive, then came back on. Reads O2 heater, I thing the heater is running fine.
Next up track pads.
Found my heater circuit problem, no more CEL.
While changing pads I noticed that the rear are working and getting plenty hot. Is there a way to use those fancy Porsche deflectors attached to the axle for some rear air cooling.
Another track day / road trip in the books. Beautiful day at Gingerman, 75 degrees and a breeze.
Running late due to a long drop off line at school, I barely made the drivers meeting. Intermediates were up first, so I unloaded the trunk and hit the track. Notice I didn't make any adjustments or check anything first. WTF happened to my car, it felt piggish and uncontrollable, 35psi in the tires and full soft dampers will do that. Dropping down to 25 front, 23 rear and full hard on the dampers helped a lot.
This is the last run for my crusty eight year old tires, they were ok for about three laps then turned to grease. I tried to manage the heat by doing more straight line braking, more aggressive turn in followed by steering with the throttle, as fun as this was just managed to shred the rear tires and lower lap times. Even with nonexistent grip, I ran consistent 1:52's with one 1:50 lap.
Then a C8 owner wanders over to ask me about a car he is looking at, an 08 GT Premium like mine. Says he wants to do this track day thing and wonders if a stock GT with bolt ons and a tune will get him out there. My advice was, yes that will get you out there with pads and fluid, then as you gain speed and skill you will need to upgrade everything. I offered to sell him mine, I mean it's ready to go, you know.
1st owner was a friend of a coworker, other than that worthless info. He lowered the car and added some heavy wheels.
2nd owner, Chuck, purchased it with 17k on it, he drives like an old man and likes loud exhaust. Chuck always hand washed the car. Previous to my ownership the floor mats and trunk had never had as much as dust on them and the interior and leather was always coated with a proper protectant.
Modification list and cost, not including labor to install.
Brenspeed Detroit Rocker Cams $1000
Ford Racing Intake, throttle body, Cold Air Intake. $1750
Hotter coils,underdrive pulleys. $500
Long tube headers, X-pipe. $1350
Torsen T2R differential with 3:73 gears $1200
SCT X4 Tuner and three tunes. $700
Ford Racing aluminum driveshaft. $600
M-2300-S Ford big brake kit. $1500
Front brake cooling duct kit. $300
Dampers, and control arms. $900
$9800 in parts, I'm sure I forgot a few things.
Labor $3000, this is probably way low.
I purchased the car from Chuck with about 28k on it. Before even driving it much I replaced the springs, shocks, strut mounts, rear lower control arms, wheels and tires, and bump stops.
Looks like KBB/NADA put a clean low mileage (34k) 08 GT Premium in the $12-18k range.
$15k car plus $13,800 in mods = $28,800 to purchase and build a car to this level. Depreciation of parts and labor = $8,900 So I'm at $19,900 value to me. Basically you get a clean low mileage car with a bunch of money pissed away into it for the top end of stock value. It has been to five track events ever, mostly just babied in between.
Thoughts on this?
I always value the mods at whatever they'd sell for used, if off the car, than subtract some from that value for the PITA of me having to remove them from the car and deal with selling them. Then I add that total to whatever blue book/nada value I find and that's the number I go with. Some of this also depends on how much/quickly I want to sell the car. If there are high dollar mods on the car that are easy to remove I usually take those off, as you get way more money by selling the car as stock as possible and then selling the mods separately...
In reply to docwyte :
This is more of an exercise in the old everything is for sale at the right price. Turns out $19,900 in the right price, for me, today. I clearly plan on keeping this but is this guy sees my math as acceptable then it may find a new home and I can find a new car to build.
Well that was a fun read. It's hard to believe how old they're getting, this is a pretty classic look. And -- apparently I'm in some kind of minority here; I thought it looked great when you bought it. Shows what I know! :D
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