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My fuse box relocation (project log)

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Well, the track day at Shenandoah was cancelled, of course. But I have made progress on the car.

I got the manifold back from Detective Coating and it looks great! Everything went back on the car without too much fuss and it passed the boost leak test. I also got the sway bar bushings changed out, but most of my to-do list is on hold until I'm ready to prep for a track day.
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I got a new GoPro mount that should give a nicer view. I also wired in an external microphone near the firewall so the sound is way better. I used a battery eliminator so it gets power when the key is on and I won't have to change batteries anymore. And finally, I used one of the RPi's to turn the GoPro on when it does, so I won't have to even turn it on manually. The RaceCapture takes care of the wifi signal to start/stop recording, so I literally won't have to touch the GoPro at all except when I remove the SD card to snag the videos from it. This will help reduce some effort and stress during track days for sure! HUGE thanks to John (@TSiAWD666) for walking me through this since he went through the same process.
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Still chugging away at little projects, but nothing critical. Mainly just waiting for the tracks to open so I can figure out which events I can get to this season!
 
Guess I might as well post my vacuum block setup here for reference.

-10 bung welded to manifold
Earl's Prolite hose and fittings
Golden Eagle vacuum block
Stock bov and fpr nipples removed, plugged with 1/16" SS NPT set screws
Stock pcv nipple removed, tapped for 1/8" NPT, used a 90* fitting for easier hose routing towards the passenger side

Boost gauge, brake booster, fpr, bov, and mbc are fed from the block, pcv and map are in the intake manifold (map is where brake booster used to be for quick response).

The block mounting points happened to be the perfect spacing to use the bosses on the manifold that used to hold the support bracket. I put two bolts in those bosses, then drilled/tapped through the middle of the head down the length of the bolt, then the little bolts for the block thread into the big bolts. I did this to clean up and hide some hoses, but more importantly so I could eliminate any T's and so my map sensor could be directly threaded into the intake manifold. As you can see in the pictures above, the whole setup is basically unnoticeable. At the NE DSM meet, only one person actually noticed the line off the intake manifold.

(You can also see my IAT placement for speed density).

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Gorgeous car man, I can appreciate the amount of work you have put in to that car.

I cant wait to read up on the story of your car more.

On your vacuum distro block,( looks great btw) how did you route your brake booster line? The brass fitting aimed towards the left? Thanks. Love your build
 
Thanks! The brake booster line connects to the silver fitting on the passenger side of the vacuum block.
 
We had a track weekend at Summit Point Main on the 4th/5th. It didn't go that well, I'm having a bit of bad luck lately.
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The first couple sessions were OK, then I took Brian for a ride on the third session. We hard a loud clunk on the straight and thought it was just a decent sized rock that I kicked up and continued to run the remaining 20 minutes or so in the session without issue. Turns it out was one of my downpipe bolts. The Nordlock washers didn't work for shit. It didn't melt stuff like last time - this time it melted my timing covers instead. It's hard to see from the pictures but they're melted and started conforming to the water pump pulley. We cut back as much of the cover as we could and replaced the bolt but missed the open session at the end of the day Saturday.
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On Sunday I decided to check the bolts after every session just to make sure they were still there and tight. They did loosen up a bit, but stayed on. Unfortunately, in the second session, I ran into some issues. I'm not exactly sure what was the cause and result, but the alternator belt threw, the alternator fan got ripped off the alternator and broken in half (later found this half hiding in my subframe, not sure where the rest is), and my power steering belt flipped upside down. I heard a loud bang, immediately noticed the steering got hard...kind of, and shortly after my low voltage warning on my RaceCapture came on. The water temp was still fine so I knew I had that belt, but I couldn't figure out the power steering since it got hard at some points but not all the time like it would be if the belt was gone. So that one took me by surprise to see it upside down.
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Photo courtesy of my friend.
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I had spare belts so we got those swapped just in time to make the third session (they were rolling out of the grid as I was pulling in). I made five laps (one of which was my best time of the weekend, 1:28.10) and then started hearing a weird vibration type noise. The car makes all kinds of fun noises but this one I knew was weird, so I pulled in. We couldn't identify where the noise was coming from, but it still made it even after I got home pulling the car out of the trailer.

I ripped the timing covers, alternator, etc. off the car last week and the noise isn't there anymore. So I'm not sure what it was, but I don't think it's anything serious. Maybe the alternator being out of balance or something, who knows. I have new timing covers to put in, new belts, the alternator is at Powermaster being repaired (FANTASTIC customer service, by the way), and we should be good to go for Shenandoah August 1. I still need to figure out how I want to solve the dowpipe issue since I don't want to rip everything off this season to v-band it.

The GoPro setup worked great Saturday but didn't record anything Sunday. I think there's a bug in the RaceCapture software and I pissed it off when I tried to change the trigger speed. I'll get that sorted out before the next track day.

My friend with the Mustang sold that and bought a new 2019 Camaro 1SS 1LE. He was two seconds faster than me, bone stock (except for brake fluid). Freaking fantastic car. There were a ton of other cool cars there, Lamborghini, tons of Porsche's, a C8, Supra, etc. The Supra was particular impressive, he ran a 1:24 on a stock car. Tom (@twdorris) was also there in his Talon. And John (@TSiAWD666) came to hang out on Sunday. Thanks to Brian (@snowborder714) for all of the photos.

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And it was cool to see bikes running on Shenandoah.
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Well like I was telling your brother, don't beat yourself up over the stock cars being faster. If you spent the same 50-60k that they did buying their new car, on mods for yours, I bet you could come up with at least 2 seconds too.

Happy to see you making more progress Eric, and great photos Brian!
 
Well like I was telling your brother, don't beat yourself up over the stock cars being faster. If you spent the same 50-60k that they did buying their new car, on mods for yours, I bet you could come up with at least 2 seconds too.

These just showed up today and I'm hoping will help chip away a little at the delta. Nankang AR-1 255/40-17 heat cycled by PTS. I'm really exited to try these out since all of my track experience has been on RS3's and RS4's.

The slicks in the picture are Brian's A7's. Between the two of us, we will have four sets of wheels with good tires: true 200tw (RS4), cheater 200tw (RE-71r), 100tw (AR-1) and 40tw (A7) - should be fun comparing them!

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I made this nut plate for my downpipe. So the nuts aren't going anywhere now, and the bolts are safety wired plus Nordlocks. I'm hoping this finally fixes the issue of the bolts backing out. While reassembling everything, I did notice the one bolt was about a thread too long and bottoming out, so I believe that was the real culprit :rolleyes:. I cut a few threads off both bolts to fix that. But either way, this should be a better setup and makes the downpipe ten times easier to install since I don't have to get a wrench up top on the nuts.

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My Camaro friend and I went to Shenandoah on Saturday. This was my first day out with the new tires and they did not disappoint!

The day started off really foggy and the weather forecast calling for scattered thunderstorms. I brought along the RE71r's just in case I needed a rain tire. We got lucky and the fog mostly cleared up before we started and we only got a light rain shower in the middle of the day so one session was just a bit damp.

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The first session out was...interesting. Only half of the group had been on Shenandoah before and it's a tricky track to learn, so there was a lot of dumb stuff going on. I had a GTR in front of me that damn near came to a stop on the track while he was figuring out if he should be going left or right! But I immediately beat my previous best time of 1:46.06 by three seconds without really trying, so that was awesome.

All of the sessions continued to go well. We were always lining up at the front of the grid, so we would get a few clean laps in before we caught up to traffic. I ended up shaving six seconds off my lap record and am now at 1:40.70. When you watch the video you'll see I definitely left some time out there - next time I'll focus on putting down some good hot laps since once you're in traffic it's impossible. The Camaro beat me by 0.03 seconds still! I'm ready for our rematch at Pitt Race in a month. All in all it was a super fun day!

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This taxi was awesome. The amount of body roll it had and the stench of brakes was amazing haha.
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They had some pretty long grass at the end of the hook so I graciously mowed that for them. Just a little off-roading excursion, no damage.
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The GoPro acted up during two sessions so I missed filming my best time. I think it might be the USB source I'm powering it from so I'll try to get that resolved before the next track day. And the transfer case was puking more fluid. I didn't get under it yet to check it out, but I'm sure it's from the breather again. I think I'll have to put a breather extension on soon like I talked about before.

This is my second fastest lap. I tried a different video format this time sort of replicating the Chevrolet PDR display that the Camaro comes with.



Please leave me a like or a comment if you read this. I know these HPDE updates aren't the most exciting and the car isn't really changing a whole lot anymore, so I'm not sure if anyone still looks at this!

Thanks again to @snowborder714 for the pictures.
 

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i still follow it but i think you should change the title as it always comes up as fuse box update so its not the best title for the build i think personally, but i still like seeing you do your thing and the pics and videos
 
My Camaro friend and I went to Shenandoah on Saturday. This was my first day out with the new tires and they did not disappoint!

The day started off really foggy and the weather forecast calling for scattered thunderstorms. I brought along the RE71r's just in case I needed a rain tire. We got lucky and the fog mostly cleared up before we started and we only got a light rain shower in the middle of the day so one session was just a bit damp.

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The first session out was...interesting. Only half of the group had been on Shenandoah before and it's a tricky track to learn, so there was a lot of dumb stuff going on. I had a GTR in front of me that damn near came to a stop on the track while he was figuring out if he should be going left or right! But I immediately beat my previous best time of 1:46.06 by three seconds without really trying, so that was awesome.

All of the sessions continued to go well. We were always lining up at the front of the grid, so we would get a few clean laps in before we caught up to traffic. I ended up shaving six seconds off my lap record and am now at 1:40.70. When you watch the video you'll see I definitely left some time out there - next time I'll focus on putting down some good hot laps since once you're in traffic it's impossible. The Camaro beat me by 0.03 seconds still! I'm ready for our rematch at Pitt Race in a month. All in all it was a super fun day!

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This taxi was awesome. The amount of body roll it had and the stench of brakes was amazing haha. View attachment 607630 View attachment 607631

They had some pretty long grass at the end of the hook so I graciously mowed that for them. Just a little off-roading excursion, no damage.
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The GoPro acted up during two sessions so I missed filming my best time. I think it might be the USB source I'm powering it from so I'll try to get that resolved before the next track day. And the transfer case was puking more fluid. I didn't get under it yet to check it out, but I'm sure it's from the breather again. I think I'll have to put a breather extension on soon like I talked about before.

This is my second fastest lap. I tried a different video format this time sort of replicating the Chevrolet PDR display that the Camaro comes with.



Please leave me a like or a comment if you read this. I know these HPDE updates aren't the most exciting and the car isn't really changing a whole lot anymore, so I'm not sure if anyone still looks at this!

Thanks again to @snowborder714 for the pictures.

A lot of off camber and blind crest corners, looks like it can be a tricky course but pretty fun. I can see why it would be tough in traffic though. I don't know why the 2g steering wheel looks so damned huge in that video.
 
A lot of off camber and blind crest corners, looks like it can be a tricky course but pretty fun. I can see why it would be tough in traffic though. I don't know why the 2g steering wheel looks so damned huge in that video.
the OEM wheels are huge LOL
 
Every new post is an absolute treat to read. You have a very fascinating method and development process. I participate in HPDE myself and man I love your posts.
I think all DSMers who enjoy road courses agree with this - hell, even non-DSMers likely enjoy them.
 
Thanks guys, glad to hear at least a few people still like to see these posts.

I also forgot to mention that I decided to do a check ride to get signed off for the Advanced group (at least with AutoInterests). That's been a long time coming but I was pretty comfortable in Intermediate, so it will be interesting to run with the big dogs with passing anywhere on the track (with point by). I'll still be in Intermediate for Carfest this year since all of my friends are and it'll be fun to play around.
 
Thanks guys, glad to hear at least a few people still like to see these posts.

I also forgot to mention that I decided to do a check ride to get signed off for the Advanced group (at least with AutoInterests). That's been a long time coming but I was pretty comfortable in Intermediate, so it will be interesting to run with the big dogs with passing anywhere on the track (with point by). I'll still be in Intermediate for Carfest this year since all of my friends are and it'll be fun to play around.
It can be intimidating running with people diving into corners. You really come to appreciate driving with people you know - or at least the same groups so you become more comfortable and familiar with them on track.
 
It can be intimidating running with people diving into corners. You really come to appreciate driving with people you know - or at least the same groups so you become more comfortable and familiar with them on track.

Yeah, for sure. I've been enjoying taking late point-bys recently because of this and learning how to drive off the line. Last year, Brian and I played around quite a bit on Pitt Race doing this since we know each other's driving styles and the track well, treating it more like W2W. I've actually been getting a bit bored with HPDE's lately and dreaming of W2W racing, maybe this will at least add a little spice to it :)
 
Yeah, for sure. I've been enjoying taking late point-bys recently because of this and learning how to drive off the line. Last year, Brian and I played around quite a bit on Pitt Race doing this since we know each other's driving styles and the track well, treating it more like W2W. I've actually been getting a bit bored with HPDE's lately and dreaming of W2W racing, maybe this will at least add a little spice to it :)
A good next step is Time Trials/Time Attack - you get a lot of the feel of W2W racing but the focus is still more on clean laps and not position without having to cage the car and turn it into a dedicated race car. You might want to see if you can get your TT license with NASA or a similar org if you can to try it out. It's a LOT of fun.
 
A lot of off camber and blind crest corners, looks like it can be a tricky course but pretty fun. I can see why it would be tough in traffic though. I don't know why the 2g steering wheel looks so damned huge in that video.

If there was an easy way to get a smaller wheel in these cars without having to go down the remove airbags/install cage and harnesses path, we would've done it already! They are huge and cause issues with our knees hitting them with how close we have to sit and how the higher side bolsters don't allow your legs to go out and around the steering wheel with the race seats.
 
If there was an easy way to get a smaller wheel in these cars without having to go down the remove airbags/install cage and harnesses path, we would've done it already! They are huge and cause issues with our knees hitting them with how close we have to sit and how the higher side bolsters don't allow your legs to go out and around the steering wheel with the race seats.
It's too bad the Evo steering wheel conversion isn't easier.
 
It's too bad the Evo steering wheel conversion isn't easier.
Yes it is, while i cannot confirm the air bag deploy but i wired them in when i had that wheel and going evo route was the best hands on feel i could have done! Yes you need a hub adaptor weld in but its not tricky for these guys to do
 
Yes it is, while i cannot confirm the air bag deploy but i wired them in when i had that wheel and going evo route was the best hands on feel i could have done! Yes you need a hub adaptor weld in but its not tricky for these guys to do
I know you have a write-up on it in the Tech Articles section. Might be worth trying Eric/Brian...
 
A good next step is Time Trials/Time Attack - you get a lot of the feel of W2W racing but the focus is still more on clean laps and not position without having to cage the car and turn it into a dedicated race car. You might want to see if you can get your TT license with NASA or a similar org if you can to try it out. It's a LOT of fun.

Eh, I've thought about it but there's no way I would be anywhere near competitive in this car. I don't think I could have nearly as much fun without being at least a little competitive.
 
Eh, I've thought about it but there's no way I would be anywhere near competitive in this car. I don't think I could have nearly as much fun without being at least a little competitive.
You could be depending on the class you enter. We got a few classes and can be in stock trim but US TA rules vs UK is way different. We got one called pocket rockets a d those are damn fast for 800kg 350hp cars like a pug 205 gti or astra etc but i think you can still have good fun and its a new thing to be nervous about
 
Eh, I've thought about it but there's no way I would be anywhere near competitive in this car. I don't think I could have nearly as much fun without being at least a little competitive.
You'd be surprised. Even if you're not competitive, you still have fun out there. And you get to do some lead/follow with the fast guys, which can really be good too. Sometimes you even end up running in a class with very few competitors.
 
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