98 GSX Time Trial build

[Justin DuBois]

If you’re talking about the plate for the coil packs, it’s from AntiLag.

Yeah - that is exactly what I'm talking about. I thought you had fabricated it.

 

[gsxitement]

Yeah - that is exactly what I'm talking about. I thought you had fabricated it.

Oh hell nah. Bought it from antilag.

 

[gsxitement]

Lime Rock recap!

Circuit legends. What can be said? It is steadily becoming THE track event on the east coast. Time Attack, touring car, drifting, the party. It’s great. You should go.

Ok, so…car was on the rollers the week before the event and made 498 at 15psi on E. So I was very worried about driving that much power for the first time and shaking the car down at this event. First session was a scramble to get out. Car had either 0% throttle or 100%. Ken and BlackSheep was able to come in and get the car tuned up. Session breakdown:
Friday
Session 1: no lap
Session 2: 1:00.5
Session 3: 58.640

Saturday
Session 1: 56.709
Session 2: 56.839

That brings us to the final session of the weekend.

It should be mentioned that my solitary focus for the weekend was the trackmod AWD record, which currently stands at a 55.8. I wasn’t paying attention to what anyone else was doing. Didn’t care about the podium or a trophy. Just wanted that record.

The car was feeling great. We worked on the tune a bunch on Friday. There were a couple other issues. The new alternator I had failed. It was charging, but the 12V terminal on the back of the alternator loosened up and we couldn’t get it fixed. And another issue was the alternator had no retaining tab for the plug, so it kept falling off. Luckily I brought a spare and we swapped that in. First time doing a swap with the alternator relocated. Not bad at all. 15 minutes it was swapped.

So. It had been a steady progression through the groups to make it into A group Saturday morning. Rolling off I think 11th on grid, had my out lap clearing my head. Knowing I would only have a handful of laps to really make it happen. Hoping the track had it in it. The drifting kinda kills the track over two days. And there was an oil down a couple sessions before we went out. So….a lot going through my head. Came down the hill. Started my lap. After the first two corners, I already knew that lap was toast. But I figured better to keep the pace up and try again next lap. Exiting 4 on to No Name Straight(Paul Newman Straight as it is now known), pulled 4th gear and that was that. Blew 4th gear to smithereens.

Wound up a second off the record and 4 tenths off the podium.

All in all, for what really boils down to a shakedown, it did really great. Still learning the 8K RPM shift point. I always kept inherently shifting at 7 . A great weekend. A good result. The motor did great. Once we got the tune squared away, the motor was really good. Quite zippy.

So now on to trying to solve the trans issue. Got a couple months to get things figured out. PPG seems to be the most logical step. But, not the cheapest route either. So got make some plans.

 

[gsxitement]

Never posted a pic with the way the engine looks now. So here…..

 

[gsxitement]

Damn! Been a minute!! A lot has been going on this off season. The biggest thing happening is the car is FINALLY getting a PPG from TRE. It’s been….a long wait. I sent the trans to them in November, and at the time of this writing, May 2nd, were still waiting for it. But, they did get the parts from PPG, and started assembly, so maybe we get the trans back next week? We’re planning on making it to Lime Rock on June 7th with my local group EMRA. It’ll just be a shakedown of the car with the trans and working on the setup. Very excited.
Also started installing the fire suppression system in the car. I’m at the point where I don’t think a rinkydink mini handheld will do much for me in case of a fire, so I purchased a 4.1 liter OMP suppression kit from Stable Energies in New Jersey. It’s coming along well. Very excited to get back in the car.

 

[gsxitement]

Here we go gang! TRE just about ready to send it back to me. Very excited to experience not breaking transmissions.

 

[gsxitement]

Alright! Updates. The PPG came back from TRE. We got it installed last Sunday. Haven’t fired to car up yet cause there’s still a few things to do ie button up the exhaust, put oil in the tcase and change the rear end oil, change the engine oil. I’ve also been working on a livery design and learning how to do vinyl. My hats off to those that make a living doing vinyl. That shit sucks . Hopefully going to fire the car up today or tomorrow. Getting exciting.

 

[gsxitement]

Wow. Been a while. Ok so, livery is done . In July we had a test weekend at NJMP. Saturday was spent buttoning up a bunch of little details on the car. Finally went out, and promptly almost spun the car, but caught it and went 4 off. Which ripped the splitter out of its mounts. We got that repaired and made it out for the free session at the end of the day. PBd by almost a second, which isn’t super impressive cause the car is way faster since the last time I was NJMP Lightning. The next day was Thunderbolt. Had a few issues. One of which was the car super rotating on the brake. It turned out I had the brake bias cranked to almost max full rear brake. Didn’t realize that till we got the car on the trailer. PBd at thunderbolt but was way off pace of where the car should be. And we started seeing some higher than expected water temps.

Next up was Circuit Legends at Lime Rock with GridLife. Had a lot of expectations. I hired a coach for the weekend. That wound up helping with my driving, but we were battling the car. First session of the weekend, the car was overheating by the end of the 3rd lap. We come back to our paddock spot and notice an oil leak on the splitter. Turns out the oil seal behind the oil pump sprocket is bad. We found a new seal, but wouldn’t have it till 4pm. So our Friday was done. Got the oil seal swapped, that fixed the oil leak. We pulled the valve cover and retorqued the head, hoping it would solve the overheating issue. It didn’t. Sunday by the 3rd lap of a session all the water would be pushed out. We were also struggling really bad with understeer. But, just wasn’t our weekend. We’ll get it figured out and ready for next year. Here’s some pics from the last couple months.

 

[Ludachris]

What, have you been busy or something?

 

[gsxitement]

What, have you been busy or something?

 

[gsxitement]

Hey all. Some of you might have seen on my Instagram, but I have prints for sale from Lime Rock. We need all the help we can get to continue racing. Prints are 11x17, and $25 shipped. Buy one. Help us help keep these cars in the conversation in Time Attack and road racing.

 

[UKNOWHO]

Wow this car has come a long way. Looks amazing. new motor setup is killer, 500 whp on the wastegate.

 

[gsxitement]

Wow this car has come a long way. Looks amazing. new motor setup is killer, 500 whp on the wastegate.

Thanks bro. Been a long time. Hope you’re well.

 

[gsxitement]

Alright. The season has wrapped up. Actually had a couple cool things happen this fall. I had intended that the Circuit Legends event in August was going to be our last racing event. But had a cool event that we took the car to in my town. It was a local street festival aimed at bringing the community together. So we brought the car and had some posters. Had kids take pictures in the car and had a great time over all.

Driving the car home at night with no headlights was interesting, but we made it .

The next week, I got home from work on Friday and decided to pull the cylinder head since the new head gasket from boostin was going to arrive the following Tuesday. Got the head off in about 2 hours and I found where the failure was. The next day I was going to be going to Lime Rock to help a buddy out with his shaking his car down.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

I got home from picking the kids up from their after school program at 6. Upon returning home, there’s a package on the porch. Confused, I look at the label, and it’s to me…..from Boostin’. The head gasket arrived. We go in the house, and I start making dinner for the kids. Then, a thought. “I could get the car back together, and go racing tomorrow.” And once that seed was planted, it never quit. When my wife got home from work, I told her what I was thinking. Fully expecting a “no…don’t do that.” instead I got “well, you were going anyway.” I reached out to my buddy who I was going to be helping, and asked him if it was ok if I brought my car, knowing that it would mean I wouldn’t be helping him. He said “bro I have an entire crew here. Bring the car.”
At 11pm, I went in the garage. By 2am, the car was back together. The next morning, by 10am, the car was on the trailer, and I was heading to the track. And the car did great!! Water temps were perfect, the track temp helped my dead tires get the car turning. Had an absolute blast. Didn’t PB, but had so much fun. The car did great…..just an awesome way to end the season. Now the car is on jack stands, ready for winter. Excited for next season. Converting the car to DBW and adding a coolant pressure sensor to monitor head gasket health. Next season should be fun!

 

[Ludachris]

Alright. The season has wrapped up. Actually had a couple cool things happen this fall. I had intended that the Circuit Legends event in August was going to be our last racing event. But had a cool event that we took the car to in my town. It was a local street festival aimed at bringing the community together. So we brought the car and had some posters. Had kids take pictures in the car and had a great time over all. View attachment 778733View attachment 778734

Driving the car home at night with no headlights was interesting, but we made it .

The next week, I got home from work on Friday and decided to pull the cylinder head since the new head gasket from boostin was going to arrive the following Tuesday. Got the head off in about 2 hours and I found where the failure was. The next day I was going to be going to Lime Rock to help a buddy out with his shaking his car down.

Here’s where it gets interesting.

I got home from picking the kids up from their after school program at 6. Upon returning home, there’s a package on the porch. Confused, I look at the label, and it’s to me…..from Boostin’. The head gasket arrived. We go in the house, and I start making dinner for the kids. Then, a thought. “I could get the car back together, and go racing tomorrow.” And once that seed was planted, it never quit. When my wife got home from work, I told her what I was thinking. Fully expecting a “no…don’t do that.” instead I got “well, you were going anyway.” I reached out to my buddy who I was going to be helping, and asked him if it was ok if I brought my car, knowing that it would mean I wouldn’t be helping him. He said “bro I have an entire crew here. Bring the car.”
At 11pm, I went in the garage. By 2am, the car was back together. The next morning, by 10am, the car was on the trailer, and I was heading to the track. And the car did great!! Water temps were perfect, the track temp helped my dead tires get the car turning. Had an absolute blast. Didn’t PB, but had so much fun. The car did great…..just an awesome way to end the season. Now the car is on jack stands, ready for winter. Excited for next season. Converting the car to DBW and adding a coolant pressure sensor to monitor head gasket health. Next season should be fun!View attachment 778735View attachment 778736View attachment 778737View attachment 778738View attachment 778739View attachment 778740View attachment 778741View attachment 778742View attachment 778743View attachment 778744View attachment 778745

Overachiever.




That's awesome man. Must have really felt great. Sounds like the plan is to just keep it as is and have fun next season?

 

[gsxitement]

Overachiever.




That's awesome man. Must have really felt great. Sounds like the plan is to just keep it as is and have fun next season?

Yeah. Spring rate change, convert to DBW and coolant pressure sensor. Wanted to do ABS, but that’ll have to wait.

 

[gsxitement]

Ok! Updates. Got the spring rates changed and the coilovers back in. Got the funk motorsport turbo blanket on and started the heavy lifting on the DBW conversion. I’m trying to put together a write up for this so if anyone else wants to do it, they’ll have the information available.



I’m going with the EvoX pedal and throttle body. The throttle body works well and bolts right on to my evo2 intake manifold.

Next up, I ordered an adapter plate from evospec that allows me to mount the evo pedal directly to where the DSM pedal went with no modifications. It also has some adjustability built in which is nice. I’ll add a pic later since I don’t have one as I’m writing this.

Next what we had to do was setup the FuelTech FT550 so we would know the pinouts for the connectors. FuelTech does a good job explaining what you need to do and has the resources you need to know all you need.

Next up was pulling the dash, which is super easy on my car since racecar . I pulled the dash out and separated the harness from the dash. And started adding the wiring. Pretty straightforward. I had to order some new pins for the FuelTech connectors from LowDoller. FuelTech gives you the pinouts for the FuelTech connectors so it’s just a matter of crimping on the pins and inserting them into the connector. Label your wires and be meticulous.

I’ll add more pics as I get more done.

Here’s the funk motorsport turbo blanket installed. Super nice. Really like the quality.

 

[Ludachris]

An EvoX pedal and throttle body? Guess I haven't been paying attention enough to know that was possible. Can't wait to see the write up on that. Would make a really good Tech Article.

 

[gsxitement]

An EvoX pedal and throttle body? Guess I haven't been paying attention enough to know that was possible. Can't wait to see the write up on that. Would make a really good Tech Article.

I’ll do a full write up when I get all the pics.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Yes nice evospec is good I have thr3 pedal adapter using a lancer pedal. I'm also on haltech using the evospec harness. You should really enjoy this.

 

[jdxnc]

An EvoX pedal and throttle body? Guess I haven't been paying attention enough to know that was possible. Can't wait to see the write up on that. Would make a really good Tech Article.

Fueltech has nicely added all the correct settings into the software for it, so aside from a little wiring, it's very straight forward.

 

[gsxitement]

Yes nice evospec is good I have thr3 pedal adapter using a lancer pedal. I'm also on haltech using the evospec harness. You should really enjoy this.

The whole reason I’m even doing it is because I need the autoblip for the downshift with the PPG.

Fueltech has nicely added all the correct settings into the software for it, so aside from a little wiring, it's very straight forward.

yeah exactly. Really impressed with FuelTech. Thanks for pushing me in that direction

 

[gsxitement]

Nothing new on the DBW setup. But I started the new dump to be for the wastegate. Since I put the funk motorsport turbo blanket on, I had to remake the dump to stay away from the blanket. Just waiting on a bellows for it, and I can finish this up. One more thing off the list.

 

[gsxitement]

Alright. Got the dump tube finished and wrapped up. Not a bad hour and a half in the garage. Plenty of clearance to the turbo blanket.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Love the track day writeup.

BTW, mr 8k shifts…
It’s the oil pump that dies over limit.