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Aaron's 1997 GSX - Street/AutoX/Track Build

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April 27th and 28th we are having a 2-Day AutoX event at Lake Erie Speedway.

Day one will be test and tune.
Day two will be race day.


The only thing I need to do is the timing belt and components. Then she should be all done for the season.

Also:
- Catch Can Setup
- Front/Rear Upper Strut Tower Braces
 
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Just some updated pics.

Very happy with the high temp paint holding up on the FP manifold.

IMG_20130409_183907_942_zps12b3168c.jpg


IMG_20130409_183917_675_zps10d64ca8.jpg
 
Looking great man! Wish mine had help up the same.
 
Took the car to her first AutoX Event of the season at WNY Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Car ran in the SM class. I'm going to change some things so I can run ESP instead. As SM with a bolt-on GSX isn't very competitive ATM.

But anyway, the car ran great! She didn't give me one problem the entire day/trip. And after a 1.5 hour drive, a full day of racing, 8 runs of 50ish seconds each in 2nd gear, and the trip home, still averaged 20+ mpg. :thumb:

One of my runs.

th_AaronWOnCar_zps30301062.jpg


Hopefully more pictures to come.

Aaron_W_1_41413_zps3a5131f4.jpg
 
That was a great day. You got me hooked on autox. I was impressed with your car too man.
 
Nice! Car is looking great. Do you have any suspension mods? Coil overs? Sway bars?

Auto x is a lot of fun I need to get out again this year.
 
I'm jealous of that color. It is probably my favorite DSM color.
 
Nice! Car is looking great. Do you have any suspension mods? Coil overs? Sway bars?

Auto x is a lot of fun I need to get out again this year.

Thank you!

Suspension is completely stock at the moment.

I'm jealous of that color. It is probably my favorite DSM color.

Mine too. Cant beat it!

That was a great day. You got me hooked on autox. I was impressed with your car too man.

It only gets better man! Glad you came out.
 
AutoX Event yesterday.

Due to rain and a large number of cars we where allotted 4 runs.

Current car setup in a snap shot:
1997 GSX - Full 3 inch - Catless Exhaust
Rebuilt 14b Turbo - 15 psi
Stock drive train.
Stock Suspension.
All-season 245/40 tires - 550 Tread ware (yeah, I know, horrible for this)

I ran in the ESP class.
Run 1: 55.1 +1 cone -
Run 2: 52.1 +1 cone
Run 3: 51.4 - missed 2nd
Run 4: 51.3 - Bogged the start (I had been launching well all day too)

Comparable cars of the day:
2002 WRX w/ bolt ons and STI Turbo, Star Spec 2's - Ran ASP - Best Time: 50.2
2008 Evo X w/ bolt ons, tuned, 275 RS3's - Ran SM - Best Time: 48.3
2002 WRX w/ bolt ons, Tuned, Star Spec 2's - Ran SM - Best Time: 48.1
1993 Talon TSI FWD - Tuned on SD, Stickies - Ran SMF - Best Time: 49.7

FTD went to a race prepped Golf GTI - Best Time: 44.3


Its easy to see that the car has a great amount of potential. If we would have had more runs, I was hoping to at least squeeze out another second.

I think with some tires actually made for this and a mild suspension build, the car would be very competitive, as my seat time increases.

A few pictures:

eclipse2_zps2d633d39.jpg

eclipse1_zpsc2cde0c8.jpg

eclipse4_zps3a890628.jpg

Look at that body roll! :p

432237b0-b55e-4670-a0d2-a9cdb4807c67_zps0aaa602c.jpg
 
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Those are awesome times compare to evos and sti's with your mods! Great job man :hellyeah:

Thanks Justin.

I was talking with a few people after the event. Many were very impressed with how well the car did, in a relatively stock form with tires that had no grip when on course.

I agree completely seeing as how all the cars that where running faster, where either running stickies, or performance made tires like Star Specs, RS3s, etc, with tread rating from 140 to 220. I was anywhere from 1 to 3 seconds off cars that where obviously faster than a stock-ish DSM and had proper tires.

Leads me to believe that with some good tires and more seat time, the car could and would be very competitive in my region, in the current stock-ish form.
 
Looked awesome man. Wish my car had made it there too. Great pictures.
 
Going to be attending WNY's Event #2 this Sunday.

With some recent upgrades to the car, im going to be running in the SM class.
Installing some solid shifter base bushings and some solid brass bushings as well.

Car will still be on 245/40 All-Seasons.



Found a few pictures from the last WNY event.
That body roll makes me laugh.

150399_444801402272877_425155938_n_zps1ef2b03f.jpg


71440_444801595606191_353777511_n_zps0aabec55.jpg
 
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Yesterday's event didn't go so well.

First off, the course was great, very fast, lots of sweepers and a flying finish. I very much enjoyed the course.

Secondly, we had a total of 8 runs. After the first run I knew it was going to be a rough day.
It seemed that after around every corner, and or letting off the throttle the car would bog/hesitate/break up. I had ZERO idea as to what was going on. But it was clearly affecting my times.

After some thought, I realized I was super low on fuel. Thinking that maybe after the turns, with the small amount of gas sloshing around I wasn't running dry at times. I put in 5 gallons, nothing changed.

Finally after my 6th run, the CEL light came on. I hooked up my reader and found 1 code and 2 pending.

Code P1101 - The stupid Fuel Pressure solenoid. I was not worried about this as its currently not being used. Just plugged in and chillen.

For some reason I cannot remember the other pending code, but one was for the waste gate actuator. I thought that was odd. I popped the hood only to find that the radiator fan was pushing the J-Pipe, which was pushing the turbo water line, which was pushing the on the actuator arm, pressing it against the turbo housing. SOOOOO it was like one big samwhich in their. Being as it was hot as balls out I really couldn't do anything about it, till I got home.

On the drive home I was having boost issues.

And low an behold I pull into my driveway and the car shuts off. I start it up and it wont idle/run unless I give it gas. Almost like a huge boost leak of the sort.

I'm going to tear it down a bit today after work to see what I car do about the waste-gate arm and hope the problems go away.


Event Results:
Of the 8 runs I had, my best raw time was a 46.1.
The fastest car at the event had a raw time of 38.4, done by a completely built race prepped supercharged RSX.

I was going to be hoping for a high 44 second run. Unfortunately, with all the boost/hesitation issues I was unable to.



Among other things:
- During the day my intake temps where around 118 degrees F. I'm going to be addressing this with some ducting and heat shielding.
- The coolant temp stayed right around 206 degrees, never getting higher than 213. I'm going to re-install the other rad fan and wire it to a switch so I can control it for hot race days like this.
 
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Here's is a picture of the sandwich pinch I mentioned. I think/thought this was why the car was having boosting issues. With the bucking and spiking.

As you can see, the J-Pipe was pushing on the water line which pinned the wastegate arm against the turbo

pinch_zps387d22c4.jpg




NOW the carnage.
I pulled of my intake pipe, took a look...and got upset. :(

turbo_zps6ee61c32.jpg



I then noticed small rubber chunks inside my intake. Hmmmm...
It seams that the turbo decided to eat the small black coupler sleeve for lunch.

I immediately removed all the intercooler and piping to clean it out. The amount of small black rubber chunks that fell out, makes me sick to my stomach.

This was a rebuilt unit by JusMX141. it was running great and had maybe 1500 miles on it. :(


Just not in a good mood about it.
 
love what all ive read about ## car so far and yeah it sucks bad when that happens same bs happened to me after I put my big 16g in my gsx the first time it ate the damn thing completely and had less than 500 miles on it b4 needed to rebuild completely >.<
currently my car is going through a major overhaul as well total rebuild from bottom to top
block getting honed and decked .020 over and head 1mm osized valves and 272cams with cam gears with new turbo in hotsided and 20g comp wheel on the 16g turbo gonna be a beast so yeah very sorry for ## sadface on the hungry turbo
I been there I know how u fell. atleast it didn't shred and end up in ## engine block like mine did >.< metal shavings EVERYWHERE
 
Having the turbo killed really makes me upset, but i'm WAY more worried about what could have gotten into the motor.

My plans are to clean all the piping, bolt everything back on, pull the VC to have a look see, do a compression test, then run some seafoam and change the oil.

Depending on results, ill go from there on.
 
Definitely sucked something into the intake- has nothing to do with myself or my services.

I'd look into running that front coolant line under/behind the actuator which is more-traditional....the way you have it there is pretty hokey.
 
Definitely sucked something into the intake- has nothing to do with myself or my services.

I'd look into running that front coolant line under/behind the actuator which is more-traditional....the way you have it there is pretty hokey.

Justin, like I mentioned via PM, I am in no way stating the failure has anything to do with you or the rebuild.


As for the coolant line, I'm going to be changing it. The hard pipe puts it in that spot, so for the time being, ill bend it back around if I can. Or leave it and deal with the bigger issues first.

Once I have all the piping and the intercooler cleaned out, ill be compression testing the car.
 
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