Accepted into the 2012 Ultimate Track Car Challenge!!!

[TSiAWD666]

Knowing their background in alignment/corner balancing, I'd hope they would have done this, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Did they disconnect sway bars before corner balancing? I know you got the parts to build the adjustable front sway bars, but I'm not sure if you've gotten around to having them installed. If so, did they adjust them to remove the preload?

Did you make sure to have them tighten down the SPC ball joint nuts to 120 ft/lbs?


Car's looking really good! I wish I had more time to help out or even chat with you. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks when my work load decreases a bit.

Yeah they disconnected the anti-sway bars. In fact they told me about it before I could even tell them. I actually don't know if they dialed out the pre-load after the corner balancing was completed, as that was something I forgot to ask them to do.

I was told they "torqued those nuts as much as they could) but the tech (who actually is the owner, he just likes to work on race cars so he pays other guys to run the shop) didn't put loctite on the nuts, so I'll have to do that later. His reasoning was that he didn't see when he disconnected them and thought it shouldn't be there if that was the case. I have some green loctite though and will add it in a few days.

 

[snowborder714]

The only way they'd be able to remove the preload is if you have adjustable end links. So if you don't, it wasn't removed.

Glad to hear they were torqued down. Hopefully you don't have any slipping issues with them again!

 

[greengoblin]

Car is look sick John! Look forward to hearing how all the changes work out for you!

Kevin

 

[TSiAWD666]

How about a larger view of that plate bracket?
Good looking wing. Do you know at what speed that rear wing begins to apply useable down force?

Below is a bigger pic. In this picture the way it's mounted is reversed from how I'm mounting it now (the small plate seen on top I now mount underneath instead, with the license plate's larger plate on top), but it shows basically how it's constructed. The circular aluminum plate you see on top is concave and keeps the plate from sliding around the tow hook when you tighten the nut. The only thing you can't see is that on the bracket that's attached to the license plate directly I superglued on the underside some fabric so that it didn't scratch up my pretty red tow hook

I don't think Dave@DHP wants me sharing his data completely, but according to his wind tunnel data that I have at 14 deg AOA it is able to produce 11 lbs of downforce at 20mph. So it appears to work fairly immediately. His data shows the downforce continually ramping up significantly from there upwards.

The only way they'd be able to remove the preload is if you have adjustable end links. So if you don't, it wasn't removed.

Glad to hear they were torqued down. Hopefully you don't have any slipping issues with them again!

I put those adjustable links on a while ago. I just don't know if they adjusted them in this round of work.

 

[Lil' Shaun]

You should just get a decal of your license plate made so you don't have to bolt the adaptor onto your tow hook.

 

[TSiAWD666]

It's a 10mm nut. It takes me a few seconds. Better than an ugly pictre of a license plate on the car at all times.

On a totally different topic, does anyone have a 97-99 can angle sensor I cam buy? Mine took a crap on me. Might explain the missing I've been having on track . Found out because the ecu finally threw a code. Need one asap to make the race!

 

[Calan]

Awesome job!

 

[TSiAWD666]

A big thanks to Zaklee Corp.! As many of you know they make the clear plastic timing belt covers for various cars. I was using one for the last year and it cracked along the edge on the engine side. I attributed it to a defect, contacted Zaklee, and they shipped me out a new one immediately. I found shortly after installing the new one though that the failure was not due to a defect but instead due to a fabricator error with my aluminum spark plug cover. I found my cover when bolted in is putting a little pressure on the cover laterally, which caused the cracking. I sheepishly emailed Zaklee and told them of my mistake, and you know what they said? Keep the cover!

I've offered as a thank you to wear their badging on the car, but regardless they'll keep me as a customer on this car and future cars. Very cool support and a nice product!

 

[TSiAWD666]

Thanks a ton to Snowborder714 for saving my butt. He brought to my doorstep a 97-99 cam position sensor for me to use this week. Really appreciate it man!

Also found I had a cracked power steering reservoir. Cracked right underneath around where the lower port enters the reservoir. I've jb welded it which seems to be holding, but just in case Greengoblin has sent me another one as a spare. Thanks man!

I hope those are the final issues before the event

 

[TSiAWD666]

Had one hell of a week getting ready for this event! First the cps went bad, then my power steering reservoir cracked, then tps harness went flaky, then found my tial v44 wastegate was loose on the base and leaking air, and finally my air conditioning failed (and mysteriously worked again the next day, still puzzling that one out). Lots of scrambling to get parts and fix stuff, but so far everything's back together!

Thanks a ton to English Racing for getting me a power steering reservoir when I needed it!

Thanks to Greengoblin for also sending me one I should have had you overnight that thing man, can't trust USPS Priority Mail...

Also thanks to Snowborder714 for getting me the Crank Position Sensor from his place in PA and bringing it to me in VA. You are awesome!

Car's washed, kind of waxed, and stickered up. Thanks a ton to my sponsors:
RRT Racing (RRT Service | BMW Specialists)
Mr. Spoiler (Welcome to Mr. Spoiler)
Meguiar's (Meguiar's : Car Care Products)
Zaklee Corp (Zaklee Corp - Performance Parts for Performance Cars)
Carbotech Performance Brakes (Carbotech Performance Brakes)
Extreme PSI (Welcome To Extreme PSI)
Sparktech Ignitions (Spark Tech Ignitions | Home)

Also thanks to Tim Zimmer of TMZ Performance for building my ENTIRE drivetrain incredibly quickly (less than a month turnaround?) and answering 500000 questions.

WillRaceForBeer and a friend of his are heading down to the event to help support me in the UTCC and also drive a little on Saturday in a hyperdrive with NASA. In addition to the UTCC tomorrow I'll also be participating in NASA TT in the TTU class.

Here are a few shots before I head out.

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[greengoblin]

Goodluck sir and sorry that res didn't make it there soon enough.

 

[snowborder714]

Good luck John! Keep us updated on how you doing if you get the chance.

 

[arrowhead]

That is the way it works with sponsors, they will totally ignore you until they can see some positive results, do the best you can with what you have and go after smaller or friendlier places, but dont give up looking for them and some will come around, build a portfolio of your car with pictures not so much of the car but with good crowd around it, and detail the info as much as possible.

good luck.

Hey, you see, I am glad they are starting to come around for you keep up the good work and you will still get some more help, but nothing like those guys that are helping you out without expecting anything in return, maybe a cold beer afterwards and a sandwich.

I am not familiar with the format of racing that will be done, if each car individually, or all at same time, if it is point to pass, but with all due respect and not questioning your driving ability, some advice.

Do not be first car out of the grid, for practice, let the others pick up the junk on their tires off the track.

You do not have to give up your line if you are being pass, do not get on the dirty part of the track.

Do not ever give up the inside even if it is not the correct line.

Remember even if your engine is at operating temp, the rest of the driveline is not.

Take 5 deep breaths before you go out on the track.

Concentrate on that first turn, and dont be in a hurry

Good luck.

 

[mattasi]

Badass car man, I wish you luck!

 

[D_Eclipse9916]

Wow, always issues before an event.

I will be down there for Sat/Sun doing my usual racing, I had to miss UTCC because of trailer issues (dont get me started ). I will come and say hi saturday morning.

Live timing is down, but mylaps is up for those trying to follow along:
MYLAPS Results

 

[DiamondStarMotors]

Just saw this picture on the Rev Works facebook page and thought I would share.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/564516_265294126917186_363969586_n.jpg

 

[TSiAWD666]

Quick update. Car broke on turn one of my first hot lap of the first timed session. Ended up my crank angle sensor died. Tow hook works. Willraceforbeer ripped his off his car, we installed to mine with help from others, two hours of wrenching and we made it one min late to last session. Lapped a 2:11.4. At awards now, need to get new sensor from o'reilly's in town and install on willrace's car, and install all the stuff we left off mine in our rush.

 

[snowborder714]

I had this inkling feeling that I should've brought that down for you too

Glad to hear nothing major happened and that you got some hot lap time in!

 

[marcman804]

Good luck man! Hope you kick some @ss!

 

[fhudsonjr]

Not familiar w/VIR. Is 2.11 a good time?

 

[TSiAWD666]

So I'll update after this trip but am in a bit of a bind. Need some help from anyone with ideas.

Short story: in the dark, and exhausted, testing a friend's battery on my car I hooked up the jumper cables he handed me in reverse. Blew the ecu (fried that one diode) and possibly the MAF.

Ecu is replaced with another 2g eeprom and dsmlink v3 with my maps socketed and reloaded. verified it's working with the new ecu by basic checking through dsmlink software.

Right now we're getting no signal on the MAF per DSMlink. Have a re-man'd sensor on the car now from advance auto and that too is showing no signal. Showed no signal on WillRaceForBeer's v3 ecu as well so it's not the ecu.

So anyone have any suggestions on how to troubleshoot? I'm about to get to sleep, and in the morning head back to the track to try to figure this out. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Oh, car starts and runs, in limp mode of course since it has no MAF to work with. DSMlink was showing the IAT so I think that means the MAF is at least partially working. Only noticed the IAT I think with the reman'd maf, not sure if it showed on my one from prior to the reverse polarity.

If I have no advice I think I'll just start checking the power/ground pins, and worst case trying splicing lines from the MAF directly to the ECU bypassing hopefully any potential harness issues that the jumper cable fiasco might have caused.

No fuses are burnt (anymore, the 100amp of course tripped but that's replaced).

Pardon the jumbled nature of this post... been up since 7:30am.

 

[ed1380]

I'd also check all the other sensor inputs, to make sure they're all working.

Check to make sure the maf is receiver the proper voltage and ground, then use a jumper and do an continuity check from the pin on the maf plug to the pin on the ecu.

You might also want to clean the contacts on the plug. Who knows, it might be something simple.

Hope the diagram helps.
maf is upper right corner in 2nd picture
Photo Album - Imgur

Here are a few shots before I head out.

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What do your neighbors say? I'm mad jelly

 

[TSiAWD666]

DiamondStarMotors, thanks for sharing that link! Rev Works had a badass Audi S4 there. Widebody and very fast! Very cool picture!

Ed1380, thanks a ton for sharing those images. They are awesome to have, and I'd never seen them. Saved them to google drive now for archiving The neighbors are all quite fascinated by the car since last year it was just a normal eclipse, and then this March it showed up looking like a "spaceship" as some put it. No one's said anything about the noise but that's probably because the friend across the street has a 911 turbo and a modded Bmw 335i which I think are just as loud

Short update, the MAF problem I had written about Saturday night thankfully was not due to a melted wire or anything like that, but ended up being due to the MAF line at the ecu being disconnected. Mine has connectors for connecting through the S-AFC II that I have (used for just viewing sensor data, not tuning) and so it can be pulled apart. I suspect it pulled apart during the many harness pulls while swapping ecus around, and with being exhausted and again pitch black we didn't even notice it. Next morning as I prepped for troubleshooting I thought maybe that was it and sure enough it was. So car fired up and I was able to run some that day.

I'll fill in more of the event later but it was pretty crazy. It was definitely a massive learning experience and filled with insane amounts of work from LOOOOTS of people as it seemed like everything electronic on the car wanted to break plus a few mechanical. Made it home though thanks to the tireless work of friends and a bit of black pepper

Here's a shot from early Friday after all the stickers for the event sponsors were put on:

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[airmail96]

Awesome thread, congrats on getting to race and I love the car man. Glad you were able to make it for the final session, and it just goes to show that DSM brotherhood that exist.