My fuse box relocation (project log)

[Justin DuBois]

Last I checked, it's -2.6f and -1.6r. I do not have provisions to change the rear camber on my car since I was happy where it ended up after the ride height adjustments.

Thats about where i’m at with camber in the front. Rear I like to be closer to -0.5, but I think the spacers are only getting me to about -1.1 or so.

Attached some pics, my tire to fender static gap is like 1.5 fingers.

 

[turbosax2]

Looks like you're ready to hit the track again! Is that an OG RRE 1" rear sway bar? I've heard about them but never actually seen one.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Looks like you're ready to hit the track again! Is that an OG RRE 1" rear sway bar? I've heard about them but never actually seen one.

It’s setup fine, but needs refurbishment. Yeah, that is an OG RRE rear bar. I’m looking to replace it actually, but the RM racing bar is out of production at the moment so I wait.

All the pivots need to be refreshed.

 

[turbosax2]

My to-do list from the last update:

• Check WBO2 calibration
  • Done (it was fine, no adjustment needed)
• Check brakes, bleed brakes, change caliper temp strip
  • Done (didn't bother putting new strip on)
• Clean oil out of intake, IC pipes, IC
  • I cleaned the intercooler, pipes, and catch can really good to get all the oil out. There wasn't that much but since they've never been cleaned it was worthwhile. I also cleaned the radiator really good. It was amazing how much track rubber and tiny rocks came out of both the intercooler and radiator!
• Fix wastegate water fittings, identify cause of overboost
  • I ended up welding aluminum fittings to the original wastegate lower housing. I figured if I messed it up, I still had the replacement Tial sent me. I didn't weld the fitting on the top housing since I only have one and didn't want to ruin it. Welding the first fitting gave me fits and I think I had to take four attempts at it to finally seal it, but I pressure tested both water fittings to over 80psi. As long as the welds don't break, they aren't leaking. For the top housing fitting, I used a dowty seal like Tial recommended as a test to see if they would survive. I reused an old good spare diaphragm.
  • 
• Drain catch cans, make future draining easier
  • Done. I used some old turbo coolant hoses with bends and a plastic tee. The drain hose drops between the transmission and crossmember stay so I can put a catch pan down without jacking up the car.
  • 
    
• Band-aid turbo gasket leak
  • So...this failed miserably haha. I smeared some copper RTV over the leak and during a quick two mile drive with just a little boost it completely blew the RTV out. A chunk of RTV even flew out the hood and stuck to the roof. I had to source a new MLS gasket and replaced it last Friday.
  • 
    
• Fix the GoPro - it was turning itself off randomly all weekend so I have no good video
  • Replaced the SD card with a new one since I thought this was the problem. It was not the problem, but I now suspect it's the hard-wired battery replacement cable.
• Retune SD table if I have time
  • Didn't have time

This past Sunday and yesterday were spent at Shenandoah and Summit Point Main, respectively. Brian and the GT4 were at both days but the Camaro was only there for Sunday. I'll apologize now for the lack of pictures and video, I wasn't very good about that this weekend.

The car was feeling good at Shenandoah and I was putting down some decent laps. I did notice a little spray on the windshield during the first session and found that one of the water lines at the wastegate loosened up a touch and was spritzing. I tightened it up and it was fine, but I kept checking the four wastegate lines the rest of the day just to make sure. I'll have to put some Loctite on them. The welds held up great so that was a success. I forgot to check the dowty seal yet but I didn't have any boost control issues so it's likely in good shape.

I also noticed I was having a power steering leak at the high pressure line coming off the pump. I know it's always seeped just a little but not enough to spray the windshield. This got progressively worse throughout the weekend and I found there is a pinhole leak in it. I can only see it leaking when at full lock, but then it definitely leaks. I tried glue, electrical tape, foil tape, and zip-tied a rag over it. It redirected the leak but didn't help .

I think it was the third session of the day when I got back to the pits and another driver from my group pulled up next to me and told me I was smoking on acceleration. Then my friend told me they heard radio chatter from the corner workers about the same thing. Then a staff member came and told me as well. It was just bad enough they considered black flagging me but didn't. So over lunch I got the car up in the air and found the steering rack coated in power steering fluid. Again, I could only see it leaking at full lock but it gushed pretty good. It appears one (or maybe two) of the o-rings on the crossover tubes has failed. The fluid getting on the downpipe was causing the smoking. I cleaned it up as best I could but really couldn't even attempt a fix at the track. I ran one more session after lunch and it was still leaking so I skipped the last session. I ended up beating my previous lap time of 1:40.69 with a 1:40.20.

So going into Sunday at Main, I have a substantial leak at the rack and a smaller, but just as annoying, leak near the pump. Shenandoah is a very tight course with more steering input than Main so I thought I might be able to get away without too much leakage at Main. I decided to run a session to see what happened. Yup, it still leaked just as much. So I only ended up running two sessions Sunday at Main. Just enough to put in a new best lap time for me and then I called it quits. I got a new best of 1:23.90 beating my previous of 1:28.09. My previous time at Main was my last day on RS4's before getting the AR-1's, so the tires were good for a nice gain.

So my next move is I really need to get these power steering leaks fixed. I checked with JNZ on a list of parts and they're basically all discontinued. The line near the pump that I really need is $308!!! So I'll be going aftermarket with what I can. My big debate right now is what to do about the rack. I'm almost sure I'll have to take it out to replace the o-rings (that I can't even buy from Mitsubishi anymore), so I'm thinking I might rebuild it while it's out for peace of mind. Or do I just buy a reman rack? And I might as well rebuild the pump too since the rebuild kits are cheap and available from JNZ and it's never been done before. So a bunch of the system will get some love and hopefully not act up again.

I don't have any more planned track days for the rest of the year. That being said, I have enough brake pads left for maybe a day and tires for a day or two. I'd love to get back to Main again this year to make sure the car is working well so I don't have to have that worry looming over me during the off-season. First step is to get ahold of some p/s parts and then we'll see.

 

[Tyeler18]

Any interest in ditching the power steering completely for something like a VUE/Prius column conversion? Planning to do a write up after I swap my personal 2g, but Ive been really satisfied with the assist from the prius column I put in a locals 2g. We've yet to have it on the track to gauge assist there but it has a very OE feel on the street without having too much assist as I was worried about. One less fluid to be concerned about is a benefit.

 

[turbosax2]

Any interest in ditching the power steering completely for something like a VUE/Prius column conversion? Planning to do a write up after I swap my personal 2g, but Ive been really satisfied with the assist from the prius column I put in a locals 2g. We've yet to have it on the track to gauge assist there but it has a very OE feel on the street without having too much assist as I was worried about. One less fluid to be concerned about is a benefit.

I did think about it very briefly but decided I wasn't willing to be the guinea pig to see how it acts on the track and I just haven't seen enough other feedback on them especially with the steering feel. I don't want to take a step backwards in driving experience just to eliminate one fluid that really shouldn't give me any issues. It is something I could be interested in doing in the future, though, if it proves itself. Do you have any links to more information? I look forward to seeing your writeup!

 

[Tyeler18]

I did think about it very briefly but decided I wasn't willing to be the guinea pig to see how it acts on the track and I just haven't seen enough other feedback on them especially with the steering feel. I don't want to take a step backwards in driving experience just to eliminate one fluid that really shouldn't give me any issues. It is something I could be interested in doing in the future, though, if it proves itself. Do you have any links to more information? I look forward to seeing your writeup!

No links on my end. I saw a few posts on the dsm facebook groups and a couple of various other non-dsm cars that I own having success with it and jumped on it. We had plenty of prius to pillage in the local yards. As far as feedback on the street, with a 245/40/17 square tire the assist is really tame. The car has a very small 330?mm sparco steering wheel which was atrocious to try and steer with no power steering. It has a heavier, yet obviously assisted feel to it now. Everything tucked up under the driver kick panel no issue and no major mods required to make space for anything. Hopefully have a guide soon and some track feedback with R-compounds.

 

[turbosax2]

I procrastinated awhile, but finally got the power steering leaks fixed. When I removed the reservoir, I found that the bottom barb had cracked and was slightly leaking. I considered replacing it with a Chase Bays reservoir, but ended up just going with a used stock one to keep it simple. I rebuilt both the pump and rack and installed all new tie rods/boots for good measure. And I replaced both soft sections of the high pressure hose. After getting it all back together, the rack hard lines were still leaking (even with new o-rings) so I had to source a used set of those. In hindsight, I probably should have just purchased a rebuilt rack. None of this work was particularly hard but it took time.

The ball joint boots on my SPC UCA's were shot, so I installed new ones from SPC (PN 50006003). While doing so, I went ahead and removed the anchors to clean them up and found one was completely separated. Two others showed were showing some cracks so this is something I'll have to address over winter. I'm considering custom polyurethane, delrin, or spherical bushings but have more research to do.

I also added some Porsche brake ducts.

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/porsche-gt3-brake-ducts-installed-on-2g.490249/#post-153810954

It's about time to put the car up for the winter and work on the to-do list:

1. Fix UCA bushings
2. Replace partially melted timing covers
3. Send front calipers to Essex to be rebuilt
4. Replace front brake pads/rotor rings
5. Update RaceCapture with latest firmware/app
6. Alignment/corner balance
7. Replace tires (have enough life for one more weekend)
8. Fix brake MC cap coming loose - this has happened a couple times and I'd like to find a fix
9. Fix GoPro shutting off
10. New battery, maybe lighter? Mine is over a decade old and getting weak
11. And more...

 

[Ludachris]

I procrastinated awhile, but finally got the power steering leaks fixed. When I removed the reservoir, I found that the bottom barb had cracked and was slightly leaking. I considered replacing it with a Chase Bays reservoir, but ended up just going with a used stock one to keep it simple. I rebuilt both the pump and rack and installed all new tie rods/boots for good measure. And I replaced both soft sections of the high pressure hose. After getting it all back together, the rack hard lines were still leaking (even with new o-rings) so I had to source a used set of those. In hindsight, I probably should have just purchased a rebuilt rack. None of this work was particularly hard but it took time.
View attachment 645036View attachment 645037View attachment 645035

The ball joint boots on my SPC UCA's were shot, so I installed new ones from SPC (PN 50006003). While doing so, I went ahead and removed the anchors to clean them up and found one was completely separated. Two others showed were showing some cracks so this is something I'll have to address over winter. I'm considering custom polyurethane, delrin, or spherical bushings but have more research to do.
View attachment 645038

I also added some Porsche brake ducts.

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/porsche-gt3-brake-ducts-installed-on-2g.490249/#post-153810954

It's about time to put the car up for the winter and work on the to-do list:

1. Fix UCA bushings
2. Replace partially melted timing covers
3. Send front calipers to Essex to be rebuilt
4. Replace front brake pads/rotor rings
5. Update RaceCapture with latest firmware/app
6. Alignment/corner balance
7. Replace tires (have enough life for one more weekend)
8. Fix brake MC cap coming loose - this has happened a couple times and I'd like to find a fix
9. Fix GoPro shutting off
10. New battery, maybe lighter? Mine is over a decade old and getting weak
11. And more...

Great photos on that brake ducting by the way. Thanks for sharing that write up Eric.

 

[turbosax2]

I didn't really do much on the car this winter but figured I'd get caught up on an update anyway.

1. Fix UCA bushings - looked into putting sphericals in but all of the quotes I got were quite high. Still procrastinating on this one...
2. Replace partially melted timing covers - done, hope I don't melt these again
3. Send front calipers to Essex to be rebuilt - done
4. Replace front brake pads/rotor rings - done, sticking with the G-Loc R16's for track use
5. Update RaceCapture with latest firmware/app - firmware updated but turns out the new app needs a RPi 4 instead of a 3 so I'm holding off on this for now
6. Alignment/corner balance - done
7. Replace tires (have enough life for one more weekend) - holding off on this, might only do one event this year?
8. Fix brake MC cap coming loose - this has happened a couple times and I'd like to find a fix - not done, haven't come up with any great ideas
9. Fix GoPro shutting off - hasn't happened on my few drives this year so far
10. New battery, maybe lighter? Mine is over a decade old and getting weak - I'll just be replacing this with a full size Optima red top
11. Fix transmission threads for transfer case (one of the threads stripped out) - helicoiled
12. Replace front wheel bearings - done

When I removed the front rotors, I found why my left caliper got so hot last year. The wheel bearing cracked and rotated on itself and I found small gouges in the caliper where the rotor was cutting into it. I swapped the wheel studs to new wheel bearings - glad I caught this before anything really bad happened.

The yellow paint on the calipers was in pretty rough shape, so I put two coats of G2 caliper paint on it. The shade of yellow was pretty close to the original. We'll see how long it lasts.

Surprisingly, the corner balancing and alignment was really close to where it should be. I had to adjust the toe on all four wheels (mostly the front since I did all the steering rack work) and the rear right corner had to drop a bit to get the weights right. It came in at 3168 lbs. with a half tank and me in it.

It had been a couple years, so the car also got a paint correction this year. It was in good shape so I just used a finishing polish. I went with a ceramic coating (IGL Kenzo) instead of glaze this time. The glass was coated with IGL Ecocoat Window. I also had the headlights wrapped in Xpel and coated them in the Kenzo as well to hopefully keep them in good shape.

 

[turbosax2]

Not much happened with the car last year. We only had one track outing planned and it was cancelled by the organizer. I drove it on the street a little bit but that's about it. Just like my last post, I didn't change much on the car again this winter, but might as well keep this up to date.

1. New airbox cover
2. Rear tow strap
3. New phone mount
4. Street brake pads
5. Replace SPC UCA bushings
6. Modify exhaust tip

1. This one was purely for fun. I had 3mm carbon fiber CNC cut out and bonded 1/16" plexiglass to the underside. The ricer in me really wants to put lights in the airbox so it shines through

2. We made rear tow strap mounts, slightly modified the fronts, and had everything powdercoated while it was out. More info here:

https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/tow-strap-mounting.519984/page-2#post-153879081

3. This one is still a work in progress, basically to see if I like it before I modify my dash bezel. I used a spare one we had laying around for this. It's a QuadLock mount epoxied to a little mount that gets riveted on the inside of the bezel. The air vents will still fit, I just have them out for now.

4. I put G-Loc GS-1 pads on the car (front and rear) to hopefully eliminate the squealing while street driving. I took it for the first drive a couple days ago to bed them in and it squealed some but not nearly as bad. I'm hopeful it will get better as they get bedded in better. (no pictures)

5. @EC17PSE helped me big time with this one. He came up with a design for poly bushings in the SPC UCA's. He was great to work with sending files and data back and forth to 3d print and make sure everything would fit well. I just installed them last night with plenty of Prothane lube and I look forward to driving it soon to see how they work! I'm not expecting any performance difference, but the rubber bushings were starting to separate so this is good preventative maintenance (plus one had already failed).

6. My Megan Racing exhaust tip has always been close to my bumper. At one point it even touched and melted the paint off the bumper a little. After debating cutting/rewelding part of the muffler/hangers/etc., I decided to un-rivet the "titanium" tip, tweak it, and re-rivet it. I reused one rivet hole, welded two little tabs on the inside of the muffler for the driver-side rivets, and drilled a new hole in the muffler for the other. It was the least invasive solution I could come up with and gained me some clearance. I'm hopeful this is enough to prevent any further paint damage in that area.

 

[EC17PSE]

Glad I could help out! Thanks for working with me so we can solve this together

 

[gofer]

That's great, I didn't realize there was anything going on in the background with the SPC bushings. Who did you end up having make them?

 

[turbosax2]

That's great, I didn't realize there was anything going on in the background with the SPC bushings. Who did you end up having make them?

@EC17PSE Bobby designed and machined them.

 

[turbosax2]

I made up a new valve cover for the car. It's a shaved Hyundai one with two -10 ORBs, Pro-Werks oil cap, and aluminum baffles. It's nothing new, but it's amazing how much work it takes to get to this point! I went as far as I could, then shipped it off to Justin @Detective Coating to finish it off and coat it in Cosmic Black. He did an absolutely amazing job as usual!! Now to find a new spark plug cover to compliment it; the carbon fiber one doesn't go well with this color. Brian suggested a silver carbon fiber weave might look good...

 

[turbosax2]

The DSM spark plug cover is slightly different than the Hyundai, so I drew one up and had a custom 3mm silver carbon fiber cover cut out. Turned out pretty good I think!

Did a little tuning on the car today since I haven't touched it for a couple years. Just have some final touches to put on the car over the next couple weeks in preparation for New York Safety Track on the 19th with the local Corvette club. Going to try to put in more time on the sim rig as well to prepare. I was trying to go to NJMP Thunderbolt today with one of my friends but NASA booked up before I could get in so I'm really looking forward to NYST!

 

[Ludachris]

Looking nice, Eric!

 

[talon77]

I made up a new valve cover for the car. It's a shaved Hyundai one with two -10 ORBs, Pro-Werks oil cap, and aluminum baffles. It's nothing new, but it's amazing how much work it takes to get to this point! I went as far as I could, then shipped it off to Justin @Detective Coating to finish it off and coat it in Cosmic Black. He did an absolutely amazing job as usual!! Now to find a new spark plug cover to compliment it; the carbon fiber one doesn't go well with this color. Brian suggested a silver carbon fiber weave might look good...

View attachment 695514View attachment 695515View attachment 695516

Beautiful! I would just recommend verifying that your dipstick tube is just barely touching the manifold blanket. I didn't persuade my tube enough and it ended up touching and rubbing up on the blanket enough so that it wore a hole in it over time. Please don't be like me, and keep your manifold blanket looking nice like it is now!

 

[turbosax2]

Beautiful! I would just recommend verifying that your dipstick tube is just barely touching the manifold blanket. I didn't persuade my tube enough and it ended up touching and rubbing up on the blanket enough so that it wore a hole in it over time. Please don't be like me, and keep your manifold blanket looking nice like it is now!

Thanks for the reminder. A couple people have recommended this before but I forgot to do it, so I bent it out today. All good now!

 

[turbosax2]

I swapped out the GS-1 pads for a fresh set of R16's on the front and the used XP10's on the rear. Our stash of ATE TYP 200 brake fluid finally ran out so I'm trying out Motul 660 fluid this time. It has much higher temp ratings than the ATE so it should be good. I read better things about the Endless RF 650 but FCP Euro offers lifetime replacement on the Motul fluid so it's hard to argue with that! While swapping brakes/wheels, I noticed the boot on the driver front axle was ripped pretty badly so I put in a replacement GSP axle tonight after painting the bare surfaces. I'll test drive it tomorrow and if it feels OK we're ready for NYST on Monday!

 

[turbosax2]

Another track day in the books and it felt good to be back! We had mostly the usual group: Camaro, GT4, Brian (but in his new SSM Miata), and a new friend with a Miata. We headed up to NY on Saturday and spent Sunday exploring the area around NYST a little. We found a nice little AirBNB cabin to stay at.

Monday was the track day. This event was organized by my local Corvette Club in conjunction with Junkyard Dog Racing. I’m not exactly sure how the logistics worked, but this was an open track day for advanced drivers. A little different than the usual format since there are no sessions, you just go out on the track whenever you want, no tech inspection, really not many rules except that point-bys were still required. There were some Corvettes but also a bunch of Porsches, some BMW’s, and a smattering of other cars.

I had a chance to get a few hours of seat time on the sim rig before going, so I felt comfortable enough with the track. Despite that, there were still the unknowns of where I was going to shift in some sections, lines I wanted to take, etc. that I just couldn’t quite tell without ‘my’ car since nothing in the sim feels quite like mine. An interesting part about this track is that they use a camera/light system instead of corner workers. So they have cameras all around the track that an operator can see the whole track at any given time and they have yellow/red lights instead of corner workers with flags. Besides the guy watching the cameras, there was one other person at the grid to allow you on track safely. That’s it - two guys running the whole show!

I’ll start my excuses early – it’s been nearly two years since I was on track and my AR-1 tires were very near the end of their life. They had nine days on them and had been used since August 2020 so I wasn’t expecting much out of them.

The day started off with a few parade laps for everyone that wanted just to get the lay of the track since it was new to most of us. After that, we went hot and I started out with the Camaro following me since he didn’t get much sim time. It’s such a fun track! And I really liked the open format of the track day so if I had an issue I could come in and go back out whenever I please. The tires did OK but I felt I was down on grip. It was most noticeable on braking, especially on turns 1 and 3, I could lock them up pretty easily so I was braking early and much softer than I’d like. They were also falling off pace a little more than usual. I typically get one good lap in then they slow down progressively, but it was a bit extreme this time. I knew my first session out after lunch would be the fastest so I put the most effort into it, and lost a second each lap for the five laps I put down.

The car ran mostly well but we did have a few hiccups. On the third session, one of the water lines to the wastegate backed off a bit and I started seeing some mist on the windshield. That was an easy fix to snug the line back up and I continued to check it throughout the day. Any ideas for safety wiring the AN line or some other method of making sure it can’t back off? I’ve already tried Loctite previously on the fittings before I welded them on and it didn’t help with the extreme temperatures and thermal cycles it sees. I need to figure out something to keep these on for sure.

On the last session of the day, I started seeing some puffs of smoke in my rearview mirror at some turns. I thought maybe I got a little in the dirt and it was just a dust cloud but it kept happening. The car still felt fine, but they’re super concerned about oiling down this track since it’s primarily used for motorcycles so I came in after a lap of that to troubleshoot. I quickly found that there was oil on the fan and the surrounding area in front of the BOV. I’ve had this happen before when the catch can gets a little too full, stupid mistake on my part for not checking. So I drained the catch cans and got about 14 oz. of oil out. I’ve been meaning to do compression/leakdown tests on the engine to see how healthy it still is. Everything feels fine and I’m a little scared it’s time for a refresh/mild build so I’ve been putting it off.

After cleaning up a little, I figured I’d take it out for another lap or two to see if it was fixed. Brian followed me and I let him pass halfway around the lap and he gave me a thumbs down so I came back in. Just as I was pulling behind my trailer, the power steering pump started making terrible noises. Further investigation found fluid on the downpipe so that explains why I was still smoking and I suspected it was steering fluid, but it was the end of the day so I called it there.

Yesterday I took a closer look and found the p/s fluid was very low. Once I topped that off the pump noise went away so that’s good. I found a leak on the low-pressure soft line near the brake booster. Go figure, one of the parts I didn’t replace during the overhaul in 2021. This was the first track day since doing all that work so I’m still finding the issues. So that line definitely needs to be replaced, not sure what my options are there yet since it’s a soft hose bonded to a hard line that goes into the rack. I also may have a leak at the bottom of the rack on the hard lines but I’m really hoping that isn’t the case. I struggled to find someone willing to sell those lines in good condition. There’s a chance what I saw was just fluid running down the soft line and dripping out the bottom onto the downpipe, but I didn’t have time to get the car in the air. I’m out of town for the next three weeks so troubleshooting will have to wait!

So before the next track day, I need to:

• Replace p/s soft line to rack
• Check for other p/s leaks especially at hard lines on bottom of rack
• Compression/leakdown tests
• Drain catch cans again
• Check/clean intake tract (hopefully it’s not too bad and I can just let it work its way clean)
• Has anyone tried routing the catch can drains back to the block? The oil that came out looked really clean and I wouldn’t be opposed to it going back in the system. I’m thinking of some kind of a valve that opens in certain cases to allow the oil back in, but not in others (like street driving where condensation is more of a concern).
• New tires! There’s no tread left on them anymore so this last day was perfect to finish them off. I found this guide which is pretty cool and it lists the AR-1’s as not being very good at heat tolerance which aligns with my experience. I’m pretty sure I’ll be changing it up to a new tire this time, maybe 3R’s? They do have a 245/40-17. The RC-1’s also look interesting.
  • https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-tire-buyers-guide/
• I think I’ll finish the phone mount on my black vent bezel. I’m not in love with the position on the street and do get a little glare, but it wasn’t bad on the track.

Everything else seemed to be good so I’m mostly happy with how the day went.

P.S. The Miata is fun to drive, I did one session in that. I was hoping to do more but it didn’t work out with how we were all running. After going from that (which is fully caged) to my car, it makes me realize how terrible and sloppy the DSM chassis is. Makes me want a cage to stiffen it up.

I’ll be posting a video of my best lap later. I know I left plenty of time out there but I need to keep working on the driver mod and getting more bold and trusting the car.

 

[Justin DuBois]

Another track day in the books and it felt good to be back! We had mostly the usual group: Camaro, GT4, Brian (but in his new SSM Miata), and a new friend with a Miata. We headed up to NY on Saturday and spent Sunday exploring the area around NYST a little. We found a nice little AirBNB cabin to stay at.

View attachment 699552View attachment 699542

Monday was the track day. This event was organized by my local Corvette Club in conjunction with Junkyard Dog Racing. I’m not exactly sure how the logistics worked, but this was an open track day for advanced drivers. A little different than the usual format since there are no sessions, you just go out on the track whenever you want, no tech inspection, really not many rules except that point-bys were still required. There were some Corvettes but also a bunch of Porsches, some BMW’s, and a smattering of other cars.

I had a chance to get a few hours of seat time on the sim rig before going, so I felt comfortable enough with the track. Despite that, there were still the unknowns of where I was going to shift in some sections, lines I wanted to take, etc. that I just couldn’t quite tell without ‘my’ car since nothing in the sim feels quite like mine. An interesting part about this track is that they use a camera/light system instead of corner workers. So they have cameras all around the track that an operator can see the whole track at any given time and they have yellow/red lights instead of corner workers with flags. Besides the guy watching the cameras, there was one other person at the grid to allow you on track safely. That’s it - two guys running the whole show!

View attachment 699545

I’ll start my excuses early – it’s been nearly two years since I was on track and my AR-1 tires were very near the end of their life. They had nine days on them and had been used since August 2020 so I wasn’t expecting much out of them.

The day started off with a few parade laps for everyone that wanted just to get the lay of the track since it was new to most of us. After that, we went hot and I started out with the Camaro following me since he didn’t get much sim time. It’s such a fun track! And I really liked the open format of the track day so if I had an issue I could come in and go back out whenever I please. The tires did OK but I felt I was down on grip. It was most noticeable on braking, especially on turns 1 and 3, I could lock them up pretty easily so I was braking early and much softer than I’d like. They were also falling off pace a little more than usual. I typically get one good lap in then they slow down progressively, but it was a bit extreme this time. I knew my first session out after lunch would be the fastest so I put the most effort into it, and lost a second each lap for the five laps I put down.

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The car ran mostly well but we did have a few hiccups. On the third session, one of the water lines to the wastegate backed off a bit and I started seeing some mist on the windshield. That was an easy fix to snug the line back up and I continued to check it throughout the day. Any ideas for safety wiring the AN line or some other method of making sure it can’t back off? I’ve already tried Loctite previously on the fittings before I welded them on and it didn’t help with the extreme temperatures and thermal cycles it sees. I need to figure out something to keep these on for sure.

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On the last session of the day, I started seeing some puffs of smoke in my rearview mirror at some turns. I thought maybe I got a little in the dirt and it was just a dust cloud but it kept happening. The car still felt fine, but they’re super concerned about oiling down this track since it’s primarily used for motorcycles so I came in after a lap of that to troubleshoot. I quickly found that there was oil on the fan and the surrounding area in front of the BOV. I’ve had this happen before when the catch can gets a little too full, stupid mistake on my part for not checking. So I drained the catch cans and got about 14 oz. of oil out. I’ve been meaning to do compression/leakdown tests on the engine to see how healthy it still is. Everything feels fine and I’m a little scared it’s time for a refresh/mild build so I’ve been putting it off.

After cleaning up a little, I figured I’d take it out for another lap or two to see if it was fixed. Brian followed me and I let him pass halfway around the lap and he gave me a thumbs down so I came back in. Just as I was pulling behind my trailer, the power steering pump started making terrible noises. Further investigation found fluid on the downpipe so that explains why I was still smoking and I suspected it was steering fluid, but it was the end of the day so I called it there.

Yesterday I took a closer look and found the p/s fluid was very low. Once I topped that off the pump noise went away so that’s good. I found a leak on the low-pressure soft line near the brake booster. Go figure, one of the parts I didn’t replace during the overhaul in 2021. This was the first track day since doing all that work so I’m still finding the issues. So that line definitely needs to be replaced, not sure what my options are there yet since it’s a soft hose bonded to a hard line that goes into the rack. I also may have a leak at the bottom of the rack on the hard lines but I’m really hoping that isn’t the case. I struggled to find someone willing to sell those lines in good condition. There’s a chance what I saw was just fluid running down the soft line and dripping out the bottom onto the downpipe, but I didn’t have time to get the car in the air. I’m out of town for the next three weeks so troubleshooting will have to wait!

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So before the next track day, I need to:

• Replace p/s soft line to rack
• Check for other p/s leaks especially at hard lines on bottom of rack
• Compression/leakdown tests
• Drain catch cans again
• Check/clean intake tract (hopefully it’s not too bad and I can just let it work its way clean)
• Has anyone tried routing the catch can drains back to the block? The oil that came out looked really clean and I wouldn’t be opposed to it going back in the system. I’m thinking of some kind of a valve that opens in certain cases to allow the oil back in, but not in others (like street driving where condensation is more of a concern).
• New tires! There’s no tread left on them anymore so this last day was perfect to finish them off. I found this guide which is pretty cool and it lists the AR-1’s as not being very good at heat tolerance which aligns with my experience. I’m pretty sure I’ll be changing it up to a new tire this time, maybe 3R’s? They do have a 245/40-17. The RC-1’s also look interesting.
  • https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/track-tire-buyers-guide/
• I think I’ll finish the phone mount on my black vent bezel. I’m not in love with the position on the street and do get a little glare, but it wasn’t bad on the track.

Everything else seemed to be good so I’m mostly happy with how the day went.

P.S. The Miata is fun to drive, I did one session in that. I was hoping to do more but it didn’t work out with how we were all running. After going from that (which is fully caged) to my car, it makes me realize how terrible and sloppy the DSM chassis is. Makes me want a cage to stiffen it up.

I’ll be posting a video of my best lap later. I know I left plenty of time out there but I need to keep working on the driver mod and getting more bold and trusting the car.

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I liked everything about this post. This is how you perfect the car - on track.

 

[Tyeler18]

Excited to see this back out on track again, as far as the power steering return line goes you can use 3/8" transmission cooler line to replace the rubber return line. It's hydraulic fluid rated obviously and works really well. I've had the same hose on my 98 spyder for the last 9 years after having it fail in the same spot as yours. For the catch can, so long as you're not getting moisture in the can I'd return it back into the crank case. Ben from gears and gasoline ran an oil scavenge pump off his catch can in his evo to pump fluid back into the pan under boost as he was filling his can after a lap or 2 and it seemed to be pretty effective for a higher blow by engine. I'd be nervous a gravity drain wouldn't be able to overcome the crank case pressure, although it would basically just act as an extra vent under boost and under vacuum it would probably drain.

 

[Dusty Landrum]

Here is an example of fittings we use in aviation to be able to safety them to prevent back offs. Finding some banjo fittings online that are similar but so far nothing for AN. Going to keep searching though. Thinking if you can get them secured and a drill press that is really accurate you may be able to drill a safety wire hole in the fittings yourself so you can use the current lines you have.

 

[turbosax2]

I liked everything about this post. This is how you perfect the car - on track.

Ain't that the truth!

Excited to see this back out on track again, as far as the power steering return line goes you can use 3/8" transmission cooler line to replace the rubber return line. It's hydraulic fluid rated obviously and works really well. I've had the same hose on my 98 spyder for the last 9 years after having it fail in the same spot as yours. For the catch can, so long as you're not getting moisture in the can I'd return it back into the crank case. Ben from gears and gasoline ran an oil scavenge pump off his catch can in his evo to pump fluid back into the pan under boost as he was filling his can after a lap or 2 and it seemed to be pretty effective for a higher blow by engine. I'd be nervous a gravity drain wouldn't be able to overcome the crank case pressure, although it would basically just act as an extra vent under boost and under vacuum it would probably drain.

Thanks for the tips! I had to go back and look since I didn't post it last time, but I used Gates 362090/350010 hose for the rest of the system during the overhaul a couple years ago and that worked well. I'm looking into switching my hard/soft line assembly to a 2ga style of a fitting on the rack with a soft hose the whole way.

I'll have to check out more info on what Ben did (I'm also a fan of that channel). At least in the meantime I can just make sure to empty it each session or two since it almost lasted me a full day on track before becoming an issue, but that could be a good winter project if I don't get it sorted earlier. I think with the level of my catch can a gravity drain wouldn't be great anyway since I think it's lower than where I could return to.

Here is an example of fittings we use in aviation to be able to safety them to prevent back offs. Finding some banjo fittings online that are similar but so far nothing for AN. Going to keep searching though. Thinking if you can get them secured and a drill press that is really accurate you may be able to drill a safety wire hole in the fittings yourself so you can use the current lines you have.

If you do manage to find anything please let me know! I don't have a drill press, but I have pistol gripped some in the past and it worked fine with a jig I have. But these fittings are so small I'm not sure...I'll have to check when I get home. I'm even tempted to weld something onto the fittings or make a new sleeve that goes around them or something like that.