UTCC 2017 and Hyperfest

[turbosax2]

Dang John, sorry to hear the bad luck. Keep chipping away at that to-do list!

 

[Xska555]

Im glad your back at it. That sure is alot to go through to get your car on track. Ill be arriving at VIR early friday afternoon, Ill stop by to say hi and lend a hand if needed. GL

Bryant

 

[TSiAWD666]

Ill be arriving at VIR early friday afternoon, Ill stop by to say hi and lend a hand if needed. GL

Cool! I'm not sure where I'll be. I think I may set up a tent and put the car near the entrance to the paddock so event attendees can see the car, but I have a garage rented so the car, and/or I, may be there. Are you driving at all during the weekend?

Update on Ohlins
They're here! RRT's working on them now. Hopefully they're right this time and Sweden's simulations did their job haha

 

[Xska555]

Yea in group 3 sat and sun. Im in a 01' 330i a picked up a month ago for cheap just for track duty, its not even registered. The Galant dropped a vavle last month at VIR so the 330 is just a back up car for now till I rebuild.

See ya there

 

[T2Small]

Wow, thanks for sharing!

I've had similar problems with my FP turbine bolts backing off, and also stupidly didn't realize the tabs were for locking it at the time. After re-installing them and buying a new kit from FP, I figured it out. For the turbo to the exhaust manifold, try NordLock washers. For me, that completely cured any issues with the bolts backing during track sessions. McMaster-Carr carries them and you can get staiinless, but whatever version you get make sure the washer is harder than the clamping surface.

The lower chassis brace is really good looking!

 

[T2Small]

Also wanted to mention that I've found that my rear sway bar moves around far too much. I've seen Whiteline's sway bar locks, but haven't ever got around to installing some.

 

[snowborder714]

I'm going to be the one to ask a non-car related question, but if you can find some time to expand on the solar/battery charging setup you've got going on, I'd appreciate it. I'm looking to replace my winch (I like the one you picked and will have to check it out more!) and battery, as well as rewire the trailer, and having a solar charger on the battery has been my ideal setup for when I charge it via the truck connection.

Awesome updates, by the way! I love all the detail and pictures

 

[TSiAWD666]

I've had similar problems with my FP turbine bolts backing off, and also stupidly didn't realize the tabs were for locking it at the time. After re-installing them and buying a new kit from FP, I figured it out. For the turbo to the exhaust manifold, try NordLock washers. For me, that completely cured any issues with the bolts backing during track sessions. McMaster-Carr carries them and you can get staiinless, but whatever version you get make sure the washer is harder than the clamping surface.

I actually did get Nord-Locks and they're installed now. The bolts are safety-wire ready, but I'm holding off for a heat cycle and re-torque before I do that. Thank you though for the suggestion, good to hear they worked.

Also wanted to mention that I've found that my rear sway bar moves around far too much. I've seen Whiteline's sway bar locks, but haven't ever got around to installing some.

Yeah I've always noticed it, but I never thought it might cause a delay in the sway bar engagement.

I'm going to be the one to ask a non-car related question, but if you can find some time to expand on the solar/battery charging setup you've got going on, I'd appreciate it. I'm looking to replace my winch (I like the one you picked and will have to check it out more!) and battery, as well as rewire the trailer, and having a solar charger on the battery has been my ideal setup for when I charge it via the truck connection.

Keep in mind this is completely untested. I mean I verified the solar charger is putting out voltage but that's really it My criteria were:
- as best reviews on Amazon as I could find (seriously there are not great reviews for any solar panels out there...)
- built in overcharge protection
- waterproof
- sized to fit well on top of my trailer toolbox
- of course 12V charging
- could be secured for permanent installation (a lot are designed to be on dashboards via suction cups or just layed out loose).
- looked like it could withstand constant exposure to sun (i.e. avoiding plastic frames)

The one I went with is this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-50022-Battery-Trickle-Charger/dp/B0006JO0TC/ref=sr_1_9
(I swear it had more stars when I bought it...)

An alternative I see after a quick search might be this with slightly better overall ratings:
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tend...4619127&sr=1-5&keywords=solar+trickle+charger

I drilled a hole under where I was mounting the panel and installed a grommet there. I used part of this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004K2285E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought that boot for the winch power lines to pass through. I didn't quite use it as intended though. I cut a section off towards the wider end and used that for the winch lines. I then had a couple ridged areas leftover and used those smaller sections for the panel wires. Wasn't pretty but since this was hidden under the panel I didn't care

We'll see how well it works! I'll have to check voltage from time to time, and probably pull the battery out and see how high charged it is (I guess throw the ctek on it and see if it's full or not).

 

[slowwhite]

I only get 1 day off a week so I took off Friday and was going to let my son skip school and take him with me.
But after reading the above post. Is there actual racing friday?

The website only lists the 19th as the date
http://www.ultimatetrackcar.com

If there isn't I'll have to see if I can switch with someone at work.

 

[TSiAWD666]

I only get 1 day off a week so I took off Friday and was going to let my son skip school and take him with me.
But after reading the above post. Is there actual racing friday?

The website only lists the 19th as the date
http://www.ultimatetrackcar.com

If there isn't I'll have to see if I can switch with someone at work.

This might be a little confusing, but here I go...
UTCC is Friday, mixed in with an Open Practice day. Lots of cool cars will be on track, and UTCC is of course racing.
NASA HPDE, racing, time trials, all happen on Saturday and Sunday.
Hyperfest (http://hyper-fest.com/) is on Friday and Saturday. Saturday has the car shows, burnout contest, Pro drifting competitions, Amateur drifting. You also get to watch whatever else is going on depending on the day (either UTCC or NASA stuff).

The day you pick really depends on what you're interested in. There will be lots of race cars on Friday, but the racing will be time trials only so no wheel to wheel stuff which will happen on Saturday and Sunday. The coolest race cars will be there primarily on Friday though some will stay on through the weekend.

 

[slowwhite]

I just checked with the lady who has Saturday off. She can't switch for reasons I completely understand (her sons past away and this is the day the family get together to visit his grave etc)

So friday it is. I'll be there with my son.


What time does it start/should be be there?

Edit: found ticket prices on VIR website:
$35 at gate for fri/sat.

I'm only going friday, if anyone wants a ticket for Saturday can have mine. (Or 2 if they charge for my 7yr old)

 

[TSiAWD666]

It starts pretty early. I think I go on track as early as 830am for the first session.

Here are pics of the finished lower bracing. I don't think this picture shows much more than the one before but here it is:

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If you're wondering what the orange stuff is, it's Dykem CrossCheck Torque Seal. Basically tells you if a nut/bolt has moved, but also good to note when a nut/bolt is torqued so you can see what you missed. I started using it since I was concerned with all the NVH from the new solid bearings.

The Ohlins are on the car! As of this picture tonight only the fronts were on but the rears should be on by now as they were machining the fittings for the last one when I left.

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I wasn't happy they left the bottom mount in the fork solid, but it's too late, we'll have to drill it out later. Yeah it's really minor but wouldn't have been during fabrication. I had mentioned it a few times to make it hollow.

All that should be left is the tablet steering column mount, then alignment. I'm supposed to take delivery of the car tomorrow early afternoon.

During a visit I think earlier this week RRT asked why I still had the metal shield for the fuel tank. I... had no answer. So we removed it We added some heat shielding I have had in my parts closet for years to the plastic tank to give some heat insulation from the exhaust. Kind of hard to see here. Some 3M adhesion promoter was used to make sure it stuck well.

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My exhaust is needlessly heavy for a race car. They want to make me one out of titanium, cutting weight by about a third. I lifted the whole thing up, I think mine is only like 20-25 lbs tops.

Scott had asked about the bracing for the front a-arm anchors. I tried to take a picture tonight though everything's installed so you have to use some brain power to understand what's in the picture. Basically he added more metal around the hole for the anchor, as well as some 90-degree braces. The metal added to the surface pushed the anchors downwards, and since we didn't feel like mucking with suspension geometry he machined the anchors to match. I hope this makes sense...

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Lastly the rear upright. Just figured some might want to see what I've done to fit bigger wheels and tires. With this and my 315/30/18 hoosier R7/A6 tires on my Finspeed F110 RT Ultra something or other +16mm 18x12 rims I needed to reinforce the back and grind out all that. This let's me run a 5mm spacer in the rear. Sadly, grinding more will require more reinforcement and they don't have time (which... is unfortunate, I had given them plenty of time originally but their delays now leave us with none). We'll have to revisit this in the future, but this eliminated about 5mm in spacer already (I had a 7mm + 3mm back there before).

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So hopefully I get the car tomorrow and everything's magically right. I'm doubtful but at least I will be able to work on the car, and if there are issues I can get the car back to them. I likely will need to take a day off of work to take care of all of my to-do list but we'll see.

 

[greengoblin]

Is your front crossmember unpainted ? Lots of cool new bits on the car. Looking good sir!

 

[TSiAWD666]

If I recall correctly it's the sandblasted subframe from your 95 that you sent to Robispec and he went and modified it then sold it to me rather than sending it back to you. When it showed up unpainted we had to install it as is because we only had that afternoon to do the KW install + subframe. I haven't ever got around to painting it because it's always on the car. I would've asked RRT to do it but I totally forgot. It looks fine though.

 

[greengoblin]

Yeah it's defiantly the unit I had blasted. With all the suspension changes you made I think you see a big difference in handling and feedback all around. I'm jealous.
Good luck at the event!

 

[TSiAWD666]

So I got the car back earlier today. Been busy on the car all afternoon and into the evening. I have one puzzling problem with the alternator voltage and I'm stumped. If anyone has thoughts, I'd appreciate any help:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/high-voltage-from-alternator-problem.511874/

 

[ceedawg]

Wow all of this makes me afraid to road race my car which has basic polyurethane bushings, adjustable shocks,lowering springs you name it. Lol
But I love this car man great job.

 

[TSiAWD666]

I fixed the alternator issue! I posted this in my other thread, but in case it's of use to anyone I want to spread the news. The issue was because the alternator voltage sense wire comes from the headlight circuit, and I had, during my downtime over the winter, pulled that fuse amongst a bunch of other relays and fuses that I figured I wasn't using anymore. Now I'm not entirely sure actually it's the headlight fuse but I do believe it is. At the moment I just put every damned relay and fuse back in the box to test my theory and voila, normal voltage and brake/alternator dash lights are off!

Now back to real work. Already re-sealed the front-end as best I could (reducing airflow around headlights and stuff into the engine bay), replaced a cracked 90-degree silicone connector at the throttle body, wired in a connector for bumming 5V power off the TPS harness for an ignition system (more on that later if it works haha), installed some airflow deflectors in the front fender wells, replaced the RaceCapture Mk2 with a Mk3... and probably a few other things my exhausted brain isn't remembering. Still got a big list though so back to it.

 

[TSiAWD666]

So I made a lot of progress over the past couple days. Tons of stuff to do but I pretty much knocked everything off my list.

I took some pictures of some interesting things.

First I wanted to fix an air gap in the front of the sideskirts. I wasn't pleased with how the sideskirts were built, allowing air from the wheel wells underneath the car. I'm completely guessing this is detrimental as I never could get a straight answer out of Andrew Brilliant, so for all I know this could be bad, but I do believe this is a problem. Here's a picture of what I mean:

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This is from behind the tire looking towards the back of the car. So I just made a quick template out of paper, then cut up some aluminum.

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Here they are installed on the car:

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I had too much to do to bother with painting them and you really can't see them on the car unless you look closely. I know they look a little... ghetto but they really did close off the holes as I wanted.

After finishing the majority of my work I finally got to the stickers. I had to remove some that weren't really sponsors (they were event sponsors I was required to have for a single event), or no longer sponsors. I also had to add a few, some for racing contingencies, and one new sponsor (I'll talk about that below). The car was a little dusty, and I'm missing a couple stickers still from vendors, but here is the car just about ready to go.

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About the new sponsor, I used to have Carbotech as a sponsor for brake pads. Carbotech was sold to new owners. The previous owner started up G-LOC brakes and, for reasons I'm not quite clear about, they are able to use the same compounds as Carbotech. The owner and I spoke when I reached out about more Carbotech pads earlier this year and he told me what happened, and then he offered to sponsor me under G-LOC starting with a brand new set of pads. Pretty nice! So G-LOC is now a sponsor of the car! Here are what I will be running:

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I received a GoPro Hero 5 Black as a Christmas gift and set it up as a rear camera. It won't auto-power on like my Hero 4 inside nor does it have a power wire back there to charge (generally not that useful since the car is off most of the day), but it will sync to the one GoPro remote I use in the cabin so that when I press record both cameras will start. Here's a picture of it installed... not the best as I'm occluding about 1/4 of the vision of the lens but it was the lowest I could go due to the weird shape of the metal behind the license plate.

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Autosport Labs has been a long time sponsor of my car, providing me with the RaceCapture/Pro datalogger and telemetry system for years now. This year they came out with their third version, the Mk3, and they were gracious enough to send me a unit! The cool thing for me is that instead of just the one remote display (I'd been using my phone for timing) I can connect THREE displays simultaneously (one via bluetooth, two via wireless, all built into the unit rather than as addons like prior versions). It's pretty damned cool!! If you're intersted in entry-level datalogging with a killer feature set check out the RaceCapture line here: https://www.autosportlabs.com/racecapture_mk3_apex/

So I decided to test out using an Android tablet (Nvidia Shield 8") as a dashboard. Here it is all installed and working:

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Overall it's working. I have some small quirks to work out with the tablet setup though. Here at my desk I have it set up to go into sleep mode and airplane mode when it's not on usb power, and time out the screen in 5 seconds. This gives me about one month (yes, month) of standby power, it's great. When plugged in it turns off airplane mode, enables wifi, never times out the screen, lights up the screen, and autostarts the RaceCapture app. This works at the desk! However when it's plugged into the car... it's being a pain, not going to sleep when the car is off, not disabling airplane mode when powered on, and even if I manually take it out it's not automatically connecting to the RCPro's wifi. Weird. Not a huge deal but I hope I can sort it out in the next couple days.

I also wired up a TPMS system that uses valve stem cap sensors. I am just testing this out to see if it works as a holdover until something better. I ideally want to use some sensors that use CAN which I can send directly to the RaceCapture/Pro and alarm on the dash, but I didn't have time to find sensors and puzzle out how to get them to work. This one is a simple display running off micro-USB. The display is right there in the middle next to the EVC 5 display. Also, since I am using this dash display I decided to finally get rid of the S-AFC2 that I've had forever (and that everyone makes fun of). This meant I didn't have to use its bracket, and so I relocated the EVC 5 to the dash. The EVC 5 will go eventually too once I transition to ECMLink based boost control probably later this summer.

Here's the Amazon link for the TPMS I'm testing: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012AEEYDM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Related, I find it rather annoying sitting in grid and the RaceCapture app is acting up. It happens, like with all software. Usually I have my race gloves on so I have to take them off to use the screen. I solved this by using some conductive thread, and so far it's working!

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Link to the thread: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLDPV1E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For posterity here's the RCPro installed under my console. My wiring is... I think most people would hate how I wire my car:

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So a couple things happened in the engine bay:

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1) There's now a much larger header/surge tank. I am seeing if this solves my coolant loss during sessions as I was thinking my old one was too small and coolant was pushing out. This isn't quite in the ideal location as it's blocking one of the hood vents a bit and the highest point of the cooling system, the fill neck, is at the middle of this when you want it towards the bottom. RRT was rushed and we couldn't make drastic changes (like shuffle things around like the power junction back there in red, or the catch can, or the fuse box... etc.) so this is where it ended up. I think it should be in the back left corner. We'll see how it works.

2) RRT fixed the heat shield. Last year it looked like this but with only the middle strap, which broke in one session right near the valve cover. For the fix this time this solution seen here wasn't what they wanted to do originally. They wanted to chuck this heavy steel thing and go with some flexible aluminum fiberglass/ceramic sandwich stuff, very similar to what I made my alternator heat shield out of, but when they tried working with it they found it much more difficult and couldn't get it to work in the timeframe they had (I warned them actually it would be iff, now they believe me). So they added more straps. Heh I'm skeptical, hopefully it holds together.

3) This isn't permanent, but you might notice I have a Coil-On plug in there. This is a prototype I designed that uses just coils without need of a stock PTU at all and driven with a 2g ECU (albeit ecmlink). Various people have argued this isn't possible, but I do believe I have it working. I couldn't do a thorough test today though since my car isn't registered, and so I just drove around the block boosting to 19psi in 2nd gear before quickly turning back into my neighborhood. Yes, I do have a tach signal working just fine. So far so good, I'll try this at the track if there is time. The hardware is provided by Spoolinup (maker of Evo COPs) with my own custom wiring and circuitry. These coils are supposedly better than those typically used on COP for our cars.

Ok, so that's about it. I have to get a few more stickers on the car, and possibly get back to RRT as the alignment given wasn't quite right (something we have to discuss, could be I'm just crazy and nitpicking), but otherwise I just need to start packing up spare parts and tools in prep for my Thursday departure. Feels good to have this car pretty much back together

 

[arrowhead]

Sorry to see all the problems but it is part of racing, maybe I could have help you with your fiber parts.
Good luck on your next outing
Mandy

 

[TSiAWD666]

So about two hours ago this happened after a test drive just before I got into my driveway (I was in the middle of the street):

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I raced over to RRT and they welded it back together for me on the spot.

So, anyone have a spare they can send me?

 

[slowwhite]

Looks like you have the same issue as this guy.

Edit:I can never get youtube links to show up

Google search for video:
Transfer and clutch 9 - 2g shifter tech

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...x28jtvfnGP_UlkifA&sig2=iXt8wfbLi79XJ5tEC7guaQ

 

[TSiAWD666]

Looks like you have the same issue as this guy.

Yeah exact issue. I'd heard about it for quite a while, and I guess I was due with an 18 year old car. It's all good now:

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He added a couple extra tacks on the other side which can't hurt:

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Some resistors arrived yesterday that I'd been waiting for from China and I decided to see if I could wire in my oil pressure and oil temperature gauges to the RaceCapture/Pro. I was skeptical only because I didn't have the lookup tables for the resistance values for the VDO sensors I was using. I did find some information but am not 100% confident it's the right data for the specific sensors I'm using. VDO had some info on their site for the oil temp but it was... confusing at best, and the oil pressure sensor file link was dead. What the hell though, might as well give it a shot.

Autosport Labs sent me one of their SensorX boards to help with the wiring. It's basically a breakout board for more organized wiring of analog sensor inputs that require driving voltage and pull-up or pull-down resistors. Here's the board mid-wiring:

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In this configuration I have the two sensor line inputs on the right hand side of the board coming in. These two sensors ground through the engine and don't need a ground line, and they are resistor-based so don't need a dedicated power line. They are 180ohm max resistive sensors, and so I've paired them with 220ohm pull-up resistors to get my voltage divisor. They are driven by a 5V reference line provided by the RaceCapture/Pro (not connected yet in the picture). I know this is all basic stuff for those with a modicum of electrical sensor experience but I thought it might be of interest to those newer to this.

I didn't get to test with it much but it does appear I'm getting data, just not sure how accurate my voltage mappings are. We'll see once I am able to get the car warmed up as I know at least at idle what the pressures and temperatures should be like. If this all works well I'll try to get my Apex-i sensors connected though for those I will have even a harder time tracking down sensor data. I may just take them out and swap for sensors with readily available data. Once done I can get rid of all my gauges which will reduce clutter.

I was asked by the owner of Autosport Labs to make a demo video of my setup. I'll try to do that later today and I can share that here. Right now the car is back at RRT to fix an alignment error. In the meantime I've packed up my Durango in preparation for the trip.

New Sponsor (sort of!)

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I was waiting to announce this for when the new stickers and part arrived, but... USPS lost them Zaklee, long time maker of clear cam gear covers for many many cars including DSMs, is continuing to support the car. I said sort of because many years ago a garage cracked my Zaklee cover my over torquing the bolts for it. When I contacted then owner Rob about it, he simply sent me a new one, no questions asked. I considered that a sponsorship and ever since I have been wearing their stickers as a thank you for such amazing customer support, and done my best to spread the word about his great products. I more recently got back in touch when I needed a replacement sticker as I lost mine on the door with the repairs, and found the company had been sold. The new owner however is a great car enthusiast and looking to keep the company growing and he loves the car. So he sent me stickers with his new logo along with a fresh cover "to use for car shows and gatherings" Unfortunately USPS seems to have delivered it, according to their own GPS, to some house over a minute away from mine. So nothing in-hand for the event. Still, always great to have support and I really appreciate it!

http://zakleecorp.com/

 

[TSiAWD666]

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Off we go!

 

[twicks69]

Good luck dude! Kick some ass!