GreenGSX
DSM Wiseman
- 371
- 5
- May 13, 2002
-
Rochester,
New York
This is a trip report that I wrote for my regional club (RochesterDSM.org). It has references to people that you will not know but you shouldn't have any trouble getting the idea......
This years report actually starts in January. That's when I started the rebuild for this season. I figured that I could get most of it done before my little girl was born. Well, she came when she was ready and I was faced with a race car that I had just torn apart and a new daughter that needed almost every second of my time. So, I worked a few minutes here and a few there. I got a few hours in on the weekend and as race day neared I was able to put in a few full days on the weekends.
When I put the car away at the end of last season the car was in pretty bad shape. The head gasket was pushing coolant, the exhaust had fallen off, the clutch was near its end, and I needed a transmission. I took a chance and bought a rebuilt transmission from a guy on DSMtalk. I drove to Binghamton to pick it up and ended up with a tranny, transfer case, and driver's side axle. Sean was nice enough to donate a driveshaft to replace mine that was beat to snot from cutting loose at the last autocross of 2005. When I got the car apart I found out some interesting things. First off, my timing belt oil leak was from multiple areas. The cam seals were leaking along with the balance shaft pulley bolt and the oil pan gasket. I had a brand new front cover in the basement along with a all the seals and gaskets I needed to get that buttoned up. Of course a new timing belt finished that job off nicely. With the head off the car I got a chance to fix my broken exhaust manifold studs and replace the exhaust valve seals. I picked up a COP plate and some used coils off of Ebay and ended up with a $60 ignition system. That should take care of burnt plug wires or worse yet plug wires popping off while on course. I also addressed a serious overheating problem by selling my FMIC and replacing it with a Supra SMIC. Using some finesse and a sawz-all I managed to get it installed without flipping the top tank. That way I could take full advantage of the whole core. I welded up some new IC pipes and that was all set to go. Last year the downpipe flange weld rusted through and the downpipe dropped while I was on course. I was lucky that another racer had a mig welder that I used to put it back together to save the day. I knew my fix was on borrowed time so this year I built a new O2 housing, downpipe, and dumptube out of stainless. No more rust for me!.
The week before the event was as hectic as I ever had. I had to put the rest of the cat back together, build the duct work for the radiator/SMIC/oil cooler, wire up the COP, and fix the million of little things that kept popping up. For one thing the wiring harness is pure junk. Every wire was brittle and cracked and most of the connections had to be fixed. You know its bad when you end up fixing the fixes you did two years ago! I got the car started on Thursday and on Friday I tried installing my new DSMchips eprom only to find that my dead ecu was really dead and not just a bad chip. I gave George a call and he was nice enough to spend most of Sunday poking and testing every chip, resistor, and transistor only to find a bad trace in some obscure location that I know nothing about. I must say that George does know his way around electronics. I owe him a beer or two!
Tuesday, the day before the event, was easy. I actually had time to wash the car and pack up my spare parts in a relaxed care-free way that I was sure I couldn't forget a thing. Scott (RochNY91TSI) met me around 6:30 for the ride down. Mike was delayed chasing a ball around a diamond so he wasn't going to get into the Glen until after 10pm. The bad news for Mike is that by being the last guy in he scored the cot while the good news for me is that when I realized that I had forgot my helmet I was able to make a quick call and Mike stopped at my house to pick it up for me on his way. I would say that I owe Mike a beer but I also asked him to pick a 12 pack on the way.
The first day always starts way too early. We have to be at the gate before 6am to make sure we get a garage space. For those of use whose cars are prone to breaking this is really important. With my schedule so tight I wasn't able to tune the car so I was going to have to do it on the fly out on the track. The chip uses the factory boost gauge as a knock meter so I used that to make sure everything was OK. When I got to the garage I put my track tires on and installed/built my brake cooling ducts. They are the best $8 you'll ever spend, I highly recommend them. Our first run was at 8:30am. Mike and I were in the black run group which was packed. It seemed like at every turn there were 3-4 slow as snot 944's out there. Turbo or not those things are always the dreaded "jam" cars out there. After a careful warm up lap I started to press a little harder. The car is quick and harder I push it the faster it seems to go. A quick look down at my boost-now-knock gauge shows the car is knocking like crazy. I feather the gas to keep from knocking and press on with my run. As far as I can tell I am still faster than snot out there. A bit of good news is the water temp which is cooler than ever. I guess taking that 2-216 FMIC out for a Supra SMIC was a good thing.
Before my next run I upped the base fuel pressure a few psi and that seemed to take care of most of the knock in third but fourth and fifth were both still all knock. So another session of feathering the throttle but even then I still feel like the fastest car out there. Not because of horsepower because the Supra, GT3's, and turbo 911 surely can walk away from me on the top end. I think I am the fastest for two important reasons. The first reason is my brakes. The Baer track kit with Hawk HT10 pads is just simply awesome. Great pedal feel, easy modulation, and they just love to run hot. I can easily out brake or at least match the brakes of any of the cars out there. The second reason is AWD. With how the car handles and how that allows me to drive I can get on the gas earlier coming out of the corners than most everyone else. That is huge when you're trying to go fast.
My second session ended with me smelling oil smoke on my cool down lap. Once in the pits I found that I had boiled my power steering fluid and it had spewed out all over the place. With my tight schedule this year I was not able to put in a power steering cooler which I obviously need. My third session also ended with oil smoke but this time it was really oil. I normally run with about a half a quart of extra oil in the crankcase to make me feel better when in the turns. I guess I should have checked the dipstick before the run because it had popped partially out and spewed about a quart of 20W-50 oil all over the engine bay. That was quite a mess. I was also experiencing some cutting out during that run and when I got back I found was a big leak between the O2 housing and the turbo. I only found that out after I had pulled the exhaust manifold and turbo. The exhaust leak was blowing up and onto my coil on plug set-up and I figured that the heat was causing a coil to drop out. The exhaust leak required me to find a bolt or two and some lock washers which I should have used in the first place. It took a few hours and some work with a hand file but in the end the car was back together the exhaust leak was fixed enough to save day two.
This year was a little different in the pits. Normally there is a cool comradery between drivers where everyone bends over backwards to help each other fix there cars and it is not unusual to lend out tools or give up parts to complete strangers. This time around I was pestered by drivers coming up to me while I was up to my elbows in parts just to tell me how I should be driving a Porsche because I wouldn't have to work on them all the time. I don't know if it was the stress hustling to get the car ready or the lack of sleep from caring for my little girl but my skin was wearing thin with what I considered to be ribbing in poor taste. It got so bad that Mike (red Supra) had to keep people away so I could work in peace. The second day was 100% different and everyone was cool. I guess the first day was just the drivers trying to get the "pecking" order established.
After the first day I was beat. I carried a lot of stress with me to the event and missing the last session of the day turning wrenches had taken its toll. So, instead of going out to dinner Mike, Scott, and I just got a few pizzas and some beer which we enjoyed overlooking the lake. We took that time to watch each others videos and go over the days events. That was one of the highlights of the trip.
I started day two with a full tank of gas (93 octane) and big expectations for the day. The weather forecast called for rain all day but it wasn't raining yet so I figured if I was really going to push the car now is the time. The story was the same. The car was fast. I was really passing cars at will and having a blast. The car was still knocking in fourth and I was having problems with the car cutting out in hard left had turns. Normally I have fuel starvation problems when I get below half a tank of gas. This year the car was cutting out with just under ¾ tank of gas. I could feel in the car that I was pulling more G's than ever but this was just confirmation that as I go faster and faster the stock parts just is not up to the task. Next year its either going to be a fuel cell or some sort of fix to the stock tank because I was using about 5 gallons per session. So even starting with a full tank of gas wouldn't help. BTW that turns out to be about 4.4 miles to a gallon.
The second session of the second day was pure magic. I was fourth in line behind a ZO6 corvette (race tires good driver) and 914 with a 406ci small block. Behind me was Mike in the Supra. After a lap and half of warm up it was game on. Within a lap Mike and I waxed the snot out of both of them. From then on Mike and I proceeded to set our own personal bests. We lapped the Glen in 2:18 which is 6 seconds faster than my previous best. I also hit 137mph on the back strait which is just a bit faster than my previous best of 135mph. We also had the pleasure to pass a GT3 and Porsche Cayman...and to add icing to the cake we got some nice props from both the ZO6 and V8 914 drivers. Here is a video of that lap. Note that the picture on my dash is of my little girl Gabby...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...81481835821248
The rest of the day was uneventful except that I broke a rotor clean through in two places. After putting on a new pair of rotors and pads I took my last session of the day. The brakes were fine until they got hot then they just sucked. I almost went through the "laces" in the boot so I decided to take it easy. I finished that session trying to do the entire course in 4th without using the brakes. That was an interesting experience that showed me where I could pick up the pace a bit for next year.
So in summary, the car was fast as snot, it broke, I fixed it, it was still fast, and I came home in one piece driving the same car I took down. Not to bad. Anyway...with fast cars, beer, and good friends..who could ask for anything more?
Tim Harper
This years report actually starts in January. That's when I started the rebuild for this season. I figured that I could get most of it done before my little girl was born. Well, she came when she was ready and I was faced with a race car that I had just torn apart and a new daughter that needed almost every second of my time. So, I worked a few minutes here and a few there. I got a few hours in on the weekend and as race day neared I was able to put in a few full days on the weekends.
When I put the car away at the end of last season the car was in pretty bad shape. The head gasket was pushing coolant, the exhaust had fallen off, the clutch was near its end, and I needed a transmission. I took a chance and bought a rebuilt transmission from a guy on DSMtalk. I drove to Binghamton to pick it up and ended up with a tranny, transfer case, and driver's side axle. Sean was nice enough to donate a driveshaft to replace mine that was beat to snot from cutting loose at the last autocross of 2005. When I got the car apart I found out some interesting things. First off, my timing belt oil leak was from multiple areas. The cam seals were leaking along with the balance shaft pulley bolt and the oil pan gasket. I had a brand new front cover in the basement along with a all the seals and gaskets I needed to get that buttoned up. Of course a new timing belt finished that job off nicely. With the head off the car I got a chance to fix my broken exhaust manifold studs and replace the exhaust valve seals. I picked up a COP plate and some used coils off of Ebay and ended up with a $60 ignition system. That should take care of burnt plug wires or worse yet plug wires popping off while on course. I also addressed a serious overheating problem by selling my FMIC and replacing it with a Supra SMIC. Using some finesse and a sawz-all I managed to get it installed without flipping the top tank. That way I could take full advantage of the whole core. I welded up some new IC pipes and that was all set to go. Last year the downpipe flange weld rusted through and the downpipe dropped while I was on course. I was lucky that another racer had a mig welder that I used to put it back together to save the day. I knew my fix was on borrowed time so this year I built a new O2 housing, downpipe, and dumptube out of stainless. No more rust for me!.
The week before the event was as hectic as I ever had. I had to put the rest of the cat back together, build the duct work for the radiator/SMIC/oil cooler, wire up the COP, and fix the million of little things that kept popping up. For one thing the wiring harness is pure junk. Every wire was brittle and cracked and most of the connections had to be fixed. You know its bad when you end up fixing the fixes you did two years ago! I got the car started on Thursday and on Friday I tried installing my new DSMchips eprom only to find that my dead ecu was really dead and not just a bad chip. I gave George a call and he was nice enough to spend most of Sunday poking and testing every chip, resistor, and transistor only to find a bad trace in some obscure location that I know nothing about. I must say that George does know his way around electronics. I owe him a beer or two!
Tuesday, the day before the event, was easy. I actually had time to wash the car and pack up my spare parts in a relaxed care-free way that I was sure I couldn't forget a thing. Scott (RochNY91TSI) met me around 6:30 for the ride down. Mike was delayed chasing a ball around a diamond so he wasn't going to get into the Glen until after 10pm. The bad news for Mike is that by being the last guy in he scored the cot while the good news for me is that when I realized that I had forgot my helmet I was able to make a quick call and Mike stopped at my house to pick it up for me on his way. I would say that I owe Mike a beer but I also asked him to pick a 12 pack on the way.
The first day always starts way too early. We have to be at the gate before 6am to make sure we get a garage space. For those of use whose cars are prone to breaking this is really important. With my schedule so tight I wasn't able to tune the car so I was going to have to do it on the fly out on the track. The chip uses the factory boost gauge as a knock meter so I used that to make sure everything was OK. When I got to the garage I put my track tires on and installed/built my brake cooling ducts. They are the best $8 you'll ever spend, I highly recommend them. Our first run was at 8:30am. Mike and I were in the black run group which was packed. It seemed like at every turn there were 3-4 slow as snot 944's out there. Turbo or not those things are always the dreaded "jam" cars out there. After a careful warm up lap I started to press a little harder. The car is quick and harder I push it the faster it seems to go. A quick look down at my boost-now-knock gauge shows the car is knocking like crazy. I feather the gas to keep from knocking and press on with my run. As far as I can tell I am still faster than snot out there. A bit of good news is the water temp which is cooler than ever. I guess taking that 2-216 FMIC out for a Supra SMIC was a good thing.
Before my next run I upped the base fuel pressure a few psi and that seemed to take care of most of the knock in third but fourth and fifth were both still all knock. So another session of feathering the throttle but even then I still feel like the fastest car out there. Not because of horsepower because the Supra, GT3's, and turbo 911 surely can walk away from me on the top end. I think I am the fastest for two important reasons. The first reason is my brakes. The Baer track kit with Hawk HT10 pads is just simply awesome. Great pedal feel, easy modulation, and they just love to run hot. I can easily out brake or at least match the brakes of any of the cars out there. The second reason is AWD. With how the car handles and how that allows me to drive I can get on the gas earlier coming out of the corners than most everyone else. That is huge when you're trying to go fast.
My second session ended with me smelling oil smoke on my cool down lap. Once in the pits I found that I had boiled my power steering fluid and it had spewed out all over the place. With my tight schedule this year I was not able to put in a power steering cooler which I obviously need. My third session also ended with oil smoke but this time it was really oil. I normally run with about a half a quart of extra oil in the crankcase to make me feel better when in the turns. I guess I should have checked the dipstick before the run because it had popped partially out and spewed about a quart of 20W-50 oil all over the engine bay. That was quite a mess. I was also experiencing some cutting out during that run and when I got back I found was a big leak between the O2 housing and the turbo. I only found that out after I had pulled the exhaust manifold and turbo. The exhaust leak was blowing up and onto my coil on plug set-up and I figured that the heat was causing a coil to drop out. The exhaust leak required me to find a bolt or two and some lock washers which I should have used in the first place. It took a few hours and some work with a hand file but in the end the car was back together the exhaust leak was fixed enough to save day two.
This year was a little different in the pits. Normally there is a cool comradery between drivers where everyone bends over backwards to help each other fix there cars and it is not unusual to lend out tools or give up parts to complete strangers. This time around I was pestered by drivers coming up to me while I was up to my elbows in parts just to tell me how I should be driving a Porsche because I wouldn't have to work on them all the time. I don't know if it was the stress hustling to get the car ready or the lack of sleep from caring for my little girl but my skin was wearing thin with what I considered to be ribbing in poor taste. It got so bad that Mike (red Supra) had to keep people away so I could work in peace. The second day was 100% different and everyone was cool. I guess the first day was just the drivers trying to get the "pecking" order established.
After the first day I was beat. I carried a lot of stress with me to the event and missing the last session of the day turning wrenches had taken its toll. So, instead of going out to dinner Mike, Scott, and I just got a few pizzas and some beer which we enjoyed overlooking the lake. We took that time to watch each others videos and go over the days events. That was one of the highlights of the trip.
I started day two with a full tank of gas (93 octane) and big expectations for the day. The weather forecast called for rain all day but it wasn't raining yet so I figured if I was really going to push the car now is the time. The story was the same. The car was fast. I was really passing cars at will and having a blast. The car was still knocking in fourth and I was having problems with the car cutting out in hard left had turns. Normally I have fuel starvation problems when I get below half a tank of gas. This year the car was cutting out with just under ¾ tank of gas. I could feel in the car that I was pulling more G's than ever but this was just confirmation that as I go faster and faster the stock parts just is not up to the task. Next year its either going to be a fuel cell or some sort of fix to the stock tank because I was using about 5 gallons per session. So even starting with a full tank of gas wouldn't help. BTW that turns out to be about 4.4 miles to a gallon.
The second session of the second day was pure magic. I was fourth in line behind a ZO6 corvette (race tires good driver) and 914 with a 406ci small block. Behind me was Mike in the Supra. After a lap and half of warm up it was game on. Within a lap Mike and I waxed the snot out of both of them. From then on Mike and I proceeded to set our own personal bests. We lapped the Glen in 2:18 which is 6 seconds faster than my previous best. I also hit 137mph on the back strait which is just a bit faster than my previous best of 135mph. We also had the pleasure to pass a GT3 and Porsche Cayman...and to add icing to the cake we got some nice props from both the ZO6 and V8 914 drivers. Here is a video of that lap. Note that the picture on my dash is of my little girl Gabby...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...81481835821248
The rest of the day was uneventful except that I broke a rotor clean through in two places. After putting on a new pair of rotors and pads I took my last session of the day. The brakes were fine until they got hot then they just sucked. I almost went through the "laces" in the boot so I decided to take it easy. I finished that session trying to do the entire course in 4th without using the brakes. That was an interesting experience that showed me where I could pick up the pace a bit for next year.
So in summary, the car was fast as snot, it broke, I fixed it, it was still fast, and I came home in one piece driving the same car I took down. Not to bad. Anyway...with fast cars, beer, and good friends..who could ask for anything more?
Tim Harper
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