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Not many updates this week. Since i got the car running I decided to catch up on some sleep at night. I'm not old, but I'm definitely not 20 anymore..
But here are a few things that I've been working on.
New shifter stuff
Replaced the white plastic bushing and re-greased the shifter pivot/ball thing. And put a new boot on it.
Catch can
I've tried several different catch can setups and here's another one. Most people seal up the bottom end and put 2 -10AN fittings in the valve cover. This "works" because it keeps oil in the engine and does blow any into the catch can. The problem is that it doesn't bleed off enough crank case pressure. You can add 2 -10 AN fitting to the back of the block, but usually this results in oil going through the lines, catch can and misting the engine bay in a layer of oil.
For this catch can, we're going with the regular -10 fittings in the valve cover and 2 -16 AN fittings in the block. This changes the line size from 5/8's to 1" witch translates to about 18mm or almost 3/4 inch more tube diameter to bleed off pressure. The goal is that the larger ID will let the crank case pressure flow out with less pressure in the hose, which should let the air out, and keep the oil in the sump. The endurance race is at the big track at willow springs. So i know this will work there. but not sure about other tracks with more turns. The fittings on the back of the block are from TracTuff and were actually made for J series water pipes. But the thread right into the back of the block. Everything will go into a modified Vibrant catch can. It's with the welder now. but this was at the time of mock up. Will have better pictures soon.
Axles
Most anyone who's tracked their car has probably had issues with outer CV joints failing, overheating etc. I usually use OEM axles with NEO CV grease and a small tube coming out from under the inner side of the boot to bleed pressure. This greatly extends the life of the axles and they can handle high temps much better. Since OEM axles are discontinued and most all of the aftermarket ones suck. I went big on some new Drive Shaft Shop X4 axles. They say they are good for 700hp (I'll never know) but they use a ball/cage style joint for the inner and outer joints. unlike the "tripod" that the OEM axles use on the inner joints. They also built these for me with their "road race upgrade" witch consists of higher temp Redline CV grease and vented boots. So these should be the most durable axles I've ever used.
Radios.
I've had a simple 2 way radio setup for awhile but knew i would need more for endurance races. I was able to buy more straight from the company in China, and they gave me the software and cable to program them. I still need some headsets. but this was a good start, and WAY cheaper than buying from one of the online retailers that sells racing radios.
Great update, How much did the axles set you back, with the upgrades? Do those inner joints still telescope somehow? They must. I'm curious. Even the XTRAC boxes I work with still use tripod inners, that's a pretty gangster upgrade.
Great update, How much did the axles set you back, with the upgrades? Do those inner joints still telescope somehow? They must. I'm curious. Even the XTRAC boxes I work with still use tripod inners, that's a pretty gangster upgrade.
I got a huge discount on the axles, but they still set me back about $800. But if they work and i have piece of mind, it's worth it. I'm actually really tempted to pull the inner boots off to see how that inner joint works. It still telescopes, so I imagine it a hybrid between the regular tripod and CV because i don't see how a traditional CV could slide.
The past decade has set an industry standard for running level 2.9 and 3.9 high performance axles in FWD and AWD converted street cars. It is not uncommon for these street cars to produce upwards of 600+HP.In order to keep up with these demands, we have worked diligently this past year to perfect our new X4 direct fit axle sets for Honda/Acura platforms. These axles have been tested to withstand 700+HP in both forced induction and all motor applications. This design allows for the newly developed axles to fit OEM Honda/Acura 26-spline or 28-spline wheel hubs offered by many aftermarket hub manufactures. We have tested these components on many different platforms across our product line and decided it was time to transition this design over to the ever-evolving high HP FWD street cars of today. The X4 axle features our proprietary in-house designed 2pc chromoly outer CV housing with a 300M splined wheel stub, Axle bars, and differential spline plug. Our new axles were crafted with durability in mind, this is why we have incorporated our ball and cage style inner CV’s as opposed to the OEM tripod style. There is no doubt that these revamped plug and play axles are ideal for fun on the streets and weekends at the tracks.
Got the catch can back!
I need a different lid with a filter, but this will work for now. Two -10's from the valve cover and two -16's on the back of the block.
Here is a good visual of the differences between a 10 and 16 AN fitting.
And here's a photo of how it sits in the engine bay. The battery will stay in this location. (still working on that)
They are made by TracTuff. They were originally made for a J series water pipe i think, but they screw right into the back of the block. They'll definitely bleed out pressure better, just hoping not oil comes through the lines like you get with the -10 fittings.
The extra cross section should help. The extra surface area might add some condensation and help any that does to run back too. All seems good on paper, I guess.
Thursday i brought the car to my tuner. We did a break in on the dyno, changed the oil etc. Then started getting into the tuning. All of the low RPM stuff what looking good, as he started to find where the vtec crossover should be, vtec wouldn't engage. Nothing, The car would start to lean out and power would get weird. and few times we got some weird noises in the head. After a little time diagnosing it. We knew that we didn't have the parts to fix anything right then, so we loaded up and went home.
This also forced us to miss the the test day at Willow springs on Friday. After getting some much needed sleep. I cleaned the garage and reset everything. Friday my engine builder also let me know that my head that he's had for months was finished. So i immediately hopped in the car and went to pick it up.
Saturday.
I went out with a fresh set of eyes on Saturday morning. As soon as i pulled the cam caps off i found the issue. The pins that hold the rocker shafts in position (also feed oil pressure for vtec) were NOT in the head. This is my fault since i should have seen this when installing the cams. I've been in such a rush to get everything going I'm clearly making mistakes. I also purchased this as a "ready to install" head so i made the mistake of assuming that everything was in there.
So since my new head was done, and i have doubts about the other one, it was faster to drop on the new head and get it running again as fast as possible.
So, The car is running again and the tuner can fit me in on Thursday this week, but is going on vacation after that. So if we have issues this week. Chances are we'll miss the race.
One time, I completely buttoned up and installed a motor with the rags i had put in the cylinders to keep debris out still in there. Stuff happens. At least nothing was permanently damaged!
New head is on and went back to the dyno yesterday. Ended up making 177HP. but more importantly it has a smooth power band and was tuned to be as reliable as possible.
We're going to see if we can get into the GridLife event at Willow Springs on Sunday to shake this thing down.
Thanks!
Nothing that you can clearly see. I've never actually measured crankcase pressure either, so I'm going with the "bigger is better" mentality on this one.
Test Day #1 is in the books and the car ran great! It's slow on a track like big willow, because it's such a horsepower dependent track. But the car ran great, and the engine had zero issues.
Take away.
1. We need a better seating solution. Either a different seat that fits us better. or our own custom inserts for this seat.
2. We're looking to put power steering back into the car to reduce fatigue over long stints in the car.
So last week I pulled the front knuckles out to replace the wheel bearings. On the driver side, I discovered that the hub itself had worn and had a slight taper, so only the outer bearing race would seat properly. This explains why with everything tight i had not play, but over time my driver side axle nut would randomly come loose at times.
So the car has new hubs, new studs and wheel bearings that have been repacked with a higher temp grease. They're going back in the car tonight.
Over the weekend, we also gathered up all of the seats that we have access too and tried each of them in the car. Since we are trying to not use a slider but fit 3 different sized drivers int he car. This was surprisingly difficult. I think we've found a neutral seating position, and can fine tune with each driver having different pads if needed. these are the seats we tried,
1. Cobra Evolution - Too wide. would be good if we did custom inserts.
2. Sparco Circuit - The happy medium with everyone compromising a little bit. We'll be using this seat for the race.
3. Recaro Pro Racer Hans (small version) - We all wanted this seat to work. Definitely the most supportive.But too narrow in upper back for 2 of us. The wide version would be perfect, but no time or money for that.
4. OMP from a 997 GT3. - This seat is awesome. It's light and comfortable. but has shallow bolsters, so added padding it brought one of the drivers out of the seat too much.
Is there a seat bracket you like/recommend? I'm looking to get as low and far back as possible and PCI seems to have a pretty good range.
Also, how are your lap belts mounted? I'm planning to run the same harness and the instructions leave a lot to be interpreted by the installer.
Sorry to pry, but I'm in the process of prepping my chassis for cage work (NASA compliant) and want to make sure I get all the safety/ergo aspects sorted out first.
Is there a seat bracket you like/recommend? I'm looking to get as low and far back as possible and PCI seems to have a pretty good range.
Also, how are your lap belts mounted? I'm planning to run the same harness and the instructions leave a lot to be interpreted by the installer.
Sorry to pry, but I'm in the process of prepping my chassis for cage work (NASA compliant) and want to make sure I get all the safety/ergo aspects sorted out first.
So far I think the PCI brackets are the best. If you aren't using a slider you can get the seat super low. And you can get it pretty far back too.
The left side lap belt has an eyelet in the OEM seat belt mounting hole. The right side lap belt I mounted through the exhaust tunnel. Gold eyelet with a locknut and backing plate under the car. The sub belts are mounted through the floor with backing plates as well. Don't forget to add cotter pins to the harness clips.
So we decided that power steering would be nice to have back in the car for long stints. Most of the OEM parts are discontinued and everything I could find at the junkyard was damaged, missing pieces and close to 30 years old. I would have loved to do an MR-S electric PS setup, but the race is a couple of weeks and don't have the time to start a new project with everything else going on. So we went with a new setup from ChaseBays. Ididn't even know they made these till recently, but its a nice option for people wanting to add PS back to their cars.
The kit consists of AN lines, fittings, reservoir and cooler. The lines are surprisingly nice and lightweight. We'll probably lose a few HP but wont be wrecked from driving the car for an hour + at a time.
Also got this picture from the recent Gridlife event. We're trying to get the Hondata app to read fuel mileage so we can plan better.
So we ended up being able to get in a test day at Willow Springs on Friday. So we were able to get a better idea of what we like and dislike.
11 of our 12 tires arrived on Thursday. Hopefully the last one makes here today. Lucky Dog Makes you buy tires directly from Hankook Motorsports, and they label every tire to keep things fair.
Power steering back in the car feels weird. But also really cuts down on the amount of effort it takes to drive, so putting it back in was well worth it.
We also decided to put a 2nd fuel level gauge in the car. The OEM fuel float is wired in the AEM dash. But because we still have the OEM gas tank, we get a lot of fuel slosh which makes the gas gauge go crazy. I've slowed it down the best i can in the software. Since the car usually only see's 20-30 sessions, it's never been an issue. But since we need to maximize our limited fuel capacity. We're adding in an Autometer gauge that moves WAY slower and should help give us a more accurate display of how much fuel is in the car.
The half wrap is started and it's terrible. But it only needs to get through one weekend, and I'm doing it more for paint protection that anything.
We finally got the car corner balanced and aligned. The car was scaled with ballast for 3 drivers, a full tank and and drink bottle full. So the car is just under 2100lbs empty. and 2392 race weight. With a little more horsepower this thing would be quick.
Nice setup. Does that setup let you adjust spring height without having to raise and lower the suspension to let it settle? I'd love to invest in something like that.
03-11-2022, 08:50 AM
Re: From HPDE to Endurance/Wheel to Wheel build
Stuff happens. At least nothing was permanently damaged!
