Sleepy_Steve

Alright, so 100% gonna miss the march event now. Hopefully this isn't starting a trend.

Can't get my trans case to go back together with the new syncros, replacement from syncrotech still feels a bit iffy when I spun it on the shaft by hand, might use the old bronze one, but I'll do some dry-fits first. The other odd thing is just how tight 3rd gear got on me after trying and failing to assemble the trans and put the case together as a dry fit.

Also, when not finishing one project gets you down... Remember you can always start more. I may also add some insulation since I don't really think I'll be taking off the walls again basically ever.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

BOOOOHIIIISSSSSSSSSS... still the only HC car registered

Sleepy_Steve

Believe me, I'm pretty bummed about it. I'm not slowing down but now I have a chance to be a bit more prepared and cut less corners for when the car does hit the track.

Hopefully there are some more people that can make it out in March. Worst case you collect a good lead in championship points even if there's not enough people for contingency.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

well i'm hoping Nav, Hunter, and Mark make it out... there is still hope for a close field. I know at least Mark and i raced closely last time.

Sleepy_Steve

Been a little bit since the last update, so here ya go:

Alright, after a lot of attempts, I did finally figure out the trick to re-assembling the transmission, it's back in the car. It does sound nice and snappy and throatier w/ the new cams and flywheel. I've also got an appointment to have the frame pulled next weekend. The only other major item left is finding a shop to tune it on and I think I'll be able to start turning laps in this thing.

I now know more about synchros and manual transmissions than I was expecting to learn this winter.



My new tires came in, waiting till after a couple shake down events before I use them. The car has never had new race tires.



I found a new spot to take some weight out in my wiper arm mechanism. I also pulled the e-brake lever and cables for a few more pounds. Every bit counts.


I got my fire system install started, and it went easier than I was expecting for the most part.



But when I went to get the bottle for the fire system re-certified it didn't return in perfect condition. Looks like the handle wasn't protected well and the shipper dropped it on said handle. The safety pin kept it from discharging, but that in turn meant the normal pivot pin at the front got bent into a U shape and also mangled the handle. I tried prying the handle back onto the pins and squeezing it in a vice, but it looks like the handle might pop off and not let you activate the system if you ever need to use it. Additionally I think the pin that is bent is pressed in so repair / replacement will be a bit tricky. I've emailed the shop that refilled it for me to get their take, but haven't heard back as it's still the weekend. It's always something I suppose.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

man that sucks... they must have played football with that box. i'm pretty sure we used the same shop and mine was really well protected when it was shipped. but i have received some stuff lately where someone at the shipper was definitely having a bad day... and might have thrown my stuff around to feel better.

Sleepy_Steve

Alright -- things seem to be coming together finally. The first race is next weekend so I've got a bit over a week left. It's gonna be tight and I might need to drop some items I'd rather have had done to make the event.

It'll go to the Dyno Monday and hopefully perform well and not have any major issues.

The fire system bottle is back, and NOT damaged. So that'll be able to install soon.

The frame got straightened out and now the motor mounts install correctly. I had to re-do my hood pins after it all got pulled straight. Oh and I decided I really do need heat shielding on the catch can lines coming off the valve cover. The alignment and some corner weighting will happen a bit closer to the event.




I took an old plywood splitter template I made for my 240 out of storage and I'll trim it down to fit the DC2 and be legal for Honda Challenge rules. The McMaster order for all / most of the associated hardware came in and I've got the mounting brackets / etc started so that may also be ready for the next race.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

PROTEST!!!

just kidding... i'm just hoping you make it out there and we can get to racing in big fields again.

Sleepy_Steve

Well I got the car ready enough for the second event of the year. Results were underwhelming. Even though I had possibly better gearing, being down on power by I'm guessing 10hp peak and closer to 20hp or 30hp in the rest of the curve my lap times were about 3s a lap slower than they were in November last year.

Here's onboard for the Saturday race where every Honda beats me into T1. On the bright side, messing around w/ changing conditions in the wet was pretty fun. Or at least it was a lot more fun than heavy rain where the tires cool off too much and stop working entirely.

The Crower cam shafts appear to be absolute garbage. So that's 2 of 2 racers in my region trying them with absolute **** results. The things made 100ft/lbs everywhere yielding an anemic 160hp, and only all the way up at 8700rpm. I also found it odd was that the tuner chose to throw 40+ degrees of timing at the tune and max out the distributor adjustment to 'make it work' instead of verifying mechanical timing. It was an odd situation and I'll be using a different dyno next time.

I have since gotten my hands on a set of what I think are '00 USDM ITR Cams and we'll see what they can do. Ideally these will actually be drop in items and devoid of questions about cam lobe defects and if the distributor slot was ground incorrectly.



I was able to have a bit of fun in the Sunday qualifying race passing some other slow cars. Other than that, I worked on being more aggressive in the brake zones and making some handling adjustments to the car. Here are the onboard of the qualifying race Sunday Morning where I passed a couple other really slow cars.


I maxed out the stiffness on the front shocks and things felt a bit better, so I'm ordering two sets of stiffer springs for the front to try out later this season (1000 and 1100 lbs / in respectively). The idea is that this will speed up weight transfer on the front axle for turning and braking. At the moment I find myself waiting on the springs to compress before I can really ask the tires to do anything.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

when you get those cams in and you get tuned... you are going to make a HUGE jump. I spent my first two events last year with vtec turning off... you basically have to maximize corner speed... when you sprinkle that horse power back in... you are going to be in the mix.

Your stick-to-it-ness is commendable. You are doing things right by just getting seat time and learning as much as you can. It will absolutely pay off in the long run.

think of it this way... you could have gotten a body massage from a Miata like i did on saturday... and you could be chasing down a car that seems to be devolving.

Sleepy_Steve

Well the type R Cams are 'better' I'm a little curious to see what the GSR cams would have run. But we learned some good stuff at the dyno leading up to hyperfest. Peak power numbers weren't mind blowing if I'm honest. Still when you look at the improvement to area under the curve it's an impressive gain.

First, the motor is flow limited up top. Showing some vacuum at WOT in the datalog, and undoing a vacum cap on the manifold gained an impressive 4hp. So bigger throttle body and bigger exhausts are in the future plans now. Also confirmed what I thought about not having the same 5.1 final and extra short 5th that a lot of the rest of the field is running. Basically they make more power, and loose less power going to the next gear than I probably do.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

In the old car no one listened to me when i said they needed 5.1 FD until i walked them up the uphill esses at VIR... then they all switched. everywhere else it feels normal (but its faster time wise and for mph) but when you hit the esses flat, you feel like you are riding in a rocket ship.

everyone in the NE uses a 4.9 because they think we are crazy about the 5.1 FD... " are all your straight aways up hill?" and then i tell them the goal of our trap speeds on the straights and they reply with "we never hit those speeds." well if you NEVER hit those speeds, they better be on a 5.1 if we hit those speeds with a 5.1.

Also i expect you to pass me this event.

Sleepy_Steve

Hopefully it'll feel at least as strong as it did at the end of last year at VIR.

I sure hope I'll be quick enough to mix it up with you and the rest of the mid pack at VIR. #seasongoals lol

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

we shall see... hopefully not running 4 year old tires and making some changes helps me pick up some speed.

Sleepy_Steve

New video up on building a new splitter. This one seems to be turning out to be quite labor intensive. I'm guessing 8-10 hours total time invested, mostly test fitting, cutting, and drilling holes.

https://youtube.com/shorts/BYEkoTruaHQ

Sleepy_Steve

Well racing has it's ups and downs. I started the weekend scrubbing in some new sticker tires and playing around with some handling to get in the ball park setup wise with tires that were no longer old junk. We had a fun race and then 3 points races on the schedule for the weekend of Hyperfest. I made it less than half way through the fun race and would not start any of the 3 points races.



I think the handling changes we were making were in the right direction, but I still need to pull the aim data from the car and go over that along side the in-car video.

I saw that a brake duct was shredded and tried to repair it only for that to fail after one session on track so I modified it to be use bluetooth. I have an idea on how to form some old intercooler piping to fix this issue where the wheel pushes the ducting into the spinning crank while turning.



Surprisingly the new splitter held up pretty well even if I probably need to re-make it out of 1/2" material instead of 3/8" and also probably add more angle bracing going forward.


The powerwheels race was still fun, here's a quick onboard of the run I did.

And here's some in-car from the fun race qualifying session on Friday.

The problem is the engine developed a rod knock part way through the fun race so that was that. If anyone has a lead on a B18 short block of any flavor, let me know. I'd like to get this heap back out for a race on the 3rd week in June.


On to the carnage:

Pepe14

Wow sucks to see that bearing let go. How long were you on track? Do you monitor oil pressure?

I use an accusump not sure if it wouldve helped in this situation since i dont know the mileage on your motor.

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

Your unrequested lap feedback.
T1: slightly later turn in and slightly tighter line is faster (according to my data)
Uphill Esses: slightly quicker hands will result in more MPH up the esses... it seems like you were 1/4 second of turn ins... you'll be scared at how fast you are going at the top.
Oak Tree: carry more speed in T11, finish the braking before T12... try to move your downshift between 11 and 12 to force you to carry more speed (i'm still 50/50 on doing this)
Back straight... just brake at the 1 marker... when you do it, your data will show you that you still have more space to brake later
Hog Pen looks good... my data shows that being off the "second apex" and keeping the wheel open nets a lot more MPH (last weekend i was 129 on the front and back straight for reference... Hunter was 131)

Sleepy_Steve

I have a gauge, I don't think it dipped, but it could have had issues between the oil temps (260+) I was seeing and the lighter weight oil (5w-30) it was using. I think running no thermostat last year w/ cold coolant had me unknowingly dodging this bullet all year. I'm going to start the next one on a heavier oil and monitor temps / pressures carefully. Depending on when it's back together I might look for a weekend to use as a test day soon to work on a lot of these issues.

I agree that the Friday session was pretty sloppy. This video from the lightning warmup is probably more representative. We ran a solid 1s faster than Friday without hanging it out too much, although there was some over-steer I was trying to dial out of the rear. More interested on your feedback here honestly.


T1 - I'll have to try that out a few times.
Uphill Esses - Finding the balance between eating curbs to shoot out the right side of the road leading into south bend, and maximizing speed out of the climbing esses is tricky. Probably something I need to take a detailed look at data for.
Oak Tree - I'll try it. I'm open to ideas, I feel like that one costs me a lot given the length of the straight.
Back Straight - I tried braking later at the arrow, and I don't think I have that figured out just yet. The compression at the bottom of the hill should let you get it turned but I don't think it works if you're not full track right when you hit the dip. You'll run out of track and find that nice new wall they added a couple years ago.
Hog Pen - I'll have to experiment with that some. I think the curb eats a good bit of energy, but also opens up a good bit of angle on the turn when you take it. Another point that needs actual data I'd bet.

Pepe14

It was probably the oil weight. I use 20-50 vr1 and swap it out once i see the oil pressure averages dipping. Im usually always at 80-90 psi. The sump and oil cooler also allows an extra 2-3 quarts so that helps too.

Sleepy_Steve

Finally finished editing the HFGT race video

Sleepy_Steve

Long time no update:

The machine shop took forever. I finally have the short block back from the engine builder. I'm slowly putting all the extra bits on it to make it look like a real engine again. Hopefully it's together in time to be tuned in a couple weeks and then can make it out to the track in March.

Sleepy_Steve

So the car was not ready for March. But last weekend it did make it out for it's first event in11 since the engine failure last year. I was instructing because this was very much a shake down run.

Got some decent video from it. See below. The new motor and adjustments to gearing feel really good. On fresh tires we improved our time from a 1:31.5 down to a 1:28.75 which was a pretty nice way to end things on the last lap of my last session for the weekend. On another positive note, I'm digging the new numbers I had my vinyl guy make up.

Now for the less good things. Firstly, lap-times. Competitive times this weekend were 1:24ish, so I need to find another 2.5-3 seconds a lap at summit point to be in the ballpark. The car has some understeer on turn in that needs to be dialed out. The car turned left better than it turned right. Oh and I had an axle boot fail, and then the alternator fell off the car Sunday morning. It was *very* lucky that Kaan had a spare alternator bolt, and Deren was ok running to town for a belt. I thought my weekend was done, and I wound up not even missing any time on track. Ooh and the passenger seat mounting needs some reinforcing because I'm not happy with how bouncy my student was when I took them out.

So the plan before HyperFest next month is to max out my rear sway bar, and give it a more complete alignment / corner balancing. I don't know if I'd be able to get my hands on a larger sway bar in the time remaining before that event. The car is also a tad bouncy, but that was expected as we're at the limit in terms of spring rate on these shocks.

Videos:

Recap

Saturday - Riding the struggle bus:

Sunday - Took my student for a ride, need to improve the seat mounting

Sunday - Last session, new personal best in the car

Kaan

iTrader: (3)

T1 – go a little past the 4 marker… you are too composed going into T1, there is more speed

T3 – its faster than you think, carry more speed and eat the inside curb more… get on top of it and load the outside tires… you want to fight the car to stay on the pavement (sometimes you did this sometimes not…but you never loaded the car all the way on the curb).

T4 – your T4 is fine, you are doing it right… but if you nail 3 you need to keep the same lift and go mentality… but its going to scare you… but its okay… you just cant lift again… but its worth a lot of time.

T6-9… you are too early for T6… aim for the back side of it and get the car rotating to get there… FLAT on the gas through T9