It's off to the races....

Back to the "Rollers"

May 23rd, 2006 - I'll start off this post with my latest chassis dyno experience.

It was a beautiful sunny day with temps around 68F. I show up right on time at 6 PM. Setup takes about 5-10 mins and then it was time to roll.

The first few pulls didn't work out too good. The sensor that picks up the RPMs from the plug wire was losing signal in the higher RPM ranges. So Mike moved the pickup to a different wire, and that did the trick.

I did a total of about 6-7 pulls, and what I saw made me happy. I did not lose any power or torque on the top end but gained a significant 30 lbs-ft of torque at the rear wheels between 2000 and 3100 RPM, or the sweet spot as I like to call it.

I posted a comparison between the old run in February, and the latest one on May 23rd. You can see that HERE.

I've also posted a video of the last run in the VIDEO SECTION. Enjoy.


HADA "Take it Off the Streets" Autocross Event #2

May 27th, 2006 - This was my 2nd official autocross event. I've had the itch the minute I left the parking lot from the WOSCA event on May 7th. Not only that but I knew that this event had a bigger "track area" which would mean more spots that a big ass Z28 would enjoy. I brought my better half, Billie-Jo, with me to this event since she was off from work, plus I need a videographer. :)

It was a beautiful warm day in the high 70s, and a decent group showed up. After registration, we unloaded the car, and prepped it. We then proceed to do a course walk. Billie gave out after 1 lap. I continued and walked the course twice. It was fairly straight forward and I felt confident enough after 2 walk throughs.

The first run is always the "learning" round and usually ends up not feeling good, and this one was no exception. I knew it sucked and accepted that, not to mention I almost lost it heading towards the stop box. ;(

Second run definitely felt better and I picked up half a second with a 60.336 vs the 60.854 in the first run.

Third run felt about the same as the 2nd, but this time a pylon was victim to my RF tire so it cost me 2 seconds, and a total time of 63.331.

The 4th run felt AWESOME and the timer showed that, except again, I lost 2 seconds for taking out a cone. But even with that penalty I was still at 60.9, which means it was a 58.9 sec run. That would have put me in the Top 10 overall.

The 5th run was a write-off since I cooked the rear tires through the lond sweeping left hander, literally drifting through most that corner, so when I corrected for the next right hander, the car just spun. I refired and finished the run for a 70.xxx sec.

Overall, HADA put on a great event, and everything went smoothly. Not to mention the great tan I got from the sunny day. I can't wait for the next event. :)

You can see pictures of The Sickness in action HERE, and a video of my 4th run HERE.


Round and Round we go...

May 28, 2006 - Today it was off to Sunset Speedway for a little 1/3 mile paved oval action.
There was suppose to be close to 50 cars, but only 8-9 showed up, which meant we had more flexibility with what we wanted to do as far as format is concerned.


We started off with 1 warmup lap, then 3 timed hot laps, then 1 cool down lap. After that, we went with 1-6-1. Unfortunately, after 4 laps, my right front tire was starting to melt and the would not stick coming off the turns.

Overall I did 3 stints and was happy with the experience. If I had racing tires, and more camber, I would have been able to push it a little harder. My average lap speed calculated from time was 65.6 MPH.

Unfortunately, one of the cars did not go home as it left it. CLICK HERE

To watch my 2nd stint (which wasn't the fastest), you can go to the VIDEO GALLERY.

Well, that's all for now. I'm still deciding if I will me making the SOlo2 Regional events this coming weekend. Weather looks nice and it is tempting.

Take care,

RV

Droppin the hamma!

Well, the weather wasn't that great but I still decided to go to the drag strip to give the car a shake down with the new mods, and stickier tires. I initially had the intention of running my first Summit ET points event this time, but the weather got uglier and was pretty damn cold also so I decided to not do it at this time, but I did get 5 runs down the track.

Out of the 5 runs, the 3rd was the best at 13.663 @ 103.66 MPH. Traction is no longer an issue with these drag radials, but the engine still has a severe bog off the line that's costing me at least 0.5 seconds on the ET. The bog is not as bad the higher I bring up the RPMs before dumping the clutch, but with the weak stock 10-bolt rear diff and sticky tires, I don't want to take a chance. The RPMs I started with off the line today was around 3000 RPM, and that's when both times I got 13.6 ETs. If I could leave at 5000 RPMs and not suffer any bog, the car would be around 13.0 secs.

CLICK HERE for video of the 2nd pass which was a 13.83 @ 102.78 MPH.

Best of all, take a look at this pic:

(Click on picture for bigger image)

That my friends is rubber ripped from the drag radial. Yes it's sticky. :)

I'm going to have to talk to Jim at J&J Performance and see if there is anything that can be done to the carburator about this.

Also, I've added the VIDEO GALLERY on the right side menus. There isn't too much in there yet, but I'll be adding some on a weekely basis.

Till next time, have a good one!

Slicky

I got my rims today so I proceeded to mount my DOT drag radials and install them on the car. If the weather hold up for tomorrow, it's off to the track to give these things a try. It'll be a good time to see how the car runs overall with the new upgrades.
Stay tuned for results.

Alignment woes

After changing the idler arm and installing the poly bushings in the front lower A-arms, I figured it would be time to get a front end alignment. But I also wanted a custom alignment done to help in competition. This includes more caster, and negative camber. After some researching and looking at suggestions, I decided on CanAlignment in Milton, Ontario.

Scott at CanAlignment is a racer, and has alot of years in race car setups. He's also good at doing custom alignments for competition cars. When I spoke with Scott to make the appointment, he indicated that he can max out the settings as far as the OEM adjustment will go, and it would cost $65. If I needed any custom work done, then it's time dependant. At this point, budget only allows for a non-custom alignment.

After setting up the car on the alignmnet rack, Scott took a quick look around and right away told me that the camber setting was maxed out as it is. I knew that before getting there though since I could see the slots were already at the end of adjustment. I was just hoping this was already in negative camber, but it wasn't. It was at +0.5 degrees which is a joke, even for a OEM alignment. Basically, if I want more camber (I was hoping for at least -1.0 deg.), I'd have to either get aftermarket camber/caster plate, or slot the existing plates, or add camber bolts to the strut/spindle mount. If I just go with modified camber bolts, that will cost $150. Spohn Performance has a set of custom camber plates for $300 which are also beefier and can be used for a coil-over front setup if I plan on doing so in the future. But for now, I'm stuck at a sucky +0.5 deg of camber.

For caster, the current setup was at 3 degrees. Scott managed to max that out to 4.5 degrees which is great as that is what I was hoping to get. Toe was at 0 degrees, but he changed that to 1/8" of toe out.


Look the look...

Today I finally got time to make my side magnets when I compete. It was easy to do and looks kinda sharp in my opinion. I made one for my car number (#15), my Solo2 class designation, one for Inside Track Motorsports news (more on this in a shortly), Spohn Performance, Toronto Autosport Club, and finally for this website.

When I was thinking of what logos I could add to the car, I tought of adding Inside Track because they are Canadian and write mostly about Canadian motorsports. I also enjoy my subscription every month. I didn't have a good logo so I contacted David Weber at Inside Track and see if he could hook a brotha' up with some good sized logo. I got a response from him within a couple hours, on a Sunday night none the less. But along with the logos came a little surprise:

Hi Ray,

Here is a jpeg and a hi-res eps file - let me know if these work for you. Also, please send me a photo of the car once its done so I can print it in an issue.

This is very nice gesture on your part - we might need to find a way to reciprocate :)

David

Well, that simply made my day. I can't wait to have a good picture of the car in race trim on the track to send to David, and especially seeing the car in print.

Next weekend, Sunday May 21st, WOSCA is having another club event and I will certainly be there. Hopefully this time I"ll have some good pictures to share.

Have a good week everyone!

Pylon fiesta!

As mentioned in my last post, this past Sunday (May 7) I participated in my first official Solo2/Autocross event. This was a Western Ontario Sports Car Association (a.k.a. WOSCA) club event. Entry fee is $20 ($15 if you're a WOSCA member). For those that don't know what autocrossing is, I'll try to give a brief explanation:

Autocrossing involves driving a car through a race course designated by red pylons (cones), usually located in a big parking lot. In an event, depending how many participants there are, you should usually get a minimum of 4 runs, but usually more. These "runs" are timed using electronics with a cross beam at the start & finish line. If you hit a cone during your run, it's a 2 second penalty. If you go off course, it's a DNF (did not finish). Some clubs will give you a 200 second penalty instead, that way you can still see what your time would have been. They also nail you for a DNF or 200 seconds if you fail to completly stop in the stop box at the end of your run. There is a reason I mention that, which you will see later.

Registration for the event closed at 10:30 AM. Their were a total of 28 registered participant, which included 8 rookies. Based on the CASC rulebook, my car is classed in ESP - Class E Street Prepared because of the heavy modifications to the engine and suspension. At this event, there was 4 others in ESP; 2 Mustangs (mid 80s), a 79 TransAm, and an All-Wheel-Drive(AWD) Subaru WRX. Don't ask me why an AWD car is classed with heavy rear-wheel-drive cars.

After I registered, I started prepping the car which basically involves removing the T-Roofs, unloading any objects that can poke my eyes out while I'm doing my runs, and checking engine fluids. Well, everything looked fine, until I checked the oil. I was a quart short....of oil that is. ;)
I ran to the gas station across the street and got violated for $4.00 for a litre of oil. Maybe I'll remember to do that before leaving home the next time.

I had already raised my tire pressures at a gas station before arriving to the event so I was set there, but I did double check them. They were still fine at 42 PSI front, 40 PSI back. After I was done, I noticed that the course was finally layed out, and people were walking the course. I decided to do so also since being a novice, I needed all the knowledge I could get.

When you walk the course, the objective is to learn the layout, plan how you will run it, try to determine a "line" through the course. You should walk it a minimum of 3 times, and after that, if you can't draw the course on a piece of paper while not looking at it, then you need to walk it again until you can. The more you know the course, the better prepared you are to drive it.

After a brief drivers meeting, they asked for the first cars to line up at the start line. Well, since I had taken the #15, and starting order was determined by car number, I was the 3rd car in line. Yea, my nerves were starting to get a little shaky. After watching the first 2 "regular" guys go through the course and knocking down a few cones, I felt a little better, then it was my turn.

Start marshall tells me I can go anytime; I sat there for about 5 seconds trying to remember everything I had learned at the school. Then I dropped the clutch at 2000 RPM having traction issues obviously. The first section of the course involved a slalom, followed by a hairpin corner, short slalom, long sweeper left turn, followed by sharp left turn, then another slalom, sharp right turn back into the hairpin, short slalom, and finally the stop box. You can see the general layout HERE. Well, I got nailed for hitting 3 cones (6 secs), and also, not comming to a complete stop in the stop box (200 secs). Not the greatest start, but it was after all, my "cherry popper" run. Without the penalties, my run would have been 48.04 seconds.

Then I waited approx. 25 mins for my next run. In the meantime, I observed everyone else that was running, trying to pick up on things. I ran through the course in my mind again trying to think where I could improve and pick up some time.

Run 2 - It felt a little better than the first run, but I still managed to hit 3 cones (another 6 secs) although I only remember hitting 2 because they made noise. The other must ahve been a really minor hit. This time, I made sure to stop completely in the stop box. Time: 45.423 without cone penalties. Picked up almost 3 seconds on that run alone. (Tom - I ran in 2nd gear on this run vs 1st gear on the first run. :) )

Run 3 - This one felt about the same as the 2nd run, accept I only hit 1 cone this time. Sure enough; time (without 2 sec penalty): 44.807 I was still struggling with the one cone in the short slalom after the hairpin.

Run 4 - This one felt the best. I managed to control wheel spin out of the hairpin, but still hit the one cone in the short slalom. Time without 2 sec penalty: 43.857. One sec faster than the previous run, and over 5 secs faster than 1st run. Now we're getting somewhere.

Run 5 - Overall, it felt the same except this time I spun a little too much out of the hairpin, but nailed the long sweeper. Again, 1 cone hit except this time it was in the 2nd slalom in lap 2. Time without cone penalty: 43.812. Almost identical to Run 4.

Run 6 - FINALLY...A clean run, no cones were hurt in this 6th run. Time: 44.003. Lost 0.3 secs but it was clean, and that's a good thing.

Run 7 - This was the last official run of the day. Again, clean run without any penalties. Time: 44.305. Lost another 0.3 secs, and I know where. I think the rear diff posi was getting a little tired as I was losing traction on fast turns where one of the rear wheel would unload.

For the complete results CLICK HERE.

As you can see, I managed to finish 3rd in my class, 15th on the Fast Time of Day, and 21st overall. I was happy with this considering it was my first time. Not only that, I managed to beat the TransAm and one of the Mustangs, both seasoned drivers in this sport. The Mustang was also running race compound tires, while I was on my street tires. But best of all, I had a blast and can't wait to do another one of these, and many more throughout the summer.

Unfortunately, the regular photographer for WOSCA was not at this event, so to this point, no pictures available. :(

Next WOSCA event is May 21st, then HADA has one on May 27th.

Now, with a better front end alignment which will include -1 deg. of camber, this should help a little. The alignment is being done by Can-Alignment in Milton this Saturday. He specialzies in custom alignment for street cars, and race cars.

Till next time, have a good one.

Upgrade mayhem...

Well it was bound to happen. I had parts all over the basement just begging to be installed. So after a phone to call to dear ol' dad to tell him to clear his schedule, it was up to Sudbury we're the fun would begin.

Sunday April 16th - I got there on schedule around noon. After a little rest and lunch, we headed for the garage and proceeded with prepping the car for it's upgrades. We started with the rear lower control arms and relocation brackets. This was a painless install and was done in a matter of an hour. We did have to modifie the park brake bracket to clear the relocatin bracket, but nothing major. We then moved on to the subframe connectors. We first removed the exhaust pipes to make room to work. After 10 minutes of test fitting things and figuring the weld spots, the connectors got installed. The Spohn connectors were really well manufactured and fit perfectly on the without any modifications to anything. The total install time with a complete MIG weld job was about 3 hours.

Monday April 17th - We proceed with the removal of the old OEM torque arm and the existing fabricated tranny mount. Then we test fitted the new Spohn tranny crossmember....uh oh! First problem. The new crossmember was pushing the tranny further up into the tunnel, and since this tranny is not the OE for this car, part of the area where the shifter comes out of the tranny was already sitting against the tunnel. We had to get the air cutter out and remove some material from the tunnel. With the new crossmember in place, the tranny now sits in it's proper angle. We then installed the new Spohn adjustable torque arm. Again, this was a breeze to install. I proceeded to adjust the pinion angle, only to find out later (a week later), that I had it setup the wrong way. ;(

After we were done with the above, we started gutting the engine bay for the cam swap. The old camshaft was sitting on the floor in about 45 minutes. Since this was a retro-fit roller cam install, we have to use a wear plate behind the cam gear, and a thrust button. So, we installed the new cam, timing set with wear plate, and cam buttom. Then came the timing cover...uh oh! It doesn't fit with the cam button. We need a different timing cover that has the button depression.....ok..on hold. Then came time to install the new valve springs. Well, that's when I noticed that the valve seals I hate bought where too big for fit inside the dual spring setup. Now the search for seals that would fit that.

Tuesday April 18th - We spend the better part of the morning in town locating a timing cover and oil seals. We found the cover we needed at Witrak Auto Specialties, but he said he's have to order the oil seals in.....should get them by tommorow we were told. Keep in mind I was suppose to be heading home on Thursday, and now we're pushing well into Wednesday to finish up. Well, he headed home and proceed to finish the front of the engine with the new timing cover. Since we had to wait for the seals before we could do the springs, we decided to go ahead and replace the front lower control arm bushings with poly parts. The removal of the arms was easy. One of the original rubber bushing was being a beatch, but after a little convincing with the oxy torch and hammer, it finally gave up. We installed the new bushings using a hydraulic press. We also replaced the idler arm on the front steering assembly. It was still within acceptable limits for play, but since I knew it would be taking alot of stress doing autocrossing, I didn't want to take any chances. The rest of the front steering assembly was in great shape.

Wednesday April 19th - D-DAY - Since we were still waiting for the seals to arrive, we decided to go ahead and start fabricating the new exhaust configuration from the headers to about mid car. This was done using parts for the original setup, and a couple of new bends. After a few test fits of all the parts, we proceeded to tack weld the parts in place. Once that was done, we removed the assembly and did a full MIG weld around all the joint. The whole process took awhile, but it turned out pretty good.

At 1 PM, I got the news....no oil seals today...arrrghhh. We scrounged around the garage and eventually, we found some good stem oil seals....BUT ONLY 12 OF THEM. Since I couldn't afford to wait any longer, we went ahead and installed the 12 good seals, and used 4 regular "o" ring types. This is kinda "haywire", but like I said, I had to get back home and could always replace the o-rings at a later date. So we finished the valve springs, installed the roller rockers, and called it a day.

Thursday April 20th - We started off the day installing the intake manifold, carb, and buttoned up the rest of the engine to fire it up. By noon, the key was turned and the engine fired up.....RUTT RO! It started but ran like crap...alot of rocker noise and the whole engine was shacking furiously. Long story short....3 of the lifters never "pump" up so I couldn't adjust the lifter preload properly. Since I couldn't get lifters in time, I adjusted those 3 like they were solid lifters with 0.016" lash. The engine still didn't run like it was suppose to, but I was pretty sure it would get me home. Since it was already later in the afternoon, I decided to wait till Friday morning to leave.

Friday April 21st - Well, I left around 11 AM, got home around 3 PM. I never broke down but I knew I had to spend more money to fix the engine right.

The following Monday, I called Shawn at J&J Performance and asked him to order me 3 pair of the lifters I need to replace. He said they would have to come straight from CompCam, but assured me they would be here by Friday. This was important because I had a prepaid autocross school on Saturday that I didn't want to miss. On Thursday, I stripped the engine down to a level I need to replace those 3 pairs. Sure enough, at 4 PM Friday, I got the call..."Your lifters are here". I rushed over to pick them up. I then installed and reassembled everything in about an hour. Fired up the engine and.....rutt ro. The new lifters were working right, but the engine still didn't sound right, and going for a test drive comfirmed it. And to top it off, I had a "significant" oil leak coming from the right rear of the engine. It looked like it was coming from the intake rail...My first tought was that the silicon gasket blew out before it had time to dry. But at this point, I had no choice.

Saturday April 29th - I drove to Brampton (about 45 mins) for my autox school session. It was a beauty day, and what I learned was amazing. The car handled very nice, way better than I expected for a heavy car. But, it still didn't feel right. Off the line the car was not performing well. But I kept an eye on the oil level throughout the day and kept learning. At the end of the day, I was hooked on this autox stuff. I exceeded my own expectations doing the exercises and couldn't wait to do my first real/timed event. Even if I wasn't competitive, the fun to drive a car like that, LEGALLY is simply mind blowing.

I left the event and pulled into the nearest gas station to fill up and drop my tire pressures back to normal. When I was doing the left rear tire, I got a wiff of rear end oil. Curious, I looked under the back of the car, and noticed the whole inside my left rear wheel was covered in oil...GREAT!!! Blown axle seal. I guess the stress was a little too much.

When I got home, I left the engine running and popped the hood...I was determined to figure out why it was still running like crap. I wasn't looking more than 10 seconds when I noticed on spark plug #1, the spark was jumping all around the porcelain area of it...I knew that was messed up. I removed the plug, and sure enough, it was BROKEN. All that time I was literally running on 7 cylinders.....arrrrrgghhh. I ran to the parts store, installed the new plug, and OH MY GOODNESS!!! IT'S ALIVE!!! IT'S ALIVE!! This was the first time since I had installed the new camshaft that I saw what kind of performance it had, and all I have to say is, BUCKLE UP!

Wednesday May 3rd - (we're almost done) - I went and bought the parts I needed to change both rear axle seals....A whole $22. To my surpises, everything went smooth and the job was done in about 1.5 hours.

Saturday May 6th - Now my quest was to find that oil leak. Instead of doing the logical thing, I started with the most painful thing....removing the whole intake again and redoing the intake rails. Took about an hour. But after I was finished, I decided to remove the right side valve cover....low and behold as the gasket was not seated properly at the rear...ARRRGHH... Well, at least I know my intake won't leak now.

Now with all the leaks fixed, it was time for my first autox event, which was going to happen in Sunday at the WOSCA club event in Woodstock.....but that's another story!

I have updated the PHOTO GALLERY with photos from the April Upgrade.