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2022 was a lot about finding a house to buy, which we did, and we were quite lucky to find one with a very very large downstairs internal space/garage that affords an excellent workspace for the car (and maybe more project car later ) as time and resource allows.
I did do some work on the car and it was a great feeling to be able to work and do a little easy peasy fabrication in my own space with my own stuff rather than rely on the friends shed... I do miss the hoist though.
It is a 2.4m height in this garage so I will be able to have a half height hoist in there later on.
I mainly wanted to address the spiking oil temps I noted at the track in 2021.
Those spikes were definitely uncharacteristic of the car when I hadn't changed anything that could impact that after the new tuning, and the way the spikes came down very quickly also didn't point to something drastic.
So I decided to add cool... (not cool factor) with preventative things I had wanted to do anyway - an oil cooler and have the exhasut manifold coated and wrapped.
A pal with a turbo MX5 who had upgraded his oil cooler bequeathed me his old one, and I got to work researching making AN10 fittings.
Made brackets, built the lines, grabbed the sandwich plate most recommended here, and a spacer, put it all together, and amazingly no leaks!
It was actually well after I'd gotten into building the oil coooler setup that I ripped out the manfold to take for coating.
With the manifold out I discovered something very telling...
This shrouded wire runs down to the secondary oil temp sensor in the sump... and it was a bit melty from being routed down along the tipstick which placed it very close to the exhaust. The original wire also used to go down near this spot but was further away. I'd say this is really what caused the spiking temp reporting but probably wasn't actually the oil temp spiking. Onwards and upwards.
Manifold coated and wrapped.
Also changed to an inexpensive short shifter with an extension to put it a bit closer to my hand on the wheel. I thought it would take more getting used to than it did but feels a lot the same as the stock.
Got one track day in with the oil cooler in there and the with the wire sorted and the temps were back to normal. And still no leaks but I check it constantly out of fear .
No video from that day unfortunately.
I'm also pleased to report I now have a hans device and helmet to suit as well.
Latest nice-ish photo.
I'm hopeful for at least four trackdays this year and have booked time off early to give me the best opportunity.
Oh this is great! I really like the sound of your car there. What is all done to it at this moment? I saw earlier pictures with the intake into the cowl. Is it still that way? Definitely a nice bump on e85, maybe I should look into that after all
It does still have the cowl intake that is unchanged. A cowl intake does sound very nice and not actually that far removed from angry ITBs when you put your foot down
My favourite track I like to go to is Morgan Park in Warwick, and its 2 and a half hours away. There was a track day last year I woke up and it was raining all over southeast Queensland so I decided not to go, and by 10am I saw on the weather and from people who were there that the day had fined up and the track was great. I was very annoyed at myself for not hardening the **** up.
Last month on the trackday it was once again raining, but I went anyway and I'm glad I did. It wasn't so heavy by the time I got to Warwick and didn't really rain very heavily across the day.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice with a bit more slip.
No such luck, I just drove like a nanna and it shows in the recordings.
There's something in there for sure about git gud but I think also it'll be a bit because I'm so conscious of having to get the car home as its not trailered. It was still an excellent day but I feel I did not push myself even a little bit.
Wanted vented quarter windows for the car as I'd like to be able to keep the windows up on the highway and especially on track to help with sound on the GoPro recordings so got onto it and replaced the inner linings as well as they were manky as hell.
I made additional round plastic covers for the empty speaker holes.
Before:
After:
Didn't want to stop there and decided to get more stuck in and put the FM rails and butterfly that has been sitting around for about 6 bloody years.
Had to angle grind off the bolts freely turning that were holding a very bashed old cross bar to the stock rails; it was one of several bars I'd already removed that I believe are Production Sports rules to have bracing to prevent a driveshaft or something dropping out of your car... they weren't really stiffening braces.
The stock rails were pretty trashed but didn't take as much massaging as I thought they might... hooray for softness.
Somebody in the ancient past bought me a large coffee **** yeah!
Everything went on fairly straightforward with only minor frustrations at bolts. I think I'll try and make a 2mm steel bashplate to cover the hardlines, they are up above the lowest point but a bit too exposed now for my liking.
Only some street driving so far but tangible improvement in stiffness... transformative would be going a bit far but its much better for having them.
I used to have a removeable rack to hold my track tyres, but still needed more room for tools etc, especially if taking a passenger. So I went with one of those mini trailers, it took 4 tyres and a had a big plastic toolbox for a jack, stands, tools etc. Highly recommend them, best solution short of actually trailering the car, which was my next step even though it was still registered.
Rain is the big leveller, I have had some stupid fun with the V8 crowd in the wet at Supersprints, they can't put their power down, well not all of it, and they have to be really careful to not break traction in the twisties, makes them easy meat.
I've been having an idle hunting issue which I thought was the IACV.
A new IACV is $650AUD posted soooo I tried a cheapy from Aliexpress.
It kiiiind of worked but got more erratic as time went on, so I put the original back on and put up with the reduced but still weird weirdness.
I took it to a pal to have a look at the tune and he noticed the Coolant temp sensor was being intermittent... which definitely caused the weird idle hunting because when it didn't register anything the idle would go back to the templated cold start idle of 1500rpm It has been a while since I plugged the laptop into the ECU to look at it so I didn't notice.
We changed the wiring to the sensor to no great effect so can only assume the sensor is on the way out.
Since I had a track day a couple of days after we set the fan to be on 100% and fixed idle at 1200, and sent it. Now that the track day is done I'll drain coolant and replace that.
Trackday was a perfect day of weather, quite cool and sunny, so I was able to go with the AR-1s.
I concentrated on attempting to heel/toe, and using more of the track. Got the the heel/toe right only a couple of times so many corners I was a bit off, but using more track went well and bumbling over ripple strips and berms felt much better because the improved stiffness from the bracing.
I was keeping up with the GR86 here but he wasn't at full send (what a tease)
Last session here I believe I did a 1:35.
I keep looking to my right to look for a Mustang racecar that was on when I went out but he must have gone in
I'm going to sort some better audio recording tools for the future as the sound is really not coming through well to the action cam
Car felt fast and I was able to maintain good consistency. I don't have any timing so could only estimate from the video editing. I'm 5 or 6 seconds off the toybaruz I go with. I think now its time to start timing myself properly.
Afterwards looking over the car I've got a bit of oil in a rather peculiar spot:
Don't know how its getting there but so far I can only see it on the underside of that runner and on the flange where the blue reroute pipe mounts to the brace point. Have to take the reroute pipe out to get at the coolant temp sensor so will investigate that more.
Also discovered one of the CoP tie downs is dead. Rivnut home made job form the original install. I've redone all four tie downs as screws and nuts for now but will acquire a better made piece to fix this.
I have the same hunting idle, and CLT is throwing an error code in the ECU. I have replaced the idle control, but no different so everything points to that sensor as the problem. It is not the first time I have had strange things happen with a failing CLT sensor, so that will be replaced asap, priority is to get the car through rego though. Have to go into town tomorrow, so I'll see if, having cleared the codes the CEL stays out, or returns. I'll pick up a new CLT sensor anyway.
01-16-2024, 06:53 PM
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) as time and resource allows.
soooo I tried a cheapy from Aliexpress.
It has been a while since I plugged the laptop into the ECU to look at it so I didn't notice.
