Greta gets an ecotec swap (Amateur Endurance Racing)
#63
Cpt. Slow
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Location: Oregon City, OR
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As for the BMWs, M50 and a few poorly driven stock S50/52s, sure. If they start building S52s with cams and S50 intake manifolds, we start wishing we had a J35 or LFX.
As for updates, forums have been pretty slow, so we haven't been updating here, apologies. Last month we got 2nd at TRMP on Saturday, then on Sunday we DNF'd while running a strong 1st due to a cracked oil pan, again. (the repaired Bad Batch pan) This last weekend the car was at Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA. Running 1st/2nd most of the day Saturday, best time of 1:36.4. Then #3 rod decided to vacate the premises. Still not really sure why, but there's a giant hole in the block. Between the cracked oil pan and the blown block, we really haven't had a lot of testing to say why the block exploded. All we have is the AIM dash data saying coolant temp went from 190-210 in ~5 turns, our driver pulled out of a draft thinking that was causing the temp spike, then loud noises and engine shut off. The knock sensor wiring is cut, but also right by the block hole. So if it was cut before it exploded, the PCM could have thrown some really weird timing numbers, causing the failure. Or it could just be from our minimal running with the cracked pan, despite very little low oil pressure warnings.
I wasn't at that race, GreddyGalant was, and is headed up to Area 27 with a couple BMWs this week, so it might be a while before video is posted.
#64
Had a couple more races since then on the new motor we seem to do really well on Saturdays, then break **** on Sundays. Our last race at Portland we podiumed Saturday and took fastest lap, only to have the subframe and motor mounts crack on us the next day. We redesigned the motor mounts to do away with the L shaped brackets, got a new subframe from V8R and reinforced it and got the car fixed for our most recent race at ORP. We won Saturday and got fastest lap again, on Sunday 3 hours in we had the flexplate explode and take out the rear main seal and starter. Car is getting fixed now for the 8 hours of the cascades in a week, which is an endure at PIR that has a Lemans style start. Fingers crossed! I've included some video from the PIR race start below and some photos from ORP. The BMWS in front in the video are both modified S52s. Overall, I'm really pleased with the swap, we've found some weak points to address for endurance racing purposes but in general it's done exactly what I wanted it to do.
#65
Double 1st Place in our last weekend of the season along with 3rd in the nighttime sprint race that was done in monsoon conditions. The offseason will have some minor aero changes and revisions to the fuel fill system, but will stay largely intact for our first race of 2019 at Laguna Seca in January. Here's some photos and some in car footage
#68
Cpt. Slow
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Our winter updates included trying to make the car a little more slippery. Added fender vents and lowered the splitter, which used to be 4" off the ground, made it closer to 2". We're hoping this made it more efficient while also reducing drag, so while lowering it we also made it shorter by a couple inches. It's all guesses without a wind tunnel, but managed 3rd overall after some fuel pump issues, so we're happy for now.
Had a chance to throw Randy Pobst in the car Sunday, unfortunately we had spent 2 hours chasing a broken pin in the #1 coil harness, so although all the drivers got a chance to drive including Randy, the best we could manage was 33rd of 48 cars running.
We also upgraded the stock APR end plates to a set of larger ones Kazespec made for us.
Stock:
KazeSpec:
Had a chance to throw Randy Pobst in the car Sunday, unfortunately we had spent 2 hours chasing a broken pin in the #1 coil harness, so although all the drivers got a chance to drive including Randy, the best we could manage was 33rd of 48 cars running.
We also upgraded the stock APR end plates to a set of larger ones Kazespec made for us.
Stock:
KazeSpec:
#70
Cpt. Slow
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iTrader: (25)
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Oregon City, OR
Posts: 14,441
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No real update, clearly the only way to turbo the car was to completely paint, rebuild, and rewire the interior. I also just needed a place to post this pic in order to send it in a PM.
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