Thanks Jules. I'm enjoying it, but 2 weeks of crunch time for Nashville is starting to catch up with me. I'm getting a bit tired from (tired from, not tired of) all of the late nights in the garage. Oh well, as long as we're making progress, we'll keep moving forward. It's still fun, just tiring fun....

We actually rounded up all the tools we had scattered everywhere at the end of tonights work. They are piled into two buckets so I can sort them into the tool box first thing tomorrow. We've got too many guys working on too many parts of the car and I own too many tools, so we had stuff everywhere. I hate working in a mess (though my garage is a trashed as it's ever been right now), so we decided we had to at least find the tools.

Oh, and Garrett installed the Hotpart LCA's tonight, but I forgot to take pics of that part. I'll get them tomorrow if I remember.

I wasn't sure if anyone would really care about this old car/project, but I'm having fun and trying to remember to take some pictures while I'm at it. And I hate to waste the pictures once I take 'em, so I started stuffing them in here.

And, AFCO is sending me a radiator pressure loss warning system. If the hose pops off, the light comes on. That would have saved us a couple motors on the AV8SS car over the years. I also bought an Autometer Pro Lite warning light (full sized) to replace the small one I hooked up as an oil warning. I want to make sure I see that thing, so I'll use the bright one instead. I'm sure there's more, but it's late and I'm beat.

Now I really am off to bed.(IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Hey, I didn't realize that was a candid camera shot! And for your information, the hammer fit quite nicely, thank you very much. After all, I did learn from you. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/gr_judge.gif)

I can't help you there, but those damn E clips are one of the reasons I put C5 brakes on my C4. I HATE dealing with those stupid clips!

I don't suspect that this brake kit will be here too long. I'm planning to swap to something else at some point. For now, it's here, so I'm using it.

The Ed Miller brakes require a thicker mounting bracket if you go from his 12" kit to the 13" kit instead. The difference in thickness couldn't be made up with a thicker bracket since the new thickness is not a standard for bars stock. I originally bought the bracket for 12" C4 brakes then changed my mind so I would have to come up with a 1/8" spacer to make up the difference. The different caliper carriers from 12" to 13" do not account for the needed space.

I would have an answer for you but it turns out the C4HD setup wont fit inside my lightweight 16" rims... so I didn't bother. I'm looking for different brakes too!

This was purchased as a 13" kit, but it just doesn't line up quite right. I hope to have an answer from Ed tonight.

The swedged chromoly PHB arrived from Hotpart.com today. It's not heavy (I don't think I have a way to weigh it accurately) and the work looks to be very well done. It uses the same rod ends and similar spacers to the control arms that they make (and I already pictured). Here are the pics:

More photos:

The rear suspension is completely assembled now.

The torque arm was already on the car, and that's my Lingenfelter driveshaft that I kept from my other car.

The Hotpart PHB is installed now.

The car already had welded SFC's on it. They are stitch welded down the pinch weld already.

I had to do a lot of adjusting to the front ground control stuff to get the ride height back where I needed/wanted it to be. I wound up with 1000 in lb front springs and 3/4" of the adjuster rod showing out of the bottom of the weight jack (I didn't take a pic of the final ride height).

Tomorrow I hope to get it aligned. On Monday I should have a radiator/oil cooler so I can start on the oil system.

Off to bed. I have to be at an appointment at 9:30 am and it's a 45 minute drive from here. It's a bit before 2:30 right now.

You'll like the 1000lb/in'ers on a track car. I think I'm about ready to jump to a higher rate though now that I'm driving the car harder.

Well, I took it autocrossing today. We had it to where I was sure I wasn't going to blow anything up and 92 Voodoo (here on frrax) was here to visit from NYC and we decided it sounded like a good idea.

Last night, we tossed a passenger seat in the car so we could ride along. We installed a lap belt so we'd stay put. We swapped to the old Goodyear Eagle HP tires that came on the car (380 tread wear and 5 years old or so) for the event. I didn't want to tear up the new tires that I bought for Nashville. I installed the ECM into the factory bracket and had the prom fall out and land in my hand (that's not good). So, after some trial and error and a trip to moates.net, we got the prom in and working. We test drove the car and started to bed the brake pads. We had too much brake and couldn't really do anything to bed them. Oh well, they'll be bedded after the event (and they are). By now, it was 3 am by that time and I was off to bed....no problem (I had to get up at 5:30 to pick up Bill/92Voodoo for the event).

2.5 hours of sleep....check.

We found that the car has way too much power for street tires. Full throttle in 1st or 2nd results in giant amounts of wheel spin. So, the car seemed civilized and reasonably balanced, but we have a big deficiency in the grip department.

The final (for now) suspension setup is:

Hotpart Camber plates
Ground Control weight jacks with 1,000 in lb springs
Energy suspension poly bushings (front a arms)
Suspension techniques 35mm sway bar
Koni SA's (front)
5.0 castor
-1.8 camber
0 toe

Rear hotpart LCA's
Hotpart PHB
19mm sway bar
Koni SA
Ground Control weight jacks with 225 in lb springs

The car seemed to be reasonably balanced. However, it was hard to tell since every touch of the throttle overwhelmed the rear tires. I only looped the car once, but I took out the timers when I did it (Axoid said he got pictures and will be posting them soon). Overall, we ran decent, nobody died and the car was a handfull if you used a bunch of throttle.

During the last run, the temp got up to 220 degrees and it wouldn't cool down. On top of that it was going lean, very lean and would sometimes bounce to a bit over 220 degrees. So, when idling didn't cool it, we made a run and took it for a drive. That did the trick. However, now it's running poorly, it goes rich, then really lean, then rich, etc. I'm guessing it's a sensor, or I'm hoping.

And, we finished the event with gear lube all over the inside of one rear wheel. I've got to check that one out in the next few days and see if it's a leak, and, if I feel like fixing it.

I ran today as a shakedown run to make sure nothing broke or fell off, nothing did, but we have some leaks and other issues.

We'll see if I feel like fixing it before Nashville......

I'm going to get some sleep and I'll update later.

It's an axle seal. I'd fix it before Nashville, they only get worse.

The axle was just rebuilt (moser axles, Eaton posi, 3.73's, solid pinion spacer, etc) before I bought the car. My friend took it to a shop and paid way too much money to get it all redone. It's survived a few hundred street miles and then an autocross killed it? Hmm.

I know I need to fix it, I'm just wondering if I'm going to fix it and take it to Nashville or just drive down there and leave the car here. At this point, I've got lots to do and I'm down to a few days. I have to tweek the tuning, change radiators, make oil cooler, remote filter and accusump lines, fix an axle seal, install a cooling system pressure loss warning system, etc. That's a ton of work for a couple evenings and the 4th of July (I'm off that day), that's my concern.

We also saw my low oil pressure light blink on a few times. The car makes about 55 psi at idle and the switch is set for 30 psi. So, it looks like we were momentarly starving it of oil, even on street tires. If we didn't have the light, we'd have never known, but now that we know, I'm glad I ordered a 3 quart accusump. We added a quart of oil that I got from one of the guys at the event and we saw the light much less (6 quarts in a 5 quart pan), but I was amazed that we made enough grip to starve the engine on beater street tires.

Also, there is enough play in the rear end that the rear rotors are contacting the PAB's and grinding big areas into the rear rotors. I'm not sure what to do about that one.....

Time to trim the list down to what you need.

The way I see it, here's your list:

-Tweak tuning
-Make accusump lines
-Fix an axle seal.

If you have time, then tackle the others. If the car gets hot, short shift it. I'm still running my stock radiator and so are a couple of other 3rd gens in the NASA Midwest region. The key is ducting the air to it. I've seen 230* more often as I learn to drive the car harder, but if I back it down a second or two a lap, the car will cool off.

Here's some words of advice that my dad always has to remind me: Even if you have to baby the car a little bit, take it down there and enjoy driving it. If you don't, the car is just a chore that you don't get to enjoy. This is supposed to be fun, they sure as hell aren't paying ya! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

This post has been edited by nape: Jul 2 2007, 03:18 AM

1.8 camber going to be enough? most CMC guys are around 3 or so on a 3rd gen.

That's where I ran out of adjustment.....

Glenn, I haven't looked at the rules, but can you cut the shock towers for strut clearance in CMC? If I go with much more negative camber I'll have the struts bottoming against the opening for the camber plate (the fender opening). Unless I cut it back....

How do they manage that much camber in a 3rd gen? This has been a very interesting read. It has reinforced my desire to upgrade the car with a set of good gauges.

The oil filter adaptor I have is not a sandwich adapter. So, I have to make lines to the remote filter and the accusump. I hate to waste -10AN line to make lines twice, so the radiator must go in (and I need to flush the coolant out of the block). So, those things are a given. I'll install the oil temp gauge and the mechanical pressure gauge to those hoses when it's all done. So, that's all going to be done before I leave (if I take the car).

I'm going to swap the mini pro lite warning lite to a full size (shift light size) warning light for the oil. It was tough to see the small one and I feel that oil pressure is a little too important to miss. So, I have the light, I just have to solder it in and bolt it to the dash.

The axle seal needs done, but I think it's just going to leak again. I have a feeling that I'll be looking for a 9" real soon for this car.



At minimum, order an autometer 15 or 30 psi oil pressure warning light and a pro lite (I've got a 30 psi in the car and I just bought a 50 psi switch as well). Screw it into the oil passage by the distributor. Ground one side of the sender, hook the ground side of the light to it and put +12v on the pro lite. It's simple and the sender and pro lite will cost about $60 total. It's cheap and I was amazed to see it flashing while autocrossing on street tires. At one point, I turned after the shutdown area to come back to get my timeslip and the light came on for 1-3 seconds (solid). I had slowed and just hooked the turn at the end, and I wasn't going very quickly when I did it. That was even after I added a quart of oil. The stock gauge will not catch the stuff that the light was showing. The gauge would barely move in that time, but the light will blink and let you know what's going on. I'm adding an aftermarket mechanical gauge as well (as a back up), but the light is well worth the money based on my limited experience.

This is starting to feel like the very beginning of a rather steep learning curve. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

agreed. Also, the strut body will start to hit the body/innerfender (whatever it is called) near the k-member at full droop with the wheels turned. You can fix that with a BFH though.

edit to add "with wheels turned"

This post has been edited by StanIROCZ: Aug 6 2007, 04:50 AM

i don't know the legality of those in CMC. i just know your going to dislike 1.8 neg camber on that car.

I understand that part. My point was that my Koni will not clear the stock opening in the fender under full compression (unless it doesn't get up to that opening, but I think it will) with much more camber (and I ran out of "slot" at -1.8 on my car on one side, -2.4 on the other).

When I tear it back down, I might slot it (if it's legal for where I decide to play with it, once I sort that out) for more adjustment.