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Posted by: nape Aug 4 2021, 01:57 PM

The Teal Terror is finally hitting the track again this weekend. 9 cars showing up for CMC at Autobahn County Club.

Bone stock LM4 with F-body pan, intake, manifolds made 263whp on the dyno. New nickname might be "Pig" with the 3340lb minimum weight.

Looks like we can't embed images, so here's a link: https://ibb.co/PtzdDZC

Posted by: GCrites80s Aug 4 2021, 05:02 PM

Awesome!

Posted by: trackbird Aug 4 2021, 05:11 PM

I like this post very much. (I've been saying I should have kept that car and skipped the Corvette and just bought the current convertible and been done with it while owning both).

The car looks great!

Has it been 9 years????

More pics please?

Posted by: slowTA Aug 4 2021, 10:27 PM

I think I bought the ground control set off that car. They're still treating me well!

Posted by: nape Aug 5 2021, 01:30 AM

Thanks. Yep, 9 years. I picked the tub up in June 2012 if memory serves me right.

What'd it weigh when you had it? It was 3118 before I started bombing weight back in. LOL.

Pics when I take some.




It's got a shiny new set again. GC makes good stuff. I put a used set on the AI car about 13 years ago and they're still hanging in there!

Posted by: trackbird Aug 5 2021, 03:52 AM

Chris, you do have the GC parts from that car. Lol.

3118? We put a shitload of cage in that thing. 🤣🤣🤣

Posted by: nape Aug 5 2021, 02:34 PM

With 225lb driver, 5 gallons of fuel, and I added another harness bar to get the angles right.

I melted 105lbs of lead last Wednesday. It's got 219lbs of lead in it right now.

I just scored a rusted out '99 Z28 'vert parts car a few weeks ago. Tons of the interior parts and more cage are going to end up in there since max ballast is 150lbs. I got a waiver since NO ONE expected it to be that light with that battleship cage.

Posted by: trackbird Aug 5 2021, 07:50 PM

Jesus. Well, I did built it to crash.

Posted by: nape Aug 9 2021, 12:06 AM

That was a downer weekend. Went out for practice, got one lap and the car shut off into T3, coasted to the back side exit.. Towed it back and found the fuel pump plug fell off the bulkhead connector. Easy fix, plug it back in and the car fired right up.

Went out for qual and got 4 laps in when I felt the engine lay down coming off T2. Looked at the temp gauge and saw 235*, not the end of the world. Looked at the oil pressure and saw 0 psi, hit the ignition switch and coasted to the back side exit.

Towed the car back and the engine is locked up tight. Probably shut it off right before it scattered. It was a junkyard LM4 with 40psi cold idle, IR baffle, 20w50, and 1 quart overfilled. Sucks but that's racing.

https://ibb.co/NNyS25v

Posted by: trackbird Aug 9 2021, 01:55 AM

Well shit. That really sucks. I was hoping to hear that it made the podium on the first weekend. Sorry to hear that it went sideways....

Posted by: nape Aug 9 2021, 02:58 AM

Yeah, definitely not the way I hoped the first weekend would go.

A podium was the hope but I had a lot of catching up to do. Everyone is really driving the crap out of the cars. I was about 5 seconds off the pace when the engine went.

Posted by: trackbird Aug 9 2021, 12:34 PM

What's the setup (springs and shocks and such)?

Posted by: CrashTestDummy Aug 10 2021, 05:42 PM

That car looks nice with the Vette wheels on it! Might have tried those on our B4C, but going with a more stock look, so will use the GTA wheels it came with.

Sorry to hear about the lockup. That sux!

Posted by: nape Aug 11 2021, 12:23 AM

Front: GC struts, 1200s, 36mm bar
Rear, Koni 30s, 225s, 21mm bar
Ride height ~ 5 3/8", adjusters bottomed.

I was probably around 70% when the engine went. Still getting used to it vs. my AI car. Having pad knock back and a wobbly steering column again after having it "fixed" for over a decade was a little unsettling. 😂

I really need some test days in it but nothing worked out.

Posted by: BryanL Aug 16 2021, 01:38 PM

What/Where is the waiver from? Is that from Nasa Tech or CMC?

Congrats getting back out in CMC and sorry for the motor trouble.

Posted by: nape Aug 18 2021, 04:37 AM

It's like being on double secret probation, doesn't exist. Basically, don't crucify the new guy before he gets the go-fast crack pipe firmly in his mouth. Haha

Bob Denton has been trying to get me to race CMC for over a decade. He did most of the drivetrain/plumbing/wiring on the car since I can't find time lately. The Great Lakes gang is a great group of people and gets that the car would be 100% if I could. It weighed/dyno'd right so that's the most important thing.

Everyone is driving the snot out of the cars and it'll probably be a season before I can make the podium anyway. SEAT TIME!

Posted by: GCrites80s Aug 18 2021, 03:18 PM

Nobody cares about "cheating" if you're on the tail. That's why you can't even protest someone that's below a certain position in a lot of series.

Posted by: nape Sep 13 2021, 02:50 AM

Update: The saga continues.

Went and got another LM4 from the cheapest junkyard with the plan of Bob doing rings/bearings on it. The first one the yard pulled out wouldn't even turn over. Dad ended up driving to their other yard down the road for one that would turn over. He ran it the two hours to Bob's and they tore it down and immediately noticed it had dropped a valve seat in each head but in a way it was probably "running" but on 6 cylinders. The short block was good but now we needed useable heads.

The junkyard said bring it back and we'll give you a refund or take the locked up one for the heads and bring back two cores to get the $200 core charge. Well, the locked up engine had water in it at some point and the bores were rusty and so were some valves. We were able to get it to move after 2 days of cleaning soaking bores in Deep Creep.

In the mean time, we yanked the locked up engine out of the CMC car and tore it down. Heads were good but it took some work to get the rotating assembly apart. It spun the 3 and 4 rod bearings and spit them out the sides. That's what had it locked up. Crank and two rods are junk. Between all the crap, I should have another good block, crank, set of rods/pistons. Junkyard is getting zero shit back, keep the $200, dickheads.

Bob had the "reman" done a few days later, Dad picked it up and I bolted on the FW/clutch/PP/bellhousing, almost forgot the pilot bearing, knock sensors, last weekend. Dad dropped it in the car with some buddies during the week and hooked up everything top side. I showed up Saturday, stabbed the trans, bolted up DS, exhaust, torque arm. We primed the engine, bolted on accessories, tried to fire and nothing but cranking. Didn't even try to fire. No RPM on scan tool, changed CKP sensor, no change. Checked spark, nada. Checked 12v at coil, yep. Checked power/needed wires at computer, yep 12v. WTF, drop the starter again, check light green on CKP connector, nope, 0V. WTF? Bad computer? Found random internet post on guy saying he jumped 12v to CKP sensor and it fired up. Fuck it, out of ideas, let's get dangerous. Jumped 12V, hit starter button, VROOOOM. Sat there and idled great for 30 minutes. Crossed fingers, shut it off, fired right back up.

No fuckin' clue, but it sounds great, 45lbs hot oil pressure with cheap 10w30 @ 800rpm, no bad noises. Need to button up a few things we ran out of time for but it's looking good for Autobahn in early October.

Huge thanks to Bob for getting this done even with the Championships coming up. And to my Dad for getting all this done so I could try to get my house re-model done before it has a 3rd birthday. LOL.

To be continued...

Posted by: trackbird Sep 13 2021, 10:25 PM

That's crazy. But progress is good!

I still can't wait to see it on the podium.

Posted by: GCrites80s Sep 14 2021, 01:34 AM

I'm thinking maybe you should do something more about oil control. The IR baffle may have helped but not enough. If trackbird can get his stock LS truck to oil starve pulling into the parts store you may have found the culprit on your first engine. Ideally you'd go dry sump.

Posted by: nape Sep 14 2021, 11:49 PM

I have a 3qt Accusump on the shelf. I just haven't had enough spare time for plumbing/mounting.

That reminds me, I ordered a bunch of stuff from Improved Racing and haven't seen it yet. Time to look into that.

Posted by: nape Jul 6 2022, 01:44 PM

It's only been 10 months, I guess I better get around to writing an update...

I got the car back out in October. Huge thanks to my Dad and Bob Denton for junkyard running and freshening an engine in time. We ran the Friday test day and worked out some new cars bugs. There was literally something we had to fix every session. So, it was money/time well spent.

The results for the weekend were GREAT! We took a brand new car that I hadn't ever driven more than a few laps and ran P4, P3, and P2 in 3 races against veteran competitors.

Here's the video of R3: https://youtu.be/vntTYiKNAGI

When I burned out on my World's Longest Home Re-model last winter, I spent some time in the garage fixing a few issues, built a new cooling system with an eBay AL radiator, and had to add 70lbs of "not ballast" to the car.

Dad and I brought the car to Mid-Ohio in May and things were looking pretty promising but we battled issues all weekend before finally getting it right with the last race

R1, I spun in my own water 3 times when the radiator would boil over. I was angry when the checkered flew but happy that I hadn't torn up the car. Remember kids, stock radiator caps belong in the trash.

R2, Car started sputtering in corners and I eventually pulled off. P10. Dropped the tank after the race and found the 1/8" line had come off the Racetronix pump. A little safety wire and hopefully it's a permanent fix.

R3, worked my way to P1 through the race and was barely able to hold on. The tires were used up and Derek Wright was coming hard. Super happy to see the Checkered, the first WIN in this car.

I never got around to editing videos, but hopefully soon.

More to write about Gingerman in June but out of time.

Here's a teaser pic from Gingerman: https://ibb.co/cbwv2M0

Gingerman R3 video, Win #2!: https://youtu.be/55eHjMrCKMc

Posted by: 91banditt2 Jul 7 2022, 12:19 PM

Damn that looks like fun!

Posted by: GCrites80s Jul 8 2022, 12:50 AM

You and No. 30 make good dance partners!

Posted by: GCrites80s Jul 8 2022, 12:53 AM

Oh and I think Double Secret Probation would have been over pretty quickly with these results.

Posted by: trackbird Jul 8 2022, 01:55 AM

It's about time you did something useful with that car.

Nice job and great driving!

Looks like some idiot put way too much cage in that thing. Who would do such a thing??? lol. (I always joked that I figured I'd wind up on my roof at some point so I built the car accordingly). lol.

I'm really glad to see it win something, much less two races. That's an excellent update to the saga of the teal wonder.

Posted by: nape Jul 10 2022, 04:31 PM

Haha, it definitely was. The car ended up getting a cool suit cooler, subframe connectors, a passenger seat, and some other odds and ends to be legal.



Thanks! I'm glad you didn't skimp, that would've been even harder to make weight!

Posted by: trackbird Jul 11 2022, 12:31 AM

Heh. That's a good point. I'm not sure how that car was that far under weight, or is the CMC weight "heavy" to account for the newer chassis that are now playing in the field?

Posted by: nape Jul 12 2022, 04:55 PM

CMC was originally in the vein of showroom stock. It's done a good job of not having rules creep like other classes. The CMC "base" weight is 3250 but AL block LS engines get +50lbs and there's a power/torque chart where I got +40lbs due to 263 whp (+3 over base).

3rd gens are actually light if you gut them and get anal about putting it back. I also spent a bunch of time grinding all the undercoat, seam sealer, extra brackets, and ground effects stuff right after I bought it.

This car was 340lbs heavier (before ballast) than my AI car was before AI raised the minimum.

Posted by: trackbird Jul 12 2022, 11:59 PM

I assumed that would be enough. I had no idea it was possible to be "under" with that car. I built it planning to run AI and knowing it would likely be heavy. I guess heavy is the new light?

Posted by: rpoz-29 Jul 17 2022, 11:30 PM

That was great. You guys are very evenly matched. Great driving.