Holley LS Fest at Bowling Green, 1320, AutoX, 0-60-0 & car show: 9/10-12 Options

[JimMueller]

http://www.holley.com/lsfest/

[JimMueller]

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brief update-The LS Fest Autocross event counts as a qualifier for the Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational. The USCI is an invitational event only and this year's LS Fest is one of the few events that will qualify a car and its owner for entry (only one entrant from LS Fest ...will be invited). USCI, hich is...sponsored by K&N, Optima, and Ridetech, is "...an event designed to give builders and owners of some of the world's most awesome street driven cars the opportunity to show off their stuff on a closed circuit professional road-racing course."

Visit their site, www.optimainvitational.com for more information!
---snip---

[JimMueller]

Thanks to Sean and his wife for their southern hospitality! Got to his place around 4:45PM to checkout my UETA preload, and left at 10PM. Arrived at the hotel at 12:15, and woke up at 5:30AM (which is 6:30 Eastern, when I normally wake up). It's raining outside and that puts a damper on my spirits for the weekend. News channel indicates Fri/Sat will have lots of rain from TS Hermine remnants but Sunday should be dry. Eat a nasty continental breakfast and head to Beech Bend.

Registered, had the tires checked (they put a 'C' for competition or 'S' for street on the outer sidewall), then went through 'Tech' . The car was still loaded with the comp tires and support equipment, but tech was pretty much a joke so far as a safety inspection. Setup near the Wiseco tent because I knew some fellas there from previous tradeshows.

The event staff originally told me they would only be running street tires on the autocross course Saturday because of the standing puddles in the interior oval of the circle track. They advised the course will remain the same for the entire event, and you get to make as many passes on it as possible within the time allotted to get your best time.

While I had autocrossed almost monthly the last maybe 8 years, I hadn't been to an event since last November, and the new motor went in this past summer. I didn't get to walk the course and will try to do so this morning. I had a local SCCA instructor ride with me once, who also designed the course. He said my throttle and hand motions were smooth but needed work on my line. I bought my tires used from Jon Berget last year, used them for maybe two events, then they stayed in storage until August, when I put them on for a local get together only. Then they sat again until yesterday. They are A6's and seem pretty hard even though one pair has plenty of tread depth, and the weather station said the temps only got into the 70's yesterday.

I got really lost on my first run, and just a little OC the second run. The third run I asked the local SCCA instructor to ride along. He designed the course and said it was designed to keep it slow. He advised my throttle and hand motions were fine but needed work on my line. I suspect that was because I didn't get to walk the course and I had a dirty 1:15 that run. The 4th run I had a 1:11 clean. The 5th run I had a 1:08 clean. There was a Vega there with a LS* engine running 1:06's on competition tires, and I heard that there was a red F-body running 1:04's.

Course starts with a very short straight followed by a very hard left, then a set of slalom/lane changes going up the side of the track. Sweeper on back corner into back straight with a mild slalom, then a u-turn in a chicago box, then into the roundabout, then you go back the way you came to a mid point on the front straight, then splits right and you go through a not-too-tight U-turn then an immediate sharper U-turn for the dash to the finish.

I was trying to shift to 2nd immediately after the intial left turn and the first two times I took the slow-in, fast-out on the roundabout. The instructor suggested because of the decreasing radius design to go wide to the left of the pivot cone, brake hard, then slow around and loop back left. Because of the exceedingly short straight after the start, not much room to test the UETA acceleration there. The last run I was irritated at the slow 2nd gear coming out of the final pivot and down shifted to first and from what I recall I didn't get any wheel spin. My club would consider this a S2000 course :-)

The cruise was very cool! It was about a 90 minute round trip which included an electronic scavenger hunt. They gave you a list of maybe 50-60 things to take pictures of, and the person who found the most wins a $500 Holley gift certificate. I left the autocross pad at 4:11, and they left at 4:30 so I had light a fire under my ass to get the street tires back on in time. A lot of narrow highway cutting through the wooded areas, some very cool switch back passes in the woods outside. I found a few items but real hard trying to keep pace with the rest of the cars, stay on the usual narrow curving roads, hunt for items, and also take photos.

Ate dinner at Rafferty's, then to bed by 10:30. Up at 5:30 again today. More rain today, hopefully not as much yesterday. Brake stop challenge begins today, good test for the UETA preload.

This post has been edited by JimMueller: Sep 11 2010, 12:53 PM

[JimMueller]

Today it was nice until 1:30PM. Autocross from 9-Noon, then 3:30-5PM. Brake stop challenge between 4-5:30PM. Tomorrow should be warm and clear the entire day.

Autocross was more of the usual. I started hearing the UETA arm banging the loop, but the zip ties were just barely on. Didn't notice any brake hop though. Best time was 1:07.2. I think the Z06 driven by the Wiseco rep, setup by Danny Popp, was in the lead with a 1:02 or 1:03. The owner of the red F-body knew Sean from other events in the region, I think his best was a 1:04. He bought one of Bob Bishops last set of trackbrackets and he's never used them (he has 18" wheels with CTS-V calipers) and may be interested in selling the to me. One of my runs a local fella asked if he could have a ride. I had a hard time understanding his english, and based upon what his associates mentioned to him in the car, he may have been a homeless fellow his friends brought out for some fun. Something I didn't mention yesterday is that this pavement is not terribly smooth, nor do they blow the surface dust/pebbles off. My stiffer rear suspension definitely seems like a hindrance here. I was regularly blowing my engine sensor fuse during the autocross. I picked up some this morning and already replaced it three times in the autox. I forgot to mention yesterday that my first autox run apparently splashed water in the right area to make my alternator overcharge for awhile. It seemed to fix itself after sitting for awhile, and subsequent baths have not caused the same problem.

Skies opened up for a classic Florida storm at 1:30PM... hard rain for about 15 minutes, then clear skies again. Luckily most of the pavement was warm enough it didn't take too long to dry off except for the larger puddles.

The brake stop challenge was a new experience for me. We started at the drag strip tree, ignoring R/T, then attempted to go as fast as possible in the 1/8th mile and then stop within a predetermined distance after the 1/8th. The end had warning cones set up in sets of 4, then 3, then 2, then the box you were supposed to stop in without hitting the end cones. I have -1.8 camber for this trip, unsure how much that hurt stopping power, otherwise stock LS1 brakes with HPS pads, cheap rotors, ATE fluid, and the UETA. I had bad grip problems accelerating on these A6's as shown in my scanning logs. It was 10-15 minutes between each attempt.

Attempt 1: Max speed 72MPH, time to speed 9.2s, time back to zero 4.5s (Lost focus, stopped way too early, DNF, focus next time dummy!)
Attempt 2: Max speed 75MPH bouncing off the 2nd gear rev limiter, time to speed 8s, time back to zero 4.3s (stopped a bit early, had to release brake a bit to land in box, will try shifting into 3rd next time)
Attempt 3: Max speed 78MPH, time to speed 8.2s, time back to zero 4.1s (waited too long after shifting into third, stopped maybe 10ft too far, DNF)
Attempt 4: Max speed 75MPH, time to speed 8.2s, time back to zero 4.5s (waited a bit too long after shifting in third, stopped about 3ft too far, DNF)

I didn't realize I was supposed to pickup a timeslip for these runs, so I only have the last three slips (which are in the car). But one of them was 9.7, and another was 9.2. That time is supposed to be your official run time. I can't seem to see how I got a 9.7 on any of the runs so I'm a bit confused on the scoring.

Looking forward to the good weather tomorrow. On the way back from the final speed stop run, I notice my oil pressure is at 20psi when stopped to wait for passing traffic, then goes back to 40-50'ish when I start driving again. Take it back to the pit and check the oil level and it's still 1/8-1/4" above the top of the hash. Hmm, maybe that German Castrol Syntec just got hot? I put down my boards to swap tires to go back to the hotel, watching the oil pressure. 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, turn it off. Oil pressure reads 0. Between the owner of K1 (formerly at Oliver rods), the owner of ERL, my engine builder, and the staff of the School of Automotive Machinists (SAM) out of Houston we have some ideas to try tomorrow morning. LS3 motor with stock F-body pan, Improved Racing baffle, Katech ported LS6 oil pump with stiffer green o-ring.

To confirm an electrical problem, we have these ideas: Attach alligator clips from a multimeter direct to the sending unit wires, and measure the voltage at idle for a few seconds, then turn it off. Scale the voltage against 0V=0PSI 5V=80PSI to see what the sender is seeing vs the oil gauge. I have a DMM with me, but it has probe leads not alligator leads. Maybe I can find some other longer conductive wire to stick in the back of the sending unit connector check the voltage off those wires. Or locate the wires under the dash and check there.

I think I've decided I will pull the passenger valvecover and attempt to keep all the connections in tact, fold some cardboard over the rockers to hopefully minimize getting oil everywhere, and start the car for a few seconds to see if oil is coming out the pushrods to confirm oil is getting to the top of the motor. If that's OK, then try to locate a replacement oil sending unit at a local parts store. If it's not getting to the top of the motor, then I have a severe issue and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about handling it 800 miles from home since I drove the car here... suggestions?

Judd & Linda from SAM are staying near me and are giving me rides to/from the hotel for now. Dinner's here and I have a headache. Signing off for now (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[JimMueller]

So I pulled the passenger valvecover and had someone from BMR watch for oil coming out the pushrod when I get it run for a few seconds..nada. Checked around for car haulers, rental trucks, moving vans, etc. No 3/4 trucks available, car haulers too iffy, so I paid $980 to rent a 13' Uhaul & trailer (not a dolley) to haul my car back home. Left at 4PM CST, arrived at my engine builder's house at 11AM EST. Napped once for an hour, and again a few hours later for 2 hours. Averaged 9MPG.

Couldn't get the crank pulley off due to the trailer design, but we were able to confirm the front galley plug was still in it's original spot. Hauled it back home and let it sit until tonight. We got the oil pump off tonight and it appears the relief valve is stuck - we can see a small D-shaped opening in the tube which is aimed at the gerotor. My camera can't focus on the opening because the lens & flash are too far apart for the narrow view. If that's the case, Katech just cost me at least $980 plus 90 gallons of regular fuel (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant2.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif)

My engine builder says the rest of the motor should be good because the oil was flowing to the lower end, just not enough pressure to get it ot the top. Hope that's the case.

This post has been edited by JimMueller: Sep 16 2010, 03:34 AM

[cccbock]

So I pulled the passenger valvecover and had someone from BMR watch for oil coming out the pushrod when I get it run for a few seconds..nada. Checked around for car haulers, rental trucks, moving vans, etc. No 3/4 trucks available, car haulers too iffy, so I paid $980 to rent a 13' Uhaul & trailer (not a dolley) to haul my car back home. Left at 4PM CST, arrived at my engine builder's house at 11AM EST. Napped once for an hour, and again a few hours later for 2 hours. Averaged 9MPG.

Couldn't get the crank pulley off due to the trailer design, but we were able to confirm the front galley plug was still in it's original spot. Hauled it back home and let it sit until tonight. We got the oil pump off tonight and it appears the relief valve is stuck - we can see a small D-shaped opening in the tube which is aimed at the gerotor. My camera can't focus on the opening because the lens & flash are too far apart for the narrow view. If that's the case, Katech just cost me at least $980 plus 90 gallons of regular fuel (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant2.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif)

My engine builder says the rest of the motor should be good because the oil was flowing to the lower end, just not enough pressure to get it ot the top. Hope that's the case.

I have done this exact same trip, rented rig and all, from NFME in Memphis to Gainesville. I feel your pain. Caused me to finally get a tow rig.

bock

[Wayno]

Glad to see you finally made it home OK. At least you noticed you're problem before it was too late. It was good meeting you. Hope you get that thing back together and running soon.

[JimMueller]

It was nice to put a name with a face for Sean & Wayne. Got the car back this afternoon with the replacement pump in it. I guess time will tell if we caught it in time. Wayne, let me know about those spare brackets we talked about?