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Been a while since I updated. Been working on this some. Finished up finding all the right bolts for the throttle body and installed.
Also installed the Trackspeed Superlite kit up front. Replaced RF knuckle too because we suspect it is bent slightly. I still can't get over how big these calipers are, pictures don't do it justice.
These things barely fit. Had to grind the caliper ears and they are still tight to the knuckle.
I really think these would work with floating rotors. May try that on my next set of rotors.
Fyi, does not fit my stock 16s anymore. Spokes hit caliper.
Depending how bad the spokes hit the caliper, you might be able to just run a 5-10mm spacer for street use. I had to do that with my 95 M BBS wheels and my M-Tuned Corrado kit. 5mm spacer solved it.
Rear suspension and brakes together. Not that much left mechanically except getting the engine in (minor detail).
Just ordered a couple valve shims. Had a few intake valves out of spec. Then I can button up the engine. Also need to work on my oil cooler plumbing and clean up some of the interior from gutting it.
Are you coming to NCM with NASA this weekend? If so, stop by and say hi, my wife and I will be out in our new trackday cars - a black NC and a silver NB1
So the rest of the assembly went pretty slow. Lost a little motivation and our youngest went through a spell of no sleeping which helped nothing. Anyways, car is together now, but not without drama. I'll dump a bunch of pictures here with some info as needed. Going to make another post with my diff drama.
So I ended up needing to adjust the valve shims. 4 of the valves needed a smaller shim. I'm going to have to keep my eyes on these to make sure they don't keep changing.
Yes, 8 mounted 245s do fit in my wagon
My set of RS4s finally came in, ordered these in May or something. Also picked up a set of Hoosier S80s for go fast tires.
After way too long, finally got the engine dropped in. New Supermiata mount is easier to install than the factory ones too!
Just a little aero drag...
Made an extinguisher mount similar to the Blackbird one.
Cleaned off all the glue on the passenger door. So tedious, but looks so good.
As I was finishing up the car to take to the shop, I ran into an issue. As I was filling the diff, I found this:
Uh oh. I guess that guardrail did some actual damage. So I yank the diff back out and split the case.
3.6 torsen
I frantically call around and luckily, a friend has a housing sitting around. Buy that and put the Kmiata braces on for extra support.
Get that put back in and get it to the shop. Figured that was that. While it's in the shop, sign up for an event on 8/4 (Sunday). They finish up the alignment and take a test drive on 7/30 (Tuesday). The mechanic calls me at 6PM and says "What is wrong with your diff? It is super loud and we drained a bunch of metal out of it. Don't run this diff." So I get home from Paducah on 7/31 (Wednesday), grab the car and yank the diff back out.
On 8/1 (Thursday), I run up to Columbus and pick up a used 3.9. Get it in my garage, swapped my braced housing over, and got it 75% installed. On 8/2 (Friday), finish installation at about 11:30PM.
Washed and stickered the car today and now it's ready for NCM tomorrow. My 3.6 is at the shop for diagnosis Monday.
"Racecar!"
Went to NCM on Sunday for an SCCA time trial. Looked to be a beautiful day. Unfortunately, got stormed out after 2 sessions. Car felt great and got down to my times from fall without feeling like I was pushing it. I'll get a video up later in the week.
One of my friends broke his RSX, so I got to tow him home and he drove the miata. For once, the turbo miata was the reliable one.
Ended up driving the car to work monday to drop the top and bumper off for paint.
Never had a chance to upload my video from sunday. But I did tow up to Indy today. Got all unloaded and ready for this weekend. I grew up in indy, so I'm extra excited for this track.
Sorry for the delayed update. A lot went down. Very interesting weekend.
Amazing track. So much grip. I never did manage to lock the tires going into T1. And that's coming down from 140ish to 50ish. It was a little annoying running with PCA, mandatory point by even in advance. There were a handful of cars that were hazardously slow. Only got 1 or 2 clean laps a session, but worth it just to get on that track.
Friday, ran on street tires to get used to the car and the track. Got down to a 2:01.
But unfortunately, only got 2 sessions in on Saturday. The car was backfiring on overrun real bad so we looked around a bunch and found this:
1 loose stud, 1 missing stud, 2 extremely loose studs that won't tighten. I guess the trackspeed studs aren't always the answer. I think this probably doesn't help...
And to add insult to injury, the wife's car died on the way home and had to get rescued by her mother and a tow truck. No diagnosis on the X5 yet, but I was instructed that it is no longer a tow vehicle.
So now I have to decide what to do with this car. I'm done with turbos. Debating between stock power BP and a K24. The new K24z swap is super tempting because it keeps ST4 legality. But a big power K24/20 hybrid is also tempting. Not exactly sure what to do yet. Either way, I doubt I'll be back on track this season. Winter "reliability" mods for 8 sessions
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