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Yep! That’s a paint can cap full of the old trans fluid (that I replaced only three months ago) lol. Pics don’t do it justice, the stuff came out a near-uniform silver color lol.
I was gonna throw the 5 speed in as a temp but I actually found and grabbed another 6 speed from a local JDM warehouse. Picked it up just now and am gonna install it this afternoon.
JDM warehouse. Anyone need one or twelve K series engines?
Your car has one transmission? That’s cute, mine has two.
I got the cooler project finished up as well, just haven’t had time to make a proper post and still need to take a few more pics. More on that later.
Thanks, Red. I got the 6 new speed installed yesterday, just gotta find a rebuild manual somewhere online and figure out what happened to the old one.
Too much. I paid $1,299 + tax on this one and it came out to $1,400 and change out the door. I'd have bought one from Prestige UK for $875 shipped, but don't want to miss out on more track days waiting for the trans as it's peak season for us right now. I wanna make it up to Willow Springs next weekend and the first NASA SoCal event of the year is on 2/17.
So, uh, I kinda got ahead of myself on the trans cooler project.
Debating how roasted I'm gonna get for the cooler placement, but I mocked the cooler up behind the rear bumper, went for a 30 minute spirited drive, and it was cool to the touch when I pulled off the side of the road, so I don't believe it's picking up much heat off of the exhaust.
I started on the trans temp gauge and cooler project last week. Figured it likely wasn't going to fix my top speed/shift lockout issue (spoiler alert, it didn't), but I also figured the transmission would benefit from it regardless since the car's gonna be tracked in the future at 300whp.
Anyways, I started on wiring in the trans temp gauge last weekend and had everything wired up and dialed in Sunday evening... except the gauge I got was f*cked right out of the box and wouldn't turn on. Got a replacement on Tuesday and was in business. I drove to work a couple times (11 miles, 25 minutes, stop and go traffic) and noted trans temps got up to about 135* by the time I was there. Not a spectacular test, but I figued I'd record those numbers anyways.
I need to take more pics of the setup, but here's the general gist. Pump feed's coming from the drain plug, return line goes to the fill plug. I used M18x1.5 to 8AN male adapters on both ports. Fill port has a push lock 90* fitting going straight 1/2 rubber oil cooler line. Drain port has an 8AN male to 8AN male fitting with a 1/8" NPT port for the temp sensor, then a 90* AN8 to push lock fitting.
Flow path is: Drain port --> Magnetic filter next to the fuel filter --> Heat exchanger in the rear bumper --> Trans fluid pump --> Fill port.
Wired the pump in on a 30a relay. Pretty easy as the pump sits close to the battery. Put a switch in on my center console to control it manually.
Drilled two holes to run the lines from the trunk to the heat exchanger. I'm planning on making a shield for the pump and some sort of fastener system to pin the lines to the ground and make shields for them too. Still need to make another support bracket for the cooler. I was expecting the way it's mounted to be somewhat flimsy but it's surprisingly sturdy as is. The second bracket will be a quick project for this week.
So where I kinda screwed myself is that I actually got the project done too quickly, in a sense. I didn't log any temps on the highway or during spitired driving before installing the cooler, and I had to relocate the sensor a couple inches from the case into one of the lines, causing a false low temperature reading until the pump was run and fluid from the case was ran to it. I drove on the freeway for an hour yesterday and recorded the temps with the pump running at ~170* after cruising for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, turning the pump off caused temps to drop, as the sensor stopped receiving hot coolant from the case. It only just now occurred to me that I could run the same test and just stop the car after 30 minutes and run the pump for maybe 10 seconds to compare temps. I'll try that this week. Didn't get a chance to get any serious driving done this weekend, I'm gonna have to log those temps too. If all goes well, though, I'll be out at Willow Springs next weekend. Depending on how effective the cooler is, I might wire in a fan to assist with airflow.
I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm trying my darndest doing it lol.
Intermission. I noticed a crack in my exhaust manifold on Monday evening, and slapped some extreme temp JB weld on it to seal up the leak it was causing when cold so I could drive it to work yesterday. Pulled the manifold at home tonight and noticed the relief cut in the center… no longer existed. I’m assuming that’s the root cause of the crack in the #1 runner.
Crack in #1 runner
Relief cut no longer relieving
Last time I swapped the motor in October, I noticed that the manifold was hanging onto the head harder than usual, and I had to pry it off a bit and tap it with a hammer to get it back onto the new motor. Should’ve caught it then.
Holding a straight edge up to it shows that the flange isn’t bowed. It looks like the center just crept in on itself. Gonna take it to an exhaust shop tomorrow and see if they can repair the crack and confirm if the manifold can be fixed with any longevity. I got nothing but good wishes for Mike @ Kraken, but I’d rather not have to wait weeks at minimum for a new manifold.
Do you still use your radio? Just noticed it was still installed alongside what I assume is a Blutooth->FM transmitter.
Lucky you getting to run in February. We'll start our AutoX season here in late March and I bet it will be around freezing in the morning.
Good work all around
Yes I still use the radio lol. Funny you’d ask that, I’ve been meaning to get a new head unit since I got this car. The current one only drives the driver side speaker (although sometimes if I hit a bump just right the passenger speaker will start working for a bit). Bluetooth would be nice too. I’ve been using that dongle in the cigarette lighter for Bluetooth since I bought the car too.
Yeah, winter season’s honestly peak for tracking out here haha. All of our tracks are in the high desert and get super hot during the summer. Same goes for AutoX, all the venues run are in the inland empire which gets almost equally as hot during the summer lol. We’ve got one AutoX venue that just started running in the San Pedro shipping docks, literally right on the water. Might hit that up this summer as I hate driving two hours to sweat my *** off and set slow laps in my car from June to October.
Originally Posted by SlowTeg
Damn the hits keep on coming... Question for you how is your startup with MS and the 640s? How many cranks does it take before the car fires up?
Haha yeah they do but this one’s minor and somewhat expected. I’ve probably got 12+ track days and all sorts of other abuse on the manifold, doesn’t seem too outrageous that it developed a crack at this point. I just dropped it off at the exhaust shop and am hoping I can slap it back on tonight and be rolling for the weekend.
My startup with the FF640s was fine. With the right cranking settings, they would start up in the same time as the OEM ECU/injectors. I had issues with hot restarts going lean and causing the car to run rough unless I gave it some throttle until the injectors got some fuel through then and cooled down. I was able to mitigate it by adding lots of after start enrichment at high coolant temps, but there’s multiple ways to fight it. I’m running FMS 1050cc injectors now and no longer have any hot restart issues, but I think that’s largely due to changes I made in the settings.
Messaged Michael @ Kraken and he's gonna send me a replacement manifold under warranty. What a guy. Just gotta send him pics of the old manifold cut into pieces.
In case anyone needed even more reason to buy a Kraken kit.
I still sing praises for the little bluetooth amps you can get on Amazon. They wire in super easy and just have a volume ****, using your phone as the head unit. They're like $25 and my current one has lasted for 3-4 years now, although the potentiometer is a bit dirty so there's some white noise when changing the volume.
I've got some more details in my build thread I'm pretty sure.
Messaged Michael @ Kraken and he's gonna send me a replacement manifold under warranty. What a guy. Just gotta send him pics of the old manifold cut into pieces.
In case anyone needed even more reason to buy a Kraken kit.
Amazing, glad to hear that. Mines still holding up well!
I would bet that on e85 with less heat that you might never have had that issue.
I still sing praises for the little bluetooth amps you can get on Amazon. They wire in super easy and just have a volume ****, using your phone as the head unit. They're like $25 and my current one has lasted for 3-4 years now, although the potentiometer is a bit dirty so there's some white noise when changing the volume.
I've got some more details in my build thread I'm pretty sure.
I have never heard of such a thing. Gonna have to thumb through your build thread again. That's really cool! I've already got a Pioneer head unit sitting around waiting to go in, just need a wiring harness for it. Phone as a head unit is a neat idea though.
Originally Posted by Fireindc
Amazing, glad to hear that. Mines still holding up well!
I would bet that on e85 with less heat that you might never have had that issue.
How many years have you had yours now, Fire? I'm not bumming on the failure, honestly. Mine's probably got 14 track days on it running 10-15* degrees timing at peak torque. Hopefully e85 this season will help the longevity, but if the manifold's warrantable, a few days of downtime isn't too bad. I'm curious what the shipping is on sending a manifold via 3-day air from Romania to California, though...
Thanks, glad you're enjoying the build thread! I'll try not to hijack, but this is what mine looks like currently. That little silver volume **** below the gauges is the only part of the amp that is exposed.
Messaged Michael @ Kraken and he's gonna send me a replacement manifold under warranty. What a guy. Just gotta send him pics of the old manifold cut into pieces.
In case anyone needed even more reason to buy a Kraken kit.
Sorry to hear about the crack, but you keep on rolling with the punches. That's an awesome response from Kraken!
They were all bought back in 2019, so there's quite possibly smaller/cheaper/better amps or remotes out there.
I appreciate being able to pause/play, adjust volume, and skip from the remote, once turned on it connects automatically to my phone with a little beep. Phone now sits on a quad lock wireless charger on the passenger side of my dash, but I still use the remote for audio control.
Interesting setup Curly, and way more power than mine. My amp is more along the lines of this, although I think I get maybe 40 W per channel? Maybe less? It's still plenty for me in 99% of situations
Interesting setup Curly, and way more power than mine. My amp is more along the lines of this, although I think I get maybe 40 W per channel? Maybe less? It's still plenty for me in 99% of situations
In my blue NA, I had an Infinity BT amp that was wired to a sub amp. The total system wattage was 800w RMS. Both amps were mounted to the sub box and were connected to the car through a bulkhead connector. It only took a couple of minutes to remove and replace it for track days.
I have never heard of such a thing. Gonna have to thumb through your build thread again. That's really cool! I've already got a Pioneer head unit sitting around waiting to go in, just need a wiring harness for it. Phone as a head unit is a neat idea though.
How many years have you had yours now, Fire? I'm not bumming on the failure, honestly. Mine's probably got 14 track days on it running 10-15* degrees timing at peak torque. Hopefully e85 this season will help the longevity, but if the manifold's warrantable, a few days of downtime isn't too bad. I'm curious what the shipping is on sending a manifold via 3-day air from Romania to California, though...
Mines been on the car since 2017, 25,000+ miles, and a decent amount of track time, 20+ events. Yours is the first one I've seen fail.
01-27-2024, 12:21 PM
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