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For those not in the FB club, Ed was blowing oil everywheres in the engine bay. Compression on all 4 cylinders is good. Problem was noted after Ed put on the "non-suck" valve cover, which was pretty, but apparently had gasket issues.
Chances of major mechanical fubarage: low.
Annoyance factor and track day sufferage: high.
So gots to replace valve cover gasket properly, then figure out what if anything needs to be done about catch can stuffs.
At the end of the day, I believe I overreacted. Understandable though because everyone was telling me there was major mechanical fubarage.
Pretty quickly we determined that the valve cover gasket was not the issue -- it was blowing oil out the little filter on the exhaust side of the valve cover.
Started with this:
and that resulted in oil EXPLODING all over the exhaust. I mean, there was a puddle all the way on the frame rail. Thank goodness no fire, I haven't mounted the extinguisher yet!
Decided to go back to OEM PCV setup on the intake side, and mount the catch can on the passenger side:
After about a lap, the little catch can was full. It then filled the intercooler, finally resulting in massive amounts of oil shooting out the BOV when I cut the throttle. I pushed through that and did about 3 laps... My fastest still being 1/10th faster than Aidans fastest with him running all day :P I know I know unfair advantages and all that. Whatever.
I then did a compression test, all 4 cylinders tested within 5 PSI of each other. All spark plugs looked good. So I put the breather system back how it started, and attempted to replicate the issue on the road (to prepare for future troubleshooting). I found that no matter how many consecutive 50-100 mph full-throttle pulls I did (with only hard braking in between) I couldn't get a significant amount of oil to blow out.... but that was only in a straight line. I then went out for the last open session and half a lap in, oil was shooting everywhere again.
Dur. I guess I didn't seal the baffles well enough in the new valve cover. That's the only explanation I have.
So, ultimately.... just need to re-do the baffles. What I'll PROBABLY do is still try to replicate the issue on some local curves, re-seal the baffles, and try again.... and just in case, I'll take the previous valve cover to MRLS with me to swap out if needed.
At least it was the cheapest track day of the season. A fairly inexpensive lesson, as automotive lessons go.
Drop it off at Aidans, that guy doesn't do **** all day.
Or you could just drive it back into the bushes....
sry, I have nothing useful to offer.
Lol. I actually do house calls now.
I stopped by and put a new filter on the exhaust breather.
I then spent an hour beating on the car in the hills, it was very hard work, definitely not something i normally would like to do on my sunday morning.
I drove as hard as I felt comfortable with, and got no smoke. Ed is going to try and reproduce it on the way home but we are cautiously optimistic.
Aidan went and drove the thing hard and the new filter is totally dry. I am confident the issue is resolved based on the way Aidan said he drove it... thankfully it's still shiny side up, hehe. I think the only reason it blew the oil out yesterday morning is because that was the first corner I went around, and that filter was suuuuuuuuuper totally saturated with oil.
Pulled the IC and cleaned it. also added a bit of ducting on the radiator. I'll be finishing putting it back together tonight and will take it for a drive.
Um, yeah... My cousin wouldn't exactly pass the broomstick test. Put the hardtop on for day 2.
They did a new angle from the top of the corkscrew and I love it.
Exo!
First session on the second day, this random guy asked to ride with me. At the end of the session, he said "Well, you did your job of scaring the **** outta me."
Giving the KMiata a point by! I loved giving it the point by and hearing that K rev past. I really wanted to chase him more, but he'd always come up on me when we were up on traffic and he was far more effective at cutting through traffic than I was.
Some serious SQUISH through Turn 6:
Trying to run away from Taxi:
Absolutely love this one:
Dad was having fun.
Also, funny story... On day two, after my first session, my cousin asked to borrow my floor jack so he could look at his sway bar connection on his Civic. I couldn't find it at first, then I remembered where I'd left it:
Those scooters are damned heavy. I'm lucky nothing bounced around too bad on that first session on track. I didn't hear a thing back there.
Thanks again for the ride Ed! I think that's me in the first traffic pic. I recognize my "trying to be a good passenger posture." In truth, I am a terrible passenger, but you are safer than most folks I get to ride with.
Took it in on trade and made it happen. It's for my Dad, and he plans to take it to MRLS next year. Let's see if we can make it happen.
I did pull off those hideous seat covers. One big tear on the driver seat, need to get that repaired or something but still much better than those awful covers.
Plans:
-some sort of suspension setup
-replace the radiator with an all-aluminum one for reliability
-catch up on maintenance
-roll bar, of course
-put some 205 rivals I have in my garage on the stock wheels
-freshen brakes and upgrade the pads to something that'll hold up decently on track with a novice driver
-figure out something with the top. I shattered the plastic rear window when I was checking the car out, and the top has holes and is haggard anyway.
She runs and drives great though. This should be fun!
09-20-2016, 01:31 AM
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