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Here is the footage of laguna and Sonoma. Yes, the center net isn't properly mounted. I just kinda threw it up there when I was putting the car together and forgot to adjust it. You will hear in the laguna footage there is a sight buzzing noise. This was the exhaust getting pulled over and tapping the diff. I fixed that last session of the day so the footage isn't as annoying but the laps were slower.
Me being a hoon. I was dialing in brake bias because the rear was locking up and sending me sideways. You can see me adjusting the brake bias via remote adjuster in the car.
I have really good news. I am fairly sure the motor will be ok. I pulled the valve cover to check valve clearances. I found the I8 valve to super tight at .1mm (.2-.23mm is spec). A bunch on the exhaust side were slightly tight as well.
Here is that pic again:
I did a leak down test while I was in there and the results were shockingly good. This meant a few things. Either the motor had a bottom end bearing failure that wont present itself in these tests/inspections, the VVT actuator/solenoid was freaking out and making noise, or the noise is temperature dependent (valves).
I put everything back together sans drive belts and fired it up. The motor sounded perfect. No weird ****. HELL YES.
This means that its likely not a bottom end bearing failure. I am going to take it apart tomorrow to re-shim the head. After that ill just keep an eye on it. But I have high hopes it was a fluke accident and the car just didn't want to drive this last weekend.
Car looks like it rips. Hoping for the best with your engine. I've pulled in after some track sessions and thought for sure I could hear rod knock on my car but turned out to be nothing every single time, but it's also got HLA's so there's that. Sometimes when things start going through extreme heat cycles you're going to get some weird noises that come and go.
My VVT phaser makes all kinds of noise if the oil is good and hot. Megasquirt does not give a way to disable PID and the output to the valve below any point even if you don't have enough volume to actually move the actuator. Even with a zero target it still tries, and since it's working off oil pressure it seems to follow the speed of the bottom end rather than the valvetrain. I know mine is the VVT, because if you go and pop the minimum coolant temp up to 250 it instantly stops as the duty cycle returns to zero.
I am about to try and run some sort of kill switch using digital IO to interrupt the valve and then just hope the duty doesn't go too insane, seeing as how it's error at idle is less than the programmed skew you would think so, but no, this is megasquirt...
I agree. My money is on the VVT actuator. I didnt have an oil temp gauge, but I suspect the car saw the highest oil temps its ever seen due to the high redline and power bump. So it would make sense that the VVT actuator was making the noise. Its where the sounds were coming from when I heard it (passenger side valve cover).
I ran the car up to operating temp and it was fine. So I pulled it apart to re-shim the head. Tedious job but I wanna make sure its right.
Oh damn, you were paddocked in the next row over from me at Sonoma and I didn't even realize it. I walked by your car when it was up on one side with the wheels off, but I don't think you were around. I was wondering what you had hiding under the hood...
I must have stopped by while you were at the tire shop. I run around a bunch because I work Tech, so you probably left before I would have caught up with you. Total bummer on your weekend.
The blue Mustang came by Tech later in the afternoon to get approved to go back out. Guy seemed fine, but I'm not sure if the remains of his car passed inspection: it was missing a pretty good chunk of the nose and still had sharp sheet metal poking out. I had to go do something else before the chief scrutineer made a decision.
I think there were 3 cars who crashed? The one in my session was a grey mustang. It was totaled. No way he tried to take it back out (very smashed/broken car, id be surprised if it rolled). It was sitting outside the gate for the rest of the day.
I went back to Sonoma and had a much more successful day. I layed down a 1:51.5. It's a respectable time given the tires I was driving on. I was happy with it, I mean, my previous PB was a 1:55 so...I went a lot faster. The car felt good. I did miss a session becase the motor started knocking again. But after tearing it down last time I knew it wasn't the bottom end so I dug into it at the track. It sounded like the noise was coming from around the water pump, so I grabbed the pulley and was able to move it ever so slightly. I figured the bearings in the pump had exploded and that was the cause of the noise. But....why would it do it only after I pull off track and re-start? Well, I guess the water pump bolts get hot enough and vibrate enough to back themselves out ever so slightly. I snugged them down a smidge and that seemed to do the trick. Sounds super healthy now. Other than that, the left rear tire kept deflating. So I just pumped it up before every session.
Anyways, here is some footage. Yes, I know the footage is overexposed. And yes, I know, I need to fix the center net.
Oh yeah. I tinted the headlights yellow because it was supposed to rain and seeing is good, but...it didn't. Not sure if I wanna keep it on or take it off.
This was my first time back at Buttonwillow in 3 years. This time, another competition event with ApexTimeAttack. The day before the event, I pulled the car out to do a quick nut and bolt, and I found that I had lost one of my turbo manifold studs, and the remaining 3 had all become loose. Ok no biggie, I'll just tighten them up, throw a new stud in, and ill be good to go. Right. Well it turns out that one of the 3 remaining studs was loose, nut the nut. And it was loose becase somehow, the threads on the stud/manifold had melted/stripped. Great. I get to pull the turbo and manifold the day Im supposed to leave to go to the track, and attempt to fix this aids.
So I ran a tap through it, put a new stud in, put everything back in, except the damn downpipe didn't wanna mate up....AGAIN. 3 people and 2.5 hours later I get the car done and hit the road.
Knowing that the left rear tire might be an issue for me going into this event, I brought along a set of used 245 hoosiers and a spare wheel, just in case. Well, the tire went from 26psi cold, to 0 in about 3 laps. Took it to the tire shop and they were able to find that air was actually leaking from the bead of the tire only when under load. So they threw some bead sealer on and that fixed it. other than that, the car ran flawless the whole event. People keep asking why I run shitty tires when I spent all this time and $ building the car. This is why. I didn't wanna waste a set of expensive tires figuring out the bugs in the car. These rs4s are still at 85-90% tread after 5 events. So they are perfect for shaking down the car without spending a fortune on tires.
Anyways, this event was a time attack event, and due to my tire size, I was placed in unlimited class. Again. I went in not expecting to be super competitive due to my tires being gross and I knew there were some fast cars there. So it really was just an event to continue shaking down the car and to hang out with friends. Well, as it turns out, I have pretty decent luck with this track (knock on wood). And I managed a 3rd place podium, and the fastest Miata in my class as well. The 1st and 2nd place guys were in built FD RX7s from lucky7racing making a lot of power, on big *** hoosiers. So...whatever.
I was pretty happy with dipping in to the 56s at this track. I know the car has way more in it on better tires (obviously). Im exited to get the bugs ironed out so I can see what the car can really do.
I know a lot of you guys dont like Vlogs, but I made one due to popular demand on my instagram (@icanturn). Yes, I know it's ****. So for those of you who don't wanna cringe for 14min of your life, I have the raw fast lap below as well.
I hope you enjoyed my overexposed footage once again. Photo dump commencing now.
This is probably one of my favorite photos of my car ever. Apparently this thing shoots fire ***** all the time. I had multiple people come up to me geeking out over it lol.
This sick *** ford gt was there too. He was running in the Super GT class. He did a 1:41. heh.
Next event is Jan 10th back at laguna. Stay tuned.
Last edited by icantlearn; 12-25-2020 at 03:47 PM.
After that aids I decided to stop being a wuss and buy new tires. So I got a set of sticker 245 AR1 and signed up for Sonoma.
The car felt so much better on new tires (go figure). Much of the understeer was gone (although Sonoma isn't as understeer prone as laguna). The car felt really good. 1:49.1 good.
I haven't sifted though all the footage to find the fast lap, but I was constantly clicking off 49.1-2 laps with no traffic. So this footage of me chasing a supra and r8 is probably more entertaining anyways.
This next part is kinda big news. Im going to COTA for GLTC in March. It'll be my first W2W race at a track iv'e never driven in my life. Sounds like a good time.
I have my work cut out for me though. I need to figure out a plan for car setup. COTA is a special track becase its so fast that drag really matters. So I need to find the right balance between drag and grip.
So far the plan is to bring 2 splitters. The one on the car now and another one that doesn't protrude from the air damn as to not take a points hit. Im worried that the car is gonna push really bad even with the wing at negative AOA, so iv'e thought about also bringing a S2 spoiler to run the car in that trim aero wise. The next thing I need to sort out is what tire I wanna run. If I dont run a hoosier, it frees up HP, so thats still undecided.
I have a full set of brofab hubs for the car coming, a new custom BBK, and ive been chipping away at a MK60 ABS retrofit, although it will be a tight squeeze to get in before I need to leave for COTA. I have a lot to do.
Yeah I mean if I were to do this whole race car thing over again I probably woulda picked an e36/e46 m3 or an s2000. After owning an e36, e46, and now e90 m3, I realized that my driving style is favorable to BMW chassis, they are very predictable, balanced, and confidence inspiring cars to drive, even stock. Not only that, but a stock engine that is class compliant is really, really nice. Yeah, my miata can make 400whp if I put in e85 and turned it up, but I don't really care, the trans wont last long at that power level. At this point in my life, I just wanna go racing.
Annnyyyways. I guess I'll dive into my COTA adventure. As I said in my last post, I was undecided as to how I wanted to set up the car. After a lot of thinking and some math, I decide the best plan of action was to make the car as fast as possible in a straight line. So I ditched the front splitter in favor of an air dam/undertray and a DIY rear spoiler. I also opted to keep the 245AR1. This let me run the car at 200whp and 2500lbs. Given that this is the same exact aero setup that s2 cars run, I felt pretty comfortable with this.
Before I left, I ordered a full set of Brofab hubs for the car. I slapped on the fronts but decided to hold off on the rears till the ABS retrofit went in as it requires ABS rear uprights. I swapped the flattop intake mani back to to the stock VVT mani to try and choke out the motor, and I swapped the "medium boost" wastegate back to the low boost wastegate. I also wanted to make the front splitter quicker to take on/off, so I welded on a bracket to the subframe that holds the rear of the splitter up instead of using hardware. This way it slides back into the subframe, then bolts up to the front of the car per usual. Just a bit more convenient. I then took the car to the dyno and attempted to get the car down on power. Turns out, it's not possible to get the car down on power enough without a restrictor in the exhaust. I have a V-banded exhaust. So this isn't an option. The car made something like 212whp with boost control turned off and 4* of timing pulled out of the map. I dont have EGT sensors, and I really don't wanna melt anything so I the only other option was to limit the engine to 6600rpm, thats the exact point the car crossed 200whp. I wanted to align/corner balance the car with the ballast but by the time I rolled off the dyno it was like 11pm and there was just no way it was gonna happen.
Pic of front hub, thing is BEEFY.
I also installed a Garmin Catalyst in the car thanks to a new sponsor of mine AutoRnD (use code "icanturn" at checkout for a $50 discount!). I figured it would be nice to have to help me learn tracks quickly. I decided to flush mount the device in the center switch panel. If I put it up above the dash it would just get in the way of my line of sight due to the small windshield that miatas have, so this was the best alternative. I will be releasing a video discussing my thoughts on the device shortly. So I guess I can post that here as well.
Oh, I also put together a comm system which is why I now have a cable attached to my steering wheel.
So with that, I packed the trailer, loaded up the car, and embarked on the 1700 mile drive to Austin. This sucked. I don't know what I was thinking, again, i'm an idiot, don't be me, or do idk. I believe we were under 100 miles out when my 7 pin trailer plug popped out of the socket and completely self destructed. I found out when I hit the brakes and the truck didn't wanna stop (no trailer brakes) . I pulled over into a parking lot, and spent a good hour and a half figuring out which wire went to what pin. Thankfully, I had a spare 7 pin connector that I was planning to swap on anyways, but it was still super tedious. I brought along a power probe which was an absolute godsend for this job.
As we rolled into the track, I realized the scale of the place. Nuts. Absolutely nuts. Don't get me wrong, Laguna is a nice track in a nice facility, but COTA takes a nice hot steamy dump all over it in terms of pure "grandness". I mean, its an F1 track, so idk what I was expecting but experiencing it in person is just different. My 2 roommates Zach and Jacob (Indycar motorsports engineers) were nice enough to fly out to help me for this event. So I dropped the trailer at the track and picked them up from the airport which was right next to the track about 10 min away. I pulled the car out, went to the drivers meeting, and went through tech. Everything went smoothly. I saw GLTC cars lapping and freaked out thinking it was my practice session. Well, it was unknown to me that there was a friday test day, that woulda been nice to know so that I didnt have to go into the race blind. But whatever.
Saturday morning I go out for my 15min practice session. The car felt like ****. The rear of the car was all over the place. I was also trying to learn the track which is super deceiving. I came in after the session, and told the guys to put the big wing back on. I could have cranked up the adjusters on the spoiler to give a more aggressive AOA, but I didnt wanna risk it as the next session was quali. I tossed some more ballast in the car to compensate for the wing and headed out for quali. IMMEDIATELY, I felt the wing. The rear was so stable, way more confidence inspiring, but I went too far in the wrong direction. Now the car was pushy. 2nd lap in a car lost a motor and dropped oil on the track, resulting in pretty much the entire session under yellow. I never got a chance to lay down a clean lap which meant I would be starting at the back. I told the guys to crank the wing up a notch to help alleviate some of the understeer, made some shock adjustments, and called it good.
Race 1 was.....interesting-ish? This would be my first ever W2W race and it shows. I left so many opportunities open, but my mind was constantly freaking out about contact. I didnt wanna put myself somewhere I wouldn't be seen, and I didnt wanna live out my nightmare of plowing into people going into a braking zone. Combine this with my entire HPDE experience muscle memory of "just be patient, wait for a less risky area to pass, you can get him on the next one", and I just got annihilated. You will see in the footage that the car looses a lot of power after a lap and a half or so. Well......
ARE YOU FRICKING KIDDING ME? AGAIN? REALLY? In case you are blind and cant see the issue, the turbo hardware decided to melt again... the treads on that nut were gone, and the threads in the manifold were also starting to melt. COOL.
Thankfully race 1 was the end of day 1, so I yanked the turbo that night, re-tapped the manifold, stuck a spare inconel stud in with copius amounts of resbond, and threw it all back together. After messaging Andrew Kidd, we concluded that I needed more bracing on the downpipe to alleviate stress on the studs. So after some thinking and a home depot/autozone trip later, we made a brace for the downpipe that hopefully would solve my issues.
Race 2 was sweet, we took advantage of the F1 track and did a standing start. I had launch control enabled in MS, so I was able to get a great start when lights went out. I will take a standing start over a roller any day of the week. It was so cool. Unfortunately, my right rear lower upright bolt had lost the nut and backed out due to the chassis vibrations from the DP brace. We had a race restart due to another mechanical on lap 1, and when green flag dropped and I did my 3-4 shift, I felt the car pitch sideways. Weird. 4-5 same thing. Braking into t1 the car felt lie it was crabbing, I got back on power and now the wheel was sideways, felt like I was gonna die. Super sketchy. I pulled off track to a corner worker, the safety crew came, visually looked over the car, and they wanted to tow me off, but I was able to limp the car the whole way around the track back into the pits. I had a nut that fit the bolt in my box of random stuff, so fixed that, gathered myself and waited for race 3.
Race 3 was where I really got to explore the car a bit, everything leading up to this was pretty much under yellow, so didn't get any good info on how the car felt after the setup changes. The 3 big things I noticed were that I was getting out braked, out dragged, and out gripped. AKA, my junk is slow. I compared AIM data with Eric Meadows who was driving an NC miata, super nice guy. We found that my car would loose most of its time under braking, and my min corner speeds were consistently lower. Basically, I didn't have hoosiers. Knowing that this might be an issue, I bought a set of 2020 date 225 r7s from a guy on Facebook, So I said fuckit, and slapped those on, along with more weight. Now I was sitting at 2626lbs with no fuel. 2710lbs I think at race start. Chonky. Paging though my AIM data, we noticed that my IATs were peaking at 230* down the back straight...... what da fak. I decided to put the filter in clean fish air instead of behind the hot radiator, so out came the headlight, and in went the filter. With nothing else we could do, I went back out for race 4.
Race 4 went MUCH better. You can see the progression in my driving from race 1 to 4. Still not great, but a lot better. After the first few laps, my IATs would skyrocket, and the timing retard would start going nuts. So I lost the momentum I had in the beginning, but let me just say this...... HOOSIERS ARE MASTER RACE. Holy ****. The grip is real, even at 35 cold! I forgot to air down the tires from the tire shop, so I was wayyyyyy overinflated. You can see it was a bit tricky to drive, but I gained the time back that I was loosing under braking, even with me not having 100% confidence in the brakes yet. I cant wait to go out on these with correct pressures and ABS.
That was good enough for a top 10 finish, which doesn't mean much to me since the attrition rate was so high. But apparently its an achievement, so. yeah.
Anyways heres some I phone pics:
Actual good pics:
And to top it all off, on the way back to Indy, my truck crossed 200k. As a token of gratitude, at 200,020 it decided to eject the driveshaft out the left side of the truck in the middle of Jacksonville Tennessee. It took out the leaf spring pack, airbag, and muffler (you can see it split open) on the way out, hit the center median, then got ran over by 4 semis . Noice. Wouldn't be a cross country trip without something going terribly wrong.
A 2k tow bill later, I got the car home, where I promptly tore it apart for its next round of treatment. GLTC at NCM is in roughly a week and a half. So if the weather holds out, and I can make progress on the car, Ill probably go to that event.
I came by your trailer a few times to say hey, but kept missing you I guess. I ended up giving you a big ol' thumbs up when I saw you driving back from the gas pumps.
10-14-2020, 01:21 PM
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. I pulled over into a parking lot, and spent a good hour and a half figuring out which wire went to what pin. Thankfully, I had a spare 7 pin connector that I was planning to swap on anyways, but it was still super tedious. I brought along a power probe which was an absolute godsend for this job.
. Noice. Wouldn't be a cross country trip without something going terribly wrong.
