Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnndddd ... it's back!

Drove it 270kms home this afternoon. Took it for a quick spin for a test drive in a quiet part of the burbs there, pretty happy with how it pulls, 190kw on the wastegate, with a running-in tune. Wheel alignment in the morning, then back to Sydney to visit the new grandie. Lots of tidying up to do before it gets a serious power tune, but at least it is mobile, driveable and has a decent future in front of it. Bit noisy, more so than the IHI, but that is fixable.

Lokiel, you were right about the heat shielding, but wrong pipe! The air con pipes have gone, I am concerned about the heater hoses, I may try to massage the heater bypass pipe to move the hose further away.

Still waiting on confirmation of my L2S licence renewal, paid my money but they say 'under review' - for a week! C'mon guys, just tick the box!

 

Twofer!

Hoists are great. Not only does servicing become so much easier for an old fart, problems are no longer hidden. I found the rattle that was bugging me, and also the rhs diff oil seal is leaking. I probably damaged it when I fixed the popped tripod, it had to removed and replaced.

Had the barge up there too, found the problem front BJ, but they are pressed out and the new ones pressed in. So that might go to a workshop to be fixed, probably get both done as the other is probably not far behind.

 

Oh damn. This is a bummer, but that's a neat trick. Gotta make one of these before your patent arrives!


It's awesome that you have the car back now! Post an update when you get a chance!

 

Thanks. It only shows differences, but unlikely all bent the same. Just keep measuring to find the deepest if there is more variability, I stopped straight away because a 6mm difference (and the knocking) was enough to trigger the rebuild, didn't really matter if there was lower or higher differences in there.

Yeah, things are happening, but keeping my powder dry for the moment. Hope to be ready for some updates after Chrissy and NY, lot happening here outside the car(s). I can say it is a rocketship, 190rwkw in running in tune.

 

So, the Autronic is out, the Link G4x pnp is in. A Powertune dash is wired in. The Link tune is 195rwkw peak. There is more in there, but I am investigating a gearbox rebuild with mods to handle more torques, as a prerequisite for going higher.

This thing is a beast, I seriously need to get it track ready before I lose my license ...

Mania installed a button clutch, which I was and am cranky about. It is a light-switch, lacked consistent pedal and feel - starting off at uphill lights was 50% big revs/slippage, 50% bunnyhops and stalls.. Quelle embarrassment!

When they did the tune I asked them to look at the clutch slave, new fluid and a bleed, but they said that was all good, how about we replace the m/c? That was the problem evidently, as the clutch is still brutal, but consistent in feel and pedal. Makes driving the car enjoyable, not having to think about every gear change and concentrate on it trying to get it right.

Worklist now looks like

 

Give yourself some time with the clutch. It will never be as easy as an organic clutch, but you do adjust. I find I can do ok so long as my heel is firmly on the ground.

 

Thanks, I am much happier with it now, 75% of my problem was the m/c playing up and that is now gone. I have put a few kms on it since, and find it much easier to launch cleanly.

Thanks for that tip, I'll pay attention to what my heel is doing, and try that approach.

 

Can you please post some thoughts on the Autronic vs the Link G4x pnp?
ie. Why you swapped (I'm assuming it was tuner-related or a deficiency of the Autronic) and thoughts on the tuning software.

 

That's a good question. The answer is a bit 'it's complicated'.

First up, my local tuner quit the game, he was a gun on them, and I couldn't find another one locally. I used Mania to tune it after the rebuild, but relying on a tuner 3 hours away was not part of my game plan. At that time I decided to move to something new. Subsequently, late in the process I found that someone who tuned my first Haltech (E8!) in the racecar had set up near me, and did Autronics, but by then I was pretty committed to a change. He also does Links, so I was covered either way.

I looked at Haltech, they still have issues with the alternator and would need a patch harness so costly, but the upside was capability and availability of tuners. Link pnp, was attractive price-wise, capable as the Haltech (maybe more so), and can be tuned locally, hit the trifecta. Mania did the tune with the install, but I can have it updated here.

As far as I was concerned, there was no functional issue with the SM4 Autronic. There was a problem with communicating with the AiM SoloDL2, but that was an AiM problem. There was/is a bug in the aircon, but that seems to be an aircon issue, not ecu (the Link hasn't fixed it, not that I was expecting it to). I think the tuning may be a little different in how it is structured, but as far as I can tell it is pretty sophisticated and capable. Only drawback I can see is that it communicates by serial, no CAN. For tuning that is no issue, but hooking up dashes etc that can complicate things.

If you want an ecu to run the car, the Autronic will do it standing on its head. It ran mine without any work-arounds or the like.

OTOH, if you want to integrate with a CAN-only dash and a PDM (or any CAN-only devices), it may not be the right choice.

I am not a DIY tuner, so I am not well placed to comment on its suiability for that type of user. I have been told the software is more akin to how a trained mechanic approaches the tuning task, but I am not one of those either!! Only comment I will make is that given the number of professional tuners who won't do MS tunes, someone familiar with MS might, repeat might, find them quite different and consequently more 'difficult'. But that is speculation on my part.

 

Funny thing, I was feeling the gearshift was 'different' lately, just odd, not like I remembered. I have the tall angled MR shifter, and it wasn't looking the same, feeling the same. It used to be angled towards the steering wheel, but now it wasn't, just fore-and-aft.

It bugged me, as I didn't change it, the box hasn't been out of the car in yonks, the engine upgrade was done pulling it out the bonnet and putting it back the same way.

So I think some dude in the shop that did the engine thought it was 'wrong' and so fixed it. Fortunately the 'un-fix' is simple, and now done.

Would that all the world's troubles were so easily solved ...

 

After a drive to town a couple of days ago, I got the stuff out of the boot, and when shutting it looked at the state of the rear deck - not good. The dreaded clearcoat rot is not healing itself , worse it is spreading! Who knew?! " class="post_inline_image" loading="lazy" /> Thought that I really needed to stop procrastinating, bite the bullet, and speak to the spraypainter and accept his quote. The next day the phone rings and it is he, checking in as his wait list is getting down, and I am getting near the top. So now he has me pencilled in for lateish January.

That almost certainly shuts down any thoughts of the Neat 6-speed upgrade they are developing, in my mind there was a choice between the two - the Neat being $7.5k (estimated, plus installation).

It now raises an interesting question, which bonnet gets the new vents? I have a pristine (IIRC) spare on the wall of my workshop under a dust sheet, it maybe could go on the car for the respray (and maybe become the colour reference if it doesn't need painting), and the original, which is in reasonable shape, if not good (no sign of clearcoat failure) be the 'racer' bonnet with vents... And, do I get him to do a quickie on my spare bootlid, which will carry the uprights for the 9LR wing?

 

I don't think the NEAT gearbox solution will be ready too quickly, seems to have gone quiet actually. So you'll have time to replenish the piggy bank

 

Yes, probably a bit of a pipe dream ... I haven't (yet) found the limitations of what I have now, let alone gone to the next 'moah powa' stage.

I should update here too, and report the arrival of a 9LR high-mount wing, and a 'spare' bootlid, with some Singular endplates on the water. I don't want to cut my existing boot, especially not if it has been the recipient of an expensive respray. So I am going to have a dedicated track bootlid, set up for the wing. I also bought some splitter mounts, but turns out my turbo piping interferes with the vertical pieces. I need to do some experimentation with the car up the hoist, I may be able to use them with some 'adjustments'.

 

Soon you'll have a track chassis to go with your track hood and your track boot.

 

Back from the painter ...

Clearcoat damage all gone!


No more stone chips - for the moment!


... posing at a local landmark.

Car is on the hoist, wheels are going to get some TLC, radiator sealing, oil cooler.

Spare bonnet is being prepped with vents, and then it is off for a retune.

 

I had some strange tyre wear, and took the car to 'my suspension bloke' to see what he made of it. Long story short, that led to new SM FUCA-O SM ball joints, and an order for FUCA-I replacement SADfab poly bronze bearings. Well with the car on the hoist, the front end hanging loose, I went into 'while I am here' mode ... ordered a set of AWR swaybar mounts.

The old ones came off easily enough, the LHS AWR fitted just like the store-bought ones, just slid easily into place without the need for any fiddling or encouragement, and the RHS, well that brought some balance to the exercise. Nothing I could do up to and including lifting the car on a floorjack by pressing against the AWR mount would work - I was lifting the car off the hoist, using a 5lb hammer, nothing. Turns out the mount was ~4mm narrower than the chassis rail, and no way were those wings going to mate up with the holes. Mania tried to get a response from AWR, but last I heard they were still waiting by the phone. They dug out another set, measured the RHS and sent them up, and that one went on with only the need for minimal encouragement (C-clamp). Then of course the bolts would not screw through, another trip to town for a tap to clean up the threads.

So, is this crappy QC at AWR - I know the mounts have a reputation for being difficult to install? Or do (say) NAs have chassis rails 4mm narrower than NBs? If that is the case, how come one fitted and the other didn't?

 

Next was the new splitter mounts. These are the NC mounts for which there is another thread, but this is my experience. NC splitter mount (ebay)




Firstly, these are battleship grade steel, weigh a ton, and are generally indestructible. I can handle the weight, but the strength is a worry - too much overkill here, and a bent/damaged chassis rail results from a minor off where the splitter digs in.

The second problem is with the FMIC cold-side pipe, which in my case sits just where the blade passes down to meet the splitter.

The third problem is the need to allow access for the FUCA 'long bolt' to be extracted. That might be an occasional, rather than regular, task but if the mounts need to be moved it requires dismantling all the crash structure behind the nosecone - work to avoided unless necessary.

So, some quick work with the angle grinder and ...



This weakens the structure, and narrows it to fit inside the ~180* curve of the IC pipe - win-win. Unfortunately it is still too wide for comfort, nestling close to my aluminium piping, so I have to reverse it, and naturally that puts in in the way of the long bolt. I am going to wear the consequences, as the alternative is to redo the IC cold-side pipe and I don't think I want to do that (yet). I am also unhappy with the residual strength, and propose drilling a few more holes in strategic locations to introduce failure points.



This shows the mounting hole already present from the factory, and the new one drilled for the second (rearward) bolt. This one is used for the bolt with the long tang welded on, the other can be reached from the front.



This is as far as I have progressed, so more to come another day.

 

Update on the AWR mounts - Mania have got back to me, they have heard from AWR - mounts are same for NA and NB, difference is a bolt. No explanation for the problem though.

Looking like a QC issue. Suggest that, if you plan on using these, check the width of the AWR before removing the OEM mounts.

 

A final word on the AWR sway mounts.

Some cosmetic surgery will be required on the factory undertray - NBD, if you have a car that needs these, a little DIY cosmetic surgery will be a walk in the park after what you have done to get to that point.

However, this will be more involved if you have installed the NC splitter mounts, and that will in turn be affected by whether you mount them to the inside, or the outside, of the chassis rail. I have one of each. I wanted to mount them both to the outside, but the IC piping on the RHS dictated inside there.

That area/volume gets quite involved, increased when integrating with sealing the ducting of the incoming radiator air. More on this later.