The start of the rebuild

Slowly things are moving along...very slowly. Life has been pretty busy, so the car has unfortunately taken a back seat to everything while I focus on other things. Hopefully now a bit of focus can be put back onto the race car and I can get it up and running!!

So the progress so far - A K20 has been purchased along with another gearbox that is in good condition. I think for now I will chuck that in and get it up and running, then while I am having a bit of fun in that I will purchase another engine that I will rebuild for forced induction and throw that in at a later stage.

Before I chuck in the engine though, I want to get the suspension sorted out. I am converting to 5x114 due to the massive amount of wheel choice I have in this stud pattern, especially in 17" which is what I will run. So while I do this, I will address everything and get it all 100%. So that means spherical bearings, and while browsing the net the other day I found FCS do a tubular front subframe. Not only will this save me about 20kg, but will allow for a lot more adjustment and replace everything in the front end with spherical bearings. Adjustment for camber was something that I was lacking before, so to get a bit more there would be awesome to get a bit more grip around the corners.

So hopefully I get that all sorted out in the next month or two, then get the engine in, sort out the brakes (thinking 6 pot Wilwoods at the front, and my current 4 pot Wilwoods to the rear), wire it all up and we are good to go.

Starting again

So I made the decision to tear the whole car down to the shell and start all over again. After driving it for a while I found several places I could do to save weight and make improvements to the car, plus there were some things that I was not happy with to begin with, so time to address all that now.

 

The B16a I was running has now been sold off, it was a great engine, loved to rev, and had plenty of power, but it is time to move onto something a bit more serious. So the basic plans are:

Under the bonnet:

• Engine will be a turbo'ed K20a with block built to 11.5cr, stronger conrods, and standard head all running on E85.
• Gearbox will be standard gears running a 1.5 way LSD.
• The fuel system will be stripped back, with a baffled tank installed meaning the fuel surge tank I am currently using can be removed. All new fuel lines will be used.
• All new custom wiring will be installed, tidying up what was a bit ugly previously and trying to keep everything clean and neat.
• Steering rack will be converted to manual as an actual manual rack is near impossible to find. This will help remove the constant leak I had previously too.

Handling & Aero:

• Aero will be looked at and reworked. New side skirts with more stiffness to them, new front splitter mounting system to remove the movement it had before, and a wider rear diffuser that stretches the whole width of the rear. To go with these a flat undertray will be made too.
• Fender flares to be installed to accommodate wider wheels & tyres to handle the extra power. Wheel widths will be increasing to about 10" at the front and 9" at the rear and wheel size may increase to 17"
• Brake system will be re-worked too. Larger front brakes to handle the extra power as at Sandown the current setup was struggling, and rears will be changed to something larger too. All new brake lines will be installed at this time too and brake booster removed.

Inside & Gear:

• Standard pedals will be removed and a pedal box installed with remote reservoirs, this means the current brake bias can be removed as it will be all integrated.
• Finally install the lexan windows and save some weight
• New race seats
• New safety gear, suit, helmet, HANS device

Hopefully this all adds up and will help strip some seconds off my lap times, I am pretty happy with the way the car handles atm, but with the wider wheels / tyres and better aero there is defiantly a lot of room for more grip, the power should double with this new setup, and with some weight saving I should be able to get the car down to about 800kg.

None of this will happen overly quickly, but in the next 6 months it should be up and running and ready to hit the track.

Onto the hoist and back to the drawing board....

So got the car up onto the hoist last night and checked it out after the ditch at Sandown. Fortunately everything looked good, sump had a dint which I knew about, all arms checked out, still have a leak from the power steering rack which needs to be changed to non-power steering but once again, I knew about that. So apart from that all looked ok.

 

But the major thing was what I was most worried about, and as I was unloading the car from the trailer and driving it into the workshop it was confirmed...my LSD is gone. The impact must have shattered it, so I need to remove the gearbox and confirm. That LSD was the one thing holding me back from doing a K series swap, so with a potential $2k bill on its way for a new LSD ($1.2k) and a few other things for the gearbox, the K series swap is looking a lot more realistic and the way to go.

 

So the ED may be out of action for 6 months or so...so keep an eye on this space, as it could be back better than ever!!

Sandown 31/08/2014

Yesterday was a track day (VSSC R5) at Sandown, and in tune with the rest of year it had it's up's and down's. Leading up the day, I tried to get on top of the noise issue I have constantly been having. So Friday we made up a new exhaust with a long center muffler and the ability to run the rear muffler too. In my testing, the results were good. The center muffler worked as well as the rear one and noise was down.

As usual for the Ford / Holden car clubs, the organisation at the start of the day was pretty bad. After waiting in line for 45min to get signed up, once again, they didn't get my registration. So get that all sorted out and quickly through scrutineering. By then they were running about 1hr late.

First session, car was feeling good, concentrated on warming things up and getting the car right for the rest of the day. Had some decent laps in heavy traffic. A 1.33 which I was happy with as a warm-up. Pulled in after the session and an official came up saying that my car once again, was too loud. Couldn't be exhaust anymore, so has to be intake...and the cost / effort of re-doing all that is too much, so looks like no more Sandown for me (well maybe sneak in a few sessions for the last round of the VSSC).

So with a warning for noise already, and knowing this will be my last session before I get kicked off, I got tyre pressures right and got myself ready to attack this next session. Payed off in the end with a new PB of 1.28.8, knocking .3 off my previous PB. Defiantly felt like there was more to go too, with a mid to low 28's feeling possible that day. Down the straight this time I tried pulling to the other side of the track away from the DB reader, and after pulling back into the pits, no one came and talked to me...I think the wind might have slightly changed direction too.

Third session and I was hopeful to break the PB again, but unfortunately it was not to be. First lap I went to overtake someone on the inside, just cut it too tight, got a little loose, and ran onto the grass. This wasn't too bad and not my first time on the grass that day, but unfortunately as I was running on the grass waiting for the guy to get out of the way I hit a massive ditch, which after pulling back into the pits saw it ripped off my splitter, the brackets holding it on and put a dent into my sump. Need to get the car onto a hoist to get a better look and make sure all the arms are ok.

And that was the end of my track day!! So now I need to make a new splitter and brackets, my brakes weren't giving me much confidence that day too, so time for new pads, rotors and fluid I think as well as changing up the rears to some Wilwoods too to loose some more weight. So with one more Sandown day planned this year, I might give it another shot, but then after that I doubt I will be back. Stick to Phillip Island and Winton, as I hardly ever get to Winton it is somewhere I would like to concentrate on for a while.

New PB 1.28.8

So we are now mid 2014...Not much luck and not many posts

So, hasn't been a great year for the old ED...It's only had a handful of outings, non of which I would say have been terribly successful. So after I got everything back together again, with the new suspension and changes to the car I was ready for my first track day.

Phillip Island: Well this was a bad start to the racing year...First lap had a fair bit of smoke coming out of the back of the car, pulled into the pits and was trying to find where it was coming from, while I was doing this a gust of wind came and smashed my bonnet into the windscreen and shattered it...so that was my day done, not even a full lap done.

Sandown: With a new windscreen installed and the cause of the oil leak found and fixed I headed to Sandown to try to get in a good day. Once again on this first session there was a fair bit of smoke, after pulling back into the pits we found the issue, last time the oil leak had leaked onto the heat wrap for the exhaust, so was just burning up. So we cut that away and were ready to head back out. Next session the car was majorly down on power, pulled back in and water had gotten into the plugs, emptied that out and went out for the next session, car was majorly misfiring...we determined it could be old fuel and / or bad leads. So with some octane booster added to the fuel went out for the final session and was still misfiring at high rpm...So that was my day done, so good runs, no real chances to get anything warmed up, so a few seconds slower than my PB

Sandown: A new set of leads chucked on and I was ready for Sandown, car felt great straight up, plenty of grip and considering the day (a bit wet) I was pretty happy with the car. On the warm-up lap I was actually running at PB time!! So got a bit excited and with everything too cold ended up running off the track into the kitty litter...no big deal, just meant for a lot of cleaning off the front diffuser. Managed to get a few more sessions in that day, and walked away with a new PB 1.29.2, about .3 quicker than before...but the track wasn't at its best and neither was my driving...so defiantly a lot more to loose off that time. 1.28's should be easy with potential for 1.27's.

Phillip Island: After driving half way to Phillip Island in the pouring rain a few weeks previously and then turning around and going home because of the conditions I was eager to get the car out at PI. But unfortunately got in 2 sessions in wet condition's and then got done for noise. Was pretty happy with how the car was feeling though, was running about 20sec slower due to the weather and cold car, but was still comparatively going decently compared to others (mates GTR is about 10sec quicker than mine in the dry but I was running a few seconds quicker in the wet that day with worse tyres)

So that's been my racing experience this year...really not much to shout about and hence why I haven't been on here much!! Hopefully all is sorted now and I can start to get used to the car again and start pushing it a bit more. I finish up my studies this month which will allow me to get back to racing more often and more seat time.

The aim for the car in the next few months is: New seats, retune to E85, and new exhaust system that will allow for my splitter & diffuser system to work. Have another track day coming up in a few weeks at Sandown so will post up results after that.

No pics in a while, so here they are!!

Long time, no update!!

So a whole bunch of small stuff has been happening over the last 4 months, but been a bit too busy to update!!. Still haven't had a chance to get out and drive it since 5-6 months ago, but some good progress has been happening. As usual there was a bit of drama and a few things that popped up on the way, but nothing that bad and will all probably end up with a better setup in the end anyways. So the new additions to the car are: 

 - Rear trailing arm bushes

 - Extended lugs

 - Custom AMR Engineering coilovers

 - Gauges are now connected

 - K Tuned Front subframe brace

 - Mugen 4-1 Headers

 - Moroso Oil Pan

 - All wiring has now been fully cleaned up.

          - All non used plugs removed

          - Most wiring hidden away

          - Fuse box relocated to inside car

          - Ignition removed from around steering column to dash panel

 - Seat sliders removed and fixed position mounts installed (lower too)

 

So a fair bit of work...nothing too major but all small things that will add up to a better package (hopefully). So after all the work of designing a front splitter earlier this year that's now been binned and a new design has had to be made. When I changed from the 4-2-1 headers to the 4-1 headers, there wasn't enough room. So the front subframe had to be removed and a K Tuned subframe brace installed to create enough rooms. This should give me some more front end stiffness which is very much needed in my car, but unfortunately it also meant that the front tow hooks had to be removed...which was where my front splitter attached to. So I am trialling a few different designs now, and hopefully in the next few weeks I can have something sorted out.

 

So that's about it for now...coming up in the next month new Lexan windows will be made and installed, rear guards flared, new exhaust made up, new FCS fuel tank and a re-tune for E85 fuel. Hopefully all up I should loose about 50kg and gain another 10kw, will keep me happy for a while I think.

 

Hopefully for end of December it will be back up and running ready for the 2014 season!!

A bunch of ED mods and updates!!

So that loud bang I mentioned in my last post after I loaded the civic onto the trailer...that was the hairline crack in the rotor turning into a massive split!! So didn't realise this until 2 days before I was meant to be at Phillip Island for  John Bowe driver training day!!

 

In the mean time, I had ordered and installed a new set of tyres. Went for 225/50/15 this time over the 205/50/15's I was running last time, and this time decided to try out the Advan A050's. Also to help these fit a bit nicer in the guards I did a spacer for them pushing them out an inch or so. Fits nicely over the tyres now with plenty of clearance, will also allow for some good ventilation and airflow. The rears didn't fit so nice, but I have someone coming to help flair out the guards in the next week or so, so they can fit a little nicer. The suspension has been adjusted giving more preload to the front and rears for a firmer ride, while raising it up slightly to allow for the slightly higher sidewall on the new tyres.

 

On top of this I finally started some aero work. The rear bumper has been cut down so not to trap as much air in it, and I have designed and installed a front splitter that will allow for quick and easy removal with the brackets I had made up for it too. Pretty happy with the results actually, and works in nicely with my front lower arm tie bar. Hopefully the results on the track will reflect some good results as I am pretty happy with it's stiffness and design. Also I have installed my J's Racing rear wing, which will hopefully give me a bit more downforce at the rear to assist with the additional front downforce.

 

And as of this week, it looks like I have sold my KW suspension setup...something I had been thinking about for a bit, and AMR had offered me a great price on a custom setup which I will be getting made up a lot stiffer to assist with the splitter and soon to be made rear diffuser. Only one more track day until a lot of changes happen.

 

Basically I am planning on, AMR coilovers, change from 4-2-1 to 4-1 headers and retune to E85, a ton of maintenance and bushing upgrades, rear diffuser which also means a new exhaust layout, and a lot of weight reduction. Planning on loosing about 50kg from the car to get it into the 800's, so far door trims have been taken, new lightweight fuel tank is on the cards as well as replacing glass for lexan windows which I will make up myself and some new aluminium fixed seat rails. On top of this I will be getting a front strut brace made up to fit in with the ITB setup, as I think this might be the key to my turn in issues and the car feeling a little lazy to turn in sharply.