About a week ago I began stripping the car down. I'm working my way from front to back removing any parts I can find that are no longer needed on a race car.
I have been finding various brackets and pieces that aren't needed. Things that were previously hidden by other items. I finished removing the A/C lines, which wrap completely around the ending bay before continuing back to the T-case (read as "fun," yey!).
I removed the dash/crash beam from the car to further reduce it's overall weight, and clean up with wiring mess. I will also be relocating many of the connectors and the ECU behind the crash bar for better protection and a cleaner look.
With the crash bar and the steering wheel removed, I was able to remove more of the sound deadening tar off of the floor by the drivers feet, and over the drive shaft tunnel by the shifter. The brown marks all over the floor is adhesive residue from the under side of the tar. Removing all this tar really makes me wish I had an RS(which didn't come with the tar or the fiber mat on the firewall).
I'm taking some extra time on everything to make it look as clean as possible. The first 7 months, I focused on getting the car running well without issue, and wasn't as detail-orianted as I should have been, but time was a factor and I didn't have any. So a clean and neat look is what I am going for. And the nicer finish will pay off in small areas. Cleaner means more material (dirt, glues,etc.) is removed, which in turn means lighter. It may be minimal at the end, but every little bit is a step ahead.
With the dash bar removed from the vehicle, I completely removed the wiring harness that was attached to it to give me the most room to safely work. There are a number of heavy braces connected to the crash bar to support the dash. I removed anything not needed for the wiring harness support, or needed gauges. Some of the items, such as the ECU and OBDII plug, had their own extention brackets off of the crash beam. I removed those and built a bracket to house the ECU behind the center of the crash bar. This gets it out of the way of peoples legs, and furthest from possibly getting wet. I cut off the large OBDII plug holder, and welded the small place holder to the center of the crash beam mounts.
Next step is to reinstall then crash beam, and relocate the harness plugs that currently sit on the floor, to a more rain friendly location.
I took some time off after CenDivs as I was getting pretty burned out with all the repairs, and just the amount of work into the car this year. It allowed me to get my mind back in the driving game a little more, and worry less about the car.
So how did we do?
Myself, I drove more or less what I expected, and finished in 13th of 25. My co-driver Andrew Pallotta, which to his credit only had 10 runs in the car prior, placed 5th in class (3rd on the first day). The car exceeded my expectation for a first season performance. With only 7 months of development, I am extremely pleased with how well the car did.
Things I learned:
1. Correct camber on Goodyears is not the same as Hoosiers.
We found that even at slightly higher pressures, we were rolling over the edge of the Hoosier slicks far more than we did on the Goodyears. We only had 4 total runs on the Hoosiers prior to competition. This will be taken into account for next year when the car will be running all year on Hoosiers.
2. Lincoln has higher grip levels than any of the sites I have run this year (and not broken at).
Sadly most of this year has been spent fixing broken items, or making changes. So I had little time to do any suspension tuning or adjustments besides some alignment changes. I knew before arriving in Lincoln that the car was soft on spring rates, but it really did show at those grip levels. You can see from the pictures that the height of the car and combine soft rates resulted in a lot of roll. Which in the slaloms, felt less like a Prepared car and more like a Stock class car. I have a plan for next years rate adjustments that should help cure a number of issues.
Plans for next year:
1. Stiffer spring rates
The car wallowed through slaloms, and the picture comparison between my car and many other Evos shows how the ride height and lower spring rates effect the cars handling
2. Lower the car more
Something I couldn't do this year due to budgeting. This will be done in a few steps. Wider front fenders to help tuck the tires. Larger backspacing on all 4 wheels will allow me to set the rear wheels inside of the stock fenders. The other benefit to this, is a smaller track width.
3. More weight reduction!
In Lincoln the car weighed in at 2609lbs with 1/2 tank of fuel. That is 9lbs over next years minimum weight. I do still have lots of room to go lower. So the plan is to remove the weight, and relocate it strategically.
4. Water-Proof electrical wiring
Due to having all of the interior cabin stock wiring still in place, I ran 3 windows in the car in case of rain. This makes the car extremely hot inside while waiting to run. I am going to tube wrap all the needed wiring that can't be move, and relocate as much as I can from down low, to behind the dash area.
Also in the plans for next year, back to doing ProSolos! They are just too much fun to give up! Now that I know the drive-train can be reliable, I plan on hitting 2-3 Pros next season, along with a Tour or two. I will also likely have a season co-driver, and likely a Ladies co-driver for some events.
I'll be taking a week or so off, then back at it again. I'll try to keep updates coming as often as I can.
The Evo completed a full 8 runs at Eau Claire two weekends ago. No issues while running at all. I tried to eliminate my misfire by running 3/4 tank of fuel in hopes that it was a fuel starve issue. Nothing seemed to react badly during runs. Although it was a load speed event, so with the permission of the event master, I did some testing at higher speeds. Everything seemed to work well, but traction was still low (sandy site).
Here's some video from one of my runs. I also added in some interesting under car video. It's cool to see how the slicks flex, and the suspension working.
I decided to run the same amount of fuel at CenDivs in Milwaukee. The vehicle once again developed a miss/hiccup on course. I tried adding more fuel, but it still did it on every run. It sure made it hard to drive when mid-corner rolling onto the throttle, the car would shutter. Here's some video of Day 1. On this run, I managed to Index 19th of 204 for the day.
On day 2, I ran it up to a full tank just to be sure. The problem seemed the same, if not worse. I didn't managed to get a very good run at all this day. My fastest (only clean run), the brakes faded out on the final corner causing me to shoot outside. I rode the cone all around, amazingly not hitting any of them, and lightly through the finish. On the data-logger, it showed between 2-2.5 seconds lost.
The one thing I am really pleased with, is the unearthly way the car drives on a Nationals Style course! In the sweeper after the first slalom, I am able to roll onto the throttle near after corner entry and carry a ton of speed through the following "stairs". This car, even with the hiccup, is just too fun to drive!
After speaking a lot with the tuner, I will be doing some testing at this weekends event. Going to log the ECU as I run, and try to narrow down possibilities. He thinks there may be a chance that the crushed BOV is reacting poorly under mild load/high boost and opening prematurely. Hopefully we'll be able to pin it down this weekend, and then on to Nationals!
-Mike
Originally posted: 07-04-2011
The Evo completed 4 run at the recent Corvettes of Minnesota event!
Sadly, it was only 4 runs. Midway through the 4th run, I heard a large clunk. Nothing seemed to change, so I figured it was another random noise that comes up in a gutted car. But the steering started to feel odd as I finished the course. And then on the return road, the previous mystery clunk (Has been around for a while) had gotten a lot louder, and it was obvious it was coming from the left front. The top nut of the coilover that goes through the camber plate had done some on the fly weight reduction itself, and was no where to be found. The coilover had dropped into the strut well and was held in with just the vehicles weight.
Here's the video of that run. You can hear the clunk at 1:14.
After closer inspection, I did find that I am missing part of the top hat on the left front coilover. But thanks to Jake Diehl, I'll be back in business shortly. He was nice enough to offer to pull his top hats off his coilovers(that were currently unused) that are the same as mine, and ship them up to me from KS.
This is one of the things I truly love about the Evo Community. There is very little that people won't do to help you about. When my car broke last year, these were local Evo owners stepping up to sell me the parts I needed at a more than reasonable part. When my transmission broke in Mineral Wells and I decided to go to a 5-speed, I had Terence Cox E-mailing me that he had all the linkage/shifter/mounts/sensor and mailed them up to me without asking a thing (I owe you a few beers at Nationals for sure!). And once again, I have another Evo owner, Jake, offering to help out. It really gives you a good feeling when you know so many people have your back.
Here's the video of my last good run prior to the coilover issue. Still ended up late on the last slalom. The misfire exiting the offsets will hopefully be fixed by running more fuel in the tank at the next event.
I'll never be willing to go 100% at DCTC. Just too many chances to break something. As you
can see, I let off throttle and was braking very early for the sharp corners.
I've done some more weight reduction since the last post. The trunk, including the springs and hinges has been replaced with my 4lb carbon fiber trunk. 4 captive hood pins hold it in place. This took about 30 lbs off the rear of the car at a relatively high point.
I was getting a little worried about the wire mesh over the headlight holes. Although light weight, if it was to rain heavily during an event, I was worried about it soaking the air intake that is behind the driver side, or getting too much water onto the belts and other things on the passenger side. So I replaced the wire mesh with some dry carbon fiber headlight covers.
I attached them directly to the bumper with some 4mm bolts and washers. They can be removed if needed. However if I really need room to work, the whole bumper can be removed in about 2 minutes with a total of 4 bolts and 2 clips. I believe the C/F headlight covers are so cool, they may actually have a negative weight... :-D
I'm still in the process of making fiberglass tail light replacements. I decided to start over and do everything the right way. With a Plug, Mold and then a final product. I'm trying to make them as close to the actual tail light as possible. If everything works out as planned, I should be able to bolt them in with the factory hardware.
Hopefully the next update will be about the car completing 6 flawless runs at Eau Claire next weekend!
The Luxo Recaros are gone. In their place sits a single Sparco that even I have issues getting into. My apologies in advance to any future co-drivers. The A/C and heater core have been removed, however the vehicle still stays plenty warm inside the cabin with no barrier besides the fire wall.
The next step was to remove the sound deadening. I did this using our good friend dry ice. Dry ice is perfect, since it holds a temperature of -109 degrees F. And unlike normal ice, it sublimates into CO2 gas rather than melting. So no mess. Just make sure to wear thick gloves and work in a well vented area. I took a number of brakes between patches.
A couple minutes sitting on a patch of tar, a hit or two with the hammer and it pulled right up leaving only small spots behind. The tar in total added up to about 12lbs of weight. Considering the RS model never had this, it's no question it had to come out.
These all added up to a fair amount of weight. In a matter of a few days, I was able to take 149lbs off of the car.
Cross weight improved to a perfect 50%. There is still some wedge, but very minimal at 50.7%. The rear weight ratio stayed the same at 37%. 2629lbs is still heavy for the class, however I am a lot happier being this close than I was before. Still more to go.
Due to another cruddy event, this one due to operator error, the hood pins came loose and the hood came up. So it was another event cut short. To avoid needing another windshield in the future, I've installed 2 rear hood pins and removed the hinges entirely. I was able to modify the weather seals so that they sit in pretty much the same spot. So I should still get a good rain seal on the hood.
Some future projects in the works:
I'm working on making my own tail light replacement covers:
And I'm also modifying a bumper for a custom fit. Hopefully will look nice when it is done.
The goal is to have those body parts made and finished before Cendivs.
Think of it as Atkins but you unbolt your stomach and put it in a box to possibly reinstalled at a later date....
I pulled the what's left of the dash out, and removed the heater core and evaporator core from the interior, as well as the blower motor. I haven't had a chance to weigh it all yet, but I'm guessing those alone were between 5-10lbs filled.
With those gone, there is a lot more room behind the dash. Plenty of room for the new flux capacitor (waiting to hear back from the SEB to make sure those are legal). In this picture, it is just bolted back together so it can be driven. I have some work to do still to clean up all the wiring and make sure it isn't flopping around.
The compressor, bracket and all lines have also been removed. Thanks to the wonderful information source of Evom, I was able to get the part number for the Gates belt that fits without the A/C compressor. It worked out perfectly, and went very smoothly.
The next fun piece that showed up today, makes like a lot easier (and lighter!). Thanks to Dave at SPS, I received my new Sparco seat mount and sliders in the mail in just 2 days from ordering. His helped saved me a lot of hassle, and a bunch of weight. The stock Recaro seats are 30lbs each, and the stock rails add 7lbs. The Sparco I have (Sprint?), that Flyin' Miata was nice enough to sell for $50 last year, weighs in at 17lbs. The bracket/sliders add 5lbs to the mix. That's a net savings of 48lbs just in the seats! The seat still needs a good cleaning (dust storm in the shop parking lot the last few days), but you can't beat the price!
My list of things to do before this weekend is getting pretty short. Left to be done, making some minor rear toe adjustments to see if I can get on the throttle mid-corner better, and removing the sound deadening from the floors.
I'll hopefully have time to weigh the car again before the event on Sunday, and get another update posted!
Old List:
1.Remove full dash, air ducting, sound deadening behind dash, and tar of floors
2.Remove ACD pump (still in there from swap, but now not functional. About 20lbs off the left front of the car)
3.Remove Headlights and HID ballasts
4.Make A)"Custom" Sawzalled fenders to allow additional lowering or B) Custom C/F widebody fenders
5.Re-align for additional front camber
6.Remove tail-lights and make custom covers (C/F?)
7.Swap springs front to rear
8.Remove A/C system
9.Make drivers front window, removeable for rain events
10.Tape passanger door lock so it stops locking everytime you close door
11.Fiberglass/modify 2nd bumper and paint to match
1-3 were most of the work. Taking the dash out without damaging anything was very time consuming. There are a lot of hidden bolts in bad locations making it hard to take apart. However I did get it done, and the crash bar bolted back in to use as the gauge mounting. The dash/ACD Pump and bracket/headlights took a total of 93lbs off of the car since the last time it was weighed. The car still had full A/C, heater core, and blower motor all sitting over the front of the vehicle that need to come out.
Left weight is perfect. Cross weight has some wedge. Hopefully I can fix that through the removal of the A/C off the right front corner. 63/37 weight bias to the front right right now. A lot of that should come out with the removal of the HVAC off the from the front end. I will be doing some relocation as well. However due to budget, that may not be till next year.
I was able to get the car "aligned." It's worse off than it was before Mineral wells thanks to the tune shop having the subframe down. Not much that can be done now. The good news, it didn't affect any uneven tire wear on the bias-slicks. There is a steering wheel pull when going straight and letting go of the wheel, but what fun is going straight? :D
The rest didn't get done purely due to time. I took an extra 2 days to get ready and pack rather than rush and possibly make mistakes.
I took two days down in Lincoln to prep, rather than rushing down and running the ProSolo. Glad I did. I never would have had the time to check over the suspension the way I did. I found that the shop that had done the transmission, had left out some washers that were in place on the coilovers to clamp properly on the knuckle. There was more than .5" of vertical play in the front wheels when I caught this.
A few runs on the test course, and the car seemed to be acting up. It seemed like it was starving on fuel. The wind noise makes most of it hard to notice, but you can hear it choking coming through the finish. It was doing it lightly through out the run, but I wasn't sure what to do about a minor miss.
It presented itself a lot more heavily on the actual course. There were a lot higher speeds, and larger throttle zones where the car really started jerking hard. I modified the audio on this video to limit wind noise so the throttle can be hear. The horrible over-driving is brought to you by a lack of course walks, and trying to figure out what the hell was going on with the car!
After taking a mechanical and having a bunch of great people over trying to help, we thought the vehicle speed sensor might have been loose. So I gave it another run. The next run was even worse. I pulled off course early to avoid having a EP Civic catch me. That's right, I was afraid a Civic would catch me...
Jeremy Foley was nice enough to let me take my final run in his BSP car. However, with the ABS and ACD out, the brakes locked up on light application. I managed to over-drive this run as well, and like the other two, take a cone with me. I decided that being 5 seconds out with a non-working car, sleep was a worthy cause. So I packed up and made the early trip home (having to work at 6am the next day).
After speaking with a number of people and getting some leads on where to start, I checked the relays/resistors on the firewall behind the intake manifold. Sure enough, the #3 fuel pump relay was unplugged. That relay switches at WOT to allow full power to the fuel pump. With it being disconnected, the current was running through the resistor all the time, putting the fuel pump in low output mode. This is what was giving me both the misfire, and the lean burning symptoms. A quick run down the block, the car seemed to make a lot more power.
The next step, is to test it more under heavy loads. I've got a local autocross in 2 weeks to shake down the car and get any bugs out before CenDiv's (What? Test the car before trailering multiple hours out of state to events? Unheard of!)
The next two weeks goals are as follows:
1. Continue work on making new bumper
2. Remove HVAC system
3. Install/mount C/F trunk
4. Make taillight replacements
5. Cleanup dash wiring and remove excess weight
6. Remove sound deadening tar from floor pan
And We're Back! I'm going to assume the 1500 views of the last blog post might mean some people were awaiting the return update. :)
I guess so much for the 2 weeks I was hoping for. 1.5 months later, the car is back and driving. The new built 5-speed transmission with a HKS 4.11, and a built non-ACD transfer case are in the car. Build work thanks to Jon @ TRE in Michigan. His work is top notch! The transmission came back so clean you could eat off it. I'm sure the car will drive even better afterwards!
Now, an updated list of what I will try to finish before I leave for Lincoln in 7 days:
1.Remove full dash, air ducting, sound deadening behind dash, and tar of floors
2.Remove ACD pump (still in there from swap, but now not functional. About 20lbs off the left front of the car)
3.Remove Headlights and HID ballasts
4.Make A)"Custom" Sawzalled fenders to allow additional lowering or B) Custom C/F widebody fenders
5.Re-align for additional front camber
6.Remove tail-lights and make custom covers (C/F?)
7.Swap springs front to rear
8.Remove A/C system
9.Make drivers front window, removeable for rain events
10.Tape passanger door lock so it stops locking everytime you close door
11.Fiberglass/modify 2nd bumper and paint to match
So I guess I will have to see what I can make happen. I'll have some updates coming shortly showing the carnage of the transmission/transfer-case. I'll try to keep a detailed picture log as well, however getting as much done as possible is the goal.
Time to pickup the pieces and get back on the horse!
The transfer case housing cracked and twisted. When it did that, the transmission shaft twisted and broke off inside the transfer case. So the transmission is done. Although the primary housing on the transfer case is broken, it appears that the front LSD and ring&pinion are completely unharmed. So I will be saving this T-case and sending it out to be built up as an extra to keep around.
Time to start planning!
I picked up a used low mileage (38k) 5-speed transmission and ACD transfer case out of the 2005 Evo. The 5-speed is the choice for racers, as it has a higher torque capacity than the 6-speed. The 6-speed transmission was designed with a 260-290ft.lbs fatigue limit. It also nearly no ability to change gearing or build up. The 5-speed on the other had, has a factory fatigue limit of nearly 100ft.lbs more than the 6-speed. A transmission generally has an over-builf of about 50%. So prior to the build up and shot peening TRE will be doing, it has a limit of roughly 550ft.lbs.
The transmission and transfer case are off to TRE to be built up. The transmission will be getting a beef-up and a 4.11 final drive gear that will allow me 71mph at 8000rpm on the 23.8" Goodyears. The transfer case is being converted to a non-ACD setup. The factory ACD uses a fluid pump to change T-case pressure to vary the lock of the front differential. By removing this, it should make the cars on and off throttle handling a little more predictable and shave about 20lbs of weight off the front left corner.
Hopefully I'll have them back and in the car in the next couple weeks. Thanks to a friend, Terence Cox, I was able to score a 5-speed shifter/cables and the needed mount to do the conversion. One added item, to resist future failure will be an upgraded torque mount. Along with taking the rest of the ProSolo's out of my season, I'm hoping these will promote a longer life for the drive-train.
Thinks to do once the car is back together and driving:
1) Re-Dyno Tune with better fuel.
2) Roll/Flare fenders for more tire clearance, allowing the car to be lowered more.
3) Remove full dashboard and remount gauges to crash bar.
4) Remove tar on vehicle floor, and sound deadening behind dashboard.
5) Remove headlights and A/C to weight off the front end.
I'm hoping to take the 440lbs I need to get the car down to just 20lbs above minimum weight.
Hoping to be back together and pulling weight off within two weeks! Crossing my fingers!
We had some issues, as I always seems to do at large event. I went to adjust ride height because I feared the fenders were going to cut into the tires. I pulled the tie rod nut to get a little more swing room. When I went to put it back on, it wouldn't suck the tie rod up tight. The nylock-nut was smooth. One use, and the threads came right out. So off to the hardware store to get a new nut.
After that issue was resolved, it was off for practice starts. After a couple tries, we came to the conclusion that the Exedy Twin clutch was just too aggressive for us to have good results. We tried to slip the clutch as nicely as possible and make up the rest of the time on course. On one of my last practice runs, I lost 2nd gear.
Had the tune shop come though on the battery mount kit, this wouldn't have been an issue. However it didn't, so I had a "custom" battery mount made up. The result, it the mount coming apart and jamming the shift linkage. Teaches me a lesson. This time I made one with a bunch of zip-ties and a ratchet strap. It's a real race car now :D
In the morning, we finished putting on the required decals, and over to Tech. I knew the car would be heavy. Minimum weight for F-Prepared is 2400lbs. The car weighed in at 2862lbs. 100 or so pounds lighter than a BSP car. This wasn't unexpected, as the car still has the heavy headlights, A/C, dash, and full weight trunk. That will be changing in the coming weeks.
First runs in the car were amazing! This is the fastest thing I have ever driven! The car was so extremely well mannered, and very easy to drive. In the first run set, I was able to put down a 41.997 on the right side course. Sadly, I turned in on the finish a little early. It cleared the car, but not the additional 2" of tire beyond the fenders. The raw time held down 4th fastest of the event, and 2nd fastest car with doors. If I had been able to make my final 7 runs, I'm sure I could have improved.
Sadly, on the 2nd run of the afternoon set, the car broke. I started slipping the clutch and heard a giant clunk. I was able to get enough to movement to get off to the side. A quick look under the car and I saw there was fluid leaking. We pushed the car off, and got it back to paddock.
After closer inspection, it appears that the amount of torque and grip was too much for the drive train. The transfer case had so much torque on it, the expansion caused the case to crack and split away from the transmission. The hallow shaft from the transmission broke off inside the transfer case.
For a first showing, the car was extremely fast. If it had held together, I think the times would have dropped off. Being 40th of 120 on Index with a coned run with a lot of great drivers at the event is fine in my book. I am very pleased with how well it did while it was in one piece :D
More than just a race event, this was the most fun trip I have ever had. My Co-driver Mike Casino flew in from Charlotte NC to drive 15 hours down south with me. It made this a real trip. The car breaking on day 1 stunk. Mike Casino found a ride in a Burton SuperStalker. I took the rest of the event off. Even with a broken car, it was still a great event! I got to share the 5 growlers of local MN Town Hall beer I had brought down with some great people. And of course, an awesome game of 4-square that went on for hours! It was as successful of an event as I could ask for.
Time to start planning the cars return to autocross!
And the weight starts to shed.
Disappointingly I won't have enough time to get the car down to minimum weight before I leave for Mineral Wells TX in two days. But I did get some of it out.
I swapped to the fully gutted doors, replaced the hood with the gutted C/F hood (a very faded, but cheap one).
The picture above is taking a quick weight check to see the difference, then continuing on.
I fully gutted the back seat, carpet and back deck. I did however leave the speakers in place and hooked up. They weight less than 1lbs each. And being that I ran a fair number of ProSolo's, it is nice to have them to hear the announcer. Which I learned at my first event, can be very valuable when your competition hits a cone and your not aware of it, and hit one later in the course from trying to hard...
The dash is still currently in place. I didn't want to take on a job involving important wiring with only 2 days to go before an event. Too many things could go wrong. I, and my Co-driver who is flying in from North Carolina would be without a car for the weekend. Not worth the risk.
The loose wires were capped and zip-tied to the other wires. Another item on the return from Texas list, is to remove the tar and sound deadening on the floor pan. A lot of dry ice, scraping and clean-up work is needed to remove it all (including removing the dash), so that will wait till later as well. It is worth about 25lbs all together. Worth the time for sure.
The heavy stock Evo Recaro's will have to do for the time being. I don't have the time to make mounts for the Sparco I have at home right now. The passenger seat may get removed completely at some point. Or replaced with something lighter.
I'm going to try to skim some more weight off the vehicle before the trip. But plans for tomorrow are to cut and fit the new "windows", and then start prepping for the trip down there. Official final Texas weight will be posted once I weigh in for final runs. There will likely be more stuff removed once on side it Mineral Wells.
The car is done with it's engine work now. I had the car at RS Motors last Monday for Ron to tune it for E85. The numbers were a little less than what I wanted. Partly because the current blend is closer to E70. However, the torque curve is still awesome. 90% of peak torque at 3300RPM with an 8000RPM redline.
Here are a couple videos of the dyno tuning:
After the trip to Mineral Wells, the fuel should be back to around E85, at which point Ron is going to re-tune the car.
I've now put on the 500 break-in miles on the clutch and differential. The TRE MAX-LOCK is just amazing! Even when you feel like your at the limits of traction, you step into the gas and it just pushes you around the corner faster. It's not so much that it breaks the rear loose, but enough grip to keep the car moving in the right direct. It's perfect for what I need.
I tried to do some test runs today to get an idea of 0-60mph times, 60ft times, but the 245mm snow tires didn't have enough grip to keep the tires from breaking loose. I can't say this is an entirely bad thing :evil: The logs show a 0-60 time of under 4.0 seconds. However the cars rear end was out some, and the tires were spinning for a portion of it. The Goodyears will really bring out the best in the times. However it looks like I'll have to wait until Texas to find out accurate numbers.
This weekend, the body panels get changed over, and the car will be weighed. Pictures and more data to come!
Progress! Finally! Okay, well maybe I made some progress in other areas. But now the Alignment is mint. The car is back from the frame. I now have the perfect even camber split and caster split. Ranges are just what I was hoping for.
So in goes the TRE diff. It's a 1.5way 12-plate diff, with custom HD side cover, and custom glass sight high fill level rear cover.
Old Diff:
New Diff:
New Diff Installed:
Stock Rear Cover:
You can see the sight glass here in TRE's custom rear cover. In the stock cover, the fill plug is in the location where the sight glass is. The new fill plug is just slightly above the sight glass. This corrects the issue with the stock diff, which is that they run a little low of properly lubricating the pinion bearing, and allows you to fill the diff higher, as well as check the level without opening the diff.
These are all great improvements made by Jon at TRE, that will help make the diff last longer, and perform better.
After the install, I got my first real drive in the car in 5 months. This is still pre-tune, so the car isn't at full power yet. But it does sound pretty mean with the shorty exhaust on it. Here's a short video I shot with the digital camera I had with.
The next days project is to modify the exhaust for a little better clearance from the transfer case, and then start putting some miles on the car to break in the new clutch and diff. Once the miles are on, I can start swapping over to the light weight parts. That's when the car will start looking really mean :evil:
Two biggest reasons for me getting these wheels. One) The above weight is less than most of the stock fitment wheels that can be purchased. Two) Because no one makes a 16x10 designed for the Evo fitment.
The Goodyear bais slicks weighed in at a light 19lbs each. Giving a total assembly weight of just 36lbs!
My previous 17x9's with 245/40R17 Dunlops weighed in at 48lbs each. So I shaved of 12lbs PER corner of unsprung weight going to 2.5" wider tires!
After closer inspection, it looks like the front subframe is shifted. I dropped the vehicle off last night at the frame shop to get the corrections made. Nothing to be unexpected, as there are usually some delays when your starting from scratch on a race car.
With everything I have to get done, it will be an eventful weekend. There should be a good update after the weekend on all that has been done.
The wheels and tires are now mounted up. The 11.5" wide tires sit near perfectly on a 10" wheel without much over hang. Slicks are something a little different to mount, however the drop center and lip design on the Real Racing wheels makes it so easy to do without any issues.
This picture warms my heart :)
I test fit the wheels on the car. Ride height is pretty much perfect where it is. Control arms are a tiny bit above less than level, which should be just fine. Most of the BSP guys say to slam it to the ground and let the Springs do the work. Me, I want some clearance. As you can see, it needs to clear the end of the alignment rack (which it barely does).
Unlike the BSP and SM guys who have to run 18" wheels, my tire height is a lot smaller. So I had to do almost no clearancing. The only spot that touched even with factory splash shield still in place (they will be coming off after the break in road miles are put on) was one plastic clip.
The tires do stick out a fair amount, which is part of the reason I want to leave the height up. Even with the heavy springs in the car, it does still lean. And with increased mechanical grip, it will likely lean more than it did in STU form.
When trying to align, I found that the front sub-frame seems to have been shifted. Not sure if this was done when the clutch was put in, or at another time. But there is a camber bias to one side. I'm going to try to get that squared away, and oil cooler relocated/removed and the new exhaust made.
First off, sorry for the gap in posts about the build. I was stalled for a little while, as I was waiting on parts to show up. But this update should make up for it.
Earlier this week, the 16x10 3-piece Real Racing wheels showed up. The fit and finish are amazing. Real Racing is out of Independence Iowa. If your shopping for light weight wheels, and don't want to entirely break the bank, you should really check them out at http://www.realwheel.net/index.php
These wheels retail for roughly $1500/set. About half the cost of some other wheels. The quality is top notch. I will have weights on these in the next day or two.
There are no issues at all clearing the smaller brakes in front. Even the roll center kit has room to spare. I could easily put 15" wheels on if I needed to.
The rears only required a 10mm spacer. Which I was running on the previous STU wheels as well.
Needles to say, the tires will stick out some :D
The roll center kit is now installed. This should give me a little more room to keep the car as low to the ground as possible. I still have not clearanced the wheel wells with tires on. I will have to "massage" some of the seams, and likely have to notch the front bumper and side-skirts for turning clearance. So my final ride height is not yet determined. The more I lower the car, the more "massaging" I have to do. That will likely be decided within the next week or so.
Another package delivery that came this week, the TRE 12-plate rear diff.
Jon out at TRE built this extremely nice 12-plate (stock is 8-plate) diff for me. It's a 1.5way with a custom TRE HD side cover. If your launching your Evo hard, this is side cover is a must-have upgrade.
He also has a custom rear diff cover with sight glass. The Evo's run low from the factory by design, which with hard use and burn out pinion bearings quickly. Here is an explanation on why with more detailed pictures: TRE: Differential HD Side Cover
TRE is out of Kalamazoo Michigan. If you are in search for drive-train work for your Evo, Subaru, DSM, Toyota, or VW, you need to check out TRE. They build some of the highest quality parts, and go the extra mile where other shops don't. Jon really knows his stuff, and can help you build and get exactly what you need for your vehicle.
Next year, he'll be building a custom gears 5-speed transmission for me, with a 4.11 final drive.
The diff will be installed in about 2 weeks. The reason for the wait is due to timing. The best time for me to get the vehicle tuned is this coming week. However, Jon likes to have staged break-in done on the new diff. With the injectors not yet being scaled, I can't drive the vehicle much more than in and out of the shop. So the diff will have to wait until after the tune is completed.
Goals for this coming week: Make the custom exhaust, and test fit the tires & wheels and clearance the body where needed.
