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Been waiting on parts mostly, but some stuff has trickled in. I took delivery of some extractors I bought for the wheel arches. I've used these before on other cars, they are made of a thinner plastic ABS plastic and I find that they're much easier to work with than carbon on non flat surfaces like a fender where you have to twist them to line up. I cut the fender and inserted then up from the bottom before riveted them into place. Once they were square and formed to the fender contour I sealed them in with bonding agent to give them a more finished look. If I wanted to I could heat them over and over with a heat gun to give the plastic memory then drill out the rivets and fill the holes and sealant with glazing putty. This would make them have and OEM finish, but to be honest the they definitely look good enough for a track car like this.
Another part to arrive was the 1 qt catch can from Radium. I decided to move the RR racing one off of the cam motor as it would be blocking a ton of out flow off the radiator once I got the drop vent installed in the hood. It was also insufficiently sized and really awkward to empty after a session while everything was still hot. I got this much larger competition 1 qt can and utilized the spot vacated by the washer bottle filler neck. I made up a carbon tab to hold it in place and ran the lines. I had to rewrap a lot of the oem headlight loom and remove tabs and plastic runners to get the hose routing to work but it came out clean.
I believe one of the major reasons the car fills up these cans so quickly is that the hose size where it comes out of the OEM air separator box is much to small. Old Honda motors have a severe issue with blow by, over the years people have figured out that the larger the hose the slower the velocity of the air is within it. Slower velocity air has much less energy to carry oil droplets within the vapor out of the valve cover. On my 1.8L motor i use x2 AN12 hoses and vent to atmosphere. Problem solved. On this big 5.0L v8 they use a single 3/8 hose outlet that for some very strange reason flairs into a 7/8 hose where it connects back to the intake manifold. For one, ideally both hose sizes would be the same. This is something I want to look into but to get to the OEM oil vent box you need to literally take the entire intake manifold and fuel system off of the car. I may do this in the future. To be honest i'm not entirely sure this car needs an Air Oil Separator. It doesn't hurt anything to have one and may have tiny gains in combustion but i'm not convinced its worth all the trouble to go though and 'fix' (unless you have very loose ring producing large amounts of blow by) None of the CSS-R have them..
I had some vents given to my by a friend who produces carbon parts. These are really cool, but I don't then they'll exhaust enough air as I am going to need them to to be effective. I'm going to see how the drop vent suits this hood, its probably going to look pretty hacky. Maybe ill trade or just pick up and OEM style carbon one and add to that. If its passable ill leave it for a bit, if not i'm probably going to order a Novel hood and add these vents as additional extractors when i get it.
After seeing the novel prices, I’m half tempted to add venting to the stock hood. It’s aluminum, so no real weight savings with a carbon hood. APR makes some decent looking vents.
Parts! After death by nickle and dime i almost have everything from AIM. I have to say that their business model probably makes them a ton of cash but kinda puts a bad taste in you mouth when a box shows up and you realize it doesn't come with the wires needed to plug it in..
Added a temp sensor to the return of the trans cooler. I could have probably jumped the signal from the trans ECU but wiring it into the Aim protocol sounded like it was going to be sort of a pain. I may eventually tap the trans pan to add the sensor if I feel the need- but putting it here will give me a baseline of how how the temps are AFTER being cooled in the trans cooler on the way back into the transmission. I have set a threshold warnings on this sensor to give me a good idea how the ducting is working to cool the car.
Not super pumped on how the probe for the sensor blocks a bit of the flow path in the hose. For a larger hose its not a big deal but anything around 3/8th can slow the fluid down. I bought a npt/npt extension that i'll be adding, It'll to pull the probe 1/2 inch out of the flow.
Expansion harness ready for wiring...
I'm pulling Oil temps and Pressures off of a T-fitting where the OEM oil pressure sensor used to be. Nothing but the dummy light on the dash was looking for the signal so unplugging it does not throw a fault. Conveniently its a 12v looking for ground while the car is running so i just unclipped it water sealed it and zip tied it outta the way. I decided to leave the OEM oil temp sensor plugged in so I wouldn't have it flashing at me on the dash. So far I have maintained pretty much all OEM dash functionality excluding the airbag lights which i'd blacked out and the oil pressure dummy light as described above.
I decided to move the GS Dash off the steering column where it used to sit. I'm now able to see when I trigger the 'Sport mode' and can verify that i've turned off the Traction Control and VSA via dash lights while strapped into the seat. I couldn't really do that before because the panel was blocking part of the OEM cluster. I made up a 3/8 steel dowel welded a tab and bent it into shape. It's affixed to the stereo surround bracket which is about the only substantial thing to bolt anything to under the dash. I used Industrial ducting tape to seal off the AC passage just behind the vent then built a carbon finishing panel to block the vent now occupied by the gauge. Passenger side AC vent maintains it functionality.
Last few things I have to do on the data side is initialize some sensors, finish mapping my layouts and dial in my alarms and warnings. After deciding to move the dash I also bought a stand alone shift light module that I mounted on the steering column surround. Its going to be programmable independently from the shift light on the GS dash... Im just waiting on so cables for it to show up..
Looking forward to the shift light. If it’s independent, how does it wire in? I was hoping there was a way to use OBD Fusion for a shift light, but I don’t think that’s a function. I was now thinking an independent light would be best for my use.
Side question, is a Snell rated helmet required for HPDE, or is DOT sufficient?
Looking forward to the shift light. If it’s independent, how does it wire in? I was hoping there was a way to use OBD Fusion for a shift light, but I don’t think that’s a function. I was now thinking an independent light would be best for my use.
Side question, is a Snell rated helmet required for HPDE, or is DOT sufficient?
Unfortunately for the shift light i'm about to install it requires a bunch of additional parts to run. You can however get one off of ebay for relatively cheap that i used in my ISF for a while with good result.
You just need to give it power and ground and crimp a Deutsche connector 16/18g pin on the tacho signal wire. Once you do that you can press it into the back of the gauge cluster harness so it contacts with the tach signal pin. On the top of the shift light box there are Phillips head screws that set the upper and lower limit of revs you want the first lights to come on and where you want it to peak at. It works very well and iirc is under 80 bucks. I cut and bonded carbon sheets to it as a sun blocker to make the lights more easily readable in the daylight.
As for helmets it differs with organizations, get a SNELL rated AUTOMOTIVE helmet with the latest SA rating and you be able to run it in any organization around.
Do you find significant value in a 4 way adjustable shock versus a 2 way?
I've had 4 ways in the past on other cars (currently my ISF has Double Adjustable Penskes) My experience with 4 ways is, unless you've hired a suspension engineer or are yourself a very involved tinkerer that has installed aftermarket shock sensors and looks at the potentiometer data after every session, it's pretty unlikely you are using the shocks to the potential built into them. You can get a good 2 way shock 95-98% of the way there. The additional high speed/low speed adjustability will mostly be utilized in extracting that 2-5% of the shock. They are helpful for race teams that run a large variety of tracks in a large variety of conditions and need to be dialing the suspension in for specific circumstances. High fuel load standing start of a 4 hour race will have a different set up that a 10 min qualifying session on low fuel- its likewise with alignment. You really have to be adjusting BOTH of these factors to extract maximum. Its not to say they CAN'T work for you, or me, but the chances of myself utilizing them at the level required to justify the price isn't really there personally- and I do my own corner balance and alignments frequently and pull shock data. Do you? I have more often than not spoken with people that had actually made themselves slower after getting lost in ***** and data which is pretty similar to my experience with them after they came installed on a race car i bought.
I have read similar responses over and over again. My brother and me got into a healthy debate on the value of 4 ways. He plans to buy Ohlins 4 way TTX for his vette, and I encouraged him to buy suspension we are capable of tuning instead, such as a Penske or Ohlins 2 way.
At least it’ll be easier for me to run him down since he will have no idea how to set them up .
I've had 4 ways in the past on other cars (currently my ISF has Double Adjustable Penskes) My experience with 4 ways is, unless you've hired a suspension engineer or are yourself a very involved tinkerer that has installed aftermarket shock sensors and looks at the potentiometer data after every session, it's pretty unlikely you are using the shocks to the potential built into them. You can get a good 2 way shock 95-98% of the way there. The additional high speed/low speed adjustability will mostly be utilized in extracting that 2-5% of the shock. They are helpful for race teams that run a large variety of tracks in a large variety of conditions and need to be dialing the suspension in for specific circumstances. High fuel load standing start of a 4 hour race will have a different set up that a 10 min qualifying session on low fuel- its likewise with alignment. You really have to be adjusting BOTH of these factors to extract maximum. Its not to say they CAN'T work for you, or me, but the chances of myself utilizing them at the level required to justify the price isn't really there personally- and I do my own corner balance and alignments frequently and pull shock data. Do you? I have more often than not spoken with people that had actually made themselves slower after getting lost in ***** and data which is pretty similar to my experience with them after they came installed on a race car i bought.
I am still very strongly of the opinion adjustability allows most people the ability to really make a muck of things quickly, and a fixed shock (non-adjustable) with correct damping for your set up beats any adjustable shock that isn't set up properly by a long shot.
Some progress, after noticing some TPS position hiccups in the data I threw in a new gas pedal. That should solve the problem but if not the next step is to replace the throttle body motor, which rarely go bad. I also noticed that my steering rack loses positional data after 99* of right turn input. I may pick up a new rack and/or computer to see if it solves the problem. Resetting the EPS computer in Techstream didn't have any other effect on the data gap other than resetting the 0 point.
And after a month of waiting and a lost package from UPS I was able to install the new hood scoop.
I put it on an OEM hood that I gutted the inner skeleton from. Funny enough after gutting the stock hood and cutting the holes init to fit the carbon ducts I had it down to 17.3 lbs. (picture of it before removing the sections for the carbon ducts.) That's lighter than the 23lbs that I measured my Siebon fiberglass/carbon hood.
Measure 8000 times cut once. After I cut the hood and before I installed the vents I vinyl wrapped it in gloss black to match the car.
Ducts and vents installed and lined with rubberized body sealer to keep the carbon from bowing up off of the aluminum and looking cheap when it gets hot sitting in the sun.
This thing should flow a lot of air now and hopefully solve the issues I was seeing at the last test day. Waiting on some other wicker flaps to potentially add; there is some room to add more vents if I feel the need in the future.
Front edge of the vent is even with the front face of the engine block, back edge is centered above the throttle body. I cut extra material out of the vent to allow more air volume to flow. Side ducts are in effort to vent the copious amounts of header heat to exit.
Now just waiting on some brake pads and the car is ready for a shake down I have scheduled for mid month.
Can you elaborate on the rubberized body sealant and how you used it? I’ve thought That modifying the stock hood is way more efficient and cost effective than a 2k hood, but the cheap look is my concern. Yours is the first one I’ve seen that looks good.
Can you elaborate on the rubberized body sealant and how you used it? I’ve thought That modifying the stock hood is way more efficient and cost effective than a 2k hood, but the cheap look is my concern. Yours is the first one I’ve seen that looks good.
There are a few good ones 3m Dynatron is good. I've also used DAP Dynaflex 230 and that works just as well and is what i used on this hood. In my case I cut the hood holes and drilled the riviet holes where the vent will be sitting. I then applied sealant to the bottom of the flanges. You have to work quickly becasue depending on temperature this stuff starts to dry fast. Once the surfaces line up i get a few rivets or cleco clamps in to hold them together tight. Wait till the surfaces have bonded (about 20 min depending on temp). Now take you're time and use blue tape to lay straight masking lines on the hood side and on the vent side. Run a bead of sealant down the center of the masking lines and smooth it with a tool or your finger. Do one vent at a time and work quickly. You basically should be done with each vent in about 40 seconds from starting to apply sealant to masking peeled off. The sealant comes out nice and smooth but quickly builds a skin and will start to ball up when your spreading it with your finger. The second you're done smoothing the perimeter immediately peel the masking tape off while the sealant is still smooth and pliable. This lets edges settle back into the smooth bead and self flatten.
Its not too difficult and for the effort looks way more finished. It also keeps the air from getting under the leading edge. Just make sure you have everything you need laid out before you start, like a stack of paper towels etc. Don't worry about little unintended smears on the garage floor or even the hood itself, those can be rubbed off easily for a few hours after. The whole point here is once you start, work quickly and efficiently. I even layer the masking tape so when i pull one strip its the strip that lays under the next piece so it automatically starts to pull it up.
I actually originally planned to mount the vents up from the bottom to make it look even more finished and spent the time cutting the holes perfectly to accomplish this, but it just looked weird with the center vent flange made to mount on the top.
07-08-20, 09:59 PM
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