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... the Discount Tire boys won't install the sensors because the inside edge of the front tires doesn't have any remaining sipes. Not only that, but they used some idiot laser device and measured on the wear bars, so they wouldn't even consider most of my tires good...
ROFL, the idiot scanner got you too? I had a flat that lodged some debris into the wheel/tire. The guy at discount visually inspects it, says its low but all the proper wear bars/indicators are there. Pulls out that damn scanner aaaaaaaaaand "I'm sorry sir, this tire only scans at a 2, we cant repair this"
ROFL, the idiot scanner got you too? I had a flat that lodged some debris into the wheel/tire. The guy at discount visually inspects it, says its low but all the proper wear bars/indicators are there. Pulls out that damn scanner aaaaaaaaaand "I'm sorry sir, this tire only scans at a 2, we cant repair this"
They permanently lost my business as a result, and I'm happy to tell them and anyone else who wants to listen that Discount Tire isn't even a shadow of its former self. They're there to force you to buy new tires when you're far from needing them.
Now that I KNOW for a fact its not the Head Gaskets im going forward with the initial processes of custom building a radiator for hardcore tracking Lexus ISF's. Wer'e confident we can build something that will work with minimum increase of 40% efficiency using newer technology tube and riffle design as well as different construction metals. I picked up and OEM rad and its going off soon to get measured and engineered. Ill update the progress as it happens.
Until then I bought 3 different style radiator caps. All are recovery type caps so they are designed for my system layout but all have slight differences in design that I am curious to try. I have an event coming up this Friday and will swap them out to see if there is any noticeable differences in the data. Granted its going to be a whole lot cooler this week than it has been lately.
Hi please tell me which oil is used in your lexus isf?
bhnbrecher--- Castrol 5/30 in the gold bottle this last time. Im not really brand loyal but will do a bit of reading to see if there has been any technology advancements since the last time i bought oil. Nothing too fancy here. I've used the high zinc Neo or BradPenn (Penngrade) oil and such but after many, many Blackstone analysis tests Ive decided that oem filters and a good off-the-shelf oil is totally up to the task for the types of driving I do and the heat loads the oil is seeing. I am always told that I can run the oil for longer than I actually do but i think more frequent oil changes with a good mid level oil is better than a high grade oil left in for longer.
I've been quiet on here but mostly because Ive been busy with other things. I did take the ISF out for some laps a few weeks ago to get it ready for the season and burn up some old tires that are accumulating in my basement.
All in all the day was pretty good. I was getting a 02 sensor code that had been popping up for a while and while on track I got a MAF sensor code and a random misfire code. These can all be plausibly attributed back to the 02 sensor code- so I finished burning off the tires and brought it home.
Did maybe too good a job at killing the tires :]
While I was at the track I got a chance to drive and compare an ISF to an RCF on track. made a quick video of that here:
Once I got home I swapped for a new 02 and did some cleaning on the MAP sensor and checked all the 1way valves. I also swapped all the exhaust gaskets and nut and bolted the car to get it all ready for the upcoming track season.
I also built some block offs for the trunk flap panels, I was noticing my car was reeking of exhaust on the drive home. Pretty straight forward, I just cut some templates, affixed the carbon with rivets and silicone sealed them on the back so they are reasonably air tight. This should also keep the Buttonwillow dust out of my trunk.
The main focus hs been getting another car that I drive ready for the Long Beach GrandPrix. We were lucky enough to get invited to drive this iconic street circuit with only 19 other cars in support of the Indy and IMSA races. It was a really cool experience, the whole team was just pumped to be there.
Schedule was brutal though, I was there from Tuesday-Sunday 530am-10pm everyday.
Track was SUPER fun and VERY sketchy. 158.9 on a street circut with public roads is eyeopening. Walls EVERYWHERE and really short sessions to get it done. Through the 3 competition days we traded podium spots a few times as everyone learned the lines and what their car was capable of. In the end we finished 5th of 20. First through 5th place was separated by less than a second. It was that close.
We're happy with the result, we're definitely the underdog in the prelude with a stock H-pattern gear shift and about 150 to 300 Less HP than some of the other guys. Being a horsepower track so there was only so much we could do. We'll take the fight to them at Finals in November when were back on a more technical layout.
bhnbrecher--- Castrol 5/30 in the gold bottle this last time. Im not really brand loyal but will do a bit of reading to see if there has been any technology advancements since the last time i bought oil. Nothing too fancy here. I've used the high zinc Neo or BradPenn (Penngrade) oil and such but after many, many Blackstone analysis tests Ive decided that oem filters and a good off-the-shelf oil is totally up to the task for the types of driving I do and the heat loads the oil is seeing. I am always told that I can run the oil for longer than I actually do but i think more frequent oil changes with a good mid level oil is better than a high grade oil left in for longer.
Will- do you still run synthetic, or just any name brand oil?
Ill typically run the big name brands (excluding Pennzoil). semi synth or full synth. The exception is when I have to run boutique fancy pants oils in some of the racecars I drive. As far as the ISF i've tended to run Castrol after the last few Black stone reports. Its cheap-ish, normally in stock and on special at my local autoparts store. I used to, but not so much recently, run full synth Mobil but I don't like the opaque graphite look it has- It makes judging its clarity when checking the oil hard to do. I'm sure its a fine oil but not a fan of that. If I need to put oil in a car with no cats or emissions equipment ill run whatever has the highest Zinc PPM i can find that is on sale. Penngrade oil is typically the best for that and can normally have cases shipped from Amazon Prime next day for free. My heart invariably jumps on the first pour when I see the fluid thats coming out of the bottle is green. I always think i accidentally grabbed a Trans fluid bottle or something until i remember the BradPenn stuff is colored that way.
Zinc content is no indication of load capacity for oil. ZDDP content is misleading and I would never depend on it for understanding how and oil performs in service. Brad Penn's oils are really very weak in many ways and those running flat tappet engines have loads of evidence their oil is not good in racing applications. You'd be far better off running Quaker State Ultimate Durability. It has ridiculously high load capacity and under the conditions you use oil, load capacity should be your biggest factor in deciding what is good for longevity of your basically stock engine.
Zinc content is no indication of load capacity for oil. ZDDP content is misleading and I would never depend on it for understanding how and oil performs in service. Brad Penn's oils are really very weak in many ways and those running flat tappet engines have loads of evidence their oil is not good in racing applications. You'd be far better off running Quaker State Ultimate Durability. It has ridiculously high load capacity and under the conditions you use oil, load capacity should be your biggest factor in deciding what is good for longevity of your basically stock engine.
I run QSUD in both my cars, and my only complaint is they both seem to use a little oil now. With mobile one, the oil level always stayed the same on the dipstick. With QSUD, I’ll drop to about halfway (really a little above halfway) during a 5k mile interval.
Its interesting that both cars do it. They both seem to use the same amount as well.
I run QSUD in both my cars, and my only complaint is they both seem to use a little oil now. With mobile one, the oil level always stayed the same on the dipstick. With QSUD, I’ll drop to about halfway (really a little above halfway) during a 5k mile interval.
Its interesting that both cars do it. They both seem to use the same amount as well.
M1 doesn't drop because fuel is diluting it and maintaining volume. I had the same experience. I'm not seeing a noticeable (requiring additional oil) drop using Renewable Lubricants for a 5k mile OCI. But I'm also a big fan of running toward the low end of spec to reduce the opportunity for the crank to whip up the oil. IMHO, overfilling is far worse than being a quart low.
Heard/saw you were at willow springs this weekend! hope everything went well. I was hoping to come down there but I didn't drive up there and it was a helluva walk to get there from the Final Bout drift event.
Yeah everything went very well. I did a 1:19 clockwise at Streets then came back the next Friday and did another 1:19 going the other direction on tires from 2019. This overall was pretty much this was the goal for the car when I started building it.
Now that I have completed the goal I bought some new wheels in new sizes and am going to start running Pirelli IMSA DH take offs on the car to see what it can really do.
Oil pressure looks a little less than stellar on those runs. Has it always been problematic?
Looks like you're really busy too. Lots of hand work in keep her pointed the right way.
Yeah. Oil Pressures have never been super ideal (and everytime i look at the data i cringe) so I keep sending in oil samples for testing and they keep coming back saying that there is no trace of stripper glitter in the pan and I have nothing to worry about. I've just resigned myself to believing them and knowing that the car just does that. I've actually set up a formula in the data that gives me a TAP reading (Time at pressure) and I run that report first when i pull the data after the session. I correlated all the sessions I have done in the car thus far and averaged the dip values and time at those pressures i then built a warning to let me know if i exceed those thresholds. If not, i'm assuming its all good and continuing to cross my fingers when I send the samples into Blackstone.
The real cliffhanger now is I put some real race rubber on the car were going to see if its gets any worse at the higher peak G's.
It does look good though, I had to find some wider rear wheels so i could maintain the rake i built into the car since the Pirellis only offer a taller side wall in a wider spec carcass. It just so happens to accomplish this I was able to pick up a pair of Forgeline GS1R's off the Multimatic built C360R GT350R-C GTD car. 18x11 +50 wheel but drops to a +40 offset after i use a 10mm spacer to get it to look right) these are some seriously cool wheels to use to finally put the DH Pirellis on.
As far as keeping busy in the car, yeah i agree.. Its partially my driving style but its also partially that track rewarding early throttle input. In the vid of me going Clockwise the tires were newer (still take offs from another time attack car from 2019) the vid where I was going CCW they were significantly more abused, especially the rear set. They just didn't really wanna hook up. I think going forward the higher grip (and wider) rubber alone is going to help keep it in line.