996 mono's (blacks)

As you may know, my red porsche calipers are not the best there is. Also, I'm not satisfied with wheel spacers which I needed to use to fit 16" wheels. Current setup is machined Alfa Romeo 166 V6 discs (310x28) and 996 porsche GT3 rear calipers. Yes rear, so technically they are porsche 996 monoblocks, however I cannot call them so, because true 996 monoblocks are 996 NA front calipers :). I have them also, however was reluctant to fit, because it requires master brake cylinder replacement. Red setup is fine, fade resistant, however it does require to have hard foot. And I don't have one :(. To improve my speeds at the track, I need to focus on driving, not on braking. So black brake upgrade is under way. Also redrilled volvo S60 disks (305x28 directionaly vented BTW) will be used. This should fit 16" wheel without spacers (or with tiny one, not 2.5cm, like it is now).First measured all the distances, cut some templates from cardboard. Everything fits ok:
Then ordered batch of carriers at local machine shop. Design has some minor flaws (due to dramatic increases in machining price, I was forced to change initial design a bit), however virtual testing on computer shows, that those design flaws should not affect service of the carrier. BTW, this is for racing use only, not for everyday street application (lowest FOS is around 4, for street you may need something around 10)Test mount on my rusty spare suspension leg. Fits like it should:Volvo disk fits ok, however after it is getting some surface rust, temperature expansion - it will scratch suspension leg. Notice line of rust on the brake disk. That's scratching on the bearing play. Leg will need some modification (shaving few mm) at one place, which looks some manufacturing option - place for thead when using larger brakes. Also lower ball joint is too close to the disc. Compromises, compromises... Hope I will solve them.

Will see how it will perform overall. First painting, then master cyl. replacement to 20v one, and after that I hope I will have real racing brakes ;).

Update for November

Like always, when the air gets cold, I'm getting sick. This year is no exception. Car is left alone in the garage, and I'm fighting with microworld :(.

So there are news for November:Got broken camera as a gift. Managed to fix it a bit, and now I have something slightly better pictures than mobile phone. Can make photos of dark areas (with flash), etc. Cool! :).

Also, taking pictures with flash, and high resolution - reveals all the imperfections, rust, etc. Which are even not noticeable when looking live. So you will see all crap and mistakes I've made. That's not so cool ;).Here are few samples:

Just enjoying the car, and wasting time in garage :)

It has become tradition, that there are no major updates. Just some small things which I post here. Have been in few events (training sessions), like always - loads of fun, and very weak results. Car is fast, driver is slow :). And nothing changes.

Some materials are starting to gather around motor mounts project:Time will show, what will be the result.

No more visible updates. At last driver seat now is on the slider rails, and I can adjust it's position. That was very desired, and I can now enter and exit the car, without hitting a roll cage with my leg. That's good.

Mounts theme continued

Have heard comments about 034efi solid motorsport engine mounts from very respected person. It was more like horror story, not the comments. Excessive vibrations, bolts loosing tension under vibration , etc. Nylon theme is suspended a bit.
Also had a chat with rally guys. They told me, that load's of ppl are using old 4x4 VAZ engine mounts for rally. Which are silly cheap - about 3$ each. Went to local parts store, and bought some. They are damn too small:You can clearly see, that those 4x4 mounts are solid rubber. Russian made things sometimes last very very well, no matter how crude they are made :). The problem is, that the thread is using M10x1.25 pitch (normal mounts use conventional M10, which is 1.5). Also mount heigh, if I want to put it in the old "cup", is almost twice shorter than needed. Will need to think some strong and elegant solution (it will turn to be weak and horrible to make - as usual :D).

Also manged to change toe settings a bit on the front. Don't know if it's related, the car responded with better turn in to the corners, however horrible vibrations on the steering appeared. Maybe I have tightened wheel incorrectly. I hope so.

Cumulative update for september :)

Progress is going very slowly (like it used to be). Only things, that are seen for experienced eye are changing a bit ;). Like patching and fixing things, that were made not so good and in the hurry or inexpierence.

Further steps in my motor mount construction. Tried to fill empty motor mount with nylon. Main focus was to fill the edge, where nylon can get grip with the alloy part. First it looked okay:
After some home brew machining - it is not looking so good:
Will try to improve construction a bit. But it will be later.

Also there were some tries with new brake setup. 996 caliper fits volvo disks - very nicely:
But who will make caliper carriers. Now I'm trying to master CAD software, just to draw something for guys, who work with metal...

Main job, which I was forced to do was to rearrange fusebox a bit. It was purelly unsafe. Now it is much more safer from electrical point of view (in insulation terms of battery power terminals 30, which can bring fire immediattely after it touches roll cage...). It is still hanging on tie straps, however making some more solid fixings would take too much time and would improve result only by a fraction. White straps will be replaced by stronger black ones which were bought after doing this photo ;). I can even put cover on relays. One thing, that whole construction still is in very uncomfortable position regarding left leg. There is enough room for the operating clutch pedal, but it's tight fit:

Anatomy of the engine mount

With uprated engine torque, I have a problem with engine movement. So it is time to think about some uprated engine mounts. There are few options, some more, some less expensive, but I would like to figure out some proprietary construction of my own ;).
First analysis needs to be done of what we have stock. I have taken old and teared away hydraulic engine mount:Cut top of it, to see what is inside. Quite complicated internals:Dismantled middle part:Nice pot to fill it with something (nylon? polyurethane?). Will think about it:
Burned remaining rubber with propane torch, however no pictures. It is interesting what would happen if to fill this area with polyester epoxy and glass fiber. Will it crack? We will see ;).

Some photos from 2008.07.26 event

Haven't mentioned that I was attending per4m day on 26 of July. Event was run on old airfield. I
have done G-meter run and some auto-x (fast slalom) runs.

G-meter showed 0-100 5.4s, 1/4 13.8s. Not bad (with stock ECU).

Could not run high boost due to high ambient temperatures (black car, heat soak, etc.) and my chineese made clutch :(. Of course none of photographers was not interested in taking pictures of my tired old car, but luckily shiny 350z was always nearby, so ppl took photos of both cars :D. Here they are (no onboard footage yet, still struggling to get it out from DVR):
Photos - (C) by Duskin

Tiny update - koni sport

As title says got adjustables for "race" struts. Still need to decide and purchase coil springs (expensive) and somehow convince local suspension shop to make coilovers for me :). They even smell like freshly painted:

Few updates for the June

Like always, no big updates for some time, and some consolidate update for the period. Here we go.

Under vehicle inspection after airfield "track day" revealed source of clunking noise . It seems, that being a zombie, I have forgot to tighten all four wishbone bolts. They were just slided in and nut put on the first few threads. Result - one lost nut and almost lost bolt (OMG!):
Everything was fixed and tightened properly. Did a few small jobs (leaks, cable fixings), not worth to mentioning. One which really improved something was adding flexi to the exaust pipe. Measurements:
And flexi welded in place:
Now I'm not loosing exaust (and burning handbrake cables) in the middle of track :). Ok some sound and effects are lost, but at least everything stays in place

Some videos (AVI) from local track day (yes, I'm slow). Two times passed by a race prep'ed civic with pro driver. One was really scary. Desperatelly need any suspension :(. Now it feels like I'm driving the boat with no engine, brakes, steering...

when I see it
when I don't

2008.05.18 The airfield

I will edit this post, when I manage to get videos from my DVR. However it seems that on board footage was screwed up. For some reason (fog on the lens?) camera recorded everything in blur, like car was full of smoke.

EDIT: Onboards are really screwed. Here are few static photos of the car (click on image, to zoom):



Driving (testing brakes, suspension, steering, gearbox) with stock boost (0.9 bar) was real fun. I like torsen and new flywheel. Also the taller gearing for 2nd gear. It was worth all the hassle.

2008.05.18 Pleasure starts :)

So after failing to attempt yesterday's event, everything went back from banzai! to normal working with pleasure - now it started to really feel like vacations. Cut few corners from glove box assembly:Pushed the wires on to the shelf, and vuala - it fits nicelly. No more spaghetti mess at the passenger's legs:

2008.05.17 The D-Day

Got up early, went to the garage, and continued to work with the car. It started to rain (to make things more complex), so I needed to cover areas, where holes were made for roll cage to connect to the front struts... It was quite a rush to connect, fix, bolt everything that is needed for car to run. Speedo was not working so managed to borrow GPS unit and make loom for it to work, etc.

When the time for the meet has come - I have noticed, that I have lost registration documents for the car... That was final hit, which put me down. Three weeks of "Go go go!" type activity, and that's it, FIASCO!

After few hours of searching - managed to find them (they fell out of radiator area in the car), however motivation was lost, event sports part has ended already, etc. Went home, and tried to relax and rest. It was too much for me.

In the evening, few finished touchings, and tried to go around the block. It was magnificient. Impressions are hard to describe (car with sound insulation vs car with roll cage and many holes to outside). It runs and feels like racing car (what a surprise). It was worth all the pain I've suffered in past three weeks.

2008.05.16 Struggling with time...

Less sleep, more work! Trying hard to finish car until 05.17 (per4m forum meet). Managed to put glasses (hardcore story, no pictures) not mentioning that roll cage - was not allowing to put them in). Somehow managed to assemble everything outside the car. Also put driver's seat, racing harness'es etc.Started to feel and think like zombie. Working for 8-10 hours per day for two weeks - started to bring the results, almost finished car, loads of cuts and bruises on the arms, legs, head... The PAIN in every muscle. Started to use weak analgetics to help the progress...

2008.05.14 It's alive! ... and leaking coolant ;)

Not much pictures, but managed to bleed cooling system and start the engine. Oh, how nice it sounds, and revvs happily. Very satisfied by change (of flywheel). Rolled the car out of garage on it's own engine:
After a while it started to leak coolant from everywhere - I forgot to tighten few clamps. Starting to get very tired, thus making stupid mistakes. Not good.

2008.05.13 Putting everything back - part III

Day was completelly spent on fixing some old engine swap mistakes, and assembling everything around the engine. Some wiring for radiator fan and alternator was rewired and properly fixed:
Also eliminated dead end for activated charcoal valve (was leaking boost and doing nothing):
Replaced oil pressure sender (one contact VDO to some noname two contact). Reason for this is employing oil pressure check unit fom KV engine. It is using two pressure sensors to operate properly. So I put two contact sender (gauge and warning), and found plug in the block where I managed to put old pressure switch from KV.Put the radiator in, connected everything on the driver's side:

Putting everything back, part II

So after yesterday's disappointment - needed some time to rest and think. It gave a result, went to local autoparts store, bought newer clutch slave cylinder (dirt cheap, hope it will last for a while), put it in the gearbox, bleeded, and SUCCESS! Clutch is working. So started to bolt everything again. Propshaft (not visible in a picture, but believe me - it's bolted already):Bolted driveshafts (took a while , because my measurements were wrong, driveshaft flanges from typ44 are bigger, and I forgot, that I had typ44 flanges on my spare gearbox, which was used as reference - they were given to my friend some years ago). And if you notice, turbocharger went from the floor into engine bay ;)Also wrote more blog entries with past dates. Had no time to do this before, because my schedule for these two weeks was - eat, sleep, work in the garage, or search for the parts. Enjoy...

2008.05.11 Trying to put everything back

First, old clutch was inspected. It had no obvious signs of damage, however it was visible, that it had contact with oil (which is leaking from valve cover gasket), and was burned somehow. There were a lot of copper and feredo debris inside flywheel. Also pressure plate was looking suspicious. Old:New:There's visible difference of leaf spring height. So decided to use all the stuff (release shaft, bearing, etc. from apropriate type).

And the fun started. New gearbox requires different type of clutch slave cylinder. So after few hours of grinding, I came with somewhat which can be called as typ85 type clutch cylinder adapter for newer gearbox. We pulled engine back in, bleeded the clutch. And the result was soft and spongy pedal. Inspection showed, that hydraulic fluid is leaking from gearbox. That was a disaster :(. Pulled slave cylinder - it was too short, and spitted a rod under pressure :(. I hated all world and had no strengths to work further...

2008.05.09 Engine pulled out

After many hours of fighting with oil cooler fittings, cutting some bolts, badly injuring my right hand, and many dirty words - engine was successfully pulled out and gearbox was separated.

2008.05.09 Painting finished, dismantling starts

After hard work, roll cage is finally painted. It looks not bad, not good. Assuming circumstances, I personally think, that result is very good (no time to really work on it, no light, no expierence with two component paint, HVLP spray gun and high performance compressor). From objective judgement side, I can tell that result is about 6 from 10. Some shots of finished result:
Closer look:So now its time to pull engine out (to change gearbox, flywheel, clutch). Like always, I will do it by dropping engine and gearbox to basement. To achieve this - you need to dismount everything, and leave bare engine. So it started like this:And in the evening all the hoses, and fluids were out:

2008.05.08 Spraying black paint in the dark...

As I have mentioned, I was painting in lack of light. This is no go if you want to spray paint anything. Especially roll cage. White primer helped a bit, but not too much. After first paint layer, deeper inspection (without goggles) revealed, that covering was too terrible event for me. So took virutally every light source I had, and put it into the car. Results:It is obvious, that I have sprayed paint somewhere, but not on tubes. Especially in the places where shadows like to be: