Brendan's Track Car Build - Page 4

Brendan · #61 Apr 19, 2010, 00:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiko

Brendan,

your idle is high because the TB screws are out too much. Undo the main bypass screw a couple of turns then close the the TB screws all the way in and then undo them a turn each (what BMW recommends), adjust the TB's from there and in the end adjust idle.

I had a high-ish idle condition on my Sport Evo and took me 6 months to get my head around this until I found that all previous services TB adjustments were done unscrewing so I ended up with 3 to 4 turns out each screw creating enough flow to outflow the bypass screw.

I wish it were that easy. That was initially my problem, but now my idle screw is all the way in / closed. Before syncing the TB's each individual bypass screw started full closed. I only opened them enough to sync them. I also adjusted the TB plates as far closed as I could get them without having them start to bind.

I am running out of places to have a vacuum leak too, but I do have to do some more searching, but for now its not bothering me as it's idling between 1000 and 1100 rpm.

Kiko · #62 Apr 19, 2010, 01:04

Oh OK! As you said yourself you must have a leak then.

Brendan · #63 Apr 19, 2010, 01:55

That's what I thought, but I'm not convinced. I've triple checked every line I can get to, even eliminated the ICV, replaced fittings, and lines. The only place left I can think of is inside the brake booster...

One thing I have noticed though, AFR and timing do have a big effect on idle rpm, so I am waiting until after the car is tuned better before I chase this anymore.

Brendan · #64 Apr 22, 2010, 13:40

Dyno Time!

Well, it's not done yet, but the first pass at tuning is complete, the shop will be finishing up tonight or tomorrow morning. The car is being tuned on a Dyno Dynamics at Dent Sport Garage in Norwood, MA.

Motor is stock but with a recent rebuild. Lightweight flywheel, carbon airbox, and Megasquirt so I can tune both ignition and fuel. I'm pretty happy with the results, especially for a pretty stock motor (For those of you who don't know Dyno Dynamics, they typically read ~10-15% lower than a Dynojet).

I should have pictures and possibly an updated dyno run by the end of the week.

Brendan · #65 Apr 22, 2010, 15:00

Looks like my ///M made friends while getting tuned. More pictures, all courtesy of the guys at DSG.

Brendan · #66 Apr 25, 2010, 01:24

The car is back from DSG where it was tuned and aligned.

Corner Weights (Without driver, full tank of fuel):

FL: 653
FR: 632
RL: 580
RR: 594

Total: 2459 and I do have some easy weight I can take out (Heavy seat mounts, stock front and rear bumpers, stock rear deck lid for starters).

Alignment:

Front Camber: -2.0 deg
Front Toe: 3mm out (total)
Rear Camber: -1.5 deg
Rear Toe: 3mm in (total)

Lastly, here's the final dyno plot and an AFR Map. It is hard to tell the difference between the plot I posted earlier and this one, but when you overlay them, the new one has more area under the curve even though peak power was unchanged.

Brendan · #67 May 6, 2010, 22:44

Well, good and bad in my latest installment...

I finished the car to the point where I was finally ready to take it to the track for its first drive. After having it dyno tuned and aligned, I finished mounting the harnesses, the seats, all the roll bar padding, and went through a final round of checking all sorts of little items. Then, it was time to hit the road...

Last Sunday morning I loaded the car on the trailer, loaded pretty much the entire garage into the back of my truck, and then started the 4.5 hour tow from Boston to the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY for two days of HPDE and Time Trialing with COM. For those of you who don't know Monticello, it's a "Luxury Automotive Lifestyle Resort" about 90 minutes from New York City (i.e. Automotive Country Club for rich New Yorkers). Apparently they don't have enough memberships to pay the bills, so they rent it out to clubs like us...

Regardless, we had a chance to run the 4.1 mile 21 turn full course. Map below:

We arrived Sunday night, dropped off the cars and trailers, did a brief track walk, and then back to the hotel for the night.

Monday morning, we showed up for the practice day in the rain. Well, now here's where things started not going so great for me. I went out in our first run group, and I started getting a not-so-sporadic miss that I thought I'd cured. The car would be running great and strong, and then start stuttering badly (running on two cylinders) before jumping back to life and running strong again.

I skipped the second run group to work on the car, tried again in the third run group where I'd made things better, but still not good enough to be out on track. So, I retired and put the car back on the trailer after ~4 whole laps, maybe one of them clean (But - in the rain, first day in the new car, and a new track). I did some ride-alongs and hung out and had fun, but no more driving. The good news, when it was under power, it felt great. Got it up to ~100 mph on the long straight, steering felt nice and tight, so I was happy in that regard.

What's wrong with the car? While back in the garage a week before the event I started getting the same stumble, which I chased to one bank of injectors not firing at all. I'd initially thought that this was an ECU pin grounding out against another pin or the case, and I'd thought I had it fixed. Unfortunately, it re-appeared when I got to the track. Throughout the course of trying to fix it at the track, I re-soldered some pins, found a ground that had come undone, and was able to improve things, but couldn't quite get it fixed. I realized that the car would start stumbling, I'd start tapping on the ECU near the connector, and it would go right back to normal - definitely a loose connection to be debugged.

So, now, I'm going to re-build the suspect connector with new wires, new connector, new solder so I know it's solid. Unfortunate that this happened so close to, and during, a track day - but I know the car is running strong and in pretty good shape once I get this cleared up.

So, the maiden voyage didn't go as planned, but I guess with a project like this I should expect a shakedown. I've got three and a half weeks until the next event, and I'm already got some parts on the way to try and fix the problem.

Brendan · #68 Jun 28, 2010, 16:07

Wow, overdue for an update.

Last time I posted I was getting ready to fix my intermittent electrical gremlin. A month and a half later, one missed track event, a new engine harness I put together, she's up and running again... While I was in there, I did a lot of work to make it easier to upgrade to MS3 if I choose to do so in the future. A couple videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO9a955lkTQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O36G8mKeoVw

I also had the joy of walking into the garage one day and seeing the driver's footbox full of brake fluid - not good. It turns out in my haste to get the car ready, I'd forgotten to install a clutch stop. What this allows is the clutch pedal to go too far down - this allowed the clutch spring to jump off of it's mounting point, fall down, and start putting pressure on the clutch fluid line from the master cylinder. This eventually broke the plastic fitting that comes out the top of the clutch master, and all my brake fluid drained from the M/C into my footbox... Needless to say, replacing this part sucks, badly... Took me half to 3/4 of a day upside down with my head under the dash, but got that replaced, and installed a new adjustable clutch stop to keep it from happening again.

Next update after next weekend. I'm driving at an event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Thursday and Friday, so should have a good report after then.

Brendan · #69 Jul 7, 2010, 16:11

Well, the weekend at NHMS was a success...

Trailered up Saturday morning, ran 4 sessions on Saturday. 2 more sessions on Sunday morning, a time trial Sunday afternoon, followed by another session of open track in the evening before trailering home. All said and done, the car ran fantastic. By the end of the weekend I was pushing it pretty hard, and getting comfortable behind the wheel again after a two year break.

The issues: Still have air in my clutch system even after repeat bleeding. I'm going to pull the slave cylinder off the transmission and re-bleed with about 5 lbs of pressure from a pressure bleeder while manually working the piston. I also was getting binding in my steering, I think due to interference from my camber plates and strut tops. I ended up tearing both of the front spring seats from the binding that was occurring, so need to resolve that. I had one of my front swaybar links come loose, so I need new spacers, bolts, nuts and to make sure everything is torqued and loctited down...

Here's the fun part. Sunday's time trial...

http://vimeo.com/13087533?hd=1

Next up, Mont Tremblant in the beginning of August...

John · #70 Jul 14, 2010, 14:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brendan

Lastly, here's the final dyno plot and an AFR Map. It is hard to tell the difference between the plot I posted earlier and this one, but when you overlay them, the new one has more area under the curve even though peak power was unchanged.

Brendan, it must feel good to be back behind the wheel again after 2 years!

However, I think you need additional tuning. You're peaking at 6300 rpm and then the power falls off, which is not normal. What does your ignition map look like? Can you make a screen shot?

John

Brendan · #71 Jul 14, 2010, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

Brendan, it must feel good to be back behind the wheel again after 2 years!

It felt great! Finally makes the long project feel worthwhile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John

However, I think you need additional tuning. You're peaking at 6300 rpm and then the power falls off, which is not normal. What does your ignition map look like? Can you make a screen shot?

I've been wondering about this myself, but hadn't done anything about it as I'd planned to go back to the dyno when I get time. Also, comparing to other cars run on the same dyno, I am happy with peak power: A car with Airbox, Maxx A/N, Evo II/III cams made just 8 hp more than I did, but he was running an off the shelf chip, not tuned for his motor.

My ignition map is below. Ignition load is throttle angle. My engine is stock US, stock head, stock 248/248 cams. TB's are stock 46mm, Airbox is a 49.5mm (I have TB's I haven't put in yet, was too focused on getting the car running and debugged first). This winter, I plan to switch the TB's and would like to port the head if I can save the $$$.

John · #72 Jul 15, 2010, 14:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brendan

I've been wondering about this myself, but hadn't done anything about it as I'd planned to go back to the dyno when I get time. Also, comparing to other cars run on the same dyno, I am happy with peak power: A car with Airbox, Maxx A/N, Evo II/III cams made just 8 hp more than I did, but he was running an off the shelf chip, not tuned for his motor.

My ignition map is below. Ignition load is throttle angle. My engine is stock US, stock head, stock 248/248 cams. TB's are stock 46mm, Airbox is a 49.5mm (I have TB's I haven't put in yet, was too focused on getting the car running and debugged first). This winter, I plan to switch the TB's and would like to port the head if I can save the $$$.

Can you insert another column at 7500 rpm or is the map fixed to 12 rpm sites?
Is the car running higher octane gas, e.g. 98 RON or higher? Did you delete the catalytic converters, or have some other exhaust system? If at the dyno you didnt hear knock at these angles nor see a reduction in power then id try:

5500: 23.5
6000: 27.0
6500: 28.0
7000: 30.0
8000: 31.0

The stock head with its 26 mm inlets certainly is a bottle neck, given your planned upgrades.

John

Brendan · #73 Jul 15, 2010, 15:21

John,

Sent you some more details by PM.

I tuned my car on 91AKI (~95RON) but I run 93AKI (~98RON). Occasionally 93AKI is unavailable so that is the reasoning here.

I run a stock US Exhaust Header, a VSR center section with H-Pipe (No X-Pipe), with Catalytic Converters. I know this is also a potential area to choke off the engine, so will address this in the future.

For the ignition table, right now I am limited to 12x12. I can switch to 16x16 but it requires a small hardware change that I'm trying to avoid in the middle of the season when the car is running well. I will be making this change this winter. For the time being, I can re-shuffle RPM bins to put more resolution in the right area of the table.

When on the dyno, I was not knock limited. The operator could steady-state tune, so I think he tuned to best power - adjusted timing until he saw a reduction in power, backed off to peak for each RPM bin. Maybe I can try more resolution at high RPM, and less down low?

I'm wondering if I'm just choked off up high with my stock 195 head, 248/248 cams, stock header?

Thanks,
Brendan

Brendan · #74 Aug 18, 2010, 14:15

Time to provide an update. I am still having a clutch issue, so after talking to Lee Vuong, I think I need to pull the tranny and grease the input spline. I'm hoping I can get away with this for the rest of the season as I'm planning on pulling the motor then anyways... The binding I was getting with my struts is better, but I think I am still getting a little interference on the driver's side. I may clearance the spring perch a little to solve this. I got brake ducts installed, fresh oil, bled brakes, new rotors, pads, and lots of little things to get ready for the track.

Mont Tremblant was the first Monday and Tuesday in August, and did not go off without issues, but overall it was a great weekend. I did the 7-8 hour tow up on Sunday morning with Mick D, leaving Boston around 5 - 5:30am and arriving in time to go out and see the village, and do some luge racing before dropping off the car and trailer at the track.

Following Mick up Route 89 through New Hampshire:

Still Following Mick (Man I need a diesel tow vehicle...):

Montreal:

Mont Tremblant Village from some point during the trip:

View from our Condo at Sunset:

Monday morning, I headed out in my first session, and the first time I lifted off the throttle coming into a braking zone, I knew something was wrong. Rear end of the car was all over the place. Brought it back into the pits, up on jack stands, and I had lost the outer nuts and eccentric washers for both outside bolts for both rear control arms. Just the eccentric bolts were holding everything in place. Yikes. That could have been bad. Rewind to before the season, I'd had an alignment done, and obviously these had not been torqued down properly.

With some help from Lee Vuong identifying the size of the nut, I was able to track down some washers, new nuts at a local Canadian tire, and then have everything back together, and torqued down with lots of loc-tite by lunch time. I was a little worried about my rear toe because I had lost the eccentric washers, but everything ended up working out fine (Still need to put the strings on the car to see how close I am).

Ended up running three afternoon sessions on Monday, with some rain thrown in, and then two morning sessions, a time trial, and open track on Tuesday with a bunch more rain thrown in. The other issues I was having was that I seemed to have glazed a new set of rotors, because no matter what I tried I could not get everything to bed in properly and get my brakes to start working well. Oh well, was still able to drive and have fun, but brakes were far from optimal. Add to that the fact that my tires were way too worn to be rain tires, and it made for some interesting (and very slow) driving in the wet.

Lee was there:

Mick's Car:

Fred F:

Some other friends having noise issues and making emergency repairs to their S2000 with the help of a local muffler shop

And when we were all done for the days: Bleue??? Huh?

Not a perfect weekend, but still pretty good... I trailered back real early Wednesday morning, got the car cleaned up, in the garage, and back up on stands and ready to prepare for next time. Need to do some more work over the next couple weekends, next stop is Watkins Glen in the middle of September.