In reply to HyperspaceTurd :
Thank you! I’ve learned so much from all the fantastic threads on here. It’s a thrill when I hear someone’s been reading mine!
In reply to HyperspaceTurd :
Thank you! I’ve learned so much from all the fantastic threads on here. It’s a thrill when I hear someone’s been reading mine!
This weekend I designed a new circuit for the ignition and the wipers. I used some nice new crimpers and connectors that worked really well to wire up the car loom side of the circuitry and I'll do the panel side this week and hopefully get the car started in no time.
Last week I got the car just about ready to start...
This last pic looks bad, but it is way closer than it looks.
Because with just a bit of dead ending of potentially hot wires, I was ready to start.
And on Sunday, the car STARTED!
All the circuits worked as designed.
Now I have just a few things left to do in the coming 2 weeks...
Awesome progress! See you at Summit.
Thank goodness for the upload feature on this site these days. Flickr, which hosts the bulk of the images on this thread, has notified me that next year my 1 TB data limit will turn into a pumpkin-like 1000 image limit. I don’t know how many I’ve got on this site but I should be able to pare it down and keep all the links here alive.
Welcome the latest addition to my power wheels stable. It’s going to be slow, but hopefully sturdy. Maybe even strong enough to carry two entrants...
Today is a gorgeous fall day in the DC area. I’m taking full advantage, getting the car ready for Nov. 10 at Summit Point!
I got all the wiring tucked away. The cabin wires all tucked away. Seats n safety stuff in. Decals removed. And I took it out for a spin around the block.
I took at least four feet of 2 gauge wire out of the negative connections.
This just had to be tucked away. Someday I’ll pare it down further.
It is nice to have it moving around under its own power.
So one of the things I wasn't happy about regarding my Pitt Race event was the video, which was horrible. It was shaky. It was too wide, capturing a whole lot of interior and not a lot of action.
Here's what a Super Wide GoPro3 sees when you hang it from one of the sunroof brackets:
The camera was also positioned directly in my rear view, and it would startle me now and then, because I'd think it was a car or something on my tail. So that had to change.
I've now mounted it to the passenger shoulder belt tube. It sticks up but it's not blocking my view of any windows.
This is the view out of that camera, but with the setting to 1080 Medium 48fps...
Maybe those are a little hard to see because they're big. How about a side-by-side comparison:
I've highlighted the approximate new field of view, and I think it's going to be a huge improvement. We'll see.
I'm definitely no Ken Block (when it comes to getting great video, I mean).
Great thread! Thanks for sharing all this.
Quick question; are you running early offset wheels with a late suspension? I heard they will not fit, but unless I missed something you have proved that wrong.
Great question, and nice catch!
I am indeed running early offset cookie cutters. The left rear tire's outer shoulder appears to have rubbed a little where the fender lip has a little buckle and intrudes into the wheelspace, and so there's a bit of scoring on the tire there. I'll take pics.
What I've been meaning to do is hit that little bump and see if that takes care of it. I'm bringing my BFH to the track with me and I'll persuade it a bit if/when I have a moment.
The tires don't rub anywhere else though, inside or out. I'm running 225-50-15 Hoosiers on them.
I'm running in ST5 this weekend, but looking ahead to next year, ST6 is the class I'll be in.
I've been warned by some that it's going to get expensive to remain competitive in Super Touring (relative to Spec944).
I guess time will tell.
Thanks for the info. And great thread. Please keep it coming.
Thanks TR7!
Here are some pics of that left rear tire that did a bit of rubbing.
It looks bad but it's not deep.
You can see the part of the fender that's sticking out a bit. The paint has rubbed off a bit there, so I'm pretty sure that's the cause, and the fix looks pretty simple.
Hit this place with a hammer:
I'll be rotating the tires for the first race in the spring, so we'll see if that works out.
So the final races of the season are in the books!
It was a cold weekend at Summit Point Motorsports Park in Summit Point, West Virginia.
Saturday's two race temps were in the 40's and the Sunday fun-race (which I did not participate in) was run in 28 degrees or so. That made for great power but not so much grip. Which made for some serious carnage. There were at least four or five serious crashes. Fortunately everyone was ok.
As I was suiting up for my warmup session on Saturday, I had my car idling. When I came out to get in and drive, the car had a huge puddle of coolant under it. Also some oil.
So I cried for a bit, pulled it back up onto the trailer, and seriously considered going home. At least I could use my entry fee as credit against a future race. But once it was on the trailer, I pulled off the fans and the upper hose to access to the temp sensor bung in one of the plastic end caps of the radiator. I tightened it just a few degrees, re-assembled, filled it, purged it, and it seemed to hold.
The oil was the same issue I had when I first started my rebuilt motor. It was dripping a little faster than before, but not fast enough to be a showstopper.
I got out on track for qualifying and the car was horrible. The tires were flat-spotted and it took at least three laps before they stopped WHOMP-WHOMP-WHOMPing. I was tentative in the cold, but maybe that was a good thing. I didn't even look up my time. I didn't want to know.
Race 1 was a lot of fun, it turned out. I chased Kevin and Jim, got separated from them due to faster traffic coming through, but closed that gap between us right up to the end of the race, when Jim got a little sideways in 10 and opened the door on the last several hundred yards to the finish. I might have passed him, if I hadn't also bungled that turn a bit. Kevin, Jim, and I finished just a car length or two apart from each other, in that order.
Race 2 wasn't as interesting. I got slowed by traffic again, but more severely. I drove the rest of the race pretty much alone.
Both races were standing starts, which were a lot of fun too. I really like that part. 
1:31.6 is the fastest I've driven Summit Point Main. So I was pretty happy with that. I was also happy because I have a lot more weight that I can lose. The car is definitely not yet at its potential within class rules.
I decided not to run the "fun" race on Sunday, which was a mix of all the car classes together. I felt it was a good decision because there were two serious single-car crashes, making it a not-so-fun race for those drivers.
So I brought the car home, but this time I immediately got it off the race wheels and put on some eight-year-old tires that came with the car when I bought it. They'll be my storage set.
I got it on the trailer, parked it in its special spot, covered it up, and now it's time to plan winter mods.
You know, I think I need to paint my cookies this school bus yellow. I really think it looks good on the car.
Winter Mods List:
That's probably enough expense for one off-season, but I'm open to more ideas from the peanut gallery.
What would you do next?
I've got a couple lines on an LSD solution...
The transaxle I have in the car is a dismantler-sourced "ASG" type which is actually a preferred one. It's from an 89 944 NA car with a 2.7L engine. But what makes the ASG transaxle special is that it has a short fifth gear, with extra hardened ring and pinion gears, and the low final drive.
There's a well-regarded rebuilder near me called Flying Horse Motorsports, and Dimi there is going to source me a rebuilt factory LSD, replacement seals, and new carrier bearings. I am going to try to install the LSD into my transaxle myself. I plan to drop the whole thing out of the car and perform this surgery on the bench.
Another fellow racer tells me he's got an ASG transaxle that already has an LSD unit in it which was installed for him by Dimi (essentially making it an "ASH" type transaxle). If his price is reasonable, I'll buy his as well, and have a working one while I do the rebuild/LSD install on mine.
I really want to rebuild the junkyard one myself, just to develop that skill. I'm feeling pretty ambitious at this point.
I ordered and recently received a Chinese radiator from eBay. It looks pretty good.
The welds all look really good, and the thing feels sturdy. When I laid my factory fan shroud onto it, the holes all lined up perfectly. The threads on those captured nuts holding the fan shroud aren't the same as stock, so I'll need to find some M6 screws (or M8; I'm not yet sure which) to hold it on, and I don't know if the captured nuts are the pinched/locking type, or if I will need to use some loctite to hold the screws on.
This hex-headed plug is where the stock coolant temp sensor goes. It's where my current radiator has leaked twice so far. Hmm, I wonder why it's not screwed all the way in?
There's why... a blob of something fouling the threads there. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard stuff and can't be knocked off easily.
I happen to have a M20 x 1.5mm thread pitch tap that I used on my oil cooler console. Too bad it's an M22 bung here...
Could you use the plug that came with the radiator to repair the threads? I've seen it done where you cut a slot into a bolt (or in this case the plug) so that it works like a thread chaser. Might save you some money and waiting for a tap.
This idea - https://youtu.be/-UMhgLcptk8
Adam
Thanks Adam!
The plug that came with the radiator is a very soft aluminum that's not going to cut it. Literally. ;-) I mean, it feels like I could dent the threads on the plug with my fingernail.
I wrote an open-ended request to the eBay vendor with a pic and a "please advise". I got a quick reply; something like "sorry for your troubles, could you modify and use it if we sent you some money?"
I replied with my amazon link to the tool, and "please send me $23 for this M22 x 1.5 tap" and so that's what they did. I already have the cash back in my paypal account, and I had already ordered the tap which should get to me tomorrow.
Anyway, I think the tap will do the job and I'll have a perfectly serviceable radiator. I'll be careful to catch and/or remove all the filings.
That's pretty good service on there end to cover the tap for you, glad it worked out.
Adam
In reply to CrookedRacer :
Well hi there! Decided to check up on you here! Great list...and I still maintain that your 1:31 at SP with an open diff is a great omen for your lsd future. You will be very happy. If I can find my old thread, I may resurrect it...it’s been light years!
Thanks, jh36! And thank you for the following pictures!
Yesterday was a fantastic day of wrenching at jh36’s abode. There were seven of us working on five cars altogether.
I got a huge assist from Jamie who will soon have his own 944 up and running. Out came my transaxle with its short 5th and open diff. In went a completely rebuilt unit with LSD, short 5th gear, and external oil cooler; zero miles on the rebuild. Get yours from Dimi at fhmotorsport.com.
Rob and Kevin got “Barney” up and running. A blown fuse had disabled its fuel pump. I also chopped a lot of weight from Barney’s doors with a right angle grinder.
Ed and James thinned an BMW E36 wiring harness (cut a wire, start car to verify it wasn’t important, repeat). Also, James did some repairs to his street 944’s suspension which wasn’t happy, having been introduced to a curb recently.
And jh36 rebuilt the water pump on the Rolls in the background. We did discuss the possibility of taking that thing to the track. I kid you not.
Great day, and we are looking forward to VIR in March!
In reply to CrookedRacer :
That was an excellent day indeed! No curve balls! It is a good (yet strange) feeling to be relatively ready for a late March race at this point.
I have just a few little details to button up on 36 (944) and the e36 is off to get caged soon. Things are moving along for ST6 NASA Mid Atlantic!
Picturesque Eastern Shore!
I cleaned up the old one so I could pop off the side and gander at the ring and pinion. And the gear oil.
They were perfect. The oil had some shimmer and there was some micro iron filings captured by the magnet, but it was very clean in there.
The oil suspended within the matrix of iron filings around the magnet was green. Maybe that was the color of the gear oil before I changed it?
In any case, I see no cause for alarm. I will put my rebuilt LSD in this thing, reassemble it properly with new carrier bearings and seals, with shims if necessary for proper lash.
...I guess. I've never done any of that before, but there's a first time for everything!
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