Freddy McShreddy: Midlife Crisis FRS thingy

captainawesome said:

In reply to docwyte :

I remember there being a device that would lock the seat belt in place years ago, but can't remember the name. I'm not too familiar with the safety or function aspect of it though. I can manage without, but would be nice to have a little more restraint.

CG Lock

You're thinking of the CG-Lock, from what I've heard but could be wrong is that they are getting hard to find and may be out of production due to liability concerns. 

Have you tried pushing your seat back (possibly reclining the back as well a bit), tugging on the belt to get it to lock and then pushing your seat back into the belt and position to get it tight on you? It's not a harness but it helps keep your lap locked in place. I've used this trick with my Legacy for track, autocross and rallycross. My cousin just got a Camaro LT1 1LE and the belts do this automatically, you just fully pull them out once buckled in and then they ratchet back in staying tight and locked, I thought that was a pretty cool feature.

I've been using a seat belt locking clip like this:

They are cheap and are more reliable than the seat belt locking mechanism in my car.

In reply to CAinCA :

These are what I switched to when my CG lock got lost. They work nice for my use. 

In reply to adam525i (Forum Supporter) :

CG Lock is the one. I'll look into them more.

Next time I'll give the strap tightening a go.  Just gotta remember to do that while waiting in grid.

In reply to CAinCA :

That may just work. I probably have a ton of them from car seats for my kiddos, but if not I'll spend a few bucks and try it out.

Saw this on ebay too. Maybe a combo of this applying shoulder strap tension plus the lower clip? Too much? For $10 total I may just try it and see what happens in an emergency style stop situation.

I spent a couple hours tinkering last night. I raised the car up to 13.75" from hub center to fender all the way around, which is an inch higher than my previous setup.

Installed new front bump stops since mine were crumbling away.

Rolled both front fenders for a little more tire clearance, but mainly driver side since that was the only side causing most of the issue.

Installed new Racer X end links. I'm pretty sure the Whitelines I had in the rear were binding and not short enough, probably causing the one to snap. The new ones I could set loose and tighten under load without issue. I feel like that was never possible with the Whitelines.

Carbotechs still have a ton of life left in them, so I'll probably keep running them into next season. I bought some Cobalt XR2 pads from Andrew with RCE, so I may throw those on with a new set of rotors for Hallett days or ones with heavy brake usage.

I scheduled an appointment with my tire shop to flip the Re71s and fresh alignment for tomorrow. I was hoping to have enough time messing with the scales for corner balance, but just wasn't in the cards.

Private track day is planned for Heartland this coming Sunday, so hopefully I can pick up some time compared to my last trip.  Gotta remember to set my GPS up for the Gopros this time though. I keep forgetting to do that.

In reply to captainawesome :

I think raising car up should help some. 

Car is back in my possession with the alignment and tire flipping. Basically looks like there was a lift kit installed compared to my last ride height setting, BUT it seems to soak up bumps better? It feels a little darty from what I think is tramlining while rolling down the highway. Not sure if that's from the tire wear or the tires themselves. I haven't really driven it much for the past month, so it was re-learn mode and questioning if there is something wrong with the alignment. I have a bumpsteer/roll center correction kit that was originally designed for lowering the car, but I think I'm above that level now. It may be time to go back to stock ball joints and tie rods? Could it be bumpsteer I'm getting?

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

honestly, that height looks right on the money aesthetically (nice even wheel gap all around) so if its handling even better, I think you've got it made.

tramlining might be because of the tire flip...they may have a slight stagger to them from shoulder wear.

SPECIAL stagger if you're lucky

In reply to ScottyB :

Agreed. It's where RCE recommends ride height be set anyway, and I think it already feels better everywhere. Hard to tell since there was a large gap between the last time I drove it. It's also now obvious the rear bar is connected again. Understeer is gone.

I think the tires are the culprit on tramlining plus the zero toe. The wiggle appears to be most prevalent when the tires are cold, but as they warm up it lessens dramatically. I checked pressure to make sure it's not over or under inflated, all were at a 35 psi warm. Wheel bearings don't have any play, and the ball joints feel nice and tight. It used to tram a little before, I do remember that, just not as dramatic. After scrubbing them in this Sunday I think it will go back to normal. Fingers crossed.

I checked information on the bump steer/roll center kit, and as long as I'm 20mm or more lowered it will be within the designed range of motion and ride height. I'm slightly lower than that, so it should be good to stay.

So I spent a half day at Heartland Motorsports Park with quite a bit of seat time. I managed to sneak in times better than my previous trip with a best of 1:58.49 which is over a second quicker than before. Lots of different 1:58s and 1:59s peppered in there. I seem to do better chasing someone faster than me than out on my own for some reason. I had a time that clearly would have been a 1:56-57 but I shifted early and let a car by before I ran through the finish. It was excruciating to watch my timer tick away as I waited. Should have just ran into turn 1 before letting him by, I assumed he was closer to me. It's not a race though, so not that big of a deal.

Anyway, I had an issue with my Beastronix box causing a CEL and cutting power. The OBD connection must have been slightly knocked or loosened, as I couldn't get it to work again until I unplugged it completely and then re-seated the plug. VERY annoying, but it's working again for now. Manual pedal dance is for the birds, I've been spoiled for far too long. I see there's a new option available to replace this one, but not ready to throw money at it yet.

Suspension. I love how the car feels now. I should have raised the car up sooner.

I didn't bring enough e85 with me, so topping off with 91 was all I could manage later in the day. e85 and 91 I can feel the difference in power, but was still pretty close to my faster times with a lighter tank. The temp obviously rose later in the day as well, so it may not be enough difference to bother with e85? I guess if I want to be competitive just run the corn juice and bring more fuel with me. Tire trailer should help that as well.

Pretty sure my clutch is close to the end, or the pressure plate is struggling. I can feel my up shift being a little clanky. It's been like this for a little while, but I think it's time to address it before getting stuck somewhere.

Tires. I don't have much life left in the Re71s. People say they go all the way down to the cords, but I've never really ran tires below the wear bars before. I need to research how much I really have left, but they only have 4 track days and 1 autocross. I'm contemplating R7s for longevity throughout next season. I can run takeoffs cheaply or a new set to run the whole season which will probably be way cheaper than multiple sets of the Stones. If I run the R7s I'll be bumping up a class, but from the times I see from previous weekends I think I can still be competitive. Any thoughts from others on tire choice for being competitive and still somewhat easy on my wallet are welcomed.

Thinking on tires a bit, I am now wondering if my lack of camber before my latest alignment may have lost some tread early on in the Re71s. I was running 3 degrees because my Falken Rt615ks seemed to like that, but the Stones wanted 3.5. I wish I knew how much it could have made a difference.

Tried to drive this pig the other day and it tried to kill me. It feels like the wheels are falling off and it's steering itself wherever it wants to go. Wiggling all over the place like it's possessed. I haven't driven it since my trip to Heartland, and it was an unnerving drive there and back. I checked rear toe on the passenger side because oddly enough the exact same issue popped up late last year shredding a new rear set of tires. I didn't find a loose toe link, but a LCA eccentric nut that was barely snug. Pretty sure it never got tightened when I got the alignment, which I believe is the reason I had so much tram lining before. I should have taken it immediately back to the shop but just figured it was the wear pattern on the tires.

I gotta do a better pre-trip check to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Over an inch toe in....

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Since the season is basically over for me, it's time to start prepping for next year. I ordered a new clutch and lightweight flywheel since I'm replacing a sometimes noisy throwout bearing. Also previously mentioned clunky shifts. Could possibly be the clutch pedal adjustment I did a while back, but at this point I want to have it all confirmed working properly instead of crossing fingers. I also have some Whiteline diff bushings that came uninstalled with the car when I bought it. The stock bushings are starting to crack and since this car is no longer a daily driver the NVH is less of a concern. For now at least. Also going to throw on some Centric blank rotors and keep the DBAs for spares if needed.

Tire trailer build will probably start early February unless something is already built, cheap and local.

Almost forgot some footage of Heartland.

I have aftermarket locking toe plates on the eccentric toe bolts on my 996.  Maybe something like them is made for your car?

In reply to docwyte :

I haven't seen anything available for it yet, but my toe links are actually staying put. It's the camber bolt that pushes a heavy amount of toe as well when loose. There's got to be a better way to lock it down or maybe consider a new eccentric? Maybe this one has been fatigued too much? I'll look into it a bit more for sure. It's cost me 2 half life re71s and 2 new rt615k+ so far, and that's not cheap.

That sucks that your alignment is moving around. Hopefully there's an easy fix.

One suggestion. On your in car video the interior is exposed well but the outside world is completely blown out. If your in car camera has an exposure adjustment set it about 1.0 down. I'm a photography nerd and I've noticed that a LOT of in car video is like this (even GRM's and Randy Pobst's) On my Sony there's a setting for EV I usually set it at -0.7  to -1.0. That will balance the video out a little better.

In reply to CAinCA :

Thanks for the info on the camera! There's a professional photo guy that runs in my local SCCA that said the exact same thing. I haven't got a chance to test it out yet, but it sounds like it should do the trick.

Also I was looking into the lower control arms that may have less chance of slipping. There's a possibility that the stock arms will work at the camber settings I'm looking for anyway, so if I stumble on some cheap I'll try them out and see what the alignment rack says the static number falls at.

The 996 uses eccentric bolts to control toe in the back.  They have a tendency to slip on track use, so I installed Elephant Racing locking toe plates

In reply to docwyte :

I think I got a plan in motion now that should fix my slippage. I bought a set of used stock lower control arms and some 14mm eccentric bolts for the inner connection to dial in a .5 degree. My ride height should put me close enough to where I am now on rear camber and the adjusters allow adjustment. They also shouldn't slip like the eccentric washer setup has. That's the plan at least, just gotta install and measure where it's at.

Stock lower control arms have been installed. They put me at roughly -2.2 degrees in the rear on BOTH sides with no need for any adjustment bolts.

Perfecto!

So that means I have eliminated the biggest issue with my alignment going out of whack. I am still waiting on the stock toe link eccentric bolt hardware to show up as I "may" pull the Whiteline ones. My only fear is that the stock links will go out of alignment with the eccentrics much like the SPC lower control arms did. The Whitelines can't really lose it's position unless it's completely loosened and even then that's going to take some effort. More reading on that to be done, but my gut says to stick with the Whitelines.

Moving on.

Last night I put the car up in the air and pulled the transmission. Stock pressure plate was pretty rusty on the outside, kinda weird. Took a bit of prying to break loose. Clutch disc looked like it still had life left in it, but lots of dust clumped up around the edge of the PP. Surface on the flywheel and PP didn't look too terrible. The throwout bearing was on it's way out. The early years had a common failure with them as the bearing grease provided wasn't up to the heat. They have released an updated version, so I purchased one of those plus a new fork and clips just to cover my bases. I actually bought most of this stuff in preparation for the upgraded clutch when the supercharger was installed.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Anyway, I got the new lightweight flywheel installed (7.5 less than stock), slid the clutch disc in place and grabbed the new pressure plate. As I went to bolt it up I realized the dowels weren't installed on the flywheel. I started trying to remove the dowels from the stock one, but they weren't budging. I decided to call it a night and try to pick some up today if possible.

Turns out I needed some sleep, cause the dowel thing is a silly situation. I totally forgot that the flywheel came with new dowel pins. The box came in from shipping with a huge hole in it, so I checked the contents and was surprised they were still in a little bag inside. Granted this was over a week ago, and my memory is crap. This morning I woke up and it's the first thing that popped in my head. I ran into the garage barely awake and confirmed I still have the dowels. The dowel drama is over. It has come to a close.

I was hoping to re-install the trans this evening, but my rear shifter bushing is squishy. I've ordered up a poly replacement, so I'll hold off installing the trans until that shows up this Saturday. In the meantime I'll probably get the diff bushings done since the car is already on blocks.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I love pulling a clutch and having it packed full of clutch dust. When I did my clutch in my miata the whole bell housing was almost full to brim. 

Clutch and pressure plate installed.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Still waiting to jam the trans back in place for shifter bushings, so I decided to do the diff bushings. When I bought the car it came with some Whiteline kits uninstalled. The front outrigger bushings and the ones located in the subframe. Since the factory bushing on the passenger side is cracking I figured it's a good time to just swap in the poly. I decided against doing the outrigger bushings since the stock ones look good and a bit of laziness I guess. Instructions were simple. Tap out the passenger bushing with a drift towards the rear of the car. Only problem was lack of space to do so and the thing wouldn't budge. So I got out the recip saw. What I didn't know is that bushing is filled with fluid, so things got messy. Fluid everywhere. Driver side needed cut out as well, but luckily no fluid.

I figured while I was in there I should clean the sway bushings and put in some fresh lube. So that's all done.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I'm now realizing that these were all supposed to be winter projects. So I guess I gotta figure out what else I should do before next season. I've got a healthy list jotted down. I guess tire trailer could be next?

In reply to captainawesome :

Tire trailer would be cool. I use my utility trailer like a lazy man. 

I have a tire trailer and hidden hitch for my 911 that I've never mounted/used.  I don't go to the track enough to warranty buying race tires.  When/if I ever do, then I'll mount the hitch and start using the trailer...

brz-intake-manifold-update by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Racer-X-7-E85_OE-Manifold by hatchethairy, on Flickr