I know you've already been to South Bend and back again, but I can't wait for you to put the big square OLOA placard on the door of your car. It's a good feeling.
I know you've already been to South Bend and back again, but I can't wait for you to put the big square OLOA placard on the door of your car. It's a good feeling.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
me too
Me three! I'm excited to see this one make the starting line in South Bend.
The accord warped some perceptions.. now you're going to mind berkeley them with this car.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QHSLLFD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
So on Seth and Tim's recommendation I ordered the pair of these to see if they get me the rest of the way to where I want to be sound wise. Windows up, sunroof closed it's loud-ish, but bearable. As soon as you open the windows the aural assault is just obnoxious. Also test fitting 245's tonight (that's what he has laying around with tread) and sucking down the AC and refilling. So, with any luck it'll be quiet, cold and grippy by 10pm tonight.
So the silencers are way too small.... but I think I can relieve them in a few spots TL make them wider to get the same effect. We will see.
On better news front the ac is freezing now. Or was. We will see if it holds. Friends gauges were acting up (old and used a lot) showing that it didn’t hold a vacuum but it pulled in from the tank likenit did. So we will see.
245’s clear in the rear with a 5mm spacer so 245’s are the way we go in spring. Have some pretty worn n fera thingys in the rears waiting for the 5mm spacers to get here this week. So next Sunday will be 255/245 (this time balanced). Should be fun.
You know, a precise measuring instrument could help you get the right parts the first time.......
OK, so I have working AC. It is blowing cold in the forst 60' of the drive out of the parking lot while it was 92* outside. By the first mile it was nice and cool, even in a black leather interior (pleather?) that had been shut up all windows closed for the previous 6 hours in the sun. YAY!
Also... I watched the GT episode where Clarkson drives the Alfa 2.5GTV6 and I realized just how similar this car now sounds to that with the magnaflow in. Where the Alfa was probably a 5 on volume mines closer to a 9.... but tonally it is right there.
Well, first daily driver failure popped up. Apparently 213k miles, 2 hours of track time and an autox are too much for the left front wheel bearing. Starting making an odd noise (or so I thought, CAR IS LOUD! NEW NOISE OR JUST MY EARS?) earlier this week. Got my free 5mm spacers and jacked the car up to put on the big tires for this weekends autox... huh. That felt weird. Grabbed the right front, tight as a drum no issues. OK, must be in my head. Go to the drivers side, hand touches the top of the tire... uh-oh. Yep, movement. grabbed a light.... maybe the strut bolts came loose? Nope.... knuckle not moving. crap.... So Amazon is delivering the new bearing tomorrow so I can still make the autox. An old autox friend is counting on me getting this together tomorrow!
And this is why I have been DD'ing this thing. Lets find where my weak spots for one lap are so I can be prepared. I might consider just grabbing a pair of used knuckles at the wrecking yard and put new bearings in JIC. They aren't big nor heavy.... and a pair of rears are super cheap and small too. Honestly, with an electric impact I could have 4 new wheel bearings on the car in an hour if they were already pressed together. We'll see. I'll see how much tim likes the idea of unloading a tub of knuckles/bearings/tools every day.
Well, that didn't work out as expected... well sorta. I expected the knuckle to be a 50/50 shot of it coming apart like it's supposed to. I was hoping that this wasn't original parts. They were. The outer race is just rusted into the knuckle to the point that it's not coming apart any time soon. Or ever. No problem. Last time I did this a new knuckle was less than $100. Not anymore. No aftermarket knuckles for the front of the V6 with manual trans. OE is the only option now.
I guess this is a good news/bad news thing. The good news is A.) it lasted 16 years, 213k miles and 2.) the replacement should as well. the bad news is they ain't cheap.
But will it be at autoX tomorrow? The SHO will be 
gumby said:But will it be at autoX tomorrow? The SHO will be
No.... I brought in the backup car
Wife’s bone stock Koup ex auto with 255’s/245’s. That car has dbdough room I can almost crawl in there with them.
Laying here in bed had me thinking about this. I may try one more thing before ordering a new knuckle from Hyundai.
Thanks to the tip from Chris (Gumby) the bearing came out. A combo of PB for 20 hours, pressure and impact force did the trick. Also drilled and retapped the Speed sensor retaining bolt. Should probably next time make sure that I have a bolt in that thread pattern first. Pro-tip there.
In reply to bobzilla :
I still wonder about swapping to Sante Fe front knuckles
OK, with the challenge almost here, it's time to start putting things in motion for One Lap. With the big tracks coming and the potential for this cute little pile of crap to hit silly speeds brakes are probably important. Apparently Tim is big on things like that... who knew?
I know it was suggested way back about 9 pages ago, but the 04-05 XG350 calipers and rotors are a direct bolt on for this car. Calipers are two piston and the rotors are just shy of 12" over the single and 11" stock. Also to be included will be brake ducting. Wife wants me safe.... or so she says. She hasn't seen the payout from the insurance yet so she may change her mind. Then it's about finding a good compound for pads.
Cost is still reasonable, and the best part is they're OE parts so replacements down the road are easy(-ish). Now to start that gofundme.....
You said 04-05 XG350 is direct bolt-on. That's good for bigger but how hard will it be to get aggressive pads for this otherwise odd and sedate sedan?
How about Volster? Will that bolt-up? Is there an aggressive pad already marketed?
In reply to John Welsh :
Here's the fun part... that caliper was used on a lot of stuff and uses a more common pad. HPS's are still available for it which is an improvement over the stock Tib option which was ...... *crickets* As for true track oriented pads, I'll have to have some made for it. Not cheap but I was already in that boat to start with.
In reply to John Welsh :
short of attempting to change to wilwood calipers... anything beyond HPS pads is going to be a custom job. so, either custom or custom.
Custom or Custom.... either direction we go.
ALSO 04-06 Kia Amanti uses the same rotors/calipers
EBC goes up to yellowstuff for XG350 it looks like. No bluestuff or orangestuff but it's something.
https://www.shopebcbrakes.com/EBC-Yellowstuff-Brakes/p99672?sku=
Carbotecs are not much more than the EBC pads and you can get a set of endurance pads like the xp8's which will handle the one lap better.
Compounds like XP8 probably won't be high temperature enough. We had to run the XP12 on the Civic which is roughly similar weight/power/brake. Not having the proper compound to handle the heat is the most common mechanical issue of the week every year.
So much productivity today. It’s amazing what I can get done when the wife is out of town!
Stock suspension back in place for the challenge. Undamaged fender on. All 4 wheels ready for paint (free from the neighbors yard sale, winning!) huh.... now that I’ve typed that out it doesn’t sound like much. Oh, and the new bearing and hub got pressed back together and installed. That’s something I guess.
The short list of “to do” for challenge is to get the non broken door handle in, silencers installed and a serious cleaning from top to bottom. Looks like I’m going to have to buy tires even though I did t want to. The one with the oldest date code is now showing cracks in the tread. They weren’t there before the track day so I’m guessing that extra heat probably accelerated the process. They’ll be all seasons because daily but I might jump to 225’s because the wheels are 7.5” and it seems a waste to not use all that space.
Well, Westlake tires it is. 225/45/17 for $207 shipped. Yes, they're all seasons but this car is a driver so I should have something that I can drive on. Reviews are decent, but YMMV always applies to cheap things.
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