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If so please leave me one next time you're at the shop and you can add it to my Cyprus track day tab (or old school venmo)
Rick,
The Dimensions of the smartycam gps, gps08 and gps09 are identical.
i did switch my gps08 magnetic to the roof mounted gps09… the switch was so i can make this mount in a nice clean setup. The fact that the gps09 is upgraded is nice but for gps accuracy for my purpose, it’s completely unnecessary.
None the less i can make the mount for you dude no worries but i owe some parts to @ptrhahn first .
more updates coming but as an overview the thermostat delete kit i made worked perfectly and my overheating issues have permanently been resolved.… i have participated in 2 track days already and i am headed back to the track tomorrow
Cruise speeds of ~120km/h i would see temps of 69-70C of my coolant whereas before the thermostat delete kit i would be around 90C in cruising..,
i had lent my fd to a friend who is at the track several times a month. Significantly quicker than me..
car rips and the engine is superb it needs some upgrades but at the right hands the car is an absolute weapon
i love this track but unfortunately it will be closing in about a year which is very unfortunate…
This trip is officially over and i can say i have enjoyed it to the fullest despite only being a 2 week trip..
It was mostly a successful trip but like always i was having some small issues.
During the first track day the car was smoking terribly during deceleration and i thought, turbo is probably shot despite being pretty much brand new. I was expecting to find oil in my intercooler tubing during the new intercooler installation. I did not want to think that my oil control seals were shot but with no oil in the tubing I thought its probably their time along with a long overdue rebuild..
The oil level was at FULL which is a no no for track use.. I opened the shut off valve of my catch tank and no oil would come out..
long story short the oil drain line was fused together and no oil would come out. I did replace the line and i had about a quart and a half of oil in the catch tank… after draining it properly the problem is pretty much gone.
It still smokes slightly but i think it is a combination of residual oil, premix 2T oil and possibly not enough crank case ventilation
A video battling with a 600-700 hp ( I think) supra you can see the puff of smoke on deceleration…as a side note ,that supra is awsome
Costas is too wicked smaht to be swayed one way or the other, but my vote (and eventually getting my money) is the Grannas Racing GR700A (T56 Magnum XL) for weight savings, direct fit, and for holding your ungodly power
Funny - Peter and I were just rehasing the best catch can setup for track use (going off Djseto's recent results out on VIR as well)
In all my researching over the decades and in finalizing for the new setup (and in going off my prior Cusco catch can setup), I am not sure if I have found the definitive one size fits all track use solution? I must be missing it but have seen many variations with mixed results
Going with a Vent to Atmosphere setup - time will tell if that's the right approach...
Will have to go through our texts - you may have already given us your beta?
Looks like some fun sessions out there in paradise
I've gotta say - the new BMW Supra is becoming more intriguing as quite a potent track toy
Thanks Collin - it's not so much the catch can style (although a key factor) it's the routing approach
I have been over Chris Regan's two pronged can and baffled oil pan approach, Aaron Parker's "definitive" but "where does the oil go?" approach, and have found 25 years of great trial and error write ups with a good search of blow by and catch can with mixed results
The answer is not 42 or dry sump, but I'll give it a go with my setup and will report back elsewhere eventually
Its definitely one of the options. i am not sure if the DCT will take away from the "experience" but those DCTs are so incredibly quick i want one...
My transmission needs to be rebuilt at this point as i again chewed up the synchros and i have quite a bit of shifter play. I have to be slowly changing gears, i am losing so much time...
Its definitely one of the options. i am not sure if the DCT will take away from the "experience" but those DCTs are so incredibly quick i want one...
My transmission needs to be rebuilt at this point as i again chewed up the synchros and i have quite a bit of shifter play. I have to be slowly changing gears, i am losing so much time...
personal opinion of course, but i think the driving experience would only be positive, and you’d spend more effort concentrating on other aspects of driving. They are also quite stout.
there are enough DCT swaps around now you could probably even get a ride along. It adds a little weight, but you have enough power for it. And based on all your existing mods, it wouldn’t be a swap that takes very long.
A few more details about the headlight "mod". I have previously mentioned that my light output is terrible and my high beams are pretty much non-existent.
Both low and high beam.
the light color is slightly different but not too much. The Baja ones appear to be more yellow than in person. I am planning to change the PIAA 2100XT rectangular HIDs with LEDS with a similar mounting solution as the ones i had made for the Baja ones.
Since the PDM allows me to control the power outputs in any way i want , i figured let me fire up the high beams only and see how good they are at night.
No height adjustments were made, just bolted them on,
They are super bright!
The state of the car was not pretty. it needed a serious wash and while i was at it i figured to take it to a local place to power wash it on the bottom.
I did not take any pictures of the bottom before and after but it was squeaky clean.
But then i had some spills at the track. overfilled transmission and engine oil.
It is now baked on, i tried everything to clean it up. It cleaned up a little bit but it still looks like crap LOL
The spill and the overfill was the source of the smoking at the track. It still smokes a little but nowhere near what it was.
I mentioned it in the previous post, the transmission need to be freshened up once again.
I initially used the Motul GL4 transmission oil 74w-140.. when pushed my 4th gear synchro grinds like a ****.
I switched the oil to Amsoil GL4 75w-90 and even though it has improved overall, i did not expect it to fix the bad synchro. Oh well, time for that transmission rebuild.
I also switched to the newer sway bar end links from improved racing. They are improved (pun intended), from their previous version. Did not take any pictures though. No more clunking at the tight turns.
Costas is too wicked smaht to be swayed one way or the other, but my vote (and eventually getting my money) is the Grannas Racing GR700A (T56 Magnum XL) for weight savings, direct fit, and for holding your ungodly power
Funny - Peter and I were just rehasing the best catch can setup for track use (going off Djseto's recent results out on VIR as well)
In all my researching over the decades and in finalizing for the new setup (and in going off my prior Cusco catch can setup), I am not sure if I have found the definitive one size fits all track use solution? I must be missing it but have seen many variations with mixed results
Going with a Vent to Atmosphere setup - time will tell if that's the right approach...
Will have to go through our texts - you may have already given us your beta?
Looks like some fun sessions out there in paradise
I've gotta say - the new BMW Supra is becoming more intriguing as quite a potent track toy
I just got to watch the GR700 video. it seems like a very good option.
A few years back i ended up with this Thermostat housing. I think it was from the yahoo auctions. I liked how clean it looked in comparison with the other options out there.
So with the thermostat delete part and a new radiator i thought to install this one too.
I wanted to maintain the stock thermostat housing for a "stock" look, but who am i kidding, nothing else is stock lol
As i previously mentioned, the coolant runs too cool now. I am not really planning on using the car in the winter but i think i am overcooling the system as is already.
I have abandoned the Electric water pump idea for now as everything works great and the fitment will be a challenge.
One thing that i noticed was that the Ambient Temperature vs the IAT were pretty close before the intercooler change.
I am not using a thermocouple to monitor my IATs so some level of inaccuracy is expected.
Nonetheless, I was planning to do the first track weekend. log everything and switch to the new intercooler, do another track day and compare results.
One thing that i found odd was that with Ambient temperatures of 20C, i had an IAT of 22-23C, at cruise speeds of around 65mph (~100km/h).
I don't think these readings are very accurate as i don't really expect my intercooler to be ~87% efficient but it would have been nice if these readings were.
Anyhow, i went to mount the intercooler the next day and it did not fit.(sorry for the terrible picture, i didn't take any other pictures)
I had to make some serious modifications to make it work.
1)the radiator outlet elbow had to be moved/rotated. No problem
2)the threaded boss on one of the mounting points was off by a couple of inches, I could cut it up and move it to the right location.
3) the turbine side end tank had to be modified significantly. I could do that even though i wanted to avoid it.
and all of this work, I had to use a much smaller filter because there is no room for the huge filter i have and unless i chopped up the bumper quite a bit i couldn't get more fresh air from the front.
It felt like the whole thing would have taken me the whole day with no real benefit. Would have probably taken me backwards.
I temporarily have abandoned the idea for the new intercooler. I was pretty happy with the results beforehand.
But one thing is for sure, I am not letting anyone take any measurements for me again .
Oof. Sorry about that Costas. I found even if you do the measurements yourself, you gotta triple check everything. I must've measured my shock 10 times. Sucks not having the car always handy to do so.
Oof. Sorry about that Costas. I found even if you do the measurements yourself, you gotta triple check everything. I must've measured my shock 10 times. Sucks not having the car always handy to do so.
It happens when the stuff is not off the shelf . I am overall very happy with everything else this is not a deal breaker. It is one of the few times where i left and i felt satisfied and fulfilled. The previous few times were not like that especially since the new build where i couldn't figure out my overheating issues.
its slowly coming to where i want it to be before i strip it down completely and prepare it for its journey across the Atlantic...2 years and a month left according to my title ....
Back to some parts updates.
I currently have the Haltech TC4 for my EGTs. I do have 2 spare channels that i could use any time for other stuff. IATs and others.
The 2 egt probes were not part of my engine harness. Even though they are not visible i wish they were part of the harness.
I have decided to change my TC4 with a TCA8. Not that i needed 8 thermocouples but i wanted to be able to connect a probe and measure stuff on the fly for the sake of troubleshooting.
I liked the concept of the TCA-8 because it can be mounted in the engine bay and the connections are right there.
I was planning to make a panel mount for the existing thermocouples and the 2 additional ones that i have with the TC4 but i thought this was a cleaner installation.
With my now solved overheating issues i wanted to be able to get a secondary "verification" temperature reading because in this particular case for example the radiator felt a lot cooler than 110 degrees Celsius but my coolant readings were 110C...
Anyhow i got the TCA8 and i have decided to make a nice clean mounting solution for it.
Even though these were sample prototypes of the mounting solutions, i ended up making a different mount that i did not take pictures of with pressed in studs for the sake of clearance.
Since my overheating issues were solved it wasn't a rush to mount it.
In a quick attempt to make it fit i found a much nicer mounting solution but i had to go back to the drawing board.
Along with the TCA8 mounts you will see the Meziere mounting bracket, i ended up recutting it in thicker aluminum.
And once again, the overheating issues were solved so i am not ready to mount the Meziere water pump as of yet. I will probably have to do it at some point to control my flow and let the cooling system run a little hotter as it is running way too cool down.
I am going back to quote your response Colin, I think DCT is the way to go.
So i have started gathering my DCT conversion stuff...
I was debating between 3 options..
Grannas Tremec Magnum F
HKS H pattern dogbox (used/condition unknown, supposedly low mileage)
F8x DCT,
i did come across the Domi-works website in Sweden and i think this is as close to complete as it can be with everything they offer.
and they do offer the CANFORMANCE CANTCU TRANSMISSION CONTROLLER as opposed to the HGT system. I am not going to pretend that i know the difference between the two and which one works better than the other but the fact that the CANFORMANCE kit is a plug and play and it retains the OEM bmw system i think it makes it a better option.
At the same time, i am going to freshen up my transmission as this DCT swap will take time.
I might have to swap my 4.77 to something a little taller , maybe 4.44 or even a 4.10.
Now i gotta see whats going on with the diff mount since the PPF will be eliminated with the new transmission and what to do with the driveshaft.
On a side note.
I have been wanting to switch my steering wheel to better match the interior on the one hand, but on the other hand, the 350mm steering wheel slightly blocks the 2 outter corners of the dash, where the turn-signals are.
So when i am switching lanes and my turn signal is on, i very often don't notice it so my turn signal can be on until the next time i am trying to use it.
Thankfully there is a solution to that as i have set up my AIM dash to turn my dash green with the note "TURN SIGNAL ON" for 3 seconds when the turn signal is on for 15 seconds.
I like the look of the deep corn steering but i don't think its functional as the combination switch is further away so its not very comfortable.
Well since i am will be switching to the DCT, i want to use the paddle shifters. So i am trying to convince myself that this will be a good addition to my car.
I noticed my AITs are within a few degrees of ambient with the HKS intercooler while cruising. I have a K type sensor in the elbow. There isn't much thermal load outside of boost.
Neal Adderley makes a sprung hub for the DCT FD conversion that really helps maintain a smoother engagement, definitely worth a look. I've seen a lot of used setups for sale, FD and other chassis, it seems like the DCT tuning is a very fickle thing.
You could also get a Dog Box OEM trans from Liberty Gears in the USA. Custom ratios, billet shafts, should hold plenty of power. Also half the weight of the DCT (but no cool paddle shifters)
I noticed my AITs are within a few degrees of ambient with the HKS intercooler while cruising. I have a K type sensor in the elbow. There isn't much thermal load outside of boost.
Neal Adderley makes a sprung hub for the DCT FD conversion that really helps maintain a smoother engagement, definitely worth a look. I've seen a lot of used setups for sale, FD and other chassis, it seems like the DCT tuning is a very fickle thing.
You could also get a Dog Box OEM trans from Liberty Gears in the USA. Custom ratios, billet shafts, should hold plenty of power. Also half the weight of the DCT (but no cool paddle shifters)
i have 2 liberty transmissions actually, one is an oem+ upgrade and the other is full straightcut chromoly dog box.
not what i want to use every day… i have had that one for a decade actually
it seems that the tuning issues are slowly being resolved with the new control unit
The HTG DCT control box is the part that was challenging. Finnicky is putting it nicely. Guy that runs it would launch interested firmware and software updates frequently and the bugginess would result in car working fine one day and then strand you the next. Also know of multiple that stopped functioning on day 1. Also cases of the all too common trope of taking money and not supplying the product to customers for 2 years.
CANTCU on the other hand is much better. And MaxxECU also works if you are looking for an engine and trans controller all in one, and it's a highly functional engine ECU.
I'm personally going with haltech R5 and CANTCU. But was a tough decision with MaxxECU as well. Ultimately went with haltech as it's got a bit better support for a novice like me and more tuners for rotaries on it.
Haltech also has open CAN allowing a ton more control. No sure how well MaxxECU works with rotaries, but I know at least one person here is designing a build around it.
What is stopping you from using the OEM+ liberty box? I've been leaning heavily that way now that HKS has had their 3 and 5 speed kits backordered for over 3 years
Haltech also has open CAN allowing a ton more control. No sure how well MaxxECU works with rotaries, but I know at least one person here is designing a build around it.
What is stopping you from using the OEM+ liberty box? I've been leaning heavily that way now that HKS has had their 3 and 5 speed kits backordered for over 3 years
I will go back in time and put all the information in one post that is transmission related.
The whole plan started with me wanting to use a "purpose-built" transmission despite the fact that i wanted to drive the car on the street. (mistake no1).
I knew that my OEM transmission wouldn't last long so i wanted to have the transmission ready. I had, up to that point, destroyed multiple transmissions.
I had reached out to liberty literally over a decade ago. We had worked out a nice deal on a full custom chromoly dog box straight-cut with the following ratios (mistake no2)
1st =1.96:1 2nd=1.51:1 3rd=1.20:1 4th=1:1 5th=0.719:1 (stock US 5th gear)
and for these ratios i had decided to use a 4.44 final gear.
a few months later i received this
Craftsmanship was superb. Customer service was also superb, Liberty's gears overall is great!
The problem was me, i did not know what i wanted.
As expected about a week or so after the tune, while on track i had messed up my transmission.
the built transmission was ready to hit the track and it did. I absolutely loved that thing on track
BUT i absolutely hated it on the street (mistake no 1)
Mistake no 2 as mentioned above. those ratios can't be used on the street. I might as well get out of the car and start pushing the car to get better acceleration.
after you reached 30mph, the gear changes and everything was great on track. With ratios like that i would wear my clutch discs very frequently because i was driving the car on the street. Its like taking off with 3rd gear every time.
So after discussing further my project with liberty we couldn't really go past 2.3-2.4 :1 ratio for the first gear and this is part of the drawback of these transmissions for my purpose. I did not see this as a feasible solution as my car used to be street driven a lot more then.
In short, i was looking for decent acceleration, close ratio and a long overdrive while maintaining the stock case. Needless to say,, this couldn't be done.
Therefore, i have decided to keep the stock ratios since those for the most part worked well as a good balance between street and track and then adjust my final gear as/if needed but i had to address the strength of the transmission.
For a few years I had used the stock ratios (with the JDM 5th) along with a chromoly main-shaft. The transmission has been robust enough given the abuse my car goes through.
I would chew synchros here and there but overall, i was pretty satisfied with it.
I had to rebuild my differential and i did switch to a 4.77 final gear as it was better suited with my new setup, but my cruise speeds were hurting with the jdm 5th and a 4.77 final gear.
I opened the transmission last year to replace the JDM 5th gear (.806:1 ratio) to a US 5th gear (.719:1 ratio) and as expected it was a major improvement. It would still be nice to have an actual over-drive 6th gear but given the circumstances i was pretty happy with it.
Earlier year i noticed that i had developed some shifter play and my C's shifter had to be replaced as it had become a 2 piece shifter LOL. i switched the shifter to a re-amemiya i had there. shifter collar was fine, still quite a bit of shifter play.
Fast forward to the latest/November 2023 trip, we had done a lot of laps in these 3 track days.
After the first 20 or so laps, i would notice that my 4th gear was grinding terribly and then the 3rd gear started grinding.
In hindsight, my transmission is overheating and that could potentially be the source of my issues.
i switched the transmission oil from the Motul to the Amsoil and while there was improvement, it still has to be rebuilt.
on the last track day i let my friend drive my car and i was chasing him as a passenger in the supra.
In the corners my car was so much faster but you would see that in every gear change the car was lacking.
with the shifter play mentioned, my friend had often shifted from 2nd to 5th... I even made that mistake once that day.
So in the last few years i had freshened up my transmission several times but no matter what you do, no matter what parts you make or use in our transmissions; you will never match the speed of the Getrag DCT.
While i am not 100% convinced that the ratios are "perfect" for the FD street/track use i think it is as close as it can be.
I am not sure the major gap between the 1st to 2nd gear ratios will hurt the powerband at that point.
Everyone I know in Thailand who tracks an FD regularly has a trans cooler. My shop said the stock trans is fine at 500whp as long as you keep the temps down, and don't shock it / launch it on drag tires.
No question the DCT will shift faster. 1st is a crawling gear, after that you'll have normal ratios I wouldn't worry about the gap you'll never use 1st on track. I need to look into the CANTCU, after I read the stories of people having issues getting it to behave nicely I wrote off the idea.
11-20-23, 10:29 AM
(or old school venmo)
(sorry for the terrible picture, i didn't take any other pictures)
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