Very JDM!

 

I'm also working on a little aero. Well, more than a little. As Fritz will attest, if we look around in the groups we are running with, anything going faster has either got 600hp or a big *** wing. Or both. The single turbo has helped the power a little, but I've decided it's time for a real wing. My only hesitation has been, I don't want to drive around on the street with it. I don't even really like driving around with the CF hood.

I looked at adding on to the '99 wing somehow, or contraptions to mount it from the bumper—but honestly, my '99 wing comes off with three bolts per side. It's faster than jacking up the car to swap brake pads. So I've pulled the trigger on a GT wing—more on that later when it arrives this week, but in the mean time, I made some "garnish" base plates to cover the footprint of the '99 wing so it'll look clean, and the extra holes won't show. The rear wing is being made to spec, so the rear stanchion stud will match the two rear '99 wing holes, so I'll only need to drill two extra holes that the '99 will cover when it's on.

 

Bringing this thread up to date motor-wise. I finally went single turbo after over a decade of tracking on '99 twins. Turblown's Borg Warner Internal Wastegate EFR 8374 setup. I ran it once on track with the stock mount intercooler, and then went with a Greddy V-Mount and an integrated filler neck/AST setup. I really love the overall result. I need to get a turbo outlet pipe made (it's two off the shelf couplers coupled together), but it's super simple.

It made 430hp @15psi at Speed1. I run at 13psi on track... even at 11 psi, it'll out drag the new flat-crank Mustang.


I paid a lot of attention in this install to reliability (Stage 8 locking hardware, copper V-band gasket, 100% reinforced silicone cooling lines, a single brand of lined hose clamp, and good inconel heat shielding and isolation of all lines and wires), as well as keeping it so that it's easy to work on at the track if I need to. I've seen a lot of cars that are beautifully put together, but it's like a chinese puzzle and you have to take the whole thing apart to mess with anything. I'll be fabbing up a carbon fiber intake box, but other than that this install is pretty well done. Other specs:

Rywire Harness
FFE "Step up" rail with ID2000 secondaries, stock rail w/ 550 primaries. Mini FPR, and retained the fuel pulsation dampener and factory hardlines
Bosch 044 pump in tank
Blitz SBC Boost Controller
Intake is made with two tight-radius cast 4" elbows, and a large K&N filter

 

nice you got the ast delete

 

So, here's a super rare part: I actually managed to get ahold of one of these racks by the reformed and short-lived "Minotaur Racing", which was essentially Jon from Atomic Rex trying to get his business in order. I know he irritated a lot of people, but honestly he reminds me of so many RX7 vendors that had great ideas and made great products, but couldn't make the business work and got behind the eight ball as a result.

This latest version was made to be "universal" for several cars, and thus the mounting brackets were not factory mounts or even permanently affixed, but rather a bespoke sandwich clamp. Unfortunately, it didn't work well. The rack felt great, but in the pits with sticky tires if I turned the wheel I could see the clamp flex. It didn't have a stable enough base.

I enlisted the help of John Renna to turn my revised design into a CAD drawing that could be CNC'd from, and made a new drivers clamp, as well as got some standard clamps from McMaster to sandwich and stabilize the passenger side. Problem solved.

 

The fitment on that hood is damn good and this car has come one a long way in a years time

 

Nice rack.
Hows it feel on the track? What were you using before? How's it compare?

 

Good thing you can drive better than you can take pics

 

Let's hope that's true, right? Seriously though, I don't know why the forum is fucked up and loads any image taken from my phone upside down. I've posted about it in the help/tech forum, but I don't think anyone even reads that thing.

 

It's only upside down if you try to view it on a PC, they look fine on my phone.

 

peter, it's time to upgrade to the year 2009 and upload your images to imgur.com

they have an easy phone app to upload from, and the site gives you easy copy/paste links to use on vbulletin forums.

 

They actually display upside down (not to mention distorted) on MY PHONE!... and it doesn't matter whether they are uploaded from my phone, or send from phone to MAC and uploaded from there. The only way to fix it is to open every one in Photoshop, and re-save it.

 

That's weird, they are fine on my phone lol.

 

So I've got a couple updates for Watkins Glen this weekend. I'll get some better pics trackside.

 

Up Next:

- Gut interior
- Full roll cage
- Fuel cell

 

Peter ... Slowly turning to the dark side.

 

Peter have you been to Watkins before? I just got back from going last weekend. It's an awesome track and the first few times you go thru the esses at speed it feels like your hair is on fire. None of the videos, etc prepare you for the elevation changes.

 

Hi Peter, very nice build you have going thus far. How are you liking the EFR8374? I saw you stated you were making 430 at the wheels on only 15psi; that's darn good. I'm curious what the power band looks like down low. Do you have a graph that you'd mind posting?

Also, on the last page you posted a link to the Hard Brakes Titanium brake shims. Do you feel like they actually help a measurable amount or is it just a piece of mind thing?

 

I've definitely been before, I try to go up every year. I used to live up here as a kid. The last track time was in 2014. Last event as a TT car. 2:08:


Can't wait to try the new pavement and wing!

 

Now that the boost control is sorted, I love it. I'll have to get the dyno sheet off my laptop when I'm home or you can find it in my "boost creep" thread in the single turbo section.

I think the Ti shields help but I couldn't quantify it.

 

If you do decide to go back to the unmodified EFR exhaust housing and port it some.

Looking at the cast EFR manifold and IWG exhaust housing...

I noticed the front exhaust housing runner that gets less flow has the wastegate port lead-in right off the turbo flange.

This coupled with the cast manifold design that has the front rotor exhaust a straight shot out of the motor means the exhaust flow just wants to shoot past the front wastegate runner without entering.

I think if you put some shallow hacksaw grooves in-line with exhaust flow on the exhaust manifold just in front of the front wastegate passage it would trip the flow to turbulent and help the exhaust turn into the front wastegate runner. This is if the exhaust manifold has slightly smaller runner size than the turbo exhaust housing (as it should to ensure proper fit-up without a lip on the exhaust housing side).

Or

If you don't mind a little asymmetry you could port the front exhaust manifold runner wall, gasket and the exhaust housing front runner a little bit in front of the wastegate runner just to work-in a more gradual curve into the wastegate runner take off.

If you bolt the exhaust housing up to the manifold and blow compressed air into the manifold runners (hold the nozzle a fair distance away and keep it exactly perpendicular to the manifold) you should be able to feel some positive changes with your fingers in front of the wastegate holes.

I used this method developing my exhaust runner/wastegate runner shapes on my hybrid turbo that previously had boost creep.

 

^^^

Thanks. "the problem" definitely has to do with flow to the wastegate runner on the front rotor. The exhaust deposit images in my other thread show that. The cast manifold appears to be the same shape, but I guess the cast nature of it would allow for more cutting into the material?

I went and took a look at the placement of the turbo on Ihor's (IRP) new manifold. If that holds boost (as proven by dyno testing), I'll consider a switch, although the low/back placement of the turbo on the Turblown hit is really great from a packaging perspective.

Update: I blew my motor at WGI, almost certainly from fuel starvation, so I'm currently breaking in a new IRP motor (along with addressing the starvation cause), and will likely go for tuning with the setup as-is and see how that performs.

It's not an easy thing to test variables, because pulling the entire turbo system each time is a pain.

 

Damn, sorry to hear about the motor!

I hope you get the fuel system sorted out. I am trying to decide what to do there as well.

Racing class I am in will only allow a Holley sock or replace the tank with a 16 gallon fuel cell.

Next class up allows the simple fuel surge tank set-up I would rather do (with the Holley fuel sock).

 

Well, FYI, my fuel tank baffles broke, so Speed1 put fuel cell foam in the tank, and it disintegrated within days and clogged the filter sock. I drained, cleaned, etc., and just ran the tank as-is with the Hyperion cover.

I ran two events at Summit Point like that, but those are mostly short right corners. The long left-hander out of the boot at WGI, on relatively low fuel and with the added grip of the new asphalt did me in.

I've got the updated '97+ tank coming from Japan, and will consider either putting the TNT back in (I have one, but Speed1 said it would drain fuel out overnight on low tank and have trouble starting), or Coachman Performance internal surge tank.

I will absolutely not run any surge tank or pumps that sit in the trunk—I can't believe how many people do that. I may test out the TNT on the current tank while I wait for the '97. It holds fluid in my garage tests.

 

Damn Pete, sorry to hear. I agree on the external surge tank. I have a ATL fuel cell and a bulkhead and still ensured my surge tank is internal to my fuel cell. Interesting that the fuel cell foam disintegrated within days. I wonder what caused that to happen?

I just signed up for VIR March 24-25 with NASA. I know you hate NASA though. I'm moving back to the east coast this summer though so we will need together with Fritz and the usual suspects at VIR in the not too distant future.