Project STi Time Attack

[duncan]

Woohoo - they've arrived

4 x Yokohama A048 235/45/17 in Medium Hard compound - decided that the MH would give me more wear/value for money than mediums and chasing the last 10th of a second would be beyond me at this stage.

Anywayy, there are here - just need to decide which rims to put them on :?

[Mr Fletcher]

hi duncan this is looking great ,good luck with the TA i am sure you will reap the rewards of your preparation ,having just done rockingham international track day i shall be awating your suspesion analysis with baited breathe 8)


cheers mate


jason

[duncan]

Cool - get a report up and tell us all about it :thumb:

Preparation wise this week is the big week and will see major changes in both power, engine safety and handling by the end of the week.

Std STI struts are good and have served me very well but it time to fine tune it 8)

Update on the issues remaining:

1. Injector duty too high running at 95+% IDC at the moment even with 3.8 bar fuel pressure - 800c injectors & mapping on Friday
2. Oil throw issue on prolonged cornering causing catch can to fill within a few laps - new catch can set up installation on Wednesday
3. Suspension needs to be lowered and reduction of body roll and allowing greater cornering speeds - Friday
4. Brakes - backplates to be removed on Wednesday

Other than that, some fluid changes and we are away

[Ross]

Hi Duncan. What high octane fuel have you got in mind?

[duncan]

The plan is to have a choice of 3 maps to run depending on the event:

1) vpower 99 octane (normal road use)
2) vpower / Miller CVL Turbo Octane Booster works at about 103 octane (TA)
3) vpower / 10% methanol mix (Track Days)

I can then switch between these according to what is in the tank.

[Ross]

Sounds good Duncan. Another Idea is to have a rotary switch with 5 positions each one adding 1 degree of ignition advance. This coupled with real time monitoring with your knock link or similar can be very useful. A friend of mine who is a mapper specialising in scoobs uses this in his own car to very good effect, this way you are also prepared if you get a bad batch of optimax. He has done a lot of experiments with cost effective fuel solutions and has found thet the best bang for your buck is optimax: 10% Methanol + 2ml/L NF.

I have some VP RallyMax to try out, it is highly oxygenated, race fuel with a relatively low octane rating of 102. However it has been performing very well in turbocharged cars with its low specific gravity. It will for example out perform VP109 in all cases. Octane as I'm sure we are all aware is not the whole story with modern race fuels. I will post up the results once I have some data.

[duncan]

Sounds cool - please do post info up.

I can adjust static timing on the fly by up to 4 degrees using laptop but this may not be accurate right the way across the load range. The OE knock control is pretty good on these ECU's I am told so if we havent got the fuel that we thought it will retard automatically to a degree so long as it is within certain parameters.

[sdminus]

You could try adding a little bit of water before the turbo to gain some more efficency from the compressor. Have you looked into swaping over to a dry sump ?

I dont think i would bother with having 2 maps that are so similar. You should relly look into using race gas. It will help to drop your inj duty as you will need less of it, rather than more of it with the meth addition.
it yields a far higher BTU than pump fuel

Scott

[duncan]

just soooooooooooooooo f'ing expensive

Methanol costs about the same as the petrol it displaces, so would be cost effective too

There will be plenty of injector duty left over from this week - I expect it to be running around 85% IDC after mapping which is just perfect.

Ultimately, I will be replacing the turbo for one that can push just a touch more and do it more efficiently and also going FMIC. That may be it then until the big engine build starts 8)

[duncan]

Today was the day to solve the oil throw issue with the help of Gary and Chris from AP Tuning in Norwich

Having spoken to Gary and got all the Aeroquip parts on order they duly arrived with him yesterday and I rolled up bright and early at 9am today to get the new Roger Clark Motorsport catch can fitted along with the aeroquip gubbings in order for any oil collected from the cam and crankshaft breathers to return to the sump.

Alll would have been perfect if it wasnt for a school boy error on my behalf giving the wrong size for the drain outlet of the catch can - I had asked for -10AN where in fact it was -8AN. :oops: Heyho, we could do most of it and just add that fitting tomorrow.

As we we having to drain the sump, I thought I may aswell have a full service done at the same time, well almost a full service anyway as the gearbox oil had already recently been changed

So, Coolant was drained, Oil was drained and Brake fluid replaced and bled to remove the fluid that had been in there for a few track days and had probably seen better days.

Also on the list was to remove the backing plates from the front discs to help with brake cooling.

As Gary had experienced problems with smoking from his car yesterday on idle, he was busy carefully dismantling his engine whislt Chris worked in his normal very efficient and tidy manner to get the work done, whilst all the while giving me a commentary on what he was doing. I was also trying to assist where I could, with removing the intercooler (got this down to a fine art now) and refilling the oil and pumping the brake pedal fater the back plates were removed.



Once the breathers were cut to go from the two cam breathers and the single crank breather, it was ready for the catch can to be fitted. Chris was his usual deligent self and wouldnt settle for anything less than perfect siting and fitment - result was a good un :thumb: nicely tucked away on the chassis leg and rock solid. So much easier to drill with a 90 degree angle air drill





I had also been asked by Gary for the length of the Aeroquip hose that I needed to fit to go from the catch can to the banjo on the sump - I said 50cm should do it to which he replied: "that will never be enough I would have though about 1.5m, but I will get 2 metres". ...... once cut it was 50 cm - I was chuffed 8)

So now it was time to fit somthing really 'motorsport' to the car

It looks fabulous !! - the only shame is that no-one will ever see it. So I took some pics :thumb:





The breather pipe from the can was then fed further down underneath the car to remove any possibility of any oil vapour from getting onto front brakes and strapped up out of the way.



We did have an appearance of my mystery knock which baffled us for a while. Sounds like Big End bearings are going but only happens at idle and goes away when above 2000 rpm and under load. To add to the mystery it is intermittent. Sometimes it will appear and you can switch the engine off and on again and it will be gone, other times it will not be there at all. Mostly it is only when cold starting.

A stethascope (i know it is spelt wrong but dont give a fcuk) was deployed to try and locate the offending article. It was somewhere in the region of the cam belt idler / tensioner but no noticeable play was present there, could also be the water pump or oil pump but neither has given me anything to doubt that they are running 100%.

We did think about changing the tensioner/idler until ringing Subaru for a price which was over