Colonel Red Racing 2005 STI Race Car

[Sgt.Gator]

My Google skills are feeling strong today....

 

1987 Buick GNX

 

 

http://www.gbodyparts.com/product_info.php?products_id=1197

 

We have a winner!

1987 Buick GNX it is!

PM me with the style and size you want. And your address.

[Sgt.Gator]

There's a guy on Facebook who's using Bayliner Bilge Vents for his fenders. Holy cow, they look like they'd work great for fender or hood extractor vents. And they are cheap on eBay. The downside is they stick up a bit, more than my GNX vents.

 

[shralp]

I've looked at some of the vents that Mastercraft boats uses over the past few seasons while shooting the new year models and thought hmmmm....

[Rhitter]

Ordered more parts from you Gator. This time the axle seal installer. I think I forgot to use the protector on my passenger side, so I of course now have an oil leak from my transmission.

[Sgt.Gator]

Ordered more parts from you Gator. This time the axle seal installer. I think I forgot to use the protector on my passenger side, so I of course now have an oil leak from my transmission.

Make sure you use the correct seal on each side. They are different parts and will leak if you get them swapped.

Thanks for the purchase!

[Sgt.Gator]

At Subaru of Bend: Getting close! Should be firing it up tomorrow afternoon.

[ehsnils]

The first time firing up an engine after an overhaul or rebuild is always scary. No matter how careful you have been it's one of the more tense moments to experience.

[Sgt.Gator]

If any of ya'll are interested in doing a deep dive into comparing video and data logging systems I've found two threads on Rennlist (the Porsche Forum) that are good sources. Warning you can spend an hour or more reading these threads! :

 

Racelogic Video VBOX HD2 Review

https://rennlist.com/forums/data-acquisition-and-analysis-for-racing-and-de/942694-racelogic-video-vbox-hd2-review.html

and

 

 

End Users Please chime in Aim or VBox

https://rennlist.com/forums/data-acquisition-and-analysis-for-racing-and-de/986443-end-users-please-chime-in-aim-or-vbox.html

[Sgt.Gator]

Mark Jaeger's new engine. Unfortunately he won't be coming up to ORP for the Redline Time Attack race next month.

https://www.facebook.com/WisecoAutomotive/videos/709975432537982/

[hadvw]

Mark Jaeger's new engine. Unfortunately he won't be coming up to ORP for the Redline Time Attack race next month.

https://www.facebook.com/WisecoAutomotive/videos/709975432537982/

 

900 hp.. I'd be happy with half that

[Sgt.Gator]

An offering of Blue Sake was made to the spirits inhabiting the Blue Sake Bomber in hopes of appeasing them before the startup. The engine started and ran fine. However it doesn't want to go into gear now!

[Chris GTO TT]

900 hp.. I'd be happy with half that

 

Half? Pft I'd be happy with a quarter...

 

 

 

Miata life!

[shralp]

Kanpai!

[hadvw]

An offering of Blue Sake was made to the spirits inhabiting the Blue Sake Bomber in hopes of appeasing them before the startup. The engine started and ran fine. However it doesn't want to go into gear now!

 

Wait - Colonel Red Racing, and a blue car :confused:

[ehsnils]

Wait - Colonel Red Racing, and a blue car :confused:

Red and Blue, all you need now is some white too.

[Sgt.Gator]

Wait - Colonel Red Racing, and a blue car :confused:

 

Red and Blue, all you need now is some white too.

 

Someday yellow hood stripes like the blue ones on the Silver Eagle wagon.

[Sgt.Gator]

Engine in and running well. Clutch is in and working great. Saturday the Blue Sake Bomber is being dropped off at Surgeline for a break in SD tune. They aren't sure when they can get to it but they will work it in.

 

Next track days are June 8-9 at Oregon Raceway Park to do the break in. Next race (hopefully) is in Spokane June 23-24-25.

[Sgt.Gator]

I picked up the Blue Sake Bomber at Cobb Surgeline yesterday. There was an initial boost creep out of control problem which was eventually traced to the SuperTrapp on the end of the EWG exhaust. Once they removed the Supertrapp the boost was back under control. It's now set for wastegate spring pressure at 11 psi for the break in days at ORP. The dyno graph at 11 psi shows 288 TQ at 3800 rpm, and 290 HP at 5700. Pretty dang close to my ST tune goals. They did say that the one brief time when the turbo was uncontrolled and shot to 24 psi the engine turned 400+ TQ at 3,500 rpm! That bodes well for my SPM - ME0 tune.

[Sgt.Gator]

Here's the DC Power 180 amp alt installed. It weighs 1/2 LB more than stock, but double the amps.

 

And almost done with the first round of aero mods, side skirts installed. At ORP Thursday/Friday I'm going to do some aero studies while doing the final break in on the engine. Not sure I can match what Boxkita has been doing lately though.

 

The power steering was acting up. Too many times on and off + the P/S cooler mod was causing issues. So I did the P/S O-Ring replace from the maintenance thread which fixed 50% of the problem, the rest was just a matter of tightening down the return hose clamp on that same fitting.

 

And when I filled the gas tank I suddenly had gas dripping out from under the car! WTF! I pulled the access cover off the driver side tank cover and discovered a cap that went over the former evap hose fitting had split and when gas got to the top of the tank and backed up the fill hose it spilled out. I guess the rubber cap was not gasoline resistant. Tomorrow I'll get a 4" section of fuel hose, stick a bolt in it and cap off the fitting.

 

Next up, testing at ORP. It supposed to be chilly and occasional showers. I guess better that than 100 degrees.

[Sgt.Gator]

Great couple of days at ORP. There were only 7-8 cars there each day, it was like a private test track session. I don't think we ever had more than 5 cars on the track at any one time. Towards the end of each day it was 2.

 

..

 

First the Con: The power steering was still acting up. I thought I had it fixed in my garage, but when I went to pull the car out and load on the trailer it was completely in manual effort mode. Dang! I took it to ORP anyway. I unloaded at ORP and did some figure 8s in the parking lot (to avoid paying the on track fee if it wasn't going to get better). Still in manual mode. So I put about 1" more fluid in the reservoir and presto, running 99% power.

 

One of the main issues I have with the Chase Bays cooler kit is the reservoir has no Min Cold and Max Hot marks, you have to guess when you have the right amounts Cold and Hot.

 

So out on the track we were running CCW. The first two sessions the P/S was fine. But on the third session I was starting to push the speed and braking coming down Valkyrie hill and at the bottom the P/S suddenly went 50% manual going into the corner. That was a little disconcerting! The steering remained 50% for 2 more corners then was fine. On the second day we were running CW and all was good except for a couple of times when it would get a little heavy if I let the rpms drop too much going into a low speed corner.

 

In looking at my Chase Bays reservoir cap it doesn't appear to be vented. When I unscrew the cap when it gets good and hot I can hear a release of pressure. P/S reservoirs are supposed to be VTA to allow the fluid to expand/contract and vent bubbles. Mine seems to be entirely sealed up.

 

Here's my cap:

 

..

 

Here's the "New" Chase Bays cap that comes on their kits. You can see it's clearly different with an attached baffle to allow it to vent.

 

 

They have also moved both fittings to the bottom of the reservoir, mine has the high pressure coming in the side.

 

I've emailed Chase Bays about the cap and reservoir.

 

Just to be safe I've ordered a new P/S pump. Not a Subaru one, the OEM pump has been superseded with a new one that uses a new bracket and electrical connection. I don't want to find out the hard way that the new bracket won't work with my Dry Sump pump. I'm getting a AAE new pump for 1/5 the cost of a new oem one.

 

I started having squirrely braking at the end of the main straight going into turn 1. When I got back in the paddock I discovered the left front tire was corded. A new scrub tire swapped on and I was back to good braking.

 

By the end of the second day I had corded 3 scrub tires. Time for new ones!

 

I had one "OH NO!" moment when in the last 5 minutes of the first day I looked at my oil pressure gauge and it was jumping from 0 to 25 psi. OMG, not again! I pulled to the side and was towed in. The problem was the remote oil pressure sender unit electrical connection had shaken loose and was causing the weird reading. Thank the lord it was not the real oil pressure. I tightend it up and no more weird oil pressure readings.

 

My foot slipped off the brake pedal and the throttle pedal was harder to heel/toe than it should be, I know how to fix that with Sparco covers.

 

The Pros:

1) The engine runs like a champ! A ton of TQ at 3500 rpm. I can eliminate at least two 4 - 3 - 4 shift sequences each lap by leaving it in 4th. And this is with wastegate spring pressure only, I can't wait to see how it will be with my race tunes!

 

2) Oil Cooling worked great. The outside temp was never more than 64 degrees so it wasn't a difficult heat day, but I was still impressed with how well it worked. No matter how hard I flogged it the oil temp never got over 220 even with no cooler fans or trunk evac fans on. And at the other end, if I short shifted at 6,000 RPM and turned on both the oil cooler fan and the trunk fans the oil temp would drop to 160!

 

3) Water cooling, same thing, temps stayed below 1/2 way up in the factory dash temp gauge. No matter how hard I ran.

 

4) Hot pipe IATs were also excellent. Only a few degrees above ambient.

 

5) The CRR DIY heat extractor hood must be working! I wanted to do some aero studies but by the time I got the P/S issue sorted the wind had kicked up and was blowing really hard, so there was no point in trying to film wool tufts and make any meaningful conclusions in the high desert 30mph gusts. Next time I'll come prepared to do them in the morning when the wind is calmer.

 

6) The tranny cooler worked great too! It took many laps to get the needle to move above the minimum reading of 140 degrees. And it never in both days went over 165 degrees.

 

7) With the new side skirts installed I wanted to see how they would react or be destroyed going over apex curbs. I was hitting the curbs hard with no problems, at least at this ride height.

 

8) Because of the few cars and running at 70-80% race speed it was really nice to take the time to work on some fundamentals. I think I have my turn in points pretty nailed for both CW and CCW directions now. I also discovered a better way to take the turn 4 apex that doesn't upset the car as much.

 

9) The EWG was no problem. I don't know why on the Silver Eagle Wagon it was so obnoxiously loud that I hated it , but on the STI I can barely notice it. It must have something to do with the EWG being mounted directly on the turbo housing, it must act as a sound muffler. At first I thought it wasn't opening, then realized it was barely making a sound.

 

My new Video Vbox system arrived just before I left for the track and I didn't have time to get familiar with it and install it, another next time thing.

 

Next steps;

Install the Racelogic video Vbox.

Change the oil.

Put a lock washer and loctite on the oil pressure sender connection.

Install Sparco pedal covers.

String the suspension.

Finalize the weight.

Back to Surgeline next week for race tunes.

Spokane Raceway coming up!

Edited June 11, 2017 by Sgt.Gator

[xt2005bonbon]

Great to hear you are now driving the subie.

Curious as to why you needed to install a higher output alternator though.

[Sgt.Gator]

Great to hear you are now driving the subie.

Curious as to why you needed to install a higher output alternator though.

 

The oem 90 amp is on the edge for an endurance racer running driving lights, apex lights, side marker lights, defroster, wipers, oil cooler fan, probably a diff cooler fan + pump, cool/hot shirt pump, data logger, video logger, radio system, ....plus the engine needs.

 

I added it all up and it was borderline or less than the load. Almost all cars built in the last 5 years have 130 amp alternators or more. For example the BRZ is 130 amp. Ford Mustangs are 150 amp.

 

I probably would be fine with a 130 amp if I could have found a direct swap replacement.

[Th3Franz]

What oil are you running for track now? I am wondering if rotella is foaming on me (10mm pump) and causing lower pressures above 5k rpm. I have to wire up the temp sensor to confirm but I have an air oil cooler in the front grille.

[ehsnils]

The oem 90 amp is on the edge for an endurance racer running driving lights, apex lights, side marker lights, defroster, wipers, oil cooler fan, probably a diff cooler fan + pump, cool/hot shirt pump, data logger, video logger, radio system, ....plus the engine needs.

 

I added it all up and it was borderline or less than the load. Almost all cars built in the last 5 years have 130 amp alternators or more. For example the BRZ is 130 amp. Ford Mustangs are 150 amp.

 

I probably would be fine with a 130 amp if I could have found a direct swap replacement.

The Subaru diesels have a 170 amp alternator.

[xt2005bonbon]

The oem 90 amp is on the edge for an endurance racer running driving lights, apex lights, side marker lights, defroster, wipers, oil cooler fan, probably a diff cooler fan + pump, cool/hot shirt pump, data logger, video logger, radio system, ....plus the engine needs.

 

I added it all up and it was borderline or less than the load. Almost all cars built in the last 5 years have 130 amp alternators or more. For example the BRZ is 130 amp. Ford Mustangs are 150 amp.

 

I probably would be fine with a 130 amp if I could have found a direct swap replacement.

 

 

I see. I was under the impression your stock alternator was outputting more than 90 amps.