GOTORacing Posted May 15, 2006 Author Share Posted May 15, 2006 Hey Guys, What a weekend... Replaced the radiator on Thursday (after finding one), pulled the motor and replaced the head gaskets on Friday, and then I got heat exhuastion during my stint. When I got out of the car, I could not stand so I could not help my brother into the car. This took another crew member away from our wheel changes to help him in, and relly screwed everything up. I feel bad because we were running so well and could of podiumed. Oh well, we are just happy that we finished after the weekend we had. And in only our second race we ran in third place for a while. I am glad I could get the car up high enough to give all our fans some actual coverage of our car. Laguna was disapointing in how much camera time that we got. But in Phoenix they made up for it by mentioning that we won the Birnheim award and talking about out car. Don't worry everyone, we are going to practice our pitstops nonstop until the next race at Mid Ohio. We have finally found our core group of crew members and can really start practicing our stops. I am hoping for a podium next race! Hope everyone got to watch the race, our official press release and pics will be up shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Gat Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Hello, I posted this on NASIOC earlier today, but figured you guys would love to read it, too... --- Hello, I don't want to steal any thunder from the official press release, but we're driving up right now from Phoenix and we just watched the race. Man, they slammed us for our pit stop! We probably deserved it - we were unprepared for some of the problems we were having - the heat practically caused Brian to pass out and as soon as we pulled him out of the car, the medics suggested that he go sit in the air conditioned observation area. So our planned two-man team on the wheels became a one-man wheel job about 30 seconds before the car came in, and our "check the condition of the engine" had to happen after the wheels and driver change (they didn't show that part on TV! - but that added to our time). Meanwhile, with air temps of 105, track surface temps of 139.5, the crew and drivers were suffering. The car was running hot this weekend - 260+ degrees water temp and similar (240 F) oil temps. By the end of practice on Friday, the car wouldn't keep coolant in it. We decided to tear into the motor because the symptoms matched a blown head gasket. As we tore in, we discovered that this motor had probably been rebuilt before -the car had 10,000 miles on it before GOTO got it - and there were a lot of sloppy things about the way it had been rebuilt. Here's a picture of our clean room, with the engine sitting on a used tire, with kitty litter, yes, kitty litter, on the ground around the "clean" motor... http://www.theimageplace.net/uploads/4793e294c4.jpg Here we are, trying to modify the cam cover to fit with the cam and cam pulley - the cam pulley was stuck on so hard that the allen key ended up breaking the allen bolt head while we were trying to take it off, so we took the motor apart with the cam pulley still attached to the cam. http://www.theimageplace.net/uploads/58000a0a98.jpg What we found inside the motor was one perfect head and one warped head. The coolant (water/water wetter) got around the headgasket over the entire surface of the gasket. The engine, however, looked great inside. There was no sign of detonation, the pistons looked great, the valves looked great, etc. Since we didn't have an extra motor, we simply coated the headgasket with copper spray and rebuilt it, crossing our fingers that the warp wasn't significant. We ended up finishing the rebuild around 4:30AM on Saturday, 11.5 hours before the race, taking a total of 11 hours from when the car was cool enough to touch to when we fired up and tested to make sure everything was ok. The rebuilt motor turned out to hold perfectly, though we were being extremely cautious and actually had to constantly remind the drivers to drive conservatively. In fact, that's something we need to work on, more - right after telling Brian to drive conservatively to help the motor out, he turned the fastest lap of the race! We had to point out to him that other drivers were talking about short shifting, and he was talking about whether he could knock more time off! And we were happy to see that despite the heat and engine issues, the tune was perfect - the AccessPort tuner / Mike from Gruppe-S showed that the car wasn't pulling any timing, etc. And obviously, we were making as good power as we could expect with a stock powertrain (stock intake through stock exhaust, only the cats are gutted). All in all, we had a great time, though. The crew had a ton of work on Friday, the drivers had a ton of heat to deal with, we had a lot of heat-related problems to chase down, and on the second Grand Am race for GOTO, we followed the 6th place finish at Laguna with an 11th place finish at Phoenix... and SpeedTV was awesome in their coverage of us - even if they did rib us for our inexperience with 4-man pit crews (rules say 4 guys plus the drivers who are getting in and out plus a fire bottle guy). It's a lot of work for a 4-man crew, especially when the drivers can't help / need help themselves. Err, my quick post turned into a typical post of mine Sorry! Joel Gat Volunteer for GOTO for the weekend --- Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy_y_tu Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Ya, they were at third place when I stopped watching. They were behind by around 9 seconds. I'm not sure when it was during the race, though. I stopped watching around 10:30PDT. They mentioned that the crew said the only problems the car was running into was overheating. Okay. I tuned in maybe halfway thru the race. It must have been after their bummer of a pit stop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiketkd Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 That's incredible what you guys went through during the race in Pheonix!!! Sorry to hear about your heat exhaustion Brian - but that was some great driving!!!! Chris way to 'baby' the motor and still pick off some of the other racers! Looking forward to the press release with pics. What's the date for the Mid-Ohio event? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panamajack Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 We do not have any wheel spin problems because we use KAAZ LSD's front and rear. We used to get fron wheel spin pretty bad before we put them in. Now you can just stand on the gas and rear end rotates beautifully. My best lap during the race was a 1:43.5. :icon_surp Could you pleeeeeeeease write a review or driving impressions of the before and after. This is something I would really like to do to my car futher down the line. Also what kind of diffs are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy BoB Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 I guess i ended up watching the wrong race, I only got to see Laguna which if you were lucky and squinted your eyes and turned your head you might see the Legacy in the background. In Pheonix the legacy even made on the Grand am's website gallery. http://www.grandamerican.com./Events/Gallery.asp?EventID=163 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenonk Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 We do not have any wheel spin problems because we use KAAZ LSD's front and rear.. what versions or part numbers for the KAAZ? Keefe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLock Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 :icon_surp Could you pleeeeeeeease write a review or driving impressions of the before and after. This is something I would really like to do to my car futher down the line. What specifically are you looking for in a review like this? Any specific questions you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Th3Franz Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 I watched the Phoenix race.. man that heat must have been crazy! -Franz The end of a Legacy http://www.youtube.com/th3franz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xr7kid Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 does anyone know if the phoenix race will be re-televised?? I wanna see it sooo bad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Gat Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 Hello, I believe the race is re-airing on Speed this Weds @ 2pm PST. Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panamajack Posted May 15, 2006 Share Posted May 15, 2006 What specifically are you looking for in a review like this? Any specific questions you have? I would like to know how is the balance, and where do you feel the most improvement? Also, what kind of lock do you have? 1 up front and 2 in the back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel Gat Posted May 16, 2006 Share Posted May 16, 2006 Hello, panamajack, I didn't read all of this thread - I assume you're asking about the diffs? Being KAAZ diffs [incorrect technical stuff deleted, I was wrong, and I was thinking about something else. The KAAZ diffs have different clamping ramps you can use... Steve corrected me, we're set up 1.5-way I'll just shut up now hahaha... We are currently running 33% lock up front and 100% lock in back - that means there are 3 times as many friction surfaces acting in the rear diff as there are in the front diff (it's not actually 100% lock, just 100% of what the diff can do). Make sense? As for driver perspective - that I can't answer Chris / Brian will have to respond to that. Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKLGT Posted May 20, 2006 Share Posted May 20, 2006 i tried to read thru this entire thread but then got a little lost with some of the technical info. however, all i can say is WOW! keep us updated! Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle yeah!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy_y_tu Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 GOTO Racing; are you guys going to be racing at Limerock? I may go if that's the case. Limerock is pretty close to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLock Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 GOTO Racing; are you guys going to be racing at Limerock? I may go if that's the case. Limerock is pretty close to me. As we are not fully funded yet, we are only running a partial season. Limerock is off the list because it does not have TV coverage, and TV helps in our sponsor search. But you will definately see us at Mid-Ohio next month! That isn't that much farther is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLock Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 I would like to know how is the balance, and where do you feel the most improvement? The legacy is one of the most balanced cars I have ever driven. If you spend a little time on setup, you can solve alot of the understeer problems that are inherent on the imprezza model. I am sure you can see by the Phoenix vid that we were handling quite well through the infield. DMS and Hotchkis supply our suspension pieces. As you upgrade, I would definately look to your brakes. The Legacy front brakes are already big and beefy, but so is the car. If you plan on tracking on a regular basis, make sure you get pads and rotors up to the challenge. Currently we run all RacingBrake stuff. Without it, I am sure we would not have finished Laguna Seca. Our rotors were glowing in the broad daylight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOXRPWR Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 Glad to hear you are very satisfied with the RB brakes. I've got the RB front BBK and the rear rotors. I track my car about every 3 months. I love em when I put on Hawk HP+ front pads and HPS rear pads. Got StopTech lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobY Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 If you dont mind me asking Chris what diameter front swaybar/ rear swaybar are you running. I think you said originally you are running about a 100 lb rear bias on the springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy_y_tu Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 As we are not fully funded yet, we are only running a partial season. Limerock is off the list because it does not have TV coverage, and TV helps in our sponsor search. But you will definately see us at Mid-Ohio next month! That isn't that much farther is it? Makes sense, but still a bummer. Mid Ohio I'd do if I was still single. It's a little harder nowadays though with two litle ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommyh Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 GOTO's cars and drivers get mentioned fairly favorably in this months issue of Grass Roots Motorsports and their artical on the Laguna Seca race. Martin Luther - "Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long." EL4NFZT7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy_y_tu Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 GOTO's cars and drivers get mentioned fairly favorably in this months issue of Grass Roots Motorsports and their artical on the Laguna Seca race. Got any scans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommyh Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Got any scans? No, sorry I don't. I also don't have access to a scanner, but the magazine is on the racks in various places. There's also a pretty good review of the B9 in the same issue. They want a turbo version as well. Martin Luther - "Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long." EL4NFZT7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beanboy Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Wow, looking forward to seeing you guys go up against the LGT wagon! -B http://www.standardshift.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisLock Posted May 22, 2006 Share Posted May 22, 2006 Wow, looking forward to seeing you guys go up against the LGT wagon! Judging from your avatar, you may have a bias Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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