Building for the road course...again

So, the BIGGEST differences that I noticed/felt were going from a 22mm rear sway bar in 2021, to a 24mm in 2022. Also the alignment. The alignment unlocked all things.

9.5* of caster up front is much of the secret. The gained camber during turn in is insane. Static negative camber up front is 3.3*. Good for acceleration and braking.

At turn in the car picked up close to 1* of camber. We measured around 4* of negative camber up front at turn in. That’s massive lol. The front bites so unbelievably hard and with that big rear sway bar the car just rotates. It’s taken me sometime to learn how to drive it. I’ve spun out many times after the new setup went on for 2022. It’s tricky to drive but after watching my own videos it’s way clearer to me that steering angle reduction is the key.

the stagger wheel and tire package also helped a bunch but I think similar results can be achieved with a square setup. Staggered is just that much more extreme

 

The video you’ve all been waiting for. Made a hell of a fucking mess. Like over 1L of oil everywhere lol.

sound is 100% vtc gear or timing chain tensioner. Or something there anyways

 

If it didn't spray oil everywhere a clear valve cover would be an awesome thing to have.

 

Oh man it was pretty cool to see that.
The big mess it made all over the car itself and my garage floor will have to wait till spring.

it was 5f today lol. Fucking cold

 

I admire your complete lack of towels

 

Haha. Had NO idea what to expect. It wasn’t that though.

 

I believe my shit is sorted.

swapped the vtc gear today. Fucked the shit out of the timing. It was definitely off. I got it back in time. Primed it. Cranked over nicely. I only primed it for 1-2 seconds just to make sure the engine was turning over well. It sounded good.

went to fire it up.
Click. Click. Click. Keep in mind I just installed a new battery prior to priming it. Fuck sakes.

I removed the battery ground cables. Made all new wiring. Crimped. Soldered. Fucking on there real good.

car fires up immediately. Valve train/lash noise but I believe it’s fixed. It sounds 1000000000 times better. No more rattle from hell.

I will fire it up tomorrow morning to confirm but I believe it’s solved.

 

Battery cables are crimp THEN solder, right? Aka mechanical linkage then electrical.

 

Yup. Crimp for mechanical, solder for electrical. I did it the correct way lol.

If you solder then crimp the solder just cracks. No good

 

Video after fire up.

It’s still just a little noisy? I’m just gonna say valve train noise and injector noise. These rdx injectors are known to be loud.


VTC gear replaced
https://youtube.com/shorts/X9yCRCGVKNw?feature=share

 

Looks like I’m famous!!

this guy found my thread on the k20a forums. He asked if he could share my video on his website in exchange for some free product.

he makes upgraded internals for the vtc gear. Better springs and whatnot. I told him no problem at all and he is now sending me an assorted spring upgrade kit. Cool!!

https://spring-start.com/video-links

 

That's awesome! I watched the video on his site. Looks like it should only take an hour or so to install.

 

Oh yea. Back when I began diagnosing this issue I actually took the spring out and stretched it. So I know what’s involved there. It’s not too bad

 

2023 season meat has arrived. 1 set is paid for. Second set is…half paid for lol. Excited to try this new setup for 2023. With some power, some spherical control arm bushings, and some more seat time the car should be an absolute weapon.

255/40/17 fronts and 225/45/17 rears
Nankang CR-S(aka CR-1). These are a Yokohama a052 replica tire. Even down to the compound. They are just as a fast, and have similar wear characteristics but for a lot less money. I don’t like that they are inside outside only so can’t be rotated side to side, BUT I believe this season I will be a lot more calculated on the laps I do do vs just running out on track every second I get. A lot of that type of seat time just uses up consumables without gaining much in terms of driver mod(traffic, not getting clean laps, getting frustrated and just murdering tires).

 

What about a cheaper set of tires for screwing around and having fun

 

Hankook RS4’s. Endurance grade 200tw.

those are the fun mess around tires. I run those as my “street setup”. It’s a 235/45/17 square setup. Good for practice / messing around.

i also picked up a used pair of 245/40/17 Nankang crs to run as fronts. They were real real cheap. Should be good for 2-3 track days. Just to get back into things

 

Spherical control arm bushings arrived. These are too nice. Offset for caster. Gonna install them to instead increase track width up front. I really love trick pieces like this.

 

All this talk you've had about getting back onto the track made me sign up for the next AutoX near me. It's been almost 5-6 years since my last event.

 

I love it lol. That’s awesome to hear. I hope you enjoy!! Have fun

 

Do I got for an etune cause it’s less money or do I wait until I have the cash for the dyno tune?

Etune is around $400cad
Dyno tune will be starting at $600cad.

hmm…