Building for the road course...again

You know what you've gotta do. Go buy a GT3RS and totally beat the living shit out of it on the track. Make 10+ second faster lap times than the other Porsches. Or rent one and do it out of spite.

 

Haha I had two thoughts. Either do like you suggested and just wax everyone
OR
Just be typical Porsche driver but extra annoying. Wax people in the corners then hold them up down the entire straight away lol. Something troll like that

 

Fast in the corners takes money & talent...fast on the straight takes money & more money, lol

I love 911s. But Im the guy who will put a roll cage in it and paint it flat black. Most Porsche buyers think of it as an expensive suit..."it makes them look good!". I prefer to think of it as tamed beast. However they are no longer affordable...sad.

 

Haha yea you got it

 

Starting to formulate my "off season upgrades/order parts" list.

Aside from completing the engine, getting it installed/tuned there are really only a few things i want/have my mind on.

We will be moving back to the classics, removed for NDA compliance this will clear my BBK as well as provide much better sidewall stability for my 255 wide tires. Should increase grip and front end a good bit.

I am on the fence of going in deep with the rear sway bar. I currently have the "best" available bar for MOST people/scenarios. There is however a "race only" rear sway bar available for my chassis. This thing is SERIOUS business.

ASR 25.4mm rear bar, they offer different wall thickness as well for the bar. Next level. It doesnt use the OEM sway bar mounts and actually requires tying into the rear floor/trunk floor for mounting.
The few laps i did turn this season, i could feel i wanted more. More front end. The reason the car was SO LOOSE last season was
A) because lack of driver mod/understanding
B) it made no torque/power, difficult to transfer weight to the rear to stabilize it

This bar MAY put the car back in hella loose mode but it is adjustable so i would start as soft as possible and dial in as needed. Less steering angle always translates to faster. Loose is fast. Not my words lol
https://www.asrparts.com/products/asr-8th-gen-civic-25-4mm-hollow-swaybar-kit

This is really it for me aside from ordering tires, and a new radiator that isnt leaking lol. Will go with a Koyo rad for that one

 

Some nice action shots from the track on Monday. Love pictures like this. We have some 3 wheel action and some 2 wheel action!


Love when you can see suspension and chassis working. Some decent chassis rigidity here considering I have no bracing mods

 

NEW PERSONAL BEST YET AGAIN
grand bend technical layout. First session done and I pulled an entire second off of my last personal best at this track which was already a properly quick lap time. This car is absolutely insane. The ceiling is very very high.

Mindless passive driving. Just auto pilot. Feeling out the grip. Feeling out myself. Driving not so hard and the times just coming. This is nuts. Its very mental as the second i see my lap time, the goal to push for more comes in and that is the end of it. You wont go any faster if youre out there "trying" to go for a specific laptime. Its a mental game.


Beautiful day yesterday. Fantastic conditions. 17c. Cool air. Engine feeling strong. No GoPro from this lap unfortunately


Yesterday was a mental roller coaster. New personal best. I knew the time was fast but I didn’t know how fast.
My shop owner was at the track with some customers doing some testing on their cars. Was a good day with some good people and some radical drivers asking me what in the hell is done to the car that I’m only just off of their own pace haha. That’s always fun conversation when people see my $5000 sh*tbox just taking names.
The joke at the end of the day was “one minute you’re hunting down radicals and ariels, the next minute your swapping wheel hubs”. Haha.

Annoying failure right at the end of the day. Not to mention my poor engine




Now for the more serious. I think my engine is no more. After my first session with my massive PB, my coolant overflow was FULL. It had sprayed all over my bay. Everywhere.
I waited for the car to cool. Dumped the overflow back into the rad then went out again. This time I noticed 0 front end. No turn in. No braking. No nothing. The car sucked.
Turns out the overflow was full again pissing onto my drivers side front tire. Explains my lack of everything lol.


I dumped the coolant back into the rad. Adjusted some damper settings and went back out. Car was feeling fantastic UNTIL…The rear hub broke(pictured above).

I think maybe my season is done early. I will begin to remove the engine while the weather is still acceptable. First I will leakdown test it and compression test it. Then pull it and take it apart. See what I can reuse(oil pump, oil pan baffle, cylinder head, and that’s probably it).
Shame shame but it happens. This engine has just over 270,000kms. It has been to the track 40 times in my ownership with roughly 60+hours of track usage plus many many street pulls to 9000rpm. It’s just done I guess. I am sad but this engine did great things for me so I can’t complain. It was a good unit to get me where I am now in terms of driver/car development

One note to add. Coolant temp did not exceed 205f ever. Not on track. Not at idle. It was running very cool.

drive home was 2 hours. No heat issues. Temperature around 180-195f. The usual. I did not do many pulls on the drive home and the overflow tank only had a small amount of coolant pushed into it. It did still get some though so somethings wrong.

my guess is headgasket but a few friends told me to try the radiator cap first

 

Sounds like head gasket but I agree the radiator cap could also just be done especially with it seeming to be fine in normal driving

 

Will try a rad cap this weekend and go from there. If it’s time to pull the motor…then I guess we’ll be getting the new build going asap here

 

Could just rig a bigger overflow tank and send it what do you have two more weeks of good weather?

 

Come on Global Warming!!!

 

Haha literally thought about this. Shits still making good power so idk fuck lol.

If I can use the good weather to make the engine swap a little easier on me I will. We’re still far from that thought

 

I did wanna go grab another pb at another track though…hmmm lol hate calling it a season early

 

An older guy I used to work with raced the local midget circuit when he was younger ~ 1960s

He said that he always made them swap the motor when it started running stronger after a bunch of use. Said it was getting ready to blow up and he didn't want to lose it mid race

 

Oh that’s interesting.

I have no doubt this engine is tired. It’s done more in my ownership then most peoples fbo whatever the fuck ever do.

I really want to reuse the head on the new motor. Then I’ll have a nice short block for rebuild. Maybe build it as an NA spare or maybe slightly lower compression for boost. We’ll see. I don’t wanna damage any of it though

 

Compression test results. Just completed. Looks ok to me?





I also took a few pictures of the spark plugs. I don’t know anything about reading spark plugs but these look ok also?

left most plug is cylinder 1. In that order




Can anyone tell me what is the smallest compressor I can perform a leak down test with? I have a friend with one small one, probably 5gal or less. Would this work?

 

The compressor size doesn't exactly matter. You'll be turning the pressure down for a leak test anyways. Unless there is some massive leak where air will be pissing out then it shouldn't kick on.

Are you sure it just isn't boiling out or leaking somewhere you can't see?

 

Wouldn't boiling out be a pressure in the system (not being high enough) problem? As in radiator cap.

 

I can totally see the rad cap as a failure. The compression is good for sure and those plugs show no signs of issue to me. New cap and send 'er. If she blows...atleast then you'll know there was an issue.

 

New cap, or find out where else pressure is leaking. Could it be an old reservoir? Maybe clamp coming loose?