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Old 07-08-2019, 11:59 AM
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hackster hackster is offline
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Well, had a super interesting track night on Friday. First session went out and got a few good laps in then I saw something fly out from the side of the car and a clunk, so I came into the pits.

Got the car up in the air to find that the body mounted sway bar bushing had ejected out from the sway bar clamp. I never realized until that day that there was really nothing holding the bushing in at all from sliding side to side. I think some power steering fluid helped lube it up and it just spit out.

I cut up some heater hose into chunks, wrapped it around the bar and stacked up some square bits, wrapped the whole thing with electrical tape and zip ties and went out on track again.

Had some slower cars to get around then found myself in the faster cars, passed them in the passing zones until I caught up to that one guy. Dude was in a newer white Mustang GT350 and would not give me the point by. I made it very clear that I would like by, I was very courteous at first just getting close to his bumper, then half way into the passing zone, hanging out (he was way off line through the turns) in the corners, He was well aware we made eye contact numerous times in his side mirror that I would like by but he was having none of this old ****ty car getting around him.

I finally got a little tired of it after maybe 10 minutes of this and pulled up right next to him at about 110 mph and looked over at him, finally he gave me the point by. 4 or 5 corners later, he wasnt even in the mirror on the straights and I had a great rest of the session. I am not that fast of a driver, but I have a fair bit of seat time and pay close attention to the mirrors. If I am the slower car I dont want to hold anyone up at all, hell, I usually learn something when I get passed by a faster car. Just with everyone had that mentallity on fun track days, nobody is winning today, we are just having fun.....everyone gets competitive though I get that.

I ran the car hard the whole 20 minute session. Temps creeped up to 230 at the checker and I smelled fuel....cool down lap got me to the 2teens temp wise.

Pulled into the pits and cracked the gas cap to a **** ton of pressure in the tank. Apparently I finally have a gas cap that is tight and sealed up =)

I called it a night, shot the **** with some buddies and grabbed dinner.

Spent Saturday fixing what I believed to be my problems.....

When I initially installed all of this I was having fuel sloshing out the filler neck so obviously was not able to hold pressure.

I had installed the rollover valve inside the fuel filler door but it was mounted on an angle. I believe that when the fuel got warm it expanded, on a hard left hand corner the ball on the rollover valve closed the valve and once it had a little pressure on it it just stayed closed. I proved this theory in the garage Saturday.

So another rework of the fuel tank and vent. Built a little bracket in the filler door to hold the rollover valve at the proper position.



Here is my vent loop on the drivers side to keep any raw fuel from getting into the charcoal canister and out the vent.



Still tucks away almost all unseen. I want to build a rear firewall to go behind the seats, thats in the short term plan.



So while going through all this, I found the fuel tank to be really warm, like almost hot to the touch. With the exhaust so close to the fuel tank I took some time to pull off the rear section, fix a hanger issue, add in a taller bump stop to keep it from banging on the exhaust.

I hate this stuff, but it does work. So I wrapped this small section with the titanium wrap and put a titanium heat shield on it right next to the fuel tank. I hope that it helps.

I also wrapped the tank with some DEI reflective stick on stuff to try and reflect the heat rather than absorb it.







I have been pushing the car pretty hard the last few months. Its time for a little break from beating on it. Going to get the front sway bar ironed out and install a stereo, work on the rear firewall and call it done for a little while.

Radwood on the 20th, then GoodGuys Puyallup the weekend after that.

Took a break yesterday and took the buggy out, I have had this thing probably 15 years. Its like old trusty...







Couple of buddies just finished their rigs so we had a first run. They all did awesome and beautiful rigs.

I didnt have a passenger so not too many pics of action.

Happy Monday!!

Sean
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