|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Quote:
I'm glad I put that red LED right in front of me on the dash though! |
Track day
Bryan
Glad you got to run the bird They do burn some oil when you are hammering them Good to see it is not a trailer queen Have fun with it I hope to refire my firebird this weekend Panteracer NorCal Bob |
Thanx Bob! Definitely not a trailer queen. I built her to drive her! :)
Good luck with yours this weekend! |
LS motors
are bad about pumping all the oil up top. May want to try some restrictive push rods.
|
I think the car worked better before you "modded" it..... LOL OH MAN!
Quote:
|
Ha! Man, it's crazy what some people will do... Shadetree mechanics at their best! :sarcasm_smiley:
I wasn't aware of the issue with LS's pumping all the oil up out of the pan. I'll look into the pushrods. Interesting... |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I kind of like the adjustability of the cotter key and cable arrangement... Hadn't seen that one before! That is an actual shot of Bryan's car by the way. Perhaps pre "The mystery Salt Lick incident", you and Rob and Rodger and I discussed at length - that's so greatly affected his taste buds. But my thinking is that an "eye" for food --- is also probably the same "eye" that bought this project Firebird. Ya think?? Sorry Bryan --- I just couldn't pass up just one more time of busting your danglers. :lol: :lol: |
Really glad you had fun beating on the car. Enjoy yourself!
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
I picked up TOW today after she received from TLC from Eric. I have a list of things to do, but I also have an auto-x tomorrow, so Eric squeezed her in for a day to do some of the quicker items.
As you may recall, at the Fall FW GG event, I blew a seal in the steering rack I had. I replaced it with a remanufactured unit from PepBoys. While it 'worked' ok, I was never happy with the feel. I just wasn't "right". When Eric pulled it out, he noticed that the poly bushings looked like they were 'moving'. I'm not sure why, the mounting bolts were tight, but he said the bushings looked worn inside. Today when I drove it after the swap, it was night and day difference! The old rack felt sloppy, but this rack feels like the car felt when I first drove it after all of the work. So whether it was an issue with the reman rack, the bushings, or something else, all I know is that it's MUCH more responsive now to steering input. I like it... Eric found that the fitting on the clutch master cylinder was leaking, and when he tried to snug it up, it just spun the threads. The reservoir was almost empty, so we definitely had a leak there. He was able to drill out the threads and go 1 size larger, and that solved that problem. Clutch again feels much better, engagement is lower as it should be. Finally, there was a slight leak at one of the brake fittings that looks like it let a little air into the system. Tightened that up and bled the brakes. Again, they felt better afterwards. He also discovered that the rear axle was not perfectly aligned to the car, making the thrust angle be off a little. Strangely, but alignment shops the car has been to told me it was just barely off, but not enough to worry about. But the car has always had a slight pull to the right. Well, after he fixed this and did a string alignment on the front toe, the car is tracking down the road straighter than it ever has. So round one of the little touchups are complete, and the car feels great. He gave her a bolt check also while he was down there, and things look good. We're going to try and tackle some of the exhaust clearance issues next week. I think we are going to try and use oval piping from the headers all the way past the torque arm crossmember, replacing the 3" collector on the headers with an oval one instead. It's the only way we're going to get the clearance I want. Looking forward to the auto-x tomorrow. This is a serious group of locals, and there are 140 cars registered for the event. I'm curious to see what the cross-section of cars will be. |
Glad to hear you got everything straightened out. Have fun tomorrow, I'm jealous I can't join you.
|
Quote:
|
Bryan
Good luck tomorrow. If you get a chance try the Salt Lick for dinner. I hear they have great BBQ. :cheers: |
Wow just went through the whole thread! Outstanding!:king:
|
Good luck today Bryan!!! Please post pics of others while your waiting to smash those evil cones....
Glad you have an "Eric" in your back pocket, we all know that the world needs more good mechanics... |
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
So as mentioned above, I made it out for the auto-x today. The morning starts out with crappy misty weather, and it was overcast most of the day. Thankfully the track dried off before I had to make a pass.
I got 4 runs. My first was a 42.7 and my best was a 39.2, so I definitely improved through the day. The fastest run I remember seeing from the day was from an open-wheel Formula Ford style car, and that was a 33.something. Lots of serious auto-crossing Miatas there running all over the place, but between mid-34's and mid 38's for the faster ones. I wish I had a few more laps to run. I started the day with entirely too much air in the tires, and I was all over the place in my first 2 runs. I dropped a couple of pounds, and the car stuck much better. Dropped again for the last run, and again, improvement. Next time I would start much lower... TOW did great, the steering rack replacement was a joy on the drive there and back. Not a single problem with the car during or after my runs. In addition to wanting more runs, I would have liked to have watched a session before my runs. I could tell by watching several areas that I could have improved on my line. Aw well, next time. For anyone that came down to the Run to the Alamo event a couple of years ago, this group's next event is on that track the weekend before GG. Hopefully I will be able to get to it. Eric and I are working on scheduling the next round of work right now... I'm beat, it was an early morning and a long day. And while I definitely prefer the driving school I did last weekend, this was still a lot of fun. A bunch of people wanted to talk about the car: it's definitely stood out in the sea of Miatas and Subarus which were there! :) |
Saw this photo on the SPOKES Facebook page so had to post it up in case you haven't seen it. Looks good...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetkins...57641099492843 |
Yep! :) Wish he had gotten a couple of more pictures, the ones he took are pretty good...
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/1...7d1981b2b8.jpg |
Where are the pics of the new exhaust? You all ready for the Goodguys trip?
|
tow exhaust
yes need to see your exhaust
need to see you run Mine was broken last week got fixed yesterday.. pinion bearing was going out and was thowing parts in the clutches.. also had to replace an axle and wheel bearing Keep the Birds running:relax: Panteracer Norcal Bob |
No pics unfortunately, but I did make the trip. Picked TOW up last night and drove it around for a while. After a while, I started hearing a strange moaning sound from the back, couldn't nail down what it was, and only once in a while.
So I drove up to Eric's this morning, and we put her up on stands to look for any problems. We did find that the calipers are occasionally touching the rotors, so we spaced those to prevent that problem. We thought that was it, so we buttoned her up and off I went. Got into town a little while ago with no problems, but the sound is still occasionally there. Doesn't seem to be causing any problems, so it will wait until I get back to Austin to investigate. I'll get some pics next week when we put her back in the air... |
Bryan, how did the car fair in that rain? how good did your door glass seals come out?
I'm trying to find oem glass (mines a little scratched up) and i'm on seal set #2 and the OER stuff from Classic and the Soft Seal stuff does't fit real well. |
Mike,
Funny you ask... We definitely got poured on yesterday in FW. And unfortunately, I realized that my windows are not sealing well to the upper window seals. I don't blame the seal, I think they are actually GM pieces (I did not replace them during this build), but instead the adjustment of the window itself. At the top of the closing, the glass is kicking in too far and too high at the front, which is causing the back to not seal as well as it should. I need to pull the door panel and adjust it again... I haven't heard very good things about the reproduction seals either unfortunately which is one reason I didn't pull these. They aren't in great shape, but they should still seal ok given their condition. I replaced the glass on the car during the build, and I think I ended up with Pilkington pieces if I recall correctly. I'm actually on the hunt for a new windshield now, mine has a crack and needs to be replaced. :( I'll try to get one ordered this week, but they aren't cheap by the time you include shipping... |
Fun weekend at GG Spring Nationals
TOW and I spent the weekend in Fort Worth at the Good Guys Spring Nationals. As in the fall, I went up primarily to participate in the autocross. Due to the weather, there weren't as many people who actually came out for this event as there were in the fall, so we actually had more runs this time. That came at the cost of not being able to browse the rest of the show though...
TOW again did well until we had an unfortunate problem which hindered her the rest of the weekend. Given the final results, it wouldn't have made a big difference most likely, but probably did cost me a position or two. First, a quick summary of what all was done before this event:
The big work was rebuilding the exhaust. Eric did a great job of replacing the 3" round pipes with oval pipe from the collectors to the point past the crossmember when it transitioned back to round. Now, the exhaust it just above the subframe rails, so no more smashing the pipes over speedbumps! The springs we replaced at Jake's suggestion. I was surprised that the increase rate didn't seems to make the car 'feel' much stiffer when driving. I expected to feel every bump in the road, but that wasn't he case. The brake pads are definitely different though! It takes a stop or two until they really want to grab, and that can surprise you at first on the street. I have adjusted now, but it took a little driving to get there. I also have adjusted the proportioning valve to even out the front/rear so that I'm not locking up the rears first. While the car was apart, Eric pulled the 9" chunk and carried it to the local differential shop (we only appear to have 1 that is recommended). They adjusted the pinion depth in an effort to reduce the gear whine I was hearing, and they also found that the main bearings were pitting already. Wasn't too happy with that after just 1400 miles, but better to find it now than later. We also changed all of the fluids since I was about to hit 1500 miles. Figured it was a good time for that. Redline in the engine now and differential, Mobil 1 in the transmission. I picked up the car from Eric Wednesday night with a planned Thursday morning departure for FW. After I drove her home, when navigating a parking lot, I noticed a strange sound coming from the back. It wasn't repeatable / consistent, but definitely there. I couldn't figure out what the heck it was, so I touched base with Eric. We decided that I would stop by on my way out of town for a look... We pulled the rear tires and found what we though was the culprit. It seems that the rear calipers were slightly rubbing against the rotors. We are both a little perplexed as to why this is happening, because when assembled, everything looks centered. But it was clearly obvious when looking at the caliper that they have been rubbing. So Eric shimmed the calipers and we put it all back together, and off I went. The drive up was uneventful, I made good time with the 75 MPH speeds through central Texas (I may, or may not, have averaged a little better than that). TOW really likes to cruise at just over 80. The gear whine has definitely been reduces, and while not completely gone, is much more tolerable. I adapted to the brakes, and everything else just worked. I did notice that the sound of the exhaust is different now. Neither of us have a good theory as to why, but the car is less raspy now. It's a subtle change, but I like it better now for sure. Friday was a fun day at the autocross. After 2 runs, I was about 4 seconds between the leaders. I was struggling with a bad push and front tire chatter. While walking around the 'pro' pit area, I noticed someone wearing a JRI sweatshirt, so I walked up and introduced myself. His name was JJ, and he was there working with Kyle, Stacy, Cheryl, and Brian on their setups. I described my car and what I was experiencing, and I asked him for a 'Shocks 101' lesson. He gave me that and then some! We talked for about 30m about how the shocks are affecting my car, about my spring rate combination, and what he thought would help. Interestingly, I was about to adjust my shock settings, but I was going to go the completely opposite direction from what JJ recommended. I'm glad I asked... My next run came down by 3 seconds and landed me in 4th place in the street machine division! It was a huge difference. While I don't run JRI's at the moment, JJ was still willing to offer a lot of advice and suggestions to me. He has won me over as a customer when I'm ready to step up. I was able to get in 2 more runs on Friday for a total of 5, and I didn't improve on my run, so I ended the day in 4th place. I was behind Terry Neuville (sp?), Kevin Miller, and this crazy little Mini Cooper 'chainsaw' that is apparently driven by a guy who (if I heard this correctly) won in his division at the SCCA Nationals last year in a different car. So I was feeling pretty good about where I was at! Unfortunately, Saturday was a different story. I had noticed that something didn't feel quite right during my last run on Friday, but I wasn't sure what it was. Saturday morning when I started TOW up to drive to the track, she was very temperamental, not running smoothly. I thought it was just the cool weather, so I drove on. I lined up for my first run, and while it felt pretty good, the time wasn't there. Everyone seemed to be 1/2 - 1 second faster that morning that Friday, but I was 2 seconds off. At one point I felt the car buck on the course, I thought that maybe I had just hit the throttle wrong. But the day continued this way. I was never able to get close to my best Friday run, and each run was progressively worse. Once while idling in line, TOW just died. That has never happened before. So I knew something was wrong. The rains rolled in at 1:00 as I was 3rd in line for my next run, so I only got 5 for the day. I packed my things and headed back to the hotel to wait out the downpour. When it was time for dinner I headed out (it was still raining), and that's when the real problem started showing up. I could barely drive her. When I hit 3rd gear, she was missing and stuttering. I limped back to the motel and grabbed my laptop. When I started the car, everything looked ok, so I went out for a drive again. Same thing: stutter, backfire, stumble. But the gauges looked fine? Very long story short, I finally deduced that I must have lost the O2 sensor. So I disabled closed loop mode, and voila! TOW drove just fine. Thankfully the base tune is in reasonable shape to drive ok. I just sure wish I had figured this out before Saturday night so that I could have had a better chance to move up during the Saturday autocross runs! I decided to hit the road early this morning to start the trek back to Austin just in case I had any trouble. TOW did great, the base tune was just fine for the drive home. I again made good time, and after a few miles felt that everything was going to be ok. I dropped TOW off with Eric this afternoon to remove the exhaust for the ceramic coating. We have a few things to do, first of all determine if there is a wiring problem with the sensor, or if it just died. Eric pulled it this afternoon, and it looks pretty rough (carbon), but that could be the aftereffect of it dying. I'll be ordering a new one tomorrow, and perhaps a second for a future spare. We're going to swap back the 550 springs in the front, reset the ride height of the car (lower in the front, I want to see if I can survive a lower ride height now that I have clearance), take a look and see if the caliper rubbing is gone on the rear, and a few other little things. We're working out the kinks that a build like this is bound to have. But I have to say, I sure am having fun along the way! While it was frustrating to have the sensor problem, I really enjoyed the drive and the autocross and meeting the fellow Lat-G members this weekend. Even that Weld guy was there. Somehow we made it through 2 full days without a single mention of BBQ. Imagine that... ;) |
Quote:
|
Sounded like you had a great weekend, other than the weather.
|
Quote:
In all of my years of adjusting this stuff -- and my early years (actually during the time when this stuff was NEW! UGH) working in a body shop..... we were taught to adjust the windows by putting a dollar bill between the seal and the window... if you could still pull the dollar bill out without tearing it --- that was a good seal. Too tight and you have problems. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I switched to using 100's..... using the savings from not eating at the good Texas BBQ places. |
Quote:
The Salt Lick is over rated, or so I hear. |
Quote:
Tim, I did auto glass for 15 years (Grandpa was auto glass, dad was auto glass & i still do a little, very little, & four cars at Pebble Beach) and our 2nd gen doors are amongst the hardest to adjust. If only OEM GM seals were still around. Thats a good write up on nasty, great place too start. I've been in mine three times and on my second set of seals.... So when you get to do this Bryan, lemme know...p.s. I will be there in Texas again for the finally of the Goodguys Road Trip, and will hopefully be on the autocross there!!!! On the windshield, just have a local quality shop do it, there pretty easy for them, you should be in the 200 to 250 neighborhood..... |
Tow
Bryan,
sounds like things are starting to come around on your car....changing the springs in the front back? Why?? Leaking windows... I am toying with pulling mine to try to save some weight.. at 3710 lbs something has to go.. so rain won't matter then Keep after it... like you said it is all about having fun and running the car Panteracer Norcal Bob.. with the 70 TA Clone |
Bryan, Awesome firebird you got there. If youre ever driving it down around Seguin, Id love to check it out. I just got a 70 Lucerne blue TA that I plan on resto-modding sometime soon. Come on by anytime.
Evan Q. 413 Beechcraft Lane Seguin Tx 78155 2106215165 |
Great showing Bryan!
So you are switching it to a 550/500 spring setup next? Interesting.... I will be starting out with the Jake suggested 700/500 setup with mine. |
Bryan, a few of us wondered what happened to TOW and you on Sunday. It was down right frigid with the temps and wind so we all just figured you were "smarter" than us and packed up and headed south.
The track was dusty and slippery so more of a drifting event sunday morning but ALOT of fun to just be out there banging around the cones. You missed a pretty killer new gen mustang that had an incredible exhaust, huge wing, bolt on flares that was more race car than street car that won the All American Sunday class. Would have been fun to watch under better conditions but the dude couldn't get the power down. I hope you get the miss figured out and it is only an O2 sensor. It appears I have a fuel delivery issue. I have a feeling the shop that installed my gas tank installed the wrong part because anytime i dropped below a half tank of gas the hesitation/miss was back. I need to go back and look at my parts list and ensure they bought the correct tank. I look forward to hang in with ya in the fall and joining TOW with our 73. We will have to get you out to Rodeo Goat in Ft. Worth for a Whiskey Burger and a Moontang. We can even invite Greg! Glad you made it home safely to Austin. Let me know if you decide to head back up for the USCA event. |
Quote:
Quote:
I think I have a few things going on that need to be sorted. One thing was that the front end of the car was too high. We just didn't have time to adjust it with me sitting in the car before I left. That, combined with the stiff springs meant that I wasn't getting any decent weight transfer to the front of the car. So my braking and turning both suffered on the tight auto-x course. I was pushing badly in a few turns. I have a feeling, and I'm still trying to figure this out, that the 700/500 is a perfect recommendation for the bigger tracks that you plan to run Dave. Of course I will do some as well. But I'm thinking that for the small auto-x, a softer spring may be better to get some grip in the front when I'm really slowing the car down. I met JJ from JRi shocks, and he spent a lot of time talking with me on Friday. He watched me run, and he was the one that noted several of the things that may be wrong. He also commented that I was WAY more sprung than the other cars he was working with (DSE, Hobaugh, others). Of course the suspensions are different, but not THAT different. I want to experiment with moving the Watt's pivot, and soften back up the front springs. I'm not sure what I'll do with the back yet. The biggest problem is I have no idea when I'll get to hit a track again. The next local auto-x is at the end of April (at least one I can make). I REALLY wish I could get back to Fort Worth for USCA this weekend, but it's not going to happen. |
| All times are GMT -7. The time now is 08:16 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright Lateral-g.net