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Sounds like a good time, happy the trip turned out successful. I'm sure your car got a lot of attention there and opened some eyes.

Glad to hear most things worked okay! A big part of the track day experience for me has been getting away with the dumb ideas that I've applied to the car over the years. If they worked, there was success. For a new build and three days of beating, you've got a pretty good result!

Congrats on the successful trip and performance of the car!

This thing is even better in person!

Great build!

First picture I’ve seen where the carpet doesn’t look like a soiled diaper, it actually looks good. :action-smiley-027:

Looking forward to seeing this thing whiz past me in a few weeks!:thumbsup:

It was a killer time, lots of people commented on the quality of the build on the car.

Hahah, yeah I was pretty impressed so far. Going to have to spend some time working on the driver now =)

Thanks man!!

Thats awesome, and some nice pics. Thank you for the props.

I should rename it the soiled diaper =)

Track day here on the 17th...if its still together after that Ill be up on the 24th.

Back home now, had been planning this trip for quite some time and it didnt dissapoint. All in all I did a little under 3,000 miles in 11 days. Portland to Davis, Thousand Oaks, El Segundo, Fontana, Vegas, Twin Falls, Boise and home. This is my first road trip with this tow rig. It did awesome. Comfortable, awesome sound system and one of the last 6 speed manual trucks to ever roll off a Ram assembly line.

https://i.imgur.com/F82PlAZh.jpg

For building a car from just a shell I think it did pretty good for the little shakedown time I had.

Couple issues I did run into.

I had a coolant leak under the dash the entire time. I tightened up the hose clamps in Davis at the Motel 6 Parking Lot but that didnt cure it so I just dealt with it. Once I got home I tore it apart (That afternoon) and found that I didnt quite have the hose pushed on all the way, and also didnt have the hose clamp all the way on the hose. So pushed the hose on all the way, got the clamp on properly and it seems as though I fixed the leak.

I have a gas leak somewhere. The filler neck is all messed up where the nozzle goes, so that is part of it. On hard left turns it would spill fuel out of the filler neck and down the side of the car. Ill replace the filler neck with a good one (round opening instead of an egg shape). But there is still a fuel vapor inside the car all the time. I believe that something is leaking at the fuel tank so we are going to put the smoke machine on it and see what happens. Hope to mess with that this week or weekend.

It needs an alignment badly. The frontend has settled down quite a bit, it has a lot of toe and more negative camber than I think it should have. Will get ride height set again and go from there.

Steering wheel shake. At freeway speeds I have a shake in the steering wheel. I dont believe that its wheel and tire so I need to put a dial indicator on it and see what the runout is on the rotors and hubs. I am suspecting hubs as that is what was wrong on my last blue car.

All in all I had a killer time, I met some great new people, got to see some super cool cars and scenery along the way.

https://i.imgur.com/9E3HjIvh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/X0pu8mJh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HMLjIIKh.jpg

This one is for any of you that are curious about the handling. The car feels very, very planted, turn in is phenomenal even on the 275's. It is not super stiff on the road course or the auto cross but is quite stiff on the roads around town.

The front springs are 650 with a tender, rear springs are 450 with a tender. Front struts are JRZ RSOne's set to 5 clicks in from full soft in the front. Rear shocks are Ride tech Coilovers with 8 clicks in from full soft. I am running no rear bar, running a 25mm (I Believe) V8 drop bar in the front.

I think the only change I am going to make before my next track day is to try a 28mm non drop front bar. I would like to lower the back of the car a little more as well, but going to have to do even more rear fender work back there to do that.

https://i.imgur.com/RpkXgrAh.jpg




Even used it to tow my buddy Scott back after his truck broke down on the poker run.

https://i.imgur.com/sPujTHhh.jpg

One last image just cause I love this shot!!

https://i.imgur.com/5PD5hX9h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RpkXgrAh.jpg

Inside front looks pretty good for a strut car... I'd like to see less front roll (overall roll) and my prescription is a much stiffer front sway bar.

I'm also wondering if you are on the bumpstops there? Maybe put some O-rings or even slide the shock bumpers down if you have them, run it and see if it's bottoming out. Nothing wrong with hitting bottom as long as it's doing it softly and not shocking the tires when it does.

Exactly my thoughts!!! Stiffer front bar is the only thing I really want to change at this point. I am a long ways away from bump stops or bottoming out the shock. We shortened the struts and I have a lot of uptravel in them before either coil bind or bottoming out, like 5" of travel in the fronts.

Appreciate the input from you Lance.

Sean

The event on the 17th, is it at PIR or ORP? I’ll be heading south to Thunderhill...or maybe Sonoma...not real sure yet. Either way I’m coming through Friday on my way south.

PIR, 3 to 8 PM Track Night in America.....you better stop by.

Sean

Had a little settling going on in the frontend so jacked the car up to adjust the coilover to find that something was going wrong. I was able to move the entire wheel assembly 1" front to back, it was super weird. Started checking things out and narrowed it down to the lower control arm bushing, at first I thought it was the bolt was wrong, but more disassembly led me to these gems.

https://i.imgur.com/AK63OsYh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Uiw7TAph.jpg

I have never seen a bushing fail in that amount of time. Approx 300 or maybe a little more miles. 10 auto cross runs, 6 speed stops and 4 laps around a track.

These things are like gum. Super soft. We compared them to new in the package super blue bushings (IPD) and these were softer but not by a ton.

I thought that possibly the ATF from the power steering leak had hurt them but it did it on both sides.

So I tore everything down, first side fought me but the pass side was 30 mins tops.

https://i.imgur.com/rz0PeeVh.jpg

Late Friday night trip to the twins and they whipped up these awesome pieces.

https://i.imgur.com/EOPiHc1h.jpg

These are delrin with new sleeves. They pressed in the lower control arms pretty easy and we were off to the races.

Curious to try these out. We have no idea how long these will last at all, they are just a test. Initial drive was a massive improvement in turn in and steering feel and feedback. Little additional NVH was added by changing these out for some reason. Car is night and day difference with these installed.

Huge shoutout to these guys too. They have been a huge part of this thing, helping out with motor mounts, steering shaft, custom one off bits here and there like the dash insert, these lower control arm bushings, the LSX badges and lots of hard to find bits and pieces.

Thanks Scott and Taylor!!

Got the car together at 1 am, up at 5 for the portland transmission show, its a low key show but a great event tons of variety, mostly hot rods but some killer VW's.

Asher gave me a hand on Sunday trying to isolate my fuel leak. We used the smoke machine to find it and its the filler neck gas cap, we dropped the tank and replaced the filler neck to be safe as it was all ovaled out. Still leaks....so I need a new gas cap.

https://i.imgur.com/aLitZurh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UPiblh8h.jpg

Hardest job was getting the clamp on the filler neck at the tank.

Definately helped but still need a new cap. Smell is much better than before.

Drove it around town a bunch this weekend. Exhaust is too raspy for me, I think its the front muffler making the raspy sound so that might be on its way out.

Car is a riot to drive, badly needs an alignment and even more important a stereo.

Killer pics from LS Fest came in.

https://i.imgur.com/9LDtzLMh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jfyLCvTh.jpg


Weather depending.......Track day on Friday Night, IPD Saturday.

Lets hope for good weather.

Sean

OMG, I bet it turns in WAY better now... You'll have to learn how to drive it all over again.

Dude it was shocking how much different it was on turn in. I cannot wait to get some more seat time in it.

Have a few things to fix, rev limiter being one of them. It just hits a hard limiter, tuner says he thinks he knows what is going on so we are going to look into that thursday night.

I need more gear, or raise my rev limiter now.

Sean

Weather held out on Friday so I snuck out of work a little early headed home, grabbed the trailer and the old **** box and headed to PIR for Track Night in America.

Great group of cars, interesting group of drivers.

https://i.imgur.com/koWsiqlh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/oNReQKBh.jpg

I didnt take too many pics was busy driving and doing some tuning on suspension bits.

First session out, much much better turn in with the delrin bushings, front control arms still have a little wiggle in them, assuming its the bubble gum rear bushings still in there. Does it on hard braking entering a corner, probably need to do more braking before the corner :roll:

Had a little shimmy on the rear of the car on corner exits in the first session but the car was doing well, full 20 minute session, no steering issues, got to 217 (Still on the stock 190 degree stat).

Pitted the car, adjusted the rears 4 clicks softer, adjusted the fronts 4 clicks stiffer. checked tire press, 30 front 27 rear. Good notes.

Rear diff needs a hose on the vent tube, losing a little oil out of that but not enough to stop from running again.

Session 2, much better, less rear wheel hop on corner exits, able to drive the car much harder, notice a little understeer mid corner, car rotates really welll, turn in is excellent.

Had a hell of a time, passed everything in our session except an RS3 that I had an awesome time running with, he was a better driver than I was so once he got around me I hung with him and followed his lead.

There was a guy out there in a McLaren that was a horrible driver, didnt watch his mirrors, wouldnt let anyone around him and though because he had the fastest car out there that he was the fastest driver....he was not, by a long stretch. Passing only on a point by and I wasnt going to break the rules but we both had him covered by a long shot. I was starting to get a little angry, realized it was just for fun and tuning and pull off track a few minutes before the end of the session, a solid 18 minutes out.

Car is getting better, getting used to it. Power and grip in corner exits is awesome, its much faster than I am used to in the F100.

Needs a little softer rear springs, I have 450's in now, ordered some 400's and 350's to try out next week.

I still believe it needs more front bar, I have a 25 on it now, going to go up to a 28mm and see how it does, could make the understeer worse.

I need more front camber.....more on that later.

Rear Diff Breather needs addressed as well as a 160 degree thermostat.

Was stoked to have Robert drop by with his father in law, we had a great evening, car drove into the trailer. Good Day!!!

Saturday was IPD's big annual car show and garage sale, car was pretty well received there and I took home a best of show trophy. Thanks to IPD for putting on this event, its a great time for all of us Volvo Folks was good to see some old friends and make some new ones as well.

https://i.imgur.com/dREcRO1h.jpg

I took half the day off today and cleaned up the shop, ordered a bunch of parts and then got too it.

Havent been looking forward to this but its got to be done.

These are Kaplhenke adjustable caster/camber plates with his strut bar as well. There are no instructions included with the kit so for anyone that needs to do this in the future here is what I did to get the camber gains but still keep the structure in the tops.

https://i.imgur.com/G81Gkrhh.jpg

I then traced out the inner shape of the strut tower opening on the top of the strut tower so I had an exact location of where I needed to cut.

Taped up and protected.

https://i.imgur.com/dp9T3mEh.jpg

You can see the pencil line

https://i.imgur.com/oQrssVXh.jpg

Drilled the corners so I had a nice radius and gave myself a big hole to start with the airsaw.

https://i.imgur.com/ODObb1Ih.jpg

Rough cut.

https://i.imgur.com/TYTesnrh.jpg

I cleaned up the hole with a 1.5" round sanding disc on a die grinder and several different files. I then touched up all of the bare surfaces with color matched paint. Its not perfect but 90% of it is hidden away,

https://i.imgur.com/MTkERc6h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/edlX2Xjh.jpg

I think it actually looks better now than before so I call that success!!

https://i.imgur.com/AwXcurAh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ygsRRg5h.jpg

I am not quite sure how much camber I gained, but I gained a bunch of tire clearance, and the strut top moved in a good .75" I still have a little more to gain.

Will get it all buttoned up tomorrow before the rest of the parts show up, hope to have it all together before next Fridays TNIA in Seattle.

This write up came out today, pretty stoked to see this posted up from our shoot a few weeks ago.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/perf...swapped-volvo/

All in all pretty awesome weekend and last few weeks, fun to see people dig the car.

Thanks for all the help and support over the past year, its been fun as hell!!!

Sean

Well deserved press on the car! Awesome.

Good luck at the track and be safe. :thumbsup:

I havent been great about updating this thread lately...

Car did awesome at TNIA in Portland a few weeks ago. Two solid 20 minute sessions before some weather moved in and I loaded up. Had a few issues with temps again being in the 217-220 range. Not something to worry about but it was warmer than I wanted it to be. Swapped in a 160 degree stat.

Also had a lot of understeer, so I got a real alignment done on the car as well. 2.7 degrees of camber.


Loaded up here at noon on Friday and headed North, ran into a nasty rolled over freight truck on highway 512 between Tacoma and Puyallup that held me up for almost an hour. Got there just in time for the drivers meeting.

Got the car unloaded, warmed up and got out to grid for my run group.

Oh man did my changes help a ton. They recently did a big upgrade on the back section of this track and its so much better, real curbing that you can drive over, even carry some tires too. Took a few laps to get the hang of the new layout and get a grip on the car.

Its a big fast track if you have never been before and has a monster of a straightaway. Although I am convinced that the rear end has 4.10's instead of 3.73's in it. Either way, the understeer is just about gone now, adding the camber made a huge change on turn in and corner entry, rear spring change settled the rear of the car down a lot. I was having a blast.

Temps were staying in the 190's so a huge improvement from the last track outing.

Brakes have zero fade no matter what I did. I need to work on my 4 to 3 downshift, have hit 5th a few times on accident. Need to adjust accelerator position up a little to assist with heel toe.

15 mins into the session or so, I came through turn 2 and felt the car do something weird mid turn, I couldnt quite tell what it did but it shifted over a few inches off the line.

Then on the next straight the steering wheel was no longer straight while I was going straight.......

So into the pits to see what was going on.

https://i.imgur.com/FkhIkJ0h.jpg

Unfortunately it appears that my steering rack has jumped a tooth. There was a pretty good clunk in the steering when working the wheel back and forth. Once under the car I could move the rack output back and forth a good 3/8".

Bummer that it ended my fun filled weekend of car stuff waaaaay early. I had planned on track night friday, Seattle cars and coffee on Saturday and Auto Cross on Monday.

Instead I had Dinner with my nephew and his lady friend and hit the road from Seattle about 9 for my drive back to PDX.

Saturday I tore this **** apart.

https://i.imgur.com/IW6FczQh.jpg

Picked up a known good rack from Scott and Taylor. Very minimal play in this one.

https://i.imgur.com/7Bn2S8mh.jpg

New Rack in!!! Get the rack in, fill with fluid and bleed a little before sleep time.

Woke up to a nice puddle under the car, not coming from the rack. The "rebuilt" pump was leaking now. It wasnt from the high pressure line like I thought as the car had not started yet.

So here we go again.....

https://i.imgur.com/7trev9ch.jpg

I tried to round up a pump but with no luck this weekend. I ordered a new pump from Turn One this morning. This time it has a real rebuild on it, tested before it leaves with a new reservoir and a billet wheel so the pulley doesnt need to be pulled each time you remove it.

Bummer that I missed out on all car stuff this weekend but I did manage to get a ton of stuff done around the house. All hard surfaces got pressure washed, trip to the dump, goodwill, took care of some touchup paint on the interior of the house, installed out killer new bedroom ceiling fan, assembled a new bed for the spare room.

The wife got the best end of the 3 day weekend for sure.

I have an event on the 8th and 9th at PIR and really hope that this thing is reliable for the weekend

My understanding is 210-220 is about the sweet spot for LS's on track. That's where my cammed LS3 operates.

You're a labor inspiration, Sean--you did more work on your house in one weekend than I have on mine in five years or so. Freak out much?

Seriously though, the breakage is a bummer, but you are doing it the right way: using it. Good work on that, and good work on proving me right in the sense that softer springs are better . . .

Your newfound grip (nice camber setting!) may require you to engineer a more stout rack and cooling setup. I don't envy the research requirements . . .

I think they figured this heat range out with the 1992 LT1--I remember bugging out seeing a new Corvette get that hot in a smog shop I worked in back then. The LS definitely continues to like it some heat (excuse language--I am in Georgia right now) . . .

More and more reading on this topic and this is where I am looking to land. In Vegas it was 220+ and I was a little worried about it. I think the cooler stat is going to do me good.

Thanks man, Yeah I am a nut job what can I say. I am happy to be using it, just got a little frustrated that this stupid steering is what is going to kick my ass is all.

I believe that the "rebuilt" rack is my problem.

You crack me up.....whats in Georgia?

On a brighter note, Turn One was great so far, parts are shipped out and I should have them on Tuesday in time to get it back together and make it out to the SCCA Time Trials at PIR. As long as everything goes back together and no leaks I should be good to go.

I ordered some PowerFlex race bushings for the front, that is about all Ill be able to get done this coming weekend, still out of town for work until Friday night.

Sean

Did a terrible job of taking pics.

Could not give up a perfectly good (Sunny and dry) weekend with the car sitting missing parts so I got a parts store rebuilt pump and threw it on Saturday to see how things were working.

Bled it, put in Royal Purple fluid in the system this time. Drove just fine around the neighborhood so I loaded it in the trailer Saturday night and got my **** ready to go.

https://i.imgur.com/7kivgmHh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/wmRYcMdh.jpg

Went to McMinnville to run autocross with the BCA club. Great club, really good event.

Rest, Run, Work schedule. 70 cars in total, Raw numbers I am mid pack at 35.

Got some good testing in. Steering did the same thing.....its not the rack, believe it to be lower control arm bushings moving around under the car so I will address that this week.

Front brakes are too hot, I am locking up the front brakes on corner entry no matter what I do......I need to learn to be a better driver.

Temps were running right about 200 sitting around. We got 8 runs in less than a 2 hour run time so we were pretty fast moving. I was happy with these temps and didnt think I had anything to worry about. Temps were in the high 80's, just under 90 and we were in the sun from 7 am to 4 pm when I left.

https://i.imgur.com/CcLgEO2h.jpg

I definitely need to work on the driver more. I feel I am overdriving the car and need to work on smooth before I work on fast. That is a very tough balance and I am still very new to the car as well as autocrossing. I know that there is more in me, I feel like I need some instructor time to help me pick up the pace.

Hope I am able to get the car dialed in before next weekends SCCA Time Trials.

Sean

Seems to be the most normal pose for the car, might as well take a pic of it.

https://i.imgur.com/FIlHup2h.jpg

Couldnt stand not knowing what was going on under there so I jacked the car up and got to work. Finding it was easy. Jack car up, wheel moved....

Grab wheel, the front lower control arm mount moves about 3/8" or so. I start digging further and the "stover" or lock nut is loose on the bolt that holds the lower control arm. Not only is it loose on there, its loose like you can thread it like a normal nut onto the bolt.


https://imgur.com/TfVFdkn


Also the hole in the crossmember is 14mm, while the bolt is a 12 mm bolt.

So here is what I came to the conclusion of, Replace the lower control arm bushings with the race superflex ones I ordered. I drilled out the sleeve for the front lower control arm up to 1/2" and ran a new grade 8 bolt with a new stover nut on it a little lock tight and it should be good. This was a much tighter assembly even when things were not tightened up unlike before.

I got one side done last night. Still need to do the other side tonight. It took me a little bit to figure out what I was going to do to fix it.

The hole in the crossmember was not egged out either, it was still perfectly round.

I am sure that I screwed something up somewhere but this is what I have now, should be better than stock in my opinion.

The good news is I can have the lower control arms out of the car in like 10 minutes now after doing it so many times. :roll:

Sean

Race, break, fix, rinse... repeat

Keep at it!

Andrew

I can't imagine the feeling in the steering wheel that movement must have created?

You do realize that each time you make a fix like this you are going to have to learn the car all over again, right? :D

Nice work!!

I see the Volvo is getting some love on Speedhunters. Right on the front page today!

http://www.speedhunters.com/2019/06/...machines-more/

Too funny, that is what I first typed up =) So true too.

It was horrible feeling in the car man, turn the wheel then wait for the car to change direction.

I am still learning to drive it anyways so not much time lost there =)

At least I am out using it and getting seat time instead of just looking at it in a parking lot or a field at a car show. Dont get me wrong I like a few car shows here and there but would much rather be out using it.

Someone sent me that yesterday. Was pretty awesome to see it on there. Thanks for sharing!!!

When I got over to the passenger side, the nut and bolt were also loose, not as bad as the drivers side but still, not suspension parts tight like it should have been.

I done have any fancy machinery at home but since this isnt a pretty part, it just needed something to allow it to bite into the crossmember I had at it with my hacksaw to give it some teeth.

https://i.imgur.com/u0ecy8Qh.jpg

Performed same treatment on this side, drilled out sleeve to a tight .50" hole, replaced the lower control arm bushings with the superflex black "Race" bushings Used a new .50" bolt, heavy washers, stover nut and lock tite on the bolt.

Took the car out for a quick stroll to see how it was. Most solid the car has felt since its been on the road by a long shot. Curious to see if these stay tight over the weekend if they do I think its problem solved and move on to something else.

Turn one pump showed up last night looks nice, billet pulley is sweet but the pump is not drilled to accept my brackets......so call them and figure out whats up with that.

Now to get some sort of an alignment on the thing before the weekend.

Sean

In search of how to get a little more air for the radiator....I had always liked the front bumper on my friend Jerd's Gold wagon so I got to chopping. Stupid pilot hole drifted a little bit so they are not all where they are supposed to be but a little bit of black paint on the inner structure and you will never see them at least I hope.

Thanks for the idea Jerd.

https://i.imgur.com/OUmUDoch.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/K9Lrg6kh.jpg

Power steering pump showed up as well, have not gotten a chance to install yet, might wait until next week.

Beautiful piece though.

https://i.imgur.com/71Wkrlrh.jpg

Helping the neighbor with a 70 F100 and we needed to cap the lines on the mustang tank sending unit. So a couple small plugs and silicon bronze TIG'd it up last night. Should hold back fuel no problem.

https://i.imgur.com/OVzyDRbh.jpg

Truck is cool, Coyote, MT82, crown vic, coilovers front, boingers in the rear still but doing cal tracks. I have done most fo the welding and fab work on it. Still gotta do motor mounts and tranny mounts and we can drop the engine and trans in.

I ordered a GPS Speedo cause I am sick of not having my speedometer working. vnet module shipped out but antenna is coming from Texas so its a week out.

I did a string line alignment on it after all the frontened work and for my first try with it I think I did pretty good. Wheel is straight, tracks well both under power and under braking.

SCCA Time Trials this weekend at PIR so hoping the car does well.

As a side note, after building this the last year and now a few months of working the bugs out of it I am getting pretty burned out and I think a break is needed from car stuff for a while.

Happy Friday!!

Sean

I always find a little track time is an excellent cure for car burn out fatigue...

I'm in week 5 of a 3 week project myself and finding it difficult to motivate to finish the last few details. I'm SO close...yet still so far away from hearing this thing run. I'm sure once it fires for the first time I'll relight that fire inside...

Isnt that how it goes though, Trust me my friend I totally get that. Keep at it you are too close now to stop, car looks awesome by the way, its going to be a ton of fun once its back together.

Good track time is a good cure =)

Well, Here is my short reply. I believe that the rear lower control arm bushing mounting and style are what are causing my weird front alignment. I am going to order or build some different lower control arms that have a real rear control arm mount. I believe that style of bushing is just not compatible with what I have going on.

After last weekend and this weeks repairs I was not really holding my breath that anything was going to work.

Friday after work I spent a little time going over some items, chatted with Racepak. Their tech support is not educated on anything with these dashes though. Is all he did was open the manual and read it line for line. Anything technical he had no idea how to do it or how it operated.

The bottom line is that you cannot manually program in any parameters for the speedometer (according to Racepak) and the only way to get the speedometer to work is to go through their auto calculation procedure. Seems rediculous to me.

So I go out, do their procedure and sure as **** I have a working speedometer!!!

I was pretty stoked. Get the car loaded up in the trailer for Saturday morning SCCA Time Trials at PIR with my buddy Kevin and his S10.

Got to the track, ran through Tech, no problems, registration, transponders and what not.

We got 2 20 minute practice sessions in the morning and 2 timed sessions in the afternoon.

Unfortunately my fastest lap was a 1:31.2 in practice and seemed to get slower as the weekend went on. They lined us up in our run groups by previous fast lap, Kevin and I were in the front 3 or 4 spots all weekend long so we got 4 or 5 good hot laps in before we caught lap traffic, me in front a couple times, him in front a couple, we had a blast chasing each other around and surprised more than a few people in our run group.

https://i.imgur.com/qFdKrsnh.jpg

In impound after our session for a debrief. It was a great rundown of what happened in our sessions, what worked, what didn't and so on.

I chased Kevin all weekend but he was just faster than me and I had to settle for 2nd place out of 2 cars in our class of MAX 1. Either way though we had an awesome time.

After our first session, the steering wheel went to about 10 degrees to the right and stayed there all weekend, made a little adjustment and said f it and ran it. None of the hardware came loose. I paint marked all hardware before we left and nothing moved at all so that was good.

Only issue I had all weekend was that and the panhard bar came loose on my second to last session, going to need to add that to the list of things to check after every run. Got a little blip of low oil pressure on Saturday, was a little low so added in some oil and ran all day sinday without a problem. Reading up on it, Holley in very small print says to run an extra half quart if you are going to track their oil pans.....good to know. so its a 6.5 quart system now

Beautiful weekend for some racing!!

https://i.imgur.com/wFAyVCoh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/r986Utuh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Pl0Jmkmh.jpg

Car did awesome, figured out tires are much happier with 36 lbs in them than the 32 I started with. Rear end is happier softer than stiffer.

Driver needs to be more aggressive and I need some more power!!! Ill be ordering a cam and pulley soon.

I was able to hit 130 on the back straight away though, so its no slouch.

Thank you SCCA for putting on such an awesome event this weekend, I had a blast, met some new very helpful people and took home some awards. There is a long story behind the spirit of time trials trophy, but it really comes down to just being there for people when they need a hand, remember life is short, enjoy it and lend a hand when you can.

https://i.imgur.com/sip94YXh.jpg

Kevins Truck is a bad machine, much more than meets the eye and it rips.

More to come soon.

Sean

Now that sounds like a fun weekend playing with cars!!!

I think the SCCA accidentally stumbled on something really cool with their Time Trial program. It is kind of like the CAM classes in their autocross program. They didn't really want to do it, but once talked into it has taken off with huge success.

I can't wait to try one myself.

Congrats on the hardware. Basher said he had a great time at that deal.

I don't think it was an accident at all. They need help drawing in more participants to the track and this was a no brainer way to do it.

Totally agree. Although pretty lightly attended. There was only 60 cars entered in but it made for great unclogged sessions, just not sure its enough revenue to keep them going.

If its done right and gets some attention it could be huge.

Thanks man, pretty fun times. Basher was at a Track Night in America, another great event and very, very well attended. The fun thing about those is you get great seat time on a friday night so you dont have to give up an entire weekend like the Time Trials.

Not much to report here.

Still brainstorming on the front suspension situation.

I did however manage to get the racepak 100% functional for the first time last night. Went through and programmed in all of the gears so that the gear indicator on the dash works. I am shocked at how well it works too considering its going off of mph and rpm. Pretty cool though.

https://i.imgur.com/m8c6rCfh.jpg

No more track days or autocross planned for a bit now. Going to dig into the lower control arms and see what I can come up with there first.

Probably going to dive into a stereo in the next few weeks though, headphones are getting old.

Sean

Well, I am getting to the end of my proverbial rope with this thing now.

Continue to be impressed by the killer stuff these guys have helped me out with on this car. Huge shout out to STS Machining's Scott and Taylor for helping with my idea.

I was having issues with the rear rubber bushings on the lower control arms. I hatched the idea of a delrin bushing for the rear that was captured in the cup, Taylor made the first set, a 2 piece design that would not be able to be pulled out the front of the cup.

Here is what the end result is. A 2 piece delrin bushing, the cup welded into the actual bucket that bolts to the car. For the first time I can without a doubt tell you that this is not moving around at all.

Getting machined

https://i.imgur.com/nW4DPWqh.jpg

Parts cut and fresh out of the freezer ready to be installed.

https://i.imgur.com/oiZJFlRh.jpg

This cup was cleaned and welded in place so that it cannot get pulled out.

https://i.imgur.com/CyJHFIuh.jpg

Assembled

https://i.imgur.com/gvLKvf8h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VJpCBy6h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xcWrBfCh.jpg

When I took these current bushings out, the one on the drivers side had come out of the cup so far that the flange on the backside was not even holding it in any longer. The passenger side had started to pull the cup out of the bucket.

No its not the Fancy Sellholm arms, maybe those can go in someday in the future.

SO now I have lower control arms that are not moving around, great should be problem solved right.....wrong.

Still does the same ****.

You can center the steering wheel, go out for a drive and it will move from left to right depending on what you are doing.

It seems to be getting worse. If I go hard on the gas, the steering wheel will be off center to one side, if I go around a hard turn, brake or something then it will be off center to the other side.

I checked all the front crossmember bolts and they were not crazy tight, drove it again this morning before work and same problem.

I installed new hardware on the steering rack when installed. Considering that it changes on hard launches, I am leaning towards something loose in the rear suspension.

Might have time to look at it over the weekend but have graduation activities from this afternoon through Sunday.

Any good opinions I am all ears.

Sean

Sean, now that you know you have a solid bushing in the front, how easily do the arms move up and down before connecting them to the knuckle? If you don't have much stiction there, and you're positive the rack and pinion isn't moving, then something in the rear could still be adding to the situation. Seems like everything you've done up to now has been a necessary upgrade.

Totally agree with you, its what I was leaning into last week and didnt get a chance to go through it till the weekend. Thanks for chiming in. Totally worth the upgrade and the stuff I did needed to be done I agree with that.

Well, only had about 2 hours to work on the car this weekend with 2 Graduations to attend. One in Seattle on Friday, another in Portland for our Steamfitter apprenticeship program and then a bbq on Sunday for the Neighbor who graduated Friday night.

Got a little time to work on the coyote swap for my neighbor though, just about ready to set the motor in for the first time one night this week and I can finish up the motor mounts that I got started on.

I went through the entire frontend Saturday afternoon. I cleaned, torqued and put paint pen marks on every fastener. The only thing I found that even remotely budged was the 4 bolts on the Driver side steering arm. I got maybe 1/4 turn from 3 of the 4 bolts, but that was it. Not enough to cause anything to move.

I torqued all of the motor mount hardware as well as every nut and bolt on the crossmember, and all steering stuff. Nothing in the front is moving so its time to head to the rear.

I got the car up in the air, frustrated still..

I checked every nut and bolt on the rear axle, panhard bar, shocks, upper and lower links at the axle, nothing was moving. I reached up and put a wrench on the chassis end of the upper control arms and it wasnt more than hand tight.

I continued to find 4 loose bolts for the fronts. Uppers got torqued to the proper spec. I found the lowers loose as well. They had stover nuts on them but the stover nuts were not really tight.

I purchased new washers for the bolt, new stover nuts and installed with Blue locktite.

I took it out for a trip around the area to see what I had. For the first time ever the steering wheel was in the same spot the entire drive. I was hard on it too, accelerate hard from a dead stop, hard braking, steering left and right abruptly.

I paint marked all the hardware on the body for the rearend to see if it moves at all moving forward.

Never did I think that the rear suspension moving around could cause that bad of an effect on the steering. I am really curious to see what it feels like on track now. It feels so much tighter than it every has.

Live and learn right?

So, working out the little bugs now. I have a shake in the steering wheel at about 62 to 70 mph. I think its a front hub issue, but going to tear into it this week and start measuring things out with a dial indicator to measure runout.

Gave the old girl a bath yesterday and enjoyed it being mostly trouble free for a day :oogle:

https://i.imgur.com/VPRKnoGh.jpg

Looks pretty meaty sitting there.

Happy Monday and thanks for those who have provided help and feedback on this thing along the way, its much appreciated.

Sean

Glad to hear you found the culprit and got it squared away. Always a nice feeling of accomplishment to knock out the stubborn issues.

Daniel

Killin it man! Way to persevere through the bugs. Its such a good feeling to go for drive and feel things improve!

Rest sometime man. Geez, I get tired just reading what you accomplish in any given weekend haha!

I'm learning more and more that to fix one end, you need to start at the other. This seems like just another example of that. Hope this proves to be the fix Sean...

No joke. Its been a struggle with this stuff but I guess I have learned a lesson here.

Totally a good feeling, to finally have a change was awesome. Yeah, I dont really do the rest thing at all. I work a fair bit, and dont like to sit around at all. So I go work on stuff, sometimes it gets exhausting I will admit to that.

Totally, guess this is how you learn right? Seems to be, I have about 30 miles on it with zero change in steering wheel position. I dropped it off this morning for an alignment again. Hope this is my last one for a while.

I am going to need a tire sponsor....... About due for 2 new kicks already. I guess that means I am using it though right?

Sean