My 67 Eternity Project Camaro

[Tony V]

Track Day




First session on the track I came in early (after 10 min) thinking I was dropping PS fluid all over the track. Because it started getting difficult to turn, small turns no problem but coming into a big turn with speed it became to feel like a manual system. Got into the pit and opened the hood to measure the temp of P/S fluid in the reservoir, I think it got too hot. I measured 260 degrees and it was the cheap prestone off the shelf. Last session of the day, I was taking a friend of mine out and about 10 min into we heard some racket within the car somewhere, pulled to the side, all temps good/Oil pressure good but rear view mirror showed a huge cloud of smoke and steam LOTS. You know the instant your heart falls out of your chest well anyway kept it idling to get to a better pull off spot but watching all the gauges which all read normal ????
Opened the hood thinking the worst but come to find out it was a rib from the serpentine belt and it had started coming apart and cutting the water line from the head and oil vent line from the engine valley, big sigh of relief it wasn’t anything serious. Actually, started it back up and drove it into the pits. Upon further review it also cut my dry sump outlet hose so I was dumping oil out just didn’t drain the tank to the point of impacting oil pressure. Here’s some pics of the carnage…..





All in all I considered it a good day, had a blast but now I have a mess to clean up. I’m glad it wasn’t painted yet. Car ran exceptionally well, it exceeds driver capabilities. I did have an off-track excursion on the back straight-a-way, I stabbed it to pass a Porsche and I call it “too much aggression or stupidity” but while in 3rd on the back straight away the back end came out and next thing I know I was turned around in the dirt. The Porsche driver did come up to me afterwards to see what HP I was putting down, next session I got behind him again but he quickly waived me by, I’m assuming he was scared of the newbie behind him…..Next purchase will have to be a go-pro so I can tape it.

Things I decided I need to change; new shifter, radiator with P/S cooler & Oil cooler, need a new P/S pump (pump has never been the same since track day). Realigned my idler pulley for the serpentine belt. Here’s my theory on why the belt came apart in the first place. Soon after getting the car on the road and driving it some I recognized that the belt had walked off by one rib where it was now sitting on the raised shoulder of the idler pulley. I think I may have stressed the outer part of the belt and it started coming apart. Since then I’ve used a laser and straight edge to assure I have better alignment on all the pulleys.

Next Event
Scheduled to run the Goodguys event on March 10th in Scottsdale so there’s several things that must get done. Not sure if I’m going to catch any slack for not having a painted/finished car in the autocross but I really wanted to vet some things out mechanically and what better way than to use the goodguys event. Plus I get to watch how some of the pros do it.

[preston]

reminds me of many of the same problems I have had. Glad it wasn't serious. At first that's a big relief, but then later I still get upset about why I couldn't prevent the initial problem.

Its good to do a lot of shakedown on the street, but the track will reveal all sorts of new problems.

[rustomatic]

Congrats on sort of surviving the track day! It's good to have posts like this, as people don't realize the kind of stress doing a track day can put on car. Even with all-new parts, you will still break things at a track day--something got stressed out or broken every time I tracked (the last version of) my Falcon. There's just such a huge difference between occasionally goosing the throttle (burnout, bro!) or stabbing the brake and constantly flooring while just barely avoiding crashing for extended periods of time. Autocrosses are far easier to live through . . .

Here's to the next one!

[Sonar Chief]

Yes big thanks for posting the post-track day experience, however, the solution is more important here ... keep us posted with progress reports!

Michael

[Dr G]

Pulley alignment can be tricky. Especially if you've made your own system and pulley mounts. But a thrown belt can really ruin a track day or auto-x.

[Tony V]

Thanks guys, thought I had it licked with alignment. I was using the laser and a straight edge and added some spacers to tensioner puller a bit but after a quick lap around the neighborhood I noticed it was trying to walk off again.
Here's some observations:
Belt was extremely tight (hard to get it off and on) fully maxed out the tensioner.
It also seemed that the tensioner pulley wasn't in the same plane angle....let me explain the angle of the balancer was a bit different than the tensioner so added .180" extra to the bottom bolt which better aligned the two pulleys. I also purchased a new belt that 1/2" longer. Now I've taken it out twice and no walking. I only have 4 days until Goodguys so whenever I get a chance i'll take it out and check it.

[Tony V]

First just to recap from the results of my road coarse excursions….P/S fluid temp got real hot and I suspected that my pump was junk after only 15 minutes of track time. Well I replaced the pump and the steering is now back to what is was before but without a cooler I’m afraid I’ll just go through another pump if I do another road course. I did upgrade the fluid but still not confident it will handle another event. So I called around for an auxiliary fluid to fluid heat exchangers. Shocked set in when I started looking at prices and then the job of locating the unit somewhere……
Then an interesting thing happened, two weeks later out of the blue one of those shops, Ron Davis Radiators, calls me back and asks if I was still looking and would I consider a radiator with an integrated Oil & P/S cooler. I said absolutely interested but getting my head around ditching my perfectly good dual fan radiator that (BTW has worked beautifully up until now), seemed a bit wasteful. Luck has it they were local so I decided to spend an afternoon at the shop bench racing and letting Ron explain the benefits of using his radiator. We worked out a deal and now I’m looking at a new radiator……I’ll take some detail pics and steps regarding the swap, the piece is beautiful and I want make sure I document it all. Ron is also interested and waiting for some feedback because he specially designed this for 1st Gen’s.

[Tony V]

So more track results: entered and ran the Good-Guys event in Scottsdale, lots of fun and the people were great. Being a newbie didn’t know what to expect but everyone was very helpful. I did realize tires make a difference….i mean a big difference. My Invo’s Nitto’s were not up to the task but my lack of experience was probably the bigger issue. I only ran Friday morning and got more runs than I ever expected, I had 8 passes by lunch. This year it was a single lap run so I was trying to figure out entry and exit one turn at a time. I was consistently 4 secs off the pro’s and it was pretty awesome how smooth they ran the track. I could include a couple video’s but they’ll bore you to death…



I’m also trying to re-link all of my photos from previous posts using IMGUR after my photobucket loss….

[jwcarguy]

Originally Posted by Tony V

First just to recap from the results of my road coarse excursions….P/S fluid temp got real hot and I suspected that my pump was junk after only 15 minutes of track time. Well I replaced the pump and the steering is now back to what is was before but without a cooler I’m afraid I’ll just go through another pump if I do another road course. I did upgrade the fluid but still not confident it will handle another event. So I called around for an auxiliary fluid to fluid heat exchangers. Shocked set in when I started looking at prices and then the job of locating the unit somewhere……
Then an interesting thing happened, two weeks later out of the blue one of those shops, Ron Davis Radiators, calls me back and asks if I was still looking and would I consider a radiator with an integrated Oil & P/S cooler. I said absolutely interested but getting my head around ditching my perfectly good dual fan radiator that (BTW has worked beautifully up until now), seemed a bit wasteful. Luck has it they were local so I decided to spend an afternoon at the shop bench racing and letting Ron explain the benefits of using his radiator. We worked out a deal and now I’m looking at a new radiator……I’ll take some detail pics and steps regarding the swap, the piece is beautiful and I want make sure I document it all. Ron is also interested and waiting for some feedback because he specially designed this for 1st Gen’s.

That radiator setup looks great!
I would be interested in the cost of that unit

Thanks, Jeff

[Tony V]

Hey Jeff the part number is 11-16CA6969 price is $1995.00....

Ron indicated he'd like me to fit it first and make sure everything fits and works as advertised. When I get new fittings and hoses i'll document the installation.