Spuds' Vroom Machine

[Spuds]

New wheels on. I think I'm going to need mud flaps, and maybe go a bit lower...

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Spuds

percussion, I mean persuasion.

I bet it still leaks from the v-banded joint. They can be real bitches. They suck at overcoming any force holding the faces out of parallel. Order of tightening operations can take that into account. If it was mine, I'd have loosely installed the collector to the overpipe and played with all the parts relative to each other. Have any grooves formed on the inside faces of the band?

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

I bet it still leaks from the v-banded joint. They can be real bitches. They suck at overcoming any force holding the faces out of parallel. Order of tightening operations can take that into account. If it was mine, I'd have played with loosely installing the collector to the overpipe and play with all the parts relative to each other. Have any grooves formed on the inside faces of the band?

It's definitely the double slips. I checked with a handy dandy smoke pen.

Specifically it's the bottoms of the lower primaries. Might seal a bit better when really hot but I let the engine get up to temperature before testing. Vband seemed fine all around.

Order of fastening: header to engine, vband, front pipe to mid pipe.

[Clipdat]

Originally Posted by Spuds

New wheels on. I think I'm going to need mud flaps, and maybe go a bit lower...

Ride height looks good to me, I would leave it just like that. Congrats on the new wheels, they look stunning on red! Great color combo.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Spuds

It's definitely the double slips. I checked with a handy dandy smoke pen.

Hey, that's pretty sweet! Oh well. So much for guesswork. I'm with Clipdat. Wheels look great.

[Spuds]

Autocross #3 with the current setup. Now with magic donuts of stiction. About 2 seconds off the STX leaders pace, but not bad for my first time on 200tw.

These re71rs tires are pretty amazing lol. Upped front camber to -3.4° from -3.0°. might be able to use some more, haven't checked tires yet. I can probably get 4 ish with the parts I got, but I think 3.4 is sufficient. Rear seemed happy with -2.1° for now. Still having some weird toes/thrust angle issues that I need to wrap my head around...

If I can get the alignment sorted I might play with stiffer damper settings next time out. Just been using recommended street settings from RCE, but the fast tires allow for much quicker transitions grip-wise.

Header is definitely better, as fuel trims stayed reasonable. But it's still definitely leaky

[autoracer86]

Loving the wheels on the red. Looks amazing

[Spuds]

Finally got my alignment where I want it, or at least it's close enough. Maxed out camber front and rear to -3.6 and -2.2 respectively. As close to 0 toe as I can measure all around. Still using RCEs standard recommended damper settings, which are nice to drive around in. Still having a bit of trouble with instability in quick slaloms but that might be next year's problem to figure out.

Best autocross result is 6th overall out of 60ish so far. Still about a second off the STX leader pace.

Now I need to work on the tune and figuring out ways to cool the engine bay. The front edge of my hood is literally too hot to pick up at times. I blame headers. Some options I'm considering:

1.The right solution is probably to wrap the already ceramic coated headers... or get new fully welded headers and wrap those lol. But that would mean taking the headers off again and I don't wanna.
2. Find an STX legal way to vent heat out the top. Too bad I can't do hood vents...
3. I wonder if removing the under-hood insulation would help. That is, if there isn't any other detrimental effect like killing my paint with heat.
4. Reflective tape everywhere I want to keep cool
5. Mess with fan settings in tune/better fans

[gnarjunkie]

That smoke pen is neat!

How exactly were you using it to check for leaks? I've got a suspicion that my headers are a bit leaky too and was going to try to find a shop to do a smoke test. But that pen looks way more neater.


Also have the same thing happening with the underhood heat. It's crazy how fast headers on these things heat up. At least for me, the only detriment seems to be high IATs, so I'm going to try insulating the intake tube and putting reflective tape on it then getting some hood struts so I don't have to hold it open myself

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by gnarjunkie

That smoke pen is neat!

How exactly were you using it to check for leaks? I've got a suspicion that my headers are a bit leaky too and was going to try to find a shop to do a smoke test. But that pen looks way more neater.


Also have the same thing happening with the underhood heat. It's crazy how fast headers on these things heat up. At least for me, the only detriment seems to be high IATs, so I'm going to try insulating the intake tube and putting reflective tape on it then getting some hood struts so I don't have to hold it open myself

I lift the car onto 4 jack stands, remove the metal under tray, open the hood and turn it on. Light the pen/wick so there's a good stream of smoke coming off it, then move it around under the exhaust so the smoke stream goes around the joints. It should flow smoothly, if it gets really turbulent, that's a leak. Obviously doesn't work when the fan turns on.

I recommend sticking the pen in a deep socket to keep it upright when you aren't holding it and want to keep it lit.

Another detriment to the heat is that my battery terminals are corroding quite quickly. Also, I can't imagine that amount of heat is good for the paint on the hood or anything else in they bay.

[gnarjunkie]

Originally Posted by Spuds

I lift the car onto 4 jack stands, remove the metal under tray, open the hood and turn it on. Light the pen/wick so there's a good stream of smoke coming off it, then move it around under the exhaust so the smoke stream goes around the joints. It should flow smoothly, if it gets really turbulent, that's a leak. Obviously doesn't work when the fan turns on.

I recommend sticking the pen in a deep socket to keep it upright when you aren't holding it and want to keep it lit.

Another detriment to the heat is that my battery terminals are corroding quite quickly. Also, I can't imagine that amount of heat is good for the paint on the hood or anything else in they bay.

Nice. Thanks! I'll give that a try.
Previous cars I've always just felt around the headers for leaks, but these ones get so hot that by the time I start the car and crawl under it they are already almost too hot to hold my hand near.

[alex87f]

Originally Posted by Spuds

Finally got my alignment where I want it, or at least it's close enough. Maxed out camber front and rear to -3.6 and -2.2 respectively. As close to 0 toe as I can measure all around. Still using RCEs standard recommended damper settings, which are nice to drive around in. Still having a bit of trouble with instability in quick slaloms but that might be next year's problem to figure out.

Best autocross result is 6th overall out of 60ish so far. Still about a second off the STX leader pace.

Now I need to work on the tune and figuring out ways to cool the engine bay. The front edge of my hood is literally too hot to pick up at times. I blame headers. Some options I'm considering:

1.The right solution is probably to wrap the already ceramic coated headers... or get new fully welded headers and wrap those lol. But that would mean taking the headers off again and I don't wanna.
2. Find an STX legal way to vent heat out the top. Too bad I can't do hood vents...
3. I wonder if removing the under-hood insulation would help. That is, if there isn't any other detrimental effect like killing my paint with heat.
4. Reflective tape everywhere I want to keep cool
5. Mess with fan settings in tune/better fans

Someone on the board had figured out a way to make the small side panels at the top of the fenders (where the boxer logo is) into vents. It does require some cutting though. Technically that's not a hood vent. Would this work?

Otherwise cutting holes into the top of the front bumper? Or using spacers on the hood hinges?

Fabricating a heat shield for the header?

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by alex87f

Someone on the board had figured out a way to make the small side panels at the top of the fenders (where the boxer logo is) into vents. It does require some cutting though. Technically that's not a hood vent. Would this work?

Otherwise cutting holes into the top of the front bumper? Or using spacers on the hood hinges?

Fabricating a heat shield for the header?

I can't do any extra vents that weren't there to begin with per STX rules if I read them correctly. Especially cannot cut holes for cooling. I CAN remove badges and plastic covers which may or may not include those plastic panels, but there's not much ventilation to be gained by that by itself.

I don't think I'm allowed to modify the hood hinges to add cooling holes either. That's not really the best place to put a hole anyway, as it's high pressure when driving.

I could make a heat shield if it only attaches to the header itself, but at that point I'm better off wrapping the headers.

[alex87f]

Originally Posted by Spuds

I can't do any extra vents that weren't there to begin with per STX rules if I read them correctly. Especially cannot cut holes for cooling. I CAN remove badges and plastic covers which may or may not include those plastic panels, but there's not much ventilation to be gained by that by itself.

I don't think I'm allowed to modify the hood hinges to add cooling holes either. That's not really the best place to put a hole anyway, as it's high pressure when driving.

I could make a heat shield if it only attaches to the header itself, but at that point I'm better off wrapping the headers.

I was thinking something along those lines https://www.ebay.com/itm/233591412126 (special points for rice look)