Rising from the Ashes. The Rally 240SX rebuild thread.

General discussion forum about the 240sx, and a great place to introduce yourself to the board!
User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Sat Nov 16, 2019 7:53 pm
Awesome updates. I love everything you guys did with the car.
Also, that footage looks and sounds way faster than I guess it actually is. Did it remain a stock KA, or did you ever put any cams or other power-adders on it?
That camera does make it look fast. The quality/location probably has something to do with it.

That engine was 100% stock, and frankly probably 10-15% low on power. The car was very deceptive to drive because we did a really good job dialing in the handling which allowed the drivers to carry a lot of speed nearly everywhere. At that time it was one of the best handling cars in every race we took it to, it just didn't have the raw power to be truly competitive among the best in the country.

I'm only about 20% through the nearly 700 pictures I had since we started the conversion. Not including all the on track pictures taken by others. So there's lots yet to come.


User avatar
Ajax
Posts: 1643
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2003 3:16 pm
Car: 1991 240sx SE
2010 Mazda 5

Post

Oh Dang. I gotta catch up here.
Hi Ian! Glad you pulled her back out. Looks like you're having fun. And putting the kid to work; Genius!

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Ajax wrote:
Sun Nov 17, 2019 10:02 am
Oh Dang. I gotta catch up here.
Hi Ian! Glad you pulled her back out. Looks like you're having fun. And putting the kid to work; Genius!
Thanks Dave. I'll be continuing to post "posthumous" updates a few times a week untill I catch up with present day, then I'll be creating a new thread.

And the kid"s" are decent helpers. The older one is just better at hiding from the camera.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Winter 2017/2018

The trend of removing things from the car continues. Except now we're removing something that will eventually need to go back in. The engine in the car had reached a point where we were all worried about it. It felt down on power, and the 10+ quarts of oil it was consuming per race weekend was becoming a problem, not only due to costs, but the car was beginning to loose oil pressure in long right turns near the end of a stint because it would be so low.

Image

Out it came.

Image

I dug a spare block and head out of the spares pile and dropped them at the machine shop for cleaning. Once I had them back the block got painted, and I stuff it with new OE type replacement pistons, King Racing bearings, and a new timing chain.

Image

Once it was all dressed and buttoned up, and the wiring in the engine bay was cleaned up, we dropped it back in.

Image

With the engine back in the car, we set about another addition to the car. We had sat down as a team and Decided to race 3 races for the 2018 season. A late April 8+8 race at Road America, a 24 Hour race at Nelson Ledges in Ohio, and a third race TBD in the fall, possibly another 8+8 at BIR. And since it tends to get dark during a 24 hour race, we sorta needed headlights.

Diode Dynamics stepped up and provided us with 2 pairs of 6" driving lights to get us sorted out, and they threw in a bunch of T shirts and stickers as well. Awesome product, and awesome company. I did have to modify the brackets on 2 of them to get the clearance I wanted.

Image

First one mounted

Image

And the other side.

Image

Luckily my foresight saw me adding wiring to the new loom to allow us to power the headlights completely independently of the rest of the illumination.

Image

Where are the other 2 going to go you might ask? Well I decided to go for a retro LMGT look.

Image

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Once I picked a spot, I needed to get them actually mounted.

So shiny.

Image

Then to maintain our aerodynamics and protect the lights themselves from debris, we added lexan covers to the center lights.

Image

Image

Image

Then, I dug up some yellow tint to help broaden the color spectrum of the light which increases depth perception. It also looks cool.

Image

The pictures don't pick up the yellow well, but in person it looked awesome.

Image

Our last final addition to the car was another change to the aero. The car was aerodynamically loose in the back end, and could be a bit unnerving at very high speed. We didn't think the crappy orange wing was the right choice because it created too much drag and cut top speed. Out came the Menards card again.

Image

And with a few turnbuckles and some tweaking, bingo bango, low drag downforce.

Image

With the car as ready as it was going to be, we decided to load the car on the trailer a week early to send it to the shop where Jaret worked in Monticello. There it would receive its final preparations.

The day It was meant to go on the trailer, the skies opened up, and the Duluth area received no less than 10" of snow. The car barely moved in the driveway, and we ended up winching the car on the trailer and away it went. With a week till the race, we hoped RA would be spared, and the weather would be good.

It wasn't, and it didn't.

The race was canceled. We contemplated what to do. There was a separate sanctioning body holding a race at Road America only a week or two after our canceled race. They had different classing, but similar safety requirements so we took our refund, and applied it to the new sanctioning body. We would be stuck in a class where we wouldn't really be competitive, but we'd still be racing, and that's what our primary focus is anyway. The wait was terrible. Like having Christmas pushed back as a kid, but finally we loaded up, and headed back to what is one of my favorite places in the world.

Image

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

May 2018

The friday test session started cold and wet. Track conditions would be slick, but since we were breaking in a new engine, that suited us just fine.

Images

We set up camp next to a large RV to help block the wind.

Image

We ran the car easy during the morning session. We had the rain tires on, (we learned our lesson and bought some) so we each took 10 laps to feel out the wet track and try our best to seat the new rings.

Image

Image

At the lunch break, we changed the oil/filter, and because it was drying out, we swapped back to dry tires. Everyone got some seat time, and the car was running great.

Saturday morning started cool bu clear. With some very fast hardware on the entry list, I didn't have high hopes of a good finish, but that didn't mean we weren't going to try.

Image

Rolling down pit road to grid up for the start.

Image

Things started off okay. The car was running well, but we were clearly outgunned. As I was taking my second to last lap before pitting, I dove into Turn 1 as I had many other times, but the steering wend dead in my hands, and the car shot way wide. It was like there was ice on the track. As I hit the paved runoff the steering came back and I was able to keep it mostly on the track surface. Thats when I noticed the shiny, dark area about a meter wide following the racing line. Someone was loosing oil.

I stayed off the line and checked my gauges, but all was fine, so I made my final flying lap. On my "in lap" I watched turn one, and spotted the dark area that nearly caught me out. I hit the pits, and got out of the car. Evan got in, and the other started fueling. Then the word came over the radio that they were black flagging all cars and stopping the race to clean up a spill. We were stuck. We spent the better part of an hour waiting for the what turned out to be approximately 14 quarts of old from a broken fitting on the dry sump tank of a Porsche Boxster. Im surprised they were able to clean it as fast as they did. That's one heck of a mess.

Once the race restarted, Evan was putting in some really good times until all of a sudden he was yelling over the radio. Nobody understood what he was trying to say, but he was clearly excited/upset about something. Then the race radio crackled, and they announced they were black flagging all the cars again. In all my time at RA, I had never experienced a black flag all, not to mention two in a day. The RA safety crew are the best in the business at hot pulls and track cleanup, and they rarely used the safety car, but now they need to bring everyone in. Once the cars began to filter down pit road, I ran over to Evan to ask if he knew what had happened. He was beside himself, and it took 3 times before I understood him.

A tree had fallen on the race track. And he had nearly hit it. We spent the next 40 minutes keeping him cool and watered in the car until they pulled the green flab back out and restarted the race once again after telling us they would be extending the checkered flag by 1 hour to make up for some of the time wed lost.

Go to about the 49 minute mark in this video to see for yourself. Near the end of the straight, just before turn 5.



The rest of the race was uneventful besides an occasional misfire above 4500 RPM.

Image


With 50+ cars starting, some being Porsche 911s Caymans, and Boxters, not to mention a slew of BMW M3s, an Elan NP01 prototype and an M235IR factory race car, the competition was beyond what I had imagined. We finished 10th in class and 24th overall. Not great, but considering we weren't built to WRL rules, I was happy with the finish.

We set about reprepping the car with a tire rotation, a new set of spark plugs to cure the miss, and some other cleanup.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Here are the rest of Saturdays in car videos. Shot with a much better, but still archaic camera.

Me



Evan Salmonson. Video cut short due to the BFA's



Matt Clark



Jaret Salmonson


User avatar
AZhitman
Administrator
Posts: 71061
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:04 am
Car: 58 L210, 63 Bluebird RHD, 64 NL320, 65 SPL310, 66 411 RHD, 67 WRL411, 68 510 SR20, 75 280Z RB25, 77 620 SR20, 79 B310, 90 S13, 92 SE-R, 92 Silvia Qs, 98 S14.
Location: Surprise, Arizona
Contact:

Post

OK, this is freaking AWESOME!!!!

User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

The car seems much faster with the new engine and different aero on it!

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

AZhitman wrote:
Sun Nov 17, 2019 10:54 pm
OK, this is freaking AWESOME!!!!
Thanks. Im glad I kept taking pictures even though I stopped posting updates. Its nice to have a record of everything that's happened, and how far we've come.

Too bad there's not a way to bully photobucket into not being a bunch of money grubbing jerks. They've got all my other uploaded photos held hostage and they nuked the quality on them unless I pay up. I have the originals all stored locally, but to re-upload everything and re-link all the original posts is many hours at the computer I just don't have.
PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:18 pm
The car seems much faster with the new engine and different aero on it!
The diet we put the car on helped a ton. It was better everywhere. We also switched to Hankook RS4's which are a vastly superior tire to the Falcon RT615K we were on for the Chumpionship. We all bumped our personal best laps by a few seconds, and the fastest time of the weekend was the better part of 4 seconds a lap better. More importantly, all 4 drivers logged fastest times within less than 1 second different on a 4 mile track with a 2:50ish lap time.

User avatar
AZhitman
Administrator
Posts: 71061
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 2:04 am
Car: 58 L210, 63 Bluebird RHD, 64 NL320, 65 SPL310, 66 411 RHD, 67 WRL411, 68 510 SR20, 75 280Z RB25, 77 620 SR20, 79 B310, 90 S13, 92 SE-R, 92 Silvia Qs, 98 S14.
Location: Surprise, Arizona
Contact:

Post

Ian, I think I can help w PB. Give a me a day or two to get caught up on other stuff.

Hugs. :)

User avatar
float_6969
Moderator
Posts: 19853
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:55 pm
Car: CA18DET swapped 1995 Nissan 240sx (too many mods to list)
2015 SV Leaf w/QC & Bose (daily)
Location: Topeka, Kansas
Contact:

Post

I should have waited until this was done and then binge read/watched at the end. The suspense is killing me!

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

float_6969 wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:40 am
I should have waited until this was done and then binge read/watched at the end. The suspense is killing me!
Patience is a virtue as they say.

But I'm not a doctor. I'll try and get another decent update done tonight. 2018 was an exciting year for the team, but I didn't necessarily get pictures of all of it so the posts may be a bit wordier like the last one.

User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

Ian is kindof my hero.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 4:39 pm
Ian is kindof my hero.
I'm not sure if that's either wise or healthy, but I'll take the compliments where I can get em.

Anywho.

So, its Saturday night, and we're going through our pre-race reprep checklist. Tires get swapped around, brakes get checked, oil topped off, and the spark plugs changed because of the missing. They were new with the rebuilt engine, but it did consume some oil during break in (but none during the race) so I wanted to change them in case. Everything with the engine and ECU logs looked great, so we moved on. One of the last things we do before heading to dinner is fill the car with fuel.

As the last jug goes in, I notice quite a strong fuel smell. With a modded vent, the car always smells a bit after a fill, but this was something else. A quick look under the car showed a puddle of fuel under the tank. Ruh Roh Raggy.

Its nearly dark, and we're all tired and hungry, so I do my best not to bark orders too roughly. I send Matt straight to the auto parts store so when we figure out what it is, hes already there. Then I start ripping the access covers off to investigate. I quickly discover fuel pouring out around the fuel sender. This tank/sender have been through hell, and is already got a new O ring, and a gasket to keep it from leaking, and yet it leaks. I can only assume the whole assembly is warped from all the age/fuel slosh/emptying and refilling. Sometimes in the heat of the moment, when the chips are down, all you can do is punt....

On the phone with Matt, I instruct him to buy a large stick of fuel tank repair puddy, and the largest package of JB weld he can find. While We waited, we pumped the tank half dry to stop the leak, then did everything we could to get the sender and tank clean and dry.

Its pitch dark by the time Matt gets back, I quickly mixed up all the putty, and pressed it in, all the way around the fuel sender, flattening it out as best I could to make the seal surface as large as possible. Then, I mixed up 2 full size tubes (think regular toothpaste tubes) of JB weld. I then poured all 8 or so ounces onto the top of the tank. I buried the whole mess like I was trying to bury my own hunger. Then we buttoned the covers back up, and covered the car and left. It would get 12 hours to dry, and there was no way to test it until morning. Sleepless night, here we come.

In the morning, we grab coffee and breakfast and get back to the paddock by 7am, leaving us nearly an hour before drivers cars need to be on grid. I cross my fingers and start dumping fuel in. I top it up, then wait.

It held.

Image

The car takes the green flag. But after a few laps we get bad news over the radio. Its still randomly stumbling about 4500 RPM. I make the call to keep the car out there. I couldn't quickly diagnose it until it got worse.

Image

Jaret's Sister showed up and captures some great action shots of the car on track.

Image

Image

Image

We pushed through the stumble all day. It was slowly getting worse, but only slowing the car slightly once we all figured out how to driver around it. Sometimes it would rev clear to 6000 RPM, other times it would hit a 5500 RPM wall and refuse to rev higher. It was annoying at first but nearly impossible to diagnose mid race. I made some adjustments to the mapping at one pit stop, but it made no difference at all. In the end we all just did our best to overcome.

We managed to take the checkered flag, sort of....

Image

I was in the car. I took the checkers, but on my final lap, I ran the car out of fuel. I had pushed the car harder than i had ever pushed it for a full stint without any major yellows or slow downs. I coasted/sputtered the car around the track, and barely made it back to pits. It was not the ending we hoped for, but we ended up 5th in class, and 11th overall. Not bad seeing as we had brought a knife to a gun fight.

Image

I even managed to remember to get a group photo.

Image

Well, most of a group photo, I had to sneak a photo of our incredible crew chief Shauni (Evan's Wife) when she wasn't paying attention. I wish I had a better way to recognize the energy she puts into our racing program. She logs all our pit stops, maintains all the records and info that help us plan for fuel strategy and driver rotations. She also makes sure everyone is where they need to be, when they need to be. We've run a race without her help, but we were a mess, and nothing seemed to go smoothly. We cannot thank her enough.

Image

Once everything was loaded up, we headed to our customary pizza place, then home.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

May 2018

Customary "dinner stop" photo on the way home from the race. Between dinner and the truck ride, we discussed a lot of things, and made some decisions about changes we needed to make before heading to Ohio for a 24 hour race.

Image

The only "in car" we have from Sunday is Matt's stint.



Its amazing how hectic things get during a race, and sometimes things get put on the back burner. As it turns out, turning the camera on/between stints is something we are working at getting better at, but when the cars not running well, everything else seems to suffer as well.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Summer 2018

During our 5 hour tow home, we discussed many things. But the most pertinent, was where the car was going to go.

Due to the logistics of re-prepping, and hauling the car to Ohio, we decided to leave the car at Jarets, where he could work on it at work. So the car and most of the spares went to the cities, and I was left with an open garage for the first time in 7 years.

I used that time to buy more stuff. Found a set of FN01RC's in decent size for cheap, so I picked them up and refinished them. We only had 8 dry wheels/tires, and we were worried we may run out of spares at a mid summer 24. Some tracks are known to be tire graters, but Nelson Ledges had recently been repaved, so it was an unknown.

Image

After pulling the tires and starting to clean them up, I discovered at least3 color changes worth of paint on them.

Looking much better in primer.

Image

Image

With a couple coats of charcoal.

Image

Then, I decided they needed a little flare.

Image

Image


The second thing we decided to change about the car was the addition of a fuel cell. The leak at RA, me running it out of fuel, and a complete unavailability of good/new replacement tanks/senders, meant it was almost a requirement.

So we yanked the old tank out and pitched it in the garbage and started building a structure to hold a SFI fuel cell.

Image

We opted to put it between the towers where it would be better protected by the safety cage. We also hoped it would cut down on handling changes between full tank and empty tank by shortening the polar moment of inertia by moving the tank nearer the center of the car.

Due to short time between races, it was a bit of a rush to get all the plumbing done and laid out as clean as I would like, but Function > Form. We completed the majority of the re-prep in one weekend a few weeks before the race.

Image


The weekend before the race I started arranging and packing everything I'd need to bring down. Somehow, all this stuff needs to fit in a GD WRX wagon. Good thing I've got stiff suspension.

Image

And Ill leave the full race report for a future update.

User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

I love this s***.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:36 pm
I love this s***.
Thanks. I'm actually enjoying reliving all the memories. The next few posts are going to be very wordy. A Lot happened in the later half of 2018, some good some bad. But I think we're due for a new page. This one is getting a bit long to scroll through.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Lets see, where did I leave off....

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Summer 2018.

"Sometimes you eat the Bear. Sometimes the bear eats you."

This is the moral of my next story. When we last left off, we were all packing up for our big trip to Ohio to attempt our first 24 Hour race at Nelson Ledges. We had replaced the entire fuel system in an attempt to increase fuel capacity, repair our misfiring issue, and make replacement parts available.

I had a lot of the racing supplies at my house, 2 hours north of where the car was stored. Good thing I played a lot of Tetris as a kid.

Image

There was just enough room for me in the car.

I loaded up Tuesday night, and took one of my other cars to work Wednesday. The "plan" was for me to leave from Duluth early Wednesday afternoon to help get the car loaded. Then we would all get on the road early Thursday morning. Jaret, and I would be driving the tow rig along with our friend Barret who was flying in from Seattle Wednesday evening. Evan and Shauni would follow in a second car. We also had 3 rental drivers coming from Duluth. They were driving together but meeting us at the track Friday afternoon.

As I was getting ready to leave, I got a call from Jaret I wasn't expecting. The car was leaking something, he was going to investigate. Oh good.

I got on the road. When I arrived at Sisu Automotive, the car was on a lift, and the transmission was on a trans jack under the car. Jaret had discovered that the input shaft seal on the trans was toast. We had a replacement front cover gasket and seal, but neither of us was sure "why" it had failed, other than the engine from our first 3 races had turned out to have a completely thrashed pilot bearing. I surmised that the lack of pilot support could have cause the input bearing to fail. So we shelved the leaking trans, and installed a spare.

While Jaret was putting the new trans in, Evan pulled the trailer in the shop to start loading up, only to notice that the trailer had a broken lug stud and nut on one wheel. A stud it surely had when we went to RA. So, instead of loading, he started pulling that apart to figure out why. Sometimes when it rains, it pours. Now its dark, and everything is still broken instead of there being a car on the trailer.

Press on. I collected our stack of tires, and got the spare Falcons mounted on the new to us 5 Zigens. So that makes 4 New RS4s, 4 half worn Direzza ZIIIs as primary spares, 4 half worn RT615Ks as test tires, and 4 rain tires. The weather reports were for very hot and sunny all weekend, but I know better than to trust a weather man enough to leave rain tires home.

Thats a lot of rubber.

Image

So now its getting late. Even is finishing up what turned out to be a random stud that must have been torque cycled too many times or over torqued at some point. Barret caught an Uber from the airport, and showed up some time after 10, just in time to begin loading the truck. Since we were going twice as far away, and racing for 33% more hours versus normal, we packed approximately 100% extra stuff. Somehow we managed to fit Generator, spare engine, gearbox, diff, and all the other spares, along with fuel drum, and EZ-up Canopy, gas can, tires, and some camping stuff to "try" to sleep at some point.

Jaret got the car done, Evan, Barret and I got everything else loaded. Evan took the car for a quick test drive while we rearranged the shop a bit, then we put the car on the trailer, and Evan left to pick up Shauni from home.

It was now 5 AM. No time for Love Doctor Jones. Time to hit the road. Jaret, and Barret headed for Jarets house in the truck, and I followed in my car to leave it there. I tucked my Subaru in his Garage just as Evan and Shauni arrived. I hopped in the truck, and we were off.

We slept in 2 hour shifts in the back seat of the truck while the front seat passenger kept the driver awake. We actually made solid time until we hit Chicago traffic, but besides the 6.4 Hemi in the Sisu tow rig needed to stop at every watering hole it spotted, the trip was relatively uneventful. We made it to the track late in the evening Thursday. We dumped the car off the trailer, and the trailer off the truck, and we headed for the Hotel we had booked for Thursday night.

User avatar
float_6969
Moderator
Posts: 19853
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:55 pm
Car: CA18DET swapped 1995 Nissan 240sx (too many mods to list)
2015 SV Leaf w/QC & Bose (daily)
Location: Topeka, Kansas
Contact:

Post

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 10:36 pm
I love this s***.
ditto

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Another day, another missed oppertunity to continue my little story.

Spent the weekend working on a supersecret project. I can't wait to get this thread caught up so I can start cooking on the new one.

User avatar
float_6969
Moderator
Posts: 19853
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2002 1:55 pm
Car: CA18DET swapped 1995 Nissan 240sx (too many mods to list)
2015 SV Leaf w/QC & Bose (daily)
Location: Topeka, Kansas
Contact:

Post

You. Tease. I hate you now.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

float_6969 wrote:
Mon Nov 25, 2019 10:00 am
You. Tease. I hate you now.
I meant not to tease. Only to push us ever closer to a new page since this one is getting a bit on the long side.

User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

You're also at 10k posts. Congrats. Better make it a doozie!

User avatar
PapaSmurf2k3
Site Admin
Posts: 23998
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:20 pm
Car: 2017 Corvette, 2018 Focus ST, 1993 240sx truck KA Turbo.
Location: Merrimack, NH

Post

PS I think like 4 more posts til you get to page 5.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:
Mon Nov 25, 2019 6:11 pm
You're also at 10k posts. Congrats. Better make it a doozie!
Holy crap, I hadn't even noticed, good lookin out. The laptop is warming up, update inbound.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Friday morning.

We were all up early and ready to get testing. With ambient temps forecast in the mid 90s for the day, I wanted to get to work early.

We got the canopy up, and headed for the test day drivers meeting. After the meeting, Evan suited up and got ready to get in the car. None of us had ever driver Nelson Ledges before, so we were eager to get a few laps in to learn the track. With the other three drivers arriving late afternoon and needing test time themselves we wanted to knock it out.

Image

The interesting thing about NL is its small footprint, and the fact that the pit and paddock are on the inside of the track. That means we could see the back side from our paddock area, and the front straight from the pits.

Image

The first few laps went as expected, but Evan was back too soon. The misfire, which we couldn't recreate after the fuel cell install was back. Time to throw everything on the table at the wall and see what sticks. We swapped the distributor and the coil and sent even back out. No change. I rack my brain. With the cam/crank sensor in the distributor and no plug and play MAP sensor in the spares collection, I went for the only load sensor left. I grabbed a spare throttle body and bolted in on and sent Evan back out for one last stint before we needed to get another driver in the car.

He radioed back that the car was perfect. Oh sweet relief. We left him out for a bit, then Jaret jumped in. He ran a few, then I had a quick go before lunch break. I discovered that NL was a RH heavy track, and our lack of power steering was going to become an issue at least for me. I found the car much more taxing to drive than in past races, and the 140* in car temps weren't helping. I was glad to sit in the shade and enjoy some of Barret's BBQ.

Image

The afternoon was hot but uneventful. We made some small adjustments, and even gave Barret a 5 lap stint to thank him for the lunch and all his help.

The other three drivers (Eric, Mike, and Mark) showed up later in the afternoon. All three of them had a few laps in the car, and we sent it off to the tech shed as they shut the track down for the evening. They would be holding a short night test to check lights after dinner. After the car made it through tech we all headed for dinner at a local southern BBQ joint and ate way too much before heading back to the track.

We changed the brakes, and the tires, and I suited up for a night test.

Image

It was a bit deceptive to drive the car at speed in the dark, but I got used to it in a hurry. With only a few laps before they shut the track down, I knew what I needed to do to adjust the lights.

Image

We tweaked the lights, covered the car, and headed back to the hotel to get the last sleep we'd likely get for a quite a while.

User avatar
IanS
Posts: 10090
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:07 pm
Car: 2002 Subaru WRX, 2010 Subaru Forester XT, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe.
Location: Esko, MN
Contact:

Post

Friday Testing footage.

Evans first test.



Evans second test.



My first test.



And again we did a very poor job turning the camera on. Thankfully we did a much better job during the race.


Return to “240sx General Discussion”