[Mysticarl]

My plan over the winter is to pull the engine and gearbox, so I'll do anything like that then - it'll be much easier out of the car!

 

[Mysticarl]

One question I've had on my mind for ages, it seems really high to have the coolant fan come on at 105C ish - wouldn't it be better to have it kick in earlier? Like 90C or something. The aftermarket coolant switches for rad fans seem to try and keep 80-90C temperature range, which would also have the knock-on effect of keeping heat soak into the intercooler lower I'd assume?

Part 2 of that thought is maybe having the low speed fan come on also linked to IAT, so if it goes above a certain delta value from atmospheric it would kick in (maybe capped at a vehicle speed so it wouldn't try and help at 100mph but would help with heat recovery at lower speeds).

Anyone have any thoughts/experience on those?

 

[Mysticarl]

I'll do some experimentation on that once everything's back in one piece, anyway.

Sump gasket is changed, no surprises other than a small hole in the screen of the oil pickup tube so that'll be replaced assuming you can't just change the screen itself. The sump was clean, not a single bit of anything metallic or lumpy. Cylinder walls look fine too.

One issue I do have though is trying to get the damper bolt out, it's not budging yet. I'll need to put back the lower engine mount onto the sump before trying again with a larger bar. I borrowed an impact tool I thought would do the job (around 350ft lb) but no dice.

 

[Mysticarl]

Sooo as well as all the other bits, my supercharger pulley is not seated fully so tonight I've got the fun task of trying to get it off and check what's going on. I'm sure it'll just slide off really easily with no issues whatsoever! I've seen the fun and games others have with that so could be a fun evening!

On a more positive side, new crank damper, timing chain tensioner, idle pulley and belt tensioner all done, as well as new oil, and a replacement power steering fan.

 

[Mysticarl]

Back on the road

After a bit of a fight I got the old pulley off and the new one on. Fecking thing, really didn't want to come off!

When it was all back together I took it for an initial run and was still feeling some vibration under hard acceleration I had before, even though I'd raised the car up a little. Tonight I raised it another 10mm at the front and went for another run, and I couldn't feel any more vibrations even at WOT. Lots of pull though! Back up to 14.7psi at around 6k when a short while ago was down at around 12.

So pretty happy overall before going to 1320 this week for the cam, 550's and tune.

I don't think I'll be changing anything else before 1320, but a new top engine mount is now on my list. Even though it's not bottomed out or evidence of oil, I noticed I could easily move the rubber back and forth when the engine was raised off it. Probably vibra technics road, and will look at the other mounts as well. I've still got 3 weeks until Snetterton so hopefully will be on by then!

 

[Maccmike]

Back on the road

After a bit of a fight I got the old pulley off and the new one on. Fecking thing, really didn't want to come off!

When it was all back together I took it for an initial run and was still feeling some vibration under hard acceleration I had before, even though I'd raised the car up a little. Tonight I raised it another 10mm at the front and went for another run, and I couldn't feel any more vibrations even at WOT. Lots of pull though! Back up to 14.7psi at around 6k when a short while ago was down at around 12.

So pretty happy overall before going to 1320 this week for the cam, 550's and tune.

I don't think I'll be changing anything else before 1320, but a new top engine mount is now on my list. Even though it's not bottomed out or evidence of oil, I noticed I could easily move the rubber back and forth when the engine was raised off it. Probably vibra technics road, and will look at the other mounts as well. I've still got 3 weeks until Snetterton so hopefully will be on by then!

When I was modding and selling the top mounts, I had plenty that had no oil leaks and when opened up, had no oil in either!
If it wiggles - its knackered.
If you can weld, its very easy to make youre own vibratechnic.

 

[Mysticarl]

I'll have to pull the mount and see what sort of state the underneath is. I've not welded before but I have access to the kit so I could always give it a go. I'd have thought the PU would be solid enough when set not to need welding any holes drilled for it, assuming drilled from above? Or do you need to split the entire mount in half to do it?

 

[Maccmike]

R53 Hydraulic Engine Mount Mod

I have split my old engine mount. The oil section is a very small aspect of the oe build, the majority is rubber and about as much air as oil. 2 sealing rings would prevent pouring liquid rubber in through the top as it woudnt get to all areas. Cut some bits out, cleaned it up, welded back...

www.minitorque.com

Others have tried it but been unsuccessful, so I would definitely encourage you to copy mine. I made about 30 and only one buyer wasnt satisfied.

 

[Mysticarl]

Thanks Maccmike, the mod does look good. If I can make the time before Snetterton I'll give the mount the once-over and see what I might be able to achieve with it.

I'm at 1320 tomorrow to hopefully make some extra power, looking forward to it but also hoping I don't end up with an enormous list of extra things to sort out afterwards!

 

[Fro-dizzle]

Great news on resolving the vibration and low boost issues!

Seem to be quite a few vibratechnics failing and the customer service being quite poor. Particularly with those that may be old stock and been on a shelf for a while yet only recently sold.

From what I've seen when searching the forum previously Mike's mounts are really good, so a great base to copy. Then you only have yourself to blame and chase down if it goes wrong 😂

 

[Mysticarl]

Useful info on the vibra mounts, thanks for that. I think I'm going to get an OEM one and have a go with the old one to PU it up when I get the time - a new stock one will definitely be an improvement over mine at the moment!

Anyone know if there's anything specifically magic about the M10 x 125mm bolt? I'm sure mine will be buggered Doesn't seem to mention it's anything special on RealOEM so I'm assuming any 8.8 bolt should do the trick with a spring washer and maybe a touch of threadlock?


My trip to 1320 was good yesterday. No major issues other than knowing now that my thermostat is stuck open so I'll be fitting my new one I picked up a year ago.

My initial power with just the 15% pulley was just under 180whp with no leaning out even at high rpm, so I'm assuming at this point that it's had a tune in the past or there'd be issues there?

Cam and injectors then changed with no problems. Some wear on cylinder 1 exhaust lobe so seems good timing for the change! Everything else looked fine including chain guides, etc.

After some tuning I'm now at 198whp (228bhp) at around 7k. Still on stock intercooler, manifold and head so still some extra power to be had there at some point in the future.

Main thing for me was to make sure the engine was running 'safely' at all rpm without having to worry about leaning out at high RPM (other things can go wrong of course) so at Snetterton I'll feel happy pushing the rpm in a couple of places

 

[NigelStap]

A couple of places at Snetterton is both of the long straights!

 

[Fro-dizzle]

Good to know it's running healthy and good results with the mods you have. What cam did you go for, and what changes have you felt through the rev range?

 

[Mysticarl]

Went for the catcam 469, doesn't feel wildly different to be honest just pulls better and from a little earlier than before. I'll have better feedback when I've driven it a little more! It sounds a little different at the exhaust too but that may be more in my mind rather than reality. I'll take a pic of the wear on the old cam later as well.

On Snetterton, it was the approaches to Palmer and Agostini that I felt forced to take an extra gear when if I could run to 6500+ I'd have been able to avoid a change up. I'm sure in the summer with more grip in the corners I may still have issues now I should be able to carry more speed but we'll see!

 

[Mysticarl]

I got around to fixing the thermostat today, turned out whomever did it before put it in backwards... replaced with an 82C M7 part now.

No luck doing the engine mount though, couldn't get the bolt underneath out so stopped before breaking anything I couldn't sort before Tuesday's run at Snetterton. I'll have another go in a week when I've got a replacement bolt to use.

I did weigh my wheels:

• 17in black bullet alloys with Prestivo PV-S1 in 205/45R17, 19.4Kg each
• 16in X-lites with Nankang NS-2R in 205/45R16, 17.5Kg each.

Nankang tyres were heavier than I was expecting but at least it's a couple of Kg off each corner. I'll definitely think about lighter alloys later on though!

I've made some more mods to the dash as well which I'll put in a video at some point. Main thing is it'll flash red at me if temps get too high!

 

[Mysticarl]

So trackday on Tuesday went well overal albeit with some teething issues!

Started out pretty wet, kept on road tyres for the morning and it was very slippery. Lots of running off-line as there was an appreciable amount of extra grip there. The sighting laps were really good actually, as the pace car was going on a wet line through the corners and you could feel there was grip there.

So started my first run, and get black-flagged after 2 laps. Initially I assumed it was for the drifting Porsche in front but by the end of the lap I knew it was for me, though had absolutely no idea why as I was driving like a saint at that point, only really doing a run to get the tyres and brakes a bit warm and see where pressures were. Came into the pits to be told something was flapping under the car. Turned out to be the front part of the passenger side trim panel, which had been like that since I owned it and I've not really looked into. Told I needed to secure it somehow before going back out.

So the next 30-45 minutes were trying to work out how to do that, when zip ties aren't any use as there's no way to pull them through, and I already had a shortage of those silly wheel arch clips they're meant to be secured by. Rummaging through my tool bag for the third time I came across some screws and bolts I'd taken off my old Trans Am in about 2008. Turns out 3 of those into the outer plastic clips was exactly what I needed! Really not sure what I'd done without them as the normal plastic clips just wouldn't go in, even with the trim forced against the sill.

During that time I was lucky enough that there were 2 red flag periods, so I only actually missed out on 15 mins or so of potential track time.

By now it was 11am and I'd managed 2 laps, so went out to get some more running. In all the work of doing the trim, I'd not adjusted my tyre pressures... which probably contributed to me being caught out in Hamilton after a few laps - much more of a slide than I had before but did manage to not spin (or sound like a tit afterwards ). There may have been oil as well because the 2 guys behind me also had pretty big slides! But my fronts and rears were up to high 30s when I came in so adjusted back to 30F and 29R and went back out - much better! Also softened the rear damping which was at 16 down to 8 just to help rear grip.

So at lunch I swapped to semi-slicks as the track was almost dry by then. I also wanted to adjust the suspension up at the front a little more as I was still getting a little vibration at high speed (100mph+), and I really wanted to raise the rear because comparatively the rear was pretty slammed. Unfortunately adjusting the rears either up or down is a total arse as there's very little room to adjust and the dirt on the threads wasn't helping either, ended up only raising the rear 1mm. Just before lowering the car back down I noticed the heatshield over the rear straight section of exhaust was resting on the exhaust itself! Corroded off around the rear mounting point. A stanley knife, screwdriver and zip ties later and it was secured to a cable run and was fine for the rest of the day.

The afternoon was much better, generally dry with the odd very light sprinkle of rain just enough to see but not use wipers. Ended up definitely faster than last October even though the track was definitely less grippy. I was being braver on the brakes and hitting them harder and later, and lines were better. I did a 23 minute run where the brakes were slightly going away at the end, but it was much more gradual than the cliff-edge I had with the standard brakes. Never the less, ducting is definitely going in before next time!

The engine mods definitely improved speed at the end of the straights as well, although there was noticeable heat clipping at 6200 or so, proved by TorquePro captures of my afternoon runs. GRS definitely on the cards at some point I think! Not sure this summer though, and may go FMIC. Not sure yet really. It was nice to be able to keep up a little more on the straights!

So overall really positive! Now my work list before the next one next month:

• Brakes do need some extra cooling.
• Engine temps were fine - 80 to 96 over the day and warm up is definitely faster with a working thermostat!
• Need to raise the rear a bit. In the short term probably just back to near stock until I can get the front to be lower as well.
• Need to replace the front engine mount now and see if that has any effect on being able to run the car lower (after all it's moving more, and lower than it should be atm).
• Have ordered more wheel arch clips! My car seems to eat them

I'm sure I'll think of a load more things as well but it's a start!

 

[Mysticarl]

Short video of the day

 

[Mysticarl]

Had another track day today, holy crap was it hot! 29C and my IATs were through the roof the entire day. Coolant was teetering around 100C as well. Was a good 5-7mph down on the straights. I was actually slower than a few weeks ago but I'm sure if I look into the data it'll show I was faster in most of the corners and braking later. I'll find out later!

Good news was the brake ducts seemed to help, I didn't have any brake fading issues. I had to do a running repair to the drivers side as it was getting caught by the crank damper, but it survived the day OK after that. I'll make a proper fix now with some aluminium tube just where it passes the damper, as I can squash it into an oval slightly and get it nicely secured.

Before today I'd replaced lower engine mount with OEM and fitted an upper engine mount insert just to try and get the engine sitting better until I can get the old mount removed. Vibrations were rather excessive but actually pretty smooth above 2k. Throttle response was better!

IAT graph from a run showing just how bad they were:

Need a solution to that going forward. FMIC and a higher % pulley maybe, maybe water/meth but I'm not really keen on that. Have plenty of time anyway it'll probably be next year before I get that sorted!

 

[Mysticarl]

Not been able to do much over the last few months, but I've got another track day coming up so over the last week or so I've managed to do some overdue tasks!

Firstly coolant - I knew I had at least one leak, which I quickly found was more than one! Thanks to the sump guard I could see there was a decent smattering of coolant underneath the oil cooler, so I pulled that off and found it completely clogged. Not a massive amount of sludge, but enough inside to not be able to blow air through it. I also could see that the expansion tank had seen better days.

So, new OE oil cooler and pipes, and Canton expansion tank. So far, much better! I can't see any more coolant leaks (for now). The only leak I can see of any sort atm is the rear main, and I plan on getting that sorted over the winter.

Second task was fixing my drivers side brake duct, which was damaged at my last track day. I knew the clearance to the damper was tight, so I cut some ally tube and ovalised it gently in a vice, clamped it all in place against the wheel arch liner and now there's plenty of clearance. Hopefully this will last!

After that was a few minor bits. My rear suspension was too low compared to the front, meaning excess camber (still not got the adjustable RCAs fitted yet) and not enough rake, so I removed the rear struts and wound them up around 20mm each side. Damping reset to 10 for now.

The foam around the radiator at the front was basically not doing anything, so I removed it and temporarily added the same foam stuff I put under the intercooler plastic thing to make it seal better. I plan on putting an aluminium plate each side to ensure all airflow goes through the radiator, but I need to get some thinner aluminium sheet than I have for that.

I also made a couple of (minor) changes to the dash - replaced the power regulation with something a little more beefy and more efficient, and sprayed the backplate black. Other than that I'm going to add reading brake pressure and remove the (wrong) IAT value. I have an ongoing side-project for reading the actual IAT value but it'll have to wait until over the winter before it makes it onto the car, along with some other useful info like oil temperature/pressure, etc. and some basic data logging of all this stuff.

Took the car out for a short blast and all seems well power-wise so looking forward to next week!

 

[Fro-dizzle]

Great work! What track have you got next?

Any others planned in the coming months?