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Post by NurseHolliday on Jul 28, 2017 6:26:36 GMT
I think I know what's wrong with the brakes. It came to me while I was sleeping
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Post by NurseHolliday on Jul 28, 2017 10:11:54 GMT
I'm worried I'm coming across a bit negative.
The car is awesome, it's just not quite perfect, but that's entirely to be expected. Marc took apart 2 cars and built one from the parts that were there plus some new parts. Although he's spent extensive time checking all the bolts and trying to make sure everything works as it should, it's not going to be perfect without some post-build fettling time, uncovering issues, and resolving them. Marc and Nick previously reverse engineered the throttle body "kit" and rebuilt it, so with challenges like that in the way, it's inevitable that problems will arise. There's no instruction manual for someone else's project.
Marc and Nick (and I helped) spent a lot of time yesterday doing work that needed doing to the car to get it ready in time but they didn't complain, they fitted tyres and balanced wheels, I'm pretty sure Nick burnt his hand a few times changing a coolant sensor on a hot engine, and last minute jobs were ticked off. I adjusted the ride height while the wheels were off being changed and there was some good teamwork. A guy whose name I didn't even catch just hung out all day after his mate's MK2 mapping session did not go as planned, and got stuck in. What a great guy.
The ride height is a bit high for me aesthetically, but it doesn't scrub on the wings now, and I managed to rubber mallet the otherwise mint arch back into shape after it caught the tyre and pulled out slightly on the road test. The grey car had rolled, pulled, and flared wings to accommodate the wheels and tyres and while we could have done that, we all agreed that it would be a shame to do it to that car.
So I am very happy with the car, it's on the way to what I want, I was just a bit bummed out because honestly I wanted to turn up tomorrow with my car complete, exactly how I want it, and less of an "almost finished". I think in hindsight, that was impossible anyway, and I had made an unrealistic plan that I was never going to achieve. Sure there's no bucket seat in there, the exterior is really dirty, and there's some minor issues, but these can be resolved in time and there's still a bit of summer and all of Autumn to get the car spot on and enjoy it. I can use tomorrow as a good learning experience and I'm glad Nick and Marc will be there in case any issues arise.
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Post by NurseHolliday on Jul 28, 2017 10:15:07 GMT
Sadly the place I'd chosen that was convenient for dropping the car off for an alignment and getting to work couldn't fit me in, so I'll sacrifice tomorrow morning's sessions and head over to the industrial estate about 15 mins from the circuit and get the car aligned over there.
It does mean an interesting drive tonight for many hours, but that's life.
Showing that I'm more of a driver than a mechanic or setup guy, will an alignment cure the following issue:
When I press the clutch, the car pulls right, and when I let it out it pulls back left. If I change gear very slowly and smoothly, the effect is minimal, but when driving like an uncouth animal, it's severe and I weave across the lane quite noticeably. It was present before on the grey car, but much, much less.
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Post by NurseHolliday on Jul 28, 2017 10:19:33 GMT
I should start a blog because I can write for days...
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Post by Horney on Jul 28, 2017 11:05:13 GMT
It does seem likely that's down to alignment. On power vs off power makes a difference to how the car behaves in terms of handling and it's alignment.
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Post by Dweenimus on Jul 28, 2017 20:41:19 GMT
We see you at services. Just in petrol station now
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Post by NurseHolliday on Jul 31, 2017 16:48:41 GMT
I want to do a proper write up of the weekend, but my main takeaway right now is that the car consistently pulled 1.2G in the corners and 1.1G under braking which is decent for a first test.
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Post by minty on Jul 31, 2017 19:11:41 GMT
In 15 years I'm yet to meet someone with a 'finished/complete/done' 5 👍
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 16:32:05 GMT
So, there's a distinct lack of updates and pics on this thread.
I'll start with the 5Fest weekend:
I left work as quickly as I could, and fitted the LED headlights in my work car park. One retaining ring came straight off, the other had one seized screw, so I just bent that one as far as I could to get the old headlight out and fit the new one. My poorly adjusted ride height meant the output was way too high and I didn't have the time to adjust the beam angle, nor a guide to set it correctly so I left it. Late apologies to anyone along the M4 and since.
The drive to Wales was sketchy AF, the wheels had no alignment at all, my brand new DMacks (proper semi slicks) hadn't seated on the rim properly so I had to stop at every services to top up one of the tyres (luckily the other 3 got hot enough to pop on), it was chucking it down, so as well as wandering all over the road the steering wheel was immensely grabby as each front tyre independently did a micro aquaplane, and I had to also keep adjusting the tension of the throttle cable because it would either stick open at WOT (terrifying) or be too slow to return.
When I finally arrived at Llandow, it was gone midnight I think, everyone had gone to bed and I put my tent up in the windy rain which took about 35-45 minutes! Normally it takes me 10 minutes so it was hard going! I was glad to finally get some sleep after a dinner in my sleeping back of an entire packet of seafood sticks, a few packets of crisps, and half a bottle of wine, while watching Rick & Morty episodes on my phone.
In the morning I took the car to Kwik Fit in Bridgend , who discovered the steering rack was not centred on the car so they couldn't do a proper alignment, but they managed to get one of the front wheels vaguely pointing in the right direction, so I headed back to the track to sign on, have my solo briefing, and to try out the brakes which had still been iffy at that point.
Llandow was a great track, it was a good shakedown for the car, and I loved how short it was so it's super quick to learn. I was braking way too early for Bus Stop, but I still managed an OK time on a new car with no alignment. I took a couple of people out for laps and I think I terrified everyone.
Even with all the issues, the car was massively capable, jumping kerbs seated the last tyre, but I was getting heavy scrubbage on the front right when cornering hard into Bus Stop. This resulted in a buzzing "hmmm hmmm" noise as I turned in. I didn't want to harden the suspension any more because it was on the verge of getting skittish and I was getting some understeer but increasing the pressure in rear tyres helped solve that issues and I was able to properly steer the car with the throttle mid corner.
It took me about 10 laps to get into the groove of the car, and then it was just back like it used to be, it felt the same, but different. It took me about 20 laps to remember how to change gear from 2nd to 3rd quickly, but once I got the hang of that again it wasn't an issue. Unfortunately I ripped the upper shift boot in the process, so don't buy a Jass Performance shift boot - I had to modify it when it was new to get it to fit, and according to the service/modification schedule I keep, it's lasted approximately 1,000 miles. Given that it's more expensive than an OEM part which should last about 50,000 miles, it's a bag of prarrie canoe in my opinion.
The brakes finally came alive on track, the Carbotechs that were on the car when it was sitting still for 7 months were dead, in terms of meat on the backing plate, they looked brand new, but they had "gone off" and just wouldn't grip the discs at all. So on the Thursday when I picked the car up, Marc swapped them for brand new EBC Yellow Stuff pads which Skuzzle Motorsport had on the shelf, they didn't really do much either at first, but I drove home riding the brakes with my left foot and dragging the handbrake at times, and repeated that the day after on the way to Wales. As soon as I'd done a few laps on track, the hard braking got the Nitrac grooved discs and Yellow Stuff pads properly up to temp and I think it wiped off the old Carbotech deposits and transferred a decent amount of Yellow Stuff onto the discs really improving bite and feel. The pedal travel went a bit longer after the weekend so a bleed is required, plus the initial bite is still quite hard so I'm wondering if there's a vacuum/servo issue.
The Brecon run the next day was an absolute hoot. The views were epic, the roads were better, and I was just enjoying driving the car. It was a shame to not be able to have the roof down, but it wasn't a huge detriment to my enjoyment. Cribbs, a guy from Total 5s with a turbo car, and I, formed a 3 white car train of hanging the back out of every junction, which had me grinning, and the exhaust loves to do a massive gunshot every time it goes back down below 3k so that also had me laughing. The 2-way diff got properly used and abused on the run and on track and it really makes a difference to me.
Lunch was epic, really nice place that's worth visiting if you're out that way.
The drive home was similar to the drive there, with heavy rain, aquaplaning, grabby steering wheel and pretty tiring but it was OK because it was the price to pay for an awesome trip with good people.
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 16:33:57 GMT
Pics and more updates tonight, they're all on my phone and I can't access Amazon Photos on my work pc.
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 22:48:02 GMT
 Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr 
Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr |
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 22:57:59 GMT
After getting the car back from Llandow, I have been driving it a fair bit since I was so happy to have it back finally, and enjoying a few skids, 11s, and burnouts... 
Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr Parked at home and with the wagon  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr LED Headlights  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr USDM Sidelights and plate off  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr Hard top off  Untitled by NurseHolliday, on Flickr |
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 23:03:51 GMT
Brecon Beacons
underbonnet ITBs noise vid
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 23:19:22 GMT
Because I'm an idiot, I didn't go and get my steering rack sorted at Skuzzle, and thus didn't get an alignment, and as a result I have a bald tyre. It's the front left and it probably took a hammering at Llandow but I don't think the lack of alignment helped. Judging by the amount of tyre dust on the side of the car, the tyre has been dragging more than it's been rolling. I noticed the bald tyre at the Krispy Kreme meet where my exhaust also decided to blow a weld or make a hole so it sounds full on sharty and needs fixing. I've paid Josho a deposit on a proper manifold rather than the homebrew I have fitted, so with that I can just fit an off the shelf exhaust. The pony ride height and massive arch gap is grinding me down and I don't want to roll my arches so I've got to buy wheels. I can't afford fancy wheels at the moment due to over-stretching myself on everything so I'm going to get Ultralites or JR wheels. The JR Enkei reps come in 15x8 and ET35 which is what I want, but the Ultralites are much cheaper, £25/wheel cheaper so £100 overall. Their Enkei reps are only 15x7 though so not for me, so I'm trying to see what other designs they do in 15x8 and high/normal offset. I really like the Ultralite D1s but they're only in 4x114.3 which is a shame. The passenger speaker and electric window didn't work so I thought there was a wiring issue but the speaker turned out to be a blown speaker, I had pioneer speakers to put in from the grey car anyway, and the window turned out to be the switch which was super convenient to fix on both parts, and Dweenimus gave me a free window switch because he's an absolute gent. The window switch I'm most pleased about because I was dreading have to replace the window motor or re-greasing the regulator, I had no reason to think it was the switch but just because I'd read it online I thought, "wouldn't it be so nice, easy, and convenient if it was that" and luckily for me it was the switch!! So unfortunately no driving the car again for a little while as there's a few things to get fixed but they'll get fixed ASAP and back to smashing it about! |
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Post by NurseHolliday on Sept 13, 2017 23:29:05 GMT
XXR551 or JR11?
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le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT
le sigh
Jul 15, 2023 20:03:52 GMT