Category: IPRA AE86

Not sure what has come of the old AE86, the new owner has sold off the engine and drivetrain to run in a different category. But this video popped up today from a mate of the new owner of the engine who has put it into his AE86 track car.

Engine seems to still be going well, and still good fun evidently.

This finally rolled out onto a trailer this morning to go to its new owner. In the last trip down memory lane i did this up last night

Havnt had much time to work on this for a while, but had a couple of hours today.

Did up the new brake fluid res’s with new lines and res’

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34680-1/_7260025.jpg[/img]

Resprayed the tank, and remounted it, and also flared the lines for AN fittings

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34688-1/_7260027.jpg[/img]

Fitted the new wing mirrors

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34692-1/_7260028.jpg[/img]

Started setting up the new datalogging stuff, 100psi sensor there

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34696-1/_7260029.jpg[/img]

Plus this arrived for some more fun

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34684-1/_7260026.jpg[/img]

Need to go out and get more fuel line for the connections in the spare tyre well and under floor, and then i can finish that off. Really need to source a few wiring bits so i can finish off the engine bay loom, and then ill have to redo some of the interior loom too. All fun and games.
Oh and the exhaust is half done, ish.

Update has certainly been a long time coming, and that is mainly because i have done approximately SFA to the car since Nationals. I basically threw it back together again with a new sprung brass button clutch so it could be transported over to Vic on a car carrier. Since then it has just sat on stands for 8 months while i have been busy with the rest of life. In the intervening period i have sold off the current ECU setup, and started collecting stuff for the upgrades while travelling around the world. Firstly:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34202-2/img0924123371.jpg[/img]

Haltech Sprint 500 from Dale, DTM mirrors and various connectors from Goodwood FoS stands, Racepak interface cable and 4 sensor addon, Deutsch HDP 20 29 pin bulkhead connector and some other bits.

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34197-2/img0924123344.jpg[/img]

Stainless exhaust bits and an Ultraracing panhard rod that i picked up in Malaysia on our way back, with new Whiteline bushes.

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34222-2/img0924123590.jpg[/img]

Small assortment of AN fittings and fuel filter etc that i have picked up from various sources for the new fuel system.

On the cards now is the following:
[LIST]
[]Wire in new Haltech []Wire up Racepak Dash to Haltech CAN bus
[]Redo engine loom with Deutsch QR connector []Build new rear exit exhaust
[]Redo entire fuel system with new hardlines and AN fittings throughout []Redo rear suspension with different rate springs and new panhard
[]Build new oil catch can setup []Replace front calipers to change braking ratios
[/LIST]

Have a few other bits and pieces to do as well, just tidying up some parts, and making it generally more reliable (knock on wood).

Currently trying to decide on two things though, firstly where to put the QR and secondly where to put the oil catch can. Options below:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/34225-2/img0924123550_001.jpg[/img]

Thinking that the QR would be good in the right hand spot as its easy to get to and would mean that i can get a nice gentle 90deg curve out of the wiring loom. However its right ontop of the extractors. According to Deutsch the connector is good for 125degC, and i woudl probably heatshield it too, but still not sure. The AS connectors are only 150deg too, so im probably worrying over nothing. Thoughts?

For now though have some photos of the car from Nationals:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33890-2/IMG_4549.JPG[/img]

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33893-2/IMG_6254.JPG[/img]

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33896-2/IMG_6200.JPG[/img]

Well thats the end of another year of racing for me.

Nationals weekend has come and gone with some good racing and some bitter disappointment. The car was performing quite well in the first qualifying session until it started bucketing down, managed to get my fastest qualifying lap in as a warmup lap before it started bucketing down properly, and then the V band clamp came of the exhaust and it dissappeared, never to be seen again. So we welded the primaries to the secondaries before Quali 2
Second qualifying session went pretty well, although i had a weird ignition issue at the end of that session. Basically it would hit something like ignition cut at ~5500rpm and wouldnt go anywhere.
Before the first heat we changed the coils and plugs and it seemed that the ignition problem was fixed, at least mostly.
The first heat showed up something a bit more annoying, we had a weird issue with it hitting redline oddly, but it was only happening around 7700rpm, so i just thought it was the ignition problem back with vengance. So we fiddled around with it some more, changed dwell settings and again its seemed to be fine while free revving.
Went out in the second heat and it just got worse. Quickly realised that it was actually the clutch slipping not the ignition dying. So after that race we started to pull the gearbox out, only to find that it got about an inch off the engine and then wouldnt go any further at all. Just jammed up solid.

Packed it in for the day and retired the next morning. Got it home after the end of the day and after dinner i pulled the engine and gearbox. After working through the starter motor hole i eventually managed to remove all 6 pressure plate bolts. This is what i found:
[IMG]http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/308345_10150464205150944_646995943_10816860_604287785_n.jpg[/IMG]

Bang, the clutch had let go in fairly spectacular fashion. I think the main chunks of the friction material were only being held in place by the protruding rivets. And im not sure whether the center damage was done by us reefing the box around to try and get it out, or whether it was done in car. Either way its busted.
The reason the box wouldnt come out was that the spigot bearing was jammed on the end of the input shaft, and that was holding hte friction plate together enough. When i started pulling the engine out the second of those springs fell out of the bellhousing 🙂 and the other had fallen out when we loaded it onto the trailer.

What i really should have done is looked at the data trace from the datalogger and i would have seen this:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33446-1/rpmclutchslip.PNG[/img]

The green trace is the RPM and you can quite clearly see it slipping a lot from 7500rpm onwards. In the later races this started from about 5500-6000rpm and would just slip to redline.

Oddly enough this isnt the first time ive made an Exedy clutch go bang in this way, back in 2006 i did this:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/6925-1/DSC00383.JPG[/img]

Back then the friction material jammed up the clutch entirely and i couldnt disengage the clutch at all. Thankfully this time it held together enough for the two heats i did on Saturday.

Ohwell, thats the end of another year for me. Next year ill be moving to Vic, and hopefully we can start over again 🙂

Hoping to have the car rebuilt soon at least for transport. Thinking about doing a few upgrades while im at it 🙂

Ive been waiting to make this update for a while, as i had some cool stuff coming in.

Firstly though i had it out a couple of weeks ago at the practice day. Bloody hot day it was, and i certainly wasnt feeling my best, and i didnt perform at my best either. On the other hand the car ran pretty much flawlessly.
Coming out of that day i had a short list of things to do, all niggly things, like getting a new starter motor, and resealing the catchcan oil level fitting which was weeping a bit.

I think the car needs less front camber, so im going to dial it out a degree or so and see how it goes. But once i refit the starter motor (easy job) then its all good for Nationals…… almost.

The big stuff i had coming in was a new harness:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33418-2/6DA9EB43-A077-482E-80A2-919DD8153429.JPG[/IMG]

An OMP 806 SuperLegerra from a friend in the UK who has decided to go circuit racing rather than rallying, and was ditching one of his harnesses.

The other thing was this:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33424-2/FEF8F6A4-F051-4E5A-9F67-039DDCFE5D38.JPG[/IMG]

A 3 hour old Racepak IQ3 logger dash. A mate in the UK had it installed in his track car and ran for about 3hrs before he ran out of talent (its ok Dan, we know its true :p). He was debating whether to sell it, but evidently i made him an offer too good to refuse. 🙂

Mocked it up this morning in the dash:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33420-2/D8EACD5F-5420-4DF2-A231-7D8F38E588C3.JPG[/img]

Just needs two holes drilled for the mounting bolts, and three wires joined into the existing loom, plus the button loom. All of which is easy enough to do, and will be done before Nationals.

Thats about it for now, i need to get my head down and study for an exam on Thursday before i then pack the car up to head out to Mallala sometime on Friday.

And one gratuitous shot of the office:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33442-2/EF9FCC34-4ED0-4785-9A49-A8D9A5539A55.JPG[/img]

Still needs to be put back together properly, but its all in now.

Well i havnt had a chance to really touch this with the bathroom being done and all. But durign that time ive been scoping out rear brake upgrades, and this is what has come out trumps:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/33259-2/D721887C-CACC-4620-A4F4-A87ED2AEA756.JPG[/img]

R32 rear calipers, 269x18mm discs.

Thats it bolted up on a mockup plate.
Need to finish off the CAD for the caliper adaptor, and then it can head off to the laser cutters for production. Nice quick and simple brake upgrade

So here we go with the autopsy. New record for getting the engine ready to come out (and pulling the head off) 1h10m.

Anyway, onto the damage.
Cyl 4, Inlet cam:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32839-1/IMG_0887.jpg[/img]

Cyl 1&2, Inlet cam:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32841-1/IMG_0889.jpg[/img]

Cyl 4 exhaust cam:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32843-1/IMG_0890.jpg[/IMG]

Nice aluminum shavings from cam gears and munged timing belt:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32847-1/IMG_0893.jpg[/IMG]

Empty bolt hole in the block/oil pump.
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32859-1/IMG_0914.jpg[/IMG]

Battered and beaten bolt:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32851-1/IMG_0896.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32857-1/IMG_0911.jpg[/IMG]

Exhaust cam gear:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32853-1/IMG_0897.jpg[/IMG]
This took the brunt of the bolt flying around, the intake cam gear was pretty much unscathed:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32855-1/IMG_0905.jpg[/img]

Bearing caps:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32861-1/IMG_0916.jpg[/img]

[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32863-1/IMG_0917.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32865-1/IMG_0919.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32867-1/IMG_0920.jpg[/IMG]

Tiny bit of scoring, but thats probably from lack of oiling and spinning eccentrically post shutdown.

Intake cam:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32869-1/IMG_0923.jpg[/img]

Exhaust cam:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32871-1/IMG_0924.jpg[/img]

Now here is the bloody surprising bit.

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32873-1/IMG_0925.jpg[/img]

Number 2 piston, these are really the only marks on the pistons at all. Cyl 3 has some of the same sort of kiss marks. Nothing major at all.

All of the cylinders in the head look like this:

[img]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32875-1/IMG_0930.jpg[/img]

Links here if you want to see:

[url]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32877-1/IMG_0931.jpg[/url]

[url]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32879-1/IMG_0932.jpg[/url]

[url]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32881-1/IMG_0933.jpg[/url]

[url]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32883-1/IMG_0934.jpg[/url]

No significant scoring or marks at all.

Will still pull the engine and give it a once over, but i think i got out of it quite lightly.

As for the rest of the stuff, brake package works a treat. Pulls up brilliantly. Still some tweaking to do with F/R bias, but thats all easily done with the bias bar.
The engine was strong too, felt like it was putting down all of the power it had well, and the lap before it all went pear shaped i did a 1:23.4 without me really trying too hard. I was pretty astounded.

Oh yeah, this is the one photo i forgot to post last night:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32890-5/1000001174.JPG[/IMG]

Ow.

It didnt. I swear this bloody car is cursed:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32838-2/1000001162.JPG[/IMG]

Oil pump bolt backed out, got caught in the timing belt, threw out the timing and made the pistons interference fit to the valves, which then snapped the cams.

ARRRGHHHH

To say im annoyed and pissed off at the moment is an understatement.

Been tidying up some bits on the race car, as well as adding some bling:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32822-2/1000001151.JPG[/IMG]
Some old some new, all found a good home.

Blingy clear cam gear cover arrived:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32818-2/1000001152.JPG[/IMG]
Bought because all of my old cam gear covers were cracked, and its kind of nice to be able to see how the belt looks at a glance.
Less chance of dropping something in there and not noticing too.

New window net:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32810-2/1000001147.JPG[/IMG]
Hoping it will improve visibility over the standard tape one. The tape one gives massive blind spots, and with it i couldnt see about half of the wing mirror. Hoping this helps. If not it looks a damn sight better, and doesnt crumple up when you are trying to put it up.

Gratuitous engine bay shot too:
[IMG]http://gallery2.plebeians.net/d/32814-2/1000001153.JPG[/IMG]

Only little things to go before Friday.