Floyd’s ‘economy’ Stage III
14 November 2018, 01:41 PM
#751
So, after the Ring trip, I had a list of minor repairs and mods that I wanted to get done before the LAST EVER TRACKDAY at Rockingham. Yes, Rockingham is going to close for good and I couldn't pass up a chance to drive it again for the last time.
I had some small coolant leaks to fix on the turbo inlet and the rad top hose. So far so good. Check the hub mod was still OK - seems to be. Lube the antiroll bar bushes - this seems to be a regular thing with poly bushes and I can't imagine how much of a PITA is must be for bushes in the hard to get to parts of the suspension (I only have poly in the A/R bars).
Gearbox oil change - I'd looked at this recently and I thought the oil looked clean but I was mistaken. It was rank! I'd realised that the gearbox oil hadn't been changed in years. This is fairly easy to do though and lets hope it has refreshed it nicely.
Turbo heat shield - I'd had a go at improving it but the heat wrap I'd used just fell off. I've now placed heat wrap inside the OE heat shield and held it in place with an old boiler reflective panel. Yes, that's right, an old boiler part! We'll see how good that is.
I've also heat protected the fuel line nearest the turbo that was on my mind as a risk.
The rear diff is making a noise on over run only. It's fine on cruise and while accelerating but grinds away while slowing down. I've thought it could be the diff, the bearings but also that the bushes are worn and that they may be allowing the diff casing to move too much and touch something on the body work/chassis perhaps, making the noise??? Anyway, if it is the diff then that's £50 secondhand but I'd like to explore LSD options here. I have an R160 3.454 I think.
The other thing 'to do' is change the clutch fluid as that's not been changed in a while...
New discs and brake pads look hardly used after Donington and 2 days at the Ring, which is good news.
I had some small coolant leaks to fix on the turbo inlet and the rad top hose. So far so good. Check the hub mod was still OK - seems to be. Lube the antiroll bar bushes - this seems to be a regular thing with poly bushes and I can't imagine how much of a PITA is must be for bushes in the hard to get to parts of the suspension (I only have poly in the A/R bars).
Gearbox oil change - I'd looked at this recently and I thought the oil looked clean but I was mistaken. It was rank! I'd realised that the gearbox oil hadn't been changed in years. This is fairly easy to do though and lets hope it has refreshed it nicely.
Turbo heat shield - I'd had a go at improving it but the heat wrap I'd used just fell off. I've now placed heat wrap inside the OE heat shield and held it in place with an old boiler reflective panel. Yes, that's right, an old boiler part! We'll see how good that is.
I've also heat protected the fuel line nearest the turbo that was on my mind as a risk.
The rear diff is making a noise on over run only. It's fine on cruise and while accelerating but grinds away while slowing down. I've thought it could be the diff, the bearings but also that the bushes are worn and that they may be allowing the diff casing to move too much and touch something on the body work/chassis perhaps, making the noise??? Anyway, if it is the diff then that's £50 secondhand but I'd like to explore LSD options here. I have an R160 3.454 I think.
The other thing 'to do' is change the clutch fluid as that's not been changed in a while...
New discs and brake pads look hardly used after Donington and 2 days at the Ring, which is good news.
21 November 2018, 12:45 PM
#752
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Circuit days tracck day at Rockingham - the last track day ever there...
Circuit days tracck day at Rockingham - the last track day ever there...
21 November 2018, 01:14 PM
#753
So, Rockingham. It turned out pretty well TBH, with only some minor brake bleeding to be done, mid way through the morning. Not sure why the brakes went soft but a bleed cured that issue. The discs are slightly crazed but nothing to worry about yet. The pads are now half worn and I need to check the inboard pads to see if they are wearing evenly too. It could have been much worse though as when I was driving there I could hear a clicking noise like something was wrong with the huds/brakes - bugger. This got worse on the sighting laps and wasn't fixing itself, so I had no choice but to investigate at which point I discovered the front wheel nuts were mainly finger tight... ****. What an idiot! All torqued up and the clicking disappeared.
I lowered the tyre pressures once to 28 PSI all round, but didn't get round to doing it again, which may have been beneficial. The morning was damp and greasy but the Subaru was much better at coping with the conditions than the majority of anything else that was there. When it dried the car was far better than I'd hoped it would be, managing 2:04's on clear laps of the full International circuit. If I can manage it, I'll post up a video of a couple of laps from the time I had the CD cameras on board, it'll give you an idea of the whole track layout and my excursion at the end... Opps!
The turbo heat shielding improvements made a significant difference to under bonnet temps, but there's a bit more to do there. The oil didn't get above 110C all day so I'm not putting any further effort here.
I could try a bit more negative camber front and back but only after I fit my alloy bottom arms, which will provide more caster and hopefully tighter turn in.
The rear diff hasn't got any louder, but I'm exploring options for improvements. The gear box has got better since changing the gear box oil...
I've not serviced my AST coil overs since fitting them many years ago and they still do what I ask of them.
Hub and bearing upgrade seem to be working really well.
There were moments that I was really clicking with the car and it made me smile, which was quite different to Donny.
I lowered the tyre pressures once to 28 PSI all round, but didn't get round to doing it again, which may have been beneficial. The morning was damp and greasy but the Subaru was much better at coping with the conditions than the majority of anything else that was there. When it dried the car was far better than I'd hoped it would be, managing 2:04's on clear laps of the full International circuit. If I can manage it, I'll post up a video of a couple of laps from the time I had the CD cameras on board, it'll give you an idea of the whole track layout and my excursion at the end... Opps!
The turbo heat shielding improvements made a significant difference to under bonnet temps, but there's a bit more to do there. The oil didn't get above 110C all day so I'm not putting any further effort here.
I could try a bit more negative camber front and back but only after I fit my alloy bottom arms, which will provide more caster and hopefully tighter turn in.
The rear diff hasn't got any louder, but I'm exploring options for improvements. The gear box has got better since changing the gear box oil...
I've not serviced my AST coil overs since fitting them many years ago and they still do what I ask of them.
Hub and bearing upgrade seem to be working really well.
There were moments that I was really clicking with the car and it made me smile, which was quite different to Donny.
29 November 2018, 01:27 PM
#759
Yes. A misjudgment on my behalf and with hindsight I would have tucked in behind the Mondeo. However, most drivers understand that when you are caught, you move over and lift. You always move to the right on that section to line yourself up for the left hairpin, unless perhaps you're an ex racer, who may possibly know how to block to prevent an overtake and keep your foot in...
22 January 2019, 01:42 PM
#760
So, late December I took a trip to see Richard at Zen to sort out my over boosting issue. I decided it's not boost spiking or boost creep. We first looked at my irritating issue that developed recently - stalling. The engine sometime idles fine and other times just wants to stall when stationary, usually at roundabouts and T junctions! What a PITA! Removing the fuel pressure regulator pipe to let the manifold breath, cures it instantly. We tried another idle solenoid but we didn't know if this spare was any good as it didn't improve things, but they felt different when moving the plunger by hand. I'll take the throttle body apart to check all is OK in there before buying stuff to try and I'll replace my previous 'good' spare MAF to try that too.
We moved onto checking the over boost issue and worked out it was going lean over 5k rpm. The existing Walbro 255 is possibly 15 years old so I should try changing that, as well as the fuel filter. I can also get an SX reg rebuild kit to service the fuel reg in case that is causing the low top end fuel pressure drop. The injectors seemed to check out fine and had headroom left so we ruled that out.
The trip back from Zen was difficult with the idle issue, it was noisy and bumpy and fuel smelly inside. My wife who joined me for the trip, hated it. This brought me to the conclusion that I'm going to get a trailer and tow the car from now on, which will save on tax. insurance, the tricky MOT annual ordeal (no cats) and the risk of breakdowns/breakages (not that I have ever broken down or had any issues in the 18 years of track driving that prevented me from driving on track!).
We moved onto checking the over boost issue and worked out it was going lean over 5k rpm. The existing Walbro 255 is possibly 15 years old so I should try changing that, as well as the fuel filter. I can also get an SX reg rebuild kit to service the fuel reg in case that is causing the low top end fuel pressure drop. The injectors seemed to check out fine and had headroom left so we ruled that out.
The trip back from Zen was difficult with the idle issue, it was noisy and bumpy and fuel smelly inside. My wife who joined me for the trip, hated it. This brought me to the conclusion that I'm going to get a trailer and tow the car from now on, which will save on tax. insurance, the tricky MOT annual ordeal (no cats) and the risk of breakdowns/breakages (not that I have ever broken down or had any issues in the 18 years of track driving that prevented me from driving on track!).
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