Floyd’s ‘economy’ Stage III
21 December 2012, 08:50 AM
#693
Update!
MPSC tyres fitted to newly powder coated rims and wet tyres were packed for a trip to the Ring and Spa in Oct. I ran to Germany on the tyres to scrub them in. These tyres had been sitting in my loft for a long time but I thought they'd be OK. They weren't. The first few laps were like driving on a greasy road, which was very frustrating. They did start to come back to me during the day but still took 1/3 to 1/2 a lap to 'dial in' and then they would go off towards the end of the lap. Bugger.
This wasn't my biggest problem though. During some quicker laps (in the 8:20 region)< I experienced what can only be described as a near 'killed to death' incident.
You can see from the photo that 4 spokes of this wheel have fractured. I was turning hard into a right hander towards the end of a lap when I heard a loud thud, thud, thud noise from the front nearside wheel. I immediately backed off and coasted into the car park and to my horror, saw the damage to the wheel. If it had gone completely then all manner of scenarios could have happened... The thud noise was caused by the wheel buckling under load and making contact with the brake caliper. The caliper is slightly worn but thankfully not damaged.
In the car park I had to change my wheels obviously but my spare wheels were wets and a different diameter. Next follow a series of helpers that gave me the advice of changing my dry tyres onto my wet wheels. After the 10th person to tell me this, I got rather annoyed. This coupled to the fact that I now couldn't remove the wheel because it had stuck to the hub (new paint, you see!) and someone bright spark who thought it would be funny to film me getting angry over my near death incident and a hoard of onlookers clammering to see my miserable situation, meant I got a bit angry... I asked the onlookers politely "can anyone not helping, please move away to let me get on with fixing my car". No one moved so I said it again but louder... still no one moved. What the **** is wrong with these people, I thought to myself. Then youtube boy started laughing! I marched over to, well, punch him, but a mate intervened and held me back. I went back to the wheel and kicked it to try and shift it. Except I missed and kicked the wing. Double bugger! Everyone had decided at that point to move on. Thank **** for that!
So, the lesson here is that powder coating can and does, affect the strength of alloy wheels IMO. These are OE Subaru wheels. Never kerbed (other than track kerbs), pot holed, dropped or damaged in any way. In fact they had seen less than 10k miles. It may have been fine on the road but on track it's not to be trusted.
I still had Spa to do in the next day or so. A mate lent me his spare set of A048's, which I was very grateful for and I stuck these on my 'wet' wheels. Sadly they had seen better days and the grip had left them a while ago. Still, it enabled me to have the trackday and some fun.
Winter off season mods include productionising the brake duct shields, more weight loss, fitting race seats and maybe, just maybe, finishing my 2.5!
MPSC tyres fitted to newly powder coated rims and wet tyres were packed for a trip to the Ring and Spa in Oct. I ran to Germany on the tyres to scrub them in. These tyres had been sitting in my loft for a long time but I thought they'd be OK. They weren't. The first few laps were like driving on a greasy road, which was very frustrating. They did start to come back to me during the day but still took 1/3 to 1/2 a lap to 'dial in' and then they would go off towards the end of the lap. Bugger.
This wasn't my biggest problem though. During some quicker laps (in the 8:20 region)< I experienced what can only be described as a near 'killed to death' incident.
You can see from the photo that 4 spokes of this wheel have fractured. I was turning hard into a right hander towards the end of a lap when I heard a loud thud, thud, thud noise from the front nearside wheel. I immediately backed off and coasted into the car park and to my horror, saw the damage to the wheel. If it had gone completely then all manner of scenarios could have happened... The thud noise was caused by the wheel buckling under load and making contact with the brake caliper. The caliper is slightly worn but thankfully not damaged.
In the car park I had to change my wheels obviously but my spare wheels were wets and a different diameter. Next follow a series of helpers that gave me the advice of changing my dry tyres onto my wet wheels. After the 10th person to tell me this, I got rather annoyed. This coupled to the fact that I now couldn't remove the wheel because it had stuck to the hub (new paint, you see!) and someone bright spark who thought it would be funny to film me getting angry over my near death incident and a hoard of onlookers clammering to see my miserable situation, meant I got a bit angry... I asked the onlookers politely "can anyone not helping, please move away to let me get on with fixing my car". No one moved so I said it again but louder... still no one moved. What the **** is wrong with these people, I thought to myself. Then youtube boy started laughing! I marched over to, well, punch him, but a mate intervened and held me back. I went back to the wheel and kicked it to try and shift it. Except I missed and kicked the wing. Double bugger! Everyone had decided at that point to move on. Thank **** for that!
So, the lesson here is that powder coating can and does, affect the strength of alloy wheels IMO. These are OE Subaru wheels. Never kerbed (other than track kerbs), pot holed, dropped or damaged in any way. In fact they had seen less than 10k miles. It may have been fine on the road but on track it's not to be trusted.
I still had Spa to do in the next day or so. A mate lent me his spare set of A048's, which I was very grateful for and I stuck these on my 'wet' wheels. Sadly they had seen better days and the grip had left them a while ago. Still, it enabled me to have the trackday and some fun.
Winter off season mods include productionising the brake duct shields, more weight loss, fitting race seats and maybe, just maybe, finishing my 2.5!
Last edited by Floyd; 21 December 2012 at 08:52 AM.
21 December 2012, 08:22 PM
#694
22 December 2012, 12:56 AM
#695
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phew...I'd imagine that sent your pulse racing, glad it didn't bite you.
sucks to be in a situation like that when surrounded by morons..
sucks to be in a situation like that when surrounded by morons..
Last edited by trails; 22 December 2012 at 12:59 AM. Reason: fat fingers.
26 December 2012, 07:55 PM
#697
Only just seen this thread, very interesting 
.I'm about to sell my MY99 to a friend so I may still be able to direct development of the car.Sympathise with the Ring incident, as someone who has found themselves going backwards there at fair rate of knots, It's definately not a place to crash !
.I'm about to sell my MY99 to a friend so I may still be able to direct development of the car.Sympathise with the Ring incident, as someone who has found themselves going backwards there at fair rate of knots, It's definately not a place to crash !
01 January 2013, 11:13 AM
#698
Thanks chaps. If he wheel had collapsed then I think I would have deployed the roof brake at some point or just barrel rolled in a all of flames. Quite a spectacular way to go! Thankfully only a damaged wing from my clumsey foot.
22 February 2018, 03:27 PM
#704
I'm back.
I've been offline due to moving house and a divorce... Then I got married again!
Anyway, I'm back on the project for the next big development. I've also fitted better brake pads and adjustable rear suspension arms, which made quite a difference to grip once the chassis was aligned and set up.
I've been offline due to moving house and a divorce... Then I got married again!
Anyway, I'm back on the project for the next big development. I've also fitted better brake pads and adjustable rear suspension arms, which made quite a difference to grip once the chassis was aligned and set up.
22 February 2018, 03:53 PM
#706
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I'm back.
I've been offline due to moving house and a divorce... Then I got married again!
Anyway, I'm back on the project for the next big development. I've also fitted better brake pads and adjustable rear suspension arms, which made quite a difference to grip once the chassis was aligned and set up.
I've been offline due to moving house and a divorce... Then I got married again!
Anyway, I'm back on the project for the next big development. I've also fitted better brake pads and adjustable rear suspension arms, which made quite a difference to grip once the chassis was aligned and set up.
Looking forward to seeing whats next
Last edited by trails; 04 March 2018 at 02:17 PM. Reason: Grammar
17 May 2018, 06:28 PM
#708
I've been beavering away in the garage. Finally fitted my spare engine - never done this before so I was a bit nervous. New belt kit, new pulleys, new oil and water pump, new turbo, new exhaust, new light weight flywheel, new clutch release bearing.
Filled the coolant carefully (new alloy rad fitted), new coil on plug set up, new injectors with cut plugs, what could possibly go wrong??? I turned the engine over to get some oil pressure, refitted the plugs and crossed my fingers. The engine hadn't ran for 8 years. Well, it started first turn of the key! Wow. Sounded great.
I ran it to burp the coolant and got the fans to kick in. Slight leak from a coolant line to the turbo and a slight leak from the oil line, again to the turbo and that was it. Clutch worked fine and it revved really eagerly. Put the car away again and contacted Bob Rawl "I've fitted this engine blah blah blah". His response was "does it have original pistons?"
Well, it seems I've been away too long and not really followed all the doom threads about EJ257's - which is what I had fitted. You guessed it, mine were stock. Bugger.
I've removed the engine again and I'll refit my 2.0ltr with all the good stuff attached, while I contact Alyn for some new pistons for the 2.5. I don't intend to run this more than 400bhp anyway so I don't want to do the rods and stuff as well. Pistons, gaskets and possibly some ARP bolts for the heads. Done.
I'm an idiot. Upside is that I'm getting good at engine swaps...
Filled the coolant carefully (new alloy rad fitted), new coil on plug set up, new injectors with cut plugs, what could possibly go wrong??? I turned the engine over to get some oil pressure, refitted the plugs and crossed my fingers. The engine hadn't ran for 8 years. Well, it started first turn of the key! Wow. Sounded great.
I ran it to burp the coolant and got the fans to kick in. Slight leak from a coolant line to the turbo and a slight leak from the oil line, again to the turbo and that was it. Clutch worked fine and it revved really eagerly. Put the car away again and contacted Bob Rawl "I've fitted this engine blah blah blah". His response was "does it have original pistons?"
Well, it seems I've been away too long and not really followed all the doom threads about EJ257's - which is what I had fitted. You guessed it, mine were stock. Bugger.
I've removed the engine again and I'll refit my 2.0ltr with all the good stuff attached, while I contact Alyn for some new pistons for the 2.5. I don't intend to run this more than 400bhp anyway so I don't want to do the rods and stuff as well. Pistons, gaskets and possibly some ARP bolts for the heads. Done.
I'm an idiot. Upside is that I'm getting good at engine swaps...
Last edited by Floyd; 17 May 2018 at 06:29 PM.
22 May 2018, 01:04 PM
#710
I've recently replaced the brake discs again:
These were Comp Brake discs. They were cheap. Didn't last many track days although they were fitted in 2010 and used with relatively soft pads too - Yellow stuff.
Eek!
Now gone with PF discs - pricey but hopefully significantly better:
These were Comp Brake discs. They were cheap. Didn't last many track days although they were fitted in 2010 and used with relatively soft pads too - Yellow stuff.
Eek!
Now gone with PF discs - pricey but hopefully significantly better:
31 May 2018, 06:40 PM
#716
Unmapped 12.4s @ 105
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01 June 2018, 01:03 PM
#717
Yes, Milwaukee cordless power ratchet. Brilliant thing and small enough to get into tight spaces. Battery lasts ages too - I think I've only charged it twice in 2 years!!!
Discs are PF 308/310x28. AP bells drilled for different PCD discs.
Anyone guess what the gunk is in the pump?
Discs are PF 308/310x28. AP bells drilled for different PCD discs.
Anyone guess what the gunk is in the pump?
01 June 2018, 02:14 PM
#718
Yes, Milwaukee cordless power ratchet. Brilliant thing and small enough to get into tight spaces. Battery lasts ages too - I think I've only charged it twice in 2 years!!!
Discs are PF 308/310x28. AP bells drilled for different PCD discs.
Anyone guess what the gunk is in the pump?
Discs are PF 308/310x28. AP bells drilled for different PCD discs.
Anyone guess what the gunk is in the pump?
05 July 2018, 01:17 PM
#720
2.0ltr back in. Slight weep from a top coolant hose, easily fixed by nipping up the jubilee clamp. Started first time after priming the oil pressure and refitting the plugs. Slight vibration at idle which I put down to hard race engine mounts.
I've started arrangements for checking the map as it now has bigger injectors, exhaust and different turbo.
Just had a read through the standard internals power table. 90% of those are on STI engines with the rest being UK or WRX. Only one of them was an untouched EJ257 - I wonder if this is still going strong? It'll be interesting to see what mine makes now with the VF36 and 550's and 3 inch Miltek.
I've started arrangements for checking the map as it now has bigger injectors, exhaust and different turbo.
Just had a read through the standard internals power table. 90% of those are on STI engines with the rest being UK or WRX. Only one of them was an untouched EJ257 - I wonder if this is still going strong? It'll be interesting to see what mine makes now with the VF36 and 550's and 3 inch Miltek.
Last edited by Floyd; 06 July 2018 at 09:16 AM.