1gn Neon SRT-4 Swap for RallyX

In reply to wae :

Worst case scenario, there’s still a seat available in my car.

Soccer is finally over for the day so I can try to get the car ready for tomorrow!

Good news:

Took me longer to set up the leak tester than it did to find that cap and replace it.

Well, I guess that worked out okay.

The full timing isn't posted yet, but I believe the interval to 2nd was close to 30 seconds over 5 scored runs, if I correctly remember what Evan said.  The car felt kind of slow and I was coning a ton, but I guess ludicrous speed makes up for sloppy driving?

Now that the car is back off the trailer, I need to inspect everything closely to see how the mounts are holding up and if there's been any movement.  I also remembered, while sitting in grid, that I didn't drain the coolant and put the hypercool and water back in now that freezing weather is over.  Things were okay for the most part, but I did have to hot lap at one point and after crossing the finish line, the needle was creeping up there towards the red.  It didn't get all the way there before retreating, but cooling is definitely something I need to keep an eye on.  My options are a bigger radiator, a hood vent to pull the hot air out form behind the radiator, or some sort of undertray/skidplate design.

The e-brake also needs some work -- there's absolutely no pull on it whatsoever until it's basically completely vertical, and even then it doesn't hold that tightly.  Last time I was messing with it, it seemed like any more adjustment on the drums and the rear wheels had too much drag, but I just need to look at it again.

When I was testing things out before loading up the car, I noticed that the boost controller had loosened up and was completely open.  Rather than fix it, I ran the first two runs with it like that, basically preventing boost.  I thought it might be easier to control on the slick grass with a little less power, but I was having all sorts of problems.  In retrospect, it's the same as when I've bummed rides in other cars where I just feel like I can't make the car do what I want it to do in the turns - instead of whipping around it would just sort of bog out.  I think that my driving style has developed such that I rely on the brakes to turn the back end into a skid-plate racer and the turbo to just overpower the front brakes.   I wonder if I could install a fourth pedal that would power only the rear brakes.  Or maybe just a regular hydraulic handbrake.  Or a brake bias adjuster.

Update:  Results from PE #2 (really 1) were just posted (THANKS EVAN!) and the car did better than I had expected.  Apparently it was 5th overall, beating out all but one of the Subarus, and 31.217 seconds and 32 overall places ahead of the 2nd place MF car.

I can't really completely credit the car for all that, though.  There were a number of timing glitches and I wound up with 9 runs instead of 6.  I have no idea which of the runs counted, but I do know that my worst one was definitely in there -- there was a spot where we came off the gravel horse track and back into the infield and on my 7th run I just totally blew the turn and missed two gates.  That's on the timing sheet and would have been my dropped run.

Let's hope the car stays together for the season...

PE #3 (actually 2) is tomorrow so I did a little prep for the event.  Nothing major:  The motor mounts are all still solid with nothing showing any signs of stress or movement; I tightened the power steering belt a bit; The rear brakes were a little weak and the handbrake was very ineffective so I adjusted the drums a bit.  Otherwise, I just need to load the car on the trailer and fiddle with the mud tires a little bit to get them to seal up.

Bill, you been doin' rain dances again?  Some of the roads near Bitzer's are flooded.

Yeah, apparently I danced too hard.  I even spent some time cleaning up the bead on the leaky mud tire so it holds air.

I won't be able to make the reschedule date, so maybe I'll have some time to figure out the trans fluid leak.

Thanks to my wife covering for me at the festival until I get there Saturday night, it looks like I'll make the re-schedule date after all!  Woo!

On the cooling note, all my buddys that have done SRT swaps in a 1g run a Mishimoto rad/fans and dont seem to have issues. Make sure is bleed properly. 

You can make a 2nd gen lower radiator air diverter fit with some trimming and they are cheap. 

I spaced the back of my hood up on my MAG/DOHC car to help pull some heat, seemed to work well. 

 

In reply to wae :

You are not allowed to start loading the trailer until 10pm.

Knurled. said:

In reply to wae :

You are not allowed to start loading the trailer until 10pm.

eastsideTim said:

Knurled. said:

In reply to wae :

You are not allowed to start loading the trailer until 10pm.

Bad news, y'all:  I never unloaded the trailer from last time, so it's all ready to go....

Professor_Brap said:

On the cooling note, all my buddys that have done SRT swaps in a 1g run a Mishimoto rad/fans and dont seem to have issues. Make sure is bleed properly. 

You can make a 2nd gen lower radiator air diverter fit with some trimming and they are cheap. 

I spaced the back of my hood up on my MAG/DOHC car to help pull some heat, seemed to work well. 

 

I've got the back of the hood jacked up a little bit to get a little more cooling through the cowl and that seems to help -- after a hot lap, the middle of the back of the hood is hot enough from the exhaust/turbo to almost give a burn, so I know there some heat escaping there!

Perhaps I should look at the bigger radiator.  I was on Modern's website and looking at their side-by-side picture and there's a lot more radiator on the Mishimoto units.  I'm a little worried about clearance (Clarence) since as it sits now, I've got almost no space between the TPS connector and the backside of the fan.

wae said:

Professor_Brap said:

On the cooling note, all my buddys that have done SRT swaps in a 1g run a Mishimoto rad/fans and dont seem to have issues. Make sure is bleed properly. 

You can make a 2nd gen lower radiator air diverter fit with some trimming and they are cheap. 

I spaced the back of my hood up on my MAG/DOHC car to help pull some heat, seemed to work well. 

 

I've got the back of the hood jacked up a little bit to get a little more cooling through the cowl and that seems to help -- after a hot lap, the middle of the back of the hood is hot enough from the exhaust/turbo to almost give a burn, so I know there some heat escaping there!

Perhaps I should look at the bigger radiator.  I was on Modern's website and looking at their side-by-side picture and there's a lot more radiator on the Mishimoto units.  I'm a little worried about clearance (Clarence) since as it sits now, I've got almost no space between the TPS connector and the backside of the fan.

Id really recommend the mishi, The back side of the fan and the TPS is around a inch and a half. 

Looks like the radiator/shroud/fan combo is about $400, shipped to my door.  I did have that cash set aside for some new seats, but as fun as that would be, it would be way more fun to not overheat and have to rebuild the engine again.  Tim, aren't you running that same setup on your 2.4 swap?  It's at least the Mishimoto radiator, right?

I think what I'm a-gonna do is wait until after tomorrow's Rallycross.  If the motor mounts are all looking okay after the day's racing is done, then I'll pull the trigger on the cooling system.  If the motor mounts still need work, I'll have to focus on that first.

Shoot me a message, I can probably do that a bit cheaper than $400.

What motor mounts are in it?

I’ve got the Mishimoto radiator, but the stock fans.  It helped me some, especially at events, but my big improvement came from my airdam.  I also had to fight overheating on the road more than at the rallyx.  

Are you running any form of airdam at all?  I have the tiny stock one somewhere, probably at my storage locker if you want to give it a shot and see if it helps.

In reply to eastsideTim :

I found through much trial and error on teh RX-7 that ride height is important on the road.  More ride height, or a too-low rear, make it run hot.

With the soft springs in the back, i had to have the fans running if i was cruising at 70mph+.  With the taller springs in place, it's cool again...

Knurled. said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

I found through much trial and error on teh RX-7 that ride height is important on the road.  More ride height, or a too-low rear, make it run hot.

 

With the soft springs in the back, i had to have the fans running if i was cruising at 70mph+.  With the taller springs in place, it's cool again...

Similar end effect to what an airdam is doing.  Just need to create a low pressure zone behind the radiator to convince air it needs to go through it

Professor_Brap said:

Shoot me a message, I can probably do that a bit cheaper than $400.

What motor mounts are in it?

I've got filled/insert mounts on the sides, a solid bobble with some urethane bushings, and a solid tube on the bottom that goes from the front of the engine back to the control arm with spherical bushings on the right side.  I think that my broken mounts last year were caused by a failure of the bobble strut mount bracket.  Other options include going to the 2gn right side dogbone mount and adapting the 1gn front mount with something to connect it to the SRT at the structural collar.  Unless what I have is going to work.

I'll drop you a note!

eastsideTim said:

Knurled. said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

I found through much trial and error on teh RX-7 that ride height is important on the road.  More ride height, or a too-low rear, make it run hot.

 

With the soft springs in the back, i had to have the fans running if i was cruising at 70mph+.  With the taller springs in place, it's cool again...

Similar end effect to what an airdam is doing.  Just need to create a low pressure zone behind the radiator to convince air it needs to go through it

I can blow around on the interstate all day without the fans on and things stay under 200 degrees -- usually more like 195 or so.  So far, the only problems I've had (other than not having enough coolant in the system.  derp!) have been when I run back to back laps. 

There's no airdam on there now, but I'm not opposed to trying one.  I might have some stuff around the house I can tack on tomorrow morning before the event to see if it has any effect.

In reply to wae :

Sounds like that is probably not your problem, then.  I run around 185 on the highway, but I think I have a 180 thermostat.  Sounds like you just need more heat capacity, or a way to shed it faster.  The Mishimoto should help with the first part at least.  Just got to remember to pack your garden sprayer for between runs for now.

In reply to eastsideTim :

He had the sprayer yesterday.  Didn't use it on himself though, puzzling in 95F heat.

Jerry said:

In reply to eastsideTim :

He had the sprayer yesterday.  Didn't use it on himself though, puzzling in 95F heat.

You know, I was trying to figure out how to mist myself, but the wand is 24+ inches long and it just seemed kind of awkward.

In reply to wae :