Freddy McShreddy: Midlife Crisis FRS thingy

You know where this is headed, right?  Next step is building your own maps.  

Maybe? I've learned quite a bit in this whole process, but as of right now I'm not quite there yet. We are on the 9th revision so far and I'm still not sure I'd be comfortable doing it on my own. So many things to screw up. I'm also tired of doing logs. So frickin many of them. It's almost taking the fun out of driving the car. Almost.

In reply to captainawesome :

I don't have the patience for that kind of thing...but it's definitely neat.  I suppose it's easier to do on a dyno if you can find someone local.

FYI: I finally started using some of those M42 E30 parts you sent me last fall (Thanks!).  The shifter-arm bracket and new shift cup came in handy when I upgraded to a Z3 1.9 lever.  I'm planning on doing offset control arm bushings, so I'll plan to do the subframe when I do that.

In reply to Hoondavan :

Just glad they can be of use. I've long forgotten what all was in the package other than the sway bar.

I'm glad you've been able to receive some help with the tune. 

As for Kraftwerks, well, 

In reply to z31maniac :

Fingers crossed it all holds together. I think I've done all the work to keep it all nice and happy, but ultimately I've added plenty of risk. I've got a day at Hallett planned for March 29th so we will see how much the power changes my lap times.

Well the Rotrex unit is toast. I haven't been able to perform an autopsy yet, but it's seized up from what I can tell. When I started the car yesterday morning it seemed louder than it's usual whine, but I thought maybe it was just that I haven't driven it in a few days. NOPE. By the time I was pulling up to work I knew something was terribly wrong. The noise grew to an insane level. I could feel heavy vibration in the Rotrex unit by hand, and the oil level dropped but no signs of a leak? Weird.

What really sucks is I just got the call from Deatschwerks that my injectors were in great shape, flow tested, and shipping back to me. So close to getting the e85 started! Oh well.

After a lot of consideration, I decided to pull the kit completely and sell off what I can in hopes to pay for a good mechanical LSD. I'll sell the injectors, fuel pump, upgraded clutch/flywheel, and catch can as well. I think those items plus a rebuildable KW kit should help pay for one. The good news out of all this is that I can go straight to e85 with only adding in the flex fuel sensor kit I bought.

So, last night I went straight into removal mode and getting things back to normal. Flex fuel sensor kit was installed, but it required removing my Grimmspeed strut brace until I can figure out a different mounting solution. Maybe I'll just leave it off and sell it? Anyway, I then spent a little time trimming the stock intake snorkel into more of a mouth. I originally would have just left the snorkel stock, but I'm keeping the oil cooler setup. That means the thermostat mounted to the crash beam is kinda in the way.

Once that was wrapped up, I flashed the ECU with an NA tune from Delicious. They were kind enough to send me the tune when my belt alignment issues were in full swing, so that was super helpful. I took a couple quick logs to check everything over before calling it a night. Seems okay, but I went ahead and started talks with the Italian tuner to see if we can improve some faults and also begin working the corn juice in to the mix.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Flex fuel kit.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

All back to normal-ish.

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It sucks that your supercharger is busted, but I'm glad that the charger broke before your engine did.  

Does the NA tune fix the midrange torque hole that people complain so much about?

In reply to rothwem :

It definitely could have been worse. I'm actually glad it broke so close to home. I could have limped it home from anywhere since it's a divorced belt system, but still not ideal. A rebuild on the Rotrex could be done anywhere from $750-900 depending on how bad it is, but I am just over it. I already feel better just going back to a virtually worry free NA setup.

This tune does remove the dip, but a lot of that will be gone once you put a good header on with a tune to match. The ACE A350 I've got is supposed to be the cream of the crop for gains in the area under the curve. E85 is even better with it. With the current 91 tune and the equal length ACE it feels faster than my previous off brand unequal length with e85 and off the shelf OFT tablet tune. I can't confirm that, but seat of the pants seems improved. With that said just about any cheap catless unequal length header will remove the dip at a tiny fraction of the ACE.

What a gut-punch.  Bummer...

Onward and upward is where I'm headed. Recently the release of the Falken rt660 had me waffling as to what tires I want to get for this season. I toasted a pair of my rt615k+ from an alignment issue late last year so there were decisions to be made. Do I just buy two new rt615k+ or a whole set of rt660s or possibly even consider the re71r? The rt660s look good from an autocross standpoint, but wear even faster than the re71. Since I plan to run a couple track days early in the season, and the local Firestone had some specials I went with the Stones. First set for me, so hopefully they still live up to the hype.

This Sunday is the season opener with the local Ozark Z Club. I've been doing logs for the tuner to tweak my 91 setup, and I imagine e85 will be started sometime next week. Boy do I miss the power of the supercharger. It's like someone's got the foot on the brakes now.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

I had a rotrex lock up on me too.  Luckily it was warrantied but I've been gun shy of them ever since

In reply to docwyte :

That's where I'm at now. On one hand I could get it rebuilt and install the kit again. I could do it quickly at this point, but I'm paranoid.

Another alternative is to go turbo, but under hood heat management is a bitch with these cars. It would just require more tinkering to get set up and happy with. High CFM rad fans, turbo blanket, and possibly even hood vents. It can be a rabbit hole.

So, do I just run it NA and get as much seat time as possible, or do I stick with FI and accept that there is going to be some hiccups.

Anyone can get from one end of a straight to the other end quickly, all it takes is money. You'll be further ahead putting that money into seat time and progressing with your driving (and actually enjoying the car and why you have it). None of that means you can't revisist more power down the road for this car or move into something with more power when the time is right. At least that is what I tell myself as I get my doors doors blown off on the Andretti straight at Mosport but reel the cars back in through the rest of the track :) 

In reply to adam525i :

Once you've tasted that sweet boost juice, it's hard to go back to the way things were. I'm thinking a tire trailer and hitch setup is a better investment at this point, with the mechanical LSD after that.

Ooof.... That blows for both you and the blower.. Sucks that the company was so E36 M3ty to deal with to start out and then with them basically washing their hands of you. Not good customer service imo

In reply to Bill Mesker :

I kinda knew they weren't the best kit out there, and that their customer service was well known to be terrible. I took a risk on a used kit, and it bit me. Hard. Sometimes trying to save a buck ends up costing you more in the end. I think I learned my lesson on this one.

In reply to captainawesome :

Don't feel bad, I've made that mistake several times...

This is a fun thread.  As for going back to NA, you did mention how the tuning was almost taking thr fun away.  You started this ownership having fun, imo time to go back to that.  Btw i love your car.  

In reply to Caprigrip :

Exactly. I ran my first autocross of the season on Sunday and it was glorious. I didn't have to worry about things breaking or anything serious. Just fun. I'm happy with the current situation, and on the 29th I'll hopefully be at Hallett running laps. These Stones are nice. I like them a lot.

I've had a stretch of bad luck lately with this car. Last Thursday on my drive home a rock decided to meet my windshield. I had a planned High Speed Touring day at Hallett yesterday, so I tried to get it replaced before then. No bueno. So I put a sticker over it.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Then Friday afternoon I got a flat tire coming back to work from my lunch. This is the SECOND PUNCTURE on my street tires in the last month. After that was patched, I notice a rattle from the exhaust on the way home. I've been hearing some slight buzzing before, but assumed it was the header close to the subframe. Jacked the beast up to inspect and find this crack on my front pipe.

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This is probably all my fault. I don't think I ever loosened the slip joint or the bolt that tightens that bracket to the trans when I installed the ACE header. Pretty sure that's what caused the stress required to crack it. Whoops. I ordered up a dual resonated replacement in hopes to get rid of some rasp.

I also noticed the rear window tint doesn't want to be there anymore.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Then some good news. I made it to Hallett on Sunday. I installed my Carbotech xp10 pads that morning not too long before the rain came. Luckily it dissipated before our second session. I've never run CCW before so there was quite a learning curve from the start. By the time I rolled into the 4th session with some dryer pavement and more confidence, I pushed into a 1:32.96. I'm super happy with that since the best I managed CW so far was a 1:34.84. Brake pads plus the Re71r tires were a big help though. On the 5th and final session I managed a 1:32.37. I know there's more in it because I was passing a c5 at the start of my flyer lap and I wasn't sure if he was going to point me by or not. Also, there's just more grip than I have managed to use. These Stones are sticky, and I like it.

Anyway, the track photographer always manages to get some good shots in.

IMG_5038 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

IMG_5122 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

IMG_5037 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

IMG_5486 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

IMG_5331 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

IMG_5069 by hatchethairy, on Flickr

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though. My driver side marker light popped out in the fourth session into turn 2, so for the remainder of my lap into the pits it flopped around bouncing off my wheel and top of the fender. There's a couple small dings and quite a few little gouges in the paint. I disconnected what was left of the dangling light, tossed it in the glovebox and went back out for a few more laps. I took a pic of the damage, but since there is tire and bug crud everywhere it's difficult to see.

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Here's the vid of my fastest lap:

And to make this post even longer my mobile windshield tech stopped by this morning to replace the cracked one. Yay!

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Right about the time he finished it started pouring rain. I took off to grab a breakfast burrito, and upon my return stumbled into MASSIVE hail. I had nowhere to go that was covered, and I couldn't get out of the car. I just watched in horror as my car got pummeled.

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Untitled by hatchethairy, on Flickr

Driver side headlight is borked. Quite a few large dents in the hood. The roof has a few little dings. Insurance claim is started and luckily the deductible is only $100, but I just paid the $100 deductible for the windshield this morning.

All in all it was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad kinda Day.

In reply to captainawesome :

Keep your head up, things will turn around. I will say your luck is like mine Currently. 

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

I'm trying to keep positive on it all. The car still drives great, just currently looks and sounds like poo poo. My wife is really losing her marbles on it though. She's always been patient with my vehicular endeavors, but this has been a trying period for her. I can't blame her on it either.

As an owner of a 15 FR-S, these cars are super fun, but they are E36 M3 magnets, aren't they?

In reply to Appleseed :

It certainly feels like it at this point. The good side is my cost of entry to the car was pretty low, so I guess I have that going for me.