SCCA EMod MGB GT V12 Build

In reply to loosecannon :

I hope you can do a data Log with the scan tool?

That will answer a lot of questions, if you dont see any wonky signals it's probably not a wiring issue.

Didn't some of those systems have some kind of a re-learn function for the crank/cam sensors?

This has come up before hasn't it? Sometime around the fuel pump issues? Or is this a gremlin you've bee chasing that long?

If you can twiddle the way the EFI works to help control wheel spin and other parameters that might make it easier to drive, I'd "have" to learn HP tuner..  Control your own destiny.

In reply to bentwrench :

I don't think the scan tool records the data, just displays it live. When I had a bad exhaust cam sensor, this tool diagnosed it when I didn't get a DTC code for cam. It can display live signals from all the sensors so if something look erratic, it should show up. The crank sensor has a re-learn but I'm not showing any signs of a crank sensor problem. The fuel pump fail was on the junkyard motor I bought and blew up, not this one. There were numerous issues last year with the motor, including stumbling and black smoke coming out the exhaust. We figured out what it was back then (May, 2017 IIRC) but I can't remember what it was now. It's not the same as what is happening now (I don't think) but I'll go back and try to figure out what it was back then.

I went back and looked at videos from a year ago, the car was chucking black smoke out then already. The bad news is that I've had this problem for a long time. The good news is that it wasn't the changes I made over the winter that caused it. This is a relief

I had a local event today and tried a new tune setting that Bad News Racing suggested and it seemed to work, it didn't sputter all day. The afr still dipped just into the 9's but I didn't detect stumble. The car felt great although I am still messing with the torque map to get just the right amount of power delivery without being sketchy while driving through the grid. My driving sucked today, but the video is decent Video from today

Big thanks to alfadriver for helping me with my tune, the car just keeps running better and better. I have been messing with the torque tables as well and attached screenshots of 3 different tables. I've been obsessing over these tables and my wife is tired of me talking about them. The numbers, I have learned, basically equal torque (in ft/lbs) that the engine tries to provide. The first one is a stock Regal Turbo table and it makes nothing for power until the speed is way up. The second one is one I tried this last weekend and you can see in the video that it hits hard very suddenly shortly after starting my run. The 3rd one is big fun but unmanageable if driving smooth is your thing. Keep in mind that the axis for throttle opening goes to 100% but the actual throttle only goes to 83.9% at WOT and the highest speed I see is 80 mph. I have a different one I will trying next time, it is set up completely linear from 0 to 400 so there should be no sudden jumps. I have a new wiring harness coming and have asked the manufacturer to label the wires for reverse, cruise control and ambient temperature. Why? Because in the tune, there are torque tables for dry, winter, sport mode and reduced power mode and my theory is that Buick set the ECM up so the car was in reduced power mode when in reverse or on cruise control, winter mode when really cold and hopefully I can figure out how to access these maps because then I could change them with a flick of a switch instead of having to load a new tune.

And dear sweet Ms.B would have you stop talkin' gibberish and come help with tomorrow's schedule at the 'track'

I'm truly devouring all of this when it comes time to  plunk this nugget  into the 'B' not more than 50' from where I sit. How do you feel about nationals at this point????.....can you go back to the 'test track' to hone your lefties/righties before then????? 

In reply to 759NRNG :

There is a local event on the 25th but I want to save our tires for testing in Lincoln. The tune is working very well now as far as the air/fuel ratio and throttle response goes, all I am messing with still is the torque table. I need to have linear, predictable power that iis proportional to what I'm doing with the pedal. The torque table doesn't adjust how much power the car makes, but controls how aggressively it ramps up power and throttle response. When I get it right. it should make the car easier to drive and faster. I had it too aggressive on Saturday and paid the price. I feel really good about Nationals. I feel prepared because I have, I think, fixed all the problems from last year and at SpringNationals, the only problems were shot tires and the stumble. We will have a sticker set of Hoosiers for Nationals and the car has shown no signs of stumble since turning off the turbo over temp protection. We have 12 test runs booked and that is just for Briget to get comfortable. I will use these runs to improve the torque map and maybe tweak the suspension just a little. We have never driven it with this exact set up in Lincoln on new tires but it felt nearly perfect on dead tires so who knows?

Wow, it's been too long since I posted. We made our annual trip to Lincoln, Nebraska for the SCCA Solo Nationals. This is the first time we didn't feel a need to do a bunch of testing because the car was almost there. We did 4 runs the first day we got there and Ron Sutton was assisting us with the set up. I described to him what the car was doing (understeer on corner entry, oversteer in slaloms) and he felt that my toe settings were off. I assured him that it was checked before the car was loaded into the trailer, but he asked me to check again. I checked again and guess what? It was toed in 1/8" when it should be toed out 1/8"! How did he know that? It's sorcery. Anyways, the car now felt neutral on corner entry and good through the slaloms, problem solved. 

The forecast was for rain so the next morning we tested again but this time in the wet, on Hoosier wet tires. I landed up leaving the sway bars where they were but softening the shocks completely and the car felt pretty good. Everybody was worried about the rain but I have always done well in the wet so I was hoping for rain. We had another test session and it was wet but we did it on the slicks and the car was still feeling pretty stable and fast. I was getting optimistic about my chances. I made this video after that and even though the event is now over, you will have to wait until I get home and edit more video.  Video of testing

Saw the results- it looked like one day it was in a deluge, and the other reasonably dry.  Nice job, BTW.  

Checked the results as well - good job indeed!

Thanks guys, I just got home an hour ago and am madly editing video to post up later. I didn't get as many cool angles this year, sorry. Day one had an insane amount of water and I think the full video of Briget's first run demonstrates that so I put that in the video. I also included clips from my crazy first run where I had no steering.  I had tons of rear traction because my rain tires had the same width front and rear but there is so much more weight on the back tires. The front tires would just hydroplane above a certain speed so I had to drive just below that speed for the whole course. I'm convinced that if I had bolted some ballast on the front of the car, I would have been a lot quicker. I have always had good results in the rain so I looked forward to it, but this much rain was a problem. I finished day 1 in 2nd place but what I'm really impressed with is my co-driver, Briget. She does not like racing in the rain and has never driven this car in the wet before this week. She went out there and was so smooth that she finished day 1 only 4/100th second behind Jeff Kiesel!

Day 2 was in the dry so we bolted on the slicks. The car had some understeer so I had a tough time placing it exactly where I wanted. It did not display this understeer on the test course so all I can think of is that either the new Hoosiers or something about the course caused this. During steady throttle like a slalom, it was fine but during acceleration it would push. I think this also is being caused by the weight balance of the car and will be correcting that over the winter. Anyways, 1st run was a DNF, 2nd run was decent but I wasn't aggressive enough and 3rd run I went for it and everything was going very, very well until mid run when I got off the racing line and into the marbles. I finished 3rd, which is my highest Nationals finish ever and feel that I was within striking distance of a win-maybe next year. Of course I will be sharing the changes to the car with all you guys.

Thanks again to alfadriver with helping me fine tune the engine, it ran really well. 

Grassroots Interview Video

Video of Nationals

Best nationals video I've seen so far. Your first run was hilarious. 

To be able to sandwich the kiesel at the end of the day .......major kudos!!!! Big ups to Ms. Killer B!!!!!(ringer ) 

From the in-car video, you would think this was some awesome motorboat racing.

That was great! I think that is the slowest I have ever seen your car go. And you needed a swimsuit to drive! 

I wish someone would have entered a rally/rallyx car. I wonder what the time differential would have been?

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I think a GRC car would win EM

I like the impromptu snorkel.

Jerry From LA said:

I like the impromptu snorkel.

 

Looks like they almost needed one for the driver too!

It was a crazy amount of water, I hope Autoxpix got some good shots of us on course. 

Video of last race of 2018

Just viewed the vid.... 3c woof ......and next season remember to use your left foot for BRAKING.  When and why the number change? Sorry, what's the Ppanther sticky in the cockpit say? 

In reply to 759NRNG :

I tried the left foot braking and it didn't feel right, which is strange because that's all I do in karting. We changed the number after SpringNationals. I used to run 99 all the time then we went to Nationals and it was taken by Bob Tunnel so we started running 69. Bob has moved to DM so 99 opened back up again and I took it. Attached is an old pic of us running 99 and a pic of the graphics in the cockpit.