Author |
Message |
Adrian Solah
Tinkerer NSW TT
Posts: 18 Reg: 05-2008
| Hey Ben, Im glad to see so much happening with the car ... cheers Adrian |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1333 Reg: 04-2006
| G'day Adrian. I was wondering if you were still around. I had a question for you: Did you replace the oil in the gearbox at all? If so, what did you use, because it shifts quite nicely even from cold. I have been playing with the plastic guard liner, and tried to replicate the venting from the other side. I simply cut the plastic with a knife, and used a heat gun to bend it into some form of vent. I am worried about filling the cooler with mud and gunk, which is why the vents are shaped as they are.
|
Adrian Solah
Tinkerer NSW TT
Posts: 19 Reg: 05-2008
| Hey Mate, Yeh have been working on old school commodore which has rego so havent thought to come check back in here... Soarer is a fantastic car so I may get another one. anyways , yep replaced the gearbox and engine oil when i picked it up from ichiban cause it had been sitting around a bit. Brand wise I cant recall, but I always put decent stuff in. cheers |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1344 Reg: 04-2006
| The oil cooler situation is still a work in progress. I had an adaptor made up to fit the relocation kit to the side of the engine. $100 later, it now fits up to the side of the block. I fired the engine up to check for leaks and discovered the cooler core itself has the mother of all leaks in it. In the time it took to start the engine, look under the car and shut it down I lost nearly half of the engine's oil. Not happy, Jan. It looks like I am now buying a replacement cooler core as well. This has been a very expensive lesson in buying second hand without the ability to check the goods prior to handing over the cash. As my wife said, lets just put it down to experience. Anyway, I decided to change tack and make my own strut brace. I considered buying a whiteline one etc for just under $200, but after what Dave Cazes had to say about solid bars, I thought I'd give it a go. I made the tops and brackets out of 6mm steel plate, and used 20mm thick wall tube for the brace. Its painted red, because it was the only paint I had left on the shelf. Hopefully will go faster also.
|
Andrew McKellar
TryHard NSW Soarer Sports Sedan (well, nearly); '84 MA61 Supra.
Posts: 225 Reg: 06-2008
| Nice fabrication work there Ben. I see the colour matches the seat and, presumably, the tow hooks. Not only will it go faster, but it will increase safety! As for the oil cooler episode, yep, you can only learn from it. I found over the years that anything we did ourselves (or got made to our own specifications) never failed, but most stuff where we relied on the words and "skills" of others nearly always went pear-shaped, which included second-hand goods. By the time you re-core that cooler, would it be better just to buy a new one? |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1345 Reg: 04-2006
| I wouldn't even bother trying to fix it- it is 'torn' right around one of the end tanks where it appears it was bent(likely dropped), and then straightened again. The damage was hidden behind one of the end tank covers. I can get either the exact same 19 row cooler or the Greddy style lightweight 13 row core new from Just Jap for $85. I'm going to order it after I post this. I've bought from them before, and know they'll get it to me quickly and in one piece. I am going to do Wakefield again on the 22 March with the RENEW club, so I need the car running, all the oil cleaned up and leak free by then. I shouldn't of painted the bar- the bright colour highlights my shoddy welds on the inside of the joins. I had the mother of all hangovers today and just wanted to finish. Hence the reason the firewall part of the brace never got done... |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1347 Reg: 04-2006
| Hmmm. I like the colour coding idea. The tailshaft loop is also the same red. I might have to do the brake calipers as well. I have heaps of steel tube left over. Depending on when the new oil cooler arrives, I might finish the brace this weekend. I want to triangulate the brace back to the fire wall, directly behind the cam covers. The difficulty will be getting the cuts just right. The angles are all compounded because the fire wall is not vertical at this point. I also have to consider the loading on the brace and wall. I have no idea what forces are in play, but I'd say they are considerable. The brace as it is now weighs 3.5kg. I'd expect there is another 1-1.5 kg in the rest of the bracing. Not exactly lightweight. Who knows- one day when I'm flush with cash I might get it all remade in something lighter. Probably not. Just need to find another 5kg to pull out of somewhere. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1353 Reg: 04-2006
| Well Just Jap came through for me and I now have a new oil cooler.
This has now been fitted with little hassle into the mounts made for the busted core. Tomorrow night I'll start the engine and get it all hot to check for leaks. I might have to invest in a few cans of degreaser to get rid of all the oil from the last time I tried that. I got hold of some better undertrays from another member so they'll be modded on the weekend and fitted up. I'm all signed up for the RENEW track day at Wakefield on 22 March. Really looking forward to seeing if the mods, and my driving, has improved from last year.
|
Andrew Meiers
Goo Roo Victoria TT
Posts: 1020 Reg: 07-2005
| Here you go Ben, http://www.supraforums.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=50966 |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1359 Reg: 04-2006
| Cheers, Andrew. I've posted up my interest. I'll text him in a bit. Anyone want the rears??? |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1364 Reg: 04-2006
| Had a good weekend. It is amazing what you can get done if you stay off the grog. All the undertrays are back on the car, and a few extra I never had are on too. I must say I was surprised how much stiffness they add to the front bar and guards. It took some effort and I had to make up some alloy brackets where some of the plastic holes were too far gone. Hopefully there will be an advantage aerodynamically as well. All the oil has been cleaned up, and the garage scrubbed and hosed out. I was conservative in my estimate of the size oil leak in the original cooler core- all five litres found their way out in a few seconds. The strut brace has been finished. It aint pretty but hopefully it works. I came up over budget on weight. The porky little brace weighs 5.7kg all up. I ended up using 6mm steel on the fire wall flat as well after seeing how much deflection there was in that area. I also nearly doubled the size of the plate to 200x50mm to try and spread the load over a greater area. This I bolted to the fire wall using two existing mounts. I then began the tricky task of cutting the pipe to fit. Once I had the pipe cut and shaped I tack welded it in place.
I then removed the lot from the car. This is no easy task due to the angle of the strut towers. I ended up undoing the strut top bolts and jacking one side of the car up, and pushing down on the wheel to drop the strut top out of the brace. I finished welding it up and painted it prior to putting back in the car.
If anyone doubts the amount of movement in this area, when one side of the car is jacked up the brace moves so far the bolt holes are covered. (6mm+) I should probably go get a proper alignment done again now, but I have run out of time. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1374 Reg: 04-2006
| Car is prepped and on the trailer ready for my second attempt on Wakefield on Sunday. There have been a few mods made since last time, so I hope it all holds together and I can screw a second or two out of it. Theres gonna be a lot of fast rotors there, so hopefully I can put on a decent show. |
Joe Russell
TryHard Marlborough 4.0 V8 GT-L(UZZ31)
Posts: 287 Reg: 10-2008
| I'm liking that strut brace Ben, nicely done. Would like to hear what kind of difference it makes tomorrow! |
Daniel Clarke
Goo Roo NSW TT 2.5L 6 cylinder
Posts: 4775 Reg: 03-2006
| If ya can get some cheap insulation, Try heat proofing the INtercooler pipe from under the front passenger side up to the throttlebody mate. This does help drop inlet temps and keep em lower consistently |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1376 Reg: 04-2006
| Cheers Daniel, I'll have to look into it. Are you talking like thermo wrap type products or some of that high density foam with the silver backing? Joe: hard to say what had what effect, but I slashed 2.3 seconds off my lap time. No increase in engine performance, just some safety built in via cooling. All the effort has been on the chassis and suspension setup. My new PB at Wakefield is 1:12.9 official timing. I'll be up on Natsoft some time this week. I didn't see the lap sheets, but I'm told I did a long string of 1:13s as well. This was all in my second session. I binned the car big time at the end of the session, and had to do a backyarder re alignment of the suspension. I learnt a valuable lesson as well. What worked on one day is not necessarily what will work the next. Starting pressures of 24psi which were spot on for 37 degrees at Oran Park, were way to low for Wakefield in the morning. The first session was diabolical, and I gave up and just came in. The car was wallowing around, and I never knew which way it was going next. Hot tyre pressures were 28 degrees, a long way off my desired 32. I really need a thermometer. I have some video, but need to figure out how to get it from the camera to the web. |
Joe Russell
TryHard Marlborough 4.0 V8 GT-L(UZZ31)
Posts: 294 Reg: 10-2008
| Very nice Ben. Could try nitrogen in your tires if you experience such temperature changes man. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1378 Reg: 04-2006
|
Joe Russell wrote on Monday, March 23, 2009 - 02:20 pm:Could try nitrogen in your tires if you experience such temperature changes man
The semis should have an increase of around 6psi from cold to hot. It isn't an issue if you know what you are doing, but I clearly misjudged the huge difference between 15 and 37 degrees ambient temperature. I find that at a track day, once they warm up initially they stay fairly consistent across the day, just dropping a pound or two as it gets hotter. When I finally get a thermometer I'll post up some figures for the tyres, brakes etc. As an example, water boils on contact with the rim after 10 laps around wakefield, so everything is pretty hot. |
Daniel Clarke
Goo Roo NSW TT 2.5L 6 cylinder
Posts: 4796 Reg: 03-2006
| Ben you could try some of that Thermo wrap stuff, or get some of the Silver lined clark Rubber stuff. Coupl feet of that and some hose clamps Once the engine bay gets hot, that intercooler pipe going to the throttle body gets so hot it heats it up again once its cooled ! |
Joe Russell
TryHard Marlborough 4.0 V8 GT-L(UZZ31)
Posts: 297 Reg: 10-2008
| Thats a lot of heat Ben! Sounds good , yeah 22 degrees makes a difference Daniel's got a good idea for the piping, with those kind of temperatures. |
James Harris
Goo Roo QLD SOARERLESS :-(
Posts: 2617 Reg: 07-2005
| Have you bypassed that water line that runs into the throttle body ? I did it on my soarer and i could actually put my hand on the thing after a hard drive as opposed to before i did that mod. Its a really simple one, just buy a double ended male attachment thingo and use that. No hot water to the throttle body for me thanks. |
James Harris
Goo Roo QLD SOARERLESS :-(
Posts: 2618 Reg: 07-2005
| Also i removed that rubber strip at the back of the engine where the bonnet lines up with it (when shut). There was a bit of debate about whether it would help or not, but i believed it did as i could physically feel hot air being expelled from the rear of the bonnet just infront of my windscreen after pulling it off. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1382 Reg: 04-2006
|
James Harris wrote on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 10:36 am:Have you bypassed that water line that runs into the throttle body ?
Nope, but it is on the list. Actually it was on the list last year, but I some how missed it. James Harris wrote on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 10:40 am:Also i removed that rubber strip at the back of the engine where the bonnet lines up with it (when shut).
Yes- I remember the debate, and am not convinced it is worth it. My concern is the loss of flow past the gearbox and/or the interruption of the flow designed by Toyota. I have read a lot of good arguments both for and against. One day, I'll try it with before and after temp readings for comparison. |
James Harris
Goo Roo QLD SOARERLESS :-(
Posts: 2623 Reg: 07-2005
| Yeh fair call brother (re- rubber strip) may just be a placebo kinda thing. As for the throttle body bypass, its pretty easy to do and doesnt take very long, just gotta get the right bit for it. I assume you have considered hacking up the bonnet a little ? Or even removing the high beams to get more air flow into the engine bay? Did you run some ducting up from the front bar into that nice little box you made up? * i can probably get some lengths of that stuff if you like and post some down to you. This is a good thread, keep us updated mate. |
Dave Cazes
TryHard sa tt
Posts: 370 Reg: 08-2007
|
Ben Lipman wrote on Sunday, March 15, 2009 - 02:24 pm:If anyone doubts the amount of movement in this area, when one side of the car is jacked up the brace moves so far the bolt holes are covered. (6mm+)
ive been campaigning this since the start. 1. Dont buy ebay. 2. Do your own testing like you have, and youll see I always had the intension of doing a firewall brace, but its a bit hard with all my interior in. Try jacking your front corner up (only 1 side) and see the towers move.... lol |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1384 Reg: 04-2006
| Basically Dave, a lot of my improvement has to come back to your suspension advice. If nothing else, at least I know what information I am looking for on the web. AND You were right. I WANT MORE CAMBER!!! I am interested in the offset bushes you talked about in another thread. I also have a question: Can I put offset bushes in the upper arms to get more camber adjustment? I assume there is a good reason not to, as I haven't heard of anyone doing it. |
Phil Gibson
Goo Roo WA '91 UZZ31 track bunky, '94 blk/blk UZZ31
Posts: 1400 Reg: 07-2005
| ^ what he said |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1389 Reg: 04-2006
| It would appear you can put offset bushes in the upper arms as I found some on Titan Motorsports website (US). They aren't cheap at US$100 plus shipping. I am going to have a go a redoing the alignment in the shed this weekend after it all got knocked out of wack. |
Dave Cazes
TryHard sa tt
Posts: 373 Reg: 08-2007
| They dont exist, but if you could it would work, just not too well. It would effect your dynamic camber, also with teh top arm not being adjustable and using 1 long bolt also, it would cause some problems 1. The bushes would have to be steel shelled, and pressed in both in perfect alignment so the bolt can go through 2. being a small bush offseting the hole would effect road noise and wear, very very small amount, but its there. 3. an advantage is you could set the hole higher to off set your lowered ride height (RCA) but without doing the lower its not worth it, you will stuff the geometry up way too much. If your really in need, you can just buy the just jap versions, I just dont trust them. If you really look hard into the soarers, you can see the level of engineering and the sheer cost toyota put into them. (alloy arms, alloy crossmembers, alloy reo bars, Double wishbones as opposed to strut like the chaser) I wouldnt want to be the guniea pig for the china arms ona race track. The only other way to get more camber is to lower it more but it causes way more problems than its worth The old school racer trick was to redrill the lower crossmembers holes .5" further out, and weld a washer over them for strength. Problem is we all run alloy members, so its not as easy to do. Or as safe. So at this point, i dont havea quick/easy/cheap fix for this problem, daizen is the only way to go. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1390 Reg: 04-2006
| Well, the alignment is done. I had 10mm toe in on the left rear, nearly 10mm toe out on the right, and the camber was all over the place. Annoyingly, the left tie rod was adjusted 15mm shorter than the right (I really should have watched the wheel alignment place a little closer!). I now have 0.5mm toe in on the rears (1mm total) with 2 degrees neg camber, and 1mm toe out on the fronts (2mm total) with a fraction over 2 degrees neg camber, and all the caster she had to give. The tie rods are equal length, give or take a mil. It turns out the steering wheel was on one bolt hole to the right. Plus I learnt a lot about how my suspension works. It would be interesting to take it to an alignment centre to see how accurate my home made set up is, but I can't see myself finding the time. My dodgy setup is below. Basically two parallel string lines, a home made camber gauge, and some home made toe plates. The tyres pivot/move on a layer of grease sandwiched between two steel plates.
|
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1391 Reg: 04-2006
| I found the daizens for US$130 (A$189 ish). That doesn't include post. I'll have to watch the US dollar to see if it is worth it... |
Adrian Solah
Tinkerer NSW TT
Posts: 20 Reg: 05-2008
| hey Ben , im going to pickup a new seat for my new project and will probally buy the same as whats in the soarer now. You happy with it ? Figured if you were looking to change can work out a deal. cheers |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1403 Reg: 04-2006
| I'm quite happy with it, sorry. I moved it closer to the trans tunnel than what you had, but otherwise I like it. In the future I may get a second one for the missus to sit in, but that's a long way off. |
Adrian Solah
Tinkerer NSW TT
Posts: 21 Reg: 05-2008
| all good mate. Got it from revolution racegear if your after another. |
Andrew Meiers
Goo Roo Victoria TT
Posts: 1038 Reg: 07-2005
| Hey Ben, what was the verdict on the brake pads you tried. It was these wasn't it? http://www.modyourcar.com.au/intima-sr6300-street-race-performance-brake-pads-p5431 |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1418 Reg: 04-2006
| Hey Sorry Andrew, I haven't been bothered updating this thread. I'm becoming jaded with all the rubbish posted on this forum. The 'signal to noise' ratio is very low currently. I wasn't sure there were any car enthusiasts left... I am pretty happy with these pads. They have done 30 laps of Wakefield park (before I binned it on some one elses grease) and about 70 laps of Oran Park South on a bloody hot day. The wear is pretty good (I haven't measured it recently) and fade on these tracks was very minimal. Tellingly I set my fastest lap time about lap 6/7 in the sessions at Wakefield, as opposed to lap 3 on the old set of pads. I haven't used any big dollar pads. I used Lucas on the Rx-7 and they were good a street/track compromise. I believe the Intima SR 6300 are a cut above these again. I want to try the next level up in the Intima pads as I don't care about cold performance for the street, or how dusty my bling wheels get. They are still reasonably priced at $160($130 for the SR6300) from www.carbling.com. I got my SR from carbling and they were very easy to deal with, and keen to hear how they went, and interested in what I was doing and how they could help. I went and saw them down at Tuggerah- I much prefer to spend money where I can talk to a human being, not someone hiding behind a website. |
Phil Gibson
Goo Roo WA '91 UZZ31 track bunky, '94 blk/blk UZZ31
Posts: 1424 Reg: 07-2005
| Keep posting Ben, im still reading.... Btw thanks for the info on pads, although i seem to be doing ok with the TRW (Lucas) street pads i thought my next set (Ferodo DS2500s) were going to be close to the $300 mark (as they would need to be cut especially) Good to know that there are cheaper options that are still decent, although im not sure what availability will be like for Celsior brakes |
Andrew McKellar
TryHard NSW Soarer Sports Sedan (well, nearly); '84 MA61 Supra.
Posts: 234 Reg: 06-2008
|
Ben Lipman wrote on Sunday, April 12, 2009 - 08:37 am:I wasn't sure there were any car enthusiasts left...
We're still here mate, just busy "enthusing" over our own projects. Keep up the good work, people are watching... |
Peter Nitschke
Junk Filterer South Australia UZZ30 UZZ31
Posts: 10498 Reg: 11-2004
| Phil, the DS2500's are awesome pads. The Lucas are very good value and also work OK at higher temps, but the DS2500 is just outstanding. They just love the heat, if anything they bite a bit better, yet they are also very good for the street, and not as dusty as the Lucas. The DS2500's give so much confidence when braking, the stopping power is just that good. Get a set and try them. Then if you like, get others and test them as well, then put the DS2500's back in. Switching them at the track is the best way to compare if you can. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1421 Reg: 04-2006
|
Andrew Meiers wrote on Saturday, April 11, 2009 - 10:22 pm:Good to know that there are cheaper options that are still decent, although im not sure what availability will be like for Celsior brakes
Talk to the guys at carbling. They are the importers, and have a full listing of what is available. I think they had the celsior listed, but unsure as to what model. They were getting the Supra 4 spots in stock at the start of this year also. I'd be interested in what you think if you try them, as you'll have driven on both the Lucas and Intima in the same car. I tend to find something that works and stick to it. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1424 Reg: 04-2006
| Got the car on the trailer and took it to the local dump to use the weighbridge. The operator stated it was accurate to plus or minus 20kg, as it is only used to bill for rubbish disposal. The car, with half a tank of fuel, weighs 1395kg. That's 1480kg with me on board. I had hoped it would be a little less, deep into the mid 1300 kg range. Time to go over the car again and see what else I can get rid of. |
Andrew Meiers
Goo Roo Victoria TT
Posts: 1041 Reg: 07-2005
| Mate thats a lot better than mine at 1740KG! 260kg less is a big difference. Do you still have the air con compressor in there? Smaller battery for track use only? air con radiator removed? |
Damian Ware
DieHard Victoria UZZ32
Posts: 895 Reg: 10-2005
| Ben that is certainly considerable weight reduction, well done. I would also be interested to see what you have removed to reduce the weight thus far. |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1432 Reg: 04-2006
| Might have to look at a smaller battery, located where the rear passenger seat used to be. Save a few kg and help balance up the car a bit. I have already got rid of all the AC system. I am now thinking of ditching the high beams, ABS complete (need a non ABS donor for all the brake pipework) and cutting out the spare wheel well and replacing with ally sheeting. Do I really need the guard liners? Probably not. Will some dumps and down pipe weigh less than the stock cast stuff? Hopefully. I also still have a lot of the factory pollution gear, charcoal canister etc. Might be time to break out the hole saw and mig welder to lighten and stiffen things up... |
Ben Lipman
Goo Roo NSW Soarer TT manual
Posts: 1433 Reg: 04-2006
| Damien, Here is a list off the top of my head: The complete interior, less the top dash skin and instruments All the sound system All the aircon system sound deadening from cabin(incl firewall), boot, under the bonnet. Everything less fuel tank out of the boot including the air vent things. Every piece of wiring I could not find a use for (very time intensive and I have surely missed heaps) Sunroof (replaced with clear perspex and ally) Tow points at the rear (replaced with a single CAMS approved ring) Cruise control TEMS wiring Unused computers Rear wiper Windscreen washer bottle coil pack cover plastic grille turning lights I have added some weight also. Sway bars from hollow to solid coilovers Steel strut brace Oilcooler, powersteering cooler fire extinguisher tail shaft loop ally doorskins, and covers in footwell |
Andrew McKellar
TryHard NSW Soarer Sports Sedan (well, nearly); '84 MA61 Supra.
Posts: 235 Reg: 06-2008
| And here's what your garage will look like once you've done it Damian!
|