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Hackster's LSA / T56 2 door

It kind of sucks to think that anything I do from here on our suspension wise is going to require an alignment. Going to get expensive fast.

Dropped the **** box off for another alignment today. Hope its the last one for a while.


I need a tire sponsor.

Sean

There's a reason people do it themselves with jackstands, string, ruler and a smart phone. Checking toe, camber and doing a "nut and bolt" of critical fasteners was just a normal part of prep for a race/track weekend, back when....oh, and anyone spending time at the track needs a tire sponsor. ;) Nice to see you sorting through the details. That's how you'll find the (never ending) next weakest link.
 
There's a reason people do it themselves with jackstands, string, ruler and a smart phone. Checking toe, camber and doing a "nut and bolt" of critical fasteners was just a normal part of prep for a race/track weekend, back when....oh, and anyone spending time at the track needs a tire sponsor. ;) Nice to see you sorting through the details. That's how you'll find the (never ending) next weakest link.

This is key to keeping operating costs under control on our Lemons E36 camper with the 5.3 swap. We do all the alignment ourselves and have a tire sponsor - it's a racer discount (not free) but it adds up quickly!

Alignment tools we use are homemade toe plates w/ 2 tape measures, and a bubble level camber/caster gauge that sits on the face of the wheel and is adjustable. It's the kind that requires turning the wheel left & right to find caster, but camber is pretty simple, you just have to zero it on a plumb surface first and make sure the car is level. No idea how accurate our methods are but it's good enough for what we do.

Like this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sps-91000
 
Ha ha ROADKILL! :-D

Pretty Much =)

There's a reason people do it themselves with jackstands, string, ruler and a smart phone. Checking toe, camber and doing a "nut and bolt" of critical fasteners was just a normal part of prep for a race/track weekend, back when....oh, and anyone spending time at the track needs a tire sponsor. ;) Nice to see you sorting through the details. That's how you'll find the (never ending) next weakest link.

Yep, figuring this stuff out as I go. Nut and Bolt is now on my to do list after every track day. I am going to need a lift soon =)

This is key to keeping operating costs under control on our Lemons E36 camper with the 5.3 swap. We do all the alignment ourselves and have a tire sponsor - it's a racer discount (not free) but it adds up quickly!

Alignment tools we use are homemade toe plates w/ 2 tape measures, and a bubble level camber/caster gauge that sits on the face of the wheel and is adjustable. It's the kind that requires turning the wheel left & right to find caster, but camber is pretty simple, you just have to zero it on a plumb surface first and make sure the car is level. No idea how accurate our methods are but it's good enough for what we do.

Like this one: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sps-91000

I could not agree with you more, I gotta figure something out for tires. I am ordering the alignment tool this week, I cannot continue to pay between $100 and $200 a pop for the alignments. Thanks for the input man, it really helps.

Well, got the car almost all the way to Pacific Friday night...its about 180 miles from Portland north. I made it 178 miles when I took the offramp a guy pulled up behind me and told me my trailer was smoking......I bail out and get to looking.

What I found is with the side door, the fender just sits in two little pockets to hold it in. The entire fender just fell over, would have been just fine but it wedged itself between the car and the tire and destroyed the inside of the tire, not to mention hot rubber all over both the car and the trailer. Good fun.

Moved the fender and limped it to the track. Later in the evening I swapped out the spare. ATC is going to take care of a new inner fender and replacing the spare tire for me already.

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3 hours and 45 minutes to get there......ridiculous traffic. I pull in, they moved start times up 20 minutes. Literally unload the car, get safety gear, drive to tech, drive to grid, last car in the line and roll onto the track. Maybe 10 mins between arrival to on track.

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I ran the first session, car feels ok, steering is awesome, no more moving steering wheel, the car feels suspension wise tight for the first time ever and I was able to focus on driving this time out instead of worrying about what the hell was going on with the car. Rear feels loose though, a little floaty. Ran 20 min session, had one stoppage for a blown tire.

Came back to pits, no leaks, check tires, hot was up to 42 lbs......woah, thats way to high. Drop pressures down to 35 front and 34 rear. Have a little coolant coming out from the overflow, so drain that, not much in it and throw a zip tie on the hose. Add in 5 gallons of fuel. Car still leaks fuel out the filler neck by the way so I cannot fill it full without it getting really bad losing fuel.

Back on track, car is ****ing dialed , little bit of push if I am off my line or come in too hot but I think thats a driver thing not a car thing. Things are running really well, I run my 20 minute session, we have a driver blow an engine on the back straight in a honda, didnt oil the track down, just blown up. So we get brought in while the wrecker gets him.

Finished the session car was working really well.

Came in, threw in 3 gallons of fuel, check tires, all good. Go out for 3rd session and its fast. I got in three or four good laps, but then get a black flag waved at me. I come in to hot pits to see whats up, they say nothing, we didnt flag you at all. Just as I am waiting to come out of hot pits an ls swapped e36 comes down the straightaway smoking like mad, pulls off just after the wall so we wait.

Track was Red flagged so thats a stop all on track for fire. I ended up being the pace car and brought all the cars back in to hot pits.

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Get the next 10 mins on track, had some fun with a Focus RS that I got around, then an m2 that I got around and finished up the session.

Hands down the best the car has performed since its been done, Gaining a little confidence in it now.

I left the track about 9 pm and rolled into the driveway at home just before midnight. Long day, but got to hang out with some great friends and have a killer evening.

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So now what, give the garage a wonderful cleaning, worked on a buddies Buick Lucerne replacing a motor mount, detail up the jeep and figure out plans for next weekend =)

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Oh, yeah, Cam, Pulley, 102mm CNC ported snout, 95 lb injectors, valve springs all should be here tomorrow. Should be good for at least another 100 wheel if not a little more.:cool:

Sean
 
Good outing....trailer excursion keeps things interesting.

Tune update to go with cam/pulley change?

Yeah its gotta get retuned for the 1000cc injectors.

Good going buddy! Love your 242! ;)

ADam

Thanks Adam.

Goodies showed up yesterday at the house, now if I can just figure out some time to get them installed. Lance Draeger has been awesome to work with on the LSA Stuff, always available for questions, wonderful shipping and just good to deal with. At this point it might be August.

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Whats going to give up the ghost first after the cam and pulley? Any bets?

:-P

Sean
 
I was really leaning towards the Trans or rearend first.

Sean

I?m just extrapolating the trend of most of the swapped and boosted cars on this site and facebook. Get em going, turn up boost, and promptly go get another JY motor. It?s a Steely Dan moment - go back Jack and do it again. Stay conservative on the tune and keep rpm down a bit.
 
I?m just extrapolating the trend of most of the swapped and boosted cars on this site and facebook. Get em going, turn up boost, and promptly go get another JY motor. It?s a Steely Dan moment - go back Jack and do it again. Stay conservative on the tune and keep rpm down a bit.

Tune on the current setup is very conservative on both fuel and timing. I have no need to rev above like 5500 with the current setup. I have limiter set at 6k and have only hit it 2 or 3 times.

I feel that poor tunes and RPM kill engines.

:omg:
 
^^Dead on Sean.^^ Although, often, there's only so much one can do to overcome the 'tiredness' of the usual 200k+ mile 6.0's and 5.3's that are being put into everything because it's cheap and easy to do so.
 
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^^Dead on Sean.^^ Although, often, there's only so much one can do to overcome the 'tiredness' of the usual 200k+ mile 6.0's and 5.3's that are being put into everything because it's cheap and easy to do so.

True, however we have owned this engine since brand new, its had synthetic in it since literally the very first oil change and the oil changed every 5k. When I pulled the engine apart it was cleaner inside than any of my previous engines including the 70k 6.0 I bought from the wrecking yard. My opinion is that the GENIV engines are superior in reliability and durability than the GENIII engines.

We will see what happens though :-P Safe tune, low RPM, frequent oil changes and we see how long the old girl stays together. If it dies, Ill build a 6.2 for it and make stupid power :omg:

Maintenance is done on the car and its loaded up for another weekend of car stuff. Will be at Sanderson Airfield in Shelton Saturday and AVANTS members day in the Seattle area on Sunday.

Curious to see if my modified gas cap keeps fuel in the tank this weekend.

Sean
 
Even with the perfect tune, oil change every 5k on the dot, the perfect conditions, never over heating sometimes **** happens when you least expect it. I?ve been running my salvage yard pulled 2004 104k mike engine for 4 years now. Nothing has happened yet but at some point something is going to give. I don?t hope anytime soon and same for you Sean and Michael but you just never know. The one thing I do know is that the gen III and gen IV market is getting cheaper and easier to find.
 
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