2013 PITL Race Season Prep.

It's been a few months since my last post, but I swear there were legitimate reasons.  No, the dog didn't eat my computer, but I did trip over a cord and knocked it over and killed the hardrive. 

So, basically because of this I lost the last revision of the E-Crosser making it a bit difficult to continue building the model without the digital "blueprint".  I've been working on that since.

Since I don't have much to say about the E-Crosser, I might as well tell you about the preparations for the 2013 PITL race series.

When changing the tires last year I noticed that my front Stainless steel braided brake lines were starting to fray.  I guess after almost ten years of wear and tear it's bound to happen so I changed out my fronts with brand new, shiny brake lines by Goodridge.

I also got to use my Motive Power Bleeder, one of the greatest inventions for fluid transfers, particularly on closed pressurized systems...like brakes.  The system uses a reservoir that is filled with the brake fluid.  In this case,  Stoptech STR-600 High Performance Brake Fluid.  The Power Bleeder reservoir is pressurized to about 15 psi by a manual pump. The reservoir is sealed to the brake fluid reservoir on the car with a tight rubber seal to keep the circuit of the brake system pressurized.  Because of the pressure all you have to do is open up each brake caliper's bleeder valve(in proper order of course) and let the Power Bleeder force the fluid through until you see no bubbles. 

The only thing to really monitor is for any seal leaks, because we all know what brake fluid does to paint, and also to keep the pressure up so the fluid is constantly being forced out while making sure the reservoir in the Power Bleeder does not go empty.  Forcing air into the system is the complete opposite thing you ever want in the braking system. Duh.

Braided Stainless is always the prettiest.

Also, last year on one of the roughest parking lots I've ever been on, I hit a ripple in the concrete that was so deep that it lifted suspension enough to lift the springs away from the lower spring perch of my Ground Control Coilover Sleeves. When the car came back down to Earth, the spring was no longer centered in the perch and it sheared away part of it from the threading of the sleeve. 

I always knew this was a possibility since whenever I jacked the car up the springs came away from the perch, but I had no idea I would hit such a massive rut in the concrete.  This year I decided to pony up a few bones and get some helper springs from Eibach to just keep things in place when the the suspension was at full droop from doing a Dukes of Hazard car jump.

I just took out the car today for a spin and I think I will have to lower the front coilovers about a centimetre. The helper springs have raised it a little less than a centimetre when they are fully compressed, and that rake I had last year to fight weight transfer going to the rear wheels is now gone.

Also, I was a still hungry for a bit more oversteer.  Aren't we all though?  I knew I would like a bit more castor, but the Nissan has zero adjustability in that department, so I took to the World-Wide-Webs and discovered that you can increase positive castor by a simple spacer placed under the rear control arm mounting bracket.  This pushes the rear bracket away from the bottom of the car, which in turn increases the angle of the control arms slightly giving a degree of positive castor.

Positive castor affects steering by helping to keep the wheels straight at speed, but more importantly for me, it adds some more negative camber when the wheels turn.

I traced the rear control arm mounting holes, and created a mount shape exactly to fit with the rear control arm bracket.  I then built a Solidworks model for the new spacer.  It would be cnc'd out of 10mm aluminum.  A friend of mine has access to a cnc machine, so he was kind enough to do his thing, and cut out 4 spacers for me.  Awesome guy.  The spacers cost me a total of  dollars for the raw material, and about an hour total for the design process.

We'll see on May 25th how effective this change is

Another nice and shiny thing to just get all dirty.

Also, I noticed that my almost 10 year old Energy Suspension Motor Mount Inserts were starting to fail.  The front ones were constantly popping out of the OE Motor Mount so on launches I was getting some serious wheel hop again, just like when the car was brand new.

I ended up recruiting the help of my good friend and mechanic Wayne Yeates from Way's Performance Services to make some new solid motor mounts.  I've said it once, I've said it twice, this guy is insane when it comes to the details.  I brought him over some used motor mounts and he pressed out the old ones, cleaned them up, and started to create an alluminum jig to hold the mounts proper and tight keeping the metal centre sleeves in the proper orientation when the liquid urethane is poured into the mount. 

To get even crazier he noticed that Nissan had made the motor mount bushings so the centre sleeve was actually not centred at all but rather offset from the centre slightly.  He took that into account while making his aluminum jig.

The urethane I decided to use for the solid motor mounts was ITW Devcon Flexane 94 Liquid.  This stuff cures hard, but still has some flex.  If vibration annoys you, then do not use the 94, use either the Flexane 80 or Flexane 60.  In the winter I will be changing these mounts out for my old ones because I don't want to risk the solid mounts cracking in the cold.

Front Mount.  It's so solid!

Rear Mount

Next, my wife wanted the moon roof to work again.  About 2 years ago the whole assembly that included the map lights, glasses holder, and moonroof toggle switch fell from the ceiling and it no longer sit proper in the mountings since it's basically attached by a clip.  Because I never use the moonroof (have I ever mentioned how much I hate that 50 lbs of wasted of weight at the highest point of the car), I just detached the whole assembly and left a big gaping whole in the interior liner where it once sat, giving me a satisfying view of mechanisms and engineering stuff that usually are hidden.  It was ghetto, but it meant nothing to me.

Well, with a road trip looming this year to Virginia again, and the fact that it may get a bit hot she wanted the moonroof to work.  I figured it would be easier if I fabricated an aluminum bracket to hold the toggle switch only, and not worry about the glasses holder or the map lights.  Those things were useless anyways. 

I made the bracket out of 0.060" aluminum sheet, riveted the toggle switch to it, and drilled a few holes in the metal that the original assembly clipped to, and voila, open sesame, the moonroof works again.

It is not pretty but it is much more solid than the plastic assembly that Nissan supplied attached by a spring clip. It doesn't look all that complex from the pictures but there were some funny angles to bend in order to properly fit the switch and keep it so it was straight in relation to the bracket.

Finally, I decided to go one step further into the R-Compound tire realm, and try out Hankook's Z214 C71 tire. 

I got in touch with someone who had a set of 225/45/15 with 90% of the tread left.  They were such a steal I could not say no, and drove out an hour to get them.  They've been mounted and they are dying to get abused.

Other than a bunch of garage cleaning and organizing too, this off season was a busy one.

Oh, also, the splitter is still going forward, but I've been a bit too busy to worry about what this blog is actually about.

Till next time.