My Hr31 Buildup

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Im not going to coota, that the same day as the due date for my wife

Not much done over the weekend, had to help a mate move house.

Diffuser is refitted, had to chop it down by 450mm. partly because of the new setup and also i wanted it sitting up a bit and tucked in behind the diff. thought being to help stop parachuting and to keep the diff cooler.












im also going to have to do something about the tow point. would a webbing tow strap attached to the existing point be acceptable?
either that or i'll just cut a hole in it or something.

[gtr jet]

A tow strap would be fine but wouldn't it put pressure on the diffuser if you tried to use it in the position it's in?

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

I'll cut a relief out or something.

So, in an effort to increase front down force (as I think the rear will be defiantly overpowering it now) ive started playing around with the cooling ducting again.
Previously I have just had some duct/guilds in front of the intercooler and oil cooler. Then I blocked off all the other holes (brake ducts are now coming from the splitter) and try to fill any gaps in the front. This gave about 5-10km more on the straight at wakie which I was quite surprised about.

Next thing on the list is to give the air coming in to the engine bay somewhere to go. again, just doing research/copying what others do. The air coming through the rad is going to be vented out the bonnet. Also going to redo the intercooler duct at the same time.
First I had to lean the rad forward for a bit more space. I have also order a new koyorad, as this one has started leaking




Templates made up








Unfortunately, I am going to have to cut a bigger hole in the bonnet. This is where ive marked it, but it may change.




I’ll also fit some louvers to pull air from the turbo side
All in all it should help cooling, reduce drag and increase front d/f
Any thought/critics?

[34GeeTeeTee]

Nice work mate! I have been seeing the other teams doing similar... I noticed Steve Ka and Hawkins doing the same thing too...

[Dale FZ1]

I'd expect more efficient cooling.

Not so sure about the goals of drag/lift, but it should reduce underbody airflow by venting up over the screen so perhaps it will as a side benefit.

Definitely a well worn path, with roots back to 60s vintage sports/racing cars so it can't be a bad thing. Templates look pretty good, reckon you'd need foam or race tape to get a good seal and encourage the air to flow how you want it without leakage.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Thanks man. Yeah im looking to use some pinchweld kinda like whats used in doors.

From what I've read it will help reduce the pressure underneath the bonnet area which will help with more d/f. Also less going under and out the back to reduce drag. This is just how I understood it so fell free to correct me

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

with the new bub (both really) taking up much time, heres a bit of a bulk update


bought this for no real reason. its flash









and this, the old mspec one got a leak some how





i have finished the duct, am am happy to say that it works! in my garage at least. while bleeding the radiator and using a big fan, you could see steam (water dropped on rad) being sucked up out of the duct.









took it for a tune up and wheel alignment last week.









not great news, motor is getting tired and is down a little on power. also seems to be boostin a bit later, maybe because of the new 3in cooler (after i/c) piping and T/B?
Good news is they found my boost issue (after I replaced all the joiners, damn it!) Turns out the boost controller solenoid had a bit of crap stuck on the pintle, keeping it open. thus the mad lag - not sure why it stopped it going past 13psi though.
fuel pump is on its way out too, so i'll be looking to upgrade to e85 after wtac









work it baby





cut more holes in the bonnet, sorry pete!





pretty much ready to go, another gearbox to be put in next wend


forgot to say, splitter v4 million now on. spent some time redoing how it attaches to the car, now slides on via two horizontal poles. the splitter and front bar are "one piece" all i have to do is slide it on, attach two front and two side cable support and bolt the top of the bar at the flares. takes about 1-2min as apposed to 20ish minutes before. and takes my hefty 100kg standing on it





thinking of using some yellow vinyl and "hiding" these front panels a bit.







got to see the spaced guards work too. smoke from welding the pole on (bit of grease) came up thru it and so i waved some air past and again you could see it drawing the smoke out.





bay looks a bit neater too. new intake pipe etc


i've spent a some time sealing up the front as best i can. all holes/inlets except the big one and oil cooler feed on the drivers side are blocked off and the bonnet is sealed now as well

[34GeeTeeTee]

Epic update is epic! Nice work mate... See you in a few weeks

[zebra]

I'm seriously gonna to have to come round and poke my head around this!

[tweety bird]

It's looking more and more like a sports sedan as time goes by lol.

[Turbosingh]

Car looks crazy mate.

[dontyellpl0x]

Looking forward to seeing you run around wtac again! Good luck!

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Thanks guys. Few $$$ short for a sports sedan lol.

Did you wanna pop over tomorrow andrew?

And have you got the the competitors pack yet matt? With garage allocations etc.

[zebra]

I'll give you a call tomorrow if I get a chance James

[a20089]

Looking really fast there, great updates.

[CEF33Y]

Any updates from superlap? I only went saturday, looked like you were having some more boost controller issues?

Well, you had the solenoid off anyways.

One of my fav's 31's.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Any updates from superlap? I only went saturday, looked like you were having some more boost controller issues?

Well, you had the solenoid off anyways.

One of my fav's 31's.

The wastegate was the issue from what i saw And it was PB's for James... Car looked epic on track!

[ssxRicho]

Ended up controlling boost with the throttle.

Wicked time for the issues.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

The lead up to this year was quite cruisy, I made sure I had everything done and ready so the week before all I had to do was pack.





Thursday-

Got to SMSP on time, was able to unload unhurriedly. Went through scrutineering easily, only needed a bit of padding on a rollbar – they hit the whole field for that. I reckon Vsport made their quota that day LOL



1st session – got out nice and easy, get about twos and the clutch starts slipping then about halfway down the straight the clutch went to the floor. Limped back to the pits and found one of the clutch slave cylinder tabs that the bolts go through had snapped off.

We think because it was pushing at an angle it was sort of engaging the pressure plate and heating it up.

Quick call and a trip out to Fatz place for a spare (thanks again!) and I was back in business for the 4th session, but the damage was done. One lap of slipping and I called it a day.

Luckily I brought my old clutch as a spare, and we were able to swap it that evening in about 1.5hours.



Friday

Session 1 went out, car was feeling good - Really good thru the corners actually, so much easier to drive than last year. Got a lap and lost all boost a T4. Back to the pits and found the new intercooler hose off the turbo had tried to eat itself

Shop around, got a new one and some gold wrap to help protect it from the heat and ready for..



Session 2 fcukin boost. I cannot believe how much trouble ive had with boost. This time its overboost – and what killed the pipe. Back in to the pit (notice a theme?) vac line had perished (silicone). Source a replacement and ready for…



Session 3. Out, car is fine. get to the straight between 8 and 9 and bam, coolant on the window. Limped to the pits, the press fitting in the plenum for the top radiator hose had blown out.

Trip to bunnings and some epoxy cement later and had it fixed. We decided to leave bleeding it until Saturday morning so it would set 100%.

Saturday

Turned out my first session was earlier than expected. Filled and bled the coolant just in time, only getting suited up as they were going out.

session 1 Overboosting again, came back in and thinking the same thing happened i replaced the vac line again but with a braided line vsport made for us at the track.

Session 2 still o/b. Back in and this time i pulled the wastegate apart for lack of seeing anything else obvious. Turns out the diaphragm is rooted. Visit to the Turbosmart stand and one freebie later im ready for the next session

session 3 - spirt's are up, should hgaugeipped the boat problem in the bud. I head out and crap, first full throttle smashes past 30psi (high as the gauge reads) overboosting issue anyway.

I decided to have a go anyway and just modulated the throttle, watching the gauge to keep the needle on 20psi.

heres the vid

So all in all, an annoying weekend but happy for the new pb too.


Good thing i could take away is that the aero and rear end seem working really well. Water temps didn't go above 80deg


The Turbosmart guys said my wastegate looks like it's getting way too hot. That's why it's discolored and probably the root cause of my problems. The new ducting setup would have made things even worse, little airflow on the circuit and none in the pits. They recommended a little ducting on to the wastegate area, the bilstine s14 had the same issue and that worked for them.


So, I've come away determined to fix this issue once and for all. I'm going to remove the heat shield as its just radiating heat back on to the gate. I'm getting the whole hot side ceramic coated, a new w/g (just incase), aeroflow braided teflon hose for the vac line, air ducting to the area and either a new boost solenoid or do away with it and run just spring pressure.

Once that's all done I'm going back to smsp to see what it should have done, not changing anything else. I think there is a in it 40 as it sits now.

I dont like how the new wing looks 'disconnected" from the car, I'm going to redo the endplates so they sit lower/closer to the car

[White GTS-T]

Thought about running a water cooled external gate?