Ewheels Road Course Build

[Ewheels]

WHEEL UPDATE

I emailed LMR about my cracked wheel as soon as I saw it Sunday morning. 8am Monday and I already had a response. They said the wheels are covered under a "Limited Lifetime warranty" and they asked for pictures of the crack. Sent them some pictures and within a couple hours and a few email exchanges, they were already shipping me a new wheel! That's some customer service!

Now to address my concern. I know these wheels "should" be very strong and take the abuse and it's very possible I simply got a defective wheel but I'm worried that if they cracked once, they could crack again and a wheel breaking while on track could be disastrous. So I'm thinking do I get the replacement wheel and run with it or get the replacement wheel and sell them to upgrade to the Apex wheels I originally wanted??
A friend of mine told me that it could have been caused from over torquing the lug nuts. The manual says 150 lb-ft and that's what I've been doing but this could potentially be the issue. The OEM lug nuts may be designed to deform slightly at that torque but I have forged steel lug nuts so they will not deform at that torque. Maybe I need to torque the lug nuts to a smaller amount?? I will be digging into this more and report my findings. If I could avoid spending more money on new wheels AND feel comfortable with the ones I have, that'd be great!

 

[L8APEX]

I'd get the apex wheels for peace of mind.

 

[Ewheels]

WHEEL UPDATE #2

I've spoken with numerous people about this matter and sat down and thought about this myself.

Let's understand what's going on when you tighten a lug nut or any threaded fastener for that matter.
You tighten the nut to the specified amount (150 lb-ft in this case) and in doing so, the portion of the wheel between the 60° nut interface and the hub is under a certain amount of compressive loading and the wheel studs are under an equal and opposite amount of tensile loading. These loads are already calculated and accounted for by the Ford engineers.
Now if we change the material strength/hardness of the nut, does the loading on the wheel or the studs change? No. The same forces are still in place. The only reason the wheel would crack in this location under these conditions is if the wheel is in fact defective or the wheel was not designed to handle this loading, in which case it would be an insufficient design for this car.

Therefore, the wheel was either defective or I do indeed need to look into other wheels.

 

[BmacIL]

WHEEL UPDATE #2

I've spoken with numerous people about this matter and sat down and thought about this myself.

Let's understand what's going on when you tighten a lug nut or any threaded fastener for that matter.
You tighten the nut to the specified amount (150 lb-ft in this case) and in doing so, the portion of the wheel between the 60° nut interface and the hub is under a certain amount of compressive loading and the wheel studs are under an equal and opposite amount of tensile loading. These loads are already calculated and accounted for by the Ford engineers.
Now if we change the material strength/hardness of the nut, does the loading on the wheel or the studs change? No. The same forces are still in place. The only reason the wheel would crack in this location under these conditions is if the wheel is in fact defective or the wheel was not designed to handle this loading, in which case it would be an insufficient design for this car.

Therefore, the wheel was either defective or I do indeed need to look into other wheels.

To me this does not look like a compressive load-induced (from lug nuts) crack at all. I think the nut torque and the crack are almost entirely unrelated. You would have a different type of failure in a different location if it were the wrong torque.

 

[Ewheels]

To me this does not look like a compressive load-induced (from lug nuts) crack at all. I think the nut torque and the crack are almost entirely unrelated. You would have a different type of failure in a different location if it were the wrong torque.

Appreciate your input sir!
I'm sure that this type of defect is rare and I know plenty of people who use SVE wheels for track use but this whole situation still has me a bit uneasy. Maybe I'm being overly cautious.

 

[BmacIL]

Appreciate your input sir!
I'm sure that this type of defect is rare and I know plenty of people who use SVE wheels for track use but this whole situation still has me a bit uneasy. Maybe I'm being overly cautious.

You're not wrong to be uneasy, but defects can happen even with the best manufacturers. Let LMR/SVE make it right.

 

[Ewheels]

POST TRACK DAY PAD INSPECTION

While putting my street pads back on the car, I was curious as to how the Hawk pads looked after a weekend at Buttonwillow.
I'm a total newbie to all this so I have no idea what worn out or overheated brake pads look like.

They looked slightly shiny but nothing that looked overly concerning. They did, however, show lots of cracks on the surface.
After consulting more experienced individuals, it seemed these cracks are normal but is an indication that I was approaching the thermal limit of these pads. Maybe my poor attempt at sanding the rotors clean had something to do with it?

I got these Hawk HP+ pads because they were cheap and I needed something quick. Maybe now I'll make the jump to GLOCs or Ferodo pads.

 

[Open Loop]

I would look into what Carbotech pads others are running. I have been using them on my FR-S time trials car, and I have really liked them. I would also recommend trying out the SCCA's Time Trials program. The TT Nationals Tour events for 2020 were recently announced, and many regions and divisions are putting on one-off TT events or series. They promote a 'same team/everyone is here to have fun with cars' mentality while giving you the opportunity to race against the clock and compare yourself to others.

 

[Ewheels]

I would look into what Carbotech pads others are running. I have been using them on my FR-S time trials car, and I have really liked them. I would also recommend trying out the SCCA's Time Trials program. The TT Nationals Tour events for 2020 were recently announced, and many regions and divisions are putting on one-off TT events or series. They promote a 'same team/everyone is here to have fun with cars' mentality while giving you the opportunity to race against the clock and compare yourself to others.

Thanks for the recommendation! I hear GLOCs and Carbotechs are essentially the same pads. I'm sure both will work well for my skill level. I'll look into them though.
I definitely plan to get into time trials when my skill level improves. A friend of mine has a Fox Body race car and we plan to eventually enter a junior endurance race as well.

 

[Ewheels]

I was driving home over the holidays and noticed this on the dash. Who says V8 Mustangs can't get good mpg!

 

[Ewheels]

BRAKE UPGRADE

I finally pulled the trigger on some serious brake pads. After attempting to sand my stock rotors and use Hawk HP+ pads at the track only to heat crack the pads and fight differing pad compounds on the rotors, I decided to step my game up. Got myself G-LOC R12s up front and R10s for the rear and their very own dedicated set of rotors just for track use. Other than fluids, I'm all set for the 2020 season!

 

[2morrow]

Nice work, keep it up! I'm trying to get out to the tracks down south and if I see you out there I'll hollar.

-Todd

 

[Ewheels]

Nice work, keep it up! I'm trying to get out to the tracks down south and if I see you out there I'll hollar.

-Todd

Thanks Todd! I think a M6G track meet up would be a lot of fun.

 

[Ewheels]

So after some research and help from others, I now know why my brake ducts are not working as well as they should be. The rotor backing plates are not close enough to the back of the rotor, creating a seal of sort.

There is far too much of a gap which allows all the incoming air to pass right by the rotor vanes. This is why I feel plenty of air coming through the hose but nothing coming through the actual rotors. I need to get the backing plate closer to the rotor.

The Specfab backing plates come with spacers and longer bolts to get the gap to a minimum. I figured I could use some washers to achieve the same thing...oh was I wrong.

The Full Tilt Boogie backing plates will not clear this portion of the hub. As I added washers to get the plate closer to the rotor, it would eventually come into contact while still leaving a gap between the rotor. Looks like the Specfab plates have a larger opening to clear this. Looks like I'll be ordering Specfab plates soon.

One thing that I did get accomplished and was way overdue for was mesh covers for the ducting inlets. I think it came out pretty nicely.

 

[BeastAR]

Read the whole thread. Keep up the good work!