Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[honeybadger]

made some good progress last night - got the trans/diff coolers mounted in the rear

and also got my rear quarter window solution figured out. 1/8in lexan that's wrapped in CF vinyl screwed into some rivet nuts (with some plastic spacers to get the height right) This means they're removable and offer a good spot to install the airjacks connection on the passenger and the naca duct for the chillout system intake

 

[honeybadger]

Got the diff/trans coolers and pumps mounted. Mounting the pumps underneath the car for more streamlined plumbing and likely better cooling. We'll see if I have to move to inside the rear trunk area if serviceability becomes an issue.

To ensure they're nice and secure, I cutout a steel plate and tacked some bolts to it. Rivet nuts would probably have been fine, but since these are hanging upside down, better safe than sorry.

 

[honeybadger]

Also - my 3D printed hood for the AIM display came in. Hopefully no issues with glare!

 

[honeybadger]

Well, it's been a slow couple of weeks making small bits of progress kind of all over the place. But today I finally finished the engine up. It's ready to drop on the k-member.

Dry sump is installed. The dailey pump and pan is a pure work of art. Absolute dime piece of engineering and CNC-machining. Will post a detailed bit about installing that as there were some surprises.

A keen eye will also notice the lack of a water pump. I'm going electric and will also have a separate post on that with all the details as I'm taking a bit of a new approach there.

I cerakoted the cam and front engine covers - they came out great. Really love this stuff.

For a quick engine summary - it's mostly the same as before. We only had to re-deck the heads/block, put in new rings, balance the new CPC w/ existing rotating assembly, and install the L&M engine cams.

 

[honeybadger]

Okay, V1 of the rad mount is done. Got it at about a 42* angle, so it's got a pretty good roll to it. There's probably more if I was willing to push it all the way to the inside of the bumper, but I still want a crash bar to protect it.

As a recap, this is a "car of tomorrow" nascar radiator that bought off ebay. It was a spare and never used. It's 3in shorter than stock, but a full inch thicker and a tad wider. Ultimately, it leads to about 20% increase in capacity. if you look closely, you'll actually see it's two separate pieces. The second one is the oil cooler - a perfect replica of the radiator. It sits behind the radiator, so that will be a change from my previous FP350S setup.

I had the fittings modified by a local shop to AN. 12an for both oil connections and 16an for coolant inlet and 20an for outlet.

As for mounting, I chopped the front of the k-member off and welded some 1x2 tubing to it. Then reinforced that with some 1/8 flat stock that I welded over the joints. Since this now hangs as low as the lowest part of the k-member, it needed to be able to take a hit.

This setup did require notching the frame rail. Not my preferred method - but not end the world since this is after the 4 areas the k-member bolts. So load is much smaller. Plus, the notch is pretty tame.

Top is mounted with AL to the upper rad support.Rivet nuts go into the tabs you see here. There are some rubber grommets in between the AL and rad support.

I also added these tabs to the back side that will have foam on them and reinforce the rad from behind in case the mounts develop some flex.

Finally, I plan to cut the blue taped part off to open the bottom up to feed the radiator (1/3 the size of the radiator face). The top will then be used for an air intake and blocked off to reduce drag.

 

[Tonymustang302]

Im moisture than an oyster

 

[honeybadger]

So, speaking of the radiator, I've been working with TracTuff on a swirl tank/header tank setup. Wondering what a swirl tank is? I was too when I embarked on this non-OEM cooling setup.

Essentially, when you go with a setup like the one I am planning (no thermostat, electric water pump, rolled radiator, all AN fittings, etc.), you need to make some adjustment (well, you should). There are some specific considerations -

1. Where will you fill up the cooling system
2. How will you remove air from the system

After really digging into this, I've discovered swirl tanks and header tanks. These are huge in the nascar world where everything is custom and using non-OEM components, but where budgets don't rival Factory support top tier race car development (prototypes, etc.)

The idea is that the swirl tank intercepts the hot coolant coming out of the engine and swirls it around, separating the air, and then sends it to the rad for cooling. The bleed line is then sent to the header tank. The header tank also connects to a high point in the engine and the highest part of the radiator to help bleed air. It also has a fill line that ties into the lower radiator hose right before the water pump. This is used to fill the system and the water pump will self-bleed the system when you run it during the filling process.

The radiator cap is on the header tank - which should be mounted in the highest part of the engine bay.

So onto my setup, I've mocked up a super, duper accurate diagram of how I plan to run my setup. Swirl tank will go where the OEM battery box/ECU were and the header tank where the OEM brake booster went. Then water pump will be near the alternator - this isn't ideal. It's primarily the result of packaging constraints due to hose size, radiator location, etc.

okay, so how about the water pump? I'm planning on using the Pierburg CWA400. I looked Meizre - good flow rate, but packaging is geared towards plug and play. The Craig Davies are super common and cheap, so you could buy a couple fairly easy and keep a spare on hand. However, I wasn't a huge fan of their pressure.

Here's there graph for the Craig Davies - at the max flow rate of 150L, pressure is only 0.05 bar. So it not only doesn't match the Meizre pump's flow of 208L, it's got super low pressure at high flow.

Now the Pierburg is a different story. This pump exceeds the Meizre at up to 220L flow rate. And even better, we can see that it still produces 0.55 bar at that flow rate. No idea what Meizre produces - they don't share that info (so it's probably not as impressive - but that's a guess).
The Pierburg also has two other benefits.

First, it's used as OEM equipment in german car manufacturers (BMW for example), so you know it's been thoroughly tested (BMW jokes aside, I personally trust OEM minimum requirements more than most "race" brands). https://www.tecomotive.com/en/products/CWA400.html

Second they offer a microcontroller called the TinyCWA that controls the pump speed based on temp. It even allows you to remove the thermostat - using the pump speed to mimic the thermostat. And it will control the fan as needed. https://tecomotive.com/store/en/tinycwa/tecomotive-tinycwa?number=T.00101.2.0.6

I have mine onsite - we've modified the inlet/outlet to 20 AN (the cover isn't fully seated as I am still doing a bit of machining on it).

And plan to mount as such below. Motor is solid mounted using the watson mounts, so should smash into it.

Will share more on hose, plumbing, etc. once I get the tanks from TracTuff. Not ordering any of the super expensive hose bits until then. Feel free to ask questions/provide some feedback. All new ground for me

 

[honeybadger]

Got the AN hard lines in last night for the air system. 3/8 AL tubing using tube nuts and collars wrapped in a fire sleeve for abrasion protection.

I still need to secure them to the chassis - waiting on clamps from Summit.
Here's a close up of how they fit.

37 degree single flare with a collar and tube nut

 

[MAGS1]

This is really cool to read and I’ve been learning a ton through your commentary and photos. A lot of what you’re doing is way above my pay grade. Can’t wait to see it when it’s all done!

 

[honeybadger]

Made some more progress. Started working on the rear end install with the Penskes

Nothing particularly novel back here - but I did end up buying all new wheel hubs. Original hubs I was using from OP Mustang were starting to show some wear that I didn't want to take a chance with given the brand new build.

So I ordered a new set of hubs from OP Mustang with GT4 studs. I also installed @AJ Hartman's e-brake spacer delete

I also have mounted the ECU, PDM, and ABS module. I didn't want them on the floor given that I often have passengers and didn't want someone's feet to accidentally push on their mounts or the wiring.

Keeping the ABS in the cabin made mounting both PDM and ECU on the trans tunnel difficult, so I went with mounting the PDM on the dry sump enclosure

Now I can get started on brake line plumbing and start playing with wiring

 

[stanglife]

Are there/will there be any beneficial parts remaining from the original 350? Other than maybe some bodywork and the uprights? ...transmission as well, I guess?

 

[honeybadger]

Are there/will there be any beneficial parts remaining from the original 350? Other than maybe some bodywork and the uprights? ...transmission as well, I guess?

Literally nothing left - it would have been so much cheaper to start with a GT. Only thing I am retaining that's 350 specific outside of body work is the block and heads and interior dash with chassis number. Trans, shocks, brakes, aero, crank, and coolers have all been replaced.

 

[shogun32]

it would have been so much cheaper to start with a GT. Only thing I am retaining that's 350 specific outside of body work is the block and heads and interior dash with chassis number.

but but but, it's a Shelby! You have a piece of paper and molded 30-cent piece plastic that says so!!!
/joke

That is a serious ton of work!

 

[galaxy]

Literally nothing left - it would have been so much cheaper to start with a GT. Only thing I am retaining that's 350 specific outside of body work is the block and heads and interior dash with chassis number. Trans, shocks, brakes, aero, crank, and coolers have all been replaced.

Eeehhhh, who gives a shit? It's epic and it's an icon, and it's yours, and at the end of the day it is a 350! People with the whole "it's still just a Mustang" adage can f$%^ off, LOL.

 

[GT 550]

After really digging into this, I've discovered swirl tanks and header tanks.

Enjoy! So many benefits to proper swirl tank set ups. It's surprising that they're not more widely used, particularly for custom applications when overheating is often caused by coolant vapourisation in the engine due to hot spots. If folks knew how appalling a lot of oem pump designs were (low pressure, cavitation, reverse flow etc) maybe they would be. Often the chosen path to cure overheating is more and bigger radiators, booster water pumps, and crazy ducting whereas the installation of a well designed pump and swirl tank system is all it needs.

Very impressive work all round Kevin, the attention to detail and craftsmanship is truly amazing.