The Albuquerque Stripper - Who says a Mustang can't land a kickflip?

[PaddyPrix]

It's shaping up to be a good weekend. Got the motor in last night, ordered up a few missing odds and ends, and who knows, might even see if I can get my hands on a trailer and catch a few sessions with Speed Ventures to test her out at Auto Club.

Figure I'd treat myself to a fancy MGW s550 shifter, my first since I had one of their t-56's like 15 years ago. To those astute video watchers, yes, I've been shifting with the shaft the whole time, and without anything preventing me from going down the reverse channel, it's pretty difficult trying to grab 2nd since the MT-82-D4 reverse is next to 1st, not 5th like with most others. Thankfully with the 3.55 gearing and most of the tracks being small, 3rd and 4th will do okay with the occasional lug out of slow corners, and inability to find 5th coming into Auto Club's turn 1. No more missing shifts on just about every session will be a big help.

Also to those of you yanking your Coyotes, the Motion manifold lift plate was a nice touch and big help, certainly better than the hodgepodge we used with chains and a tow strap along the back of the trans on the way out.

Gotta finish up the day with this lady snoring up a storm, and then it's putting the intake back on tonight and double checking everything with the help of ForScan.

It's been a long time since I've been on the track, and for some reason with Chuckwalla being one of my closer tracks, I've only been there two times with two different cars. I certainly don't have the car set up for it, and so I'm honestly not expecting anything record breaking, especially since I'm not running on stickers with all the money I've been spending to just get it back on the track, so I'm going in with some lowered expectations, just finish out my sessions. Depending on the direction, I think something sub 2 should do alright, but I'm going to hope that the two morning sessions will be the fastest with the hot desert sun pounding and killing our later session times. That, and I'm easily blinded by the sun, so should be a short day with plenty of nail-biting as Frank and I fight for the TT2 title.

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[Sivi70980]

It's shaping up to be a good weekend. Got the motor in last night, ordered up a few missing odds and ends, and who knows, might even see if I can get my hands on a trailer and catch a few sessions with Speed Ventures to test her out at Auto Club.

Figure I'd treat myself to a fancy MGW s550 shifter, my first since I had one of their t-56's like 15 years ago. To those astute video watchers, yes, I've been shifting with the shaft the whole time, and without anything preventing me from going down the reverse channel, it's pretty difficult trying to grab 2nd since the MT-82-D4 reverse is next to 1st, not 5th like with most others. Thankfully with the 3.55 gearing and most of the tracks being small, 3rd and 4th will do okay with the occasional lug out of slow corners, and inability to find 5th coming into Auto Club's turn 1. No more missing shifts on just about every session will be a big help.

Also to those of you yanking your Coyotes, the Motion manifold lift plate was a nice touch and big help, certainly better than the hodgepodge we used with chains and a tow strap along the back of the trans on the way out.

Gotta finish up the day with this lady snoring up a storm, and then it's putting the intake back on tonight and double checking everything with the help of ForScan.

It's been a long time since I've been on the track, and for some reason with Chuckwalla being one of my closer tracks, I've only been there two times with two different cars. I certainly don't have the car set up for it, and so I'm honestly not expecting anything record breaking, especially since I'm not running on stickers with all the money I've been spending to just get it back on the track, so I'm going in with some lowered expectations, just finish out my sessions. Depending on the direction, I think something sub 2 should do alright, but I'm going to hope that the two morning sessions will be the fastest with the hot desert sun pounding and killing our later session times. That, and I'm easily blinded by the sun, so should be a short day with plenty of nail-biting as Frank and I fight for the TT2 title.

Paint the hood black to help with sun glare?

 

[PaddyPrix]

Paint the hood black to help with sun glare?

No, unfortunately with it being in the desert, the afternoon session has you driving straight into the sun on some sections. For somebody like myself with really light eyes, the photophobia/light sensitivity is a challenge that just sucks. Fastest sessions are generally first or second session when the ambient air is cool, and the track has had a session or two warm it up a touch, definitely not deep into the triple digits. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, this season anyhow.

But that has me thinking, I'll be sure to have that section of the hood wrapped as a matte finish to soften or absorb as much of that as can be, so thanks for the idea

 

[Sivi70980]

No, unfortunately with it being in the desert, the afternoon session has you driving straight into the sun on some sections. For somebody like myself with really light eyes, the photophobia/light sensitivity is a challenge that just sucks. Fastest sessions are generally first or second session when the ambient air is cool, and the track has had a session or two warm it up a touch, definitely not deep into the triple digits. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, this season anyhow.

But that has me thinking, I'll be sure to have that section of the hood wrapped as a matte finish to soften or absorb as much of that as can be, so thanks for the idea

I guess racers were doing it for a long while? First heard of it from the show Fast and Loud when one of the guys started actually racing and painted the hood of his all white car black mentioning it’s for sun glare protection.

 

[PaddyPrix]

So close, I can taste it.

Some buddies came over to absorb some of my sunburning and helped hook up the driveshaft and exhaust while I was doing up the manifold.

But after a long day of double and triple checking everything, looks like we've got a chance to make Chuckwalla next weekend.

So, you're saying there is a chance?

 

[PaddyPrix]

(Long post/story warning)
TL; DR: It broke, we fixed it, we won?

Friday didn't go as well as I would have liked it to have gone. Picked up the U-Haul trailer, all excited to get onto the road on a nice Friday and figure it out. Yeah, car wouldn't start. Or... rather, it would, had I just not conditioned myself to hit the OK button like 12 times right after starting it... TPMS not found, Door Ajar, Hood ajar, Parking Aid sensor not found, to start press the clutch and brake... my brother came by with his pickup truck, and we used the tow straps/hooks to get it onto the trailer, and my buddy came by to help. Kinda nice having it on an open U-Haul transport so we can get under, and found out that the starter was just fine when we bypas-- waaaaait -- Clutch AND Brake to Start?

Clutch AND Brake?

Yeah, weird, huh? Sure enough, held down the clutch, held the brake, held start, and 3-5 seconds later, engine fired up with a smooth-ish idle. Packed up real quickly and got onto the road. Forgot my transponder. Wasn't paying attention to the route, and took a really slow, mountainous pass filled with nothing but 20mph curves, perfect for 11pm driving towing a mostly broken piece of shiznit car.

Got to the track just before midnight and just started unloading everything which is a fancy way of saying that I pretty much just throw things everywhere with very little organization.

Saturday Surprise

Herb, our beloved NASA Photographer tried his best to hide my shiznit in his shot, a rather difficult task. Made it to tech behind like 30 other cars, and while I ran around and did my social butterfly thing, started boiling over because this was probably the first time I've been up to temp and running for more than 10 minutes.

I'm usually near the front of the pack, so they gave me a good morning spot on the qualifying session, but I could already feel things not going my way on the parade lap, and the flying lap had me lose power about 5 turns in, and I went off line, started pointing everybody by, and tried to process what was going on with my stupid Android Fire tablet blocking my info screen. The screen doesn't pick up gestures with the gloves on, so I was trying to figure out if the limp mode was speed or rpm limited, and it was speed, so no matter what gear I was in, 35mph was tops. I tried to not ruin everybody else's times and did my best to point and made it to the pits, and limp back to camp. Fans wouldn't come on, high or low, and yet, they wouldn't throw any faults that I could see with Forscan, and everything else looked normal. Same for the fuel system. I've got like 70 DTC's from stripping everything out, but nothing jumped out at me. The first session in NASA TT doesn't count, and is for gridding, so I'd have to find a way to make one of the next 3 sessions to avoid a DNF.

We made some jumpers, and found out that we could run both of the big fans, and the high speed one down below, and I'd practice doing a few laps around the lot, but anything above 3500 or so would have the engine cut fuel, AFR to 20, rough/choppy idle, and pushing on the pedal did nothing as it'd just ignore the inputs, no matter how hard it was pressed. WTF? Didn't help that it was very hot out, and way out there, shade is hard to come by, and this might come as a shock to some, but I burn incredibly easy as my people were built for the bars, not the beaches.

The brake and clutch thing pissing me off, I'm trying to figure out why it was working fine on Thursday, and all of a sudden it's doing this, so I pull out the seat, play all around with the clutch wires, buttons, magnets, and all that stuff, disconnecting, reconnecting, and saying plenty of kid friendly words in foreign languages. I sit down in the bare tub, fire it up with just the clutch, et voila! I'm assuming it's some sort of fallback when you hold the start button on a manual car and it can't see the clutch pedal status.

This unfortunately wasn't the magic pill I was looking for, and thinking to the issues we've been having, perhaps a Crank Relearn was the way to go. So we started the process and making my way up to 4250, feel a barrier at 3500, AFR shoots to 20.0 ... which is pretty high for a gas car, and I'd say it's even higher for an e85 car. I think we're down to 13 DTC at this point, and after another clear, we see something about the crank position sensor, which feels awkward. I did all the wiring and all of the sensors on the block, and this should be new, so what gives? Yank out the battery, battery box, and fight with the burnt plastic trim to remove that cover, reach for the sensor, and well, well, well, it's f'n cracked between the screw and the sensor. I try to carefully pull it out, and the mounting surface which was supposed to be flat has one side up about 30 degrees.

Pull it out nice and smooth, all careful like, and I turn to my buddies, and seconds later it's now in two parts. Sweet. Totally fucking sweet.

Paging Dr. Weld to the OR

I'm still somewhat new to this thing, but is there anything that JB can't do? Got some of the Plastic Weld mixed together and put it in there, tossed on some gloves, and walked around the pits with it in a death grip for like 2 hours. I might have even helped work on somebody else's 944 while it was still engaged in that death grip. I believe I had also guilted a friend into driving me to dinner, just so I could still clench onto that f****r. I know that it doesn't say you have to hold it for 2 hours, but I was giving it a solid 177% effort. I don't know if it's just mine, but if you're ever having to stick yours in (giggity) it's kinda strange. If you try to put it in, it'll feel as if it's bumping into something, and if you feel around the top, it's 1/4" from mounting flush. It took about 10 minutes to finally slide it in all the way (giggity) which finally mounted flush, and hooking it back up, we cleared the 13 codes, which then dropped down to 4. It was about 9:30pm, but a crank relearn is a crank relearn. I know my car is loud, and to those of you who I woke up, I'm sorry, I had to get the engine up to temp and it was pretty much sitting idle all day. Crank learn completed, and DTC's down to 2 about some ambient temperature sensor. AFR happily staying around the 9's, a quick blip to 4k saw it richen up, not lean up, a complete 180.

#SundayFunday

I couldn't sleep, pretty much just started counting minutes down to a point where I could go for a quick romp. Took her down to one of those 20mph connecting roads like a half mile away from the cabins and track, rolled into 2nd, AFR went rich, warmed up the tires a touch, went through 3rd, AFR from 7-9, and yeah I think we've got at least a lap in us. Went to the morning driver meeting, a friend of mine left after a rough day, and since we're pretty evenly matched and usually battling, I got to start from his #5 spot, instead of the back of the like 36 car grid. Went back, set pressures, filled up because I had no idea where the fuel level was, and don't trust the gauge anyhow, and made my way to the grid after some confusion with the track workers. Felt pretty cool like an 80s movie ending getting waves and claps as I made my way to the front.

Only my 3rd time at Chuckwalla, 2nd time in this car, and with these A7's having about 3 track days on them, I didn't have much hope, but I'd break the class limit if I put the Michelin S8M on, so bald A7 DOT slicks it is. I was more concerned with just getting a solid lap in, what my AFR was, and to be totally honest, I don't even think took it out of 3rd gear, and making sweet loving to the kerbs I clicked off a 1:56.2 for 3rd overall, 2nd in class with the 1st place guy setting the course record. Felt pretty good. 2nd run, pulled a 1:55.1, waited out the 3rd session because it was really hot both in the air and on the track, and in the 4th session, I pulled a 1:54.9 driving straight into the sun. Unable to see corner workers, flags, and other drivers, thought it was a good idea to shut it down and call it an end to the season. There's 2-3 seconds more with this, but considering what I've done and where I've been, it'll have to wait for next season. Adios 2021, we hardly knew ye!

 

[PaddyPrix]

I'm slightly more active on TMO, so perhaps I'll end our chapter here, and being a Ford fanatic,

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right,”

and so with nothing but hopium, we were able to take a Salvaged doesn't run, doesn't drive from CoPart, and almost entirely on used parts from members here in Southern California, transform it into something that was able to win an event, season championship, and even set a NASA Time Trial track record. We also detached the outer flywheel from the flywheel, killed a few starters, broke a few splitters, lost brakes, 3 wheeled at 130, killed a transmission, and caught fire.

TL;DR: We won. If I can do it, so can you.

 

[2morrow]

Congratulations Patrick! Quite the story of patience, skill and luck.

Whenever we meet up first round is on me . Until then, see you at TMO.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Congratulations Patrick! Quite the story of patience, skill and luck.

Whenever we meet up first round is on me . Until then, see you at TMO.

I'm pretty sure I'll qualify for the NASA Nationals this year which should be up in your neck of the woods, so I'd love to take you up on that. I'm also going to make a better effort at running the Super GT Cup events which have a few up there as well.

 

[1 old racer]

Patrick, you are my hero.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Patrick, you are my hero.

I'm not even my own hero, so that means a lot

Also, you were right at ACS, it was the valve cover gasket. I switched them out the other weekend, cleaned it up, and ran clean as could be.

 

[Cobra Jet]

I'm slightly more active on TMO, so perhaps I'll end our chapter here, and being a Ford fanatic,



and so with nothing but hopium, we were able to take a Salvaged doesn't run, doesn't drive from CoPart, and almost entirely on used parts from members here in Southern California, transform it into something that was able to win an event, season championship, and even set a NASA Time Trial track record. We also detached the outer flywheel from the flywheel, killed a few starters, broke a few splitters, lost brakes, 3 wheeled at 130, killed a transmission, and caught fire.

TL;DR: We won. If I can do it, so can you.

This is a great example of digging in, learning about the car/tech/mechanics and coming out on top - even despite the in-between hurdles.

Great thread from start to finish! It's definitely a good thread for those wanting to or researching buying a salvaged vehicle and how to get it up and running again.

Looking forward to your next progress updates and track time!

 

[PaddyPrix]

Might have some updates soon. Not to discredit those who do Time Trials, but it's not really my thing -- lots of work to go into the car for what works out to be maybe 10-12 laps a weekend, with all the effort, money, and time involved, I'd much rather go wheel to wheel. I find more thrill in the chase, and I'm fine with sucking, because I mean, I've only got like 2 years of this. Riding tail and chasing somebody through sections can only further help highlight and showcase places I suck, and give me more places for improvement, and with the drivers in this region here doing pretty good nationally, might as well learn from the best, right?

So for the setup, I've switched out the lousy base GT rear for a Torsen, and switched the 3.55 out for 3.73 -- which isn't perfect, but they came with the gears, so might as well, plus, if I swap a TR-3160 in, I'll have exactly what a GT350 and GT350-R have. Also switching from the Cobra Jet which I sold to a friend, and went with a Bullitt Intake/TB combo to still make some more power, but not a crazy amount where I can still keep a good ratio that keeps me in class without cutting power, however with my competition being 2800 and 3000lb cars, coming in at 3600-3700 is going to be something I really need to address. The power is nice, don't get me wrong, and I think I'm deceptively fast in the turns, but as races go on, all that weight has to give my brakes and tires grief. I believe I'm the first with the new Apex 18x12 wheels, but geeeeeez do they poke. I'll have to figure out a way to create a fender to hide them. Also, LOL tires are expensive, but they're 19.7# compared to a 22# EC-7 18x11... lighter and bigger? Sign me up.

I'll also be doing up the power kill switch buttons, fire system, safety net, and some other little odds and ends as that are requirements. My target is Auto Club Speedway at the end of the month, a track I'm very comfortable and competitive at, but I'm not really in a rush if I don't feel right, as it's an incredibly fast (and walled) track, and plenty of places to completely destroy a car, instead of just getting a little dirty like at others.

Oh yeah, and I killed the transmission again, or at least just 2nd gear, with just about 20 laps on it... at least she's consistent.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Had some fun this past weekend, figure I'll spam this video. Not bad for some e85 Coyote on busted tires, pulling in boosted Camaros and Porsches, eh?

 

[PaddyPrix]

Did a little work on her appearance, newer splitter made out of birch, trying my hand at wrapping for the 2nd time, and after running a 1:46.7 last year, curious what one year of driving the more or less same car would do... and apparently 1:44.5 is the answer, a huge improvement.



Good enough for 1st in my class, and 1st overall. To those of you who've been reading this from the start, I've on so many occasions said how much I'd love to have just one day go my way, and so Sunday's morning session happened to be that session, just in time for my birthday.

Some of you have pointed that the clutch is slipping on the 3/4 shift and you're right. Time to learn how to swap out a clutch before the next event, I guess.

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