Drove a couple of laps on track and only oil pressure sensor stopped working. Ring connector broke between ring and crimp. Might be because of the positioning of the connector and shaking of the wire due time. Spun the insides while loosening the nut and didn't work after that. Replaced it with a new one later.
Again it was hot and didn't install bigger oil cooler yet and had to remove grille to control the temps better. Coolant temp started to climb immediately after oil temp got higher. Max oil temp was around 115?C so not that much really but enough to cause an effect.
DS2500 front pads worked great, much better than RedStuff. They wear faster but it's a price I'm ready to pay for the performance. Other big difference was the heat. Front discs were 380?C after cooling lap and with Red or Yellow I haven't measured over 350?C. Not even on faster tracks that are harder for brakes. Rears were 191?C with Yellow. With EBC's I have measured always around 100?C difference between front and rear. Swapped Reds back to front and boy it's a different world with those, so much less grip.
Hankooks(215/45 V12 Evo2 front, 225/45 S1 Evo2 rear) were also great compared to Nankang semislicks. You can feel the front tire starts to give in on a tight corners but I was still able to increase the steering angle without too much understeer. Nankangs just felt like they would slide and lap times were several seconds slower. Of course brakes were now better because of DS2500 but the car felt lighter to handle and felt faster on tight corners. Federal semis had better grip when I had those in front and I'm going to dump the Nankangs and buy a set of Federals.
Here is incar of the fastest lap. Still waiting turbo to spool when getting out of corners
https://youtu.be/79O9VSf0kxg
Two drive by shots(third gear) from a flagpoint, first around 0:15 and second 1:55:
https://youtu.be/06aiWr_k76g
Dunno why the rear tires would squeal so much in the first drive by
Some exhaust note can be heard in the second one.
On Saturday it was time to make a check up to the engine. Was going to replace leaking stem seals(some exhaust side seals leak badly) and check the state of the head gasket and rod bearings.
Head gasket was basically intact and I believe it's only because of the block guard. Normally it would have moved a bit or be destroyed at this point with the abuse it has had. All upper rod bearings have small scorching area on the outer side of the top. Might be because of E85 residue or such? All surfaces feel and seem fine otherwise and the scorching can be bearly felt.
Since beginning of June the bottom end has had a small rod bearing-like rattle just above idle. I've waited it to become louder before any action. While bearings were ok, I found out that the W?ssners have suffered the same fate as Wiseco earlier. All skirts have cracks in the oil squirter recess'. No wonder the rattle sounded familiar because it was the same but louder with Wiseco. Use has been hard but still not too nice. And yes, the piston clearance was exactly the given spec 0.07mm/0.0028".
Guess I'll build another bottom end with std bore and pistons and have a block guard installed to it.
The worst, rest aren't that bad and some just visible: