Figured I'd copy Tom and do an "end of season" bump.
As is usual I spent most of the Summer and Fall just driving the car. I have about 1,800 miles on the new engine and it has worked out great. I've been running a conservative 16lbs of boost and it feels stronger than the old engine at 22.
Eeuroparts had a Fall meet, me and Eric had the two 242's there. He's getting ready to do a whiteblock swap.
Most of the work I've done on the car has been incremental improvements and minor repairs, stuff not particularly worth documenting. I did put a set of Yoshifab engine mounts in it because my poly mount was deforming and actually bending the metal plate (torque!). Yoshifab fails to mention that they send two mounts of the same height, so the passenger side ends up ~.25" shorter than stock. On my setup this leans the header even closer over to the strut tower so I had to space it up and deal with clearance issues with my wastegate bracket. IMO it's pretty lame that this was glossed over in the item description, I've since figured out what the engine mounts are originally meant for and I'm not very happy with how much I paid for them. The other thing is the car was actually quieter inside with the poly mounts. They transmitted more vibration, but the way the rubber mounts transmit at a different frequency has turned the dashboard into an absolute buzz box. I have to get into it and try to pad all of the rub spots.
just a shot I liked while I was on my back
As I've lamented to some length, I've been fighting a stubborn lean swing around 3k-3300rpm. I've had several people review logs and have visited some local tuners, none of whom were able to get me anywhere. I went around and around doing the mechanical validation, even going back to the stock intake manifold to make sure it wasn't an airflow issue. I started talking with Bobxyz and we got thinking about injection timing. I did some fiddling in TunerStudio and as ever the AFR behavior didn't change. I then took Bob's suggestion to try running semi-sequential injection instead of 2 squirts per cycle simultaneous. I did that just this morning and for the first time I'm within half a point of my target AFR at 3200 rpm. The tune still needs a lot of work, but the change to semi-sequential fuel has been the first thing I've done which has had any effect on the area so I'm encouraged that I am now on the right path.
It's about time to park the car for the winter. I've been getting things together and working on my plan for this year's upgrades. My main initiative is going to be finally getting a hydraulic clutch in the car. I got a steel flywheel and six puck clutch from Yoshifab (the cam is the same RSI stage 3 I'm running now, I just bought it to have a spare available). I'm going to do it with a 262 clutch pedal, a Wilwood master cylinder, and a Tilton hydraulic release bearing. I decided to go with the hydraulic bearing because I want to eliminate the whole clutch fork/pivot element from the equation.
I'm also going to do some more interior work. My Recaros need some foam in some of the bolsters and one has had a rip in the lower bolster since I bought them that I want to finally repair. While they are at the upholstery shop I'm going to have the center sections redone in a Recaro gradient fabric to try and break up all of the black inside the car. Like these:
I'd like to use the same fabric on the back seat. Since the 242 back seat doesn't really have any shape to it, I've been looking for a suitable rear seat I can swap into the car. I'd like something that has more of a two-buckets shape to it so I can use the gradient fabric in the respective center sections. I haven't figured out what kind of seat will work yet, or if I'll end up doing something with the factory seat. I've also been thinking about using the gradient fabric on the door panels in some way but not sure yet.
The other big idea for the year is a meth injection system since I don't have access to e85 in this area. From what I've read so far Aquamist is what I'd like to use.
My rocker panels are really in need of some attention (read: replacement). I need to ask some of the west coast guys about cutting some metal out for me. Doing them is going to mean me wanting to paint the entire car, so I'll have to see what I can get done next year. I had such a hassle getting the paint color for the engine bay, I'm concerned about getting the color right. I might go back to the guy I bought the car from and see who painted the car from him and try to hunt down what paint/code they used to get the tint that's on it. We have also discussed buying a whole different rust free west coast shell and doing an entirely new chassis prep. I'd like to put a car on a rotisserie, stitch weld the entire thing and put a real cage in it. Those are pretty significant costs, but it's still something on my mind if I find the right donor.
That's about it. Brakes are getting in need of replacement but I'll just use regular stuff for next year. I'll probably push an upgrade off another year. I don't want to do R brakes or anything, both for weight and keeping my 16" wheels so probably some Wilwood calipers eventually. The car does go from 40-100mph so fast now that the stock brakes are finally starting to feel a little out of their element.
Here's a bunch of pictures I took in the Summer and never posted:
I also went today and picked out a whole new project which will hit the driveway tomorrow. It's going to be something really different we are pretty excited to get into. Will update once progress gets kicked off.