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Winter update. State 2 monster clutch
improved racing oil pan baffle
rear axle Johnny joints
Holley crossmember
new body mounts.
had to raise engine and adjust driveshaft angle after changing the crossmember. Raising the engine also gave me more tie rod clearance. At full lock the inner tierods would touch the pan
First autocross if the season Sunday. Got some good runs in. Still have some tweaking to do. 2fridays ago I smelled hot brakes. I've fought dragging rear brakes for as long time. New calipers when over locked up, adjusted the porportion valve. Always seem to help them next season have new issue. The single diaphragm booster did nothing. When I went to double diaphragm I could actually stop. But the vacuum at idle was enough to hold the pedal down slightly adding pressure to the master and dragging rears. Adjusted and check and double checked the booster rod to the new master cylinder still had the problem. The issue was there threaded inner portion of the brake booster cathing on the spring retainer. Off the car I couldn't duplicate it without vacuum helping hold the threads in place. No vacuum the master and booster springs would return full up. I installed a smooth sleeve and problem was gone. Until this season. I did research about the 2 holes in gm brake pedals and I was in the right hole but my theory is the thickness of the clutch master cylinder plate moves the booster away from the pedal and moves the rod into the spring retainer. In marked full up and full down on the pedal and drilled a new hole that was only slightly lower than the factory power brake hole. It feels better on apply and returns correctly every time. During all this I also figured out my brake switch quit working. And I fixed that too
The turn one pump fixed the power steering leak I had at the autocross. I tried better fluid, lowering fluid level and a new cap and a cooler and it always built pressure and relieved it from the cap all over the engine bay. Found a turn one pump on eBay. It does have slightly less assist at parking lot speeds but I noticed I like the extra feed back and I was doing less corrections Autocrossing. With more assist I was turning in excessively upsetting the car and needing more counter correction.
Fall is here and driving days are literally numbered. Actually had some snow already. I wanted to dodo so real testing of the new spindles before posting. It drives much better and I believe there steering arms changed the rate or turn in. The front feels great. I did have to add all my shims into the lower control arm to get ride height back up where it was before with stock spindles and tall ball joints. The steering arms with ball joints installed rubbed my 17"wheels even with 6mm spacer. so after going back and forth with speedtech I purchased 18" fronts with 275/35/18 re71s I can tell they are stickier than the falkens. I had the spacer machined down to 3mm just to have more than 1mm between the spokes and 13" GTO/c5/c6 brakes. I was planning on going to 18s anyway so I knew what I wanted but wasn't planning on spending the money so soon.
I've had multiple issues with the brake booster rod hanging up on the booster body and I finally fixed it. I bought a booster from mpbrakes. It moves the booster in line with the firewall is no longer pointed up. It make the brakes feel more precise and I can modulate the pressure. Vs on/off the way it felt before. I also found my brake booster hose wasnt sealing correctly and I believe it was causing low vacuum in the booster after hard braking or repeated brake use. I did have to modify the aluminum adaptor on the tick master cylinder for clearance.
Autocross from a few weeks ago I was in the first group 40-50degrees and windy and I think the warmest it got all dayday 65. One event left but I don't think I will be able to make it.
My Magnetic numbers would not sick to the curved body panels. I broke the outside gopro mount. Not sure if it was temp related. And found it a few times with only one suction cup holding it. Making the videos Shakey. I finished 2nd in my class. I've been struggling finding grip at the rear. I'm considering switching to ridetech coil overs single or triple with secret sauce valving. I hope to dial in some traction. I can't apply throttle mid corner at all and corner exit until it's almost straight. I was running the sway bar on medium but I had allot of body roll with the same traction issues. With the bar on the stuffest setting it's more tail happy but I can go into corners and slaloms faster. My friend thought I should go to softest seeing because he had the best luck with his Skylark on the soft setting on same sway bar.
First autocross of the year last Sunday. Did really well. 1.3 seconds faster than 2nd. And I kept improving after every run. Hopefully I can keep that up. Next event is the 28th and I have not really done anything else to the car. But not for lack of trying. I have some new rear shocks and want to try a new front sway bar and came across some updated stronger version of the SPC lower arm. But I need more parts to complete all those projects.
The lower mount caused some head scratching. I have a quick performance 9inch and ordered with Moser style axle mounts which are very similar but not quite. Quick performance said they are developing a mount with ridetech and advised to just make spacers to make the one I have work.
I will have to redo my tailpipes to clear them but that's probably a good thing cuz they were prebent and not the best anyway.
Still tuning the rear shocks.
The first autocross this year went well. It was cool but the tires were warm with my old rear shock setup. The second event was rough. It was the first time it with the coilovers and it was 40-45 degrees. Unable to get any heat in the tires I was in 3rd and making small adjustments on rebound made the car go faster each lap put a bunch of compression in and tried to find more time last lap out and I went slower. When it was over I noticed a bolt missing from the left front sway bar mount and the bracket was bent. Definitely not helping my times
Thanks I am trying to keep it alive.
I talk to people all the time and I think this thread shows the things I got right and the things I didn't. I hope learning from mistakes saves someone a buck or two. I think my first set of headers was discontinued because they fit so bad. I recommend 18" wheels all the time. I'm still working on selling my old 17s. And as well as my junk yard impala tank works I probably have the same or more as a nice stainless baffles tank that are available now. I'm on my 3rd sending unit. The original one was no good. So I replaced with a dorman one in 2012 and it lasted until this spring. I was getting different readings everytime I tested it. Sure enough the tank was empty and sending unit had high resistance.
03-25-2018, 10:06 PM
