Red ST185 SillyCar - Low Budget Track Car

So I picked up this GT4 so cheap I just couldn't pass it up. When I got it the car had overheated and the previous owner had parked it up and not looked at it since.
When I got it home I had a quick look and tried to put some water in it which ran out the bottom of the engine bay as quickly as I tipped it in...all that was wrong with it was one of the water lines on the oil heat exchanger had split replaced that and it ran. Long story short I took it to a track event about an hour from me and did 2 laps before the motor munched no1 big end bearing...
Luckily I had a spare gen2 motor and gearbox sitting at home so I put that that motor in before I did I changed the headgasket to a 1mm steel one.
I didn't get any photos until now here it is
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The car came with a few goodies on it (previous owner had no idea what he had)
- Wolf V500 ECU with plug-in loom (worth nearly double then what i paid for the whole car)
- Side feed intake
- Custom W2A intercooler
- Whiteline Rear Anti-roll bar
- 3" Turbo back stainless exhaust
- Tubular CT-26 Manifold

Things I've done so far
- put on 16x8 rims with 225 wide Dunlop direzza 03g semi slicks
- Changed brake pads to ones more suited to track days

Before I take it back to the track again I'd like to
- Change the rhf wheel bearing
- Wheel alignment
- Make rear toe arms that don't move everytime a kerb is used
- Install a FMIC as the current W2A setup is not big enough and heatsoaks after ~10sec of WOT
- Put in race seat and harness out of my Group A
- Tidy up the tune abit better and run ~15psi car still has stock fuel system to knowledge so that will be the limit of that I think.

I did some more work on the cold start and idle parts of the tune today and its ALOT better
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MWP

New member
If you are going to track it often, do something about your sump.
The steel sumps dont control oil well at all (runs away from the pickup on long right-hand corners). It'll drop pressure and spin another bearing.
 
I read about that after the engine failed....
I had the sump off the blown up engine and the design of it looks ok windage tray etc. But what i found is the full mark on the dipstick leaves about an inch gap from the bottom of the windage tray and that will be even more once the motor is running and oil is up in the head. I marked the dipstick of that engine where the windage tray is and its at least 30mm higher than the full mark on the dipstick. I'll do the same on this car and fill the oil up to that level. Just guessing it will be another 1-2L of oil and see how it goes.
 
Got started on removing all of the W2A intercooler setup. Never seen a normal gt4 crash bar before and they are HUGE!!

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Now with that huge chunk of steel out of the way I can get started

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With the factory heat exchanger removed there is abit of room. Will need to use a smaller cooler for the power steering and change the hoses for the gearbox cooler so I can mount it in a different position.

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Most of the factory group a w2a setup. Surprisingly only held ~1.5-2L of fluid any wonder it heatsoaked. I do have the complete factory setup of this for anyone thats interested.

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aus jd 2703

New member
looks like a chinese rad like i have. mate has PWR and quality difference is huge yet to see a performance advantage.

interesting about the rear arms moving cant say ive noticed this.

whats your local track? where you located?

long as its not QR you should be ok on stock brakes for the time being.
gen 3+ sumps do alot better with cornering. can use 3sge ones too.
its weird you have a group a WTA system but a 184 bumper and standard 185 bonnet.
its a "bitsa"
looks like your fun
 

MWP

New member
TheyAreSillyCars":1zs6enm9 said:
I read about that after the engine failed....
I had the sump off the blown up engine and the design of it looks ok windage tray etc. But what i found is the full mark on the dipstick leaves about an inch gap from the bottom of the windage tray and that will be even more once the motor is running and oil is up in the head. I marked the dipstick of that engine where the windage tray is and its at least 30mm higher than the full mark on the dipstick. I'll do the same on this car and fill the oil up to that level. Just guessing it will be another 1-2L of oil and see how it goes.

I dont think over filling it will help.
The solution is either to weld in trap doors to the steel sump, use a gen3/4 sump, or get something like the Moroso sump.
 
In my other car ive had problems with the toe arms moving not to mention they arepainfully tedious to adjust as everytime you tighten them they move....
I dont really have a local track. My closest circuit tracks are winton and mallala which are both ~7 hours from me
Yeah its got abit of everything lol once the front mount goes on i may cut or put holes in that bumper to get more air thru the cooler.
As far as the sump problem goes not sure what im going to do probably nothing apart from putting some more oil in. Really cbf pulling the sump off
 
Got started on mounting the intercooler today. Probably a little big but its what I had lying around and not many new parts are going onto this. Looks ok though

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Some random coolers I had to use for the power steering and gearbox

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It is very sturdy and not exactly light weight...
Its actually on the other side of the rail and not in the way probably just the angle of the photo.
Havent made much progress on the car had a few other things to do first but hopefully finish the cooler piping soon and start touching up the tune
 
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