Been having fun with the 'trac

CodingParadox

New member
People have been asking what I've been up to this year with the trac, so I thought I'd give an update. Seems I'm one of a very small few still doing motorsports with my trac, so I'll try to keep the spirit alive here.

This season I've been having some fun. I'm starting to do some lightening and really dialing in the suspension. Sunday at an autocross, I had fast time of the morning session, running 22psi on race gas on RA-1s. In the afternoon I was holding down fast time until I suddenly got an ignition issue at high rpm/boost early in the session and had to drop out. I changed the whole ignition system later in the evening after I got home and the problem went away (?).

Then yesterday, went out and hit up Pacific Raceway for some afternoon lapping. I only blew up 2 coolant lines! (And fixed them and finished the day, haha.)

Videos from the autocross (FTM is AM-David-7):
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007NWRPractice1/

Pics from the track day (only 1 up now, more will come later today after I process em):
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007TrackDayMar26/

Videos from an autocross in february:
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007Slush2/

(This is all hosted off my home box, which has a fairly slow connection (2mbit upload), so be patient and don't download a bunch of videos at once, please. ;-)
 

AWDios

New member
That looked like Bremerton.

I'll be out too as soon as I have some spare money, first I need to fix the bs vandalism to my car, but I don't have time or money. Stupid homeownership, I should move back in with my parents. LOL
 

allblackalltrac

New member
Thats really kool to see some of us are still willing to compromise abusing our cars to such a degree after so much money is spent into modifing our cars with go fast parts for the intention of actually going fast!
Many of us lose sight of what we want given our true intentions/use (or lack there of) for our vehicles. To often we over indulge ourselves with things we dont need and invest unwisely for its true intentions, just so we can say that we have the lastest and greatest things.
I think anyone that is seriously considering endevors as much as you have should really use your experience as a guide to the true investment, involvment and dedication needed to be consistant as well as reliable. That being said I condone every penny you have spent and wish you all the best in your quest.

Care to elaborate in your diagnosis/repair of your ignition and coolant failures?
Were you able to determine what/which part exactly failed in your ignition system and how/what did you repair/replace it with?
Which coolant lines did you blow and what was the cause?
What kind of coolant temps are you seeing under prolonged heavy loads and do you see any room for improvement?
 

CodingParadox

New member
For the ignition failures, I can only suspect that from how wet it was in the morning, some moisture got into some part of the system. On the drive home, the more I drove it, the better it got, but it was still misfiring even after the hour drive home. So, I just replaced cap, rotor, wires, and plugs, and it entirely went away. The rotor was pretty bad, and the cap was pretty bad as well, so who knows. I didn't have time to diagnose, because I had the track day the next morning, so I didn't have any time to deal with it - I just wanted to swap everything, and if it fixed it, so be it. If that didn't fix it, I had a spare whole dizzy assembly I was gonna swap in, and I had a new set of wires on order from Napa that would be there at 11am the next morning, should I prove to need those. :)

The coolant problems were simple - I had used thin rubber vacuum caps over the coolant passages that I had eliminated (turbo coolant lines, and ISC coolant lines) and they popped under the prolonged pressure of getting raped on the track. I see room for improvement, but the only way is really to get a better radiator. I'm already running a TRD thermostat, and I'm not using coolant to cool the turbo, and I was running water wetter before I blew coolant all over the track. The fan is set to turn on above 85 C, which it had to have been at, so the fans must have been on full time on the track. I wasn't datalogging at the track, so I don't know actual temps - didn't want to deal with finding a way to tie down a laptop. :)

So, the only things left to do are to eliminate the A/C, which will free up some room in front of it and allow some more direct airflow, and to get an aluminum radiator. After I capped off those lines with stronger caps, though, it wasn't a problem again for the rest of the day, so I dunno. Alltracs have cooling issues. I'll be getting an aluminum radiator sometime in the future, most likely.
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
I am glad to see you kept the car and are having some sucess tracking it. Have you been able to get the steering feel that you wanted? I that will be the last big hurdle for the car myself.
 

CodingParadox

New member
I replaced the tie rod ends with new ones from toyo. That helped a little bit.

I'm wondering if doing something drastic like machining a smaller pulley wheel for the power steering pump would help with that. The basic problem with the steering feel is that the power steering is so overwhelming that you can't feel anything else. The tie rod ends picked up any slack that was in the steering, but it's still hard to be feeling understeer/oversteer through the steering like I can on the RX-8. I'm guessing I'm pretty much just spoiled now with the RX-8 and that there isn't going to be much else I can do. :)
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
I have been runing w/o powersteering and while feel is improved, its not significant. The UK guys say the PS pulley hardly makes a difference. But they are st205 guys and claim that the 205 steering is very weighted anyhow. I decided to fix the PS for the sake of, how difficult it is to control the car in a turn sometimes. Especially on bad roads, going balls out.

Perhaps an improvment in the rack and front suspension on the st205 part.

We are talking about making some soild tierod ends. That may help alot. I am installing a smaller stering wheel as well. Driving the Z at 10/10 and Driving hte Alltrac at 10/10 are two totally different experiences. I think a short rack and a less helpful PS pump would be the ultimate solution for the 185.
 

CodingParadox

New member
Neat. Let me know if you come up with anything useful. I suspect I'll be tracking the alltrac for quite some time in the future, so I'll take what I can get. :)
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
What rearend do you have on the car? LSd or non?

Stock steering wheel?

All the superpro bushings?

After getting a smaller steering wheel, adding the last of the superpro bushings and rear lsd I love the way the car feels. Much better than what it was.
 

furpo

New member
What caster are you guys running? The stock caster on the altrac is quite low and it would be best to get the caster right before you start playing around with the power steering. The more caster you add the hevier the steering will be.

Roger
 

CodingParadox

New member
All of the superpro bushings, stock rear end for now, LSD is in the garage, stock steering wheel. The caster is just the most available with stock, i.e. 1.5 degrees or so - essentially none.

It's certainly better than it was, but the steering feel is still not great.
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
Oops, didn't see you replied. Get that lsd in there and then look into a smaller wheel. You might like the improvement. I would like some caster bushings, but it like pulling teeth to get them made. If I had money to blow, I would just do some light weight caster adjustable a-arms.
 

Celi-GT4

New member
Is that RC wheel any smaller then stock? Is anyone running larger tires up front, any feedback. I have a 255 rear and 225 front and I was thinking of switching them around. What size spacer is required for a sportmax 50 17X 9 with a 255 up front. I am runnign a 1" out back.
Todd
 

CMS-GT4

Active member
Sportmax 17x9 fit up front fine with no spacer. The rear only needs a spacer. Swap the wheels and tell us how you like it. We have a couple of threads duscussing it, but no on has the $$ to buy different sized tires to give a review.
 

tjdouble07

New member
CodingParadox":2lv9sxfk said:
People have been asking what I've been up to this year with the trac, so I thought I'd give an update. Seems I'm one of a very small few still doing motorsports with my trac, so I'll try to keep the spirit alive here.

This season I've been having some fun. I'm starting to do some lightening and really dialing in the suspension. Sunday at an autocross, I had fast time of the morning session, running 22psi on race gas on RA-1s. In the afternoon I was holding down fast time until I suddenly got an ignition issue at high rpm/boost early in the session and had to drop out. I changed the whole ignition system later in the evening after I got home and the problem went away (?).

Then yesterday, went out and hit up Pacific Raceway for some afternoon lapping. I only blew up 2 coolant lines! (And fixed them and finished the day, haha.)

Videos from the autocross (FTM is AM-David-7):
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007NWRPractice1/

Pics from the track day (only 1 up now, more will come later today after I process em):
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007TrackDayMar26/

Videos from an autocross in february:
http://desktop.akilla.net/pics/autox/2007Slush2/

(This is all hosted off my home box, which has a fairly slow connection (2mbit upload), so be patient and don't download a bunch of videos at once, please. ;-)

Hey man, are you the guy I said what's up to at KO Racing last weekend?

Trevor
 
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