10 cent o-ring=$10 headache and the Indy 500

     Quote of the week: "I had to stop seeing her...she got a case of the feelings"

     I've been a tad sleep deprived fr a few days, working day shift for 3 days straight when i normally go to bed at 3am and get about about 11...getting up at 5 am really shocks your system, it really starts to exaggerate everything (feelings, emotions...yes I do have each of those).  Anyway, for the first time in years I was not able to watch the 500 live, and just finished watching it off the DVR last night.  Two things:

          1. The Dan Wheldon tributes bring a tear to my eye 

          2. HOLY EPIC RACE.  The new DW12 chassis is awesome, the racing was awesome and 

              I spent 3 hours on the edge of my seat.  It really is the greatest race in the world.

     Back to the previously mentioned O-ring.  There was a random post on Evom from someone who appears to work at a tuner shop stating that the O-ring on the omni map sensor that I runis a little lackluster.  For a long time now I have been battling a fuel trim issue on the car to the effect of the car thinking it is very lean at the oxygen sensor, indicating a boost leak somewhere.  So since I had the factory map sensor with o-ring in the glove box, I spent 5 minutes swapping the o-rings...and damn was the omni sensor loose.  No resistance to fitting the sensor port AT ALL.  With the factory o-ring, a much tighter fit was obtained...This very well may have been part of my issue, but I still think I need a bigger ring.  

     Tried out a new fuel map last night too.  AFR's are close, but still need some tweaking.  Some spots are definitely touching a tad leaner than I would like.  Whats cool to see is the pickup of ~10whp and 10 plus wtq in the mid range. The numbers are a little whacky due to the new big tires though.

 

          Also, was watching top gear this morning and they were doing a segment on "lapping days" as they call them.  I wanted to share this...Clarkson just sums up the feelings very well.

    

Like a Bauce

     Headed to my parents house this weekend to attend a good friends wedding, and accomplished a few things on the car...new wheel setup is on, alignment, oil change, new WB sensor, and the harness bar is in.

     This is all I have in the way of pictures, the weather got crappy so i didnt pull out the good camera.

     The setup is VERY wide, the RS3's are F-A-T.  The one worry was the rear rubbing, as the setup sticks out 3mm further than factory setup but in 250miles I have yet to rub once.  The clearance to the rear trailing link is minimal and with any deflection I will probably polish the arm.  If I can swing it I'll pick up a set of R/T Ernie's offset links to allw for 275;s in the future.

     Next up was the alignment.  I was targeting -2 degrees front camber, -1.5 rear and zero toe all around, but with my luck I figured something was gonna go wrong.  Not to disappoint...the shop called to tell me that they could swing the left all the way to -2.4 degrees but the front right camber bolt was seized at -1.7.  Rather than trust a shop I've never used to fix a seized bolt, I had them match the left to it and call it a day.  It also appears that the tire i wrecked at lime rock may not have been due to toe...dammit.

Final Alignment

-1.7 camber front

-1.5 camber rear

0 toe

~3.8 degrees caster

     Now...the Buschur harness bar.  This was an impulse buy I shouldn't have made for various reasons.  In a fit of frustration yesterday, I think I have decided to sell it.  Oh the ups and downs of building a street driven race car...oh and life too I guess...

Until next time...

  

Small update

     Apparently since this place has been viewed just over 100 times, I might as well keep finding things to share.

    While I continue to dream of my next day out on track, I've ordered up a few odds and ends.

     - 17x9.5 +38 RPF'1s (after 2 weeks of convincing myself they will fit...soo I'll probably be rolling fenders on my June vacation)

     - Kics Leggdura lug nuts  Muteki Sr35 lug nuts (decided on steel instead of aluminum for now)

     - Kics 20mm bolt on spacers

     - Just got my tracking numbers for a set of 255 Hankook RS3's from tire rack

     Should all make for a quite grippy setup.

     I also picked up a ricey Broadway 300mm rear view mirror.  A big lesson that needs to be learned for racing is how to check your mirrors appropriately while having the confidence balls to hold your line with another car getting larger in your mirror quickly.  The stock rear view is a tad lacking for seeing anything until its directly behind you (especially with the large stock rear wing obstructing part of the field of view too)