"Ray's AKA demonfire's XR4Ti build up"

[lucky87]

WHy is the manifold glowing PURPLE?

[Ray]

My car runs on shattered hopes and dreams? Or it's just how the light was. Thought it was a pretty cool picture

[lucky87]

Shattered dreams sound like a good explanation. nice job by the way. it's looking great!

[Ray]

Season opener yesterday. Non-points event so my goal was to check to see what was going to break.

Need to do something about the alternator fan to coupler clearance (slightly rubbing) which i think i'll go with a slightly shortly belt for, and i was running some new bits from mc2racing to make people's lives easier (wish it was available 14 months ago...) with good results.

Anyway. Day was basically me being a hooligan. I did two things that i've never done before.

1. Hit a cone, flipped up in the air, and landed back in the box. No penalty.
2. Hit (ran over) two cones, rear tires each ejected them out the back of the car spectacularly.

Getting ready


Engine Bay


Me running to the porto-potty smiling like a rahtard and giving the dual thumbs up: (comedy)



Hoon:


This was a left turn:







And yes, the light coming off the bumper was a direct result of me smacking a cone. Brand new paint job on the bumper. Already got cone scuffs. Heh.

There are a few more, but nothing that hasnt been posted a bunch of times here already.

Long lines, long course, only major issue is the exciter wire on the alt decided to come off once. I'll redo the tension on the connector and get it back on.

[anglin]

Sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for testing the new parts.

[BeefFajitas]

New parts? Details?

[Ray]

I'll let Anglin define, basically it was a quick torture test to make sure it wouldn't fail. And the first run felt the exact same as the last, and i had my hooligan mask on so i was ... well, testing. Still need to pull the part off the car and get back to Anglin to inspect, but overall given feedback from the vehicle itself it was a success.

Edit: Parts are live, so Anglin gave me the go ahead:

http://www.mc2racing.com/products/xr4ti ... index.html

Solid Bushings for your rear diff mount. Something i wish was available before i had mine welded to become a solid mount.

I was not able to discern any real difference in feedback from a solid mount versus one with delrin inserts.

[BeefFajitas]

Neato. I've been thinking about solid-mounting mine. I've got the upgraded bushings and it still feels like something is squirming around out back.

[anglin]

I've been thinking about solid-mounting mine. I've got the upgraded bushings and it still feels like something is squirming around out back.

I don't want to hijack Ray's thread, but a solid mount goes a long, long way to end the squirmy feelings. If you're already running polyurethane beam bushings, a solid mount will be an improvement, but if you've got stock diff mount and beam mounts, going solid will *really* tighten things up!

[Ray]

Nate i was still getting some deflection with the poly bushings out back. Stock was garbage. Solid mount, while introducing some NVH, was the way to go for me. The delrin inserts are just a really, really, easy way to (reversibly) turn your existing mc2 diff mount into a solid mount.

[BeefFajitas]

Interesting, I guess that confirms it. I'll add it to my To-Do list!

[Ray]

Have been very very busy, so much so that i dont think i've made a single event since the test and tune. I've decided to not bother and try to be competitive in points this year, and focus on other things in life. That doesn't mean i'm not going to go be a hooligan, it just means i'm not going to take it as seriously this season.

That being said, for those who know me, what would you do if your fuel level gauge stopped working, and the fuel level gauge was the only thing that you used in the stock cluster?

If you answered "fix the gauge" - you'd be wrong.
If you answered "make your own cluster*" - ding! *(this answer necessitated performing both actions)

So i removed the fiberglass dash top pod i built back in 2005 (?) and started working on some aluminum.

These pics are from about a month ago, i haven't even been in my shop in a few weeks.

Remove cluster from frame, mock up shape on aluminum sheet.


Mock up new tach location with shift light


Gauges in cluster


Mock up again


Verifying wiring


Wideband and Fuel level where vents were


Installed carpeted cover where old vent was (light weight, dont worry)



Not terribly exciting, but hey, it works.
Now, where to find a speedometer that will work with the stock cable?

As an aside - the reason the fuel level gauge wasn't working - i neglected to plug the stock pump wiring back to the poles on the tank - the sender and the pump share a ground, meaning since it's a reference ground sender... i was getting infinite to ground, ie; gauge doesn't work. FWIW the stock sender is a 240/33 ohm sender... I used an autometer 4316. Works perfectly. I think.

[BeefFajitas]

Ditch the cable and go electronic. Then you don't have to worry about matching rear-end ratios to the cable gear. And, you can feed MS with the VSS.

[Esteban]

Do you think the fuel gauge would've fit in the cluster too if you moved everything closer?

[Ray]

Nate i didn't even think of that - good idea

Esteban - yes, probably, but it would be really tight. It's already installed and wired, so i'm probably not going to change that unless i want to mix it up with something new later, tho.