We bought our first xr. Autox/street machine in the making.

[xrdoc]

Are you talking about using Hondabond instead of a gasket or with a gasket?

With a gasket in certain instances and others without, for the pan Id prolly use the gasket but have the FIPG on both sides, in tighter tolerance place no gasket.

[catapultkid]

Ok. Two autox's down and we learned a lot.

The March event (for those who didn't attend or tried to forget) was a high of 45 and wintery mix of sleet and rain. Miserable conditions for a autox in my opinion but mainly because of the "events" that led up to that point. Here is the story of the few days before the first 2014 autox in listed form.

Thursday before Justin (friend that is co-driving this year) and I decided to meet up and tune the car's air fuel table at afternoon. That ended up being a very late night as the car stranded us at a gas station after only 30 minutes of tuning. For some reason the fuel would cut out after a few minutes. 10:30 that night it was towed home on the back of a tow truck. Justin really saved our ass there.

Friday I was off at 11am and ran home to see if I could find the electrical bug. The fuel pump would kick in sometimes and not others. Found out quickly there was a electrical leak into the ECU power circuit of 3-7 volts depending on where you took the sample. Spent until 10:30pm that night pulling every fuse, every relay and every sensor. Nothing...

Saturday morning I was up early and around 7:30am I had found out that the fan circuit was indeed bleeding back into the ECU and causing running issues. Justin was over around 10:30am and we re-did much of the "general" wires powering injectors and what have you. This time, cutting out many of the relays and fuses I had put in the car.

Saturday around 5:30 we fired the car back up for the first time since it had stranded us. Not feeling confident just yet we let it idle for 20+ minutes in the driveway. Up until this point we had been jumping the car at every start because the starter solenoid would just click otherwise. This had been an issue as someone always had to accompany the car in another vehicle.

At 6pm Saturday or so we came to the conclusion that the alternator had died and wasn't producing voltage at idle and only a hair at higher rpms. Thinking this wasn't a big deal I called and drove out to a parts store to pick up a ford ranger of similar year alternator since they too ran 2.3 8v motors. However upon further inspection the ranger alternator didn't have a rectifying circuit inboard of the alternator. They used a completely different system externally. Therefore, in a nut shell, I was out of luck.

At 8:30pm, and after many phone calls, I located a stock merkur alternator in Suffolk, VA that was proven good. So I began the 5 hour drive there and back in the rain. Got home around 12:30am that morning and start putting on the new, to me, alternator. Of course it wasn't going to be that easy as I snapped the output stud of the alternator. Another 2 hours were spent fiddling with the alternator to get it mounted. I tired out around 3:30am that morning.

Sunday morning (day of the event) around 7am I was back out in the garage again putting some last minute touches on the car. Justin showed up around 8am and we drove the untuned (running rich as hell), unproven car, 40 minutes to the autox in the rain. Him in his caprice just in case because we still needed to jump the car at every start.

Show up the event, Justin runs first. All I really remember is all the cones we hit all day. I think it fared OK but honestly I don't remember much of the event. Passed out at 7:30 that evening after getting home and woke up late for work at 7am the next morning wondering why I did all that for 5 minutes of driving?

I didn't take any photos so I kinda left this post linger for a bit.

Last weekend was autox #2 for the season and things went a bit smoother. However we are still not out of the woods yet. All week I had been making fiberglass molds and of the bumper to use in mounting the blinkers.

Final product looked like this. It takes days to even make something this simple because of the curing time in cool weather. Not just for the resin but also for my mold making materials.



I made some covers since I didn't want to paint the bumper. All went well until I realized that the voltage out of the signal wire was not enough to power the LEDs, therefore I've got to add relays now. Ah well.



Also got a new wideband installed for tuning.



And installed a new starter solenoid to prevent the jump starting at every start.



Then did a bit of tuning. Not to get into the specifics here but basically we have some oscillations in the AFR happening at cruise. As soon as load the throttle the car it clears up. Also between the school on that Saturday and the autox Mindy and I lowered the camber to +3.75* and 3/16" toe out up front.

Drove the autox Sunday and had a blast. In the dry the car did much much better than expected. Still has a lot of room for improvement as there are clear "holes" in the current set up, but it isn't without some reward of the possibilities.





Justin's run on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c2m1Q_XjKc

enjoy.

Next up:

Adding the caster back without adding camber. Going back to stock lower control arms.
Fresh and smoother tune with more POWER! We are only running a hair under 11psi now.

[catapultkid]

A photo or two. More coming once I figure out how to hyperlink them.

Justin and Mindy (wife). Still have a bit of lift coming out of a few turns.



Mindy turning in.



Mindy again





Justin (one of the fastest drivers I know) landed the fastest time in the car at a 44.8 but a small cone, I landed a 45.5 with a cone carried over from a re-run and Mindy was a constant 46.3 all heat long. Those were the fastest times without penalty, Justin and I were both a hair slower on our clean runs. Those clean runs were enough for two of us to be in top 15 or so in RAW time and in PAX. Very impressed with my wife as she is still coming off of the thought of wrecking the car mid last year, she is definitely "manning up to it".

[catapultkid]

Those little 225 are working hard.



Nom nom nom

[MercMike]

Enjoyed !!! I know you have worked your butt off !!!!!

[Ray]

That last minute thrash session is insane. I'm glad you got the car up and going looking good out there.

[catapultkid]

Not a big update.

New:
Wheel bearings
Spindles
Lower control arms
Inner tie rods
Bushings
Lower the seat some

The idea here is to have the shorter XR control arms with the top plates maxed at caster and camber. Now sits around 3.75* camber and tons of caster. On top of that XP10 carbotechs up front did a amazing job of eating the rotors.



Rear got treatment as well.



Had an autox and the results from the worked great! Car was just 2.7 seconds slower than a well driven (nationals guy), well prepped SSP Z06. This was a fast and flowy 50 second course. Wasn't me driving, but super stoked that this car on little 225 street tires can do that much.

[merkurdriver]

Once sorted out right these cars are magic!

[catapultkid]

They are pretty impressive. As long as they stay together.

Ok. So the last three weekends have looked like this. 14 hour Lemons Race at CMP, VMP autocross and lastly VIR with the PCA group. A first for the Merkur handling itself on the track and I am pleased to announce the it did very well. Running in the solid 2:30 mark with a sub-par driver and a top speed of only 113mph on the back and front straight due to less the stock boost levels (13-14psi). Hopefully this means the motor has lasted through it all despite running 10:1 afr at high rpm.

I didn't take too many photos or videos so there isn't much to show for any of it but here is what I have.





Down pipe issue at VMP the weekend before.



What I found in the catch can after VMP that had me a little worried for VIR.



Couple of notes:

Apparently it was throwing some big flames when trying to catch some of the Porsche's up the climbing Esses.

Carbotech's worked really well. No fade and still have a ton of life left in them. Hopefully Mindy can finish them off at the next track day.

Turbo's downpipe didn't come loose like it had been doing before. I added studs and lock nuts (not the nylon type).

Motor has a bit more back pressure than when it showed up. I guess I'll just have to up the boost a little more to compensate... Hopefully the rear main seal is ok as there was some oil spraying from somewhere.

Hopefully I can relax a bit more on this car now. I'm looking to start up the next project in a month or so. Therefore this one really really needs to take a back seat.

[catapultkid]

Super exciting weekend. This was the first event that we didn't change a thing. Nothing. Put it away after the event at VIR, replaced some air in the tires and ran with it. Car felt good, nice and balanced with a touch of under steer at mid corner and a some over steer when getting into boost at corner exit. The highlight of the weekend however was the merkur landed FTD on street tires. Very exciting and all this work seems to have paid off a bit. It really is a small mile stone for the car and the work we have laid into it, but we gotta keep it up. There is still major room for improvement, it has a name, and that name is BOOST, we need more sooner.

Here are some shots of Justin and Mindy along with a video or two. The tire squeal is 95% the rear tires, it is hard to tell in the videos with a helmet mounted camera. However the big thing we are learning is that sliding the car in a small drift and not dropping boost makes a faster overall run. As soon as the car loses boost we have to wait to receive it again, killing the runs time.












50.7 run --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmkUSHbQdII&t=0m20s
51.2 run --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGHLtrVkyoo

Thanks
-Paul

[nathankershaw]

This car & your work are top notch & very inspirational...but...

"Hopefully I can relax a bit more on this car now. I'm looking to start up the next project in a month or so. Therefore this one really really needs to take a back seat."

I've never seen an XR happy taking a back seat

[MercMike]

it has a name, and that name is BOOST, we need more sooner.

LOL LOL LOL LOL
Your photos look way less tippy in the corners than last year. I am happy for your achievement. Seems well earned from here.
So what is your next project going to be ?

[catapultkid]

Thanks for the compliments. Oddly the springs are exactly the same as last year. I dont know if the merkur can sit in the back seat for a bit but I've got to try. I picked up a spare motor just in case, but it has a .48 exhaust side and I've already been toying with making the swap and doing some retuning.

Next project is my car (merkur is the wifes). This one should be full of carbon fiber bits, active aero mods, motor swap with lots of custom bits and cage work. Stay tuned for the "200hp and 2000lb" project. I really want to take my fabrication abilities to the next level on this one, funds pending.

[nathankershaw]

Thanks for the compliments. Oddly the springs are exactly the same as last year. I dont know if the merkur can sit in the back seat for a bit but I've got to try. I picked up a spare motor just in case, but it has a .48 exhaust side and I've already been toying with making the swap and doing some retuning.

Next project is my car (merkur is the wifes). This one should be full of carbon fiber bits, active aero mods, motor swap with lots of custom bits and cage work. Stay tuned for the "200hp and 2000lb" project. I really want to take my fabrication abilities to the next level on this one, funds pending.

Is it another XR or a different vehicle?

[catapultkid]

Thanks for the compliments. Oddly the springs are exactly the same as last year. I dont know if the merkur can sit in the back seat for a bit but I've got to try. I picked up a spare motor just in case, but it has a .48 exhaust side and I've already been toying with making the swap and doing some retuning.

Next project is my car (merkur is the wifes). This one should be full of carbon fiber bits, active aero mods, motor swap with lots of custom bits and cage work. Stay tuned for the "200hp and 2000lb" project. I really want to take my fabrication abilities to the next level on this one, funds pending.

Is it another XR or a different vehicle?

My old mk2 vw. I threw a couple photos up earlier in the thread.