Updates
What I've Been Doing
I haven't updated the site for a while, so let me explain why. I've decided to stop doing autocross and focus my attention on drifting. I had a lot of fun doing autocross events this year, but it didn't turn out to be what I was looking for. Here's why:
- People disregarding/not knowing class rules and entering cars in STS that are not legal in STS. This made my efforts to keep my car legal and compete in a fair way pretty useless. On a regional level, there is no enforcement of rules, which makes the events kind of a joke in terms of competition. Drifting is nice because the car does not have such a huge influence on your performance.
- No path to higher forms of racing or professional racing. I want to get into professional racing, but doing well in autocross doesn't lead anywhere. On the other hand, doing well in drifting will allow you to progress from the local level to the pro am level and finally to the professional level.
- People that don't know very much about cars and driving/have too much money and not enough skill. Of course, some people that go to autocross events regularly are pretty knowledgeable, but I would say that more than half of the people at any given event are clueless about cars/driving. In drifting, everyone works on their own cars and is simply more "into" cars/driving/having fun than autocross people.
Since around July, I've been going to every drift event in the area. I continued attending some autocross events to get more drifting practice. This was not well received, so I stopped going to the autocross events around September.
To sum it up, I won't be updating this site anymore since I've completely changed direction with the car and my goals. Also, updating the site was taking a lot of time away that I could have been spending working on the car. So instead of having a website, I'll be documenting my work through my build thread on ls1tech.com from now on. I'm completely rebuilding the car this winter to compete in US Drift and to drive in local events next year. Check out the build thread for more details.
Thanks to everyone that's visited the site and that has sent me comments throughout the year. I hope you guys will continue to follow the build.
Attended Club Loose Advanced Day on the Road Course - July 12, 2008
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Since everything worked out with putting the new KA in the car, I was able to make it to the Club Loose event at Englishtown. With a new LSD, brand new tires, and lots of runs, this was probably the best drifting event that I've gone to. Read more.
Mounted New Tires for the Raceway Park Road Course Drifting Event - July 10, 2008
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There's an all-day drifting event coming up this Saturday at Englishtown on the road course. Since all of my tires (except the RT-615s) either had very little tread or were chunking, I decided to get four new ones for the event. So I ordered four 195/60R15 Falken Ziex ZE-512 all-season tires last Wednesday from discounttiredirect.com. These were only $49 per tire, and they should be decent quality since they're from Falken.
Broke In LSD - July 9, 2008
To break in the LSD, the instruction manual says to drive in a figure 8 pattern for 30 minutes. More specifically, accelerate in a straight line up to 20kph, put the transmission into neutral, make a sharp turn-around, then shift back to 1st gear, accelerate to 20kph, and make a sharp turnaround in the other direction. I found an empty parking lot and performed the procedure. Afterwards, I changed the gear oil and cleaned the metal shavings from the magnetic differential drain plug.
Installed Kaaz LSD - July 8, 2008
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I finally broke down and got an LSD to put on the car. I was trying to stay in the SCCA's STS autocross class, which doesn't allow aftermarket LSDs. However, I was starting to feel like drifting should be a bigger priority than autocross. Even though I was doing relatively well in the autocross events, I didn't feel like it would go anywhere even if I were to win my class every single weekend. In addition, building a legal car for an SCCA class is expensive and extremely restrictive in terms of being able to compete in drifting, for example. Overall, I didn't feel that it was worth it.
On the other hand, I got into group B in the Club Loose drifting events and really felt like I was making some progress there. In general, I could attract a lot more attention through drifting well than through autocrossing well. And that attention could lead to sponsorship and a chance at professional racing.
So at this point, I'm going to shift my attention towards building a full race car for drifting. I'll still compete at autocross events, but I'll only be racing to get the fastest time of the day since I will most likely be placed in a race class with the modifications I plan to make. I'm still coming up with a plan for what exactly I'll be doing to the car and when.
In the meantime, I wanted to get an LSD in the car, which should give me more traction allowing for easier and more predictable drifting. In addition, I shouldn't have to rev the engine so high to keep the car sideways with an LSD since I'll be spinning both wheels equally fast. Another benefit is that I should get much more even tire wear as opposed to always destroying the outside tire much faster than the inside. The LSD will bump me up a class in SCCA to STX, but I'll still be in the same class in the MSNE events at Giants Stadium. Read more.
Disassembled the Bad Engine - July 7, 2008
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I got a chance to take apart the KA that died on me at the last Club Loose event, and I was right about the rod knock. I could wiggle the first rod around the crankshaft relatively easily. The vibration from that situation is probably what destroyed the front main seal.
The oil inside the engine was pretty dirty, but other than that, I didn't see anything wrong with the internal components. So now I have some spare KA parts in case I want to build a motor in the future.
(The assembled engine in the picture is my friend's KA24DE, which he plans to turbo for a drift car build.)
Installed New Clutch Kit and Resurfaced Flywheel - July 5, 2008
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Again, with a lot of help from my dad, I put the rest of the car back together today. My dad got me a great deal on a Rhino Pac OEM replacement clutch kit ($80), and I had the flywheel resurfaced. Everything went in without any problems, and the car started right up.
The throttle body was a little sticky so I took some time to clean that with WD-40. Then, the coolant temperature sensor somehow lost its connection, which made the ECU supply way too much fuel to the engine. The engine would idle at 1300 RPM all the time, and it refused to start unless the fuel line was clamped. After wiggling the temp sensor connector around and cleaning it out, the engine ran fine.
I test-drove the car and noticed that the engine was misfiring under load. I put on new spark plug wires, which fixed the problem. At this point, I'm just trying to drive the car as much as possible to break in the clutch and make sure there are no problems with the engine.
Installed the Fresh Engine - July 3, 2008
With a lot of help from my dad, I was able to pull the blown engine and put in the one I picked up yesterday. I also took out the transmission. The clutch was almost completely worn out on my car, and the flywheel had fractures on the surface. The clutch on the engine that I picked up was garbage, but the flywheel was in better shape than mine. Therefore, I'm going to have that flywheel resurfaced and get a new clutch kit.
I'd love to upgrade the clutch and flywheel, but there would barely be enough time to install the parts before next Saturday's drifting event. I would still have to find time to break in the clutch at some point. Therefore, I'll probably end up getting an OEM replacement clutch kit so I can have the car back together as soon as possible.
I decided to start the engine without the transmission on just to make sure there were no problems. The engine was a little difficult to start at first. It took about a minute of cranking to get it going, but once it started, it ran strong.
After taking out the transmission, I found that it was leaking from where the shifter mounts to the tranny. The boot that seals the shifter opening to the shifter is torn and letting fluid leak out of the top of the transmission. I'll have to get a replacement boot from a dealership to stop the leak.
Picked Up Another KA - July 2, 2008
After some searching, I found someone on zilvia.net selling a KA24DE with 108,000 miles for $200. That's the lowest mileage engine I could find for a decent price in my area. He said that it ran strong before he pulled it to do an SR swap. It seemed like a good deal, so I picked it up today. It fit in the trunk of my dad's Grand Marquee without any problems. Tomorrow, I'll get started on removing the blown engine and installing the fresh one.
Participated in NNJR-PCA Autocross Event 8 (6/22/08) - June 29, 2008
This was another rainy PCA event, second one in a row that I've attended. But it did give me the chance to feel the effects of the new bushings and sway bars. Read more.
Engine has Rod Knock
I went to my dad's shop today to figure out the engine problem. I started the engine and revved it up a little and can hear a definite knocking. I'm pretty sure it's a rod knock. I must have messed up one of the rod bearings from revving the engine so high for an extended period of time. So now I'm looking for another KA to put in the car.