bugeye_fever
New member
Bummer, I'm gonna be flying over that weekend. Have you been to Sanford before? If so, what do you think about the surface?
GD Ray's ultimate wallet PWNAGE!
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bugeye_fever
New member
So I had the fun of replacing the PCV valve the other day. Buried under the throttle body I thought it was gonna be a bear, but it really wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be. Reason I replaced it was because I've noticed an increase in oil consumption in the last few weeks. Like I checked the oil and the dipstick was almost dry.. put in half a quart of amsoil and a week later it was almost dry again(thats when I changed out the valve.)
Clueless about PCV valves I consulted the forums. I read that you can tell the valve is bad if you shake it and nothing moves. That was not the case, when i shook it there was noise that the valve was not stuck. However when shook side by side with the new valve you could definetly feel a difference. The old valve felt looser, and the spring felt weaker. This to me doesn't sound like what would cause higher oil consumption. But like I said, until about a week ago I was clueless on them.
Anyway, I could instantly tell a difference driving the car, hard to explain though, just "different" as I went on and off the throttle. Time will tell as next week I'll check the oil level again and see if its lower. Bugs me though, because just a coule weeks ago a buddy darn near ran his mazda 6 out of oil, but that was from blown seals in the turbo which I guess is a common problem for them.
Anyone know of a good way to tell if you've got a blown turbo? I could get on it with the wife following me and see if there's any smoke i guess. When I was working on it the other day there wasn't any oil leaking from the turbo its self..
Clueless about PCV valves I consulted the forums. I read that you can tell the valve is bad if you shake it and nothing moves. That was not the case, when i shook it there was noise that the valve was not stuck. However when shook side by side with the new valve you could definetly feel a difference. The old valve felt looser, and the spring felt weaker. This to me doesn't sound like what would cause higher oil consumption. But like I said, until about a week ago I was clueless on them.
Anyway, I could instantly tell a difference driving the car, hard to explain though, just "different" as I went on and off the throttle. Time will tell as next week I'll check the oil level again and see if its lower. Bugs me though, because just a coule weeks ago a buddy darn near ran his mazda 6 out of oil, but that was from blown seals in the turbo which I guess is a common problem for them.
Anyone know of a good way to tell if you've got a blown turbo? I could get on it with the wife following me and see if there's any smoke i guess. When I was working on it the other day there wasn't any oil leaking from the turbo its self..
bugeye_fever
New member
Updated the Mod list, I'm curious to see what you all think of the downpipe idea.
bugeye_fever
New member
Had another GREAT weekend AutoXing, met a member of the forum, can't remember his name though, lol. I'm horrible with names. Course was 4000+ ft long, and it was open and FAST! A buddy with an '06 STI on r-comps was topping out 3rd through the lane change, I was in 4th but I got teh short gears, lol. I didn't get any in car, but I'll post a club members so you all can get an idea of the course.
Said buddy with sti ran 44.2, I ran 48.1 which was good for 31st of 84 raw. Just to let us know how much we suck, FTD was set by a PROST '89 Civic Si, 42.4 WTFHLYCRPBBQ!!??:tard:
Said buddy with sti ran 44.2, I ran 48.1 which was good for 31st of 84 raw. Just to let us know how much we suck, FTD was set by a PROST '89 Civic Si, 42.4 WTFHLYCRPBBQ!!??:tard:
bugeye_fever
New member
Here's a club buddy's video:
http://youtu.be/V5QWCQNNE6Y?hd=1
Its an EVO X and yes for all that is good an holy on this site, i beat him, lol. He's new to actually driving a car hard though, so I can't give him too much crap, plus he's learning fast.
http://youtu.be/V5QWCQNNE6Y?hd=1
Its an EVO X and yes for all that is good an holy on this site, i beat him, lol. He's new to actually driving a car hard though, so I can't give him too much crap, plus he's learning fast.
bugeye_fever
New member
Good news! My birthday's coming early this year, I'll be ordering up the whiteline "big one" for the front and some nice billet endlinks early next week. And an SM buddy is going to give me his old set of V710s to get me started on R-Comps in August as well, good month I'll say!
bugeye_fever
New member
Well, I was pulled out of town last week, but ordered my front sway and endlinks from Jordan at Defined today, great support and hopefully they'll be here before the weekend as there's an AutoX on Sunday! I'll see if I can snap some pictures of the install. Also, we have a new addition to the stable. Bought my wife an '09 Mini Cooper on Saturday, we love it! It's a base model, but it is a 6 speed! Perfect thing to get her into AutoX, hehehe.
bugeye_fever
New member
Got home yesterday to a big box leaning against the door!
I love the writing on the whiteline bag, "Swaybars and no bling!"
Even my cat-dog Magma is happy now that she has something new to chew on...
Thanks to Jordan at Defined for the great service and quick shipping! :tup: I'll see if I can't get a couple pics of the old lady's new ride up tonight.
I love the writing on the whiteline bag, "Swaybars and no bling!"
Even my cat-dog Magma is happy now that she has something new to chew on...
Thanks to Jordan at Defined for the great service and quick shipping! :tup: I'll see if I can't get a couple pics of the old lady's new ride up tonight.
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bugeye_fever
New member
My old lady's new ride!
And a cool angle with her first Mini
And a cool angle with her first Mini
bugeye_fever
New member
My buddy finally put up my runs from this last weekend:
http://youtu.be/7Shgt9uiiCw?hd=1
http://youtu.be/9r1xK2fdIyc?hd=1
http://youtu.be/7rGNK5VwKVQ?hd=1
These are actually my afternoon runs with my best being the first. I have never actually be able to watch video of my runs before and I can already see a handfull of places where I can improve, its awesome! I need to get one of these gopro dodads, lol.
http://youtu.be/LK0DOfT74qc?hd=1
Here's a great video of my wife and I figuring the camera out, we had no idea it was on! Had my buddy not cut it off you would have seen me go around the ENTIRE grid asking people how to turn it on.. lol
As for the runs, it was kinda hard for me to focus that day, there seemed to be alot of stuff going on but I was able to record my suspension settings and tire pressures. I absolutely LOVE the new swaybar, thanks Jordan! I wasn't ready for the increase in roll resistance and could have carried much Much more speed through the slolom, overall it was a great day, and I've got a great baseline for starting on R comps next event. Also, a good buddy looked at my alignment records and couldn't believe how it was done, like within stock specs, but I have toe out on one side and toe in on the other, I'll get more specific later, but we're working on a time to go in and tweek my settings. I think this will have a profound impact on the handling of the car. Of course that'll just give me less excuses for driving slow... lol.
http://youtu.be/7Shgt9uiiCw?hd=1
http://youtu.be/9r1xK2fdIyc?hd=1
http://youtu.be/7rGNK5VwKVQ?hd=1
These are actually my afternoon runs with my best being the first. I have never actually be able to watch video of my runs before and I can already see a handfull of places where I can improve, its awesome! I need to get one of these gopro dodads, lol.
http://youtu.be/LK0DOfT74qc?hd=1
Here's a great video of my wife and I figuring the camera out, we had no idea it was on! Had my buddy not cut it off you would have seen me go around the ENTIRE grid asking people how to turn it on.. lol
As for the runs, it was kinda hard for me to focus that day, there seemed to be alot of stuff going on but I was able to record my suspension settings and tire pressures. I absolutely LOVE the new swaybar, thanks Jordan! I wasn't ready for the increase in roll resistance and could have carried much Much more speed through the slolom, overall it was a great day, and I've got a great baseline for starting on R comps next event. Also, a good buddy looked at my alignment records and couldn't believe how it was done, like within stock specs, but I have toe out on one side and toe in on the other, I'll get more specific later, but we're working on a time to go in and tweek my settings. I think this will have a profound impact on the handling of the car. Of course that'll just give me less excuses for driving slow... lol.
bugeye_fever
New member
Dude! You have no idea how much we wanted the base PMO to run the course with us at the last event, we were unsuccessful in our attempt, but we Were able to talk the EMT's into it!
http://youtu.be/UAsyl_LTuUA?hd=1
So here is my current alignment specs, I'll leave it up to people with more experience to pick apart:
The before is what it was after I put on the coilovers, right off the bat I know camber needs to be somewhere between where it was and where it is now, lol. I'm thinking probably about 2.0 degrees front and 1.5 in the rear. Also, toe in the front is neg on the left and pos on the right, but in the rear its pos on the left and neg on the right... which just sounds f'ed up to me, so we're going to zero it all our as best we can. One thing that puzzles me is the caster being different side to side. To me this would mean that I probably whacked something pretty good with the left as it is out of spec, but I've had the car since 2005 and am the second owner, I don't remember hitting anything. Nothing a set of sti control arms wouldn't fix, hehehe. I would really love to get the car corner weighted someday.
Thanks bubba for the tips, I'm familiar with those techniques but don't use them, I'll have to give them a shot. If you guys see anything crazy, let me know! Thanks!:tup:
bugeye_fever
New member
I'll do that, I don't know the age of the equipment. My buddy who is going to help me out with the alignment is a tech at a dealership and has worked there for several years. He does his own alignments and I have confidence in his ability. We'll get it straightened out.. literally, lol.
bugeye_fever
New member
Well, this weekend is the start of 3 straight weekends of AutoX! Wilmington this weekend, followed by the state champs in Concord, then here at Cherry Point. The cars running pretty good, just changed the oil to some AMSOIL Premium Protection 10w-40. It has a zinc additive that I think well prolong engine life. Got the alignment straightend out, and the slicks mounted up! I'm so looking forward to the up coming events.
bugeye_fever
New member
Well, 1 down 2 to go. This weekend was awesome! Or maybe I should say that rcomps are awesome! I've never had so much grip in the front. The rear I've never worried about since there was always understeer. I just took a while guess on tire pressures, 34psi front and rear. Casey, the buddy that did the alignment, said it looked like I could use a little more in the front, and by looking at the rear I could probably loose some presure to maximize usage of the tire. I wasn't anywhere close to the shoulder of the tire. Truthfully though, I'll probably leave the rear alone until i get to the point of losing the rear end. My body still doesn't have much experience with the sensation of oversteer(this is sad to say, lol.) Enough talk here is the video of my personal FTD:
http://s1118.photobucket.com/albums...011 AutoX/?action=view¤t=P1030798-1.mp4
My first experience with R comps quickly turned into my first experience with R comps in rain! We got in 3 good runs and went out to work, about 1/4 of the way into it, the skies opened up. It rained completely through the rest of the day, but we still got in 2 runs in the afternoon. I didn't know what to think so I just drove on the slicks. I no longer have the star specs, and my daily 215 yokohama avid 4ws' wouldn't help i knew. By the time i got back in the car there was standing water spots all over the track, and it was still raining. Here's my first run, slow, but soooo close to clean, lol;
http://s1118.photobucket.com/albums...011 AutoX/?action=view¤t=P1030800-1.mp4
Got the last fricken cone! Oh well, had fun so thats all that matters at this point. Nobody was going faster in the afternoon that the morning. I think next event we'll go 37f/34r in the tires and I'm tightening both sways up a notch. so that'll be like... 29f/23r for the whiteline bars. I don't usually like making alot of changes at once, but hell, its the state champs. I'm not expecting anything more than seat time, but you know, the guy with nothing to lose is the most dangerous!
http://s1118.photobucket.com/albums...011 AutoX/?action=view¤t=P1030798-1.mp4
My first experience with R comps quickly turned into my first experience with R comps in rain! We got in 3 good runs and went out to work, about 1/4 of the way into it, the skies opened up. It rained completely through the rest of the day, but we still got in 2 runs in the afternoon. I didn't know what to think so I just drove on the slicks. I no longer have the star specs, and my daily 215 yokohama avid 4ws' wouldn't help i knew. By the time i got back in the car there was standing water spots all over the track, and it was still raining. Here's my first run, slow, but soooo close to clean, lol;
http://s1118.photobucket.com/albums...011 AutoX/?action=view¤t=P1030800-1.mp4
Got the last fricken cone! Oh well, had fun so thats all that matters at this point. Nobody was going faster in the afternoon that the morning. I think next event we'll go 37f/34r in the tires and I'm tightening both sways up a notch. so that'll be like... 29f/23r for the whiteline bars. I don't usually like making alot of changes at once, but hell, its the state champs. I'm not expecting anything more than seat time, but you know, the guy with nothing to lose is the most dangerous!
bugeye_fever
New member
I'm a little late with the update, but here it is. After a looong drive to Concord last weekend, I was greeted by a Massive track in the parking lot at ZMax Dragway! I thought the tracks were big here on base, but this place was quite large, the courses were very good, and very wide. Almost like a road course you could pick and choose lines to take! The courses flowed very well, and i was in 3rd after the second corner and never looked back! Some great lessons learned last weekend, the front sway bar did the trick! I bumped it up to the 29mm setting before heading off Friday, the rear bar was already at its max of 23mm. Saturday was pretty chilly, low 60's, mosty cloudy, and a steady wind. I went and head and bumped up the front tires to 37psi and grip from the front was very good, so good in fact that the rear's which couldn't really warm up slid all over the place. You can imagine my suprise as I've never had the car loose ANYwhere.
Sunday however was higher 60's, party cloudy, and less wind, we basically ran the course backwards with a few key modifications. I had fretted a little with setup Saturday night but thought better of it as I couldn't get a true idea of how the car would behave with warm tires. Only change was to soften the rear shocks a click and lose a pound of air from the rear tires to help control rotation. I tell you what, it was like driving a completely different car! As Ron Burgandy would say.. That thing is good! Good grip on turn in, with a little oversteer in the middle of the corner, and coming off power, sticks pretty hard coming out. I have to relearn how to drive this thing, again! I also got a good lesson in the parts of the brake and throttle between 0 and 100% lol. Over all it was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend for another large track! Only drawback was the lack of much competition. Don't take that the wrong way, 'cause I got last, but there where only 3 people running in SM! I had expected more from a state level event. There was however a Tire class and alot of cars in SMT, so I guess thats where everybody went. Funny that when I finally get slicks I go to an event with a tire pax class, lol! I've got some video, but I'm still trying to edit it down and post to youtube, I'll link it here though.
Sunday however was higher 60's, party cloudy, and less wind, we basically ran the course backwards with a few key modifications. I had fretted a little with setup Saturday night but thought better of it as I couldn't get a true idea of how the car would behave with warm tires. Only change was to soften the rear shocks a click and lose a pound of air from the rear tires to help control rotation. I tell you what, it was like driving a completely different car! As Ron Burgandy would say.. That thing is good! Good grip on turn in, with a little oversteer in the middle of the corner, and coming off power, sticks pretty hard coming out. I have to relearn how to drive this thing, again! I also got a good lesson in the parts of the brake and throttle between 0 and 100% lol. Over all it was a great weekend, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend for another large track! Only drawback was the lack of much competition. Don't take that the wrong way, 'cause I got last, but there where only 3 people running in SM! I had expected more from a state level event. There was however a Tire class and alot of cars in SMT, so I guess thats where everybody went. Funny that when I finally get slicks I go to an event with a tire pax class, lol! I've got some video, but I'm still trying to edit it down and post to youtube, I'll link it here though.
bugeye_fever
New member
Here's the link to my NCAC runs!
http://youtu.be/d8sTERQtFVE?hd=1
Had the 3rd of three straight weeks of AutoX this last weekend with a fast course here at Cherry Point. Seriously, I hit 4th, and even with my short gears is 80-90mph. It was a blast, and i can now attest to the drifting ability of the Subie. At the end of the initial straight was a fast left had sweeper which was the width of the runway. Really. I'd say about 150 yds in diameter. I unfortunatly didn't have the go pro this weekend so no video but it was a big, fat, hairy, ass out slide. I was scared stiff through about half the turn until all those late night hours of Forza kicked in and i started pedaling the car to keep it somewhat well... I don't know, in the right general direction. But i didn't spin, and I kept momentum, hell I think Ken Block would have been proud!
I had problems again this weekend with focus, even though it was a local event and I had everything ready the night before. All morning I had trouble with coning and in general not smooth driving. I think somehow the slide in my 4th run got alot of the jitters out, because I came back in my 5th talking my self through each section of the course. That helped (along with my only clean run of the day) get me a 47.2 I think.. 3rd in SM, fastest Active duty (which doesn't really mean anything, but its cool and they do it here on base), and 6th fastest raw time, out of about 50-60 competitors! Needless to say I had a great weekend, but the coolest part by far...
http://youtu.be/d8sTERQtFVE?hd=1
Had the 3rd of three straight weeks of AutoX this last weekend with a fast course here at Cherry Point. Seriously, I hit 4th, and even with my short gears is 80-90mph. It was a blast, and i can now attest to the drifting ability of the Subie. At the end of the initial straight was a fast left had sweeper which was the width of the runway. Really. I'd say about 150 yds in diameter. I unfortunatly didn't have the go pro this weekend so no video but it was a big, fat, hairy, ass out slide. I was scared stiff through about half the turn until all those late night hours of Forza kicked in and i started pedaling the car to keep it somewhat well... I don't know, in the right general direction. But i didn't spin, and I kept momentum, hell I think Ken Block would have been proud!
I had problems again this weekend with focus, even though it was a local event and I had everything ready the night before. All morning I had trouble with coning and in general not smooth driving. I think somehow the slide in my 4th run got alot of the jitters out, because I came back in my 5th talking my self through each section of the course. That helped (along with my only clean run of the day) get me a 47.2 I think.. 3rd in SM, fastest Active duty (which doesn't really mean anything, but its cool and they do it here on base), and 6th fastest raw time, out of about 50-60 competitors! Needless to say I had a great weekend, but the coolest part by far...
