'93 VR4 State of the Union

[Vantage]

So awesome. In for lots of pics and vids.

[UTRacerX9]

Been a long journey hasn't it? Looking forward to seeing what your car does after all this time.

[AdamVR4]

The last time I drove the car well at the track was the 2006 TX Gathering. I ran the 10.56 with the transmission barking at me as I shifted into 3rd. I took it out to discover a cracking RPS CC flywheel (aluminum, rev 1, I guess). I shimmed the trans and had the clutch rebuilt before the '09 TXG.



Fresh out of the box from RPS post-rebuild.



After "breaking in" the clutch, it was go time.

2009 TX 3S Gathering Results

Saturday morning, Dyno:

I've never been shy of turning up the boost on my old ass engine or hot lapping it on the dyno. I did exactly that with 104 octane in the tank @ 32.5 psi boost and had as much as 11 counts of knock on the 583 pull. The pull before it had been clean, but I was in a bit of a rush during the dyno day I left my notes at the dyno facility (John claims he has kept them for me this whole time), so I don't know what boost this 545 awhp pull was at:







But once again, my car survived a tuning fuck up. Thicker 1G ring lands FTW

Later that night, at SAR, I added 3 gallons of C16 (~3 gallons of ~10 month old 93 octane, 5 gallons of 111 octane, 3 gallons of 117 = 11 gallons of 107.7 octane)

Pass #1: Tire pressure: 25 psi, boost: ~1.5 bar, AF: 13's down low, high 10's up top

So knowing that Dynojets don't accurately simulate real world load, I turned the boost way down from where I'd landed on the dyno. I babied it out of the hole (~2.0+ 60' -- I lost the slip...), deliberately shifted, and stared at my Scanmaster (which was presenting WBO2 and knock). The deliberate shifting actually resulted in noticeable re-spool on shifts, but man, she felt REAL good in gear. The slip was worse than it felt, ~12.48 @ ~118 mph.

The car weighed 3335 without me in it and 3500 with me in it (~88 lbs of gas).

Pass #2: I turned the set on the EBC from ~75 to ~85 without changing anything else. Since there was no knock on pass #1, I wasn't too concerned. I decided to try to ease out of the hole / launch it legitimately, but I hadn't taken enough time to determine exactly how I wanted to launch... So I ended up basically dumping the clutch at 5500 RPM's. The car went about 20 feet, ripping like a mother fucker, and I heard and felt a nice POP. I stopped the car immediately, and the tree operators pushed her back near the starting line. My Dad and I surveyed the car, found no fluid leaks, the axles were all in tact (seemingly..), the car was able to pull itself around... So I rolled back up to the tree and again, tried to work the clutch to gently launch, and failed. This time it was probably more like 6000 RPM's (I'm just not used to this clutch AT ALL anymore...) and the driver's side rear tire apparently JUMPED off the pavement. I felt the all too familiar clang of a broken rear axle and limped the car down the track.

I swapped in a new (used) axle in the parking lot (DS rear -- 2nd one I've broken), and got back in the staging lanes.

Pass #3: Same boost, same everything...

So still, I haven't had a legitimate tuning pull, it's ~11:45 and I've got 15 minutes to make the top 4 quickest imports for an import competition. This is something I should have been competitive for, the whole TX Gathering was watching... I felt pressured to do something good, but I said fuck it, I want a tuning pass.

I bogged the launch REALLY badly (who cares) and the car took the fuck off when it got into boost. I nailed 2nd, and the car came alive again, I went to shift into 3rd and 7000 RPM and was met with resistance. I've felt resistance like this before, fuck it, shove through it. Well, I did, and the shifter went into "nothing land" ... The shift lever was in the position it should be to engage 3rd, but there was no 3rd. Dammit, I bet I damaged the shift mechanism.

So as I drove through the return lane, I tried to put it into 3rd. It quickly popped out. I threw it into 4th at very low RPM's and it didn't seem to engage like normal. It went into 4th without popping out, but something about the engagement felt off. This made me suspect I'd damaged the shift mechanism at the top of the transmission.

I removed the shift mechanism and examined the roll pins. I was expecting to find one of them sheared (like I did the night I sheared a 25 spline output shaft in ~2006)... Unfortunately, everything appeared fine.

[AdamVR4]

Everything INSIDE the transmission appeared fine too...



So after sitting on it for a while, contemplating what might have caused the issue, I tripped over the IPS deal

And immediately tear into it to install the quadco X/R OS -



checked the front main seal -



checked the bearings -



replaced the rear main seal - (mitsu special tool made this very easy)



installed the FIAV block off plate







installed corbeau seats and harnesses... this was so time consuming.

[AdamVR4]

then I got a gauge plate from drweldin so I could get everything off my a-pillar

there was no easy way to mount the hazards so I designed and printed a bracket. Perfect slight interference fit on the first try.







I'm reinstalling the AC control unit and stereo beneath the gauges to clean up the interior.

I installed intake tubes (these were actually DR intake tubes that I knew I could MAKE work with some thought and some 45 degree couplers)...

Rear intake -



Front intake -

[AdamVR4]

Then I resealed my t-case











And now I just need to back it into the driveway and take some pics

[fullracegt]

oh my gosh what a car,thanks for the pics


-matt

[J-Groove]

Wow!! Go Adam!

-John

[FeaRpb]

Love this thread.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

Adam you had the old style fibrous syncros in your 3rd gear. They suck