My 1992 GTI

[DocWalt]

Thanks Lou!

I can't go wider without a lot of cutting in the rear. I should be able to go wider in the front. Keep in mind these are my all seasons that run a lot narrower than my summer tires and they're on narrower wheels than the RPF1s

[DocWalt]

I decided to throw my new sticky tires on last night to prep for autocross on Saturday when I found this in one of my all seasons...


Finished the job though!


My camber is going to lead to some worn inner tread, heh. I had to really abuse the new tires to even get the tires to wear near the shoulder. No more horrendous shoulder wear while on track


Here's a finished engine bay pic from the other day. Looks a LOT like it did before, which is what I wanted.

[j2k4]

I decided to throw my new sticky tires on last night to prep for autocross on Saturday when I found this in one of my all seasons...

Ribbit...ribbit...

[DocWalt]

All fixed and car is loaded for NG

[DocWalt]

I did an autocross the day before leaving for 3SNG at NCM Motorsports park... Here are my 5 runs, my third was my fastest.











I'll have a post regarding my 3SNG woes sometime soon...

[stealthee]

And then your bearings went out?

[Prime12]

^ my evo is in the shot... 4th and 5th vid

Hope to see this little beast again at Holbert.

[DocWalt]

So, as a lot of you know, I had engine issues on the way to NG... On the Chesepeake Bay Bridge Tunnel I was doing a hard pull behind JasonY's FD RX-7, topping out 3rd and then halfway through 4th. The next time I got on the gas to accelerate out of the tunnel, I had terrible rod knock. Broomfield, JasonY, Greg E, and myself met up at the restaurant at the tunnel exit and figured out what we could do. We decided that I'd attempt to fix it, but we had to call about 8 places to find someone that had a set of bearings in stock. $18 for a set of rod bearings at BAP GEON, and another $50 or at NAPA for tools and supplies, we started on the swap in a hotel parking lot. We were immediately kicked out and told to go to an abandoned gas station down the street. An hour later and I fired up the car and we were away... Yay VW?





This is the bearing that disintegrated on the BBT:


About 500 miles later, I had the same bearing fail again. We went to an Advance Auto Parts in Somerset, KY and did another bearing swap. This time I inspected the crank and noticed that the journal felt like sandpaper... I chose to polish the crap off by hand with some 1000 grit sandpaper wrapped around the bearing, using some oil as lube. I don't have a picture of that bearing, but it was just worn out and not disintegrated.

On Friday at NG I pulled the pan off and inspected #4:


I had a blast at NG driving a lot of other people's cars. Thank you to everyone that let me have a go in your cars!

I made it home successfully at a bit after 2AM. 799 Mile trip, something like eleven and a half hours of driving.

Monday I pulled the bearings and #4 looked like this:


Not exactly good, but oh well, it got me home.

All four rods have the same clearance:


I normally run clearances about twice that big... I've ordered a set of race bearings that are .001" undersized to open up the clearances a little. In addition, I polished the journal a bit more by hand.

Yesterday I went out for some driving after work and beat the snot out of the car. Plenty of 2nd and third gear pulls to 8k. No signs of rod knock... but I think I may have some serious pre-ignition as I get sporadic loud metallic noises above 5k RPM when under heavy loads. I checked the spark plugs and I didn't see any signs of detonation, but they are at least one heat range too hot. All four plugs are nearly white, even idling at 12.5:1 AFR for five minutes. They get VERY white after a WOT pull.

So new bearings (sometime, I may just abuse these bearings to see how long they last), colder plugs, and I'll be adding a bit of fuel and removing a bit of timing through the revs.

[stealthee]

I would have been all



after the second time

[anyonebutme]

That was discussed at NG.........