Plastic Fantastic 2

[SuperBuickGuy]

sorry not the motors , i meant the quality of the light coming out of the C5 headlights.

I chopped up the light rings to put the Oracle lights in. I haven't really run it at night, but they do get bright.... of course, I'm running 4 singles so when it goes from bright to super bright it's 3x more light..... someday I may actually put the inners on a switch so I have 'regular' brights...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I've been meaning to check the alignment - finally I got a moment today...
high-priced-alignment devices

I'm glad I did

just the left was toed in about 1/4"


I'll check camber and castor tomorrow.edited Front toe is fine

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I have been fighting the front lights, this is, I give up


they really fit poorly, but at the moment... I couldn't care less


onto exhaust
lay out circles

let's try an air die

make a funnel

then forever fuss with it

ah delrin

press

eventually you say "can't see it, don't care"


​​​​​​​if this works, I'll make a delrin die so I simply press the shape into the material.editededited

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Got some miles on the car today, things seem fine - maybe cooling is a bit warm - but even that is probably gauge more than anything else
checked the rockers for looseness, nada... yay
​​​​​​​

 

[mfain]

Looking good. Still on track to make Optima - Willow Springs? In case you don't have other plans, the most convenient hotel option is the Hampton Inn on the North end of Lancaster. About 20 miles from the track. There isn't much in Rosemont.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Looking good. Still on track to make Optima - Willow Springs? In case you don't have other plans, the most convenient hotel option is the Hampton Inn on the North end of Lancaster. About 20 miles from the track. There isn't much in Rosemont.

I am going. Staying at Homewood suites in Lancaster - I think it shares a parking lot with Hampton. I was planning on taking my pooch and I don't think Hampton was cool with it.

I'm hoping I can leave my car and trailer at the track to make the commute easier. Looking at the 'traditional' schedule, the track opens at noon on the 27th - I should be able to be there pretty close to noon to drop the car/trailer and track gear then get tech'd.... I'm leaving at 10 am on Wednesday from Seattle, it's 18 hours of driving from my house.

A close friend is from that area, he gave me the 411 on Rosemont

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

narrowing in on refining..... this case, front signals

now signals AND markers work (winning)

now onto the coolingedited

put baby powder on the seal and see what hits

not much

easy enough to fix
define the holes

some CAD templates

now to clamp it in a way that the bonding epoxy doesn't make opening the hood an aggrevation


Tomorrow I'll take the tape off, clean it up then paint the blocks.edited the number one way to get cooling is to force the air through the radiator at speed... at this time, it's fine if I'm not pushing it hard, but if I push it for any time it starts to get warm...edited

tomorrow also.... horn.... because it's one point

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

with this I'm ready.editededited
first, a final shot of the hood



then worked on the horn.edited I need to space the button out further, but at this point there several problems with the system and honestly... I have better things to do then get a horn point.edited If you don't hear the side pipes then god help you

 

[bobs77vet]

very clever, what did you use for blocking more door seal tubing or something else?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

very clever, what did you use for blocking more door seal tubing or something else?

I have rope seal, but it needs to be at least 3/8... I'll bring the 5/16 with me but hopefully this is enough....

load in 20 hours, leave in 36.... can not wait...

In other news, practiced my egress (must be 12s or less in full gear - was 9), waxed the car. got the vent block in place.... I have sheeting I can use (that they use to cover wrecked cars) but it's not supposed to be wet - so I'll leave it off for now....

 

[bobs77vet]

In other news, practiced my egress (must be 12s or less in full gear - was 9), waxed the car. got the vent block in place.... I have sheeting I can use (that they use to cover wrecked cars) but it's not supposed to be wet - so I'll leave it off for now....

do they time that in a safety session? it takes me that long to get into the MGA coupe.....damn that opening is small

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

In other news, practiced my egress (must be 12s or less in full gear - was 9), waxed the car. got the vent block in place.... I have sheeting I can use (that they use to cover wrecked cars) but it's not supposed to be wet - so I'll leave it off for now....

do they time that in a safety session? it takes me that long to get into the MGA coupe.....damn that opening is small

coincidently it seems like that was also the amount of track time.... FiTech computer went, so I missed the 3 sessions today and drove to Riverside to get another computer. Got back at 6:30 and installed it... I'm not sure why they call it racing, it should be called challenges.

oh well, new friends and the brief glimpse I've gotten has been a lot of fun.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

FiTech.
Great customer service, but I'm starting to have second thoughts
this sight is become way too common


​​​​​​​this is what it takes to replace the computer

pull the injectors, pull the front then pray your way to get the computer back in place.....


This problems were as follows. The computer went out on day one after one track 'session' (but not really a session).edited Maybe heat? I dunno.edited So I ran 6 hours round trip to get a replacement computer.... and it worked right up to the point it needed to run the fan.... In talking to another guy there, his experience with a new FiTech was the computer provided a positive signal (as opposed to a negative one with the old computer).edited Even with the fan disconnected, I couldn't get it to run right..... so there will be a solid 3 or 4 hours next week on the phone with them trying to resolve its issues (which I suspect will be yet another computer)....edited

and let's recount, that's 2 computers on my FJ40, 3 injectors.edited 3 (maybe 4) computers on this one and only under warranty because of the manufacturer defect on the throttle body. Some how the tune we had in the computer got lost, but even that wouldn't save us....edited

I honestly don't know what's next.edited I really don't want to change the entire fuel system but I can because I have the carb setup I originally was going to run... to be continued

oh and now the grills seem to have slowed the air down to cool the car.... that I have fixes for... .but just one more thing

 

[bobs77vet]

you clearly win the challenges competition!!!!!!!!

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

funny thing about the challenges, only maybe 4 people knew what was going on.... I figure everyone has troubles, they don't need mine

two of the problems have one source. I didn't realize that the headlight motors could draw 30 amps. I have a 30 amp breaker on the headlight motors AND the fans. Fans are 13 amps each.... still no answer on the EFI... but I have a fun time ahead of me rewiring a bunch of stuff.

to recap.
1) put dog to sleep night before
2) got no sleep, so had to stop on the way
3) my wife's dog took off looking for him - didn't find out until I had crossed the border to California
4) dog found after substantial effort (though I suppose it's funny - but dog got 1/8 mile away, someone captured her, took her to the local vet... dogs don't get away with anything around here ) but it was 8 pm before someone who might know someone mentioned the impoundment and the vet closed at 7. Thankfully the next morning (while still on my way) found out dog was fine.... Old dame dog decided she didn't want to eat because of the stress.... (did I mention they're both Search and Rescue trailing K9s, so a lot of time and money invested in them both?)
5) Everything worked fine when I took the car through tech
6) but there was the start of the cascade of problems.... in tech they checked the lights, which caused the fuse to blow which powered the lights and the electric fans
7) car got warm-ish on the lap.... that probably overheated the computer.... which it shouldn't, but pictures tonight tell another story
8) computer went, took 7 hours to resolve and missed 3 events
9) car ran fine that night but didn't warm up
10) tuned IAC, went to the autocross to walk it, car was overheating.... no fans.
11) spent a lot of time wishing I had a bunch of stuff here in the shop - the guy with the silver C4 was a hero, he did have all sorts of parts.
12) hot wired the fans..... alternator took a dump

I probably could have fixed that but by then I was done.

However
on the plus side
1) I made a number of new friends
2) I got to go around Big Willow at 70% in my C3
3) My friends here dropped everything to help find my wife's dog
4) I got a lot of love about the car.... and 5
5) I'll fix it all and learn while doing it.

Sure, I wish it'd worked perfect, but I wasn't the first to go down or leave. And my goodness is my car fun to drive at even 70%.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

so the lights didn't go up, but what's worse is only one motor was connected to the mechanism.... I saw this there, but given everything else... did nothing about it

40 amp relay, 12.8 (25.6 total) amp draw.... not good (this is the fans)

and a hot mess

what tripped me to the problem was the fuse kept tripping and not opening the light. I replaced the fuse and it was the amps being drawn, not just a faulty circuit breaker.edited

with that said, the motors could be drawing too much when hot.... this, I will test once it's back together.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

entire EFI is going back to FiTech. Once I get it sent, I'll have to ask them their plans... part of me wants them to replace it with a port-injection setup... the other part of me thinks that would be throwing away all I've learned for something new to learn.....

how fast it gets back is going to determine whether or not July in Utah is a pipe dream.... I will not run again unless I get at least one autocross day and one track day (HDPE or similar) without failure before I go..... reasonably that means that it all must happen before the 1st week of July.... truth is that it's not looking good.

and with that said. I had trouble with my FJ40 - but now, reliable as a rock.... of course, I've lost my handheld so maybe there's a problem but I don't see it....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

As mentioned before, I need to send the new computer and the even newer computer along with the entire throttle body back to FiTech
together


now a brick, again


Good thing I saved the shipping container - I swear that should be getting close to a free flight with all the times it's gone back to the manufacturer

I wish there was an easy way to put the carb on it for now.... but in-tank pump has way too much pressure

 

[phantomjock]

I wish there was an easy way to put the carb on it for now.... but in-tank pump has way too much pressure

Add a return line and a fuel regulator. What pressure is required? I'd have theh same problem when I (finally) get the Weber Carbs on top. The old school solution - return line and regulator. The Webers have to be down to 4 psi. Well under an in-tank pump.

Just a quick thought - but may involve a bit of effort - and get you running.

Best of luck - the carbs would "bypas" the EFI problems. Suppose you'd leave the injectors in place?

Cheers - Jim

 

[bobs77vet]

along those same lines......can you kill the electrics to the in line fuel pump run an external cube pump connected to the lines and still draw gas from the inline pump?