Captdistraction's ST2/GTR build thread Build Thread

[steveespo]

Drew my memory sucks did they say red loctite on the threads and lube under the washer. I get nervous when Chris has issues.


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[ArizonaBOSS]

Here are the instructions:



Here is my bolt (still in the as-installed position, using those instructions). Pardon my dust, did some landscaping this weekend:

 

[steveespo]

Looks tight thanks Drew


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[captdistraction]

I’m absolutely certain I made that torque rating. The mmr gear serial number is stamped on the backside so it was definitely seated. Not sure how it walked but I’m 50/50 on going back to the oem with its higher torque to yield setting.


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[JAJ]

I'm looking at the picture and I'm confused by it - it looks like all the paint marks show that none of the bolts turned, and yet the balancer moved out 1/2" from the nose of the crank. How can this happen? Did the balancer fail? Sorry if this is a dumb question...

 

[captdistraction]

the picture is from Arizonaboss's car. I haven't taken any pictures of mine, the balancer is currently out of it, will reinstall tonight and mark.

 

[JAJ]

Ahhh... that makes sense - sorry for the confusion.

 

[captdistraction]

No worries. I’ve since cleaned and reinstalled mine. Again to the paltry 100 ft-lbs with fresh arp lube after cleaning/chasing the threads in the block and bolt. That part is all good to go and the motor fired right up and sounded healthy.

When I shut it off, I heard vacuum bleeding out of the booster. Either out of the casing or the interface between it and the master cylinder. More testing to come


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[captdistraction]

Final event of the year coming up and the car is all back together; seemingly working better than ever. I'll update the open tech threads I had about brakes and clutch, but both items are checked off the list.



With any luck, I'll have a trouble-free weekend running at the Wild Horse Pass "Mondo" track. This won't be for points, just for fun (and a little revenge, this course claimed a motor in the car when I rented it out last year to help pay for tires).

For once I've prepped everything:
have a brand new 8.5x24' enclosed trailer sitting outside, and have very little on the gripe list going into the track. Have some fresh 315 R7's inbound, plenty of 100 octane fuel, spares and a gigantic chip on my shoulder.

Speaking of the chip on my shoulder, there's still those out there locally who think I don't present much of a competitive threat (everyone here knows better ). So here's my quick note on my 2018 competition program plans in the southwest:

I'm coming for you all. I've broken everything, dragged through all the turmoil, sorrow and debt and the car and I are still here. I now know what it means to properly execute ( See @ArizonaBOSS 's simple program of plan and then expertly execute for many wins for reference), I'm earning the financial means to support this effort, and most stress factors have been eliminated. I'll perfect my craft as a driver, develop this car into an absolute monster to deal with in the classes I run, and drag its NQ-Yellow-Blaze-Tricoat-colored-nuts all up and down the competition results sheets. ​

 

[DocB]

Geez, glad I'm not running out West this coming season.

 

[Fabman]

I'm coming for you all. I've broken everything, dragged through all the turmoil, sorrow and debt and the car and I are still here. I now know what it means to properly execute ( See @ArizonaBOSS 's simple program of plan and then expertly execute for many wins for reference), I'm earning the financial means to support this effort, and most stress factors have been eliminated. I'll perfect my craft as a driver, develop this car into an absolute monster to deal with in the classes I run, and drag its NQ-Yellow-Blaze-Tricoat-colored-nuts all up and down the competition results sheets. ​

I absolutely love it. Go get 'em.

 

[ChrisM]

NQ-Yellow-Blaze-Tricoat-colored-nuts​

You may want to get that looked at.

Seriously though, good luck man. Looking forward to the updates.

 

[TymeSlayer]

The Raptor, the trailer, the Boss and a spirited attitude should be fair warning to those who underestimate you when you show up at the track.

Hope to see you in action one of these days out west.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

You may want to get that looked at.

Geez, glad I'm not running out West this coming season.

 

[captdistraction]

lol, before I was confused by the pictures of the upper control arm

 

[captdistraction]

RACE REPORT?! IS CAPTDISTRACTION OVER CARS AND RACING? PART OUT!?
TUNE IN!
​

Race Report: Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park - MONDO, 11-24/26-17 with ProAutoSports GTR

With all the repairs completed on the car I set up to give this damn thing another shot. Thanksgiving locally here in AZ ProAuto makes the Mondo track, a combination of two local tracks into one massively-chassive-oppressive track that features a lot of mood swings, switchbacks, slick straights, and 26 low and high speed corners.

​

Thinking of my earlier discussion of how to properly execute, I had purchased a 24' enclosed trailer and set it up (however I resigned from my job in pursuit of career advancement, and that transition had and is keeping me busy), so I was a little late to dropping off the car to the track.

Friday was a test day, and the car ran great. I was consistently in 2:14s, though my old hoosier R7's (ones I had purchased for this event the previous year, lol) were done. 2:14 wasn't going to cut it when it came time to race, though nothing on the car broke and I was having a good time. Brakes worked, I was able to test different lines and scenarios and was able to have a generally low stress day. The weekend had great camping weather as well, so I camped out in the new trailer.

Saturday, things got a bit more interesting. Weather was very unusually warm (in the high 80's for a high), and I bolted on two new tires (hoosier R7's in 315/30/18 over my old 295/30/18), and two used ones. I had to skip practice due to being back in line with the local tire service, and the previous day's result was 8 seconds off race pace. When qualifying came around, the joke was made "If you qualify top 5 overall, you can use the hot shower in our rig". Well, I went out, followed Mr-Fast @ArizonaBOSS and laid a 2:05.2 down in two laps. That was more than good enough for the shower credit (which was sorely needed with that warm weather and my lack of coolshirt use).

There were two races that day:

The qual race: I started third overall as ArizonaBOSS had some personal matters to attend to allowing me to start with the lead in GTR, and I was able to keep that lead throughout the race, despite a very very good driver behind me in a stock car (who had breaking issues). It was a wild race as my tire strategy of mixing used/new tires was straight up stupid. You'll see some good saves as the tires go away (guess which side had the old stuff)

You can watch that race here (note that chevy rocketing on the start! HOW?!)

That's my first in-class win. No trophy as it was a qualify-race that just qualified you for the "championship race". I did however collect a traffic cone mid race and dragged it around for a few laps, so I'll keep that as a trophy.

The championship race had a similar start, however I had a local corvette driver behind me, and I took a calculated risk on setting up a pass on some very slow lap traffic that didn't work out (50/50 pass and the driver set up the vette to get by us both). I held on to third in class, however. (in a class of 3, lol).





Sunday had a 60-minute enduro race (3 15-20minute segments with a cool down pace lap between them). I tried moving the old tires to the driver's side of the car, under the premise that 80% of the turns loaded the passenger side. It wasn't much better but got me through qualifying. The race started and I was somewhat behind pace in class but everything was going well....





...until I lost control of the car cresting a hill. Inexplicably a bolt in the watts link system came loose, and jettisoned the watts arm which meant I had no lateral control of the axle. when the car came down, the tires were free to bang against the fenderwells, shocks, and lca's. One tire was punctured and wheel mangled which slowed the car enough that I was able to ditch it behind a tire wall safely out of harms way and that allowed the race to continue unimpeded. Safety trucks picked me up and I didn't get a good look at the car until they brought it back to me.

This thankfully isn't a sad story because it could have been much worse. The outcome is:

-Watts link needed new hardware, rod ends and a bracket replaced
-The LCA's survived
-Patched one hole in the chassis where it punched through
-My JRZ rear shocks have been sent off for repairs and rebuilds
-did lose two 315 R7 tires, one being nearly new
-the apex wheels aren't terribly expensive.

With the next race in January, I'll get these items fixed and I have some wonderful support from the vendors in question. The watts failure wasn't due to a design issue, it appears to be a freak incident where a fastener I used, torqued down with a nyloc nut and witness marked walked away. Going forward when I reassemble all of this, I'm going to town on loctite (and any other recommendations for beyond-severe duty vibration). The car has the pace, ran well, and I can fix and deal with these items. With my new job, I hope eventually that means I can afford more tires throughout the year and even manage to win one here or there. I'm optimistic, despite the semi-expensive punch in the teeth, I've at least gotten used to taking one of those here or there. Again it could have been much worse. The car was at 94 mph when it broke going into a 180* turn, so had I not been able to get it slowed, the car's state would have been the least of my worries.

I made the statement at the event I wanted to make, which in the end was the biggest deal to me. I also had a blast with friends and definitely was one of the best track weekends I've ever had.

I'll throw up some more video and pictures in other posts, along with what changes and how the repairs go.

I'd really like to thank BMR Suspension, Tim at opmustang.com (won't let me tag him), Dean Martin and the Kohr gang, Stuart at Maxcyspeed, @ArizonaBOSS , @steeda5 , and many of the AZ crew for helping me through the weekend and getting the car ready for 2018!

 

[VoodooBoss]

Your car looks fantastic on track. I'm predicting your luck is going to be much better in 2018!

 

[Fabman]

So glad to see you doing so well after all the trials and tribulations you have endured.

 

[captdistraction]

well, still trials, I did sorta crash the car.

That said, I guess my scale of bad things is somewhat skewed haha!

 

[Fabman]

Car looked fast, you won a race, it didn’t blow up. One minor setback. I’d call that a win.


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