S550 Honey Badger GT350 Build Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

[dragoon]

GO LIKE HELL !!
Plus those side mirrors are cool

 

[honeybadger]

GO LIKE HELL !!
Plus those side mirrors are cool

I really love the mirrors. They've reduced wind noise substantially and they only weigh like 2 lbs

 

[CobaltFilly]

I really love the mirrors. They've reduced wind noise substantially and they only weigh like 2 lbs

What mirrors are they? Have a link?

 

[honeybadger]

What mirrors are they? Have a link?

These are what I'm using. Don't remember where I bought them, tho

APR Performance Carbon Fiber Formula GT3 Mirrors

Universal - APR Performance Carbon Fiber Formula GT3 Mirrors

bulletproofautomotive.com

 

[honeybadger]

 

[Fabman]

Car looks awesome.

 

[honeybadger]

After like 18 months, I am finally catching up.

 

[honeybadger]

Welp, I had a very eventful weekend. I repair my flat floor from my March event - which required a new belly pan and mounting the splitter in a new way.






On my first lap at speed, the splitter mount failed and I heard the splitter slam into the ground (not a fun sound at 155 mph). But fortunately my rear mounts kept it from going under the car and @flyhalf's splitter pucks saved my custom CF splitter. These were new 1 lap earlier



I don't have pics of the failure and I cut up the mounts while fixing the splitter, but I was able to get back out on track in the afternoon after dad ran to pickup some supplies to repair the mount. Unfortunately, on lap 7 of that session my passenger rear tire exploded going into Turn 11 - again, some bad luck with some insanely good luck. Of all places to have a tire completely fail, 35 mph in a hair pin is a good place. Limped it back. Took out one of my @AJ Hartman diffusor canards, but otherwise no damage. Not even the wheel was damaged since I limped it off the track and then got it flat-bedded to the paddock.



Threw on a spare and went back out for the last session of the day and the trans was puking oil out the breather again. just cannot catch a break.

This continued to be a theme on Sunday - trans would puke oil. Enough to coat the area around the breather with oil and make a mess, but not enough to noticeably change the fluid level in the trans itself. I somehow must be overfilling, but not sure how. I did drain it and inspect the oil and there's no abnormal wear, so something I'll keep an eye on. Sunday was mostly going well outside of that - I was tweaking the shifting strategy and I even managed to run a whole slew of 2:18s across a few sessions in the heat of the day as well as give dad a ride in the car.

Here's my "best" lap from Sunday - should've been a 217, but I just wasn't in the frame of mind to put it together

Unfortunately, last session of the day my driveshaft exploded on lap 4 on the 1-2 shift.

On the brightside, my new ducting was absolutely lights out. Even the though the temps were 10 degrees hotter than March and there was no wind, the car ran much cooler.

Oil temps dropped from ~230 to ~212 going back into the motor. The oil tank even saw a change from roughly 230 to 223-224 (this is the oil that is coming directly out of the engine).



Coolant temps were even more dramatic. Water temp is now running below 170 (down from 185). And my cylinder head cooling mod is doing wonders - with the water temp at the back of the heads measuring in the 170s - a fully 10 degrees cooler. This is having a good effect on the actual head temp as well - with the OEM sensor location (not exposed to water) reporting a drop from roughly 205 to low 190s.



This is pretty insane.

This wasn't just on lap 1-2 or anything. This data is taken from my 8th lap of flat out driving in 85 degree heat. At this point, I think I am overcooling the car a bit.

 

[Voodoo Stoned]

That is one hell of an eventful weekend! Some real Murphy’s law stuff. I am continually amazed at your work though. That the car is now overcooled in those conditions is incredible. I could listen to that sequential whine all day.

 

[flyhalf]

Welp, I had a very eventful weekend. I repair my flat floor from my March event - which required a new belly pan and mounting the splitter in a new way.

View attachment 102728

View attachment 102727


On my first lap at speed, the splitter mount failed and I heard the splitter slam into the ground (not a fun sound at 155 mph). But fortunately my rear mounts kept it from going under the car and @flyhalf's splitter pucks saved my custom CF splitter. These were new 1 lap earlier

View attachment 102721

I don't have pics of the failure and I cut up the mounts while fixing the splitter, but I was able to get back out on track in the afternoon after dad ran to pickup some supplies to repair the mount. Unfortunately, on lap 7 of that session my passenger rear tire exploded going into Turn 11 - again, some bad luck with some insanely good luck. Of all places to have a tire completely fail, 35 mph in a hair pin is a good place. Limped it back. Took out one of my @AJ Hartman diffusor canards, but otherwise no damage. Not even the wheel was damaged since I limped it off the track and then got it flat-bedded to the paddock.

View attachment 102720View attachment 102719

Threw on a spare and went back out for the last session of the day and the trans was puking oil out the breather again. just cannot catch a break.

This continued to be a theme on Sunday - trans would puke oil. Enough to coat the area around the breather with oil and make a mess, but not enough to noticeably change the fluid level in the trans itself. I somehow must be overfilling, but not sure how. I did drain it and inspect the oil and there's no abnormal wear, so something I'll keep an eye on. Sunday was mostly going well outside of that - I was tweaking the shifting strategy and I even managed to run a whole slew of 2:18s across a few sessions in the heat of the day as well as give dad a ride in the car.

Here's my "best" lap from Sunday - should've been a 217, but I just wasn't in the frame of mind to put it together

Unfortunately, last session of the day my driveshaft exploded on lap 4 on the 1-2 shift.

View attachment 102722


On the brightside, my new ducting was absolutely lights out. Even the though the temps were 10 degrees hotter than March and there was no wind, the car ran much cooler.

Oil temps dropped from ~230 to ~212 going back into the motor. The oil tank even saw a change from roughly 230 to 223-224 (this is the oil that is coming directly out of the engine).

View attachment 102724

Coolant temps were even more dramatic. Water temp is now running below 170 (down from 185). And my cylinder head cooling mod is doing wonders - with the water temp at the back of the heads measuring in the 170s - a fully 10 degrees cooler. This is having a good effect on the actual head temp as well - with the OEM sensor location (not exposed to water) reporting a drop from roughly 205 to low 190s.

View attachment 102725

This is pretty insane.

This wasn't just on lap 1-2 or anything. This data is taken from my 8th lap of flat out driving in 85 degree heat. At this point, I think I am overcooling the car a bit.

View attachment 102726

So glad the skids worked! Speeditaliaracing.com really thank you for the trust.

 

[honeybadger]

Some full session action - had a good battle goining with a McLaren 570 GT4 as well as some open wheel cars being very effective roadblocks.

 

[Dave_W]

rear tire exploded

That's really wide for a Chinese trailer tire.

Congratulations on the cooling work, that's awesome. I think you're right about over-cooling, given the water temps.

I went back and checked your pics of the head cooling mod; running an external water pump made pulling a feed line for the mod simpler it seems. Is there a place to pull a feed easily when using the stock water pump?

 

[honeybadger]

That's really wide for a Chinese trailer tire.

Congratulations on the cooling work, that's awesome. I think you're right about over-cooling, given the water temps.

I went back and checked your pics of the head cooling mod; running an external water pump made pulling a feed line for the mod simpler it seems. Is there a place to pull a feed easily when using the stock water pump?

Right? It’s the first time a take off has given me trouble. No clue what happened. Was a surprise, tho. It was like my 5th lap on the tire. The rest finished the weekend just fine.

Re: adapting to the oem cooling, I think there are two options. We could cut the oem upper radiator hose and splice in a connector. Those are super common on Summit Racing and I’ve run something similar, so am confident in their reliability. The second option is to tie into the thermostat housing. I think I have an idea there

 

[Dave_W]

Judging by your pics, it looks like you're taking the feed to the rear of the heads from the "high pressure" side of your external pump, as the coolant goes into the block. With using either the radiator hose or the thermostat housing as the feed, wouldn't that be on the "low pressure" side of the water pump and pull hot coolant from the back of the heads instead of push cool coolant into them?

 

[bauern]

Re: adapting to the oem cooling, I think there are two options. We could cut the oem upper radiator hose and splice in a connector. Those are super common on Summit Racing and I’ve run something similar, so am confident in their reliability. The second option is to tie into the thermostat housing. I think I have an idea there

You'd want to splice into the lower radiator hose; that's where the "cold" water is. Whether you can get sufficient pressure from there to overcome the water pump, I don't know but I doubt it.

 

[honeybadger]

You'd want to splice into the lower radiator hose; that's where the "cold" water is. Whether you can get sufficient pressure from there to overcome the water pump, I don't know but I doubt it.

Yep. I always mix the two up because the oil cooler is the opposite - hot on the bottom and cold on the top. . Definitely meant cold side. And probably right about pressure. Hmm

Judging by your pics, it looks like you're taking the feed to the rear of the heads from the "high pressure" side of your external pump, as the coolant goes into the block. With using either the radiator hose or the thermostat housing as the feed, wouldn't that be on the "low pressure" side of the water pump and pull hot coolant from the back of the heads instead of push cool coolant into them?

My thought was potentially venturi effect plus colder water might be able to do it, but you’re probably right that it will be a problem. So either a spacer on the water pump or maybe we test a coolant return. Either way, I’ll find a local buddy with a stock system we can data log as soon as I find a cheap logging system.

 

[honeybadger]

I had a chance to fully inspect the car last night and while not great news, could've been a lot worse. Looking at a new driveshaft, trans cooler lines, and repairing the exhaust. Fortunately DSS is hooking me up with a decent discount on the shaft even though I'm 100% confident it was my fault.

It looks like the driveshaft had something rubbing on it and it ultimately failed (probably made worse by the heat). The clear coat/resin outer layer has been rubbed off - so it's pretty clear to me. I think it weakened and the 1-2 shift (biggest shock to the driveline) probably buckled it.




Unfortunately when it snapped, it whacked the exhaust pretty good. Have to replace about 24in of tubing on both sides.





It also wrapped the cooling lines around the differential pinion flange and ripped them all to hell - so will need to replace those as well



While it sucks, I'll take it over a motor or trans issue

 

[Ludachris]

While it sucks, I'll take it over a motor or trans issue

Yes indeed.

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

Ouch. Good thing about the CF is it won't go through your floorboards etc. Time for Dynotech aluminum?

 

[honeybadger]

Ouch. Good thing about the CF is it won't go through your floorboards etc. Time for Dynotech aluminum?

we decided against it because of speed rating. I was told 4in was only good to 140mph and that we'd have to go bigger for my ask of 170. Steel was too prone for harmonics. So staying with CF and going to make some heat management and exhaust changes