Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Sorry, no idea on the tyre diameter affecting your electronic devices, I don't have any of those! Looks as though Gary is saying it will be ok?

My Longacre durometer arrived this morning (pretty impressive, ordered from Raceline Motorsport Racewear on Wednesday). My "soft semislicks" measure between 80 and 85 on the durometer, my street tyres around 70... So do I need to declare these semis dead?

Don't know but I'm keen to hear. Bring it to Bathurst so we can poke my softs and my mediums of the same brand/vintage tyre and see what it tells us.

[metalhead]

For sure!

Playing with the new toy:
- A set of unused ~12 month old RE003 Potenzas (for my Midget project) - low 70's.
- The ~18 month and 30,000km old 33" All Terrain tyres on my F250 - 72-73(!)
- The set of rock hard 2003 manufacture BF Goodrich Radial TAs that were on my Vette when I bought it - 80-82...

I'll wait for Garys input, but to me it doesn't look good!

[Sydneykid]

Sorry, no idea on the tyre diameter affecting your electronic devices, I don't have any of those! Looks as though Gary is saying it will be ok?

My Longacre durometer arrived this morning (pretty impressive, ordered from Raceline Motorsport Racewear on Wednesday). My "soft semislicks" measure between 80 and 85 on the durometer, my street tyres around 70... So do I need to declare these semis dead?

Just confirming, 80 to 85 inside, middle and outside across the tread, 3 to 4 spots around the circumference? Rocking the durometer?
They should be 60's when stone cold and maybe high 50's at today's ambient.
If there is any build/pick up you should scrape it off to check the tyre under it.

Rather than just chucking them out you might want to consider skimming/dressing them a couple of mm's, it may just be the surface that's gone hard. You could just skim a few spots with a heat gun and a paint scraper, that will tell you if doing the whole tyre is worthwhile.

Cheers
Gary

[metalhead]

Yup, rocking the durometer in multiple spots across the tyre, and across several of the tyres. No buildup on the tyres (I drove them home ~15km at highway speeds after the event on Sunday).

Good news is, I just rang tyresales, the guy on the other end of the phone instantly said that they shouldn't have left the warehouse if they're that old (manufactured Oct 2012), and to email photos of the datecodes and they'll organise to have them returned for replacements (if they have newer stock) or refund. That will be excellent customer service if they come through with it!

[sambb]

yeah if they come through on that, that'll be awesome. 4 weeks till Bathurst! Just tell him that a set of A050's will ease the stress of the whole situation and put things right.

[Sydneykid]

Take the durometer with you

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Not a major update but just info on a little digital angle finder that people might find useful. While I wait on a more accurate camber/caster gauge with a proper wheel mount, I went ahead and bought one of these:

Digital Bevel Box Gauge Angle Finder Protractor Level Inclinometer Magnetic Base | eBay

for my nightshift evening break I thought I'd setup the toe plates and use it to check my post-shimming rear cambers. I'd already checked rear toe OK but had added 20 minutes neg camber to the RHS with the shims too to even it up with the left and needed to confirm that had worked. With the gauge held against the plates both sides were as good as 1.60 dec degrees each. Yeah there might be some error but the main thing is both sides were repeatably even. The little gauge can be stood on the ground next to your tyre and zero'd for the ground plane you are on before you make each measurement. I had to hold the gauge against the toe plates because they are stainless but it has a magnetic base that will stick to a steel mount.
So with this gear now that subframe casters are set, provided I don't need to know individual wheel toe I'm pretty well free of alignment fees which will save a lot of dollars. And I can rest easy that the shimming angles that you choose in the instructions/tables are translating in the real world. all good.

[Sydneykid]

Not a major update but just info on a little digital angle finder that people might find useful. While I wait on a more accurate camber/caster gauge with a proper wheel mount, I went ahead and bought one of these:

Digital Bevel Box Gauge Angle Finder Protractor Level Inclinometer Magnetic Base | eBay

for my nightshift evening break I thought I'd setup the toe plates and use it to check my post-shimming rear cambers. I'd already checked rear toe OK but had added 20 minutes neg camber to the RHS with the shims too to even it up with the left and needed to confirm that had worked. With the gauge held against the plates both sides were as good as 1.60 dec degrees each. Yeah there might be some error but the main thing is both sides were repeatably even. The little gauge can be stood on the ground next to your tyre and zero'd for the ground plane you are on before you make each measurement. I had to hold the gauge against the toe plates because they are stainless but it has a magnetic base that will stick to a steel mount.
So with this gear now that subframe casters are set, provided I don't need to know individual wheel toe I'm pretty well free of alignment fees which will save a lot of dollars. And I can rest easy that the shimming angles that you choose in the instructions/tables are translating in the real world. all good.

Your camber gauge was ordered on Friday, time differences allowing, shipment should leave sometime this week. They are just waiting to include a set of brake pads and some carbon fibre sheets.

Doing ones own wheel alignments is a big step forward, with being able to makes changes at the track, saving time taking the car to an alignment shop plus cost of course. It only takes a couple of alignments to pay for the gear, plus it's pretty self fulfilling to DIY.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

That's it. I've already saved a heap of cash. Between a rotating shift roster, kids at preschool and school, and so always needing a car ready to go it was becoming impossible to leave the car for a day with a half decent place to get an alignment done. Half the time something would get buggered up too - rounded off camber adjustment allen bolt heads, toe in when I'd asked for toe out, 2.50 degrees neg camber when I'd asked for 3 degrees are just a few. Once after getting my subframes/caster set, I luckily went over everything before the next race and found that they hadn't tightened the subframe bolts again - back to the aligners. Nup DIY is the way to go from now on.

[sambb]

Half way through the turbo/mani swap to finally get the last pieces from the old car into the new one. Just got to the half way mark at 3am. Mofo of a job. I decided to leave the driveshaft in which means the turbo has to come out the top which was a bit of a rubic's cube to solve when there's a UR strut brace in the way which can't be removed once the wheels are in the air because the strut tops may move. Just have to get down to a mates garage tomorrow to get some banjo washers for the water and oil unions and then it'll hopefully be back in and running before this time tomorrow night. As it was such a sh*&t fight I was starting to think that maybe I should have just left it in there, but I felt better about things once I could compare the mani and turbo side by side. Its ridiculous how constricted the stock turbo is compared to the ported one and the manifold is the same so it should be a proper jump up in power for this years events.

Opinions please - the annoying heat shieled that obscures the turbo to mani bolts. Does it really need to go on if the mani is ceramic coated and the hot side of the turbo is too? I'd like the access to be able to get to the turbo bolts to check them from time to time. The turbo to mani gasket was blown in this car too. It was split clean through and was on the brink of leaking and the turbo bolt closest to the engine had virtually no torque on it. I'll get some pics up in a few days.