Another trip to CORE this weekend - have to say, damn we're lucky to have a place like this to really shake down a car hard.
Unloaded the car and set to work swapping in some new parts. We figured that there would be a bunch more swapping going on, as we had new springs and new bumpstops so all sorts of combinations would be possible.
First up:
-JVAB Bilsteins 260/90 valving with short eyelets
-Hypercoil 200# 14" springs (helper springs removed) tightened just enough not to rattle at full droop
-1" spring spacer (due to running out of threads on shock body)
-
COT 75mm soft bumpstops -14.5" fender/wheel center ride height (~0.75" taller than last time out)
Took a 75% lap and things seemed good. Took the next lap about the same but aimed for the spots that had given me trouble in the past. No issues. Then banged out a succession of 90%+ laps and hit the rough spots every which way possible, and no bottoming out!
I had been expecting to have to add another bumpstop, but I think the combination of a slightly higher ride height (i.e. more up travel available), slightly stiffer spring, and the longer more progressive bumpstop made it work.
On the whoops on the back straight, it flies pretty good. Only real issue I'm still seeing is that on the step-up style jump car likes to nose down on the landings, so much so that I've now got paint scrapes on the front of the front bumper.
The good thing is that when the back sits back down, it just squats and goes, no crazy rebounds to deal with. I'm guessing the off kilter flying has something to do with that 6-cyl up front and no downforce on the back. That Compact Cup kit is looking better & better.
Going back to CORE being such an awesome place to shake a car...we did managed to find another weak link which cut our day short by about 30 minutes. I was cranking around the track and all of a sudden the throttle cable stuck. I fiddled with my feet through the pedals to see if something had gotten hung up. Nothing looked out of the ordinary so I killed the engine. Hopped out of the car and popped the hood. At first glance things looked ok, but I couldn't move the throttle linkage towards closing it at all. Looked closer and I could see something was up with one of the couplers on the intake, it was kinked. Weird!
Upon further inspection, the motor mount arm had completely removed itself from the motor mount and the mount was sitting ~1" too far forward. So, I look at the motor mount expecting to see that the nyloc nut and washer were missing....nope, they were still there, but had loosened almost all the way off. Turns out the engine had been moving around and it wallowed out a hole big enough in the motor mount arm so it was able to just slip off!
Also managed to find the limits of the stock cooling system. With the ability to rail on the car flat out, and with temps in the upper 90s, I was finally seeing the radiator temps moving past the half way point. Time to ditch the $100 Checker radiator for something with a bit more cooling capacity.
Dave