Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

Shortly before the 4-23 event, my Evo had a transmission again and moved under its own power. Awesome! But I ran into a small snag... the rear quick connects on the coilovers were not connecting. Details... Anyway, in order to make sure the car would be ready for the rest of the season, and in order to get driving it again, I picked it up in stock form as the coilovers were shipped out to get sorted. I got enough miles on the clutch (600) to call it broken in and drove up to Delaware.

Event #8: Philly Test n Tune @ Dover Speedway: 5-1-2011



Setup:
Power: stock!
Suspension: stock! (it's an MR, so Bilsteins at least)
Alignment: max negative front, -1.5 rear, 0 toe all around
Wheels/tires: 245-40-17 RE-11s on stock SE BBS

I didn't know what to do about tire pressures, but happened to run into two former STU Evo drivers who were very familiar with the RE11s (Corey and Cy). Based on their recommendation I started at 45 psi (they said they'd run them as high as 48!).



The first session was a choose your own adventure: slalom, skidpad, sweeper - all separate areas. I did a little of each, but with nothing to really tune it was just seat time. The car did surprisingly well in the skidpad, holding on pretty well before it would start pushing. My datalogger (maxq) wasn't working for the morning session so I don't think I have any real numbers.

The second session was a straightforward course, slalom, sweeper, some tight offsets. The last session was a faster course with less elements.

Initial impressions:
-The car feels really good in slaloms. A lot of body roll, sure, but surprisingly good for a stock car.
-The nice things I said after event #1 are less true in higher speed elements, not super surprising. The higher speed stuff does make the push come out.
-In the slow speed stuff I had to remember how to be patient. It's pretty easy to go in too hot, turn the wheel too fast and just spend time scrubbing off speed understeering. It reminded me a little of driving my stock WRX on RE92s back in the day

I'll try to get some video up - the camera worked fine in the afternoon.

The coilovers are sorted out and just need to be installed. Soon I'll get to drive on Dunlops, light wheels and proper STU spring rates. I'm pretty psyched! Just hoping to have the car sort of figured out before the Dover tour..

neological

Ah Eduardo, my old nemesis...

I'm glad the Evo is all put together, I registered for this weekend. Glad to finally be back in an Evo IX this year. The X makes a very comfortable daily driver but I'm not spending the coin it would take to make it halfway competitive.

It does, however, have cruise control.

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

<- has used cruise control once in his entire life. It scares me.

This is Ben, my codriver for this year. I drove his IX back in 2007 or something. It was fun. It made me want one.



This was foreshadowing.


The car has been dropped off for the following:
-Moton clubsport / CiroDesign camber plate install
-Alignment
-Baseline dyno - I want to make sure the car is in the ballpark of what a stock IX should be, plus I want to be able to make comparisons when the mods start going on

Should be able to pick the car back up this week and run a DC doubleheader this weekend. Psyched!

Bassicfun

iTrader: (10)

Start of the build looks great. Stop and say hi, I will be at the Toledo Tour as well. I have talked alot with Andrew over the past year or two, he definitely had some nice parts, glad they went to a good home. I am a bit soft sprung, but also a daily driver as well on Ohlins.

Look forward to meeting you and duking it out (ugly evo8 here as you would say)

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

The ugliest Evo 8 is 1% as ugly as the 06-07 STi

piknockout

I know someone who's never getting another co-drive.







Glad to see that it's all starting to come together John. Hopefully it won't rain on us this weekend and we can all have a nice battle since Iman is making his way down as well. Don't get to comfortable though, I just bought some more goodies for the car, but won't have them until the NJ Pro more than likely. Keep up the good work!

psushoe

iTrader: (8)

Hey, what's happening in here?

Nice thread, John. Can't wait to see how you make out with the car on the motons!

psushoe

iTrader: (8)

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to spin your car... although I think I only had one full spin (and multiple sideways moments) The STi definitely has a nice tendency to step out the rear that is fun and useful on corner exit, if the driver is expecting it.

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

I'm hoping to get the rear diff rebuilt in the season so that I too can spin my car at will

Motons are ON! First impressions: I'm quite surprised at how well it rides with the shocks dialed down. The previous owner didn't have much positive to say about the ride quality but they definitely ride better than the Konis I had on my WRX with similar spring rates. The hard bumps still suck, and there's no hiding the spring rates, but it really absorbs the small stuff very well.

Might need it on the soft side... looking like a rainy weekend Going to be hard to get the car dialed in for Dover at this rate!

psushoe

iTrader: (8)

My diff is built and the car rotates nicely, but still seems less throttle oversteer happy than Josh's STi. I think it still comes back to the center diff. In the STi, the rear torque bias causes the rear to break first. In the evo, the 50:50 split still puts more load on the fronts as you come on power. It's not until the acd locks up and the rear diff kicks in that the back steps out.

Silencer

iTrader: (4)

I could be mistaken, but you might be the 4th generation owner of those Moton's. What size are those springs, 2.25"? Hyperco?

I assume you have a portable Nitrogen set-up for the external reservoirs.

Dave

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

Coilover install

After getting the clutch broken in, I dropped the car back off to get the coilovers put on, get an alignment done, and get a baseline dyno done to see if the car was making the power a stock Evo should.

The install was very clean -



The shocks appeared to be set to the default Clubsport settings:
http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...Club Sport.pdf
Compression 2/7, rebound 3/7. Gotta start somewhere.

For alignment, I started with -3 f, -1 r and 0 toe. With the CiroDesign camber plates I had +4.8 on one side and +4.9 on the other. If the car needs more rotation and tire pressures/shock settings don’t do it, I have a WORKS rear bar waiting to go on.

Awesome! A suspension!

Baseline dyno

And of course, this wouldn’t be my project Evo unless there was some matching bad news.

The car dyno’d on Chad’s Mustang dyno at 190 whp, 202 ft/lb.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...any-ideas.html

This is 20-25 whp down from what a normal IX puts down. Hopefully it’s something easy...

… right. All I know is that the boost curve should not look like that.


Event #9: Autocrossers Inc @ Waldorf, 5-14-2011

Setup (new stuff in bold):
Moton Clubsports, 2/7 compression, 3/7 rebound
600/800 springs
-3 / -1, 0 toe
245-40-17 RE11s on 17x8 SE wheels
35 / 32 psi (wet) 46 / 46 psi (dry-ish)

This was a doubleheader event - 4 runs in the morning, and 4 in the afternoon on a reversed course. The forecast was for rain. And it rained. I was working in the truck for the first heat and at one point the timing lights tripped about 12 times in 10 seconds, just from the rain. Thankfully the rain scared enough people away that we still got out of there with plenty of time.



Because of the rain and because of laziness, I just ran the RE11s on the OEM wheels. In Tire Rack’s testing, the RE11 was a hair faster in the wet than the AD08s and Z1s:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=118

I’ll be running Dunlops at all non lazy events, though...

The rain had stopped but the surface was still pretty wet. Out of paranoia I set the rear shocks all the way soft. The first run was just a shakeout to figure how much grip there was, and the answer was... a surprising amount. No spins or drama. I was getting some power-on push in the sweepers but not too bad. My third run I stayed patient in the slow stuff and was able to chuck the car through the fast parts with confidence and ended up with a 41.0. I tried to push harder on the 4th run, as is tradition, but overdrove in a couple spots and ended up with a 41.2. When it was all tallied, I was 2nd in STU, but by .008 - and 5th in PAX out of 68.

After a lunch break and a course shuffle, we ran the afternoon. There was no new rain, so by the time the last heat came around it was pretty much dry. I set the shocks back to the initial settings and pumped the tires up to 46 psi all around.

I was having problems on this course with visuals. In the middle, there was an element that sent you over the crest of a hill and made it hard to see the next element. I hadn’t thought about the line of sight stuff on the coursewalk and didn’t plan for it very well...



By my 4th run I had a decent line through there, but I was not being patient enough in the middle and last sweeper and was adding extra distance. I ended up with a 36.5, a second behind Iman and a hair in front of Vell in 3rd. I ended up 12th PAX out of 65.

I felt pretty decent about the day - first event, mixed conditions and the car was easy to drive fast - as long as I had some sort of plan for doing so. And it’s definitely a good datapoint that the car was effective in the rain.

I did notice that the car was getting a surprising amount of wheel lift:



That's with stock bars, too. Normal?

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

Event #10: WDCR/SCCA @ Fedex, 5-15-2011

Setup (new stuff in bold):
Moton Clubsports, 2/7 compression, 3/7 rebound
600/800 springs
-3 / -1, 0 toe
245-40-17 RE11s on 17x8 SE wheels
48/48 psi (dry)

Fedex is the biggest venue in our area and the one where I’ve probably spent the most time. It was unquestionably awesome until last year when they put sealant down on parts of the lot. The sealant took a while to wear in, and it’s still not as grippy as the asphalt around it, but now that we’ve had a few events there I think most folks are used to it.

I didn’t have time to put the SSRs with Dunlops on, and there was an 80% chance of rain, so I didn’t even bring them. This was a rare event where I was actually hoping it rained.

I got to the site later than usual and got registered. Normally I get there around 1030, register and tech while the lines are still short, and have plenty of time to get stuff like suntan lotion, fuel, tire pressures, data aq, etc figured out before the coursewalks start. Usually the morning heat goes until 12:30 or 1:00 before they open the course for walking. Unfortunately the rain had scared everyone away, so the morning heat was over at 11:30. I teched and then got in line to have my car weighed, since there were scales at the event this day. I figured this was as stock as the car would ever be again, so in the interests of science (“look at me still talking when there’s science to do...”), I should weigh it before walking the course. Not a good decision for competitive success, but whatever.

The car weighed in at 3172. The corner weights are off because the scales are on a hill (Fedex is not flat, anywhere).



That’s with no spare/cover, the E light barely on (it went away when I moved to more level ground), the BBSs w/ RE11s, Motons instead of stock Bilsteins, an Optima Redtop instead of stock, and a bunch of stereo cables in the glovebox (Sirius, ipod, aux). I’m not going to do seats but the exhaust mods and a lighter battery should definitely help.

So after this, I ran out to the course to do a coursewalk. I only got to really walk about 1/3 of the course before having to go back for the driver’s meeting. Poor planning.

My first run I went out there just seeing how the car felt. It wasn’t bad - could use a little better turn in, could be sharper in the slaloms, could be less pushy steady state... but not bad. 53.0 +1 (some slalom cone somewhere). Then Josh/Shane started coming in in the 50.xs and I knew I had work to do.

My second run I went to deep into the first braking zone, right about here:



I ended up taking out a wall. That threw me offline a bit, but as is tradition, I went out and flung the car as hard as I could for the rest of the run to make up for it. 52.6 +3. That was with a lot of sloppy driving that I could tone down - so I figured getting a clean 51.x was totally doable.

My 3rd run, I hit a cone I had avoided on the two previous runs, just trying to straight line an early section that could not be straight lined. Again, poor planning. More pushing-too-hard followed, but not the good kind... 52.9+1. Meanwhile, Josh throws down a 49.2 (+1) to set the pace for the raw times. Yikes!

My 4th run I needed a clean time. I backed off a lot in the early section that had caused me trouble and couldn’t make up any time elsewhere. 53.3 clean, but my slowest raw time. I ended up 8th out of 16 in class and 65/197 in PAX. One of my worst events at Fedex in a long time.

Butt Dyno

iTrader: (10)

That makes sense. And it does have its advantages I'm sure. Which Shep rear diff upgrade do you have?

I dunno. Was Andrew the 3rd owner? I do have a small nitrogen tank to keep things topped off.

Next steps

I have ARP studs for the front of the car - I just need to throw them in and get the Toyota open end lugs so that I can use them with the stock BBS wheels.

The #1 thing annoying me now is the car not making OEM power. It doesn't matter deeply on an autox course (compared to driving, tires and suspension, in that order) but the idea that I have less power than a stock Evo is troublesome. The next thing to do is figure out why the boost curve looks like an EKG and to see if there are any leaks or bad parts. Once that problem is sorted and I have a better baseline, the power stuff goes on:

* Perrin intake
* JMFab header
* Invidia O2 housing
* DC Sports downpipe w/ Mil.SPEC cat
* Perrin catback

The last two are used which should save me some coin for other shiny stuff. The first three are based on the research I've done over the last couple months. The only thing I'm not totally sure of is the O2 housing - whether it'd be better to get something smaller to encourage creep:

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/4041593-post44.html
But that's an optimization, and I'm not in the optimizing phase yet

And after the bolt-ons, I'll be getting a tune. I was originally hoping to be in the 300 whp range, but with the problems I doubt I'll get there.

After wheels+tires, coilovers+alignment, power mods+tune the car will have all the important stuff and I can focus on getting closer to those pesky STi's.

My next event isn't for a while though (possibly 6-12!) - so it might be a while before I have a meaningful update.

Thanks for reading!

psushoe

iTrader: (8)

I've got the full 12 puck build. Not sure if that's legal for STU??