What the?

Just had a look at the balaclava I wore at the last sprint and what the?

I guess this is the result of tailing other turbo cars with the vents & windows open? not sure what else it could be as it didn't go anywhere near where it could pickup this much #$%^!

It did its job though, easier to wash the sweat off the balaclava than the helmet, plus there's the safety element to it.

Just some useless post anyway.

Wet track

Last night was the last No Limits sprint of the year and unfortunately it was a wet one. I didn't really look forward to the wet conditions while driving to the track in the rain and was a bit concerned of the tyre softener making things more greasy for me.

Things didn't look too promising when I spun out on the warm up lap in the 1st session, I was only lightly accelerating for the main straight. Then again, I think half the cars had some sort of off's during the night. Luckily no major incidents and I think everyone made it home safe.

The track dried out considerably towards the end of the night and times dropped closer to the dry times. I didn't manage to improve my PB or gauge the performance of the tyre softener but overall I enjoyed sprint.

Diff oil change

Decided to change the diff oil today after coming home from work. Pretty straight forward as long as you have some strength left after a hard day at work.

Undid the filler bolt first in case I couldn't get it undone. As soon as I unscrewed the filler bolt the fluid started to flow out from it. Either the car wasn't level enough or the workshop who worked on the diff decided to overfill it a little. No probs, I already had a small container ready.

Filler plug & drain plug undone

I then proceeded to undo the drain bolt and it was actually quite easy to undo, also magnet on the drain plug bolt had collected some material. Will compare this with the amount collected in the next flush after a sprint event.

Metal shaving on the magnet

The fluid that came out of it is supposively the same oil that I'm putting in according to the workshop receipt and it looks pretty dark and dirty. Hopefully it won't look like this next flush and this is just a breaking in of new plates.

Quite a difference in oil colour

Hopefully not as bad next time

About 600ml of old fluid came out so pumped in the same amount plus a couple of quick pumps when it started to flow out of the filler hole.

Pump it! pump it!

I wanted to do the transfer case as well but did not have the strength to crack open the filler plug, photo quality suffered a little too...so next time.

Snake Oil

I have 3 sets of used R compound tyres all at least 2 years old with about half tread depth. Too good to just throw them out but not really in satisfactory condition for track use. These have gone hard enough that you couldn't leave a finger nail mark on them without breaking your finger in the process.

As an experiment, I picked up a 1L bottle of GRIP tyre softener from Revolution Racegear and applied it to a set of Dunlop DZ03G's I used at the last NoLimit sprint. I'll use the same set again at the sprint next week.

Snake Oil

This softener is suppose to lower the durometer figure by 20, I think this is equivalent of the difference between streets and r-comps. But I wouldn't get too excited with any quoted figures off the bottle label yet.

Gave up on scraping...too hard

Application is relatively easy, just scrape off any rubber pickup on the tyres and brush several coats of the blue liquid on and let it soak and do its magic over 4-5 days...longer for old tyres. I plan to give them 6 coats over 2 days and let it sit for a week before the sprint day.

Just brush it on!

I'm not expecting any miracles, but after just 1 coat I could feel the rubber surface soften up already. It'll be interesting to see how this changes in a couple of days time when the liquid works its way deeper into the rubber.

Tyres soaking

So we wait and see for now, will report back in a week.

More nomex stuff

Also added to my safety gear is OMP nomex balaclava.

Control Arm Bushings

Front control arm bushings have arrived, both innner front and inner rear.
Hopefully have them installed this weekend

Front control arm inner front part#W51988

Front control arm inner rear part#W52662

B Class vehicle transfer with DoT

Just went through a little hurdle with the vehicle transfer of ownership on the car. The previous owner and I thought the transfer process of the 'B classed' Evo V was same as a regular car. So, we filled in the usual Red and Green form from DoT and mailed them in. 

Two Weeks later I received this letter :

I had a look at the rego papers and noted the condition codes which I failed to see before:

See condition code 004

So, I contacted the seller and asked him to get an approval from director general as per the letter. Of course both of us had no idea what the process was for obtaining the mentioned approval. The seller contacted DoT couple of times before actually getting someone who was able to help. 

This is the reply I got from the seller :

"Spoke to Alison at the DPI, I called the number from the letter you received.

What is needed is for you to take the car and all the papers I gave you to Welshpool. All they need to do is a check to ensure that the car is still as it was when first registered and for you to confirm that you will only use the car as per the restrictions.

They may ask you to change the rego plate as they have now a new system which the plate is a "Rally ###" but I would not suggest anything, wait for them to advise."

I wasn't prepared to drive the car all the way to Welshpool licensing centre without confirming what was actually required for the vehicle transfer. So, I just took all the paper work I had and went to Welshpool licensing centre, without the car.

It took them about an hour to work out what was needed to be done and go through all the paper work etc.

Luckily, there was a nice and patient lady at the general enquiry counter who looked after the whole process.

In the end I had to

- sign an immobiliser exemption form and pay the fee

- present my CAMS license (L2S) + logbook for record copies

- pay the transfer fee

- no vehicle examination needed, thank god!, didn't want to be in the queue for that

- no rally plates needed, I asked them about it and they said this is something organised through a club?? So I just left it at that.

Immobiliser exemption receipt

But somehow I get a feeling that if I went to a different licensing centre they may interpret what's on the letter and the rego condition codes differently and take a different path for the transfer, or may not be able to accomodate the transfer at all if they aren't familiar with the process. So far, I got 3 different responses on how to do a B classed car transfer, all from DoT.

Now that the vehicle transfer process is all sorted, I read into the rally plates a bit further.
Apparently, there is a 'Dedicated Rally Car' (DRC) program arranged between DoT and CAMS.

I contacted CAMS office for further information and looks like a fair bit of work is involved which I may or may not have to go through. I'll need to do some more research and put it into another post.

Evo V information

Found a good site for sourcing information on Evo V's
Evo V site

Bumper II

Bit more work on the bumper. Assembled the grille back onto the bumper. Some liquid nail action here and there, should be much more secure than before.

Liquid nailed and using tools to hold it in while it cures

Best to do this inside while the wife is away

Bumper

Currently in the process of freshening up the front bumper. Nothing new or rice, just painting the grille, replacing missing screws and fixing bent frame etc.

Removed the water spray setup all together which wasn't going to be used.

Also need to come up with a way to stiffen up the bottom and sides of the bumper. May be with some aluminium tubes and carbon fibre DIY splitter/undertray, job for later.

Matt black spray cans again

Oh look! it's a bumper

Oils aint oils

Ok before I forget what I've been reading so far on gearbox, transfer case and rear diff oils, I'm gonna have to post this for my future reference.

Redline MT90 in the gearbox is OK, it is GL-4, so brass synchro friendly

Redline Shockproof anything is BAD, it has a very specific use, need to know your tranny well, so safer not to use it.

US guys run Redline cocktail mix of 2x MT90 + 1x MTL to thin it out a bit to meet factory spec, this resolves notch shift when cold... non-issue for warm climate in Aus or race cars.
Redline also makes MT85 which is equivalent to the cocktail blend, but people still report not as good as the DIY blend.

Factory DiaQueen is GOOD, can't go wrong I guess. Have not read about prolonged use on track.

Castrol Syntrax however is a BIG Question mark. I read people running them in their boxes for both 5 and 6 speeds. Also read people telling others to stay away because it is GL5, a brass syncho eating formula, some sulfur in it eating up any yellow metal or something... Then I see tuners, respected ones too, recommending and using them, including in my gearbox currently. 

Either these tuners are not aware? (can't be??) of brass synchro issue or don't think it is a problem??

And it seems people/tuners running it don't seem to care to comment about the issue. I guess it may be isn't an issue since I haven't read anything on premature synchro failure due to the Syntrax.

Castrol SAF-XA is OK for use in my transfer case and rear diff ie no ACD, AYC but with LSD in both front and rear.

So looks like MT90 is a goer for my gearbox.

Will drain and see what state the Syntrax is in too...