Gbot's 19R 2.5VR6T Build

[gboticus]

OK, so that was a day of fascinating lessons and murphy's law. We did a full session at the track and learned a few things:

- This thing fucking rips: I absolutely obliterated my previous VMax on the main straight with a lazy exit on the final turn and lifting off early.
- Spectators came by in droves to ask WTF was done to the car after the session: "sounded like a fighter jet on the straight". That was fun.
- The suspension changes were all the right ones and it's so incredibly capable
- Still a bit too much body roll than I like: I think I'll switch front sway bar to stiffer setting to account for extra engine weight (or higher spring rates in front, TBD)
- The new brake system (380mm fronts) can take the punishment of this track and smile
- RE71RS seemed really good but did not get a chance to push them super hard
- Fuck that Murphy guy

So murphy: about 5-6 laps in I was getting really comfortable with the car and was ready to start pushing. Either the car heat soaked bad, or something went fucky with the cooling system because it was managing fine until this moment. Took me a ton of cooldown laps to even make a dent in the temps, and after we got to pits we found that the radiator fan had died. It wasn't cooling down idling in pits, but the exact opposite. Immediately and very carefully nursed it to some back roads for some very low load cruising and got it all back down to regular operating temps. End of event A scan confirmed the ECU couldn't turn the fan on: it span freely and wasn't blocked, so it must be an electrical issue in the motor itself.

Ambient temps were also not favorable: 30*C in a crazy heat wave in Vancouver. I really wanted a cool shakedown day for the first one and didn't get that luck.

I knew that cooling was going to be a challenge with this don't get me wrong. But I think this was something more than just plain old heat soak: I should have been able to bring it back down doing a half dozen cooldown laps. The rad fan will get replaced, and I'll be debriefing with Marcel and HPA techs today to decide on next steps.

Anyhoo, here's a link to the "fastest" lap of the shakedown:

It's about a 5/10 effort, and well off my PB of 1:16 at the track but the goal was not to push the car remember! I felt like I was barely pushing it at all and was shocked at the time I got vs effort put in.

 

[Mosquito]

Man, that thing sounds bad ass.

 

[MonkeyMD]

Turn turn turn.

WHOOOOOOOOOOSH


oh shit... BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE

 

[gboticus]

Turn turn turn.

WHOOOOOOOOOOSH


oh shit... BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE

Don't forget the STU STU STU!

 

[gboticus]

So we found the problem: the lower radiator fan fully seized. I only checked the upper one like an idiot. That was causing the ECU to disable them. It's possible that the engine was hitting the AC line and smashing it into the fan body. Going to try to stick a go pro in there and test on the side streets. The dog bone is pretty stiff but the tolerance is quite tight up front.

We're getting it fixed and I'm going to seal up the cooling stack. The hood also doesn't have any seals in the leading edge either so I'm going to transfer all that from my factory hood.

Tentative next shake down is may 23!

Edit: so the head tech concluded that the engine was rocking enough to bump the AC line into the shroud and moved it enough to impede the lower radiator fan. We did some mitigations to try to avoid it next time but we may have to look at other options like stiffer mounts for the engine, or modifying the cooling stack to allow it to be pushed forward a bit. We'll know for sure after May 23 if we need to go further.

 

[gboticus]

That shakedown day just keeps giving! Found some melted trim in the rear I need to address. Diffuser no doubt keeping more heat in there and the overall heat output of the car is substantially higher than it was so no surprise here.

Gonna cut it out and put some heat reflective tape on the trim around where the exhaust tips are, and hope that's the end of it for now.

 

[gboticus]

I am not gonna let the engine rocking stop me from enjoying Area 27 in June.

Let's go!

 

[MonkeyMD]

Wait, the VR6 didn't come with upgraded mounts?

 

[gboticus]

Wait, the VR6 didn't come with upgraded mounts?

The VR6 came with a very tough uprated dog bone mount. The Verkline subframe replaced that with its own however. Under track abuse we found it not to be enough so it's time for more.

HPA's test mule (#1) has a ton of street miles on it and never encountered this problem. So it's a continuous learning cycle.

 

[Cuzoe]

A build like this and track time or not something that I will at any point be involved in... But I do like the idea of attempting to keep it approachable and comfortable where you can.

Going with factory mounts as a start feels right to me, and then stage 1, and and so on... NVH is an area where I only want as much as I absolutely must deal with and not a bit more.

 

[gboticus]

A build like this and track time or not something that I will at any point be involved in... But I do like the idea of attempting to keep it approachable and comfortable where you can.

Going with factory mounts as a start feels right to me, and then stage 1, and and so on... NVH is an area where I only want as much as I absolutely must deal with and not a bit more.

100% to that. For those who follow this path this is a at least a guide for them to follow and a baseline for HPA when people choose to take this platform to the track to recommend.

 

[gboticus]

So arts and crafts were never my forte in this life but I like to think I gave it a solid C+ effort in adding the heat reflective tape to the damaged area of the bumper trim.

It had to come up a lot higher where it was most damaged so it’s a bit asymmetric. On closer inspection it looks like the muffler is definitely higher up on the driver side on accuont of the hangar being pushed rearward, and thus raising the driver side of the muffler a bit. As the whole system heated up it must have pushed the muffler out and up: coming in contact with, or very close to the plastic diffuser trim.

I’ll replace this trim entirely once we get the muffler mounting corrected: the Verkline rear subframe required some improvised hangars on the exhaust so we’ll get it corrected next time it’s at the shop.

Pretty pleased with how easy it is to remove this trim, but that Verus diffuser is a PITA.

 

[gboticus]

Woo! Trip report!

Shakedown session #2 went exceptionally well!

Some follow up data points to things I ran into on the first shakedown:

• No cooling issues, in fact the heat was verymanageable with just a single cooldown lap unlocking 2-3 more hot laps
  • Kept oil well away from 130*C this time by this as well!
• Radiator fan hacks worked very well
  • Still committed to the uprated engine mounts though
• Heat tape prevented more melting of the trim
  • There are witness marks of the exhaust hitting the tape
  • HPA fixing the exhaust mount when the engine mounts are installed

I only ran 2 full sessions this time as I did not bring enough blended gas to run more, due to the expectation the radiator issues would not be fully resolved. My objectives for the day were the following:

• Have the car survive 1 full session
• Get a lap time of 1:20 (from 1:24 my first shakedown)
  • Still a very far cry from my previous PB of 1:16

I collected logs for the full duration of one session (will upload and share after I pull from the VADPro). I collected the following data:

• RPM
• Boost
• IAT
• Coolant Temp
• DSG Temp
• Oil Temp

Ambient was ~18*C, about half that of the first shakedown, which definitely helped the car to rapidly cool down.

1st session
Was wincing waiting for the car to overheat, and any time I saw it oil pass mid-120s I was backing off until it was back into 11x. I did a few push laps but nothing exceptional. I got to the end of the session with zero cooling issues, and starting to feel pretty confident.

Checked the Catalyst at the end of session and wow, I beat all my objectives for the day!

Session 2:
Red flagged as a GT4 spilled the contents of its coolant system on the outlap sending every car flying off track... Somehow I managed to avoid it but the 2 cars in front, and 1 behind me went off.

Session 3:
The mojo came back BIG TIME. Thrashing the car and pushing the tires and suspension to its limit. I didn't actually find these limits but those clubsports FUCK. Turn 7a at mission has a huge kerb on it which can severely upset cars but I can blast over it in complete control. I was pushing harder, and was gearing up for a flyer push lap, when disaster struck. As soon as I was putting the power on in the exit of T9 and passing a car, I heard a loud BANG, and immediately lost all power. Coasted into the pits pretty much expecting that somehow the engine was toast. Was able to restart it and get to my pit box.

Scanned codes, none, no smoke or anything so looked at the induction system and yup, boost pipe blew off at the coupler. Thank god. Easy-ish to fix in the pits.

Here's the lap of the flyer, and even though it was sloppy and was lifting a bit early/braking early it still managed to match my PB at Mission of 1:16. Time to hunt for the low teens.

So even hit the bonus objective of meeting my PB. Awesome.

Things TO-DO before the next day:

• Engine mounts
• Correct boost pipe (new pipe, with a non-hack-job cut)
• Fix exhaust hanger
• Send more and harder

 

[Dog Dad Wagon]

man I wish I never sold my BNIB Superpro full engine + dogbone mount kit. I would give it to you for whatever I had paid for it back then. Your car needs those mounts.

 

[gboticus]

Woke up today to see the WOOKIE used as promo material for the local race track's open lapping days. Nice, and wish it were a later session as I forgot to put my gloves on as I was too excited to hit the track and forgot to use them.

Updates have been slow as I've been working on getting the car into a good spot suspension wise, and sorting out issues identified on track. This also basically nuked my entire budget I had for track events this year as well, so unless I win the lottery this is it for 2024 :/ HPA's helped me out tons with breaks on labour and such though. They've been great the whole way through while we get it sorted.

Quitting my job and doing a startup really squeezed possibilities for track events and even with a really healthy contingency and understanding there will be lots to sort out it wasn't enough in the end.

That being said, I'm really confident that when I can get back, it'll be fully sorted, and maybe I can squeeze out one more event to verify that later in the summer or fall.

Road trips and mountain passes it is until then!