24 Hours of Lemons Build
- Thread starter jstricker
- Start date
sweaver;1691890 said:awesome you pulled that car out of the guys pot garden
LOL, and it's still full of seeds.
We pulled the molding off and the seeds just fell out from everywhere. I actually was a little concerned when I brought it home in the trailer if I'd have gotten stopped by KHP with a canine unit it might have made the poor doggy go 4 legs up with the smell. :O That wasn't really a garden, just pretty typical of the wild pot that grows around most of the creeks and bottom ground here in KS.John Stricker
An update on where we're at.....
I finished getting the cage in a few weeks ago and the car is in for paint at the moment. The cage is a halo design with a center bar in the halo and down the middle for a windshield bar. I prefer this design myself as I feel it gives the driver the best protection.
The dash is gone and we're using a simple bent aluminum dash panel. There is another one in the center console area (not shown) that will house the secondary gauges and switch panel. The master shut off will be on the main dash far left so it can be reached by the driver or the corner workers. (sorry for the blurry picture)
Double braced driver's side door bars and a single passenger side door bar.
The Supra has, without a doubt, the thinnest firewall I've ever seen, albeit double walled, it's so thin it's almost impossible to weld to. With that fact we double sandwiched the center bar mounting point. If this area fails it's going to end up in the back of the motor to stop it anyway.
We braced the front main bars to the existing dash bar. It was also welded to the car structure on the side where it's normally bolted on.
The front floor mounts come up the side of the rockers and then are welded completely around on the bottom. The gap between the plate and the existing floor inside the box has a milled piece of solid aluminum wedged in there. The main bar will not get through the floor.
Rear seat brace, harness bar, diagonal, etc.
I modified an existing stock steering wheel hub to adapt to a quick release to mount the Speedway aluminum wheel, center pad, and radio PTT switch. It worked pretty well.
Right now I'm working on getting the powertrain together and gathering the rest of the parts. The engine is basically stock with very few changes except for ARP bolts and studs for longevity. Stock turbo but we will have a manual boost controller, but it's not going to increase boost by much.
John Stricker
Russell, KS
I finished getting the cage in a few weeks ago and the car is in for paint at the moment. The cage is a halo design with a center bar in the halo and down the middle for a windshield bar. I prefer this design myself as I feel it gives the driver the best protection.
The dash is gone and we're using a simple bent aluminum dash panel. There is another one in the center console area (not shown) that will house the secondary gauges and switch panel. The master shut off will be on the main dash far left so it can be reached by the driver or the corner workers. (sorry for the blurry picture)
Double braced driver's side door bars and a single passenger side door bar.
The Supra has, without a doubt, the thinnest firewall I've ever seen, albeit double walled, it's so thin it's almost impossible to weld to. With that fact we double sandwiched the center bar mounting point. If this area fails it's going to end up in the back of the motor to stop it anyway.
We braced the front main bars to the existing dash bar. It was also welded to the car structure on the side where it's normally bolted on.
The front floor mounts come up the side of the rockers and then are welded completely around on the bottom. The gap between the plate and the existing floor inside the box has a milled piece of solid aluminum wedged in there. The main bar will not get through the floor.
Rear seat brace, harness bar, diagonal, etc.
I modified an existing stock steering wheel hub to adapt to a quick release to mount the Speedway aluminum wheel, center pad, and radio PTT switch. It worked pretty well.
Right now I'm working on getting the powertrain together and gathering the rest of the parts. The engine is basically stock with very few changes except for ARP bolts and studs for longevity. Stock turbo but we will have a manual boost controller, but it's not going to increase boost by much.
John Stricker
Russell, KS
Last edited:
Long Time since an update but I thought I'd throw some pictures up since we're getting ready to go racing this weekend.
3" exhaust front to rear, two shorty race mufflers. Going to take another along just in case, it can go in the back between muffler #2 and the turndown.
Heim joints for sway bar end links
Front brakes and suspensions with cooling ducts
Ain't she purdy??
Nothing special, pretty much all stock except for reliability things like ARP and an oil cooler upgrade
Business office shots
That's it for now, back to work...
John Stricker
Russell, KS
Dogma Racing
3" exhaust front to rear, two shorty race mufflers. Going to take another along just in case, it can go in the back between muffler #2 and the turndown.
Heim joints for sway bar end links
Front brakes and suspensions with cooling ducts
Ain't she purdy??
Nothing special, pretty much all stock except for reliability things like ARP and an oil cooler upgrade
Business office shots
That's it for now, back to work...
John Stricker
Russell, KS
Dogma Racing
Is that a bumper car steering wheel? I like those brake cooling ducts. Are you going to going to be filming this event? I'd like to see some video footage. Is it going to air on speedvision?
I'm a little late updating but figured I'd stop by and give you all the play by play.
It wasn't filmed by anyone except our in-car camera. I haven't uploaded them to youtube or anywhere else and not sure I will but if I do I'll post a link.
I'd like to say that the car performed flawlessly and easily ran away from everything else on the track. Sadly that wasn't the case, nor was it ever expected to be the case. It was a brand new race car with a brand new engine and a lot of chassis/suspension changes. Glitches and problems were inevitable and to be expected. I'll do this over a few posts in diary format since that's kind of how I kept my pit notes.
The first day was Thursday. The car had not been fired yet as we simply ran out of time and had an unexpected issue. I had purchased the Deralle oil cooler kit with a sandwich adapter. This is a high quality kit with a decent sized cooler.
Unfortunately there isn't a filter in the world that will go on the sandwich adapter and clear the turbo outlet. I discovered this on Wednesday morning and had next day aired in another kit from Jegs that relocated the filter (still Derale) and moved the filter up front. Only problem was I didn't want to start the engine until everything was in place so I didn't have to fight lines full of oil and that sort of thing SOOOOOO we didn't fire it until the kit got there at about 10:00 am on Thursday.
I had ordered a Walbro pump and a couple other pieces from Driftmotion almost 2 weeks before but, as my luck runs, that was when they were closed for a week so it didn't get shipped on their normal schedule. Needing a pump and to get the tank back in I got a mid-90's Corvette pump and put it in. It worked fine but since I'm going to have to pull the tank again (that will come up in a later day) I'm going with the Walbro (or maybe both on a separate switch, haven't decided yet). Anyway, installed that while waiting for the oil system parts and put the tank up. Oil system parts get here and we gas up, hit the appropriate switches, and the old girl fires right up and settles into a decent idle.
WTF is that leaking?? Water. The gasket on the turbo water lines was leaking. Gasket set didn't have one so I took it off and made one. Refilled the coolant again, fired it up, more water, this time from the radiator.
I had bought a used "fluidyne lookalike" from a member here and it looked good. I think when the member shipped it, it WAS good. Somewhere something was set on it that cut abotu 6 rows of the tubes from the top tank, shearing them clean. The only other radiator I had came with the car and it didn't look good at all. We got it out, filled it with water and it held 20 psi without any leaks so we swapped them out. Although rough in appearance it at least didn't leak and we could tune the car a bit. In the meantime I got on the phone to a team mate and he found a new radiator in Wichita that he brought with him for $148 and we'd change them when we got to the track.
The car is close enough to load so we let it be for a bit and start organizing and loading spares and tools on the trailer. We have a complete set of electrical parts for spares, a complete set of brake rotors, three extra sets of front pads, two extra sets of rear pads. a spare differential, spare control arms, struts, wheel bearings, water pump, hoses, etc. The track in Colorado is at least an hour from Denver so you pretty much have to take everything you might conceivably need with you. We also loaded all the cordless tools (4" grinder, recip saw, 3/8 & 1/2 impacts, screwdrivers, drills, etc) and three coolers full of pop, beer, water, powerade, food, etc. We also took our four-wheeler and about 60 gallons of fuel.
Doug (team mate that found the radiator) got there about 10:00 pm and helped finish loading and we returned to the car. There were a few items left on the checklist before we put the car in the trailer. Anti-Sub belt needed to be mounted. Mirror brackets for small convex mirrors made and mounted, and a couple other things. Doug and my son Chris jumped into that while I finished loading parts and tools. We finally got the car loaded about 1:00 am and were more or less ready to go.
We packed our bags and got our paperwork for the Lemons tech stuff together, threw them in the truck, and were rolling west by about 2:30 am Friday morning. We pulled into the track gates one of the first ones there at 7:20 am MDT.
Friday in the next post.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
It wasn't filmed by anyone except our in-car camera. I haven't uploaded them to youtube or anywhere else and not sure I will but if I do I'll post a link.
I'd like to say that the car performed flawlessly and easily ran away from everything else on the track. Sadly that wasn't the case, nor was it ever expected to be the case. It was a brand new race car with a brand new engine and a lot of chassis/suspension changes. Glitches and problems were inevitable and to be expected. I'll do this over a few posts in diary format since that's kind of how I kept my pit notes.
The first day was Thursday. The car had not been fired yet as we simply ran out of time and had an unexpected issue. I had purchased the Deralle oil cooler kit with a sandwich adapter. This is a high quality kit with a decent sized cooler.
Unfortunately there isn't a filter in the world that will go on the sandwich adapter and clear the turbo outlet. I discovered this on Wednesday morning and had next day aired in another kit from Jegs that relocated the filter (still Derale) and moved the filter up front. Only problem was I didn't want to start the engine until everything was in place so I didn't have to fight lines full of oil and that sort of thing SOOOOOO we didn't fire it until the kit got there at about 10:00 am on Thursday.
I had ordered a Walbro pump and a couple other pieces from Driftmotion almost 2 weeks before but, as my luck runs, that was when they were closed for a week so it didn't get shipped on their normal schedule. Needing a pump and to get the tank back in I got a mid-90's Corvette pump and put it in. It worked fine but since I'm going to have to pull the tank again (that will come up in a later day) I'm going with the Walbro (or maybe both on a separate switch, haven't decided yet). Anyway, installed that while waiting for the oil system parts and put the tank up. Oil system parts get here and we gas up, hit the appropriate switches, and the old girl fires right up and settles into a decent idle.
WTF is that leaking?? Water. The gasket on the turbo water lines was leaking. Gasket set didn't have one so I took it off and made one. Refilled the coolant again, fired it up, more water, this time from the radiator.
I had bought a used "fluidyne lookalike" from a member here and it looked good. I think when the member shipped it, it WAS good. Somewhere something was set on it that cut abotu 6 rows of the tubes from the top tank, shearing them clean. The only other radiator I had came with the car and it didn't look good at all. We got it out, filled it with water and it held 20 psi without any leaks so we swapped them out. Although rough in appearance it at least didn't leak and we could tune the car a bit. In the meantime I got on the phone to a team mate and he found a new radiator in Wichita that he brought with him for $148 and we'd change them when we got to the track.
The car is close enough to load so we let it be for a bit and start organizing and loading spares and tools on the trailer. We have a complete set of electrical parts for spares, a complete set of brake rotors, three extra sets of front pads, two extra sets of rear pads. a spare differential, spare control arms, struts, wheel bearings, water pump, hoses, etc. The track in Colorado is at least an hour from Denver so you pretty much have to take everything you might conceivably need with you. We also loaded all the cordless tools (4" grinder, recip saw, 3/8 & 1/2 impacts, screwdrivers, drills, etc) and three coolers full of pop, beer, water, powerade, food, etc. We also took our four-wheeler and about 60 gallons of fuel.
Doug (team mate that found the radiator) got there about 10:00 pm and helped finish loading and we returned to the car. There were a few items left on the checklist before we put the car in the trailer. Anti-Sub belt needed to be mounted. Mirror brackets for small convex mirrors made and mounted, and a couple other things. Doug and my son Chris jumped into that while I finished loading parts and tools. We finally got the car loaded about 1:00 am and were more or less ready to go.
We packed our bags and got our paperwork for the Lemons tech stuff together, threw them in the truck, and were rolling west by about 2:30 am Friday morning. We pulled into the track gates one of the first ones there at 7:20 am MDT.
Friday in the next post.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
This will probably get added to the previous post but that's OK, it gave me a break from typing to get a beer.
We got our spot selected in the paddock and checked in. I was dog tired and Chris and Doug weren't much better. We decided to get some food and sleep and wait for the other guys to show up for a couple of hours. A trip to the track cafe got us the required sausage & pancake on a stick (think corn dog but with a breakfast sausage dipped in pancake batter with syrup to dip it in) and coffee. Stomachs full we stretched out in the leather seats of the hauler and slept for about an hour.
About 9:00 we unloaded the car and started setting up camp. EZ UP went up and car unloaded. Spares and equipment organized. Friday was an open track day. It cost $100 per driver and one of the team members was bringing his 'vette and wanted to run it on the track anyway so he was our designated test driver when the time came. First we had to get through tech.
There are two parts of tech. First is the safety tech which is pretty much normal. They check for all the required safety equipment, that the exhaust is safely mounted and secured, kill switch works, driver can egress the car quickly, etc. All of the drivers' various equipment also has to be inspected. There were just a couple of things they wanted corrected. Chris had mounted the anti-sub belt in backwards (that's what happens late at night) and they wanted a pad where the harness when through the race seat at the shoulders. Both issues fixed while we were still in tech and they were doing other things (duct tape is your friend, remember that folks).
Next is the BS inspection where we had to go before Judge Phil. I bought this car as a basket case out of a ditchweed patch for $250. Just a couple days later Doug bought a whole pickup load of Supra parts from a guy in Wichita for $170. The first hurdle was adding the two together and convincing Judge Phil that was the original price of the car. That was important because what was part of the "original" car can be sold to offset expenses. He seemed a bit confused but finally understood and agreed to make the original price $420. We then provided receipts for the ARP bolts in the engine, gasket set, rings, and engine work that came to about $500. He questioned the suspension because it's pretty stiff but I showed him the spring rubbers and intentionally left the plasma cuts on the stock springs less than smooth so he could tell that they were stock and had been cut. There was no hiding the ST sway bars, though, and we gave him a receipt for that for $285. Most everything else on the car was exempt as safety or driver convenience so he set our total cost of the car at $1205.
I had receipts for parts I'd sold off the car both to members here and also off craigslist. A spare diff case for $75. Three piece wing and a half dozen other parts to another member here for $350. Two turbo cores for $200. A bunch of small odds and ends that I had paypal receipts for that totaled another $280. That made our net cost of the car down to $300. He then noticed the oil cooler and said we had to include that since it wasn't stock (as I mentioned, Phil is not an idiot). I didn't have the receipt for it but I did have my laptop and there was a wireless connection there so I went to Jegs and showed him the cost of it. That made the total come to $495.
He put us in the "A" class (the fastest) with a "0" lap penalty, which is what I wanted. I was a happy camper so far.
By now it was about 2:00 pm and we really needed to run the car on the track. It had some drivability issues running pig rich (much better than lean, but still not good) at idle. Doug and I worked on them as Mark would take the car out and make four or five laps then come back in. We adjusted the air screw on the AFM, the TPS was way wrong (and probably needs replaced, but we got by) and worked with the fuel pressure. We also found a horrendous vacuum/boost leak on the throttle body and had to make a new gasket for that at the track. By the end of the day we were reasonably satisfied that the car would run, dead tired, and the car had run cool during testing so we decided to leave the radiator alone.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
We got our spot selected in the paddock and checked in. I was dog tired and Chris and Doug weren't much better. We decided to get some food and sleep and wait for the other guys to show up for a couple of hours. A trip to the track cafe got us the required sausage & pancake on a stick (think corn dog but with a breakfast sausage dipped in pancake batter with syrup to dip it in) and coffee. Stomachs full we stretched out in the leather seats of the hauler and slept for about an hour.
About 9:00 we unloaded the car and started setting up camp. EZ UP went up and car unloaded. Spares and equipment organized. Friday was an open track day. It cost $100 per driver and one of the team members was bringing his 'vette and wanted to run it on the track anyway so he was our designated test driver when the time came. First we had to get through tech.
There are two parts of tech. First is the safety tech which is pretty much normal. They check for all the required safety equipment, that the exhaust is safely mounted and secured, kill switch works, driver can egress the car quickly, etc. All of the drivers' various equipment also has to be inspected. There were just a couple of things they wanted corrected. Chris had mounted the anti-sub belt in backwards (that's what happens late at night) and they wanted a pad where the harness when through the race seat at the shoulders. Both issues fixed while we were still in tech and they were doing other things (duct tape is your friend, remember that folks).
Next is the BS inspection where we had to go before Judge Phil. I bought this car as a basket case out of a ditchweed patch for $250. Just a couple days later Doug bought a whole pickup load of Supra parts from a guy in Wichita for $170. The first hurdle was adding the two together and convincing Judge Phil that was the original price of the car. That was important because what was part of the "original" car can be sold to offset expenses. He seemed a bit confused but finally understood and agreed to make the original price $420. We then provided receipts for the ARP bolts in the engine, gasket set, rings, and engine work that came to about $500. He questioned the suspension because it's pretty stiff but I showed him the spring rubbers and intentionally left the plasma cuts on the stock springs less than smooth so he could tell that they were stock and had been cut. There was no hiding the ST sway bars, though, and we gave him a receipt for that for $285. Most everything else on the car was exempt as safety or driver convenience so he set our total cost of the car at $1205.
I had receipts for parts I'd sold off the car both to members here and also off craigslist. A spare diff case for $75. Three piece wing and a half dozen other parts to another member here for $350. Two turbo cores for $200. A bunch of small odds and ends that I had paypal receipts for that totaled another $280. That made our net cost of the car down to $300. He then noticed the oil cooler and said we had to include that since it wasn't stock (as I mentioned, Phil is not an idiot). I didn't have the receipt for it but I did have my laptop and there was a wireless connection there so I went to Jegs and showed him the cost of it. That made the total come to $495.
He put us in the "A" class (the fastest) with a "0" lap penalty, which is what I wanted. I was a happy camper so far.
By now it was about 2:00 pm and we really needed to run the car on the track. It had some drivability issues running pig rich (much better than lean, but still not good) at idle. Doug and I worked on them as Mark would take the car out and make four or five laps then come back in. We adjusted the air screw on the AFM, the TPS was way wrong (and probably needs replaced, but we got by) and worked with the fuel pressure. We also found a horrendous vacuum/boost leak on the throttle body and had to make a new gasket for that at the track. By the end of the day we were reasonably satisfied that the car would run, dead tired, and the car had run cool during testing so we decided to leave the radiator alone.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
Suprapowaz!(2);1732525 said:
That is not a "bumper car" steering wheel. It's a circle track wheel with an oversized pad. I take the safety of my drivers seriously in my race cars. This car probably cost about $1500 more than it had to on safety equipment because I will not scrimp on that. No, it's not super fast, but I have no doubt based on what I saw on the in car video it will run north of 135 mph and half that speed is enough to kill an unprotected driver.
Back to the Diary. Saturday, Race Day!!
We go out and start circulating with all the other cars. We do have one of the better looking beaters out there and it seems strong. Our test driver, Mark, was the first one in. The loose plan was to run for 2 hours, until he got tired, or was low on fuel whichever came first. Since Mark was driving with two broken ribs I had a talk with him about not being shy about telling me on the radio if they were bothering him. We didn't really expect to do well at this race with a new car anyway and it's supposed to be fun, not a pain in the ribs.
At the end of the first hour we were running 9th, one lap down, with a best time of 2:28 and change as opposed to the leader's best time of 2:24 and change. Mark told me on the radio that the car was trying to run warm, up to about 220-225, if he started to push it at all. Oil pressure was 65 psi and we were making a little over 11 psi boost on the back straight. Because of the temp issues he couldn't really push the car as hard as it was capable of running. Midway through the second hour we decided to pit for fuel and driver change. Our second driver, Sam, was ready and the car came in.
Following is a rant that I'm still not over. In all of the previous Lemons races after the first one, we used a fuel cart I built. This is a 40 gallon cart with an electric pump and an auto shut-off nozzle. We could put 15 gallons in the car in less than a minute and a half and not spill a drop. This year they made a rule change where all fueling had to be done out of 5 gallon plastic jugs and a funnel. Naturally this caused huge fuel spills up and down the line of pitted cars everywhere (which is why I built the cart in the first place, to keep from spilling fuel). I protested the rule change when they made it and again, loudly, at this race asking Judge Phil in particular if he really #$#$@# thought this was safer than with my cart!?!?!? OK, rant over, back to the race.
After fueling my son Chris was helping getting Sam belted in and it was taking forever. In fact, we had a 13 MINUTE fuel stop and driver change. That wouldn't happen again, we weren't ready for the way they were doing it this year and it was different from last year, but what's done is done. Additionally as Sam pulled out I noticed we'd dropped about 1/2 gallon of coolant at our pit stall while the car was sitting out the overflow.
After a few laps Sam was having real problems keeping the temperatures under control and eventually, rather than fry a new engine, I decided to call him in for a radiator change and check the car over. Oh well, we didn't expect to win anyway. Sam came in and everything took longer than we wanted dealing with a hot engine/car to change radiators in.
At the end of the second hour we had dropped to 12th with a best time of 2:27 and change and 5 laps down.
Sam called in during the third hour and said the temps started OK but were climbing again and wanted to know at what point I wanted him to bring it in. I told him if he couldn't keep it under 225-230 come in so we can see what's going on. 5 laps later he had to come in.
We immediately noticed that the water pump was leaking out the weep hole. Now this was a NEW water pump when the engine went together. I did bring a spare used one so we got the water pump swapped out and sent him back out. For awhile, all was good, then Sam called in and said he was getting coolant on the windshield. I told him to pit now.
At some point, probably at the radiator change, we moved the lower radiator hose into a position where it was rubbing on the power steering pulley. It wore a hole in the hose and that's where the coolant on the windshield was coming from. I had another hose so we got it swapped out and put Doug in the car because Sam was also complaining of lack of power on the straights now and a miss. By this time we were at the end of the 4th hour and we'd fallen to 22 place about 16 laps down from the leader.
I wanted Doug in the car because he is a mechanic with his own shop just like I am and felt we could talk on the radio and communicate better what was going on with the car. The first few laps he felt the car was running well, almost 12 psi boost and able to pass anything on the track on the straights. Within about 5 laps the miss was back but in our diagnosing it we decided it wasn't really a miss, but rather a fuel delivery problem. Now when I built the car the tank was full of rust and varnish. I used muriatic acid several times to clean it out but was never really happy with it. I was afraid to go much further, though, as I didn't want a leaky tank. I've been there before on our other Lemons cars.
I called Doug in and we got the car on stands and changed fuel filters. I have the burns on my arms to remind me that race cars just off the track are freaking HOT.
That took almost 25 minutes and Doug went back out to see if things had improved. (BTW, the filter was FULL of crap, mostly what appeared to be rust)We had dropped to 27th and 25 laps down by this time and were just hoping to get a decent finish and a properly running car at this point. Doug called in and said the car was running great.....Until about 6 laps later when it was losing power again. I called him in again and we took the hose off the fuel pressure gauge, the inlet off the filter hose, and blew backwards through the line. More rust, crap, and general nastiness came out into our bucket. Back together and sent Chris out and the same scenario. Car would run great for about a half dozen laps and then lose power.
This cycle of blowing out the filter, running for several laps, coming in, rinse and repeat continued to the end of the day and by that time we were running 40th, 100 laps down, and a best time of 2:24 and change. While our pit stops and mechanical woes were killing us, the time of 2:24 was encouraging as only 5 cars were faster lap times and we had in no way pushed our car at all yet.
Night came and Mark and Chris took his Vette into Denver to find as many fuel filters as they could find and a few other odds and ends while we came up with a plan of attack.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
OK, Sunday, last day and here we go.
We changed out the fuel filter again and there was some stuff in it, but really not all that much. We're happy in that the car hasn't used much, if any, oil and it only took less than 1/2 quart to get it back to a quart over full on the stick. We're running Amzoil 0W20, BTW, and the fact that it didn't use much even though the temps were pretty high for awhile was a good sign.
We go out with the pack and start circulating and they drop the green flag. Mark is in the car first and after a dozen or so laps the same issue comes up, losing power. He brings in the car and we go through what had become "giving the car a blow job" procedure and to be honest, I didn't see much in the filter at all. We sent him back out and Doug and I talked about what was going on. I suggested that maybe we were looking in the wrong place that maybe the obstruction was now the sock on the end of the pump instead of the filter and that when we were turning it off and blowing out the filter it was falling off the sock and cleaning itself. Doug thought it a possibility but we agreed that when/if it happened again we'd bring him back in again, blow it out carefully straining it through a coffee filter (got them on the parts run) and see what came out.
Sure enough, 8 or 9 laps later, same issue so we call Mark in and change drivers and clean the filter. The gas in the filter had a brown tint to it but very little was caught in the coffee filter that would cause an obstruction. Chris went back out and Doug and I came up with a plan.
When it started happening again I told Chris that on the back straight just when he would normally brake, to reach down and turn the fuel pump "OFF" and when he started to turn in, flip it back on again. I had him repeat the instructions so I was sure he understood and waited. Watched him go down the back straight and after exit he called back and said the car was pulling like a freight train and so it did for about 3 laps when he had to do it again. We continued to use that system the rest of the race and it kept us on the track.
Chris had to come in because in all the work on the car he hadn't properly hydrated himself and was feeling the effects of that after only about 45 minutes. I'd told all the guys if you have ANY physical issues AT ALL to come in, we'd change drivers, find out what was wrong, and get you back out as soon as we could so that's what he did. It was a good thing too because he was really showing the effects of dehydration and we had a long talk about making sure you're hydrated on a day in July before you strap into a race car.
Sam went back out and with the system was doing well. We had worked our way back up to 32nd with Sam running what would be the fastest lap in the car of 2:21.5. This was the 5th fastest time of any car out there and remember, we were having to turn off the fuel pump every lap to clear the sock. With about 100 minutes left I hear on the scanner on race control "White 88 has just blown up at turn 8 with lots of smoke and fire in the engine bay". I figure we just pushed too hard. I see Sam pull into a cut off and ask if he's OK and if he's on fire. He says no, no fire, and he really doesn't know what happened because when he saw the smoke it was making no odd noises, still had 60 psi of oil pressure, and the car was running good. I figured it blew a seal in the turbo so we waited for the roll back to bring Sam to us.
We were disappointed because I told the guys at the start of the day I'd be happy if we finished the race with a running car and a not too long list of things that needed fixing before the next race and up till then, we were on track to do that. When Sam got back we got the car in the air and couldn't believe what we saw.
At some point in our radiator/water pump/lower hose changes we had apparently cut the cable tie for one of the oil cooler/filter hoses and IT had rubbed on the power steering pulley putting a pinhole in it, which proceeded to spray directly on the downpipe making huge quantities of smoke and a small but brief fire.
I told Mark to get in his gear that we were going to be ready to strap him in the car in 10 minutes and we were going to finish this race. We found a piece of 1/2" OK brass tube, cut out the bad section, shoved the two together, double clamped it on each end and got Mark in the car. Out he went and with flipping the fuel pump on and off was able to finish the race with a running car.
We finished 29th, exactly 100 laps down (that's right, with all the stops Sunday and the oil line and all that, we didn't lose any laps, that's how fast we were when we were running) so I felt like we had a successful, if not awesome weekend for the first time out.
I'll post once more with my notes on things to fix and needs to be addressed in a little bit, if anyone is still reading.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
We changed out the fuel filter again and there was some stuff in it, but really not all that much. We're happy in that the car hasn't used much, if any, oil and it only took less than 1/2 quart to get it back to a quart over full on the stick. We're running Amzoil 0W20, BTW, and the fact that it didn't use much even though the temps were pretty high for awhile was a good sign.
We go out with the pack and start circulating and they drop the green flag. Mark is in the car first and after a dozen or so laps the same issue comes up, losing power. He brings in the car and we go through what had become "giving the car a blow job" procedure and to be honest, I didn't see much in the filter at all. We sent him back out and Doug and I talked about what was going on. I suggested that maybe we were looking in the wrong place that maybe the obstruction was now the sock on the end of the pump instead of the filter and that when we were turning it off and blowing out the filter it was falling off the sock and cleaning itself. Doug thought it a possibility but we agreed that when/if it happened again we'd bring him back in again, blow it out carefully straining it through a coffee filter (got them on the parts run) and see what came out.
Sure enough, 8 or 9 laps later, same issue so we call Mark in and change drivers and clean the filter. The gas in the filter had a brown tint to it but very little was caught in the coffee filter that would cause an obstruction. Chris went back out and Doug and I came up with a plan.
When it started happening again I told Chris that on the back straight just when he would normally brake, to reach down and turn the fuel pump "OFF" and when he started to turn in, flip it back on again. I had him repeat the instructions so I was sure he understood and waited. Watched him go down the back straight and after exit he called back and said the car was pulling like a freight train and so it did for about 3 laps when he had to do it again. We continued to use that system the rest of the race and it kept us on the track.
Chris had to come in because in all the work on the car he hadn't properly hydrated himself and was feeling the effects of that after only about 45 minutes. I'd told all the guys if you have ANY physical issues AT ALL to come in, we'd change drivers, find out what was wrong, and get you back out as soon as we could so that's what he did. It was a good thing too because he was really showing the effects of dehydration and we had a long talk about making sure you're hydrated on a day in July before you strap into a race car.
Sam went back out and with the system was doing well. We had worked our way back up to 32nd with Sam running what would be the fastest lap in the car of 2:21.5. This was the 5th fastest time of any car out there and remember, we were having to turn off the fuel pump every lap to clear the sock. With about 100 minutes left I hear on the scanner on race control "White 88 has just blown up at turn 8 with lots of smoke and fire in the engine bay". I figure we just pushed too hard. I see Sam pull into a cut off and ask if he's OK and if he's on fire. He says no, no fire, and he really doesn't know what happened because when he saw the smoke it was making no odd noises, still had 60 psi of oil pressure, and the car was running good. I figured it blew a seal in the turbo so we waited for the roll back to bring Sam to us.
We were disappointed because I told the guys at the start of the day I'd be happy if we finished the race with a running car and a not too long list of things that needed fixing before the next race and up till then, we were on track to do that. When Sam got back we got the car in the air and couldn't believe what we saw.
At some point in our radiator/water pump/lower hose changes we had apparently cut the cable tie for one of the oil cooler/filter hoses and IT had rubbed on the power steering pulley putting a pinhole in it, which proceeded to spray directly on the downpipe making huge quantities of smoke and a small but brief fire.
I told Mark to get in his gear that we were going to be ready to strap him in the car in 10 minutes and we were going to finish this race. We found a piece of 1/2" OK brass tube, cut out the bad section, shoved the two together, double clamped it on each end and got Mark in the car. Out he went and with flipping the fuel pump on and off was able to finish the race with a running car.
We finished 29th, exactly 100 laps down (that's right, with all the stops Sunday and the oil line and all that, we didn't lose any laps, that's how fast we were when we were running) so I felt like we had a successful, if not awesome weekend for the first time out.
I'll post once more with my notes on things to fix and needs to be addressed in a little bit, if anyone is still reading.
John Stricker
Dogma Racing
OK, first a picture. This comes from the Lemons Official Pictures:
I post this for three reasons. First, the #50 wagon was one slow POS, but it was unique. Second, the Green MR2 was called the MRolla. These guys did something incredible. They used an MR2 and left the engine intact in the back, then put a complete Corolla drivetrain engine in the front, fully functional, for a twin engined race car. It wasn't real competitive and was plagued with problems, but they have to be given credit for the effort!! Last, our car is the car in back, about to pass the two of them as that's not far before the back straight and there was nobody we couldn't pass on the back straight!
So, back to our car...
We learned once again that the details will kill you. I should have changed the radiator out before I even let the car on track for the test and tune on Friday. I knew that radiator wasn't up to the task, I knew it should be changed, but my exhaustion let me get talked aout of it. I don't blame anyone but myself for that, I made the decision and it cost us tons and tons of laps.
Never, ever run a fuel system that you might even have the slightest suspicion might not be perfectly clean. It will come back to bite you in the ass as it did us.
Always check the details. When hoses rub on spinning pulleys no good can come of this.
Take plenty of spares. Thankfully we did that part right, we just had to use too many of them.
So my list of things to fix:
1) Replace the lower radiator hose with a new one. My spare was used.
2) Double check and properly clamp the oil cooler/filter lines so they are secure.
3) The fuel pressure gauge quit about 1/2 way through the race, find out why and fix that.
4) Drop the fuel tank and clean it out again. If it can't be cleaned find a good one somewhere. I'm also toying with making it larger when it's out. I'd like to be able to run for 2 hours which we can't do right now although I think that was due to issues with the 'vette fuel sock at least partially.
5) Put in the Walbro pump and maybe even figure out a dual pump setup for a backup. I have an idea for that but we'll see.
6) I had wired the low fuel light to work but we don't know if it does or not.
7) The top of the instrument panel needs to be made black, too much glare with the white on the windshield.
8) Need a hood or cover on the shiftlight. It worked great when the guys could see it, unfortunately that wasn't often during full day as the LED's aren't bright enough.
9) Empty the ashtrays.
10) Pinion seal is leaking enough to get the back of the car dirty so either change that or the whole third member (I have a spare).
11) Replace the fuel filter - AGAIN.
I have other things that I didn't have time to get done that are here.
1) Solid sub-frame bushings to be installed
2) Poly control arm bushings.
3) Get a race alignment on the car with more neg. camber, especially on the front.
I was surprised that we only went through one set of tires. Probably wouldn't have made that if we'd been running the whole time, but still we went 500 race miles and there's still decent tread left on them. I can't recommend the Toyo's enough for Lemons racing.
The car handled well. Flat, stable, smooth at the top end. It still has the patented Supra 1/2 second delay on it's reaction from when you turn the wheel to the time the car actually DOES something. I might try to pull some Caster out of it to help that. The guys all said it was comfortable to drive and well mannered and we're looking forward to the next outing. I'm not sure when that will be because they just cancelled the race at Omaha due to the flooding there (the track is under 2' of water right now and more is expected). Maybe Dallas in December, maybe Chicago sooner than that. We'll see.
So there you have it, my race report in the Supra. Any questions or comments I'll be happy to try to answer, if anyone's even bothered to read this far.
John Stricker
Russell, KS
Dogma Racing
I post this for three reasons. First, the #50 wagon was one slow POS, but it was unique. Second, the Green MR2 was called the MRolla. These guys did something incredible. They used an MR2 and left the engine intact in the back, then put a complete Corolla drivetrain engine in the front, fully functional, for a twin engined race car. It wasn't real competitive and was plagued with problems, but they have to be given credit for the effort!! Last, our car is the car in back, about to pass the two of them as that's not far before the back straight and there was nobody we couldn't pass on the back straight!
So, back to our car...
We learned once again that the details will kill you. I should have changed the radiator out before I even let the car on track for the test and tune on Friday. I knew that radiator wasn't up to the task, I knew it should be changed, but my exhaustion let me get talked aout of it. I don't blame anyone but myself for that, I made the decision and it cost us tons and tons of laps.
Never, ever run a fuel system that you might even have the slightest suspicion might not be perfectly clean. It will come back to bite you in the ass as it did us.
Always check the details. When hoses rub on spinning pulleys no good can come of this.
Take plenty of spares. Thankfully we did that part right, we just had to use too many of them.
So my list of things to fix:
1) Replace the lower radiator hose with a new one. My spare was used.
2) Double check and properly clamp the oil cooler/filter lines so they are secure.
3) The fuel pressure gauge quit about 1/2 way through the race, find out why and fix that.
4) Drop the fuel tank and clean it out again. If it can't be cleaned find a good one somewhere. I'm also toying with making it larger when it's out. I'd like to be able to run for 2 hours which we can't do right now although I think that was due to issues with the 'vette fuel sock at least partially.
5) Put in the Walbro pump and maybe even figure out a dual pump setup for a backup. I have an idea for that but we'll see.
6) I had wired the low fuel light to work but we don't know if it does or not.
7) The top of the instrument panel needs to be made black, too much glare with the white on the windshield.
8) Need a hood or cover on the shiftlight. It worked great when the guys could see it, unfortunately that wasn't often during full day as the LED's aren't bright enough.
9) Empty the ashtrays.
10) Pinion seal is leaking enough to get the back of the car dirty so either change that or the whole third member (I have a spare).
11) Replace the fuel filter - AGAIN.
I have other things that I didn't have time to get done that are here.
1) Solid sub-frame bushings to be installed
2) Poly control arm bushings.
3) Get a race alignment on the car with more neg. camber, especially on the front.
I was surprised that we only went through one set of tires. Probably wouldn't have made that if we'd been running the whole time, but still we went 500 race miles and there's still decent tread left on them. I can't recommend the Toyo's enough for Lemons racing.
The car handled well. Flat, stable, smooth at the top end. It still has the patented Supra 1/2 second delay on it's reaction from when you turn the wheel to the time the car actually DOES something. I might try to pull some Caster out of it to help that. The guys all said it was comfortable to drive and well mannered and we're looking forward to the next outing. I'm not sure when that will be because they just cancelled the race at Omaha due to the flooding there (the track is under 2' of water right now and more is expected). Maybe Dallas in December, maybe Chicago sooner than that. We'll see.
So there you have it, my race report in the Supra. Any questions or comments I'll be happy to try to answer, if anyone's even bothered to read this far.
John Stricker
Russell, KS
Dogma Racing
Too bad John hasn't posted here since 2012. I hope nothing has happened to him.
I'm in the middle of a Chump Car build of a 1989 NA Supra and this thread was fascinating reading.
I'm in the middle of a Chump Car build of a 1989 NA Supra and this thread was fascinating reading.