burninator

Right, typo.

When burned brake cleaner can be converted in to dangerous gasses. Specifically hydrogen chloride and phosgene. Both are nasty stuff and can cause permanent harmful effects possibly even death being exposed to very small amounts. Hydrogen Chloride Phosgene I'm not saying it happens every time with every brand of brake cleaner, but I wouldn't do it. Check the warning label anyways, and take it seriously.

Thanks for explaining that. I never would have guessed the jacking effect from lots of camber was enough to affect rear traction, but the spacers probly magnify that. It's definitely true that autocrossers do some interesting stuff sometimes that wouldn't work well on a track or on the street.

This is my 4th year autocrossing.

We get a mix of different course types. They are probly a little tighter than what others are used to because we only have a few places close by to use and the lots are fairly small. What spring rates and tires are you using? Any other relevant mods?

I had forgotten all about those as an option. You may be right about stiffer compression damping being the way to go (if that's what you meant), but the dampers are rebound adjustable only. I did try going the other way (stiffer rebound) on a buddy's suggestion and that didn't help (might have made it worse). Softening the rebound on the front makes it transfer more weight to the rear and helps it hook up. I think the only way to know about the rear toe thing is to try it out and see how else it affects the car. I'll look into the price of those bushings and put them on my list along with the big anti-roll bar and the lsd. I don't know about welding the diff. On a tight autocross course it seems like it would make it pretty hard to turn. Yeah, my car is N/A. All 122 hp of it.

Well, excuse me for being blunt back. I have some caster with the EMI plates, more would be difficult. However, you can't say caster isn't a trade off in a car with sticky tires and manual steering that's already a pain to steer at low speeds (a real ***** when stopped), more caster would increase the steering effort. But your talking about increasing turn in and front grip in a car that already oversteers so I can do "various other settings" to bias the car more towards rear grip, but your not giving me much there. You mentioned rear toe in which I did address, and I'd have to modify my rear LCAs or puchase completely new ones to accomplish edit - forgot about camber bushings, I just explained that I can't do that right now. There are also trade-offs to rear toe-in it may reduce oversteer but it can also reduce turn-in. A big front roll bar is a good suggestion is also something I've thought of, but it's not without tradeoffs either, in exchange for altering the balance it can reduce grip in the front by lifting the inside front tire. I'm obviously not an expert, but to the best of my knowledge handling balancing is full of compromises. I'm not sure there is 1 right answer. Sorry if I seem defensive here. If you have any suggestions I'd still like to hear them. I wasn't trying to knock the suggestions you made, but you've offended me by suggesting that I'm arbitrarily rejecting the perfect solutions I'm being offered (but maybe I'm reading too much into your comment). I thought maybe my existing setup could be changed to improve it. I'm not putting limitations on what I'm willing to do, except that I don't have the money to start buying new parts right now. A Quaife?! Sounds Expensive. Thanks for the offer, but unless the right price is right around a 1 followed by 2 (but only 2) zeros I'll have to pass. I'll keep it in mind if I come into some extra cash and you haven't sold it yet. Thanks again everyone for your help. I have some things to try out and some things to save my money for.

I don't like compromising handling to keep balance, but I'd still rather not add traction and make the car harder to handle. Everything is a trade-off. I'll see what happens with the pivot relocation. It would be nice to have an LSD if not for the cost a couple hundred dollars might not be much to some people, but to me... well, someday it'll happen. I'll keep my eye out for some used parts. Rear toe is non-adjustable.

Ok, that's what we were thinking. Thanks for that suggestion. Adding half a quart is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping would work. I'll try it out and get that gauge hooked up. Hopefully I won't have to resort to adding baffles.

Under deceleration I seem to be getting a loudish rhythmic clanking noise from the engine. One friend who saw it said it sounded like hydraulic lifters making noise and that it could be from low oil pressure. I have an N42 head and I'm fairly certain it has solid lifters though. I don't have an oil pressure gauge hooked up at the moment, but I will by the next autocross (car is not street legal). The noise always stops after a few seconds. Any ideas what it might be? Sorry if it's been answered before, I tried searching and came up empty. Also, noises are hard for me to describe, I hope I'm making sense.

Probly right about the lsd, and I've thought about it. But from what I can tell it's a fairly expensive modification. I just can't see spending that right now. Wider tires are definitely in the cards, also expensive though. I think I'll burn through these first... they'll last the rest of the season. I am still hoping to find a solution that will help (even if it's not the ultimate solution) by making changes to my current setup. After spending so much on the suspension parts I just put in I can't start spending big dollars again right away. What am I likely to notice by moving the inner pivot up? Is my theory about less roll in the front keeping the rear tire planted (like adding a larger front bar) at all sound, or am I way off base? If moving the inner pivot up is likely to give me more grip in the front and change the balance back toward more oversteer I can't see it being beneficial at this point. But, if all I have to do is add a little more static toe out and have it reduce my roll (thus helping the rear grip) then I'll jump right on that. Thanks for the suggestions.

Over the winter I sectioned my struts, installed Koni Yellows, EMI camber plates (front and rear), 350 lb/in front springs, 300 lb/in rear springs, and urethane bushings on the whole suspension (except the rear bushings on the t/c rod which are replacement rubber). It has no rear sway bar and the stock front sway bar. My car now handles a billion times better than it did last year. I have a 240 with that's totally stripped out on 205/55/14 Nitto NT-01 tires front and rear. I only use this car for autocross. I'm trying to perfect the setup. First I reduced the damping in the front, then I raised the front ride height a bit, both of these changes were to reduce the oversteer I'm getting. It feels better now, and is fairly neutral, but I'd like to be able to get back on the gas sooner out of corners. Right now when I start getting back on the throttle the inside tire spins and the car will oversteer. I've thought of trying to raise the inner front LCA pivot thinking raising the (geometric) roll center might make it roll less in the front and keep the rear more planted giving me better traction in the rear. But I know this will also reduce the bump-steer which I think might be keeping it stable earlier in the turns. This may also give me a better camber curve (for what little roll I have, I'm not sure how much affect this will have) which might give me more traction in the front causing more oversteer. I may not know enough about suspension to even be asking questions like this but I'm learning. Also, I have searched a lot and it helps but leaves me with more questions. Anyone got any advice for me?

This rule really does seem lame. I liked the KERS systems because I can see how it would open things up with the strategy and ability to pass. I also think the KERS tech might trickle down into consumer cars. With this adjustable wing rule since you can't deploy it when your in front, I can see how it could make the cars leapfrog back and forth so it's just the car that passes last that wins. Or strategicaly the car following the leader would wait until the last possible straight of the race to deploy it and pass and the lead car would be helpless to avoid being overtaken. Seems unfair and silly.

I'm not an expert, but I just did this so I'll just give you some ideas for consideration. You need to take into account the stock spring perch location, the free length of the stock springs, and the sag of the stock springs. Then compare those to the free length of the new springs, the expected sag of the new springs, and the change in ride height you want. Here are some numbers for example (I'm just pulling this stuff out of the air). If your new springs are 2 inches shorter you probly want raise the perch height by 2 inches. If your new springs will sag 1 inch less than your old ones you probly want to lower the perch back down an inch. If you wanted to lower your car 1 inch you probly need to lower the perch another inch. Then if your collar is 5" long and you want to be in the middle of your collar (not crucial, but it may give you a buffer to be wrong on some of this stuff or to change your spring rate someday) then you probly want to weld the ring for the collar to sit on 2.5 inches below that. Then do some thinking and make sure you will have antiquate room for the pieces and enough suspension travel without hitting something and adjust from there. Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for being wrong here, I'm just telling you what I did and it ended up that I was a bit off. I welded it on about an inch lower than I should have, but the 2 inches of adjustment either way on the adjustable collars saved me. So take my advice with a grain of salt. I didn't follow the 5" and 7" recommendation because my springs were only 8" instead of the 10" from the write-up and I'm running pretty stiff springs (350F/300R).

The bushing in the picture looks the same as a t/c rod bushing and I don't know what else you'd call a strut rod. I'm going to go with yes, its probly the same thing, but I couldn't say 100% for sure.

Better to put too much thought into it than not enough I suppose. Thanks for the advice.

Okay, one more question on the spot to weld the rings for the threaded collars to sit on. The height my car was sitting at before was about 5" at the rockers, and I think that is probly a good height to shoot for right? The (cut) springs I had before were 11.5 inches in the front and 12.5 inches in the rear, if they each compress 4.5 to 5 inches (assuming a spring rate near 100 lbs which I think is close to accurate for cut stock springs). My new springs should compress about 1.5" and are 8" long so with the 3.5" difference in length (for the front) adjusted to about 3-3.5" difference in sag I'm thinking I'll want the springs to sit at the same height to make the ride height the same. So in order to get the spring in the middle of the adjustment I'd weld on the ring for the 5" threaded sleeve to sit on about 2.5" below where the stock spring perch height. And the rears should be 1.5" below the stock spring perch location in to make up for the 1" longer rear springs. Does that make sense? Or is my logic just wrong?

That's just a spacer on the rear right? or is that both? By my measurements the front is 2 1/16" too long and the rear is 3 3/4" too long. I was just planning on using a spacer in the rear, but a small spacer in the front gives me a little more room for error if my measurements aren't exact. I don't think the strut sectioning faq mentions a front spacer.

I am getting ready to section my struts to install my new koni 8610s. I just want to make sure I understand how it goes together first. I searched, but came up empty. If I'm the only one who has had trouble with this then I feel really dumb. So the struts each came with a 3/8" wide steel ring (spacer?), a plastic washer of some kind, a stepped bushings, regular nuts, and 2 thinner (jam) nuts. How does it all go together? I also have EMI camber plates. The plastic washer I think should go on top of the strut insert under the gland nut, but it won't fit inside the gland nut. Should I trim it, or do I have it all wrong? The bushings look like they drop onto the tops of the strut rod so it fits snugly in the EMI camber plate. Thick side on top I'm guessing? The steel ring looks like it could go under the strut insert inside the tube, but I read no mention of it in the sectioning faq. Should I discard it? The nuts I'm sure at least one goes on top to hold it all together, but I wouldn't be able to get a wrench on it to turn a jam nut tight against it so I'm not sure what that's all about. Thanks for any advice.

That drill bit would have been great. What I ended up doing was grinding several of the largest brackets that stick out the furthest off with an angle grinder. That worked okay, but took a long time and it was hard to get the grinder in several places. If a person had something lower profile like an air grinder it would be easier. You do have to be careful not to grind too fast or get too deep because it's hard to tell when you've actually ground through the bracket. Most of the brackets I just left if they didn't seem to dangerous. Right now I just have a couple switches mounted on a bent piece of aluminum. When I get around to mounting gauges I will just stick them on a metal plate or something. I'm not getting too fancy, it's just a race car and for me the simpler and lighter I can make it the better without getting to ghetto. I'm not going to win any shows with it, but it's functional. I'll post pics when I get a bit further so you guys can point out everything I did wrong.

The springs are not exactly the same length, but they're close enough to work.

If I'm not mistaken lug nuts also have a specific angle to them that interfaces with the wheel. I think the matching angle is important to the strength and to keep the nuts tight. I'd make sure the lug nuts you use have a matching angle for the ones that came with the wheel.

I tried calculating it the best I could using this engine calculator: http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/calcs/engine%20builder/index.html and this one: http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/enginedesign/ Neither calculator would let me put in the exact engine combo with the MN47 head, but I typed in some of the info manually (copied from one calculator to the other when applicable). Doing that the AtlanticZ calculator gave the L26/E88 combo a static compression of 8.14:1 and the Ozdat gave it 8.256:1 The L26/MN47 AtlanticZ gave 8.97:1 and Ozdat gave it a 9.11:1 static compression ratio. I think either way its probably streetable on pump gas. But don't take my word for it, play around yourself and research the knock sensitivity of these heads, I think the MN47 head is high quench so will have a different tolerance for knock than the E88.