clarkspeed
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Posts posted by clarkspeed
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And here are a few more of the final terminations. Maybe 20 into the data/video system. And yes I have 3 things stuck on the roof.
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Yea i planned all of the wiring based on how many amps eaxh thing needs. In previous projects I kind of guessed and went oversize on most.
Here is a photo of my label printer and the 2 size shrink labels i used. Works great. I purchased all off Ali-express and shipped from China. Maybe Amazon has something similar by now.
Here is my favorite crimper. And decent for stripping.
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As far as a visqueen paint booth, i did that once many years ago. Had some fairly heavy translucent stuff and wrapped it over a pvc frame. Overhead lighting was ok but i also used some quartz shop lights on the sides. Plenty of advice out there on web.
I was real scared of using fans in an explosive atmosphere. I ended up buying 3 cheap box fans and let them blow into the tent. Put some cheap ac filters on back of fans and put another set on the floor with the garage door open about 1.5ft for air exit and not upset my neighbors. Worked very well and air changed over quickly without creating a tornado. Could not smell it outside.
My only advice is:
1.Auto paint is made to lay wet and flow. Slow to dry. Overspray will cover EVERYTHING. So make sure your booth is solid and expect anything inside the booth to match your car after.
2. Make sure you have good lighting. Some of the plastic will take a little of the overspray.
3.dont forget the floor. I usually throw down another piece of plastic or a clean tarp. I tried a wet floor 1 time and the water dries out too fast.
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On 5/26/2023 at 5:45 PM, AydinZ71 said:
@Ben280 yeah I had not heard of it until I did a bunch of online research. If it’s good enough for a military aircraft, it’s gotta be good for a race car!
This time around, I had time to read your full list. Do you mind sharing the make/model of some of your tools? Stripper, crimper, etc? There are soooo many options it’s a bit overwhelming.
The damn name is worn off handle of my crimper. It has a blue handle and does crimping and stripping near the handle end. It has a cutter on the forward tip and strips down to a very high gauge #. I think i purchased at Lowes. I have high end ratcheting crimpers and multiple all in 1 crimpers, but nothing works as good as this one. Makes perfect crimps every time. Many of the strip only tools i have work fine. I think consistent (standard) copper diameter and soft insulation made the stripping easy.
It looks just like the Ideal 45-778
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On 5/26/2023 at 11:03 AM, AydinZ71 said:
Wow look at that! Nice wiring job! what kind of wire did you buy? I bought some tezfel Mil-spec wire to try out. The insulation appears to be lighter and it withstands higher temps for the engine bay. Looking great Clark.
What fuel do you plan to run? Leaded?
This engine is built at 13:1 compression. I will run 108 octane or better. Yes leaded.
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On 5/26/2023 at 11:03 AM, AydinZ71 said:
Wow look at that! Nice wiring job! what kind of wire did you buy? I bought some tezfel Mil-spec wire to try out. The insulation appears to be lighter and it withstands higher temps for the engine bay. Looking great Clark.
What fuel do you plan to run? Leaded?
Yea the tezfel is good stuff. It is not easy to strip. Waytec is a good source if unsure of what to use..
I used standard cheap wire for power/grounds. Bought a ton of colors and gauges off eBay. Diameters were very consistent. I only race this thing 3-4 times a year and it lives in a garage. If it gets shabby 10-15 years from now, you can pull out the harness and build another. I was a little more careful with data wiring. I do plan to protect the wires running near the engine.
In my summary i listed the all things I thought werw important. Some stuff I spend the extra $ on, some stuff I dont think is worth it. Just my opinion.
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8 hours ago, JMortensen said:
All that electrical makes me feel functionally retarded. Nice job.
After wiring 3 cars i finally got the hang of it. Probably a year of planning up front. Read alot of materials and looked at alot of race car photos. At this point, i think it may be my best skill when building/restoring race cars.
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Sounds like you got the hang of dealing with polycarbonate sheet. (NOT PLEXIGLASS I HOPE). i follow pretty much the same process but use an old windshield for a template to cut. I apply tape, draw outline on tape and cut thru tape with a jigsaw. Ive never had a problem with shattering or chipping? Cut a little large and work ot down. Sander, saw, grinder, whatever. I use the cheapest sheet I can find. Not optical grade, no special coatings, And i am not restricted to the thickness specified by SCCA. Stuff is pretty much indestructable. Fun to play around with cast off peices trying to break them. Tape it off, little sanding, and spray the border with rattle can flat black on inside.
Trick is caring for it after install. Never let a drop of solvent touch it. I use Novus products to clean with paper towels.
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Well this is how you wire a race car. Or any car for that matter.
1. All splices lineman wrapped, soldered, and sealed with glue lined shrink.
2. All terminals crimped perfect with glue lined shrink. Use a good stripping and crimping tool. Does not mean expensive. Look under a magnifying glass that the strip is clean with no wires cut. Crimp based on wire gauge. Pull test after crimp.
3. Use the correct size terminals. Red, blue, yellow for the correct wire gauge. Do not use a larger terminal for a small wire.
4. A few weather-tite connectors thrown in for removable components. Most everything is wired point to point. No break connectors at firewall. No relays currently.
5. All data cables ran with 3 wire shielded cable and aerospace connectors. Very careful with any splices and solder the shields. Terminate shield at only 1 end with a ground pigtail.
6. 3 separate harnesses formed. Power, EFI, and data.
7. Buy a ton of wire all from the same source with same insulation. Limit the gauges to what you need based on amperage. Makes stripping and crimping more consistent.
8. use only glue lined shrink tubing.
9. Buy a wire label shrink tube marker machine. Label all wire ends. I bought a cheap label printer from China and a few cartridges of 5.3 and 8.8mm white tube. Works great.
10. Plan in 3 trips through your harnesses and leave 1 or both ends loose until you get the harness figured out. Then start terminating from 1 end and temp form the harness as you go. Form the harness where it needs to be before terminating the final end. Do not final tywrap until you are sure you have everything included and in the desired route.
11. As I mentioned before, plan everything out before you start. List every electrical component and plan a rough wiring diagram.
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"I'm never doing this again". Ha Ha!
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Thanks for posting!
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Diesel crank, .060 over, 3.0L, 13:1 compression, 33cc chambers, forged flat top pistons, 0.58 lift, 304 duration cam, blah, blah blah.
2 days of pulling wire. And a slightly blurry sample of my wiring diagram.
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I just disassemble them, clean, and reassemble. As long as the o-rings look OK and no metal inside. They tend to get gummy in the inside. Also replaced all the fittings and gauge. Dont remember pedigree of this one but may have bought used. Currently building my own cable remote valve. But it will be mounted in passenger floorboard. I usually wrap with some header insulation to keep heat down. Never had any leaks.
Another milestone complete.
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Wish I had more to show. Started with some of the electrical and plumbing. Changed a set of 20" truck tires on the tire machine Cleaned out the Accusump I had. Those things get really nasty over time, but no metal chips seen. Will pick up the motor Friday. AND I installed the rear tow hook!
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On 4/11/2023 at 4:59 PM, tube80z said:
That's a large cell. Is it set up for longer enduro style events or are the images misleading on size?
15 gallon. Yea, needed for longer races of 50-55 minutes. There is a mandatory 5 min pitstop, but I don't want to deal with refueling. I usually see little over 5 gal burn in 20 minutes and fuel to level needed.
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Sorry I have not been following. I would have recommended a few minor changes. But it looks spectacular.
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Got a little behind due to work travels. I'm really lucky when I do travel it is to some nice places. It almost makes up for the endless time spent in airports and rushing to the next place. Last 2 weeks were Portsmouth Great Brittian, Berlin, and Piza Italy.
Anyway fuel cell finally installed and brakes leak checked. This is an older cell I re-foamed and replaced gaskets.
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POST #5 and last. Advanced Data Collection and Analysis
If you want to go beyond the barebone basics then you have some tough decisions to make. Especially if you are not familiar with this kind of analysis. Before you go out and purchase something, you should think about what your requirements are. I put together a list of some options I am aware of.
1. Does the software allow you to easily look at what you want to see? Does it automatically generate graphs you need? Does it easily let you drill down in details? Do you need a configurable screen overlay? Do you want to create custom ways to look at your data?
2. Do you need to download to excel? Time is money here. The simple systems should spit out something you can use quickly if at an Autocross, and the most complex systems should have the ability to develop you own analysis screens so you can make decisions quickly based on complex data.
3. Do you want to primarily analyze the driver inputs, monitor vehicle parameters, improve car performance or a combination of all 3?
4. How do you want to display and interact with the data?
a. Standalone box that records and displays data via. phone or built in screen. Think about how quick you will need to access the data.
b. Box that records data and downloads it over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
c. Box that has a memory card you must remove and transfer into a laptop. A little archaic and cumbersome.
d. Box that transmits real time data over cell phone network (telemetry). This is really nice for endurance racing.
5. What is the “total” Price – software, connections, sensors
6. Will you be sharing data with other people?
7. Do you want to combine with vehicle OBD II data?
8. Do you have future expansion needs or are the basics enough?
9. Do you want to combine with a dash readout?
10. Does the system have the resolution and accuracy you need?
11. Does the system have the ability to use at the location of your events. Is power available for a laptop? Is the GPS accurate enough? Durable enough for desert racing? Boat racing?
12. Do you want live driver in the loop feedback? I will talk more about this later.
Personally I think systems fall into 3 catagories.
Beginner level stuff is usually cheaper and limited on what you can record and how fast you can record, typically 5-50Hz Stand alone units like AIM SoloII, Garmin, and RaceBox have some great products. They don’t allow additional sensors, but catch all the basics, are accurate, easy to use, and fairly priced. Phone apps are also in this level and are a great place to start if you want to get a feel for the potential advantages of collecting data can do. But phones are more limited in analysis and the sensors are not as accurate. Price < $1000.
Mid-level units are one step above. Usually record multiple channels and can interface with your CAN system. 50-100Hz is the normal sample rate here. They have great software programs that can be simple or customized. And math channels that can calculate your own variables. Typically interface with sensors you choose. Most can be upgraded to something very close to a top level system. Price $1000-$4000.
The top level pro systems are fully customizable and are suited to mate with pro level sensors and measure just about anything you can dream up. 1000Hz sampling rates are common. They have multiple complex filtering options, telemetry options, dash, engine control, on and on. $4000+
The hardware boxes themselves are fairly simple. Usually only a few connections and if you are using external sensors, most systems provide plug and play capability. High end automotive sensors can be expensive but as mentioned earlier, cheaper substitutes can be put together using simple materials like load cells and potentiometers. String pots are a good universal sensor for movement and can be purchased used. Even if using custom sensors or adapting OEM sensors they are usually only 2 or 3 wire connections (+/-/Signal). Most all boxes have accurate GPS location and high-fidelity G sensors. This usually requires a flat mounting near center of car. Some even include a yaw sensor. The main differences are how many sensors it can monitor (channels), how many samples does it take per second, and does it have a CAN interface to monitor vehicle functions already available.
The higher up the ladder you go, the more technical the systems become. Most all can be used at a basic level, but to fully utilize the software usually requires an engineering degree. The analysis software is a very important interface.
If pure driver improvement is your goal, then one of the best features you can get is a way to provide direct driver feedback. Think about a coach sitting next to you telling you to brake later or carry more speed here. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, by far the largest component of faster lap times is driver dependent. I became addicted on this technology while driving iRacing sims during the pandemic. iRacing provides a live readout of slip time to your best lap and more importantly, a bar graph of the slip rate. The slip rate is how fast you are losing/gaining time to your best lap. An example would be if you spin the tires on corner exit and lost 0.5 second quickly. You would see the red bar max out the graph for a moment. As you gather the car up and accelerate down the next straight you would see the bar graph just very slightly in the red zone as you lose a small amount of time all the way down the straight. If you perform a sequence better than your fastest lap, you get a green bar. Simple and very effective.
I believe all the higher end systems provide this feature sometimes depending on also having their display. On the low end one of the more innovative systems is RaceBox. Just a simple red/green bar graph is the only output. But complex programming runs in the background to filter out the noise and make it as accurate as possible. Another interesting unit is the Garmin Catalyst. It provides an audio instruction on where and how to go faster. The Garmin has it’s own screen and quick drill down graphs to show the time differences. There used to be another stand alone audio coach unit but I could not find it on a search.
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I know very little about aero design. My race classes are fairly restrictive. I did attend a seminar by Jeff Braun where he described a small flap mounted slightly in front of front fender cutout and in the radius of the cutout, not really a dive plane and certainly not a gurney flap. Generating turbulant air next to the wheel pulls a vacuum under the hood. He said it works every time and called it the cheapest easiest way to make downforce if legal to do so. You can see this design on every NHRA Funny Car.
Here are some cool videos showing F1 and Nascar Aero design. The F1 video is amazing.
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Love the pic of your kids holding bumper 😀
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I really like the idea.
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Static compression is calculated based on bore, stroke, and volumes. Dynamic compression takes into account valve opening events. Longer duration cams reduce the dynamic compression. I have read you can have too much dynamic compression, say a low duration cam on a high compression engine, but I have never never seen any real numbers on what the limit is. My my guess would be less power at higher rpm's.
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Yes, not so much the transducers, but the entire firewall. On the 1000 pics I have viewed when planning this thing, I realized a sandblasting of the area behind the tires is expected. So I have a guard planned for the front and a full fender liner for the rear. Will probably fab both in the next few weeks.
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A shot of the front and rear pressure transducers and brake pressure switch.
Replaced foam in fuel cell tonight. Then immediately began ordering more parts I discovered I need.
IMSA GTU vintage racer build
in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z
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Im guessing the crimper is an Irwin? I have a nice racheting style that is easier on hands and crimps to same force each time. But i have multiple terminal brands so it ends up being inconsistent.
I just sourced my battery wire at 4 ga. I had a hard time with that one. Hope its not too small.