Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

At MOTD, Colin rode along with me for a day. He commented that the seating position with my Corbeau seats was a bit "flatter" than he would like. I hadn't really thought about it before then, but as soon as I heard it, I knew that was correct... they really did need a little more tilt to the lower cushion.

So I pulled the seats and added about 7-8mm of spacer between the seat base and the slider rail, on the front bolts. Didn't impact the function of the sliders or the integrity of the seat, just pitched the seat back a bit. And OMG I can't believe the difference. Wish I had done this before I drove 2000 miles last week.

In this pic, the passenger seat is "done", driver is yet to be done. Subtle in the pic, significant in person. Both took less than an hour.


Yesterday, had planned to swap the auto accelerator pedal, for the one from the GP.

Why? Because the auto pedal has a "kick down" detent at the bottom of travel, to activate the gear kick down function on the auto tranny control. No such thing on the manual. Everything still works fine, but the detent is vestigial.

After getting the alloy pedal cover swapped, I discovered that some crafty engineers used a slightly different connector on the auto wiring harness and pedal, I assume to prevent a careless technician from accidentally doing what I'm attempting to do on purpose. :roll eyes:


So, an hour wasted, as I put everything back to it's original state. I plan to disassemble the GP pedal and see if it's easy to swap the connector module between the two pedal assemblies, but this requires a 5-point tamper resistant driver bit, which I had to order from eBay. I'm traveling next week, so will be a couple of weeks before I can make another attempt.

 

These are for the track only. I'll keep running the 16" Star Specs for the twisties.

I'll probably drive three hours each way to the track on the NT01's next week. After that, I'll have a wheel trailer.

But it's possible I might have the trailer ready by next week...

 

Next week is CMP. Which is also the last track I drove, and where I met the tire wall. :eek6:

But it's a great track for MINIs, and mine should be able to haul the mail a bit better in the straights than last time I was there. I had a great instructor/coach last time, who also owns a MINI, so he had me pushing the car as hard as it could go on my old brakes and tires. 100% my responsibility, that I pushed it a little harder than *I* could go, on that particular day.

With the track pads in and the new calipers, I had more brake than tire with the StarSpecs, so I'm looking forward to having more longitudinal grip. I was already able to carry good speed around the corners, and will be a little more conservative on how early I get on throttle until I get a feel for the new setup (that's what did me in last time). But now with the LSD and more grip and more torque from the GP ECU/tune and manual.... it's gonna be a bit "different" than the last time I was on-track.

Will have 8 sessions over two days, if I stay out of the wall this time. Will be a good chance to get comfortable with the new setup, on a track that's less fast than VIR.

Should have the stroker in before VIR in September. Then... watch out. :devil:

 

I've come a long way, since I bought your old Koni FSD's.

 

Supplies...



Yes, I'm going to run lawn mower oil and diesel truck oil in my uber expensive built engine. For a short while.

 

Good progress today...

Started the swap-over of stuff to the new motor.

Swapping the valve covers gave me a chance to gander at the internals of the new head...


Installed plugs per Jan's spec, confirmed proper gap of 0.028"


Was going to swap over my ATI Super Damper... but broke 6 T40 bits trying to remove a bolt to pull it. One of which flew into my forehead and drew blood...

Two bolts came out fine, no others would budge. Finally punted and ordered a new damper. Current one has almost 100k miles on it, probably time to rebuild anyway, if I can ever get it off.

Pulled the transmission and cracked open the case. Actually looked nice and clean for a 76k mile tranny... that's good.

There was a nice collection of metallic goo on the magnet inside...


That's better...


Pressed the ring gear off the factory LSD...


And pressed it onto the new OS Giken LSD...


Pressed on a new pair of bearings...



Where it belongs. Bolts torqued with red loctite.


Case sealed and reassembled...


Swapped clutch onto the new motor, and fitted the transmission. Started swapping over brackets, sensors, oil filter housing, intake manifold studs, thermostat and stuff. Almost there...



About an hour tomorrow to finish up installing starter, hoses and engine harness... and it will be ready to hang! But I'm going to detour to installing meth system and gauge/datalogger system first, while the engine is out.

 

Getting really close to hanging this back in the car...


Sold my TPR-1 head today, pulled it off the old block to inspect it. Head looks good after about 100k miles. Cam had some visible galling after about 125k miles, time for a new one.
Cylinders and pistons look good. A little carbon on the pistons, but not much considering the mileage. Meth works wonders.




Tomorrow will install the Greene Performance slave, start on the Aquamist, and might hang the engine... Also need to work on fixing my flex joint on the old header, to use for a little while. Might fire up the welder and DIY it...