Roman

Mould is ready to go. Will do another coat of PVA mould release stuff on it first, then blob it up once epoxy arrives. I'm 90% confident that it's not going to come out of the mould, and it's gonna go straight onto the wall of shame. Also it might not like being drilled and tapped, maybe it will just break? Which reminds me, I need to setup a wall of shame in the shed. For some reason its fun when I think something might not actually work. It's exciting to see if it will.

Yeah doing an aluminium casting would be fun. Although, lost PLA for a plaster mould for the epoxy stuff could be a good scheme too. Might try that next if this doesnt work!

Yeah the carbon nylon stuff has a higher melting temp. But its a bit harder to print and its a lot more expensive. My next scheme is to make a PLA mould and pour in a tool making epoxy. Maybe with some chopped carbon strands smooshed in. Then hopefully melt away the pla to leave the part. Ive found a tool making epoxy that is resistant until 170c, and looks to be decently strong. Needs to be cured for 2 hours at 80deg, then after that an hour at 120. So should melt off the majority of the pla in this process hopefully. Might take a few iterations to gst the idea to work (or it might not work at all) But will be fun. Im printing this at the moment.

Lately the car has been a bit... flat. And it's lost its doort noises for some reason. Since I've fixed the wideband, none of the settings it "wants" have made any sense. It's running way richer than it should be... But everything seems fine? I was thinking my wideband is probably chooched. But it's been slow as well. I was suspecting that the cat converter might be blocked, seeing how I've been using an ignition cut for rpm limiter and launching. Thought I'd better check inside the intake just in case though... Ahhh wtf haha It looks as though the areas of my manifold which werent covered in carbon, have gotten a bit melty and jizzed up the ports. This doesnt seem to make sense because it's been going for months and months just fine... and I've had the manifold off and on several times in that period. But thinking back, this probably happened when the electric waterpump failed and the motor boiled all of its coolant out, and I drove it home as-is. haha. As this material can widthstand "about" 100 degrees, the motor probably quite easily got to 120 or 130. Looks like there's no damage. If there was though, would I regret having a printed manifold? Shit no! 3d printing has been a cornerstone of making this project possible at all. No regerts. Not quite sure what I'll do from here yet though. Maybe a 100% carbon version. Or maybe get some alloy flanges laser cut and get someone to weld the bits together with some pipes in between.

It is a torque at the wheels graph, essentially

Yeah so there's evidence of the coils binding up. So will definitely put some stiffer springs in there. Thanks for the tip @cletus In other news, I've been wondering if it's actually worth revving to 9k at the drags, or for next time if it's more worthwhile shifting at a lower rpm. So using dyno results, gearbox ratios and final drive ratio. Put together tractive effort graph. (followed this as a guide https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/understanding-torque-and-horsepower-with-tractive-force/ ) So if the lines cross over from one gear to the next, it means the motor is revving higher than what is useful. (excuse my lack of meaningful axes labels and values, CBF) I'm only using 3 gears at the drags, so it looks like it's possibly worth short shifting from 2nd to 3rd, but, there's not much in it. Not like it's wanting to change gear a whole 1000rpm earlier or anything. The blue line of first gear being nowhere near 2nd means that it would still be worth revving it even higher. In order for the blue line to cross the red one, I need to keep revving until the power drops to around 105-110hp

The Bilstein springs have heaaappss of non active coils to soak up the fact that it was lower (not by much) But I think what was happening is that the car didnt quite compress the non active coils at ride height. So when you turn it would just tip slightly, then instantly get a real big spring rate increase. So it stayed nice and flat. But in this case it's a linear rate spring. I found someone else who runs these, and they said the spring rates are something like 3.5kg front and 3kg rear. So not hugely stiff. He recommended trying preloading them more first, which makes sense / easiest first option.

In my 8+ years of ownership this car has had one wheel alignment ever Nah it's not bump steering, well, any more than it used to anyway (semi slicks seem to accentuate it) But yeah, I guess if it's changed the castor angle via the top hats it'll probably be a good idea to get another alignment. The only other time was when I swapped in the manual rack. I dont think there's anything that can be adjusted apart from front toe.

This last tank was 35 litres and about 450km So under 8 litres per 100km with some hooning thrown in. I still havent retuned it properly since the wideband situation has improved. I'm going to try head back to the dyno and see if I can spend some time on part throttle stuff, to get economy areas tuned nicely. I want to see if I can connect my ECU to the dyno with canbus, so I can import power/torque into the logs. Then I can generate BSFC numbers in real time. Which is what you really need to see in order to optimize economy areas. Also, yeah I had all of my suspension wound to the softest settings haha. With everything cranked the other way, it feels too stiff and every single bump on the road comes into the car. So it's nice to know that I've got a good usable range to work with. However even on stiffest, now the car rolls funny in the front when the car turns. It's always previously been quite flat in cornering. Not sure if it's because it's a little lower and I've crossed some threshold where now the front roll center has moved significantly. Or just because these springs are softer than my other ones. (more likely) So I'll start with the easiest option first, and preload the springs a bit and raise the front height some more. Otherwise I've got a few other coilover springs to try here.

Vitz etc is for the common peasants, K11 is for the more refined gentleman I put the coilovers in, I was thinking the fronts would end up heavier than previous. Surprisingly overall, now the suspension is lighter. I put the spring rubbers in top and bottom on the rear springs, but the top ones dont fit right as the spring finishes differently. So it's raising the rear height by probably 15mm or so more than it should. Will pull them back out tomorrow and figure out something else. Net result is a 5kg loss, happy with that! Surely must be creeping towards the sub 800kg mark. The rear shocks were the only thing heavier than they started, but since they're adjustable I'll forgive them. The front and rear shocks both have adjusters on them for stiffness, however I'm not yet sure which way to turn them to make stiffer or softer. The rears adjust from the top, and the fronts from the bottom. So do I adjust the front ones clockwise from underneath, then rears clockwise from on top? Or all clockwise looking down from the top? etc? Will figure it out, haha. First impressions driving it is that the front spring rate feels a fair bit softer than the bilstein springs I had in there previously. However now I've got the option to easily swap! Also interesting to note that the new struts tops have some extra castor built in, by pushing the top of the strut further back. (in a fixed position) The steering feels lighter than it did before, not quite sure why yet. Maybe from the extra castor? Although I'm sure I remember hearing that this makes steering heavier not lighter. I'll need to check if the coilover platform/spring/thread protrudes into the area the hoosiers want to occupy. If so I'll need to swap these struts back out for drags. But its a half hour job, not a big deal. Having stiffer rear springs and being able to set the rear shocks stiff will still be a good help. These will pay dividends when it's time to head to a trackday, hopefully some time sooner than later.

I dont think it would be that much. Maybe 5-10 perhaps. But anything extra would be welcome - I was blown away to gain ~6hp from just fuel changes. Incredible! In other news, tonight I have yet again been on the receiving end of some incredible generosity for this project. In exchange for some ongoing engine tuning assistance, I have been given a set of Ohlin coilovers for the Echo. This is better suspension than my Carina has ever had! It's been incredible to be on the receiving end of so many people pitching in to help on this project, in so many different ways. It would have cost heaps to get to this point without HEAPS of people's help along the way. Some of whom have been almost complete strangers who just want to see an Echo living its best life. I'm immensely immensely grateful. I cant wait to see how it drives with these fitted.

It actually would be a bit of fun to make it a dedicated drag car. But then it's the same old problem, need to trailer it everywhere and it just sits around for 99.999% of its existence. Also

This is somewhere around the 800-820kg mark as drag raced (took passenger seat out) Yeah so there's something to be said for average horsepower that a peak number doesnt quite tell the story of. From dyno sheet my motor makes peak torque 5500rpm and peak hp 7600rpm. But it's worth revving it to 9k at the drags, because it means when I change gears it lands into more horsepower. If I changed gear at 7600rpm I'd be landing into 35hp less than what I land into with a 9k shift. Then it takes considerably longer to pull yourself up out of that horsepower hole. And I'd also have to shift into 4th before crossing the line.

I found out the issue with the wideband readings being wrong by heaps. Originally I bought the Spartan 3 wideband from 14point7, and this uses ONLY the LSU-ADV sensor. However canbus didnt work on it, so I got a replacement sent under warranty. The replacement controller was the new version - which can run the LSU-ADV sensor, or, the LSU-4.9 sensor. As they share the same plug. cool right? Except I wasnt aware that it could run both sensors - The replacement was set by default to the 4.9 sensor. D'oh! The calibrations are wildly different between them. The further you go from stoich the worse it gets. I adjusted the controller to the right sensor today, and instantly the lambda values that I was seeing went from 13.9ish down to 12.8ish which is what we tuned for with the tailpipe wideband on the dyno. So thats good, and I'm glad this mistake wasnt the other way around, or it would have run dangerously lean and probably blown itself up. As a side effect of this, all of my VE values are looking more sensible now. Getting a peak VE value of just under 98% at 7500rpm. Here's a visualization of estimated airflow through the motor, with the colour scale being throttle position. Notice how up until about 4250rpm, right down to nearly 50% throttle it's same airflow. Then at low rpm some part throttle areas are flowing more air than full throttle - thought this was weird, but then noticed that on the dyno runs we'd adjusted some full throttle VVTI values, but not reduced them at the part throttle segments too. So I reduced these down so it'll be max at full throttle instead. My next hope of getting anywhere is the nightspeed drag wars in about 2 weeks time. Will have to see if it can go ahead with current restrictions. Today was my birthday so I celebrated by going on some backroad hoons to Waihi Beach for a swim. Was glorious on both counts!

See what other voltage related things you can pull up on the log, and see if they fluctuate So 5v sensor supply, see if its stable Battery voltage, see if it fluctuates See if any other sensors that share the 5v supply fluctuate as well

Fastest run was 100.5 mph I actually swapped the 13" steel wheels onto the back originally, for the drags. As they're lighter than the 14" wheels and R888R. But then figured I'm not too keen on being a bit light on rear end grip while I'm coming to terms with a potentially squishy/wobbly front end. Not a huge amount of weight difference, so would rather just change one variable at a time. 100% not keen on space savers or whatever! I'm looking for some 13" alloys in 4x100, so I can run a set of matching wheels and run these up the front. But need to find some wheels before I buy some, as this looks to be the hard part, finding some in 4x100 13" https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mnh-mss012

A few pics from drags, just in case your eyes havent been punished enough already

Yeah I agree with this, using NOS and you lose some the masochistic charm of NA tuning. Yeah, its just such an incredible difference I dont think I'd want to do it on street tyres again. With the semi slicks you can choose between wheel hop, bog, or spin up. Then it wont stop spinning unless you back right out of it. On these its like a magic carpet ride! Even if rpm is higher it just keeps on propelling you forward. So good! On this car the sound deadening isnt actually stuck to the chassis, its just a thick slab of matting that goes between the carpet and the body. So you literally just lift it out. Then bam 20kg gone! I like some of your other ideas here but reality is I've only got a fairly shoestring budget for this project from here onwards. I'd like to get the carina going again this year. So for the moment I'm just gonna get an exhaust done when I can then worry about whatever else later. And just get some more runs done! And get to a trackday hopefully, which is where I was expecting this car would shine more than the drags.

Nah I'm good for the NOS, realistically my rods are probably on a limited life already! Maybe if I fit those stronger rods though... I think with ITB you'd go for a dry shot and control the fuel addition with with the computer, so you just add injector duty when nitrous is on. Use a secondary fuel map that uses bottle pressure vs rpm as the load axes. Use the ECU to trigger the map change and the nitrous solenoid. Keeps the setup a lot simpler and less messy with extra fuel lines and nozzles everywhere. It's a pity nitrous is so expensive though, it's a cheap buy-in but becomes uneconomical very very quickly in NZ. As we cant buy any of the cheap non medical grade nitrous here unfortunately. In America, nitrous refills are incredibly cheap by comparison, as you can buy "car grade" shitty stuff.

Yeah, after my second run I had a sinking feeling I had some beginners luck and I wasnt going to dip into a 13. I was praying for like a 13.999999 haha. But then when it hooked up like that I just knew. Man it was awesome. And yeah, my last run was the fastest and I only got 3, so it's potentially not even tapped out as it is. Still just blows my mind that it's even possible for a 1500cc NA setup to do anywhere near that sort of time. Also just like my first time going on a track with semi slicks. It goes to show just how important the right tyre is. See people spending $$$$$$ on their car but then on the wrong tyre for the job. Cheapest way to go fast. Especially when you borrow them from @Stu haha I just had a look through logs from my fast run. Looks like after dumping the clutch the rpm falls to minimum of 4500, which is great as below that is the area I really need to avoid. So I'm 100% keen to go back and try a higher launch rpm. And now super keen to get the exhaust done.

Thanks. Honestly I dont think it's even at the point where tweaking the suspension more is needed. I only got 3 runs and I dont think I'm too close to dialling it in yet on those tyres. I reckon launch another 500 or 1000rpm higher and my 60ft would drop even more. Not full street trim, I dont normally have the back seats in, but took out the passenger seat this time.

Last night at Nightspeed. Suuuper busy, but it was really awesome to see a big crowd at the drags, lots of spectators too. Was a cool atmosphere. So first run, set the hoosiers to around 20psi which is very high, but wanted to start out conservative. Ran a 14.092 @ 100.21 mph with a 2.33 60ft. So first run and I've beaten the Carina by every single metric. What the hell! But so stoked! I was convinced at this point that I'd get a 13 tonight. Second run we dropped the pressures a bit, launch wasnt so good and I ran a 14.1 with a higher 60ft. At this point I figured I'd probably cursed myself saying I'll get a 13. Looking at the logs of both runs, the motor was bogging a bit when I was trying to roll into the throttle and clutch. So third run, set a launch limiter at 5500rpm. Full throttle sitting on line, dump the clutch. And holy fucken shit. No wheel hop no big spinning, just felt like stretching out and releasing a rubber band. It felt so much faster than my first run, I crossed the line realizing it must be a 13. Absolutely fucking stoked beyond belief Get my time slip and was blown away 13.83 @ 99.6 mph with a 2.1 60ft Was in about 5000 out of 100 fizz mode, it was so cool. I didnt get any more runs, because it was incredibly busy and was already 10.30pm or so by the time they started the eliminations. But it's incredible to think that it could still possibly go faster yet. Even just doing that time was incredible. It felt like it could have easily launched another 500rpm or 1000rpm higher and hooked up good. Will be back!

I wonder how much people's torque steer comments are just from poor wheel alignment or stuffed bushes. Great milestone!

Nah those guys are just being weiners All of the aftermarket manifolds try to fit into the space of the standard manifold, to make it a bolt on affair. So there's no way you can really have a 4-2-1 in that length. The real solution is to just make a long 4-1 or 4-2-1 and then have the first flange start further back. The hurricane header from Australia looks pretty good, but I cant find a reasonably priced way to get one here.

Okay soooo, DTech in Tauranga offered me some dyno time before the drags, see if we could squeeze a bit more out of it. Much to my surprise, it gained around 6hp over my road tune... By leaning it out considerably! It turns out that because my exhaust is so absolutely 100% miserably shit, the exhaust pressure is so high that it's skewing the wideband results. So my rock solid 12.8:1 on my sensor was actually reading around 11:1 at the tail pipe on the dyno sensor. So we leaned it out and picked up power straight away. Then some minor fiddling with ignition and cam timing gave some minor results, but the fuel was the money maker. Ended up with 141 whp @ 7700rpm. Stoked! Absolutely cannot wait for Friday now. Also it was so god damn loud in the dyno room you could feel the intake pulses hitting into you. lordy. This thing is going to slap dicks once its got a good exhaust on it.