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Vorshlag S550 & S650 Mustang Development + 2018 GT, 2024 Darkhorse & #Trigger

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  • #91
    Project TRIGGER Update for January 17, 2024: I started writing this post in January, after wrapping up the first post covering the first 4 track events in our S650 Mustang Darkhorse. We've been testing with both cars extensively through late 2023, and the craziest thing is - in November the Darkhorse ran quicker at the same track that Trigger ran there in August, at a Time Trial event I won in the 2015! Luckily Trigger has dropped FOUR seconds there after we fixed a bunch of issues... both cars are fast, and Trigger is now STUPID FAST. It is the fastest car on a road course I've ever driven or owned, by far.



    On my last update on the Trigger project back in September we only got through the 454" LS7 install and FIRST track test (June 29th, 2023), which was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. We have made MASSIVE improvements since that first track test in late June - and we have run TWELVE additional track events (one autocross) in the car, and it got faster each time. This round of updates only covers the Trigger project work through August, 2023.



    The improvements to this car were hard fought, and this Forum Entry shows a lot of what we had to do to overcome some bad advice, poor product quality control, wacky software issues, and more. Some of the work shown above is from after August, when we had some major breakthroughs in September and early October. THAT is when the performance got ridiculous, and I will cover that next time.



    Trigger has since dominated every Time Attack we have run it at since October, knocking down class wins and overall "FTDs" (Fastest Time of Day) on 200TW street tires. The change in this car's performance from June (below left) to December (below right) was nothing short of miraculous, but we had help from a number of key players. Again, this update only covers the work through the end of August 2023, but we're not going to stop sharing this tech!



    After the end of the 2023 TT season took the car to a new shop who added a Haltech EFI, tapped into the S197 ABS unit, and managed to add Motorsports Traction Control. I'm excited to see how this car performs in 2024, but for now strap in for a massive five part forum update to catch up with the MAJOR strides that Trigger has seen in 2023!

    POST TRACK TEST UPDATES + MACH I FRONT SPINDLE UPGRADE

    This part picks up one day after my June 29th test, on Friday June 30th. The day after this first track test I unloaded Trigger, but after only a few laps I knew something wasn't right. At this point we were not sure of what was holding up the car, but I had already entered Trigger for an HPDE event on July 5th, along with Koenig's Silver 2002 C5 Corvette (after a big round of updates) and McCall's 2004 CTS-V - that cars first laps ever after major rework at the shop in 2020-21 (see below).



    I needed to get more laps and try a few more things to nail down what the engine "rev limiter" trigger really was. I also wanted to ditch the FIVE year old RE71R tires for some better preserved FOUR year old Hoosier R7s. I also needed to be at this event with my two customers' cars going (for their first laps after major work at Vorshlag) + a bunch of college racing buddies coming for a Texas A&M Sport Car Club reunion. We were taking Trigger at all costs!



    So the Mustang came into the shop that Friday and went up on the lift for a thorough inspection after its first ever laps. Since the car had been at the tuner for nearly a month we had accumulated a number of parts that we had planned to upgrade on various systems as well.



    The only fluid leak we could find was VERY minor, and frustratingly it was something we had replaced a month earlier. The axle seal was nicked when the axles were swapped out for fresh GT350 units, just more bad luck. Oh well, that was fixed and 6 months later now we have not seen a drop or other issues with anything relating to the axles, CV boots, or these seals.



    Next up was an upgrade to the 2022 Mustang Mach I spindles. There is updated steering geometry buried within these spindles, adapted from the late 2020 GT350R and 2020-22 GT500 (the 2024 Darkhorse has similar spindles). These uprights use a very different front wheel bearing which is held in with 4 bolts vs the single nut torqued to 250 ft-lbs like the other S550 spindles. We installed 4" long MSI brand "GT4" wheel studs at the same time, as part of a planned 18x12" Apex wheel and tire upgrade coming later.



    When Brad was installing the new spindles I took the time to mark the movement that we always dial in between the spindle and strut. The MCS damper has a significant slot in the upper hole which can be utilized to add 2-3 deg of negative camber - but it comes at the loss of inboard wheel room. If you can balance this correctly this slotted hole adjustment + camber plates can make for two reliable camber adjustments.

    This slot trick just takes a LOT of time to dial in right, but it always has to be done. I've got a video I need to finish when we did this adjustment on the 2024 Darkhorse as MCS RR3 coilovers went on that - check it on YouTube soon.



    With the spindles swapped we didn't have time for a full blown "Laser" alignment so Brad got the camber dialed in to -4.3 up front again and set the toe to zero.



    We had an inkling that the issue I saw in my handful of laps from June 29th was low oil pressure triggering a tuning "safety" that was putting the car on a rev limiter (below 30 psi above 3000 rpm). All of the existing oil was sucked out of the tank (it is impossible to drain from the bottom without removing it) and the rest drained from the LS7 pan. Why change it now? At this point the brand new engine had made a LOT of dyno pulls, gone through various start up tests and test drives, and a handful of laps on track. A sample of the Motul5W50 was saved and that plus another sample was later sent to Lake Speed Jr for analysis.



    Brad took the oil filter apart and we inspected the pleats, as did our engine builder Erik Koenig. We saw nothing alarming. This time we added 12 liters of oil to the dry sump tank, plus whatever was still in the oil cooler and lines. We were hoping that the low oil pressure issue was maybe not enough oil filled in the tank? The Peterson folks make an oil level dipstick and we followed their procedure for checking level, but there's no concrete answer as to what level that should be. We're going by the age old advice for dry sump tanks: "Fill the tank gradually until it starts to puke oil on track - that's the right limit!"



    Brad removed the headers to add some DEI heat shield above the collectors, which my feet appreciated. This stuff is great - adhesive on one side, filled with a fiberglass insulation in the middle, and a dimpled aluminum outer later that acts as a reflective shield.



    Another much needed upgrade in this Texas summer heat was this dfusermotorsports.com driver cooling system. Unlike to the ice water driver cooling systems we have utilized in the past, this one makes its own cold water from a closed system using a miniature air conditioner. Brad made a very fancy bracket assembly to bolt this into the back seat area. Later on we ducted fresh air from the side window, per company owner Bill Agha's suggestions.



    This unit was just free standing in the rear, pumping out heat back into the cabin, but cold water into my cool suit vest. This unit had a remote display and controller, which was mounted within reach of the driver in a spot we had saved just for this purpose. I can turn it on/off, adjust water temp, and see water temp readouts and any trouble codes on that LCD screen.



    I briefly talked about the rear tie-down changes at the end of the last post. Why? Because I had stupidly used these oval holes in the rear frame rail to strap the car down once (above left) and it ripped one side pretty good. Strapping through the wheels is CRINGE, using the optional Ford Performance tie down points in front of the rear wheels is a huge hassle (above right) and at the end of the day - I'm lazy.



    We looked at the rear of the subframe and found a spot that looked sturdy. Jason drew up a design and Austin CNC plasma cut them. These unique rear strap anchor points tie-down hooks bolt to the rear subframe right under the rear swaybar brackets (which actually fixes some closeness of the swaybar to the rear coilover springs). These wouldn't really work on a car with stock muffler locations, but it works on Trigger! SUPER easy to reach under and latch to, well, at least until we have a rear diffuser.



    With the car now making "not embarrassing" power levels the HPR and Vorshlag decals went on the hood. The folks at TrackDecals sent us some 2023 season Apex Lap Attack decals with the "454" displacement number as the cars new entry number. These replaced the recycled "54" number boards I had on the doors.



    It was time to install the Sony HDR 1080P camera on a RAM mount on the center dash panel, as well as the AiM SOLO mount - just like we had on the 2018 GT. We had an AiM GPS sensor on there already but of course it was not connected to the Holley dash. These 1" RAM ball mount bases and arms mounts hold the devices well, and this panel is easy to remove and replace on any S550.



    The last upgrade done in this hectic 2 week period was the installation of these MOMO 18x11" wheels and 315/30R18 Hoosier R7s. These were leftover from 2019, when we last used them on the 2018 GT. The hope is that these tires would scrub-in and have some life left (they were stored in climate controlled shop those 4 years). These were not our long term wheel upgrade, just something that had more life than the 5 year old Bridgestones. I loaded the car up to try more laps at ECR...

    DRIVERS EDGE HPDE AT ECR 2.7 CW + TAMSCC REUNION, JULY 8, 2023

    This was an event that was thrown into my orbit a few weeks earlier, and it was a reunion for a lot of college racing buddies. I had two customers with cars we had worked on debuting their new setups here, too. It was sort of a rushed day, with another buddy's birthday party at 5pm that we had to leave a bit early to make. I like the folks at Drivers Edge but had not run with them in years.



    Since I wasn't "known" within this group, I got stuck in what I felt was the "wrong group". This group was the TAMSCC group for that day, and there were a lot of old dudes going VERY slowly. Our first session was parade laps without helmets, FFS. The second session was just painfully slow with a lot of passes.



    In the 3rd run group I got moved to their faster "Pink" run group, and the traffic was less painful. The video above isn't filled with fast, impressive laps. It shows two very frustrating, problem filled laps. At this point we had figured out it was oil pressure related - the "stutter" after left hand turns was worse then ever before. Both laps above were 2:06 on the 2.7 mile CW course before I threw in the towel. These laps were SLOW and I was beyond frustrated with the issue.



    I was able to look at the oil pressure readout on the craptastic Holley digital dash several times this day and see it dip into the low 30 psi range after left handers, which would cause the tuning safety protocol to pull power and essentially put it on a rev limiter. Between every session I was adding more oil and more oil to the 3 gallon dry sump tank, texting the engine builder continuously. Ending the day I had added + 4 liters from our fill at the shop, to 16 liters plus whatever was in the coolers and lines! At least in this hot July heat I had my cool suit working, so I didn't "lose my cool".



    We got some good pics of the various Vorshlag cars, and for as badly as Trigger was doing, Koenig's C5 was taking the laps like a champ - with two drivers! They put TANKS of fuel through that Corvette and the brakes, cooling, and new clutch all worked perfectly. McCall's CTS-V (below) had one or two small "triggers" on track, also likely oil pressure related - tuned by the same tuner with the same safety protocol in the software.




    The lateral g (1.5) for these two 2:06 laps were better than our test laps on the RE71R tires, as were the braking (1.25) or forward (.55) g numbers, but still not what I had hoped for. As you will see we found more grip later in the season with some changes to the brakes (Ford Racing ABS computer) and fresher set of A052 Yokohama 200TW tires.

    THE SMOKING GUN - LOW OIL PRESSURE / TUNING TRIGGER

    So the point of going to this event was to gather more data, but the Holley is simply TERRIBLE for syncing data to video - I've never been able to make it work, as there is no GPS data or time sync. See, the Holley EFI loses clock time every time you power off the battery disconnect, so I simply cannot sync data to any video.

    I cannot emphasize this enough - DO NOT use Holley EFI if you are road racing and want to analyze your data. Holley EFI can ONLY communicate with Holley digital dashes, and their GPS sync ability can be compromised, which turns your data into one big jumbled, useless mess.



    With the help of our tuner he was able to SHOW that the safety protocol he added was indeed triggering the "engine limiter" due to low oil pressure, which I felt after virtually every left hand turn. Since we had the Katech Red LS7 style 2 stage pump, and a 3 gallon external oil tank, we were looking elsewhere for the cause. How many thousands of C6 Z06 drivers have driven on track and had this issue, and I'm not aware of it? We weren't exactly making HUGE grip on the crusty old RE71R tires and it was seeing sub-30 psi above 3000 rpm - maybe C6Z owners just don't know?



    This low oil pressure issue would continue to cause us major grief for the next FIVE track outings, which included two SCCA Time Trials, an SCCA autocross, and two dedicated track tests. The various changes, fixes, and upgrades we tried ended up being a complete waste of time, but I wanted to test these potential "Fixes" before we went straight to an external dry sump system. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE - DON'T SHORT CUT A REAL DRY SUMP SYSTEM!

    continued below
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

    Comment


    • #92
      continued from above

      BATTERY + HOLLEY WIRING PROBLEMS

      As if the oil pressure issue wasn't enough of a headache, we also had major problems with a new Optima battery and the entire Holley EFI and digital dash systems. We worked on all of these issues for months before finally figuring out what needed to change and why.



      One of the major Holley issues we found right after this ECR test was how S-L-O-W the data comes off the Holley Dominator. Our tuner had the data rate for sensors jacked up to 100Hz for some sensors, which didn't help, and the logging would easily "max out" the data files every time we started and ran the engine for more than a few seconds. For that ECR weekend where I made a handful of laps in 3 sessions it took TWO AND A HALF HOURS to download the data via the wired port. Never seen anything like this, even since the days of dial-up internet.



      Plus, without a time stamp or GPS sync, the data was just all a jumbled, near useless mess. We had no way to sync this data to actual track driving, because all of the data files look essentially the same - a max file sized jumble of numbers. So we went and bought this Holley GPS upgrade, and also a 3.5" Holley dash. I will try to explain why I tried "throwing good money after bad".



      The Optima yellow top battery was struggling - as were the 8 other Optima batteries in various shop cars and trucks at the time. We had a Cartek remote battery kill that would shut off ALL potential battery drains when the car was shut off, so this was a bit of a head scratcher. But as you can see in the video below, when voltage would dip under 10.0 volts during cranking of the engine, the Holly dash would reset - or worse.



      This became a regular issue at events, every time we went for a test drive, or even loaded the Mustang into the trailer. We kept that damn Optima on a battery tender and it would still just lose voltage, but even with "90% capacity" it would often dip under 10 volts. Then the dash would reboot, and often the tune would disappear...



      I'm not joking - I have the receipts, and it did this "lost the tune" issue over 50 times over a 2 month period (and this happened on TWO OTHER cars with Holley EFI). Even after we had topped up the battery, if it had this fault the car would not start, ever. Not until you reloaded/resync'd the tune and re-ran TPS Autoset via a laptop. This meant I could never take this car ANYWHERE without a laptop and a battery jump box. It happened at the alignment shop, it happened at the dyno, and it happened at the track more times than I can count.



      Nothing frustrated me more all season than the miserable experience I had with Holley EFI. Not the crappy battery issues, the frustrating oil pressure triggers, or other teething pains we had. THIS WAS IT - Holley EFI. The dash was "stuck" with the factory installed screen layouts and variables, and we could make no updates.



      I ordered the Holley 3.5" dash, as that has an SD card slot and touch screen so you can reload the tune / TPS Autoset wizard right there. But no... the Holley Dominator was on V6 of their software, the 7" Holley dash was on V4 and the 3.5" Holley dash was on V5. And NOBODY ON PLANET EARTH could get the damn firmware flash to upgrade either Holley dash to the newer software version to work. We had FIVE different tuners try to fix this, spent hours on the phone with Holley "Support", and even mailed them off for weeks. NOPE, never could fix this.



      The 7" and 3.5" dashes were both "stuck" with the factory installed screen layouts and variables, and we could make no updates to either. We kept losing the main 7" display on track for extended lengths of time, too.

      Holley EFI has some major hardware, firmware, and support issues at all levels. This issues on this car are not unique, and it has been seen by the highest levels at Holley. Six months later they still don't have a fix but they "are working on it"!

      ANDERSON "GT500" FRONT END UPGRADE

      We had ONE week between events, as the SCCA Time Trial schedule was marching along, and I was tired of borrowing cars or using Amy's BRZ in Max1 class to try to sock away 4th place points until Trigger was "ready". We had some upgrades planned and we moved on to those and hoped that adding more oil would help the triggering issue...



      This 3 piece Anderson setup had been purchased earlier and I was anxious to get them on before tackling front and rear aero additions. We needed this to clear the wheels and tires this car needed for 200TW class competition.



      The "Type-ST" nose was modeled after a spy shot of the 2020 GT500 that Anderson found in 2018, so while it LOOKS like the 2020-22 GT500 it shares none of the dimensions. Luckily they built it with wider fenders in mind, but not quite as wide as the actual GT500.



      The 2018 Mustang GT nose and front fenders that I just had our painter spray gloss black now came off and on went the dull black fiberglass GT500 style nose and GT350 style fenders from Anderson. These were not lighter than the factory bits, but were chosen because the fenders were .75" wider per side - and we needed the room.



      The tubular bumper beam was built to fit inside the turn signal openings for the 2018 GT front nose, but those were about 3/4" lower on the GT500 Anderson cover. Brad had to modify the mounts, move them down 3/4" and fit them to the new nose.

      UPGRADE TO 18X12" APEX WHEELS

      The new Anderson GT500 nose and 3/4" wider front fenders went on to clear these new 18x12" ET57 Apex forced "VS-5RS" wheels in anthracite grey - with a substantial spacer up front. This allows us to rotate wheels front to back since we are running the same 315/30R18 Yokohama A052 tire at both ends.



      This is a significant upgrade from the 19x11 or 18x11" wheels and 305-315mm tires we had run on the 2018 GT, and earlier on Trigger here.



      We ordered these wheels back in March, along with a set of tires, the MSI 4" front wheel studs, and the 30mm MMR spacer. It has been killing me to wait 4 more months to actually use these sticky tires and wider wheels, but I wasn't willing to trash the new tires on the dyno and we needed time to fit the front front end.



      These forged 18x12" wheels came in at a light 19.7 pounds each, with a 1600 pound load rating. That is a tick on the lighter side, as some wheels we have spec'd were made to 1800 pound ratings - but 1600 load rating is pretty common for race wheels. At least Apex Wheels has a "50% replacement" policy - you bend or crack any wheel they make, they will replace it for 50% current retail pricing.



      This 315/30R18 Yokohama Advan A052 tire is to be our main setup for Trigger for all 200TW classes. We have utilized this exact tire size/model in 3 cars now over 3 racing seasons, as well as 3 other sizes on 2 other cars. I can say this now with some confidence, until and if someone makes a faster tire that is wider in 200TW, we will stick with this. If someone makes a tire in a wider 335 or 345mm size AND its faster than the 315mm A052, we will change the bodywork to fit that. For now the A052 in 315mm still reigns supreme.



      Back in April 2023 we test fit this wheel and tire package with the OEM 2018 Mustang fenders and GT nose. While we could make the rear fenders clear the 18x12's, these poked by 3/4" up front (see above). Which is what led us to the 3/4" wider Anderson Type ST fenders and nose.



      We had hoped this 30mm hubcentric spacer would be enough, but we ended up adding another 3/8" worth of slip on spacers up front to make the wheels clear the strut bodies on the inside.



      That makes for an "ugly stack" but the MSI wheel studs don't care. We've since run a dozen track events with this stack up front and had zero issues.



      Out back it needed a couple of small spacers to work also, but that's OK. We altered and added to this rear spacer stack later in the season after seeing a tiny bit of rub. Of course we also relocated the rear emergency brake cable brackets, just like we did on the red 2018 GT, to gain more inboard wheel room. Brad also put some P-clamps on the remote reservoir hoses to make sure they never contact the inside shoulder of the tire.

      ABS TEST 1 (RE71R TIRES)

      During July of 2023 we ran 3 measured ABS tests with one change between each one. This short video below is for the first test, and is self-explanatory - it shows what we were testing, on what tires, and the results.



      The braking with this S197 ABS with 100% junkyard sourced parts and REALLY crappy tires (5 year old RE71R!) was 1.14g peak stopping.



      Good results, for the money spent, but I knew we can do better. Next up - a tire change, but NO change in the measured stopping power??

      ABS TEST 2 (A052 TIRES)

      Shortly after installing the fresh 315mm A052 tires we ran the above test one more time...



      But look at this - we achieved the EXACT same peak g stop of 1.14g. So the tire excuse was no longer valid, as these were Fresh A052 200TW tires. Maybe we hit a programming limit within the OEM S197 ABS unit???



      Time to change the program...

      ABS TEST 3 (FORD RACING ECU)

      At this point the Ford Racing M-2353-CA ABS computer was out of production (it has since gone back into production!) and we found one from a race team. Brad installed this in place of the junkyard 2011-14 GT computer, with no other changes. We re-ran a few days later on the exact same A052 tires and same test track in Mexico as Test #2.



      Now this data was looking better, with a 1.27g peak stop from 70 mph (up from 1.14g). This test on a dirty Mexican street far exceeded the braking forces we EVER achieved on the 2006 C6 Corvette on a clean / hot track with the same 315mm A052 tires or even Hoosier R7s. The C6 had a much improved Mk60 ABS swapped in place of the OEM unit, and was also upgraded C6 Z06 brakes with GLOC R16/R12 or Hawk DTC-70 pads.



      And the Mustang braking even got better on track with the Ford ABS brick, too! And with aero, even better (in December 2023 with these same tires and aero it logged 1.7g stops at the MSR 1.7 track!)

      OTHER FIXES AFTER ECR TRACK EVENT

      The HPDE event uncovered more issues that needed attention, and between the fender/nose change, the new wheels and tires, and ABS tests above the shop tackled all manner of upgrades. Let's cover them.



      The 3.5" Holley dash arrived and Brad got to work making a nice bracket that put it within eye sight of the driver, and in a pinch I could use the touch screen in the hot pits (potentially to reload a tune). This was on the wrong firmware version, which nobody could ever update, so this was a paperweight for the entire 5 months it was installed into this car.



      Our Petersen vented oil catch can was drained and a thimble full of oil came out. Brad opened it up to see if something was blocked, but nope - everything looked in order. We checked this after ever track event and noticed a little more oil after every track day, but never all that much.



      Next up was a corded microphone mount for the Sony HDR video camera that was mounted on the dash near the windshield. After the first two events we noticed some wind noise, and I had used a remote mic on this same camera with major sound improvements in the 2018 Mustang, but it was some janky clamp setup that I had stuck on the E-brake handle. I wanted something more permanent, so Brad built a spacer to mount the 2-bolt 1" RAM ball mount where I felt it would be out of my way but nearer to the perfect spot for an in-car mic - near the shifter.



      We used a short 4" RAM mount arm, another 1" RAM ball mount with a 1/4-20 threaded shaft and mounted the mic a wind sock "dead cat" cover there. This worked perfect all season, well until someone (likely me!) leaned on the mount and broke the cheesy plastic mic holder. I've since bought a better mic and holder but will use the same mounting spot.



      Last up was a solution to a driving problem I had at the ECR HPDE - if you watch that terrible video you will see that I had trouble heel-toe downshifting, and kept missing the gas pedal or brake. Maybe the gas and brake pedals were too far apart? So Brad made this super nice gas pedal extension - after I ordered one from AMT for the wrong GM gas pedal.



      He took a piece of scrap aluminum cut it to size, bent it to match the curved GM pedal we had in the car (CTS-V), attached some grip tape, and bolted it to the pedal. It looked GREAT but ended up making the situation worse - so we took it off after this next event. I kept hitting the gas AND brake at the same time with this pedal extension, and really it just took wearing the right driving shoes and some practice to get it right.



      Well that was an extremely hectic week of work on Trigger between ECR events. It was time to get the car outside, clean it up, and the results were not displeasing. Time to load up for the car's first SCCA Time Trial - once again at ECR.

      SCCA TT, ECR 2.7 CCW, JULY 15, 2023

      After the handful of laps at MSR and the three brief sessions at ECR with Drivers Edge, it was time to throw our hat in the ring with SCCA Time Trials. The season was well underway and I desperately needed some points in Max1 class to hope to salvage a regional championship for the 2023 season.



      We towed Amy's BRZ to ECR (78 miles away) with the '22 Maverick, which worked well enough (we've since started towing that car with her '24 Bronco) and I hauled Trigger in the big enclosed trailer. We got our paddock setup in a GREAT spot near the clubhouse. Stephen from Vorshlag joined Amy, me and Jon Miller (white BRZ in Amy's T3 class) for the day.

      continued below
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

      Comment


      • #93
        continued from above

        I drove the Mustang in all 5 sessions, including a "sighting" session (that didn't count for times) where I took Jerry Cecco for a ride. In short, the day went pretty badly in Trigger. The engine was running great other than the oil pressure trigger.



        Once I got tire pressures set I fought the gas pedal extension, and kept hitting brakes and gas at the same time. I would have removed the pedal extension except for the fact that we were fighting such bigger issues: changes to the tune, battery issues, Holley dash issues, adding ever more oil to the oil tank, and bugs. So many grasshoppers!



        All of my best laps were pretty slow, netting a 2:03.1 lap before lunch. Stephen helped setup a remote login for tuner Jon during lunch and he reset the minimum oil pressure trigger from 38 psi to 30 psi.

        The battery got a little low during the lengthy amount of time it took him to download logs and reset the tune. I should have charged the battery while we ate lunch but it was to hectic and hot, we needed a break inside some air conditioning - and I forgot. Our jump box we had at the time was a PoS and when it came time to fire up the car after lunch for more TT sessions it was a total train wreck. Once we located some jumper cables, then of course reload the tune and TPS Autoset, we were able to get the car to started - and I had missed TT "red" session #3, but they let me take laps in the "green" session at the front of the slower TT group.




        I was afraid to shut it off, so I kept the engine running (hopefully charging the battery? Nope!) in grid for a solid 20 minutes, then went out and ran another 2:03.1 lap with the updated tune. I was driving terribly, fighting so many issues and frustrations. I kept hitting the brake and gas pedal at the same time, and messing up downshifts - this was driving me nuts! During the video I briefly go over all of the issues we fought that day, plus I call out when the Holley dash decides to reboot mid-lap. The oil pressure triggering was less than before, but still doing it on the latter half of the first lap and continuously during subsequent laps.



        We had to reload the tune before the 4th session, and by now it was hot as hell 96F degrees and I was miserable. I needed to drop 0.2 sec to move from 3rd to 2nd in class, but couldn't do it - ran a 2:04 lap. After my last session it wouldn't start after Impound, so we pushed it to the trailer. This was one of my least enjoyable Time Trials ever.



        Trigger scored a dismal 3rd place in class / 5th fastest overall. Amy did better in her BRZ and scored 2nd place in class and 19th out of 41 Time Trial entrants at this very hot July event.

        OPTIMA BATTERY YEETED INTO OCEAN, ABS UPGRADE + OTHER FIXES

        We once again had a busy week making changes to the newly built Trigger, with a number of fixes and upgrades happening before another track test was scheduled. First up - we replaced this hoopty battery!



        We bought this Optima Yellow Top group 75/25 and made a special mounting tray for this battery because nobody else made a good mount for this "new" to Optima battery. We put this same Optima into several race cars, and all of those caused problems. This damn thing just won't hold a charge for more than about a day, so it has to live on the tender. After dying multiple times at that last ECR event, I was DONE with this brand. Something happened when the parent company was bought out before the pandemic, the plant moved, and every battery we have bought from them since has been problematic.



        We have been replacing these expensive gel cell spiral wound AGM Optimas with good old wet cell lead acid batteries from O'Reilys parts stores, which have a 7 year warranty. This has fixed numerous issues in multiple race and street cars we pulled Optimas out of. The issue was that our special "Optima" specific group 75/25 tray has to be modified each time - and Brad tackled that here.

        This was mounted into the trunk of Trigger on July 20th, 2023 and has had ZERO issues since. We can ignore the car for weeks, never putting it on a battery tender, and it just fires right up. No more sub-10 volt problems cranking, nothing. It just works.



        Next up was the swap from the OEM 2011-14 Mustang ABS computer and replacing it with the M-2353-CA Ford Racing computer. This was done before ABS Test #3 (above) and it made an improvement on our street test and even on the next track test.



        This swap is normally pretty painless but with how we have the S197 ABS brick mounted in the S550 here, it is of course a lot more work. Brad got the computer swapped then flushed and bled the brakes in preparation for the next track test at MSR.



        Since the Holley dash seemed EXTRA special and super sensitive to drops in voltage (where it would reboot, slowly), it was time to make some improvements here. First, Brad took out the Holley supplied dash harness cable and found a ground short. Did I mention how much I loathe Holley wiring? The injector harness had two mis-wires on this car (which is how we had only 6 cylinders getting fuel in January '23) and now this. Good grief! Brad fixed that and laid out the battery isolator module we had ordered a week earlier - to keep flaky voltage from the battery from killing the power to the dash.




        In essence, this large unit was a capacitor bank, that smoothed out short term voltage drops to the dash. This upgrade, the Holley cable fix, and replacement of the Optima battery solved the Holley dash reboot issues, which was progress. We haven't had a sub 10 Volt Holley "YEET the tune" issue since these changes, too. It can and will still happen if we let the battery get to low, but the new battery just hasn't failed us, not once.

        We also measured the room to the hood and strut tower brace above the BTR Trinity intake, which along with the 112mm TB, makes the car impossible to drive smoothly.



        We also had ordered some new "carpets" and I asked Brad to install that along with the A-pillar plastics. See, I was building this car to run in SCCA Time Trial "Max1" using an alternate ruleset from SCCA Solo CAM-C - which was allowed until a rules change in Dec '23. CAM-C allowed us to run a little more aero, a little less minimum weight, and had some other rules that were a bit more forgiving. So the drop-in carpet and A-pillar plastics made us more legal for CAM.



        Last up I asked Brad to remove the beautiful gas pedal cover he made. I've since learned how to heel-toe this car and haven't hit both pedals at the same time since. I've also gotten used to the drop-in fabrics which are easy to remove to clean, and the dang things fit really well. Gotta get some D&E points for this if we ever run Optima, ha!

        TRIGGER TRACK TEST #2 + BRZ TRACK TEST #6 - MSR, JULY 22, 2023

        This was a rare, cool Saturday morning in Texas in July, and we towed both our 2015 Mustang #Trigger and Amy's 2023 BRZ out for more testing. MSR had a weekend member day, which was unusual, and only one week after the disastrous ECR Time Trial we actually had a pretty dang good test in both cars, setting new Personal Bests in each. I will only cover Trigger here in this thread.



        The BRZ made 3 sessions and 5 total stints, with me knocking down a 1:22.5 and Amy a 1:24.5 - both new personal bests. I drove the Mustang and ran a 1:18.8 and a 1:19.1 in 2 of 3 stints, with no real issues - which itself is a win! Erik and Jerry joined us for the day, too.



        The major trouble we kept running into here was the TERRIBLE throttle response with the 112mm throttle body. I was regretting the decision to not only use this LARGE throttle body but also the BTR Trinity intake, and ALL the work that entailed. If you watch the video linked below you can see how much time I'm losing trying to apply throttle in lower speed corners - and this is only a 3rd and 4th gear track. Second gear is completely unusable.



        The video shows a big 4 wheels off after that 1:18.8 lap, where I pushed the braking zone into that first turn after the Start-Finish line a little too late. This was my one big "4 off" in Trigger for the season, and I managed to take a cone right into the nose.



        Took about 15 laps over 3 stints in Trigger, and my two fast laps were hot lap 1 in each of the later stints, which about right for the A052 tires. The first handful of laps were always trouble free with respect to the oil pressure trigger, but laps 3 and beyond still suffered from some low pressure triggers in long left hand turns. Still, much better than it was before, and at this point we're running an obscene 16 liters of oil in the dry sump tank.



        I was much happier with the performance of the car, and the overall reliability, after this test day. The oil pressure issues were still there but minimized. The battery issues were gone, and we never had to reload the tune or lost the dash function. Removing the throttle pedal extension worked and I got used to the pedal spacing. The biggest issue was still the VIOLENT throttle response, both tip in and throttle off... it was a handful!

        SCCA AUTOCROSS LSP, JULY 23, 2023

        Between Track Test #2 above and this autocross (which was the next day) we didn't unload Trigger from the trailer. I towed it out to Lone Star Park for an SCCA autocross, running in CAM-C class.



        This was our first autocross in Trigger, and it was more than a bit of a handful. This throttle response issue was out of control, being that you are constantly in and out of throttle in these low speed events. Then magnify that with 2nd gear, which is just BRUTALIZING the rear tires. It didn't help that the course was super bumpy, and the temps were scorching Texas summer hot, too.



        The video shows what I cannot find words to adequately describe - this 112mm throttle body was a TERRIBLE idea, and I'm already looking for a way to get into a whole new intake manifold and smaller TB. I ran the same mid 54 sec run in runs 2 (above) and run 3 (a tenth quicker), but was fully 3 seconds behind the CAM-S winner and FTD, ugh.



        I felt like I barely won CAM-C, against a normal street car, but placed a dismal 16th in PAX and only 8th quickest time of the day. Not good, we have a lot to do to improve autocross results! (we did not run this car in an autocross again in 2023)

        MORE REPAIRS, DRIVER COOLING UPGRADE, MUFFLER COVER AND NOSE REPAIR

        The week after the Autocross we got busy with a customer's car and that car's first Track Test. After that was completed we had two weeks until the next SCCA Time Trial. We had some things to repair and a major upgrade to the intake manifold to tackle.



        As soon as the car was on the lift for inspection Brad noticed some brake fluid seeping out of a rear brake caliper and it was CAKED with brake duct inside the brand new forged Apex wheel. Time for me to clean that wheel quickly!



        I had recently discovered some new Armor All "heavy duty" wheel and tire cleaning foam. I rinsed the barrel and then laid on the foam, and let it do its work. This is one of those color changing foams and when it turned white, I scrubbed the wheel and rinsed the inside and out. I ended up cleaning all 4 wheels, but this one rear was the nastiest with the brake fluid leak.



        I dried the wheel in question then flipped it over to inspect the inner spokes - that is where a modern aluminum wheel will show failures before they break in the form of micro-cracks. None here or on the other 3 wheels, and the brake fluid luckily didn't damage the glossy wheel finish, so that was a tragedy averted, ha.



        With the wheels cleaned and inspected, this rebuilt rear S550 Mustang GT caliper was installed along with the G-LOC pads, and the old leaky caliper was sent back as the core. Maybe this was the source of some "unsure stops" at the track test, where I sent the car over the curbs after my fastest laps? Yep, we're gonna blame the caliper!



        Next up was an upgrade to properly route cool air from outside the cabin into the driver cooling system from dfuser.com, which we mounted back in early July. See the unit was not pumping out water very cold once the cabin reached over 100F deg, and Bill from that company strongly suggested getting cool outside air routed to the unit's intake side, to keep from using already hot cabin air for the cooling. We found these double 3" inlet duct plastics and one of them fit perfectly between our 4-point roll bar and the B-pillar window. Brad pulled the inlet cover off the little air conditioner to see where to point the other ends of the hoses.



        With the layout of the cooler now clear Brad mounted the second double 3" duct to the face plate of the cooler, then routed a pair of 3" dia Mishimoto flexible brake duct hoses from the inlet to the cooler.



        This was a HUGE improvement in driver cooling system efficiency, which I would go on to use for the next few months of Time Trial events in hot weather. Nothing worse than being in a hot cabin with a 3 layer driving suit on in Texas summers!

        continued below
        Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
        2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
        EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

        Comment


        • #94
          continued from above




          With the evidence clear that the rear caliper failure made me go four off and crater the cone at Track Test #2, it was time to fix the damage to the fiberglass front nose (see above left) - a fairly large crack in the lower splitter piece. We picked up a fiberglass repair kit with some woven glass fiber cloth, resin and hardener.



          After sanding the area to give the resin something to "bite" into, Brad added the glass cloth on the inside and outside of this crack. When the resin setup and was sanded, it looked pretty damned good after the first application. "Good enough - paint it!"



          With a couple of coats of SEM "Trim Black" paint it was a perfect match and a hidden repair. Nobody ever needs to know...



          Last up in repairs this round was a cover for the giant Magnaflow mufflers in the trunk. At this point I held out hope we could fix ALL of the issues, get the car sorted and fast, and make it to the Oct 15th SCCA Time Trial Nationals event at NCM. After asking for some scrutiny, one of the SCCA TT board members told me that the open trunk might get tagged in Max 1.

          We laid out plans to make an aluminum metal cover for the mufflers. Brad made this in two pieces, and started with the forward portion shown above - from a cardboard template. He left ample cut outs for all hose pass throughs, of course. We weren't looking for an air tight cover, just a best effort to close up this hole and prevent hot mufflers from getting touched directly by curious ding-dongs when the car was in Impound with the trunk open.



          The rear section is this raised 3 sided box, made from a single sheet of aluminum from another cardboard template. This has flanges at the front and sides to attach to the rest of the trunk, with rivnuts and bolts connecting this piece in place.



          The finished cover looks really good and we never had to remove this during the 2023 season after this was added in late July. But it could quickly be removed if we needed room for service. Probably should have installed this sooner but we have been knocking down problems at break neck pace.




          We had OEM fender liners in place but they were not attached to an undertray, because... well we hadn't gotten around to installing that yet. See, on this radical of a new build we were always looking for leaks and other things that an undertray or splitter would hide. Luckily we never had any leaks, but the floppy fender liners had rubbed up against the front tires, unsupported at the bottom. Running without the undertray we had on hand was a mistake, and adds a LOT of drag. It also makes our brake cooling deflectors much less effective. We just... had so much to do between every outing!



          The Anderson Type ST fenders came with these fiberglass "extensions" that filled the gap the 3/4" wider fenders needed, and now was the time to install those + add some aluminum supports for the fender liners, as we were still not ready to install an undertray or splitter just yet. At least with this bracing the OEM + Anderson fender liners wouldn't be flopping around and catching the tires.

          UPGRADE TO MSD ATOMIC INTAKE + 103MM TB

          Now this was planned for a number of weeks, but I was very hesitant to implement this because... well I hated to give up ALL of that hard work and potential power of the modified Trinity intake and 112mm throttle body. But damn, y'all this car was impossible to drive smoothly and quickly. We thought long and hard about any number of "short runner" yet taller intakes, like the FAST LSX HR, Holley High Ram, or any number of Hi-Rams with modified uppers. All of those would require cutting a LARGE hole in the carbon fiber hood, creating a visual impairment. We still might do this, but not if it means cutting the hood and looking over a giant mail box!



          At this point we had to punt and go back to a "known good" intake and throttle body - the LS7 MSD and 103mm Nick Williams DBW throttle body. We knew it would give up SOME power, but we also had seen too many HPR built 454-468" LS7 engines with this intake make 630+ whp.



          I had to identify what exact ID 1050 injectors we had in the car to be able to order the correct MSD fuel rails, as the rails we had on the Trinity were unique to that BTR intake. After identifying the right fuel rail kit that was ordered as well as the MSD Atomic LS7 plastic intake.



          We had a 4.5" straight connector on the 112mm throttle body so I tracked down a 4.25" to 4.5" silicone adapter from HPS, to go to the new smaller 103mm TB and join the existing 4.5" cold air. With all of the parts ordered, Brad pulled the Trinity for the last time...



          We have purchased a number of these MSD Atomics, and while I hate the way they look and it sucks to have to fix so many of their crappy manufacturing defects, I cannot ignore the simplicity and power these make. This is THE most powerful plastic intake on the market for LS7 heads, bar none. It wins every test when they are put up against any plastic OEM style "long runner" intake, and damn near all of the shorter runner intakes, too.



          I ordered the correct fuel rails for this intake and our injectors, but the NW 103mm TB was out of stock at the only supplier, SDPC. Well we had a brand new one on the LS2 C6 - which was about to go for sale - and we stole that one for a few weeks until the supply came back online. That cathedral port LS2 had the best intake for THAT cylinder head style - the FAST 102 LSXR - which wins all of the intake test for cathedral port LS engines. Don't ask me why but it edges out the MSD Atomic for that port, but not the LS7 style port we have on Trigger's 454" engine.



          I got the plain "black" unit and Brad got to work cleaning up all of the jagged plastics. NOTE: do not expect to install this in a day, oh no. You might spend several hours removing casting flash, sanding down imperfections, and even adding epoxy to get the base to seal correctly to the upper cover. We highly recommend that you SMOKE TEST this intake before you put it on your engine. We have learned this the hard way - these can leak air from a dozen different places.



          So that was mocked up, and the fuel line changes were done, but we still had some work to do. I just... hate the way these intakes look, and the long 8.5" intake runners would definitely shift the peak power down from 7000 likely to 6400-6600, like these always do. Sure, it might gain some "area under the curve" (ie: mid range power), but damn - I almost don't WANT any more mid range power (in the autocross it would rev up to about 4500 rpm in 2nd gear and just blow the tires away easily).

          Look how much wasted space above the top of the intake we have just to the strut brace? GRR... I know we can do better than this, but let's move along here and get this one running and re-tuned and dyno'd.

          MORE TROUBLE WITH STEAM VENTING + "FITTING" THE MSD

          We had the intake, fuel rails, and fuel plumbing wrapped up with the new MSD on August 1st, but it took fully a WEEK later to get all of the right pieces for the 4 corner steam vent system. The intake was not bolted down to the heads as we were waiting on the steam vent kit.



          We fought putting together a real 4 port steam vent install on the LS2 in the C6 and this was no easier. The last MSD we did on a car was backwards and in a different chassis, so this kit made for this exact intake should work, right? Ha! Brad put it together per the instructions, as seen above right.



          The "tower" that sits at the front of the driver's side head near cylinder 1 is really hard to configure right to clear the MSD, so Brad drilled and tapped the TOP of this cylinder. Then a 90 deg fitting went into that and the old hole was plugged. This allowed the two braided -3 AN lines to route back along the top of the Katech valve covers and under our fuel rails to get to the back two steam ports on the backs of each head. It was just packaging challenges, nothing new.



          Next up was a considerable amount of work that needed to be done to make the intake actually fit this Brodix BR7-BS head. The original intake port gasket O-rings that came with the intake were ALL pinched from the get-go, so those were also replaced. The gaskets these come with are just trash.



          Brad spent a couple of hours sanding down this lower edge on both sides to work with this cylinder head. Don't know why this needed to be done, but its just a common issue with the MSD. Lots of taping, sanding, vacuuming, cleaning, and test fitting.



          Once the intake fit properly the bolts were finally installed and carefully torqued per MSD's instruction sequence. You can see the close-up of the final, modified steam vent tower above right. The old routing would not clear that corner on the intake - between that, the fuel rail and the valve cover, it gets tight.



          The final exit for the steam vent tower goes to the same line on top of the radiator hose, as shown above right. Then it was time to top off the coolant system and let it run for a bit to warm up and open the thermostat.



          This short video shows the engine running with the old tune on the new intake. It would need a complete re-tune with the new throttle body and intake.



          The cooling system was pressure filled with this cap adapter and compressed air system. The existing 4.5" ID cold air system lined up easily with the new reducing coupler at the smaller throttle body - at least that went smoothly. That got us ready for the dyno time, but we had only two days until the next SCCA Time Trial and I needed a WIN. I was really down on points with borrowed cars.

          DYNO TEST #4 - AUG 8, 2023

          We only had about 4 days until the next SCCA Time Trial and all of the install and modifications to the MSD took longer than we had hoped. We had no time to schedule our normal tuner Jon, but luckily a former Vorshlag team member was now doing tuning work and was familiar with the Holley Dominator EFI. He met us at the Vorshlag shop on August 8th (or August 2nd, we have some record discrepancies) and we hauled the car to X-Factor Racing down the road in Princeton to use their DynoJet 224 chassis dyno.



          It was staggeringly hot that day, with recorded temps between 97-104F deg in the dyno area. We worked through the heat and the cooling system on Trigger barely registered 195F after a dozen pulls. We ran into some issues with the inductive lead on the roller, but we made several 620 whp pulls in a row and quit adding timing and fuel when things dropped off.



          Donnie tuned the car on the dyno then worked with me on driveability issues with a little back roads of Mexico street testing. The idle was still a bit lumpy but the throttle tip in and drop out no longer jerked the car around, so I was hopeful it would be easier to drive on track. I made this little video above after we got back to the shop.



          We got this weight check August 10th, after the dyno tuning and the last of the task list and right before loading it into the trailer for the SCCA Time Trial Aug 12th at MSR Cresson.



          Loaded up in the trailer, with the BRZ going on the open trailer behind the Maverick once again. This would the hottest race of 2023! Luckily both cars had functional driver cooling systems installed.

          SCCA TT, MSR 1.7 CCW, AUG 12, 2023

          This was our second SCCA Time Trial in Trigger, and I hoped it would go better than the 1st time - where I scored a dismal 3rd. If we had any prayer of winning Max1 for the season I HAD to score wins here and at every other event for the year. We towed two trucks again and were setup and ready with plenty of time before the TT meeting. Long day - we didn't leave until 4:30 pm when the truck's temp gauge showed 112F deg, phone showed 106F.



          This was by far the hottest Time Trial I had ever done, and I did all 4 sessions - because I'm a masochist! After the first session (free for all, no times to grid by) I was gridded P2 for Session 2, behind Stan Whitney's 2020 GT500. We had both run a 1:19s, he had a 1:19.6 and I had a 1:19.8. We both ran 1:19.0's in session 2, with me just a hair quicker. Session 3 I ran that 1:18.9 and he had a 1:19.1. 4th session he went to grid - to dare me to go out, too! - and I ran a 1:19.1 to Stan's 1:20 - heat soak finally getting to the supercharged GT500. This was a crazy close battle all day!



          Session 1 was 83F, Session 2 was 85F, then Session 3 was 95F, and Session 4 was 103F! My driver cooling system was low on fluid so it stopped working - I didn't realize that until later - we now have a "top off" procedure before every event. Also, instead of disconnecting my cool shirt vest every time I get in and out of the car, I leave it connected and put it on while seated (so it doesn't lose water at the quick connects each time). The throttle response was much better with the smaller 103mm TB but it was still VERY easy to lose rear grip in 3rd gear simply from acceleration. You can see a BIG tail slide drifty boi move at the end of this video...



          That was my session 3 with one good hot lap and one junky, slidey lap. A very prepped GT3 RS 911 (somehow in Max3??) snuck ahead of me in Session 3 - he ran a 1:18.7 to take FTD. I don't ever want that to happen again!



          Trigger was running well, still doing the low oil pressure trigger thing, and it would only do it in Lap 2+ a lot, with only some triggering in the last triple left hander on Lap 1. So it's still there, but manageable. I had to really push hard on lap 1. First 2 sessions I didn't get good temps in the tires and/or had traffic to deal with, so my best laps were on hot lap 2 - when these A052 tires were boiling and the oil pressure trigger was the worst.



          In Session 3 I was fastest overall so P1 on grid, which meant I could set the pace on the out lap, and got some temp in the tires and hit it hard on hot lap 1, which was my best. This way I avoided the oil pressure issues of lap 2 and beyond. Track temp was 126F as measured when I came back in from that session. Not ideal.

          continued below
          Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
          2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
          EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

          Comment


          • #95
            continued from above



            At this point I had put 16 liters of oil in the 3 gallon dry sump oil tank, adding another liter today. Still could not fathom how it could run out of oil in a corner with this much oil in the tank. Coolant temps were fine all day (195F) but at this point we still cannot see oil temps on the craptastic Holley dash - only if we connect to the ECU via a lap top to "look at the data" afterwards, which is still a jumbled mess. Handling and brakes worked great.





            In Sessions 3 and 4 I made my first hot lap, got a good time, took a cool down, and came into the Hot Pits. And sat there in the car looking at live timing on Race Hero, watching my main competitor Stan's lap times in real time. After a few minutes of seeing everyone's times dropping off due to tire heat, I'd fire up the engine and drive back into paddock. This way if I needed to go out and maybe hunt for a tenth of a second, I was ready and right there. Good strategy.



            At the end of the day the SCCA TT group had a trophy ceremony - the first in this Region's history for a Time Trial. The "gold medal" for first was cheesy but still appreciated. Gave people an excuse to stick around and drink a frosty beverage before rolling out.




            Amy drove her '23 BRZ to 3rd place in T3, only .03 out of 2nd and 0.4 sec out of the lead. Vorshlag tester Jon Miller won T3 in his BRZ, and I took the win in M1 class, which was a first for this car. We all went to Braum's for ice cream afterwards - winners get sprinkles!

            LAST OF OUR POINTLESS OIL SYSTEM FIXES WITH LS7 BASED DRY SUMP

            After this mid august SCCA Time Trial we had a TWO MONTH break before the next SCCA event in mid October. This gave us time to test one more round of Band Aids to the LS7 dry sump system. This was the last hurrah before I threw in the towel and bought an external dry sump system.



            Again, after ever track event we check the oil catch can, and Brad found a little fluid in there this time but not much. Where the heck does that 16 liters of Motul go? Well it sits in the tank, and some in the engine and some in the cooler... but not enough in the bottom of the pan on long left handers!



            This Accusump addition has fixed low oil pressure situations in wet sump LS engines for us before, and this 3 quart system is huge. It is the same unit we had in Trigger for a while with the LS6 engine, but that engine was not long for this earth. So it needed to be completely discharged of pressure, disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned.



            Luckily Brad kept the brackets he made for this monster sized Accusump and it went right back in with a 37 psi sensor - so it will dump if oil pressure gets under 37 psi. Seems a tick high, but we will see if it works...



            The last thing that was theorized as a potential oil flow restriction was the main -12 AN hose that went from the external Petersen 3 gallon dry sump oil settling tank to the "suction" side of the LS7 oil pan. So about $230 worth of lines, fittings, and hose ends were ordered to up-size this to a -16 AN hose as well as re-routing it for a shorter run.



            This plumbing trick usually reduces oil pressure loss across long hose runs - even with a -12 size at the pan, the larger -16 hose will reduce pressure drop / improve suction from the LS7 oil pump pressure pump. As we would find out at the next track test NONE OF THIS HELPED OUR SITUATION.



            This is when we sent the two Holley dash units off to the 5th tuner to try to have him update the firmware so they would communicate properly with the ECU and we could finally modify the screens and get the GPS sensor to work, which would be a huge improvement for this Holley system. After 3 weeks of trying he gave up and shipped them back. We also sent two oil samples from the HPR 454" engine to Lake Speed Jr's company for analysis (all good).

            LAP TIME COMPARISON

            For a quick reference of "where we're at" we always like to list lap times with video links for the car in the forum post plus a few others to compare to at our Motorsport Ranch Cresson 1.7 mile, CCW test track. I have 800+ laps over ~24 years at this track, and drove all of these laps listed below at this track / configuration, with either AMB transponder or AiM Solo lap times. The cars in this list include our NASA TT3 prepped 2018 GT, 2024 Darkhorse, and of course the star of this entry, our 2015 Mustang #Trigger - all 3 tests on the MSR 1.7 CCW from this post are in bold. Just know that we have gone significantly faster than this as I write this, but I'm only listing what we have covered so far.

            MSR-C 1.7 mile CCW:
            • 1:31.619 - 2024 "Brembo" Mustang GT, 255mm 300TW tires, bone stock, Track Test #1
            • 1:20.348 - 2018 Mustang GT, NASA TT3 prep, 305mm RE71R, MCS RR2, 474 whp (fastest this car every ran on 200TW)
            • 1:20.677 - 2024 Darkhorse baseline stock, 180TW Trofeo RS tires, Track Test #1
            • 1:18.417 - 2024 Darkhorse, -3.5 deg camber with SPL arms + Vorshlag plates, 180TW Trofeo RS tires, Track Test #3
            • 1:28.064 - 2015 Mustang #Trigger, first test laps 6/29/23, 627 whp, 5 year old 305mm Bridgestone 200TW (junk!), Track Test #1
            • 1:18.878 - 2015 Mustang #Trigger, testing 7/22/23, 200TW tires 315mm A052, 627 whp BTR Trinity + 112mm TB, Track Test #2
            • 1:18.933 - 2015 Mustang #Trigger, 620 whp, no aero, MSD Atomic, 200TW tires 315mm A052, SCCA TT 8/12/23
            ​WHAT'S NEXT?

            Of course I didn't get as far as I would have liked, but at 5 parts and 20K words, it's time to wind it down for today. Here's just a brief glimpse of what we will cover on this project next time.



            We tackled some major mods in late August, including a big front and rear aero package. And guess what? It made the oil pressure situation MUCH worse! After that we added this A.R.E. 4 stage dry sump system, and DUH that was the answer! Then we focused on making the now ultra reliable package even faster, upgrade from the Holley to a Haltech EFI, and more. We will delve into all of these upgrades, and cover more track tests and Time Trial wins, next time.

            Thanks for reading!

            Terry @ Vorshlag
            Last edited by Fair!; 01-19-2024, 05:08 PM.
            Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
            2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
            EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

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