Dumb, Stubborn, and bound to end up penniless…….

[aklackner]

What thermo is installed?

IIRC it’s a standard oem unit, I didn’t go with a unit that would open before 170f.

The fan switch is just a cheap Mishimoto and that should turn the fan on at 176f.

[aklackner]

One option for the heat shield exhaust rattle is to remove the heatshield. I had to do this with mugen cat back twinloop.

It takes a while for the fan to come on with these cars. I had to drain and refill coolant on my gs-r recently, and it seemed to take forever for fan to come on when bleeding the system.

You’re likely right on both counts.

I spent quite a bit of time swapping around exhaust hangers loosening and retightening segments of the exhaust and made only marginal improvements in some areas at the cost of issues in others. I think I’ll go ahead and pull the problematic heatshield and ordered some insulated wrap and stainless ties to help limit heat transfer to the gas tank. In theory this could also help exhaust flow. The WS is only a temporary exhaust for ease of inspections. I want to avoid getting to aggressive trying to get it fit but test drives are counter productive with excessive exhaust rattle.

To satisfy myself the cooling system is functioning I ordered an IR thermometer today which I plan to use to check temps across several locations to confirm something isn’t amiss. I have no doubt I’ll find all sorts of uses for it.

[Dave7CDMTYPER]

Yea, and of course you can always put heat shield back on, it's easy.

Btw, with my mugen exhaust, the rattle was happening near the area where it connects to the cat, so that the was heat shield section I removed. Sounds like your rattle is toward the back of the car. So it's interesting I guess how different aftermarket systems fit (or don't). To me, it's always worth it for Mugen.

[DC231]

These cooling systems definitely take a while at idle to kick the fans on. I've sat with them running for as long as 40 minutes before the fan would kick on. Another thing to consider is if your heat valve is open then it will take even longer for your fan to kick on because you have a small radiator (heater core) under dash helping cool.. just a thought

[aklackner]

Made it out for another test drive.


Still missing the ITR decals since the paint still hasn’t been polished. The paint shop wanted to wait until it was all assembled before they polished it. Never thought it would take this long and they are ready for me to bring it by once it’s all set. Then the decals will go on.

Well no more gas leak and fan is kicking on and off without the AC needing to be on. Temps have been consistent. Exhaust is rattling still but that was expected. Suspension is feeling pretty good. Stiff enough to let you know it’s there and likely softer than desirable for track but handles pretty torn up road without being obnoxious. I’ve not pushed the handling at all but it seems eager to do what I ask.

Unfortunately I did have a very unpleasant surprise when one of the left front caliper brackets bolts managed to come entirely free. Amazingly nothing significant transpired aside from some brake squeak. I managed to park quickly and had my wife grab me, then drop me back with some tools and spare parts. I check all four corners right there on the side of the road. Some how 3 of the front caliper bracket bolt had come a little loose and a fourth (from left front) had come completely out. Fortunately I was able to gorilla wrench the bracket bolts down and replace the missing bolt with a spare I had on hand. All other fasteners looks good and snug. From now on I’ll be using a paint marker after final torquing and checking paint marks with a mirror before drives on critical fasteners.

In the next few days I’ll get the car back up on stand check torque spec and mark everything. Sort out the heatshield/exhaust then I might be ready to plan out some longer drives to clear emissions. Was up Angeles Crest for some hiking and snow fun with the family and that could be a pretty fun drive once I have 01-0386 sorted to a point that I trust it.

[Outrun]

Did you torque them to spec? Glad nothing bad happened.

[aklackner]

I’m pretty certain the bolts were tightened properly but working on the project over the timespan it’s hard to say with 100% certainty. In the end probably one of those lessons not to rush into a test run without through checks of all critical systems.

For now I’m going to monitor closely and if I find they’re backing out at all I’ll add some blue locktite for extra assurance.

This failure probably resonates well with the recommendation from kingpin in the hpde necessities thread to nut and bolt between sessions where possible.

[noahf]

grab a yellow paint pen and mark the bolts after you torque them. It lets you know they are torqued and if you also mark the side/mounting surface you can see if it has backed out any.

[aklackner]

grab a yellow paint pen and mark the bolts after you torque them. It lets you know they are torqued and if you also mark the side/mounting surface you can see if it has backed out any.

Yep going to be my standard practice now for all critical fasteners.

[aklackner]

Not the prettiest solution but exhaust contact/rattle is resolved.



Feels very close to a streetable car now!

I’ll do a run through of critical bolts tomorrow and then find some time to do a bit longer drive to start working towards clearing the ecu emissions ready tests.