Dyno trouble shooting session of Z4M ESS VT - 525

[Str8 RippiN]

so my car was out at willow at the eurotuner shootout and the oil temps were hitting 260 in two laps with the current Setrab Unit, i'm going to replace it with the wider 25 should produce the adequate cooling power needed to get it down to around the 210 range..
Also oil line connected to the cooler came off because they use push lock fitting with non push lock hoses, a simple $3 clamp would have made it so much more reliable. Car skid on the oil and went off track nothing happened but if there had been a wall or an obstacle it would've been game over. ESS also said they are looking into building a R type kit for track use specifically with larger cooling capacity and high octane fuel in mind. They also may change the belts to a 7 rib and speed up the water pump (which i thought you'd want to slow down) i'm going to be making a hybrid kit between the 525 and the R making it a 525R?? haha who knows. I just wish this kit was as plug and play as originally advertised

[ZStig]

These kits should have been track rated from the start. Not necessarily race car level of beating, but good enough for a trackday romp

[seank]

Originally Posted by ZStig

These kits should have been track rated from the start. Not necessarily race car level of beating, but good enough for a trackday romp

True, but any kit needs lots of dooodads. The motor is very high strung in stock form. I am looking forward to seeing if the larger cooler helps. If so, I will be replacing mine even though she isn't hardly tracked. Mine still hits 215 on a 105 degree day with the A/C on with spirited driving.

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by ZStig

These kits should have been track rated from the start. Not necessarily race car level of beating, but good enough for a trackday romp

absolutely agree..... i don't think it helps they test europe side as in our cooler temps they last a lot longer, my oil temps are very very stable....

[Str8 RippiN]

Originally Posted by Beedub

absolutely agree..... i don't think it helps they test europe side as in our cooler temps they last a lot longer, my oil temps are very very stable....

They should test in Arizona during the summer, that way anywhere else in the world will be guaranteed to gain you HP and not overheat

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by Str8 RippiN

They should test in Arizona during the summer, that way anywhere else in the world will be guaranteed to gain you HP and not overheat

Nah that's dry heat , come to SC in August , where it's 100 degrees and 100 % humidity . You don't breath the air you drink it lol.
George

[seank]

Originally Posted by gmd2003

Nah that's dry heat , come to SC in August , where it's 100 degrees and 100 % humidity . You don't breath the air you drink it lol.
George

you need a snorkel

[gmd2003]

Ok guys , thought I would give a little update . My car is good to go after repairs, and I have installed the 35 row Setrab oil cooler by modifying the lower bracket . I'm headed back down to the scene of the crime ( Roebling ) to get " get back on the horse " if you will . I'll let everyone know how the temps do with the new cooler it's going to be in the 80's so a fair test . I'm still pretty certain this track limp mode is at least partially temp related so I'm hoping the oil cooler will take care of that as well. ESS is still working on a tuning solution to disable it . Also trying out 265/285 hankook ventus TD's , so even limping along I should be able to make up for it in the corners
Wish me luck .

George

[gmd2003]

Back in form and ready for action with some new shoes !

[dubsesd]

Awesome tires!

[ZeD4Mr]

Looking good!

[StickMon]

That is bad-a$$.
I was just watching some Blancpain and ADAC races on Speed2 and I soooo love the way the wheels and tires look on the Z4 GT3.

You captured that look pretty well.

[pokeybritches]

Looks good! Do you keep the hard top on while at the track?

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by pokeybritches

Looks good! Do you keep the hard top on while at the track?

Absolutely , it has much better aero with the hard top on, esp when you are going 140 plus. Also if you do have an off the hard top is a ton of extra protection .

[Beedub]

Originally Posted by gmd2003

Absolutely , it has much better aero with the hard top on, esp when you are going 140 plus. Also if you do have an off the hard top is a ton of extra protection .

110% agree. i ALWAYs track with the hardtop on the car feels very different with it in place.... infact apart from the look it really feels coupe like....

[johanness]

Originally Posted by Beedub

infact apart from the look it really feels coupe like....

Keep dreaming

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by gmd2003

Also if you do have an off the hard top is a ton of extra protection .

I don't know about that. There's a chance that the hardtop comes off in a collision, risking head injury (the mounting is very flimsy compared to the forces involved in a crash). It also gives no extra rigidity to the chassis.
Maybe if you roll/skid upside down that you have protection.

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by johanness

Keep dreaming

Well the structural rigidity of the E85 M roadster is greater than the E46 M3 coupe so yeah actually it is coupe like. Not as high as the E86 but not that far off. I'll put my roadster up against your coupe any day

[gmd2003]

So I had first track day since my crash in August, and I had good dry weather to evaluate my repaired rear suspension and the new Setrab 35 row oil cooler on my VT-525 kit. It was warmer than expected reaching 84 degrees on Sat, so the track was a fair bit slower than expected, which was fine with me as it was good to get my rhythm and confidence back . There were several 997 911 cup cars from Zotz racing as well as some Cayman GTB race cars there testing. I'll post up some videos of me tangling with them in a bit. I had no chance against the 911 cups obviously but was able to run down the Cayman GTB-1 ! The new oil cooler worked great ! Oil temps never exceeded 230's degrees and ran 20 degrees cooler than previously with this kit despite prolonged hard use. At one point I ran 7 consecutive laps within 1.5 seconds of my all time record at Roebling (1:20.8) and hit 147 mph by GPS on the front straight 8 consecutive laps well before reaching the breaking zone ( 147mph is the redline of my car 8100rpm so i had to maintain for the last 300 feet of the straight). I still had the limp mode pop up a total of 4 times during the 8, 25 min sessions over two days, but it is def not temp related alone, b/c it actually happened once on a warm up lap??? I hope ESS can sort it out bc now the kit is totally trackable ,and If these hiccups can be removed it will be a perfect weapon. It was a good clean weekend except for vettes blowing up 3 times lol and one green group student who was spending his first day at Roebling in a just purchased E36 M3 race car on conti scrub slicks . ( Yeah a noob in a race car on slicks ...... He was fortunately ok but you can see why beginners should stick with stock cars and STOCK TIRES!!!! I'll post links to my vids when I process them.
George

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I don't know about that. There's a chance that the hardtop comes off in a collision, risking head injury (the mounting is very flimsy compared to the forces involved in a crash). It also gives no extra rigidity to the chassis.
Maybe if you roll/skid upside down that you have protection.

Well I have experienced a crash and without it i would have taken tree limbs to the head so......... Yes it saved my ass. And of course with my racing seats my head is below the roll bars which is key, and I wear a neck support.
George

[GuidoK]

So the hardtop did not come loose by the impact of the tree?

[gmd2003]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

So the hardtop did not come loose by the impact of the tree?

No it did not .
George