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It's always something
Initial test run at Road Atlanta yesterday.
The dry sump system:
First session the track was standing water wet, which was fine with me as it meant the pace would be low and cautious and I could use the session to monitor the oil dry sump system. I wanted to bring things up to temp, but 3 laps in we were all brought in. Unfortunately someone in an Ariel Atom must have goosed the throttle climbing out of T5 and stuffed into the tire barrier, causing a full course black flag. Road Atlanta is lined with walls and when the grass is wet, if you go off you are going into a wall!
Once cleared, we got about 20 minutes left in the session. But enough to get the oil up to temp and monitor the oil pressure. The dry sump system is very different. The oil pressure is very active. I have a swept gauge and it essentially moves with the rpm’s. It’ll definitely take some time to get used to having the pressure move so much. It’s very dependent on rpm’s and temp and not g forces. Cold oil the pressure seems too high, but pressure drops as the oil gets hot. Pressure is adjustable, so something else to tweak. I expect the oil is going to run in target temps. With the cooler taped off it only got up to 225f. Ambient was only 55f and I wasn’t driving hard, but still a good sign.
At the end of the session I found I had a leaking NPT fitting for the oil pressure sender. Made a helluva mess. Got it fixed with some Teflon tape for the next session and now it’s all dry and tight. All those hose assemblies I worried about were no problem!
Handling:
Second session out the track was dry and I was looking forward to turning up the pace, but the car had a problem at full throttle. Like two coughs every few seconds. Two laps in some dipshit stuffed it into a wall and we were brought in again. When I restarted to go out once the mess was cleaned up, the car threw some codes and went into limp mode. The code reader showed throttle problems and a Lambda error. Optimistically, I cleared the codes, disconnected the battery and then hoped for the best for the next session. On the out lap, it became clear the problem was back. Throttle actuator failure. Sucks to have the day ruined by something so simple after all this work.
As for the handling, I can say that I didn’t expect to notice an improvement until pushing the car 9/10 - 10/10, but at 7/10 I could feel the car turning in better and more neutral with less push in the sweepers. A taste, but not the meal…
Parts ordered, and planning to get back out at the end of March for a redo. To be continued…
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