Cage Update

Cage is pretty close to being done. I took a trip down to see Sean at DSX last night and get an update. The A-Pillar, Rocker, Halo, Driver Door Bar are tacked into place. Sean mentioned he'd start finish welding up the rear of the cage later today to seat everything in place, then work his way forward adding in the offset X in the door and other optional bars (Roof X, Strut Tower Brace, etc.) The Drivers Door bar was kicked out a bit to give me a bit more room inside the car. I think it's going to look pretty neat once it's done (Good thing I gutted the doors beforehand) I'm pretty excited to get it back and start working on paint. It's turning out to look like a real race car now, haha.

Gears Together

Last night concluded my transmission work (hopefully, lol). I got the box back together within 3-4 hours. We'll see if I put it together correctly, haha.

I'm glad I took it apart in the first place because i had gunk everywhere. I even had some sort of buildup on the inside of the gear stack pinion shaft. A little dip in a few gallons of 93 octane dissolved and cleaned just about everything. I made sure to be extra careful with the bearings as just a little bit of dirt could really jam them up. I made sure to re-lube them and reassembled the gear stack. following the stacks I made sure to clean and re-lube the front diff as well as get all the particulate out of the case itself. A good portion of this build was just having the time to make sure *everything* was clean. Threw the transfer case back on and called it a night!

Motor Back

Finally got the motor back. Heads are cleaned and machined (have to take them apart anyway to replace the cams - But I'll do that later on) Block was measured, (.001 out of round but whatever) honed and cleaned. I couldn't get my hands on some ACL race bearings, so I just settled with the normal stuff. As long as it lasts one season I'll be happy. The crank was ground and polished - they took .010 off the face which isn't too bad, but it did require machining. So, I'll be reassembling it soon - Hopefully before the car comes back from DSX.

Cage Update and Working Center

This weekend was kinda hectic - haven't been able to post but I have made a lot of head way. Sean at DSX has moved along great on the cage, finalizing all the rear bends/fitment. I think it looks great so far. He mentioned he's going to bend up the A-Pillar tubes next, install the front box plates, then move to building custom seat brackets to integrated the seats into the cage. It's a bit interesting trying to build the car for both Jamie and myself as the seat positioning will be a bit different for both drivers, but Sean has some cool ways of accommodating.

One really cool thing Sean did was aligned the main hoop cross with the X on the down tubes to allow for more visibility. They all pretty much cross at the same point, allowing me to see a bit more out the rear window. He also rocked back the main hoop just slightly (still within NASA specifications) to follow the B-Pillar body line and make the car more rigid by tying into it.

In addition to the cage, I found some time to grab a used (not destroyed lol) center diff from DSG up in Mass. (Thanks Bill). Cleaned up the internals on the transfer case, washed the transfer gears and re-lubed them and reinstalled the center. It was a fairly easy process, just need to make sure you don't forget the shim! haha. Now it spins without making a terrible grinding noise, lol.

The Carnage...

Really I can't get a break with this damn car. haha. So in disassembling the transmission to fix what I thought were the rear bearings - turned out to be the transfer gear bearing on the center diff. So I decided to remove the center diff and do some inspection. I was given a "Free" transmission by one of my friends (Thanks Justin) although - the word "Free" usually comes with disclaimers.

After I popped my transfer case apart and removed the diff, I realized that the bearing (although still intact) was pretty destroyed. So I removed it - Quick bearing separator action in my press and off it came. When I cleaned it up with some brake cleaner and inspected it a bit closer, I found there to be hairline fractures of the center differential casing. This must have been caused by the bearing overheating.

So - That "Free" transmission... I figured, Hey! Maybe the diff is good out of this one! - Well after draining the metallic sludge from the box and fighting with the seized linkages - I pulled the center diff out of that one. Not only was the transfer gear bearing obliterated, but the diff itself was physically busted. You can shake the diff and hear parts floating around. ah man - At least it's not a 6 speed, lol.

Plates and Main Hoop

So I swung by DSX last night to talk with Sean and take a peek at the cage so far. He's boxed off plates for the main hoop and down tubes. I personally think the look of boxing up the plates is much more clean - I don't know if there's added safety behind his madness, but so far so good. Sean said he'd fabricate the rear of the car first then move forward so I expect we'll be seeing some down tubes soon.

Goodies

So even though there's nothing really to work on yet... And I'm bored out of my mind... That doesn't stop the goodies from rolling in. My Delta 2000 grind cams cam in last night (found them after I buried the box in snow by accident with the plow, lol). These should help move the power band more towards the higher RPM range. Living above 4500-5000 RPM on the track all day would be kinda sucky without being able to access what little power this N/A has. Hopefully tonight I'll take a trip down to see Sean and take a few pics of his work so far. Stay Tuned.