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 Post subject: Street Trials - Delayed
PostPosted: February 23, 2018, 2:28 pm 
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Joined: February 15, 2018, 8:32 pm
Posts: 70
Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
Due to weather :D


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PostPosted: February 24, 2018, 9:00 am 
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Location: 4AGE in S.E. Michigan
Delayed!!! Snow is an good excuse for making donuts :lol: But officer, I do not enough tire clearance for snow chains. :mrgreen: Dave W


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PostPosted: March 29, 2018, 6:52 pm 
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Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
The snow is long gone, and we’ve had a string of dry days…enough time to get a few street-trials in.

After sitting for a few weeks, the car was a little hesitant to start, however after a few cranks of the engine, she fired to life and stumbled for a while until it settled into a lumpy idle.

Rolling out of the garage I gently accelerated and did a few laps until she came up to temperature.
The air temperature was only 10DegC (approx. 50DegF) and the tires just weren’t getting much bite. I guess todays runs will have to be respectable.

Observations:

1- The Weber’s need some attention. There’s a horrible stumble off idle, plus another at about 3000RPM. If I keep revs up, she pulls great….but city driveability will be an issue if I don’t get this sorted. I pulled the Cat last fall, so I suspect the carbs may need rejetting. Sadly, I just don’t have any experience fiddling with DCOE’s.

2- The oil pressure gauge went nuts. She showed 4-5bar for most of the runs, but then went erratic. As suspected, the wire had come loose off the sender unit. A little clean-up and a spanner sorted the matter.

3- The car really gets squirrely at higher speeds. I’ll have to revisit my alignment and tire pressures before I hit the highway. Any guidance here would be appreciated.

All in all, it was an uneventful ride. The car literally stops traffic. Nobody around here has seen anything like this. Took a few of the neighbor’s kids for a ride, which sent them home with big grins on the face!

Oh, and I’ll probably have to affix an extended whip antenna with a flag on top as none of the cars around here seem to see me. Is this a common problem?


Last edited by Trog on March 30, 2018, 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: March 29, 2018, 7:23 pm 
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Location: Pemberton, BC
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Oh, and I’ll probably have to affix an expended whip antenna with a flag on top as none of the cars around here seem to see me. Is this a common problem?

Since I know where you are, I'd say yes. However, you could be driving a London Double Decker, and you'd still have the same problem. :BH: I wouldn't venture south of Whistler, unless I'm driving our minivan. Unfortunately it is a sign of the times. And I have the deepest respect for anybody who drives one of our cars in the Lower Mainland.
As to giving rides, that's where it all comes together. Lot's of smiles. :cheers: Even my teenage daughters still think it's cool to go for a ride.

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PostPosted: March 29, 2018, 10:42 pm 
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tire pressures before I hit the highway. Any guidance here would be appreciated.


low tire pressures. Maybe very low tire pressures. It's a very light car and not narrow tires. I'll let someone else give some numbers for street tires. Maybe as low as 20 or 22 lbs.?

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 5:32 am 
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Location: BC, Canada. eh?
I agree, tire pressures should be VERY low compared to other cars. I've heard of other Locosters who run as little as 12-14 psi.

Bear in mind that running 30 psi in a Locost is like running 60-70 psi in a Miata's tires! Squirrely doesn't even come close to describing it! I run my '00 Miata's tires at 24 psi, about as high a pressure as I dare. I did try it at 32 psi once, just for laughs - punched it in 2nd gear (dry, flat, warm, empty parking lot) & spun it instantly. Fun...but terrifying for a street car.

As far as the Webers are concerned, that off-idle stumble is usually dealt with by richening the idle circuit. Guys with Zetec engines have been struggling with that issue for years, and most have ended up richening the idle circuit until the car's blubbering & smoking, just to get it to run. Weber, in concert with Webcon in the UK, has now come out with brand-new, modified 45DCOE's with 5 progression holes which, apparently, cures the problem once and for all. After reading about all the attempts to fix the problem otherwise, over a span of years & with zero success, I caved & bought a set of the new Webers from Webcon. I haven't done engine start yet, but I'm pretty hopeful that the 45's will be very close to right, right out of the boxes.

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 8:19 am 
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Location: 4AGE in S.E. Michigan
An old racing trick is to apply a stripe of white shoe polish across the tires, made a short run, and see if the tire is making road connect across the full width of the tire. [too high a pressure: just the center of the tire will be making connect] I'm running 19 to 19.5 psi as a reference point. If the tire pressure adjustment does not reduce the squirrely driving, check for a toe out condition.
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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 8:57 am 
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1st, make sure that you don't have any loose nuts/bolts in the suspension and steering areas. Ensure the lugnuts are all tight. Then check the suspension point welds. (Hempy anyone?) Then do a rough alignment. It doesn't have to be perfect. An eyeball alignment should be good enough to get started.

As for tire pressure, I ran 18.0 PSI all around. FYI, I had 205/50R15 Azenis in a 1400# car.

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 11:12 am 
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zetec7 wrote:
I agree, tire pressures should be VERY low compared to other cars. I've heard of other Locosters who run as little as 12-14 psi.

Bear in mind that running 30 psi in a Locost is like running 60-70 psi in a Miata's tires! Squirrely doesn't even come close to describing it! I run my '00 Miata's tires at 24 psi, about as high a pressure as I dare. I did try it at 32 psi once, just for laughs - punched it in 2nd gear (dry, flat, warm, empty parking lot) & spun it instantly. Fun...but terrifying for a street car.

As far as the Webers are concerned, that off-idle stumble is usually dealt with by richening the idle circuit. Guys with Zetec engines have been struggling with that issue for years, and most have ended up richening the idle circuit until the car's blubbering & smoking, just to get it to run. Weber, in concert with Webcon in the UK, has now come out with brand-new, modified 45DCOE's with 5 progression holes which, apparently, cures the problem once and for all. After reading about all the attempts to fix the problem otherwise, over a span of years & with zero success, I caved & bought a set of the new Webers from Webcon. I haven't done engine start yet, but I'm pretty hopeful that the 45's will be very close to right, right out of the boxes.



Good advice......however if I were to replace my carburation, I think I'd go all out and invest in a Jenvey DCOE Heritage set-up. I've got some experience with ITB conversions following my Porsche 911 ITB-Project. Plus, I like the concept that Jenvey has developed:

https://store.jenvey.co.uk/throttle-bod ... r-tdp40-48

My last ITB project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT-f9ov5ypQ


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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 11:16 am 
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rx7locost wrote:
1st, make sure that you don't have any loose nuts/bolts in the suspension and steering areas. Ensure the lugnuts are all tight. Then check the suspension point welds. (Hempy anyone?) Then do a rough alignment. It doesn't have to be perfect. An eyeball alignment should be good enough to get started.

As for tire pressure, I ran 18.0 PSI all around. FYI, I had 205/50R15 Azenis in a 1400# car.



Just checked.....I've got 25PSI on all corners......that coupled with the cold temperatures sure makes things pretty slippery.

I'll drop her down to 20PSI and see how it feels.

I do my own alignments and am running a little toe-in, and about 1-deg of Camber out front.....0-Camber/toe in the rear.


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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 11:28 am 
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Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
mgkluft wrote:
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Oh, and I’ll probably have to affix an expended whip antenna with a flag on top as none of the cars around here seem to see me. Is this a common problem?

Since I know where you are, I'd say yes. However, you could be driving a London Double Decker, and you'd still have the same problem. :BH: I wouldn't venture south of Whistler, unless I'm driving our minivan. Unfortunately it is a sign of the times. And I have the deepest respect for anybody who drives one of our cars in the Lower Mainland.
As to giving rides, that's where it all comes together. Lot's of smiles. :cheers: Even my teenage daughters still think it's cool to go for a ride.


It's a regular Gong-Show down here in Richmond. How some of these folks get a driver’s license boggles the mind. I swear, at times it feels like they're blinded by their windshield.


Last edited by Trog on March 30, 2018, 12:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 11:36 am 
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Location: Pemberton, BC
I graduated from Richmond Senior Secondary in '77 (yes, I was the youngest ever, at 2 years old :rofl: ), and everything east of 3 Road was open country. I was down there a few weeks ago, and got lost in the high rise canyons. :BH:
Be safe there, in the 7.

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 7:10 pm 
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Trog wrote:
It's a regular Gong-Show down here in Richmond. How some of these folks get a driver’s license boggles the mind. I swear, at times it feels like they're blinded by their windshield.


Last week I was visiting friends that live in Mariner's Village near your place. I believe that many of the people on the road in Richmond did NOT qualify for their driver's license, they had someone else take the test for them. There's no way a large portion of them could even take the test as language proficiency would stop them.

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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 8:15 pm 
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Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
BHRmotorsport wrote:
Trog wrote:
It's a regular Gong-Show down here in Richmond. How some of these folks get a driver’s license boggles the mind. I swear, at times it feels like they're blinded by their windshield.


Last week I was visiting friends that live in Mariner's Village near your place. I believe that many of the people on the road in Richmond did NOT qualify for their driver's license, they had someone else take the test for them. There's no way a large portion of them could even take the test as language proficiency would stop them.



They don't need to:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.2620524


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PostPosted: March 30, 2018, 8:23 pm 
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Joined: February 15, 2018, 8:32 pm
Posts: 70
Location: Vancouver, BC. Canada
Street Trials update:

1- So, it appears that my oil pressure sender unit is toast. The gauge gets erratic once the engine oil warms up. I've ordered a replacement VDO unit from Summit.

2- I've successfully calibrated my Racetech speedometer. The original speedo was cable driven and the cable ran a torturous route. Used my GPS and adjusted the speedo calibration until it was bang on. Burton power in the UK sells transmission electronic adapters.

http://www.race.tech/speedometer/4589434974

http://www.burtonpower.com/racetech-spe ... sc130.html

3 - 20PSI in the tires seems to have settled down the handling issues.

4- What the hell is with all the rocks? My car interior looks like I've been driving in a quarry. Dang, I think I'll need to find me some mud flaps!


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