Dust Buster Race Car...help needed

[OnkelUdo]

So the van is ready to run except for nickel and nickel stuff (LeMons pun).

Got some 8" 650#/in springs that need to be installed and I need to fab up a couple of 1/2" spacers
Alternator was actually destroyed by the running without the proper reference voltage so we are replacing that
Couple of theme items to do
Load it up for the race!

Here is the current picture of the front. Still needs the appropriate license plate and Mercedes hood ornament.

[vit]

That's how we are doing in Russia

[vit]

[lemons bob]

Not sure if I should start panicing yet.

Honestly we don't have much left to do either. Need to get some spare tires, oil change, and bed in the brakes plus a bunch of other minor things.

New Cheaty parts in to hopefully make the car less rolly and handle a bit better. Way to much left in the residual that we aren't going to use again.

Good news is that there was lots of life left in the pads after 14 hours so the new set should do pretty well.

[OnkelUdo]

So a DIFFERENT U-Van won Class C and the IOE in the true 24 hours race. Great group of guys and the van was exceptional. He put the entire drivetrain from Pontiac GTP in there (series II supercharged and 5-speed manual) and it was fast!

Our van handled a million times better with only a single handling woe which was a bit of rocking chair effect over multiple bumps under braking (really only one corner). Without the long list of mechanical failures we could have reasonably been second in Class C.

We had multitudes of mechanical woes:

Failed front hub and/or axle (faster to swap as a unit from the part drive train)
Multiple brake failures...basically the heat was bending the pads so that there was only contact directly below the piston
Radiator cap failure
PS hose pinhole leak
Bad coil
Ball joint failure
And probably a few other things I forgot

Except for the PS hose most were easy to fix enough to get back on the track but the brake issue is just going to have to stop. We need something significantly better on the front. Research has begun but if anyone knows a multi-piston caliper option of any sort, let me know.

My fall-back at this point appears to be the 2005'ish Impala supercharged rotors and calipers or Park Ave Ultra supercharged. They add an inch in rotor diameter, use a less long pad but still about the same piston bore (unfortunately). Keep in mind, we need easy parts store availability of all braking components.

The list of stuff we need to do for reliability is long and arduous:

Oil pump and timing set
Oil cooler set-up
Front brake change...and I mean everything..I will not run another race with those calipers
Replace both PS hoses with new
Convert to standard 4-port MC with adjustable rear proportioning
Replace front suspension bushings (lower priority)
4 tires after we determine wheel size after final front brakes are determined
Crank position sensor (potential source of the intermittent low power and stalling)
Spark plugs
Coils..I vote new
Front hub bearings
Replace all the stuff we stole off the spare drivetrain

[Duke George V]

As for the brakes, since you already have 16" wheels, use Camaro brakes. Get the caliper brackets from a 98-02 F-body at a yard if you can. Buy the calipers and pads new for a 98-02 F-body, and rotors for a 00-05 Impala.

From earlier in the thread. Camaro calipers are two piston.

[lemons bob]

I also think getting rid of the steelies and finding a wheel that has a lot more open space will help in with the brake issues. Those steelies hold in a lot of heat. We found swapping to alero wheels up front greatly decreased the tempature of everything around the wheels in the front end.

[OnkelUdo]

Yeah, sent that to the teammate and he has decided we need to go the corvette C5 caliper that is almost the same in design, slightly different shape, and an inch bigger to take advantage of the off-the-shelf high performance pads. As Bob said, we need to go to alloys on the front anyway and it looks like the 2005 Rendvous 17" wheels are the same bolt spacing and offset as our current 16" wheels.

[lurker]

He put the entire drivetrain from Pontiac GTP in there (series II supercharged and 5-speed manual)

can you share anything more about this?

[OnkelUdo]

Honestly...no. It was supercharged Series II with a five speed. No Idea how Dave did it or if it just a simple swap of a few van-specific items then drop it on the Van subframe. All I know if he was MUCH faster in a straight line that we were but at least one of our drivers could corner and out brake one of his drivers.

[OnkelUdo]

First of the Buick Aztek...er, Rendezvous wheels arrive and my 17" tires should be in today. Also, the ENOURMOUS C5 calipers came in.

The best part of all this, we can finally run the only endurance racing compound NO ONE complains about on our front brakes...Raybestos ST43.

Also a crap load of sensors, coils, PS hoses, etc. We are pulling the subframe to take care of all the reliability-related items after the fiasco with both the coil and the PS hose.

[OnkelUdo]

Sub frame is out of the car. We so found the cause(s) of the low oil pressure and just in time. The pressure release valve was stuck open but we also had a piece of metai in the oil pump that had done a number on the rotor and housing.

Crank was toast. I believe three mains and two rod bearings were showing scoring and lots of copper.

Rebuilt crank is in
Oil pump rebuilt
Motor 90% back together

Everything else is going VERY slowly.

C5 brake conversion is just a pain without proper machine tools.
The old MC cannot be used without the suspect ABS unit attached so we are hoping a pre-ABS MC just bolts up.

Radio issues are hopefully fixed...but that is about the only thing done end to end.

Part of the issue is that I have been otherwise distracted by getting a friend's house on the market while he is on assignment out of state and moving all his crap to his old home in AL. I did get this out of the deal...partially financed by these activities:

I am outfitting it to be an all-weather mobile HQ/bunkhouse for the team should we decide to do more distant races and because the Spring race is always in Michigan...in April...and mostly below freezing. Most of the outfitting is stuff I have lying around the house like 35K BTU propane heater, window AC, small generator and left over cabinets.

Babe, the disreputable blue ox of a truck, pulls it just fine as long as you are not in a hurry and even managed over 9 MPG for the 1000 mile trip. Still has me wanting a lower geared rear end (was supposed to be a 4.10 but spinning the drive shaft revealed a 3.48).

[OnkelUdo]

Ready to race for the last race of the season.

C5 brake conversion...check
Replaced all internal bearings, oil pump, sensors (crank and cam) PS hoses, etc...check
Repaired rust on the driver front sub frame mount enough to tighten the bolt...check
Painted the whole thing safety orange...check

We are hoping to be reliable this race and maybe even somewhat competitive in class C.

Here

[lemons bob]

Ready to race for the last race of the season.

C5 brake conversion...check
Replaced all internal bearings, oil pump, sensors (crank and cam) PS hoses, etc...check
Repaired rust on the driver front sub frame mount enough to tighten the bolt...check
Painted the whole thing safety orange...check

We are hoping to be reliable this race and maybe even somewhat competitive in class C.

Here

Weren't you 2nd or 3rd last race in C? Morrow pretty much ran away with it, even so I think you were pretty competitive with the c class teams.

I'll be driving with the team Tsog is driving with, as long as we finish getting it together.(yesterday was the first time I saw the car and it doesn't seem that far from getting ready but one of the other guys is a bit nervous) It was brought up whether we are pitting with you guys so wally doesn't need to travel far for his snacks.

[OnkelUdo]

No...we were about mid-pack for class see due to many hours down for repairs. Some if due to needing parts when no parts stores were open but a lot was just crappy design, old parts, etc.