Finished!! Forged piston block, Custom valve head (flowbenched)

[Ondonti]

Made an appointment for tomorrow morning. I swapped front tires on my car and I am going to do some testing of the tires on each car before I show up tomorrow.

[Ondonti]

The 225/60r15 tires from my spirit seem to solve most of the problem even with the boost controller in 8 psi. They are about 2" taller then the old tires the duster has.

The Dusters tires on the Spirit don't seem to misbehave though. Maybe its just that 1st gear in the Spirit is not a good simulation of 3rd gear in the Duster.

On a dirty road the car still felt loose in the steering wheel. on a cleaner highway, the car felt pretty stable.

So hopefully the alignment shop can take care of whatever problem is left or tell me if something is out of tolerances.

[Ondonti]

Passenger innertie rod is bent, so thats why it dives to the right when I launch at the track.

Alignment guy thinks the car is too light in the rear. That means the rear gets loose when I try to correct any torque steer (like from the bent tie rod). I was a bit scared to let him drive the car but him driving it changed his mind about the problem.

My quick fix right now is taking the rear tire pressure from 34psi to 26psi. The tires still dont sit down on all their tread though. I might try even lower tire pressure, maybe 20 psi. He suggested putting a few hundred pounds of weight in the rear of the car since according to him "the rear of the car weighs like 100 pounds" but long term thats not something I can easily do. This might mean that in the future I would want to run slightly wider tires in the rear, especially for street driving. I am sure drag skinnies work great at the track, but those tires are made to grab the track surface well.

[speeduphoria]

so are you using the air shocks now? you sure thats not an issue?

[Ondonti]

no. The tires just dont contact the road fully because the car is so light and they have to much pressure in them.

I could try less pressure in the shocks but I dont know that it would help much. They only have 20psi in them right now.

[Ondonti]

Replacing the inner tie rod sucked..had to buy an outer too because they were rusted together.

Ran two 13.3's at the track and then did this on my third run.
Clutch is not healthy right now. Its glazed from my last trip and all that riding the clutch that was happening :(

[roguetrip]

nice, I pulled mine off the cable one time, Instead of replacing the cable, I just made a replacement Aluminum block with machine screw with locking nut to hold it down to the cable. Repair was just the cost of aluminum which was like $3.

[Reaper1]

I was gonna say...time for a spherical bearing end on the cable! It'll greatly improve shifter feel too!

[Ondonti]

Well thats an interesting idea on the aluminum block.
I dont know what the 2nd thing you suggest is though, or how to apply it.

My shifter cables are sort of kinked up with how I have the shifter raised so I am going to cut some new holes in the firewall like I have on my spirit that make the shifter cables happy. That is..whenever I feel like fixing it.

[jory]

I went through 3 shifter cables because the holes in the floor made them bend too sharply. When I was working on my neon I liked how the cables have their own metal bracket/rubber grommet that goes through the floor so I enlarged the hole and put one in my Spirit, it's working way better than the two separate holes, cleaner looking too.

[Ondonti]

The shift is really really really easy on my spirit even with a cut shifter because I go through the firewall at the level of the shifter levers on the transmission. And I have the shifter lifted about 5" to make it closer to the steering wheel on that car.
Shifter is lifted even higher in the duster.

The stupid duster is a real 5 speed car so I was just using the stock holes. I dont really care how it looks so I will emphasize putting the holes where the cables kink the least.

I might need a new shifter because I modified the clip attachment points to aim down (trying to remove some of the kink in the cables).

The aluminum block fix seems easy and I can probably use some scrap aluminum I have.

[roguetrip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ondonti Well thats an interesting idea on the aluminum block. I dont know what the 2nd thing you suggest is though, or how to apply it. My shifter cables are sort of kinked up with how I have the shifter raised so I am going to cut some new holes in the firewall like I have on my spirit that make the shifter cables happy. That is..whenever I feel like fixing it.

When you pull the broken plastic off the cable end you will see a notch on the side of the rod. What I did was drilled a hole in the end of the block for the rod to go into, and then another hole on the side that a screw could be put in to that notch which was tapped for a machine screw. Using just a bit of a longer machine screw I took a nut that matched the thread of the screw and used it as a locking/jamming nut so the screw wouldn't work itself loose.

If I was to rebuild it I'd probably just forget about the crappy bushing and drill the diameter of the pin of the shifter and use a C-clip to hold it on making it much more solid.

Here is a quick pic I made:

[Ondonti]

Yeah, skipping the bushing sounds like a good idea
That also makes it a LOT easier to build.

[Ondonti]

6g72 Sundance Duster vs Slicked Kenne Bell Cobra - Video

I was pretty pissed off at the car with its clutch issues but the first race made the night worth it...was great watching all his friends running into the pits freaking out trying to change air pressure etc etc (even though he bogged...idiots). They wouldnt talk to me but the White turbo Cobra in the burnout box in my first race certainly thought it was funny.

Not sure if I want to fix the clutch or maybe try Ray Pampenas ATF fluid trick.

Met a few 3/S'ers and the owner of Price Match Parts (supporting vendor).

[bansheenut420]

Still waiting for you to take the nubs off my slicks..... Your car sounded damn good in that first run.