Green EK4

[iwearmoccos]

No updates, just some low resolution scanned via TJB's film camera.

[RC_dc2]

Last photo is the best.

[iwearmoccos]

Saturday morning I headed to Blackburn for a wheel alignment via Ray at Race Line.
I had figured the car wasn't quite straight, considering my off at Haunted Hills and then two days of Winton, taking its toll on the car. Ray was away in Japan during that period, so I had no chance to get in for an alignment.


Below is the before and after of my alignment. Take note of the before data, all over the place!

As per usual, as soon as I test drove it around the block, it felt much nicer to drive and track much straight than previous.

Saturday afternoon I had a spare couple hours, so figured I'd change the oil before 3 days at PI in July, via PIARC Sprints and the 6 Hour Relay.
I'm out of Honda oil filters at the moment, so got this K&N filter from Autobarn. It has a 1inch spanner option on the end of it but it is a bit useless, with the edges round and really difficult to get a massive 1inch spanner on it. We'll see how annoying it is to remove in August!

I've also been using this Nulon 15w50 the last couple of oil changes and am pretty pleased with how the car runs on it. Obviously, I've got no scientific evidence to suggest it is better or worse, the car just feels 'nicer'. A bit like the butt dyno, but in oil form.

I usually go back to my parents for an oil change, but did it in the driveway at my unit and made minimal mess. I knew that old cardboard box would come in handy.

Brakes were also bled again, thanks to LB for her brake bleeding foot. I checked my rear pads and they are still full of meat. These rear HC+ pads and rotors have been on the car for 2 years, while I'm onto my third set of pads/rotors on the front in the same time.

[iwearmoccos]

8 weeks ago I requested a quote from ASR for postage on their 3 inch steering hub spacer. A few weeks later it hadn't arrived, so I sent an email to them asking where it was. Conveniently they never told me they were out of stock. I hate that businesses do that. Anyway, it eventually turned up, and I replaced my jumble of Ebay spacers with this ASR variety. It will look better in black, I'll get around to that one day.


As discussed previously, I've been tossing up which tyres to go to next, after running 2 sets of 205/05/15 NT01s.
There was a Kumho sale on yesterday, which would have got me a 225/195 staggered set of V70As for a pretty good price. I also got a quote for A050s and sat on that for a week. On Saturday, after sitting on an A050 quote for a week, I went to Traction and got a 225/205 A050 set.
The main reason for the A050s is everyone at hill climbs run A050s, as well as multiple people mentioning that the Kumho loses pace quicker than the A050. That might just be an old wive's tale, but I'll be able to confirm that sometime in the near future.

The best part about hatch ownership!

I went back to my parents, so figured I'd test fit the tyres. These are a really big tyre!!
225/50/15 v 205/50/15 A050

225/45/15 RS3 v 225/50/15 A050


The rear has no issues with fitting, though I was a little scared about the front. I hand pulled the guards even further.

I was worried that the seam at the top of the wheel arch, which is usually banged flat on a lot of EKs, which hit the top of the tyre. It didn't hit at all, after my run through Haunted Hills road and only the right guard hit the tyre slightly. I think I know the spot, so will get the hammer and heat gun out this week.

Overall, I'm reasonably happy so far and look forward to smashing some laps at Phillip Island in two weeks!

I'm also doing a motorkhana with a Toyota and Ford car club next Sunday in Altona, which should be a bit of fun.

A reasonably expensive post!

[Toddxxx]

Record incoming

[Devcon]

Nooo the photos are gone

[iwearmoccos]

Looks like after 12 or so years of using the same Photobucket account, they want to charge me an arm and a leg to continue to use their services.
http://photobucket.com/terms


"Plus 500 Plan: 500 GB of Storage and unlimited bandwidth for $399.99 / Year. The Plus 500 Plan allows for unlimited image linking and unlimited 3rd party image hosting."

Will need to look into another option.

Sorry!!

[Austro]

Imgur ftw!

[Devcon]

holy mollyyy that is expensive !

[Yue_Will]

Try flickr

[iwearmoccos]

The Flickr app (and website) is much better than the terrible Photobucket app.
Will eventually move all my photos across and replace the links. This might take a while.

29311847850_fd406e7abc_o (1) by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr

[Devcon]

yay photos are back.. mmm thats nice.!

[iwearmoccos]

I dropped my girlfriend off at the airport yesterday for a couple weeks in Europe, so what better thing to do with a lonely Sunday than go and run around cones in Altona!

Toyota and Ford Clubs run regular motorkhanas at the Toyota facility carpark, and for only $20, a few of us figured it would be worth heading west and taking a look.
The usual suspects were there. Lots of MX5s and a dirt Nissan or two.
20170702_084324 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
It was VERY cold, though we were all excited to run around a few cones.
20170702_093636 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
My only previous motorkhana experience was with SAU, who run a very 'drift' orientated event at DECA in Shepparton or at RTR in Truganina?! (I think that is where it is, another western suburb anyway!)
Their layouts are usually reasonably spacious and haven't required much/any hand brake previously.
Once they started to cone the layouts this morning, and particularly after my first run, I knew I'd have to rip the hand brake a fair bit to get around these cones as the turning circle on my car isn't great, with LSD and the Honed changes made up front.
Here is an old Prelude, driven by a just as old gentleman.
20170702_110650 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
The event itself was well subscribed, and which may have contributed to the lack of organisation between runs.
The first lay out, it was a free for all line up, with cars EVERYWHERE. The second lay out, we were required to go into number order, which worked well for the most part and then for the third lay out, we were told to revert back to the free for all! I think there was a fourth layout, which meant more cluster f*cking around the start.

As the day got on, I got better at ripping the handbrake to turn the car, which DEFINITELY needs more work to be consistent and fast. I did also notice my steering got REALLY heavy going lock to lock between cones. I asked the other EK4 owner there if he had the same issues, but said he didn't, so who knows what is wrong with it?! I have noticed it previously at motorkhanas many moons ago, but as I'm not a regular motorkhana attendee, it doesn't really bother me.
The power steering fluid was changed late last year with OEM fluid.

I didn't take my GoPro, so here are a few photos from S15 driving Jason.
Next weekend is the Nug Nats dyno day on Saturday, so we'll finally know how many km's a 300km B16A2 make and then Sunday is Phillip Island for PIARC Sprints and the first time out on the A050s. I am very excited and hope the weather is nice and dry.
DSC_2821 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
DSC_2822 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
DSC_2825 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr
DSC_2758 by Rhys Yeomans, on Flickr

[iwearmoccos]

It is almost expected by my colleagues that I'll be leaving work early on a Friday, and this week was no different!
I battled some traffic down to Phillip Island, stopping at San Remo for dinner.
20170707_170747 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
A few hundred metres up the road, my car finally hit 300,000km. I've only done about 40,000km in it.
20170707_171018 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
I originally had planned to do both days of the PIARC sprints, which is why I was down at Phillip Island on a Friday, but with Nug Nats dyno day on, I figured it was a good change to get the car on the dyno and see how much power a B16A2 with some regular tough love thrown at it would produce.
20170708_130808 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
Nug Nats run a tight ship, so despite being the 2nd last car on the dyno, I didn't have to wait long.
The graph is below, 95.2kw of B16A2 power!!! The guy running the dyno said it was still making power at the rev limiter, so I figure that is nice to know and that it isn't/hasn't fallen off over the years.
20170708_131035 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
Brett also took this photo of the car on the dyno.
DSC05473 by Brett Swain, on Flickr
So back to Phillip Island we went!! I ended up doing 800km this weekend, from all these trips.
I got back reasonably early, so figured I'd make us of the light and install my A050s. Love the look of these tyres on the car!
20170708_163839 by I WEAR MOCCOS, on Flickr
It had rained overnight and was very cold this morning, as I headed off to the circuit.
There were only 42 cars signed on for the day, so the sessions were going to come around very quickly, by 11am I had already ran 3.
My plan was to get the tyres to the about 31psi hot and get comfortable on them, as I hadn't done any laps on these yet.
First few laps were a bit slippery with a new tyre and a cold circuit. The fronts came good before the rear, with a few hairy moments turning into Honda and the rear sliding out. It wasn't an oversteer type moment that is easy to catch, it really took me off guards, even when it happened on the 2nd lap in a row.
An obvious benefit I gained on the straight was not having to hold off the limiter from the bridge down to T1, as the taller 225/50 A050 meant I could stay flat to the floor as far as I'd let myself. I still didn't go flat through T1, not sure if I even will be able to, but it is definitely a goal.
All my laps are below.
S1
2:35.4144, 2:14.4600, 4:06.2288, 1:57.6048 (Looks like issues with my dorian for laps 3 and 4)
S2
2:17.0800, 2:03.4124, 4:12.2137, 2:08.5591, 1:57.1538, 1:55.8648 (Another dorian issue, I was told to get my dorian lower after this)
S3
Red flagged twice on the out lap, gave up on this session after that.
S4
2:16.7876, 1:57.2068, 1:55.8240, 1:56.3143, 2:19.7543.
S5
2:16.7015, 2:00.9589, 1:56.0772, 1:55.4334.

And here is my 1:55.43 lap for reference. It is quite over exposed. The GoPro didn't seem to handle the overcast/sunny/dark skies we encountered today.

So what did I learn?
The A050 is a really nice tyre, and I gained both from the extra grip, better feel and also the extra height of the front tyres.

I can still go faster through T1. I was actually turning in a few k's slower than when I was at VTA, so I think once I've done another couple laps on the tyre and in slightly warmer conditions, I can break into a high 1:54. I also believe I can get over Lukey without lifting, which would contribute to the lower lap time.

My new Spoon radiator cap didn't leak coolant, so that purchase was a worth it both for sick boi Honda points and functionality. I'm still ending up with more coolant in the overflow than I'd like, though it now retracts into the radiator once cooled. So the car is either getting too hot and/or there is something wrong with it. It definitely takes a beating on the track, and even more so with how much faster I'm going now that say 2 years ago when I did my first 1:59 at PI.
So after my seemingly successful dyno results and the fact that I love this car so much, I want to put some effort into making the car less likely to die from laps at the track.
The baffled sump I've mentioned previously will get installed when I get a weekend to go to my parents. And in addition, I'd like to put an oil cooler and a couple gauges onto the car to monitor some temps. This is something I've never looked that closely into, so a bit of research will be required. A full size radiator and air con delete could also be an option, but many people are running laps with half radiators and no issues, so maybe I'll continue with the comfort of air con.

Good weekend, happy to hit a 1:55 and know there is a little bit more in it.

Thank you.

[Austro]

Good stuff man. Half rad should still fine as you said I reckon, maybe see how you go once you're accurately monitoring temps and possibly rig up some DIY ducting?