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Friday, May 16, 2008
	Brian and Josh by ccons @ 21:07:17 - [perma-link] At Oregon Rally
Thursday, May 15, 2008
	Rally America Fan Appreciation by brian @ 17:52:46 - [perma-link] Josh and I went to the Fan Appreciation event at Pioneer Square this morning. Lots of the rally cars competing this weekend were there on display, and we put the FX16 right in the middle of it all. We didn't get quite as much attention as Travis Pastrana and Ken Block, but there were lots of people checking out our little car. So many people told us, "I used to have one of those!" The guy I bought it from showed up and was checking it out. We showed him some of the things we've changed on it. He still looked a little sad that he sold it, but I thanked him; I've had so much fun rallying this car over the last year or so. This weekend is going to be awesome!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
	Another trip to the U-Pull-It by brian @ 16:41:12 - [perma-link] I found almost everything I went looking for today. I got an airbox out of a 1986 Celica that bolted right into stock mounting holes on the rally car. Its neat how so many different Toyota parts transfer so easily between the different models. The car didn't run well with the Celica's larger-bored air-flow meter, but the one from my FX-16 mounted right to the box. I connected it to the intake with some combination of the hoses and elbows I grabbed from the Celica, a Camry, and another FX-16 that was in the yard. It could be better, but it works for now. Its a shame it didn't run with the Celica "HF" AFM, because the hose for it routed pretty much perfectly. I should be able to make it work if I Megasquirt the motor after Oregon Trail. In any case, the filter is inside the box now, so it shouldn't suck up quite as much dirt as the old cone air filter that was in there. Most importantly, it should make the scrutineers happier; everyone of them has commented on how they didn't like how the old air intake was just sort of sitting in there totally exposed and loose. I also got the steering column switches off a Corolla. My wiper stalk got broken off when we rolled over. The "new" one doesn't have cruise control, but the rest of the cruise control had already been removed from the car. It also doesn't have intermittent wipers, but everything else works as it should. I didn't use the intermittent much anyway. On the rally car the wipers are pretty much either off or high speed. Two more things checked off the list. Lots more to go. 9 days until Oregon Trail Rally!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
	Repairs almost complete by brian @ 17:08:53 - [perma-link] We rolled the car at the Olympus Rally, damaging the front edge of the roof. Last week I got it roughly back into shape and had a new windshield installed. Yesterday and today I tried to smooth out the top with some body filler. While I was filling it in, I decided to try to even the roof up with the aluminum sunroof patch panel, so it looked like one big smooth roof. Unfortunately I didn't get quite enough filler to go all the way around, so the back edge isn't smooth. I'll get some more filler and work it in tomorrow. I got to the point where every further pass with the glaze is filling one crack but making a new one, so I decided to hit it with the primer and see how it looks. It still needs work. I'll sand down the primer and give it one more glaze coat when I do the back edge. Then I'll paint it saturday so its ready for rallycross on Sunday.
Monday, April 21, 2008
	Olympus Rally 2008 by brian @ 12:42:56 - [perma-link] Josh and I raced in the Olympus Rally this past weekend. We had the new Hotbits suspension on the car, and it made a world of difference. The car drove predictably and consistently. The roads were fast and smooth. We were doing really well until we rolled on the 8th stage. The E-Crew rolled us back over, Josh popped the spark plugs to clear the oil out of the cylinders, and the car fired back up. If we'd had our wits about us we should have finished the next stage and completed the first day rally, but the roll shook us up a bit. We drove directly back to service and took a DNF. It sucks, but the damage isn't too bad. If we'd had a spare windshield we might have been back in it the second day. The driver's window got smashed when we rolled the car back over, but we have window nets. I'll replace the side windows with lexan. Maybe the tailgate, too The windshield is the only one that has to stay glass. Tomorrow I'll get this broken windshield out, beat the roof back into shape so a new one will fit. And I'll order two so something like this doesn't end our day again. I just need to figure out how to store and transport a spare windshield. Oregon Trail rally is May 16-18. ps - never set tire pressures when the tires are hot. i'll learn it eventually.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
	Front suspension rebuild by brian @ 17:57:21 - [perma-link] I've ordered some nice suspension parts from Hotbits for the rally car, but they won't be here for a couple of weeks. We have a rallycross this weekend, so I'm rebuilding the suspension with another set of KYB strut inserts and some new GR2s in the back. Its the same stuff we've blown out at most of the rally events. In fact I'm pretty sure they were already dead at Doo Wops, based on the way the car bounces around in some of the videos I've seen. There are some changes this time, though. I've replaced the springs with 200lb/in instead of the 300lb-in that were on there. This puts it in the range of the rally springs Josh and I found in a 1988 Toyota performance catalog. The 300's are better for smooth roads, but are too harsh for bumpy gravel. 200 is towards the upper end of the range, but I didn't want to make too much of a change at once and be bottoming out everywhere. So first step is to remove the old strut assembly from the car. I sort of cheated by loosening the top nut with the impact, and letting the spring pop the whole assembly out of the top mount. Then remove the two bolts connecting the strut to the knuckle. After that, slide off the spring and remove the top nut from the strut housing and remove the old, beat, nasty insert. I put the new inserts in with some oil for better cooling. The oil can transfer the heat from the insert to the housing better than an air gap. Hopefully this will keep the inserts from heating up too much and blowing out. The insert goes in, then crank down the top nut to lock it in using a vise and a socket extension through the holes in the lower tabs. Slide on the new spring and stick the strut assembly back in the car, attaching the lower part to the knuckle first. Then I use a floor jack under the control arm to push the strut up through the strut mount, then crank down the top nut with the impact gun. The rear doesn't use inserts. I replaced the whole assembly with new GR-2s. The left rear strut was completely blown. The piston has no resistance until it gets about 2" from the bottom, when the piston finally hits the small amount of oil remaining inside. The right rear strut seems to have held up fine. It has resistance all the way up, and felt the same as the new one. Once compressed, the gas charge pushes it back out, just like the new one. I swapped in the new one anyway, but I'll keep the old one as a spare. Finally, I pulled out the front sway bar. It turned out to be much more difficult than I had expected. It tucks up behind the exhaust so the only way to remove it was to take apart the exhaust connection in front of the catalytic converter. I'm glad I removed it in he garage. I was planning to run the morning session of the rallycross with the sway bar, then remove it for the afternoon session to compare. It would have sucked fighting with the sway bar and the hot exhaust while lying underneath the car in the mud. I also discovered a missing exhaust gasket. I'll get a replacement tomorrow, or maybe tonight.
Friday, March 7, 2008
	Forgot something yesterday by brian @ 11:46:33 - [perma-link] I tried out the "Intervalometer" on my Canon G3, taking one shot every minute while doing a quick "repair" on the rally car. I had to tighten the two bottom strut bolts that I forgot about yesterday when I changed the top strut mounts (I got two new ones to replace the ones that were welded up at Doo Wops). I messed up the big rule: always tighten the bolt/nut/screw when you put it back on or else you might forget, which I did. Fortunately I hadn't driven the car at all, and when I was falling asleep last night it occurred to me that I hadn't tightened those two bolts. It was a quick repair. I loosened the lug nuts, jacked up the corner, spun off the nuts, then removed the wheel. I used my impact gun to crank down the strut bolts, then put the wheel back on and torqued the nuts to 80 lb-ft. Six minutes of work (not counting the real work yesterday) and its all set to drive around town.
Monday, February 25, 2008
	Doo Wops Rally by brian @ 21:44:56 - [perma-link] Josh and I raced the FX-16 in the Doo Wops Rally this weekend. It was the best rally ever. We took home a third place novice trophy! It was just the two of us with no service crew, but the 420 team offered to share a spot and help us out. It was amazing having an organized service crew of several people helping us between stages. After each stage they checked our wheels and oil and washed the windows. They even spotted and fixed a broken wire on the driving lights. All Josh and I had to do at the first service was eat a sandwich and drink water. When we broke a strut mount during the second stage, the crew helped us replace it quickly. Our previous experience breaking one at Olympus last year really paid off. We had the spare (even if they were junkyard issue) and knew what to do. The repair was made with plenty of time to relax before transit to the final stage of the day. On that third stage we had a "Less filling! Tastes great!" moment. I thought we broke another strut mount. Josh swore we got a flat. The steering was all screwed up like the break on the second stage, but the rear end was really squirrely and it hadn't been before. Turns out we were both right! Front right strut and left rear tire were both blown. Still we limped through the rest of the stage and back to service and back to the trailer and saved the repair for after dinner. We were done before midnight. Day two brought us a new problem. The Parc Expose (all the rally cars line up on display before heading out to the first stage) was across the street from the hotel, but there were two service areas that were about 40 miles away. Since it was just the two of us, we had no one to drive our service truck. Lucky for us, the Red Menace team had an extra. She had been spectating on Saturday, but on Sunday she totally saved our day. She drove the Defender towing the trailer to both service areas. She helped us with everything during service. When we broke our last replacement strut mount (that'd be 3 of them!), she helped Josh set up the welder so he could weld them solid. And at the end of the day she drove the rover and trailer down the Brooklyn stage to the awards banquet dinner. (Thanks, Missy! We'll see you at rallycross.) With the service vehicle problem averted we set off for Blue Slough, where we ran the first two stages on pavement. It was really fast, and reminded me of last year's Idaho Rally. We topped out at about 87mph according to the GPS, which is the fastest I've gone in that car by far. The third (and subsequent) stage was on gravel. Josh and I both remember hearing the loud pop when the strut mount blew out. We finished the stage and went into service already discussing who would change the tires (from gravel to the new Silverstone mud tires) and who would change the strut mount. As we were tightening the last few nuts someone stopped by and asked if we had another spare for the other side. "That one's fine," one of us said as we slowly walked around the car to see he was talking about. He told us, "its not poking through yet, but its definitely torn." He was right, and we had no more spares. We did have another 30 minutes in service, a big generator and a welder. Everything came out of the Defender and we started a mad search for "pieces of metal." Tim (co-driver of 420) dug up some fat washers and Josh welded them to the inner and outer parts of the mount to make them solid. Mostly solid anyway. We strapped the generator and welder onto the trailer in case we'd need them again (we did. several times), and made it to the next stage just in time. I took it a little easy on Pico Reverse, since we really wanted to make it to Brooklyn, which everyone had said was the best rally stage in North America. Brooklyn was a blast. We stopped in at service and Josh made some quick repairs to some broken welds on the strut tops, and we were back out. We ran the Smith Creek stage in both directions, then one more service, and a few more welds (I believe the technical term Josh used was "welded the s[no]t out of it"). The final stage was another pass on Brooklyn in the opposite direction. The start was delayed due to "domestic violence, shots fired", apparently in the spectator area. After the cop ran Brooklyn West (someone wondered what his time was), it was all clear but considerably darker than it had been an hour before. The driving and fog lights we installed last week were a total success. We ran Brooklyn East at night 5 seconds faster than Brooklyn West a few hours earlier. The driving lights shined much further down the road, and the fog lights were aimed slightly outward to spread light around the turns. It was a huge improvement over the night stages at Mt Hood with just the stock headlights. As for the broken strut tops, we got a tip from one of the rally veterans about how they solved this problem on their late 80's Corollas. Hopefully we can fab up some supports and eliminate that weak link before Olympus in April.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
	Marlboro Hot Laps: Portland International Raceway by brian @ 19:14:23 - [perma-link] Marlboro_Hot_laps_PIR_2007.avi Sweet! Super sweet! Today I attended a session of Marlboro Hot Laps with Jessica, a friend from rallycross. Apparently I'm the only one she knows with nothing else to do today. We got all this schwag, but its weird schwag; there's no Marlboro logo ANYWHERE. I might even use the backpack for rallies. But the fun started after we put on racing suits and helmets. Up first was a quick 2-lap ride around PIR in a Panoz. It was fast and smooth the first lap, then faster and a little closer to the edge on the second. After that we went over to the drift course for a crazy ride in some Mustangs. It was amazing how they could get the car sliding one way, then flick it right into a slide the other way, with the tires squealing the whole time. Each time the G's flopped my head over like a rag doll, and scooted me side to side in the seat. It really makes me appreciate the 5-point harness in my rally car. I imagine 5 laps was enough for some of the people, but I want more. Only about two and a half weeks until Wild West!
movie (click to play)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
	Rally Weekend by brian @ 10:06:54 - [perma-link] This weekend was a big rally weekend in Portland. We skipped the Friday night TSD, which eliminated us from the "Triple Threat" contest. It turned out not to be such a wise choice after Lesley and I placed 3rd in the "Seat Of Pants" class on Saturday's "Mountains to the Sea" touring rally from Portland to Astoria. Josh towed the car to Astoria with his work truck Saturday afternoon. Having his truck makes everything so much easier. When we loaded up on Friday, I was gazing around the garage and asked, "what tools do we need to load?". Josh smiled and replied, "None! Its all in the truck!" Saturday night we took Pickles (Suzanne's dog) to the Safeway by the hotel. She was very good and no one in the store seemed to mind. Sunday was another rallycross. Josh and I took turns with the FX-16, and Suzanne raced Lesley's Jeep Cherokee in the morning session. The first lap in the Toyota revealed the first engine problem I've had with the car. Up until Saturday, the motor had been the most reliable part of the car. After sputtering back to the staging area, we popped the hood. A couple of our competitors said it sounded like water in the spark plug wires, and they were right! Some water must have leaked into the valley pan when I washed the car, and rinsed the engine bay. It was a quick fix with some spray Josh had in his service truck, and the motor was singing again. In the afternoon session, the car was trouble free. I ended up placing 4th (again) in the Modified 2-wheel-drive class. We had the in-car camera working in the afternoon, so I'll chop up the videos and post them later. Lesley hopped in as passenger for a few laps. Now she wants to sign up for Rally School after Burningman. She was going to take a lap on the Barbie Quad, but the battery died before she reached the starting line.
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