The Lawn Dart

[Deceus]

Finally pulled the trigger on the front tire situation. Not sure why I was stuck on sticking with a 15x7 wheel when there was a 15x8 option available. Got some 245/40 Rival S's to go with them. Probably should have gone with the 225 since 245 is pushing it on an 8" rim but I doubt it'll really matter for anything I'm doing. The whole setup was about 1/4 of going 18s all around and now I have a spare set of front wheels and a much better setup for autocross days. Will be nice to have those extra wheels for burnouts and drifting if I ever get around to it so I'm not tearing up my drag tires.

Not really what I wanted, but definitely fits what I need. They should be here before the next MBCA event too.

[Deceus]

Got the car aligned this morning. Took 3 hours of adjustments for it to get done but it drives ALOT better now. I apologized to the guys because it's definitely not the easiest system to work with. Having to adjust the camber and caster at the same time is what makes it a real PITA. I could hear a bit of tire squeeling over the engine above 50 mph so I knew the toe was probably off. Turns out is way off by about 1/2 an inch. Not sure how that happened but I'll have to keep tabs on it in the future.

Hopefully hooking up the line lock switch tonight and taking it to eastside tomorrow for a test and tune. Tires should definitely be in before the MBCA autocross on the 13th and already have a trailer reserved for that. Already excited to see how everything performs.

[Deceus]

Eastside went well. The brake cut-off made burnouts idiot proof and the car ran almost a second faster than last year. I ran a 9.09, 9.04 and 9.02 without really launching all that hard. Probably has an 8.5 in it if I stop being a bitch and launch at 3k. Took it easy my first run and then fucked up staging twice. The track shut down for an hour and there was a huge back up before my third run. Fortunately I was the next person in line to get back on but I wasn't going to stay another hour to get a forth run so we'll see what next year brings.



Finally wrapped all the powersteering cooler fittings with paper towel strips and found the source of the leak too. Just have to reassemble one of the ends but will probably hold off on that until after the event this weekend. Just waiting on one more wheel to show up to get the Rivals mounted. I'm really excited to see how this thing handles without really shitty front tires. Still need to get a rear swaybar, subframe connectors and a better set of shocks on the car before I really call it "done" but all that probably won't come close to what having a proper set of front tires is going to do.

[Senor_Taylor]

before I really call it "done"

Don't even try to say that like it's true.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[Deceus]

before I really call it "done"

Don't even try to say that like it's true.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Done as far as small items are concerned. Might get the holley hyperspark ignition system if I'm feeling froggy and get a rolbar over the winter but that's it mayne. Not really planning anything major for at least a year outside of that haha. Probably gotta dump another $3,000 into the Ralliart to get it sellable/running so that puts a damper on things for sure.

[Deceus]

Got the tires mounted and threw them on last minute. The 245s fit on the 8" well enough. Like I said probably should have gone with a 225 ideally but wanted to get the most out the tires I could.





Unfortunately I kinda forgot to factor in the fact I was going from a 7" wheel to an 8" when seeing if I could get away with .75" less backspacing. Soooo they kinda stuck out "a bit"



And by a bit I mean an entire inch, fuck. Did a quick test run riping on the steering wheel to see if it actually rubbed but fortunately the shorter tire left quite a bit of room. I did scrap the swaybar twice though since the car is easily an inch lower to the ground with these on. With the heavy duty springs and 1.03 torsion bars on the car the damn thing really doesn't roll much at all. I threw the old setup, jack and impact in the truck just to be safe and decided to just send it on the sticky tires. I was too hyped to try them out to play it safe.



I really can't get over this view and hope I never do. I get so many honks and thumbs up rolling down the road it's great. Anyways I took it pretty easy my first few runs. I was a little worried I was going to slice these brand new tires on my fenders if I came into a turn too hot but gradually gained confidence. Decided to really push it my last 2 runs to see what the tires can do because I didn't get up early on a Sunday, spend hundreds of dollars and drive 3+ hours to drive like a little bitch. Just wow, definitely a world of difference being on actual performance tire. I mean I expected that but it was still very impressive going into a few turns way too hot, lifting a bit and feeling the car do exactly what I was hoping it would.



Wasn't too far behind the pack, the majority were somewhere around the 40s mark. Was only 1-2 seconds behind 2 Miatas but the course was pretty straight for an autocross. Definitely was holding the car back from faster times and not the other way around for the first time so that's a huge milestone. The current plan is throw this set on the back since I have the extra inch to get them under the car back there and go with a 225 tire on a 4.5" BS wheel up front. Not ideal but should work great for now.

[JPolen01]

That green is definitely too much for my taste on the truck, but wow does it look cool when you have the car right behind it. New wheels look great too.

[ScottyB]

I really can't get over this view and hope I never do

i hope not either because that's just too cool. its like a fullsize hotwheels combo. nobody can look at that and be like "that guy lives a boring life"

awesome numbers from the autox and man the demon looks mean with the new rubber setup. your best run was right in the mix with those modern cars. with confidence you'll 100% be in the running for top positions.

love how far this thing has come. looking back at the early pages in the thread its been a huge amount of work and it shows.

[Deceus]

[Deceus]

Skipped going to the last MBCA autocross of the year to get some work done on the car and around the house. LAME but necessary. It should be a totally leak-free car now. Popped the leaky 90 degree power steering cooler fitting and saw where it wasn't fully seated. Backed it all the way out make sure the hose wasn't pushed out, reassembled and it bottomed out without any real effort this time so it should be good to go. Easy peasy.

The exhaust stud would make up for that. Had to take the valvecover off to get to it then realized I didn't have a single 1/4" allen wrench left. Broke the one on a 3/8" drive, cut up my regular one and the shorty set had just one missing and guess which one... Made the chopped up one work though. Had to break out the needlenose visegrips to get the stud out since it was not only the hardest to get to out of all of them, but also the only short stud I put on the engine. I got impatient and only halfway drained the coolant and found out that was a mistake because coolant still shot out the side of the block. Plugged it again real quick to pull the lower radiator hose to drain the block. Getting that back on was probably the biggest pain in the ass of the day. Really regret buying the bling bling steel flexhose. Probably trashing them the next time I have to deal with them. I don't care that they were $80, the couplers just suck at actually sealing. Slapped a bolt with some sealant in it instead of another stud because it was easier and I didn't give a shit at this point. Doubt I'll ever run into a scenario where I'm removing the driver side header and not tearing half the car apart. Got everything back together and was actually done sooner than I was anticipating. I'm a glutton for punishment so I remounted the highbeam switch, since how it was mounted was bending the connector and making it come off which kills my headlights. Put it up a lot higher and it shouldn't be a problem again.

Tackling the coolant leak was a pain in the ass but I probably shouldn't have put this off like I did. Looks like it was dripping onto my starter since it had a nice slimy layer of what I can only describe as muddy rust. Doubt it did any real damage but I feel like a dumbass putting off a 2 hour task for most of the year.

Did get to drive the car all over town on Friday and managed to get completely sideways in traffic leaving Chipotle because it was 30 degrees and I decided to punch it before shifting to second. I can usually get away with that but lesson learned. Definitely going to treat the car with a lot more respect when the tires are cold.

[Deceus]

The legend continues! Have never been super confident in my cooling system with this thing even though it's been through a few iterations at this point. Current system works good unless it's pushing triple digits outside and I'm idling. I've watched it climb to 200 in grid only waiting for 3-4 cars. That's at the intake not the head so add 10-20 and you can see why it's a problem especially with iron heads.

Well all that ends today. These cars came with either a 22" or a 26" radiator. Since mine was a slant six with no A/C it came with a 22". REALLY wanted to avoid going with another Champion radiator and poured over quite a few alternatives but couldn't find anything with 26" of core width to work with the fans I wanted to run. Was hoping for 26" core, 2 1" rows, total width under 29" and tabs to mount it. Couldn't find it because most were crossflow making them 31" or wider and/or universal with no way out of the box to mount it. This is what I ended up with:



3 row with .75" rows isn't ideal but far from bad and should be plenty of overkill. Will work well with these:



Dual 12s putting out 3,000 CFM and reversible so I can fit all 4 inches of them up front as pushers. Cooling issues should be over once all this is in place. The fans ae 26" wide so I'm going to have to hack the supports back to where they'd be for the 26" cars. If I cared I'd spend the $500 on this bad boy to stiffen up the front end and solve all my mounting problems:



But I don't care so time to fire up the death wheel. Also is a good time to repaint the grille and finally mount my chin spoiler since everything up front has to come off. Was think of doing body color but think I like the black out better:

[ScottyB]

100% black for sure. fits the period, helps make the chin look lower by blending it into the shadows a bit and i'm sure you'll be happy the first time you clip some roadkill or a shredded tire tread and don't shatter all the paint off of it.

super glad to see this thing still rocking and great to hear about the rad. seems like a lot of people have such good cooling with the metallic radiators that they end up having to back off on the fans to keep from over-cooling.

[Deceus]

Yeah was thinking of doing gloss black around the edge and matte black on everything else just to give a bit of contrast. Not super convinced on the black bumper either, definitely leaving mine as is for now. Might go with body color on that eventually if I ever get around to getting a fiberglass set of bumpers and brackets.

In the middle of staining both the house and deck so the garage is completely taken over by junk at the moment. Hopefully tackling most of that this week/weekend and diving into the install sometime next week. Not super rushed to get out and race thing for some reason. Hopefully that changes once things get going again, mostly just been stressed about work and getting the house straight. Hopefully get to restore the balance sometime soon.

[Deceus]

Stole this thing from Dave and definitely keeping it. Haven't installed the new radiator or fan yet but did finally pull the car out of hibernation. Gave it a pretty good inspection and found a things I didn't like. The k-member and tranny had a nice light coat of fresh oil and road grime. Not sure where it's coming from so will have to monitor that. Cleaned everything off good so hopefully I'll have a clue the next time I look. I know the power steering reservoir has a real slow drip but it couldn't solely be coming from that.

Found a melted spot on the sleeve of battery cable so it's definitely hitting my headers and will need to be re-routed. Should've done this a while ago, the tie rod grease fitting seems to be rubbing the bottom as well. Just the sleeve, the cable/insulation still looks good fortunately. REALLY don't want to mess with the starter at all or re-route the whole 8ft cable so I'll just cut the cable further back around the frame rail, re-route the part going to the engine and run both to remote junction on the frame rail.

Got a oil filter relocation kit and some quickjack adapters coming in for the truck too. Should be a busy week...

[Deceus]

The insanity has officially returned. I've basically worked 3 days this month, apparently that's what it takes to get me back in the garage. Wasn't sure I wanted to AutoCross in some triple digit heat index weather especially with the cooling issues that come from that. Was cleaning the garage/workshop and started staring at my pile of parts I need to install. It just hit me how soft I've become haha. I used to drive 4-5 hours to roll around in the dirt for 2-3 days out in the heat just to get a single part installed on the car or to just wirewheel/paint. For the past few months I just couldn't be bothered to go down the stairs just to mock things up. Damn near $1,000 in parts and a nice new QuickJack just lying on the floor...

So the guilt hit me and I got to work on Wednesday. I knew Thursday was a no-go as I promised little dude I'd spend the whole day with him since he hasn't really had my undivided attention much since I started job searching last month. And Saturday I had my favoritr beer release to hit up that I wasn't going to miss as it only happens once a year. So yeah, 2 days to rip the entire front of the car apart, fit and install a new cooling system, get it back together and test it.



Started by reassembling the QuickJack hoses since they were quite leaky (thanks Dave). They just needed some thread sealant. Got real worried about the air cylinders used to drop the lift down as I couldn't seem to check the pressure in them on one side. The one I could measure was super low and giving really inconsistent readings. Apparently too much pressure and the damn things can explode. Went out and got a better gauge and decided to just trust it. Gotta say having this thing is a game-changer. A Maxjax would've been nicer if I have more room but this thing is awesome for my tall ass. Having the car 2ft higher means no screaming back pain at the end of the day from reaching down into the engine for hours on end. Anyways onto the install:



Everything came apart pretty easy. I've done this to many times... Got the mechanical fan off and got to re-install some of my pulley kit that had to come off to clear the fan. Started mocking up where the radiator was going to go, where I needed to cut and where I needed holes drilled. This thing was definitely made for both the 22" and 26" so it was a breeze since I did settle on a standard Mopar 26" radiator. I've learned the power of keeping things simple hah.



This is how I knew the insanity had really taken hold: felt like I was ahead of schedule at the end of the first day so decided to paint everything while it was apart. Really glad I did as it came out pretty good.







Kinda hard to tell in that pic but went with a coat of satin on everything and then painted the fins gloss black just to give a bit of contrast. Have some touch-up paint coming to make that thin inner ring on the fins body color. I think it'll look real good as I've seen it done in red before. Used etching primer on the radiator this time so hopefully it holds up a bit better than before and didn't bother painting the fins at all.

Had a good day with little man building some stuff in the woodshop and then Friday was all about fitting it all together and getting things mounted. Took a LOT of minor trimming here and there to get it to fit just right and some creativity to get the fan mounted tight against the radiator but the end result was GOOD. Better than I could'be hope for.



That took up most of the day actually so Saturday was all about getting it all back together. Started by finally mounting that chin spoiler I picked up last year.



Then checking the fan actually cleared with the way it was eventually mounted:





The rest of it went together with no real problem. Took this time to find some shorter hoses that actually fit right as well. Was really happy with how it came out.




Threw the tires on, fired up the car and made sure the fans actually cycled on. And of course once they did it started raining. So the testing had to wait til the morning of. Took a quick drive and it did actually try to overheat on me a bit. Was weird because it would drop like a brick the moment I stopped moving but climb while I was on it. Realized the fan wasn't running when I parked it but then it eventually kicked. Figured it was the probe getting cooled down since I could only get it halfway in the front of the radiator. Stuck it in the back, loaded her up and hoped for the best.




AAAnnnnndddd it worked pretty good. Barely got to 185. Let the fan run a bit while waiting in grid with the engine off and the temp would plummet to the 170s. Had no issues with starting it either. Pretty happy all around, didn't race as well as I had hoped but Verona is a lot different than Winchester. My backend felt pretty lose through some of the turns and my $20 shocks are no match for the choppy back straight out there. Did get to drive it hard and test out the cooling system which was the goal though. Guess it's time to start tearing into the rear suspension now and seeing what I can do there.

[Senor_Taylor]

The car looks the best I've ever seen! Gotta get that thing LOWER. Seemed like it had a bit more in it for braking out there.

[Deceus]

Yeah the rear of the car just really didn't feel good at all out there. Caught me off guard as I didn't have any real problems out in Winchester but it is a very ugly setup for autocross for sure. Just ordered some 2" lowering blocks and will see what the other set of tires look like under it. To get a truly ideal setup I probably need to run some drop spindles up front, some Hotchkis lowering springs in the back and 17/18s all around. That can come with time. Lowering blocks and 15s will do for now. Once I wear out this set of Rivals I'll consider selling the wheels and making the leap then. Shocks will probably come first but they're hella pricey.

Eventually the car should sit this:

[Senor_Taylor]

Those tiny front tires can't be helping your braking problems. Verona is the worst pavement and from what I could see it seemed like the car was the least happy at the transition between the two types of pavement.

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[ScottyB]

love the new grille, massive improvement. great to hear its driving well out there. i think considering the state of the suspension, your hustling it around about as well as anyone could. looking forward to how much faster it gets once you get the rear sorted and some proper wheel/tires.

[Deceus]

looking forward to how much faster it gets once you get the rear sorted and some proper wheel/tires.

Yeah me too, trying hard not to just buy everything now but gotta be smarter especially since I'm already invested in a set of 15" rivals lol. Going to be a sad day losing the rake because I really do love the look but I built this thing to run not park. Might be happy with the blocks and the right set of wheels. Could easily swap between the 2 "versions" of the car in that case.