Building an 818R in Mt Pleasant, NC

[Tamra]

I love that you are keeping track of the hours spent. We are too and it has been interesting!

Our OEM radiator is about 1" too tall too. We are going to make a spacer.

[wildhorsesracing]

Day 19 Total Hrs: 88

Spent most of the day on detail work, drain plugs, brake and clutch cylinder work and finished the cooling hoses. Started installing the interior, seats, and electrical connections.
s818R 025.jpg

My son sat in it to try it on for size - we might have to remove the fuel tank to get the seat back far enough, wish there was another 6" of room lengthwise and 2" width.
s818R 021.jpg

[C.Plavan]

IMHO: I believe it to be safer than many new car factory tanks. I have raced for 20 years and can vouch that I have seen many tank installations that were far worse than this. In NASA the tank is legal if it is an OEM tank from the manufacturer, this is the OEM tank from Factory Five. With the structure of the cage in the 818R I believe it will take a massive hit to get to the tank.

I also have first hand experience with a fuel fire on track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shg92VqoSYY

I will emphatically state that you should always wear ALL of your safety gear whenever you are out on track. I had everything but my balaclava on that day and the 2nd degree burns on my neck & chin proved that I shouldn't have skipped that piece.

FWIW: most of the sanctioning bodies approve cars with OEM tanks, even the newer cars with plastic tanks. The Porsche in the video had a factory plastic tank.

That begs the question, If you have first hand experience with a fuel fire, why not just put a fuel cell in? Why even risk it?

[wildhorsesracing]

That begs the question, If you have first hand experience with a fuel fire, why not just put a fuel cell in? Why even risk it?

Because I have seen fuel cells burst as well, so I don't feel that the extra effort is worth it. Besides in the 20 years and 50 or so cars that I have raced competitively that was the only wreck I have ever had. If you feel the extra effort is necessary, then by all means, go ahead and install one. But the fuel tank included with the car is encased inside the cage, I would be highly surprised if anything could impact the car hard enough to get to it.

[wildhorsesracing]

Day 30 Total Hrs: 92.5

Worked on the TGV delete plugs (thanks Wayne @ VCP), installed the driver's seat and rest of the firewall. Also installed the kill switch for racing.
s818R 001.jpg

s818R 002.jpg

s818R 003.jpg

s818R 004.jpg

s818R 005.jpg

s818R 006.jpg

s818R 010.jpg

[C.Plavan]

Because I have seen fuel cells burst as well, so I don't feel that the extra effort is worth it. Besides in the 20 years and 50 or so cars that I have raced competitively that was the only wreck I have ever had. If you feel the extra effort is necessary, then by all means, go ahead and install one. But the fuel tank included with the car is encased inside the cage, I would be highly surprised if anything could impact the car hard enough to get to it.

I'm not in agreement with that, but it is your car.

Have you thought about the fuel starvation the stock tank will provide in corners?

[wildhorsesracing]

Haven't thought about that - if it becomes an issue then we'll look at adding another fuel tank. We'd like to take passengers but after mounting the seat we are thinking that we might have to forgo that because it is too tight, we could sure use the legroom if the tank wasn't there.

[Scargo]

One builder modified his gas tank.
CIMG1888.jpg
Hard for me to say whether gas will leave the bowl to the extent that you could get starvation. FFR never ran a stock tank. I do turns where high G's last for 10-12 seconds. I know foam would help sloshing. I stuffed a 8 x 8 x 4 piece of fuel cell foam through about a 3" diameter hole in my STi's tank.

As to safety, To say that incidents are rare is like saying you didn't get lung cancer from smoking. Production cars are crash-tested, too. The 818 is not. To me, this is a big loop-hole that allows an untested configuration to race.
As we know some production cars are not necessarily up to the task in a high speed crash event. Still, this is what some racing orgs will allow, I assume, based on a cars approval by the NHSTA and frontal crash test FMVSS 208. How many times have we seen horrible racing crashes where a rear-ending is involved? In the case of a rear or rear-side impact I now am quite concerned about my STi gas tank vulnerability.

[wildhorsesracing]

I think my tank has a bowl like that already, I remember having trouble getting the fuel pump installed because the filter on the end was hitting the sides of the internal bowl

Has anyone come up with an alternate fuel tank location that doesn't consume the passenger seat area?

[Wayne Presley]

MSD had a fuel pick up blanket on display at PRI that was hooked to a pump with 8 oz of fuel in the tank plus what was in the lines and was pumping a steady stream. The return was hitting the blanket and the fuel hitting the blanket was enough to keep the pump fed.

[Scargo]

Is this part of it? This from MSD/Atomic EFI. Having trouble finding anything related, re, MSD. Sounds like a great idea.

[Wayne Presley]

It may have been Holley

[metalmaker12]

Looks interesting

[Wayne Presley]

It was Holley

http://bangshift.com/general-news/ne...-game-big-way/

[flynntuna]

^ wow another must have item! Thanks Wayne, the budget keeps creeping higher.

[Wayne Presley]

^ wow another must have item! Thanks Wayne, the budget keeps creeping higher.

No problem, glad to help

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs 108.5

It's been a while since I posted, been busy with many things and even managed to go on vacation. Been waiting for a few things, new fuel tank, wiring harness and axles.

818R 015s.jpg

818R 016s.jpg

818R 017s.jpg

818R 002s.jpg

818R 020s.jpg

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs: 111.5

Got the wheel spacers in the mail yesterday so I installed them, sat in the car and made racecar noises!

s818R 001.jpg

s818R 005.jpg

s818R 011.jpg

Decided to rotate the turbo to make it easier to plumb and/or add a larger intercooler.

s818R 013.jpg

[Tamra]

Total Hrs 108.5

It's been a while since I posted, been busy with many things and even managed to go on vacation. Been waiting for a few things, new fuel tank, wiring harness and axles.


818R 016s.jpg

Were you able to fit your brake and clutch cylinders without cutting the plastic surround?

Progress looks great!

[wildhorsesracing]

Were you able to fit your brake and clutch cylinders without cutting the plastic surround?

Progress looks great!

Yes, but we cut the plastic dash to make it easier to fill and see. We added a plexiglas window on the front of the dash and plan to put a hinged door on top. You can see the opening and the reservoirs in this image:
dashopening.jpg

[Mitch Wright]

Just met with the Holley folks last week, the fuel sock will be available in March. I will be getting one to try in the stock tank.

Car is looking good Jim.

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs: 117.5

Moved the turbo up a few inches to clear the intake manifold with some 1.75x.095 tubing. Much easier to plumb now and eliminated the catalytic converter that feeds the turbo.

s818R 001.jpg

s818R 005.jpg

[metalmaker12]

Are you making a cutout in the engine cover? Cause your pretty close to it now.

[wildhorsesracing]

I test fitted the cover and the second (passenger) hump gives me plenty of room - 4-6" of clearance, unless the engine cover needs further clearance to fit the rollbars.

[wildhorsesracing]

FWIW: we have been seriously considering modifying the rear deck cover anyway, we want to put an air-to-air intercooler in the rear bumper and feed cool air to it via a scoop a la "ariel atom style"

ariel-atom.jpg

[metalmaker12]

FWIW: we have been seriously considering modifying the rear deck cover anyway, we want to put an air-to-air intercooler in the rear bumper and feed cool air to it via a scoop a la "ariel atom style"

ariel-atom.jpg

That would be cool, and if I built an R I would have done just that, but maybe twin inlets on top of the humps with an air box under the cover directing air to the IC positioned right before rear facia.

[Scargo]

I'm thinking that the (passenger) hump gets bigger and feeds the intercooler. Remove the R windscreen on that side and perhaps even enclose the passenger side (no passenger) making for a smooth flow into a scoop.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

I'm thinking that the (passenger) hump gets bigger and feeds the intercooler. Remove the R windscreen on that side and perhaps even enclose the passenger side (no passenger) making for a smooth flow into a scoop.

That is the way FFR blue car intakes air.
Bob

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs: 119

WOW! How time flies! It's been over a month of waiting! We've been waiting on a wiring harness , axles that fit and a gas tank that allows folks who have inseams longer than 28" to drive. The gas tank and new firewall arrived this week so we started the process of test fitting it:

s818R 003.jpg

s818R 004.jpg

We had to move the routing for the shifter cables. Axle place says we'll have axles this week, they had a helluva time matching subaru axles with the proper ends/splines/cages/etc., then all we are waiting for is a Megasquirt wiring harness from Wayne @ VCP.

We'll start the process if installing the bodywork to kill time while waiting for the wiring.

[Wayne Presley]

Jim, I have more MS3"s coming, your harness is done except for the ECU wiring

[Mitch Wright]

Jim,

When are you targeting for your first track test?

[Hobby Racer]

... I have more MS3"s coming ...

Wayne - Do you have a DBW module for MS3's so we can use 06-07 donor motors without changing to cable throttle yet?

[Wayne Presley]

Wayne - Do you have a DBW module for MS3's so we can use 06-07 donor motors without changing to cable throttle yet?

They have a some prototypes they are testing but no release date yet.

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs: 156

Sorry it's been a while since I posted but we have been waiting for stuff, once we got the wiring from Wayne we got motivated to work on her again. Here is the latest work:
818r1.jpg

818r2.jpg

818r3.jpg

818r4.jpg

818r5.jpg

818r6.jpg

818r7.jpg

818r8.jpg

We are hoping to get her running soon and then test drive it at Roebling Road next month or Carolina (CMP) in May...

[Tamra]

wow that is fast progress!

[wildhorsesracing]

Total Hrs: 164

Got most of the wiring installed, got axles from the Driveshaft shop in Salisbury but they screwed them up and the axles have to go back. They simply made a set of front axles! Lots of hoodpins installed and the new tank is plumbed. Wrapping up wiring and interior next...

818r10.jpg

818r11.jpg

818r12.jpg

[wildhorsesracing]

It's been a while since I posted but we have been busy working on the wiring harness to fix problems.

Road Atlanta this weekend was a success and a learning experience. It all started Friday morning. Lots of work needed to be done to get the car on the track. First was the oil leak, next was burping the cooling system, seat belts, firewall, and lastly the front suspension setup (which took from 3pm to about 7-8pm to finish). Once all that was done it was time to drive the car around the paddock to test it. Driving it showed that the cooling system would overheat very quickly. We tried burping the system a couple more times and thought that it might be a head gasket failure. Didn't get time to get a radiator pressure tester on it until lunch on Saturday. Checked the whole system and found it was not a head gasket, but more air bubbles in the system. Bleed the system again and drove it around the paddock and found that it would lower the temperature when the car was moving now. Decided to take it out on track for the last session of the day on Saturday. Drove out there found that the tires hit the fenders on track even after we raised the front coil overs 8 turns. Drove around at a normal pace and temperature seemed to be working well.

When we tried to start it in the morning, it would not start. We went to tuning and it could not fix it. We will bring it home and see what could be wrong. Pretty successful weekend, but more work needs to happen before the next event. We will start by taking the wiring harness apart as it seems to have lots of noise in it, not sure why but going to do our best to determine what the problem with the wiring is. I'll keep you posted!

Oh and here's a short clip of brake hose failure going into T10a at Road Atlanta:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjCWltgA29k

[Wayne Presley]

Did you do my cooling system mod?

[wildhorsesracing]

We eventually got the air bubbles out and it ran fine, where can I find out more about your cooling system mod?

[C.Plavan]

Did you guys fix your problems? Has it been on the track again?