ESP Camaro

[MP81]

That has to shift awesomely fast, but will a clutch of that diameter have any trouble holding horsepower?

That's a twin (or triple) disc, so it should be all good for horsepower, I'd think.

[landstuhltaylor]

That's a twin (or triple) disc, so it should be all good for horsepower, I'd think.

Yep, 7.25" twin disc. I ordered it with what they call the rallye discs that are thicker than the standard setup. This is normally a triple disc clutch but the thicker discs end up having the same stack height. They should have no problem holding the power and the thicker discs will tolerate some slipping but the last thing it will want to do is drive through a traffic jam.

I want to say it's rated for 800 ft-lbs or so, more than I'll ever dream of making.

[landstuhltaylor]

Well a year later the engine has finally made it back into a chassis

[landstuhltaylor]

I could use some help. Everything is in now and I'm trying to get it to start. Key on and I can hear a module clicking in the engine bay but the fuel pump doesn't cycle. Try to start and I get nothing. When I key off I can hear some kind of activity but I'm not sure what it is. Now I think I have all of the grounds connected, the only thing I can think of is that there is a connector in the passenger rear of the car in the hatch area that is connected to anything. I feel like that may have been some kind of module back there that was important, but the last time the harness was in a car was over a year ago so I really can't remember.

Really need some help on this one as I'm supposed to be moved out on Sunday. If any of you guys on shut down want to come by and help get this sorted I'd appreciate it. Once it starts I'm basically home free.

[birdie2000]

I'm not sure on all cars, but I believe the factory alarm box was located on the rear passenger wheelwell.

[landstuhltaylor]

Got the fuel pump to start priming. I still get no gauges at key on though and trying to start it gets me absolutely no response.

[landstuhltaylor]

It runs! Just need to track down a retaining clip for a fuel injector connector.

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[birdie2000]

So what was the culprit?

[landstuhltaylor]

Fuel pump was a pair of grounds I had originally thought were for the seats and never bothered to hook up. The no crank no start was the fact I had scavenged the fuse for the gauges over a year ago when I needed one for the bike. All the fuses were good but I decided to check and make sure they were all there and sure enough one was missing.

[s.reef]

Glad to hear you got it running

[landstuhltaylor]

I'm still planning on towing it down to Ohio. Aside from all the issues I could run into on an untested car, the holiday traffic is virtually guaranteed to fry my clutch.

[landstuhltaylor]

This wonderful weather over the holiday break has me resuming work on the project. First thing I decided to tackle was the installation of the decoupled torque arm. Now that it's in there, I can understand and appreciate the concept.



The frame on the right bolts to the brackets on the floor just behind the transmission, as well has the hump in the floor just in front of the rears seats on the drivers side (this also means I can't legally use the 3-point subframe connectors, saves me ~$250.) The part on the left is the torque arm, but it has a snubber on the end of it instead of a physical attachment to the body. Between the two pieces is the upper sliding link which is also odd in that if you over extend it it comes apart in two pieces like a shock that hasn't been sealed. This allows you to add/remove spacers to the shaft to get the desired length.

So the upper link is really the central item of the concept. Since it sits above everything, when you lengthen the arm via the rod ends and spacers it will cause the axle to rotate and jam the torque arm up against the frame. The idea is to preload it against the floor, but if you pull down on the torque arm by hand with a decent amount of force it will no longer contact the body. So how this all works is that under acceleration, all of the force is being reacted by the torque arm. Under hard braking the torque arm is no longer contacting the body and the upper link is bottomed out in its travel and thus carrying all of the load. This allows you the benefit of a very short arm under accel (about half that of the stock one) which puts power down much better. The third link allows superior braking and eliminates wheel hop under all but the worst conditions (IE you already ****ed the corner up in a very, very bad way anyway.) It has also has a lot of adjustments to screw up if you want to. Pinion angle is adjusted by using spacers under the rubber snubber, adjusting it's height and the angle of everything when its all in contact. There is the length and preload of the upper arm, and on top of that people have also experiment with different materials of the spacers to adjust the transition between the two states.

So I figured I'd test fit the 315s to make sure everything fit and of course it doesn't. This shell never had fenders rolled or the bumpstops modified so I will have to play with the Watts link and everything else to get it all centered.

[landstuhltaylor]

This picture is a long time coming, finally put the dash back in. I couldn't find the drivers window defrost vent tube for the HVAC assembly so if anyone has one laying around I'm interested.



I'm going to order the MWC subframe connectors and get those in so I can start putting the rest of the interior in.

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[landstuhltaylor]

Got an extra notebook at work, now it's my logbook. Fits in with my habit of showing up to the event on Friday/Saturday still wearing my Honda uniform after leaving straight from work.



When the car was last running it weighed in at 3480lbs with me and ~1/3 tank of fuel showing on the gauge. I'm about 170 so that gives about a 3310lb curb weight. I'm trying to keep track of the weight as I go to get an idea of what it will end up at. I'm really shooting for a 3200lb curb weight.

Removed
AC - 23?
GMMG catback - 34
Driver power leather seat - 53
Passenger power lumbar manual rail - 43
OE rep wheels - 104
Strut tower bar - 4
Fog lights - 3
Heat shields - ?
Cruise control module - 7
Stock steering wheel w/airbag - 10
All speakers, head unit, antenna - 32
Stock clutch/flywheel - 49
Stock front bar w/bracket - 14
Torque arm - 14
Panhard bar - ~10 (using stock numbers here)

Added
Watts Link - 29
Decoupled torque arm - 30
CCWs - 80
7.25" twin disc w/stock flexplate - 19
Subframe connectors - TBD
Back seats - 28?
Kirkeys - TBD
35mm solid bar - ? (15lbs heavier than 35mm hollow)
Aftermarket steering wheel - 3.5
Magnaflow bullet w/dump - TBD
Rear spoiler - TBD

[landstuhltaylor]

Spent most of the weekend working on the seats. My original plan was to use the manual slider from the passenger side as the drivers rail and gut the power drivers rail to use on the passenger side. The rear feet on each rail or offset left or right depending on which side of the car it is on, so step one was grinding off the rivets and pulling them off of each rail. The first issue I ran into is that they are not flat, instead angled which makes it so you can't just turn them around. If you do try that the feet will only contact the rail at its rearmost point. For the driver side I am just going to weld them back on where they do contact and then pick up some extra steel sheet to reinforce the whole thing. The big issue now is I need to add a bit of height so I can get a better view of the cones. I have to figure out the best way to add a spacer, and preferably it will be easily removable so normal sized people can drive the car as well. I'm thinking welding nuts to the bottom of the seat rail and then having bolts going from the seat to the rail with some sort of spacer between them.

Now the OEM drivers side power rail is a real complicated POS with springs within the rails and a tilting mechanism. I'm not sure if there is any value in retaining the rail vs just hard-mounting the seat directly to the floor. I don't anticipate having many passengers so I'll probably just mount as low and as far back as possible.

The second thing I did was order a new steering wheel. We all know how terrible the stock truck wheel is so I talked to Eric at TeamDI.com. I was considering the Driven wheels but the logo stitched onto them is horrendous, so I settled on the TC 2000 350mm suede wheel by GP Race. I was told that this wheel is built in the same factory as the Driven wheels and is supposedly equivalent in performance. It isn't quite as strong as a Momo, but I've heard good things from other autocrossers about the Driven wheels for the price it is worth a shot. The biggest thing was that I absolutely love the steering wheel in the E46 and this is the same style just slightly smaller. Since I'm cheap I'll be bolting this to a Momo 2401 adapter. Maybe someday I'll go with a quick release.