A frustrating weekend at the track

Click for a larger picture of Black Beauty at Buttonwillow.



Well, it was supposed to be a fantastic weekend. Buttonwillow was hosting two days of open testing for the price of one. This was with no run groups, So I literally had two full (8-hour) days of track time in front of me.

It didn't work out, though.

In terms of the continued development and testing of my oil cooling system, I had switched to a different cooler, with a fan, and ducting to move a lot of air through it (also cutting out one of my battery boxes). I didn't have room to fit two coolers under the one fender, as I'd hoped. The new configuration still ran into problems with high temps. It works better, though, in idling situations. That's the fan. But I'm going to put a second cooler under the driver's side fender. Hopefully that much surface area will take care of the problem.

But the thing that got me -- and it came right out of left field -- was that my starter motor burned out. By the second run, it was clear that I'd have to push start the car if it stopped for any reason, and I didn't want to end up stranded in the middle of the central valley late in the afternoon on a Saturday. So I drove for half a day, packed up and went home, missing the chance to buy a replacement starter on the way back at Performance -- by five minutes.

Still, I put up some laps up at:
http://members.rennlist.com/jackolsen/BW-B.html

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Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 12-12-2000).]

Hi Jack, One word "TRAILER"

Randy Jones
1971 911

Jack. Seriously. Don't stop telling your stories. You're having a blast building and improving a pretty impressive Track Car and I, for one, deeply appreciate the vicarious thrills. Even your disappointing days sound quite fun.

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'83 SC

Jack, I came onboard in the middle of some of your posts, so I dont know if you've had this mentioned to you. Did you put an engine mounted oil cooler on your 3.6, or left the factory filter setup behind #6, and mounted a cooler up front?
Marc

Randy, as the picture makes clear, I'm the only one who goes to that track without a trailer. But it's going to take some convincing of the significant other (or a move to a place where we have more garage space) before a tow vehicle and a trailer become part of the picture. Unfortunately, both the 86 Jaguar and the 83 Jeep are unsuitable canidates for the job (although the Jaguar would look kind of cool pulling a 911 -- until it overheated and collapsed). We'll have to see how it goes.

Super, as long as I've got the time to type, I'll keep posting. My unsolicited stories have led to some unrequested advice that's done me a lot of good (and saved me a lot of money). I figure if guys get sick of my updates, they can always just not click on the threads I start.

Marc, is there a way to put an engine-mounted oil cooler together with a 964 engine? I wasn't aware that there was. My current plan is to have a free-flowing cooler in the passenger side fender, and then flexible hosing and a standard Carrera cooler in the driver's side fender. I'm always open to suggestions for how to do it better, though.

Jack, keep up the posts. I'm currently getting my 23 years of SC ready for some track time. (Then they'll be two of car which did not arrive on a trailerir track car) Your posts have provided some good information and have also allowed me to vicariously experience some "track time" through your video clips. What type of cooler are you using? And how are you ducting the air flow?

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Paul
78SC Targa

Jack,

Keep up the great stories/good work/good fight ... enjoying every episode so far!

It looks like I'm going to need to revise my spares and tools list, or make a special HD Jack's Spares/Tools List for cars driven to the track! Shouldn't have to weigh much over 150-200 lbs, I guess! Three or four surplus 25 mm (plastic) or 20 mm (steel) ammo boxes-full should do it. A good start on the HD list would need to include:

1. SR-17 or SR-68 Bosch starter
2. One set of OEM or SS DOT-approved flex brake lines
3. Set of metric flare-nut wrenches
4. One quart DOT 4 or 5 Brake Fluid
5. Oil line wrenches (you never know when those pesky devils are going to start to leak)
6. Two spare drain plugs for engine and dry sump tank and engine Valve Adjustment/Oil Change gasket set
7. Six quarts of your favorite motor oil
8. Two fan belts and 6 spacers, alternator shaft nut and spare outer pulley half
9. Spare drain and filler plugs for 915
10. One gallon Swepco 203/210/212 and hand pump
11. Two spare chain tensioners and chain housing gasket set
12. Two muffler gaskets and complete set of muffler fasteners
13. Jack plate, portable floor jack, and two jack stands
14. Cotton tarp, 8' x 12" for clean work mat
15. One shift coupler, shift rod and cup bushings
16. One spare axle with CV-joints, 6 ea CV-joint gaskets, spare CV-joint, 2 ea Cv-joint boots, 2 ea tubes of Swepco 101 moly grease
17. 12 gal. air tank, air gauge, and pyrometer

************************************

Try not to laugh too hard, guys! I used to carry almost this same list with me to every autocross!


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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

Jack, Yes you can fit an earlier (pre 89) oil cooler onto a 3.6. It does take some modifications. You must first remove you filter setup you now have. It bolts to the engine the same way as the oil cooler does. I'm assuming you have the sprocket that drives the power steering pump on bank #2 cam removed. You have to cut the end of the cam off narrower than the cam tower and use an earlier block off seal. Not just the cam cover block off.(or purchase a new cam that doesnt have that piece on the end of it). You have to use an early oil tank, which I guess you still have. Next you must modify the cooler. The 3.6 has a fitting on the block for the oil line whereas the cooler has a flow through pipe that uses an o-ring. We simply cut the tube off the bottom, and used the same line with a little finessing. Thats all I can remember for now. Didnt say it was easy or cheap, but for sure worth it.
Marc

Haha, sorta reminds me of Chris and I at the Glen push starting his car all day. Read about it:
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/faculty/welty/porsching/96-09.txt

Anyway, Jack did you consider a RSR style front spoiler with the cooler located at the front air dam? Frankly, I'm quite surprised that you're not able to keep it cool with the fender mounted cooler and the ducting you've devised. Doesn't seem right.

For oil cooling I used to have a Carrera cooler (which I understand is not as big as the C2 cooler), but the battery box meant a fan or shroud was out of the question. I put some aluminum pieces around the cooler, and a simple aluminum scoop at its base to draw air up into the space in front of it (where the air box obstructs a lot of the flow).

It's important to note, this set-up worked fine under normal driving conditions. The only time I noticed temps going above 210 was during a 45-minute crawl up a canyon road, where I was barely moving at all. Even then, it never got above 230. The same set-up also worked fine on both the big and the small tracks at Willow Springs.

So the Carrera cooler was fine for probably 99% of my driving. But for some reason, Buttonwillow made things hotter. On that track, you're speeding up to triple digits at three separate points, and dropping down to second gear at two points. I also drive through two of its long sweepers at just below redline in third.

After my first trip to Buttonwillow, my feeling was that more cooler surface area would be the answer. So I came up with the idea of taking out the right battery box, and mounting two coolers -- with their tops right next to each other, but the front one moving away (toward the lower front of the car) at an angle, with air coming in from the horn grills, and also getting scooped in from down below. But the two of them just wouldn't fit, even with the battery box out, so I settled for just the second cooler (from Vertex) and a Spal pusher fan on it.

This new set-up proved better than the first, in that the fan took care of the threat from stuck-in-traffic situations. But I still saw temperatures shoot up toward 250 at Buttonwillow, which (even with my recent switch to synthetic oil) is too darn hot. So (really, only for the sake of Buttonwillow) I'm planning on using flexible oil lines to run to the other wheel well, where the Carrera cooler will be. I suspect that the dramatic increase in cooler surface area (just about double), combined with the longer hose travel, will finally be the equal of even this track.

I'll let you guys know.

Orbmedia, I considered the RS front spoiler and the front cooler, but I don't like the look of it, and am a little concerned about curbs chewing it up. Having said that, if the second fender cooler doesn't work, that may be my next move.

Marc, I wish I knew about installing an engine-mounted cooler when the swap was getting done. Now, it looks like it would mean dropping the engine. I'll avoid that if it's at all possible. But I may ask you more specific questions the next time the motor comes out.

Paul, the ducting I set up is pretty straightforward, as described above. For the new cooler, I went for a slightly wider scoop down below, but it's similar to the one in this photo:



And Warren, many of the things on your list would exceed my technical capabilities, but I do bring a hydraulic floor jack with me. On my first time out, this weekend, I went off the track (tires too cold, me too eager), and clipped my rear swaybar enough to knock one of the drop link adjusters to the full loose position (from full tight). I raised the thing up, pulled off the rear driver's side wheel, only to realize that I forgot to bring jackstands -- and I needed to use the jack to raise the rear trailing A-arm enough to match up the fitting for the drop link when I was done fixing the sleeve. Fortunately, they were doing construction at Buttonwillow, and someone had tossed a stack of about seven three-foot long 2-x8s that were all sandwiched together. It made a servicably broad (and soft) surface to rest the car on, and the guys had fastened together exactly the right number of boards. It worked, and I got the sway-bar fixed without jackstands.

(Unless, of course, I somehow screwed up the starter with my make-shift jackstand. )

Finally, isn't there something about push-starting a 911 that's worst than most manual transmission cars? I was under the impression that I didn't want to do it unless absolutely necessary. Maybe I should have kept push starting it, and raced both days.

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Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe

[This message has been edited by JackOlsen (edited 12-13-2000).]

Jack, when I was racing IT class in SCCA, we all used to get our oil coolers from a junk yard. Seriously, any 1st gen Rx-7 has a very large oil cooler, it is long and rectangular, looks like it will fit perfectly in the spot where the later cars have their front AC condenser. You can take it to any radiator shop and have the proper fittings welded on. Might be an idea??

Hey Jack,

Since you're running so much oil line outside of the engine, make sure you use thick lines. I do not recall the diameter but it should be published somewhere what the racers use. The reason is because if you skimp the oil pump will have to work against too much pressure drop and you may end up no flowing the oil properly and not scavenging the oil enough or even wearing out the oil pump prematurely. What kind of hoses are you using and how are you routing them?

Sounds like you've been doing quite a bit of agricultural racing lately. Keep it up and you can mount a plow on the back and do double duty. Just kidding I have my fair share too. One time I went off straight into the bushes at Bridgehampton and disappeared from sight.

[This message has been edited by orbmedia (edited 12-13-2000).]