I've been hearing a bit of burping recently on the back of the Cayman if I don't drive the car often enough. The last time I heard that noise (but much louder) was when I accidentally left the cover where the oil and coolant fillers are located in the trunk open. From what I understand this is part of the natural burping process as the coolant expands, however, my understanding is that the rubber gasket on the cap can start to dry up and fail over time so I figured now would be a good time to replace it.
New coolant trunk cap
They're cheap enough to replace and this one is now 16 years old so it's probably overdue.
When I was building Bumblestook for autocross, I went a bit wild with everything and got a Haltech Racepak IQ3 dash installed. It was great for datalogging and also seeing important sensor details like oil temp and pressures so I've left it on ever since. However, more recently it's been bother me that I haven't been able to enjoy seeing my stock S2000 dash. I've always loved how it looks and from a practicality perspective, not being able to see my fuel gauge can be a problem. Eventually I found out that Haltech teamed up with gaugeART to release a CAN gauge that'd be able to display any number of data points from my Haltech ECU all in a nice 52mm package.
Haltech gaugeART CAN Gauge
Since I've been busy with events all year I didn't want to mess with installing this but now that I'm mostly done for the season I figured I'd finally tackle this project. First up was to remove my Racepak dash. This has always been removable but I wanted to fully disconnect it which meant getting rid of the mount for it as well as yank out all the cables that went to it.
removing the steering wheel to remove the bracket
This spiraled into me having to remove my steering wheel and indicator stalk mounts so I could get to the bolt securing the bracket. Then I had to remove my center console and radio to start yanking out the USB cables and momentary switches wired in to control and program the dash.
mount finally gone
removing all the wires going to controls hidden in my center console
Weight savings
Unfortunately, it was at this point that I realized that the new gauge came with a DTM-4 connector and I needed an 8-pin Tyco adapter to connect it to the Haltech CAN hub I have going to my ECU. This would normally require an adapter and I'd have to wait a few more days to complete this project. Thankfully I had a spare Tyco connector and pins from when I was trying to hook up my Solo2 datalogger. This took longer than I was hoping because I wired up the connect just like the Racepak dash was wired and it wouldn't turn on. Eventually I looked up the wiring diagram for the 8-port Tyco and realize that ground was pin4 and CAN low was pin 3 and I had them the other way around. Not sure how the racepak was working unless the wire colors were different.
de-pinning the DTM4 connector
Crimping on new pins
New connector good to go
Connected to the 6-port CAN hub
I verified everything was working then used my iPhone to configure the gauge. Once I knew everything was working I put everything back in place and mounted it to my a-pillar using an Autometer single gauge pod. I'd a pretty clean install and I'm glad there's only a single gauge so it's not ricey.
This is our last year at Watkins Glen with S2K Takeover so I wanted to bring Bumblestook out. While the weather wasn't overly cold, day 1 was just rain all day making it a bit miserable especially as it would stop raining and then rain again just as the track was showing some signs of drying.
Watkins Glen International - 10-16-2023
I didn't care though, a wet track day at The Glen is still loads more fun than a day at the office so I went out almost every session and just being mindful of the significantly reduced grip. After all, wet driving is excellent driver training.
Watkins Glen International - 10-16-2023
We went to Grist Iron Brewing Company for dinner which would've been a really good spot with a view but alas the rain just kept relenting.
Grist Iron Brewing Company
Day 2 was nice. The sun actually came out to dry the track by the 2nd session. I don't know if the rain the day before was messing with my head or my random oil pressure warning light kept distracting me but I found it hard to get really comfortable and I clocked in my best time that was 10 seconds slower than my time last year in the Cayman.
Watkins Glen International - 10-17-2023
I also had a weird thing happen where I got some oil spray from my oil catch can. Somehow some oil had worked its way through the filter and then got sucked through my hood vents onto my windshield. That also was not comforting. I'm going to spend this winter going over every aspect of the car. My current theory is that the check valve for the catch can drain isn't opening up quickly enough. I don't think I even need that valve so I may just ditch it.
Some oil escaping my catch can
Overall those, it was such a blast and I'm going to have to figure out another club to run with next year since I need to get my annual "Glen" fix.
Oof, realized that while I haven't put many miles on the Cayman it's been over a year since I changed the oil. I don't sweat this too much since I use good quality oil but still, I generally don't like going beyond a year on oil regardless of mileage.
Draining oil
I didn't really like my little Harbor Freight lift oil drain too much since I was worried that the higher flowing and higher capacity Porsches might overflow the smaller funnel so I got a new US made Lisle 8-Gallon Oil Lift Drain instead. It features a much wider mouth funnel and I also got the no splatter pad for it so that any draining oil won't just bounce right out. It works super well and I'm very happy with it.
