New Battery Already?

Three years ago when we did a Stage 2 on the GTi, I had a new battery installed just for peace of mind. Well, last week the car started to fail to start but fired up right away when hooked up to a booster. Granted, I don't drive it that much and never really put it on at ender so I think over the years it didn't really get a chance to charge fully and I'm sure that contributed to the battery's early demise. I put the car on a tender and had it full charge and it worked for a while but sure enough yesterday, the same thing happened. I also noticed that on my P3 gauge, when the car is running, the voltage was showing around 13.6-13.8V. Normally I see this at a constant 14V with the alternator running so clearly the battery wasn't happy. Ended up changing it out to a new Duralast Platinum battery. Normally the GTi takes an H6 battery but I guess what I had in there before was an H5 so I went with another H5 since both work just fine. 

New Duralast Platinum Battery for the GTi - 9-9-2022

When change the battery on this thing you get all kinds of lights going off on the dash complaining about ESC and TPMS. A quick drive reset everything and the car is back to being error free. I think I'll stick the car on the tender every few weeks when I don't drive it as much to make sure the battery stays healthy this time around. 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 76,761

- New H5 Duralast Platinum AGM battery (Date code 6/22)

Fixing Oil Leaks, Idle Issues and Brake Ducts

After coming back from my last track day, Bumblestook wasn't sounding too happy. I was having strange idle issues that sounded like misfires or farting from the engine bay. I continued to have a leak coming from the catch can drain hose going to the oil pan and my brake ducts had become so brittle they were falling apart. Needless to say, I wasn't going leave this be so she's been on the quickjack the past few weeks while I've been sourcing parts and fixing her a little bit at a time. First off, I took off the old catch can drain hose which isn't that easy because it was a bit too short and routed in between the engine mount and the alternator making it hard to get a wrench where I needed it.

Making a new custom length drain hose

Upon further inspection it seems it was leaking around the check valve fitting. I hate doing things half-assed so I decided I'd not only get all new fittings but also make a new longer hose so that I could route it better making it easier to service and inspect in the future.

New fittings

Old hose (shorter) next to new hose (longer)

New Hose Installed - 9-5-2022

Longer house routed behind the engine mount

Fittings and check valve going to the oil pan
now easily accessible

My brake duct hoses had also started to disintegrate. Some new 2" ID high temp silicone hoses cut to length fixed that problem with ease.

Old brake duct hoses falling apart

Fresh hoses in

Finally, I had this crazy idle issue after coming home from NYST. The car was struggling with idle and was burbling like it was perhaps misfiring but the engine was not throwing any codes. When the engine settled down the noise would go away. I figured it was something loose but could find anything.

After taking the intake off and inspecting the intake manifold and throttle body more, I noticed this would happen if the engine was vibrating more after going above 1000rpms. Looking at the IACV, it seemed fine but the connector going to it had actually just backed off just enough that it was getting intermittent connections. Pushing it back in fixed the problem and to avoid having this issue again going forward, I decided to zip tie it into place for that authentic JDM experience.

Culprit of the unstable idle

That authentic Honda JDM fix

She's now fully sorted again and back on the ground. Just need to put OEM ECU back in and get the NYS emissions inspection done.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 62,223

- 5.5 quarts Amsoil 10W-30

- 1 new Honda oil filter (15400-PCX-306)

Moar Wide Tires and Track Prep for Kay

The three year old Advan A052 tires I've been running on Kay are getting a bit tired but I've been holding off getting new tires until I could find the tire and size I wanted. When the Bridgestone RE-71RS tire was announced, I knew I wanted to give it a try since I liked the old RE-71R before. Unfortunately they didn't offer the sizes I wanted up until a few weeks ago when I was surprised to see a lot more 18 inch options so I had to jump on them. 

Fatty Rear - RE-71RS

I knew I wanted to run a wider front tire than the 235s I'd been running until now. The 255/35R18 seemed to be perfect for the 18x8.5 wheels I have up front. At 25" in diameter, these are about 0.4" shorter than the 235/40R18 I was running before but 20mm wider. For the rear I decided to jump from a 265/35R18 A052 to a 295/30/R18 RE71RS which is probably the limit of what I'd attempt to mount onto to 10" wide wheel. These are also 25" in diameter and also 0.4" shorter than the 265/35R18 I was running before which will help with the gearing and when mounted on a tire is about a full inch wider. 

265/35R18 A052 (left) vs 295/30R18 RE-71RS (right)

The front was a bit of a pinch on a 8.5" wheel making them pretty hard to mount. Steve ended up using almost 100psi and some muscle to get them to bead right. 

Front tires mounted - 255/35R18

The sidewalls are much stiffer than the A052. This, combined with the lower profile sidewalls offer greater responsiveness. I'm also finally glad to have the little lip on the tire for rim protection. Not that I really need it since I don't generally park it next to a curb but I've never really liked how the A052 looked mounted onto nice wheels. 

These bad boys are crazy sticky new. I did a little test run and for starters, they fit perfectly, no rubbing or other fitment related issues. So far I'm liking how they feel. There's a hair more road noise with the lower profile but nothing that was bothersome. The steering response definitely feels better. I can't wait to really try these in a performance situation. 

Looking real good with the new setup

I'm heading out to my favorite track on the east coast, Watkins Glen, next month and while I had originally planned to take Bumblestook, I think I might take Kay for this instead. I made some major changes since my last track day with the Cayman including GT3 brake master cylinder, now new wider tires and of course the Bilstein B16 Damptronic with DSC sport controller. I'm curious how they handle on track but before I head out there, I definitely want some fresh brake fluid and gear oil. 

Fresh gear oil and brake fluid

I realized the last time I changed the gear oil was before I want to SCCA Solo Nationals, now almost 3 years ago and the diff has started to whine a bit more than usual so it was clear it needed a change. The gear oil actually came out fairly clean which was a nice surprise. Yes, that's blue in color because that's how Motul 75W140 comes. If you're only reading my blog post for the first time and wondering why I'm using this kind of gear oil and not the factory Porsche oil it's because I've got an OSGiken diff in there and this is one of the recommended fluids to ensure that it operates properly. 

Bye old fluid

It's also been two years since I last changed the brake fluid and considering I boiled my brakes the last time I went to The Glen, I didn't want to chance it this time around. We went through about 2.5 500ml bottles to make sure we'd thoroughly gotten the old fluid out.

Fresh Motul RBF660 brake fluid

Finally, since I'm adding an extra 10mm tire width in the rear, I decided to soften up the front sway bar one hole to maintain the balance of the car (was previously set to full stiff).

Front sway bar set to 1 hole softer than full stiff

Big thanks to Steve and Jenna for spending Saturday afternoon on Labor Day weekend to get Kay sorted. 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 47,602

- 3 quarts Motul 75W140 Gear Oil

- 1.25L Motul RBF660 Brake fluid

- 4 new tires (265/295 Bridgestone RE-71RS)

Maintenance Update: Oil Change on Chopper

Chopper was due for an oil change so got that quickly taken care of. Note that the drain bolt uses a 1/2" wrench/socket, not a 13mm. Ended up rounding the bolt a little so decided to replace it with a brand new one to avoid future issues.

Oil Change - 8-26-2022

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 73,027

- New mopar oil filter
- 6qt Castrol Edge 5W-20
- New OEM drain bolt 

Autocross with NNJR SCCA - 8/20/2022

After a 3-month hiatus I finally got back to doing an autocross. I ordered some new Bridgestone Potenza RE-71RS tires so this is also the last event I'll be running the Yokohama Advan A052s. While I suspect the Yoks will still have the edge in terms of overall peak grip for any given tire size, the REs come in more tire sizes so I'll be trying some wider tires to see if I can get better traction overall. 

NNJR SCCA Autocross - 8-20-2022
Photo by: Perry Aidelbaum

It was was a fun, fast course but with the temperature as high as it was I was struggling to keep the tires cool (I'm too lazy to bring a tire sprayer nowadays). Still though, I had a blast and my itch to do more events has returned. 

NNJR SCCA Autocross - 8-20-2022

GTi Maintenance - Oil Change

 Just jotting down some maintenance for the GTi

Oil Change

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 76,440

- New Mann oil filter and drain plug

- 6 quarts Liqui Moly 5W-40 Molygen

NYST Open Track with S2K Takevover

I've been itching for a track day to relax so when the opportunity for an open track day with S2K Takeover came up at NYST, I had to go. We only had 20 something cars so we had so much room to play around and try different things. 

NYST - 8-8-2022

I was expect tons of laps so I started off taking it a bit easy but knowing that the afternoon temperatures were going to skyrocket, I wanted to make the most of the morning.

NYST - 8-8-2022

Unfortunately, one of the cars had their drain bolt back out and spilled a ton of oil on most of the track so we had about 2.5 hour delay between morning and afternoon. The heat made it pretty much impossible to put in quick lap times but I was very happy with how the Continental Force tires were consistent lap after lap even after 12 laps in one of my sessions. They're no the fastest thing out there but at least they're predictable and that counts for a lot. 

NYST - 8-8-2022

I ended up putting in a meager 1:44.3 which is quite a bit off my personal best but I had such a blast. The heat did eventually get to me and I had to call it quits after I started to feel the onset of heat exhaustion and I didn't want to risk not being 100% mentally present on track. 

NYST - 8-8-2022

NYST - 8-8-2022

NYST - 8-8-2022