It's been almost 10k miles since the last time I changed plugs. The previous plugs didn't look so hot after 15k miles so I ordered a new set of NGK RS7 plugs to change them out pre-emptively. Looking at the condition of these plugs I probably didn't need to change them yet so I'll extend the the next time I do this. I think these NGK plugs work better and don't wear out as easily as the Beru plugs.
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| Old plugs |
Rad finally got sick of his super loud exhaust Revel single exit exhaust and picked up a gently used Perrin dual exit exhaust instead. This should've been an easy swap but the problem is that the Perrin exhaust flange is designed to mate to a flat flange but the JDL front pipe he has on his car has a lip on the flange designed for a donut gasket that simply wouldn't fit.
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| Revel exhaust removed - 10-22-2021 |
The solution was to cut off the lip with a sawzall so that we could fit a flat gasket instead.
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| Flange to cut - 10-22-2021 |
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| Cutting away |
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| Putting the new Perrin cat back on - 10-22-2021 |
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| New exhaust on |
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| New exhaust on |
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| NNJR SCCA Autocross - 10-23-2021 |
I like my MK7 GTI a lot but two things in particular kept taking away from the experience. The first was the rather annoying drivetrain rattle at idle after switching to the single mass flywheel as part of the South Bend Stage 2 clutch upgrade. This was a necessary upgrade to hold the torque but it made the car seem like it was broken when I was sitting at idle until I pushed the clutch in. The second was the lack of smoothness as you went up the rev range. At 3-4K rpm, I'd get annoying rattles inside the car, like the center console, from the vibration. At full boost and high RPM, I really didn't like how the vibrations felt at all so I rarely get on it because it felt like I was going to break something.
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| Fluidampr Harmonic Balancer |
I read that the fix for this was to install a harmonic balancer but it sounded just like hype to me so I held it off. Boy was I wrong! I finally got a Fluidampr harmonic balancer and had it installed by Drive Auto Works today along with a new OEM crank bolt. DAW had previously installed my entire IS38 upgrade so it made sense for me to come back there and the difference is night and day.
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| Fluidampr getting installed - 10-15-2021 |
The engine is butter smooth at any RPM. The rattle from the SMF is gone. There no in-cabin rattles anymore from 3-4K RPM. Most importantly, at full boost, it just feels so amazing. I can't believe I waited this long to do this. This is definitely not hype and I should've done this along with my turbo upgrade years ago. I went from liking this car a lot to loving it all over again. I no longer cringe from the vibration every time I go into full boost. Instead, I just get 100% full enjoyment and big smiles when I put all that power down. I might have to look into doing this for the S2000. I know it doesn't need it as much as this engine does but having a smoother operating crank can't hurt, especially on a 4-banger.
After my trip to NJMP Lightning a month ago, I noticed a small pool of oil under Bumblestook in the garage. It had gotten everywhere on the driver side under carriage but thankfully it didn't seem like a bad enough leak that I was dangerously low on oil during the track day. On first inspection, the AN coupler going into the bung welded onto oil pan that's used to drain oil from the catch can was leaking. I thought it due it being a tad loose so I re-tightened everything and autocrossed the following weekend. After being parked for a week, I noticed more oil under the car even though it hadn't moved in a while so I got back on the quick jacks and sure enough there was oil coming from the AN coupler again. I drained the oil and removed the coupler and saw what I couldn't see earlier, a crack in the coupler itself. This was on the non-visible side of the coupler so I didn't notice it before.
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| Cracked AN coupler |
I ordered a new Vibrant -10AN female 45 degree union elbow from Jegs. As luck would have it, the first shipment got stolen at FedEx so I had to wait again for them to ship me another one.
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| New -10AN 45 degree union elbow |
Today I finally got to the time to put it in and complete my oil change that was due anyway. I ran the car a bit and the bottom stayed dry so I think we're good now but I'll keep an eye on it just to make sure I don't have a leak elsewhere.
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| New coupler installed - 10-10-2021 |
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| Fresh oil in |
Maintenance Updates:
Mileage: 60,131
- Amsoil Signature Series 10W-30 - 5.5qt
- New OEM oil filter
- New catch can drain AN coupler
The last time I took Bumblestook to an autocross was in 2018 shortly after we completed the build and had the car painted. Obviously, she hasn't been idle this entire time We've had plenty of fun drives and track days since then but for autocross, I've either been driving the Cayman or co-driving in Rad's FRS.
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| NNJR SCCA Autocross - 9/25/2021 Photo By: Perry Aidelbaum |
However, with the gorgeous weather today I simply couldn't resist taking her out again for some fun and nostalgia. Left the hardtop at home and let her go to town on course. She's obviously not as fast as her prime days in BSP but she still gives me all the good vibes. Like putting on old pair of jeans, it was just comfortable, very familiar, very rewarding. No longer competitively classed, I just ran in whatever SCCA class she happened to end up in based on the rule book which is SSM (T for street tire). But she's basically an STR car so I was comparing my times with STR just to see how far off I was for being rusty. Not bad for a car on old tires and set up more like a grand touring track car than a purpose build competition car.
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| NNJR SCCA Autocross - 9/25/2021 Photo By: Perry Aidelbaum |
Ironically my fastest time was with Rad in the car with me. He's seriously gotten very quick this past year so maybe I needed his mojo to egg me on. I had a great time. I hadn't autocross since Spring so I was feeling super rusty but I was feeling very comfortable driving my own car and sliding it around again. I love how lively S2000s are on course. They're not easy to drive but are certain to keep you honest. When you get it right though, it feels oh so good.
After several months of hiatus from motorsports due to various life events and being distracted with my garage build, I finally got time to head back on track. The weather was just perfect, low to mid-80s and not a cloud in the sky.
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| NJMP Lightning - 9-12-2021 |
I took the morning sessions to get used to the car again. Since the last event the car got fresh brakes, new rear Karcepts hubs and a fresh alignment. Really my main issue was feeling super rusty with this car. I've been driving my other cars more recently and I really started to feel my steering inputs were incorrect for what I know this car likes. After getting a few sessions under my belt and feeling confident everything was working as it should, I tried to beat my previous personal best of 1:20.7. Frankly that's not a very fast time but given my general desire to avoid 4-wheel excursions and collisions with hard objects with this car, my goal with each event is simply to have fun and see if I can beat my own time. I was able to get a 1:19.3 which is a 1.4 s improvement from my last outing here. I set that at the warmest time of the day on a full tank so I think if I repeat that lap on a cooler day with low fuel, I should be able to find more time pretty easily.
Mostly I was trying to use less brakes or no brakes in certain corners. I know I'm losing a bunch of time in turn 1 but I'm still a bit hesitant to push it there since I know what can happen if you get that wrong. Overall though, it was a great day. I had loads of fun and it was a much needed motorsports event to help clear my mind. I think I might need new tires soon though. These clockwise tracks do a number on your left side tires.
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| Tire wear on left side |
One of the issues with having a detached garage with no shade is that it heats up pretty quickly once the sun hits the roof. In the middle of summer, I was detecting temperatures inside well over 102F. Even though I recently installed an AC, without proper insulation, it's just a losing battle so pretty much anytime the outside temp is above 85, I was simply not going to spend any time inside the garage and certainly not going to waste energy trying to run the AC.
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| Radiant Barrier Installation - 9-6-2021 |
To attempt to fix this, I picked up enough radiant barrier foil from Attic Foil to cover 1000 square feet, more than I'd ever reasonably need but having more is always better than not having enough. The theory was sound, place the foil just under the roof stapled to the rafters such that there's an air gap in between, and the reflective nature of the foil would significantly reduce radiant heat from the roof surface. It's relatively affordable so it was worth a try. I was hoping for maybe a 10F drop in temperature at the roof.
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| Temperature right under the roof surface |
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| Temperature on the bottom surface of the radiant barrier |
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| Radiant Barrier Installed |
Anyway, back on topic...covering the entire roof took around 5 hours mostly because I had a few obstacles up there that needed to be worked around. I have about 95% coverage since it's recommended you leave a bit of the bottom and top parts open to allow air to pass and used up maybe 70% of the material I had purchased. You can see how dramatic the difference in temperature is. Shooting my IR thermometer onto the surface of the roof I was seeing temps of almost 122F in the middle of the day after it had been baking in the sun for at least 6 hours (ambient air temp around 83F). The surface of the radiant barrier foil just a few inches away almost matched ambient of 83F. That's about a 40F difference! We kept the garage door shut and the AC running during the install and you could noticeably feel how much better it was getting as more and more of the surface was getting covered. This is no replacement for a properly insulated ceiling (something I might consider next) but having 40F less heat being radiated from the roof to the rest of the garage really helps the AC keep up. It's never going to be frigid cold but it takes a lot of the edge off, like the garage was under the shade or something. I know this isn't the most pleasant thing to look at but it beats getting roasted inside your own garage. I'll monitor the temperatures over the next few warm days since I have data from all summer to compare against. If this is really effective, then I think adding an attic fan and an insulated ceiling will get me to ice cold status inside the garage if/when I need it.
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| Barry's business card |
Overall I'd give this project a solid 10/10 for bang for buck. You can absolutely install this yourself if you have the patience to do so. You just need a ladder, scissors and a staple gun. I'll probably use the rest of the foil to add some barrier to my shed next. If anyone needs a general handyman in Northern NJ though, I'd definitely recommend Barry. He's an honest guy that's very responsive, shows up on time, and gets the job done. It was also cool catching up and talking about old times.
