First oil change for Arturito

Ok well this isn't really the first oil change but it's the first oil change done by me. According to the records, the oil was changed before it was sold to me but since I have no idea what oil is in there, I really wanted to get this oil change so this was a bit overdue for me to get my hands oily.

New oil filter in

New oil

It's a bit more fiddly that my other cars since there's a separate drain for the oil filter housing. Other than that though it was pretty much a breeze. 

Noting torque settings for the future:

Oil drain bolt - 25Nm (17mm bolt)

Oil filter drain screw - 5Nm (T50 Torx) also, accidentally pushed too hard with my ratchet and stripped the plastic teeth in the new drain screw so I'll have to pull the whole housing out first next time I do this and extract it with something else.

Oil filter cover - 25Nm 

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 71,479

- 5L Liquimoly 0W-20 (supposed to take 5.5 quarts. Will drive the car around to get warm so the computer can measure the actual level before I add more)

- New Hengst oil filter

- New oil filter drain screw

- New oil drain copper washer

- New rubber oil drain gasket

Changing Spark Plugs on the Mini

Anytime I get a "new to me" vehicle, I'll typically change the spark plugs no matter what the mileage is so I know exactly when it was last replaced. I'm fairly certain the plugs on the Mini were changed on schedule so I didn't feel the need to immediately do it but I still wanted to get it done so I know exactly what I'm starting with and what's in there.

E8 torx socket needed to remove the coils

You need an 8mm (E8) Torx socket. Unlike the GTi, getting the coils off was nice and easy and you didn't have to worry about having the rubber part get stuck in there if you didn't get the car a little warm before attempting to remove them. 

Coils removed

You also need a special 14mm thin wall 12-point spar plug socket to get the spark plugs out.

Old spark plugs look alright

The plugs need to be torqued it down to 23Nm +/- 3Nm and the bolt for the coils is 8Nm.  

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 71,436

- 4 New Beru 12120040551 spark plugs

NYST Fail

I was super excited about running with S2K Takeover again at NYST. The weather was going to be perfect, sunny low 70s (though a bit chilly in the 40s in the morning) and we were going to run both the uptown and downtown configuration in open track. 

NYST 9/1/2023

I got about 3 laps in when the car suddenly went into limp mode. I'd seen this before when my oil pressure sensor failed but that wasn't the case this time as all the readings on the car were fine except AFR. I got the car back into paddock shut it off and it started up normally and I was able to drive around just fine. I double checked everything. I wasn't leaking any fluids, coil packs looked fine, I tapped the map sensor in case the plunger was stuck and decided to give it another session. I took a cautious first lap and the car was feeling fine so I gave it the beans one lap and it was running strong then I went to pass someone on the first straight and it happened again. 

I decided it wasn't worth pushing the car until I knew exactly what was wrong so I packed it up and drove home hoping I wouldn't have any issues enroute. It drove perfectly fine the whole way (around 130 miles) so I knew there wasn't anything catastrophically wrong with the car. After letting the car cool and giving her a wash, I got her on the lift since I was suspecting a clogged or broken cat might be the issue. I was looking at the cat and the honeycombs looked fine and shining a light through it indicated no clogging. 

Toasty connector

I then noticed that the connector for the wideband o2 sensor going to the Haltech looked burnt. The bracket holding the wire had become loose causing the connector to dangle closer to the cat. I suspected that under load when I'm cornering hard this extra play may have caused this connector to get too close to the cat causing it to heat excessively.

Possible root cause

To fix this issue, I relocated the bracket a little bit so that the natural angle of the connector would be flush up against the body. I then added some additional zip ties on the cables so that it wouldn't shift around too much. Now there's several inches between the connector and the cat.

Clearance to connector

I forgot to bring my laptop with the Haltech software to the track so I finally hooked it up to read any codes tripped. Turns out the limp mode was triggered by the oil pressure sender so I grabbed the data log from the racepak dash. 

I could see a momentary reading of 10psi at 7700rpm. It was 65psi just before and 70psi after so I'm suspecting these are transient bad values and not actual oil pressure issues especially since this triggered on a straight. My engine protection is set to go into limp when it reads below 172kPa (around 25psi) at 50% throttle above 3000rpm. I changed this now to only trigger at 60kPa (around 8psi) for the same conditions to avoid tripping this under transient readings. 

Back in the Saddle

After a few months of being preoccupied with other activities I was glad to finally get back in the saddle and autocross again. The course was fun and fast and despite the sunny and hot weather it was well worth it. I ran the car at 29psi all around (just noting this since I've been playing with pressures recently). 

NNJR SCCA - 8-20-2023

NNJR SCCA - 8-20-2023

I won the class but compared with XSA cars running in pro-class I was about 2 seconds off pace. 

Palmer Motorsports with S2K Takeover

With all the garage work in early summer, I was forced to take a hiatus from making events so when I got all my cars back I was super eager to make the first once I could possibly go to and that meant going to Palmer Motorsports Park with S2K Takeover.

Palmer Motorsports Park - 8/6/2023

This was my first ever trip there so I decided to do both days so I could get as much seat time as I could and boy did I need it. The track itself has many blind apexes and walls everywhere but nonetheless was one of the most satisfying tracks I've driven. It was like driving a mountain road but without speed limits and safer.

Palmer Motorsports Park - 8/6/2023

As I got more confident I found a bit more time but as the temps kept rising I started to struggle with greasy tires. Still, Bumblestook took lap after lap like a champ with no issues. I was suffering some oversteer so where I would normally a 2 PSI difference from to rear, I lowered it to 1 PSI (29/28) and that helped the balance a lot.

Palmer Motorsports Park - 8/6/2023

Palmer Motorsports Park - 8/6/2023

I think after Watkins Glen, this is probably my next favorite track now and I can't wait to go back and try to find more confidence and speed. At the end of the day I was only able to manage a 1:57. I'm confident I can easily run faster next time now.

1:57 at Palmer Motorsports Park

First Maintenance in the New Garage Setup

After getting the cars back in the newly renovated garage, I couldn't wait to finally put it to practical use. Bumblestook needed an oil change and a once over as part of our pre-track inspection and prep. Doing so on a 4-post lift is so much easier now. I picked up a rolling oil drain from Harbor Freight and my oil changes are now forever changed.

I also bought the low profile 1.5" rubber blocks from QuickJack and modified the quickjacks with roller bearings so i'ts easy to slide around. Now my 4-post lift can even be used when I need to take the wheels off the car.

Maintenance Update:

Mileage: 62,891

- 5.5 quarts Amsoil 10W-30
- 1 new Honda oil filter (15400-PCX-306)

Steguis Motorsports Garage v2.0

I have pretty average oversized 24x24' 2-car garage. Two years ago when we moved in I did some basic renovations to make the garage usable. I got rid of lally columns and had a LVL beam installed instead to open up the space, coated the floor with polyaspartic coating, fixed the electrical to not be so sketchy, and ordered some cabinets. This served me well but I always wanted more. I wanted to raise the roof to fit lifts and have more indoor space for the fleet. 

Steguis Motorsports Garage v2.0

The problem was that the town allowed a maximum of a 15ft height which is exactly what the height of the garage already was but my maximum interior headroom was only 6.5ft due to all the space taken up by the ceiling trusses. It's hard to get the clearance with a traditional roof so I gave up on the idea for a while until I realized I could do a single pitch roof to get the vertical clearance I needed. 

Pre-construction

Architect drawing 

I worked with Peter Reo, fellow NEDC member, and owner of Elite Estate Holdings as my GC. He got me an architect who figure out how to get me the vertical clearance I needed. The garage would be 14' 4" at the front and 10' at the back which would give me enough slow to handle snow while maximizing internal space. A triple LVL beam would be used inside to support the weight of the roof leaving me with around 12ft of ceiling room around the area where the cars would be. We would also be putting in a 100A subpanel to run enough power for the lifts and anything else I needed in there. 

New framing done for the roof

We ordered the front windows, custom doors and lifts and after about a month or so applied for the building and electrical permits. This would reduce the amount of downtime I'd have. I moved my cars to storage units and put all the stuff I had in the garage into a storage pod in the driveway and then construction began. In one day the whole roof got demoed and the new frame put up. 

Trench for the electrical conduit

Front windows in

In the interior, we fully finished it with double layers of fire resistant drywall sheet to meet code, painted the ceiling black, added LED lights and shelves to reduce the amount of lose items sitting out that didn't fit in the cabinets. 

Drywall in and painted

Siding, roof and gutters done

We then got the high lift doors installed and I was able to unload my pod and put all my stuff back in the garage.

Doors in

Lastly we got the dual Challenger CL4P7 4-post lifts installed, got it all wired up and I was finally able to bring my cars home.

Lifts installed, just need to be wired

Lifts all functional and cars getting driven in

Lastly, I picked up a cheap 50' LED TV so I can watch shows while I'm working in the garage.

TV installed

Overall it took exactly a month from the moment we started demo to completion. Everything seemed to align nicely. Inspections (2 electrical, 3 building) were done and passed easily. Supplies lined up nice and despite some bad weather during construction, it didn't really slow us down much.