The Semi-Unofficial Pistol-Forum Car geek, gearhead, hot rodder, and vehicle thread

[jeep45238]

Formula SAE car we built back in the day.



We designed and fabricated the chassis, suspension, hubs, wheel centers, differential housing, exhaust, cooling system (including radiators), and the carbon fibre body between classes.

Going off memory, it weighed approximately 430lb wet, and we could pull nearly 2g's in turns. Gearing limited us to just shy of 60 mph, and our acceleration was tracked at nearly 0-60 in 2.7 sec.

We made almost 90hp through a Honda F4i breathing through a 25mm restrictor on an pretty intense EFI system. Shifting was pnuematic from a small paintball canister, using solenoids to run the clutch/shifter rods which were actuated via red buttons on the steering wheel. Timing this was done using different volume pressure vessels in the air lines to ensure the clutch was deactivated before the shifter was worked. We had a clutch lever by the steering wheel which was used at the starting line, and never touched until you needed to come to a stop. There's a radiator in each of the air vents on the side of the car.

3 master cylinders worked the brakes, each front wheel had it's own cylinder. The suspension incorporated Ackerman steering with double wishbone on all corners, and Quaife supplied the gears to stuff in our differential housing. The mold for the carbon fiber body was made from drywall mud over styrofoam, with vertical/horizontal laser beams used to ensure we had mirror images. Carbon/epoxy was layered, then bagged and put under vacuum for several days before taking it to a bodyshop for paint. Dupont supplied candy apple red, silver, and black paint.

The car won 4th at the nationals at Ford's proving grounds in Romeo, Michigan, and the team got an invitational to England to race at Silverstone, where 10th place was secured. I'm not sure where the car is now.

[awp_101]

Formula SAE car we built back in the day.

More proof I would have been better served by 3-6 years of Spanish (Jr High and HS) and 3 years of some kind of HS technical shop classes instead of the 6 years of Band (stage, marching and jazz) that I haven't used in 30+ years...

[hufnagel]

*sigh*
don't buy cheap gaskets, even for your beater POS car you're planning on selling in a couple months (convertible.)
had an oil leak. valve cover gaskets.
ordered some gaskets.
did the job.
gasket on one bank decided NOT to hold correctly. now leaks RIGHT on to an exhaust runner. makes the car look like its on fire at a stop sign.
of course it's the rear bank, which is fuck all near impossible to do without practically dropping the engine.
no joke, to do it the first time I had to unbolt the passenger engine mount so the motor would drop down enough to get the cover off.
going to the parts store now, getting a tube of grey RTV, and going to seal this bitch up once and for all.
255k miles on the car, and I will probably NEVER do this job again on it, hopefully.

[hufnagel]

working on the minivan today.
already got the radiator delivered, and the second of 2 crossover pipes arrived (don't ask, I'll tell THAT story later.)
got everything installed, started filling with coolant... no leaks. YAY!
*just* as the level started to reach the top of the radiator, I heard it... splash.
one of the hard lines that runs to the rear HVAC is now leaking, in the EXACT same fashion the crossover pipe was.
I'm going to see if I can find where those lines go from hard to soft, and bypass out the rear for now. there's no way i'm replacing that line. Might try and weld it shut at some point in the future.
fuck. my. life.

[0ddl0t]

I warned you not to invite Bob!

[hufnagel]

So there's no chance in hell I'm preparing the plumbing. It's rotted through in a couple of places and split in even more. I was going to try to bypass it under the car, the one I figured out that wasn't going to work, I remembered they didn't ship all of them with rear hvac. And it turns out the hose that came with the line I bought that I didn't need, is used on vehicles that don't have rear hvac. I had to steal some hoes from the parts car to make up the other line, and now the plumbing is essentially bypassed as if it never existed in the vehicle to begin with.

[camel]

Stealing hoes is always a problem. 😄

[hufnagel]

stupid speak and spell on my phone.

minivan is "fixed". makes heat up front. no more leaks. now weighs 5# less due to the rust falling off just now.

[hufnagel]

still rollin' along.
yesterday... pulled the cats out of the 65th and installed them in khaki. scan tool said 5x5 for the sensors so today I took it to inspection. PASSED.
just a bit ago I swapped out the black glass for one with a latch, and replaced the wonky passenger brake light assembly (shitty aftermarket unit.)
later on today I'll pull the blower resistor and motor, and see what needs cleaning/replacing.
need to yank the boomerang from the 65th and swap it into khaki, so the rear end don't dance no more. bushings are blown out completely and the only "fix" is to replace it. we're trying NOT to buy parts right now, hence the parts vehicle.

[0ddl0t]

How much do you think Toyota wants for this tiny U-shaped evap hose? $5? $15? $50???


Try $462 (actual MSRP is $347, but my local dealer lives up to the stealership denigration). The hose is of course not available separately - you must buy an entire charcoal canister assembly! The bend is too sharp for bulk hose, but thankfully the local NAPA warehouse let me look through their preformed evap hoses until I found one I can trim & make work.