Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[Prawn]

Hi mate, you've asked the million dollar question

I've actually had a strut brace, under my stairs now, for about 4 years, and I've never got around to taking it downstairs and offering it up to the car!

Remind me on Friday and I'll actually try and do something about it and fit it this weekend!

Benefits are considered marginal, and adding too much at the front will always increase understeer, but I think something like the strut brace here will only stiffen the chassis, not the suspension, so should in theory improve geo control under load, not that I expect the shell flexes all that much anyway. Who knows!

I'll try it and report back for you

 

[s33nyboy12]

Hi mate, you've asked the million dollar question

I've actually had a strut brace, under my stairs now, for about 4 years, and I've never got around to taking it downstairs and offering it up to the car!

Remind me on Friday and I'll actually try and do something about it and fit it this weekend!

Benefits are considered marginal, and adding too much at the front will always increase understeer, but I think something like the strut brace here will only stiffen the chassis, not the suspension, so should in theory improve geo control under load, not that I expect the shell flexes all that much anyway. Who knows!

I'll try it and report back for you

Good stuff! It will be interesting to see how you find (if any) good difference on your car prawn.

Is the one you got adjustable or Audi/s3/lcr oem one?.....

Sean

 

[Prawn]

it's a sparco one with the wind in centre, although the turrets are a solid part of the chassis, and cannot be adjusted in anyway, so in theory, the adjustable centre is kind of useless, and only any good for adjusting out any tiny manufacturing differences between strut tops at the time of fitting. After that, it should remain a fixed length bar for the rest of time!

Will offer it up this weekend, and if it'll clear my charge pipe, I'll paint it orange and install it

 

[s33nyboy12]

To be honest mate the only good thing about the "wind in" centre ones is they are easier to fit. I had a nightmare trying to get all three bolts back in each side of mine (oem) once I had removed it and tried to re-fit.

With the wind in ones like sparco I just undid one side completely fitted them both then push the bar together with help of a minion and then tightened back up to how I wanted it.

Currently running 2 bolts a side on my strut brace as I didn't have the physical strength to get the 3 rd in each side. I will sort it when I got the time But I just personally found the car acts better without the strut brace.

Sean

 

[MIGGZ]

it's a sparco one with the wind in centre
Will offer it up this weekend, and if it'll clear my charge pipe, I'll paint it BLUE and SEND IT TO MIGGZ

there you go, i fixed that for you

 

[Prawn]

there you go, i fixed that for you

Stop fecking colour coding everything

 

[MIGGZ]

Stop fecking colour coding everything

i like colours dude

 

[Prawn]

i like colours dude

Is that a gay pride flag?

You trying to tell us something Miggles?

 

[MIGGZ]

Is that a gay pride flag?

You trying to tell us something Miggles?

how did you know the colours prawny lol

 

[Prawn]

Miggles Gay Pride Homepage

 

[MIGGZ]

Miggles Gay Pride Homepage

Whoo hoo what a guy thanx dude

 

[Prawn]

Back to the cars now

Finishing off the fire ext this weekend, as well as hopefully fitting my Devils Own meth solenoid.

Then it's just a case of waiting on our very own PT to send me some battery cable and I'll relocate the battery and wire in the kill switch



Abingdon trackday 2 weeks tomorrow, followed straight away by Donnington!

excited!

 

[Prawn]

A friend and I have been chatting on facebook for a while now, about having a go at making our own inlet manifolds.

As I'm trying to save money this year, I'm not in a position to go spending £400+ on an inlet, or even £100 on a universal plenum chamber really, so we had the idea of using a bit of tube to create an OBX/RMR style inlet.

He's a bit further ahead than I am with ordering the bits, and last night he started mocking it up to see how it'd work.

He ordered these:

Aluminium Plate 300mm x 180mm x 10mm.5083 Grade. | eBay

Aluminium Tube 4" / 100mm dia x 10swg - 495mm Long | eBay

And used an AGU inlet for the runners.

Here's his starting point:

Dads bringing up my AEB inlet in a few weeks, so I'm going to order up the same parts, and see what I can come up with. I plan to mount the throttle body at a slight angle towards cyl 1 to aid flow slightly, as all the flow tests I've seen of the log style inlets seem to be down on flow to cyl 1 when the TB is square to the log.

By leaving a bit of additional length at the TB end I should be able to fit a boss on the back of the inlet to mount the iAT sensor as well, then have the servo and vac take-offs in the end plate at the other end.

It may not work at all, and it may be crap, but it should cost about £40 in total, and if it's no good, I can chop the plenum off and still use the AEB runners for a better one

 

[S3 Paul]

I realy like the idea of trying this. i know people that make them for other cars and i machine metal everyday. should be able to make one once i get my head around whats needed.

Fancy writing me one of you great emails??? putting in all i need to know??
haha.

 

[IH786]

Back to the cars now

Finishing off the fire ext this weekend, as well as hopefully fitting my Devils Own meth solenoid.

Then it's just a case of waiting on our very own PT to send me some battery cable and I'll relocate the battery and wire in the kill switch



Abingdon trackday 2 weeks tomorrow, followed straight away by Donnington!

excited!

Would be interested to see how you wire the solenoid - do you have an on/off switch for your WMI?

I want to wire the solenoid so it works off the switch, so:

Solenoid closed when switch is off and open when on. And solenoid closed when engine is off.

Sounds simple but is it?

Haven't fitted switch or solenoid yet (my AEM kit is also siphoning off too - not good considering I was running two nozzles!)

Luckily my brother had spare solenoid off his 335i that he didn't need - so got it for free

 

[Prawn]

Would be interested to see how you wire the solenoid - do you have an on/off switch for your WMI?

I want to wire the solenoid so it works off the switch, so:

Solenoid closed when switch is off and open when on. And solenoid closed when engine is off.

I think most people just have their WMI system wired into the ignition, but I wanted the ability to disable mine and run the car without.

I wired in a switch to the controllers main 12v feed, so I can switch off my WMI when cruising on the motorway and such situations.

the devils own solenoid is very simple, with just 2 wires. Wire 12v across it and it will open, switch the feed off, and it will close.

if you wire the solenoid into just the ignition, there is still the risk that the system will syphon when you're on vacuum cruising up the motorway.

I'm wiring mine into the switched side of my controllers 12v feed, so when the WMI is disabled, the solenoid shuts off straight away. The WMI switch is also off an ignition feed, so obviously goes dead when the key is off.

 

[Prawn]

I realy like the idea of trying this. i know people that make them for other cars and i machine metal everyday. should be able to make one once i get my head around whats needed.

Fancy writing me one of you great emails??? putting in all i need to know??
haha.

Will do Paul! I've just text our favourite Beachbuggy with regards to tacking a mock up together, he's fairly local and I'm sure he's recently got a tig welder

 

[IH786]

That makes perfect sense - cheers The solenoid I have is the same as a Devils Own one - just branded a Coolingmist but is identical.

Yeah I was also worried about syphining when the car was running and the WMI switched off.

Interesting work on the inlet manifold - you should buy my SEM instead :sign_plug:

 

[Prawn]

Interesting work on the inlet manifold - you should buy my SEM instead :sign_plug:

Too much money, and the TB is on the wrong side You should keep it though!

 

[RobinJI]

Inlet idea looks cool. I think it'll help the cylinder 1 issue just having the TB spaced away from the runners a bit, having it too close will restrict air-flow a little, as the trumpet won't be able to draw air from all around it, think of it as being a little like valve shrouding. I'd also be tempted to leave the trumpets 1cm or so proud inside the plenum, rather than flush with the tube's wall, for the same reason, with the ends of them nicely smoothed around. (plus it'll have the bonus of making the runners shorter externally but the same length internally.)

I'll be interested to see it anyway. I wouldn't mind making one for mine sometime just so I can relocate it down a little, as my throttle body's actually been catching the bonnet slightly on hard acceleration.

(Edit, just to clarify, what I'm talking about is basically making the ends of the runners into a proper velocity stack shape, and then mounting the plenum so they're poking into it a bit, rather than flush with the wall, and making sure the plenum has plenty of space round the runners for 1 and 4. Remember even with forced induction the cylinders are still drawing the air in, and the more space around the entrance to the runner, the more air it's got around it to draw from.)

 

[phil miller]

Nick did you buy the check valve that just goes in the meth pipe? i was thinking of getting on of them, what do you think? also you remember i posted up the pics of the 2 controllers i had left over, did you say one of them was a check valve type thing?

 

[Prawn]

(Edit, just to clarify, what I'm talking about is basically making the ends of the runners into a proper velocity stack shape, and then mounting the plenum so they're poking into it a bit, rather than flush with the wall, and making sure the plenum has plenty of space round the runners for 1 and 4. Remember even with forced induction the cylinders are still drawing the air in, and the more space around the entrance to the runner, the more air it's got around it to draw from.)

Originally, I had wanted to try grafting the tubular plenum onto the original backplate part of the stock manifold, so only cutting the front off.

However, Mark sent me some pics of his in cut down form last night, and I reckon it'll be REALLY hard to get it to work nicely, and look decent, and also the runners are offset loads to the very bottom edge of the plenum, so not ideal.

I think I'll take a bit longer over it, and cut the runners off like tuffty did so I've got 4 individual runners, then make up a backplate that the runners can slide through to create little trumpets inside the plenum. Also makes it easier to extend the plenum a little longer to help cyl 1 without having to splice in a patch on the back.

Nick did you buy the check valve that just goes in the meth pipe? i was thinking of getting on of them, what do you think? also you remember i posted up the pics of the 2 controllers i had left over, did you say one of them was a check valve type thing?

The AEM kit has a check valve built into the nozzle Phil, but it's questionable whether mine is working properly or not to be honest.

Rather than just get another check valve, I've bought an electronic solenoid which will completely seal off the system when powered down so water cannot get through to leak. With the system armed the solenoid will open to allow fluid flow through it.

 

[s3dave]

I have got one to go on, good idea on the electrical placement prawny...

 

[Prawn]

Cheers Davidz. It's definitely required, I'm fed up of topping up with meth having hardly driven the car!!!

Has anyone got any experience with these gauges at all?

Methanol Injection : Alcohol Injection : Water Injection : DevilsOwn

 

[Paradox1]

I got the same brand prawn but not a egt one.works just like any other

 

[Prawn]

Miserable day today. Planned to get loads done, but woke up to an evil mix of snow and rain

Nipped down to halfords and got some decent wire to extend the wires on my Devils Own solenoid, and some more heat shrink tubing, then dug out the soldering iron and soldered an extra 1.5m onto one of the wires so I can run it inside the car to the switch. I double heatshrink'd the joint just to be safe.

I then set about making up some little brackets to mount the fire ext nozzles:

Very simple, but do the job:

I set about installing these on the car.

First two in the engine bay were reasonably simple, they need to be at opposite corners of the bay, as they fire out a 90 degree cone for maximum coverage.

First one mounted down on the slam panel, this nozzle should cover the entire fuel rail, as well as all the main bulk of engine electrics down near the starter and below the inlet manifold:

(ignore the battery charger - just topping it up as I might not get to drive it this weekend at all)

Second nozzle up by the bulkhead, this should cover the rest of the bay, as well as the turbo and manifold - the hottest part of the whole car:

Coverage from the nozzles should be like this:

Final 2 nozzles, one in the driver footwell, from this location the 90 degree cone will go partially into the footwell to kill any flames, and partly up under the dash towards the electrics:

And the final nozzle, I decided to point at the meth tank. As methanol burns with a clear and odorless flame, I thought it wasn't a bad idea to have this covered. By positioning the nozzle low and aiming up like this, the spray cone will cover the whole tank, as well as the floor below if it's leaking, and also the meth pump too.

Ingore the helmet net in that pic, that usually sits up well above the tank level, so won't effect it

I started piping up the nozzle as well, so far I've got the two engine bay ones piped up back to the point where the pipe will come through the bulkhead

I've just got the main run from the ext up through the bulkhead, then the two T's off to the interior nozzles, although I think I'll need to order some additional pipe for those

 

[MIGGZ]

good work dude, so when you going to test it lol

 

[Prawn]

I don't plan on testing it, ever I hope!!!

When I jumped in the car on saturday morning, I noticed the windscreen was cracked No idea how or why, it didn't look like a stone chip, and it hasn't been vandalised, but there was a 4-5'' crack running along the screen from the outer edge

With 2 trackdays coming up I couldn't risk taking it on track with a cracked screen, and if the crack grew at Abingdon next friday I'd be pretty screwed trying to find a screen and have it fitted on the saturday before heading up to Donnington, so the only option was to get it done now.

So strange seeing the car without a screen:

Love how it looks on these wheels in all black

 

[Westy]

Strange how your windscreen has done that as mine has too but from the scuttle tray upwards. No sign of a chip and the crack actually starts at the very bottom of the screen. Still driving mine round like it though as I don't want to fork out the £70 to replace it.

 

[Prawn]

Odd isn't it? I'd not seen it before, but it was blindingly obvious when I jumped in on saturday morning. I wouldn't normally have been quite to sharp to replace it, but with a fair bit of money invested in these two trackdays coming up I didn't want to risk the screen going properly if I hit a kerb or something too hard and costing me the trackday.

I didn't have windscreen cover, so had to pay cash for this from national windscreens

Also just booked a trackday at Spa in October

 

[<tuffty/>]

Strange how your windscreen has done that as mine has too but from the scuttle tray upwards. No sign of a chip and the crack actually starts at the very bottom of the screen. Still driving mine round like it though as I don't want to fork out the £70 to replace it.

I have seen this happen before as a result of the scuttle panel being removed/fitted....

<tuffty/>

 

[Westy]

I have seen this happen before as a result of the scuttle panel being removed/fitted....

<tuffty/>

I wouldn't be surprised if the windscreen wasn't fitted properly anyway as the tit who did it left a screwdriver in my scuttle tray too!

 

[Prawn]

I was quite pleased with how mine was fitted. Nice bloke, and I stayed with him the whole time and watched and took pics as I was interested.

Car looks much more purposeful now with proper width tyres on it and the added negative camber:

Although conditions this morning were less than ideal!

 

[bigal 1]

Odd isn't it? I'd not seen it before, but it was blindingly obvious when I jumped in on saturday morning. I wouldn't normally have been quite to sharp to replace it, but with a fair bit of money invested in these two trackdays coming up I didn't want to risk the screen going properly if I hit a kerb or something too hard and costing me the trackday.

I didn't have windscreen cover, so had to pay cash for this from national windscreens

Also just booked a trackday at Spa in October

As a treat I have booked the hotel which is on the Start Line/Pit lane. You can't get nearer than that. What a treat. Out of the car into the bar then fall into the pit. Can't wait, track looks great from the air, mini nurburgring I think.

 

[Jason.s]

And then no more track days abroad? Unless you fall in love with spa lol.

 

[Prawn]

And then no more track days abroad? Unless you fall in love with spa lol.

We've always wanted to do Spa, its a UK organised trackday rather than a public session like the ring, a proper f1 circuit, lots of run off in key areas, amazing layout, lots of history too!

Can't wait

 

[s3dave]

Ive just had a new screen fitted too because of a similar crack...odd?

On the plus side its like driving in HD now....

 

[bigal 1]

Ive just had a new screen fitted too because of a similar crack...odd?

On the plus side its like driving in HD now....

We have been thinking of a new screen for a while. It was coated in splatter from the welding for the seat rails etc.. Its amazing how the welding debris does actually fly every where. We had heard of people covering the glass because of this, but it's something that was on the end of the list. Should not be, it is important. The glass does get ruined.

 

[bigal 1]

And then no more track days abroad? Unless you fall in love with spa lol.

The RING is the ultimate. We all know the stories, but the fact is, public track days are becoming dangerous. Drivers who think they can drive, but can't, are lethal. They abound, and lots are young Brits in the typical Clio. All have done it on the "box" in 6 minutes and THINK they know the track. Also , it costs us something like £1,000/1,200 to go to the Ring and we have known track closures to be so severe that we have had only four laps out of a long weekend. Not B funny. One Saturday the track was open for only ten minutes, then closed for four hours, then re-opened for twenty minutes, then closed for the rest of the day. The Sunday was just as bad and we left at 2pm to go home. No joke, and this is common on popular weekends. So it is mainly UK circuits from now on and of course Francochamps/Spa this year.

 

[RobinJI]

Spa sounds like it'll be brilliant. Should be a great weekend.

I know it's irrelevant now, but a little tip I've found with the weld spatter on the windscreen is that you can help it a lot by rubbing a 2p piece over the surface laying flat on it's side. It takes all the spatter/sparks clean off. Unfortunately there's often still a slight mark on the glass, but that can sometimes be polished out, but even if not it's a lot better than when there's spatter on it. Works on I-phones too haha.

Great to see the extinguisher making progress.

Are those wheels still 17s? I only ask because for some reason the car looks like it's got more ground clearance now. Maybe it's just the tyre size?