January 2012
The weekend had come. The girlfriend and I loaded the Mustang up with are stuff, and drove to Homestead-Miami Speedway. This would be my second HPDE weekend, and first time of driving the Mustang in anger. On the drive down, I ended up getting pulled over by a cop. The speedo was way off, due to the tires and other stuffs that I'll get to later. I had to gauge my speed by the rpms and gear the car was in. I guess I didn't do a very good job. The cop was pretty nice about it, gave me a "get it fixed" ticket and we were on our way. I'm glad to say we arrived in one piece and that the car had no issues.
Saturday morning we arrived to the paddock, grabbed a spot, and went through tech and initial briefings and stuff. I forgot to mention it, but back in October I installed a battery hold down. It's a Braille one. I took the battery tray out, drilled two holes to accept the J-hooks, re-installed the tray, shaved the bracket a bit to clear the hood and hood lining, trimmed the J-hooks to also clear the hood, and secured the bracket down with the wingnuts. The bracket was like $12 or something like that, and worked fantastic. I passed tech with no issues.
My goals for the day were to just get comfortable with the car and see how it would behave. My instructor was pretty cool and the car did well. It was particularly painful in the straights due to the lack of power, but that let me focus on getting my braking down and working the corners. I think it was the 4th run where I had my first issue. We were on the back straight between turns 9 and 10, when we started to smell coolant. I took a quick look at the water temp gauge - it was pegged. Oh hell. We pitted and I checked out the issue. Turns out, the alternator pulley was contacting the upper radiator hose - to the point where a hole was created. Good bye water. That pretty much ended the day for me, which wasn't too bad as it was the last session for the day. We packed up the car, filled the rad back up with water, mapped the nearest auto parts store and headed for it. I had to keep an eye on the temp gauge as the car would of course start to overheat. We took it slow and eventually made it. Luckily they had a replacement hose (I got two, just in case). However, the hose was a little different than the one with the hole - I think it was actually a 93 Mustang upper hose rather than the 94/95. This turned out to be a good thing though as it was a little higher and more out of the way of the alternator. It contacted the hood when it closed, but not bad enough to rub or cause any issue. I replaced it there in the parking lot, filled the car back up with water, went and got dinner then called it a night.
The next day was pretty uneventful from an issue-standpoint. Overall it was a blast. The car did great, much better than I probably should have expected given that I had no idea what the engine had been through before. Granted the brakes, suspension, driveshaft and rear end were all new (and thus shouldn't have had issues), the engine could easily have killed the entire weekend. But it didn't.
What almost did kill the weekend was that I developed a slow leak in the front left tire. I had the tire checked out by the tire guy at the track, the air was leaking from the valve stem. The tire itself was fine. I didn't know at the time, but what had happened is that when my tire place installed the new tires on the wheels, they didn't quite seal the valve stem right (later they said there was a little dirt in there that prevented it from sealing properly). I'm not sure why it didn't show up until at the track, but whatever. I had a portable compressor with me and used that to air the tire when it got to low between sessions. The leak (at that point) wasn't bad enough to cause issue during the runs. I'm super glad that I had that TPMS system installed - it's the guy that told me I had the issue in the first place. I check my tires before each session, so I would have found it anyway, but it's nice to have known about it before the session.
The drive home was a different story. I had to stop every 30 min or so to air up the tire. I didn't have a spare with me, and the green goo stuff (that is TPMS safe) probably wouldn't have worked on the valve stem. Talk about a long ride home. Drive for about 30 to 40 min, pull over, get out the compressor, air up the tire, drive for about 30 to 40 min, pull over, etc. We eventually made it but boy was I glad to be home. I took the tire to my tire place, they told me what the issue was, and fixed it free of charge. Hasn't been a problem since.
There were 2 other issues that didn't get solved, and are still on-going today. I'm curious to see if you guys have any ideas on them. The 1st is a moaning sound from the rear end. I posted up about it back then at another forum, and a member there (Serlin) I think nailed it exactly. Here's what would happen, turning right as any speed with a decent amount of G's would cause a sort of groaning sound from the rear end. I though maybe the Torsen was binding at first, but it only happens when turning to the right, NOT turning to left. I had checked and re-checked the moan braces on the rear, they were goodentight. What Serlin said, as it happened to him as well, was that it was mostly likely the caliper bracket rubbing on the rotor. He said to clearance the bracket a little (which he did), and it would go away (which it did for him). Well, I did that, and I still have the issue. I'm guessing I just didn't do it enough, I might have to use some washers to center the caliper on the rotor. I'll play with that when I replace my pads and rotors soon. Just wondering if this sounds familiar to any of you guys?
The second issue was a gas smell. I was on the back straight (again), right after turn 9, which is a pretty fast sweeper to the left, and I'd get a STRONG gas smell up in the cabin. Oh noes!!! I pitted immediately, and popped the hood, expecting to see gas squirting everywhere, and I saw....nothing. It was bone dry. No gas was leaking in the engine compartment. Didn't even really smell like gas. Hmm.:confused1: I went around to the trunk, popped it, and was assaulted with gas smell. Particularly over by the filler neck. I should mention, my trunk was completely empty, including the trim panels on the side. I could clearly see the filler neck. It didn't look wet, but when I leaned towards it and smelled...very much like gas. I should also mention that the tank was half full at this point (and did NOT happen when it was completely full, strange...). I later heard from one of the corner works that fluid was coming out of the back of the car sometimes - my guess: gas. As long as I kept the tank full, this did not happen. So I basically refueled every 2 sessions. I did some reading and posting, the consensus was that the gasket where the filler neck goes into the tank was shot and leaking. Okay (but why only at half a tank, and only on fast left-hand sweepers?). I had a shop replace this gasket (and drop in a BBK 255 in tank fuel pump while they were there). At my next HPDE at Sebring, the issue was still there. Maybe not quite as bad (but different track), and I also kept the tank full-ish, but I don't think it was fixed. Is it possible they screwed up the install? As far as I know, it doesn't leak on the street, and I don't really smell any gas. Any ideas?
I've got pictures from the event that I'll post up after I dig them up.
