The life of Ryan's 2003 ZHP

[Sockethead]

Great updates Ryan, good to see you getting on the track. I have the Hawk pads and like you noted, they do squeak a lot on every day driving. The initial bite isn't that great either when compared to an OEM style pad.
I need camber plates as well.... good to know that the Vorshlag don't change ride height. I'm also going to be switching to adjustable control arms in the rear. I'll probably go with something basic and inexpensive like the SPCs

As always, I follow your progress closely since our cars are setup pretty much the same. Interesting about swapping the injectors... I wonder if that has something to do with the M3 fuel pump you're running. You are also running what? 81mm pulley?

I want to change out my ZHP exhaust, mainly to get more HP out of the motor but your observations have me perplexed on which way to go. I want to try the Magnaflow due to the 20 HP gain you got from that but I'm not big on highway noise at cruising speed...one reason I liked the Corsa.

Interestingly, I found no difference whatsoever when I ran back to back dyno runs in 4th and 5th.

I still need to do a lot of maintenance and testing before I can move on to tuning again. I'm still trying to track down a replacement VANOS. As always with my life with little ones, there is just no time.

[danewilson77]

Excellent news

Sent from my S8+

[rkneeshaw]

Do you have the top hats marked between track/street positions, or have a camber gauge you use for the quick adjustments?

Nope, I wanted up to even -3 degrees camber, so I have them set so that full out is street mode (and is about -1 degree) and full in is track mode which gives me -2.5 or so. I worked with the local alignment shop and verified that toe in is .13 degrees when camber is in street mode (-1) and in track mode the toe goes to out .25 degrees. Apparently slight toe out on the track is highly desirable so I am not changing my toe at the track, just the camber plates. But, if you didn't want to go to extremes, these camber plates do have has marks so you can be more precise at setting it up if you wanted to.

As always, I follow your progress closely since our cars are setup pretty much the same. Interesting about swapping the injectors... I wonder if that has something to do with the M3 fuel pump you're running. You are also running what? 81mm pulley?

I want to change out my ZHP exhaust, mainly to get more HP out of the motor but your observations have me perplexed on which way to go. I want to try the Magnaflow due to the 20 HP gain you got from that but I'm not big on highway noise at cruising speed...one reason I liked the Corsa.

Interestingly, I found no difference whatsoever when I ran back to back dyno runs in 4th and 5th.

I used an online injector sizing calculator i found online (https://fuelinjectorclinic.com/flow-calculator) and for the power I am currently putting out (385 @ crank), if I want to use only 90% duty cycle, it recommends a 39lb/hr injector. The red bosch injectors ESS sends with the ESS TS2 kits are only 30lb/hr injectors. So it stands to reason that for good measure I should be running larger injectors so I went with the 42lb/hr green giants. I don't ever want fueling to be an issue when tuning the car, so between the M3 fuel pump and these injectors, my fuel system should be plenty sufficient now.

I'm currently running a 79mm pulley, I need to get cams so I can officially be at TS2+ stage. My M56 valve cover gasket started slightly leaking on me so I guess thats' a good time to do cams right?

When it comes to exhaust, ask what you want from the car. If you want bleeding edge performance get the Magnaflow. But if you still want the car to be a pleasant driver then give up the few extra ponies and get the Borla. What I hated was driving the car for 3 hours with the Magnaflow and feeling like I just wanted to get OUT OF THE CAR because the sound had wore on me so much, and for a car I love so much I really hated that feeling. That's when I realized the relatively little extra power from the magnaflow wasn't worth ruining my driving experience. Hope that helps

[Sockethead]

Yea that helps with the exhaust... thanks!
I am so jealous of your HP numbers

[danewilson77]

I thought the stock camber (with stock strut hats and pins installed was ~ -2.5° camber?

Sent from my S8+

[rkneeshaw]

Nope, stock strut hats/mounts with alignment pin still in place will give you about -.7 to -1 degree camber. If you pop off the alignment pin on the top of the stock hats you might get another -.25 degree or so.

If your car is setup right you might be able to even get -3 out of these camber plates, but my car is wierd or something, the drivers side is -.7 for street and like -2.5 if I max it out, but the passenger side is -1 for street and maxes out at -2.9. I think it depends maybe on your front subframe and how it is bolted up in relation to the rest of the chassis.

[rkneeshaw]

Finally recovered my track day footage. Tried to use some freeware tools to join the gopro chaptered clips and they totally ruined my files. I was finally able to get things stitched together right using ffmpeg. Here's some video from the first session of the day at Gingerman this past weekend

https://youtu.be/6dY0QQVXRV4

[Sockethead]

Your car sounds amazing with that exhaust! You passed quite a few people too, looks like your car has the power and you have the skills

[rkneeshaw]

Your car sounds amazing with that exhaust! You passed quite a few people too, looks like your car has the power and you have the skills

Thanks dude! Still working on the skills part I love track days though, I'm addicted!

[rkneeshaw]

The weather has been clearing up quite nicely around here, so I've been thinking about the car a lot more again.

I've been coveting the look of the black aluminum pedals from Turner and finally pulled the trigger



And, these babies showed up:



Hankook RS4's are backordered for a few more weeks

Hawk Street Race pads are ready to go on for the next track day, counting down the days!