wstar's Journal

miguez · 07-17-2009, 09:48 AM

What about the one that Modshack used?

Racer Parts Wholesale sells it here for $86.95. You will need these adapters to go from -10 AN to the 1/2" these sandwich plates use. If Stillen uses -8AN, there are ORB fittings for that too.

wstar · 07-17-2009, 12:19 PM

Yeah at this point I am inclined to order a Mocal plate and be done with it. I just need to get off my lazy *** and ask Stillen which AN size I need the fittings to be.

miguez · 07-17-2009, 08:02 PM

wstar, you should be able to measure it, AN measurements mean how many 1/16 of an inch, and measure the inner diameter of a hose, so

#2 =1/8”
#3 = 3/16”
#4 = ¼”
#6 = 3/8”
#8 = ½”
#10 = 5/8”
#12 = ¾”
#16 = 1”
#20 = 1 ¼”
#24 = 1 ½”
#32 = 2”
#40 = 2 ½”
#48 = 3”
#64 = 4”

wstar · 07-21-2009, 05:23 PM

I got my first Motul analysis back today. It leaves me with a lot of question marks (not about the oil, but about how my break-in is going and the dreaded oil temps topic):

I'm not surprised that the engine is still breaking in and showing wear metals, but I am concerned about this increase in Aluminum. They claim this is coming from the pistons, and could be the result of some piston scuffing going on.

Piston scuffing basically has three big causes AFAIK: A mfg defect with the piston/bore, an insufficient lubrication issue (as in, oil isn't getting there, like a pump or filter failure of some kind), or overheating the cylinder area of the engine block in general.

I think I can rule out mfg defect, as the number was lower (even on a per-mile basis) in my previous report, so this is something new. The oiling system was bone-stock for the oil analyzed above (this was before adding the pan spacer and cooler), so I don't suspect there's any oiling issue for this report either, at least not from my screwing anything up. That leaves overheating, and I did have a few hard runs up around the 250-260 oil temp range on hot days, experimenting with oil temps. I wouldn't think 260 would be enough, but perhaps the temp we get on the display only tells part of the story. Cylinder wall temps would obviously be considerably higher than reported oil temps, although I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. But in any case that's one change from the previous report, where I was still (relatively) babying the engine for breakin reasons.

I suppose I have to consider that it could be that Motul 300V just doesn't do a good job lubricating in that spot on our engines, but I don't think that's likely to be the answer. Any good quality synthetic shouldn't have an issue here, and it is a good quality synthetic.

So I guess I'll take their recommendation and do a 2K interval this time, and see how the numbers look. If it was heat-related, hopefully the added oil cooling will stop it from getting any worse.

wstar · 07-21-2009, 05:33 PM

Other random comments I thought of re: the analysis above:

The TBN is good, even better than the TBN on my (shorter interval) Nissan Ester before it. I guess that means, at least for my driving conditions and habits, there is no issue with the 300V becoming acidic too quickly for a daily driver. Flashpoint stayed higher too, but of course we should expect both of these numbers to go up with a quality synthetic, as opposed to the dino-based Nissan Ester I guess.

The other numbers that jumped wildly (like magnesium and zinc) are, I assume, due to the change in oil formulation rather than anything to do with wear (IOW, there was more of this stuff in the 300V in the bottle than there was in the Nissan Ester).

GMZ · 07-21-2009, 05:44 PM

Thats really strange about the Al. Id agree that the Mag and Zinc are from the Motul's addpac. Im inclined now to start UOA's earlier than I had planned. Have you thought about sending your UOA somewhere else also for redundancies sake? Like OAI maybe just to see how they compare.

ejrives · 07-21-2009, 05:46 PM

interesting results to say the least. are you going to stick with their recommendation and change after 2000 miles?

wstar · 07-21-2009, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejrives

interesting results to say the least. are you going to stick with their recommendation and change after 2000 miles?

Yeah. I don't think that really affects any problem much honestly, other than perhaps getting any coarser wear particles out of circulation quicker. But at least it will let me see how things are progressing sooner rather than later.

miguez · 07-21-2009, 06:49 PM

wstar, if Al is still high on your next analysis, you might want to consider trying a different oil, just for troubleshooting/variable elimination's sake.

wstar · 07-24-2009, 05:34 PM

Installed the sensors for my Blinder M25 laser jammer today. Semtex already did a writeup with pics on this so I won't bother (over here). The Gearwrench Microdriver is pretty much invaluable for the Blinder install, as the mounting screws would be a bitch to reach with anything else inside the grill.

I cut the two lower peices of plastic on the grill itself like Semtex did and mounted in roughly the same place, but I didn't shorten the mounting brackets, so mine are slightly more to the inside than his. Ran the wiring through the tiny hole just below the passenger-side Gen 3 intake tube (it's a little square hole that the telephone jacks happen to barely fit through), then ran the wiring up the passenger side of the engine bay near some factory wiring, and popped it through the big rubber grommet for the ECU wiring harness (and sealed my hole with black RTV).

So the sensors and sensor wiring is all done, but I haven't done the interior part yet. I just plugged it all up laying in the passenger seat to test it with a bench power supply so far. Interior might happen tomorrow AM, I haven't quite decided where and how to mount the switch/LED.

wstar · 07-25-2009, 03:09 PM

Got the interior part of the M25 Blinder done today. Sorry for the crappy pic, it's dark, I used a flashlight to help illuminate the switch area. Basically I removed the panel that's under the steering wheel (there's one screw near the hood release, then it snaps off, then you undo the hood release wire and various other attached things), and then drilled holes in it (3/4" hole saw for the switch, and roughly around 5/16" for the LED holder). This was really the only easy place to put them, and I kinda like it being out of the way like this anyways:

And here's the front all done up:

When I went back to fine-tune the alignment in the front and tighten the screws, I found it damn near impossible, even with the aforementioned gearwrench, to apply appropriate torque to those screw heads sideways, and also keep the heads aligned perfectly while trying to torque down. I gave up, got them situated correctly with the screws not fully torqued, and superglued the joints into position

Supergoji · 07-26-2009, 07:14 PM

have you tested the blinders yet?

i have seen video's proving they are very effective and video's proving they suck.

wstar · 07-27-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Supergoji

have you tested the blinders yet?

i have seen video's proving they are very effective and video's proving they suck.

No, I haven't tested them yet. Not having access to a real laser speed gun makes that hard

. Apparently it's either much more discriminating against falses than my V1, or just plain broken, one of the two. I pointed an IR remote control at the car and it set off the V1 but not the blinder. The IR remote operates at 980nm and police laser guns are at 904nm though, so my gut feeling is that the Blinder is just rejecting false signals better. Sometime this week I'm going to hunt down a cheap 904nm testing source, there must be some random crappy product at Fry's that happens to emit that wavelength or something (or worst case, I'll just buy a 904nm laser diode and build one myself).

wstar · 07-27-2009, 10:22 AM

And as far as existing product tests, these guys seem pretty reliable, and the Blinder does well there: Radar Detector Tests and Laser Jammer Tests by Guys of LIDAR

wstar · 07-27-2009, 06:11 PM

Went ahead and ordered a laser test unit off the web, it's easier that way: Hand Held Laser Tester - Laser Jammers at Radar Busters

Also, got my order in to add a Mocal thermo plate to my Stillen kit to get my warmup times down at the next oil change. Parts list from racerpartswholesale.com if anyone's looking for the same:

Qty Item # Description Price
1 MOC-SP1FT Mocal Sandwich Plate- 20mm Thread $86.95
2 MOC-2BM808A Mocal 1/2" x -8 ORB fitting $31.98

Edited much later to remove an unnecessary and incorrect part from this list above.

07-17-2009, 12:19 PM	#227 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Yeah at this point I am inclined to order a Mocal plate and be done with it. I just need to get off my lazy *** and ask Stillen which AN size I need the fittings to be. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-21-2009, 05:23 PM	#229 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	I got my first Motul analysis back today. It leaves me with a lot of question marks (not about the oil, but about how my break-in is going and the dreaded oil temps topic): I'm not surprised that the engine is still breaking in and showing wear metals, but I am concerned about this increase in Aluminum. They claim this is coming from the pistons, and could be the result of some piston scuffing going on. Piston scuffing basically has three big causes AFAIK: A mfg defect with the piston/bore, an insufficient lubrication issue (as in, oil isn't getting there, like a pump or filter failure of some kind), or overheating the cylinder area of the engine block in general. I think I can rule out mfg defect, as the number was lower (even on a per-mile basis) in my previous report, so this is something new. The oiling system was bone-stock for the oil analyzed above (this was before adding the pan spacer and cooler), so I don't suspect there's any oiling issue for this report either, at least not from my screwing anything up. That leaves overheating, and I did have a few hard runs up around the 250-260 oil temp range on hot days, experimenting with oil temps. I wouldn't think 260 would be enough, but perhaps the temp we get on the display only tells part of the story. Cylinder wall temps would obviously be considerably higher than reported oil temps, although I wasn't expecting this kind of reaction. But in any case that's one change from the previous report, where I was still (relatively) babying the engine for breakin reasons. I suppose I have to consider that it could be that Motul 300V just doesn't do a good job lubricating in that spot on our engines, but I don't think that's likely to be the answer. Any good quality synthetic shouldn't have an issue here, and it is a good quality synthetic. So I guess I'll take their recommendation and do a 2K interval this time, and see how the numbers look. If it was heat-related, hopefully the added oil cooling will stop it from getting any worse. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 07-21-2009 at 05:26 PM.

07-21-2009, 05:33 PM	#230 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Other random comments I thought of re: the analysis above: The TBN is good, even better than the TBN on my (shorter interval) Nissan Ester before it. I guess that means, at least for my driving conditions and habits, there is no issue with the 300V becoming acidic too quickly for a daily driver. Flashpoint stayed higher too, but of course we should expect both of these numbers to go up with a quality synthetic, as opposed to the dino-based Nissan Ester I guess. The other numbers that jumped wildly (like magnesium and zinc) are, I assume, due to the change in oil formulation rather than anything to do with wear (IOW, there was more of this stuff in the 300V in the bottle than there was in the Nissan Ester). __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-21-2009, 05:46 PM	#232 (permalink)
ejrives A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Illinois Posts: 1,449 Drives: 09-6MT-T/S/N Rep Power: 18	interesting results to say the least. are you going to stick with their recommendation and change after 2000 miles? __________________ "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Stillen G3 CAI \|\| 35% tints \|\| FI CBE coming soon...

07-24-2009, 05:34 PM	#235 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Installed the sensors for my Blinder M25 laser jammer today. Semtex already did a writeup with pics on this so I won't bother (over here). The Gearwrench Microdriver is pretty much invaluable for the Blinder install, as the mounting screws would be a bitch to reach with anything else inside the grill. I cut the two lower peices of plastic on the grill itself like Semtex did and mounted in roughly the same place, but I didn't shorten the mounting brackets, so mine are slightly more to the inside than his. Ran the wiring through the tiny hole just below the passenger-side Gen 3 intake tube (it's a little square hole that the telephone jacks happen to barely fit through), then ran the wiring up the passenger side of the engine bay near some factory wiring, and popped it through the big rubber grommet for the ECU wiring harness (and sealed my hole with black RTV). So the sensors and sensor wiring is all done, but I haven't done the interior part yet. I just plugged it all up laying in the passenger seat to test it with a bench power supply so far. Interior might happen tomorrow AM, I haven't quite decided where and how to mount the switch/LED. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-17-2009, 09:48 AM	#226 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 181	What about the one that Modshack used? Racer Parts Wholesale sells it here for $86.95. You will need these adapters to go from -10 AN to the 1/2" these sandwich plates use. If Stillen uses -8AN, there are ORB fittings for that too.

07-17-2009, 08:02 PM	#228 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 181	wstar, you should be able to measure it, AN measurements mean how many 1/16 of an inch, and measure the inner diameter of a hose, so #2 =1/8” #3 = 3/16” #4 = ¼” #6 = 3/8” #8 = ½” #10 = 5/8” #12 = ¾” #16 = 1” #20 = 1 ¼” #24 = 1 ½” #32 = 2” #40 = 2 ½” #48 = 3” #64 = 4”

07-21-2009, 05:44 PM	#231 (permalink)
GMZ Enthusiast Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Virginia Beach Posts: 304 Drives: 07 V8 4Runner 4x4 Rep Power: 16	Thats really strange about the Al. Id agree that the Mag and Zinc are from the Motul's addpac. Im inclined now to start UOA's earlier than I had planned. Have you thought about sending your UOA somewhere else also for redundancies sake? Like OAI maybe just to see how they compare.

07-21-2009, 06:49 PM	#234 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 181	wstar, if Al is still high on your next analysis, you might want to consider trying a different oil, just for troubleshooting/variable elimination's sake.

07-25-2009, 03:09 PM	#236 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Got the interior part of the M25 Blinder done today. Sorry for the crappy pic, it's dark, I used a flashlight to help illuminate the switch area. Basically I removed the panel that's under the steering wheel (there's one screw near the hood release, then it snaps off, then you undo the hood release wire and various other attached things), and then drilled holes in it (3/4" hole saw for the switch, and roughly around 5/16" for the LED holder). This was really the only easy place to put them, and I kinda like it being out of the way like this anyways: And here's the front all done up: When I went back to fine-tune the alignment in the front and tighten the screws, I found it damn near impossible, even with the aforementioned gearwrench, to apply appropriate torque to those screw heads sideways, and also keep the heads aligned perfectly while trying to torque down. I gave up, got them situated correctly with the screws not fully torqued, and superglued the joints into position __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-26-2009, 07:14 PM	#237 (permalink)
Supergoji Enthusiast Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Westchester NY Age: 36 Posts: 311 Drives: Z32tt / Supra tt Rep Power: 256	have you tested the blinders yet? i have seen video's proving they are very effective and video's proving they suck.

07-27-2009, 10:22 AM	#239 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	And as far as existing product tests, these guys seem pretty reliable, and the Blinder does well there: Radar Detector Tests and Laser Jammer Tests by Guys of LIDAR __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-27-2009, 06:11 PM	#240 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Went ahead and ordered a laser test unit off the web, it's easier that way: Hand Held Laser Tester - Laser Jammers at Radar Busters Also, got my order in to add a Mocal thermo plate to my Stillen kit to get my warmup times down at the next oil change. Parts list from racerpartswholesale.com if anyone's looking for the same: Qty Item # Description Price 1 MOC-SP1FT Mocal Sandwich Plate- 20mm Thread $86.95 2 MOC-2BM808A Mocal 1/2" x -8 ORB fitting $31.98 Edited much later to remove an unnecessary and incorrect part from this list above. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 09-09-2009 at 04:08 PM.

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