Oil Catch Can

So a couple of weeks back I ordered in an oil catch can. If you are not sure what it is, below is a short overview.

An oil catch can is used in high performance applications where excessive blow-by of air and fuel vapor occurs. This creates a positive pressure in the crankcase. Engine manufactures have placed a valve on the engine block which releases this pressure. This valve is known as a PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve. During engine operation, blow-by gases, as well as oil mist from the rotating components of the engine, pass through the PCV valve and are routed back into the intake for the engine to burn off. However, some of the oil mist and other products settle along the engine intake and over time form a "gunk." The oil catch can collects the oil mist and condenses the fuel vapors while allowing "cleaner" gases to be passed back into the intake.

I wanted a baffled oil catch can as it works more effectively by giving the vapor droplets something to adhere to. Additionally I wanted a can with a slim form factor as I have limited room in the engine bay. The only can I could find on the market that met these two criterias (for a decent price) was from AEL in the States.

It arrived today and I am suitably impressed.

From the top of the can you can see the baffles in place.

View of the baffles from the top of the can

Since oil catch cans condense the vapor portion of the gasses, they will need to be drained periodically of all the oil, fuel and other contaminants. At the bottom of this can you have a tapped opening for the valve to drain away the oil.

Valve Open

The valve is one of the design decisions I like about this can. When draining, you only need to open the valve, not unscrew the bolt as with many other catch cans.

Valve Closed

The mini air filter is for providing an avenue for excessive pressure to be released, however I don't believe this is a necessity for my engine. Anyway, one last picture to go which is a mock up of the components put together.

British Heart Foundation Day - Snetterton

So today I headed up to Snetterton with Dave from the itr-dc5 forum for the British Heart Foundation Day.
The focus of the day was to raise money for charity by offering the general public passenger laps in either a race car, super car or classic car in exchange for a set donation.

Tom from TGM was going to be there with a customer and friend he races with to represent one of the many race cars giving passenger rides. I had wanted to sit in with Tom on track for a while so today was a perfect opportunity.

There were a large variety of cars on display and out on track however as usual, I didn't take many pictures :/

 

I caught Tom early on in the day and jumped in with him for one of the morning sessions. Drivers were only supposed to do 3 laps and then come in, however Tom stretched this out 'a bit' for me :)

As expected from being on the road with him previously, he is an outstanding driver. He was dancing the car around Corum and was perfectly balancing the car around the circuit.

The DC5 they had brought was Joe's car which had Nitron NTR Race coilovers (same as mine) and Brembo race calipers with 2 piece race discs. 

The car felt so stable around the circuit and turned on a dime around Montreal, testament to the coilovers and Tom's setup of course. What impressed me the most however were the brakes.

OMG! Tom was braking (as expected) very late and the brakes just stopped the car like it had hit a brick wall. I was seriously impressed that I am now considering asking Tom to send back my as of yet unfitted F50 calipers (the disks are the same).

No Body Roll!

Joe getting on it

TGM Mocal Oil Cooler

At present, I am not desperately in need of a race spec oil cooler given the oil temperatures I get on track (80 degrees C). I always keep my sessions (on open pit track days) relatively short; 15 mins max. However, for next season I want to run longer sessions and in addition, I'm contemplating upping the power the season after that. An oil cooler was therefore on the cards for some point in the future.

It so happened that Stoo from itr-dc5 had for sale a TGM designed Mocal oil cooler made specifically for the Teg (and EP3), so it made sense to grab a quality bit of kit at a good price which I picked up today.

In summary the kit contains:

• Mocal 15 row oil cooler
• Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate and adapter
• Aeroquip hoses with blue fittings. 

Pictures below (taken by Stu).

5.1 Final Drive and Competition Clutch

Well it's been about five months since I had my 5.1 final drive and competition clutch fitted. During that time I have put them both throught their paces with Town, motorway and track driving.

Competition Clutch

Competition Clutch is a performance clutch company in North America. They specialise in manufacturing sport compact assemblies from street driven to full race applications. TGM had tested these on their race cars from test days (including multiple practice race starts) to full race weekends. They had performed well and held up to the level of abuse from a race team I trust, so they were certainly good enough for me.

I went with the Stage 1 which consisted of a pressure plate and a 6 pad/puck Carbotic high-torque performance disc assembly.

The clutch can handle an estimated 40-50% increase of torque capacity which is more than enough for a modified NA DC5. Anyway, on to the results of my testing:

• Track - The clutch grabs very well, noticeably better than OEM. Gear changes feel more responsive
• Town Driving - Although the clutch grabs very well, it is not 'grabby' and can be feathered at walking speeds. However this does lead to the clutch 'chattering and whining' (common for a puck clutch) when pulling off.
• Motorway - Nothing to report but great gear changes when required :)

Final Drive

The final drive is the last gear found before the driven wheels. Depending on its ratio, it determines the number of times the driveshaft must turn before the axle shaft turns once. Using different final gear ratios will achieve different benefits i.e. Increasing the ratio will increase acceleration but will lower the top end speed and vice versa.

The standard DC5 final drive is 4.764, which means the transmission output shaft, after going through the selected gear ratio, turns 4.764 times for every time the wheels go around. As mentioned above, if you increase the ratio you gain acceleration but sacrifice top speed. I had chosen to go for a 5.062 final gear ratio more commonly referred to as a 5.1 final drive.

Essentially this would give a 6.255% difference in ratio from OEM. If I take my estimated torque at the fly which is at 178.6 ft/lb and combine it with the 5.1 FD, I would need an equivalent 189.7 ft/lb of torque with the standard FD to accelerate at the same rate.

The results over the past five months:

• Track - Very very good. General acceleration is markedly improved but the most benefit I have found is when pulling out of slow corners
• Town Driving - I can change up to a higher gear at lower speeds without the car struggling. Only a slight difference, but noticeable
• Motorway - It's never good on the motorway when increasing the final gear ratio. You're essentially doing the same speed but at a higher rev which equates to more noise. My economy is still great, but that is due to Mase's mapping.

Beatrush Underpanel

After a couple of years deliberation I have finally put in an order for a Beatrush underpanel.  I don't believe it will fit perfectly with the J's splitter which was the main reason for putting me off. However I will ask Tom to work his magic and make it work as the combination should be very effective.

 


This underpanel sits under the front bumper and ends just past where the 4-2 is located as shown in the below picture.

The benefits are as follows:

• Air turbulence is significantly reduced, producing a more stable ride at higher speeds and increasing down force by creating higher suction pressures between the panel and road.  
• Engine temperatures are reduced and stabilised by removing heat from the engine compartment with specialized slits made to draw out hot air whilst the vehicle is in motion. This is achieved during the creation of down force, as this negative pressure sucks out the heat and is then swooped out by colder air moving underneath.  
• Provides greater protection under the engine than stock plastic panels during heavy track or circuit racing competitions.

The Evo version of this underpanel was reviewed by evolutionm back in 2007 with great results on Summit Point's Main Track. In summary:

• Best lap times - 1:29 (without) Vs 1:26 (with)
• Increase in straight line speed of 15mph on the main straight with the underpanel

Now, the evo in question comes with a plastic OEM underpanel as standard which was not run during these tests. This may be a cause for arguments for evo owners however, for DC5 owners this is irrelevant as we do not have an underpanel to this extent :)

In addition, the underpanel should compliment the J's front splitter well as the J's doesn't go as far back as the Beatrush panel, but does provide panelling in front of the wheels which as you can see from the previous picture is wide open on a stock DC5 and also is not covered by the Beatrush. See below the J's front splitter for reference.

Oh yes, and Sumo Power have notified me that my parts should be arriving next week :)

Avid Motor Mounts

During my last track day at Brands, the exhaust tone had suddenly changed whilst coming on to Cooper Straight, along with some popping and banging. There'd felt like a slight power loss however what really worried me was that the exhaust note had changed from 'tuned' to 'rough'.

After some investigation by Tom it so happened the flexi in the 2-1 had collapsed. The flexi was obviously doing its 'thing' and well... flexing, but alas too much with the engine movement as you can see below.

J's will be sending over a replacement flexi as they no longer produce the 2-1 section for the DC5 *Shock*. This will probably arrive with my last remaining bits I am waiting for.

Luckily for me I managed to source a spare brand new 2-1 that Karl from TRO was selling - Cheers Karl.

Anyway, you should've worked out now why this entry is titled the way it is. I was going to replace my engine mounts (already with ESMMs) with stiffer mounts only when they became knackered, however after this episode I ordered a set of Avid 75A Motor Mounts. A lot stiffer and no doubt will produce more vibrations within the cabin. However with stiffer mounts comes more front end grip :)
Learning to heel toe is probably on the cards now to ease the load I put on my downshifts ;)