After Putnam: Maintenance round 2

#1

I had a great time at Putnam last last weekend. Even though my first session was plagued with “who the hell is that idiot driving the white BMW that’s puking fuel all over the track?” Angel was a fantastic instructor and after putting his feedback/advise to good use, I moved up to HPDE 2 and felt quite comfortable beating my car around the track. Hell, by the end of day 2 I was even keeping up with a few cars that went zooming past me the previous day.

I’ve started tearing it apart again to try and fix some of the underbody rust as well as working on the DAQ system that I had planned. I also want to try and replace more wear items (swaybar bushings, etc.).

What else should I look into? At some point I’d like to pull the oil pan and install a baffle in there to help with the oil pressure issues that plague our engines. I’ve decided to abandon the Accusump system that Ranger came up with since he said that it seemed to cause more issues than it solved. Apparently I need to drop the subframe for this so it might be a while until I get around to doing this.

How about rear suspension? Should I replace the control arms back there?

I’m going to remove the charcoal canister as well as the coolant lines to the throttle body in the new few days.

Hopefully my spec exhaust should be arriving soon since the current exhaust system rattles like crazy.

#2

Congrats on a great weekend at Putnam Park! Now that you are running faster lap times, it probably is a good idea to baffle that oil pan. If you can weld aluminum or have have a local shop that will, it’s pretty easy to fab up an effective baffle yourself. Here is a pic of a very effective, but not so pretty, baffle. Note the trap door in the second picture which is designed for the 325ix oil pan (part # 11 13 1 706 704). The baffle cost ~$3, but they always come from Germany and take about two weeks to arrive. Make sure and put the baffle to the front of the oil pan so it does not interfere with the oil pan.

Reference your rear trailing arms, you won’t need to replace them unless they are bent. Use toe plates to check your alignment. If everything is okay, you will eventually what to drop the subframe and replace the trailing arm bushings and subframe bushings. AKG makes some good poly bushings for both locations. Most of us have some sort of camber/toe correction devices welded on the trailing arm pivot locations. They work great to adjust alignment settings, but they often allow the camber/toe to change while racing or during transport. If your alignment settings are good, you might consider foregoing installation of the adjusters. I know of at least one very fast racer (Simon) that doesn’t have the adjusters…