Derek's EFI-L18 4 Door MEGATHREAD

[Byron510]

Great to read the update - since Targa Nfld, I hadn't heard much at all from you, and wondered if you were still a part of th game - glad to hear you are and that the 510 is well and lovingly active again.

Byron

[Ash510]

Derek, it's great to hear that you still have the car, and are still having fun with it.
You have done more with your car ie. track days and the like, than anyone else I've seen. So in that respect it's great to have your input here.
Keep it coming, I mean don't disappear for another couple years.

Thanks Aron

[Derek]

Glad you enjoyed the update -- I hope to keep up taking it to the track and keeping on top of various projects with it.

I was trying to find on-track pics of the ORP event in July, but came across the rest of the Thunderhill-in-Reverse set. Here's the better ones of the car cornering, and an additional gratuitous jumping pic.













I do have GoPro onboard from ORP and if anyone is interested I'll stick it up online somewhere.

[okayfine]

White four-doors rule. Evidence is four pictures up^.

[510rob]

cars doing "jumps" rule too.

two thumbs up!

[Derek]

I was hoping to see some pics of my car on 2 wheels over the curbing at ORP (as per http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oX88DVjBOY), but these will have to do:

GOLD!


You can get a good sense of the camber/elevation changes of this track. Soooo fun.


All aboard the GT3 Train!


CHOO CHOO

[speeder]

Excellent pictures Derek, thanks for posting. I have fond memories of chasing you up to Lake Tahoe on the Snowball Rally in 2010 in my Datsun 2000. Good times!

The Oregon run with track time sounds really cool. Good to see ya back in the 510 again!

Jon

[Ash510]

so Derek that looks like a lot of fun, how does the car do against this kind of field.

[Derek]

Jon -- that was fun. You dudes were crazy to keep up with your no roll bar and original lap belts!

Ash, it (or I) do surprisingly well. I caught and passed that GT3, although the driver is the most important factor at ORP as it is a tight and small track. I think my experience with my car allows me to drive it right up to the limit, which most people will never experience in their $80k+ rides.

I was at Thunderhill this past Tuesday running the track backwards again (JUMPING!) and reeled in and passed a supercharged Miata and an Esprit on race tires. I don't know what I'm doing, but it must be something right, as a couple dudes came over to look at the car and were surprised to find an EFI L18 instead of an SR20DET that they were expecting.

I'll post some on-board of me chasing down my friend in an E36 M3 when I get a chance.

In other car news, I have been running a Saturn alt for 5 years now -- rather I should say I've been running MANY Saturn alts for 5 years. I have killed 8 (yes eight) of them. My best run was from 2007 to 2010 (luckily Targa NFLD was in there), but the last one didn't last 2000 miles.. I don't know what's doing it, but they don't seem to hold up to track use with my car as I had one fail right after two lapping days at ORP, and then just on Tuesday I had the one I installed in July fail half way through a day at Thunderhill causing me to miss a bunch of awesome track time. In the last two cases, the case bolts that hold the thing together had backed out or loosened off but previously they just failed mysteriously. I am thinking that they are not happy being under the tension a V belt requires (designed for serpentine), and then add in high revs and L series vibes = DELCO REMY DISASTER.

I am done with them, f GM parts on my car. I want a higher quality unit that is a direct bolt in with no pulley swapping. I don't think I need big power, as I don't even have a stereo. two fuel pumps and H4s are as much load as it'll see.

This brings me to the KA24E unit, which I want. Are all of them the same, or do I need to get one from a specific vehicle? Is the pulley diameter appropriate for high (7k) rpm use? I am planning on springing for a BRAND NEW Nissan OEM unit (appears to be ~$300), as I am sick of re-manned shit breaking.

In the mean time, I think I will take apart both my broken Saturn units and take a look to see if I can figure out what is failing.

[okayfine]

See if NSA makes one for the /E. They claim all new parts. I had one for my SR and it worked, bought it from RockAuto. I didn't run the car on the track and only had that alt for three years before the whole engine got swapped.

[bertvorgon]

Morning Derek,

I used to kill alternators ALL the time...and it is the high RPM and vibration that does it. Since I slowed things down with the bigger pulley, I have had ZERO problems. Dave Christie had the same problem.

Only slight down side to bigger pulley ( and mine is maybe a hair TOO big if it was a daily driver ), is that at idle, the voltage output drops below 12 Volts. Not real biggy as long as your battery is in good shape. So, if you idle at a lights for a long time, with headlights and fan on, you are just running off the battery, with out the benefit of the alt keeping up. That being said, with all our street drives now, I have never had a problem with that either.

Great pics at Thunderhill !

[PoorMtnKid]

Awesome pictures. It looks like loads of fun. Im hoping I can get on our track close to Vegas once my car is back on the road.

[510rob]

Derek, a bit of numeric data; data logs from James' MS2 setup show that (in his particular setup) the alternator doesn't start charging until right around 1500rpm. He has a stock alternator pulley (typical Hitachi LR-160 from a 280Z/ZX) and a small crank pulley that I made from 4.5" bar stock; I took a skim pass off the OD to clean it up, then cut the v-groove in from from 4.5" so it is right around 4.5" for quick & dirty calcs. Also, the fellow from the alternator shop pointed out that the bearings used in an LR-160 should not be spun over 13000prm - as another pragmatic heuristic, I would guess the bearings for most alternators will be in or around that range. If you are running 7krpm with a 2:1 drive ratio, well, you get the idea...

[Derek]

Thanks for the suggestions -- I will see if I can turn up a new pulley on the lathe here.

Here's a couple youtubes shot from the right rear quarter panel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VwffEci ... ture=g-upl -- chasing my friends E36 M3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b271albA ... ture=g-upl -- catching an passing an Esprit on R-Compounds

I got some media back from the track day, being the auto-narcissist that I am, I couldn't help but purchase my track day photos even though they look remarkably similar to the ones shot last year -- check out that fresh black grill though!

[goichi1]

Very cool pictures! Check out that tire roll on the last pic, cool!