Hey guys. Pondering picking up a 4th Gen for endurance road racing and needed to make a friend or two to help educate me on the finer points of keeping a VQ together during long beatings while getting as much useable power out of it as possible.

PLEASE drop me a note if you know someone or are someone who can lend a hand.

PS- If you live in Ohio or within a distance you feel like driving there will be seat time available as this is a 24 Hours of Lemons sort of team thing.

If you want to know what lemons is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EeibYXnxnM

http://www.goracingtv.com/06/24/2011...infineon-2011/

 

As long as you keep it oil'd you're good, the max down here in Lemons is as stock as it gets (but gutted like a fish and caged).

The only thing that may be of concern is the Radiator, if I recall correctly the car was running hot towards the end of the race, but I think it's just because it's an old *** radiator on the car.

 

Are you allowed to add anything to the car/upgrade it? I would change the coolant/radiator(upgrade to a thicker aluminum one) and add an oil cooler.

 

The car will see duty in Lemons and Chumpcar so I need to stay to the most restrictive rules of each series.

As such my plans are to find the biggest and best non aftermarket radiator that I can stuff in the car that looks like it should be there.

I will also add an oil cooler that will look as OEM as possible.

As for the motor.. whatever I get will be torn down enough to make sure its sound. If it needs rings, bearings and freshening I want to make sure I know every last trick I can throw at it during the process to make the motor last as best possible.

As such... I need that NA guru to chat with.

 

They are around, but again, unless you're putting in a VQ35, Kevlo covered everything you need. PS+Oil cooler and upgrade radiator. that's it, the motor is bulletproof, ask me I how I know....

 

This is interesting. I've always wanted to endurance race. All I can add is my input shaft bearing was bad. I drove 1100 miles to VA during which the whirling crunchy noise got worse. I put an additional 200 miles on it there and another 1100 back. I then still neglected it until 3 months later I got around to changing it. The bearing was definately shot but it never gave out. Now tell us how you know aackshun...

 

Crapcan endurance racing is magical. If you want to be any good at it you MUST have an effective team that works together to make things happen.

Despite that you are working with "$500 cars" its still expensive as safety gear and consumables and race fees add up but its still cheaper than anything else I can think of as far as seat time goes. Even DEs and track days that most often cost a few hundred bucks may only give you a fraction of the driving time you get in a Lemons race. On top of that, Lemons is real wheel to wheel racing.

Make no mistake, its not a joke. SCCA, AMLS and NASCAR racers and teams are all regular attendants at these races these days.

Can not say enough good things about it.

 

That's your tranny, not your motor.

I've overheated it till knocking 2x, and had a 7.5k mishift, not to mention the countless nights I've beaten the **** out of it.

If it was a VQ35, i would be on motor 3 by now most likely.

 

I would say go with an aftermarket Y-pipe. They can be had used for under $100 and OBX/cheapo ones for around $150~200 new. The pre cats in the stock Y pipe may not hold up running hot with that much vibration for that long. They can break down and cause damage to the engine.

Also it would almost be cheating but a VQ35 swap with VQ30 timing would be possible if you port matched the VQ30 lower intake to the VQ35 heads. Don't know if you could do it all under the $500 dollar budget.

Oil cooler would be nice to have, I have one from RPW and it seems to work well.

 

Re-purpose the AC condensor for oil cooling as well as added capacity. Also swap in 3.5 crank if allowed, or if you wanna cheat sneakily. Replace the oil pump and timing cover o-rings before your first race.

I know everyone is gonna say OMG just do the 3.5 swap, but that might be obvious to the right tech guy. A crank and rods would be undetectable.

 

Anyone know how to get ahold of DandyMax?

 

I know somebody local who has a full track 4g max, rollcage, built trans with Quaife, custom suspension parts, some custom carbon panels, and modified engine for road racing. He's very good, and could probably provide you with parts and help with driving duties.
There were some surprising parts on that car that were modified or replaced for track use that I wouldn't have thought of.