Driving my 86 since the beginning of this year, I have noticed my ride has been very bouncy. During my track session I noticed it, and also happens during corner acceleration. I didn’t enjoy the bouncing, and initially thought it was because of my aggressive spring rates.

Houston streets are not smooth compared to tracks. Street driving, the bouncing gets severe to the point the car would hop and start skipping over the bumps.  There were some moments the car handling would get very unbalanced from the bumps. Street driving was not enjoyable.

I thought it was the spring rates being too aggressive for the streets but someone on facebook commented it could by preload was set incorrectly and set me this link:

This video helped me a lot and figured what I did wrong when I installed my rear suspension. I figured I’ll make another video and talk more detail about preload.

Initial impressions, and it’s a massive improvement. I drove around the city, and no bounciness. The car didn’t feel over springy. I didn’t have the bouncing on hard acceleration. The car still felt stiff over the bumps but it didn’t hop over them. The dampening seemed more smooth absorbing the bumps.

As tracks are starting to open up, I’m looking forward to another shakedown test. Stay tuned.

Met this owner of this sick white 80 series. On a 4″ OME lift, with 35″ tires. This rig is also triple locked, which is very rare. We share the same ARB bumper, and is an iconic classic like Volk or BBS wheels.

Last track event, I was having serious blow by issues. People were telling me the piston rings might not have been seated in correctly or my head wasn’t sealed correctly. The motor felt strong and fine, but after 3 laps my oil catch can would fill up to the top. No smoke from the exhaust either. I would only get this issue at the track. Street driving, I had no oil in the catch can.

I did a compression test just to make sure it wasn’t something too serious. I got 190 psi on all 4 cylinders! That means my motor is healthy. My motor is creating a lot of crankcase pressure and oil surges. The cause is ventilation issue with the constant high RPM and high g forces at the track.

The 4age came stock with two valve covers. One valve cover wasn’t vented. The other valve cover came with a small 1/4″ fitting that I connected to the catch can, then vented to the atmosphere. This setup wasn’t doing enough to relieve pressure at the track. I had to make the crankcase breathe better and decrease pressure. I did this by adding a 1/2″ barb fitting on each valve cover.

I had my friend Danh come by to weld my barb fittings. The problem was welding aluminum. Apparently, its more difficult to weld aluminum and the welder we had wasn’t equipped for such a task. It wasn’t getting hot enough to melt the aluminum to form a bond.

Danh pointed me to a shop called Prospeed Autosport. They welded my barb fittings, and did a good job too. Kinda expensive, but I can see why. With aluminum you need argon gas and a aluminum welder, which isn’t cheap. Welding aluminum is a lot more trickier then steel.

I went up a significant size from stock. I figured a bigger diameter will help the crankcase breathing and pressure. Its kinda like breathing from a straw. Larger the straw, the easier to breathe and less pressure.

The previous oil catch can was too small. I upgraded to a Cusco oil catch can. The Cusco version has increased capacity, and a visible dipstick. I also routed bigger hoses to the catch can.

Another thing that can be causing increased crankcase pressure at the track are the stock windage tray and eBay baffle pan. The eBay trap doors and stock windage tray isn’t doing a good job with oil surges. I recently bought the MRP racing baffle pan. The part is well baffled with, and has a built in windage tray that is better then he stock unit. https://www.mrpltd.co.nz/product/4age7age-baffled-sump/. eBay parts not cutting and I talked about it in my previous post.

If I didn’t track the car I wouldn’t have to address the issues. Street driving isn’t as stressful on the motor, like it is at the track. Hopefully next track day I’ll have better results and really push the car without filling up the catch can and improve crankcase ventilation.

For the most part of the build I have been using name brand or OEM parts. But I had some few items I figured I could save money on. Unfortunately some of those eBay items are fail.

I bought this eBay universal oil cooler kit, and for the first 3 weeks it was good. Till the sandwich plate decided to pop off and spay oil all over the header. Which cause a massive smoke and my oil pressure warning light to go off. Lucky I set my low warning to go off at 15 psi and immediately turned off the car.

This happened one block from my work, and thankfully it wasn’t at the track. I first thought if the tread on the block was stripped, and cause the sandwich plate to pop off. Thankfully the tread was good, and was sandwich plate issue. The diameter on the sandwich plate was slightly bigger and didn’t make a very good seal.

While I was waiting to the tow truck, I ordered the MRP sandwich plate. Its a lot more expensive then eBay, but MRP is proven brand and they also build race 4age motors. I had have to wait for shipping since they are located in New Zealand. In the mean time I put new oil filter to the engine block. This bypassed the oil cooler, so I can still drive the car if I needed to.

The next day, I had the car on because I was buying off the oil. But then it caught on fire!!!!! Bad move on my part for trying to burn off the oil. Thankfully I had fire extinguisher in the car, and put out the flame quickly. I had an “oh shit moment”. No serious damage. Some paint came off, and part of my gold tape got burnt. If I didn’t have that extinguisher, this would have been a total loss. After that mishap, I removed the header and the oil burnt wrap. I cleaned the engine bay from the exhigurisher residue. I found some spare exhaust wrap and was just enough to re wrap the exhaust. Sooo no oil reside issue anymore.

But their was another issue. The eBay baffle pan. I had a another leak on the oil pan weld. I tried to JB weld it ,but unfortunately it didn’t work and kept leaking oil. Soo I ended up ordering a baffle pan from MRP. Its a legit baffle oil pan, with a built in windage tray and trap doors to avoid oil surges common at the track. Hopefully it arrive before they open the track again.

Lesson learned. You can’t cheap out on products, and get what you pay for. If you pay for the knock offs hoping to save some money, in the long run, you’ll run into issues. Then end up paying more to fix or replace the items.

Link to the MRP website: https://www.mrpltd.co.nz

Figured I should do a little video doing this quarantine time. On the bright side, I am getting more time work on the 86 and finish up the kinks. The 86 drives good but I want to fix the small issues, before next track day. Thanks for watching!