Took the car to the MSNE afternoon autocross at Met-Life arena parking lot J. Had given everything a thorough check over beforehand too. These events at Met-Life are far more stretched open and longer than the AutoCross events I have done at UMI, Warminster, and Optima (NJMP). They also run your run group in a hot-lap style, so there is only a few minutes of "down time" in between each run... really quick turn-around time. Basically 8 runs all within 1 hour's time. Was excited to put the new Falken tires to the test. Have found that the tires like to be between 32-33 psi up front and 28-29 psi in the rear, when the tires are hot. Have the Koni Adjustables set at 1/5 and 1/5 so on the softer side. This setup seems to work for me the best.
I was learning the course and in the middle of my 3rd run, all of a sudden I felt the power steering give out on me. "Not this again" I thought, and finished the lap and went to check the system. Found that the cap had unlocked itself and Lucas PSF got all over inside the engine bay, even on the headers. Cleaned it up, and tried to put the cap back on, yet it would NOT click on and lock into place, it just free-spins ! WTF, ha. No matter what I knew I could not loose the cap, either making more laps, or on the ride home, so I freakin' duct-taped the cap onto the housing so it would not go tumbling away and be lost forever. I've been down the road of overheated power steering system before, in fact July of 2020 at a MSNE event. So I tried to cool off the power steering reservoir and the DeRale power system fluid cooler (installed summer 2020) and made another lap. Still, no power steering, but only at low rpms. At mid and mid-high rpms, its there. The pump doesn't whine or scream like the other blown up one did, but it does not power-assist at low rpms.
Took some experienced autocrossers for ride-alongs and also went for some spine-crushing, g-force pulling animal laps in their cars. That was a thrill. I did not hit any cones, but did spin the car out for a loop at the very very last turn of run #4. I only did 6 out of the 8 laps, because I sat out twice while trying to cool the psf system down. The trans temp, coolant temp, and everything else with the car/engine was in perfect working order. My holley efi "Learn table" was super good, and my efi tune was really spot on. The brakes, suspension, tires, all were awesome, but the lack of power steering definitely killed me. Drove the car home, in the rain, through construction on Rt 3 and 46 in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, with an intermittently working power steering system! Jeez, that was no fun. made it home, cap was still held on by duct tape, but of course the system was not holding fluid properly.
Learn table after the total data from all 6 runs:
Event results:
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/live...AtwuLkpI5qcZY0
I finished 3rd out of 5 in class D.
I went for rides with Irman Karamat and Ryan King, both of them are in the RACE tire class and have very purpose built autocross cars.
I have found that the GoPro video footage is better to watch from an autocross race style, as you can see my steering input and the course. My front/rear dash cam was up and running and shooting 4k video, but it just shows the course, and not really the amount of steering input or car's cornering. So I only included the short videos of the GoPro action.
Run 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1hTqK_Gu4Q
Run 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h4Nojbpn0k
Run 3:
right at 0:43 seconds into the run you can see my arms on the steering wheel just get tight, this is when I felt the power steering system give out, right in the tight left turn and slowed way down as the car went way wide. I then had to muscle the car through the rest of the lap, and do the same for the remaining 3 runs that I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbPvIsCiesM
Run 4:
spun out on the very last turn, didn't hit a cone, but it killed my time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C6GeExriHo
Run 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFmr5WJPWeY
Run 6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbbG-P-xNI
The next day I took the car over to the quarry after I had put the sound system back in it because I wanted to get a new "street' weight of what this pig weighs in at when I am in full regular street mode, especially now that the roll bar install is completed. I was stunned and sad to see that it weighs 3,780 pounds with me in it, and 3,600 pounds without me. This is with a full tank of fuel, empty nitrous bottle, roll bar, full interior, sound system installed, and my 18" wheels. Yikes.
As for the power steering system/pump. Gotta figure out what to do, as I would prefer to NOT have to replace a ps pump every year. I know there are some performance options out there, but I will make this very clear, I have yet to find one that would look good under the hood. I do not want some mess of hoses, or a bare gen 2 style modern looking pump. Cosmetics and engine bay appearance is a big deal to me, and I will not sacrifice that just to have a better PS pump and reservoir. I already have an in-line DeRale PS fluid cooler, and it has not done me wrong at either UMI autocross or other autocross events... it seems to do the job. I think I need to find a way to better cool the fluid, even if it means a fan on a toggle switch or something. I have only used regular Lucas PSF, but I am not learning that there are superior "race" PS fluids out there too. I am hesitant to buy another gen1 style "teardrop looking" ps pump and reservoir, but so far it is the only one that looks good under my hood. Any thoughts?
-also, I had a spare PS cap(with dipstick) from my old pump and it locks onto the reservoir just fine, so the busted one is going in the trash, and I now have a sealed system, but still no power steering at low rpms.
I am switching back to drag racing for the fall as I had planned to do anyway. Will be getting the tires mounted on the new Jegs wheels next week. I am also going to begin the nitrous install in the coming weeks. I think I might be better off starting a new thread on that topic as opposed to detailing it on here.