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The auto in the 400 isn't the best, but it can still be fun to drive. I'd put in a good transmission cooler if you plan to hit hard. Otherwise you can easily toast the transmission. You can always swap a manual trans at some point too. Its a little spendy, but well worth it for the fun.
The auto in the 400 isn't the best, but it can still be fun to drive. I'd put in a good transmission cooler if you plan to hit hard. Otherwise you can easily toast the transmission. You can always swap a manual trans at some point too. Its a little spendy, but well worth it for the fun.
thanks for the advice. I'll look into a tranny cooler
Technically the car has one, it just runs it through the bottom of the radiator tank. We ran a cooler from an F-350 in addition to the stock routing through the radiator when we originally raced our auto trans. Lots of inexpensive options to add cooler from places like CX racing.
Another race, another win for this car. We once again were not the fastest car there but were very consistent. This race was held at Atlanta Motorsports Park and was a 16 hour race across two days.
Standings end of first day In impound after the race. Fun in the rain.
Ripped out the dash bar, removed the heater/air conditioning housing, and stripped the steering column bare. I stripped out the ABS harness to just the wiring needed for it. Stripped out as much of the wiring harnesses in the front of the car as I could and yet maintain the power supplies and dash cluster wiring. It wasn't worth the effort, not as much weight as I had hoped. I didn't weigh it yet, it's in a pile on my garage floor I may do that before I toss the stuff, but it's much less than 100 pounds maybe 50.
Looks like I missed the last race update. We ran an 8 hour Saturday and a 7 hour Sunday race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL. We had trouble the first day and had a DNF/51st place finish. The Sunday race I took the car to the front within the first 8 laps and we held the lead off and on most of the day. Fighting it out with a faster car toward the end of the race that was faster in the straights but I could catch in the turns. Dove under him with about 15 min to go and we had contact taking him out and we finished second. Here is some video from the race cast with a lot of it from an in-car in our car. We are Burningham Too and has the orange logo for our shop inset in the video. I think this video starts with about 35 min left in the race.
We competed in the first Champcar race of the year last weekend, the 14 hour Road Atlanta race. We did not have a good weekend. We had an intermittent charging issue at the previous race, I didn't do enough to resolve it before this race. Turns out it was just not making good contact on the spades on the plug into the back of the alternator. Took 5 min to fix. After that repair, we had a passing under yellow penalty, then a penalty for contact. But, about hour 7 we were starting to claw our way back toward the top ten when we lost the transmission, same failure as we had at COTA last year. I have got to find a solution to the failures of these W58 transmissions. Three failures in 2 years.
Here is a little action from the 12 pm to 2 pm stint at Road Atlanta.
You may want to look into doing this WPC treatment to the weak spots in the transmission. I know a few companies use it on differentials to make them stronger. http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...about-WPC.aspx
I'd switch whatever oil your running in the w58 as well
You may want to look into doing this WPC treatment to the weak spots in the transmission. I know a few companies use it on differentials to make them stronger. http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...about-WPC.aspx
I'd switch whatever oil your running in the w58 as well
I had someone else suggest the WPC also so I will definitely look into.
As far as oil I have tried about everything. I even ordered a gallon of stuff some Nascar teams use that was $100 and lost the previous one. Usually use Redline MTL and change every race. Thats what was in for the last failure.
Could also get the gears cryo treated by someone like Frozen Rotors. Have you tried monitoring your transmission temperatures at all? Either gauge or just the temperature changing stickers? Wonder if adding a cooler would help.
Could also get the gears cryo treated by someone like Frozen Rotors. Have you tried monitoring your transmission temperatures at all? Either gauge or just the temperature changing stickers? Wonder if adding a cooler would help.
I am definitely going to build up the next one with some type of treatment, the question is how would the treatment work on old gears that have already been worn? Or, perhaps take new replacement gears and send for treatment, that's the direction I am leaning. Won't be cheap, but neither is losing entry fees on races on used transmissions. But, I really think the welded diff is creating a lot of shock loading back through the drivetrain and is contributing to these failures. Have had issues with broken strap rivets in two clutches so it points to the same issue. As far as temperature, I have not been measuring but I do have a gauge/sender to install but can't seem to find the time to get it installed, gauge wired, etc. I can't add a cooler without taking a hit on points which as you know we are already at the limit on points for Champ. For WRL we may install the cooler since our next race with them will be in the heat of summer.
What are you guys running for engine, trans, diff, and rear subframe mounts? Are you running solid or poly or some combination? I'd believe the welded diff is causing some shock loading. Are you running the rubber elements in the driveshaft still too or solid driveshaft?
09-25-17, 05:45 AM
