AOS Smoke Bombs, spins, a new fast lap at Roebling, and one that was a second faster

[heymanwatchthis]

Steve,

I will be at Roebling March 3 and will study your videos.

What kind of seats to you have, and are you using a harness?

And how managing oil - stock AOS, and sump?

Thanks!

Gary

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by heymanwatchthis

Steve,

I will be at Roebling March 3 and will study your videos.

What kind of seats to you have, and are you using a harness?

And how managing oil - stock AOS, and sump?

Thanks!

Gary

March 3rd, that looks like a private track day for a dealership? Should be awesome! Hopefully they have it setup so you can ride with some of the instructors. I always learn a lot in those types of ride alongs.

I have Recaro Profil XL seats floor mounted with Brey-Krause hardware with integrated sub bar, and 6 point Schroth Harnesses. I love it! It does slightly detract from daily drivability though, but since I don't use the car for DD it hasn't impacted me much.

AOS and oil details below.

Originally Posted by NewArt

Hey Steve,
Lucky you to live in a climate where you can track year round! Here in Montreal, everything is buttoned up til May.
I've done the upgraded baffle and generally run a couple of bars low on the oil gauge and haven't had too many problems. I haven't put in the deep sump yet. Did this completely solve the smoke bomb problem for you?

I have had only 1 smoke bomb and that was my very first track day and it was caused by what I believe were the following 2 things:

1. I had accidentally overfilled my oil after an oil change that I did the day before. What happened was I did the oil change, then went and got gas. After I got gas, the low oil indicator was blinking. On our cars, after you get gas, it will show the oil level. In my case, the oil wasn't fully warmed up, and I believe some oil was still in the valve covers or other places in the engine and hadn't fully drained down to the sump, giving me a false low reading. I went home and it took another quart to get the oil level up to the full mark. After sitting overnight, it indicated 1 bar above full, which I think is the max the digital gauge shows. What I learned there was only to check the oil after the car has been sitting a while to give all the oil a chance to drain down to the sump.
2. The other factor I think was that I had just gone through turn 9 (right hander) at Roebling in 3rd gear at around 80 MPH and high RPMs, accelerating at the apex and by the time I was at track out I was at full throttle nearing redline, and I shifted to 4th. A fair amount of lateral force, and with the oil overfilled, combined with high RPM and then releasing the throttle for the upshift caused it. I have seen it on left turns as well, turn 1 at Sebring a Boxster behind me blew a smoke bomb. I was glad I was ahead of him

When I got home I dropped the canister oil filter and dumped the oil that was in there, and put a new filter and o-ring, and that lowered my oil down to around the middle.

Since then I have never had a smoke bomb over approximately 36 track days over the last 3 years with the following combinations:

Stock AOS with oil filled to half way between the high and low marks on the digital gauge combined with the following combinations:

• Stock oil pan and baffle
• Stock oil pan with EBS X-51 style baffle
• LN 2 QT Deep sump with windage tray and X-51 style baffle

I have never tried filling the oil to the top line with the above combinations on track. I (my opinion) feel these engines have so much oil that going down 2-3 bars from the line isn't going to hurt anything, especially now that I am carrying 2 extra quarts in my deep sump. Also I have heard from folks that added a catch can that if you fill right to the top line, it is going to go right down to the middle after a hard session on track due to slight oil ingestion by the AOS (as witnessed by oil in the catch can) and then stabilize anyway around the halfway mark. All just anecdotal evidence, if your motor blows and you have been running halfway between the bars that is not on me

I consider my AOS smoke bomb issues to be solved. I am in on the Stelan AOS project and may try that out when it becomes available.

I also don't go through corners at the top of the RPM range which I think helps with the AOS but I mostly do it because:

• In the next higher gear there is less torque and so there is more forgiveness if I am not smooth with the throttle.
• I (attempt to, and there are some exceptions) drive my corners so that I can go full throttle at the apex, if I am already at the top of the RPM range then I might have to shift right at track out or even before and I don't like that.
• It is easier on the car and doesn't seem to slow me down any

I have also bought a lower cost digital manometer and am going to be checking my stock AOS regularly. I will post a DIY thread soon, but here is a photo showing the approximate setup using a borrowed manometer from a friend that I used to compare with my lower cost one:



I didn't get any video but a friend with a 2001 Boxster S tip had misfires coming out of that same corner this past event when his tip transmission had him in 3rd gear at high RPM coming through that same corner, stock pan and baffle with oil filled right to the top. He said he didn't see any smoke in the back but he may have been distracted by the flashing CEL. I used a code reader with him later to verify that it was misfires. I told him to shift the tip manually and go through that corner in 4th instead of 3rd next time and see what happens...

[heymanwatchthis]

March 3 is for Harmony Motors, the Porsche dealer in Asheville. Apparently some of the local PCA guys will participate as instructors, I am really looking forward to it!

Thanks for the advice about rpm in turns, that makes sense. I just added the 997 TB and plenum so look forward to using the extra torque at the lower rpms.

Another seat question - my car is not a DD but since I live in the mountains of western North Carolina drive it whenever I can. I think the stock seats suck. I want a seat that holds in mountian curves, would work for occasional DE's, would be reasonably comfortable for a few hours drives (to tracks) and not a pain getting in and out driving around town. I dont have a shop nearby that stocks seats so cannot try them out.

Why the Profi vs Pole Position? The PP seems to be popular as it is basically same as the GT3 bucket, and looks like has a low bolster towards front of seat, facilitating getting in/out of the car.

Thanks!

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by heymanwatchthis

Why the Profi vs Pole Position? The PP seems to be popular as it is basically same as the GT3 bucket, and looks like has a low bolster towards front of seat, facilitating getting in/out of the car.

Thanks!

A couple reasons, but before that I think the Profile XL and Pole Position are virtually the same at the base and width for seating (where the regular Profi is *tiny* and smaller than the Pole Position). The differ in the back and shoulders, with the Profi XL having wider wings and bigger holes for the shoulder belt.

For me, the Pole Position looks like the shoulder harness belts are too low for my shoulders and optimal angles, the harness would drop down from the Boxster roll bars, through the seat, and then up and over my shoulders. That would not be optimal as it would compress heavily down on my spine in the case of an accident.

Then I scored a deal on a Profi XL with mounting hardware from Mike Yi of this forum (although I think he sold his car and is no longer on here) and that led me to that seat.

I am 6'2", 36" waist and 34" inseam, and the Profi XL is a perfect match for me. AS long as I remember to take my wallet out of my back right pocket it is comfortable for long drives of 3-4 hours.

The seat belt receptacle was actually the tricky part and before I got that sorted it was a pain to drive when using the OEM seat belt because the receptacle was way down there. I have an extender now and that solved it for me.

The first time I drove on track with the seat I had just the OEM seat belt and it worked pretty well, the seat provides tons of lateral support and made a difference even with only the OEM seatbelt.

If you could score a seat of the GT3 "Alien eyes" seats that would be perfect, sets with sliders come up for around $3000 from time to time.

One of the biggest challenges and expenses of mounting racing seats is all the hardware, side brackets, adapters and sliders to mount it in the car. Add $300-$400 to the price of each seat if you want to do it right. That makes a pair of $3000 GT3 seats with sliders seem like a better bargain... and it is all OEM Porsche to boot.

Here is a very nice installation in a Boxster that I found, and I think it belongs to a member here, with what I think is a custom harness routing bar from Stable Energies to give the correct geometry for the shoulder belts.



This wouldn't work for me because my torso is too tall. Otherwise if I had found a set of PP I most likely would have gotten them vs the Profi XL.