NASA @ Pikes Peak

I did a one day NASA Instructor Certification event at Pikes Peak Raceway last Saturday. It was a really interesting event, highly educational, and really fun. The weather was really cold, 23F when I arrived a 7am and never climbing above 40 all day.

The car was a mixed bag. It ran well, and the off-season weight loss (180 lbs) is aparent. The new super-ergonomic combo of steering wheel and tall "Jaffster" knob is really comfortable.

Unfortunately the event ended early when the upper radiator hose came off and the engine pumped all it's coolant on to the track. I never saw or felt if happen, I just smelled the sticky-sweet scent of coolant, and pulled in ASAP. I was lucky not to loose the motor.

It appears to be my fault as the clamp may not have been tightened completely as I was a little nervous about crushing the aluminum radiator nipple. It took a while to replace the coolant and by the time is was refilled my last session was over. Ces't la guerre.

Gone are original LTW wheels that came with the car. It was really hard to let them go -- they are my favorite BMW wheels and really suit the car. However their staggered sizing made them useless for the track so I replaced them with another set of Kosei K1s shod with Nitto NT01s in 255/40-17. I looked at a lot of track wheels, but in the end the low cost of the Koseis in 17x8.5 trumped more expensive wheels in 17x9.

I've been running the smaller 245/40s and will probably need to roll the rear fenders a bit to fit 255s on 8.5 w/40mm offset wheel.

Snow

It's Friday morning, I have to be at the track for a meeting at 7pm tonight and there is almost two feet of snow on the roads. It's 9 degrees now heading for a high of 25 and tomorrow may get all the way to 40.

The idea of driving a 2900 pound race car 70 miles through the snow on 255 R-Comp tires is terrifying. Since I sold my street tires last week, my only choice is to borrow the wheels from the wife's 3 series. I'm not sure the 8.5" 50mm offset rears will actually fit since all my 8.5 are 42mm. Mostly I'm waiting to hear something official from NASA before trying to fit them.

I'm really not looking forward to driving in sub-freezing temps. I'll also have to add more antifreeze to the radiator to keep from loosing another.

Sometimes I really hate living in Colorado.

2009 Open Track Schedule

March 28 Pikes Peak NASA Instructor Clinic (Done)
April 3 HPR Lapping Day (Done)
April 17 HPR Lapping Day
April 18-19 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE
April 24 HPR Lapping Day
May 15-17 Pueblo NASA Instructor/HPDE
July 11-12 Pueblo NASA Instructor/HPDE
August 8-9 Hastings NASA Instructor/HPDE
Sept 10-13 Miller NASA Nationals
Sept 27 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE
Oct 31-1 HPR NASA Instructor/HPDE

Radiator Solution

After coveting the Zionsville Competition Cooling kit, I've decided on a more budget friendly solution. Bimmerworld offers a self-branded all aluminum radiator for much less then a Fluidyne or C&R. It claims to be identical to the OEM radiator so can be used with the stock fan shroud and overflow tank -- not my preferred solution but it is much easier (and much less expensive) than installing the Euro overflow tank or engineering another solution.

My new, low cost plan is to keep the stock fan shroud, trim it back so that it really only holds the new OEM overflow tank. The trimming is to make room for a 16" SPAL electric fan that will attach directly to the radiator core. Not as elegant as the Zionsville solution, but it costs less then half as much.

I also ordered a Stewart high-performance water pump, colder 75c thermostat, thermostat housing, and OE hose kit.

I'll admint some buyer's remorse right after ordering, I tried to cancel and order the Zionsville. For good or for bad Bimmerworld had already boxed and shipped the order. Looking back, I'm glad to have saved the money.

Preseason Preparation

Three weeks to the first event so, Saturday morning I dusted off the car and started it up for the first time this year. I used a Battery Tender all winter with my new Odyssey battery and it worked perfectly and started first turn.

A brief warm-up and quick trip to the big traffic circle and a couple of slippy/slidey laps and back to the garage to check it out. The puddle slowly forming under the nose of the car was not a good sign.

A closer look showed it the be the typical BMW radiator failure where one of the plastic end caps starts leaking where it attaches to the aluminum core. Shit.

So Sunday morning I started to pull the radiator and associated components. The first major problem was the the fan clutch was totally frozen to the water pump shaft. Any one familiar with removing a fan clutch know that the trick is to hold the water pump pulley while turning the nut on the back of the clutch. So after 3-4 attempts with increasing violence and ever larger hammers, we know have Scott swinging a 4 Lb sledge at a pair of Park Tool 32mm headset wrenches and I'm folding the pulley with a 10mm wrench on one of the pulley bolts and a 24" cheater bar on the 10mm wrench. I don't know how many safety violations that is, but it's a lot. about a second later the cheater bar of course slips, and my middle finger takes the full force of the following swing. Ouch. I don't think it's broken, but it sure does hurt.


I ended up removing the water pump, pulley, and fan clutch in one piece and cutting the water pump shaft with a sawzall.

In doing so I discovered that the same jackass mechanic that installed that fan clutch with super-human strength (and no anti-sieze), also installed a new waterpump with a plastic impeller fully confirming their total mechanical incompetance.

I now need to decode how much radiator to buy to replace the stock one. On one hand I could simply buy another stock water pump, radiator, overflow tank, fan and fan clutch. this is about $500. For about $1000 I can get an all-aluminum racing radiator with an electric fan and save a little horsepower . Finally I could go all out and for $2000 get the racing radiator with a complete Euro M3 oil cooler built in.

I've never had any cooling problems with my car, so I'm not sure an oversize radiator is required and the Euro oil-cooler is really just a nice to have.

I've got a bit more research before making a decision.