Wet Winton, Oil Cooler Data Acquisition and New Camber

It was just a matter of time before I will find myself at a wet track day and it is as scary as I imagined! And it was nice to see the leader board all jumbled up with cars within a smaller than usual margin from each other.

The experience has taught me a thing or 2 about driving in the wet. The limits were very low. 

A little too much steering angle on corner entry, understeer.

A little too much throttle on corner exit, oversteer.

A little too much braking pressure, ABS! And that probably saved me going into the gravel trap more than once.

Rain aside, the other thing I was looking forward to most about this Winton was testing the newly installed oil cooler. The goal was to record the oil temps whilst on track to see how hot things would get during a session. The rain and cooler than usual ambient temps made this an easy trial for the oil cooler.

And as always a Huge thanks to Nugget Nationals for the running the event and for the photos.

Track driving in wet conditions is a good way to practice focusing!

Session video with data overlay. The GPS and speed data was collected via RaceChrono (QStar GPS), and the temp data was collected separately via Torque (OBDLink MX), so I had to splice the data together to get this. Forgot to look into extracting my Fitbit HR for heart rate data.... Next time! 😆

Oil	Penrite Racing 5 (5w30)
Session time	~10 minutes
Ambient Temp	22-23℃

This was a typical EXE/NN session which means it was run flawlessly and I got a healthy 10+ minutes on track. Shame it was raining which brought the ambient temps down making conditions easy for the oil cooler.

Oil Temp
Average		95 ℃
Maximum		103 ℃
Minimum		79 ℃
Engine RPM
Average		4754
Maximum		7337

Despite the rain, I was driving as hard as I dared for the duration of the session keeping the RPM up and in the power (or lack of ha ha...) zone, and it didn't even come close to the high 120℃ I was seeing previously! Overall very happy with the findings.

Coolant Temp
Average		89 ℃
Maximum		91 ℃
Minimum		86 ℃
Intake Temp
Average		24 ℃
Maximum		31 ℃
Minimum		22 ℃

Other bits of data I logged out of curiosity. Coolants temps are well within check and intake temps were nice and low from the weather.

Wet lap PB video with RaceChrono native temp and throttle overlay!

Track wasn't too bad after the rain cleared up, but I was too weak to try for a proper PB by then.

Aways looking surprisingly flat for stock suspension to me. WTB low & racing wheels.

Pre-Some slightly-used camber bolts that got installed pre-track. Time for some negative camber! Fitted and aligned by Ray @ Raceline. A+ service, super friendly, car drives straight, will go back again 😆

	FRONT		REAR
	LEFT	RIGHT	LEFT	RIGHT
Camber (degs)	-1°04'	-0°51'	-1°06'	-1°32'
Individual Toe (mm)	-0.5	-0.5	0.5	0.6
Total Toe-In (mm)	-1.1		1.1
Setback (degs)	0°01'		0°07'

The camber bolts gave me -1° camber in the fronts. Without them I had just under half-a-degree, so even though it didn't provide much camber, it's double what I had. Unfortunately all my focus on driving the car in the rain at a much lower pace meant I really couldn't tell how much of a difference these made on track. Next time!

Raceseng Shift Knob - Add weight, increase shift feel, go faster.

In an attempt to improve the shift feel and iron out the notchy 2nd gear when cold, I have opted to get a weight shift knob. I went with a Raceseng Hybrid series because it:

• Has the shift-pattern engraving on it.
• Similar to OEM in size and height.
• Looks awesome.
• Heavy af! 

As a result the shifting does feel noticeably smoother and more positive. A simple and effective fix done!

Left to right: Delrin cover (Slamm cover), Stainless steel shifter (Ology core), Aluminium adapters for the BRZ.

Shift pattern engravings in all its glory. Apparently it's defectable to have a shifter with no visible pattern?

Left to right: TRD (Soupy/180g), MazdaSpeed (FD/320g), Slammology (BRZ/500g). 

Weight of the core. Once the cover is added it is just shy of half-a-kg! Compared to stock which is 200g. People all around the pits removing weight from their cars and here I am adding it.

With the Slamm cover fitted it covers up the engraving and made the shifter quite a handful literally, which isn't ideal but it was a good deal at the time.

The perks of the Hybrid Series is the ability to swap the covers. I got this Top cover from the States which was noticeably smaller and allows the engraving to be visible. 

Core fitted to the car. It's actually quite a nice size just like this, though the thread where the covers screw on isn't the most comfortable. It did cross my mind I could run like this at the track as I wear gloves for PBs.

Slamm cover fitted. Very happy with the way it all sits and looks. It feels so oversized it's comical! Maybe I'll use it on long lazy drives for just for kicks 😁

Top cover fitted. Much more manageable and less comical.

... And the shift pattern is now visible.

Raceseng vs Stock: Size wise, it's marginally larger than stock, but the weight and feel is quite different.

Oil Cooler from HEL(L)

How long did does it take between order and receiving an oil cooler from HEL? About 4 months and 13 days! 😡

Long story short HEL sent me the wrong sized cooler core and fittings in the first kit and tried to palm me off saying they don't didn't stock the size I wanted and it was a 'website error'. But when BRZ mate Des bought a kit of the right size and configuration from them, I confronted them about it and only then they decided to send me the right kit, and even then they messed up with the fittings which required more follow up to resolve. Eventually they got it mostly right and I sent them the wrong kit back which HEL still owe me the postage cost from memory. Following up on that is almost not worth the stress. It has been one HEL(L) of an experience!

Sorry, bad pun, it's the dad thing haha! 😅

Princess this time says "This is a oil cooler, but it's the wrong one! Bamboozled again!" 

What I got is a 25-row core with -8AN fittings. But I ordered a 19-row core with -10AN fittings.

Mocal thermostated sandwhich plate which is the same one used on much more expensive kits like Perrin. But Perrin wouldn't f'up the order, just saying!

The 25-row does look mighty impressive though.

Fastward months, the (mostly) correct parts arrive! But this time it was missing a 45 deg fitting this time.

The correct 19-row core has Setrab decals too. Now I wonder why the 25-row doesn't have the decals? Did HEL try to palm off a random generic core to me initially? 😡

25-row vs 19-row. Mine is bigger than yours.

-10AN vs -8AN. A very noticeable difference.

Replacement fitting arrives looking slightly used and is an Aeroflow instead of their own label. I'm tired of all this toing and froing, so I'm just going to work with it 😠

With Winton just around the corner (again), off to work I go. Bumper off!

I tried to be organised and separated the fasteners into different jars for different parts of the bumper and under tray removal. Fingers crossed I won't have any 'spares' afterwards.

Test fitting the core. It'll go around here.

Plenty of room for the 25 row!

Never a fan of too many shiny bits, so I hit it with some paint. Only paint I had left was some VHT stuff, that'll do!

Measure a million times, cut once.

Looking almost stock. Actually they should of included this as an option.

Oil cooler:Bumper grill opening ratio.

The hard plastic under tray removed to be drilled.

Surprisingly sturdy. Should hold the oil cooler ok.

Sussing out how I can further secure the core. Spotted a spare threaded hole in the crash bar and a bracket on the air con condenser nearby.

Recycling old parts from a fire extinguisher mount from the Mini Cooper days to make a mount.

I decided to use the air con condenser bracket and as it's on rubber mounts to stop vibrations.

It is plenty secure when torqued up.

Oil cooler core mounted.

Hoses cut with an angle grinder and cleaned up with some sharp scissors.

There we have it, my first braided hose fitting. Praying for no leaks 😅

Yup, I'm proud how clean they came out.

Narva spiral wrap for the oil hoses to protect them from rubbing holes into what they might touch and themselves. 

Operating temperature -75C to +125C. Should be right!... Right?!

Fairly rigid but still flexible enough to route.

Piecing together the sandwich plate. To Teflon tape or not? I ended up using some.

Routed the hoses behind the crash bar....

... and under the headlight ...

... finally into the engine bay. Clearance between the air box, oil cap and this hard line at the back is absolutely minimal.

A point on the hex of the thermostat touches the hard line.

To gain whatever clearance I can, I filed part of the hex point down. Hope I never need to remove it.

Bought me a bit more clearance. I think I should just bend the hard line...

Special Service Tool for check clearance. Pass!

Pass!

Fail! ... The perfect excuse to buy a new intake 😇

Recycling more old parts. This time an old piece of silicon hose to protect the windscreen washer bottle neck.

Paranoia got the best of me, so a bit of spiral wrap on the hard hose as cheap insurance.

Removed a bolt here during the install and given how tight things are, I don't think I'm putting it back. 

There's always 1 left... always.

Wifey mechanic to the rescue! 

(Thanks Perrin for the detailed bumper removal instructions, will buy your wares, next time)

Had to crank up the brightness to see the cooler, exactly how I wanted.

After consulting oil gurus from all corners, I decided on the Penrite 10 Tenths Racing 5 stuff for its high zinc, but also cos of its availability, price point and local support.

EZ valve to replace the sump plug. Same concept as the Fumoto just has a built in viton o-ring, rubber cover on the lever and more silver than gold in colour.

Just over 4l was drained when there should be around 5l. I hope the difference has gone to the oil cooler 😧

Perfect day for a test drive!

Cruising the hills at a casual pace in 35 deg+ ambient temps and oil temperatures did not exceed 90! Is the oil cooler working TOO well now? I'll report back after a track day!