Feisty the "Family Car"

[M-Sport fan]

LSPI is also effected/exacerbated by oils with high NOACK volatility rates as well.
The more prone that the oil is to volatilization, the more of it ends up in the intake tract, and combustion chambers, catch can or not.

Hence my obsession with low NOACK rates which most LSPI prevention premium oils strive to achieve.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Finally feeling a bit better and getting back in the swing of things! Decided to dip my toe back in with a "simple" project - Rear camber plates. I ended up having both the DNA plates (-1.5 deg) and DPro (-2.0 deg) plates on hand. Since I'm only currently running about -2.0 deg in front, I decided to install the DNA plates. (also because I haven't had a chance to coat the DPro plates yet). Ended up with right around -2.0 deg in the rear.

Notes from the build - the DNA plates appear to be anodized aluminum, not ground steel like the DPro plates. Not sure how I feel about this long term - I might end up swapping them out with my future suspension plans.

It always ends up taking me 2-3x as long as people say it's "supposed" to. A "2 hour" job turned into 5, as I was taking it slow, spent a lot of time trying to find where I left that one tool...

But also learned a valuable lesson. I attempted to upgrade the factory stretch bolts to some 12.9 socket heads with spherical washers under the heads to help with the misalignment. It turns out that with appropriate (higher) torque for a 12.9 bolt, the spherical washers were NOT in fact up to the job. Several minutes after I'd finished torqueing the hub bolts on first side and started reinstalling the rotor, one of the cup washers let go with a rather loud "bang". Glad I was wearing safety glasses at the time.

The washer ended up shattering into 3 pieces, which I eventually found with the help of my daughter. Interestingly, these were from a usually reputable source (McMaster Carr) and not random ebay bits, but it it seems they were just not adequate for a high tensile bolt. Needless to say, I immediately removed the new bolts and installed the hub with the new factory bolts I had acquired just in case. The bolt heads will probably be fine for now, but 1.5-2.0 deg misalignment is really borderline when it comes to bolt fatigue life.

It's a little disturbing that it didn't let go while I was torqueing it, but I'm just really glad the washer let go while I was still working on the car, and not some time later while driving it. Might try some wedge washers next time, but I won't be using these on any sort of high grade bolt in the future.

 

[D-resonant]

Thanks for posting that the misalignment spherical washers are a NO-GO. Very fortunate the concave washer half failed during install and not out on the road or track.

What about using Dpro plates as the “wedge washer” on the insides? Will need to u-notch it to clear sensor.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Thanks for posting that the misalignment spherical washers are a NO-GO. Very fortunate the concave washer half failed during install and not out on the road or track.

What about using Dpro plates as the “wedge washer” on the insides? Will need to u-notch it to clear sensor.

I’m thinking about trying the malleable wedge washers if I ever replace them again, combined with a decent sized washer to spread out the load. I think the spherical ones just don’t have enough area to carry the load, and the sphere interface was basically acting like a wedge to force the cup washer out radially.

 

[Dialcaliper]

It took calling Mountune a half dozen times to get someone to actually pick up the phone, and then send them an email including the CARB EO number) but they were really nice about it once I got ahold of them and mailed me the sticker. The intercooler would probably pass smog on its own under the radar, but now I don’t have to worry about getting hassled for the “fancy” looking silicone intercooler piping!

 

[Dialcaliper]

Finally a much postponed but sorely needed wash! Tried out some new “shortcut” products - Nanoskin “clay” towel, and Opti-seal applied at the same time as drying the car off instead of a full wax job, which I haven’t had time for these days.

The result is looking pretty decent - much better than before. Probably not show quality, but respectable.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I've got the time, just not the (shade and running water hose) facilities to wash the poor thing.

We have not had a steady enough rain lately, without lightning hitting the ground, for me to do my usual 'weather wash'.

(And then the cloudy skies with no rain the next day, to wax it.)

 

[Dialcaliper]

I've got the time, just not the (shade and running water hose) facilities to wash the poor thing.

We have not had a steady enough rain lately, without lightning hitting the ground, for me to do my usual 'weather wash'.

(And then the cloudy skies with no rain the next day, to wax it.)

As long as it’s not blistering hot out, this optiseal stuff (sort of a sealant replacement for wax) says it can be applied in shade or full sun as long as it’s not over 90F (might be car surface temp, not air). If it works even half as well as wax, I’m digging the “drying aid” application method

 

[Dialcaliper]

Gave in and decided to add a little bit more "visible" underhood bling in the form of a Mountune induction hose. Seemed sad looking to have the full intercooler hose set but still the stock induction hose. Does it improve anything? Dunno. Sound? Maybe, hard to tell but it might be a smidge louder. Just felt good to slip in a quick project to alter the state of the universe, even if the Murray clamps are totally unecessary for an ambient pressure hose.

Also, progress report on the "rally springs". They're holding up great. Even the fronts, with the rubber ring and bearing spacer I added are holding up fine after 3000 miles. You can see the bearing in the photo. The two black squished looking things are not in fact the rubber ring, but the plastic bearing on top and the stock shock boot.

I'm curious how this would stack up to the ride and handling of the Swift Spec-R's. Unfortunately I haven't ridden in a car so equipped, (only the Mountune and stock springs previously)

Also started making headway on my more involved custom inverted suspension setup - stay tuned.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Started working on my new fully custom shock/strut setup, and since I had the struts out anyway, I took the opportunity to replace the control arms with Superpro arms that have poly bushings preinstalled, including the +0.5 deg caster bushings.

When you give a mouse a cookie…since the control arm bolts had to come out, I replaced my Pierce 2 point brace with a Swave and Summit 4-point that gives me close to an inch more ground clearance. I forgot to weigh it before it went on, but the aluminum Swave brace is pretty close to or possibly lighter than the steel 2-point bar.

Look closely and you’ll see some sneak peeks on what’s to come…

 

[M-Sport fan]

The only drawback to that Swave/Summit brace is that you would need a custom fabbed skid plate if you ever decided to go that route.

(Most of the bolt-on ones available use k member/subframe holes for mounting which are blocked by that brace. )

 

[Dialcaliper]

The only drawback to that Swave/Summit brace is that you would need a custom fabbed skid plate if you ever decided to go that route.

(Most of the bolt-on ones available use k member/subframe holes for mounting which are blocked by that brace. )

I was going to wait until I got it fully installed, but since you mentioned it...

Through some investigation, planning and also some luck, The ADF skidplate will fit with longer bolts and some spacers in the back. The K-member holes they chose for the rivnuts just perfectly dodge the Swave brace. In fact that's part of why I chose the two together and took a chance based on photos.

I plan to put some foam in between the Swave and the skidplate to hopefully prevent rubbing/noise. Measurement looks like the spacers need to be about 1" tall. It means the subframe brace will be supporting the skidplate if it makes contact, but its meant to be a "lightweight" plate to protect things underneath in case of incidental scrapes and clean up airflow, not a heavy duty rally skidplate you can "surf" on.

I got lucky and when I emailed ADF back in January (while the plates were out of stock), they were just ramping up for another batch. As long as you're willing to wait and pay up front, for an extra $30, they did a custom color for me - nothing quite a match for Kona Blue, but I think the lighter hue is close enough that with the shadows underneath the car it looks pretty good. The new round of plates have oil and filter change access like the Focus skidplates.

Mine looks a little odd because I had them move the filter access hole so I'll be able to use it once I've got my filter relocation kit installed. They even did it free of charge since I was paying up front. The standard plates have it right under the "correct" location under the filter.

Haven't installed it yet, but did a test fit to confirm (and take the spacer measurement). Its hard to tell from the angle of the pictures, but the rivnut holes *are* lined up correctly (just no spacers in yet). Also need to slightly reroute my ST200 intake hose, because currently it sticks down a little too low running "under" the charge pipe into the space behind the foglight.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^COOL!

My plate is the Skid Plate Guy's (slightly more bash/'rock surfing' capable than the ADF one, mainly due to it's thicker gauge aluminum alloy) and it does not use rivnuts at all, just bolts and a threaded heavy gauge steel 'catch plate' type retainer put into the already existing holes of the k member.

Due to the k member openings they chose to use for that back of plate mounting, I could not use that brace (or any others save for maybe the paper thin {stamped steel??} DNA one sold by Ron) at all, regardless of how many spacers I tried to mount it with.

 

[Fusion Works]

Finally feeling a bit better and getting back in the swing of things! Decided to dip my toe back in with a "simple" project - Rear camber plates. I ended up having both the DNA plates (-1.5 deg) and DPro (-2.0 deg) plates on hand. Since I'm only currently running about -2.0 deg in front, I decided to install the DNA plates. (also because I haven't had a chance to coat the DPro plates yet). Ended up with right around -2.0 deg in the rear.

Notes from the build - the DNA plates appear to be anodized aluminum, not ground steel like the DPro plates. Not sure how I feel about this long term - I might end up swapping them out with my future suspension plans.

It always ends up taking me 2-3x as long as people say it's "supposed" to. A "2 hour" job turned into 5, as I was taking it slow, spent a lot of time trying to find where I left that one tool...

But also learned a valuable lesson. I attempted to upgrade the factory stretch bolts to some 12.9 socket heads with spherical washers under the heads to help with the misalignment. It turns out that with appropriate (higher) torque for a 12.9 bolt, the spherical washers were NOT in fact up to the job. Several minutes after I'd finished torqueing the hub bolts on first side and started reinstalling the rotor, one of the cup washers let go with a rather loud "bang". Glad I was wearing safety glasses at the time.

The washer ended up shattering into 3 pieces, which I eventually found with the help of my daughter. Interestingly, these were from a usually reputable source (McMaster Carr) and not random ebay bits, but it it seems they were just not adequate for a high tensile bolt. Needless to say, I immediately removed the new bolts and installed the hub with the new factory bolts I had acquired just in case. The bolt heads will probably be fine for now, but 1.5-2.0 deg misalignment is really borderline when it comes to bolt fatigue life.

It's a little disturbing that it didn't let go while I was torqueing it, but I'm just really glad the washer let go while I was still working on the car, and not some time later while driving it. Might try some wedge washers next time, but I won't be using these on any sort of high grade bolt in the future.

This is interesting. What did you torque them to? Did you use any grease or lube on the washers? I am almost a year into my installation with multiple track days. Guess I will crawl under there and inspect them this week. I have two sets in use currently with no apparent issues. Wonder if this was some sort of heat treat issue? You call McMaster and ask for contact info for the manufacture?

Wonder if me using a stud and lock nut instead of a bolt makes a difference in the way those spherical washers are loaded when tensioning the fastener? Did any others fail?

 

[Dialcaliper]

This is interesting. What did you torque them to? Did you use any grease or lube on the washers? I am almost a year into my installation with multiple track days. Guess I will crawl under there and inspect them this week. I have two sets in use currently with no apparent issues. Wonder if this was some sort of heat treat issue? You call McMaster and ask for contact info for the manufacture?

Wonder if me using a stud and lock nut instead of a bolt makes a difference in the way those spherical washers are loaded when tensioning the fastener? Did any others fail?

Certainly wouldn't discount a defect or installation error on my part, but it noped me out enough that I didn't want to chance it since I needed the car to drive to work the next day. Just the one failed while I was cleaning up tools and getting ready to do the seconds side, at which I promptly went back and replaced all four on that side with the spare new oem bolts. The one that failed gave a really loud "ping" and a clang as it ricocheted around and hit the brake shield.


I used 12.9 socket head cap screws. It's possible that they have a slightly smaller head diameter than the bolts I replaced or the nuts you used. I was prepared to use additional washers, but it didn't appear to need it at first. I used 43Nm torque (lubricated 12.9 with K=0.15 according to the antiseize spec sheet I've been using). Antiseize on the bolt threads, but nothing on the spherical washers.

The spherical washers are fairly hard, but aren't actually rated for strength. I've seen issues in the past with "normal" and even class 8/grade 5 washers on 12.9 bolts that weren't up to the job (usually they deform and lift at the edges if they aren't at least class 10/grade 8 washers).

If I do decide to swap out for the 2-deg plates instead of the 1.5's, I may rethink the setup and maybe use some 3deg iron wedge washers that are a bit malleable, and maybe some wide washers or nord-locks.

 

[Fusion Works]

I don't think I did anything special, looks like I didn't even use a washer beyond the sphericals. I am pretty sure I went higher than your torque spec. May have gone 50ish. I think I use a chart from ARP here as reference for hardware. The studs are DIN 939 rated at 125K PSI?

Thanks for the feedback I will keep an eye on mine and the ones Dtulley is running.

Wonder if using the Stainless ones would make more sense. Stainless won't be nearly as hard. You would want to lube them up well to keep them from galling as they settled into position. Did you use the .875 OD or the smaller .625 OD? (no idea if that would matter, theoretically there could be more PSI across the female side?)

 

[Dialcaliper]

I don't think I did anything special, looks like I didn't even use a washer beyond the sphericals. I am pretty sure I went higher than your torque spec. May have gone 50ish. I think I use a chart from ARP here as reference for hardware. The studs are DIN 939 rated at 125K PSI?

Thanks for the feedback I will keep an eye on mine and the ones Dtulley is running.

Wonder if using the Stainless ones would make more sense. Stainless won't be nearly as hard. You would want to lube them up well to keep them from galling as they settled into position. Did you use the .875 OD or the smaller .625 OD? (no idea if that would matter, theoretically there could be more PSI across the female side?)

Pretty sure they were the 0.875 OD type.

Looking at your photo, the flanged nuts you used cover a lot more of the washer face than the socket heads I used, which did not cover them fully, that may have been part of the issue (May have worked fine if I’d used some additional washers).

FYI if one of yours failed the way mine did, it’s probably not something that would need inspection - when it failed it didn’t just crack and stay there, the wedge on the concave part that broke literally caused the washer to break in three pieces under preload and shoot out the sides like bullets. It the was a pretty loud sharp “bang” with flying pieces, even though it had sat there for two minutes minding its own business.

 

[Fusion Works]

Interesting.

 

[Dialcaliper]

Just finished installing my ADF skidplate over my Swave/summit 4-point. It fits like a gem with the 1” spacers I made. Probably could have trimmed them back a tenth or two shorter, but so it goes.I used some VHB applied a bit messily to the spacers so they hopefully stay attached to the skidplate, making it easier to remove.

I added a thin Buna-N foam strip across the inside of the plate where it contacts the crossbrace in the front, which will hopefully prevent noise and chafing on the brace. It does mean the brace is supporting the skidplate in that area in the event of a hit, but I don’t expect it to be an issue

 

[M-Sport fan]

The (almost) body color plate looks cool.

I am wondering if I will ever really need to install my skid plate again, given that there are now NO ARA rallies anymore within 600 miles of my location left to work on.

If this remains the case going forward, I will also have no qualms about using the Spec R springs as well, even if they do lower the car that full claimed inch when paired with the Bilstein B6es.