2011 Torchmate TTB Ultra4 Build Thread

Got some Bling pieces in from Wide Open Design, thermostat housing AN adapter for the LS water pump and a weld on adapter for the water pumpreturn. I'll have to get some picturesonce that piece is welded on, but these are beautiful pieces that will rid us of radiatorhoses all over the car! Here is a link to the thermostat adapter on their website. http://www.wideopendesign.com/Produc...t-Housing.aspx




Jesse has been finalizing the front tubes, he's got a bit to work around with the headers, steering box, and steering pump.






Jake finished up the drivers arm last night, as usual a piece of art.

 

Some end of the day pictures, Jesse's got the nose tube work mostly figured out and Jake's welding the sway bararm adjustment and finished the passenger side beam. Also some pictures of the rear at full droop, and a better pic of the steering together.

 

No one was out there to get updates from, but it looks like they have it all apart for final welding. Wirings been started, as well as the fuel cell mount. Headers are all final welded.

 

The wiring begins...

 

Some more pictures from this morning. Got the massive 40 spline rear 300m CTM shafts in today, these things are so damn nice we may just hang them on the wall instead of putting them in the rig lol.

A few more tubes added to the chassis, and the fuel filtermounts.

 

Here's one of the other things I worked on today. Since this car is likely to see several different drivers and co-drivers it's kind of important for it to fit different people. A lot of co-drivers have different opinions on where the GPS should be located and last night we all started discussing different places for it, angles, height, etc. Then after we all left I came up with this setup while standing in the shower avoiding my rather chilly bedroom (see above post about broken furnace).

The mount basically just pivots on a single bolt, and has a spring loaded pin to lock it in place. You can then loosen the stock mounting knobs and swivel the screen to your desired angle. There are 4 different locking positions, and you can also swing it all the way up and forward to make it easier to get in and out of the car.

 

Jess added a little double shear to the steering arms yesterday, and the new steering box arrived from Howe, so we started figuring out the steering column. While Jake worked on that I put together that Drivers side GPS mount. It's just a touch simpler than the passenger one.

Today I spent most of my time putting together a mount for the master cylinders, and building a new brake pedal with a slight jog in it to get around the gas pedal. Unfortunately I had to leave for the airport before it was completely finished, but I have no doubt that the crew there will finish it off properly for me.





pumpers mounted, tirestrapped, overflows mounted, jack mounted...running out of room..oh yea, Torchmate routermate radiatorcap

 

pumpers mounted, tirestrapped, overflows mounted, jack mounted...running out of room..oh yea, Torchmate routermate radiatorcap

 

I think on any race car with this amount of equipment things get tight, but there is still a decent amount of room for everything. One of the benefits of a 58" wide chassis with 114" wheelbase, and the front TTB arms.

I apologize for not posting regular updated pictures, I promise I'll be on top of that for the rest of the week. Here are some more pictures for the PBB!

 

More...

 

These were really the last big parts that could hold us up and Jack came through for us in a tight time frame with Top Quality Drive Homeshafts!

They are still out there working on buttoning up the plumbing, but aside from brake lines that is complete. Nick's working on the UHMW skid plates, and aluminum work is ongoing.

JT had wanted me to get a pictureof this sweet little bandsawthat the guys have been using for the build, it's an Italian made band/chop saw that we picked up from Hemsaw. All of the fab guys were really excited that it cuts straight and fast without needing earplugslike a chop saw. It's really helped speed up the production on the little stuff!

 

Where to Begin... I'd like to start by thanking the many awesome people and sponsors that made this happen. Glenn from Radflo for unloading his trailer and building us an entire shock race day, to Matt from Solid axle/Spyntec for having his friend fly us out parts.

I'd have to say my story for this event began with the much anticipated first firing of the new car, sometime late Saturday (Feb 5th) night. I wished like hell I could be there, but I was taking the big Torchmate truck and trailer down to KOH and we left on Saturday afternoon. I received a text message from Bill at 9:53 pm saying it was alive and running.

Fast forward a few days, Tuesday the 8th, the rig arrives at the lakebed in all it's glory, and we unload it in front of the Torchmate booth. It drove from there to Goodyear for a quick tirechange to the newest Sticky MT/R. I can't begin to describe how happy I was to watch it drive off the trailer and make the short trip over to Goodyear, just the fact that it was running and there...

After a tirechange, JT and Damien take the rig for a few short trips around Hammertown and discover the first cooling issue with the motor. We spend a few hours bleeding this, and bleeding that, and repositioning the car to repeat the same steps. After consulting with Woodlee, who runs a very similar setup, he said he had the same problem and that running the radiatorcap half off let the bubbles out. We let the car completely cool, and gave this method a try. It worked! They pushed the car that night and said that the cooling temps were well within norms.

Wednesday the 8th, we parked the rig in front of the Torchmate booth to do a quick spring change to set ride height. We had planned to spend all morning and early afternoon with Glenn from Radflo to do shock tuning. During this spring change it was often impossible to even get to the car there were so many people standing around and inspecting its every minute detail. After the car was back on it's own wheels it was ready to go for some shock tuning. JT and Nick were out pre-running in Old Blue, so Jake and myself were the lucky two to take it out to the whoop section that Glenn had chosen for shock tuning. Everything was out of the box settings, and we hit that road doing over 60 mph in the tight whoop sections, and 75 in the straight sections with the car just eating everything up, including the occasional rise or bomb crater. We made several passes while Glenn was making changes to the rear shocks, and the brakes were beginning to get worse and worse. Eventually so bad that we couldn't stop and for safety thoughts we decided to return to camp and assess the situation.

When we got back to camp the right rear axle sealwas wheeping pretty bad, and someone grabbed the left front wheeland to our amazement the wheel bearingwas very loose. This was causing the rotor to push the pistons all the way out leaving us with no brakes.

Now I'm not the most qualified to explain the wheel bearingproblem, so I will leave that for another post, but we spent the rest of the day fixing the problem only to determine that one of the spindles threads had become stretched and unusable. After a call to Matt from Solid Axle, we had new parts on the way to the lakebed with Matt's friend Tom, who was flying out to KOH anyways. He was originally schedule to arrive at 2 pm Thursday. we went as far on the rig as we could, and decided that we would finish the rig tech day before rolling it through.

Thursday morning arrives and we move the rig back in front of the Torchmate booth. Due to flight delays it ended up being about 4:30pm Thursday before we got the parts and could button the rig up for final race prep. We worked well into the evening Thursday night getting the rig final prepped for race day, and we were confident in the repairs and the entire rig.

Friday. Up early, watch the cars stage in the vendor row, and off to the line up. We had a last minute tirecheck on the start line, cameras rolling, and off they went. We had good radio communication all day, and Nick was calling race miles off like they were minutes on a clock. On our way to remote pit they called race-mile 23 and we were actually afraid they might beat us to Remote pit before we could get there. We arrived to find Shannon fly by, and Lovell stopped just past remote pit with a broken tranny. We weren't there for long before JT reported the overheating issue had returned, and they were attempting to milk it's way through the course to get to us, but were running out ofwater fast. Time went by, as did the other racers, JT said there was a massive traffic jam in Outer Limits, and that if they could get out ahead somehow there was still a chance for a good finish. Nick walked to remote pit from outer limits for a refresh on water, and ended up walking back with 3.5 gallons of water to get the car to the pits. On his way out from camp, we were informed that the right rear coilover shaft had broken, and the Winch stopped working.

Finally, after many hours, the car arrived at remote pit. It was clear that the shock had broken due to a binding issue on the trailing arm, and the overheating issue was still present and decided we needed to let the car cool completely before trying to bleed the air again. We changed the rear shock out after clearancing it to not bind on the next trail, we hooked up the missing ground wire from the winch that hadn't been put on, and topped off the cooling system. During the winch fix, we noticed the rear drive shaft had gotten bent on outer limits. We also noticed that the front wheel hubshad become loose again, and tore the hub apart to find no apparent culprit. At this point the sun was setting fast, and it was becoming apparent the new car blues were getting the best of us. With no spare rear driveshaft, and the cooling issue still present, it was decided to call the race for #13. We waited at the Remote pit for Jesse to pass on the final lap, and took the car back to main pit.

We don't know 100% for sure yet on the cooling issue, but Saturday morning we noticed the serpentine beltwas slipping, or one of the pulley's not spinning that might be the root cause of the issue. I'll have to keep you informed when the car gets back in the shop to get worked on.

I have some pictures, I'll post them up when I get them off my camera. I hope to do some video editing from the two incar cameras we have, and put together a highlight reel of the race, as there is a lot more to it then just the first 8 minutes

-Mike

 

Here are some better pictures of the last few things Jesse's been working on. Bump stops in the rear, limit straps, fluid containers, and some number plates.