Welp, who wants an update? Celica is ready for action again.
First outing after the extended Red Flag event proudly brought to you by COVID-19. LeMons Celica did not disappoint - chewed the wheel bearing right out. But hey, nothing a trip to Harbor Freight for some front wheel drive bearing kit, snap ring pliers, and the ****tiest wheel bearing known to mankind from national auto parts chain can't fix.
Also, some recent pics of the car. Was trying to get classic car insurance on this turd, but Hargerty turned me down - too many colors on the outside they said.





This post has been edited by slavie: Jul 16, 2020 - 6:41 PM

You're probably better off for it too... Doesn't Hagerty have milage limits?

IIRC, they tried telling me that driving the 205 to work ONCE a week was excessive for a classic car.

I told them to pound sand.

The LeMons Celica finished a LeMons race!!! Like, without blowing the engine or loosing any other bits. The worst problem we had was we ran out of brake pad - used up 1.5 sets of EBC Yellows in the back, and about a set in the front. I did not have any more spare rears, so we had to baby it the last few hours with the brake pad squealers fully engaged.

Finished 33/79 overall, 16/46 in our class B. 419 laps x 1.7mi.

Tires got chewed up pretty good, though looks like they'll last another race. 300TW Summer Tire. Thing is, even with this tires we could not get the brake pads to stay cool enough (the increased pad wear was due to pads overheating), so 200tw tires are out of question until I can sort out the brakes. Will try brake cooling ducts first, see how much it helps.


So what was the secret to finishing the race without overheating? Pressure tested the cooling system with air, found that the radiator was leaking where the steel auto trans cooler hookup ports go into the plastic rad cover, and heater hoses (engine to firewall) were both seeping. All 3 replaced, system holds pressure.
Now onto the radiator cap. The stock cap is rated for 0.9 bar, or about 13psi, which is in theory good for water boiling temp of 245F. In reality, the cap lets loose a little earlier than that, esp if it's older. In my testing with radiator cap tester, the cap could only be relied on to hold about 9psi, so 235F boiling temp. Short on time, I got the cap from a MkIV Supra, which is same as Celica but stock holds 1.1bar pressure, or 16psi. That one in my testing held about 13psi steady. There are aftermarket "performance" 1.3bar caps our there, but I didn't have time to order one for the race. 1.1bar Supra cap served me well.

For the overheating rear brakes you might need to either soften the front suspension to allow more brake dive or get an adjustable proportioning valve. Solid disks just don't shed heat well enough, a hotter pad or a pad with less friction might also help but options are limited.

>
I looked into the proportioning valve, but for the life of mine I cannot find a "dual channel" one that would allow to retain the factory "X" configuration, where I have 2 brake lines going to the back. I just don't feel like re-working the whole brake line routing just yet to solve this problem.

Softer rear pads maybe, but I'm afraid that won't last very long. If staying within EBC line (highest performance for reasonable money), I could try Reds, but it's kinda hard to experiment with that stuff that I only have a race or two a year. IDK. Looked into Carbotech stuff, lots more variety but a set of front + rear pads is $400-450, vs $150 for EBC Yellow. Looked into ProjectMU, but they seem to be on par with EBC yellows but cost twice as much and are hard to get, meh.

Suspension can hardly be any softer, really, considering the car's purpose. It has Suspension Techniques lowering springs, and I'm not that excited about them. I purchased some Ground Control "coil-overs" from a member here on the forum, and plan to install those before the next race. That will firm up the suspension a whole lot, and allow me to play with ride height a little and change spring rates.

I'm really banking on brake cooling ducts. Any ideas?

Can you not install a single channel prop valve on each rear line? I mean...right?

Brake cooling ducts may help but solid discs just have a hard time shedding heat. Cross drilled rotors could help maybe. I didn't mean softer like softer I meant softer like lower friction pads, the less friction the less heat let the fronts do more of the work. Yellows are fairly aggressive pads, more aggressive than is really needed out back.

But back to the mighty ducts, I'm not sure where you'd be able to pull air from for cooling. I suppose you could hack some ducts onto the sides of the car and just run tubes through the floor pan but I doubt that's what you want to do. I suppose possibly building some scoops under the car may work, maybe some NACA style ducts to pull air to the brakes could be a thing, I'm just not sure for rear.

for the rear I would just take some aluminum sheet and form some sort of scoop to direct some under body air to the rotor/caliper. Or just use a 2ft section of ducting hose and tie it to the control arm and direct it towards the nose. Thats a quicker fix

I had pretty much forgotten about this car but it popped into my head the other day so I figured I’d poke around on here to see what became of it and man, Slavie does not disappoint! This thread is awesome!

I’m glad you’re putting the car to good use Slavie! Much better than any other life it would’ve of had. That little Celica was always fun to bang gears in, even if it wasn’t the fastest car, it was just so enjoyable to drive.


Keep it up! And thank you for posting the vids too!