Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

[Lorne34]

Custom front crash bar/tow hook setup is complete. Bar is right up against the bumper, maximizing clearance to the radiator for the future ducting. Not the most meticulously fabricated piece, but it should be plenty strong and super functional.

I have the wiring 98% buttoned up - just need to document final install. Also got the new pedal box in - just working on some plumbing changes now. Will share more details tonight/tomorrow AM.

Getting closer to first start and (hopefully) test drive!

Looks like we finally found a Shelby GT350 with dual air intakes!

 

[honeybadger]

More progress. The wiring is done. Just need to start the car and verify before I heat shrink the remaining boots. Will take pics tonight after I clean up the mess I made yesterday chasing a few pins/sockets that had been swapped.

I did relocate the reservoir tank to the cage for easy access/checking. No spillage in the car and still out of the way.

The only thing left is some clean up on the pedal box and she's ready to start. Still waiting on the base tune and getting scheduled at the dyno. Really hope to fire it up this week/weekend. We'll see.

 

[MAGS1]

More progress. The wiring is done. Just need to start the car and verify before I heat shrink the remaining boots. Will take pics tonight after I clean up the mess I made yesterday chasing a few pins/sockets that had been swapped.

I did relocate the reservoir tank to the cage for easy access/checking. No spillage in the car and still out of the way.

The only thing left is some clean up on the pedal box and she's ready to start. Still waiting on the base tune and getting scheduled at the dyno. Really hope to fire it up this week/weekend. We'll see.

Would love to hear the startup if you’re able to share a video! Everything looks great so far

 

[CobaltFilly]

Would love to hear the startup if you’re able to share a video! Everything looks great so far

We are so excited!!! Startup vid!!!!!

 

[honeybadger]

Would love to hear the startup if you’re able to share a video! Everything looks great so far

We are so excited!!! Startup vid!!!!!

my base tune is on the to-do list tomorrow from my tuner, so should be happening soon! Getting really itchy to get it fired up and make sure it doesn’t immediately grenade

 

[CobaltFilly]

my base tune is on the to-do list tomorrow from my tuner, so should be happening soon! Getting really itchy to get it fired up and make sure it doesn’t immediately grenade

It won’t grenade! It will be a fabulous delicious startup.
Just don’t forget fluids 🫣

 

[honeybadger]

Got the wiring buttoned up last night and happy with how everything came out considering it's me. I'll do an in-depth overview video of what's what and how they all integrate in a future overview video. Running like mad to get the car fired this week

 

[Inthehighdesert]

Very very cool!

 

[honeybadger]

I was down all weekend with a monster migraine that came out of nowhere - so lost a few days. But got back at it on Monday after work as was able to make some headway.

I finally finished up the pedal box install. As mentioned in a previous post, I upgraded to the Tilton 850 series underfoot pedal setup for two reasons - one, the 76 series master cylinders that are used on the 600 series I bought are not "recommended" for use with ABS systems. Either that wasn't on the listing when I bought the pedal kit a year or two ago or I missed it completely (probably the latter). Second, I never could find a way to make it fit with a pedal cover/false floor like I wanted. Here's a picture of the original 600 Series install (ignore the Deutsch connectors - they had just fallen from above).

While it doesn't look too bad in that photo - the truth was the OEM gas pedal was constantly hitting the foot well pan and the much bigger issue was that to get it to fit like that required a gap of 2-3 inches underneath it.

This is the best photo I can find showing what i mean

This is much "lift" above the floor was required to make it work. Really didn't like the result

Here's the new setup. Much cleaner, I think. Plus, the pedals feels better

Lastly on the brake front - I changed out the OEM connectors going to the wheel speed sensors some autosports. The boots provide much better strain relief as well a more reliable connection.

And lastly for tonight - I got a bit further on the rear bulkhead/firewall. Hopefully can finish up tomorrow or Thursday.

Still waiting on a tune to fire the car. The weight is killing me. Sigh

 

[honeybadger]

FInal fitment of the rear bulkhead before I took it out to paint. It's drying now and should be ready to go in for the final time tomorrow. Awhhh ya.

Also - got a special delivery today. I have a bit of an ambitious exhaust project to try and squeeze into the next couple weeks and some titanium bullet mufflers are just what the doctor ordered. I'm hoping to lower the tone of the engine note a bit and remove some of that rasp/metallic sound that somes with long tubes and catless midpipes. After I heard the much larger Ti mufflers on @Tonymustang302 's car, I knew they were going to be the ticket. The do wonders for rasp and that metallic sound. While his bigger mufflers also helped tone down the volume a lot - i'm told these won't do much on that front.

I have a bit of an ambitious place for the exits

 

[honeybadger]

Story time!

It was eventful weekend at the badger house. On Thursday, I put at a bat signal on the Link ECU facebook group looking for some help with a base map. I had a couple local race shops I was talking to about tuning the car, but I've been having a ton of trouble getting on their schedule. I was hoping to make COTA in two weeks, so I decided to see what my remote tuning options were.

I was fortunate that a gent named from Australia replied to my post and we started talking. He's a big mustang fan and appears to be quite the tuning wizard. He got started right away building me a base map from scratch (this is a ton more work than tuning an OEM PCM where things like the fuel table, knock parameters, RPM limiters, sensors, etc. are all setup and calibrated). On Saturday we jumped on the phone for about 1.5 hours and began setting up the ECU and working through some tests. We found a couple issues, so we jumped off the phone and I got to work fixing them.

1. Car wasn't building oil pressure - I primed the oiling system a little over a month ago, but it all drained back and it took a bit of spinning the dry sump pulley with a drill to re-prime the system. Okay - easy fix.

2. Trigger 2 wasn't working - the ECU uses the intake cam angle sensor on bank 1 as trigger two. I traced my wires and the wires to the connector itself all checked out. So it must've been the custom leads I soldered on and potted. Okay - easy fix. I had a couple spares and re-did both sides. That was soon fixed. Here's a blurry picture - thanks phone. But trust me - it looks great and came out clean and no OEM connector to fail.

Trig 2 is working (trig 1 is the crank angle sensor and that's the green one, blue is trig 2)

3. My accelerator pedal sensor was acting weird. These sensors have a "main" and a "sub" signal (main is the main, obviously, and sub is for redundancy so that if one wire shorts out, the ECU still gets a signal). Two issues, we only had the sub signal. Main wasn't showing up. Second, it was jumping between 4.74v and 0.24v, so resolution was crap (basically the ECU was seeing no throttle or full throttle). Best I can tell, I have a faulty sensor. New one is ordered.



With 1 and 2 fixed, we were able to try firing the car on Sunday evening.

Car is ready for startup!

We disabled the throttle pedal and used the software to control the throttle body. I jumped back on a call with Jono and we began finishing up some settings. We then turned the car over....and she didn't fire. Boooo

So we began more troubleshooting - Jono fired each injector and coil pack 1 by 1 to see if we had fuel and spark. We heard each coil and each injector click in the right order - okay so firing order and wiring was correct. Twice we had the car backfire while testing the spark - scared the bajeezus out of us the first time. Legit sounded like a shotgun blast. haha

We started playing around with the trigger offset thinking the ECU just didn't know where TDC was and therefore timing was off. We got a few hits a couple of times, but still wouldn't fire. We signed off and Jono went and talked to Adam, a lead engineer at Link ECU, and he was like "are you using smart coils?" And there we had the answer. I missed that in my planning had been resuing the OEM coils which don't provide enough spark under compression unless they have an igniter. So my options are two either add igniters to the system or swap out the OEM coils for smart coils. I've chosen the later becasue if the igniters fail, I'm screwed. With smart coils, I can just run to the Nissan dealer and pickup a new set since we're going with R35 GTR coils - widely regarded as the best OEM coils in the industry and they're proven up to 2000hp in the GTRs.

So while I'm waiting on parts and needing to modify the harness, I am taking care of a few other things Jono and I talked about.

1. I'm adding a flex fuel sensor after learning about how the ECU uses the data to interpret and adjust the fuel tables. I'm not smart enough to articulate the reasons to others yet (got homework to do), but it offers more than just the ability to run a mix of petrol and E85 -it gives the ECU more data to work with, which is safer, and it simplifes the work it has to do with the fuel tables.

2. I had the same Ford Performance LU47 injectors I've been using all along. I am swapping to ID1050s for more headroom and better performance. Jono shared some feedback about why he prefers them (better spray pattern, they're all calibrated and tested before shipping, consistency pack to pack, etc.) and it seemed like a no brainer. Plus, Injector Dynamics posts more detailed specs, which gives Jono more info to fine-tune in the ECU programming.

So my current status is I am waiting for new parts to come in so I can fix the spark issue and upgrade the injectors. Bummer to have to wait, but making progress regardless.

Oh - and the rear firewall / bulkhead is basically done. Once I get my black rivets, I can remove the clecos and be done and move onto the windows! The firewall is held in with a combo of rivets and 3M sealant. I then painted over the sealant. Came out great, IMHO.

 

[fast306stang]

Story time!

It was eventful weekend at the badger house. On Thursday, I put at a bat signal on the Link ECU facebook group looking for some help with a base map. I had a couple local race shops I was talking to about tuning the car, but I've been having a ton of trouble getting on their schedule. I was hoping to make COTA in two weeks, so I decided to see what my remote tuning options were.

I was fortunate that a gent named from Australia replied to my post and we started talking. He's a big mustang fan and appears to be quite the tuning wizard. He got started right away building me a base map from scratch (this is a ton more work than tuning an OEM PCM where things like the fuel table, knock parameters, RPM limiters, sensors, etc. are all setup and calibrated). On Saturday we jumped on the phone for about 1.5 hours and began setting up the ECU and working through some tests. We found a couple issues, so we jumped off the phone and I got to work fixing them.

1. Car wasn't building oil pressure - I primed the oiling system a little over a month ago, but it all drained back and it took a bit of spinning the dry sump pulley with a drill to re-prime the system. Okay - easy fix.

2. Trigger 2 wasn't working - the ECU uses the intake cam angle sensor on bank 1 as trigger two. I traced my wires and the wires to the connector itself all checked out. So it must've been the custom leads I soldered on and potted. Okay - easy fix. I had a couple spares and re-did both sides. That was soon fixed. Here's a blurry picture - thanks phone. But trust me - it looks great and came out clean and no OEM connector to fail.

Trig 2 is working (trig 1 is the crank angle sensor and that's the green one, blue is trig 2)

3. My accelerator pedal sensor was acting weird. These sensors have a "main" and a "sub" signal (main is the main, obviously, and sub is for redundancy so that if one wire shorts out, the ECU still gets a signal). Two issues, we only had the sub signal. Main wasn't showing up. Second, it was jumping between 4.74v and 0.24v, so resolution was crap (basically the ECU was seeing no throttle or full throttle). Best I can tell, I have a faulty sensor. New one is ordered.



With 1 and 2 fixed, we were able to try firing the car on Sunday evening.

Car is ready for startup!

We disabled the throttle pedal and used the software to control the throttle body. I jumped back on a call with Jono and we began finishing up some settings. We then turned the car over....and she didn't fire. Boooo

So we began more troubleshooting - Jono fired each injector and coil pack 1 by 1 to see if we had fuel and spark. We heard each coil and each injector click in the right order - okay so firing order and wiring was correct. Twice we had the car backfire while testing the spark - scared the bajeezus out of us the first time. Legit sounded like a shotgun blast. haha

We started playing around with the trigger offset thinking the ECU just didn't know where TDC was and therefore timing was off. We got a few hits a couple of times, but still wouldn't fire. We signed off and Jono went and talked to Adam, a lead engineer at Link ECU, and he was like "are you using smart coils?" And there we had the answer. I missed that in my planning had been resuing the OEM coils which don't provide enough spark under compression unless they have an igniter. So my options are two either add igniters to the system or swap out the OEM coils for smart coils. I've chosen the later becasue if the igniters fail, I'm screwed. With smart coils, I can just run to the Nissan dealer and pickup a new set since we're going with R35 GTR coils - widely regarded as the best OEM coils in the industry and they're proven up to 2000hp in the GTRs.

So while I'm waiting on parts and needing to modify the harness, I am taking care of a few other things Jono and I talked about.

1. I'm adding a flex fuel sensor after learning about how the ECU uses the data to interpret and adjust the fuel tables. I'm not smart enough to articulate the reasons to others yet (got homework to do), but it offers more than just the ability to run a mix of petrol and E85 -it gives the ECU more data to work with, which is safer, and it simplifes the work it has to do with the fuel tables.

2. I had the same Ford Performance LU47 injectors I've been using all along. I am swapping to ID1050s for more headroom and better performance. Jono shared some feedback about why he prefers them (better spray pattern, they're all calibrated and tested before shipping, consistency pack to pack, etc.) and it seemed like a no brainer. Plus, Injector Dynamics posts more detailed specs, which gives Jono more info to fine-tune in the ECU programming.

So my current status is I am waiting for new parts to come in so I can fix the spark issue and upgrade the injectors. Bummer to have to wait, but making progress regardless.

Oh - and the rear firewall / bulkhead is basically done. Once I get my black rivets, I can remove the clecos and be done and move onto the windows! The firewall is held in with a combo of rivets and 3M sealant. I then painted over the sealant. Came out great, IMHO.

I can't tell you how much I love this post. The way you articulate your thoughts so the average Joe like me can understand the methodology and the fix is outstanding. The followup pics so we can see exactly what you're talking about also.

I'll never be in your shoes, but the attention to detail, the well-thought-out plan and execution, the level of craftsmanship...is exactly how I'd do it. Assuming I had the knowledge and talent lol!

 

[honeybadger]

I can't tell you how much I love this post. The way you articulate your thoughts so the average Joe like me can understand the methodology and the fix is outstanding. The followup pics so we can see exactly what you're talking about also.

I'll never be in your shoes, but the attention to detail, the well-thought-out plan and execution, the level of craftsmanship...is exactly how I'd do it. Assuming I had the knowledge and talent lol!

Ha. Appreciate the kind words. I'm trying to write so that normies like me can understand and gain context. I've learned pretty much everything through forums and YouTube, so just trying to repay the favor. If I can help encourage at least one of ya'll to build your own race car, I'll consider that a win

 

[joe603]

Good luck man...we're all patiently waiting for that startup video!

 

[L8APEX]

Are you driving? Or just hanging out?

And not sure. This might be the first year I miss since moving down in 2018. It looks like we're going to be on a road trip the first two weeks of July - if the car is done, I'll be driving at Road America and Watkins Glen. While I'll be super bummed to miss the night event, I feel like WGI is a worthy track to miss it for ha!

Are you going to be out for any other events? I think I should be at the May event - hoping to do my first COTA shakedown then.

If you are going as far as Watkins Glen, you should 100% go to Mosport GP!!!