sc1 aero mods

[Weather Spotter]

or use led bubs, they are plenty bright!

[arcosine]

Added fairings in back of the front wheels:

[Weather Spotter]

looking good

[arcosine]

The chloroplast belly pan was sagging down about 3 inches near the gas tank where it was unsupported. It's 8 years old. I had to cut it and splice it back to rivet it to the tank shield 3 inches doesn't sound like much, but it was the lowest spot so venturi action was pulling it down.

I am still thinking on how far to go with the boat tail, reversible or permanently boogled up so the trunk lid, fenders and lights can't be put back on. This would be the lowest drag configuration.

[arcosine]

Contemplating 3 foot long tail configurations:

A: Keeping trunk lid:


B: Trunk lid modified:


I am leaning toward B. Plan C was to remove the fenders to make an optimal taper, but this would involve too much structural metal work, since there are braced to hold up the rear glass and struts and the car would be down for several weeks. Also coroplast is not durable enough. I need to find a rear deck lid to cut up and bend. Pan B calls for the removal of the bumper cover this will allow attachment of the spars directly to the space frame underneath. The sides will be tapered in at 15 degrees. The end will be big enough to just fit a licence plate and tail lights, it will be 3 feet wide.

[Weather Spotter]

I like plan "b"

[arcosine]

I went to the junk yard today, they wanted $55 for a smashed trunk lid... too much. I got 2 injectors for $12 each to try out cylinder deactivation, need 4 o-rings to hold the lifters up off the cam shaft. All the L-series saturns had the engines out, so no 195F thermostat.

I noticed the intake air temperature was following the engine temperature not much above ambient, so I shrouded the exhaust manifold better, will find out on the test drive if it's better....

At 41 degrees outside the intake air temp is about 95 at steady 50 mph and 105 when accelerating from a stop. Itwas 111F after parked and eating ice cream on route 66. it's not drawing in enough air to keep the airbox and inlet warm. Engine temp about 165F.

[arcosine]

Increased castor mod, filed slots out of the round holes and pushed the strut top all the way back, similarly, the bottom sway bar mount is pulled forward (foil is for RFI shielding)



Hot air intake, wrapped exhaust manifold with aluminium flashing( screen over air intake is to keep mice out from building nests).

[arcosine]

My wife had a key made and the first time she used it it got stuck in the ignition, so sometimes it's hard to tell of the ignition is off. Well the other day I went to start it up and the ignition was left on, so the battery was down where it just clicked. I let it set a few hours to recover and it started. I though I would leave it run to charge the battery, well I forgot, maybe a pre-senior moment, a day and a half later we were going to drive somewhere and I noticed the idiot lights on. Oh no I thought the battery is dead again, but no, the car was nice and warm inside and still running. It idled away half a tank of premium gas between Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning.

The map sensor went bad, so I repaced it and added a silicon diode in series with the reference voltage, it dropped to from 5vdc to 4.3 vdc. The map sensor reading wot went from 14.65 psi to 13.05 psi. I estimate the ignition timing advanced 3 degrees. It stays in closed loop during wot at operating temperature, but takes some time to warm up as it now hesitates when cold. Oxygen sensor 1 reads .045 volts during acceleration when not fully warm and normal readings when cruising. The ultragauge needs to be recalibrated now. When the map sensor was bad it read 1.6 psi continuously, and the ultragauge read 230 mpg! Timing was 34 degrees.

[Varn]

Good job Tony with pulling the struts back to keep your caster with your oversize tires. More effort than I am willing to do.