2014 SIM 1SS/1LE Search & Build Thread

[hammdo]

I’m with Geoff on the GM engineering. When my Strut bent, that appeared to be the weakest point. I would suspect that to continue to be the case.

GM has crash tested these quite a bit so my guess they over engineered them.

I was inspired by what Geoff did and will be upgrading mine too (as you know).

I’m searching for crash test videos to see what the carnage looks like...

-Don

[hammdo]

Here you go...



Looks like it’s designed to break...

Another one...



-Don

[hammdo]

2010

Looks like the steel ones can snap too (close to the end of the video):



-Don

[cdb95z28]

Update! I installed the DSE Speed Kit 1 with the DSSV dampers. The car is lowered, and looks way better. Pics to come soon.

[cdb95z28]

[cdb95z28]

Update!

Was a good summer but had my first mechanical failures at the track.

Once I got my headers on in the spring I drove to Ohio to see Steve @ RDPMotorsports (rdpstore.com) for a dyno tune. Steve has always been great with getting orders processed and he has great communications. Meeting him gave me lots of confidence for the tune, My car put down 442HP.

My first track day was in May and the only changes were the Pfadt headers, tune, Detroit TrueTrac, Z/28 diff cooler and the swap out of the Z/28 rear antiroll bar to the bigger OE 1LE bar. I also made a few alignment tweaks with less rear toe in (1mm toe in which is about .125*)

I had ran a new personal best that track day but i also spun on entry of turn 8.
Fast lap


Spin out videos:
]



I believe I spun out due to the minimal toe in I was running. This makes the car balanced towards oversteer.

[cdb95z28]

At the beginning of June I bought the Detroit Speed Engineering (DSE) Speed Kit 1. This consists of the DSE Gen 5 Camaro drop springs and their matching adjustable antiroll (ARB) bars. A member here, aris, installed this kit on his Z/28 and had good thoughts on it. Another SS 1LE owner I met on Facebook installed the kit on his 1LE with the OE 1LE dampers. He ran his car at Sebring in NASA's time trials and he did very well with that setup.



So I set it up with the front ARB full stiff and the rear either full stiff or in the middle hole. I wanted full stiff upfront so the roll was controlled since the DSE springs are softer than the OE Z springs. And to keep the balance I tried the rear bar full stiff or the middle hole. Full stiff in the rear moves the balance towards oversteer. Moving off full stiff to the middle hole softens the bar which moves the balance away from oversteer.



I moved between full stiff and the middle adjustment based on whether I was tweaking other things and where I thought the balance would end up. One track day in June, I had the rear set at full stiff and I found I could throw the car into one corner and it would lightly swing the rear around to the center and I could power out nicely.

Overall, the switch made the car more fun to drive both on track and on the street. It did soften it up a bit but the DSSVs still show their stiff hand. The car does not transition as well when I throw it. But that is a very minor change. The stiff Z springs would take any aggressive inputs very well. Where the DSE setup gives up a tiny bit of the transitional stability. But it is only for a split second. The car then takes a set and will accept another input. Maybe someone with a higher skill set could find more of a difference, but I ended up running a new personal best later in the summer in July. With less front camber, in the summer heat and, as I found last week, down on power.

Current personal best. A bit sloppy early on, so i gave up some time there.

[cdb95z28]

That same day as my new personal best, I developed an oil leak in the OE oil cooler. The Pfadt headers run close to the oil cooler and I think the sustained high heat of the track compromised the cooler. I looked up the cooler and they are made by Dana which is a Tier 1 supplier to the OEMs.

http://www.dana.com/light-vehicles/p...ne-oil-coolers

Dana uses a proprietary method to fuse the stacks together. It is a cold solder process. I believe the high heat from the headers was causing the stacked plates to separate from the mounting plate. It developed a crack right at the solder joint and the oil started to leak out. It dripped down onto my driver side header. Fortunately I saw the smoke and the oil did not catch fire. I made a deflector shield from some plastic in my tool box and I was able to make the 100 mile drive home. It did make a mess under the car and the rear bumper and trunk lid had oil all over them.

I bought and installed another cooler hoping it was just a defect since I did make it thru 3 or 4 track days since the header install. But at the next track day at the end of August, the new cooler started leaking. GM did replace that cooler since it was within their new parts warranty period.

I then bought a Mishimoto cooler for the Gen 5 Camaros. It's a nice kit but the sandwich adapter at the oil filter is quite thick. This pushed the oil filter down below the subframe crossmember. I have the ZL1 belly pan and that will help protect the oil filter. I am going to look for a shorter oil filter too.

[cdb95z28]

That track day in August I had a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 (PSC2) tires on the car and I experienced Ice Mode many times before the second oil cooler leak shortened my day. One of those times was at the entry of turn 17. At 115mph. I released then reapplied and was able to slow the car down but I had to go off track to keep from spinning. I was able to talk to a Gen6 Camaro brake system engineer the next day and he believes the Ice Mode was a result of the aggressive Raybestos ST43 pads in combination with the PSC2s. He said the PSC2 tires have a narrow window of max grip where as the Goodyear 3R that I was running previously have a wide grip threshold.
Ice Mode videos

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1W0...ZPui7am6KcQtg-

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mS...eaAIwJg8f1FCMM

[cdb95z28]

I talked about a loss of power, but I just realized it last week.
When I purchased the Pfadt headers I sent them to Jet Hot for their 1300* polished coating. Within a few months the coating started to peel. At some point in the summer I noticed black specs of carbon showing up on my bumper and trunk lid. This would indicate a rich condition. I suspected my primary O2 sensors may have been corrupted from the oil cooler leak. They had been drenched from the outside with oil and that can cause them to lose their base calibration. I replaced them but the rich condition still existed.

This winter I removed the headers and sent them back to Jet Hot for a warranty recoat. As part of the header removal I pulled the spark plugs and found the AC Delco plugs that I had installed last winter had huge gaps. The iridium tip looked melted/eroded. The gaps opened up to almost .060" from the .040" spec. I believe this is the cause of the rich condition that would also reduce power.






I bought those plugs from Amazon. I checked the reviews recently and some people are having the same problem. Some are suspecting these plugs are counterfeit. I have now purchased a set of NGK Iridiums. From RockAuto!

[2SSRick]

just read this entire thread, awesome read and progress!

[tstodii]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

I bought those plugs from Amazon. I checked the reviews recently and some people are having the same problem. Some are suspecting these plugs are counterfeit. I have now purchased a set of NGK Iridiums.

Amazon has now gone the way of old eBay, allowing anyone to sell anything without really verifying that the product is legit. Good for most things, but can really screw over some. I have had similar issues with suspected counterfeit items being sold as legit on Amazon. Luckily none were car parts or safety equipment. I've actually started purchasing directly from the manufacturer when possible.

Sucks this happened to you, hopefully you get it running right again soon.

Cheers

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by 2SSRick

just read this entire thread, awesome read and progress!

Thanks, hope it helps others.

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by tstodii

Amazon has now gone the way of old eBay, allowing anyone to sell anything without really verifying that the product is legit. Good for most things, but can really screw over some. I have had similar issues with suspected counterfeit items being sold as legit on Amazon. Luckily none were car parts or safety equipment. I've actually started purchasing directly from the manufacturer when possible.

Sucks this happened to you, hopefully you get it running right again soon.

Cheers

Yeah, can't trust Amazon. I think it'll be good now, I have the NGK's in. I bought them from Rockauto.