My 60k-Mile Track Rental BAT Scud Project!

yup, the calipers definitely have some weirdness, and it goes beyond the decals. They were refinished while on the car and do not look good at all up close (overspray on bolts, etc...), so I will be removing and refinishing properly when the time is right. I just did the same to my gt3 using the VHT caliper paint (after proper prep) and they turned out great. One advantage is that the caliper lettering on my red gt3 is white, which can yellow with heat cycles. The black script on the scud brakes will fare much better.

 

This stuff called "beasley's carbon glaze." I think its just a glorified wax. Jury is still out whether its better than just a good quality automotive wax, but at least its "formulated" for carbon fiber and its supposed to treat and protect.

 

Alright. Started digging in to fix the broken header studs. Turns out only two were actually broken off in the holes. Getting off the Capistro headers was fun. The shape of the bends does not leave much room to navigate. Lots of 1 degree turns of a 12mm stubby wrench (ground down a bit) followed by flipping it around and another 1 degree turn, ad naseum! Not fun but got them off. Then spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to wiggle them out (finally got it). Bought a drill guide set that uses an existing header stud to secure a little rail that you position over the stud you want to drill using a little drill guide insert that self centers over the hole with the broken stud. You use that drill guide to drill out the exact center of the stud, and then I used this extraction kit (amazon) that has little high strength fluted shafts that you hammer into the hole you just made in the stud. Then you slide a collar over the shaft, say a prayer, make a donation to the local food bank, help an old lady cross a street, and slowly turn out the bolt with a wrench on the collar. Worked perfect! These are better than the spiral cut tapered "easy outs" because those tend to expand the broken stud making them harder to remove, and in my experience just don't grip all that great. Highly recommend this method.

Had to laugh when three (yes three) header gaskets fell off when I removed the header. Guess that was easier than removing the broken studs and fixing it properly! Oh yea, one other observation. The flanges of the capistro headers were basically dead level still. One end was mabye 1mm (or less) higher than the other edge, but definitely not "warped." Not even worth machining as I'm sure they will pull flat once installed. So, if you have capistro headers I'm sure they are not prone to warping like the oem ones, as my car would have definitely exposed such a propensity given its prior history!

Now that I have easy access to the valve covers from underneath I'm going to replace the gaskets that appear to have been weeping for a long time. Cleaned all the mess up last night with degreaser and brake cleaner so that I can monitor for leaks in the future.

I've seen posts that suggest using hondabond on the gaskets to ensure a better seal and keep leaks at bay longer, as even fresh oem gaskets can leak after a few thousand miles. Any suggestions there? I'm not going to overdo it, just a light coat on both surfaces. Hopefully that will keep things sealed up nicely.
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Ok, the "refreshstoration" continues. With the headers off it was time to tackle the leaking valve cover gaskets. What a miserable job. You have to basically lay on top of the car, and for many of the fasteners you are basically working blind. The old valve cover gaskets (and especially the spark plug gaskets) were hard and stiff, so it was definitely time. Changed the plugs while I was in there even though the service records I have indicated a change within the last 2k miles (wanted to be sure they were fresh and the right spec). FWIW I used ThreeBond 1211 (well-known product used primarily for sealing case halves on jetski's and motorcycles) upon the recommendation of a few posters on FCHAT, as I have seen reports of leaking again after a few thousand miles, and figure it couldn't hurt. My approach was to apply a little in the channel of the cover, install the gasket, let is set up a bit, and that way when you go to install the gasket stays seated (when I tried to install them "dry" I could tell it was going to be a very frustrating exercise as the gasket wants to fall out and its hard to verify if everything is properly seated since you can see so many areas such as near the front of the engine). I also put a thin coat on the head as well, just as extra "insurance." Torqued everything to spec (10nm) using a tiny torque wrench.

Also changed out the o2 sensors while I was in there (they were aftermarket instead of bosch). Since the car is laid up I also removed the diffuser to trouble shoot some rattles and found two busted mounting tabs which I fixed with high strength epoxy. And since the diffuser was off I also changed out the gear oil. Definitely some metal "fuzz" and shavings at the screen and plug magnet...hoping its left over from the gearbox rebuild 2k miles ago. Nothing major, but there was more of it than I was expecting to see. I love that there is a dipstick for the gear oil (much better than my past there mezger motor Porsche where you just fill till it runs out of the hole!).

Getting the headers back on was really awful. Scud headers already make the task more difficult due to the decreased access owing to the air injection rail, and when you combine that with the larger diameter tubes of the Capistro headers, its a really difficult and annoying task. Glad I won't have to do that again anytime soon. I had to grind down sockets and wrenches to get everything tight, and even then it was sometimes difficult to get even 1/16th at a time on some of the header nuts! I also had to install the header itself by passing it through the wheel well after removing the wheels and wheel well liner. Simply could not get them into the "header cavity" through the bottom or top. Not fun.

One bad surprise: Each of the variator connectors was oily. Not massively so, but I will likely need to replace soon (will probably wait till it throws a code). For now I cleaned them out with electrical contact cleaner. The fact that it hasn't thrown any error codes likely means I have a bit of time, but this project is probably in my future.

One good surprise: The camshaft lobes are shiny and show basically no signs of wear at all. No rub marks, discoloration, pitting, or the like. Honestly, the intake valve train looks better and cleaner than that of any car I have ever owned. Very apparent the oil was changed regularly, and I'm hoping that bodes well for the long-term health and reliability of the engine! I still need to install the passenger side valve cover,
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She's Alive! Finally got the valve covers all buttoned up (super not fun job...was tempted to rig up a mission impossible-style suspended hoist so I wouldn't have to lay on the rear fenders as much!). Then it was time to re-install the Capistro headers blankets which were a little rough from years of heat, oil leaks, exhaust leaks, and track time. A bunch of the snaps were gone/vaporized so I did something I told myself I would never, ever do: Voluntarily patronized a Hobby Lobby store! Got a little snap button kit and installation tool and replaced the missing/damaged buttons and re-installed the blankets.

Since the under tray was off I also swapped out the motor mounts. Sourced all new hardware (eurospares had the best price on these) even though it probably wasn't necessary, but it felt good to be starting "fresh" and I wasn't sure what I would find when I started taking stuff apart. Couple pics show the proper orientation of all the nuts and washers. Also a comparison pic that shows how "squished" the old mounts were. The pics don't tell the whole story however, as I could easily "rock" the mounts back and forth with my fingers and they compressed even more when the weight of the engine was sitting on them. It was definitely due, and cars feels a little less harsh now (need to do the transmission mount but not looking forward to that job).

Started the car up and I think eliminating the exhaust header leak coupled with two new Bosch o2 sensors restored some power for sure! Cars feels livelier and more "eager" now. Super happy. Many more projects to come but I'm starting to get this thing sorted!
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This is a very true statement! And with four kids at home, trust me, I'm starting to push my luck so now that these high-profile issues are more or less resolved I'm going to back off for a few weeks and tackle only the little projects (where she won't even notice I'm in the garage!)

 

Thanks for the lead Vegas CS! Will see what I can scrounge up. Would be awesome to complete the "history" on the car.

Slow weekend due to some family commitments. But I did manage to swap out the mangled/on its last leg transmission heat heat shield and also changed out the coolant. First time using one of those vacuum tools. Suck out all the air, switch off the air valve to hold the vacuum, stick the other hose in the bucket of coolant, open the valve and "presto," system filled with no air bubbles. Tool was super cheap (and super cheaply constructed) but it actually worked perfectly! Here is the link to the tool I used:
https://www.ebay.com/p/8023023371

Not best quality but for 30 bucks it worked perfect for me! Also did a little more ocd detailing and tracked down a few more rattles. Getting there!

 

Got a few more small projects done and one of them was the most satisfying to date! My poor carbon intake manifold looked so naked and sorry without the Ferrari script emblems. So I broke down and ordered them even though they were not exactly a good value LOL. However it was not exactly plug and play. My manifold had the holes for the emblems with pegs and the new emblems came with two extra pegs without corresponding holes in the manifold. So I ground those off inasmuch as all the other holes matched the pegs from the emblems. But I wasn’t done. The emblem is a very soft chrome plated steel but they didn’t really match the contours of the manifold so I had to bend and tweak each letter a bit very carefully with padded needle nose pliers to get everything to sit flush and tight. Then came the daunting task of gluing them down with JB Weld without having the epoxy splurge out past the edges of the emblems and look crappy. I had to do it a couple times to get it to the point where I was satisfied. However it looks great now and you can’t see any of the JB Weld around the edges anymore. The downside is that you can’t use much epoxy or it will simply go everywhere when you push them into place. Time will tell if the epoxy holds.

Then I tackled the loose taillights with member skyhye’s kit. Great kit. Most of my studs had already been epoxied once before so it was a bit of work to remove all that. While they were out my ocd kicked in and I removed some paint overspray, then polished and waxed the lights to get rid of 60k miles of accumulated scratches and wear. They now look new and best of all they are tight! Making progress!
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Man, I would love to since the weave is definitely different than oem but at this point, since they are functionally fine, replacement is currently number 116 on the priority list lol! I’ll get there though!

Front and lower shock bushings are on order from the superperformance. That’s the next project. Hoping to eliminate some of the suspension harshness which is which I suspect is due to worn bushings.