Well, a couple hundred miles and an autocross event later, I can honestly say that I love it.
It added traction when cornering/turning, even when accelerating from a stop and turning.
And it seems to have reduced body roll somewhat.
It also seems to have changed the rear-end feel of the car a bit over bumps, it's a bit cushier but firm.
Also, last Saturday my fiancee and I took part in an autocross event.
A couple of pictures of us in our cars during the event, me in my gray '13 GT and my fiancee in her '08 GT500:
During the last couple of runs, I managed to overheat the brake fluid, my blower belt decided to start melting onto the pulleys, the right rear brake started smoking, and with all that going on I decided to skip the last run of the day, let the car cool off and be able to drive it home instead of breaking something and having to tow it.
So, new belts were ordered and yesterday I started working on the car.
Got the blower belt replaced with the new belt I had already ordered a few weeks ago (a fun project since a large aluminum tensioner bracket has to be removed), and this was made much easier by the fact that I was replacing the coolant tanks with newly hydro-dipped ones.
Also got the thermostat replaced with a new 170-degree Reische unit that I've had for over a year.
Stopped about half-done since the shipment with the new main serpentine belt, its tensioner, and a new idler pulley, didn't show up yesterday like it was supposed to.
Finished yesterday's work by installing the new hydrodipped engine coolant tank, and today will hopefully button it up, top off the coolant systems, and re-start it.
Still need to flush the brake fluid, and I have Amsoil DOT4 brake fluid here for that service.
The new hydro-dipped coolant tanks I picked up yesterday from the dipper:
Pictures from yesterday's work:
The alternator/front serpentine belt, original OEM part at the current 37k miles, being replaced mostly because it has to be removed anyway for the blower belt to be replaced:
The old and the new blower belts. The old blower belt was starting to show a really odd wear on half of it, and it was sticky, this was the half that was leaving gummy residue onto the pulleys:
The belts removed, the top silver idler pulley clearly shows the belt residue that the blower belt was leaving on it:
Pulleys cleaned and new blower belt routed, aluminum tensioner bracket reinstalled and torqued to 25 Nm (approx 222 in-lbs):
Thermostat-replacement. This caused a bunch of fluid to leak out, almost no way to have it not do that because of where the t-stat is located. I had a pan under the car that caught most of it.
The factory 180-degree thermostat:
And the factory t-stat next to the new 170-degree Reische t-stat:
The way it looked at the end of the day yesterday, with the engine coolant tank installed and connected, but not re-filled yet, just in case I have to take it apart again for some reason:
Shipment with the new main serpentine belt, the new tensioner for that belt, and a new OEM idler pulley should be here today, it's currently showing "out for delivery".
Can't wait to get it re-started!
Once I know she's running well again, I have a new smaller supercharger pulley waiting to be installed, in my quest to get closer to 600 rear-wheel horsepower.
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