Big willow, need input on problems- Video

First time i'd driven this track in about 10 years. Definitely a different animal than other tracks- I would argue it requires less finesse/technique and is more about figuring out what you can 'get away' with. I didn't feel the need to try my luck especially after watching a Mustang KR that was pitted next to me cartwheel 5 times out of turn 9. Luckily the driver was ok, very shaken up and dusty but alive.

On to the issues:

I would warm up the car and tires for a few then set one or two fast laps. These were were at the end of the day, in the video when on my fast laps I would get a CEL for a code 22-- p1279 (2 long flashes and 2 short flashes when i jumped the service pin). The code is for front bank VTEC pressure switch malfunction. Ive never had that problem before. I have a 3qt accusump, oil cooler and oil pan baffle. I have correct oil level and only 400 miles on this change. Oil pressure on the gage and the accusump told me it has correct oil pressure. After reading the code and resetting the ECU. the CEL would turn off and I would be able to engage VTEC- everything back to normal. I would go out do some warm up laps and on my flyer the light came on in the exact same spot again, same code and everything.


THEN on the way home I started to hear some noise from the trans like a light scraping. I pulled off to make sure I wasn't dragging my splitter or diffuser and realized that on decel, when in gear, the noise sounded for sure like something was bouncing around inside my transmission case. The noise would get a little better when out of gear on decel, it started to get harder to shift and the car would pop out of gear if i gave it throttle let off and gave it another stab, there was also movement in the shift lever. Im thinking this is an input bearing that gave up the ghost? maybe I broke something off of the pressure plate or clutch disk?

needless to say, this sucks. I have a few events planned for the next 2 weekends. Any ideas on what to expect when i pull it apart?


Everything is here in the video- best lap of the day was a mid 35 before all the drama.

Good to see you at the track. Sorry to hear about the problem. You should pm coz. He is pretty smart with these kind of these problems.

g3driver said:

Good to see you at the track. Sorry to hear about the problem. You should pm coz. He is pretty smart with these kind of these problems.

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I'm seeing him today. I'll mention this to him.

Cool thanks guys.

btw.. not sure if you guys are facebook averse... but there's generally pretty good feedback (in addition to Prime) in the Socal NSX Track Days page.

That sucks, I hope the damage won't be as bad.

I must say I lol'd at the GT5 music intermezzo

Just curious, could be possible that you overrevved it at about 53 seconds when you downshifted? Also, what year is your NSX, and tranny?

I thought the same thing but check my revspeed meters logging function and there were no over-revs. I'm super careful about that after blowing up my oil gear last year. It's a 92 and well outside the snap-ring range. I'm 99% Its got a stock clutch and flywheel. Ive been looking into swapping to JDM gears, JDM gears with type R FD or the OSG gears with the 4:4. I think this just expedited that purchase.

I'm guessing a snap ring failure. Sorry.

Well coming out of the right hander you were at about 6000 RPM (from what I could ascertain from the video) and you continued to accelerate before the next left hander when you down-shifted and the engine sound does indicate a spike in the revs. Whether it over revved or not I guess your data log tells. But I agree that this might be a snap ring.

Damn! I am very sorry to hear. Whom do you have to tear apart your tranny? Autowave in Huntington Beach are very knowledgeable about rebuilding track trannys for what it's worth. Mark is a genius with the NSX. Good luck. I hope it isn't too bad. I'm heading out to Big Willow this weekend.

Having a transmission outside the snap ring range is no guarantee for success. My gearbox was out of the range as well, but about two years ago my snap ring failed. I could still shift, but third gear was grinding and setting it into first and reverse was almost impossible.

The more i read the more that I think its going to be the snap-ring like everyone is saying. I'm not sure that I'm going to rebuilt it or just order a rebuilt unit from SOS and swap the two. Ive gotta do some more research and see what is going to be the most cost effective/time effective. I'm still not sure if I core it ill just do the swap myself. Ive still gotta go through the manual and see what all is involved, ugg. Funny thing is I JUST spent the money and finished my K20 transmission rebuild last week. Looks like i'm in it again with this thing and am gunna miss the start of the time attack season. Bummer.

Thanks for all the input guys i've got my research to do and hopefully ill be back at it soon.

Sorry to hear about that! While you are there do the jdm gears and final drive!!

So after reading about every transmission combination under the sun, calling around a few places and even experimenting with different combos on NSX's in Gran Turismo 5. I finally settled on doing the JDM gears, NSX-r LSD plate upgrade and sticking with the 4.06 final drive. I ordered a replacement blueprinted transmission from SOS and am having them install the LSD plate, while im in there i got their 350 flywheel and clutch combo that comes with the dampener delete. I am told i should expect to wait for 4-5 weeks for the nsx-r diff plate to come in and itll all be shipped and I can throw it on. Meanwhile if my Prospeed injectors ever decide to show up im gunna to put those on and cut a new even more obnoxious splitter. My goal is to brake into the sub 2's at Buttonwillow this year, run a 2:01 at chuckwalla and better my 1:23 at streets. Hopefully this is all a step in the right direction. With the money I spent just on these bits I could have bought another track car that would get me close to doing all 3 with less of a pucker factor. With that being said i ALMOST ordered ITB's at the same time. :]

illwillem said:

My goal is to ... run a 2:01 at chuckwalla

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I can only dream to run CW this fast. I'm at 2:12 right now. We'll see if I can break into 2:09/2:10 next month.

For SURE you can, theres a few places you can pick up a lot of time (Bowl entry, turn 3, turn 14/15 to me that track is all about not braking as hard as you thing you need too and staying in a gear higher. Watch a bunch of videos of people with fast lines and if possible get ride alongs to pick up on the subtle things it takes to be quick. What group are you going out to CW with next month?

SpeedVentures.

Also, you are dead right on the bowl entry. I've been slowly reducing my pucker-factor and trying to increase my entry speed each time I'm out.

9doors said:

SpeedVentures.

Also, you are dead right on the bowl entry. I've been slowly reducing my pucker-factor and trying to increase my entry speed each time I'm out.

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The pucker factor is strong within me. Especially the last couple of years. I've been able to get virtually 0 seat time

I took out the RSX again not too long ago to CW (a little far from LA to drive the nsx in its current configuration) and was able to drop to a from a 2:07:00 ccw time to a 2:06:1 on street tires just by staying in 3rd gear flat out on entry to the bowl and not braking so hard for 3. The banking is much steeper than it looks like, while eff'n terrifying to do it'll hold you in the line of you are smooth and deliberate with your inputs. I'm proud of the time i got in a front wheel daily driver but it only made me need to get out there with the NSX aero and R comps.

The worst pucker factor always comes for me when riding along with fast people. From the passenger seat it always seems like we are going about 30mph too fast into corners.
My girlfriend says the same thing when im just normal driving . Check out her terror from last event i had do ride along at.

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Cool video! At least she didn't scream My wife doesn't want to sit next to me anymore at the track... She went with me on the Nurburgring twice, the first time with the EP3 and the second time with the S2k. Every time we lost a bit of traction on the back wheels she would hit me Maybe it's better she's not in the passenger seat anymore

illwillem said:

So after reading about every transmission combination under the sun, calling around a few places and even experimenting with different combos on NSX's in Gran Turismo 5. I finally settled on doing the JDM gears, NSX-r LSD plate upgrade and sticking with the 4.06 final drive.

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I use the same combination and this is exactly how I settled on it, except I used Forza 2. Countless hours of testing on the Xbox yielded a great result in my real NSX. My gearing is perfect for my local track. I found the 4.235 (NSX-R), 4.4 (OS Giken) and 4.55 (Comptech) put the shift points in the wrong places on all but the shortest tracks (read Tsukuba). Indeed, if I had gone with those final drives, I would be stuck shifting in the middle of most of the turns at HPR. I am glad I stuck with the 4.06.

That is awesome to hear. really glad a made the choice I did. (and really glad im not the only huge nerd) :biggrin:

illwillem -

My critique of your video at WSIR, which I consider my home track.

Turn 2 -- take a tighter line all the way through, as close to the inside white line as you can. Car will track out a little about 2/3 of the way through, then get all the way right at apex.

Turn 3 - going a little too deep before turn in, and then missing the uphill left side apex by a couple of feet.

Turn 5 - staying left on exit too long. Let the car go right and use the banking/camber to bring you back as you head to T6.

Exit of Turn 6 and back straight - going to the right side too soon. Stay left and make the high speed entrance to the right going into Turn 8 later.

Turn 8 -- tighter line all the way to the right.

Turn 9 -- turning in too early. Stay outside until you pass the sight line water tower way out in the distance, and then point toward the coned right side apex and get on the gas.

For whatever my observations are worth -- I think you can cut 3 seconds off your time. Do you have US or JDM gears?

Thanks EVO! I was just more or less shooting in the darkwith my line. I hadn't driven WSIR in about 10 years, and in a totally different car when I did. I really really want to like Big Willow and have been back a couple times but the super fast format heavily favors bravery, going off anywhere at big willow is either VERY high speed, cragged like the surface of the moon or both. Since I started out karting and canyon driving im more a fan of technical (slower:redface finesse tracks. Huge fan of Chuckwalla and Button just cant get into BigWillow. I think maybe of I drove a different car there that I wasnt as scared to ball up then maybe id change my mind.

I had the USDM gears and FD for the track day in the video. On the drive home my trans started whining and clunking. I'm assuming I broke the snap-ring and since have ordered a SOS rebuilt transmission with the JDM gears but the 4:06 FD