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Another look at the wing braces bolted into the trunk lid.After some basic tuning from Jei at Blacktrax Performance in Milpitas, CA, we took Irene out for some testing at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Unfortunately, the testing ended prematurely due to some overheating issues and blowing out the stock differential. We discovered that the overheating issues were caused by a small crack in the block after debris had gone through the radiator, so another motor rebuild was commissioned, and a big differential upgrade came along with it too!
With a new bottom end, Blacktrax installed even larger, 90mm custom Wiseco forged pistons. If you recall from the last installment of the build, the 90mm pistons replace the old 88mm ones. With the larger pistons, new sleeves in the block are required, so Darton MID sleeves were installed. With the last build, we used standard flanged iron sleeves.
New Darton MID sleeves and even bigger 90mm pistons installed!The oil pan on Irene started as a stock S2000 pan, with a custom baffle welded in by Aki, Blacktrax’s master welder. To ensure all the high the G cornering wasn’t going to affect engine oil pressure, a 2-quart Accusump was also installed. The Accusump automatically feeds extra oil directly into the motor by means of compressed gas when a drop in oil pressure is detected.
Excess crankcase pressure is vented into a baffled aluminum catch can, also custom fabricated by Aki, with a clear tube to monitor when the catch can needs to be emptied.
Aki's masterful craftsmanship showing on this custom vent/catch can.In addition to oil starvation, another issue is fuel starvation with high-G cornering. To remedy the fuel issue, two DeatschWerks 320lph fuel pumps work in conjunction with a Radium Engineering fuel surge tank. The surge tank is a small secondary fuel tank that is always full, so the pump never pumps air into the fuel lines during cornering. One fuel pump fills the surge tank with fuel, while the other takes fuel from the surge tank to the fuel rail. At the end of the fuel rail are 1300cc injectors, which move almost 3 times the amount of fuel the stock injectors do, which are somewhere around 360cc. Plans are to run E85 and boost in the future.
A custom 4-inch intake tube helps clean air move from the CT Engineering filter (shrouded by a carbon fiber box) to the enormous 92mm Ford Mustang throttle body, into the custom aluminum intake manifold created by Aki. To put into perspective, the stock throttle body is 67mm, and most aftermarket ones fall between 70 and 72 millimeters. Aki and Jei experimented with several intake manifold and throttle body sizes, with Aki creating each by hand and testing them with Jei to find the one that produced the best gains with the fewest compromises.
Custom intake, courtesy of Blacktrax and CT Engineering. 
