This thread is about my adventure buying and prepping an 85 Citation FF for C-Mod competition. My original thread was located here: http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72785 The responses in that thread convinced me that this car/class was the right direction for me, so I picked up Sho's (Previously Jim G's) yellow 85 Citation.
The first order of business was getting it home and doing a light sweep over the car for big issues that need to be fixed. I typically have about 2-4 hours a week to work on the car, with a recent big push over the July long weekend. Right away, I noticed that my legs were a good 1-2" longer than Sho's, so sitting in the car meant I was depressing the throttle/clutch unless I pulled my knee/ankle as far back as I possibly could. I could barely get my foot onto the brake pedal, and when I did I couldn't touch very much of the pedal as the steering shaft was so low and close to the brake pedal.
Over the past couple of months, I have:
- Read everything I can find about pedals, steering shafts, Apex joints, solid rivets, and the FAA aircraft repair manual.
- Re-read Carrol Smith's books, which meant a lot more to me now that I'm looking at a Formula car
- Spoken with S. Lathrop multiple times about how things should work and how they were assembled originally. Thanks a ton Steve!
- Bought the thinnest/slimmest shoes I could find, which turned out to be the RJS shoes (which feel like slippers in comparison to most of the other SFI shoes!)
Progress (in no particular order):
- Added spacers between master cylinders and frame mount to move pedals away - temp solution until I have time to make shorter pushrods over the winter
- Removed numerous sharp angle brackets from footwell - used to snag shoes while getting in/out
- Secured oil tank better - was held in by one zip tie, gravity, and a healthy dose of optimism before
- Eliminated chafe-point between left side hard coolant pipe and frame
- Added U-joint to steering shaft above feet and rotated steering rack to suit - allows MUCH more foot room to use brake pedal
- Made and added second lexan steering shaft support just behind new U-joint
- Deburred some holes in plastic sheet on sides of footwell - used to scrape knees
- Trimmed main disconnect switch post to just a couple of threads sticking past nut, and padded whole thing to protect left knee
- Padded rev limiter box and its bracket to protect right knee
- Padded front swaybar to protect shins over big bumps
- Trimmed throttle pedal narrower to reduce snagging while right-foot braking
- Expanded slot in right side throttle pedal guard to stop interference with throttle cable rod end (put cable in bending) when near full throttle
- Replaced all padding for elbows and shoulders with interlocking foam play mat material
- Zip-tied numerous cables and hoses that were chafing on each other
- Disassembled the locking/sticky Tilton bias knob and fixed it
- Audited current shock settings to ensure I have a baseline to always go back to as needed. Holy cow, adjusting rear rebound sucks! I had to turn the radio off in my garage so I could focus more on aligning the tiny wire with the hole and counting sweeps! More practice is needed before I'm ready to do that in seconds between runs...
Most of the tasks were driver comfort/safety items with a few obvious maintenance issues that appeared while poking around. It's looking good to have the car ready for our local club's test and tune event on July 23rd! My goal is to do a few drives around my driveway to get any small issues out of the way before that.
Questions:
1. How do you drain the oil in a Citation? I think Sho mentioned pulling the lower oil tank hose, but that sounds like it'll make a HUGE mess as it drains directly on the floorpan! Maybe a vacuum extractor in the oil tank?
2. How do you refill the oil? Just fill the tank (to the depth specified on the oil cap) while cold? Or do I need to run the engine and ensure the oil level is that depth when the engine pan is filled and hot?
3. Where is the thermostat on the 1.6L engine? I assume it's on the front of the engine. If so, how do you get to it without pulling the engine? I would like to replace the thermostat while I'm replacing the antifreeze with water and Amsoil Dominator Coolant Boost or Redline Water Wetter.
It's been quite a learning experience and I haven't even driven the car yet!
Corey