Pyrometer and camber questions...
05-19-2004, 06:24 PM
#1
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Pyrometer and camber questions...
Hey everyone,
I've got adjustable camber plates on my car and am looking for advise to reduce some of the understeer that I've got. I know that changing camber effects your toe angle and I should take it in for an alignment to be sure.
I moved the camber plates to about 3/4" from full out, it was about 3/8" from full out. THis seems to greatly improve turnin, even to the point where I can feel the backend being a little lighter. My butt alingment guge says to split the difference of my adjustments.
I've got a pyrometer and went out on a small run and stopped to see the temps.
Outside edge 110f
inside edge 128f
Is my overall goal between tire pressure and camber is to make the temps the same from outside to inside?
How do use the pyrometer to my advantage on the track?
Thanks,
Jason
I've got adjustable camber plates on my car and am looking for advise to reduce some of the understeer that I've got. I know that changing camber effects your toe angle and I should take it in for an alignment to be sure.
I moved the camber plates to about 3/4" from full out, it was about 3/8" from full out. THis seems to greatly improve turnin, even to the point where I can feel the backend being a little lighter. My butt alingment guge says to split the difference of my adjustments.
I've got a pyrometer and went out on a small run and stopped to see the temps.
Outside edge 110f
inside edge 128f
Is my overall goal between tire pressure and camber is to make the temps the same from outside to inside?
How do use the pyrometer to my advantage on the track?
Thanks,
Jason
05-20-2004, 09:39 AM
#2
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Ah, welcome to the wonderful world of track tuning! 
You'll probably want to address these types of questions, in future, to the Racing/DE forum, a little more experience there in general.
First, the pyrometer. General basis is you want about a 10degree spread across the tire. Inside should be 10 deg hotter, roughly, than outside (don't worry about less than 5 degrees resolution). Middle should be in the average, this will confirm inflation.
Ah, you didn't take the middle, did you!
'Sokay, learning curve. There's a number of other points to be made here. First, do you have a probe-type pyrometer or non-contact? Most experiences guys say that the non-contact, since it measures the surface of the tire, is NFG (no good). You need to measure the temp inside the tire.
Another key point is to make sure temps are measured immediately on exit of the track, in the pit lane, at the end of a hot lap. If you've taken a cool-down lap, then your temps will have cooled, stabilized, and evened out, so the data will be less significant.
This would probably be a good point to recommend you buy Fred Puhn's book, "How to make your car handle." It's widely considered to be a bit of a bible with respect to car chassis tuning.
Another point to throw in, do you have camber/caster plates, or camber only? More caster car sure help turn-in response but will change camber settings without realignment.
Which is really the basis; you need to have a good alignment as a basis for tweaking. What tires are you running, and do you have any issues with optimizing your alignment for track only? For example, my racecar I run Hoosiers, and usually run in the neighborhood of 2.5deg camber front and rear. Not so much fun on the street, but that car's not really driven on the street anyway.
As you can tell, you've opened the pandora's box... time to read some of the source material...
As for dealing with your understeer - that's a different issue, balancing the chassis front to rear. Bigger rear springs or stiffen up the rear swaybar. The camber issue and tire temps has instead to do with optimizing the grip of each tire.
You'll probably want to address these types of questions, in future, to the Racing/DE forum, a little more experience there in general.
First, the pyrometer. General basis is you want about a 10degree spread across the tire. Inside should be 10 deg hotter, roughly, than outside (don't worry about less than 5 degrees resolution). Middle should be in the average, this will confirm inflation.
Ah, you didn't take the middle, did you!
'Sokay, learning curve. There's a number of other points to be made here. First, do you have a probe-type pyrometer or non-contact? Most experiences guys say that the non-contact, since it measures the surface of the tire, is NFG (no good). You need to measure the temp inside the tire. Another key point is to make sure temps are measured immediately on exit of the track, in the pit lane, at the end of a hot lap. If you've taken a cool-down lap, then your temps will have cooled, stabilized, and evened out, so the data will be less significant.
This would probably be a good point to recommend you buy Fred Puhn's book, "How to make your car handle." It's widely considered to be a bit of a bible with respect to car chassis tuning.
Another point to throw in, do you have camber/caster plates, or camber only? More caster car sure help turn-in response but will change camber settings without realignment.
Which is really the basis; you need to have a good alignment as a basis for tweaking. What tires are you running, and do you have any issues with optimizing your alignment for track only? For example, my racecar I run Hoosiers, and usually run in the neighborhood of 2.5deg camber front and rear. Not so much fun on the street, but that car's not really driven on the street anyway.
As you can tell, you've opened the pandora's box... time to read some of the source material...
As for dealing with your understeer - that's a different issue, balancing the chassis front to rear. Bigger rear springs or stiffen up the rear swaybar. The camber issue and tire temps has instead to do with optimizing the grip of each tire.
