I was fighting handling issues all weekend at CoTA after my 1st and only practice session where I ran my fastest lap of the weekend on lap 2 which I thought was rather odd as I haven't run the track since 2015 and figured I'd be picking up the pace.
Halfway through race 2 (Sunday) I was tagged (mild - rear bumper only) going into turn 1 and after developed a minor driveline shimmy on high speed left turns after which I attributed to a failing wheel bearing, or worse a damaged diff.
I lifted the car last night and inspected the rear suspension, bearings, and alignment and found nothing wrong. I went further up the PPF until I got to the bellhousing where I saw all but the top two, manifold, and starter bolts were missing. Inspected the PPF alignment and you can clearly see if had shifted a bit. Happy to have found the source for the issue, but worried as to why.
I put loctite on the flywheel bolts when I replaced the clutch last month, but not the bellhousing bolts and nut. Should I have? I didn't torque it down to spec, but but a fair amount of pressure, and even more so for the easier to reach ones near the bottom which were missing. To be safe I just ordered new OEM replacements in case they had stretched as the s had never been off the car before in 168k miles (odd i K=know, but I know the original owner and sent her a picture of the original clutch) and they were an absolute nightmare to break free.
I plan to replace the the missing and the remaining ones this weekend with loctite added and torqued to spec as much as I can and then realign the PPF as it looks to have moved a few millimeters.
Should this be a non-event afterwards?