Bryan Z.

I just rolled over 100,000 miles, and decided it was time for some routine maintenance.

Oil change with Rotella T6
Radiator flush
Brake fluid flush
Exhaust gaskets
Spark plugs

I have been planning to do an oil cooler install, but I thought it would be wise to have some idea of what baseline temps were pre-cooler, so I bought this.

This should let me determine the urgency of needing to install TSE's kit.

AEM Temperature Gauge.



Now I needed to find a location to mount sensor, and I heard the pan was the best place for an accurate reading. My fab skills are non existent, so luckily Goodwin sells the solution.

Oil Drain Plug Adapter with 1/8 NPT.



Doesn't hang down too low...



I was happy with my water temp gauge install a few months back, and decided I would follow the same recipe with oil temp gauge. I popped out an eyeball vent and proceeded to get to work. For some reason unscrewing the shift **** was the hardest part of the install. The sucker would not twist off.

A little dremel-ing action needed in order for the wires to clear the vent ring.



The 52mm gauge just slides in the vent with no further modification needed.

I routed the sensor along the back of the firewall, through the grommet just above the drivers foot well. I began splicing and soldering connections.

Somewhere mid-install.



And finished. Looks pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.



At what oil temps should I start getting worried?

LV0_NB

Awesome stuff. Clean looking miata!

icantlearn

It kinda depends on what oil you run. But generally anything over 250 is high. So I would back off there and cool it down. Rotella t6 has a lot of Zinc which is good for motors. So thats a nice plus.

Amsoil dominator oil is good till 300*. I would say you are safe to 280* with that stuff. But you will never (should never) get that hot while being NA.

Bryan Z.

Thank you.

My Golf sees oil temps in the realm of ~200-230. It does have a turbo though.

I am excited for the next track day.

Bryan Z.

How it all started.

I had ordered a brake duct kit from Trackspeed on Tuesday, a few days before Thanksgiving. Miataman00 was kind enough to stop by TSE on his way home from school to pick up my order for me. I would then swing by to pick up my order from him the following day.

My first mistake.

I stopped by George's house to collect my order, and he told me about his plan to attend the SpeedSF Black Friday event. At the time, I had no intention of going, as I was set on going to the Roadstercup finale next week. We prepped his car, got burritos, and by the end of the day, I had agreed to accompany him to the event towing his car down to Buttonwillow.

Skipping ahead to Thanksgiving day.

Now, not only was I attending the event, I managed to somehow to be persuaded into driving. The plan was now to drive down Thanksgiving night in our own cars, and stay at the cheapest possible motel.

He gave me a MT sticker, even sans turbo.

Am I cool yet?



Packing the cars. George has three RC1 in the passengers side, I would be taking the last one.



The drive down to Buttonwillow was smooth. It being Thanksgiving day, traffic was light. We brought walkie talkies to communicate, but mostly for the entertainment factor. It felt similar to that of Smokey and the Bandit. We went a responsible 65 mph for the entirety of the trip.

We arrived at Super 8 just a tick after midnight. The motel was only $40 a night, and having stayed at a few terrible hotels, I was prepared for the worst. To my surprise, it was quite nice, and had a bunch of other track cars already parked in the lot.

Weather was to be a beautiful 76 degrees.

Super 8.



Included was a free continental breakfast. Mmmmm.



This would be only my second event at Buttonwillow, and we had signed up for the high intermediate group.

We arrived late to the drivers meeting, just catching the tail end of it, picking up our wristbands and schedules.

George wanted to swap his RC1s 10 minutes before the first session.



The first couple sessions went without a hitch and I slowly started to gain more confidence. My RS3 are over two years old now, and the amount of grip was laughable. At the beginning of the day, I was worried that I would not be fast enough for the group I had signed up for, but that soon faded and fit right in with the rest of the cars on track.

Filling up.

.

Throughout the day it seemed that many cars were having issues, much more than usual, and many cars were going into the wall.

The second to last session of the day, I too started to become complacent. I felt as if I could take bus stop a little faster than I had previously and I told myself that I would attack the curbing harder the next session.

My second mistake.

Carrying more speed, I misjudged my braking point into bus stop which then led to me flying off track into the silt. It was my first spin on track, and was very exciting. I was blacked flagged and pulled into the pits. I immediately went back out to be sure not to let the little spin phase me.

This track day was too much fun. I am so glad to have signed up. A track day is much more fun with a friend.

401.



Heading back home.

The sunset was a fitting end for the day.



Luckily, I did not have my final, third mistake of the weekend.

We got home about 10 PM and I then immediately left to attend a "Friendsgiving". I was so pumped from the track day I was in a warm glow.

Dear Buttonwillow, I will be back next week.

icantlearn

Bryan Z.

This would be my second Roadstercup event. I had such a great time at Streets of Willow, I had to go back.

We were just at Buttonwillow #CW13 the previous weekend, and the track was still fresh in my head. I knew this would be a perfect opportunity to take what I had learned, and hopefully go a bit faster. My fastest time at the SpeedSF event was somewhere in the neighborhood of a 2:15. My goal for this weekend was a 2:12.

I am not at all a very good, or experienced driver. I am just looking to slowly improve, and have as much fun as I possibly can along the way.

We again drove down the night before, with Miataman00 and his father following in the van. We tried to leave a bit earlier this time, but as always we ran behind schedule.

Waffles of course.



This was the final round of Roadstercup and Vtec Club and the event was limited exclusively to Miatas and Hondas.



Not wanting to interfere with the other competitors, I chose to run in the slowest intermediate group.

First session out, I gridded myself towards the back amongst a sea of Civics and Intergras. I quickly found out that I was quicker than most of the cars in my run group. I ended my first session with a time of 2:14. I was enjoying myself and not pushing the car.

Esses.



Photo credit:Caliphotography

During the second session, I crested Phil Hill to find a Civic facing me in the wrong direction. It was quite a moment, but luckily everyone was alert and avoided further incident. I managed a 2:12.814. I was quite excited. The car felt great and wanted to see if I could continue to lower my time throughout the day..

Around midday one of the Vtec club cars blew an engine and covered half of the track in oil. This had pushed everything back about half an hour and we skipped lunch to compensate. It was a minor set back, but did not bother me in the slightest.

By the third session I had started to become comfortable and started to focus to string a lap together. I do not know what it was about this event, but something in my head clicked. At all of my previous track days I was not so much worried about times, but was looking to learn each section of the track and focus on car control. This would result in my maps being a rag-tag mix of corners, although as it should be with someone with so little track experience.

However, at this event I would consciously set up, and focus for the entirety of the lap.


Photo credit: Caliphotography

This was the first event in which I was aiming for a time. I checked timing after my third session, a 2:11.969. I was ecstatic. Okay, now to shoot for a 2:10.

By the fourth session, I knew there was more time to be found. I started exploring different lines and braking points to edge closer to that 2:10.

Checking timing after the fourth session I did a 2:10.738. I was very happy, I smashed the goal I had set for myself for the day yet, I still felt I wasn't pushing the car all that hard.


Photo credit: Caliphotography

I now had only the last session of the day. Talking with some of the other competitors at Roadstercup, they had let me in on some tips and tricks. One being able to take the long right hander Riverside, flat. I remember saying something along the lines of "Really!?!". (Thank you Andrew)

Pits.



The final session was perfect. The sun was setting, and there were a total of six cars on track the entire session. Heading to their advice, everything felt so much better. I was now carrying much more speed through Bus Stop and was flat through Riverside. I am not going to lie, I was a bit scared. I believe I was just brushing about 95 mph.

Coming off track I knew I had gone faster, but by how much, I did not know.

My car is a fully loaded NB1, with RS3s from 2015, AC, full interior, and even the spare tire, jack and carpet in the trunk.

I am also ashamed to say that my car has never had an alignment in the two years I have owned it. It has seen multiple suspension upgrades, but never an actual alignment. My fault.

Checking timing, a 2:08.885! I was through the roof.



Video. My second lap is my fast lap.



Woo!

Huge shout-out to our friend cowlover556, who made the long trek down to Buttonwillow for the day. Also congratulations to Miataman00 who took 3rd place in Unlimited his first time out.

Another fun thing before leaving the track was helping load Bullet onto the trailer. It was dark, cold and the car would bottom out on the ramp, prohibiting us from pushing it inside. I was not of much help but eventually we got it all packed up and ready to roll.



Silver NBs everywhere.



I know I always say this, but this truly was my favorite track day. Thank you to everyone who helped me at the event you guys are awesome.

Until next year.

icantlearn

cowlover556

iTrader: (1)

Silver car crew

Bryan Z.

Over the past few weeks I have amassed quite a few parts for the miata. I have been quite busy over the holidays, and only have just begun to install them now.

Please excuse the messy room.

Pile o' parts.



At my last track day I noticed that my right front pads had been worn dangerously thin. They were wearing unevenly in comparison to the left front pads and I am starting to think there is another issue elsewhere in the braking system. My best guess being the Dynalite caliper.

I bought new pads. I really liked the feel of the R series and the ability to use them on the street was an added bonus.

G-Loc R10s.



I also thought it would be a good time to install some sort of brake ducting, and naturally went with Singulars 2.5'' kit. The backing plates are finished with amazing quality and bolt up to the stock dust shield locations.

Backing plates, hose, clamps and zipties.



Going in, I knew that TSE 11.75'' setup would not clear, I carefully measured where the duct would contact the rotor. I still wanted to retain as much of the shielding as I possibly could to protect the rubber ball joint boots from any unnecessary heat. The bottom edge toward the front of the car was the culprit.




I ended up making several vertical relief cuts allowing me to bend the shield around the ball joint.



I also installed the pads around the same time. Also not pictured were new rotors. They are the cheap Wilwood Ultralites.

Safety wiring was much easier this time with proper tools.

I am also getting this strange pulsating in the pedal which seems to be gradually going away. I am guessing I have yet to properly bed in the pads and do not have the transfer layer on the rotors.

Bryan Z.

Immediately after installing new pads and rotor I noticed a pulsation in the pedal. It seemed to move up and down about an inch even when slowly coming to a stop.

I chalked it up to having not bed in the pads and thought nothing more of it.

However the pulsation was quite evident even coming to a gentle stop from about 20 mph. I was worried I had assembled my hat and rotor incorrectly.

I did a number of hard stops from a "spirited" speed hopeful to work some heat into the assembly.

It looked something along the lines of this.



Gradient of color on rotor.



I then let the car sit for a few hours to cool. With the next drive the pulsation was still there, and I was getting a violent shaking in the steering. Slowly from highway speeds down an off ramp the entire front half of the car would shake. It has only become present immediately after pad and rotor change.

What is odd the vibration is seemingly only noticeable under braking. I drove 600 miles on I-5 at 65mph this past weekend without so much as a wiggle from the steering wheel. Yet whenever I hit the brakes even with slight, even pressure, it would shake horribly.

I also took the car out on track last weekend to try to bed in the pads. (Admittedly a stupid idea.) I followed the bedding procedure, easing and extending braking zones for a few laps without any success.

Braking for Turn 1 at WSIR felt as it I had turned up a massage chair to the max setting. My entire dashboard felt as if it was going to shake itself loose. It was really unsafe, and decided to come in.
The vibrations were in fact so bad that it would cause my right front wheel to lock up due to the oscillations transferred through the suspension.

I also found that the two passengers side wheels are bent from an off track excursions at Buttonwillow.

I then borrowed my friends stock 16s to see if it was only the wheels causing my issue.

Epitome of style.



However, the vibration in the steering wheel is still there.

Suspension bolts tight? Check.

Endlinks? Check.

No play in hubs? Check.

Rotor runout? Check. Within 0.002''.

I am now thinking that my alignment as been thrown off due to the extreme vibration, and I may have a bent control arm or two.

The question I am asking myself now is this a problem of bedding in the rotors, or aftermath from a bent wheel wrecking havoc on all of my other components?

I need suggestions from the MT brain trust, as I am at a loss as to what might be the cause of this vibration.

Thanks in advance.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Jack up the front and spin each side by hand to look for wobble in the rotors. It can even occur as a widening and narrowing of the rotor width in rare circumstances. Or take them to get them reground to verify they are true. If both look really true, try cleaning both sides of each rotor with brake clean or some other solvent and re-bed the pads.

Bryan Z.

Thanks Sixshooter. I am going to check once again for wobble.

I am also going to disassemble hats and rotors, use brake clean and scotch bright pad to remove the transfer layer, then reassemble and safety wire.

icantlearn

There is no point in removing the transfer layer. just making more work for yourself.

Bryan Z.

I must like extra work.

Already done.

Though I do have a strange red coloration along the outside edge of one rotor. I am thinking it is a heat spot, as the rest of the outside edge of the rotor is a nice hue of blue. Only on one rotor, and a single spot around the circumference.

Need I worry if the width has a slight wobble to it?

icantlearn

You would see an odd pad transfer layer when spinning the rotor. It would look like an egg.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Take it to a mechanic that turns rotors and make it true for $20 or less. Or buy another rotor.

Bryan Z.

Round 1 of Roadstercup was at Big Willow.

I heard that Big Willow is quite a high speed, and scary track, but not in a stock powered miata. I had just finished up bleeding and bedding new pads and rotors and thought I had everything buttoned up.

Rosamond, CA is about 300 miles from home. On the drive down I decided to test my brakes along a deserted part of I-5. First good romp on the brake pedal I find that the shudder has returned.

Well, shucks.

Already two hours in, I decide to continue on, and just make it to the track day. Once there I could try bedding them in on track, or pull apart the front brakes and have another look.

Trackside early morning.



New magnetic numbers! So nice.



401.



First session, I wanted to give the brakes another attempt at the bedding process.

Under braking for turn one it felt as if my wheels were going to free themselves from my hubs. The vibrations transmitted through the steering made it difficult to even keep a hold of the wheel. I immediately came in, as it was not safe to drive the car.

I thought there was no way a bad transfer layer could yield such dramatic results.

How most of my day panned out.



A few friends volunteered to help me diagnose the problem and we took off calipers, pads and rotors, unable to find any glaring abnormalities.

I was stumped.

I tightened everything, and took it for a short drive on the road just outside of the track. A few quick stops and everything felt great. I then was set to go out for the last session of the day.

Though same result. Turn 1, the nightmarish vibrations were back. Ugh. I then called it quits and just kick back and enjoy the rest of the day with my friends. I knew I still had a long trip home, and erred on the side of better safe than sorry.

With only three lapsat Big Willow ever, and without using much of the brakes, the best I managed was a 1:47.

Corgi Nation.



Roadstercup.



Even though my car was not perfect, I still had a blast hanging out on track and just chatting with the other guys about miata-things.

It is all part of the game.

I made it home without issue and promptly tore apart my front suspension the next day. Low and behold I find that both passenger side wheels are bent and I had flat spotted my front wheel due to the vibrations under braking causing a loss of traction. Bummer.

It was an excuse to order new wheels and tires.

Time to address the issue, as Round 2 is February 18th at SOW and I do not want to miss it.

Bryan Z.

RS4s ordered.

Arrived.



Fresh, round, 6ULs.



Whew! Mounted and balanced, all in the same day.



They should be far superior to my aged RS3s from 2015.

moocow

I'm interested in the RS3 vs RS4 time comparison. I've a similar build to you (slowly becoming more and more track car) and I can't seem to wear out my RS3s enough to justify switching to RS4s. The RS3s don't feel as sticky as new, but they wear so well for 200tw track tires.
I'm also in the Bay, so hopefully I'll get to see you at Laguna/Thunderhill/Buttonwillow sometime.