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Did you get the HF windshield knife? It really helps if you make the blade "float up" with a little tiny tilt so it's cutting at the boundary of the glass and the urethane rather than through the urethane itself.
Brad is 100% ready, minus his blown up engine Ended up not tackling the windshield today because I didn't feel like going up to HF. I'll probably pick one up this week.
I'd like to get Brad ready before I move, which might be hard, but we'll see. I still have a lot to do, but only having one car kinda sucks.
I did get one of the top bars in and then messed up the notch on the second one and was frustrated so I did some **** on Brad. So much for getting that and the windshield done today lol. But got some good stuff on brad done, progress is progress, no matter what car.
Where to start? This is gonna be ******* long again.
Laguna Seca I suppose. This year I planned on going with Katy and my buddy AJ before going down to Aidan/Hailey's place and making the rest of the drive down. AJ had a nasty nasty wheel bearing noise but we were a little confused because none of the wheels had play in them. But like grinding noise as if the wheel was about to fall off. Katy's car needed to have the brakes done but that was about it. My car needed a different exhaust for the drive down, because while the big muffler was quieter, it was still right next to my ear. Of course with the house closing and moving all my **** like two weeks before Laguna Seca things got a little crammed up.
We were able to get Aj's wheel bearing fixed, but I still needed to work on my exhaust. A few days before we were supposed to leave I discovered a rip in my cv boot. With no time to find a new one and no idea on a part number I gave up on fixing it and just focused on the exhaust. At this point though I was very tired and honestly thought about selling my spot a lot. I was definitely ready to give up and even the smallest setbacks seemed major. My plan for the exhaust was as quiet as possible with no cares for horsepower robbed. With that in mind, I decided to strap two mufflers to it, but only a single exit. So basically a dual three into single three into two mufflers. I decided to do a nice one and a shitty one with the idea that maybe it would help drone if I had two different mufflers. If I had had more time I would have done a Helmholtz resonator and I actually had plans to but I just didn't have the time. I'm not sure if my theory actually worked or if it was just quiet enough that it didn't drone anywhere, I honestly think it was the second one.
The mufflers were very quiet and made the trip much more pleasant, except as I found out, the slips on the headers would blow out under WOT with the restrictive exhaust. I don't have any springs or anything securing the slips because with the non restrictive exhaust that those were designed to be used with I didn't need to worry about it. It happened twice, once out of a gas station when I decided to pin it out of the parking lot and another time when I accidentally money shifted from 5th into 2nd on the freeway. Thought I caused damage but then I remembered my redline tops out at like 72 in 2nd and I was going like 65 so I didn't even over rev it at all. It was interesting nonetheless.
The first night that we left it was ******* pouring down rain. Of course my car doesn't have side windows and we left at like 7 so we weren't supposed to get to Aidan's until about 10-10:30. I was ******* miserably cold, wet, and couldn't see **** since my windshield was fogged up. I hung as close to AJ's bumper as I could so that I could actually see the road. It was a very white-knuckle drive to Aidan's. But we got there without any real problems. The three miatas before we left (thanks for making the pic sideways IB)
The next day was supposed to rain as well but somehow we got away with hardly any as we drove down to the coast. The first day was rather uneventful, but fun as always. We camped in the redwoods again that night. In the morning we saw some elk, just doing elk things. ***** are big.
That day we drove down the coast and blasted through some curvy roads....at which point Aidan decided to flip his trailer AJ and I were up ahead and out of the curvy section admiring the beautiful coast when Katy came blasting up on us to tell us what had happened. Luckily the damage wasn't too horrible. I didn't take any pictures cause he was in an understandably bad mood at that moment.
RIght before Katy came flying up the road:
We drove to a nearby town and ate some food and went to glass beach which was pretty cool. We saw a little fat **** marmot thing that was pretty cute. I had planned on trying to get a new engine for brad while in Cali and there was an importer with a bp5a+6sp combo for sale. We were gonna try to make it there by the end of the day but weren't able to. So instead we headed towards Laguna Seca while Aidan and Hailey headed to hang out with some friends in San Fran.
We got to Laguna Seca rather late and as we were pulling up my fans decided to shut off. This also happened at Pacific in my last session. I saw the needle starting to climb as we drove up the hill towards the camp spot and I ended up having to park the car and come back for it. This problem would continue throughout the weekend. I was melting relay left and right, I'm not sure why they suddenly started melting, but I do know that I shouldn't have been running the fans constantly. I had meant to hook them up to the ecu and it was one of those things I just always put off because it worked through the switch just fine.
We talked to James a little that night and then went to bed. The next day was a good time as always, it was great to see people that I hadn't seen for a year. We went to the moss bbq and got to see the busa miata which was insane to see after all these years of following the build. I also switched over to what I've deemed my "Laguna exhaust" because now I have the dual muffler exhaust and the burns muffler exhaust as well as a set of DTC-60s that day. I had been getting quite a bit of brake fade at Pacific and didn't want to mess with that again. Seen in this picture: AJ in his normal state of ninja kicking air.
AJ and my car together.
The next day (Saturday) was mine and Katy's trackday. My first session I planned to go out for a few laps, bed the brakes, and come back in. Once out on track I started to notice pad knockback so I gave it a couple good pedal presses and came in after two laps. Turned out my front driver wheel bearing was bad. I stole a spare from Ed (yes this is the second year in a row Ed has saved my ***) and was able to make it out to the next session with plenty of time to spare. I took people out every session again which is always fun. I tried keeping track of times this year but I think I only ever got one semi clean lap and my phone decided to not work that session. So that was annoying. I felt myself getting a wee bit more consistent with the car, but it's definitely more challenging than brad and with the group c congo line it proves difficult to nail consistency.
I did one session of following with a friend Kendall I had met last year and then a session of following with Ed and a session of leading with Ed. All those sessions were absolutely awesome. Ed and I had a total blast slicing through the traffic and while Ed's a much better driver, my car has lots of power to help close the gap Pretty positive his lap times were still faster though lol
AJ and I in Audrey before one of my sessions
Ed and I out on track together. Bombing through traffic with him was ******* awesome.
That night we had the mt.net dinner. Although it wasn't an autocross like Ed and I had originally agreed on, we decided to switch cars for the drive to the dinner. Ed's car is nice and smooth, has plenty of power and it comes on very predictably. I actually really enjoyed Ed's car. I'm still not sure whether he actually liked my car or not lol. Although, it did shoot a fat flame out the side when he hit limiter, so that was pretty ******* cool.
The next day was Aj's trackday. I would have gone with him but he didn't have a passenger seat due to a broken passenger seat bolt and some ******* asking him to transport his ARB fridge I hung around the paddock and went on a couple ride alongs. One in Aidan's car and one in Geoff's exofish. It was a good day and I didn't impulse buy any fastbacks this year. We went out to dinner that night but my fans decided to stop working again so Katy and I rode in Bryan's car.
We left early in the morning on Monday. Monday didn't go as well. I was fighting with relays frying and as we pulled into Sacramento to pick up the engine (more on that in the "Brad gets beat" thread) I started hearing a ticking. It sounded like it could be an exhaust leak and maybe my mind was just starting to pick up sounds since I was so worried about the fans. But no, as we drove some more it only got louder. I was pretty depressed at this point. It was obviously coming from the engine.
We decided to go to an orielly's, do an oil change and check the rockers for damage. I opened the rocker covers and everything looked pretty good. Then I drained the oil. Oh man. Needle bearings galore stuck to the oil drain plug. So now we were stuck in Sacramento. Luckily Gordon came to the rescue and said we could stay at his place a little up north for the night. It was maybe 10 or 11 when we rolled in and we were all dead tired. Gordon and his wife were extremely nice and amazing hosts. He also has many cute kitties, although I only got pics of one.
In the morning AJ left to make the final leg of the journey and Katy and I stayed behind to get a uhaul+trailer. It took us most of the morning to get everything loaded up but we also stopped for a nice breakfast. With the new engine/trans loaded into the truck and Audrey loaded onto the trailer, we headed back towards Seattle. We made it back in one piece, as did AJ. His ppf bolt on his diff did come out and ground the head off Aidan got him a new one though.
Getting the engine+trans into the uhaul with no cherry picker was interesting. But we got it done.
So yeah, that's the wrap up for Laguna Seca. I've had a really rough time with engine lately, and I'm hoping the damage is just to the rockers on the LS. We did find all of the needle bearings in one rocker, so unless multiple blew up the threat should have been pretty well contained. New upgraded units aren't too expensive, and it is a known issue with the LS. I actually almost did it when I built the engine but ran out of money. That's what I get for cheaping out on $200, it'll bite you in the *** every time.
Right now the plan is honestly to just recover from the summer. It's been extremely expensive and I'm tired. I'll probably look at the engine in a month or two, I'm not in a massive hurry. I also bought another miata due to Brad still being down after the third engine swap since I bought the car. This car is a dedicated dd and will never see the track.
Great write up man! So bummed to hear about the engije issues... Sure hope I had nothing to do with that aside from pushing you on track !
I got that YouTube video uploaded from that chase session but the track is blown out in the video. Need to find some kind of video editing software or something to darken the image a bit. Such a blast! despite the traffic that was one of my favorite track sessions ever just blowing by people and chasing you in that wild car.
Also YES I loved your car. What a monster! I don't know how you drive it so far but it's amazing. Thanks for letting me drive it, glad you enjoyed mine.
I typed out a post last weekend and then mt.net decided it wanted to delete it...so thanks mt.net?
Anyway, I tore into the engine last weekend and so far things are looking alright. I found one rocker with a damaged bearing which is good because we found the exact amount of needle bearings present in one bearing. I was worried that there were more that had **** the bed and they just hadn't showed up yet. So that's good. It also doesn't look like it went long enough to wear through the bearing race and cause any damage to the rocker arm itself. So I don't even think I need to buy a new rocker which is great. I'm planning on buying the CHE kit as of right now. I was hoping it would go on sale for black friday/cyber monday but no luck. It's not the end of the world though.
I started tearing down a bit of the rest of the car as well. With the fans relay problem I just wanted to start over on my harness and do a better job this time. I'm not sure 100% what was wrong with the fans (I have a feeling it was from constant running) but either way starting with a clean slate will put my mind at ease. So I pulled the chassis harness last weekend and I'll hopefully be ordering some parts for that at some point.
I also pulled the exhaust because, well, my exhaust is pretty fucked up at this point. I'm going to try oval tubing and shoving it up inside the trans tunnel to increase ground clearance. My exhaust has gotten pretty beat up from laguna seca, I heard it scraping quite a bit. I'm actually surprised at how well the exhaust has held up since they were some of my earliest stainless welds and they were pretty inconsistent. I had good gas coverage, but I just didn't have the consistency down. I may need to do some sort of skid plate as well. The headers are the lowest point on the car and they've got some kinda nasty gouges in them now. My cv boot obviously needs to be replaced as well. Shout out to driveshft shop for being incompetent and not being able to spec a cv boot correctly. Super dope that they wear out after like 5k miles. You can also see my exhaust for the trip down. It's ugly af but it did it's job at making the car extra quiet.
Also up on the list is hard mounts for the fastback that aren't ****. Between stripped windshield side threads and the AK holes not lining up with any aftermarket top brackets there's fewer bolts holding the fastback on than I'd prefer. Right now I'm planning on quik latches for easy removal and all that.
I've got some other things I'd like to do but we'll see how this year plays out. Last year my motivation was pretty low, this year I feel like my motivation is better but I have less spare money. I'm also getting a much earlier start than I did on things last year and I'm trying to enjoy the process a little more. I do enjoy tinkering on things and when I procrastinate it takes all the enjoyment out of it. Having the bigger shop space is also really helpful for motivation.
I did cut up the doors some more last weekend. This is probably as far as I'll take them. The ccp doors are such a bargain for what you're getting, they really are worth the money. Maybe one day I guess. Oh I also jumped on the maxxis sale on the last day. I was going back and forth all weekend and then decided to just pull the trigger because I'll for sure need another set this year and I'll really be kicking myself down the line if I had a chance to get them at 30% off and didn't take it. I also bought a tv off cl the weekend after black friday (people love to sell their one year old 60" tvs the weekend after) and it was interesting getting it home.
Some small updates. I got my CHE rocker bushings in last night and I've got a new rocker arm coming Tuesday I believe. I pressed the old bearings out last weekend, they came out pretty easy so that was good. New bushings are nice and fancy, I'm looking forward to firing the engine up again.
I've also been working on a workbench since I currently don't have one and without one I can't notch tubing, so I can't finish up my cage. I overbuilt the **** out of it I have a feeling, but at the same time, I'll be able to pound on it without worrying about ******* it up. It's 3'x8' with a 4x4 frame. The top is 2x10s with a consumable sheet of oak on top of that. It sits right about at waist height and I'm hoping to build a new kart for my tubing bender so that I can slip it underneath and out of the way. I'll be putting legs on it today and hopefully get to bending and notching some tube for the finishing touches on the cage this weekend.
We also painted the interior of the foxbody. Katy is very excited about it and we're probably going to try to put it back together this weekend. Also blasted the side where someone had run into a pole or something and did a little crunching on the quarter panel. I told Katy it would turn out like **** if I tried to blend it but she just wanted it black again. So wish granted, it's definitely not a good repair job, but it is black...so there's that I guess. I'm sure once we get it into some decent light it'll be a 20 footer at least, probably a 30 footer. We probably could have taped off more on the mustang as well, there's some overspray in a couple areas, but at least it's not rusting the entire floorboard out. Also restored a gtc200 I bought about a year back, I had originally bought it for brad but she may buy it off me for the mustang.
Thats going to be a stout bench. Check out concrete form board for the top when you wear out the oak. It has a non stick coating on it so oils and grease dont soak in and is stupid hard.
Interesting, I'll check it out. The oils and grease not soaking in would be great. When I notch tube I end up blasting everything in the surrounding area with oil. Aidan was gonna bring me some cutting board type material as well which I was thinking of putting around the vice for notching.
I got a new rocker in the mail this week and then went about putting the bushings into the arms. The fit was pretty simple, they don't even press in, they pretty much just slip together and then they're held in by a c-clip. The hardest part was making sure which side of the c-clip was the "sharp" side which was supposed to point away from the bushing.
I also finished up my bench. It's a bit on the heavy side, but it's definitely nice to have. I need to make a cart for my tubing bender to get it low enough so I can slide it under the bench. Right now it just kinda floats around the shop.
As well as working on the engine, I've also been working on the cage. One part of this was pulling the windshield. I took a fat rock to the windshield at the track last year and one of the groups we run with doesn't allow anything larger than a 2" crack, which is pretty damn small. Since I needed to replace the windshield I figured I might as well go with lexan. I used a harbor freight cold knife for most of it but gle man decided to really glob that **** on when he replaced the window before so I couldn't cut through the lower part. I'm also really surprised it didn't leak after look at the left side's glue job. I also got the door bar reinforcements mocked up as well as the two upper tubes. Since the uppers meet in the center of the main hoop, it actually takes a 5lb deadblow to drop the second one in, which is fun. they're basically a press fit before they even get welded. I did them this way because I didn't want to do just a bar down the middle (I'm expecting to always have passengers) and I wanted to tie the cage together a little more. I'm contemplating some sort of anti-intrusion bars as well, but all of the bending on the cage is done, which is exciting.
We also picked up a new lucky dog car. We're working a lot on team structure this year and it'll hopefully smooth things out. I'll obviously be building the cage and we'll mainly be doing maintenance and some small upgrades as we learn the new car.
Also, Mat and I will be selling these! They'll be $150 shipped conus, and you can contact either of us about it. You can see more details about it in his build thread as well. I'll probably be putting mine on sometime this week.
Last but not least, my very old (almost 19) kitty was dressed up for the holidays.
When’s the e46 debuting? Properly setup the 36/46 chassis is annoyingly fast in LDRL, them and fox body mustangs were the reason race invaders went ecotec.
07-30-2018, 12:59 AM
Ended up not tackling the windshield today because I didn't feel like going up to HF. I'll probably pick one up this week.
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Aidan got him a new one though.
