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My ATS-V windage tray that I ordered in January has officially been lost by USPS. Went from Dallas to Austin, then to Michigan, PA, back to Dallas and then poof, gone a month later. Said screw it and decided to try my hand at a trap door baffle system. Bought the trap doors from Improved Racing and they look like they will work nicely. Seems to be quite a few mixed opinions online as to whether trap doors in the oil pan actually help anything. I made the main chamber around the pickup substantially smaller than the entire open pan and the trap doors do seem like they will retain fluid where it needs to be. I did it out of stainless because why not.
New JR19 15x10.5 -32 wheels showed up. I'm digging the bronze, it looks great in the light. I can finally get rid of my spacers with these wheels.
Painted the V8R MGW shifter base flat black to match the tunnel.
Welded on a riser to the V8R clutch mount plate. The original design had the nut overhanging the clutch master base and it was driving my OCD crazy. Now the nut has a solid place to land.
And currently prepping the engine to put the pan back on. Be sure to use only plastic razorblades, and I'm going to use permatex ultra black sealer this time instead of the gm stuff. I had a leak at the rear of the oil pan on the last motor and I feel like the Ultra Black will prevent that from happening again whatever the cause.
1) Bolts that have the thread locker compound (blue stuff) on the bolt threads. For the most part I have seen people saying it is okay to reuse these bolts when they are cleaned and more thread locker is applied.
2) The bolts that are designed to stretch permanently. You can tell which bolts these are by their torque specs showing an angle or degrees after the ft/lbs spec (see both examples above). These bolts are not to be reused.
Got the spec stage 3+ clutch (unsprung) and flywheel getting ready to go on. I have seen multiple conflicting torque recommendations for the flywheel bolts. I reached out to Spec and they came back with a recommendation of 45 ft/lbs for both the flywheel bolts and the pressure plate bolts with a drop of red loctite on each bolt. I'm planning on doing both in stages, 10 ft/lbs - 20 ft/lbs - 30 ft/lbs - 45 ft/lbs.
CORRECTION: The pressure plate bolts are smaller and only 27ft/lbs. They still need to be done in staggered stages with red loctite on them.
I didn't realize Spec made an unsprung version. I know Goof is not a fan of Spec, but if memory serves it was the springs that gave him all the issues. Hopefully this resolves that issue & Spec has fixed the problem. I really like the idea of an unsprung setup. How much does this weigh? The stock setup is just ridiculously heavy in the future I'd like to go lighter weight.
BTW...You probably already know this, but the Chevy instructions said to tighten in a triangle pattern too. 1,3,5 & 2,4,6 if you number them going around. Not sure if that is standard practice or not with clutches, but can't hurt to tighten them that way along with the stages.
Monster makes a clutch for the MV5 and I seriously considered it, but the MV5 and MV7 do have slight differences and I didn't want to risk it. I'm using an MV7 from a cadillac and this setup is made for the MV7. Although their MV5 version would be very similar. All of the issues I have seen were around the springs on the spec clutches. Griff recommended getting a clutch without the springs and spec will make them that way on special request. He has been beating the hell out of his for a while now without issues. I just weighed the spec flywheel and clutch and it was 30 pounds exactly. I never weighed my oem clutch and flywheel, but it was at least 50 pounds I think. And thanks for the reminder on the triangle torque pattern.
For some reason, I thought the clutch / flywheel for the MV5 & MV7 were the same. I guess I figured the transmissions were identical except for the gearing inside, but if that was the case, our driveshafts & the mounts would be identical between them, and I knew they were different. 50lbs for stock sounds right to me and 20lbs saved is pretty huge! I'll be watching how this setup works for you, but glad to hear Griff is having good results.
I'm not 100% sure what the differences are, and I used the oem MV5 clutch and flywheel on the last engine and it worked okay. That being said, spec has different part numbers for the MV5 vs MV7 parts.
Last time I attempted to mate up the engine and trans it was a pain and took over an hour. I just did it in 5 minutes flat and wanted to write down what I did so I can remember it in the future.
2) Get the engine on the hoist and as level as possible. I put it on a small sturdy wood table and used a big bag of shop towels under the front part of the pan. You want the table holding about 75% of the weight while it is still being held on the hoist. Just enough so it is tough to move.
3) Leave the vertical adjustment bolts on the trans jack loose (you'll see why in a minute). Also, put something like a small wood block under the rear of the trans to get it as close to the same level plane as the engine.
4) Get some long M10x1.5 bolts (or all thread) and cut the heads off. Then make slots in the heads so you can use a screwdriver to get them out if need be. Ideally these are about 4" long and will guide the transmission in once it is on them. Put them on the four corners of the engine block in the trans bolt holes.
5) Get an assistant and make sure the trans is in a drive gear. This was another key to doing this in seconds versus fighting with the two pieces. This person will gently turn the rear trans shaft when you tell them so you can almost instantly line up the splines.
6) Straddle the trans so it is between your legs and you can easily move the engine side up and down as well as apply force to push it into the engine. Get it lined up and pushed in as far as you can using the guide bolts and then have the assistant slightly rotate the tail shaft to line up the splines and it will slide together like butter.
7) From there I used a small C -clamp on the starter area to pull the two surfaces firmly together and then slipped in all the bolts and it is done.
Letting my ocd go crazy and fixing all the small things I ignored with the last engine. There is a small gap on the passenger side of the trans that exposes the flywheel and clutch. Finally got around to making an aluminum block off plate for it.
It was now or never to do the NA RX7 diff housing swap. I've never seen pics of the NB diff housing side by side with the NA RX7 housing (91 non-turbo FC). There is a very noticeable difference between the two, especially looking at the tops. The NB diff has the Kmiata brace plates on it where the notch is. Put a cat's paw on one for all you crazy cat ladies.
Edit: My garage floor looks like the Saw bathroom. Might be time to clean it.
Using the custom made Differential Mountulator 3000 to get this thing sealed up and bolted together. You can get this 1" thick wood round from Home Depot for $10. Works great for mounting the diff and working on it. Then when you go to mate the housing to it, you don't have gear oil dripping into the seams (as long as the housing is clean). Also got the new Miata Roadster delrin diff mounts in. I don't have a press, but the vice did the job just fine. Very nice kit for the price!
Got the RX7 diff in and everything went smooth. Sent the downpipes off to Swain Tech for their White Lightning ceramic coating. Was looking at Jet Hot, but most of what I read online said the Jet Hot coating looks the best but the Swain Tech coating performs the best. Also repainted the front tunnel frame because I chipped the powdercoat last time I took the engine and trans out. Engine and trans are ready to go back in next weekend. Finally getting close to getting this thing back on the road.
Just came across a channel on youtube documenting two miata lfx swaps going on at the same time. Great videos and very cool to see a well funded race team take on the swap.
My ATS-V windage tray that I ordered in January has officially been lost by USPS. Went from Dallas to Austin, then to Michigan, PA, back to Dallas and then poof, gone a month later. Said screw it and decided to try my hand at a trap door baffle system. Bought the trap doors from Improved Racing and they look like they will work nicely. Seems to be quite a few mixed opinions online as to whether trap doors in the oil pan actually help anything. I made the main chamber around the pickup substantially smaller than the entire open pan and the trap doors do seem like they will retain fluid where it needs to be. I did it out of stainless because why not.
Your going to need more than that. Probably add an anti-climb baffle in the front, place the front baffle as close to the pickup as possible and make the area around the pickup even smaller. We found that initially without any baffles, pressure started dropping about .4-.5 seconds after brake application. We added a baffle in the front of the pan as you did and that extended it to the point of turn in before pressure started dropping. Need to probably baffle around the sides as well.
Oil pressure drops/starvation has cost us 3 motors.
Transmission lock into gear because of weak shift forks.
Clutch discs come apart randomly .
And we have only been running them for about a month.
First off, love your channel! I'm subbed and watch all your LFX videos. You guys do some awesome work and holy hell you can drive!
Try the Spec stage 3+ unsprung clutch (special order, but they do make it) and aluminum flywheel. It was recommended to me by a friend (Griff) who has a 600whp turbo lfx and beats the living hell out of it on track. He hasn't had any issues yet.
On the pan baffles... Because of the way the windage tray with baffles has to slide into the pan and around the pickup, you could only add a wall on one side (passenger). I don't think that would make a huge difference as it might only knock off an additional 1" at best on the side. I'm very curious to see what you guys end up doing and also very hopeful you don't ditch the LFX platform. It is an amazing engine (and cheap!) if we can figure out some of the bugs. I'd love to make a larger pan with additional space but I can't go down and the sides have bolts that go all the way through from the bottom and are in the way.
Do you think an accusump would help? Maybe even a dry sump setup with a custom pan? I bet Keisler could make it.
02-28-2021, 07:49 AM
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