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Haven't had time to upload any videos from last weekend but those are coming soon. Figured I'd make a short post about the updates on the car this week though...
So on the coattails of my last post, I absolutely fried my front brakes at the track last weekend. I had a set of EBC Yellowstuff pads in the car and figured they'd survive one track day with the turbo. They didn't. Felt totally fine the whole day but I must've brought them above max temperature a bunch of times because they went from about 5-6mm of pad to metal on metal by the end of the day. Lesson learned.
Picked up a Supermiata 11.75" BBK and upsized sport rear rotors/calipers off of Satisaii's car on New Year's Eve...
You vs. the guy she tells you not to worry about.
Naturally, those weren't going to fit on my 15x7 Advanti Storms so I picked up a set of 15x9 Konig Dekagrams from GoodWin Racing.
Can't tell in the photos but the Dekagrams have a way more glossy finish than the Storms and look way better in my opinion.
And there was no way in hell I was going to stretch a set of 205 NT05's onto a 9" wheel so I ordered a set of 225/45/15 Kumho V730s through work.
And this is how it all came together!
Girthy
I'll be heading out to Auto Club Speedway to test it in my first NASA HPDE 3 tomorrow. Rain's in the forecast though so I probably won't be setting any records. Oh well, at least the car will look cool.
Quick blurb from Auto Club Speedway yesterday. The rain held off here until about 10am. My first session was at 10:30 and the track was still mostly dry at that point. I managed to get one clean lap in at ~80-90% pace and set a 2:00.28. Got the car up to 135mph for the first time in its life as well. What a feeling!
Then it got wet. Like really wet. Like puddles and hydroplaning all over the track wet.
And it was obscenely fun. I don't think I've ever made so many oversteer corrections in a single lap. After one session in the rain my throttle control (or throttle position awareness) improved substantially. The NASA instructors were great and gave us lots of good advice in between sessions. Everybody kept it civil and no crashes or close calls were had despite poor visibility, open passing, and lack of traction.
I'm not hankering to get out on track in the rain again any time soon but it was a sick weekend for what it was.
All my **** under a tarp in the background. Really gotta get serious about installing a tow package on my van.
Also, I solved the issue of my crankshaft and CAS seals that were leaking on track days but not anytime else. Checked and found I had a two-way PCV valve sucker was hardly sealing under boost, resulting in mad pressure from the intake manifold entering the crankcase. The crankcase vent on the hot side of the motor was venting enough on short pulls and during street use but couldn't let all of the positive pressure out of the crankcase after multiple 10+ second pulls at full boost on track. I didn't have time to get a 323 PCV before the weekend so I ordered a 3/8" check valve off Amazon and a catch can since I was already at it and installed both on the cold/vacuum side of the crankcase vent system. PCV ----> Catch Can -----> Check valve -----> Intake Manifold. Oil leaks gone even after being in boost for ~20 seconds each lap on the oval.
A little action from Auto Club Speedway this past weekend. I wasn't going to go out but SCCA was running the last public track day there before they start tearing it down next month. Figured I might as well get one last hurrah in since it's the by far the closest track to where I live. I signed up Friday night and rolled out Saturday morning. Ran the underequipped GS-1 pads that were in my brakes already and spent the first session staying away from the pack so I could get a feel for how much fade I was going to be dealing with. They faded, but only after ~5 laps and in a pretty predictable manner. Wasn't as big of a deterrent as expected but I'll be getting appropriate pads and an adjustable prop valve (thanks to everyone for their input in my other thread) before the car's next track day.
Dropped my infield time to a 1:19.07 (1:18.26 after they widened up the cones on the final chicane) down from running a 1:27 last year with 195 tires, stock powertrain, and even more noob-ish skills. Still can't believe how much fun the extra power is on track. The final session, myself, a C7 Corvette, and a ~2015 Camaro SS were all in near-perfect sync playing leap-frog taking turns for the lead. I feel like a chihuahua at a dog park playing with way bigger dogs It's no testament to my driving skill whatsoever, just awesome the car can hang with others like those now.
Another note: I should've bought 225 tires/9" wheels for this car right from the get-go. Obviously there's gobs more grip on tap than with the 205/7" setup but holy hell, the turn in is just so much more responsive. I was running 33psi cold with the previous setup just to keep the tires from folding over in corners and even then there was way more tire flop than on the 225/9" setup at 29psi cold. It made a bigger difference than going to poly suspension bushings in terms of response.
This is somehow the only picture I took of the car on Saturday. Shoutout to SCCA for including free garages for all drivers.
Great thread man, glad to see another tracked turbo BP miata in a world of K swaps! They are pretty incredible with a little bit of power. I'm no amazing driver but I've been able to snag podium finishes with my car the past 2 years in our local time attack series, against some pretty "big boy" cars. I.E. new camaro 1ss's, c8, c5z's, new supras, 500+ whp turbo civics and wrx's, etc. The car is just about as fast as anything but once you add some power to the old chassis you really gotta step up your driving game. It's apples to oranges comparing driving a turbo miata to, say, a new camaro (which are pretty well ungodly fast).
How do you like the 11.75 kit? That's on the list for mine, but I gotta go bigger wheels too, my 15x9 6uls won't clear 'em.
Kinda makes me sad to see it in that state. You could have spent a bit less and picked up a rebuildable core instead. But I am glad you bought it.
Thanks for the tips with the Ecoboost stuff. The Ranger motor won't work, the oil sump is the wrong shape (from what pictures I could find.) Besides, there are 100's of auto 2.3L Mustangs on Copart. You can snag a running car for about $5k. Was tempted to buy one today, but it is still a couple of months before I need it.
I know where there is a set of 10" 4th gen 6UL's, ready to ship to a new home...
Fireindc, thanks! I honestly stayed BP just because it yielded the highest horsepower to dollar ratio haha. Interestingly enough, my 212whp turbo car is able to drop my buddy’s K-swapped E85 NB1 in the straights even though he’s making 238whp at peak. The powerband on this motor with a good flowing turbo/exhaust system is pretty decent! I agree though, after adding power to one of these, there’s a lot of recalibration to be done on the driver’s part and I’m surely not driving this thing to its full potential yet haha. Keeping up with other quicker cars in the straights has been lots of fun though.
Satisaii, I’m showing my rookie colors again. I barely gave any thought to rebuilding a core or higher mileage motor and probably could’ve saved some scratch. Still, I figured you’d taken good care of this thing and was happy to help out another local enthusiast. Plus the orange bits on it are a nice little bonus haha. Thanks again.
Looking forward to seeing the next project built up and running. I can’t believe you can get your hands on one of those for $5k. That tiny little truck’s gonna be a monster with that powertrain in it. Glad all the parts I’ve bought from you are funding something cool haha.
Time for another update. Haven't done a ton on the car in the last few weeks, just been driving it and taking care of some minor quirks. I finally replaced my hammered-*** hardtop latches with a set of brackets that got rid of all the vibrations (and hopefully helped chassis stiffness a bit). I also realized the preload on my steering rack backed out a bit and was causing a clunk in my rack when steering side to side at a stop. Preload nut was probably 1/8 turn backed out from where it needed to be. I took care of that and all's well. I'm also headed to 949 Racing on my lunch break today to finally pick up some R12/R10 pads and an adjustable proportioning valve for my 11.75BBK.
Took the car out to Apple Valley Speedway last Saturday for the Corner Exit "Togue Challenge". It's a pretty fun event. They essentially run it as an autocross with 4 practice and 4 timed runs, then the top 4 cars in each class move on and chase each other in lead/follow races to determine the winner. I qualified second in Mod class and then moved onto the finals where I threw it away because I couldn't launch my car worth a damn (qualifying runs were timed with a laser at the start, the lead follow races were done by a flag drop for each car). They still gave me a cool 3rd place keychain. I've never got an award for driving before, and may never again!
Solid competition. Final cars in my class were this Bimmer, a resto-mod 1973 turbo'd Ford Escort, and another 1995 turbo Miata running a GT2554.
Made it into the 200k club on the way to AVS.
Also took the car out to Malibu and got a tour of the iconic roads from the locals a couple weekends ago. Place is insane. We did 120 miles of driving, mostly on epic mountain roads punctuated by a few short stints on PCH. Stopped for lunch at a shopping center and there were more Porsches in the parking lot than Hondas and Toyotas. Must be nice haha.
Malibu is pretty much one big Hallmark postcard. Some of the roads are almost hard to drive because the view is so damn good.
Decent.
Gonna slap my new pads on today or tomorrow and try to get out to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway this weekend with NASA. Stoked to check another track off the list. I also have the VVT motor fully torn apart now and am gonna start another thread to get some feedback on my parts list for the build. I'll probably start slowly securing parts for it in the next couple weeks. Exciting!
Took the car out to Chuckwalla with NASA last weekend for the car's first shakedown with the R12/R10 pad combo. I suppose this would be the first proper shakedown of the car with all the recent brake/handling mods tied together. The car is just such a damn blast to drive! Got the pads bedded in during the first session and my fears of them being too grabby were quickly alleviated.
Unfortunately, classes HPDE 3 and 4 made up a combined 25+ cars and we were all out on track at once. I didn't get a single lap without traffic for the first three sessions. Fourth session, I got to grid 20 minutes early and was the first out on track. Got one solid flyer in then sent it off the track in turn 4 Got it on camera at least though so I suppose it was worth it. 2:01.54 on the one hot lap I got all day. Gonna go back in March, car's got a lot of time it can shave. Still, it was a fun day! Got to watch the Spec and Superspec Miatas race as well as the time trial guys I'd like to go up against one day.
As usual I forgot to take many photos while there. Most off track photos around here all look damn near the same anyway. Just desert in all directions as far as the eye can see haha.
Friday night, I thought I was hosed for Saturday. I left work and heard a clunk from the rear of the car when taking off from a stop and then noticed the car starting to pull left on acceleration and right on decel. Thought for sure I blew something in the driveline. Got the car home in a pretty panicked state, jacked it up in the garage, and started going through the rear end. Didn't find any obvious damage to the diff housing, ppf, or axles but I did find one of my left side rear LCA eccentrics had backed out a couple threads. The LCA had been wiggling left and right on accel and decel the whole way home, giving my car a variable alignment. That could have been awesome to find out mid-lap the next day. Luckily I'd marked the eccentrics and subframe. Set and torqued the eccentric in question, gave all the others a quick snug up and we were good to go.
The VVT motor is still sitting in pieces on my workbench, but I'm starting to accrue parts for it. Ordered a set of K1 rods and Supertech 84mm 8.7:1 pistons with Wiseco rings for it this week. Gonna keep collecting the bottom end components this month so I can take it to the machine shop and get the block together. More on that soon, hopefully.
This clip was sent to me with the music already added. I'd never drown out the sound of my motor with some generic hip hop beat haha.
Little bit of fun at Chuckwalla yesterday. Took the day off work and stayed in one of the on-site cabins with some buddies out there Thursday night. Would highly recommend booking one if you're going out there. Place was like a little taj majal right next to the track entrance.
Low driver count meant we got tons of track time. 7-8 30 minute sessions total gave me tons of time to play with the car and dial in the track. This was the first track day I've run with the Wilwood proportioning valve on the car so I was keen to get that dialed in as quickly as possible. I did the initial setup based on a post from Savington on here a handful of years ago. The bias was pretty close to begin with but a little on the frontward side, a good starting point. I progressively added rear line pressure one full turn at a time for two sessions, eventually stopping and it off when I felt the rear end getting squirrely in the big 110-50mph braking zone on the back straight. I keep noting my front right tire always locks up before my front left. I really should get the car corner balanced soon.
Greasy cars and greasy food. A match made in heaven.
My buddy David and I put in a solid few sessions playing cat and mouse in our dual duty cars. His NB1 on the right is K24-swapped running E85. My car's a touch faster than his in the straights but he's on 245s with 15x10s as opposed to my car on 225s with 15x9s. All in all, our cars were just about perfectly evenly matched. I put down a fastest time of 2:01.3 and he put down a 2:01.8. I think the car and I had a lot more in us but the wind picked up after lunch and started blowing dust all over the track, just as I was really starting to dial my line in and use the whole track.
Oh, and then I belted my front tires at the end of the day. That probably didn't help either haha. I need to lower the pressures on my next set and get a damn trailer already.
All in all though, great Friday! I've got a set of V8 roadsters frame rails arriving tomorrow and dropped off the VVT block at the machine shop last week. Progress on this sucker will continue to be made!
More fun the last couple weeks! The next phase of this car is still underway and the motor's getting closer to completion by the day. Should have the block back from the machine shop this week or next.
In the meantime, I've been busy plugging away at other little projects I've been wanting to do for some time. Installed a set of V8 Roadsters frame rails on the car last week, replaced my beat to hell tie rod ends, found that one of my inner tie rods was backing itself out, replaced my old wobbly balancer with a Fluidampr that'll be getting transferred to my next motor, and today I installed my set of Singular Motorsports fender louvers.
Went out to WSIR on Saturday and got the OK from our HPDE instructor to move up from HPDE 3 to 4. Just gotta complete one HPDE 4 event without incident now to get my NASA TT license. I also got towed off the track for my first (and hopefully last) time haha. On my second session coming down from turn 5 at the top of the hill, I hit the gas and nothing happened. I put the car in neutral and tried cranking it over while still rolling but nothing happened. I wound up coasting down to turn 7 and conveniently parking the car off track next to a Porsche 944 that had also died. In between cars going by us, I cycled the key a handful of times. The motor sounded like it still had compression when cranking but I couldn't hear the fuel pump prime like normal with the key on and engine off. Got towed back to my parking spot and found that the fuel pump ground wire had pulled out of its terminal. D'oh. I rewired it myself when I installed the DW200 nine months ago and it must've been slowly backing itself this whole time. Oh well, I was just glad it wasn't the fuel pump itself, a relay, or an ECU issue.
Our group was stacked again and I didn't get much of a chance to set a hot lap. HPDE 3/4 is strange. Very wide range of fast and slow cars driven by a range of assertive and conservative drivers. The range of lap times in a given session must be wider than any other event I've been to. Not a critique, I know the objective is to be out there learning, not to just be bombing hot laps, but it was a strange epiphany I had on Saturday.
Last session on Saturday, though, I did get two clear laps in. Enough to put down a 1:31.71 before the checkered flag came out. I made a handful of minor mistakes (dammit) but was stoked to know the car had that kind of time in it. Maybe I'll be able to pull a 1:30 before dropping the new motor in and upping the power.
The damper up top was far from round. Mad racecar points.
What's up everybody! Been a while since I've posted here. Been so busy playing with the car and other life stuff that I haven't had time to update this thread.
The last month's been pretty good for the ol' Miata. Did two track days at Willow Springs and hit Buttonwillow for my first time last Sunday. Moved up to HPDE 4 and subsequently received my NASA TT license. Got some more mods done on the car. Murdered a couple tires and a wheel. All good stuff!
I ran Big Willow two weekends in a row at the beginning of April. Once with NASA where I moved up from HPDE 3 to 4 and once with my buddy's organization, CanyonRunSundays. The highlight of the NASA weekend was my car dying on track shortly after our instructor finished following me around to see if I was ready for HPDE 4. We did about three laps with him behind me before he bailed to chase another driver around. Three corners after he dropped back, My car quit at the top of the hill coming out of turn 4 and I had to get towed off track. In between cars blowing by me at 100+ mph, I noted I couldn't hear my fuel pump prime with the key on. Once back at camp, I found the ground I wired in when modifying my fuel pump wiring had yanked out of its ring terminal. It took nine months for it to vibrate out after I made the modifications! Haha, at least it was an easy fix and only cost me a few laps. Personal best at Willow springs as of now is a 1:31.56. Car's got more in it if I can grow the ***** to use more exit on turns 1 and 9.
I got my block back from the machine shop a couple weeks ago. Everything went smoothly and I went to start assembling it the following day. I started putting it together only to realize I never received my thrust bearings from Fab9. No biggie, I emailed customer service and let them know. New bearings got sent out and came in. They shipped me 90-00 thrust bearings instead of the 01-05s that were on my order. Sweet! The correct thrust bearings are on their way now but I'm essentially stuck until those show up. Oh well. Still hoping to have the motor buttoned up and in the car sometime over Summer. The current 204,000 mile motor is still running strong, although it turns new oil black fairly quickly haha.
Car sitting pretty at Buttonwillow last weekend. CW13 configuration. The threads of a bolt in the right front wheel well that I never noticed (and my V730 tires never made contact with) fatally gouged my front right tire after two days at Willow Springs in the weeks prior. Brand new RT660s up front and worn 660s in the rear made for a super oversteery (but fun) setup. I wound up running a PB of 2:05.06 on my last session after it started getting hot out. Buttonwillow's for sure the most challenging track I've driven so far. I have lots of time to make up still, even after following and trying to mimic more experienced drivers out there.
Other mods this month: new steering rack, properly depowered, with a welded pinion this time. The welded pinion feels substantially better than my last depowered rack without it. Game changing? Maybe not, but I'm stoked I did it. Also swapped intake side motor mounts with a buddy so my car is full poly now and got a SadFab LS2 coil kit from NateWin on here. Need to get some shorter plug wires but I'm stoked on how it turned out.
After the first drive, I swear the car gained more power with the LS coils. I didn't play with plug gap at all yet, still running the BK7RE plugs at stock gap (0.028" I think). Is it possible that more complete combustion from the stronger spark is netting a little more torque? I will only accept yes as an answer. Please don't destroy the placebo effect for me.
For my TT checkout ride, our NASA instructor got on my *** kept his car super close to mine for half a lap to see if I'd lose my composure. I held my cool and didn't make any (major) mistakes. He said I looked decent enough to be promoted into TT. Woohoo!
Tuna Canyon Road in Malibu. If you know, you know. One way only, downhill, steep. Glimpses of the ocean on the way down make concentrating hard for those with ADD.
Man, I miss making these posts. Shoutout to anyone who read this far! Gonna lay off the track days for a couple weeks to do some work on the car and spend a couple weekends riding mountain bikes but I'll have more updates soon enough!
Got a little too comfortable floating my left wheels over the bus stop at Buttonwillow last weekend and slapped both of them on the backside of the curbing one session. What’s crazy is that this wobble only produced a noticeable vibration at over 80mph.
New wheel’s on order.
In the meantime, I finally got the thrust bearings for the VVT motor after Fab9 not sending them with my order, and then sending out thrust bearings for a ‘90-00 motor.
Plastigage’d all the mains and two of the rods on Friday and got the crankshaft and piston/rod #1 and 2 in. Hoping I’ll have some time this week to make more progress on it.
My Miata buddies from San Diego both bought 9LR splitters and big ***** so in the interest of staying relevant in the arms race, I finally built a damn splitter for this thing!
My buddy Frankie risked his dear life hanging out the back of his Ford Explorer to get these shots. I'd say it was worth it. Maybe I'm biased I'm gonna pretend this is all marine layer and not smog.
Didn't take many pictures of the process/install but I went the lazy way and essentially just cut a crescent shape in a sheet of 1/2" birch plywood. I mounted it to my existing plywood undertray with a handful of bolts and big *** washers, and a pair of $11 Amazon splitter rods. It's strong enough to stand on (I'm ~175lbs on a good day) and hasn't torn off (yet) at speeds of up to 110mph so I figure it'll hold up on track. The splitter extends 4" in front of the air dam, legal for NASA TT4 classing with no points modifier and legal in GTA Street Class. I gave the thing a hefty spray with black rubberized underbody coating to finish it. Hopefully this'll seal it decently from the elements .
Woodworking jig. Everything has multiple purposes.
I also finally spent a little time fashioning a bigger heat shield for the turbo. Used a sheet of 22 gauge steel from Lowe's and lined the inside with a leftover catalytic converter heat shield from a 2020 Ford Explorer ST. It's a two-layer shield with some sort of fiberglass backing. The previous shield I made out of a small piece of sheet aluminum I found at work wasn't big enough to shield the master cylinder and reservoir from the turbo. After a 20 minute track session, the MC/reservoir were getting so hot I could literally put my hand next to them and feel them radiating heat. Honestly, I can't believe the reservoir held its shape haha. I've noticed my brakes occasionally getting soft on track after taking long sweeping right handers at medium speed and have attributed it to this. I'm taking the car to Streets of Willow this weekend and will see if this makes any difference.
Perhaps the most important recent upgrade. Check out CatsWithHardHats on Redbubble. You won't be disappointed.
His name is Walter and he's an ex-group B rally driver.
Also went into work last Saturday and finally took the time to replace my horribly leaking crank seal (again). My motor has been killing crank seals every 3 or so months, presumably because of my wobbly-*** OEM damper. Hopefully the new Fluidampr changes that. If not, **** it, my VVT motor should be done by mid-late Summer.
Hopefully I'll have time next week to do a little writeup after Streets this weekend. Also planning on ordering the Supermiata brake ducts for my BX1175 kit next week, installing an upgraded oil pan baffle and putting the oil pan on the VVT motor, and dropping the VVT head off at the machine shop. More fun abounds.
Gonna hope I don't jinx myself here but it's been a good couple weeks and the car's running strong!
Took it out to Streets of Willow with a bunch of buddies on the 14th and had a grand 'ol time with it. I showed up Saturday afternoon and set up bullshitted with the boys until late at night. Made some brats and watched some old mountain bike movies on my portable projector. Set up a sleeping pad on my buddy's trailer and slept there. It was maybe 60 degrees out and surprisingly more comfortable than expected. Great times all around.
Sunday was killer. I haven't been to Streets in almost nine months and haven't run it clockwise in almost a year. I was surprised to find that driving this track didn't feel too different with 200hp vs 100hp. Braking zones were obviously earlier in the long straights but I didn't feel like the track changed as much as Big Willow did with more power and speed. I ended up pleasantly surprising myself by running a 1:25.5 on my third session in ~85* heat. That's much quicker than I thought the car was going to go, my original goal for the day was to post a 1:27 haha.
My fourth session of the day, my buddy jumped in the car with me for a ride along and the car started developing an issue. Everything was fine on the out lap but I dove into turn 2, got on the gas at the apex and nothing happened. The car coasted through the turn and I got zero response from the throttle until I straightened out. Uhhh ok, did I just experience fuel starvation? Took a couple of the shorter infield turns hard and the car was fine but the same thing happened coming out of the back straight into the long braking zone a couple turns before the skid pad. I went to roll on the gas and again, nothing. My car had about 3/8 of a tank left and I've run it almost all the way empty on track before without running into fuel starvation. What the hell gives? I pulled into the pits and dumped three more gallons of 91 in the car and got back out on track. No joy, the car still had no throttle response for about a second or two following any high-g event. Alright, I guess I'm going into diagnosis mode. At least whatever's happening is only killing the car when it's being driven at the limit. I wiggle tested the wiring on my entire fuel pump harness with the car running to see if there was an intermittent short or open, checked power and ground wires for tightness, checked the fuse to make sure the element hadn't broken in two (had that happen on my van before), pulled the fuel pump itself to see if the sock had fallen off. No problems found. I did all of this before considering that the problem only started once I had a passenger in the car. I called my buddy over and told him to jump back in the car. I took a look at his foot positioning and told him to hop back out. Pulled back the carpet and sure enough I had routed the MAP line right under where his right foot was sitting. Every time we got into a hard braking zone or swung the car around a long corner, his weight had been pinching the MAP line closed, telling the ECU the engine was in vacuum while I was at full throttle on the corner exit.
TL;DR I'm a dunce.
Surely topping off the fuel tank will fix my problem.
Donut Media's Lo and Hi cars were on site doing laps. Well, mostly. Hi car got towed off the track halfway through the day. Saw it back on track during the last session so luckily those dudes didn't blow another engine.
Got the head all torn down and sent to the machine shop as well. Flyin Miata inconel 1mm oversize valves, Supertech heavy double springs, and new valve stem seals going in.
I think this one specifically was "Seasons". All those old movies by The Collective are free on YouTube now so I have the whole lot of them downloaded onto a flash drive to watch on camping trips haha.
Ah, seasons, forgot that one, but I've watched it easily 50 times. Good times with Peaty and Minnar on SC Syndicate, Sam Hill on Ironhorse.
I was a national level downhiller that time, but now I just ride for fun and show the kids whats up from time to time
Love some dirtjumping right now, cause it's not as time consuming as going to the bikepark
Ah, seasons, forgot that one, but I've watched it easily 50 times. Good times with Peaty and Minnar on SC Syndicate, Sam Hill on Ironhorse.
I was a national level downhiller that time, but now I just ride for fun and show the kids whats up from time to time
Love some dirtjumping right now, cause it's not as time consuming as going to the bikepark
Haha no way! I didn't expect to meet another downhiller on here. Your guys' bike parks over in Europe look killer. I started out racing downhill as well but then transitioned to enduro. Was racing pro class regionally but was never fast enough to make any money off it and eventually a broken elbow ended my "career" Still ride a bunch though!
Nothing crazy as far as updates in the last couple weeks but I'm trying to stay on top of this thread better so here goes.
My oil cooler took a chunk of asphalt to the face a few weeks ago at SOW. Damage wasn't too bad, Bent a small patch of fins and deformed a couple of the oil passages but no leaks. However, I decided that the damage was bad enough to use as an excuse to replace the cooler with a bigger one. Bought a 25 row Setrab Series 6 and installed it last Saturday in place of the injured TDR oil cooler. The thing just barely fits where I had the old one mounted. In the end, I wasn't amped on the fitting selection I used to adapt my 1/2" lines to the Setrab. The stack goes: Male M22 to AN10 --> AN10 to AN8 --> AN8 to 1/2" push lock barb. The stack of adapters goes to the damn sky haha. I really just should to upsize my lines to AN10 but I couldn't find any NPT to AN10 fittings for my sandwich plate that would arrive in time for the car's first NASA TT this weekend. Oh well, it doesn't leak and they aren't visible with the front end put back together. I haven't ripped the car too hard aside from a couple repeated highway pulls but the oil temps seem to be a little lower on average compared to the original TDR cooler.
Looks almost the same size in photo but it's substantially bigger in person. There's a dirty joke in there somewhere.
Made the splitter a month and a half ago as a removable extension to the undertray for ease of towing and replacement. My thought is that I can have a 5" one to run for GTA Street class and a 4" for NASA TT4 and swap them out easily in my garage.
The VVT head is now ready to go. +1mm Flyin Miata inconel intake and exhaust valves, Supertech heave double springs. Almost a little too quick of a turnaround from the machine shop. I was expecting it to take a couple weeks but it was done in a couple days. Still need to get a head gasket, ARP studs, a fuel rail and fpr, and a couple gaskets and connectors before the VVT motor is ready to go in the car. All the big pieces are done though!
First NASA TT done and dusted! Holy hell, what a weekend. First time trailering the car to an event, first time racing an actual TT, and first time eating a gas station hot dog in a year or so. Two of those three things were awesome.
Picked up a trailer from Uhaul Saturday morning and loaded the car up only to find a puddle of oil under where I had it parked. Spectacular start. Car was about a quart low on oil so I topped it off, started it up and found oil leaking from one of the lines at the sandwich plate for my oil cooler. One of the hose clamps was just barely snug. Don't know how that happened because I snugged it down pretty tight when I installed the 25-row Setrab a couple weekends ago. The clamp looked and felt fine but I replaced it anyways and got on my way out to Buttonwillow.
When I bought my van a few years ago, I specifically opted for the 3.7L non-turbo V6. It's substantially simpler than the 3.5L EcoBoost motor and they generally go almost twice the distance without needing major repairs (coolant fittings usually **** the bed around 70-90k miles and then you're pulling both turbos to replace them. Woohoo!). That being said, the EcoBoost might've been nice had I known I'd tow with this rig one day. The already-slow rig was an absolute dog with the trailer haha. I think I averaged 40-45 mph on the first long uphill going over the mountain pass to get to Buttonwillow. Aside from that, though, it was a dream! I built this thing out three summers ago specifically to go on mountain bike road trips with. Got a heated outdoor shower, mini-fridge, microwave and coffee maker, on-board air compressor and all sorts of other doohickeys that make camping in it a pleasure. Really looking forward to taking it out to the track from here on out.
Stopped in Frasier Park on the way out Saturday to get a little bike ride in. Another bonus of not driving the car to events.
Got to Buttonwillow in time to watch the tail end of the 5 hour enduro race. Super cool to watch a bunch of cars driving the track pinned in near-total darkness. No pics of that unfortunately. Here's a POV of me cooking a couple brats.
Sunday was a great time! I got absolutely smoked overall but was already expecting that. Car's currently 25whp under limit for TT4 and I can move up to 245 tires with no penalty. I was still able to tighten the gap a bit on some of my competition in the later sessions though so that was satisfying. I've never run Buttonwillow CW25 and didn't think it'd be all that different with only two sections changed up. I was wrong. CW25 is FAST. I was in fifth gear substantially more than when I ran CW13 last time. As it turned out, my only real chance to put down a top time for the day was in the first session. The day started out pretty cool, maybe low 60s early in the morning but quickly progressed to 85-90*f. I spent most of session one getting used to the course and figuring out braking zones. Reasonable stuff, mostly. Lap 6 or so, I found myself behind John Magnuson (our regional TT lead) and was able to pick up a couple lines and ideal braking zones from him. I set my best lap right after. Decent, but not at the limit and leaving much to be desired.
From there, I continued to drive better and more at the limit every session, but all my gains were undone by the weather heating up. My max speed lessened every session by 1-2 mph, starting at 118.8mph, eventually dropping to 114.4mph on the fourth session during the hottest part of the day. Session 2, I had a pretty clean/fast lap that netted me a 2:05.3. Third session I was at a 2:06.5, fourth session, 2:07.
I guess it's also worth noting that my right front tire was slowly delaminating all day and really didn't look happy by the time I left. That probably explains some of the time differential between the first and last sessions.
Overall, it was a great weekend! The next event I do will definitely be with the built VVT motor in the car. We'll see if I can run it on wastegate pressure and stay in spec for TT4 at NASA events or if I'll have to run TT3 with the boost turned up. Either way, this Sunday was a great shakedown and it's gonna be awesome getting back out there in the Fall.
01-13-2023, 03:26 PM
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sucker was hardly sealing under boost, resulting in mad pressure from the intake manifold entering the crankcase. The crankcase vent on the hot side of the motor was venting enough on short pulls and during street use but couldn't let all of the positive pressure out of the crankcase after multiple 10+ second pulls at full boost on track. I didn't have time to get a 323 PCV before the weekend so I ordered a 3/8" check valve off Amazon and a catch can since I was already at it and installed both on the cold/vacuum side of the crankcase vent system. PCV ----> Catch Can -----> Check valve -----> Intake Manifold. Oil leaks gone even after being in boost for ~20 seconds each lap on the oval.
