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Why the lateral bend in the door hoop? Makes the door hoop to main hoop junction, into a hinge.
I have no idea, but I trust my cage builder that he knows what he's doing. I can only assume for greater clearance around the head? But only that's my very uneducated guess. Today's progress picture shows an additional brace at that junction though. He's been doing rollcages, and most specifically Miata cages, for a long time and I just asked for his standard design as it's FIA, NASA, SCCA legal. When I did my research and hired him he asked me for design input but I told him I'm not going to pretend to know what I need/want as I am no where close to knowledgeable about such things and that whatever he recommended was good for me. I had looked at a lot of his work and talked to previous customers and no one has had anything less than stellar to say about him and his work and all the tech inspectors in the three NASA regions I plan to compete in know him and essentially pass his cages on sight (of course they still inspect it fully, but they are aware of his quality work is my point) so I trust it'll be just fine. Way better than an off the shelf DIY kit from Miatacage or similar, and definitely better than no rollcage at all, so I'm happy so far.
Extra tube added in cage in your reply post. Earlier post #60 didn't have that tube.
That extra tube completes the load path that I was questioning. Unusual design.
Looks like a heavy cage. But a very cool looking one.
Considering it still has a few missing load paths yeah, it is busy. Does not appear to have a dash bar. Also does not appear to have a triangulated bar from the front upper door hinge area to the firewall. Just a bar from the door hoop front mounting point to the firewall. So that crumple zone is not triangulated. Unless I'm missing something, the base of the a-pillar would just fold in a direct lateral impact, no visible support. Nice welds.
Considering it still has a few missing load paths yeah, it is busy. Does not appear to have a dash bar. Also does not appear to have a triangulated bar from the front upper door hinge area to the firewall. Just a bar from the door hoop front mounting point to the firewall. So that crumple zone is not triangulated. Unless I'm missing something, the base of the a-pillar would just fold in a direct lateral impact, no visible support. Nice welds.
Dash bar and finishing the front supports will be next week, those were just my end of week progress pictures before he went home for the weekend. I'm just antsy and so keep telling myself it's almost finished hahaha.
I was also able to scoop up this parts car/roller today...since I had grabbed the green rust-free shell that I sent to cage I was just going to swap all my blue body panels/doors over when my rusty HPDE car is retired. Now, however, I will be able to skip having to worry about paint and will have a complete spare set of (blue) body panels.
These panels/doors need a good buffing for sure, but as long as the car looks all one color while moving on the track that's all I'm really shooting for haha. This parts car also gives me spare suspension arms, brake calipers, diff, PPF, etc to add to my spare parts inventory. Once I get the caged car back I will start tearing this one down and give the whole body a good once over with some rubbing compound and see if I can get the paint to shine up a bit. Goal is to finish the HPDE season with the blue car, then move all the suspension and drivetrain over to the green car and shoot for comp school next year. Then, FINALLY, will be some actual class-based prep...
Parts car torn down, caged car under cover awaiting off-season to swap everything over to it, and current HPDE blue car ready to rock (finally) at Summit Point in a week and half.
I'm excited for my first track experience off of 195 width tires haha. Hoping for a decent improvement with the 225s. Which reminds me, I still need to scrub those in and bed the brakes...having a non-street legal car is annoying sometimes. I'll have to see if I can scope out a business/industrial park to trailer the car to after hours this weekend...
Had a blast at Summit Point a few weeks ago. First time on wider tires and the car definitely responded well. Still encountering some mis-fire issues at the end of sessions though, so working on ditching the NB1 ignition system for the NB2 system with coilpacks on top of the valve cover instead of behind the head. Hoping this will help with some heat dissipation at the end of sessions. Otherwise car ran great though. I'm just hoping the stock exhaust can hold on through the rest of the season as it develops new leaks and more rust flaking away every event haha.
Got the spark plug wires in the other day, so now I just need to whip together some brackets to hold the coilpacks down and loom the wiring. So much room at the back of the head now!
Planned events to finish out 2020:
- VIR August 1-2
- VIR September 12-13 (maybe)
- VIR October 3-4
- Summit Point October 31-November 1
Covid really screwed up my plans to visit more tracks and my work schedule hasn't been playing nice with all the rescheduled events. Just trying to focus on getting as much seat time as possible at my in-region tracks.
Off-season plans:
- Move everything over to caged shell and strip anything unnecessary during this process
- SadFab bronze bushing upgrade
- Full exhaust
- DIY intake with shielded box
- Ditch factory busted up undertray for something better and tighten up radiator ducting
- Cool suit and fire suppression system install???
2021 plans:
- Shake down car with new chassis just to make sure all is good
- check ride into TT6
- Instructor clinic to save money on track time?
- Start saving for aftermarket ECU
- Comp school if I'm feeling froggy?
Got the spark plug wires in the other day, so now I just need to whip together some brackets to hold the coilpacks down and loom the wiring.
Did you buy or make the short harness that goes from the main harness to the coils? I'm debating on switching to the NB2 setup and looking into make vs. buy.
Misfire is more likely the cam angle sensor but converting to NB2 coils is a good idea anyway.
I've already gone through the trials of dealing with the cam sensor and got that problem fixed...my issue was more so with the wiring to the cam sensor as it was kinked. When it got hot I found the cut/kink where I could see the wires expanding away from each other. Extended and rerouted the wiring with a gentle slope along with a new connector and all has been good there. The issues were all WAAAAAAY worse when I was dealing with all that. At least the car is driveable now haha. Plus there is a notable difference in temperature at the cam sensor pre-hood louver versus now with having them, so heat in that area has been cut down quite a bit. I still carry spares to swap in occasionally just to see if it changes anything, but nothing changes with new ones and I've triple checked the wires. I can, however, throw in a new spare coilpack and have trouble-free driving for a few events before trouble starts again. The cheap coil replacement from Amazon has a 2-year warranty, though I think he's starting to get tired of sending me free coilpacks haha. I figure this move to NB2 ignition will (hopefully) help cut down on issues by moving everything away from the extremely hot back of the head area.
Originally Posted by vtbandit
Did you buy or make the short harness that goes from the main harness to the coils? I'm debating on switching to the NB2 setup and looking into make vs. buy.
On the misfire issue, also look at your crank angle sensor connector. I've experienced one of those connectors failing. Car ran fine while cool, but as it heated up the misfire got worse and worse. Found there is very limited contact between the pins in the OEM connectors and it doesn't take much to reduce the contact area. We (Champ Car team) went through two new sensors until we found the connector was the issue. Now we replace all the connectors with Deutsch connectors and have no issues.
On the misfire issue, also look at your crank angle sensor connector. I've experienced one of those connectors failing. Car ran fine while cool, but as it heated up the misfire got worse and worse. Found there is very limited contact between the pins in the OEM connectors and it doesn't take much to reduce the contact area. We (Champ Car team) went through two new sensors until we found the connector was the issue. Now we replace all the connectors with Deutsch connectors and have no issues.
Awesome, I'll definitely look into that. I have replaced the crank sensor itself way back when the cam angle sensor issues were ongoing, but didn't mess with the connector. I'll get that done and see if it helps!
Got the NB2 ignition done with a DIY mounting plate. Everything should be good to go for a hot weekend at VIR! There's only a few more events this year that I can make so I'm hoping to just focus on my driving as much as possible before I get everything swapped over to the new shell this off-season.
Sick progress, loving this threat. That cage looks beefy as hell. I'm sure I missed this, but are you planning for more power on the caged shell or staying stock-ish?
Sick progress, loving this threat. That cage looks beefy as hell. I'm sure I missed this, but are you planning for more power on the caged shell or staying stock-ish?
Honestly, my mind changes almost daily on what I want to do power-wise. One day I think N/A BP is the way to go for simplicity, cost, and being able to just follow the well established recipe. Other days I feel like I want boost, sometimes turbo, others supercharger. Then of course there's the whole K-swap thing that can't be ignored.
At the end of the day though, I don't think staying stock-ish will be the long term answer. My background is with turbo cars, so as of today that's the way I'm leaning. My wife wants me to supercharge it simply because I've never messed with a supercharger before and it would be different for me. Either way, I don't think there is a 100% track-proven "kit" out there for either at the moment, so I just need to do my research and figure out how I want to piece everything together. Boost will need heat exchanger ducting regardless of how it is produced, so I might start with just taking a long hard look at the front end while I have it all apart this off-season and see how I'm feeling then. Then it may just be whatever the budget allows.
As much as I want to jump on the K-swap train, I'm personally kind of over making adjustments or compromises to make an engine swap work well in a new chassis. I've swapped quite a few cars in the past and it has made me appreciate the stock-ness of my Miata how it sits now. It just works and rarely needs to be wrenched on between beatings at the track. Which then leads again to a con of forced induction: how reliable will it really be with boost? And I know that's a question with a different answer for every single car, so I may just need to try it and see.
Assuming 250+ whp is the goal, there isn't any option that is either a quick 20hr swap or fire and forget once installed. K24A2 requires a new subframe. Z3 uses OEM subframe. Unopened K24 on E85 can make a reliable 220whp or thereabouts but its not cheap or quick install. All the hours & $$ up front but once installed, it's pretty bombproof. The BP is cheaper and easier but above 250whp not as low maintenance as the K24. I know a few here have long, service free hours on turbo track BP's, but they are rare. Even the vaunted TSE turbo kit (NLA) required regular stud maintenance.
If simplicity and low maintenance were top priority, I'd lower power goal to be met by an junkyard K24Z3 on E85. 220whp is damn fun in a ~2300# NA/NB with good suspension and a little aero. Doesn't require massive cooling mods or F1 brakes, eats fewer tires than a 350whp build. Less stuff breaks.
We just got trigger info for the Z3 from Haltech and forwarded that to KPower. That precludes the need to swap in the A2 triggers. So outside of the oil pan stuff, it's an unopened $600 junkyard motor. The expense is in the KPower kit & ECU, the motor itself nearly free.
Junkyard BP's only stone reliable below 7,000rpm and about 145whp on E85 with bolt ons ($1000).
Forged, ported, big valve BP ($5000) maybe 170whp on E85 for 200 race hours.
Z3 ($500) more reliable than either at 220whp. Just have that $5k/40hrs up front to build the Z3.
If I had a fresh racecar build and could go any direction I wanted I would still do a K24Z3. Fits in tons of fun classes, cheap and reliable junkyard engines, and fast enough to have some serious fun, can't really beat that. If for some reason I lost an engine at the track I would just load the car up, grab a beer and hang out, not a huge deal. If I lost a built BP that I spent like 4 or 5k building I'd be a lot more upset that's for sure.
04-28-2020, 09:59 PM
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