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I also think I MIGHT have found the source of my random cylinder 1 misfire while at paddock speeds...apparently my lower timing cover came loose at some point and has been completely worn away by the trigger wheel, along with significant scoring of the backside of the wheel. I think it's very possible it was creating a bad reference signal for the crank position sensor, especially if the trigger points got worn down from rapidly beating against the plastic timing cover. I never put on my adjustable timing wheel I got a couple years ago, so that will go on now and I'll just need to source a new lower timing cover if I don't happen to have on in the garage attic from one of my old parts cars. So that should address a potential problem I've been having and will also give a slight boost power by bumping timing up a touch.
I'm off Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday this week, so I anticipate the rear suspension will be converted to the SadFab bronze bearings and assembled onto the car. I ordered a new crank position sensor to ensure all parts associated with the potential trigger wheel issue are new so that should be in this week as well. Then the engine will be finished up with its refresh and new clutch and the drivetrain should be ready to go back in by early February. Things should start progressing quicker from there with getting the car assembled with a slight delay anticipated for wiring: I'm planning on stripping/de-pinning anything that's no longer on the car. I hate loose wiring connectors just hanging around! Plus, with the dash cut I did while the rollcage was built everything behind the dash will need to be redone and drastically cleaned up anyway.
Car is coming along great. I wanted to do the sadfab conversion too, but it just wasn't in the budget. I've been looking at the real estate in VA and we are narrowing in on Henrico county, Mechanicsville, Glen Allen, area. We'll have to meet up once I get there, it'll be cool to see two green Miatas at the same track day
Car is coming along great. I wanted to do the sadfab conversion too, but it just wasn't in the budget. I've been looking at the real estate in VA and we are narrowing in on Henrico county, Mechanicsville, Glen Allen, area. We'll have to meet up once I get there, it'll be cool to see two green Miatas at the same track day
I didn't have it in the budget either when I initially did the bushings, so it's somewhat annoying to essentially be doing the work twice, but oh well. It's going fairly smoothly so far.
Those are good areas for sure. I work for Henrico Fire Department, it's a great county to be looking in.
Meant to post this up before, explains some of the crank signal interference I would guess. A new cover and timing wheel are on the engine and later today the oil pan baffle should go in and engine will be ready to drop back into the car. Once it's off the stand it will get the awesome looking SuperMiata clutch and flywheel put on!
Adjustable prop valve mounted in the cabin for easy access and fine tuning. Made good progress on getting all the hardlines on the car this past week including making the ones that run to the prop valve. I think the engine should be able to make it into the car this week, then things should really start coming together! Might miss the March event with still needing a lot of things to get done once the car is fully together such as alignment, road test, and a solid bolt check of the whole car, but otherwise mostly on schedule.
Got a good amount wrapped up this past month. Engine is in, all fluids done, wiring back in place. Been waiting for like two weeks for the appropriate helicoil to show up to fix the head where an exhaust stud stripped out, but hopefully that will all go together today and the underside of the car is completely done. All I need to do is calibrate the aftermarket fuel gauge I got since I'm deleting the stock cluster and the car SHOULD be good to start. Once I can confirm everything is working I just need to wire up the switch panel for the ignition key delete and the few accessories.
Once the car starts and wiring is good I should just need to bleed the brakes and clutch and then it'll be on to putting body panels back on the car along with some new/better radiator and brake ducting. Might not have time to get the car looking pretty before it sees the track, but I'm hoping for a mid-April debut as long as I can get the car aligned in time!
Monthly update: car is fully together, though three different colors and completely filthy.
Found my radiator to be leaking from the core, so ordered a SuperMiata crossflow and will build some legitimate ducting once it's in.
Dash is out for the umpteenth time to finish some wiring for the new switch panel. Stock cluster deleted and replaced with the gauges I already had and an aftermarket tach.
Mad crunch time mode to get all the odds and ends finished up with hopeful debut in May at VIR.
Saw(and sub'd) your Summit point video on youtube. Cars looks to be in great form!
Thanks! It did pretty well all weekend in the heat.
I didn't realize I slacked so much at updating this thread. Two events done so far with minimal issues. VIR was hot and the car was running relatively high oil temps all weekend (260-270*F). Between removing the factory cooler/warmer and trying 15W-50 oil (up from 40 weight) I think that easily accounts for the extra heat. I also had less than ideal radiator ducting as I ran out of time before the weekend. Summit was also very hot (95* ambient) and temps again were in the same range. Car ran great both weekends despite that though and I got a new PB at both tracks. I have to say, with all the hate Toyo R888Rs get, they certainly handle abuse and heat just fine. No issues with greasiness in the heat and grip was very consistent all weekend. Great audible and physical feedback this past weekend at Summit as well, I felt like I knew right where the edge of grip was.
One thing I do want to make sure I tend to this upcoming off season is wheel bearing maintenance as my rear left hub gets extremely hot at both tracks since they are both clockwise. Eventually I think MiataHubs all the way around will be the ticket.
Next event should be August back at VIR, which will probably be hotter than the last two. I do, however, have a 16 row Setrab oil cooler ready to go on and I'm going to go back to 40 weight oil since cooler temps should help with keeping the viscosity. If I can be in the 230* range with the cooler in place I think that'll be the sweet spot. I also need to finish getting the CoolSuit wired up...this past weekend was pretty brutal.
I've requested a check ride into TT for next weekend as well, so if all goes well my first TT6 event will be at Hyperfest at VIR in October. This offseason I'll hopefully be able to afford a few things (aftermarket ECU) to make the car more competitive to the ruleset as it is currently under prepared and I'm still off pace when using Spec Miata as target times:
VIR PB: 2:22.26 on R888Rs
VIR goal: 2:20.xx on R888Rs before stepping up to RRs for TT
VIR Spec Miata (NASA): 2:17.5-2:18.5 ish at race pace on RRs
Summit Point PB: 1:30.29 on R888Rs
Summit Point goal: sub-1:30 on R888Rs before stepping up to RRs for TT
Summit Point Spec Miata (NASA): 1:27.5-1:28.5 ish at race pace on RRs
Video of fastest lap from Summit this past weekend. Still plenty of work to do, but I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the car. Still not hitting all the right marks at Summit, but this was only my second real time there. Plenty of room for improvement!
I've requested a check ride into TT for next weekend as well, so if all goes well my first TT6 event will be at Hyperfest at VIR in October. This offseason I'll hopefully be able to afford a few things (aftermarket ECU) to make the car more competitive to the ruleset as it is currently under prepared and I'm still off pace when using Spec Miata as target time
I'll be at Hyperfest! However, I'll be way down it DE2
Is your goal TT/ST6 or 5, as your thread title suggests.
Also you can just do a check ride for TT, you don't need to do comp school?
I'll be at Hyperfest! However, I'll be way down it DE2
Is your goal TT/ST6 or 5, as your thread title suggests.
Also you can just do a check ride for TT, you don't need to do comp school?
The original goal was TT/ST5, and may still be the goal if I keep the BP, but car count has been terrible in the Mid-Atlantic region last year and this year. So right now I don't know the ultimate end goal, but it was always going to be a stepping stone approach as I don't have the budget to build everything up at once. The car is fully prepped for W2W in the event I decide to jump into Comp School at some point, but TT will be first to get my feet wet outside of the HPDE ladder. If 6 gets active I may stay put. If 5 gains traction I can build up. If 4 starts getting more cars I'll need to K swap. 3 is where the bulk of the cars seem to be right now in TT, and 4 seems to be slightly better for ST. But, I'm also planning on expanding outside the region once my new truck gets delivered late this fall, so that may determine my next move as well if there are better car counts in NE and SE. So it's wide open right now haha.
And yes, TT is just a check ride and approval from the series director. Same safety requirements as HPDE. I would go into HPDE-4 first to make use of the Toyo HPDE contingency since I need new tires, but in M-A region the amount of cars on the track at a time in 4 is downright chaotic. I spoke with the HPDE director about it and he recommended to either stay in 3 for the slightly better car count or to jump straight to TT where there's only 20ish cars on average vs the 40-50 in each HPDE run group.
Those are some huge run groups. The NE is stacked in ST, but it doesn't seem like many people do TT, but there are a few that run both ST/TT. The largest group now is Spec miata and they are growing bigger and bigger every event. I even considered selling my Xidas and getting into SM, but I really like the idea starting in TT6 and going into TT5 if I wanted, kinda like your plan.
I'm moving my GF down to Norfolk at the end of the month, the miata is outside Richmond, so hopefully once I find an engineering job I'll be down there soon. When I get down they'll we'll have to meet up, ill buy the beers
Expect HPDE-2 to have 60+ cars on track for Hyperfest.
Originally Posted by Z33Taxi
The NE is stacked in ST, but it doesn't seem like many people do TT, but there are a few that run both ST/TT. The largest group now is Spec miata and they are growing bigger and bigger every event. I even considered selling my Xidas and getting into SM, but I really like the idea starting in TT6 and going into TT5 if I wanted, kinda like your plan.
The NE Spec Miata field is definitely impressive. I saw they are getting their own run group with no mixed class racing. We average 12-15 Spec Miatas in Mid-Atlantic, but at the time of me building I thought TT/ST would take off a little more than they did. I don't have the budget to be competitive in Spec Miata at any level because even brand new RRs at every event is not feasible for me, so I wanted to build for multiple run groups (especially if I even look at forced induction of engine swaps) so I can maximize the fun. So far I'm having a blast with the BP and it's fun trying to find time with an "underprepared" car.
Originally Posted by Z33Taxi
I'm moving my GF down to Norfolk at the end of the month, the miata is outside Richmond, so hopefully once I find an engineering job I'll be down there soon. When I get down they'll we'll have to meet up, ill buy the beers
Heck yeah. We'll definitely meet up at Hyperfest too, I can try to save you a paddock spot.
Solid lap at Summit! I hope to go up there sometime soon.
You mentioned RRs, but are Hoosiers just too expensive? I went into a field full of S2Ks/E36s with RRs with my Hoosiers and I think at least 2 bought a set of purple crack afterwards
I'll be at Hyperfest too!!! Probably just TT5 for me, unsure on will I'll get my official comp license with NASA. They don't let you submit for a provisional based on experience, you HAVE to pay for the comp school. I don't mind paying for the comp school, just wish they'd have the school at more events.
Geez. I didn't see that picture of the belt mounts before. You need massive washers on both the inside and outside of the car or else the sheet metal is going to get twisted and fatigued to hell and start cracking.
Solid lap at Summit! I hope to go up there sometime soon.
You mentioned RRs, but are Hoosiers just too expensive? I went into a field full of S2Ks/E36s with RRs with my Hoosiers and I think at least 2 bought a set of purple crack afterwards
I'll be at Hyperfest too!!! Probably just TT5 for me, unsure on will I'll get my official comp license with NASA. They don't let you submit for a provisional based on experience, you HAVE to pay for the comp school. I don't mind paying for the comp school, just wish they'd have the school at more events.
Thanks! It's a fun little track. The elevation changes feel pretty significant for such a small track.
RRs in 225/45/15 are ~$200 each, R7s are ~$300 each for either a 205/50 or 225/45. I've yet to really run RRs, so I don't know much about them other than that they should last longer than the Hoosiers, though of course the Hoosiers will be faster. With all the talk of people only using Hoosiers for a very small amount of heat cycles I don't think I can commit to that kind of budget and I'd rather not get addicted to them until I absolutely have to. My current R888Rs have 34 heat cycles and are still producing the same or faster times. I think longevity and ability to take abuse from heat are my first priorities, with cost being second, and Hoosiers aren't long lasting OR cheap haha. Additionally, I'm going to make use of the $600 HPDE to TT Toyo continency money for this set, so it'll be RRs for now. I want to compare them to the R888Rs with all else being the same on the car. I think at some point I might buy a set of 3-4 heat cycle Hoosier take offs and compare as well, just to see from my own personal data what I like best vs what my wallet can afford.
I'll come say hi at Hyperfest! I do wish NASA had more Comp school days as well, especially ones where Comp School is all day Friday as opposed to the two-day events where Comp School drills are run during busier run groups.
Where did you mount the bolt for the inside lap belt clip?
DNM
Drilled a hole in the trans tunnel directly across from the factory seat belt threaded hole that's on the outside.
Originally Posted by Arca_ex
Geez. I didn't see that picture of the belt mounts before. You need massive washers on both the inside and outside of the car or else the sheet metal is going to get twisted and fatigued to hell and start cracking.
That was on my old HPDE only car when I had G-Force harness that stated no washer was needed on the top side. There's a 4" x 4" x 1/8" steel backing plate for each eye bolt on the bottom side and inside the trans tunnel for the inner lap belt. I did, however, add a large fender washer on the inside when everything moved over to the new competition car just for piece of mind. Documentation stated no washers needed on the top side when I researched it a few years back since there's no load pushing from inside the car to out, but I like the idea of extra safety and put the fender washers in anyway. Harness hardware kits only come with a single backing plate for the underside though, nothing for the inside.
Right on. Yeah I did the same thing a long time ago with backing plates only on the outside and the metal still gets worked back and forth a ton. When I was stitch welding my entire chassis I had a lot of small cracks and all those harness holes that I had to weld back together, then welded in 1/8" thick backing plates for all the harness mounting instead. I was surprised at how trashed all the floorpan metal was from the seat and the belts all bolted to it.
01-23-2021, 10:31 PM
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