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Does anyone know if looping the heater core hoses will pose any issues on a race car? I heard I will need a reducer but nobody has confirmed.w
this is what I read on M.Net: If there is no restriction in the heater hose as mine is right now (with hose bypassing the heater core), too much hot water recirculates and not enough goes to the radiator = ineffective cooling.
The best thing is to have just enough water go through the bypass path to let things equilibrate nicely while the thermostat is closed and no more. Any less, and you'll have odd hysteresis. Any more, and you'll be sacrificing velocity (and therefore efficiency) through your radiator. There's no way to know exactly how much restriction corresponds with this ideal water flow without testing, so most people are happy putting a ~3/8" restrictor in and calling it better than doing nothing.
Pro tip: your heater bypass hose is probably 5/8" ID. Find a ~2" long piece of 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD heater hose and jam it inside your bypass hose. Now you have a free, bulletproof restrictor.
Pro tip: your heater bypass hose is probably 5/8" ID. Find a ~2" long piece of 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD heater hose and jam it inside your bypass hose. Now you have a free, bulletproof restrictor.
Awesome. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Albert! Hope you are doin well.
Alright, time for an update. Im gonna paste from my ig since I don't feel like typing it all out again.
Some context to the next blurb is I actually bought a 2015 United 20ft Enclosed trailer. Between the go karting, car buying, and track days, I was looking for something a bit more secure and "livable" than my 16ft aluma trailer. It has AC/Heat, aluminum cabinets, outlets everywhere, lights inside, paneling, Dexter HD axles etc. Not in mint condition, it has some scuffs here and there but it'll do me just fine. I can always lay new white vinyl over the interior walls to clean it up too.
This was in February. Due to COVID, I headed out for an early return back to CA on April 17th since my classes were now online and I hate the midwest. We made it to Tulsa OK at around 1am and decided to stop there for the night. We stopped at a hotel in what seemed like a nice part of town. Well lit, security cameras all over, etc. Yeah. Seems good.
The next morning, we got a call at roughly 7am and didn’t pick up as my dad and I were both still pretty much asleep. Right after the phone stoped ringing my heart dropped. I knew something bad had happened. We had a room with a view of the tuck and trailer so my dad got up and took a peek. “It’s gone”. I immediately got up and rushed downstairs where we met with the concierge. She said, “Your truck is gone”. I said, “Like, stolen?” Her: “Yes.” We reviewed the security footage and when I saw my truck start and drive away I dropped to my knees.
I had EVERYTHING I own in that trailer. My m3, AST dampers, go kart, my tools, tires, my racing gear, camera equipment, drone, driving sim, my r6. It was all gone. I wish nobody the feeling that I felt that morning. I felt so violated. And so helpless. I was devastated.
The first officer that came out was extremely rude, and made me feel even worse about the situation. However a few hours later, we got a call from a Sheriff with great news. “We have a trailer and a BMW here for you.” I felt so relieved as my m3 was found, and ultimately that’s what I cared the most about. The trailer was dumped on top of a hill and it rolled back into a tree. I opened the trailer side door to find the m3’s drivers side window smashed, glass everywhere. The trailer was completely stripped of pretty much everything. Thankfully my dad was there with his truck so we were abe to tow it out of there. They tried to steal the car, and coulnt because of the push to start and 10000 immobilizers the car has. However to shut the alarm off, they tried to disconnect the battery, and when they did that, it shorted out the EDC module in the car and a bunch of codes came up.
A few hours later my truck was found abandoned in a field a few miles away from the trailer. The door lock was punched in, and the ignition cylinder was drilled out. The truck was ransacked.
Picture dump below: if anyone sees any of my **** lmk lol. Long shot but you never know.
I made it on the news. So thats cool I guess.
This was my kart. It was a Birel TAG kart. Im gonna miss this thing. It ripped.
And my 03 r6. Its probably been torn down and sold for parts. This bike was clean. I didn't even get a chance to take it to the track yet. :(
Thankfully, pretty much everything was covered under insurance, so as much as it blows to have this experience, it could have been a lot worse.
My first priority when I got back was to get my miata ready for my roll cage appointment at TC Design. So I spent a day gutting it, and dropped it off. Backing the car outage trailer was a mess. This was the first time the miata has seen this trailer. I loaded it on my driveway to make it easy as the car is low and doing it this way made the approach/breakover angle a lot less steep. I figured when I got to the shop, id do the same thing to get the car out.
Weeellll, I overestimated the amount of room I had to back the trailer in and had to dump the car out on flat ground. I had Tony guide me out and I guess he was a little annoyed because he gave no ***** that my splitter was getting snagged on the trailer gate. I felt something hang up so I stopped, he said keep going so I did. And next thing I know my whole front end was fucked. Kewl. But hey, I got the car out!
I basically told Tony to go ham with it. I wanted every option he had. My though process was this was only going to happen once being a weld in cage. So I didn't want to compromise. Buy once cry once. I guess thats been my motto for this whole car in retrospect.
That all translated to X style door bars instead of NASCAR bars (a must have for me, **** nascar bars). A-pillar gussets instead of FIA bars for ingress/egress and stiffening, double X brace for main hoop, anti-intrusion bars for the footwells, straight dash bar, and some more gussets here and there.
About a week later I picked the car up. I came prepared this time with wood to get the car in. Went way smoother without a front splitter on. Ive decided I wanna re-do the front end to make it quick release. But here is the raw cage.
I got the car all masked off and ready for primer.
And finally, paint. I decided to go with burnt bronze. Inspiration was actually one of my Cerakoted guns. This isn't exactly as dark as I wanted (its a bit too gold) but close enough. It still looks good, especially in the sun, then all the flake comes out.
All these pics are pre-clear coat. I added a light layer of clear to darken up the paint and bring out even more of the metallic flake in the paint. Im super happy with it. Its not a very loud color, still classy but adds the pop I was looking for. I am going to be painting my valve cover again to match the cage.
Ill get some more pics of the clear coat later but for now ill lay out my plan for the car.
I need to:
1. Figure out how to put the dash skin in.
2. Figure out if I want a new seat bracket, cut out humps, or drop the floor. Id rather not drop the floor if I don't have to.
3. Install SPA 4.0L fire system
4. Get/install digital dash/clean up the existing wiring mess
5. install hood vents
6. Drop the diff, install delrin bushings
7. Remove FUCAs, install delrin bushings
8. new brakes. I will either get the TSE super light kit or something else
8.5. Install remote prop valve adjuster
9. Coolant flush/new rad cap
10. trans fluid flush
11. install the fuel system that ive been trying to figure out for the past eternity.
12. Dyno
13. Resign front splitter/brake ducts
14. New alignment bolts/alignment/corner balance
15. Mabe do a MK60 ABS retrofit. Im thinking about it.
So thats where im at currently. Ill try to keep this updated but life gets in the way sometimes. Clearly.
Dang, that sucks big time man. Cage is looking dope though.
If you didn't know this already, the 7.3l and 6.0l Ford SuperDuty trucks are one of the easiest trucks to steal and theft is SUPER common.
Moving forward when you have it parked, either remove the fuel pump relay, install a hidden kill switch, or if you have a tuner with removable controller like a Hydra, put it on a no-start tune then take the controller with you. I'm constantly nervous about mine getting broken into but at least they won't be able to start it. All it takes is a large flathead screw driver and a hammer and I could get inside and start one of these trucks in under a minute.
**** thieves.
EDIT: Also, don't do a floor pan drop. ***** you for classing in some series and limits your options. I'm 6'5" and still fit in my caged racecar with TCM hard top without a floor drop.
Are tuners worth it for the 7.3? If I can get some meaningful power out of it I would not be opposed. But I also don't want to make it a time bomb.
Otherwise, im considering just selling it and getting a new 3.5 f150 or f250 crew cab, so I can sleep in the back of the truck and not want to off myself, along with it being more secure, and just nicer overall.
Wow! Not really the update I was hoping for. I'm glad you are happy with your cage and didn't lose the BMW. Really sorry that you and your dad had to experience that, I almost know the feeling, never lost quite that much. Hopefully you will never have to experience that again.
Stay well George!
Are tuners worth it for the 7.3? If I can get some meaningful power out of it I would not be opposed. But I also don't want to make it a time bomb.
Otherwise, im considering just selling it and getting a new 3.5 f150 or f250 crew cab, so I can sleep in the back of the truck and not want to off myself, along with it being more secure, and just nicer overall.
Sorry for derailing the Miata content but just wanted to provide some insight if it helps.
One other thing to look into is "Jimmy Jammers". It prevents theives from being able to unlock the truck with a screwdriver like they did to yours.
I thought my tuner was worth it. I mean if you have stock injectors you can't really make the truck into a time bomb, even when they're all in it's not enough to shorten the life of the engine. You can get a decent bump of power for street driving and the heavy tow tunes are "+20hp" or whatever. There are gains to be had in throttle response and a little power for towing. I like the simplicity (no cat for emissions) and being able to work on the 7.3l but the newer trucks are a lot quieter and nicer. A couple of mods and a tuner though and they seem to do pretty damn decent. I pull a 42' enclosed gooseneck with it. If you get like a 4" magnaflow turbo back exhaust (these are dirt cheap, I got mine for less than 300 delivered and it's about the same volume as stock when cruising), S&B intake, and if you're on stock turbo you'll need an aftermarket compressor wheel (RiffRaff is good) to avoid compressor surge, you'll be good to go especially with that size trailer.
I feel like I've got too much invested in mine to get rid of it, even though with how much prices are going up I could probably break even. And it is still under 120k miles. 2000 crew cab long bed dually with 6 speed manual. The only thing that it still needs is a decent sound system and I have an issue with the A/C compressor kicking off when the truck is idling or cruising at low RPM.
I can make it up hills just fine, the steeper ones I might have to slow down to about 55MPH but EGT will usually sit at about 1000 to 1100 (I don't like to see much above 1100) and the oil temp has never gotten above 218 even in 110 degree weather. I usually cruise at a little over 70, my truck has a 4.10 short rear end so anything above 75 is pretty high up there in RPM and starts to annihilate fuel mileage. I get about 12MPG towing which is just slightly better than my buddies 6.7l F250 with a smaller double axle trailer vs. my heavier triple axle.
I put in a fancy billet compressor wheel (Wicked Wheel 2) when I rebuilt the turbo, did a EBPV delete, and it has the napa 6637 big *** air filter mod. I was considering a 4" exhaust but not sure if I will see any gains there. I have no clue how much $ tuners are, but I like the idea of keeping an eye on everything.
im in this truck for so cheap at this point that I can keep it and just not give a **** about it. Although if im towing, I want all that stuff to be secure. Im currently swapping over all the body panels (hood, fenders, doors, and bed) for some white rust fee ones while im out here in CA. Ill just spray the cab white and ill have a not ugly truck anymore. When I take it back to indy it'll be big $ too.
I guess I just need to decide if the extra security, niceness, and room of a new truck is worth the $ to me. And that a hard decision for me because I can use that $ elsewhere.
Exhaust will help with spool and EGT. The Hydra tuner is the best one out there for these trucks (300 bucks on RiffRaff) but you would need a separate system to monitor temps and stats like the Edge CTS2 Monitor. I have that with EGT expansion kit.
Ive been super busy trying to chip away at the car. I yanked the turbo, manifold, downpipe and sent them out to get ceramic coated to help with underhood temps. Upon removal I noticed some carbon flaring out of the mating surfaces on the block to mani and turbo/mani. So I swung by my local engine builder to see if they were still straight. Nope. $140 later my manifold was nice and flat. here's some pics of that:
I then dropped off my downpipe and mid pipe to have a V band welded on since the 2 bolt flange kept separating at my last track day and it never fit well to begin with. My intercooler mounts were also cracked so I dropped that off to get re-done. After that I finally was able to drop off all the hot side parts to get coated.
While those are being done I decided to tackle wiring. As I said in my last post the existing wiring was a mess and I really wanted to clean it up. Soooooo. I got myself a AIM MXL2 dash that way all the wiring would be done at once. Now, getting all this stuff to fit back in the car proved to be super annoying. I started out with gutting the dash to the skin and roughly cutting away what was obvious. Having the gussets meant I had to cut away way more than a traditional cage. oh well. I have another from a parts car so I may re-do it later down the line.
This was my original plan, I wanted to retain the OEM cluster because I really wanted to keep the ODO reading, fuel gauge, and low fuel light. So I cut the gauge hood to allow the harness to slide back a bit. I then realized this was gong to be a nightmare to mount the actual dash so I scrapped this idea.
After some poking around at the cluster I realized its possible to fit the dash inside the OEM cluster housing. I would loose everything but the fuel gauge, but thats the biggest thing I wanted to retain. Miles in a race car are kinda irrelevant as everything is logged in hours anyways. So whatever. I had a spare cluster laying around so I hacked it up till the dash fit. Then I de-pinned the OEM connector and put connectors on the 3 wires that go to the fuel gauge.
Before I put everything back together I decided this was a good time to tidy up all the wiring. Let me explain what ur gonna see below. My whole plan with this was to keep everything easy to access and serviceable incase of a failure at the track. This means quick with minimal tools. So I bought a PDM (obviously) with the intent to have a central location for all my electrical outputs. Again, in the case of a failure, I know where to look. To make my life even more complicated I built "pigtails" for each post on the PDM. Every wire going to the PDM is quick release. Again, quick and no tools. My only worry is that these will separate due to vibration, but I highly doubt it. If there is a break, the PDM will light up on its own respective circuit to keep me know ***** fucked. I zip tied the wires as much as I could to keep everything clean and neat and that was that.
And whala...doneishkindanotreally.
Tomorrow I pick up a sheet of 3/32 ABS. I plan to make a blanking plate for the cluster. I will also use it to make a switch panel for the radio area. I want to have a switch for boost level, ECU usb, dash usb, Prop valve ****, fire suppression pull, cool shirt switch, etc.
After thats done I need to mount my fire suppression system. Drilling out the seat humps will follow. Then ill drop the diff to do bushings, yada yada.
Each pigtail is adding at least 3 extra joints that could fail. On top of that some of them are so short that they can't flex properly. On top of that you now have a bunch of uninsulated connections floating around. It should also be pretty uncommon to have to disconnect any of those connections. If you want to remove power from a circuit just pull the fuse. Does the same thing as unplugging your pigtail.
05-11-2020, 05:08 PM
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