Maybe just JB weld **** on at this point?

 

Petition to change his screen name to JBWeldman703

 

Please don't share this proprietary information with anyone, but I've created a very valuable work flow chart for you to reference in the future that should resolve all of your issues.

 

We can all chip in and get Loctiteman703 one of these. "Designed to permanently lock fasteners up to 1 1/2'' in diameter", yeah I think this will work hahaha.

 

I recall one of the equipment manufacturers using a Loctite on two pieces of sheet metal that you literally had to mangle the metal with a chisel to separate the two pieces. It was a permanent Loctite formula. You couldn't have secured those two pieces to each other better by actually welding them.

 

I started out initially wanting to utilize unmodified OE parts. While I've attempted to stick to that, it's simply impossible to both fully optimize, and use only OE parts. One or the other must be chosen. Or in the case of my rear water neck, drivetrain mounts, exhaust, and so much more on the car... Fully custom from scratch is the only option.
Y'all laugh but I had to JB weld in an alternator mounting bolt over the CMP weekend. Red didn't hold it as I had previously tightened it to the point of strippage. So I slathered on the JB, stuffed it home, and let it set overnight.
Hey, bolt was still there and doing its job when I rolled it back into the garage Sunday night!

Also blue doesn't cut it anymore, I had a few items loosen even with ample application of it. I now use primarily green on things that might need to come apart at some point, with red on things that will never come apart without a major rebuild.
I sat there and laughed for a solid 5min seeing that flowchart. 10/10, and it's... Not one bit inaccurate.

I took a cue from the aviation industry and now safety wire things that will need to come apart. Exhaust nuts, turbo bolts, alternator bolts, shifter hardware, transmission mounts, the list goes on. 1/16th drill bit and some patience to cross drill the bolts/nuts, and then some .025" wire does wonders to keep things where they need to be.


This weekend is the first hillclimb of the season- Pine mountain in Pineville, Kentucky.
Due to the lack of time between events, car got minimal work done to it- the basic bolt check, an oil change, filthy CMP faucet coolant dumped, and the critical items addressed.
Shifter welded back together with some additional reinforcement, an oil pan leak addressed with a slather of additional RTV, and the stripped/JB welded alternator mount bolt extracted and helicoiled.
The only surprise? The wire sheathing adjacent to the turbo literally MELTED from heat, as well as the VTec connector.




I ordered a replacement VTec pigtail, but it wasn't untill after replacement and attempted plug in that I realized the plastic female connector on the VTec soilinoid had also melted enough that the new connector wouldn't go on. As replacing the solenoid requires a turbo removal I didn't have time to dive into, I'm running this weekend VTec-less.

The entire hot side of the bay is in bad need of heatsheilding- the EGT sensors are also exposed and their wiring, while steel braided, is unprotected which I think is the cause of them dieing in rapid succession. I'll have a longer break after Pine which will be a more convenient time to address some of these bigger issues cropping up on the car. Maybe I'll have time to call Haltech and see if they can unfuck my dash programming as well...

Oh, and this is what 8 sessions(3-4 hotlaps each session, not counting 2 rain sessions and one aborted session) does to these "huge" 7420 pads. Yeah there's still technically pad material left on them, but this is getting close to minimums as I can feel the pedal start to get spongy at this amount of wear. Car needs brake ducts baaaadd but that's an item that's waaaay down there on "the list".

 

It's time to take heat management a lot more seriously. You're losing more than you're saving by not addressing these problems before they develop and have almost crashed as a result. Now you've lost VTEC, yo. If it gets super hot, put some kind of insulation between it between it and anything that will melt that's within 6 inches of it.

I'd strongly advise you to keep an even closer eye on your engine operation if you're going to run at full bore without VTEC. Is the tune set up to run well at high RPM without it? Are you re-enabling the fail safes that were disabled? Don't blow up an engine just for one event...

Since you've already cut off the ABS boss off of the front spindle, you have a straight shot to the center of the hub. This really opens up your options for cooling ducts. Don't let perfection be the enemy of improvement, and at this rate even a suboptimal set of off the shelf ducts might pay for themselves if you can get enough of a pad life improvement to get a second event out of a set of pads.

 

Have you tried Nordlocks in addition to, or instead of Loctite?

 

First, congrats on the podium! Crazy story on how you got there

Second, if you're looking to add brake ducts, I might be able to help. If you're looking to DIY it I've sketched up a backing plate for my car that I was going to get cut at sendcutsend. It should be pretty similar to what you're looking to do in terms of rotor ID, I was just going to squish some 3" charge piping and weld it to the back of the plate. Feel free to make a copy and play with it if you want, link

 

Another thought on the brake pads and ducts.

As the pads wear down, you get less mass in the pad to spread the heat around. As a result of the lower mass of the pad, they get hotter from any individual brake event, and over the course of a session. Based on the high level of wear for a relatively short amount of run time and the complaint of wooden brakes (indicating possible pad fade), you're probably outside their ideal heat range. It's a positive feedback loop and your pads begin to wear even faster. A set of ducts could not only extend pad life, but also give you better brake feel towards the end of their life if it keeps temperatures in check.

 

I mean yeah, sure it would be great to have the car absolutely perfect every time it hits the track, but reality is I don't have the time needed to address everything everywhere all at once. Items that literally will prevent the car from turning a lap(I.e, broken shifter/leaks/engine issues) take priority, followed by maintenance, followed by things like "add heat shielding" or "fix non-essential sensors".
Pfft, engine will be fine without Vtec. Maybe run a little richer, but nothing short term fuel trims can't take care of. Most safeties were turned back on, minus EGT safeties. With the two remaining functional sensors still erratic, I don't want to deal with the annoyance of false triggers.
Reality is this is was a hillclimb event. In a "worst case" scenario engine is at full bore for less than 2 minutes, not 10-15 like a track session would be. Heat and stress is greatly reduced.
I'm genuinely unsure what your referring to. Haven't had any scares I can think of recently, and nothing from a part failure?
I... have not. If I find repeats that locktite doesn't hold I might try these. Not something I had considered till now.

Re, brake ducts, as this apparently is hot topic:
The issue for me is not the air delivery into the rotor around the spindle. I still have the backing plates/rotor inlets from when this car last had brake ducts. The issue is getting the air, or rather the tubes holding that air, even remotely close while also clearing...

The normal swaybar/suspension arms
275's at lock(before someone yells steering spacers, already run a 10mm spacer on each side to prevent tire-frame rail contact)
Xida external reservoirs/lines
Splitter ramps/supports/brackets
Intercooler/radiator and associated piping.

The TLDR is that there is not much room for anything in the wheelwells, much less a 3" pipe snaking its way around. There's just not room for the normal "Add 3" SCAT hosing, some zipties, and done" that works for most. Is there a possible solution? Yes, and I have a few ideas, but it's not something I can throw together in a day. Brake ducts will return.


2025 Season Opener of the Appalachian Hillclimb Series, Pine Mountain.

This hill sucks for Miatas. It always has and always will. I think the best I've ever done here is a 5th in class like 15th overall? Its a bunch of super tight, heavy camber 180* corners on the bottom, a few bent straights you can just kinda wind out 3rd in, then another two 180* hairpins, closing out with a few 3rd gear sweepers on a very heavily crowned road. Basically the bottom 180* hairpins screw you over when the inner wheel hits max droop and just starts to spin so you loose all your exit speed and get destroyed by AWD cars or big V8 cars that can get all that speed back from the dig.
Adding a buttload of power to my car... just made everything worse lol. The OSG was doing WONDERS in the rear, I never heard one wheel loose its **** and freespin, but this just means anywhere I tried to put power down... I couldn't. Adding to this, most of Saturday was damp. The car was basically just trying to kill me anytime I looked in the general direction of the throttle.


HELL YEAH that's fun. Fast? Nope, absolutely not. But soooo much fun keeping a handle on the car kicking everywhere, and I'm sure the corner workers enjoyed the show as well.

Last run of the day Saturday, I smell something funky while sitting in the stageing line... faintly acidic, like burning plastic? Hmmm weird... don't see any fires inside the car, so figure it must be the subaru ahead of me melting his bumper or something and think no more of it. Car runs just fine to the top of the hill, parks, turns off, all normal. Cool. Go to fire it up 10min later for the trip back down to paddock and... Don't hear the fuel pump prime. Start it anyway, it starts, coughs, turns off, repeat 2x. Alright fine, somethings actually wrong I guess.


Some troubleshooting and I find the culprit. The fuel pump fuse has not popped, but it has completely melted itself into the housing of the bussman. To the extent I cannot remove one of the terminals. Fused solid. Thankfully I bring a bunch of wiring tools with me to all events, so it's a 10min job to pull the wires for the fuse slot above it(lights, don't need those), crimp some fresh terminals on, and splice it into the fuel pump wiring where needed. Primes, fires, everything's normal. weird. Best guess? K24 vibrations disengaged the terminal locking tab, terminal/wire started working its way out until it was only just making contact, at which point the tiny amount of metal carrying current got mega hot and melted the surrounding area. Eh, maybe not, who knows.

Anyway Sunday rolls around, the course is dry, so I stop showboating and actually drive. I find that the car hooks up as long as I don't exceed ~80% throttle(Was on wastegate power all weekend, couldn't have turned it down if I wanted too). Top of class is an older spec GT3 Lamborghini that mops up by 3 seconds. I get in a fight with a buddy in a supercharged K24 swapped BRZ, after some back and forth I come out ontop by .3 of a second... good for 4th in class and like 16th overall. Meh. Like I said, Miatas suuuuck at Pine. But it was a terrific time, and felt sooo good to be out on a hill again.

Other then the weird fuel pump fuse self-immolation, car had zero issues. I put fuel in it and just drove it. ZERO ISSUES!

 

You know how you drive one car for awhile, there are some oddball things you're like "yeah that's just how it is"
Sooo if the brake pedal needs to move an entire inch before the brakes actually do anything, but the pedal doesn't feel soft once its engaged... "yeah that's just how it is"

OH DEAR GOD


Obviously the nuts were there... I just got this far in removal before I went "wait I should get a picture".
This car had a brake cylinder brace up until the point it was caged. Brace didn't fit around the shock tower supports, so it got removed and... quite frankly, forgotten about. Considering that this car has done only single events at RA, RRR, CMP, a hillclimb, and a few hundred street miles unbraced, it looks like it takes basically zero time for the V8R adapter for the wilwood master to turn itself into a pringle. Obviously we can blame this on.... ~~~K24 VIBRATIONS~~~



Holy **** that's bad


Anywayyy so a brake master brace got put up on the "required" list... gonna have to make something custom due to the cage tieing into the shock towers. The adapter itself turned out to be salvageable once I threw it in the press and went to town on it. Just... V8R things I guess...


And then as I was pulling apart the hot side of the bay to replace the Vtec solenoid, install new EGT sensors, and add heat shielding... I CRACKED WHHHAAAAT???





Yeah um... I dunno man. Its an Artec cast stainless manifold. Exhaust has a brace, a flex joint... no manifold or turbo brace, but I should have been able to hang the Eiffel tower off that thing without issue. I literally sought out a cast manifold to AVOID cracking issues. So safe to say I'm pretty annoyed. Trying to get ahold of the vender(holy **** glad I didn't buy this though Kpower, I can hear it already, "hmmm we haven't seen that on our shop car, here's a 10% discount on a replacement and a box of tissues to cry into") to see if I can warrantee this, but my gut tells me they will find a way to deny warranty claim and I'll be left to weld this thing back together.

What boggles my mind even more is that this car did NOT drive like a car that had a huge pre-turbo exhaust leak. The data logs from the last run show completely normal boost pressure, AFR's, and spoolup. So like... did it crack while being pulled on/off the trailer? Did the trailer hit an extra large pothole and it cracked only the manifold?? Did the Eiffel tower fall on it in my garage and I didn't notice??? Did the K24 vibrations do it?????

Orrr... maybe it's been cracked for the last two events, and I just thought the resulting spoolup was "normal"...

 

Hey man, just saw the GL CMP youtube video, awesome debut, really cool to see Miata competing in unlimited!

Some notes from my experiences I thought might help:

1. Suspension slip interface friction adder:
   https://www.amazon.com/ScrewGrab-Friction-Gel-Helps-Damaged/dp/B0017SZ4T6/
   https://www.amazon.com/ScrewGrab-Friction-Gel-Helps-Damaged/dp/B0017SZ4T6/
2. Robust EGT sensor. https://thesensorconnection.com/prod...diameter?v=535. I average 1800F a lap, peak around 2100F on traction control (gas): I haven't seen an ill effects from these EGT on my EFR other than some distortion/cracking on a very old FM manifold with an unsupported turbo. Granted, this is on a BP with Inconel valves. Not sure what a K can take.
3. Nordlocks are effective (as is safety wire, all should be combined with threadlocker)
4. Everything on the hot side should be set up for high temp. Lines AN (non-swivel preferable)/PTFE (but really the oil/water flowing cools the liner) with reflecting and insulating covers. No wires or possible flammable fluid overflow/vents. There should be a radiation barrier between the manifold+turbine housing and anything that isn't metal (including composites).
5. Turbo itself needs to be braced in addition to the downpipe (which should be supported in a way it can slip axially). I also weld the turbine to the manifold, but need for that can be mitigated with v-band, well-supported turbo, and lower EGTs on E85. I've had good luck with crown alloys royal 220 welding cast iron to cast stainless. It is a high nickel filler.
6. Track dependent, but even 3'' ducts aren't enough at >350whp with the 7420 + 11.75x1.25 rotors FBBK. Your car has a little less power than a GT3 race car and much smaller rotors. A typical arrangement might be a 3'' duct towards rotor center and a second 3'' duct towards the caliper, or a single 4''+ duct. I'm adding deflectors to route front diffuser/side cooler exit air to the brake package in addition to 3'' ducts at the rotor centers.
7. Not sure if this is your case - but engine/trans/diff should have some isolation or the rest of the car will shake apart. It can be managed with enough fixes, but I think some real isolation is the easier button. Try to limit and keep a close eye on welded aluminum parts that aren't isolated from engine vibrations.

It looks like the car would do well with flatshift...and can't break a shifter if you don't have one .

-Chris

 

Another item to add to the list .... looking at the flex in that wing endplate, it might be worth checking the fasteners holding those endplates, there is obviously a lot of force acting on them. Don't be like me, and have one come off at 170+kph mid-corner .

 

I can't say I'd ever actually seen "when you stop spinning the wheels at the end of the longest straight", but now I have. This amount of power made me laugh out loud, it must have been a hoot to drive.

 

My very amateur opinion on the exhaust manifold crack and your boost pressure is that the crack is effectively a tiny tiny extra wastegate, so potentially your real wastegate is just opening slightly less and the end result is the same boost pressure.

 

fixed

 

Holy hell, that course looks like a handful in your car. Actually just in general. That road crown!!

Stoked that the weekend was almost entirely trouble free for you, and that your MC stayed attached to the rest of the car

 

1. Bracing the turbo itself with this top mount manifold is borderline impossible. The only structure higher then the turbo is the(aluminum) valve cover and I'm not eager to brace anything off it or its mounting studs. Anything coming from under the manifold needs to thread its way around the turbo oil lines, water lines, water return coming off the back of the head, and access paths to the Vbands, then squeeze between the manifold and frame rails(remember how I had to notch the frame to fit the manifold? That clearance isn't getting any bigger) and only THEN can make contact with the CHRA/compressor housing. Hotside packaging for anything is a headache. Fabbing up anything that could accomplish this and still hold meaningful weight is far beyond my capabilities.

2. Ulgh. Even fitting a single 3" hose into the wheel and maintaining sufficient wheel lock is a mess. See above about packaging nightmares and copy paste that for the wheelwells, except this time its charge air pipes, swaybars and links, fat tires, remote reservoirs and lines.
See more about this topic below.

3. lol.
Engine: 50% hardmounted(drivers side is solid).
Transmission... oh cnice, the only place in the car that's completely isolated and has a rubber mount! Cool!
Diff.... ummm, the rear ears are solid mounted, the forward ear is... um... hard rubber? I lets call that 70% hardmounted. There ain't no drivetrain slop in this thing lmao, and the twindisk clutch isn't sprung.
I like the way you think but thats an off season upgrade due to... um.... reasons.

They tight and bending the endplates inwards 20* or so is normal at speed.


I had some wonderful conversations with Artec over this cracked manifold. I'll be honest, I was ready for a Kpower experience after their first reply was "send us photos of your downpipe and exhaust setup" and was braced for "Yeah we haven't seen that on our shop car, here's a 3% discount on a replacement"
But a few emails, photos, and a call later I had the polar opposite experience. Not only did they agree my setup was solid, they said it should not have cracked, and was definitely a flaw or design issue on THEIR side. They did make a few suggestions for my downpipe to optimize the braces and remove any possibility of internal stresses, but I now have a replacement manifold order sitting in my inbox, completely free of charge, just waiting for their local stock to replenish for fulfillment.

+1, big ups for Artec in my book.

In the meantime, they greenlit me to do whatever I needed to do to the current manifold to make it serviceable as I had an event I wanted to make it to coming up. So I blasted the manifold till it was glowing, then welded up the cracks inside and out.



While NOT part of Artec's suggestions, I did change my wastegate dump. I theorized the way I had it dumping right back into the main exhaust *might* have created a lever arm on the downpipe/turbo and contributed. No solid data one way or the other on this, Artec didn't wave any red flags at the setup but I decided the best course of action was remove any possibility of stress.
Also I was a little annoyed at always being the quietest "fast" car at events. Can't even hear my own car when any V8 is within a few corners.
So, screamer pipe, right out the hood to bless the audience with all those glorious Honda noises.



Hahaha, look how precise and accurate that hood cutout was. You fool, it doesn't matter, the first time it gets a real heat cycle in it it moves about 2". Hell, I can see it move 1" just when hitting boost, that's not even a joke. Might as well have taken a 6" holesaw to it and been done with it.

Uhhh brake brace. Made one. Cool. No more bending the V8R tinfoil adaptor.




Tried out a brake ducting idea. The inlet pulls from the very base of my cooling stack, post intercooler but before radiator. I had some doubts this would work due to the lesser pressure differential, but if it did work it would solve a lot of packaging issue for me and be 6" less of hose to deal with, and also would be behind all the charge pipes so easier routing.
This photo makes it look like there's a bunch of room in the wheelwell, but this is full lock outwards and only a 245 tire on a 10". When wheel is straight that duct was within 2"of the hub dumping into center rotor. I've had to add 15mm of steering rack limiters to prevent the hose from being crushed at lock with 275's- note the missing paint where the tire had been just kissing the swaybar previously. No bloody room anywhere with these tiny 15" wheels.



I added a turbo blanket to help cut down on radiant heat in the bay. I can't find a good way to insulate the manifold itself without spending big money(see my earlier complaints about packaging) so this was the easy button. For whatever reason no one makes blankets for externally gated turbos, so I had to buy one for an internal gated frame turbo, then cut/trim/sew it to properly fit. Super annoying. Looks nice though.



Didn't matter in the slightest because the entire hot side of the engine bay fireballed soon after hitting the track.

 

So mid May a popular HPDE group had an "open" day at Road Atlanta... no run groups, just ~7hrs of track time to for you to use as you pleased. As someone that gets annoyed with newer DE4 traffic's lack of awareness and timidness very quickly, this was a godsend. Perfect time to try a bunch of setup changes, test the water/meth injection experiment, give ridealongs to some buddies, and basically get redemption at the track that is notorious for destroying my car the last two times I showed up(2022- blown up transmission, car into the wall, 2024, motor melted down).

First time out, car really just felt slow and lethargic. And brakes felt soft, like realllly soft, which was odd considering they were just bled and the fluid was as fresh as it could get. About lap 3 I saw a puff of fire from the passenger side of the bay and mentally went "haha cool, screamer pipe make flames oooga booga". And then next shift I realized it wasn't coming from the screamer pipe, something on the hot side was just shooting nice fireballs inside the bay. Frame grabbed from the onboard 360 cam to demonstrate I'm not exaggerating.


Anyway I came in and gave everything a once over and couldn't find the source of the fireballs. Nothing would remain on fire long enough to properly diag in the pits, but something was definitely... doing... something? I went out a few more times but I'll be honest... my heart wasn't really in it to knock out all the setup testing I had planned, and mentally I assumed the welded manifold had instantly cracked somewhere I couldn't see.


During the lunch break I pulled the front wheels off to inspect the rotors and found the source of my soft brakes. 8 nice sized cracks in the passenger side rotor inner face. Outer face only had normal crazing with maaaybe one crack just starting. As a buddy in the paddock remarked, the good news here, is that it still had 8 cracks in it.


Whoops... yeah that could have been really bad. I think replacing these on their normal schedule slipped through the cracks(no pun intended), as I realized going through my notes these rotors had seen service for the CMP weekend and Pine and now Road Atlanta, when they should have been replaced right after CMP.

Oh the brake duct attempt from above was 90% a failure... I ran a session with the ducts taped off, hit the rotors with an infrared gun, then repeated the test with the ducts unblocked... a 50F* difference at best, which is basically in the noise. Back to the drawing board with that...

Fresh set of rotors and pads and the pedal feel came back. Car still felt like it struggled to stop though. Comparing the data, the decell rates were within .15g of previous weekends, so the lack of perceived stopping power was probably just due to running the RC-1 on a hot 90* day vs the A7 in cooler 60* temps.
Blue is speed/decel from the day in question, 245 RC-1, +80 ambient temps.
Red is speed/decell from my SCCA TT lap back in 2023, 245 A7, ~60* out.



I ran a handful of short stints with the car still fireballing, mostly so I didn't have to just sit in paddock and think about how I spent a weekend's entry fee to turn a dozen laps. The car just kind kept falling apart though. The screamer pipe cracked, then my EGT sensors skyrocketed to 1,245,083*(melted wiring), then oil temp went nuts(melted wiring), then the crank wiring finally melted and I coasted it in and winched it back on the trailer, pretty disappointed with how the day had developed.