New guy building a hillclimb racecar
 

I guess I should introduce myself before I start asking a myriad of questions.

My names Will. I live in NW West Virginia. I recently purchased a '94 turbo'd miata that I've converted to a SSM race car for hillclimbs and time trails.

Of course, the car needs a lot of work before it will be setting any records, but it does run well and is competitive as it sits.

A quick run down of some of the more important bits:

-Disco potato turbo, 9 psi
-Stock Motor
-Megasquirt
-Tein Flex
-2 sets of 15x9 6ULs, one with 225 R1R's (street/rain tires), the other with 225 Hoosier R6's
-Ultrashield Spec Miata seats, bolted to the floor, which just barely get enough head clearance under a Hard Dog Hard Core roll bar.

It overheats after more than a few minutes on the track, so thats #1 on the list right now. It will also need 275 A6's, more power, some suspension tuning, added lightness, and something to make the brakes feel less mushy.

I've been fighting the overheating for a few weeks now. After it overheated horribly during my first time trail I:
-Cut a heat extraction hole in the hood in the usual location
-Cut a big hole in the top of the bumper in the usual location
-Flushed the cooling system and refilled with distilled water + water wetter + 15% coolant

That helped, but it was still running hot at my first hillclimb so I:
-Ordered a big AL china radiator and am having a welding shop re-locate the inlet a couple inches over to clear the charge piping.
-Built a large splitter, huge air dam, and completely ducted the radiator with AL flashing.

The welding shop is having trouble welding the thin AL in the radiator, so that's on hold for the moment, but I will be testing the splitter/air dam/rad ducting at another time trail this weekend.

seems like you would destroy 6uls on hillclimb racing...
what's your engine's compression look like - maybe your headgasket is on it's way to death?

i'm from wv also (charleston) - where you at parkersburg or something?

Welcome to MiataTurbo.net Handy Man.

Click here to check out the latest thread pictures.

Hope to see you around MT and enjoy your stay :)

I haven't seen many 6ul failures, and they have been tested hard a lot. Link me to the carnage you speak of.

Welcome to MT Will! Upgrading from the radiator barn unit is going to make a nice difference. You should also look into doing the coolant re-route as part of your cooling system upgrades. The other thing that would make a big difference is pulling out the a/c. I'm looking forward to seeing how your next event goes. Remember when I told you I'd quickly get bored of driving my 10AE in stock form? Well I just bought another BEGi kit and a 2871R. :D

you're gonna need many horsepowers

i wasn't claiming i had some inventory of fails w/ 6uls
i was just saying they didn't seem like the appropriate wheel for the scenario he was using them for
i know i have seen this tho
http://www.team-integra.net/forum/2468437-post8.html

cpolly69: The hillclimbs around here are all on road. No offroad sections. Shouldn't be much harder on wheels than track days on poorly paved tracks. I haven't checked the compression, but haven't seen any oil in coolant, coolant in oil, or smoke. Thanks for the tip though, I'll check it anyways just to make sure. Ohh, and I'm in Clarksburg.

paNX: Hey man! You sure found me quick :) I have been considering pulling the AC... If the new radiator doesn't do the trick, the AC is coming out. A coolant reroute sounds like a major PITA, so I'd rather avoid that if possible. Good luck with the new turbo!

Pusha: Yes, yes I do. The other cars in my class (mostly vettes) make 500hp on a bad day.

Although a coolant reroute may be a PITA, it should be in your to-do list. Not only will it help with your situation at hand, it will more evenly distribute the coolant flow throughout the engine. As I'm sure you know this already, this will increase your engine's longivity as well as help prevent the somewhat common #4 piston meltage.