A few fellow OKS'ers and I will be participating in the LeMons race at Eagle's Canyon in less than 2 weeks > Heaps in the Heart of Texas - 2011

We will be driving a '96 Miata, and they have a tendency to overheat due to a design flaw in the routing of the coolant system.

To help alleviate that, some creative (well not really) redneck engineering was employed...

Supplies:

Corrugated cardboard
Sharp cutting utensil
Copious rolls of your favorite duct tape
Beer (your quantities may vary)

Procedure:

Place cardboard over holes and cut to shape with the sharp cutting utensil.
Apply liberal amounts of tape to ensure (or hope) the cardboard stays in place and is protected (hsugh) from the elements.
???
Profit

The Results:







For a little added flare - Cold Air Intake:





Think it will last?

 

you know what they say, if you can't duct it, then **** it.

It will hold for a while I am sure, just depends on how well the duct tape deals with wind and heat. Taping up the hoodline with the chassis, should probably help to keep the radiator duct tape ducting in place.

 

I can't really tell from the images, but are the thermostat and water outlet still located on the front of the head (below and between the cam gears?)

If so, then for the cost of a freeze plug, some scrap aluminum, a length of 1.25" hose and a few inches of welding rod, you can really improve the circulation of coolant through the engine.

 

Coolant reroute hasn't been installed yet. We have the pieces, just haven't tackled the engine bay, yet.

A couple of the other guys on the team were finishing up welding on the cage, and I had access to time, cardboard and gorilla tape!

 

Here's our radiator ducting solution. See the coroplast sticking out of passenger door area? That's our ducting. The radiator is located where your passenger's *** would normally be.

 

I have not participated in a Lemons, but have been an avid Interwebs follower, know people on 3-4 teams and have spectated at judging...

I would say that since the judging seems to be highly subjective, that the liberal use of cardboard and duct table for ducting (plus liberal alcohol based bribery) will earn you goodwill with the judges that could be cashed in for not getting penalty laps on non-$500 compliant mods.

 

I used to duct tape plug wires down to the distributor cap on another car. The tape will eventually peel/separate from the glue due to heat/time/moisture, but it last a long time. The aluminum tape that is actually used to seal duct joints would be more durable and bonds better after it has been heated. Surfaces need to be oil free though. Nice job on the intake!

 

That tape over the radiator will blow off in a couple of hours. Find some roof flange rolls at home depot racing to bolt over those holes. That area is above a high pressure zone.

 

I am guessing that you are either joking, or thought of this yourself and have it, but I would strongly suggest some sort of barrier between you and the radiator. I can only imagine how terrible a coolant system leak or failure would be if it ended up spraying the driver with 200+* water.

Either way, interesting solution, and it would protect the rad from damage in a collision.

 

There's sheetmetal on the top & side facing driver.

 

^ Glad to hear. I figured that you guys were smart enough, but then again, you never know. I figured that I'd mention it just in case it had been overlooked.

 

It's getting closer...





LeMons in 4 days!

We just have a short list left:

 

The list is now down to painting the cage (maybe?) and installing the harnesses.

Drove the car last night. Still doing some funky stuff, but it got better the more we drove it and it warmed up...the car hadn't been driven on all 4 cylinders in a long while. Probably just needs some adjustment time. lol

 

I single-highhandedly fixed the skunk leCar with carboard and duct-tape ducting for their severe overheating problem.

 

We finished the car up last night.

Ready or not...





We are ready to roll. Heading out early tomorrow...around 4:00A

Hustler, I'm sure we'll be easy to find, it would be nice to meet you.

 

thats a pretty aerodynamic roof you guys made there!

 

It didn't last long. I had to drive with my head cocked, so it was removed.

Car did great this weekend...up until the last 15 minutes. It made it through 14:15 hours of 4 guys beating on it until it decided to throw the number 3 or 4 rod through the side of the block approaching the apex to turn 3.

We'll know more about the carnage when we get the block out of there, but until we get around to that, I don't know what ultimate caused it's demise.

...but guess what, the cardboard/gorilla tape ducting is still in place, lol!

It lasted longer than the engine did. :P

 

^ could have been low oil level, which cooked a bearing, and grenaded the rod? How often were you checking the oil level throughout the race?

 

I topped off the oil before we started each day, but did not check it during.

 

Not sure why, I have no real experience with racing or endurance, but thats exactly what I thought.

Usually if a bearing gets spun first, it will make a racket.