stuff broken at the track
 

I was skeptical of all the problems people at the track saw until my car started breaking stuff at every track day. I'm not talking about blowing a motor or something else that's equally expected. Some of these things I don't check regularly since it wasn't obvious to me they would fail.

- random bolts/studs/nuts
- turbo downpipe cracked at the flange.
- compressor outlet hose clamp. I blew the coupler off my turbo this morning at 10 psi.
- bosch bypass valve. the turbo started making that fluttering noise.

Any other stuff worth checking for at the track that people have broken?

Brakes.
Brakes.
Brakes.

Something starts going click click click or clunk clunk super loud. Maybe the wheel bearings? Mine stopped making noise a few months after I stopped taking it to the track.

A little Miata malady known as "jumping over every freakin' berm", characterized by busted front hub.
Get an ART blueprinted one.

I'll have to address that when I start trackin it again. Applied Racing Technologies alik?

Right.
$100. Lasts several times longer than MazdaSpeed.

I was amazed at the comments from incredibly fast SM drivers. No questions about my power, grip, suspension, etc. They went straight to asking about my wheel bearings. "uhh, stock?"

I've melted some wires behind my downpipe, and one time the fan wouldn't turn off. Both problems were my own wiring. Only other thing I've broken is the 1.6 diff and had an intercooler pipe blow off fifty times.

After going to a 1.8 diff and a solid S pipe apposed to multiple couplers and 45* bends, I've had nothing break beyond overheating issues. Alls that caused me to do was either slow down for a couple laps or come in and call it a day.

Shrouding.
Shrouding.
Shrouding.

I have had:

brake line failure
overheating
exhaust fall off (hanger broke)
freeze plug failure (Mike you were actually in my car when this happened)
couplers, of course
turbo hardware failure
brake calipers leak
melted valve caps lol

Things i check before heading to the track
brakes
anything i have messed with since the last time i hit the track
lug torque

+1 lug torque

Fried supercharger belts. Also, cracked radiator hoses rear their heads often.

Where is the data on this? I've never read a post on the internet where people had much good to say about them.

radiator cap. it took a few engines that I know of.

I always carried spares, and have gave them away at least 3 times in the last few years.

brake calipers, rotors and a window switch. So far, so good...

Ive seen,
swaybar endlinks come off
slave cyclinder leak
cracked radiator
leakin heater hoses
brake pads
exhaust hangers
engine oil.... lol

+1 on overheating. If you are running much boost and have not ducted the inlet it will still overheat, even with a large radiator. That seems to be a common topic of discussion amongst those racing modified Miatas, how bad they overheated it before, and how they fixed the problem. Water wetter helps but is no substitution for ducting.
+1 on brakes. I faded the crap out of mine with street pads and a fresh bleed.
Check your alignment unless it has been done recently. Make sure the adjuster bolts are well torqued.

I guess this doesn't count as breaking something, but everyone should know that Royal Purple's "Purple Ice" is not the same as Redline's Water Wetter. The common track mix is what, one or two bottles of Water Wetter and fill the rest with distilled water? I tried this with Royal Purple's similar product and it boiled over at anything over 200*. Easy to do on a 105* day. Lesson learned, get the Redline stuff.

I was pretty pissed cause I had just done a ton of reroute and shrouding work. I wouldn't care if the temps hung out around 230 all day long, but it wouldn't get much above 200* before both temperature gauges started pegging with air bubbles and my coolant overflow tank was vomiting water all day long.

That Purple Ice stuff also has glycol in it IIRC so it defeats the purpose of removing the coolant from your radiator. We had a long discussion on the CMRA BBS about that shit when it first came out. I researched its composition, and its static/dynamic coefficients of friction are worse than water. Plus, its dynamic friction coefficient is MUCH lower than its static, which means that once you lose traction, regaining traction is very unlikely.

Someone dumped some of that crap on the track (by accident) at a bike track day, and the next guy along (a skilled racer) promptly crashed as soon as he ran over it. He said it was extremely slick and he lost traction quickly. They had to shut down the track and clean it up.

So I know this is a thread jack, but don't put that crap in your car for the track. Use distilled water and Redline Water Wetter instead.

EDIT: Fail :facepalm: I got "Purple Ice" mixed up with "Engine Ice" which is this crap http://www.engineice.cc/
Purple Ice does not list any of the ingredients in the MSDS, claiming it is proprietary, and after searching I could not figure out if it did or not. At any rate, just use Water Wetter :)

I run the oldschool radiator barn 2-row with ducting and an intercooler in front of it. I also let lots of air go under the intercooler and it gets pointed behind the fmic, to the radiator...I've never seen more than 190* on the track even in 95* in Tulsa. I have a crappy Canton oil cooler that's getting trashed because oil temps will not go below 260 on the track, so the rx7 cooler is going in.

stuff I've broken:
bearings, lots of them
clutch springs (exedy at stock power)
beat a hole in my exhaust with the rear end
brake melt-downs are endless
bent wilwood piston that scored the bore
leaky wilwood crap in general
a wire melted to a heat shield once
chra came loose and that was a bad day
turbo stud failure before I went to AF
had a new Azenis delaminate on stock power
lost an oil cap once
shredded an alternator belt once at stock power
clutch master died a few weeks ago
i've ripped the plastic out from under the car a few times during some agricultural expeditioning

+1

Water only.

Will boil. My plan is Water Wetter + distilled water next time. I'll need to order it ahead of time though, everyone around here carries royal purple products as far as I know. Currently I'm enjoying a 50/50 mix while the miata stays on the road. We had freezing weather here recently.

I always put in a bottle of water wetter then fill the water wetter bottle with antifreeze and put it in then fill with distilled water. I can smell a slight whiff of antifreeze if there is the most minute leak somewhere that way.

I’ve had coolant leaks under pressure so small you couldn’t even hardly detect them with a pressure tester. If you have one it will overheat after being hot and under pressure for a 20 minute session. The pressure will slowly bleed down and the boiling point starts falling as it does. Rubber hoses seal better at clams than the fancy silicon hoses do I have found.

Bob

should I be worried with my trackspeed kit (almost) on the way?

Well, you should be more concerned with the Wilwood calipers than I was, Trackspeed brackets are fine. I'm going to take my fittings out and use a thread sealant (Resbond) on the brass and then put them in the oven at 200* and let them cure a bit to prevent leaking again. The only real work-around for this is to pony up the cash and get proper calipers that are not cheap.

Make sure that your Corrado rotors have vents all the way through the hat thingy, or use Racing Brake rotors.

It appears that a foreign object made an appearance between my pad and piston which caused things to go bad quickly.

Do those wilwoods have stainless pistons?

there was a test done awhile back with all the different coolant treatments including water wetter,purple ice,dei,some yellow stuff (can't remember the brand) and 50/50 mix. turns out the best stuff was the dei brand coolant additive, with redline water wetter in 2nd place. if someplace in your area has this get it. it was 6-10* cooler than water wetter depending on the conditions. (they tested this stuff at the track, steady highway, bumper to bumper, and low speed driving conditions)

Design Engineering DEI 040200 - DEI Radiator Relief - Overview - SummitRacing.com

this is what i use on some hard to cool cars (high boost 4g63 in a galant vr4, and b18 turbo swapped crx at the track)

it also has corrosion protection so you don't have to add any anti-freeze.

I made sure I had decent instrumentation before I took my car to the track. I linearized my temp gauge and I modded and calibrated my oil pressure gauge with a VDO sender. I made sure to check the vitals going around the track. As they say, shit happens.

Things that happened and things I did:

Overheating -> PWR radiator, more distilled water and less coolant + watter wetter, seal radiator ducting,

Intake temps -> CAI + wrapped intake hose

Radiator hoses -> changed to silicone (I also change engine oil before trackday.)

Mushy brakes -> TDR Stainless brake lines

EBC Red Chunking Fail. -> Centric (spec miata) blank discs and Carbotech XP8/XP10

Boiled brake fluid -> Change to good brake fluid and bleed before trackday

Exceed Sport Bilsteins capability -> Tein Flex

Blow MP62 supercharger -> Back to NA (for now)

Bent wheels -> Replace

Cracked tupperware -> LOL 3 spins + entire day cleaning interior

I'm due for front hubs and more power.

6-speed

Majority of my issues were with tires and not having good enough ones..

I always took the day prior to the track event off work and went over everything on the car.

I did crack the rear rotors after installing new hawk hp+'s but that was my fault entirely for not adjusting them afterwards.

7-8 track days 10-12 autocrosses last year in my NA. Had to replace the alternator and plug wires at the track. That is it.

Thanks for the post, that will provide a lot of info on this turbo forum.

How about shearing the rear hub off? (not my car, but happened this last weekend to a friends)

Attachment 197932

Attachment 197933

^ Deans miata?

I guess I should fix my rear bearing in my daily. lol

Coilpack...twice...various miata's

o2 sensor spit out on track...triple drove a NASA event, 8hrs, two days...Mazdaspeed miata

pass side wheel bearing...spec miata

+1 overheating
+ warped a exhaust manifold a little bit (was making hideous leak noises, but machining it flat fixed it)
+ melted some injector harness wires one time.. that took like a year to diagnose because the car would die and run badly at completely random inconsistent times and often run fine.

+ careful with those lug nut bolts when they're hot. Breaking a stud at the track isn't fun. Thank god most racers carry a few extras.

^^ good idea on the studs. I don't touch them when they're hot unless I have too. Heading to Road Atlanta next Monday, trying to gather some spare parts. Have several OEM 1.8 rotors (rear and front) in a HCL bath to clean off the rust, then have them resurfaced. I learned a lot with the turbo last track weenend. My biggest problem was loosening bolts on the exhaust housing. Have Nordlocks on them now, will see what happens. It got so hot I melted my dipstick, so will be making a heat sheild for it too...
I did have an instance in the left turn hairpin #5 at Barber when my car died, like it ran out of gas, but I had a half tank yet. Pulled off, waited 30sec and it fired right up, never happened again - I filled it up after every session after that.

I have a new pair of front hubs coming from Emilio, but after seeing the above rears, I'll be doing those too! Dam... how fast was he going when it sheared off??

Mine did that same thing once and only once, exiting turns 1-2 at VIR which is basically a long increasing radius right-hander. I made a thread about it last year. I had an almost full tank of fuel at the time. Fuel sloshing did occur to me but I've done that turn tons of times with 1/3 tank or less and never had that problem. I've run a handful of track days since then and the problem has not repeated. I still don't know what the hell it was.

+1 on hoses

overheated my red car at track -> took turbo out and added aluminum undertray

The random cutting out might be harness wires.

On my turbo, I've had these issues on track:
- coolant hose burst
- overheating
- brake fade
- turbo falling off many times
- exhaust rattle

On the street, I've:
- blown an engine
- cracked two oil coolers
- bend a front subframe at <30mph
- blown a tire

With the MaX5 however, we've had:
- play on inner tie rods making car self-steer

I put my e-brake on after a session at the track and now my shit don't work properly. Overall braking has been crappy since then.

Not at a track but a back road at 7/10ths. I heard a clunk. Oh shit! I skrate stripped one of my end links, it was only on 2 threads. All I need now is a left handed tap.

Both my fault. JDM out.

6-speed.

wat

You broke one or are you referring to TSB?

I broke one on Friday at a lapping day. Lost 4th gear, there's video of it in my build thread.

Just spun the hell out of one of my rod bearings at an open test and tune day at TWS. I missed my downshift and overreved it. I thought I got it in time, because I didn't even let the clutch out all the way, but no dice. 1/2 lap later it was making all kinds of noise. Guess the motor was just tired as it had 250k miles on it.

how much power? Sorry to hear about this. Maybe we all need to buy Quaife gear-stacks from Autotech?

Somewhere just over 300 whp. I'm not a fan of Quaife anything, so I'm not sure what to do yet.

Sheared and Fused Lug Nuts
Lost a couple lug nuts (new wheels and nuts)
Oil Starved and spun #3 bearing due to magically disappearing oil (rebuild with non-OEM gaskets, no problems DD'ing the car previously)
Uneven tire wear (Hallett really abuses the passenger front going counter-clockwise)
Lost magnetic numbers/letters (not a big deal, but I did pay for them and I did lose them)
Destroyed a set of HP+s in 3 HPDE sessions.
Cracked rotors
Boiled fluid
Bent crossmembers (that was related to a fun off-road excursion in a not-so-smooth area of the run-off)