-1 needs more Redsuns sticker
-1 needs more Redsuns sticker
Went ice racing, had a bad time - MS was acting up again like always. Not sure if its wiring or ECU related but the used ECU was poorly put together by professional opinion so I said berkeley it:
The elite 1000 just arrived this week after throwing my purse at this problem and now its back to square one I guess...
not sure when I'll be racing again because its been running like E36 M3 for 6 months and now im unmotivated and afraid of ruining this nice piece of equipment. Waitied 2 years to go ice racing and now I cant even race... about ready to slap the carb back on and compete in a few events just because that works.
I will update this but the whole do the proper EFI thing has become a slippery slope...
so right now im operating on a small vacuum leak (fixable) and limited to 7k rpm but with very happy results (~180-190whp)
and I took it to the local road course for some test and tune during an open track event and had a blast, even without swaybars!
Now it is time to prep and be ready for LSPR now that it is october (okay I have been working on it since august really for this) and with under 2 weeks left to go and a rallycross this weekend for a brief shakedown its time to really get cranking!
Dashboard needed some tidying up because of the circuits I don't need because of the new dashboard setup but I also needed to cut down on the glare so I decided to mask up some areas and flock the dashboard:
PRO TIP:
use a rough bedliner at first prior to flocking as it adheres excellent to all the dips and valleys, I had bedlinered the top of the dash a while back to cut down on a glare but it wasn't enough alone:
Now the next big thing is belts are expired so I have to change those prior to the race which means I have to remove my seats... which means I have to remove the underbody protection. which means cleaning and painting any surface rust:
I managed to tackle this over the past week, now it is time to re-assemble the seats with the new seatbelts (make sure I installed them correctly before tighting everything down).
Still big ticket items left:
I leave for the UP in 16 days. Should be fine, right?
Countdown to LSPR 2018 is in full swing!
New MRF tires softcompound on some freshly coated wheels (got to make it pretty for all the nice colors up there)
3 lefts and 3 rights, 1 pair will be cut, potentially 2 pairs depending how the event goes.
Belts and seats at the correct length and installed?
CHECK!
skid plates ready to go and the full underbody protection is in place?
Check and check!
Also a good helping hand is a trans jack when you got these awkward sheets of plastic hanging around and need to bolt it in quickly:
Have a beer and not bolt anything down because you wanna see how the dashboard looks in the freshened up interior and you're too tired to go because there is work in the morning...
yeah we can do that too!
now today is finish up the dash and get everything electrically hooked up and test drive tonite in preparations for the rallycross tomorrow that will likely be canceled due to rain since the site is in a dirt cricle track and becomes pretty much useless over a .5" of rain...
How does the flocking hold up in the dirty rally car environment? I mean you can't exactly wipe it down once it's dusty...
We are gonna find out soon!
LSPR 2018 is over and we made it through alive and the car intact!
Had we not got so many penalties due to co-driver errors (seriously not causing blame on this he owned up to it lol) we would have podium'd both days of the rally! We were working on the car the day before the drive up to the rally and had some minor issues to fix for tech (lights/stickers/etc) and got an alignment only a few days prior to the start of the rally.
The front is lowered, the rear is lifted and I have .1* positive camber in the back but that didn't stop us from sending it!
Day 1 was dry and fast/smooth roads - we had some long stages 10-13miles long with some medium 6-8 mile long stages thrown in. Weather was great and we were doing pretty okay figuring out what limits of the car we can take and what lines not to take. We have basically DNF'd every rally we have entered in some shape or form so we wanted to be cautious and check that everything was working like it should, and it did!
Day 2 was a whole new animal, we went from 36th on the road to 20th which was great because we took 3rd the 1st stage, then 1st on the second stage and then 3rd overall on the 3rd stage (missed first by several seconds and 2nd by about 1 second).
We were actually leading the regionally rally overall going into service. Stage#10 we saw a lot of cars off, got caught in a few slippery moments where I had a few brief moments panic (of getting stuck) and other areas were grippier than expected. Our road placement was key as the other cars helped sweep away some of the snow from the other road or we would have started the day with snows instead of gravels but we gambled on tires and it worked! I always liked racing in the slop at rallycross so this was right at home to get the car sideways and rotate how I wanted. Post stage we can't help but think how awesome Yokohama A034's are for LSPR and how we wished we would have had them but the MRF softs were pretty predictable and were brand new so every little bit helped, You can tell in a lot of areas in the video where I was not on the gas and a general lack of grip. I did improve the time on when we re-ran the stage in the afternoon and I took 10th overall on it during that time.
here are a few more of our favorite shots seriously considering a championship regional run next year, before year end the front shocks are getting updated and the car will sit more level and a scary moment almost hitting a rolled car, they were okay luckily otherwise we would have stopped. They had told us later that the triangles were pinned in the carb between the door and they could not get to them.
https://www.facebook.com/braprally174/videos/557484811353391/
I am Really impressed with the car as we did not get stuck or have any of the off the road moments and just kept it calm and smooth as possible and had a blast! no electrical failures only a tire blown on the transit on the way back to MTC after helping another rx7 with its blown tire just after the stage finished because they turned the car off and it flooded we gave them a quick pull and it fired right up, both of these delays gave us a late penalty but it doesn't matter the whole 10 minutes early out of service killed us.
Looks great out there. Congrats on the successful runs
crankwalk said:Looks great out there. Congrats on the successful runs
Thanks! Car felt great - looking forward to upgrading the front shocks with TRF for some more robustness, travel, dampening with the bilstein universal motorsport shock setup. Hoping to do that before sno*drift but it may be tight because some parts are on back order apparently.
I'm thinking of making a 2wd/G2 season so it would be primarily regional Sno*drift - Southern Ohio - summer sno*drift and LSPR. spread out enough with the year to be busy enough but not crazy. Or may try and replace one event with a team oniel trip with a few friends.
Looks like Rally-America is dead and ARA (American Rally Association) is taking over. some slightly different rules but all in all no major impact for me.
so enjoy this burnout!
https://www.facebook.com/braprally174/videos/1869787033140912/
Undergoing fuel tank swap now and upgrading the fuel lines to AN between the bulkhead and the gas tank, super safe super robust fuel system that is leak free is fine by me!
after that it is remove the trans do a throwout bearing and rear main inspection, lube the driveshaft u-joints re-assemble then its ready for some bilstein universal motorsport shocks for the front setup, should give me more travel and ride height as well as a race coil spring so I can change my spring rates much easier for the conditions.
TBD on Sno*drift at the moment.
Not a lot of huge updates, repalced the gas tank and got some fancy front shocks - I need to backfeed and update this when I have some more free time but right now I am packing up and heading for sno*drift!
It is on the ARA calender now and there is actually quite a good amount of snow this year unlike last years icedrift.
super stoked, more details and photos/videos to come!
Good luck up there! Wish I could make it this year
I know it has been some time so here it goes!
Rally-America does this for the overall stage winners: was happy to see this!
Some updates I “made” to frankenburban but in reality: it was just being better organized. I wanted to improve the service tool situation as the first sno*drift was a cluster F and it turned out work great during LSPR .
We even managed to do Recce (both times) with the toolbox in the trunk, its more organized than my boxes at home! But it rattles around too much when empty and basically takes up the whole back of the truck which can be inconvenient…
Some more truck updates to come before Southern Ohio Forrest Rally (SOFR – May 18th) like onboard air and general suspension maintenance that has been postponed
I know it was a few months in between the two events and I mostly didn't waste the free time (mostly) as I did make up a pretty good “TO DO” list:
So I definitely had my work cut out of for me…
I had noticed some play in my steering hub adapter, even so lightly as if it seemed to have play in the splines as you rotate it you could feel it but its hard to tell when you’re bouncing around a stage road at speed so I made it a point to replace this. Imagine my surprise when I saw this!
Replaced it with an NRG hub adapter (billet) and after watching the Ken Block video where the cozzie burns to the ground abruptly out on stage after a brief roll I went with a works bell quick release hub, AWESOME product.
So meanwhile I know I have to do the shocks and one of the tie rod ends was starting to wear so I decided to freshen up the steering system as it will need an alignment anyways and now I have spare tire rod ends if I need to finish a rally – spares are good but hopefully never needed…
But that’s not all for the suspension – I saved the best for last. Bilstein 46mm universal motorsport shocks – custom adapted for the rx7 FC and rally application, the top hats are a custom design from TRF who I had assemble and install these pieces, these things are serviceable with an off the shelf bearing and simple to replace. This allowed me an extra 1.5” of travel and ride height (from stock) so now I won’t be lowered in the front and raised in the rear, the car should handle much better and boy it sure did – noticeable improvements as the next day I took 2nd in rallycross (with 2 spins) and only lost 1st place by 1 cone.
The strut tower tops were already a bit beefy and they got even beefier.
I got tired of throwing cones in the front wheel bearings and if anyone here knows how much of a pain these things are a new hub is about 500 dollars but a new bearing is about 20. Don’t follow mazdatrix’s design of grind at 2 opposite ends and that gives you the space to press out the old races, just get a welder and start making a bead all the way around, then you will hit it with a mallet and it will just fall out due to the thermal expansion
With the suspension done it was time to move onto the fuel system.
I had about a 1 psi fuel leak at the sending unit assembly area. The threaded holes are blind and an M3 or M4 fine thread with a very short size overall so very small hardware but if you decide to use a longer bolt (which is easier to install) YOU WILL PUNCTURE THESE BLIND HOLES AND MAKE THEM THROUGH HOLES! Which means that the gasket no longer serves its purpose as it was designed to do. SO I went all out on this repair and was hoping to do it before LSPR but I was able to mend it enough where it was only a weep instead of a leak. Still not ideal though
So I went with the Stu Kelly Motorsports billet aluminum sending unit for AN fittings, also allowing provisions for fuel level sender w/ electrical hookup. Assuming that my existing sending unit was bent or warped.
And a new gas tank, with new gaskets! (which you can still order from Mazda) as for me to repair the threads on the old gas tank was not working with epoxy/JB weld, it would need to be braised and repaired accordingly. Not something I wanted to attempt but I’m sure there are places nearby me in Metro Detroit.
I already had AN bulkheads to getting hoses to make the tank to bulkhead connection was easy. Since I was doing all this work and I wanted to do it once, I replaced the fuel pump with the Mazda motorsports fuel pump (stock 20B pump apparently) Now I have a very robust fuel system and out lots of money but at least it is safe and unlikely to burn down now…
Here is good comparison of it next to the walbro
So with fuel upgraded and an alignment done, wheel bearings replaced in the front the key parts were completed in preparation for SD2019.
Found out I can’t grease my u-joints with the driveshaft installed in the car so I skipped that step and just changed the rear diff fluid because the vent is relocated in the car so I hit water puddles without worrying about water contamination – problem with this is that when you cook the fluid the cab stinks like hot diff fluid which isn’t so great smelling. Never got around to dropping the trans or doing any clutch stuff, everything was working so I didn’t mess with anything, plus if I drop the exhaust I would probably just replace it, it is getting to be in poor shape and I had to patch a few welds to prevent the leaks.
After that it was just remove all of the old Rally-America stickers (that I bought for LSPR… and paid a premium for…) only to install the American Rally Association stickers another big change is going from G2 (2wd limited) to G5 (2d open) because of the rule differences – body work may be modified but must be original material/construction/resemble OEM.
Well my lights are different, the hood is fiberglass, the roof is aluminum and the hatch is plastic.
Also G2/L2WD state no porting can be done but the rule is intended to keep cars under 210-225whp so with the streetport and bodywork and with some recent stage times being overall competitive it was time to go to open class. Now I can loose about 300lbs off the car and still be in the class which will be like adding 30hp in an already quick car for ~190whp.
So Sno*Drift prep is done well what about Sno*drift itself?
1st in class regionally! (out of 3) but the other car got stuck for a long time on day 1 as well and the 3rd car DNF’d due to some car issue on Friday. Big change is that the regionally rally is 2 days long instead of two 1 day rallies.
In reply to fidelity101 :
S2 RX-7s also have no notches to drive out the bearing cones. I did the weld thing and didn't even really need to hammer them, they just fell out after hitting them with water to shrink them further.
I have a spare set of 4 lug hubs, I may try just putting them in an oven at 250 degrees. I had to put bearing races in my aluminum rearend housing and it was just about impossible with everything at room temperature, WAY too much interference fit to work.. After a while at 250F, the races literally fell in, and fell right back out again when I flipped the thing over to put in the other one.
But here is the re-cap:
Day 1 was WITHOUT HEAT!! (due to my own fault for having the heater core plunger in the wrong direction inhibiting the flow of coolant) and temps were as low as -20F. so stage 2 I stuffed it right out of the hole for no reason other than being a jerk, was able to get pulled out minutes later but ended up holding several cars up, only to crash about a mile later (going about 8mph) due to fogged up windshield with our heavy breathing from trying to be unstuck. Got tugged once more and meanwhile struggling to see and concentrate in the cold I biffed a 90* right hand corner that was deceptive #930 in the honda CRZ K series swap pulled us out with extreme enthusiasm (A+ for effort & force) and a few tugs later we were out! The rest of the day was uneventful and we managed to keep it on the road for the tight and rough stages of day 1.
Day 2. was more promising back up to middle pack out on road (and with heat/defrost!, easy fix Friday night, 5 zipties and beer) and I really enjoyed the fast wide roads but managed to make a stupid mistake on a 90* left hander, went wide and beached it about a half mile from the finish at that point, got tugged out again and carried on but this time we did not hold up anyone. Had really enjoyed the 16 mile stage, took 9th overall on the first running of that stage and was 2nd in 2wd behind #845 in the civic (which is a feat in itself as that guy is a local and the honda makes about 250whp) only to find myself passing by camp 8 on the same spot where we visit the folks of Griffin Thermal Products every year for the past 12 years to get stuck on the icy downhill section (I literally have seen dozens of cars get stuck here over the many years, it was no surprise just hot doggin' it like a jerk) Lake Effect Rally Team pulled us out quickly and then had to get the car fired up quickly (fuel pump relay got disconnected on accident by myself) and we continued on the remainder of the stages without incident and placed 10th overall on bonfire alley which was a riot!
Car came out unharmed and we had a great time! So here are the action shots!
Knurled. said:In reply to fidelity101 :
S2 RX-7s also have no notches to drive out the bearing cones. I did the weld thing and didn't even really need to hammer them, they just fell out after hitting them with water to shrink them further.
I have a spare set of 4 lug hubs, I may try just putting them in an oven at 250 degrees. I had to put bearing races in my aluminum rearend housing and it was just about impossible with everything at room temperature, WAY too much interference fit to work.. After a while at 250F, the races literally fell in, and fell right back out again when I flipped the thing over to put in the other one.
some have come out easy like that, while others needed some persuasion...
I had thought about the torch or oven idea but those things heated up that well I cant imagine they stay in shape, I would be afraid of warping.
grats on snowdrift, i ended being sick and not making it over there to watch, but we've had some weather up here, so it was nice to see the pics of some actual SNOW for snow drift!
FunkyCricket said:grats on snowdrift, i ended being sick and not making it over there to watch, but we've had some weather up here, so it was nice to see the pics of some actual SNOW for snow drift!
yeah I was waiting until the last day of regular registration to monitor the weather, if it warmed up and all melted it would have been awful, ice drift is never fun. With the huge fresh snowbanks (literally plowed the day before) and constant cold temperatures it was like hitting a pillow. My co-driver was joking with me after the event that he could not get me to slow down because we had a few close calls that would have had us stuck in the snowbanks but with that being said I don't know when we will get a sno*drift like that again being able to toss the car around and not worry about trees was nice I was able to play with slip angles at higher speeds with less fear, it was great fun!
I did not get much gopro footage as the SD card got full and I have literally zero photo editing software, go pro and go pro quick is retarded. They used to have some other software that was great but they stopped supporting it and you can't find it anywhere. oh well - I may try another action camera or something.
yah, a couple hours in a car with bronchitis, to stand in -15 Deg weather just to see some cool cars was PROBABLY not a good idea, so I didn't go, looks like it was a fun year though. Glad to here ARA is doing a good job so far. They are associated with World Rally Cross FIA are they not? I can't recall what I read.
also: those white wheels... my inner 90's boy racer is in love...
I'm slowly spray painting or powdercoating all my wheels white to help your boy racer joys. also photo continuity.
Meanwhile I have been prepping my old WS70s for ice racing, hopefully going this weekend - I have about 600 kold kutters across all 4 tires so it should be good fun :)
but before that, here are the videos that came out pretty okay from the event:
next up, Southern Ohio Forrest Rally - (May 18th) so that gives me some time to prep a few things:
rear shocks will need to be overhauled after the event too they are just starting to leak on the one side, maybe re-valve it too while im there sort of thing?
time (lazyness) will tell.
Love the extra rev-limiter at 4:15 in the bonfire alley video. Gets the people going!
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