AxeHealey said:
Busy day but I've been able to squeeze in a short break here and there. Because I'm waiting on parts, I've had to do what I don't like doing and that is move on from a given task before it's done. I thought I'd tackle the new camber plates.
While everything was slacked, I put in the poly bushings I've had on the shelf for years that connect the sway bar to the lower control arm.
So far I've run into two issues with the camber plates. The first was that the bush inside the spherical bearing has a significant ridge on it that I had to carefully file down.
The second is, uh, this.
The company that sells these absolutely never answers the phone so I've got an email out to them. It would be hard for me to imagine that they expect a normal person installing camber plates to cut space into the shock tower to allow for full adjustment but... we'll see. There's also a chance that the slots in the camber plate are just cut long and I need to move the adjustment to inside the existing hole.
EDIT: Their website states that these don't require any body modification so I assume they just expect the max adjustment to be limited by the existing hole.
Wait, just looking at this again. The allen head bolts are offset from the centre of the top of the strut and you just need to turn it around 180 degrees to get more camber out of it!
You should hopefully be able to do that without fully disassembling it.
In reply to adam525i :
That's the suggestion the company I bought it from gave as well. I think it should also gain me some caster.
EDIT: Yep. Much better!
I realized last night that I stupidly ordered a manifold for DCOE 45s. I'm running 40s. Most manifolds on the market are designed to work with both but this one really isn't suited for 40s. Of course they'll bolt up but the flow would be funky. The new one has been ordered and, if the last one is any indication, should be here mid-late this week. Very annoying but it shouldn't actually put me behind schedule.
Today I was able to spend some time on the fuel system. I got the stock system torn out and started into the new which will be braided, -6 AN and a Holley Red using the factory wiring.
I think I've found a great location for the pressure regulator.
I've also gotten the pump and filter mounted. It's mounted as high as it is to make the angle into the hole in the floor a bit smoother. Hopefully that won't cause any issues with the pump pulling it from the tank. I was able to re-run the stock wiring into a very convenient place.
I may get a 45* fitting for the inlet to the filter depending on how tight that bend looks in the line. I ordered all of the various fittings by just imagining what the system would look like so there was a lot of thinking time spent this afternoon and it's not all perfect. The new line will run up the driver's side of the car, up past the booster and into the regulator.
Last night I was able to pick up the hardware needed to modify the shift tower.
So, like, if anyone needs a very nice, never-used-only-mounted, DCOE 45 manifold for an M10, do let me know.
What displacement is your M10? I used to run dual 40's on my 1.3L Mazda. You may want to move up to 45's eventually, if class legal, engine budget, etc. applies.
In reply to hobiercr :
It's 1990 cc but is totally stock. From what I've researched and also been told by racers I know, you'd have to choke down two 45s so much on my setup that it's better to go with the 40s.
Point taken though that at some point I may want to run 45s so keeping the other manifold on the shelf wouldn't be a bad idea.
First thing this morning I got the first line made up. It went together very smoothly...almost too smoothly.
The fuel system from the cell to the pressure regualtor is plumbed.
I take it the manifold is being mailed out tomorrow so there's a chance it doesn't get here until Friday. What I think are the remaining bits and bobs needed for the carbs should be here Wednesday.
I'm in a little bit of a holding pattern when it comes to big progress but I'll get the fresh guibo mounted to the trans today and, hopefully, unstick the two stuck nuts that pulled exhaust studs out with them. They've been very stubborn so far.
Let's see. The front suspension is all back together and tight. I finished the passenger side jack point yesterday evening. No pics but I made the plate section out of one piece, scoring it so I could bend it. Much cleaner. The welding was more difficult due to the positioning but it's in.
I got a hold of the company I bought the clutch from. They still don't have all of the parts needed. I'm honestly getting a bit worried about timing because I really want to test the car before Schenley. All I can do is keep pressing on.
All of the remaining carb parts showed up yesterday and I started to assemble the linkage. Although it's not very pretty, I went with the top mount cable option because it seems the most straight forward.
These are early carbs off some sort of Alfa. Depending on the type of venturi you have, the trumpets either slide in between the venturis and the bore of the carb to hold the venturis in or they simply bolt onto the face and hold the venturis in place. Since these carbs originally had some sort of Alfa air box, I had to order the slide in type trumpets, will have to cut off the part that slides in and then bolt them on in order to keep the venturis from coming out.
I'll tell you what. I'm very, very excited to hear this thing high in the revs sucking through these carbs but this has been a complicated and rather expensive journey.
I'm waiting on an Oillite bushing to remove the slop in the bottom of the shifter, waiting on the new manifold and waiting on the clutch. I think today at some point I'll try to knock out the rear trailing arm bushings that I've had on the shelf for years and then my next step is to bolt up the header, lower the engine and get to work on the exhaust even though I may have to pull it all off again to mount the trans up. I also may be making a special trip to the tool store for a big hole saw because I really want the new exhaust to go through the rocker...
In reply to Nukem :
Mhm, I think it needs to happen.
And thanks for the fan! I'm excited to see if I can make it work.
Well, it's definitely possible to do E21 trailing arm bushings with the arm still on the car but it ain't a good time. The lip on one side of the bushing is smaller than the other and just about the size of the sleeve but because of the spacing between the two, the ball joint tool I usually use to press out bushings wouldn't fit. I attempted the usual tried and true threaded rod trick and it bent the rod. Next I tried the method of using a drill bit that swirls around the outside of the bushing releasing it from the sleeve. Never had done it before and...
... won't be doing it again. I resorted to just pushing the big end through the sleeve. It wasn't pretty but it worked. Driver's side done.
Before calling it a night I bolted up the header. I did realize, however, that I'm going to have to figure out how to get the engine at the correct angle if I'm going to start into the exhaust.
The clutch guy "hopes" he will have everything to send out next week. Not confidence inspiring. 4 weeks from Friday until Schenley. This weekend I am out of town and next I'm racing at Nelson.
I got the passenger side trailing arm bushings done Friday morning before leaving out of town.
On a short break this morning I did some poking at the exhaust and it's going to be very simple. I think I just need to pick up a new 90* or maybe 60* bend. Hopefully one of the local stores has a suitable piece in stock.
Because I didn't feel like making a mess on my other work break trimming exhaust pieces, I decided to mount the carbs on the new manifold.
They're not tightened down but I did find out I get to make yet another trip to the hardware store for various fittings. Yay!
I wasn't concerned at all about the fuel line not being in the right spot. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where that would be. The fitting into the regulator cannot be rotated down any more so the regulator would have to go down and towards the middle of the car if I were to just move it.
I was, however, concerned about how the carbs may interfere with the dipstick but they don't!
Last night I spent way too much time cutting holes in the rocker. I had to cut from both sides and didn't get the two lined up well enough so I still have to finish another cut. There are many, many layers in there including lots of bondo on the galvanized rockers that someone stick welded in.
The Oilite bearing showed up last night as well. I'm looking forward to trying it out in the shifter.
Well the Oilite piece is perfect. I'll be interested to see how it holds up.
The final exhaust hole has been cut.
Of course I'll be making a nice piece to cover that gaping hole and the tip will be trimmed but I'm very excited about this.
And for my next trick, watch me totally pivot and start prepping the car that I haven't touched in a year for the race it's entered in this weekend.
Since I couldn't really work on Sven this evening due to weather, I got back on the exhaust for Hatchet and have gotten about as far as I can until the trans is bolted up and all the angles are final. The rocker hole may need some more trimming but it's gunna work.
Pretty much all I can do on the car right now is patch up some rust holes that appeared when I removed the firewall insulation.
I again called flywheel guy yesterday. The flywheel is done and he has the clutch disc but is still waiting on parts he needs to make the TOB. He *hopes* he gets the parts by the end of the week which means he could send everything out early next.
I'm getting to the point where I'm going to just throw the old flywheel and clutch back in it to keep things rolling. Then I suppose, if it gets here in time for Schenley I could swap for the lightweight setup but probably wouldn't.
I've also considered just putting the transmission in to at least finish the exhaust but what I really want to do is get the thing running to see if I need a different jet set up.
Good news! The clutch, flywheel and TOB are expected here tomorrow. Phew.
My weekend was spent at the track trying all manner of things (none of them worked) to get the K-Swapped Miata to run right. This was a 7 + 7 enduro. I had the most seat time in the car, by far, and I'm guessing I was out there for a total of 1:15 across both days. Yeesh.
Last night I was back at it with Hatchet. The carbs are now snugged up, fuel lines clamped and I started into throttle cables.
To avoid messing with the pedal assembly, I looped the factory cable up into where the wipers used to be and made a little bracket. There will then be a second bracket where two two cables from the linkage terminate into and between will be a 1-into-2 block that I'll have to fabricate. Should work.
This is the 1-into-2 connector that comes with the linkage kit. I think it's actually designed to affix directly to the pedal and have the two cables run all the way too it but there are just about no directions.
I realized that I could just open up the small hole which is drilled perpendicular to the large one so that the stock cable could be fed through. I then removed that set screw.
Here's what I've ended up with.
I still need to confirm that I'm getting WOT but I built in a lot of adjustment and the pedal feels good.
Also confirmed - cutting off the bottom of the velocity stack works just fine. Those little tabs are super fiddly to deal with!
All stacks trimmed and the linkage is done. With the two springs the kit came with, the pedal is way too stiff for my liking. Anyone know if I'll have any issues running just one spring?
In reply to AxeHealey :
I'd want two as a safety back up even if I had to replace them with two weaker springs.
It has arrived.
The clutch and flywheel together weigh ~12.5 lbs according to my not-so-great scale. According to the same scale, that is a reduction of about 17.5 lbs!
My wife and kids were out of town this weekend so I spent it thrashing on Hatchet. Yesterday I had a morning meeting and then worked on Hatchet, almost non-stop, from 11AM to about 6PM.
I took no pictures but yesterday I installed the flywheel and clutch, hucked the trans up in there, put the driveshaft in, etc. etc. My goal today was to finish assembling it and test fire before lunch and...
I figured I'd want the exhaust in place before trying to tune it so my afternoon was mostly spent finalizing the exhaust and then trying to fix a huge exhaust leak at the flange as it must have warped when I was welding. I ended up going to three parts stores before finding the gaskets I was looking for.
I believe the leak is now fixed.
The front carb started dripping fuel out of the venturis and I think the rear carb is hardly letting any gas through. I'm totally beat so I called it for the night but tomorrow I'll be checking and setting the float levels.
Congrats on getting it running!
In reply to adam525i :
Thanks, it really felt good yesterday. Today, even for this glass-half-full kind of guy, I'm struggling to be positive on ole' Hatchet.
I did pull the floats out and found that my instinct was correct in that the rear carb didn't have nearly enough fuel.
At lunch I adjusted the floats to 8.5 MM from the gasket when closed and 15 mm at max throw. It's now definitely running on all four cylinders but I cannot get it to idle down. That'll either be a jetting issue or an air leak somewhere. No big deal, really.
What's bothering me is that the front of the engine is leaking from just about every single place that it can. Water, oil, already dripping.
I have real work to do and that was a good excuse to get out of the garage before I lit it on fire. I'll go back with a clean head later. To keep myself from going crazy in the meantime, I'm telling myself that I never sinched the bolts down after letting the RTV set up.
This won't help now but maybe in the future. I like to use Permatex Aviation form-a-gasket on pretty everything with my old BMW. Paper gaskets get a coat on both sides whether it is water or oil. I even coat rubber coolant hose connections as I find it really helps with the old, corroded aluminum and getting a good seal without having to crank down a hose clamp, it even helps lubricate tight hoses as you slide them on. The other nice thing over an RTV is any extra inside the engine stays liquid and just floats around in the oil until it gets caught in the oil filter (I always find black/brown spots there after the first oil change) rather than chunks of silicone that can plug things up. Clean up on the outside is easy with a rag and some acetone.
The only downside is trying to get it off your hands when you are done. Gloves are a good idea but this stuff is sticky.
In reply to adam525i :
Interesting, I'll keep that in mind.
I think what I'm experiencing is a mis-alignment issue with the pieces of the front cover. I don't think the bottom most piece that has the front crank seal seated down enough on the oil pan gasket and my issue stems from there.
I ordered a new front seal kit just now because I think the only way to remedy it would be to loosen all of the bolts and start over which I think will probably ruin the existing gaskets.
