super champio unwrappo! (gif is supposed to work)
ta da!
lets see how its received at the local car show later.
super champio unwrappo! (gif is supposed to work)
ta da!
lets see how its received at the local car show later.
car show went good! yeah that is a roof scoop on the hood, I'll work on printing a more sleak design but this buys me time and I can toss this cowl on the other hood for a backup/party hood.
I have got about 500 miles on the motor now so dyno is coming soon to quantify the horsepower. Curious to stack it up over the past few motors, should be an improvement!
pics from rallyX testing prior to hood install:
oversock filter doing its dust job on the party hood. Its too bulky though in general to package although I could trim it a bit however a simple filter bag would work really well too, especially come moisture.
I got some latergram to catch up on but the results are in! and the engine is... well kinda lack luster to be honest. Lots of R&D/$$$$/efforts to go backwards in horsepower. The old t2 motor on the stock non turbo intake was peak 184whp/127tq this new motor is 170whp/130tq. So I have heavily invested into a motor that should be capable of 10k RPM and barely spins to 8500 but that does give me a large ceiling of safety, so I got that going for me... which is nice.
how to read: solid line is baseline, dotted line is leaving dyno with improvements to the calibration:
OLD MOTOR:
New fun motor with cosmo and rx8 bits
time to do a compression test and see whats the deal, side seals clearanced wrong? too much porting? data shows no intake/exhaust restrictions and the spark plugs show that the engine is burning properly.
but I had no time to dig into this as the next morning I packed up the car and headed north for the Lake Superior Performance Rally up in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
full onboard: SS10 Menge Creek (one of the best stages on the circuit)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO4GHFTg7DU
some of the videos/pictures are starting to surface and i'm seeing a trend of blue smoke on heavy decel events...
@mack_press
@mack_press
@thewreccecrew
compression numbers are in the mid-high 90s for the engine post event.
not ideal but it starts well and is competitive so thats nice.
we were 14th overall on this stage:
2nd in 2wd
Some more work done since the last race and it takes us back to Summer of 2019 where I originally went down this brake upgrade idea (circa page 13). I got this piece designed and fabricated by epicenter design (grand rapids MI area) to utilize the vacant dust shield holes on the rear hub to help mount the new brake caliper (Z32 fixed dual, very similar to the subaru 2 pots, the backside piece is a different casting but the front is the same).
the original bracket uses only 2 m8 bolts for the brake caliper so I don't feel too worried about this setup, strong hardware and ship it!
this setup took so long that the open market solved this issue but the parts shop max uses a 2 bolt aluminum bracket ( mine is steel) to use a hydro e-brake so I got a set for my backup hubs but I like this more robust version for my application. Rockauto no longer sells the Z32 rear calipers anymore either so unfortunately my only solution is parts shop max for their calipers re-pops which actually look very nice and no noticeable tooling marks on the castings so these HPDC pieces are likely off of new or newer molds so thats good. Lets hope the aluminum isn't too soft as I will likely need to add a wheel scraper to protect these or make these calipers as consumables.
pedal is a little softer but I think I still have some air in the lines as these pistons are slightly larger than the ones its replacing. I may be able to go down in master cylinder size if needed but likely not required.
big brake kits for these cars are focused on track cars or people using later model rx7 brakes for larger wheels, I needed this to fit under 15" wheels as all rally tires are 15s
had some fun and took the studs out at the rally farm for an official test day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNKNh7mJ898
this video is without the studs but I was playing with camera(s) and had issues later on but here is what it takes on the studs, the tires took a beating that day but man they are a blast and they aren't even WRC spec...
kold kutters!
inside of the tire uses hardened washers and nylon locknuts to keep the studs from ejecting themselves:
end result: many sharp studs for ice bitey fun
now I just need to find some ice race events...
:(
and for my next trick, I'm getting fatter and older and I'm tired of inuring a hand/elbow/wrist or hearing me breathe heavily out of my mouth on recordings so I have decided instead of working out/eating healthier or learn to drive smoother/better instead I opted to just modify the car better. Introduce the EPAS:
I got it already modified with a quick release hub instead of running a series of adapters and spacers like whats currently on there.
I won't be adding a quickener to this as most subaru folk do but if I still feel the steering ratio too slow I can add some drifter knuckles that should be a happy medium because the 2:1 quickener ratio is just too much and too sensitive - and no 1.5:1 quickener exists.
this unit is a saturn vue/equinox for those wondering the prius ones are non adjustible, this bolt in kit gave me a dial as part of the steering ECU. Should be fun to test out on the ice!
1.5:1 quickeners exist, we were debating on which one to put in "Colin" and decided to go big or go home and just do a 2:1.
Zero ragerts with the 2:1 in teh RX-7, but I don't have enough arm strength to deal with understeer, so some EPAS or putting a pump on the engine would be nice. After a decade of depowered use, I don't know if my rack would even work correctly anymore.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I could not find any 1.5 everything I saw was 2:1 or 3:1 0 got a link?
otherwise this was the drifty boi idea I had
[quote]"Forged steel and CNC machined with Gold Zinc coating, For FC3S RX7 - One piece forged design. 45mm roll center and bump steer correction built into knuckles. Flattens LCA and tie rod angles. - Increased steering angle, altered ackerman and quicker steering due to modified tie rod pickup points. - For use with OEM Mazda hubs, brakes, tie rods and LCA ball joints."[/quote]
sounds promising
if I want to go 1 step further I could go with their control arms which give more track width/caster which would mean I could get a longer shock
oh bollocks, I guess when my google-fu failed me and summit didn't offer one I didn't look any further... I have gotten springs from them before. good stuff
I'll see how it goes then but its nice to have that option now
Oh man, now I've found something else I didn't know I wanted. I've been curious about EPAS but didn't realize someone was out there making bolt in kits. I wonder if you could use one of the Haltech's outputs instead of the included potentiometer to vary the assist level. Since I have vehicle speed as an ECU input I'd think it'd be possible to have a working speed-based assist. Curious how much current they really draw though. Not liking the included 60A fuse...
EDIT: I've also seriously looked at the PSM hubs. I always end up shying away due to the likely increased steering effort but with EPAS that may not be an issue.
fidelity101 said:In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I could not find any 1.5 everything I saw was 2:1 or 3:1 0 got a link?
otherwise this was the drifty boi idea I had
[quote]"Forged steel and CNC machined with Gold Zinc coating, For FC3S RX7 - One piece forged design. 45mm roll center and bump steer correction built into knuckles. Flattens LCA and tie rod angles. - Increased steering angle, altered ackerman and quicker steering due to modified tie rod pickup points. - For use with OEM Mazda hubs, brakes, tie rods and LCA ball joints."[/quote]
sounds promising
if I want to go 1 step further I could go with their control arms which give more track width/caster which would mean I could get a longer shock
The spindles are moved up 45mm, I'd want to make sure they can clear your wheels and not just 18" drift bling
well shoot I didn't think of that either, I reached out to them for comment and asked the FC community but we shall see
fidelity101 said:well shoot I didn't think of that either, I reached out to them for comment and asked the FC community but we shall see
update: community was useless as always but the vendor gave me a few measurements to check as they were unsure on 15s themselves but it looks like I got room and margin so this option is still a possibility.
In reply to infernosg :
I had shortened steering knuckles on my FB for many years but went back to stock last year. The shortened knuckle at least doubled the amount of steering effort required, and the way they were done, I didn't have much additional angle, just a faster ratio effectively.
Are there any downsides to EPAS? Like lack of feedback from the wheel? One of the joyful things about the FC is pretty good steering feel.
In reply to fidelity101 :
Can you share the measurements they gave you? I want to swap an FC front subframe and suspension into my FB, etc, but I know that borks up the geometry. It looks like those might help correct that.
In reply to sevenracer :
IMO, the geometry problems cannot really be solved by changing the roll center, because it also moves around a lot because of how short the arms are.
My '81 with stock suspension and steering geometry handles way better than my '84 with the FC suspension, even after redrilling the subframe to mount the control arms as high as possible.
The main advantage to the FC is the spindles are a lot stronger. It looks like Mazda 2 ball joints will allow you to use the FC uprights with the FB suspension. But then you lose the near perfect steering geometry.
Alternatively, one of my friends discovered that 929s from '88-91 (I think) have a bolt on steering arm like SA/FB but have a FWD style wheel bearing. Downside is five lug bolt pattern.
In reply to sevenracer :
They wrote: "The spindle is not moved up in relation to the strut mounts. So these dont change the ride height/are not a drop knuckle. We just added material to the bottom of the knuckles to flatten the arms and tie rods. The lower arms and tie rods will be dropped straight down 40mm. So you could take a look at your current configuration, measure down 40mm and see"
always comes down to the barrel ID on the wheel, the OEM BBS wheels fit but I do have a 25mm spacer on the front as to clear the front shock.
In reply to fidelity101 :
Thanks for the info. I do have a set of vert BBS wheels...
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Haha, not sure I follow much of that other than "five lug bolt pattern". My main motivation for the FC suspension swap would be to get the r&p steering without the huge play on center. To me, that is the main thing that lets the FB down. Better brakes/shocks, etc. are nice, but the FB stuff works fine on the street.
I totally get that there are issues with the swap, thought those modified knuckles might help, but don't need to threadjack and hash that out here. Thanks
My FC rack has more on center play than my '81's box.
Long post deleted because it belongs in a different thread
In reply to sevenracer :
I just found a set nearby but I will keep you in mind incase I need more, i have way too many tires at the moment, 6 MRFs just arrived for rally and 4 street tires are in the mail ontop of my 12 hoosier gravels, 6 studded snows, 6 non studded snows and a set of 18s on rx8 wheels for some reason...
BUILD UPDATES: more like race maintenance mode.
having the front and rear shocks rebuilt, will try some different spring rates and see how I like it. (front & rear) as well as doing all the wheel bearings and new studs in the spares. When I say all the wheel bearings I mean the ones on the car AND the spare set. With everyone out and apart it was also a good time to get the rear rotors resurfaced and ready to rock again. Now I should be ready to go for a few seasons here
the green hubs are getting retired as they can't take any more wheel bearings, the bore is too loose from too many R&Rs of wheel bearings now. I would do a commute to work and back and the wheel bearing would have play thats how bad it got.
I have a plethora of rear springs to work with now but only 2 (soon to be 3) sets of front springs (12" vs 14")
left to right: 200/225/250/275
You'll need to log in to post.
