After I got all that sorted and buttoned up did a quick clean/organize of the garage. then a friend of mine stopped by to go for a ride

ebonyandivory

(mostly stock t2)

Now its time to really break the engine in.

Okay thats not the engine but I made chilli because I was going to be driving around the Detroit metro area getting stuck in traffic in this beast then meat (see what I did there?!) up friends and take driving breaks to enjoy chilli.

Here is the breakdown of how to break in a rotary engine, per mazda:

Also when you/should you break down, you got chilli. Its win win.

A locking lid is also REQUIRED...

ASK ME HOW I KNOW!

I managed to put about 200 miles on it this weekend and I drove it to work today, and the carb'd rotary started in 6 degree weather with no issues :)

when you make the new oil cooler lines, can you make me a front one about 2 inches longer than they normally are? I will give you monies!

Good luck on finishing off that engine break in!

probably? I will need the fittings but I don't see why not. But lets see how it goes the 1st time. I got a screamin deal on some fittings and adapters for the block/oil cooler but I may not mess with that stuff until the spring time. Trailer needs tires and possibly wheel bearing re-pack. Then I still gotta put the front spider gears on the suburban together.

So the issue I have right now is the choke cable. not sure how to mount it so it functions properly. it seems to be able to pull the choke fine but to disengage the choke it work. Sometimes its the other way around.

Also, well I'll let you see. The whites don't match at all. I am going to have to better match them come spring/summer time.

Looking great.

In all honesty for the paint why not spend the weekend with an orbital sander, bondo, primer a screwdriver and some masking tape then drop it off at MACCO for a cheap single stage paint job. Some people have got some excellent results by doing the prep and letting them do the painting.

The chili? Yeah tastes even better!

Anywhoo, Doing all of that prep work would be brutal. The doors back is good paint its just a bit dirty, I need to get it detailed, it just needs some wheeling and a buff/wax and it will bring the paint out nicely. It was re-sprayed in 2008 or 9. I'd have to check page around page 3 or so in this thread :P

I just need to work on better paint matching the front end. I think international harvester white is pretty close. I still have 1 bad fender with the correct color so I can use that to paint match and have several spray cans made.

I mostly just hate body work. Also I should add mudflaps.

fidelity101 wrote: and the carb'd rotary started in 6 degree weather with no issues :)

You didn't have to crank it for 30 minutes?

nope! Its amazing what an engine with compression can do. No ether either :P

You don't happen to have any spare carbs/manifolds do you?

Project "Do something with my rotary parts stash" will be arriving Saturday.

Manifolds? Yes. I have a port matched RB DCO side draft adapter on a ported LIM, might be s4 or s5 I forget which. I also have a RB street header which is rusty but trusty.

Carbs? no.

Here is an update: (and a E36 M3ty photo)

I have new gauge! to help with carb tuning. innovative wideband 02 sensor. (as partly shown)

I also have a failed voltage regulator for my FD alternator, so I may get that rebuilt or just wire up an external regulator. Haven't decided yet.

Also a new sparco steering wheel should be in the mail soon. 2.5" dish, 380mm

well no more uploading photos, the work firewall has changed. I will have to mess with that another time. I don't have internet at home so likely getting around to uploading them will be a while (other than below) Which is a shame because I have some good ice racing pictures from the past 2 weekends and I have a rallyX Saturday followed by ice racing Sunday again.

Performed some carb tuning and have found out that my carb REALLY leans out above 6krpm under WOT. played with the jets and was unable to fix the higher power band issue, the carb is running out of fuel and draining the float chamber FAST. Time to check needle/seat but I may be maxed out on the carb and have to decide on larger carb or EFI..... until then I can only go WOT to about 6800rpm :(

The network is back!!!!! Horay!! (still don't have Gchat at work though) Happy Friday bitches!

Well it has been a busy month of ice racing and a rallycross. Unlike most people, February is my busiest month of the year and I don't really celebrate valentines day. Not only is ice racing a blast, it makes for great photos! All those prior build photos were fun and all but now its time to enjoy the fruits of my labor with sweet sweet action shots.

Feb 7th SVR region SCCA , ice runs AT NIGHT! Got to use ALL THE LUMENS. seriously it was a blast. Great way to shakedown the car and see the lighting improvements. added the rallyboobs on for added lulz factor. Much lumen. visibility wow! This group runs rallyX classing but solo scoring rules, so grouped by MR/SR/PR etc but fastest single run out of 4 runs wins. (no photos due to night)

I won by 40 seconds, if it was rallycross rules I would have won by over 4 minutes. I beat a lot of AWD cars too. Roughly 1.8 mile course, I hit top speeds of 51 (GPS) crossing the finish line

Feb 15th. Furrin Group ice runs, classes separated by drive configuration (SR/MR/PR all one group) and rallyX scoring. Took 3rd. Lost 2nd by 2 seconds and lost 1st by 5. Had a spin on 1 run and did a ride a long with a competitor and gave him good advice that managed to take 2nd from me. All in all. good day. Much shorter course, maybe 3/4 mile and I hit speeds of about 45 crossing the line.

Also the frankenburban was tow/recovery duty, also fun.

Feb 21st, round 2 of DET SCCA Rallycross (my 1st rallyX this year). Took 3rd (out of 4) lost 2nd by a cone and lost 1st by about 10. I was real dirty all day hitting cones and had a spin that cost me about 16 seconds off pace. Also the hairpun sucked, it was uphill and icy.

Also note that my body damage/headlight is from my co-driver stuffing it into a snowbank from biffing it in the hairpin. Now I need to fix the headlight by swapping the guts into a new housing... wonderful. (PITA)

Again, suburban was tow/recovery vehicle. best work assignment ever, bluetooth radio and heat in sub 20 degree weather, not to mention be able to sit down.

Feb 22nd SVR Region ice runs! This time it was a 2.2 mile course and I got to drift an island! (Video to come soon) finish line speeds were up to 65mph, took 1st by 14 seconds this time (had a half spin on my fast run) but rallyX scoring would have been 3 minutes. Automobile magazine was there with their fiesta and they took pictures all day.

Article below: http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/12_month_car_reviews/1502-2014-ford-fiesta-st-goes-ice-racing/

So they drove the fiesta ST with a fastest time of 168.5 seconds to get around, my fastest lap was 166.2 :)

Overall the car performed great ran strong and felt good, the formula works and has worked so now I need to tidy up my driver mod. I was racing rallyX like ice racing, which does not work. Time to re-readjust. No racing this weekend, (more ice racing feb 7/8th) time to do some repairs and adjustments, more photos soon to come!

I'll give you a hint. "new" wheels, "new" tires, new steering wheel and studs. Diff overhaul is MUCH needed. it hates the ice it is 100% limited to slipping right now.

Now thats a better steering wheel! (380MM)

Then a friend inspired me to get these. and then this happened...

Ice racing this Sunday and potentially on the 15th as well, so we shall see how these bad boys do...

God I love winter!

I'm interested in how those will work. I have access to very cheap self drilling screws and some junk rally tires.

They rip out. Been there done that.

Note all the missing studs - after 1 event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPshHhmiOYo

DaveEstey wrote: They rip out. Been there done that. Note all the missing studs - after 1 event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPshHhmiOYo

damn. oh well it will be fun for a bit. I'm confident in the front tires though. otherwise I need to buy about 1100 cold cutters and do this again. or likely just buy real studded tires.

Luckily these were junk rally tires and 2 virtually useless winter tires so all in all I kept myself busy (and drunk) over the course of a week.

I used cold cutters. The traction was very good.

If you're going to make a habit of ice racing you should make some bolt tires.

DaveEstey wrote: I used cold cutters. The traction was very good. If you're going to make a habit of ice racing you should make some bolt tires.

Yeah that would be ultimate goal. I'm curious to see how these should go. I do go ice racing every year. (if possible)

Well I didn't loose any studs. tires held air all day and I lost 1st by about 3 seconds (to the guy who gave me this terrible idea) Lots of slush and heavy snow across the track so it made for less grip, if there was glare ice it had FANTASTIC traction. I have to totally adjust my ice driving style and it ma I may stud the other pair of those skinnys because they cut through the snow so well and save these wide ones for heavy glare days.

Makes me really want a steering quickener now, I got lost in my wheel on the back half of the track. I would see the yellow stripe be facing downward and I would be going straight. Hopefully photos soon to come. Oh and more steering angle.

Re dialed in the carb a bit but now it leans out above 8k instead of 7k. bumped the fuel pressure up a bit but I gotta keep it somewhat where its at because any richer and it tends to foul the plugs idling and be hard to start. Also this starter is utter crap and sounds terrible. Time to look for an S2 starter passively.

I REALLY need to overhaul that diff, it is pissed. Plenty of times I should have had a 2 wheel tire fire but it was not having it.

The funny thing with studs is the harder you drive them the more traction you have. Counter intuitive and also awesome.

yeah where I would normally let off I had to floor it, it was weird. it kept throwing me off the whole day. Had a few spins but it was fun. Also I was trying to keep a constant drift across the whole course so that didn't help my times.

EvanB wrote: I'm interested in how those will work. I have access to very cheap self drilling screws and some junk rally tires.

They worked excellent.

Results? they worked, AWESOME! However, they were pretty average on snow because the gravel tires are too hard for snow traction so you had to floor it to dig into the ice everywhere. With the warm weather the ice was quite grippy and the heavy melted packing snow was grippy for snow tires.

a couple of fun action shots: Here is a better picture of the interior:

and then I got friendly with the machine shop staff at work and they milled me some new steering wheel hub spacers, 1" and .5" out of aluminum now I can toss out that heavy steel one that didn't have the correct pattern on it. ALL THE ERGONOMICS!!!!

Next up?

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING! I can rebuild a rotary engine but I am pretty dumb when it comes to setting backlash on a differential. it is time to overhaul the differential's LSD unit. no more limited to slipping differential (is the goal).

Initial tear down was good ( on the spare LSD ) gears and bearings looked fantastic! However, all of my friction plates were about ,05mm undersized standard but still above the "limit" as mazda labels it. My thrust washers were at the limit of wear.

I'll be honest, I thought a clutch type differential used clutches and plates like some fancy flywheel clutch setup or whats in an auto trans, I was not expected a bunch of metal discs with various grooves. I did find some minor scoring on a few friction discs but overall looked like normal wear.

Then, after that - source a 15.2:1 power steering rack and then de-power it & install into the car. Current non P/S model is 20.4:1 and I find myself chasing the wheel too much, time to quicken it.

After that? May be EFI consideration time, I am at the limit of this carb and new carb is EFI money territory... (megasquirt) Considering I already have S5 NA upper/lower fuel rails, S4 NA injectors w/ pigtails, S4 Intake manifold (w/ block off plates) and about 11 crank angle sensors (don't ask) There already is an aeromotive adjustable FPR and walbro 255lph for my fuel system so converting back would be simple.

OR toss in a stock NA harness/ecu setup on there and Rtek it?

Still much to think about but in the mean time I would rather just focus on seat time.

wanna sell one of those crank angle sensors? We're swapping a 13b into a Super Beetle and don't have a dizzy.

20 shipped its yours

On my diff I just added shims cut from beer cans until it was >100 ft lbs of preload. Seems to work alright.