Ice Racer/Rally Rx7 build
11-15-16, 11:39 AM
#252
https://m.facebook.com/video_redirec...95789&__tn__=F
Or you can view the progress in this video
This is stop motion of installing the rocker guards, weld nuts, underbody, roof, fuel lines, fine tune seat install.
Or you can view the progress in this video
This is stop motion of installing the rocker guards, weld nuts, underbody, roof, fuel lines, fine tune seat install.
11-15-16, 09:29 PM
#253
Remember this from about a year ago? Well I didn't realize at the time but look at the second place name...
Ryan Symancek...
aka /drive aka the show My Life as a Rallyist, I never heard of the show or seen the show until about 2 weeks ago and its quite good! You could say we had a similar story - finding rally through video games until college where you would just get by enough to go racing and then pursue that passion...
However that day he was filming, but everyone has cameras at a race event so it would was hard to notice. so it turns out I am "That Guy" and I appear as the antagonist in an episode:
It’s a pretty cool video and the series is very good and you should all check it out if you are interested in rally at any level.
Now that being said, it is almost 1 year later I am racing the same car again although completely different car once more and I managed to make it to a special weekend of rallycross with the Detroit region. Saturday afternoon was fun runs because this was our regions annual day/night rallycross - one heat in the day time and 1 heat at night so you can utilize your sweet rally lights so technically you can get 3 heats of racing in if you give 100% participation, and that’s not all - we had an event rained out and re-scheduled for the next day! so a maximum possibility of 5 heats of racing... but this time with a full roll cage, full re-wire, full EFI swap, full underbody protection, rust repair, seat mounts (sounds easy but you try being 6'4" in a sardine can like this) and all the other DOT legal stuff my car was lacking...
The clock starts ticking; I had worked from home that day to continuously finish my preparations for the tow rig and car itself. Its now 8PM Friday night before the race, 12pm the next day is the start of fun runs and registration closes at 1pm.
We began to work on tuning immediately afterwards, but before tuning is possible – running and idling was to be addressed first. Around 9:15pm that night we had sorted out my failed 02 sensor issue and re-cal'd the DLG-1
**NOTE** I have eaten a few 02 sensors in this whole recent process of getting megasquirt functioning properly, every time you go from OFF to ON it runs the heaters (gauge displays HTR for each sensor) to the 02 sensors. I managed to kill an 02 sensor without ever having ran a vehicle for more than 20 combined minutes.
Other issues popped up and were delt with accordingly, nothing out of the ordinary for just having a rough base tune for an entirely different setup.
Last time we had successfully verified that the engine was timed 100% correctly and ignition was working properly. It was right after that moment we lost fuel. No pulse of the injectors. This time we had more luck but we didn't finish the tuning until about 2:00am. A few pulls and driving on the highway, getting fuel from a slow pump, various changes, talking with a police officer (hazards on at the side of the road, safety check kind of thing) but that didn’t stop us – we had finished and we had various 9000 RPMs of brrrrrraaaaaaaaappppppppppp and nothing exploded. It was just after this when I am getting ready to load the car on the trailer and call it a night – I lose 12v power to the passenger side dashboard which provides key on powers to my e-fan, lights, megasquirt and 02 sensor controllers/gauge etc. I had a failed relay and had to dig into the dash to replace and ultimately got the car on the trailer at 3am then proceeded to fall asleep after a hot shower.
With little sleep I wake up – finish packing and then head down about 2 hours south to the dreaded state of Ohio however with construction I missed my exit and have to drive about 5 miles out of the way (no big deal) HOWEVER around this time I notice that my volt gauge on the frankenburban is reading below 12v - my alternator was failing and I was still about 20 minutes away from the race site so kiss the fun runs goodbye . Great thing about an old chevy truck is that there are parts everywhere, so with an added 30 minute delay I changed the alternator in the parking lot and I was on my way again, it almost didn't start because of the lack of battery power but I did have jumper cables and a spare battery just in case... Nice thing about a truck that big is that you can literally carry everything you need and everything you don’t need. However this marks the 6th or 7th time I have driven a vehicle to Ohio and it breaks down…
Without entirely testing the car other than a few wot pulls in all gears my stage rally co-driver and I decided to get behind the wheel and give it 10/10ths. 7000 RPM launches and power for days! It was nice being able to spin the engine to 9000 RPM with the carb setup I had reached my limit on that carb through pressure and orifice adjustments so I could not fuel the engine fast enough so it would be too lean above 6500 RPM. Even with a full gravel spare in the trunk and an added roll cage, it feels faster than before. The goal was to beat the snot out of the car and we did for 2 days straight and nothing broke! As a driver I did pretty bad time wise but still put competitive clean timed runs down although I blew both the chances for trophies for both days due to a MAX run each day but the day as a whole was a success. I received a lot of compliments on the noises it made, and on that note… action shots.
I didn’t have enough time to clean it the dirt on the hood is from the year of sitting…
Ryan Symancek...
aka /drive aka the show My Life as a Rallyist, I never heard of the show or seen the show until about 2 weeks ago and its quite good! You could say we had a similar story - finding rally through video games until college where you would just get by enough to go racing and then pursue that passion...
However that day he was filming, but everyone has cameras at a race event so it would was hard to notice. so it turns out I am "That Guy" and I appear as the antagonist in an episode:
It’s a pretty cool video and the series is very good and you should all check it out if you are interested in rally at any level.
Now that being said, it is almost 1 year later I am racing the same car again although completely different car once more and I managed to make it to a special weekend of rallycross with the Detroit region. Saturday afternoon was fun runs because this was our regions annual day/night rallycross - one heat in the day time and 1 heat at night so you can utilize your sweet rally lights so technically you can get 3 heats of racing in if you give 100% participation, and that’s not all - we had an event rained out and re-scheduled for the next day! so a maximum possibility of 5 heats of racing... but this time with a full roll cage, full re-wire, full EFI swap, full underbody protection, rust repair, seat mounts (sounds easy but you try being 6'4" in a sardine can like this) and all the other DOT legal stuff my car was lacking...
The clock starts ticking; I had worked from home that day to continuously finish my preparations for the tow rig and car itself. Its now 8PM Friday night before the race, 12pm the next day is the start of fun runs and registration closes at 1pm.
We began to work on tuning immediately afterwards, but before tuning is possible – running and idling was to be addressed first. Around 9:15pm that night we had sorted out my failed 02 sensor issue and re-cal'd the DLG-1
**NOTE** I have eaten a few 02 sensors in this whole recent process of getting megasquirt functioning properly, every time you go from OFF to ON it runs the heaters (gauge displays HTR for each sensor) to the 02 sensors. I managed to kill an 02 sensor without ever having ran a vehicle for more than 20 combined minutes.
Other issues popped up and were delt with accordingly, nothing out of the ordinary for just having a rough base tune for an entirely different setup.
Last time we had successfully verified that the engine was timed 100% correctly and ignition was working properly. It was right after that moment we lost fuel. No pulse of the injectors. This time we had more luck but we didn't finish the tuning until about 2:00am. A few pulls and driving on the highway, getting fuel from a slow pump, various changes, talking with a police officer (hazards on at the side of the road, safety check kind of thing) but that didn’t stop us – we had finished and we had various 9000 RPMs of brrrrrraaaaaaaaappppppppppp and nothing exploded. It was just after this when I am getting ready to load the car on the trailer and call it a night – I lose 12v power to the passenger side dashboard which provides key on powers to my e-fan, lights, megasquirt and 02 sensor controllers/gauge etc. I had a failed relay and had to dig into the dash to replace and ultimately got the car on the trailer at 3am then proceeded to fall asleep after a hot shower.
With little sleep I wake up – finish packing and then head down about 2 hours south to the dreaded state of Ohio however with construction I missed my exit and have to drive about 5 miles out of the way (no big deal) HOWEVER around this time I notice that my volt gauge on the frankenburban is reading below 12v - my alternator was failing and I was still about 20 minutes away from the race site so kiss the fun runs goodbye . Great thing about an old chevy truck is that there are parts everywhere, so with an added 30 minute delay I changed the alternator in the parking lot and I was on my way again, it almost didn't start because of the lack of battery power but I did have jumper cables and a spare battery just in case... Nice thing about a truck that big is that you can literally carry everything you need and everything you don’t need. However this marks the 6th or 7th time I have driven a vehicle to Ohio and it breaks down…
Without entirely testing the car other than a few wot pulls in all gears my stage rally co-driver and I decided to get behind the wheel and give it 10/10ths. 7000 RPM launches and power for days! It was nice being able to spin the engine to 9000 RPM with the carb setup I had reached my limit on that carb through pressure and orifice adjustments so I could not fuel the engine fast enough so it would be too lean above 6500 RPM. Even with a full gravel spare in the trunk and an added roll cage, it feels faster than before. The goal was to beat the snot out of the car and we did for 2 days straight and nothing broke! As a driver I did pretty bad time wise but still put competitive clean timed runs down although I blew both the chances for trophies for both days due to a MAX run each day but the day as a whole was a success. I received a lot of compliments on the noises it made, and on that note… action shots.
I didn’t have enough time to clean it the dirt on the hood is from the year of sitting…
Last edited by fidelity101; 11-15-16 at 09:32 PM.
11-17-16, 10:22 AM
#256
Respecognize!
yea, same deal on the quattro. No plans to do much with it.
frankly, i don't blame him. Both cars would be astronomical in cost to compete in. But still, he should at least get out and run an event for the sake of the events.
That said, I need to talk to him about wheels for my Rx7. I've seen Braids take some serious **** and stay true.
frankly, i don't blame him. Both cars would be astronomical in cost to compete in. But still, he should at least get out and run an event for the sake of the events.
That said, I need to talk to him about wheels for my Rx7. I've seen Braids take some serious **** and stay true.
11-20-16, 08:34 PM
#257
The Next rallycross is Dec 3rd so in between now and then I need to flush the brake fluid, replace front pads/rotors. I just got stoptech slotted rotors from rockauto at a very good price so I decided to get a matching pair for the front of my rx7. some speeds were top of 2nd gear of me and then it was followed by very tight turn but without braking confidence it was very difficult to shed that speed and keep up with momentum.
this last rallycross was a good shakedown but I will also have to add a cat for stage rally rules and I still have an existing exhaust leak at my only flange surface... so a v-band flange setup should clear that up and instead of a 100% rigid exhaust a flexpipe will added to ensure gasket function retention better and less stress of the engine block studs.
I'm toying with sno*drift this year as my first rally... its close and I know the roads and area very well and if you've been following my thread you know I love going sideways.
I have a small list of things to change to be ready for this and almost 2 months to do so...
This would be my 10th consecutive sno*drift but 1st participation and with the whole RA v ARA nonsense going on right now I wonder if there will be a 2018 sno*drift...
this last rallycross was a good shakedown but I will also have to add a cat for stage rally rules and I still have an existing exhaust leak at my only flange surface... so a v-band flange setup should clear that up and instead of a 100% rigid exhaust a flexpipe will added to ensure gasket function retention better and less stress of the engine block studs.
I'm toying with sno*drift this year as my first rally... its close and I know the roads and area very well and if you've been following my thread you know I love going sideways.
I have a small list of things to change to be ready for this and almost 2 months to do so...
This would be my 10th consecutive sno*drift but 1st participation and with the whole RA v ARA nonsense going on right now I wonder if there will be a 2018 sno*drift...
Last edited by fidelity101; 11-20-16 at 08:49 PM.
02-06-17, 11:49 AM
#258
Okay so now I have some overdue updates to share just been too busy wrenching to be taking photos and sharing stories However that has changed but let’s bring you up to speed first
After the brakes were installed and I broke my stud fix We had to get surgical and I had to trim a little on the baseplate and cut/peel away some interior metal to get at the spot welds for the stud as you can see here:
With those ground down a quick hit of the hammer and it popped up!
It is a one piece multi staged tapered and splined bolt so building a new one would be tough and expensive but luckily a buddy of mine has a rusted out parts car (read shell) that we managed to salvage this piece from and re-install it into the rally car! (God I love saying that!)
Prepped the surface and was ready to weld the new one in place and everything bolted together like it should!
Now moving on to the fun stuff instead of fixing my faults… I installed the battle version rear toe links as the ones on the car were original to the car from 86 – the bushings were starting to go and these are lighter and stronger. However the small camber links that link the rear lower control arm to the subframe were also original to the car and developed a clunk in its bushing after the 1st service at sno*drift – these are no longer available from mazda but I think a mcmaster carr heim joint should be sufficient. Now I didn’t have to remove the rear subframe to do the toe links or probably even to fix the subframe chassis stud but it helped. Once we reinstalled that it was time to drop the gas tank because we need gas tank skid protection. If you noticed in the other older photos of the underbody the gas tank is well exposed which is a big no no for rally but perfectly fine for rallycross.
So we followed the design of the front but made it serviceable because I need to remove the brace to drain the oil (potentially) or at least when I drop the subframe or diff. We built it out of over/under sized C channel and welded it together, the bottom part unbolts and then its just left with the 2 large C channels that are welded to the frame rail, since the diff cover is aluminum this hangs a little lower to be protection for the diff as well as the gas tank.
So that was the front part of the skid plate the other part was cutting out the rusted wheel well portion and adding L bracket bracing and thicker (18 gauge) sheet of steel, from there we welded and boxed in a C channel with weld nuts.
Now with these 2 anchor points I ran a partially bent piece of 3/16th 3” wide and ran from brace to brace so I can attach the HPDE sheet
Ta da!
After the brakes were installed and I broke my stud fix We had to get surgical and I had to trim a little on the baseplate and cut/peel away some interior metal to get at the spot welds for the stud as you can see here:
With those ground down a quick hit of the hammer and it popped up!
It is a one piece multi staged tapered and splined bolt so building a new one would be tough and expensive but luckily a buddy of mine has a rusted out parts car (read shell) that we managed to salvage this piece from and re-install it into the rally car! (God I love saying that!)
Prepped the surface and was ready to weld the new one in place and everything bolted together like it should!
Now moving on to the fun stuff instead of fixing my faults… I installed the battle version rear toe links as the ones on the car were original to the car from 86 – the bushings were starting to go and these are lighter and stronger. However the small camber links that link the rear lower control arm to the subframe were also original to the car and developed a clunk in its bushing after the 1st service at sno*drift – these are no longer available from mazda but I think a mcmaster carr heim joint should be sufficient. Now I didn’t have to remove the rear subframe to do the toe links or probably even to fix the subframe chassis stud but it helped. Once we reinstalled that it was time to drop the gas tank because we need gas tank skid protection. If you noticed in the other older photos of the underbody the gas tank is well exposed which is a big no no for rally but perfectly fine for rallycross.
So we followed the design of the front but made it serviceable because I need to remove the brace to drain the oil (potentially) or at least when I drop the subframe or diff. We built it out of over/under sized C channel and welded it together, the bottom part unbolts and then its just left with the 2 large C channels that are welded to the frame rail, since the diff cover is aluminum this hangs a little lower to be protection for the diff as well as the gas tank.
So that was the front part of the skid plate the other part was cutting out the rusted wheel well portion and adding L bracket bracing and thicker (18 gauge) sheet of steel, from there we welded and boxed in a C channel with weld nuts.
Now with these 2 anchor points I ran a partially bent piece of 3/16th 3” wide and ran from brace to brace so I can attach the HPDE sheet
Ta da!
02-06-17, 11:50 AM
#259
Now since I had some “free time” I was chasing what I thought was a rear main seal or the o-ring that goes around the stationary gear oil leak so to do so you need to pull the engine. (for either one of them)
But when I pulled it I realized it was the pan gasket and the rear main/rear stat gear o-ring was fine! No witness marks and dry as a bone! So I pulled the engine and ordered up an oil pan brace and new hardware to hopefully stop this pesky leak. I had to tear apart the baffle and the oil pan constantly cleaning and scraping it was aweful. It took a few days of keeping the garage at 60 degrees and letting the carb clean evaporate and ensure no dirt or dust or oil was left on the gasket surfaces, chase all threads with your taps and add blue Loctite to each new bolt and follow the RTV torque procedure – lets see if this lasts me more than a year. Part of the reason is that I think my solid engine mounts are too stiff so its shaking bolts loose. I may opt to a poly or mazdaspeed hardened rubber in the near future because oil pan gasket leaks are a multi day labor intensive process to do it right and I hate every minute of it. So with that all settled a few days later I still had the engine out of the car I had ordered up a new spec clutch.
This is WITH the optional aluminum billet cover ($200 extra) which was a waste of time and money, the weight savings was negligible and I would not do it again if I had an option. That being said this is the stage 3 cutch which is a sprung hub multi puck design but it is not an organic disc so you can slip/bang/heat the crap out of it and it will hold pressure fine. This is easier on the flywheel and longer lasting.
With the engine re-installed it was time to move on to a lot of little things that I will gloss over required for rally like fire extinguishers, spare tool bag, spill kit/first aid and co –driver light etc etc etc except this part…
You need DOT triangles and these things are HEAVY, they have metal dust in the base as an achor, but the rules let you empty them. Which dropped a lot of mass – then to attach them I used a small section of C-channel from earlier and welded it to the floor face down but I kept a plastic geartie in the channel so I could tie it together and I just jammed all 3 right next to the co –driver so he can hop out and deploy them quickly if (when) we get stuck on stage.
More rally spec stuff required so we had to add a catalytic convertor…
But you will notice if you are sharp that there is some extra goodies on the exhaust – went to V-band to avoid pesky gasket failures (sick and tired of these gaskets ALWAYS POPING!) and a small flex section to release some stress from the engine studs since this exhaust is pretty heavy. This cat glows like a Newport – pretty snazzy looking but because of I trimmed the bumper a bit where it goes inboard to the car and added a thin aluminum heat shield so I don’t melt the bumper or set it on fire as it already started to melt in some spots on the several mile commute back from my buddies place where we did the welding.
It quieted it down a bit to the point where we may remove the resonator…
So after that I got some help and fine tuned the engine installed the door panels (pics to come soon) and we were ready for an alignment!
Gave a little more for the rear due to the suspension geometry and it really payed off, car felt fantastic – all the R&R of the subframe and replacing the front ball joints for new ones (just for safety sake) an alignment was needed.
Then only 1 day before Recce we have the car on the trailer and all the gear loaded up with the spares… sno*drift bound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes there is no snow there and yes I did bring mud tires just in case but we ended up not needing them. Tuesday night we had made and attached the front mudflaps and tossed all the stickers on - #74 was taken by someone else so I will be using 174 from now on.
But when I pulled it I realized it was the pan gasket and the rear main/rear stat gear o-ring was fine! No witness marks and dry as a bone! So I pulled the engine and ordered up an oil pan brace and new hardware to hopefully stop this pesky leak. I had to tear apart the baffle and the oil pan constantly cleaning and scraping it was aweful. It took a few days of keeping the garage at 60 degrees and letting the carb clean evaporate and ensure no dirt or dust or oil was left on the gasket surfaces, chase all threads with your taps and add blue Loctite to each new bolt and follow the RTV torque procedure – lets see if this lasts me more than a year. Part of the reason is that I think my solid engine mounts are too stiff so its shaking bolts loose. I may opt to a poly or mazdaspeed hardened rubber in the near future because oil pan gasket leaks are a multi day labor intensive process to do it right and I hate every minute of it. So with that all settled a few days later I still had the engine out of the car I had ordered up a new spec clutch.
This is WITH the optional aluminum billet cover ($200 extra) which was a waste of time and money, the weight savings was negligible and I would not do it again if I had an option. That being said this is the stage 3 cutch which is a sprung hub multi puck design but it is not an organic disc so you can slip/bang/heat the crap out of it and it will hold pressure fine. This is easier on the flywheel and longer lasting.
With the engine re-installed it was time to move on to a lot of little things that I will gloss over required for rally like fire extinguishers, spare tool bag, spill kit/first aid and co –driver light etc etc etc except this part…
You need DOT triangles and these things are HEAVY, they have metal dust in the base as an achor, but the rules let you empty them. Which dropped a lot of mass – then to attach them I used a small section of C-channel from earlier and welded it to the floor face down but I kept a plastic geartie in the channel so I could tie it together and I just jammed all 3 right next to the co –driver so he can hop out and deploy them quickly if (when) we get stuck on stage.
More rally spec stuff required so we had to add a catalytic convertor…
But you will notice if you are sharp that there is some extra goodies on the exhaust – went to V-band to avoid pesky gasket failures (sick and tired of these gaskets ALWAYS POPING!) and a small flex section to release some stress from the engine studs since this exhaust is pretty heavy. This cat glows like a Newport – pretty snazzy looking but because of I trimmed the bumper a bit where it goes inboard to the car and added a thin aluminum heat shield so I don’t melt the bumper or set it on fire as it already started to melt in some spots on the several mile commute back from my buddies place where we did the welding.
It quieted it down a bit to the point where we may remove the resonator…
So after that I got some help and fine tuned the engine installed the door panels (pics to come soon) and we were ready for an alignment!
Gave a little more for the rear due to the suspension geometry and it really payed off, car felt fantastic – all the R&R of the subframe and replacing the front ball joints for new ones (just for safety sake) an alignment was needed.
Then only 1 day before Recce we have the car on the trailer and all the gear loaded up with the spares… sno*drift bound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes there is no snow there and yes I did bring mud tires just in case but we ended up not needing them. Tuesday night we had made and attached the front mudflaps and tossed all the stickers on - #74 was taken by someone else so I will be using 174 from now on.
02-06-17, 12:46 PM
#260
So now its sno*drift – this is a story in itself (as usual) but overall it was a wonderful experience, Recce was kind of icy/muddy/slushy hard to predict the grip but later that night the temps dropped and snow fell and it was quite icy, which is fine by me – its very predictable… you basically have no grip and you only have momentum and direction with lots of drifty slidey angles of fun-ness….
So we start day 1, make it to the first service, managed to loose a balljoint nut and my shock assembly bolts to the knuckle became loose, other than that no real issues We were getting used to the notes and started to get into the groove a bit although we did stuff it a few times gently.. but gently enough for us the need to get out of the car and push or get spectators to push. Now – time to get to ready for the night stages… and as I launch the rally lights are in full force and the E-fan kicks on as I grab 2nd gear hard and then BOOOM. Well more like a silent awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww because I lost power to my dashboard on the EFI side so we push the car out of the control zone and start diaging and realize that we have blown a fuse that linked 2 fuse boxes together but by this time we had not the right tools or spare parts to repair and sweep had passed us and we were DNF on day one, easy beer fix later that night and we re-enter the rally day two!
Getting more confident in the notes and pushing the car on some spots caused us to have some competitive stage times, however some of that with some note errors led me to stuff it on some low speed corners requiring a few pulls and pushes to get through Saturday. On SS6 we were 14th overall on that stage, 3rd in 2wd, 2nd in G2 and fastest RWD for that stage, we beat a lot of better prepped AWD cars that stage so it felt good. However with this confidence I managed to cause a few snowbanks which dropped us back from 26th overall to last but we did finish our 1st stage rally and you only get one chance at that! Saturday’s event went smoother for service no real issues just check stuff over and all was good, the car held up well and performed great. Now I need to get adjusted to the speed of the sport.
And with that being said, here are the action shots!
04-03-17, 11:18 AM
#261
Got it Dyno'd last week at my friends shop needless to say I am happy with the numbers, and with a redline of 9000rpm its great to have that much over-rev capability.
the last engine and setup dynoed at 132whp and 121tq @ 6400rpm this is was 182whp and 134tq @7500rpm but even the old engine managed to run a 14.9 in the quarter mile at 81MPH I will be curious to see if this can dip into the 13's or a 14 flat this spring with the gearing improvements and mass reductions.
More power can be gained by shortening the intake runners since they are about 24" long, I'm tempted to toss on the S5 upper intake manifold and see how that affects the numbers but in reality that is too long too. We managed to pick up about 20hp across the range from the base tune that got me through sno*drift. Now I just need to put some attention in a few areas then get more seat time!
the last engine and setup dynoed at 132whp and 121tq @ 6400rpm this is was 182whp and 134tq @7500rpm but even the old engine managed to run a 14.9 in the quarter mile at 81MPH I will be curious to see if this can dip into the 13's or a 14 flat this spring with the gearing improvements and mass reductions.
More power can be gained by shortening the intake runners since they are about 24" long, I'm tempted to toss on the S5 upper intake manifold and see how that affects the numbers but in reality that is too long too. We managed to pick up about 20hp across the range from the base tune that got me through sno*drift. Now I just need to put some attention in a few areas then get more seat time!
05-25-17, 05:24 PM
#262
I think there is more power to be re-had with some more tuning...
Went to the test and tune for NASA rallysport a few weeks ago and I had a test stage with unlimited laps! did forward and reverse direction split between morning and afternoon runs. The 2.5 minute stage was brief but fun! sand/dirt/rock/field mix so it was pretty good to see how it did on the various surfaces.
also with NASA you do helmet cam
The car did great the tune did great, we ended up enriching the top end a bit but and I was able to pull all the way to 8500 in 3rd gear through the sand, however it still wasn't running totally right and when I got home I found out why that was. I had dented my spiral flow resonator pretty bad.
A few more tweaks and it should be ready, Going to try a stiffer rear spring because its just too soft and squats and under the woops it tends to bottom out and do a tank slaper. Rear skidplate may see an improvement but maybe not until LSPR. Next true event August 5th for summer sno*drift.
Went to the test and tune for NASA rallysport a few weeks ago and I had a test stage with unlimited laps! did forward and reverse direction split between morning and afternoon runs. The 2.5 minute stage was brief but fun! sand/dirt/rock/field mix so it was pretty good to see how it did on the various surfaces.
also with NASA you do helmet cam
The car did great the tune did great, we ended up enriching the top end a bit but and I was able to pull all the way to 8500 in 3rd gear through the sand, however it still wasn't running totally right and when I got home I found out why that was. I had dented my spiral flow resonator pretty bad.
A few more tweaks and it should be ready, Going to try a stiffer rear spring because its just too soft and squats and under the woops it tends to bottom out and do a tank slaper. Rear skidplate may see an improvement but maybe not until LSPR. Next true event August 5th for summer sno*drift.
05-31-17, 03:10 PM
#264
rear is stock T2 springs - 90ln/in (1.6kg/mm)
Valving is definitely an issue for sure but a quick spring rate change may be nice to see.
new rear springs RS*R 336lb/in (5kg/mm) and I will see how that feels on the street but I feel like I have a wheel bearing bad already (which I find hard to believe) since its only been run on the test tune but I have NEVER replaced the spherical bearings in the RLCA so that may be necessary since I've owned the car for 10+ years.
08-07-17, 12:40 PM
#265
Summer sno*drift is over and it was a complete & utter failure. Some minor tweaks to get through tech (no big deal) and then we were ready but the 1st stage was boulder city - just stones and loose sand everywhere the car shut down about 5 corners in, something with the fuel pump relay - jumped it and kept on going.
about a mile later the exhaust fell off at the v-band due to rocks or something, the car is too low when a full tank of gas and added spare + tools etc with too low of a vehicle to begin with. I will have to upload some video of it - if it was recording... because an open header rotary is loudest thing on the planet, it physical hurt it was so loud but POR! I literally could not hear the co-driver over the volume of it.
Shortly after that the engine died again and sweep had passed us so we we handed in our time card and we were done for the today. Verified spark/air/fuel and determined it must have been an ECU issue. Luckily the exhaust was dragging behind us hanging on 1 rear hanger. Tossed the exhaust section in the back of heavy sweep and the towed us about a mile to a recoverable area as the the stage was about to be re run shortly.
Found the issue by wiggling the connector and the car fired right up, better than push it up the trailer:
so we bust *** in service and get a new v-band on the exhaust, weld the 3 pieces together so they don't pop off and help seal some of the exhaust leak as well and fix the connector so that its properly installed. good to go after service and get to start last but we get to start. 1st stage out we get held up by an accident (spun blocking the road) then we basically transited behind 3 other cars to the end.
After that head to stage 6 and it was a blast! saw coolant temps as high as 220F but I didn't care it was running great and we were having fun. Tulips were virtually useless I don't think my co-driver said anything productive on stage all day. Then we got lost heading to stage 7 because we turned on hardwood hills not hardwood road and then got stuck in the sand, giving us a DNF for the day.
We had issued with tulips on prior transits and caused me to doubt my co-driver. I thought this was the wrong road and we saw some familiar tracks so others made the same mistake but didn't go as far as us, so I went in reverse and kept going the whole way back (1/4 mile or less) then decided to listen to my co-driver once more and went to turn around at a spot but when I lost momentum we were done and just sank.
We missed stage 7 & 8 and didn't even go to parc ferme and did not participate in awards, beaten and ashamed we headed back to camp
but well that's racing... next steps for LSPR? probably not competing - I need to raise this car in the air to gain ground clearance and the proper tow truck needs the engine replaced/rebuilt. it was awful being crammed into an extended cab f150. Probably just going to spectate this year.
about a mile later the exhaust fell off at the v-band due to rocks or something, the car is too low when a full tank of gas and added spare + tools etc with too low of a vehicle to begin with. I will have to upload some video of it - if it was recording... because an open header rotary is loudest thing on the planet, it physical hurt it was so loud but POR! I literally could not hear the co-driver over the volume of it.
Shortly after that the engine died again and sweep had passed us so we we handed in our time card and we were done for the today. Verified spark/air/fuel and determined it must have been an ECU issue. Luckily the exhaust was dragging behind us hanging on 1 rear hanger. Tossed the exhaust section in the back of heavy sweep and the towed us about a mile to a recoverable area as the the stage was about to be re run shortly.
Found the issue by wiggling the connector and the car fired right up, better than push it up the trailer:
so we bust *** in service and get a new v-band on the exhaust, weld the 3 pieces together so they don't pop off and help seal some of the exhaust leak as well and fix the connector so that its properly installed. good to go after service and get to start last but we get to start. 1st stage out we get held up by an accident (spun blocking the road) then we basically transited behind 3 other cars to the end.
After that head to stage 6 and it was a blast! saw coolant temps as high as 220F but I didn't care it was running great and we were having fun. Tulips were virtually useless I don't think my co-driver said anything productive on stage all day. Then we got lost heading to stage 7 because we turned on hardwood hills not hardwood road and then got stuck in the sand, giving us a DNF for the day.
We had issued with tulips on prior transits and caused me to doubt my co-driver. I thought this was the wrong road and we saw some familiar tracks so others made the same mistake but didn't go as far as us, so I went in reverse and kept going the whole way back (1/4 mile or less) then decided to listen to my co-driver once more and went to turn around at a spot but when I lost momentum we were done and just sank.
We missed stage 7 & 8 and didn't even go to parc ferme and did not participate in awards, beaten and ashamed we headed back to camp
but well that's racing... next steps for LSPR? probably not competing - I need to raise this car in the air to gain ground clearance and the proper tow truck needs the engine replaced/rebuilt. it was awful being crammed into an extended cab f150. Probably just going to spectate this year.
12-20-17, 12:49 PM
#268
Well it’s time to get back to working on the primary project need to correct the issues from the prior failures, the December rallyX went okay even though I was having the misfire but when I added the GIANT mudflaps on for the event it and I wasn’t gunning for championship points since I was in no position to podium for the season so I went hog wild and slide it any chance I could so this photo pretty much sums up the event…
Couple big issues,
1. Ride height – its too low
2. Misfire
3. Gas tank protection
4. Car looks like ****
So I have been experimenting with the rear suspension a bit the springs at sno*drift were too soft but decent ride height, the springs at summer sno*drift were good rate but far too low and every other spring out there lowers the car which is bad for rally (obviously) so I have been the goldilocks of springs: This ones too low, this ones not stiff enough, this one is juuuuuuust right.
The RS*R is on the left which is 225lb and ~13” spring, the middle is the stock vert which is ~90lb and 15” spring and the one on the right is a 16” spring with 225lb rate…. Juuuust right! Fun fact the 2.5” coilover springs is a direct bolt on to a rear rx7 shock UNLESS you have a bilstein and in that case the spring perch needs a few minutes on a lathe to go from a 2.8” OD to a 2.5” OD to accommodate, any regular Monroe or KYB/tokicko style will work.
So while I wait for this to get completed I move onto the next open item.I chased a few things down and realized that I should get new plugs and replace the exhaust gasket at the header as this was leaking among fixing the exhaust in general since the SSD incident so that helped but it would still misfire which I found to be bad contacts near the fuel pump relay causing an intermittent connection. With this mended I moved on upgrading the rear skid plate structure it took such a beating that all of it was virtually trash and we started over.
Due to some work/life events and poor planning I did not have the material to make the structure I wanted with the time we had available so after making a few base plates we decided to move onto what else we could do. The car was starting to look like dog poo or like a bad novel with 50 shades of white. So I wanted this to look somewhat presentable so it was time to clean up the body work because everything else was a hurry up and wait kind of thing.
Started out by removing all the stickers and making everything the same white then mark up what it should looks like, unfortunately I will be doing spray paint and this car does deserve better but oh well, it used to be a real nice car
However when I got this car 10 years agoit looked like this:
But even if you’re not clever you should be able to spot the intent J
Hopefully some better updates soon, holiday shutdown is upon us which means decent garage time ahead of us.
Couple big issues,
1. Ride height – its too low
2. Misfire
3. Gas tank protection
4. Car looks like ****
So I have been experimenting with the rear suspension a bit the springs at sno*drift were too soft but decent ride height, the springs at summer sno*drift were good rate but far too low and every other spring out there lowers the car which is bad for rally (obviously) so I have been the goldilocks of springs: This ones too low, this ones not stiff enough, this one is juuuuuuust right.
The RS*R is on the left which is 225lb and ~13” spring, the middle is the stock vert which is ~90lb and 15” spring and the one on the right is a 16” spring with 225lb rate…. Juuuust right! Fun fact the 2.5” coilover springs is a direct bolt on to a rear rx7 shock UNLESS you have a bilstein and in that case the spring perch needs a few minutes on a lathe to go from a 2.8” OD to a 2.5” OD to accommodate, any regular Monroe or KYB/tokicko style will work.
So while I wait for this to get completed I move onto the next open item.I chased a few things down and realized that I should get new plugs and replace the exhaust gasket at the header as this was leaking among fixing the exhaust in general since the SSD incident so that helped but it would still misfire which I found to be bad contacts near the fuel pump relay causing an intermittent connection. With this mended I moved on upgrading the rear skid plate structure it took such a beating that all of it was virtually trash and we started over.
Due to some work/life events and poor planning I did not have the material to make the structure I wanted with the time we had available so after making a few base plates we decided to move onto what else we could do. The car was starting to look like dog poo or like a bad novel with 50 shades of white. So I wanted this to look somewhat presentable so it was time to clean up the body work because everything else was a hurry up and wait kind of thing.
Started out by removing all the stickers and making everything the same white then mark up what it should looks like, unfortunately I will be doing spray paint and this car does deserve better but oh well, it used to be a real nice car
However when I got this car 10 years agoit looked like this:
But even if you’re not clever you should be able to spot the intent J
Hopefully some better updates soon, holiday shutdown is upon us which means decent garage time ahead of us.
Last edited by fidelity101; 12-20-17 at 12:58 PM.
01-03-18, 05:41 PM
#269
I just read this whole thread. I used to think using an RX7 for rally was a waste. I'm really starting to see how awesome it is. Between you and Peejay I might have been convinced to build a 7 for rally some day.
Can't wait to see how she performs when you get all the kinks worked out. Looks wicked fun already. Nice build thread!
Can't wait to see how she performs when you get all the kinks worked out. Looks wicked fun already. Nice build thread!
The following users liked this post:
fidelity101 (01-11-18)
01-11-18, 09:55 AM
#270
I just read this whole thread. I used to think using an RX7 for rally was a waste. I'm really starting to see how awesome it is. Between you and Peejay I might have been convinced to build a 7 for rally some day.
Can't wait to see how she performs when you get all the kinks worked out. Looks wicked fun already. Nice build thread!
Can't wait to see how she performs when you get all the kinks worked out. Looks wicked fun already. Nice build thread!
To aid with the coil spring indecisiveness for various setups, I figured 1 trip to the hospital would be worth the investment on a proper spring compressor instead of those sketchy threaded clamps. They also make swapping out WAY easier and faster which is incredibly useful so I picked this one up second hand for a good deal and quickly made good use out of it. It was minutes on a lathe to get it the right size and I did manage to compress a 16” long 2.5” dia coil spring on it with a stock upper perch. I ordered a new spring rubber top hat too as mine existing ones were rotted away to nothing. However, I decided to go for a proper upper spring perches too and by doing so I managed to get the last FC upper pillow ball shock top from AWR. They have been downsizing rx7 parts in favor for other Mazdas recently… The alternative option is buy a complete coilover version kit and only using 2 parts from it which was not appealing and Mazda sold their last one in August. They are NLA parts now from their competition catalog. However to fit the 16” spring it was compressed 3” and had so much pre-load that it felt like 1000lb springs instead of 225. So I went with a 14” long spring and it seemed to be the sweet spot.
…with that being said the paintjob is done! I learned how to use pin striping vinyl tape to make lines and properly mask, it was pretty interesting and challenging experience ( but in a good way). I printed a bunch of photos to use for proportions and kind of eyeballed it. It was painting a color a day for about a week straight.
But it came out great! A solid 10’er just using rustoleum spray paint. I also used this as a time to increase the serviceability of my mudflaps (now that I have developed a good/proven attachment scheme) with rivet nuts and using oversized flange button cap hardware to keep these functional scrap pieces of mudflaps a functional template.
01-11-18, 09:56 AM
#271
Not sure what color mudflap I will choose at the moment… but now with this setup it is more serviceable and really easy to install.
But it works for now so let’s see if it holds up through an ice racing season. A few daylight shots too on a proper snow covered bitter day!
I used another big white vinyl sticker over all of the other stickers then painted that to get the roof to be the correct pattern.
The front is actually lowered still so it sits in a drag car mode right now but with the back higher it is much easier for me to get into now lol
Since I didn’t have the exact same front end style as the real car and it’s not 4wd it doesn’t have to be an exact copy of the Millen livery so I took to adjustment on the front end because of my fixed light situation, plus the bumper gets so beat up in the front the paint likes to flake off anyways. I figured a fun offset All loaded up!
It did manage to start later that day after being dragged through the cold across the state with the help of some ether with coolant temp gauge reading 12F.
Ta da!
I took it to TRF to do the rear skidplate and structure to support it, I can’t weld aluminum and then we did chat about how to gain a few inches of ride height and travel for the front suspension. currently it has 5-5.5” of travel so that will be fun. No photos of that but I will be sure to show some when its complete. After that is done then it’s going straight to ice racing! As long as the Megasquirt ECU decides to not misfire or anything… So once that is ironed out I can continue putting the stickers on it.
But it works for now so let’s see if it holds up through an ice racing season. A few daylight shots too on a proper snow covered bitter day!
I used another big white vinyl sticker over all of the other stickers then painted that to get the roof to be the correct pattern.
The front is actually lowered still so it sits in a drag car mode right now but with the back higher it is much easier for me to get into now lol
Since I didn’t have the exact same front end style as the real car and it’s not 4wd it doesn’t have to be an exact copy of the Millen livery so I took to adjustment on the front end because of my fixed light situation, plus the bumper gets so beat up in the front the paint likes to flake off anyways. I figured a fun offset All loaded up!
It did manage to start later that day after being dragged through the cold across the state with the help of some ether with coolant temp gauge reading 12F.
Ta da!
I took it to TRF to do the rear skidplate and structure to support it, I can’t weld aluminum and then we did chat about how to gain a few inches of ride height and travel for the front suspension. currently it has 5-5.5” of travel so that will be fun. No photos of that but I will be sure to show some when its complete. After that is done then it’s going straight to ice racing! As long as the Megasquirt ECU decides to not misfire or anything… So once that is ironed out I can continue putting the stickers on it.
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fidelity101 (03-05-18)
03-05-18, 10:43 AM
#273
Yeah went ice racing this month and have been fighting misfires. I'm throwing the megasquirt away I purchased a haltech elite but i have no time to work on it as of now. need to tidy up a few things in the garage and the truck then its full blown race car time.
I put some coil spring spacers on the front to help level it out a bit and it did help out a lot and the ride isn't noticeably bad or anything. Once the EFI issue is sorted out bilstein universal motorsport shocks will go in the front.
I put some coil spring spacers on the front to help level it out a bit and it did help out a lot and the ride isn't noticeably bad or anything. Once the EFI issue is sorted out bilstein universal motorsport shocks will go in the front.
07-05-18, 10:23 AM
#274
I have been lacking on working on this and updating this thread but rest assured progress is being made.
Right now the car is undergoing an overhaul for a haltech elite EMS upgrade as well as some other general wiring tidyness. Dyno retune expected the next week or two so lets see how the change in EMS can improve power/reliability.
Right now the car is undergoing an overhaul for a haltech elite EMS upgrade as well as some other general wiring tidyness. Dyno retune expected the next week or two so lets see how the change in EMS can improve power/reliability.
09-27-18, 02:44 PM
#275
Haltech wiring is done ECU is running great, updated with a haltech dashboard and I was able to put down 190whp on a mustang dyno. This was using the heavy S4 t2 wheels too.
Managed to do a quick test at a local open track day event and now I'm working on a few things to get ready for LSPR!
Managed to do a quick test at a local open track day event and now I'm working on a few things to get ready for LSPR!