Ooooh, a mystery....

 

i know, its the neighbors car using yours as cover! because people expect the rotary to smoke, and not say an elcamino....

 

Today I am looking forward to going home and explaining to my car just how lucky it was on the day I bought it, compared to what might have been. (ebil grin)

 

Naah, it's his smoke screen. The one-way valve on the bottle of caster oil is malfunctioning, allowing it to leak caster oil into the exhaust manifold all the time, instead of just when he hits the smoke screen button. fm

 

Two nights ago, I finished recovering my door panels. I know it's not factory, but they're way better than they were before. Once they're in with all the trim pieces in place, I think they'll look fine. The maroon is more like the FD maroon interior, so it's a bit brighter. Not quite as bright as these pics make it look though.





Yesterday, I took delivery of 4 used, but good condition 21.5x8x13 Hoosier road race slicks and had them mounted on the SSRs. The rears should be fine, but I'm concerned about the fronts...might have clearance issues with the suspension as the tire bulges out to almost 10 inches. I stopped by the shop this afternoon to see if I could test fit them, but I suspect they took off early for Concourse D'Elegance. I'll check them out again at noon tomorrow to see if I'm going to either have to use spacers for the front, or if I'll just have to get narrower slicks.

While I was there, I took a couple of pictures of her with her paint scuffed in prep for painting. Looking pretty sad for herself right now, but it'll be worth it.




fm

 

Ok quickie write up on what was done with May over the last couple of couple days .....

As previously mentioned May was smoking .... she was purchased with the understanding she smoked a touch ... mind you I didn't see her other then a few pictures, until she arrived at the house after sending a couple of our guys in my truck with my trailer to get her as it would be a approx. 900 miles round trip and I had to work ...

At first it was just a whisper .... but started to get worse and worse ...



but it got even worse and considering the exhaust was swapped for Aprils original exhaust to be correct figured there was traces of atf and such in it from over 5 years ago and was making the situation seem worse ... but that could not be the case as the wife and I took April and May to the local meet last Friday evening and while May was running very strong she was making huge clouds far worse then this pic ....



So today after a package arrived with parts including multiple air filters, fuel filters and one other part in this shipment ... May was very happy as now the only smoke was a trace of black ... and she's purring



The culprit as I previously mentioned didn't jump up at us, engine oil and coolant levels remained as they were .... so where the heck was this coming from ? .... My sense of smell isn't the greatest but it smelled oddly familiar but couldn't place it ... until I was struck by lightning as I brainstormed ( that part was for DD lol ) ... I jacked up the front of May pulled a vacuum hose ... then stuck a q-tip in the hose .... yup pink .... the vacuum modulator failed and atf was being stuck into and burned in the engine .....



Now as I recall the biggest push by the PO to sell was because May had started to smoke and perhaps thought the engine was failing, they were not "rotary" ppl ... I having seen pics wasn't terribly concerned as I have 12a kegs and engine swap is fast enough ....

but perhaps I was just a lucky SOB !!

 

Wow, that single part was the culprit? I'm simply amazed at the amount of knowledge in this community.

 

Well I was slightly embarrassed it took so long as I was a transmission installer/rebuilder roughly 30 years ago lol but in my defense I do have 5 rotaries and tons of other stuff to tool on

 

You certainly were!

Normal rotorhead blindspot (if it's a Wankel and it's smoking, it MUST be seals!) compounded by the rarity of auto trans -7's amongst enthusiasts.

Well done!

 

I took it to the Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention (EVCCon). I think there were 4 converted Miatas but just my FB as representing 7's. Friday we call play day because we use the taxiways at a local airport and set up a 1/8th mile strip and an autocross course. We also have scales and a dyno available. My car weighs 2420 after the conversion. I will have to get the individual wheel readings. Find attached the record of my runs on the 1/8th mile. It was a hot day and I believe my motor control was limiting my power all day. The dyno run later in the evening is confirmation this in my mind. The 1/8 mile runs should have been faster but the controller limiting due to heat explains it. The dyno runs were back to back and power levels were way off on the second run. Note the 266 ft-lbs briefly on the first run.

On cool days I can do a 0-60 in a little over 6 seconds. All this shows me I need to fix my controller cooling situation and these times should be very different. The holeshot was always good and if there had been a 60 ft time it would have been good. For example I was faster to the ends of the barricades than a Tesla Model S and then it just blew me away.

Note the second to the last time (race 162) I had an R/T of 1.7 seconds. This is not true. On this particular run I was going against a vehicle that had no chance of winning and I decided to get a time for the run in just 4th gear. I started to select 4th gear (I was in 2nd) and they started the tree. I shoved it in gear and hit the throttle and started backwards. I put it in 2nd again and finished the race. If the other car had not red lighted I would have lost though. They tell me they got this on video so when that gets uploaded I will post there here. Embarrassing but funny! I took passengers on most of my runs so just for fun. I am so far from breaking the NEDRA record in my class (SC/D) that it will require some upgrades to get there. Maybe next year.

I am going to a real 1/8th mile strip tomorrow if it doesn't rain. Sikeston raceway I believe.

 

whoa cool ... I would have guessed the car to have been heavier

 

The batteries in it weigh a little over 400 lbs. If I were to build a special drag racing pack that would weigh about 60 lbs. So the car would come out around 2080. I don't know what the rest of the stuff that can be removed would save. Probably possible to pretty easily remove another 200 lbs. The special pack would get the car down the drag strip a couple of times or perhaps 10 miles of range driving normally and holds the equivalent energy of a pint of gasoline.

 

I installed the trucklite LED headlamps into my SA and pilfered the first part from my SE parts car to go on the SA. Headlight lift rod with good bushings.

 

I'm curious about how you like them, and what they cost. Semi-interested in doing the same thing, as I'm becoming a real fan of LED lighting in general when it can be done without altering the effectiveness of a system.

I got about 3/4 through converting one of my leftover FB seats into a gaming seat. The other will become an office chair, by current plan.

 

I have h4 led bulbs and I am delighted. My brights only work on flash to pass, but it no longer bothers me. Lots of light, less wattage. It's a win.

 

me too, dad showed me an LED he put in a lamp, and it is just so natural looking.
one of my jobs, is working at an old house/garden Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden

and i've been switching over to LED's as the house electrics are ~100years old, and they didn't really envision all the stuff we'd be using.

so i've been swapping in LED's where i can, and results have been mixed. sometimes the light is too much, and its casts weird shadows, and then the LED's run too hot for some of the fixtures.

if the LED's are more efficient shouldn't they run cooler?

so i was envisioning running LED's everywhere, but it isn't going to happen.

in a car its a bit different the racers all went LED years ago

 

Installation was a breeze. I'll have to wait till dark to verify aim and get any further impressions. Things were very bright for being in broad daylight. Makes me worry about hotspots. Sometimes brighter is not a good thing. For old eyes like mine, it makes it harder to see things outside the cutoff. I'll post back once I have further observations on it. As to price, I managed to pick up a set for 300 shipped. I don't know that I'd call that a value, but I plan to have the car till I die so if I pull that off, the TCO won't be so bad.

 

I've been swapping things over at home, & the LED bulbs for house use have improved dramatically in just the last couple years.

LEDs generally draw less than 1/4 the current of the typical incandescent bulbs they replace. the 60-watt replacements run about 13 watts current draw, for example.

13 watts can still be a lot of heat if concentrated in a small area, but my experience has been that even high-wattage LEDs stay cool enough to handle when operating. I've got a fixture n my office that used 6 of those 50-watt GU-10 halogens originally - - those halogen bulbs get horrid hot. The LEDs that replaced them I can grab when full on.

If you've got some that are running too hot, you may have a bad unit, or you might have a line in that old house that is running at improper voltage due to old wiring or an imbalanced load elsewhere that's messing up the neutral, causing the "ballast" of the LED to pull too much current.

 

either of those is likely. the house was built in 1902, and then added onto in 1937(?), and then again sometime in the 70's, and then its fed by something newer than that (mid 90's?).

so nobody really knows

 

IIRC, most of the newer LEDs for household use are designed using frequency multipliers in their rectifier/ballasts to reduce visible flicker & maximize output. Bet you a cookie they don't run too well on a line with a dirty neutral - they are tuned circuits.

 

Cut a flange out of 1/2" steel, to start my turbo manifold



Sent from my samsung gs4 using RX7Club app

 

How about the new dimmable onces? Their flicker is difficult to see. Looks likes 120Hz or so. Spin a fan near it.

 

I did that the other day. I made two turbo flanges out of an RB header flange.

 

Full-wave bridge rectifier gives 120 DC pulses per second when fed 60Hz AC. Combined with long-latency phosphors in the LEDs, they smooth out pretty well.

 

I have LED's on all the exterior lights except the rear turn signals (makes no sense to change those out.) The headlights I replaced late in 2012 so about 1.5 years ago. The 2nd generation Trucklites are really good. They draw about 1.8 amps per bulb that is on. That mean 3.6 amps for low beams and 7.2 amps for high beams. I did a thread a while ago about LED's and had a couple of photos in this thread at the time I changed the bulbs.

They are a drop in replacement for the factory bulbs. It might take half an hour to swap them out if you have trouble finding a #2 Phillips screwdriver. Because of the reduced current (about half) there is no need for a relay kit and the brightness does not change with RPM because there is active regulation of the bulb current.

If you read many of the comments about these bulbs the negative that is mentioned most often is that there is a V shaped hot spot. These V's are what you use to align the bulbs. Some complain that this draws their eyes in. I only noticed them the first few minutes of operation and I never see it now unless I specifically look for it.

I still feel that they are too expensive. Amazon has a kit for Jeeps which includes stuff you don't need to the 7 for $354.87 and $25 shipping and on EBay you can find them for $338 with free shipping. These prices are for both headlights. The EBay kit does not include the stuff you don't need.

If you do a lot of driving at night then something like these would be valuable as you can see everything. They illuminate the side road very well which explains why the motorcycle crowd really likes them. I give them big a thumbs up with the caveat that they are somewhat expensive although I don't know how the price compares with HID upgrades which are your other choice. The JW Speaker LED headlamps are a LOT more money and from the reading I did they don't illuminate the sides nearly as well for deer detection although it sounds like they are more powerful in the distance.

If you don't drive much at night then the place to put your money is the brake LEDs. If you can wake up even one inattentive follower and prevent a rear end incident it will be well worth it.