I tested a race prepped Nikki with enlarged venturis in the blue car today. Ran kinda lousy. Don't know if it was my choice in jets or air bleeds. So I'm going to put the large jets and air bleeds it came with back in tomorrow and test run it again.

 

Washed the seat covers as part of the prep for the long ride to my new place in NE Okla.
What else is a good idea to do as part of the shipping? She runs sweet and starts easy Just want to know other than cleaning and taking out personal belongings and anything not bolted down anything else?

 

i have decided to take the suggestions of an older car guy... he says (an ive learned via practice) that "its easier to beg for forgiveness, than ask for permission"... time to start my preperation for my next autoX even. Which means, new rear axle wheel bearing retainers, new rear pads and rotors, new rear axle seals, potentially a re-fresh of the LSD, re-pack front bearings, finish my "new" gas tank, and maybe install/finish buying my full coil over set. I personally need to be somewhere near competitive for my own well being in my new official class, SSM/SS2

 

Hey Sarge, that's a tough class to run in, but it is doable. Supercharged Miatas on 255 Hoosiers are a tough nut to crack, but I've done it a few times. Just hope for a tight course with limited straight sections, and you'll do just fine...



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Check with Chris (Orion84GSL) for info on what he's running on his Sterling. I'd give you my info, but I'd have to tear things apart to get it. Chris keeps good records on his setup, so it should be easily available. This would at least give you a starting point.

 

Thanks. I can tell you what the carb came with. 155 primary jets, 170 secondary jets. The air bleeds were drilled stockers so I don't know how large they are.

I swapped in a set of stock 70 and 140 air bleeds, and hitachi 106 primary jets, along with stock Nikki 160 secondaries. I figured these would be a good starting point. Nope. Not even close.

Interestingly, this carb has GROSE jets. Another nice touch- the floats are the old school type that divindriver would kill for. The float bowls fill better than Neil Peart.

 

Got a new oil line made today... Gotta go get the other one made tomorrow.

After 3 months... I think my car will finally run.

I guess I couldn't expect too much out of a car with no damage, VERY minor rust, clean interior, and a good coat of paint for $1000...

BUT DURN IF I HAVEN'T REPLACED EVERY DAMN THING UNDER THE HOOD!!!!!

After this last oil cooler line I'll be in about $700 o.O
Akins seals and whatnot...
oil cooler lines...
water pump...
rotor housing...
alternator...
stationary bearings...

SHE better run tomorrow, or else I might end up target shooting in my garage!!!

 

Everything is swapped back. The carb works! But only up to a point. After that it breaks up and falls on its face. No secondaries at all yet. But it started up quick and the idle circuit is stellar. The primary circuit is actually stronger than my 74 carb, with lots of low end pickup. Pretty amazing for such HUGE primary venturis! If a Sterling carb is anything like this, I can see why kentetsu keeps winning autocrosses!

It just needs tuning now. Unfortunately I don't have the time. Also no wideband O2 in this exhaust, so I'd be tuning blind. So instead I'll just have to swap in another carb and move on.

I might sell this race prepped carb if there is any interest. Comes with a matching similarly hogged out 79 12A manifold. I've got a business card that has the venturi specs on it somewhere around here... PM me if interested.

Just a note. The carb was obviously tuned for the engine it came off of, which was a large streetported 12A with the hogged intake manifold and a full RB long primary (streetport) exhaust. Right now it's on a 74 ported 13B with a hitachi manifold restudded to the Nikki pattern and the same exhaust. Since swapping air bleeds and jets made such a huge difference, I'd say this carb ought to work just fine on a similar 12A ti what it came off of, but that's just a guess at this point. I'm not a Nikki god.

 

I drove my 7 an hour down to start college at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in the College of Science and Engineering to start on my Mechanical Engineering degree. I plan on keeping her through my college career as a weekend racer and part time project. I look forward to the learning experiences and the times I will have with my 7, and the things I will learn to help me keep her pristine and running the way she should.

 

I swapped in a set of 90 and 140 air bleeds today. Now the secondaries work! Well, it bogs just a bit before it takes off. Typical need of a longer accel duration - it has mech secondaries. But to get longer duration, your flow volume suffers as you're spreading it out over a longer period of time/throttle travel. So I'll hog out the upper holes in the banjo bolt (bottom jet is not there as this is a 79 carb). And I'll add some gaskets to both sides of the accel pump diaphram. Also a longer lever needs to go on.

Glad I stuck with this carb. Nikkis are great pieces of pot metal.

I'll get around to the accel pump mod eventually. For now I've gotta concentrate on other stuff. I just picked up a battery isolator and a Ford solenoid so I can do a 24volt starting system in something.

 

just been driving it, enjoying that, but not so much the gas mileage, especially with my heavy foot... :P also, im pretty sure the a/c compressor is going out, sounds nasty when engaged and the temp gauge rises to around 3/4, and for some reason my handbrake light is on the fritz. it isn't on when i am parked, but it will come on and off when i am driving. hopefully its not that big of a deal, although my parking brake is pretty useless :P

 

Just ditch the A/C lol. I need to weigh everything I removed but it's gotta be at least 30 pounds from just under the hood. I still need to rip into the dash and remove any other useless parts. I enjoy driving mine even without the A/C (yes, I just said that during a FL summer) or a radio but what makes it even better is how I can't ever take her out without getting at least one compliment.

 

Put in a new battery since the other one went belly up, wal-mart replaced it after some bs, note to self get better battery asap.

 

Well, there might be just a little bit of driving skill involved Jeff, but the Sterling certainly helps. 19 times out of 20, my car is the fastest rotary at our races no matter what shows up (3rd gens, RX8s, V8 7s, etc).




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Spent a couple hours last night trying to decide what to do next. Two car shows in the next month kind of limits my options for now.

I've got a half-dozen long-term projects planned but nothing I can complete in two weeks or less.

 

So I'm coming home from being out and about in the 7 last night and I see the temp guage
smack in the middle. Roh-roh, I'm running hot, WTF? So it stays stable at mid way (normally
I'm never over 1/3 on the guage) when I pull into the garage.

I'm thinking
- electric fan(s) may have died
- oil leak
- coolant leak

I leave it running and pop the hood. Guess what I found?

Fans are working, no leaks. GAH! There it is a frickin plastic grocery bag sticking up between
the front of the radiator and the top shroud. I guess I sucked it up on the way home.

Anyway, pull the bag and the temps are back to normal in just a minute or two. And they're
concerned about plastic polluting the ocean and hurting the baby seals. Give me a break,
what about the unsuspecting RX7 on the road being suffocated by random wally mart bags.

 

Be glad it didn't get stuck on the exhaust... you'd be smelling burning plastic for a month.

Took mine out for a tank of gas, cleaned the glass. Toying with the idea of going to a meet tonight. It's on the opposite side of LA, though, and the freeways on a Friday going into a holiday are less than joyous.

Picked up a big rock chip on the plenum cover from somewhere, too, about a quarter by an eighth of an inch. Gotta cope with that before JCCS in two weeks. And somehow finish my carbon canister project.

 

I installed a rev limiter. LOL

Just till I pass 1k

 

I try to keep mine under 3.5k for fuel mileage reasons but it's so hard to do it :P I filled up today for the first time in maybe 2 months.. $36 for less than 10 gallons, I guess I shouldn't complain though as it took my brother $64 for 3/4 of a tank of diesel for his 2500HD which gets worse MPG than I do most of the time.

 

Closing on $4.20/gal for 87oct out here; saw $4.17 just by my office today.

Went to the meet, only to have everyone get rousted by the police about 40 minutes later.

Yeah, a bunch of desperadoes, we were... the thing was CATERED!

105 miles, less than a third of a tank, cruising the freeways withthe windows down; I'd say the highway mileage on this new build is looking good.

 

I reattached the rear headliner with 4 count them 4 nylon screw in fasteners, spent $2.08, then reglued the headliner fabric back so I can now see something in the rear view mirror. Should be good for another 30 years

Hate to be a downer to all you nikki jet enlargers

 

Awesome

 

Sorted more wires....ugh.

 

I took Icy up to 7k today in 3rd. Only 110 miles on her. Don't say I abuse her.

The Beast has a radiator now with proper supports. Next up is figuring out some hoses and still gotta do an oil cooler, mounts, oil lines etc. So much other stuff to do. I'm looking forward to the fan wiring though. I like sorting wires.

 

Worked on making a mold of a piece of NLA trim, as I need a replacement one. 2nd pour of the mold failed, though - - bonded to the first piece, which it should not have, making it impossible to separate the mold. No idea why, as I used mold release. Maybe my release agent has gone old on me.

4 hours work and about $15 of materials down the drain. Oh, well, try again tomorrow.