Hey folks. I have returned from the poodle party/purgatory and am back to my regularly scheduled nonsense.

I spent the day at the shop dismantling the new engine to inspect everything and then pulling my 13b and then putting the 20b in so we can mock stuff up. So far, I need a center rotor bearing (this will be a fun/painful one to find as it is NLA!) and two housings need to be replaced. They could be used but I'd rather not. The rotors look a little rough but workable but so far I have found two of the three required s5 na rotors for under $300 each, so I am just going to try to find another in that price range.

The eccentric shaft looked to be in really good condition and the side plates didn't have anything going on with them other than water marks. They actually look better than they did in the pictures. I think they'll clean up nicely with some light lapping.

I used the xcessive manufacturing mounts. They seem to work fine except for the fact that one of the spacers was welded to the incorrect part of the arm, so it was corrected with an angle grinder just so we could get the engine in the car.

It also allowed us to pretty much push the engine and bellhousing as far back as it would go. We'll further dial it in later because it may be a little too far back because it now prevents access to the bellhousing bolts. We also seem to have enough space to clear the steering rack (by a hair) with a (currently hypothetical) 0.250" in thick dry sump plate, which is neat.

I also ended up going for a spin in a turbocharged 2.4l s2k that had a samsonas dog box. It was pretty wild. The transmission sounded like a box of rocks, but I suppose that adds to the experience.
I'm not sure how to insert photos anymore as they seem to have changed how it works so until I figure that out, I have attached them.

Thanks for reading

 

Hey guys.

A few new updates.
Two of the three NA rotors showed up but one of them was damaged in shipping (probably could have been packed with more material and a second larger box...), so I have another paperweight and now need to spend even more monies.

I did however find a 20b center main bearing and a 12a front cover, and the firewall is getting messed with and the engine is going to get shoved back to the extent that it might actually be maybe one or two inches aft of the 2 rotor.
This will allow the engine to sit behind the steering rack and move at least an inch down. (many thanks to big al and gtorx7 for the inspiration on their projects)

We will also be scanning the OE firewall so we can design a new one and have the same place that did the tube bending for the roll cage.

Photo of newly acquired doorstop for funsies. If Ray quotes me a price low enough under MSRP I might just get new ones and try to sell more stuff to offset it.

 

Hi all. Got the 12a front cover so I will be heading down to the shop tomorrow to go see just how far back this engine can go.

I wasn't exactly planning on addressing the clutch situation at this point and time as it really wasn't necessary but it was the right price. I found an unused Tilton OT-V 4.5" carbon/carbon 4 plate clutch on Ebay for $600 (instead of $6000) and an assortment of pressure rings for $50. It was cheaper than buying a used 7.25" or 5.5" assembly and replacing the discs and resurfacing/replacing the floater plates and I am speculating with my infinite wisdom that it might be a little less obnoxious than any of the metallic offerings. I only say this because I ran the numbers with how much torque I might have with this new engine setup pulling off and I think that number is somewhere around 120-150 ft lbs. Multiply that with a 4.88 final drive and a 1.955 first gear and we get 1144.85-1431 ft lbs at the driven wheels compared to my previous one making 1086 ft lbs with maybe 80 ft lbs with a 3.9 final drive and a 3.483 first gear.

I am looking at the 4.5" endurance race flywheel that Mazdatrix offers. It weighs 5.5 lbs so with that and the clutch assembly at 3.8 lbs plus whatever the counterweight is I should probably be at around 11 lbs. Apparently these are rated and tested to 920 ft lbs which is more than I'll ever need and the only reason I went with this diameter was because all of the used 5.5 carbon/carbon assemblies available were more than I wanted to spend.

The technical documentation has warned about over stroking the diaphragm spring so I will probably be using a smaller master cylinder bore in addition to a pedal stop.




Thanks for reading!

 

im running the 5.5” on my RX8 race car. Very fast revving but difficult to modulate. Engages very positively.

 

All sintered clutch disks are a PITA to modulate, IMO.

 

Hey folks,
Was at the shop on Wednesday and we took an angle grinder to the firewall and front of the trans tunnel. I think there will be a bit more trimming to give access to the bellhousing bolts when the new sheet metal goes over it, and I suspect that the same will need to be done with the area of the firewall below the identification number to fit the airbox and/or whatever I end up doing.

The (currently imaginary) exhaust header might fit as it is. If it isn't, it will be mitigated with the almighty angle grinder. The other neat thing is that I now have more space for the radiator, oil cooler, water pump (the cw400a looks nice) and oil to water cooling stuff.



The dry sump plate will be 0.250", so I am thinking that the engine will have to go up at least 0.500" from where it currently is.


If anyone asks, I am going to tell them that this is a two rotor.

Thanks for reading. I am currently trying to accept the fact that I have to go back to school on the 25th...

 

if you're looking for ideas, about the trans tunnel/firewall and how to get to things.
an a Triumph Tr2/3/ and maybe 4, the transmission actually comes out the top, and to do that they made the transmission tunnel a bolt in.
maybe you want something like that?

 

Man, that 20b is tucked back nicely!
Keep up the good work.

 

Hey guys, I figured that you all might get a kick out of this.
Today I was up near State College picking up a diesel generator for the new poodle van.


I would have much preferred the F350 for this and/or the trailer, but the (dog) van was what was given to me. Thank goodness for forklifts.

On the way back I took 15 south and in the opposite direction of travel, I saw something that looked like an FD on the back of a trailer. Not just any FD, but one with a carbon hood and headlight covers with a yellow license plate. I thought to myself, "I think I've seen that one before". Then I realized that it was probably Ptrhahn, so I gave him a call and sure enough it was. We pulled off at a parking area and he gave me the rundown on everything, and he showed me the new updates he had done to the car. This was the last place I thought I'd run into him, but I am not complaining.



It's even prettier in person!

 

Great seeing you Simon!

Let's do it at the track next time!

P

 

Hey all, have a few updates.
I ended up ordering 3 rotor housings from Amayama, so those should get to the shop later this month. We sort of need them to mock up the airbox given that the intake will be going through them instead of the side plates, and it didn't really make sense to spend money getting used housings modified.

I also finally settled on a location for the oil tank. It will go near where the passenger side strut tower is. I found a used 22"x6" tank from a sprint car that should fit fine (we measured), but if it doesn't we'll just shorten it accordingly. $180 beats the $800+ that they go for new (that I would probably still end up having to modify). I think with these dimensions it should hold somewhere between 2-2.5 gallons of oil. It should arrive in a couple days.

Because no one asked, the reason the tank is going into the engine bay is because there were three other ways to this and they were all super annoying and a PITA to varying degrees.

1. Put it in the passenger footwell- I would have wanted an enclosure for this and I have no idea how you're supposed to access it to fill with a dashboard in place without it being a miserable experience.
2. putting it in the trunk could have worked, but I didn't want to have to fab a firewall going across the back.
3. Behind the seats where the storage bins used to be. This would also need an enclosure and would also very likely be an annoying experience to fill or remove because of all of the tubing in that area.

I know there are some who can and do stick oil tanks in the passenger compartment without enclosures, but after heating up a cup of macaroni and cheese and subsequently dropping it while removing it from the microwave and having the stuff fall on my hand a face and burning them pretty good, I have decided to no longer mess around with hot liquids...

For those (not) wondering, most of the macaroni and cheese was able to be saved that day. In other news, after being here for years, I just found out that my school has an FSAE team. The guy who runs chassis development and fabrication was cool, so I'll be doing that too.

 

Nice update. A friend of mine put the oil tank in the passenger side like you mentioned but made the fill through the firewall and it was sealed off from the driver on the inside. Totally different car though with a lot more space (69 Camaro.) On a side note, my son was just accepted to the FSAE team this week down here at UCF. Looks like a great program for our future professionals. I wish I would have had those types of opportunities at that age.

 

Very interested to see pics of where you mount the tank. I am struggling to find a good spot. I am likely going to end up with a tank made to fit between the spark plugs and driver side tower.

 

Hey all, was back at the shop today dropping off parts and was able to start mocking things up in the engine bay.
I initially thought that the oil tank was going to be too tall and was going to have to be shortened, but there's a recessed area in the subframe that locates it right where I want it and will retain the original height. I can even undo the drain plug from the bottom! (I think I should safety wire this...) This will require the engine to have to go back a little farther to get the exhaust manifold away from the tank by an appreciable distance. The top section of the tank can be clocked so we will do that after it gets taken apart to add baffles.




We also placed the radiator about where we wanted it, though I do want to have it sit at a little less of an angle. The area where the hood latch and sheet metal behind the bumper support will fall victim to the angle grinder so that we can place an air intake going to a plenum, much like as was seen on the #25 lucky 7 third gen seen below (the fabricator says he could do it without too much pain and suffering). The hood will be kept on with the hood pins found on the Porsche cup stuff. I think all the stuff required for the hood might cost me $70. All the extra space should be more than enough for the oil pump (I actually found a 3 stage weaver bros pump for $127 the other day, the only catch was that it was seized up but used to turn (it had been in storage) so that's getting disassembled as soon as it shows up and barring everything being welded together, I could still fix this for less than how much they tend to go for used these days), a CWA400 water pump and hood exit ducting.



I need to do more thinking and reading up on oil cooler placement, but I do like how it will be centrally mounted, just unsure of what extent its placement will affect its functioning and packaging (especially with a fan) I'll use the area where the dual oil cooler configuration to package an electric power steering pump from a Volvo, and maybe a remote reservoir for it.

You all might also get a kick out of this. This radiator uses -20 lines and fittings. PTFE lines in this size are (horrendously expensive) at about $170/foot. We aren't going to need that much, but we are of the opinion that it would be more cost effective to just make hardlines! (and I found out that the FSAE car has a new Nexus R3 that the school paid for today...)

@TwinCharged RX7 , I think you're right. That is probably the only place I'd try to put it on a car retaining everything.

 

Hey all. The rotor housings should get here as soon as I figure out why Fedex thinks they have the wrong address. I am otherwise pleasantly surprised that they weren't held up at customs or anything like that.

I also got put on the tig torch at school today so we can learn this new process for the FSAE chassis. I did 0.065" plate and square tubing. After talking to someone who quite literally does this every day, it seems that my problem is that we only have one size of filler rod (and it's a little too thick for the thickness of what I'm welding) and I should probably use a little more argon. I know they're a little hot because I had to wait for the arc to melt the rod and then it would immediately cool down and I'd have to wait again for it to heat up, all while I see the workpiece turning some really bright colors through lense of the welding hood. It was suggested that I just swipe the wire out of the mig machine and see if it works any better. I did manage to give myself some very mild arc flash-related irritation on my wrist when the cuff of my glove slid up. Won't be doing that again!

I don't think it's that bad of a first attempt for tig with the stuff I was using, but you all should consider giving your fabricators a hug next time you see them. I also found out that we have a (huge) machine shop and inherited a lot of the old stuff that the Air Force left when the school was built on the old base. I'll see if I can get some pictures next time I'm in there. I think if I ask nicely, I might be able to get away with making rx-7 parts in there when we're not working on FSAE stuff.

 

I got the housings sorted today. I forgot to add the unit number to the shop so Fedex couldn't deliver them and I couldn't change it, nor could I reach anyone to do so. Amayama actually ended up changing it as I was headed down to pick them up from the Walgreens down the street that I had had them sent to instead.

While I was down there, I brough the new to me dry sump pump that I got off of ebay for $127. I was planning on just using it for parts since it was advertised as having rust in it and being seized but spinning at one point in time. I was able to get it apart today and it cleaned up much nicer than I thought it would with mineral spirits, a wire brush for the gears, and lots of tears. I want to go over them again later but I ran out of time in the shop. I should see if we have a parts washer in the shop at school that I could commandeer. I'll still need to replace a few things like o rings and a few fasteners, but nothing too bad. Beats paying $400-500 used or $1000 new.

 

Hey folks. been away for a while.

I made some revisions to my initial plan regarding the placement of the radiator and oil cooler. They will now be oriented perpendicular to the subframe/undertray area instead of at an angle because it will make it easier to package my air filter (it will be housed in the radiator ducting to simplify the fabrication of the intake plenum) and allow for more space for other things in the engine bay (electric water pump, among others). I have also procured another 3 stage oil pump that I will be replacing some of the fittings from the original one with because it was way cheaper than buying them new.

I also received photos of the rotor housings which should arrive back next week. The plan is to pull the engine/transmission and put them on so an intake plenum for the slide throttle assembly can be made (whenever it shows up, that is).

I was browsing on facebook the other day and found out that Roger Mandeville's old GTO car is for sale, by Jim Downing of all people. (for the small sum of $155,000) One of you should buy it. (The FC bodied IMSA cars are growing on me. Maybe one day)
Here are some photos from a magazine I got recently.

 

Hey folks. Have another small update for you all. The slide throttle assembly made it to the shop today, which was neat. Because of how heavy the return spring and the plate is (I'm told it is somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" from eyeballing it), might strip the plastic gears on the bosch throttle actuators unless someone makes brass gears for them, so now I'm considering moving back to a cable. I'll do a little more digging and we'll see.

The top- we'll be printing the velocity stacks (and testing different lengths).

The bottom- included is a flange to weld the intake runners to.


The 8.8 differential also went in today. Still need to put an lsd in it (thinking Eaton truetrac because I wouldn't know where to start with setting up nor do I want to pay for an OS-Giken) and a much shorter ring and pinion than the stock 3.73. I am thinking of starting with a 4.56.

I was initially planning on painting the differential case, but it might not be necessary. Might just be a case of vapor blasting it and leaving it alone. The new mounting brackets and the subframe are definitely going to be repainted, however.


That's all for now!