David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Thanks for the thoughts and glad you are progressing on your car. I'm feeling quite certain now that a happy ending is in store for me very soon. I've been down to Kilo twice now in the last few weeks and things are progressing very well. All the parts needed to get the car back in operation have arrived and Jesus is working on the car. He's taking off all of the electrical components that are not absolutely needed and we're taking an approach of simple is better.

Last time down I spent some time discussing the downpipe and manifold situation. The old downpipe:


The old manifold flange:


Any guesses why I had uncontrollable boost creep? Besides what looks like poor welding, there is absolutely no way boost can be controlled with this setup. No way air can flow IMO. Curiously, the flange for the downpipe starts out as 3.5 inches, goes to a 4 inch pipe for the ecutout, but is only 3.5 inches the rest of the way. The manifold flange is just as bad. It's welded on at a 90 degree angle to one runner only. Would have been nice to know this when Gotham rewelded the wastegate flange. And to think that Don from Gotham charged me over $1,000 for this mess.

So, the solution is to redo and simplify the downpipe. It will be a straight 3.5 inch SS unit and we're going to externally vent the new 50mm Synapse wastegate. The wastegate manifold flange is being redone so it will use a minimum of two runners and the pipe will follow the angle of the runners as opposed to coming out at a 90 degree angle. After speaking to Jesus and Abel about this, I think the new setup will handle boost very well.

I was going to use an HKS 60mm wastegate that Alex from Gotham had offered to supply but he has gone MIA on me. Turned his phone off and he's not answering any texts from Rich for me. I'll save this for another post, but I will add my thoughts to the state of my car, how much I paid Gotham, and the responsibility of the shop for the condition of my car, which by the way, is not good. Steve has stepped up and has provided some of the new parts required for the rebuild and we have an arrangement for the rest of the job, but it is apparent Alex will not.

Regarding the rest of the rebuild, Jesus spent some time removing a lot of the wiring no longer needed. He did note to me the wiring was not soldered and that many of the crimps were not correct. I think we now know where my electrical issues started.

I'll post more later and I am soon going to list for sale many of the items from the car including:

- NRS gray 3mm one piece ceramic seals (set of 7)
- Jacobs Accuvolt unit
- DMH 4 inch ecutout
- GM 250 amp alternator
- MSD DIS 4 ignition boxes

Will probably also sell my Haltech e11 v2 EMS as soon as Jesus proves to me the Microtech unit will work and give me OEM drivability.

If you want any of the above, pm me or I'll soon put them up in the for sale section.

Happy Holidays to all!

20B-Power

iTrader: (1)

Your almost there... Happy Holidays...

RCCAZ 1

iTrader: (10)

Good luck David, and Happy Holidays! Hopefully you'll be able to drive her to the '09 Masters this spring, huh? Take care...

fdracer

then we can call david's car lazarus.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Could be. I have a very good "in" for tickets so we'll see how that pans out. Trying to get my Army buddy in this year - the guy that set up last year's tickets but then got called to Afghanistan.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

I've said this in jest a few times to Jesus and I don't think he gets it.

HDP

iTrader: (2)

Hey David, I'm still in need of an alternator... remember the one I attempted to purchase from you? What is needed to hook the GM one up to the stock wiring? Any major changes needed? BTW, I still have that old alternator out in my garden shed gathering dust.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Yep, who knew UPS could crack the case on an alternator? I think I've been thru 4 or 5 alternators since then, only to find out the original one would have been fine.

Regarding the GM unit I have and as far as I know, nothing changes on the wiring and the alternator has its own brace. It would need an additional back brace IMO to eliminate any chance of flexing at high RPMs. I'll take some pics of the unit over the next few days and post them up. It is polished so it would add some bling to your engine bay.

2007 ZX-10

sounds like Gotham were just plain over their head with this car and now they're running for cover with your money...no wonder they're out of business, they never impressed me

weaklink

on the contrary, I would cross those seals off my wish list.

thewird

iTrader: (8)

Um?

thewird

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

welds look clean imho in this pic actually, but i agree it's a bad design. are you thinking of remaking your manifold as well? best would be 3-1 then have wg flange right before the turbo in the same direction as the turbo. btw, i've seen wg welded onto one runner before and they seem to hold up fine on a 500rwhp+ 20b rx8. remember you can always add another wg to another runner or at a better location if you think you need the extra flow. only downfall would be that this would be a step away from your simple=better concept which i agree with entirely.

if it isn' too cold, i'd be in garage right now, but i'm enjoying the christmas marathons on tv currently haha

happy holydays!

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

NRS ceramics are top notch. Why do you say this?

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Staying with the same manifold, but we'll use at least two of the runners for the wastegate and we'll put a proper angle on it. The flow will be much better. The welding is not a problem but the design is. This is what I was referring to.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Didn't know that Gordon. Glad to hear it as I think you are as **** as I am when it comes to drivability. I mean that in a good way

DDuckMan

Probably good advice.

This project reminds me of what I learned from a recent project I took on myself and also from having my latest home built.

People generally have a hard time maintaining focus on a project for more than 6 months or so. While I struggled to not cut corners on my own project when it stretched from a planned 3 months out to 9 months, the desire to "just get it done" is usually overwhelming if it is done for someone else. Money is not the key issue here, although there is a lot of pressure to keep things moving in a business. With my home, the workmanship definitely trailed off in the last 3 months. My builder told me flattly that he has a very hard time keeping the crew focused on a project after 6-9 months.

For a project like this, it appears there is too much work and too many variables for one small shop to complete it properly. Either you need to find a shop that has already built many just like you want it, or you need to manage the project yourself. That would probably mean assigning portions of the job to different guys/shops.

As the work of Gotham and Pettit is evaluated, I think some of the problems may be due to the fatigue factor rather than skill. I am curious what you think David?

Kilito Racing

Aha! David, this is one long thread. I had to get on this. Your car is known world wide! With that said... I believe when its done, you should let your father in law drive it home! I'm kidding. You two are cool people, Merry Christmas!

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

Yes, you can grow old reading the thread! It's up to your father now. My father in law wants to come pick up the car but I think I'll keep him in the passenger's seat

warwickben

iTrader: (1)

i cant believe those welds, they where welding way to fast. see how they look like v's there should look more like half moons.

iam a welder by trade.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

I've had a few inquiries about the NRS ceramic seals. I have 7 seals (good for a 13B plus one extra!). The seals are one piece 3mm ones and are of the gray (premium) material.

Here are two shots of the seals, one of each side:





The seals have less than 1,500 miles on them so they are in great shape. All I did to clean them up a bit was to spray them with some carb cleaner so I am sure you can get them much cleaner than I.

I'll post an official FS thread later today but I'm asking $800 for the set. New, they are $1,195 for a set of 6 from Sven (http://members.shaw.ca/nrsrotorsports/price.html).

If I could get Jesus to agree, I would keep these on the car but he is stuck on the brand he always uses so that's how I am going.

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

You hit the nail on the head, but you might also consider the financial aspect of all of this. As I'm sure we all have learned, it takes consistent revenues to keep a shop afloat and time consuming projects, while potentially lucrative for a shop owner, requires a shop to carefully delegate its workload to steadily move towards the light at the end of the tunnel while bringing in enough quickie jobs to keep the shop afloat.

I've been on both sides of this ball (both as a technician, and as a customer waiting over 3 yrs for a shop in Indiana to deliver what amounted to an unacceptable car that I parted out immediately). I don't speak for David, but I realize now that as a paying customer I failed to provide the proper incentives and direction. I kept changing my mind about my power goals and most everything else had to change in tandem to get there, which resulted in a lot of wasted man hours and frustration as I pushed the shop to keep this project moving.

Eventually I realized that the shop couldn't afford to dedicate man hours to my project unless I was providing lump-sum payment along the way, so I was a nice guy and sent a couple thousand dollars once in a while; still nothing got done because the right incentives and direction were still not in place. Lesson learned: throwing money at a problem MIGHT result in increased build quality, but it does not necessarily affect the duration of the project.

As is always the case with custom homes and cars, plans evolve on the fly (usually due to the customer changing his mind and/or incomplete planning resulting in flawed designs) and man hours get wasted, things get redone and workers get fatigued and frustrated with the never-ending cycle of changes and lack of concrete direction. PLAN PLAN PLAN is the key, and it is the consumer's duty to resist technological temptation and sales pitches to keep the plan on track.

To draw a psychological parallel, it is natural to sprint toward a finish line that is in sight, but less natural when the finish line that is 2000 miles away; especially when you don't have a solid map.

I agree with the club member above that, from an economic standpoint, it makes the most sense to break a project into short-term sub-components (or sprints), each of which is payable at its completion leading up to a final payment when the finished product is delivered. But having said that, I disagree that the work needs to be given to several shops, I think with a concrete plan and graduating payment structure, enough direction and economic incentive will be in place to get the project knocked out.

I suspect, it is not Jesus' talent or character that makes him able to presumably complete David's project, but his ability to formulate a concrete plan and stick with it. Moreover, it is David's willingness, as a result of lessons learned, to resist the temptation to modify the plan once initiated.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

HDP, here are some pics of the 200 AMP alternator. It's labeled on my invoice as a "Gotham 200 AMP alternator". Pretty sure it's custom and it is a GM unit. Or at least that is what I remember Alex from Gotham telling me. I was charged $500 (ouch) for the unit and $65 for the polishing:






The polishing can use some touching up but it is in pretty good shape. Was on the car for about 1 year or so and probably has less than 2,500 miles on it. The brace is custom made for the FD and as I said earlier, I would make another brace to support the lower back of the unit to keep it stable at high RPMs.

If you are not interested, I'll put it up for sale on the forum. Am thinking about $300.

weaklink

..... nevermind

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

The NRS ceramic seals are now up for sale for $800 for 7 seals:

https://www.rx7club.com/race-parts-only-228/fs-nrs-ceramic-seals-809233/

G's 3rd Gen

iTrader: (11)

David. It took me some convincing to swtich from PFC to Microtech. I am glad I did. Even w/ 550 primaries and 1600 secondaries the car drives great.Almost 4 years and have not had a glitch.