Feel free to do some work on my car while you're there.

 

Well, it's off to Gotham in an hour or so. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

Hoping for some good news.

 

UPDATE:

So it's been a few months since i've posted here regarding the conversion. As you probably know from reading the thread, I almost got the car back a few months ago except for that ill-fated run in with the Nutria rat down in New Orleans.

Well, Gotham Racing took about a month to repair the damage caused by the rat. Alex called me to tell me they were done and ready to do a final dyno pull on the car. Said they were going to change the oil one last time and then they'd do the pull and call me. A few hours later Alex called and I eagerly waited for him to tell me the final HP result. Was it 600? 700 or more?

Unfortunately none of the above. Never heard Alex sound so down when he told me they didn't even get to the dyno run because they found brass metal shavings in the oil. Uh oh, we all know this is not good.

Soooo....the only course of action at this time was to pull out and inspect the engine. George (new Gotham mechanic and tuner extraordinaire) and Alex did this and inspected the engine and documented why the engine was failing. They concluded I had at the most 1,000 left before the engine blew up. It's actually a good thing I didn't get the car back in New Orleans as it probably would have blown on the way home to FL.

Gotham documented the numerous issues with the engine and I spent a lot of time on the phone with Cam from Pettit Racing, the original engine builder. Short story, Cam agreed to provide a pile of parts for the rebuild, including a new thick center plate, new rotor housings, a beautiful e-shaft (now in the proud hands of HWND), and a set of NRS ceramic seals.

So, a new Pheonix is rising from the ashes!

We've been working away on a new plan of action for the past few months and have decided to go all out with the rebuild. Because the thick center plate and rotor housings (13Bs) are new, we matched these with a brand new e shaft from Japan2LA. We then sent the rotating assembly to Carlos Lopez from CLR Motorsports in Miami to have it dynamically balanced. Carlos is definately the man and one of the most knowlegdable rotary guys around. With his good work, I now have an assembly balanced to less than one gram.

Gotham has prepped and expertly street-ported the new parts and has performed the center oil modification and we're waiting on getting them back from the CNC machine shop where they're being drilled and tapped for the Xtreme Rotaries stud kit. We're going to pick these up Monday evening and the plan is to then to reassemble the engine and reinstall it sometime on Tuesday and hopefull fire it up then. We're using all new parts for the rebuild, including competition racing bearings. We've also swapped out my oil coolers (let me know if you have any interest in the old setup but you'd have to flush them out thoroughly because of the metal shavings) for the Gotham dual setup, and are installing a new Carbenetics triple disc clutch with an 1100 pressure plate while we're at it.

I'm taking tons of pics and will update then as soon as I can find my USB cable (think I left it at home but I'll buy another one). I've been here at Gotham since Thursday afternoon and have spent the time helping (or getting in the way) to prep the car, including cleaning out and repainting the engine bay.

So, that's it for now. I'll keep you posted!

FYI - has anyone done a V-mount setup in a 20B FD conversion? We've pretty much decided to do this for maximum air flow but I'd like to know if someone else has done this. If we go this route (90% sure we will) then my entire current setup (Pettit 20B intercooler and piping, Tial 50mm blow-off valve, AC condenser and push fans, and Pettit Nascar radiator with new Gotham Racing fans) will be up for sale as a drop in unit for someone.

 

Wow... and I thought my FDs pushed my patience level. Best of luck with everything!

I've seen 20b conversions with V-mounts and they seem to work quite well. I'm sure it cools better than a front mount. If you're doing to track the car you'll probably want to go V-mount. Otherwise, you're probably just fine with the FMIC setup.

 

David, wow! That's pretty much all I can say, I was sure you'd be driving the car home by now.

Anyway, why would you ditch the Tial BOV and fans to go Vmount? You could re-use both of them since they're nice peices. I don't think that after all this work you would be happy using anything but Tial for your BOV option

 

Good luck David. For me, I'd rather be driving around in an Aston though.

 

Wow, where did the brass shavings come from?

 

WOW!! I am glad they got the shavings. Better be safe than sorry. David, keep your head up. You sound good, not down, so yeah, keep at it.

Any estimates as to how long?

 

For the money he could have.

Good luck David. You have the patience of God himself. And the pockets of Donald Trump.

 

Jesus! My eyes hurt from reading this whole thread!

Good luck!

 

David, Turbo magazine did an article on the RE Amemiya 20B car within the last yaer. It looked like, don't quote me on this that Greddy had a complete V Mount isetup or maybe it was a RE custom one off. It's worth a shot investigating what they used though. It was the cleanest 20B setup I'd ever seen.

Best of luck to you

 

Greddy did a one-off for the RE Amemiya car. It's not for sale.

 

^Yes, saw the Greddy RE Ameniya one - it was a one-off done just for RE. I'm rethinking this today. Will probably just stick with what I have to finish up the job and research the v-mount idea for another project, that's if I can take it in the future

To answer HDPs question, the metal shavings were from the center bearing.

Regarding being upbeat, yes I am as there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Outside of the irons and housings at the CNC shop, all other parts are here and have been inventoried. I have a good shot of these lined up on a table ready to go.

 

Soooooo, with the engine rebuild, eventually ditching the FMIC and Pettit radiator,
the major part of what Pettit did, and charged for, is for naught.

David, you are the most civil individual who ever lived. How you do not unload on those who have worked on this car?

 

Let me answer it this way - I'm extremely pleased with the work being performed by Gotham Racing and I'm excited to be close to finishing the job. I'll have a top-notch engine purpose built and tuned by Gotham. Then I'll finally get to enojy the car.

 

Wow! David glad everything is finally working out with your car, maybe next year you can make DGRR 08'

 

Seems like these dream "supercars" never seem to get finished. Look at Jimlab and Autoillusions. Same story.

Why the whole "off to gotham in an hour keep your fingers crossed" business when you knew there was nothing to report?

 

I definately plan on being there - finally!

 

Did you read my previous post about being at Gotham for the engine rebuild and reinstall? Sorry to disappoint you, but I thought this was pretty big.

FYI - the CNC machine shop has delayed getting the irons and housings back to today so this will be the day everything comes back together on the car.

 

Awesome, witnessing the birth. Best of luck...no...I wish you sucess with this project, you deserve it man.

 

David, you must have the patience of Job, and the resources of Midas. I really wish you the best of luck. How many "cycles" of death and rebirth can you go through? How many times can you rise from the ashes? I did read your post, and what I read is "the car is back at gotham for a rebuild". So yeah, I am a little disappointed, and I don't see how you can't be.

I really would like to see one of these supercars finished. I salute you for your perseverance, but it really kills any initiative I can muster to get the ball rolling on my own project. Instead of a shining example it's an ominous omen. I guess somewhere along the way I became a "glass half empty" kind of guy. I'm glad you're still a "glass half full" fellow. Cheers and best wishes.

 

^Weaklink,

It has been a very trying process. The root problem as it turns out was the original engine. I'm happy the car never left Gotham or I'd be up sh$$ creek.

The good news is I've known this for about 3 months and George at Gotham and I have been planning the "rebirth" ever since. The engine will now be built the correct way - it costs more but it will finally be worth it.

So this week is all about putting it back together and seeing it fire up again for the first time. This will happen over the next few days. I'm now here in Dallas thru Saturday as the machine shop doing the stud kit work keeps delaying returning the irons and housings to Gotham. They're real good but it's killing me. The latest is they've finished 2/3 of the job and expect, worst case, to have everything tomorrow, on Wednesday. The engine will be reassembled on Thursday and we'll fire it up on Friday.

Today I sort of helped George install the Carbonetics triple clutch (with 1100 pressure plate) and the Gotham dual oil coolers so we're all caught up now on prep work. Just need the irons and housings back and it will be full steam ahead.

Speaking of that, I want to give props to Gotham Racing. They diagnosed the original engine failure prior to it blowing up and have been fantastic lining up everything for the rebuild. Major props to George for his technical expertise and his unbelievable work ethic. The guy literally works 20 hours a day. Props to Alex also for keeping everything on track.

And while I'm at it, much thanks to Carlos Lopez at CLR Motorsports in Miami for the great balancing job on the rotating assembly. Carlos is a wealth of information and is truly an expert in the rotary field. I'm looking forward to driving a very well-balanced engine/car.

Still don't have the USB cable to download pics from the camera but I'll get this tomorrow and start posting up pics.

 

Get those pics up. Looking forward to even better news in the next few days.

 

Why did you choose new housings? It has been a while since I have read thru this entire thread but I thoughty they had somewhere around 2-3k miles on them tops? Just curious?