TURSTY

Sorry bud, totaly forgot about that.

This is the kit I got:
http://www.d2racing.co.nz/index.php?...&product_id=92

Its bassicly just in line in the pipe to the rear brakes and has a valve that blocks pressure going to the front when you lift the hand brake. All it does is locks on the rear calipers. The reason I used this is because the rear calipers I brought dont have a handbrake mech so this was my only option.

Instead of using their leaver, I just make a mount for the master cylinder and adapted the factory hand brake leaver to push the piston so it all looks bone stock from a glance.

Keep in mind that because this is hydrolic, you cant use it on a street car. It looses pressure over time so you have to chock the wheels whenever the car is left anywhere. Its totaly useless for parking on a hill.

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

^^^

Thanks. That's unfortunate. Why does it lose pressure and/or not work on a hill?

TURSTY

its because its hydrolic and not mechanical. Same way if you sat in your car with your foot on the brake pedal for an hour or two it would slowly loose pressure and you would eventully end up with your foot on the floor.

Its because the fluid can very slowly bleed past the piston in the master cylinder. Its just this reason that its not good on a hill. You would park your car. It would hold fine initialy, but say half an hour later, you car would be down the bottom of the hill haha.

They are only really designed for motorsport (drifting and rally etc) where you need a good solid way to lock the rears for a short period.

Being that my car is a race car, it doesnt get a lot of use on the road and is usually up on stands so I dont really need a handbrake.

TURSTY

Well its been a while since I updated this, and a lot has happened. Not much for the best unfortunitly.

Some friends and I hired out a track for a day and the weather turned to crap on us. The track was like a swimming pool so i never got much of a change to bed the brakes in or test the new tyres.....had some sideways fun tho.

The next track day was a stunning day. I was all geared up and left home. The night before I had swapped out my short shifter for a standard shifter to try and make gear changes a little more precise. On the way to the track..... new shifter I wasnt used to + high boost + crappy 4th to 5th change = no 5th or reverse gear .

Ahr well, can still race without 5th. Got out on the track for a warm up and all was going really well. The car was MUCH faster around corners and stopping like it never has. Got out on the track for my first hot lap.....car going really well and pulling lots more Gs around corners with the semi slicks.

Got half way around the track and 3rd to 4th = no power. .......back to the pit, and no compression on the rear rotor .

Pulled the motor down and the thing was full of what looks like metal grit! Motor had lost a tiny part of the apex seal and killed everything. Housing, plates, rotor, turbo...toast.....AGAIN!!! You could see where the grit had entered the ports and been dragged around by the rotor.

Did a bit of a biopsy and found this grit all through the intake....INCLUDING pre intercooler and in the turbo!!!

So it looks like the expencive TRUST air filter I had on it was TOTALY crap and didnt filter out what must have been grit either from all the building works going on at our house, or left grinding dust in the engine bay that I must have missed when I cleaned it.

So next steps are find a new housing, mill the rotors to 3mm, grind the plates flat, get the turbo fixed and put the motor back together/run in/tune.

I pulled the gearbox apart last night and its damaged 5th syncro hub, twisted the spline on the layshaft and killed the front thrust bearing on the layshaft.....where did I put my spare gearbox haha.

Will update when I get my A into G and get this thing going again.....hopefully before xmas!

TURSTY

So 4 months later and the car is finally back at Pulse Performance getting motor number 3!

While it was off the road, I pulled the box out and completly rebuilt it. Replaced nearly every syncro and one of the hubs, all bearings and shimmed it all to spec. So the motor and gearbox will be new.

I'll post up the results in a few weeks once its tuned and run in. Wish me luck =P

Azwethinkweiz

I've been looking at possibly getting an fd for about 2 years... its these sorts of stories that make me really want one and at the same time make me reluctant to buy. Such a small detail can completely destroy all that effort and money you put into it. But I suppose that comes with the territory when dealing with high performance automobiles and such... and I'm sure the joy you get building it and using it when it is working is enough of a reward.

But seriously that looks like an amazing car, mad props for you and people who can do stuff like this O.O

TURSTY

haha yeah I keep trying to tell myself that if that happened to a 2JZ or a RB motor the same thing would happen...or at least the bores would get damaged enough to wreck the rings or something.

But yeah, the down side of rotaries is that when they go, they take EVERYTHING with them =(.

TURSTY

So the car is back and had it at a local superlap comp in NZ and took second place in the Pro Street class with a local pro driving behind the wheel (he offered to drive and to be getting feedback about the car was something I couldnt say no to).

The motor made a healthy 346kw atw on our 98ron pump gas and 17psi of boost.

The brakes and tyres made a WORLD of difference but we did find a few little issues.

-The breather setup on the car doesnt work. Its still filling the catchcan after about 4-5 hard laps. Will need to look into this
-The suspension is CRAP - Replace
-The shatter blanket was too close to the exhaust and .......caught fire lol. Ripped that off, but will need to look into how to replace it.
-Heat is starting to cause damage to things like the clutch master cylinder, so will need to make a nice heat tunnel around the exhaust to get the heat under the car

Stay tuned for dyno plot, some links to vids on the track and more upgrades to the car. YAY for being back on the track though =D

TURSTY

Vid of me testing on Firday. Taken with a little keyring "spy camera" we got for about $16 each, taped to the bottom of the bumper =P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVXgK_hdlFQ

t2terror

iTrader: (2)

Wow, great build man. God I love the sound of a T51r ;-)

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

Makes me smile too.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

HKS T51r... has to be the best sounding turbo ever built.. IMO

TURSTY

Couple vids of Earl Bamber driving it to second place in Pro street class in Superlap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGf4mWe2r0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1acIOObHPBE

Yarberry

dude, ebrake idea was awesome!

have a s13 coupe i use for drifting, will deffinatly be stealing that idea lol.

TURSTY

Couple of in car vids of the above two superlaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nN31ze131E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKOk2-XJ_s

TURSTY

Man it just never ends with this car! >

Went to move the car on Saturday from home to my lockup. This was the frst time it has been started since superlap a couple weeks ago where it ran like a dream.

Drove it down the road and noticed absolutly no noise from the turbo....whch is weird for this car. Pulled over and took the filter off. Sure enough, the turbo wasnt spinning.
Shut it down and checked all the V bands to make sure none were loose...all ok. Tried to move the shaft and it litterly only took the touch of a fingertip and it started moving. Spun it a few times and it was sweet. Started it up....it spun fine as it should. Bit weird. Drove it up to my lockup and it was going fine.

When I got there, I checked it again. My brother forgot his keys for his car which we were swapping with so he had to go back and get them. The car sat outside and cooled right down by the time he was back. Put the car away and checked the turbo again...still spinning freely like it should.

Got to my lockup at 6am yesterday morning to go up to the track, and the turbo was seized solid. I cant move it at all. Not up, down, or spin it. Its stuck.

I removed the comp cover...not touching that anywhere...still stuck. Pulled the down pipe off and stuck a toutch in there. The exhaust wheel has nicks in it that look SERIOUSLY like it did when the last motor died and an apex seal hit it, and this turbo apparently had the exhaust wheel replaced by Turbochargers NZ......hmmmmm maybe not!

The motor is running fine, so no, it hasnt lost another seal.

Im going to pull the turbo off and see if its hitting the exhaust housing or if the bearings have seized. If they have I will check the oil feed etc...If not, then it will be going back to have the work I paid for, ACTUALLY completed!! More to come when the turbo it off =(

Anyone want a PIECE OF **** rx7?

TURSTY

I honestly cant believe my luck with this car.

Pulled the turbo off tonight and found the issue.

Exhaust manifold has hole where the two runners were welded together about the size of a golf ball. The turbo is TOTALY fcuked......again.

And that huge piece of metal was stuck in the exhaust housing.....awesome!!

The maifold was about the last part of the car that was installed/built by RE sinclair.....EVERYTHING they did has now failed. Diff, motor, welding on the intercooler was full of holes, wireing was complete crap and now their manifold has taken out turbo number 3 Wicked workshop that is. Thank god thats the last of the parts they put on.

So now I have to think about what to do from here. Do I keep throwing money down the drain, or do I sell up and buy a boat?

thetastelingers

iTrader: (1)

Time for you to visit http://www.norotors.com/index.php

Enervation

Mate you've come so far, and you're so damn close. Just looking at those superlap videos makes me want to start a track car project I say stick with it, boats are overrated :P

On another note, I think I shall be steering well clear of RE Sinclair from now on, thanks for the heads up.

JTFD

Incredible FD, Would love a track car like that, but I do love my FC track car. I say stick with it!

sidewaaays

Hey, i am building a setup simliar to yours. is this any advice , apart from NOT going to RE sinclair, stuggling with the A/R specs with the T51r Spl. (eg. A/R 1.00 or 1.22) in your car what have you done? watched several track videos, and power comes on well, and early, which is what im looking for.

Cheers.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

god.... what a nightmare brotha. I've followed your build since the beginning... At this point you should just comepletely replace everything they've come in contact with. But I would go and take that manifold back to them and ask them WTF... or possibly throw it through the front window?

TURSTY

PM sent


Im liking that idea!!

I think ill leave it in storage for the winter and go snowboarding. Our summers are crap enough that half the track days are wet, so wouldnt get many dry days out of it during the winter anyway.

Might pull it out and start on some of the brake ducting and front/rear splitters this winter though.

TURSTY

So I managed to get a new GF thats been around motorsport all her life and have talked me into getting this thing fixed again.

So the turbo is off getting quoted for repair and the Manifold is away getting gig'd up and a new one being built.

Depending on the cost of the turbo repair, I could be looking into a different turbo altogether thats better suited to the track. I have been looking at a T04Z my GFs dad has or possibly some Master Power Turbos that I can get cheap through a friend thats sponsored by them. Should have an answer on which option I will be going with, but feel free to make some suggestions on turbo choices. Id like the ability to make around 600whp but dont mind using a few different exhaust housings to help with response on lower power etc etc. (turbos are not something I have a degree on. I understand them, but not like some of you would).

KKMpunkrock2011

iTrader: (5)

the autocross guys are currently running gt30s and similar sized turbos and are loving it, maybe look into something similar for track use.