big update:

it's been awhile.

when i completed the single turbo setup and did initial street tuning i realized that the stock intercooler was almost worthless.

in a single 3rd gear pull the IATs would go from 95*F to 150*F, and the ambient temp was ~75*F.

so i ordered an intercooler setup, trying to stay within my ideal "let's get some lower cost parts and see if they actually perform:"
i found this on amazon, which is cataloged for an FC3S, but looks to be a copy of the FD3S XSpower SMIC... $110.


i also ordered a pettit CC2 duct (the smaller of the two) and did some measuring and determined i was going to have to go with a 51R battery, so i trimmed the battery tray and re-did my tie-down for the new battery:




also made a little aluminum extension to extend the pettit duct farther into the bumper opening:


while waiting for that i had my spare toyo R888 tires mounted. they are 285/30/18.
you may recall me getting these for free off of a coworker's 370Z race car. they were basically practice tires for his race car and had only one track day on them, so i got them and had them sitting around in the garage for almost a year. i finally had them mounted.


i also got an alignment. notice how crazy/bad my previous alignment was (and has been since i got the car):



i replaced the hatch struts with some i found on amazon. if you get these, absolutely do not use the e-clips that hold the shocks in... they flew off when i opened the hatch after one day of use, and i now have to do something different. i think i am going to run a die over the studs and put a nut on the end...






i did some other small things like using my ARCA inconel used shielding i bought from ebay for $40, cut it, and made a LIM shield out of it:




(continued in next post)

 

Looking good.

 

so i finally got the intercooler in and got it installed:




and notice my sweet temporary coupler action here:




so i then swapped in my hawk HP+ pads, honestly wondering if they're going to be aggressive enough for the stickier R888 tires, and bled the system again with my Motive pressure bleeder (this is the best $70 i've ever spent on a tool).

swapped my sparco evo seat in:




now i'm ready for the track!


driving to the track in the morning, and the pettit duct with cartmill extension seems to be working: (top # is IAT, middle is coolant temp, bottom is oil temp)



TRACK VIDEOS.

track is NCM (national corvette museum) motorsports park. it's awesome:
NCM Motorsports Park - Bowling Green, Kentucky |




here's how much oil i caught in my little 500ml catch can after a full session:


and a picture of me magistically/lovingly using a pic to straighten out my touring oil cooler fins during a break, which actually ended up pretty straight.


and made it home in one piece with no issues! the rx7 was actually used on two parts runs for my buddy's E36 M3 that had some minor issues




NOTES ON THIS SETUP AT THE TRACK:
1. as if everyone didn't already know, dual R1 oil coolers are the bare minimum for tracking our cars. i had to take a cool-off lap about every 2-3 laps because of oil temps. i had dual 19 row mocal coolers on my red FD that i tracked several times (including when it was ~90*F outside with high humidity) and the oil temp never got over 195*F. i hit oil temps in the 230s yesterday, which is too hot, and dangerous. if you want to go all out at a track event for more than one or two laps (and don't live in a super cold climate) your original single oil cooler will not suffice.

2. the SMIC setup worked well enough with the pettit duct (borderline), but i think that's only because of the extension piece i put in it. granted, i basically have a hot air intake (filter sitting right on the turbo inlet), so when i fix that it's going to drop the IATs by a lot. i am planning to integrate the CAI into the pettit duct and separate it from the intercooler air, and i think it will work well.

3. hawk HP+ pads are the bare minimum needed to track these cars and actually be able to stop without fading and/or blasting through an entire set of pads in 4 sessions. i got my HP+s a little too hot this time, but never got any bad fade, and i am running wide sticky tires. the HP+s were a good match for the 265 RE-11 tires i ran last year.

4. the chinese CXRacing coilovers (8kF/6kR)did a great job, and i'm convinced they are a great value for weekend / occasional track use. of course for a dedicated track car i'd run something with harder rates, as you'd be running wide sticky slicks.

5. the $620 turbo and $190 wastegate/manifold did a great job as far as i can tell. i havent closely inspected the manifold closely, but the wastegate opened and close (no sticking) all day with no issues, and there was no creep. i will check everything out this week and make sure there are no small manifold cracks (there obviously were no big cracks, as i couldnt hear any exhaust leaks). the wastegate seems to open at about 8psi and the boost levels off at 10psi. i don't know if this a very small amount of creep, like a limitation of wastegate flow, or whatever, but the boost does not go over 10psi. i also have the boost source AFTER the intercooler, coming right off of the UIM (as you can see in the pics) which may affect the boost level. i am going to hook up the boost control solenoid to the haltech and set it straight to 10psi just to get a little more tq under the curve.

TL;DR
car did well at its first real track day with some "value" parts. read 1-5 above for specifics.

 

Effective bargain shopping. I like your style.
Looking forward to more track updates, it looked like you were having a blast getting loose out there.

 

Bad ***!

These cars feel so good when everything is working as it should, glad you are out enjoying it now.

 

Sweet man.
Turbo seems to spool pretty quick and spin till redline.

Car looks pretty quick. Your driving harder and with more confidence compared to earlier track vids. Car seems balanced nice with some oversteer when overdriven, which I like personally.

Regarding the oil temps.. 230F is alarming for those ambient temps! Makes me wonder what my dual r1 oil temps have been hitting during 100+ degree track days!!

 

thanks! the turbo is not nearly as responsive as my EFR was; it's more comparable to the precision 6262 in terms of response, which was not bad at all. for the ~1600 savings i think it (the S360) is a much better value, and it's rebuildable. the EFR is definitely better in every way though.

yes the oil temps were definitely not acceptable. i did notice that i could go all out for a while longer after straightening the fins on the oil cooler. the fins were all badly bent "closed" from years of rocks and debris.
honestly, i bet the stock R1 coolers keep the temps in the low 200s.

i am considering purchasing only one large aftermarket cooler for the passenger side and making some custom lines to mate it to the stock touring cooler. that sakebomb kit looks REALLY appetizing though.

 

BS! that kinda goes against your current build of this car....

At this point i think you should just make your own oil cooler kit. And if you installed the ones on your last FD you should kinda know what it is supposed to look anyways.

 

yeah i definitely don't have $1000 to spend on a sakebomb kit.

i'll probably end up getting a large aftermarket cooler for the passenger side and making custom lines. that leaves me with an unknown though; can someone confirm that the thermostat for the stock oil cooler is inside the cooler?

 

it is inside the driver side cooler

 

What he said^^. CXracing makes oil coolers too. Ive checked one out in person and it was pretty nice. Similar to my Earls coolers. Mine just had more fins but im sure it would be a big improvement over an R1 cooler.

I have a PFS intake id sell for cheap if you want for an intake box that draws air from the IC duct.

Also, more info on your dash screen please. Same as your last one?

 

i am checking out this cooler:
cxracing.com: Aluminum Oil Cooler 11" Core 19 Row AN10 Fitting Hi Performance

my issue is that installing a cooler this way (using only the thermostat in the driver side cooler) will still leave one cooler cooling all the time, so it could still over-cool the oil when it's cold outside...


about the screen, it's a simple $170 Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet (one of the cheaper tablets that runs full windows 8). so i just load up the haltech software and that's basically it.

 

If you are keeping the drivers ice cooler with the stock thermostat, doesn't that mean the passenger one will act just like the stock passenger cooler? Why would that cause an issue?

I'm assuming you install them in series like stock.

 

You need t-stat in both, otherwise the passenger side one will be cooling oil constantly.

 

Nice videos! =))
Did you fit those 285's up front? On stock fenders?
What size are your Enkeis? Id assume 18x10 +38.

 

yes this is the problem. the stock R1 setup has a thermostat (bypass) in each cooler, so when the oil is cold it just bypasses straight through both coolers and back into the engine. if i hook up one free-flow aftermarket cooler to the passenger side it will be constantly cooling, and it will be more difficult to heat up the oil when the ambient temp is cold.

i see that armen just posted his R1 oil coolers complete for $300 so i may just go this route. an aftermarket oil thermostat alone is $150+, cheap aftermarket cooler is ~$75-100, the lines to connect it all will be an additional $100, and this is one thing i won't cheap out on. with turbos and oil control i won't go cheap.

yes exactly, see above.

yes they are 285/30/18 on stock fenders, but they have been rolled (though not pulled). they barely fit on the front (outside edge is very close) and they rub at full lock on the inside, so i have to be careful. the wheels are 18x9.5 +45. 10" +38 will definitely rub the outside in the front stock fenders if you don't roll/pull them. the rears are fine (also rolled). i could probably fit a 10.5 +38 on the rear with 305s.

 

That magical +45 offset.

I race with 18x11 +45 295/30-18 with rolled/slightly pulled front fenders and a 1" shortened Tripoint swaybar tube with no rub.

For reference since AX75F92 was obviously interested in wide front tires and I am trying to spread the word.

 

blueTII, i thought you had an FC. (a blue TII) no?

 

Yeah, and a FD and an RX-8 and a DD Mazda3.

I'm down to racing the RX-8 since I blew up all the turbo rotaries. Consequently, I found +45 is the magic offset for RX-8 as well as FD

 

18x11 in front?? I wouldn't have thought that was possible, even with a pull. Pretty cool.

Ive been contemplating wheel/tire sizes a lot recently and ended up ordering some 18x10 +38 RP's for my 285 A048's. I have the Shine FEED knockoff wide fenders front and rear. From what I can tell, it should be safe. Rear def could have gone wider and will need a spacer, but I want to try a square setup for the track. Plus I like the fact that I can swap wheels around to different corners to maximize tire wear.

Finding the perfect wheel size is always so annoying...I even bought this grossly overpriced fitment tool since I don't have convenient access to any similar wheels to test fit.

 

Finding the perfect wheel size is always so annoying...I even bought this grossly overpriced fitment tool since I don't have convenient access to any similar wheels to test fit.

Tell me about it. I used my current wheels (18x10.5 +38) as a reference and measured, moved suspension up and down while measuring, moved steering back and forth while measuring and then measured again for good... measure.

When I got the wheels I found they were (as I predicted) a few mms away from rear shock, rear trailing arm, front shock at full lock, front arm at full lock but -oops- hit the swaybar ends (which I realized I could move inward easily-phew).

Wheels do not rub on anything while driving/racing. 295 tires do rub the front plastic fender liner at full bump where it meets the outer front fender at the top of the wheel arch.

You even have to have your alignment set where *think* you will want it to get this close a fitment though. If I want more negative camber than -2.4 Front, -1.4 Rear I will have to throw some thin spacers on to re-center the wheel/tire in the fender well.
----------

I got 18x11 +45 offset figured out and then I tried to figure out how to get 18x12 +30 to fit on stock appearing body and gave up. 18x12 +30et requires a +30mm over-fender or the kind of sheet metal pulling in vogue with the drifters.

Maybe next time I wreck the FD.

 

2.4 camber is a lot.

 

jacobcartmill 2.4 camber is a lot.

For the track. FD auto-x guys make offset bushings so they can run much more.

 

Even for the track, -2.4 isn't way out of the ballpark. I run -2.2 on my RX-8 on the track, and I have very even tire wear/temps. The camber curve on my car is probably more agressive than the average track-height FD too.

 

ok i thought we were talking about street cars here with occasional track. and yeah i'm well aware that the autocrossers need as much camber as they can get!