I am at around ~-2.7degrees up front with my caster maxed at around 5ish?
After using a barrowed pyrometer I still need more camber. Probably ~ -3.5degrees for your typical road course. I've been searching or an offset bushing to achieve this and hopefully increase some caster also.

 

My car is set-up for autocross and I compete in SCCA Super Street Modified class with Hoosiers A7s in 315/30-18 or Xtreme Street A with Yokohama 052 in 315/30-18. For my alignment, I run about -3.6 degrees camber up front and caster around 7 degrees with about 1/8inch toe-out. For rear, I run about -2.5 degrees camber with about 1/16inch toe-in.
I have custom offset bushings for my stock upper control arms. You can find drawings here in this forum for it under, Kevin Doe custom front offset bushings. With this custom front offset bushings, I can get up to about -4 degrees of camber.

 

Kevin Doe's bushing thread: https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-w.../#post12568044

 

I've got a question for everyone. I'm looking at potential alternate mounting for the ignition coils. I have a MK60 motorsports ABS unit coming, and I'd LOVE to not have to mount it on the other side where the current ABS is. Shorter lines to be made, and free up that area for catch cans, or other ancilaries. Ithe MK60 is much smaller, but I don't think its small enough to mount under the master cylinder/booster. It might be doable in the cruise control area where my coils currently live (Sakebomb mount). I know there's a mount for on top of the engine block, similar to stock, but I don't love the heat implications there. I've seen a couple others that mount at various places along the frame rail.

Anyone have experience or insight on these, especially unintuitive downsides? Other options I don't know about?

 

Coil mount - our mutual friends kit?

Seems too obvious and I am sure you considered it







Seems you want it in a direct spot, but I am sure our brain trust can sort that out

 

You might want to take a look at these from MPfab. They were originally made for David M’s 5 rotor car. I’m unsure if they fit under a stock intake manifold, but I can mock one up check this weekend if interested.

https://www.mpfab.com/shop/p/mf5-rot...t-coil-bracket

 

Thanks guys. I'm trying to mount them someplace besides on top of the motor. Someplace cool, but safe and accessible.

 

Reading comprehension - something something toddler climbing into our bed at 2:00am and rolling all night something something need more coffee

Looking forward to this ABS project coming to fruition for you

 

I'm a little biased. I like race only because they keep investing in making nice new products and are very responsive when doing business. But the rail said RHD only, so I would call them to see if they know whether it interferes with the steering rack on LHD.

 

I had the coils under the manifold for many years while i had the electromotive ecu and their coils. It is technically the coldest part of the engine and this is where i have my ign1a coils..I have yet to see any coils fail (especially oem) that is caused by the heat under the manifold. I may be biased to prefer the under the manifold (i think you know why) but if i were to do it again under the intake is where i would put them, in the same exact spot.

 

Just the friend I was thinking of - figured you'd have an opinion, some track feedback, and an earned bias Are you in the NJ area and free this Monday? I'm heading your way


Peter, it looks like your first picture was of the Core Components smart coil bracket here. LHD & RHD, and looks like the frame rail bracket has some varying options for mount points if you need to get crafty

 

The coils under the manifold only require one foot of ignition cable per spark plug. If you go with the msd cables, msd claims they have less than 40Ω resistance per foot. I did measure mine after crimping and they are around 35Ω.

other options require 3-4 feet of ignition cables will have a resistance significantly higher. nevermind the fact that due to the uneven lengths you will have variations in resistance. How much of this resistance and the resistance variance translates to ignition loss, I don’t know. I have not calculated the loss but considering how cramped my engine bay is + the potential ignition loss i am not even interested in a setup like that.

so i will speak about the one i was heavily involved with. Given the orientation of the coils on the bracket allows you to have all cables are equal in length.

1. Everything fits neatly
2. Utilizes the dead space that mazda has decided it was the right location for the coils
3. uses same length cables without the possibility of mixing the cables.
4. The coils dont act up because of the location
5. works very well overall
6. Lightweight
7. easy and inexpensive to manufacture
8. has dedicated cutouts for ring terminals to ground each coil on the correct housing

It was a surprise to me that people preferred the other options out there because the “coils will fail under the manifold “ yet again i have not heard of a single coil to fail in such conditions.
The majority of the people will at most attend cars and coffee , while having very strong opinions of **** they have never tried before


long story short yes its on my car and while it was a total bitch to figure out the design to clear everything without the slightest modification I absolutely love the coils being there. I did not have a a decent 3d scanner at the time.
i am not saying that other systems wont work well. Some are better than others but personally i like the one i did. I am not going to say that the vendor selling my products didnt burn me but oh well. It is what it is

i get off work at 4:30pm; give me a buzz we can grab dinner or a few drinks

 

My 2cents I’ve had my IG coils mounted (homemade mount) on top of my engine for the last 5 years with no issues.
I don’t think that really an issue as much as people make it out to be.

 

Thanks Costas

I'll give the motor top mount some thought. It certainly is tidy. I recall heat being blamed for stock coil issues (true or not), but perhaps not an issue with IGN-1A. I'm going to wait till I have the MK60 in hand to see if it'll actually fit in that cruise area.

 

"msd claims they have less than 40Ω resistance per foot. I did measure mine after crimping and they are around 35Ω."

a combination of higher output coils, electronic fuel injection, a proliferation of electronic sensors all run w an ECU up against high combustion chamber pressure makes electromagnetic interference an increasingly important issue. spark plug wires are a key factor.

i switched to Magnecor wires after reading the linked article. written in 1997, it is currently buried in their catalog. please go to page 40. among other things, it speaks to measuring plug wire's resistance w a multimeter.

"The Truth about Ignition Wire Conductors"

https://magnecorusa.com/wp-content/u...05/catalog.pdf

 

Admittedly i did not know about this issue, thanks for bringing it up @Howard Coleman
i only used the msd as an example to bring up the variation in length of the cables and therefore the variation in resistance for the concept behind the said kit.
i did check the resistance with the multimeter to confirm the crimping while yanking the cables.

on a side note i used to use magnecore cables in the past. Not sure if the ones i got were defective but they dont seem to clamp on the coils or the spark plugs the same way like ultras or msd and ever since then i have been avoiding them.

 

https://www.rx7club.com/build-thread...1001518/page7/

Post #159
Mike is a good friend, in person with the motor in the coils arn't terrible to access. He had custom wires made, post #170. Of course, this only works without the A/C pump. He did go manual rack, not sure if the PS pump gets in the way or not but he did accommodate to retrofit PS in the future. I believe C.ludwig also offered a similar mounting kit if you read through a bit.

 

Thanks Armen,

At some point, once my weight goals are met, A/C is going back on he car, so I don't think that'll work.

 

I had a realization this week. My "track guy" persona was sorely lacking in credibility having not actually tracked in over five years. May 2018 was the last full weekend at VIR, running my best times ever. Motor was already low compression, and trans broke that September, first session at WGI, and that began the motor/haltech/COVID saga, getting the car back in time for WGI September 2021, only for the map sensor to fail in the first session again. It's been a few years of tinkering and tuning, and I decided, IT'S ******* TIME.

Luckily, there was a rare 2-day Seat Time event at Summit Point (where I rarely go) this weekend, so I jumped in. It was HOT (82 F+) on Saturday, and I just got my feet wet again. Car ran well, no drama, I sent some logs to John and he made a few boost curve and fuel tweaks. The car was SUCKING down WI fluid, so I upped the trigger points. Four sessions in the books Saturday. My ABS is currently broken, so I was being very tentative under braking, but still. I SUCKED. **** times. Embarrassing. Maybe I got old?

Sunday was rainy, so we didn't get out on a still lightly damp track till the afternoon, but it was cooler. Huge chunks of time started coming back, like a second quicker lap by lap. Ended the day about a second off my personal best from 2017, which still could be much improved on, I never really go there and I think this is the first time I've ever done a second day in a row. The new tuning was great. Spot on. Water consumption MUCH better. New AIM mount is much improved visibility wise.

Things that still need work: I'm still filling the catch can, so I need a 2nd vent from the extra turbo drain. The WI tank leaks, or maybe a fitting is loose. And I can't wait to get MK60 ABS and brake package done, and shocks retuned. It's going to fly. Oh, and at least six people dropped by my pit to tell me about the huge 3-foot flames I was shooting, so THAT was worth every penny.

 

A couple more follow up items:

On my final run (and I'm certain an even faster lap :-) ), I caught a slower car at the end of the straight, backed off, got a late point by, and stepped back on the gas and triggered a fuel pressure safety in the ECU. We've seen this once before on the street after a high rpm shift, the boost responds so quickly the fuel pressure can't climb back up quickly enough. Going to have to think about what can be done here.

Mysteriously, my trans temp, which was maxed out at 300C and Ludwig and I determined needed to be re-pinned to a terminal with pull down, suddenly now works and seems accurate, my having not done anything about it yet. Not sure what's up there. Trans temps did get a little warm (104C), so cooling is likely going to be deeded. Thankfully the harness is already pigtailed for a cooling pump.

With the new dash hood, I can see the shift lights under the wheel now, and I need to program them to something simpler. They start freaking out and flashing all sorts of colors at like 4k rpm. I need a simple one color 6.5k, 2nd color 7k, 3rd color 3.5k, with no flashing. Maybe it flashes at 8k.

Gas guage seems to work well, but I'm going to pull some increments out, as its fast up top, slow at the bottom. I ran it down to about 30% or so, but was only able to put 10 gallons in. I did the whole event on 93 octane instead of the typical 100, which is great because the GT100 is $10/gallon now. WI, and 11 plugs all around, plus all the Haltech safeties make that seem safe enough.

Finally, 2oz of premix doesn't smoke, so that's great. I can run that street or track.

 

Racing (and track driving and any other sport for that matter) is a perishable skill set. Use it or lose it.

I took this year off too. Had a test day a couple of weeks ago. Got within 2 seconds off my best time with a probable lap time that was within 1 second but kept making mistakes.

Practice, practice practice

 

If I'd been smart, I'd have at least been hitting the local kart tracks over the last few years to keep the reflexes up. But, It was remarkable how fast it came back.

I was slow by the stop watch on Saturday, but all the moves were there, techniques, vision, etc., it was a matter I think of feeling the speed and being able to push a bit. I looked at the AIM data a bit, and nearly all the gains were in minimum speeds not maximum. I was exiting corners fine, but gradually began to stop over slowing and carrying more speed in at at the apex (which is always where my incremental progress happens).

 

Yep. Overslowing / too much braking and carrying more speed between end of brake point to the apex as measured by min speed are the areas that I'm working on too. It is amazing what a difference a few tenths per corner makes.

 

With car streeted back out and cleaned, I rocked up to Cars & Coffee this AM, probably the last of the year. It was high 30's F this AM, and my IATs on the way over were 1C!

Just about time to go up for some high end suspension and brake upgrades coming. Cars running and sounding great. 2oz/gallon of premix doesn't smoke, so might as well just run that. Safer and easier to measure out.

 

So, in my quest for the best suspension and brakes, I decided it was time for an upgrade to the JRZs. They're older, and not well supported in the US (unless you buy new ones) so I've been thinking about MCS and Penske. MCS would have nearly been a straight swap, as Moton/JRZ/MCS are nearly the same shock. I know my JRZs were originally spec'd for a car with closer to "normal" lowering, but for one as low as mine, the bodies are a little long. I looked at the off the shelf MCS measurements, and while better, seemed to have other compromises. While at DGRR, I rode in @Carlos Iglesias car with Penske 8300's, and it felt amazing. Penskes are less off-the-shelf, and are typically sold through private shock tuners and are built-to-measure, and have tons of different piston stacks available, so can really be built to spec, modified, even user rebuildable. They have a narrower (but finer) adjustment range, as JRZ/Moton/MCS have a range large enough that you can swap spring rates. I know what rates I want after losts of trial and error, so I don't need that anymore.

I called Angelo Zarra at ANZE suspension (who Carlos used) who has a long racing history and reputation and has built other Penske setups for FDs. The cost wasn't any more than MCS, and they're built for me/my car. Angelo took lots of notes on what I wanted them to do, and we carefully measured a bunch of different parameters, including distances at ride height. After a couple months, they arrived. Linear valving with a dual-bleed piston, and all the hardware I need. Well, almost—we did a bit of back and forth to get the shims, spacers, and spring perches all the way they need to be. I took a few weeks to collect all the sundries I needed for a clean install.






Once I had everything I needed, which included new 2.25" 800lb Hyperco springs to replace the 60mm 14k Swift springs that fit a little sloppy, and some super sweet Renscott roll bar mounts. The upper stack is a bit different on the Penske, so it took a bit to calculate starting ride height settings. I was pleased that the CUSCO upper mount nut/spacers went on like butter (they were so hard on the JRZs), so I didn't need the upper spacers afterall. For the lower fronts, I had them made offset. If you've installed coilovers with symetrical ones, you know it leaves the shock very close to the A-arm.





Diego took the time to savage Dad's new shocks:





So, I spent two afternoons in the garage carefully installing, and I have to say, all the extra though made for a super tidy install:








Initial Impressions: In a word, delicious. I got the ride heights pretty close first try. The shocks feel great with initial settings (I haven't played with them yet). More supple, yet more controlled. I can feel the alignment settings are fucked, but we'll get that sorted. More to come!