Thanks for checking in.

When I started the car last fall, oil pressure at idle was lower than normal. Not dangerously low, just not where it should be. So I inspected a few items - front stationary gear bearing, oil pump and the front cover gasket. The front stationary gear bearing was perfect but front cover bolts were loose, the oil pump housing had some wear and the drive chain had more than normal slack. So I replaced the oil pump, drive chain and rear pressure regulator because I was there. Also more carefully torqued the front cover bolts. Engine and trans are back in the car and will start reattaching parts.

Other stuff - working on the air dam structure and reattaching the splitter I ripped off at Indy. I have bigger rear wing to play with and wing mounts were lightened. Modified an S4 water pump housing and have that installed.

As for tires, will likely use Spec Miata take offs or will try to get some good used Hoosier radial slicks. MiDiv TT rules function like a NASA rule set so i can use any tire I want depending on dyno number and weight. I could run 200 or 100TW tires at a reduced weight but it is hard to beat Purple Crack if that is an option,

Goals for the year is a TT event close to me in Iowa and vintage festival in October. Also to keep autoxing my Mustang to stay sharp.

 

Wow, sounds like you caught a potential catastrophic failure just in time. On the water pump housing, is that the aluminum vs cast iron version? That's what we have. What did you modify on it? Just the thermostat by pass?
We recently added a splitter using aluminum sandwiched plastic. It's a bit heavier than I'd prefer but pretty stout. It survived our recent outing to Sonoma a couple weeks ago (bucket list event). Unfortunately our engine lost an apex seal on the rear rotor after eight laps of practice on Friday morning. We spent a few hours searching for a replacement and found one on FB marketplace in Stockton...about 60 miles away. Street ported GSL-se 6 port built by Atkins Rotary with about 500 miles on it. Price was fair so we went after it. Friday afternoon traffic in the bay area meant 60 miles was a five hour endeavor. I pulled the old motor while half the team went to get the new one. They got back about 9pm. Fired up the new engine about 1:30am.and was promptly told to shut it down by track security...lol. Good thing was it lit right up but we didn't get to run it long enough to discover the massive oil leak from the oil pan that wasn't tight. We found that Saturday morning as we fired it up for the race start. So, we started the race late. It ran well the rest of the day and Sunday but it's certainly down 15 to 20hp from our old Pineapple Racing built motor. We're really going to miss Rob. We're still fighting engine coolant temperature though. Running at 6500 to 7000rpm the temp would get a bit over 210 degrees. Shifting below 6500 brought temps down below 210 but above 200. We currently have an aluminum GSL-SE radiator we got from Carl's car and similar ducting to your car. I think we need a four row radiator but the team wants to try a bigger CFM fan first.

The TT event sounds like a good goal. I'm interested to see how it does and what your competition is. The slicks are certainly more fun. Good to hear your autocrossing...its always excellent practice. My wife and I are getting ready for the Solo National Tour at Packwood in two weeks with our NC Miata in XB.

 

Yeah its the aluminum water pump housing. I had the extra hole plugged/tapped then I installed a 1/2" pipe plug in the bypass hole just like I did on the iron one. I use a 3/4" restrictor instead of a thermostat. I did have an issue with the water temp fitting - the housing cracked. So I cleaned it up and used J-B weld to seal the crack. Fingers crossed. It is allot lighter than the iron piece so worth the time I think.

Dude, you work hard to have fun!!! Really cool that you got a replacement engine and got it running. Bonus points for the 1AM start up. Some people just don;t appreciate the sound of a proper engine!

I did not know about Rob passing away. Super cool guy to talk to. Spent allot of time talking to me about 12A options - including a 6 port setup - back in 2011 when the STU rules were getting sorted out. That is a big loss to the community.

For radiators everybody over here is running 26-28" wide 2 row dual pass radiators. I am not sure a fan does much at race speeds so I would vote for more surface area. That said, 210F would not worry me if oil temps are near that. That is what I was seeing while shifting at 8-9K in a sprint race.

Not sure who or what I will be racing against in the TT. I'll have to check event results. I just want to drive around and get some seat time.

I am running in CAMC and generally have 12-18 competitors at local events. The Extreme Street classes are also super popular in KC. It is sort of fun to just throw magnets in the trunk and drive to an event. By the way, If they have a CAM Challenge near you, it is worth doing. Last year at Lincoln I watched Al Unser Jr run one of the Speedway Camaros. He was wild behind the wheel and turned some great times.

 

So I promised Conkiller13 some pictures. So here goes.

Last weekend I attended the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival in Lake Garnett, KS https://www.lggpr.org/ This is the eleventh year for the event and it celebrates a time when the lake road around Lake Garnett was one of the only national road racing tracks in the country. Racing legends like Caroll Shelby, Ken Miles, Dave McDonald and Dan Gurney competed on here. The link above provides allot of history.

I was in the Modern Race Car exhibition group and was not restricted on speed or passing. It was not (and should never be) a race. It is a chance to show off, make noise and experience something that is frankly hard to believe in the context of what we know to be a modern race track these days. Check out this video from Formula Atlantic that ran several solo sessions around the course at speed Yeah, the road over the Dam has a guard rail supported by stone pillars. And yeah, this is how it was back in the day. Safe to say, an in car video from my car would like not been as exciting. But we will never know because I didn't get the camera turned on.

I did go out for one 20 minute session and I was pretty happy with the car. Oil pressures were much better and temps were great (it was mid-80s in my session). Really liked the Hoosier SM 7.5 tires and really had fun banging through the gears on the transmission. My God, dog ring gear boxes are fun! Unfortunately the severe vibration in 4th remains a problem. I was going to make a drive shaft swap for Sunday but I do not like working on grass. I tried, but even with plywood, jacking up the car was scarier than doing anything on the track. So, that was that.

Saturday afternoon they have a car show on the town square. All of the race cars that wanted to were allowed to parade through town to the show. I brapped my way to and from the show! You guys would be proud! The car received allot of attention and everyone had a rotary story to tell. Surprisingly allot of women looked over the car.....I guess chicks dig RX7s!


Unloaded in the Paddock

Curious on lookers

Cars and more cars

Fancy new light weight wing up rights. Well actually the old ones that were cut on a CNC plasma cutter

Fancy wing up rights are a great place to put your pool noodles!

 

That looks like an awesome event!

 

Some moar photos. Would like this photographer to take all of my pictures because he makes me look fast! Interesting shot from behind the car. Appears to be levering the right front tire off the ground.

 

Those are nice shots. That top pic really has the wheels tucked...

 

How did the CSF 8066 work out for you?

 

I can remember a day when I could swap out a third member or a factory transmission in a few hours. I was younger then and I had access to a lift.....Now I am 20yrs older, lift-less and have to do third member swaps on my back with a floor jack.

I have always found it precarious at best to use a floor jack because the balance point of the third member is around the ring gear and that is the part that has to go inside the rear axle housing. So, I made a tool to securely hold the third member while being able to fit under the axle housing. This places the jack pad at the balance point of the third member so it is very steady when being lifted into position. I also use M8 studs in the axle housing instead of bolts to help guide the third member into position.

Note the flange on the third members I use are machined square to fit a drive shaft adapter.


This end attaches to the third member flange

This part of the tool cradles third member so it it is steady

4.78 removed! The tool fits under the rear axle housing so the third member is removed/installed by moving the floor jack

A view from the other side.

 

That is super cool. I threw my shoulder a couple years ago replace the rear diff on the ground by myself so that tool is genius.

 

Thanks.

I always imagined the damn thing slipping off the jack and crushing my mellon! Sorry about your shoulder. Just proves that racing is most dangerous in the garage.