Gotta appreciate the irony of a guy who moves his ball joint calling someone out for removing a washer reservoir.

Woah, 500 deg F seems high, but it's consistent with the Loctite website which (for loctite 271) states:
"It is only removable once cured by heating up parts to 500°F (260°C)."

At that temp you might melt the oil seal.

Lesson: don't use red Loctite

Josh is in XP, he can do whatever he wants :p: he also has stock ball joints last time I checked.

I got it out, just sat on it with some mapp gas for a good long time... oil seal looked fine and not melted. :icon_tup:

new pulley on:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-v...UNSET%255D.jpg

now I can start working on the P/S relocation... and finish installing the v-mount.

Yummeh, glad you got the bolt out! Red is a monster.

P/S relocation pretty much done, just need some belts:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-M...0/IMAG3256.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...0/IMAG3257.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-t...0/IMAG3259.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-u...0/IMAG3260.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...0/IMAG3263.jpg

I also swapped out the rod ends I'm using as outer tie rods... They developed some play and it's only been 1 year since I installed them, hopefully they last a bit longer this time...

replaced my steering rack mounts with new OEM ones... well see if I notice anything different

I also finally figured out what the griding noise I was hearing in grid at the last autocross was... My AWR roll center spacer ball joints started rubbing on my brake discs...

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-y...0/IMAG3218.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...0/IMAG3224.jpg

I threw them on the bench grinder and threw some paint on them, hopefully I took enough off.

I also hooked up the oil cooler, oil cooler lines, and water lines on the v-mount... pictures of that when I get further into it.

how much space do you have between the RCA and the brake disc? that seems like a lot of hub deflection...

If you look at the ball joint it's flat on the far side but when the rotor turns, it moves and gets closer to the ball joint... that combined with the fact that the bearing on that side is starting to develop a bit of play...

the other side was barely touched and the bearing is still pretty tight, so I think that's the main cause.

I don't think hub deflection played a major part because I just heard the scraping noise in grid during sharp turns.

The fact that both tie rods and 1 ball joint only lasted a year kind of sucks... but new rod ends and bearings for both sides are $80 total, so it's not so bad I guess.

anyone know of any good ways to weather proof them a bit? Most of what I've heard is boots just keep the water and grim inside the bearing...

I have belts!

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...4/IMAG3273.jpg

it took 3 attempts on the alternator belts... 2 on the power steering....

I'm not very good at measuring belts apparently

final sizes just in case anyone needs them in the future:
alternator: 15310
P/S: 17360

Are you doubling up on the alternator belt to prevent slipping since the airpump is gone?

Yup

Last night I installed the front inlet ducts for my brake ducts. I think they turned out fairly well.

(sorry, the pictures flip back and forth between left and right sides :p: )

what I started with (those are brackets for the oem S5 fog lights):
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-d...2/IMAG3225.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y...4/IMAG3274.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...4/IMAG3276.jpg

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-u...4/IMAG3278.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...6/IMAG3279.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-t...6/IMAG3280.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-X...4/IMAG3287.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Z...4/IMAG3291.jpg

I used this univeral duct, it worked surprisingly well:
Plastic Single Race Car Bumper Duct

I'll run the hose between these and my AWR ducts on the hubs a little later on when the front suspension is back together (waiting on new ball joint bearings)

mock up of the v-mount w/ an FD upper intake.

I still have to wire in the new FD electronics (idle valve, TPS, and IAT) and find an FD throttle cable to throw on the car...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...0/IMAG3304.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMAG3307.jpg

you can also see my new ebay $38 strut bar (old mazdatrix 3-point is technically not SSM legal :( )

? How was it not SSM legal?

it attached to the firewall. 3 point strut bars are only legal in SSM if the car came with one stock.

TII throttle cable works, just need to snip it and use a slip on bullet that you can buy at a bike shop or parts store

yeah, or just make a new bracket.... but it's stupid long, I'd rather just run an FD one.

I called up Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda this morning and will have a cable tomorrow.

Huh, they changed the rules since I looked last. Thats unfortunate

Here is the rule if you're interested, it's actually the street prepared rule that gets carried over:

15.2.C. Strut bars (per Section 12) are permitted with all types of suspensions,
subject to the following constraints:
1. A two-point strut bar may be added, removed, modified, or substituted,
but only with another two-point strut bar.
2. A triangulated (3-point) strut bar may be removed, modified, or
substituted; substitution may be with either a triangulated or a twopoint
strut bar. The connection to the chassis (i.e., firewall, bulkhead,
etc) must be in the standard location.
3. Lower suspension braces must be attached to the lower suspension
pickup point locations on the chassis within two inches (2”,
50.8 mm) in any direction of the actual suspension attachment to
the chassis.

Yeah, I just re-read the SM rules today. It used to be you could put a 3-point on anything in SM, but it was a long while ago.

got pretty sick the past few days... which sucked. but still making progress. The car is looking pretty good to make it to the track this weekend.

installed my race pads along with new rotors and titanium brake shims.

swapped rear springs to something a bit softer (from 500 to 425 lb)

installed the FD throttle cable + wired up the FD IAT and TPS and calibrated the megasquirt with them. (the FD IAT sensor uses the same thermistor table as the FC CLT sensor if anyone cares)

then I installed the new hood + hood pins:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-C...UNSET%255D.jpg

just barely clears the v-mount extended radiator neck :)
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-f...UNSET%255D.jpg

and then I installed my under tray for the first time in like 5 years.... (don't judge me....)

Took it for a quick test drive tonight, new bov is hilariously loud, I think I might try to flip it around to a push type instead of a pull to see if that makes it less obnoxious :)

(new bov is a synapse DV )

other than that I definitely need to retune some stuff, but it seems to be running ok.

Very nice! Let me know if you ever take a trip to NJMP I'd love to check this car out. I could also use some help figuring out how to tune it. did you do the tuning yourself?

finished everything up:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...2/IMAG3334.jpg

Drove the car to work on Thursday:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-U...2/IMAG3325.jpg

Friday I got in aligned and corner balanced and finished running my brake ducts.

Brought it to the track Saturday:


it has some issues.....

running very hot first session oil temps got up to 265... then 280 the second session (that was with me taking it a bit easy as I had never been on this track before)

and then on the 3rd session.... I lost all power. not sure what's wrong with it , I might have blown the engine, it was randomly going lean... I should have brought it in sooner, but didn't.

we'll see what happens when I compression test it and give it a good look over.

currently it's just super loud (major exhaust leak), and runs like crap.

I got a ride home and came back sunday in the corolla.... and was a good deal faster than I was in the RX7...

I run my oil temp sensor at the oil thermostat right before the hot oil from the engine enters the first oil cooler. I was told never to exceed 260F (stay under 250F if possible for safety) as oil will start to lose its lubricating properties after those temperatures and it can start damaging the engine. 265-280 sounds very high... Hope the engine survived.