I like that you think hitting 60 MPH is impressive, but pulling 1.4 lateral G is meh

and yes, the beard is getting pretty serious... my daughter says I'm not allowed to trim it shorter haha. it's pretty terrible in 90+ degree weather. is fall here yet?

 

What Ian said, plus this ^^^

Seriously man, your FC is an inspiration. Whenever I gt serious about suspension, I will be picking your brain!!

 

Updates????

 

Autocross is canceled this year... So I've been working on Rallycross cars since we just started up the season.

replaced the Subaru's transmission (bearing going out) after replacing head gaskets and refurbishing the heads last year...and then promptly broke it again (anyone want to buy a 2.5RS coupe?) rear brake hard lines broke, most likely due to rust issues...

day 2 of rallycross I brought out the 2ZZ MR2 which is in dire need of a skid plate and it's still amazing. Next time I'll try and get a video.



I had high hopes for turning the FC up to 11 this year, but right now I'm just trying to get the megasquirt idle tuned better. I've drained the battery a few times in the process and now it's just way too hot to sit in a flat black car with no AC in 95 degree weather....

 

I've spent 10s of hours working on mine and have it pretty well set if you want help getting closed loop setup.

 

Are you using the stock BAC for idle control?
I no longer have a rotary in my FC, but still using an MS3 with my turbo LS. I made the switch to ignition idle control and it's much much better. First, you either run the idle valve in close loop and higher than target, or run your mechanical idle a bit high via the throttle screw. Then use ignition idle control to adjust timing to meet target. If the idle dips, it quickly adds timing back and recovers. If it surges, it retards timing to pull RPM back down. It's much faster than the stock BAC could react. Works really well. If the mechanical idle is way too high, it can put a little extra heat into the engine if it's constantly running retarded.
Bonus points - you can jack around with the ignition reactions and throw it into a idle oscillation that sounds like a big choppy port job lol.

 

small update:

I felt like my alternator wasn't putting out enough juice at lower RPMs / idle. I have an electric water pump, 2 walbro 400s, 4 ign1a coils, and 2 big spal fans, so my electricity needs aren't negligible...

after talking to DC Power I realized my pully ratios weren't really ideal. which confirmed my suspicion. (Thanks DC power for pointing out my problem instead of just selling me an alternator)

old setup:
mystery FD alternator conversion pulley adapter originally sourced from silver rotor?
racingbeat main pulley

pulley ratio: 1.46:1

I liked the timing marks on the racing beat pulley and the fact that it's aluminum... and larger aftermarket pulleys are hard to come by, so this is what I came up with:

Franklin crank and alternator pulleys that switch to a multi rib belt: (buying piece meal is nice so I didn't have to buy a water pump pulley I wasn't going to use)
https://franklinperformance.nz/colle...rotary-engines
https://franklinperformance.nz/colle...da-rotary-engi

pully ratio: 2.16:1 - much better

The problem was getting it to work with my FFE front trigger which was already modified to be used with power steering...

luckily the FFE standoff bracket was the same thickness as the new pulley. So I drilled and tapped the new pulley to mount my trigger wheel:



The new pulley fits over top of the racing beat pulley so I can still see the racing beat timing marks:



and the power steering pulley still fits with the same spacing:



The new alternator pulley didn't have the required spacer... so I made one on the lathe (that I bought myself for Christmas)







Finally, it was pretty difficult to find a belt that fit, but I found one eventually (after a lot of attempts)

 

I wanna see this, but I'm not able to view the photos on this page. Am I the only one?

 

Should be fixed?

 

Cool, they're there now.

Great work on this! Did that solve your low output issue at low RPMs?

 

from the little I've ran it it seems to have made a decent difference. idling at 1000 RPM now is spinning the alternator as fast as 1480 rpm was before.

I'll do some more testing when it gets a bit warmer.

 

Maaaaaan, I am so glad you are posting, lack of updates had me fearing for the worst!!

 

Where ya been Mike? Still got the car?

 

Brand new subscriber (I don't get out much) - and wow! this thing's awesome!

pinned for some updates

 

As far as I'm aware he's still got it, he just spent the last few months rebuilding the engine in his Tundra.

 

Yeah... so I bought an '07 Tundra 4WD 5.7 DCLB tow vehicle for very cheap which was a "fixer upper" so say the least. Among it's many problems was a rattly timing chain. I went in and replaced the chains, guides and tensioners, but it was a lot worse than I thought, and the chain had been eating into the steel guide for a while... it lasted about 6 months before the metal that had been in the oil finally did a rod bearing in. I did a full rebuilt on that (with a new crank and rod) over the winter which was fun. It was the first piston engine I've built.



So far so good:


A week or 2 after the Tundras engine blew up I took the MR2 to rallycross nationals and debeaded a tire and rolled it...


But I still ended up in third due to some creative rule interpretations :-)

So the MR2 is next up on the "to fix" list....

Before either of these things happened I decided to dive back into the RX7.... so that's what I'm doing now.
One the list:

• New waterpump setup (BMW style CWA400 pump w/ controller)
• Haltech 1500
• Drive by wire
• Some general re-wiring.

 

One of the benefit of cheap Asian cars is that they're disposable. That MR2 is done.

 

@eage8 nice beard. I wouldn't recognize you if I saw you.

 

Sadly cheap asian cars aren't as cheap as they used to be...but I did acquire a replacement shell for the MR2's guts. So the 2ZZ swapped rally MR2 will live again.

Here are some videos from Rallycross nationals (including the rollover) if anyone is interested:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...aszmpjZ5AC8ywl

 

Thanks for the lesson that drifting on unmanicured dirt can end badly - and in the blink of an eye. Even in a car with a low CG.
Seems like you could work on your vehicle fleet full time and still have a lifetime of projects.