My poor attempt at some fan bracketry. Not quite project binky quality. Temps are much better with more air flow. I also updated the megasquirt to version 1.6.1. this updated the fan control section. It had support for PWM fan control, but it was half baked. It only provided an option for the maximum and minimum fan pulsewidths, but not when to throttle up or down. Now there is a new field to indicate what temp you want the fan on, and then the temperature to ramp up to max. Now I need a good 75+° day to ensure it cools down in traffic.

I do need to pull the radiator out and trim the radiator brackets they look ugly...

And if anyone has any ideas on replacing the foam shoved around the radiator. I'm all ears.

 

Spend a year on the brackets and then they'll be Binky quality

Car looks good man! I remember pics of it on Reddit way back when, it's awesome to see how far it's come. Love seeing your updates on FB too.

My FB racecar has some thick black rubber tape-like stuff around it's radiator. Uglier than the foam, but no doubt it seals better. My FD has some ~2" gray foam I found on Amazon that has held up well, I think it was marketed for sealing around a window AC unit.

 

Thanks for the kind words! Crazy how time flies and priorities change. What I once wanted to be a streetable track car is now settled on an OEM+ street cruiser.

There are so many small issues that keep it from being where I want it, and take SO much time for such little change...that it just gets left as I'd and driven.

 

Hey, nothing wrong with that! Yours being driven is more than most builds we see on here

 

Well, first warm day of the year and I'm fighting warm coolant temperatures. The new fan did great at keeping it cool at stop lights, but I'd really like to see it run a bit cooler. If I get it on the highway it will come down but it takes a while. I really need to get the alternator and AC compressor side mounted in an attempt to get the vented hood back on the car. As it currently stands, the drop vent hits the alternator and it doesn't make sense to chop it up just for that.

Temps seem to hover over 200°F using a 185° thermostat. Fan goes full speed at 206 and pulls it back down nicely, but in stop and go around town it sits around 202-205. I'd like to see it come down to 185 quicker.

 

Time lapse of my intake adapter getting made by a friend. This was done in PA-CF6, or carbon infused nylon for us normal folk.

 

FC has been running great. It's a wonderful thing being able to hop in the car, drive it and park it. No worrying about oil sitting in a turbo, making sure IATs are low before romping on it, wondering if it's overheating...the SPAL brushless fan has been wonderful. Tested it yesterday 90° weather and it cooled off nice and quick after an adjustment to the duty cycle. I was allowing megasquirt to ramp from 20% to 90% and what was happening was it would come on low, ramp up and then back down to a speed where it never satisfied to turn back off below the hysteresis. Bumping the duty cycle up to a minimum of 50 now cools it off quickly and gets the fan to shut off. Lesson learned. Recently I finished up a truck I purchased years back with a Mercedes Benz OM617 turbo diesel swap. It ran when I bought it but needed everything around the engine fixed in order to really be road ready. I got it on the road....and I hate it. No power steering due to space constraints, it's 750lbs and makes just as much horse power as an NA rotary will. It clatters like mad...just all around not a good fit. So I put out a feeler looking for someone's old junk laying in the back of their garage. You know, some housings with a gouge out of them, maybe a rotor that took a hit...stuff no one else would want to run.
So a buddy of mine hit me up about an engine he had in his shop that wasn't used due to switching to a Honda powerplant. I guess I need to go buy a lotto ticket because the engine was fricking mint. Even the coolant passages were clean!

 

Also, I've never seen a tensioner on a rotary?!

 

Cant believe how clean these cleaned up. Wow

 

Any idea what that’s out of? It definitely looks like an older 4 port and the apex seal grooves look big to me.

 

A friend mentioned he thinks it's ~ 74? It's 3mm seals, its got a symmetrical pocket in the rotor...it has the older style writing on the housings.

I've never seen a chain tensioner on a rotary.

I'm gonna throw soft seals on it and go!

 

A friend mentioned these could be worth big money as original housings?

 

Carbon air box? Hmmmmm.....me thinks yes. Let's try our hand at some arts and crafts. Looks like the chopped aka "forged" carbon fiber is quite cheap since it's just leftover scraps. The plan is to replicate something like the E30 M3 carbon air box. It hides the filter inside and looks nice and slick. If I could find a way to replicate the stock intake manifold "3 ROTOR" that would be pretty slick. I'm thinking take an image, trace it in CAD, 3d print it and stick it onto the foam before creating the mold?


E30 air box for reference..

 

Engine clean up continues. Everything looks good so far. The apex seals have a little bit of wear...look good enough for me though. More evidence the engine was simply carbon locked. The oil control rings were caked and stuck. Once I got them out, the orings were super swollen. What material were these to have swollen like this? Pretty bonkers.

I'm on the look out for an NA lightweight flywheel if anyone knows a guy with one for sale. I do hope to have this swapped finished by fall time. Stock carb and ignition will work until I can get together an IDA throttle body, and microsquirt setup.

 

Carburetor is cleaning up nicely. Kerosene bath does wonders for clearing the sludge....but man the fumes ain't a joke. Really need good ventilation.

Picked up a stock filter housing on marketplace for $50...may have overpaid but that's okay it'll work for now. He also had an oil cooler out for trash due to a crack around the fitting. I'm gonna see if I can braze it. Guess we'll find out when I go to start it.

 

Started packing the rotors now that the soft seal kit arrived. Everything went back in nice and easy. Side seals are good and tight.

Also, I was donated a Mazda radio by a buddy. Thought it would look good in the b2200.me being me, I couldn't accept just putting it in. I got curious why it had an extra plug on it. Turns out this had an optional 6 disc changer. I know enough about these older electronics that they're quite dumb...so after fishing around and using wayback machine I was able to find the pin out and indeed, all it needed was 2 pins connected and then to be fed in a left and right audio channel. I picked up a $15 Bluetooth adapter on Amazon and sure enough I am able to play Bluetooth music on it! And the BT came with a microphone as well so it'll accept calls too. Huge win.

 

Pretty awesome you got the bluetooth set up to work with that stock radio.

 

Excuse the google image, but I added the two plastic air damns located here as I had nothing there before - just an LRB panel., it has definitely helped stabilize temperatures - I wouldnt say they "dropped" but it is moving air much more efficiently. I noticed if I shift into neutral while at cruising speed the temp will drop from 191 to thermostat temp of 184 quite quickly.

I'm thinking of getting out a small drill bit and poking the thermostat to create some more flow. Is that an ok thing to do? If not I'll have to accept this as-is until I can get the vented hood to fit again.

 

I'd leave the t-stat as is and focus on more efficient ducting. Seal up all low gaps and make sure the path from the bumper opening to the radiator has no gaps that can cause turbulence.

 

I wouldn't mess with the T-stat yet, agree it's best to focus on airflow & ducting. Is there a gap between your oil cooler bottom and the FC's plastic undertray? If so, that's a gap that lots of guys miss - the OEM setup has a roughly 2"x2" strip of foam glued to the bottom of the oil cooler, that squishes against the undertray, sealing that gap. If your foam is gone, you can replace it with a strip of foam insulation (the stuff available in hardware stores to seal up window AC units) and use a suitable adhesive to glue it to the oil cooler bottom.

 

I've got the radiator pretty well sealed off. The oil cooler is tucked up high right above the round cross bar. I did notice after my drive home that some of the foam has moved so I will retape and see if it's any better this weekend.

 

Made this heat shield as a test piece last night. First time trying a complex shape with cardboard. To be fair the wife did it as I was cleaning up the garage, so I kind of guided her on what I was looking to create.

Took the car to work today and the temps seemed much slower to increase and my intake temps only rose one the thermostat opened so my thoughts are once I duct the intake more gooderly it'll be ready for the added load of a condenser.

 

Got the motor for the b2200 stacked last night with the help of a good friend. Compression sounds great when spinning it over. This has got me all hyped up now. Hopefully have it running in a few weeks time.

 

Got the accessories around the block on today. Next up clean up the transmission.

 

Kerosene does some amazing cleaning...minimal effort. Just a brass brush and scotch Brite. This was 15 min or so of effort for the bellhousing.