What happened to everyone? We need to go to the track sometime. Anyone down to go?

 

i just got back from some real racing not that gay straight line stuff you guys do

unfortunately i will not be running again for a bit. split my front dowel this morning

 

Watch your dirty mouth...

Thats no fun. Which front Dowel? How'd you split a solid dowel?

 

well what had happened was the dowel land around the dowel broke. which is odd considering i have solid dowels and stud action going on in there. but i will say this, she was flying when it let go. so neeed more strength for the power

 

wow that's more rare for the front land to be the one to let go. Are you're studs oversize or regular sized? also were any dowels added or were the existing ones just replaced with solid?

 

i have 6 oversize studs and the rest are tension bolts. was a thing aspec said would be plenty enough for what im doing. so turns out that is wrong. and i do have all solid dowels with the external oil reroute.

im stumped as to why it broke. i thought i had taken all the proper precautions to keep this from happening. i have a few thoughts of what might of done it, but right now its only guesses.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear that Rob.

 

Thats insane Rob. This has to be one of the only cases of a broken front dowel land.

 

I would say go REW but based off my fresh front plate dowel cracking exercise maybe not.

 

My first thought is they did a shitty job machining for those over sized studs (which doesn't take much to **** up.) They could have integrated too much clearance or not enough, unless they fit as good and with the proper clearances -for that different material- to give it the optimal running and sliding fit like the factory dowels, they don't do a damn thing to resist twist if the clearance is over sized, only squeeze the engine together "better" than factory tension bolts. If undersized the dowels will become a press fit causing massive amounts of stress. even worse if they have proper clearances but the holes don't line up "perfectly" you're creating stress risers that way too. the expansion and contraction rate of over sized studs won't be the same as the stock tension bolts which will cause stress, especially if not every single tension bolt was replaced with the studs. You then are creating uneven tension throughout different parts of the engine.

what a lot of people are having better experiences with lately are scraping the stud business all together and placing extra hollow dowels strategically located around the upper dowel location in the tension bolt holes on both front and rear housings/irons, the tension bolts then go through the new dowels. each extra dowel added takes 16% less stress off the original dowel lands.

 

 

thats something i was thinking of trying, but i dont really like how thin the material gets around the coolant passages unless you use really small dowels.

i wish i had the cash i would swap to an RE and which seems to be the best base engine for structural strength. but i dont so gotta figure out what im gonna do.

i have also been wondering if i have things too solidly mounted creating undue stress and harmonics??

 

The simplest route would be to stud the rest of the engine, like the other Keith said different expansion and contraction between the tension bolts and studs could have contributed. But I have read alot of good news on extra dowels also.

If ya need some help or anything with it let me know.

 

I'm having a hard time remembering, but the last time I was over did you tell me you solid mounted your transmission? I remember the engine had already had the aluminum mounts. I've heard it is good practice to run solid on one or the other, but not both for flexibility reason. if you are running solid transmission mounts this season and hadn't last season then that may be the culprit.

 

yes i did put in the solid trans mounts. the poly ones i have were just flexing way too much and shifting was an issue. prob just replace the iron, freshen up, and put in a softer engine mount on one side to absorb some of the vibrations. i would love to add some dowels but im on a budget so having to have machine work done right now isnt feasible

 

https://www.rx7club.com/midwest-sale-wanted-classifieds-224/13bre-accessories-903568/

A guy from Chicago area selling one for $2100.
Part out your current engine and get it.

You could also sell what you won't need from his package deal:

 

i did see that the other day. if i had cash to blow i would buy it for sure. but financially right now it makes more sense for me just just source a new iron and do a light rebuild. RE's are the ****. if i would of been smarter when i built the car i would of gone that direction from the get go.

 

Anyone have an N/A aluminum hood 4 cheap? or 2 or 3? Figured I'd ask locally.

 

i have a spare stock fd hood, but i don't think that'll help you much

 

yea lol no good

 

Design Engineering Works is going to be having a dyno day May 22 (Saturday) at Chris Johnsons Race Engines in Auburn. We originally were doing this more as a workplace dyno day but we have a couple of open spots to fill. Didn't know if anyone was interested in running. It is $50 for 3 runs with WBO2. Let me know if you would be interested and we can sign you up. We are going to be starting around 9:00 AM and will have some lunch for the guys that are dynoing.

http://www.designengineeringworks.co...lts.asp?Cat=18

 

Hey Ryan,
What kind of dyno do they have?
Is it load bearing?

I need to tune my car soon and need to figure out what dyno's around here will suffice.

Do you happen to know their hourly rates (if they have a load bearing dyno)?

 

never die easy, were you the one who wanted the kick panels? if so i've found them if you're still interested

 

EPP is gone now. Dynatech is gone/no more dyno. Lengifelter won't let you on their dyno. So Chris Johnson Racing Engines is about the only place left. Its a Dynojet not sure if he has it optioned for load bearing or not as its an option on the Dynojets. They are really reasonable at $75 per hour including WBO2 and strap down.

 

Oh yeah I believe that was a 3 hr minimum rate.