Did you double up on metal under your wing mounts? I tore mine like that road racing. Granted higher speeds but i am putting some major metal under my mounts.

 

And you are the AX god. just wanted to say

 

Yes, I made some triangle support brackets and doubled up the sheet metal under the wing mounts. I can pull the car with the wing mounts and there is little to no flex on the wing or sheetmetal. The only flex is in the carbon fiber wing itself. I added a brace to the second wing as it was a bit flexi. It came with supports, but the way it was suposed to mount up didn't work with the mounting holes in the wing. I need to address that with Rick Jung and see what we can do. The backet I made worked just fine.
25XP

 

Awww shucks...If only that were true. Thanks tho Carl, You know first hand just what it takes to prep a FC to the extent we have. There are many, many better hot shoes in the autocross world then myself, but ya gotta chase someone...
25XP

 

I had been in limbo debating if I wanted to pull the engine myself and attempt a first rebuild or simply take the car to TriPoint and have them investigate and fix.

After speaking with Mark at TriPoint, I feel in this case I am going to take it to them and allow them to use thier expertise to determine what needs replacing and what is ok to reuse. Although they built the engine a few year ago, there is truly very few actual miles on the internals.

While I would like to gain the experience of a build, my thoughts in leaving it to an expert eye would be that I may miss something or go over kill and simply replace everything dispite the need to do so.

Also adding to this decision is that fact I wanted to have them retune the Motec managment system and ensure that the all the new changes to the car will provide a safe and effective tune.

I am thinking if an upgrade to the dowel pins while the motor is apart. Thoughts, ideas, suggestions. I don't want to machine the housings.

Looking to drop the car off first week in June.
25XP

 

Hey Tom,

I have some revised brackets I can send you.

Thanks,

Rick
CiroDesignRacing

 

Awesome customer service as usual Rick! Thank you.

Here is a picture of the last event. The beast in it's natural habitat....when not torn apart in my garage! LOL

25XP

 

The parts should ship out today. The FC looks great, was hoping to see it at the El Toro ProSolo. Needs some new Ciro Racing stickers on the endplates!

Rick

 

Update:
I received an update from Mark at TriPoint. They have pulled the motor, and ran a compression test. 100lbs in the front and 90lbs in the rear rotor. Mark stated the difference in compression may be due to the rear housing being cracked but futher inspection will present more info.
At this time the motor is scheduled for a full rebuild.
Due to the high RPM's (9.5K)and moderate power (~400hp)the car will see, we will may look to machine the housing for larger engine studs as well as some other pinning of the rotors to allow for the power and RPMs.
He also mentioned re-porting the exhaust ports to allow quicker boost.

I should have another update soon once the closer inspection has been done.
25XP

 

I had that done on my SSM FD, single turbo.

Full boost (13.5 lbs) at about 3800 RPM IIRC.

 

Huh? Post #158 has you mounting a new wing and #159 has your motor out. Seems like we missed a few chapters. There's nothing wrong with 90-100 psi compression. I hear $$$ burning.

 

True the compression numbers are not all that bad. However the oil leak from a cracked rear housing was pretty substantial. Not a small weep, but a quick puddle under the car kind of leak.

If you review some of the post on page 7 it speaks to what happened.

It may have been possible to keep the rest of the motor together and just change out the rear housing, I wanted to assure that all was well with the rest of the motor. It may be money burning to some, but peace of mind for me.

25XP

 

Yer right, I overlooked the bit of history about the oil leak being due to a crack in the rr housing.

i'm unsure about the level of mods to your motor, but the thing about a rebuild is that the "while your there" factor is super high. Meaning the logic goes: well while I'm doing a rebuild I might as well up the oil pressure, add a three window bearing and FD rear stat gears, port the motor, add Viton oil and water seals, use beefy dowel pin side plates, ceramic apex seals... and on and on. That's what I meant about burning $$$ .

 

Yes, money can easily burn "while I'm here rebuilding". The motor had already seen street ported, 3mm Apex seals, FD corners, and FD OPR.

Currently, my "while I'm here" decisions may be to do RB hardened stationary gears, stud the motor and increase the exhaust porting a bit. I would like to be able to safely run the RPM to 9.5K. Although the motor has seen those RPM's in the past, the mods listed above should allow for me to do so more safely.

25XP

 

A before and after of the exhaust porting done to the motor.
25XP

 

Quick question, what are you running for shocks and what are your spring rates? I'm building an N/A FC for hillclimb action and will be running rubber just a little skinnier than you (275) but I've had a hell of a time tracking down any real spring rate numbers when it comes to these cars.

 

if you search there are a bunch of threads if you search.

I also suggest becoming a member of mazda's motorsport development program. It gives you discounts on stock parts and aftermarket parts:
MAZDASPEED MOTORSPORTS DEVELOPMENT - Home Page

They'll recommend 400 lb/in up front and 275 lb/in main spring with a 150 lb/in tender spring in the rear , which is a bit soft for autocross, but for hill climbs, with presumably not the smoothest roads, it'll probably be good.

I suggest you make your own thread though so multiple people will have suggestions.

 

I run custom Bilstein shocks and struts. Similar to what can be found either through AWR or MMS.
Springs are Hypercoil 500# front, 400# rear, if memory serves me correctly.
For hill climbs you may look to softer spring rates depending on road conditions.
Hope it helps.
25XP

 

Just an update on the motor/turbo.
The turbo was inspected and found to have play and shaft scoring possibly due to contaminates. The back side will be used, and a new Garrett 60-1 front side will be installed. While this was not on the motor build agenda, it needed to be replaced. I should be able to make better power with this unit than I had previously.
The rebuild is underway, I was told the motor was also machined for the additional dowel pins as well as the increased porting.
An Rx8 E-shaft and stationary gears will also be installed.
1600cc secondaries will replace the 1000cc secondaries, and they will replace the primaries.
25XP

 

Do you have a giant front bar? I run 600/400 with ST front bar and no rear, and it's still too loose for my liking.

 

I'm currently running 600/500 with the whiteline front bar and no rear and it seems to be pretty good. But I'm running a 245/275 stagger on 8"/10" wheels... and had pretty bad understeer with my old 500/350 setup. I need to get a set of 9" fronts

I think your oversteer comes from your v8 josh

 

I run a ST front bar with the mounting points on the strut rather than the LCA. I was told this will increase the rate of the bar. I did not get enough seat time to determine if the car had any increased understeer from the new set up, or if the decrease in rear camber helped out.
I always fought oversteer with my old rear setup, although the slicks were 12" wide, it seemed like I was only using 2/3 of it with so much camber
The tires were very crispy and grip front or rear was compromised.

When the car comes back from Tri-Point I will have a fresh set of Avons to try out, so tires should not be as much of a variable and I can concentrate on re-learning the new found power and handling modifications.
25XP

 

How's the car coming?

 

It has been awhile since I have updated this thread, but here is a quick update.

I have run my second autox since the car was at Tri-Point Engineering and thus far I am very happy with the results.
While the build took longer than planned it also grew from just a simple rebuild. Cody and Mark of Tri-Point Engineering worked on the car for over 6 months as the list of work increased and challanges came up. There were some set backs and difficulty getting a proper tune on the car, but Cody was able to give me a very useable power curve and healthy power numbers.
The rebuild consisted of reporting the existing street port, as well as a new rear rotor housing. While the motor was apart it was machined for dowel pins to keep it from coming apart. The motor was resealed with Rotary Aviation 3mm seals as well as new corner seals and the usual engine rebuild seals.
The fuel injectors also got a boost with 960cc primaries and 1600cc secondaries.
The turbo was freshened as there was scoring and wear on the shaft and the oil and coolant lines were replumbed.
A MDS digital ignition box was added and 10.5 plugs set the spark.
There are many other items that went into the build that I am forgetting.

The overall look of the motor is basiclly the same as before, we were able to get a better low end power delivery and build a bit more hp in the the motor.

The car is quite fast and when the boost comes in, the rear Avons as sticky as they are have a difficult challange putting the power down.
I am very happy with the Avons in the first 2 events. Spring weather means 60 degrees ambient temps and the tires have warmed up better than the Hoosiers I used to run. I will see how they do with warmer temps, but I am running the mid range soft tire so I may not have over heating issues. Time will tell.

I need to get used to the added power, trust myself and the car to do what it should and lay off the brakes. There are several items still on the to do list and with time and money they will get checked off. For now, hopefully the rest of the season will be gaining seat time and grinning smiles.



25XP

 

Glad to hear she came together well and you are now back with a car that keps you on your toes cause its fast.. not cause its a handful.