wickedrx7

iTrader: (14)

I have had hinson's torque arm for three years now without any issues. My car does wheel hop a little but I also have stock toe links and no dif brace. If I get some extra cash I will switch to Justin's trans and rear setup but it isn't on top of my list.

So far the torque arm has held up fine for road racing but i am also basically stock LS1.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Wickedrx7, thanks for the first hand experience feedback! That is the stuff I like to hear about. I love to gather as much data as I can, but as we all know, on the internet so much of it is "I heard from so and so who heard from so and so who read it at XXXX." Getting it from the source is great!

habu2

I have the Hinson torque arm in my LS1/FD. I had wheel hop problems but they were due to worn-out diff bushings, not the torque arm.

I have heard of problems with the Hinson trans mount (at fwd end of torque arm) tearing up the tunnel sheet metal, but that's a mount reinforcement problem, not the TA.

There were also reports of bad welds on some Hinson TAs but mine seem to be doing fine.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Another Great point about the mount not being reinforced! Same principle of not reinforcing a roll bar/cage when installing a bolt in... with enough force, it will tear through the metal as it isn't that strong(aka I've had road debris punch a small hole in the floor of one of my FD's). I really noticed it when I installed the M2/Raceshop roll bar into the silver car.

Section8

iTrader: (6)

Awesome build. Hope to see this beast at VIR this year!

ivegonemad

great work!! keep it coming....

mdpalmer

iTrader: (24)

Very very nice car. You are required to post in car vids of this thing on the track

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

It'll be there for sure! We need to all organize one event for all of us FD guys to get together at VIR.


Thanks for all the kind words guys. I will def. have some video's up once I hit the track. Update to follow...

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Progress:

Dan used a stock FD throttle cable on the car and its a nice fit. I don't have any pictures of it.

The exhaust is now hung. It clears the fuel cell. We have to have a pipe welded onto the ypipe and flange welded onto it to connect it to the catback portion and it'll be finished:




Today started off with Brian making a really nice bracket for the fan relays:



We were playing around with the accusump mounting location. We had basically decided on the passenger side area, but hadn't locked down the location. After looking a little more, I found a couple of parallel 10mm studs that looked like they would work perfect for the mounting brackets for the t bolt clamps for the accusump. It worked out:


I have looked at a few different custom dashes that others have made for their track cars and they looked REALLY nice! One thing I noticed about most is that they are made out of sheet metal/aluminum. When you see their track pictures, they have their dashes taped up due to the glare from the sun. Dan decided to make the dash out of 3/8th inch ABS plastic. It's a wrinkle type finish. He made a mock up of the dash using cardboard. Once he finished the mock up, he traced out the top piece:


Then cut it with the jigsaw:


After a few more trims, some filing, and sanding it was a perfect fit:

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

A piece of angled metal will be bonded to the bottom of the piece posted above to be able to secure the other piece of the dash. The other side will be screwed/bolted to the metal so it can be removed with ease. This is our blank easel



Now if I could only afford that expensive Racepak. I don't see me dropping the change though, so you'll most likely just see my normal gauges.

The only other thing is I picked up a Optima Red Top. I ended up going with it for a few reasons. The first is I have the worst luck with batteries. If something happens to this one in the next three years, I take it back to the parts store and get a replacement on the spot opposed to having to weight. It's also readily available almost anywhere that sells batteries. So the convenience factor is huge! I'm sure some of you are wondering why I went with such a heavy battery instead of getting a braille or something lighter. Well, I've decided that I'm going to run the car in TTS next year which is a 8.7:1 power to weight ratio. I was originally thinking of running TTU which is a 5.5:1 ratio. That would mean that if the car was 2600lbs with me in it and half a tank, I would need 470rwhp. While I haven't seen what kind of power the engine makes yet, I'm quite certain that it won't be close to that. I also don't want to try to push the engine as far as I can. I'd rather do a very conservative and reliable 300hp or so and not have to worry about weight anymore and have the car *knock on wood* last for a long time without issue.

I had picked up a battery box from summit but it was ridiculously huge and wouldn't fit where the bins use to be with the bulkhead where it is. So we are just going to make a tie down for the battery. 2ft of 3/8th all thread, 6 fender washers, and 6 nuts with nylon inserts:


I'm going to pick up an all view mirror, it's comes highly recommended by some club racers I know. http://www.allviewmirror.com/

I also sat the bumper and hood on today:


I'm really not sure how the exterior will end up. The pettit flares still need to go on. If the car is track ready by the 23rd, I'll prob. just run my 18x10's that day. The GTC replica bumper I think sat in the heat somewhere prior to me buying the car because it fits like crap. I have a couple of different bumpers in storage and I'm taking one to the shop tomorrow to see how it fits. May end up with a different bumper. The Corvette guy that is another shop partner with Dan has been prepping his C6Z for a while now. He has a race at Sebring in a few days and is planning on leaving on Tuesday. It's going to be down to the last minute and he has been putting in the hours over at the shop. While we were there yesterday, the guy that puts wraps on bodies came I did almost a full one on his car. It is modeled after the C6R Vette like this one:



Here is his car, it has come a long way since he bought it and looks amazing with the new wrap:

Can you tell who his brake sponsor is


Soooo after I saw that his car was modeled after the YELLOW C6R, I was joking around about how funny it would be to get my car replicated with the C6R graphics as well. I wouldn't do that, but I would love to see the Vette guys reaction to it. I do have my jake decals though that will go on the the rear bumper at least.

That's it for today. More to come tomorrow.

Brent

wickedrx7

iTrader: (14)

Where did you get that ABS plastic from? That seems like a great alternative to aluminum.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

I think they picked it up from a local place here in Nashville. You could search the internet and prob. come up with something.

As far as my last update post... sorry about some incoherent sentences. I had typed it all out and accidentally hit the back button when I was almost finished and lost it all. The second time I was wasn't really paying attention to what I was typing as I was watching a movie as well. Also, a couple of corrections... the abs plastic is 1/4 inch and Dan made the relay bracket.

As for today. I'm not really sure what all was accomplished today. It was a busy day for me and I was only able to get to the shop for an hour or two. Dan and Brian made the battery tie down and it turned out really well, but then again... would you expect anything else? Here's a picture of the finished product:


I brought my Sparco Evo L with me today to sit in the car as it will be my driver's seat.

I also brought a set of R1/2 oil coolers as I am using them on my car. The car came with some other ones, but I think these will be more than sufficient. Not to mention, they bolt right in place and line up with the bumper. I went ahead and bolted them in place to make sure I had all the hardware. I'm missing one bracket and I'll order that from Mazda on Monday.

I also brought a JKL Racing SS1 Front Bumper with me that is prob. going to end up on the car. More info. here:
http://shop.jklre.com/products/fd-ss1
It's going to fit no problem. I like the design of it, not crazy about the looks. As long as it's functional, I don't mind. Here is a picture with the oil coolers back on:


And the bumper sitting on:



The CF undersweep and canards:


If I end up using this bumper, I'll put my RE-Amemiya sleek lights in since I'll have to paint the bumper as well.

Getting a little closer and a little closer.

RXILVER7

iTrader: (2)

RE Amemiya bumper on a V8, seems so wrong

Respect though, great build

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Yeah, I'm a hibitual line crosser. Not my favorite look, but hopefully it is as functional as I hear it is. Plus, I'm trying to also avoid looking almost exactly like Damian. Especially since I'll also have Pettit Flares and most likely RE-Amemiya lights.

RXILVER7

iTrader: (2)

I haven't heard anything about the Amemiya bumper's functionality. How is it more functional than other bumpers?

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

I've never been able to tell a difference in any of the bumpers I've ran on the track. Like I said above though, I've HEARD this has a noticable difference in downforce. That is from some other track drivers. No hard data though. But that's ok, I'm not claiming there is I have the bumper, and I'm never going to use it on a street car, so I figured I'd give it a go since the other one isn't going to fit. I like the design of the bumper. It has a nice big front/radiator opening, brake duct openings that are preformed where I can just slide my cooling hose onto the back side of the opening, as well as the canards and general side design redirect air to the tires. The only thing I'm not crazy about(besides the looks) are the oil cooler openings. They are a pretty good size, but I wouldn't mind a little larger. Luckily the LSX engines don't generally have an oil cooling issue. As far as the aerodynamics, we'll see if I can tell any difference. I like the looks of the GTC bumper, but as far as I know, there is not actual wind tunnel data on any of our front bumpers(except maybe the mazdaspeed b spec?). However, the same style bumper that Mazda made for the RX-8 only provides an additional 50lbs of downforce over the stock bumper. I don't anticipate having a front lift issue, but I think this might help regardless. Don't think it will hurt any. I've always felt FD's get "light" around 120mph on the track. After the GT style wing went on the silver car, I could feel a significant difference in stability at higher speeds. I actually ran VIR one Saturday wingless, drove to Fritz's on Saturday evening and picked up the wing and hatch, put it on Sunday morning, and drove with it all day Sunday. I had a friend in the car and as we were on the warm up lap going through the uphill esses at around 80-90mph, he says "wow, do you feel that?"... and he's a BMW guy. One other point in regards to RE-Amemiya: My wing is an RE-A, it's the one that has the video on youtube showing RE-A testing it and posting downforce results. I can't imagine that RE-A would make something that would be counterproductive to our cars, but then again I'm no engineer nor do I claim to be. I'm just a nuts and bolts kind of guy.

RXILVER7

iTrader: (2)

I do agree that you can vouch for RE-A's "character" as being very respectable and they use the same bumpers on their own track cars, so it makes sense that they would be nothing but productive. I have never really seen any data as far as different front bumpers improving brake cooling, downforce, or car stability. I guess I always thought it was a style/fitment thing

Cgotto6

iTrader: (8)

Which exact tilton pedal set up is that? Know the exact specs? Pedal ratio, mc sizes? Clutch mc size? Thanks in advance.

Chadwick

iTrader: (12)

I believe they are these http://www.tiltonracing.com/content....ist2&id=13&m=b They came with the car so I'm not 100% sure.

Dan

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

I am not running Power Steering as I like the feedback I get from a manual rack while on the track. I also believe in keeping it as simple as possible. Well, since I'm not running Power Steering, this created a belt routing problem. I searched around and didn't see anything that was already in production to solve my problem. Luckily, I was in good hands as we have all seen by the TweakIt Racing Air Pump Idler pulley. They worked their magic again to come up with a solution. Where the Power Steering normally goes:

The fix(prototype):



The tensioner(the belt was a nice fit):


As stated, this is the prototype. The actual bracket will be made of aluminum. I'm sure Dan and Brian can answer any questions.

Oil Routing:

My oil cooler adapter plate:



Installed with fittings:

I didn't get any pictures, but the line leaves the adapter plate and goes to the driver's side oil cooler.

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Setrab M22 -8AN adapters were used to convert the Mazda Oil Coolers for the 8AN fittings and lines.
DS with Setrab adapters and AN fittings:


The line leaves the Driver's side and goes into the passenger side.

PS just like the DS:

This is the Moroso One Way Oil Check Valve with adapter fittings converting it from NPT to AN:

It's installed after the passenger side oil cooler so if/when the accusump triggers, the oil will go into the engine and not flow back into the oil coolers.
Installed:


Here is the bulkhead T fitting with nice bracket that connects the line coming out of the passenger side oil cooler, the accusump line, and the return line going back to the plate/engine.

Some more nice brackets and clamps for the lines:


I didn't get any pictures of the line going from the T to the accusump.

My sweet supercars.com radiator

That was part of the way through taking the Hinson decal off. It's a nice fit. After our initial test fit, I wasn't sure about it. After everything was buttoned up, it fits nice and tight:

Very close to the water pump pulley:

Using the stock overflow tank(thanks Fritz):


Soooooo... fuel is plumbed, oil is plumbed, coolant is plumbed. Getting really close now. Have to do some wiring, bolt the seats down, fluids, etc, etc...

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

I don't have any pictures from this past weekend as I wasn't around, but here are a few pictures over the previous couple of weeks that I snapped.

Idler Pulley finished product:

Dash coming together:

traqmate view from my angle:

rgordon1979

iTrader: (3)

This is great! It took me the past 24 hours to read all two pages of this, but very nice! I had no idea you were going to these lengths. Did you have this car when I saw you at VIR back in October?

Brent Dalton

iTrader: (31)

Yes.

MakoRacing

iTrader: (12)

Anything new? Your build is going great, love the dash! Im excited to see how she does out on the track