Nice work, glad to see you having fun. Can't wait to see some videos of the car in action.

 

The chevy sticker is like darth vader coming back from the great outerspace grave yard, EEEEVILL

Wow, looking forward to seeing the not so mellow yellow FD in May.

 

Been trying to sort out an issue. I had a major transmission/clutch issue at CMP a couple of weeks ago where the car didn't want to shift. I knew I had transmission issues, so I went ahead and picked up a transmission that had some modifications, but included everything I needed to bolt it right up. Of course, that wasn't the case and I'm going to have to have a new driveshaft made to make it work. The old transmission went back in that has a couple of bad synchro's.

When I picked up the car in the project stage, the engine and transmission was together with a new clutch. It also had the tilton brake and clutch set up mounted to the firewall... This is why you never assume anything. Once I removed the transmission and saw my clutch had been completely ate up, I realized there wasn't a pilot bearing installed. We installed a new McCleod clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel as well as a new throwout bearing and a new PILOT bearing. Once getting everything back together, we still were having clutch disengagement issues. After going through everything, the only thing it could be was the clutch master cylinder was not displacing enough fluid. Once again, we assumed since it was already mounted up, they were the proper sizes. They weren't. The clutch MC was a 3/4" bore and the recommended size is 7/8" after speaking with Tilton. I've read some people are using 15/16" bore, but the guy I spoke with at Tilton said that if it takes that much with my clutch, there are other issues. So I had a the 7/8" bore overnighted and it arrived at the shop this morning.

The big challenge is the fact that all the clutch/brake stuff is under the dash. In a car with a cage with door bars, it makes it a royal PITA to access. Brian fought with it for a while and won. Clutch is now bled, and clutch is now working as it should. The clutch pedal is much more firm. The transmission will be good enough to get me through the weekend at VIR, after that I'll figure out something to do. We'll also be pulling out all the Tilton assembly to change the bore size on the brakes. The current set up is front 1" rear 7/8". I'll prob. change the front to 7/8" and the rear to 3/4". I'll have an update and hopefully some pictures and video's after the weekend.

Brent

 

Transmission issue resolved, still haven't switched the brake master cylinders though. I'm heading to VIR this weekend with Fritz. We'll see how it goes since this will hopefully be a trouble free weekend(first one since this event last year). Just looking to get some seat time and have fun.

Here's a couple of video's of me from the BMW event at Road Atlanta in September having some fun and learning the car:

http://www.vimeo.com/14915294

http://www.vimeo.com/15040928

 

Very nice! I will be there this weekend as well! Are you getting there Friday?

 

Yep! I'm here now, Fritz will show up some time tomorrow.

 

Just read it all, love it! Thanks for sharing

Kyle

 

Just read the thread start to finish. Nice build Brent! even though it has the wrong engine, it's still a very nice build and I can appreciate that.

Looks like in some of the early pictures that there was some curb rash on one of the front wheels, is that my imagination?

How did VIR go for you this past weekend?

 

Thanks Chuck! No, I think that's the wheel that had a little rash when I bought them. I've actually never driven on those wheels. They went on the car for a while when I was building it, but haven't put the flares or anything on yet.

VIR went well. I posted a new personal best of 2:06.9. Here's a video of me(with Fritz in front of me) during one of our Time Trial sessions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6k0lJkcwrM

 

Brent, I'm at the shop right now in the middle of clearancing some rotors, but once I get home I'll take a look at the video. Pleasure meeting you down at Road Atlanta during the ALMS race

 

Awesome build and thanks for the vid!

 

Rich, nice meeting you AGAIN at Petit. Had an absolute blast hanging out with you, Dan, Charlie, and John! You guys should try to make it down for a track weekend sometime... at least to VIR.

 

Very nice Brent... are you running upgraded

-rocker arms (heard the needle bearings pop out sometimes)
-oil pan baffle
-upgraded rod bolts

?

I got me an LS1 ready to go but wanted to do those upgrades for track duty

 

yes, yes, and yes. Also have forged internals and an accusump to name a couple of other worth while mods.

 

Nice! Looks like your still tweaking on brake bias.

 

Great build, I can't wait to sell all my silly miata projects and start my LS3/FD project.

Did you use an FC manual rack or are there ones available for the FD?

 

Those are must have items if you are tracking the car. I saw a few LS1 RX7 in the Bay ARea with thrown rods on stock the stock LS1 used for drifting.

 

thanks for posting the video, i enjoyed it. it is always super to see Fds out on the kind of track for which they were engineered.

howard

 

FD rack converted to a manual rack by Maval. You can also DIY. It's the same as the DIY write up on the miata rack.


Thanks Howard!

 

I wonder if the FC manual rack would have any advantage over a depowered FD.

I've driven miatas with manual, depowered, and power. I remember the manual be a little more manageable than the depowered. Guess it just comes down to the ratio inside the rack, or how big your arms are.

 

AtomicRex also makes a manual rack that several of the track/race FD guys on here run. Search "atomicrex" and it should come up.

 

Hey, Just curious why you are switching up the bore diameters. IIRC you are running a front BBK with stock rears. I am curious because this is very similar to the setup I plan to run with a tilton twin master set up. Just trying to get as much info before I order my masters. Thanks.

 

The tilton master cylinders that came with the car that the original owner purchased are the wrong size. The pedal is extremely hard and their is essentially no modulation. I'm prob. giving up 2 seconds a lap at Road Atlanta, for instance, compared to braking in my silver car that was my previous track car.

 

Prior to the weekend, I had been to CMP for a lemons race where I drove ~30 minutes on a small portion of the course and another time in May when my car was broken. So this was realistically my first time on course. The track was really slick and I eased my way into it. I still had a couple of brake lock up issues, but nothing significant. I also had a close call in turn 3 that I was able to save(see video). I ended up getting 3rd on Saturday(got knocked out of 2nd in the last session). The top 4 guys were all within .5 seconds of each other. On Sunday I got 2nd. I'm ok with that for being my first time there. Still alot of time left in the car, just have to get the driver up to speed. Here's a short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpoABYYgLAw

I'll be at Road Atlanta in 2 weeks for the MVP event to get some more seat time and the end of year event the first weekend in December with NASA. Right now, my class has 13 cars signed up for the December event.

 

nice car, seems your racing all against vettes