STS2 Miata - Dory Part Deux - 2008
 

With the 2007 season over and a 2nd overall, I'm very happy how far this car has come since buying it just about a year ago. However, she's still got a long way to go and will be under then knife for what I can only imagine to be the better part of the off season.

Plans for the off-season include:
1. Take it to Mazcare for a recurring problem with the fuel tank building pressure (in progress)
2. 700/450# springs f/r
3. Bridgestone RE-01Rs (pending testing results of new ST legal and possibly competitive tires)
4. NB rear shock mount conversion fo-cheapsies. See thread. This will give me about 1/2 - 3/4" more shock travel before hitting the bump stops.
5. Brake pads / fluids.
6. The car's 15 years old, going on 16. The stock suspension...everything... is tired and / or broken. I will be replacing all of the stock ball joints / rod ends / dust boots / etc. They're pretty much all toast. Do I have any idea what that entails at this point? Nope lol. I've gotta get under the car once she comes back from Mazcare and get a list of everything that I'll need (off topic: YAY GARAGE!)
7. Poly Control Arm bushings from Flyin Miata. Why? See #6.
8. Rear main seal / clutch et al.
9. After driving kcbhiw's car for a couple runs back to back at the last points event, I'm seriously considering a manual steering rack.
10. Get the injectors cleaned, flow tested and blueprinted by witchhunter.
11. After most of these, I'll need an alignment anyway. Then I've got to find a shop open on weekends to corner weight the thing. Or find someone to let me borrow scales.

Beyond these changes / fixes, I'm still waiting on 949racing's 6UL to come out in the 15x7.5" size. These should be available in April.

In conclusion:
Dory for Champion 2008!
Attachment 9973

Just keep swimming! :p


EDIT: Added CURRENT mod list:
Chassis
- Koni Race valved / shortened shocks
- Ground Control coilovers (550#/in f / 375#/in r)
- Racing Beat 1 1/8" front swaybar
- Rear swaybar delete
- Gearhead Garage heim-jointed, spherical bushing end-links.
- Ground Control linear bumpstops
- Hawk HPS brake pads
- Russel Stainless Brake Lines
- 15x7 ATS Complites (13.5 lbs. ea)
- 205/50/15 Falken Azenis shaved to 4/32"

Engine
- Racing Beat 4-1 header
- Ebay Racing-beat knockoff intake with K&N filter
- Timing advanced to 14* BTDC (premium only :()
- NGK Plug Wires
- Custom cat back using Supertrapp muffler (total weight: 6 lbs.)

Interior
- Corbeau Forza seats
- G-Force 4 point (for now) Cam - lock harness
- Kirk Racing 4 point double-diagonal roll bar
- MiaTurbo m4d cust0m roll bar camera mount

finally decided to post in the *right* place?

yeah yeah yeah. It was boofed last night when I tried...

*subscribes*

I <3 build threads

actually more of a rebuild thread really

x2

so explain to me again why the headlights are up? Scientists discovered drag is actually good now?

naa, there's not really enough drag @ autocross speeds to matter. The problem is that save the radiator inlet / front air dam, there isn't any other way for cold air to get to the engine bay (underneath...but whatever). there is some open space around the headlights where air can get in, but only when the headlights are up. Add to that, that the filter sits right behind the driver's side headlight, but adjacent to the exhaust manifold, it's really the only way to keep the intake cool.

Unless you have completely adjustable coilovers, cornerweighting the thing will be a *itch with a capital B. Even with the coilovers on my FD, it took us a good 2 and a half hours to get mine anywhere near even.

and then I couldn't tell any difference on the track anyway! :cookoo:

Yeah, that's why I'd like to get someone to lend me a set of scales.


Is this adjustable enough? :p

See how the top perch is not adjustable? If you lower your car on Ground Controls, you're also compressing the spring, and messing with the rebound of the Konis.
IMO, put a set of Ohlins or Zeals on your list (if they're legal in your class) and it'll make a nice difference in adjustability, and definitely make cornerweighting much easier. :)

But then again, I aint #2 overall this season.

Lowering it won't compress the spring. If anything I'd be compressing it by trying to raise the car. Lowering it actually drops the spring further from the body.

Holy damn it I'm glad I checked Miata.net today. 949racing's doing a limited production run of 20 sets of the 15x7.5s. Same cost / etc. Apparently they didn't have enough orders of one of the 15x7 wheels and he decided to open these up.

1 of 20 sets. Word.

http://www.949racing.com/ProductImages/6UL40ScW.jpg
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=257220

those are HOT..

TY. This puts me at the absolute limit of the rulebook wheel wise, which I've been waiting for lol.

There are only 3 (now) kinds of STS/2 15x7.5s. The Rota Slipstream, which is heavier and ugly as sin, now the 949Racing 6UL, and the unobtainium SSRs. The Rotas are readily available, the 6ULs are readily available for the next couple of days lol, and the SSRs... well... I don't have a 1st born child yet to give away to get them.

I forgot, what spring rates are you running now?

550# f / 375# r


EDIT First post updated with current mod list :)

*sigh* still waiting to get her back from mazcare. They found a bad sensor related to the evap system, along with a couple of other minor issues so I'm hoping that fixes some of her issues (if not most of them).

If it does, I'm going to be happy. 1 of my competitors in class got a fresh crate engine from mazda last year to replace his. Mine has 160k miles on it and with the same mods makes the same power as his now lol. Hoping for a couple drops more when I get 'er back.

yay! I got her back :D. Now, to get an extra set of jackstands and start the teardown process.

How much crap did they have to fix?

They found the neutral / in gear sensor on the tranny to be busted. Did it fix the problem? Not sure yet until I get out and drive it for a while. I sure as hell hope so. Fortunately it wasn't stupid expensive.

Got a start on removing the transmission to replace the rear main seal and all the other fun shwag back there (clutch, resurface flywheel, trowout bearing and pilot bearing, pressure plate, etc). All stock parts per STS2 rules. Speaking of STS2 rules, I love how little droop she's got in the rear lol

When we took the header off (needs to be removed to pull the tranny), the heat wrap pretty much fell off in chunks. The previous owner of the header put it on wrong anyway, so I guess it's a blessing in disguise. I'm going to be picking up a header blanket to keep underhood temps in check. This should do a much better job than the wrap by itself. I'm also going to wrap the portion of the header between the bottom of the blanket and the flange to keep that temp contained at least up to the cat.
http://www.good-win-racing.com/miata.../971-450_1.jpg

ah yes that header again... so nice!!!!!

I could go for a header blanket right about now. looks like a cool product --you mentioned covering between the bottom of it and the flange.. but what about at the top of each runner.. does the blanket cover that well up therE? hard to tell in the pics, I'm guessing maybe you've seen one in person?

Yeah, it's a pretty piece. I have seen one in person, but up til now I've had the header wrap on it. The blanket covers pretty well from what I've seen. Better than the stock heat shield, which was pretty good. The only thing left to insulate after the blanket will be basically from the heatshield back to the flange w/ the cat.

Progress!!!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...a/IMG_0809.jpg

Got all but 2 bolts on the transmission off (just to hold it in), the drive shaft and broke all the bolts for the power plant frame loose. Next step is to get some taller jack stands (so I can actually get the thing out from under the car. Did a test fit w/ the spare, totally won't get under there :(

Organization ftw!
Attachment 9902

Also took some time tonight to actually organize my new... office...
Attachment 9903

Attachment 9904

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Red shop towels make excellent drawer liners :p

well yeah

;)

(yes the wink means I did get it when read in context but it still stuck out)

LOL yeah pretty much. Surprisingly, nothing has actually broken yet. It's bound to happen at some point... Maybe the fact that the motor seems to be leaking oil from all over the back of the engine counts as being broken. *sigh* The entire transmission is covered in black, gooey crusty nastiness. I need some serious de-greaser. Gotta pick that up tomorrow.

might be time for a new rear main....

that's one reason why he's takin all that stuff apart

Yup, what kansei said. I've got one sitting in the box ready go to. Just gotta get everything off 1st

On a side note, I've got a couple hours tonight to play with the suspension. I'm going to take the springs off of a front and rear shock and see how I'm looking wheel-travel wise. In the front I'm actually hitting the top of the tire on the inner fender bodywork before I hit the bumpstops, so I want to see how much spacer I need to make the bump-stop functional again. This should be fairly easy since the car's already up in the air. Only hard part is getting to the upper rear shock mount bolts. And that's not really hard, it's just a bit of a pain. There's this AWESOME perfectly sized crevice around the shock tops so that when you remove the nut, if you're not really carefully, it's perfectly engineered to fall right in there to get hopelessly stuck. Fortunately, I've got a magnet on a flexy stick type deal. Wanna guess when I bought it? That's right, the first time I did the shocks when I had 3 of the 4 total rear nuts fall in that damn crevice. Durrrrr.

it sounds a lot like removing the nuts that hold the P5 rear lights on.. which is why I have a magnet on a telescoping stick (also has an LED flashlight on it.. from sears for like 14 dollars, good investment)

have fun!

CHANGE OF PLANS! Tranny's coming out tonight. w00t! Hopefully I'll still have time to run to a parts store and pick up some de-greaser to clean some of this mess off of the car. I'm probably losing more weight in the car through removing grit and grime than I have through putting lighter parts on and removing what's allowed by the rules LOL

Part 1
 

So...sorry to all the cheddah haters out there, but I don't feel like re-writing all of this hahaha.

So my friend who was supposed to be coming in town won't be here til tomorrow. What does that mean? It means I got down and dirty with some Miata drivetrain. I'm really happy with the progress I've made tonight. Made some unexpected discoveries, and got a lot done.

1. Got the transmission off! Finally!
Attachment 9890

Found that the front trans seal is bad. There's oil all over the bellhousing. Fortunately I've got an extra trans that's in good shape :)
Attachment 9891

Also found that the engine rear main seal is in surprisingly great condition. It looks about as new as my new one. Any better and it'd be still in the bag w/ a part number sticker on it...
Attachment 9892

Attachment 9893

So where's the oil all over the back of the engine / transmission coming from? Looks like it's still from where the CAS O-ring went long, long ago. Only problem is that after we (ie kcbhiw lol) installed it, we never cleaned the back of the engine. So is this new oil or old? It's kinda hard to tell. Since it's a $4 part from the dealer, I'm going to go pick one up / order it tomorrow. Rick Case Mazda's like 2 miles from my house :D I'm also going to clean as much gunk as I can off of the engine so it should be pretty easy to tell when new stuff starts leaking.

2. Clutch
I don't really know what a clutch is supposed to look like, so I may be TOTALLY wrong, but it looks like it's got a really weird wear pattern. The inside is really worn out, while the outside barely has any marking.
Attachment 9894

Attachment 9895

Attachment 9896

And the flywheel:
Attachment 9897

Any input?

3. Tonight's intended suspension testing
As I posted earlier, I was going to look @ the suspension (fronts primarily, the rears checked out :)) to try and cure the bottoming of the wheels in the wheel wells before the shocks hit the bump stop. While it's not a huge deal, the suspension isn't really doing what it's fully designed to that way. Plus, it's rubbing my fender liner. That's kind of annoying mid corner on course lol. A slightly longer bump stop SHOULD cure that. If it doesn't, next season I'll throw some 3mm spacers in there if it's bad enough that I think I need them.

I also never realized how bad I need to shave down my sway bar bushings. I can barely move the thing by hand w/o the endlinks attached. It's supposed to swing relatively freely. Any suggestions on how to do that effectively? Exacto knife? Sand paper? Other?

Attachment 9884

Attachment 9885

Springs?! We don need no stinking springs!
Attachment 9886

To get full suspension travel, I just took the spring off the shock so I could easily maneuver the tire through it's full range of travel.

In the process, I ended up taking a couple of really cool pictures that demonstrate just how much camber the unequal length double wishbone suspension on the Miata picks up through compression.

I can has camber?
Attachment 9887

For comparison on how the MacStrut and double wishbones (though there really isn't any comparison...) work differently through their range of motion:
HS Protege5
Attachment 9888

STS2 Miata
Attachment 9889

The clutch looks pretty well-worn on the outside as well.. it's just really worn on the inside. I can't imagine the clutch disc warping in such a way that could cause that. I'm assuming you'll be getting the flywheel machined and putting a new clutch in?

how many miles on it?

this one looks to have twice as much meat or more on it with 76500 miles:
http://picasaweb.google.com/claureta...75381804976034

but of course it's hard to compare photos at different angles.

you and your double wishbone *shakes fist*

I love twin trapezoidal link but really am not a big fan of macpherson

I've already got a machined flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throwout and pilot bearings, etc etc. Basically, just waiting to put everything on, so that should rule out any weird variables.

As for mileage? No idea. The car's got 160k+ on it, but there are a few signs that the tranny's been off at least once (couple of small brackets missing. pain in the ass to put on when you're putting the tranny back on. Not a big deal, but if it's missing, the tranny's come off before)

you like that don't you? :101384_l:

If you're a really good boy I'll post pics of my uber sexy endlinks too :p

Yesterday was a very busy, successful, and expensive day car wise. Let's see: New brakes, springs (700#f / 450#r), spring perches (will accept lighter weight 2.25" springs), muffler (trying something new, supertrapp's probably not gone for good), upper shock hats for the rear from an NB miata (about 3/4" more rear travel), and I think a couple other things I can't remember right now lol

Last night got the clutch actuator moved to the new trans, the throwout bearing replaced, engine rear main replaced and bolted up the flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. Also did a little cleanup on the engine and shimmed the front sway bar mounts. the swaybar was binding pretty badly. That's been cured :)

The trans should be on in the next day or 2 :D

Very exciiiiite!
Attachment 9883