Waukesha Wisconsin Build

[jwagner]

The Exomotive windshield frame is on, and the 12" Exomotive windshield is in it, held by foam weatherstripping rope around the frame and a big wire tie around it to hold it down. The top of the 12" windscreen runs directly through my field of vision, I'm guessing we'll need to have about 4" cut off the top to make it work.

Took the car out on a shakedown cruise this afternoon and didn't make it out of the driveway. The RR fender rubs on the inside front. (and the front right does too but not as much.) After pulling the wheel and removing more fiberglass around the support and trying to coax the fender clear of the tire, I finally put a couple of fender washers between the inside P clamp and the fender. There's about a quarter inch of clearance now. Need to look at this again before the next track event.

Finally, the car has developed a weird on/off surging thing under light throttle at about 2400RPM when it's fully warmed up. Need to sort that out too.

I'll post some pics next time I get a chance to hit the garage with a camera.

[jwagner]

Shiny -




That would be a brand new '99 head built from a blank.  BP5A cam, shim-under-bucket lifters, undercut valves, .015 shave.  All new, which was really stupid from a financial viewpoint, but it is really shiny.  Should be good for maybe 10-12HP (?) and flow better than the current head and put up with high RPM better than the hydraulic lifters on the motor now.

Will probably be a couple of weeks until we swap it, don't have time before the autocross next weekend.

[gwnwar]

Make sure you put head gasket on right will go on 2 ways..

[jwagner]

On to the windshield.   I bought the Exomotive frame with the 12" polycarb windscreen.  Mocked it up and took a ride and the top edge of the windshield was dead in the middle of the road, so I cut 3 1/4" off the top all the way across.  It's out of the field of view now, just over the hood.

Went to a local glass place and they said they'd cut it for fifteen dollars for me, and would be happy to install it.  Great, except they had a two week leadtime.  So I stopped at the hardware store and bought a laminate blade for the jigsaw and lopped it off myself.  It's really tough to get a smooth edge with a jigsaw - spent a bunch of time with a belt sander and sanding block afterwards and there are still some divots on the cut edge across the top.



Then there's the 3M windshield urethene, the blackest most contagious thing alive.  It will spread everywhere, jumping from surface to surface and spreading it's evil blackness.  I would recommend wearing head to toe covering, and if you accidentally get any on exposed skin, strip naked and run screaming into the forest where you must stay for eight hours until it hardens so you don't spread it further.  That or keep a can of denatured alcohol handy since that seems to dissolve it.

Seriously though, I wish I would have had a pro do it.  The pic above is before trimming, but the best thing about this windshield install is that Lexan doesn't last forever and I'll get a new one installed in a year or two that doesn't stand out as an amateur job.

Wonder if/how much downforce this thing provides on the middle front of the car?

[superdrag67]

If you cut over 3" off the top wouldn't it sit below the frame itself then? From the picture if only looks like an inch or inch and a half sits above the sides of the frame. Did you leave the curve in or just cut it straight across?

[jwagner]

superdrag - I took a 3 1/4" arc of lexan off across the top of the window.  What you see is what's left.

Picked up a 2 1/5" turndown and a flange yesterday and had it welded at the local muffler place today.  



The exhaust is a Raceland header into a high flow cat and a Racing Beat midpipe.  The RB midpipe ends at the flange in the pic.  The turndown was added to get the exhaust out the back of the car, and hopefully to quiet it down a few dB.  It measured 98 dB at the last autocross, against a 100 dB limit.  There is no muffler, just the cat and a resonator.  Sounds really good, but it is a bit on the loud side.

[superdrag67]

Oh, ok. It your post you said the pic above is before trimming.

[jwagner]

Interesting day today at an autocross Test and Tune.  Had the current D Mod champion drive the car looking for feedback and his thoughts about the competitiveness of the car.  Short answer - not likely.  It's overweight and too wide and even with a K20 transplant has enough disadvantages that it's not likely to ever be the DM top dog at Nationals.  I suppose I knew that.

My brakes are way too aggressive, and everyone that has driven the car has complained about that.  Using Carbotech XP8 front and  AX6 rear and they lock in a hurry and are impossible to modulate.  Need to find some AX/track compatible pads with less grip.

The car was corner weighted and aligned before this AX and it seems to work pretty well:
Camber F  -2.4
Camber R  -2.0
Toe F   .01" in
Toe R  .01 out
I might toe the rear in a touch since that should help stabilize the back end and help get the power down a little better.

Total weight is 1489 with a couple gallons of gas in the tank.              

[jwagner]

The fronts of my rear fenders are getting rock blasted.  This is after two autocross days.  Thinking about trying 3M Paint Defender spray coating to see if that helps.




and here's a gratuitous action shot taken at the last autocross.  No wing since aero is not allowed in DM.



Started putting the head together and making sure we have all the gaskets, hoses, etc. to transition to the new head.  That's next weekend's project.

[gwnwar]

How about some clear bra material for the fenders maybe 2 layers thick..

[jwagner]

Does Victoria's Secret sell that?

Edit:  Turns out that a google search for "clear paint protection film" does a better job than searching for "clear bra", although it's less entertaining.  Amazon and ebay sell pieces of 3M paint protection film.

[jwagner]

1st post in a long time to my build thread. After installing the '99 head pictured above in the thread, the car was actually slower - probably due to me zip tying the VICS intake butterflies in the low speed position. (oops) Installed a megasquirt MS3-PNP including a MAF delete and the VICS actuator. Had it tuned last week. Wow, huge difference. Car is a whole lot faster and pulls hard from the low end all the way through redline. Has about 3 or 4 more WHP than my NC did, which was rated at 167 crank HP.

The lack of HP was something I have been wanting to sort out, and we started looking at doing a K20 engine swap this fall. A K20 would give a big power gain while maintaining the balance of the car, actually being lighter than the Mazda 1.8. Not so sure this is necessary now, might stay with the Mazda motor next year.

[phocup]

When is the part out for the 99 head and megasquirt coming ?  

[phocup]

Could you post up a picture of your setup if you're running the driveshaft hoop required for D-mod ?

[jm1211]

I was wondering if I could take a look at your build. I live in New Berlin and have been looking at Exocets for a while. Also wondering how hard it was to register. My coworker just did a factory 5 kit and is having all types of problems with the WI dmv. Let me know if I can take a look before the snow starts to fly! I tried to PM but it does not look like I have permission. Thanks! James