Team Pipe-Car - jmills' Chicago Build

[einy]

Windshield with functioning wiper is a must also in Ohio (that one I know for sure), and I am being told locally that bumpers are also required here. However, one Exocet that I know of was successfully registered in Ohio with no mention of bumpers. Zeitgeist ... Do you know of other successful Ohio registrations, and equipment they had to add?

[johnp]

Perhaps you would like to split this thread to the DMV section, start the 'OH' thread in order to provide aid to all Ohio builders of the future?

[einy]

I have an earlier thread on my Ohio registration odyssey .... Will see if I can get it moved there.

[johnp]

Mar 12, 2016 18:31:57 GMT einy said:

I have an earlier thread on my Ohio registration odyssey .... Will see if I can get it moved there.

give me the link and Ill see to it

[jmills]

I'll write everything up from a how-to perspective once this mess is over.. The written process and the actual process seem to be quite different.

[johnp]

sorted - look in 'The Authorities USA-DMV'

[jwagner]

On Jalopnik:
link

[jmills]

Thanks for the heads up, Jim!

[jmills]

It's been a while. That seems to be the intro to most of my posts..

Last Monday I took the car on track for the first time. Holy. Crap. It. Is. AWESOME! It is very quick, it holds in the turns well past the "Limit" I'm used to even on 200TW tires.

So now the bad news.. When I swapped the drain plug to add an oil temp sensor, and swapped oil at the same time I forgot to replace the filter, and figured I would get around to another oil change before pushing the car hard, wasn't worried at the time as the previous owner had done a fluid flush of most things before I bought the car.. or so I was told. Fast forward a few months to last week and the old filter was still in place. After one 20 minute session on track I started hearing the famous Miata HLA tapping noise. Not knowing the consequences of pushing it harder (or knowing what it was at the time) I called it a day. I had pretty mixed emotions, very happy with how the car performed, and disappointed / scared of what was making the new noise.

Fast forward a few hours to loads of googling and learning about this issue and it being exacerbated by 1. track use and 2. old oil / filters I did an oil change, and the car was back to quite. Awesome.. $260 of track fees down the drain due to a $9 filter.. PLEASE learn from my mistake and don't let this happen to you.

Now for the important things, how did the car feel?

Precise. It handled extremely well, with great feedback at the limit. There were a few times I overcooked it into turns and it slid in a predictable and controllable manner.

It accelerates incredibly quick up until ~90, at which point air resistance fights it more than I'm used to with the 400hp Vette I raced previously. It is not slow by any means, but at a certain points you start to hit more of a wall than I'm used to. That said I was taking it very easy and still reaching close to the same speeds as before on the straights.

Braking is strong, though I need to sort the bias between the Wilwoods up front and the stock rears with new pads. I was getting some squirming under hard braking, I'm not sure yet if it was bias related or alignment related, more on that later. Over the 20 minute session I was also breaking in new rear pads, so I was adjusting the proportioning valve each lap.

Fun factor - off the freaking charts. I was racing a VERY quick, amazing handling overpowered go-kart that three of us put together using hand tools. How bad ass is that? I'm excited to know how much potential there is and can't wait to sort the suspension and get it dialed in.

So, to end with a question, I noticed on the drive home that the front drivers side fender was rotating forward a bit under braking. I inspected it, tried to tighten all the control arm bolts with hand tools, but they were tighter than I could get them with a box wrench, and did a quick inspection of the ball joints which looked good. All the aforementioned had been torqued to spec during the build. Is it normal to see some deflection here that you would be able to see under braking? I've inspected the sub frame bolts, all good, LCA and UCA bolts, all tight, I've ran out of bolts to check. Normal? Ball joints shot? Open to any ideas. I will take a torque wrench back to everything next time I'm at the garage.

[jwagner]

Good to hear you made it out on track.  Are you planning on doing any of the MC HSAX events this year?

re: the lifters - unless that filter was plugged enough to reduce oil pressure, I don't think it should cause HLA noise.  Old oil and high oil temps will reduce oil pressure, and I would guess that might be more likely causes.  Do you have a real oil pressure gauge?

The '96 we started with had some pretty severe HLA rattle when cold.  Taking them totally apart and flushing them cured that, and we also started using RedLine 10w40 which picked up the oil pressure, especially when hot.  No issues since, although the head just got swapped for a '99 BP4W with solid lifters.

[zeitgeist]

Glad to hear you made it on track with your car. I was at Mid Ohio the same day. I had some fuel leaking from the cap/filler area but luckily was able to get it fixed enough to continue. Too bad the oil/lifter issue kept you from more track time. I had 6 sessions and was really feeling more confident in the car after 2-3 sessions where I could focus on driving and pushing it hard rather than car noises/smells and vibrations. I also had some rear brake issue. Not so much twitchy at the rear but like a little bit of ABS engagement from the right rear on slower maybe a little bumpy right hand turns. Once late in the day it may have stalled because of it but restarted with the downshift and clutch let out. It also may have been running out of fuel as the fuel gauge read below E on the trailer when I pulled in after that session and is still on E now.

Not sure what would allow for visible movement of the fenders up front but if it is much I would think fender mount over suspension issue especially if everything feels well in corners and under braking front end wise. How did you mount the fenders to the stays and the stays to the upright?

[gwnwar]

I would check for a broken weld on the plate. or a bolt coming off the plate.

[jmills]

Thanks guys, I've been away from the garage for a while due to work and family travel, will check out the fender in detail when I get back. Mounting to the fender is with rubberized steel P-clips. I may mount a go-pro to the frame to see what's moving from up close.

The filter that was on there was from the PO, so no idea how long it had been on there. The oil was relatively new, so I suspect the filter was the culprit. Either way it seems fine now.

Jim,
I do plan on doing some of the HSAX events, but want to get as much track time as I can on the new car via track days as well. There are a bunch of Autobahn CC events I'm planning to attend since its significantly closer to home for me.

Mike,
I had similar issues from my vent tube. There is a part I found from a UK kit car part company that would let me route it straight into the side of the fill tube, so I may go that route to seal it off when the fuel cap is closed, otherwise may just plug it in the meantime and fill slowly. I may do a write up of my ideal track focused fuel fill set up now that I've experimented quite a bit.

Cheers,
Josh

[zeitgeist]

Josh I replaced my marine filler with the stock filler neck cut down. I used the factory anti flow back valve which should make the difference. It also has the anti-siphon flap and is both a little taller and more upright than the marine filler which sat and an angle. The factory cap also seals much better than the marine version so I think I may have it solved. I won't know until I hit the track again but I am much more confident with this set up than the old one. I just filled 5 gallons today and it filled fast enough not to be noticeable. I also ran the 1/2 ID hose in a loop from the filler neck to the tank. This should add more security of fuel exiting it and more vent hose volume.

[jmills]

Wow, it has been waaaaay too long since I've posted. Since last post I got the car on track a few times, had an amazing time, and..... blew the engine. One of the hazards of buying a turbo donor is you can't be sure just how badly abused the poor setup is. In my case it looks like a long history of running lean with loads of detonation. Final damage report; 4 pistons dead, head had to be fill-welded and re-machined to take care of dents from piston chunks getting crunched into it, and a valve job for good measure. The crank was cracked at cylinder 4, the block was scored and had to be overbored; I'm now at almost 2L of displacement. So where did those piston chunks go? Well into the turbo of course! That too got pretty badly damaged, and has been rebuilt by Midwest Turbo. I've finally got almost all the parts back, I'm missing a upper timing belt cover that the machine shop lost. Besides that I just need some time to get it all back together, broken in and tuned.

More updates to come as I frantically try to get everything put together for this race season while building up a Chump Car with some buddies to get more track time in.

Cheers!