FC Rallycross/Stage Rally/Ice Racer

[toplessFC3Sman]

Damn, looks like you're having a lot of fun with it!

[fidelity101]

the engine just wont die! I'm hoping to have the next one (small PP) to be done by march (I want this engine to reach 4 years old) then pull this engine and toss it away.

[ITSWILL]

Happy to hear you might make it out to MIRA.  It was a ridiculous amount of fun last year.  I would like to see how the 7 fairs on ice.

[fidelity101]

Happy to hear you might make it out to MIRA.  It was a ridiculous amount of fun last year.  I would like to see how the 7 fairs on ice.

My starter is getting pretty weak and the compression is very low (I can spin the e-shaft with my hand) and the cold has not been helping. I had to drag start it at the last event. Also I burned a few quarts of oil. I am hoping to do MIRA but we will see how funds go. Worst case I will do a one or two SVR SCCA Ice runs.

I've driven the FC on the ice several times, its a blast. The stock LSD diff becomes an open diff too quick though.

[toplessFC3Sman]

The ice runs last year were a lot of fun, and you looked like you were having a blast in the 7.  What type of diff do you have?  Is it the S5 viscous, or the S4 clutched?  I swapped a torsen into the rear end of the 'vert, and like the way it feels, but those are supposed to be terrible in very-low grip situations since the gears require a bit of resistance to begin to work.  Pulling the e-brake a couple clicks would help with the lock-up behavior when in low-grip is supposed to help, maybe it'll do the same in your case?

[fidelity101]

Oh it was a blast, my co-driver couldn't quite get the hang of it but he started to towards the end. I knew I was the only one my class so I was basically getting a participation trophy so I tired to drive as fast as I could as sideways as I could. I have the s4 NA LSD. And after about 1 mile of heavy right foot on the lake it becomes an open diff.

Its not so bad on the ice runs because it cools down intime for the next run for it to work again for the most part but it is pretty worn. I'm tempted to try a torsen for the lake to avoid that but on dirt I really prefer the clutch style.

[fidelity101]

Got the starter overhauled and replaced the rear wheel bearings to get it ready for ice racing.






Even the tow vehicle got some action!


Could not do a MIRA season so I opted for a 3 event weekend on 2 different locations and one of them was at night.


SAFETY SELFIE!





and a shot of Dr. Rotorsteins’ laboratory(photo is a bit dated there are more HID/LED lighting setup)


The weekend after the ice racing weekend there was rallycross and it was ROUGH. They cancelled the event after the 1st heat because it was so rough, so rough in fact that I snapped my midpipe on my exhaust and then the exhaust kept bouncing off of the hangers. I have been le tired of it anyways so I took a nap and pondered what to do next.
This was my first event EVER in having a cone free day the problem is that I could not catch the Miatas or the 911s

FIX EXHAUST? CHECK!
Stainless 1 piece exhaust from the header all the way back to the racing beat furai rotor shaped muffler, why? because I am rotarded. Also I am mostly R&Ring stuff by myself and the twin mufflers is a pain to deal with it. Also this car doesn't make much power so I must continue to add lightness!





Here is a video of it idling with the half bridge.

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[fidelity101]

My headlights were of a grand idea but pour execution, and now that I work in automotive lighting, you kind of see things differently, I used to be in the dark about optics and such but now I see the light! And this E36 M3 is bright. Here are some teaser pics:


The front: A regular ass J30 headlight projector unit sub assembly.
The rear: HID retrofit lowbeam maybe even bi-function HID (HB/LB combined but I will just have std HBs on as HD fogs essentially. Legally you can run maximum 4 forward lights on at one time FYI.

What is neat is that you can monitor your adjustment since there is a leveling bubble there. The issue I am having on this how to construct a bracket and where to mount the ballasts. Not sure if I will put the pop up lights back in or not yet either in conjunction with this. TBD - this will be a long project and slow just chip away at the rock.

What to look forward to this season?
New engine is in the works, about half way through porting it. Haven't decided on doing a half bridge yet or just streetport however it will be a frankenwankel consisting of S4/S5 NA/TII parts as well some rx8 and FD components.
DRIVETRAIN:
rx8 6 speed swap, I got a KILLER of a deal on one BNIB. pics to come in future.
It also came with new throwout bearing, clutch fork and fork grommet. Just lacked a shifter which was sourced for 30 dollars. A new wooden shift knob will need to be made since the threads are different but more on that swap later.



So in preparations, last time the engine was out I placed the two next to each other to get an idea on mounts, maybe hybrid the PPF and stock FC trans mount or have something made from scratch. Not sure exactly yet.

When I recently pulled my engine out for some D&D on the new engine I put the t2 trans next to the rx8 trans to get an idea roughly what I am working with:





Shifter will be farther forward and I have no qualms about making the hole in the floor more egg shaped.

Engine is currently still being ported (maybe 50% done or so) so this engine will have to last likely for the remainder of the season or however long it holds up, I'm kind of curious to see how much more abuse it will take before it ultimately stops working. 2 races scheduled for memorial day weekend. What I can promise though is that this trans will only go in when the engine is ready.

The other issue with an rx8 trans to solve is the driveshaft. Luckily though the rx8 uses the same spline count/diameter as the TII and I have the following extra parts on horde:
+ T2 output trans yoke
+ rx8 output trans yoke
+ N/A driveshaft complete

I still plan on using my NA rear end so I figure I have my bases covered. Right now the vehicle is equipped with a T2 to NA rear end driveshaft from mazdatrix that has serviceable u-joints. I have heard that auto trans FC driveshaft may be a direct fit as well. we shall see. but it looks like there may need to be some adjustment is shaft length (lol) to make this bolt in.

[~Groll69~]

Looking good.   keep up the good work.

[fidelity101]

some updates, I have been busy with house purchasing stuff. I mean buying a garage with a detached house, but more on that later. I did make some progress on my lights though.

Here is kind of a mockup of what it could be vs what it is right now.



The idea is to cut out part of bumper and enclose an area for new HB/LB and fill in the hood with fiberglass where the headlight covers would be. I'm still working on some mounting ideas, tested a bracket or two that failed so back to the drawing board. Also long term idea is to replace front bumper and fenders, clean up the hood and re spray the front end essentially. I have all the parts (minus driver side fender but it could be salvaged) so that will happen at the new shop

So let me walk you through lighting terminolgy and etc. One of the perks of being in the lighting business, ALL THE BALLASTS! ALL THE DS3s!

Don't worry I have plenty more in the basement as well.


The top assembly is a projector unit or commonly refered to in the biz as a PES, which stands for piezelispode surface or something. Regardless it is made up of a few key parts:

+PES (projector) Lens
+lens holder
+Shade
+reflector
+bulb

Now this shade is unique because it is for a bi-function HID XENON unit. The shade gives you your legal road requirements for light cutoff and utilizing that with the lens gives you that crisp sharp appearance. Now with a bi-function unit it has a solenoid on it that moves a door on a lever to change from your high beam to low beam function, pretty neat stuff. This particular unit is out of a mustang but I'm sure its used in most ford products.

now the fun parts: I wanted to retrofit this low beam halogen into a bi function HID unit so I unbolted the ADC (aluminum die cast) reflector and looked inside. What you see if the low beam shade, instead of being a stamped piece of metal it is actually cast into the unit itself.

So that shit has got to go!


cutoff wheel fits Juuuuuuuust right.


Now that the stock shade is gone, time to graft the bi-function stamped shade to the bad boy.


Luckily the reflector bolts to the shade only one way and the mounting features overlap so I can keep the legal cut off line and have good light pattern isntead of massive glare and blinding all of the drivers on the road. I just had to cut one of the ears off for it to fit, drill and tap 3 holes and BAM. shade accomplished. Now I just need to bolt the shade to the reflector.



add wiring pigtail for the bi-function solenoid.


and viola! you are done with your sub assembly, here are some shots next to the other handed unit to show the difference.




Now you can see in the last pictures there are 2 square holes, these will be used for the aiming adjustment screws, some misc hardware from work pop right in then all I need to do is re-insert the correct length adjustment screw.


the black object in the middle top is a plastic bushing that holds a stud on a ball pivot, these 3 items together give me my fulcrum for adjustment.
Next step is mounting and enclosing, stay tunned.

 

[ITSWILL]

On the RX8 Trans, what do you do about the shifter location? Cut firewall and move engine back .

Also, I am digging the lights.

[fidelity101]

I thought about that but I like being able to reach all of the bell housing bolts, makes engine swaps take about 2 hours less. I'm just gonna cut an extra section in the floor and bolt a plate to cover what is exposed just so I can swap back to an FC setup with relative ease should I need parts on the cheap/now.

[fidelity101]

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!! It is time to re re re re-design/fungineer my headlamps. I didn't like the way they were going before with a custom bracket and having to custom make an enclosure, it felt like I was trying to re-invent the wheel. Hard part with a custom mountain bracket is vibration and having the light beam bounce around which is bad and likely illegal. Also making a waterproof enclosure was tough from scratch, probably easier to modify something. So I decided to go to the junkyard and grab more J30 headlamps, this time... intact ones...

Here is a picture of the modified guts (on the prototype bracket) next to a stock one without a lens next to an intact stock one. The colors may seem funky because I see a lot of reflections in my tie die shirt lol.


Reasons?
1. Multiple Easy mounting locations
2. Its already a lamp!
3. Existing aiming/fixing functions
4. Datums exist there for this design to hold everything in place properly under vibration.


So here are the guts back in their housing using existing hardware.


...and the back side (next to do is fiberglass enclosure of some kind where I can toss a cap on the back to reach the HID bulb)

Nevermind the gorilla glue, I broke a mounting tab, its messy but it fixes the issue lol.


I did not want the flashy chrome bezel, but the bezel is required because it also works as a curtain to block light leaking from surrounding areas, so I thought it would be cool to paint it black!


However I did mask the inside of the chrome ring because the hardware that mounts over the projector lenses is chrome too.

But you can't really tell...

Here is the bench test making sure the circuit works, (and it does) this was an old CPU and I don't think it is very strong because my goal is to turn the high beam bulb on with the same circuit as the solenoid for the bi-function HB actuation (shade actuator) but every time I go to ground that circuit my lights go out, unless I already have the non HID bulb on, might need a relay in there but that is still a work in progress on how to neatly and properly wire it up. The good news is that all functions function functionally.



Here is a shot of it with the lens "on" and unit assembled.



I would rather be porting/assembling my rotary but I lack a compressor at this time and this needs to be done. This simple project has become into a regular project lol.

Next up:
1. Seal the back side
2. Mount to the vehicle
3. Integrate into vehicle wiring
4. Adjust aiming

[~Groll69~]

I have a pancake compressor that could work if you want to borrow it.

[fidelity101]

Those are way too tiny to operate a die grinder for a constant few hours.