FC Rallycross/Stage Rally/Ice Racer

[murz]

Glad to see some progress. Ported Four port engine, full exhaust, s4 intake converted to four port, megasquirt, lightweight flywheel... This is going to be the ultimate 1.3 NA rotary. High compression rotors too?

[toplessFC3Sman]

Wow, staying busy!

How is the wiring & configuration of the MS going?

[fidelity101]

Glad to see some progress. Ported Four port engine, full exhaust, s4 intake converted to four port, megasquirt, lightweight flywheel... This is going to be the ultimate 1.3 NA rotary. High compression rotors too?

yup, S5 NA rotors and Rx8 e-shaft/stat gears with the hybrid T2/FD oiling system this thing should be capable of hitting 9000 all day without a squall.

Wow, staying busy!

How is the wiring & configuration of the MS going?

I have correct IAT/CLT sensors/pigtails on order. I  have given up on autozone to do anything for me other than buying motor oil.

it comes with a base tune and already has the wiring for stock CAS. I picked up a MS2 setup from a guy on the club who is upgrading to MS3 for his ported boosted application he wants the warning systems and etc.

Once I get the IAT/CLT in I can change all of the wire sensors. I want to do a bench build and have my manifold setup and complete on the kitchen table and then try and work the harness around it and then begin routing wires and replacing connectors.

90% of the wires are labeled and he gave me a diagram to go off of.

I may end up doing a significant re-re-wire of the car because this change is going to get ugly...

I will be leaving for chicago for the holidays tomorrow so the 27th-3rd I will be hitting that part hard.

I can forward you the tune he setup, its a .msq file:
"Attached is the tune for 460cc injectors and stock CAS.
Redline is set at 8000, with a soft cut set at 7800. I found that even with ~400whp, I rarely hit the hard rev cut. Soft cut pulls timing and dampens the redline. It feels a lot smoother and is easier on the engine.

I reloaded Aaroncakes fuel map (VE1) which should work well to get the car idling. My closed loop idle valve map is in there and should help keep the car from stalling. Let me know if you have any questions. I should be able to point you in the right direction."

but I need to re-configure it for the proper CLT/IAT sensors.

[toplessFC3Sman]

Sounds like a good starting point. I can take a look at the tune & add some bits I've slowly refined in the naturally aspirated portion of the map, especially as far as timing, for the 4-port motor. I'll pull a little bit of timing near WOT since you have the higher CR rotors, and the VE at higher loads may be a shifted to a little lower RPM with the longer NA runners.

If you have any setup questions etc, send me an email or post them here & I'll try to get back to you quickly.

[fidelity101]

Whats your email address? I can send it to you.

Do you use a S4 or S5 throttle body? IE more curious about the TPS. I assume I can use the wideband signal of the S5 and just wire it accordingly.

[fidelity101]

Well I am not thinking that there will be much ice racing this year with the terrible weather (warm) so here is a video from last year I never posted:
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but anyways….

Back to work! I just imagined my kitchen table was my engine bay and oriented things accordingly and began to swap electrical connections.


I am unsure of which grommet to exactly use but I have combination of rx8 and rx7 so we shall see what combination of o-ring/grommet will work. The FC/Rx8 part numbers are 90% similar too haha. Now my fuel system has been frankenwankeld as well. Its starting to come to together!



The secondarys seem to fit tighter than the primary ones. Right now I am using this current “strategy”
1.   Injector O-ring = rx8
2.   Injector upper grommet = rx7
3.   Injector lower grommet = rx8

Lets see if I get any vac/fuel leaks…

Now the intake manifold is port matched/gasket matched I can drop them off at the machine shop to get an even finish for best mounting.



However, one of the flanges came out on a bevel and a new middle intake section was required:


 
Look how flat that is!    

Well I have this week off work and a rallycross on the 2nd that I signed up for, so we shall see if I make it or not, but progress is being made. The CLT sensor is swapped and the carb fuel system is removed. Time to bring parts into the garage and out of the kitchen.



Next up? Remove the carb ignition setup and de-integrate it from my body harness and begin routing megasquirt wiring and mounting the ECU under the dash.  This WILL take some time…

[toplessFC3Sman]

I had been using an S4 throttlebody with the short-range TPS, which was good for idle control and driveability, but I retrofitted an S5 cam and wide-range TPS to the S4 TB so that I could use it for boost control. If you're starting with the S5, then just wire the full-range one to the input signal. Just make sure that the sensor itself has a continuous resistance sweep.

My email is SpdstrME07@gmail.com if you want to send me any other Qs

[fidelity101]

Thanks for the help Pete!

I made some progress, some partying and some recovering from partying that has delayed some other progress…

But now it is time to move on to the wiring! But before I could add this circuit system I had to clean up some old ones and a make it generally more neat and serviceable. So out with the old! That being said, I do not plan an entire re-wire yet so there is some more patchwork of patchwork. Overall, much simpler.

I also removed the dashmat I had for this thing and decided to flock it. Did I say flock? Because that was the goal of the appearance I was looking for, its actually herculiner bedliner.

And that took a lot of time to dry actually due to the cold temps, and 2 coats to get a better more even coverage.
And now the ECU is mounted behind the dash (to the dash) and the megasquirt wiring is routed and fuel lines are run.

The eventual goal will be to have an easy to service dashboard/electric array that can be removed easily for any serious servicing fast.
Speaking of out with the old, if you had 12v to 1 of these wires you can have a running 13b with the rest of the parts installed.

I’m just going to box that up for now because I have a spare r8 bellhousing so I am thinking of doing a 13b runstand in the near future : )

SHARING IS CARING!

I am going to be using a stock FC ignition for megasquirt so I have a perfect example next to me for wiring.

[fidelity101]

I do love machined gasket surfaces and new hardware/hoses! : )


I got a lot of progress then nothing for a while, I turned out to have a stomach virus or something that virtually knocked me out for about a week but some more megasquirt integration was going on and then for this to be a proper rally car, I need to have the chassis as good as possible so we began with some rust repair!



The car is from the Carolinas, so its mostly rust free but it has seen some Midwest winters and these area are the only areas of question on the car.


So step 1 was to remove it…


And see what we got to work with!


Followed by step 2. Create mockup templates with the all mighty cardboard.




Step 3: Piece it back together



And then more cardboard and trimming followed by welding to get the end result:



I just need to put sealant on the one side the bedliner over it and I can call it a day!

Next up is finish the megasquirt and electrical stuff and actually drive this beast. The weather has dropped drastically in temperatures (FINALLY!) and it has gotten me excited for the chance of ice racing this year.

[murz]

Very nice job on that NA LIM - 4 port conversion. I'm actually really anxious on seeing how this performs. I want to, in the future sometime, run this NA intake on my future turbo set up. From what I hear it just flows much better, and has great mid range. Especially compared to the Stock TII intake, being used NA or turbo.

What a mild winter we've had so far, definitely getting cold now though.

[fidelity101]

It was a pain in the ass and a lot of JB weld but I went overboard in some areas. I even JB welded the ACV block off plate on so I can get away from that gasket ever leaking haha.

[murz]

I don't blame you, that top left part of it seems to be leak-prone. It looks good though.

[fidelity101]

here are some delayed pictures of the completed engine bay:




followed by rust repair...

BEFORE:



DURING/AFTER:

[ITSWILL]

Are you sure that alternator wire gauge will be enough? lol!  FI install ooks pretty clean.

[fidelity101]

made some headway on the MS and learned some stuff but everything had to come out because...










its going to take the plunge into stage rally!!!

here is another teaser pic:



stay tuned