that would be great, i'm still wondering about where the best place to put the extinguisher is, and how to rig it up into the engine bay and cockpit, most kits only seem to come with 2 nozzles, which doesn't seem enough.

the world of ITB intake runner lengths is giving me a headache tho, 16 inches cannot be right, surely!? I'm gonna have trumpets coming out of the bonnet in that case!! (not allowed in the regulations) I'm also confused as to whether the length should be from the valve to the end of the velocity stack or somewhere else...

more coffee & more research required there! thats definitely gonna be the last mod! Lets get the new engine running first thats this weekend's project!!!

 

that would be great, i'm still wondering about where the best place to put the extinguisher is, and how to rig it up into the engine bay and cockpit, most kits only seem to come with 2 nozzles, which doesn't seem enough.

Passenger footwell for the bottle, one nozzle into your lap, the other at the fuel rail (poking through the top of the firewall), and put the handle where the cigarette lighter used to be I'll get some pics!

 

My understanding of runner lengths was it was from the back of the intake valve to the opening of the trumpets/stacks. I believe if you had a plenum with a cold feed or something this would also be factored into the total length, but I'm not 100% sure on that! I guess this could be one reason why most manifolds etc curl around the engine as a way of increasing length? I think a lot of it depends on the rpm of your engine vs the rpm value at peak torque! Personally I've never really spent much time reading up on it though as I can see my life disappearing before my eyes!! lol

One thought I've always had is, what would you notice more, the gain in moving your torque band to the 'correct' rpm vs the throttle response of shorter runners! Personally one of the things I loved so much about ITB's is the throttle response, obviously you'd still have that whatever your ITB set up was I'm sure, but the longer the runners surely the slower the throttle response?

I would imagine with our cars, even turning one into a race car, the potential gains may not be 'that' noticeable anyway possibly and I guess it depends if you want to chase every last bit of go go out of the car.

Either way your car will sound sexy with ITB's and make small furry animals run in fear!!! :lol:

 

I'm tempted by the ways of the ITB... but it's hard power!

 

I'd say try not to think of ITB's as power...think of them as cool sexy sounding throttle response! lol

With ITB's your car will feel quicker than the actual gains you've made as the throttle response is so good. :thumb-up:

 

Bodys is just more racecar

 

Definitely because racecar!!! :driving:

We'll see how much power i can squeeze out, i know a good Jenvey setup can produce 140bhp+ at the wheels, i expect i might be able to get ~130bhp with the right setup. I really need that torque to be present after 5000rpm too, which is where i'm suffering with the current setup, according to the dyno graphs anyway...

I think i'm starting to come to the conclusion that the overall length of the ITBs will have marginal impact on the whole setup, simply because there is not that much to be gained in the first place. The devil on my shoulder is telling me that's exactly why i should try to squeeze every last horse out of the engine. He keeps making me look at Wossner forged pistons and lightweight conrods, and talking about overboring the cylinders by 1mm....... where does the madness end!>?>!>??!! Who said "hard" power?!?!?? More like bloody expensive power!!!! At least i have my Megasquirt now, i will wait to install that until after Pembrey in 2 weeks time!!!

Anyway, back to the present. I took the engine out of the car yesterday, stripped the head off and then ran it via the crank with an electric drill and a 21mm socket! You could hear the #4 cylinder knocking so badly! even at what was probably only 100rpm! This time i'm going to put the head on a block that i know runs without knocking, and although the pistons are a bit old, and i have no idea how old the rings are, at least it should run!!

Just need to wait for a new headgasket to arrive!! Damn it! why dont i have multiple of these things lying around!!!?!! Once thats in i just need to set the timing properly again as we should be off!!!

ON top of the engine i still have the following to do:

brake ducting to install

brakes need bleeding

de-powered steering rack to weld and install

passenger door to be de-skinned

new switch panel to fabricate(as i don't need window switches any more and its cracked)

chop the dash

chop the rear bumper

remove the last bit of excess weight from the boot lid

Once i've done Pembrey i will install the Megasquirt on the current engine config.

Then i will work on the ITB setup which needs:

velocity stacks

better manifold, will try to construct something out of 45' alloy pipes and see about machining flanges of some description.

Air intake on the driverside

Some kind of support bracket

and now for the remaining shopping list:

Safety Devices full Roll cage (already on order, due in 6-8 weeks)

weld on quick detach steering boss

new steering wheel, one that doesn't bend when you punch it....

wider wheels, I'm thinking 8J front 9J rear, but that may be a step too wide... might get some 25mm spacers before i commit, but i already got the arch extensions...

4-2-1 exhaust manifold

ACL race bearings - need to check whether i'm getting the crank reground before i get these

balanced crankshaft, if it needs to be re-ground i might as well

Lightened flywheel, dont know whether to get one of the ones from the classifieds here on Nutz or a proper racing one

Racing clutch to go with the new flywheel.

wossner 84mm 12:1 pistons (HA HA HA!)

ZRP conrods (as above)

Piper Cams (might as well go all in)

Valves & valve springs.....

Like i said, where does the madness end, i don't think the last 4 will ever happen, I mean, what would that gain on top of the ITB setup, like 20-40 BHP if i'm lucky and do it properly!?!? for what £2000 at least... will it make me competitive? should i just spend the £2000 on a different car?!!?! like a Mk2.5?! FFS!!!!

I'm going back into the garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash:

 

Having a hard time believing that Jenveys alone (and an exhaust at least) will give you 130hp to the wheels.

If this is true, that's where I should be headed I believe

 

Lap times are 80% driver skill i say, so dont bother chasing every penny.

Theres a thread on here about lap times at combe and me in a supercharged mx5 1.25.....proper drivers in 1.6 na.....1.19

So yea my £2000 under my bonnet could have been spent better in other places by the sound of it ha!

Your best off building a safe & reliable engine

 

Your best off building a safe & reliable engine

I would go with this too. Make the thing reliable and get loads of track time!

 

100% agree on reliability first!!! Especially when it's driven at 100% most of the time! Poor old engine....

Luckily there's not much that can go wrong on the mk1 engine, all the aspirational parts on my "shopping list" should improve reliability, of the components anyway, maybe not the engine as a whole. Messing with the Megasquirt is the biggest area of uncertainty and source of unreliability for me, but it's also the only way to unleash the true potential of the engine. Done properly there should be no adverse affect on reliability.....

.....that said, I still managed to kill mine through being a crap amateur mechanic! At least that's all i can put it down to! Once i have swapped the engine and have it running again then i will investigate why the last rebuild only lasted 300 miles... I've had all sorts of suggestions as to a cause... most likely is simply oil starvation which is 100% my own fault, but possibly the crankshaft is FUBAR, or at least scored causing unwanted friction.

As for driver skill i'm no pro, that's for sure, but after reviewing a lot of timing sheets and race results for similar cars on tracks where i've set representative lap times, i am happy with how i'm driving, albeit a little inconsistent at times, I'm within a second in similar conditions and on a good lap. Only more and more track time will fix that. Lap times are all very subjective of course, dependant on weather conditions etc... even two bright/dry days can produce completely different lap times...

The reason for looking for more power is simply that I find i'm limited by the car on occasion, I just want a little more power on the straits and out of slow corners, this is abundantly apparent in this video where i barely have any grunt coming out the second right hander in 2nd gear:

I ended up changing down to first for my second timed run and that got me an extra half a second getting up that hill! That still doesn't take away from the fact i could do with a little bit more power!!

 

Get rid of your windscreen! Haha.

 

Liking the build and will catch up with you at pembrey will be having a look at the coolant re route kit on yours as i may go that way with the exocet over the winter as thats is going turbod.

 

updates for the last month:

Slick tyres! made a hell of a difference on the sprints and hillclimbs

List 1A tyres - for racing as it's in the regs! (went for Toyo T1Rs)

Full Safety Devices Roll cage is in! just have some padding to stick on. My welding was amazing!!

New centre console with space for my Galaxy Tab - to be used as a data logger/lap timer/MSDroid (once i install the Megasquirt, its waiting on the bench)

Fire extinguisher installed no probs - lets hope i never need it!!

Brake ducts done, crude but effective use of B&Q ventilation ducting, cable ties and Duck tape!

Doors have been made even lighter!!! -> generous application of the angle grinder.

Will upload some piccies of the finished car later! still need to reinstall the seat after welding in the roll cage last weekend.

Havent touched the engine except for re-aligning the air intake to take a direct ram feed from the sidelight, need to fix up something more aesthetically pleasing, its another Duck tape special!! THat said, once the ITBs go on I need a cold air feed on the otherside anyway, so its only temporary!

W.

 

It sounds like you've been quite busy, I look forward to seeing the photos, especially the cage.

How are you getting on with the BC coil overs these days?

 

Veeeery busy!

Pics imminent as soon as my Google Docs comes back go life!

Weekend achievements:
Roll cage padding fitted, looks real good!
Read bumper chopped, less of a sail now!
Galaxy tab added to centre console as planned.
New rubber fitted to some 2nd hand TWS wheels I got gifted (thanks Steve B!)

All ready to go racing on Saturday and Sunday at Pembrey now!!!!

Very excited. Go Pro vids to follow at some point too!

 

Post some pics up

 

PHOTOS!!!!

 

Photo*
Any more for any more?

 

Yes yes, patience my dears! Google Drive is giving me jip!

 

lol

Car's looking like a proper little track weapon mate, can't wait to see what you think of it with ITB's!

I got to meet Moro from Latvia on Wednesday night, his ITB'd 5 was looking good and sounded lovely, made me miss mine a bit!

 

ITBs still a little way off, i've just not had the balls to get started, I might have a play with the MSPnP soon, but I'm nervous to touch the car with a couple of events left this season.

Anyway, a bit of a catch up pictures wise:

BC Racing coilovers, very happy with these! Adjustability is great, not experimented much yet, but there is a definite noticeable difference within only a couple of clicks on the damping.

I also had a little mess with the OEM anti roll bar, drilling my own adjustable setting. Trying everything to tighten up the front on the car!

and now...

the moment you have all been waiting for...

the new roll cage and interior!!!!

TA DA!!

Also chopped a small amount out of the bumper.

And to finish a view of the very scruffy front end!!

 

LOVE that cage....but not going to love the price tag am I :/ ??

 

Yes, the cage is worth more than the car!! altogether about £1200 i think! and that doesn't include the padding which was another £120... I bought the back first and used that half the season in sprints and hillclimbs. Then I bought and installed the front cage and door bars over July ready for the races last weekend.

Its bloody heavy though, i think at least 60-80kg! So all that weight saving around the rest of the car has been negated by the weight of that cage!!

More power is definitely necessary now! I'm just trying to figure out how to go about the ITB upgrade.... every time i think about it my head starts to hurt, i dont just want to drop it off at a garage though, i'd really like to do everything bar the rolling road runs myself... my latest head scratcher is the throttle position sensor as the mazda has 4 wires and the ITBs only three...

Anyway, thats a problem for the winter!!!!

Here's some pics from the weekend:

Lined up for Qually on Sunday Morning

The competition lined up for race 1 on Sunday:

Race 1 on Saturday first corner chaos!! (i'm behind the black BMW, just in front of the green 106)

and some nice action shots from race 2 on Sunday:

Overtaking a 318i

Chasing an Elise

Entering the corner just before passing the Elise who decided to do some lawn mowing!

 

YOUTUBE VIDEO TIME!!!!

If anyone can advise on how i can embed these i will edit this post, but you'll have to clock on the links for now as i've failed in all my attempts!

Pembrey Race 1 start and first few laps (pretty boring, but it is my first race ever!!)

Pembrey Race 3 half way through to finish, this is a good vid, plenty of action!

I'll post up race 2 at some point, I managed to capture the whole race there and it's taking a while to process and upload...