Winter 2013/2014 Autocross Projects

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:36 pm

Well, I thought I was through w/ all my build projects, but after the last event and slinging gear oil on the rear wheel, I just had the bearings and seals replaced on the mustang. Great, I'm good for the season! Ummm, not so much. Found out the front ball joints are shot and need to be replaced.

So it sounds like you have to rebuild the front control arms instead of being able to buy a upgraded unit. So now extra work and cash to lay out before the next event....

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:09 pm

I haven't done sh*t this off season and it feels great!

Well, control arms on the boss' Lexus but that doesn't count since it's not really a worthy autocross car, especially in D-Stock. :lol:

Jonell, those brakes look like the cat's meow. Enjoy.

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:02 am

As much as I liked my side exit exhaust, because it was never in the way on the rear suspension,

It did drag occasionally on hard left handers and when jumping curbs. :mrgreen:

With my new found low-ness, the exhaust tip was about an inch off the ground.

So straight out the back we go.

The cutting welding and grinding continues . . .

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:00 am

My car is with PC now. Mark is doing my cutting, welding and grinding for the next few weeks.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:33 am

I'm waiting on a bunch of stuff.

- Shifter boots from Rspeed: those shipped within like an hour of me placing the order.
- Swaybar endlinks from Flyin' Miata: they're a little more lackadaisical with their responsiveness. But I at least got an email confirmation.
- Swaybar and reinforcement brackets from Racing Beat: so far I'm not at all impressed with them. Not so much as an email confirmation, let alone anything like a tracking number. They've charged my card. I should have bought the stuff from Good Win Racing, I just forgot about them.

If I end up canceling the order with RB, should I get a 1.25" bar? Or stick with the plan to get a 1.125"?

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Stick with the 1.125". RB is good and if you call them, you'll get a real person on the other end.

225 Rivals are back in stock! But Jeb is busy all day so I guess I'll call him tomorrow.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:45 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

Stick with the 1.125". RB is good and if you call them, you'll get a real person on the other end.

225 Rivals are back in stock! But Jeb is busy all day so I guess I'll call him tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm sticking with the 1.125" bar, plus those silly looking reinforcement blocks.

Maybe I've gotten spoiled by every other online vendor...RB finally emailed me back, and said "we'll try to get it out tomorrow." That's two full days between when they charged my card, and when it's leaving their place. Had they gotten off their butts and shipped same day like RSpeed did, I'd have it by the weekend.

I know. First world problems. But with the baby, weekend wrenching time is scarce, so I need to strike when I can.

Also ordered the workalike of FCM bumpstops from RE Suspension down in Mooresville. I'm also going to call around and see if I can find a "CAS Cap," I found a valve cover gasket at the Advance Auto on Hillsborough Road, so that stuff will probably be tonight's project if I can find the cap.

CAS cap leak info is here, in case anyone's curious:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=351482

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

From Mazdaspeed:
12-603 KLG4-12-603 CAP(METAL & RUBBER W/LIP) $10.71 $6.43

From Rosenthal:
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/product ... 03%29.html

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:35 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

From Mazdaspeed:
12-603 KLG4-12-603 CAP(METAL & RUBBER W/LIP) $10.71 $6.43

From Rosenthal:
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/product ... 03%29.html

Thanks Andrew. I'm looking at Rosenthal's site now, hunting around for other stuff I might need. Seems silly to pay whatever the shipping will end up being for a $8.xx part that's probably the size of a silver dollar. But I'm not quite ready to tackle the timing belt/water pump stuff yet.

None of the local dealers had one, and the best they could do was Friday. T Hoff said they can get me one probably by tomorrow, I may end up doing that. I'll do the VCG at the same time I guess.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

The shipping from Mazdaspeed will be $11 and take a week since it's shipping from Ontario, California. Rosenthal is up in VA and ships out stuff via USPS so it's pretty cheap.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:52 pm

T Hoff has a valve cover gasket on the shelf for $11.00.

I had them get me the cam cap - it'll be there in the morning. If it's some crappy brand I'll just not get it. I need to do something. It smelled like an oil refinery fire when I parked the car this morning. While I've got everything apart, I might do a compression test, just to see.

I suspect a lot of people have forgotten about T Hoff, since their biggest supporter, Mark Vitacco, isn't really active in the club lately. They're GREAT. Their prices are extremely competitive, and if they don't have stuff in stock, it's often a matter of hours until they can get it from wherever their magic warehouse is.

The stuff is generally good quality, too. I needed some front bump stops for my Mercedes when I put the KONIs on. T Hoff had them for next to nothing, and I fully expected them to be awful Chinese-made knockoffs, but I was desperate. But no - they had "Germany" stamps on them.

They don't have a downtown Durham location anymore, unfortunately, it's only the place in Raleigh. Still worth the drive for some stuff. They sell some obscure lubricants too - they have a shelf full of Lubromoly stuff for example.

Steven Carter · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:18 pm

T Hoff was the first place I went for a quick piece of machining/lathing I needed for my shock mounts. The guy i spoke with gave the "that work is beneath me" look and referred me to someone else. Obviously I don't have a good understanding of what they are willing to do there.

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Tue Mar 11, 2014 8:42 pm

Steven Carter wrote:

T Hoff was the first place I went for a quick piece of machining/lathing I needed for my shock mounts. The guy i spoke with gave the "that work is beneath me" look and referred me to someone else. Obviously I don't have a good understanding of what they are willing to do there.

I got the same reaction. Industrial Metal Flame Sprayers in Durham has been recommended to me. I've spoken to them on the phone and they seem willing to do most any small machining job, but I haven't used them yet.

http://www.imfs-nc.com/first_page.html

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Thu Mar 13, 2014 9:58 am

I've never used T Hoff for machine work, just their parts department. They were always really good to me years ago, and they still are, for that stuff.

So last night I went through the new car some more, and replaced the CAS plug and the valve cover gasket. Also did a compression check, just for grins. The stone cold engine, with no oil squirted into the cylinder bores, yielded the following on my ancient but under-used compression gauge:

1: 178
2: 170
3: 180
4: 180

I was pretty happy with that.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu Mar 13, 2014 11:32 am

For being cold, those are great numbers. Probably 190-200 when at operating temp which is quite nice. Now just make sure not to run it at 15:1 AFR at full load or anything like that

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