BEAVIS' White Track Car

[beavis]

Intercoolers are cooler with proper tubing

Sorry for the delay between updates... I've got no excuse this time, just been otherwise occupied. But I've managed to do some things on the car...

Although I had already 'finished' the intercooler tubing, I wasn't happy with it.
The previous setup for the pipework from the Turbo to the Intercooler was 3 aluminium lengths joined by silicone 45deg bends.
This would result it too many potential failure points and too many heavy hose clamps.


Thankfully the solution was simple, replace the silicone 45's with aluminium 45's. And now that I had the TIG welder, I could put this all together myself without too much trouble. (and any excuse for welding practice is good)
This is all 2" tube, to match the outlet from the turbo. The silicone joiner into the intercooler is a 2.5" to 2" reducer 90deg bend.


While I was at it, the intake INTO the turbo needed to be sorted out also as nothing had been done for that yet.
The tube work here is 2.5" to match the inlet to the turbo. Working backwards from the turbo to the pod filter there is a 90deg bend out and up from the turbo, and then another 90 to bring the tube parallel with the ground again and over the top of the frame rail. Then, a 3" to 2.5" reducer to adapt from the pod filter.


I decided to go with the pod filter mounted just behind the left hand headlight. (well, if I actually ran headlights) Theres plenty of room there for the pod, and any sort of intake ductwork or whatever I end up with here.... I do not have an exact plan for that yet.



Any thoughts on what I should do here exctly?
Box in the pod filter?
Naca duct in the headlight?
Or run some duct for some cold air intake into the pod perhaps?

[Okibi]

[NitroDann]

Filter with an open headlight is my vote.

You're going to want some air through the bay to cool the gearbox and diff etc.

Dann

[beavis]

I'm actually considering just running a hose up from the radiator intake duct (I need to make up an alloy box for that) to a hole under where the pod will go, and boxing the pod in there.

Funny that you mention gbox/diff temps.... these have been on my mind lately. I spoke to a gentleman recently who has vast experience in high level motorsport across Europe. I quizzed him on the idea of running oil coolers for the differential and transmission. My experience has shown the trans tunnel gets unbelievely hot, and I have had to ensure very regular oil changes of the transmission as the oil is clearly deteriorating at an accelerated rate. However his suggestion was not to waste my time/money on such pleasantries as dedicated coolers until I was sure it was necessary.

So, I tried to keep it simple and will get an understanding on just how hot the box is getting with the help of these:

[Magpie]

Very useful those temp strips. Put them on your calipers as well

Looks like Racetech and Thermax have the same supplier, be interesting to see the price diff.
DSCN3500 by Eipeip, on Flickr

[Magpie]

Missed the opportunity to add another solution, with the skills of Lokiel and using https://tronixlabs.com.au/sensors/temperature/infrared/freetronics-ir-temperature-sensor-module-for-arduino-australia/ it would be possible to add a display to monitor gearbox/diff temps to see if cooling is needed.

[beavis]

It was about $35 for a pack of 10 temp strips delivered via courier. It's small enough they could've just thrown then in an envelope, but instead it was in a snazzy padded bag.

I presume the case of the diff and trans will be similar in temperature to the actual oil temp. I opted for the 200-260deg heat range to catch the upper end of the scale for a start.... I suspect I wont have issues hitting that temperature and will quickly need to improve the cooling of the transmission in particular.

No opportunity missed yet! These are cheap and disposable, so I can certainly look at better options in the future.
I actually have a spare arduino here with a little TFT colour screen shield.... I had once upon a time intended on hooking it into some sensors but decided the MS3 can do it and the arduino has since been sitting on the shelf. In fact I recall programming it to play the mario theme song on startup.

[madjak]

Whilst my box is in bits I was thinking of drilling and tapping in a temp sensor into the case. It would be nice to have a direct sensor feeding my ECU for the transmission temp. Just need to find an appropriate spot that won't hit anything.

Have you seen these guys? http://www.izzeracing.com/index.html
They do a whole range of CAN enabled IR sensors for tyres etc. It makes them a whole stack easier to link in to existing data loggers than the arduino stuff.

[beavis]

Did you forget about the Fastback?

Last time with the roof I had finished painting but it still needs a few finishing touches. Windows for the side and back, some foam rubber seals to get the roof sitting nicely on the body of the car and some fixings to bolt it down.


Here's the style shot of the couple of layers of carbon cloth drenched in resin. This is hand laid and squeegeed to try get the resin out. Not the lightest or strongest way to do carbon... it's mostly just for looks, and to keep the wind out.


I have an old bathroom mirror that's handy for doing nice smooth flat sheet like this. PVA release is brushed on the glass first to ensure this stuff comes away easily when it's set. The masking tape is good for keeping the mess contained and aids cleanup.


Once cured, the window shape was cut with an angle grinder and sanded smooth before being glued (sikaflexed) in place.


For the rear window, I'd tossed up the idea of running no back window, or a louvered window Lambo Huracan style. But, ended up going for a plain clear lexan window for best visibility.


A black border is painted around the permiter of the window to hide the glue, and the window is glued and clamped down.


So to make sure the rear window really stuck down properly and followed the slight curve of the rear section of the fastbacnk, it needed to be weighed down.
You can see here how ugly and yellow the doors look now. The rattle can 'appliance white' paint has not worn well. I've decided they really need to be sanded back and painted properly. But that will be a future update...

[beavis]

Another exciting thing to happen in the BEAVIS world of MX-5's recently:

Coolant Hose Fail on the VVT Supercharged NA


So the story on this one goes... I was driving the car to work and thankfully I had the Torque app running on the headunit which is hooked into the car via an OBD2 bluetooth dongle. It kicks up an alert as the coolant temp hits 100degC (212degF)
Immediately I'm perplexed as its never hit that before. At first I suspected it was a result of the weather as it gets toasty here in Melbourne around December/January. When moving, the temp would return to ~95deg, but when stationary it would return to as high as 105deg
So, there is little I can do as I need to get to work, after work i start the car and begin the drive home, thankfully there isn't too much traffic but the symptoms eventually return as the car warms up. I cruise home cautiously trying to keep the temp under 100ish as best I can.

As soon as I pull into the driveway and kill the motor I can hear a hiss and fear the worst. Busted Rad? Boiled Coolant? Head Gasket? ???
I pop the bonnet and the hissing is coming from around the intake manifold, I suspect perhaps one of those smaller coolant hoses that runs to the throttle body and oil filter may have failed?
I poke around and I can see coolant, but cant find a source.

Then, I squeeze the top radiator hose, no pressure at all and a splooge of coolant comes out the side of it. Well there's my problem. And the cause is immediately obvious.
The hose has been ever so slightly rubbing on the supercharger drive belt. The belt has carved a hole out of the hose, only tiny, but enough for the coolant to spray out at a high level of force.

So, a quick hose swap and some length adjustment and the issue is gone Phew

Here's a video of that endeavor:

[beavis]

So lots of work has been happening lately, and I've neglected to keep the forum up to scratch, but in summary....

• I've worked on getting the doors painted so now they almost match and are much more sturdy than the old rattle can paint.
• The brake duct mockup has translated into version 1 of aluminium brake ducts. Liken them to home made singular motorsport items.
• The oil cooler has been moved to a better spot - although not yet plumbed in.
• The front duct work from the bumper to the radiator has been completed.
• The front bumper has been cleaned up and painted.

But, more excitingly, the engine has been started!
Yep, I finally got around to nipping up the last of the bolts and giving everything a quick once over to start it and fire it all up. After some delays due to a swap around of the LS coil firing order, it started right up. A brief video to summarise where things are at with the car:


And, the other exciting news is that I was able to get the car out to Sandown Raceway for the MX-5 Fan Fest.
With the 1,000,000th MX-5 on show, Mad Mike in attendance, and some 670 or so fellow MX-5's... we and had a great day in the hot Aussie sun.

The car loaded on the trailer for the first time in 18 months....






Really happy to see the car out again and fully dressed. It's been a long time since it's had all it's body panels mostly installed.
That's it for now, I'll post some individual updates of all of the little changes that have been happening to the car in the coming days with pics detailing what I've done.
Next step is to properly tune the car and then, aero/bodywork upgrade is in order.

Cheers,
Brendan

[smy0003]

Off topic, but how'd your NA pull up?
Saw it after the parade lap trying to summon Captain Planet via smoke signals, hope it's all good.

[beavis]

Off topic, but how'd your NA pull up?
Saw it after the parade lap trying to summon Captain Planet via smoke signals, hope it's all good.

Yeah i gotta fix the pcv and IAC setup. It sucks in oil when idling via the valve cover which pools in the intake.
Particularly bad when sitting out in the heat of the sandown carpark for an hour and a half while a drone cruises around.
Thats on the to do list when i put the new ECU in.

Lucky for me I was in our ND which has air con and more comfortable seats

[beavis]

So the car's been on the dyno and after a few niggles, finally got things settled and working.
It's running around 180rwkw and a safe level of torque so as to not blow the little MX5's standard motor or gearbox.

[speed]

So the car's been on the dyno and after a few niggles, finally got things settled and working.
It's running around 180rwkw and a safe level of torque so as to not blow the little MX5's standard motor or gearbox.

That's a great amount of power for a stock motor.
Almost Gallo 24 spec ;)

You must be pretty happy with it, I know I would be

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