My B-day is the 25th.... A GREAT present would be a video *wink wink*

Side story, my engine blew yesterday coasting around a corner on my way home. Ordered up the rest of my lines fittings and I'm gonna try and have the other block in by the end of the week. I'm just glad my trip was the opposite of rush-hour traffic so I got to putter along at 70 mph popping flames off everywhere. Still started and idled on 1 rotor at ~750 rpms too. Now that the block is cold I can't get it to start back up but it sure does make some exhaust racket when it tries.

Hmmmmm, I'll see what I can do. With any luck I'll have most of the driveability crap sorted and a good base going so we can have some fun that day. Fun as in 8k & 15+lbs and toying with the sequentials. I'm really going to have to dial in some boost trims though. Spiked 12lbs tonight in 2nd and broke the tires loose @ 1/2 throttle.

Soooooooo, how'd she pop coasting a corner? I'm intrigued. Good luck with the swap over....... we demand pics damnit.

I REALLY don't know. Was hitting the U-turn lane to head back home from Bone Daddy's and just as I started accelerating at the exit of the turn the car just lurched and had a hard time accelerating. The way it sounded, and reacted, I thought I had hit something at first on the road and it got stuck on a wheel or something since the turn is basically blind from the walls being so high (or maybe my car so low) and the u-turn lane so narrow. I had clutched out and all of a sudden the car seemed to be rolling as if nothing was stuck anywhere so I tried free-revving..... *brathrptthrpthtrhpthrphtprht-BANG* "ooooooo, haha, Meester Vankel, ve haf a man dowwwn!" Unless it was some freak fuel starvation when I had 3/4 a tank of fuel I am clueless. Oil levels were right, had fuel, no smoke, no nothing.

Damn it. That's really not cool at all. I WAS going to say fuel starvation myself but with that much fuel, it just doesn't make sense. Although, I have fuel starved my N/A with more than a 1/2 tank. I've been finding that the ethanol attacks certain plastics. I'm wonder how your fuel sock is? Either way that sucks. New engine installed intime for the b-day?

oh for sure the car should be 90% by Sunday all things going somewhat well.

your engine randomly blowing makes me just HATE the rotary.

Dyno on the 24th...I'm going to be in that area that weekend, but looks like I'll be heading up there a day earlier.

Hey, it means I get to put the Haltech in at least! Then I'd at least be able to look at logs and discern wtf happened when everything goes wrong.

and the catalog that came with my Spa gauges has me fancying one of their Dash units.

All this talk of random engine failure scares me. I want to go turbo, but I don't know that I want these reliability issues. My NA has 8,000 miles on a rebuild and pulls harder every day. My experience with NA rotaries is that they are borderline bulletproof.

I have:

Run one out of oil (added oil a few miles later at the nearest gas station, all was good)

Drained all the coolant out of one in a effort to re-seat the coolant seals and beat it around for 15 minutes (coolant seals did not reseat)

Overheated one with bad coolant seals (the temperature gauge quit climbing when it hit the peg, I kept driving)

Advanced the ignition until it sounded like a gnome beating on something under the hood (60+ degrees on 9.4:1 CR), then drove 15 miles (never hurt anything)

All I hear of turbo rotaries is engine failure with no visible cause.

Maybe I should stay NA.

my na runs like crap too but i think it might be a garage fuel tank.

It has been brought to my attention that this may have been the culprit











http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...6/DSCF1125.jpg

I totally Jinxed myself.... Wonder if I can submit this picture to Darkstar and get something out of it. Like maybe the price of an engine in skateboard decks :rofl:

sounds about right

So, how'd the weekend go? Do we have updates?

Shit man, swing by if you want. I hope to be there around 10 and stay prob all day

Dash units, they suck.... I hate them all, totally pointless with all their warning lights, and adjustability, ability to display whatever you want how you want it.... useless garbage, all of them











:rofl:

There's always a cause, it's whether or not it can be found or not is the real question. Also think about what you're asking this little highstrung moody at best, pissed off at worst engine to do for you. Bone stock TII's can last at least 100k if properly maintained, not constantly raped etc etc etc. Double, Triple, or even more-ouple the power and things are going to wear quicker. I was also having an interesting conversation with someone over the weekend about the reliabilty of the rotary and the myths and rumors about it. I think alot of it has to do with poor rebuilding. Not saying EJay or Sean built shitty motors by any stretch, but saying there are alot of people that reuse housings, plates, side seals, apex seals, e-shafts whatever, when they really shouldn't be reused at all. I know in my engine I was re-using plates that I wasn't entirely happy with re-using but the option was wait how many more weeks or even months until I either had the other ones lapped, then sent to a different shop to ported (My plate porting ability is sub-par) then off to a third shop to be re-nitrated, THEN assembly the engine at my often times snail like pace. No thanks, I wanted to enjoy the car. I believe that one major cause for early engine failure (and I've had this discussion with Dave as well) is people/customers re-using parts that shouldn't be re-used.

garage fuel tank ya say? :rofl:

:rofl: How long would it take to sell those boards though?

LOL... about that. The rain was a turn-off and the fact I had to move my car up the sloped driveway and into the garage myself (the brick and turning the rear wheel by hand trick) left me with a lot of bruising on my right wrist, front and back. I still took the hood off and most of the crap off the block, but I haven't disconnected any of the fluid systems because all of my fluid catch containers are full and I'll be damned if I mess up this garage floor.... too much. I have all day tomorrow after 12 noon to dispose of the probably 20 gallons of used oil I have laying around and working in pleasant sunshine weather. If it wasn't for my Doberman constantly shoving her nose in my face for attention I seriously would have slept on the couch all day Saturday. The weather was so miserable that when I sat down on the couch to watch some T.V., taking a break from that little bit I did to the car, I freakin didn't even make it to the remote to turn the T.V. on before I bit it :rofl:

:rofl: Yeah, I think we've all had those days. Before I started forcing myself to consistantly perfectly clean the garage after I was done, I'd walk out into the garage with all these plans and hopes, look at the mess, and say eff it, walk inside and go to sleep. Tonight was, is, one of those nights. And with that, I'm going to sleep. Need to get some rest if I am going to

1) Install a new filter - clogged it AGAIN - I blame Jersey, fucking state, not clean, completely new one, BIGGEST Aeromotive I could find.
2) Drop the tranny to find and kill an interesting clutch noise, not the normal twin disc little chatter that I've gotten used to
3) Dissassemble two trannies, assemble one tranny, build custom mounts and figure out a driveshaft solution

All before midnight of 9/23 without having one day of work off. It will be challenging.

:mad:

yea i cant type worth crap

Huh?

:lol: I'm not saying anything about the inhabitants, just they have dirty gas......... and it kinda smells funky around Newark.... and I always get stuck in traffic.

refering to the garage fuel tank thing

Sounds like NJ to me. :rofl:

Area around the Palisades Center smells like swamp.... oh wait... it was built on one.....

Ah, yes, I remember now

:lol: I've been through Jersey every weekend for the past three and everytime it's the same thing. Fuel filter gets clogged, get stuck in traffic, ricers want to race on the highway, windows get rolled up on 78...... At least this w/e I have off.

Dude, you think that's bad....... go to Newark. Your nose will turn inside out.

Every time I drop in NY its almost always through Newark Airport. ;)

My condolences

Its not so bad... except for the fact the family that comes to pick me up gets lost on the way back to Nyack almost EVERY time when its always the SAME people..... you'd think 20-sum-odd years later they'd have learned the route? Being stuck sitting behind one of my uncles who has the front seat all the way into the back seat for ~4 hours when I was younger is the reason why my left knee is still fucked up. It WAS tendinitis but I've had it for so many years now, and its still there... the "knot" but not the pain, its probably safe to assume it has calcified. I should tell him one of these days what he did to me because he really doesn't know lol

NJ is nice once you get south of the Driscoll. When I lived in Belmar I loved riding my long board to the beach and the girls here are pretty damn good looking.

North west corner is acceptable as well :rofl:

So, I found the cause of my exhaust leak.... Appears the Pineapple Graphite one doesn't enjoy standing up to a few hours of abuse. Literally burned the graphite up and left nothing but the steel honeycomb. Im going to call Pineapple as this is the second one I've had and while the first wasn't exactely a long life item, it lasted longer than this. In fact this is the third gasket I've been through. If Pineapple doesn't replace this one, which they probably will. I'll be buying a factory one.

Also found the strange noise coming from the clutch.... the T/O bearing fell apart in my hand. I'm actually lucky I made it home. The outter "wrapping" peeled away ..... and scratched of some of the purple anodizing on my clutch cover :cuss: and when I FINALLY got the trans out (I need a two poster damnit) the thing fell apart sending little stainless ball beaings everywhere.

So now I just need to get the new fuel filter mounted and plumbed, take my 12 speeds and make 6, custom mounting, PRAY the driveshaft fits, and put it all back together by Thursday @ 6 in the morn...... le sigh

while my car is jacked up I also spotted why my car seemed a little .... LOUDER than usual before it blew. This damn thing ALWAYS finds some way to loosen an exhaust bolt no matter how well its secured, torqued and lockwasher where I can put them. Except this time it just so happened to completely discard the bolt somewhere out on the road. This car has probably cost me more money in exhaust bolts/nuts than any other piece on it. Luckily I use SCE copper gaskets and they've been reusable after MULTIPLE issues of exhaust blow-by.

I bet you saw it and said the same thing I did.. "Ain't that a bitch!?"

:rofl: Nah, I used much more colorful language. I think I heard a baby crying in the background when I was done. It's actually a good thing that I needed to drop the tranny. Otherwise I would've just seen the 4 loose fasteners, cursed, tightened them, and then cursed more when the leak was still there. Removing the DP to get the tranny out showed me the real route of the cause. I'm going to call Pineapple tomorrow to see what they have to say about it. The thing lasted <1000 miles.... granted a bunch of those miles where given rides to gearheads at a bachelors party but still....... that's just sad. If they won't send one out for free to me by Wed (dyno on Thurs) then I'll just get a stocker. What pisses me off though is I bought two of these gaskets now, the first one lasted quite a while, but two of these Pineapple gaskets cost what one stocker would have.

What's the old saying? Goi fast will take longer and going cheap will cost you more? I know this already, why am I still being remineded? :banghead:

Did I miss something, did you build the 6spd already and its in the car? Insane.. sorry I'm going to have to miss this dyno!

LAME! I'll have ~2500 miles on the engine so we should be going for the 8k full boost see if we can get to 400RWHP.

Didn't get the 6-spd done. I pulled apart the FE 6-spd and a bag of parts fell out of the extension housing :lol: I pulled apart the "other" 6-spd and went to put the FE main drive gear on the "others" input shaft and the clutch cover/main input bearings won't line up using the FE's main drive gear and the "others" main shaft and countershaft. That was the whole plan and it fell apart because of an 1/8" difference in length :banghead: Apparently the clutch cover depth is different between the two.

So I'm basically back to square one with two 6-spd trannies disassembled on my work benches. I'm going to rebuild the FE box using the FE's countershaft, main drive gear, main shaft, clutch cover and intermediate housing. Then see if I can get the "other" trannies exentsion housing machined to fit the FE's driveshaft bushing and rear seal. The FE's mainshaft fits the TII driveshaft while the "other's" fits an N/A driveshaft. So I can't use the "other" trannies extension housing with the FE's mainshaft unless I can A) find a driveshaft shop that has a yoke with the OD of the N/A driveshaft and the spline diameter and count of the TII's driveshaft or B) get the "other" extension housing machined to fit the FE's driveshaft bushing and rear seal. Not to mention there is a 3/8" difference in length but with a proper yoke, that's not going to be a problem.

The other option is of course to use the FE's extension housing and relocate the shifter with a fuckton of cutting and welding. Which in all honsty is probably what is going to happen now using the "other" trannies shift rod. That would be the cheapest route to go in the future if we decide to offer these becuase you would only need to buy one trans and one shift rod as opposed to two trannies and meld them together.

Or I can drop everything off with Dave and say, make it work. :rofl:

I still need to get the car set for Thursday so the tranny is going to take backburner till Saturday, which REALLY pisses me off. I wanted that thing done for the last few auto-x's that I will hopefully be able to attend. Hopefully I can make 4. Two somewhat long (2'nd and 3rd gear) and two short - just like the one where my best time came leaving the car in 1st the whole time. Not to mention I really didn't want to be dropping that tranny again. I had to get the Type-R box on the ground to get to the T/O bearing and I wanted to put the 6-spd back in. Le sigh, oh well. I still have 6-7 weeks to get this tranny crap sorted out and mounted before the car is off the road. I REALLY want to get the thing installed and running just in case I need to weld onto the car for mounting BEFORE I fix all the rust and undercoat it. Oh yeah, my car is being stripped down to the bare chassis and tossed on a rotisserie starting in early Nov. List is to
1) fix all the undercarriage rust
2) prime then Herculine the underside
3) Lizzard Skin the interior
4) A litte re-wiring on the interior
5) Belly Pan
6) Re-enforce the front bumper
7) Re-enforce the hood
8) Windshield washers
and it all MUST be done by X-mas becuase I will hopefully be re-painting an FB that attended last years DGRR and will be debuting new skin for '10. Also need to build an Auto-x trailer so my buddy can drive my truck to DGRR '10 with the trailer in tow an loaded so I can slap on the race rubber to drive the dragon :driving:

Not to mention the deck on a 21' boat that I'll hopefully be pulling to replace a gas tank, and then there's always the TII LSX conversion and total re-paint that we want to get done for DGRR as well......... BUSY winter!

You don't sleep do you?

No he doesn't. He doesn't eat either. He just has an IV with liquor in it.

^ All of this is true. So true.


Just have to get your car undercoated and cleaned up huh? Couldnt just let my FC be the cleanest one there could ya? Bah!

You knew the trans thing would be too good to be true at first anyway, but I agree - hacking it and slapping in a single trans instead of mucking around with all the different parts sounds easiest!

Oh and NM that T2 LSX dealy... seriously, if we manage to have three super clean FCs done in time (mine is a stretch, but we'll see) people won't know what to do with themselves. FD guys are going to have kittens when FCs get all the attention :)

I'll sleep plenty when I'm dead ;)

Mixed with OJ of course.... need some source of vitamins

This is most likely going to become a full time venture for myself and a very dear friend of mine. We're hoping to have an LLC in place by 1/1/10. It's funny because I have and Econ and Finance degree and ~5 yrs experience as an RIAA and financial planner and he's a practicing tax attorney, so there will be 4 degrees between two guys building and racing cars professionally :rofl: but we're both sick of the rat race and want something more enjoyable.

Hell no! I've got some other little goodies in store for the girl as well........ things that I'm not telling anyone about till I show up :suspect: Just to rub it in too I'm gonna jack her up and put a mirror on the ground so everyone can see :rofl:

I knew it was too good to be true but I don't understand why Aisin would manufacture two different mainshafts and countershafts when one would do by adjusting the length of the extension housing :banghead: Pisses me off that I spent $650 on that trans and the only two parts that I'll probably use from it are the shifter and the cap. I dunno, I need to rebuild and assemble the trans sans extension housing and bring it back to Dave and get his thoughts on it. Pisses me off though. Oh well, it'll be worth it when it's all done and maybe I can make some coin back by selling some parts off to the Miata guys who blow the trans and just rebuild without addressing the problem.

The TII LSX will be uber clean IFF we can get her done in time - it's doubtful but possible. Clean as in no wires will be seen under the hood, most of the fuel/coolant lines will be hidden, we're doing some custom shit to the rad/oilcooler mounting, it'll be bitching for sure. The FB will be of the same caliber in terms of clean. My goal is to have that car take home Best FB and I REALLY want her parked next to me. Don't know what we're going to do about the boinger powered TII though.......... this is a ROTARY RALLY :rofl: maybe shove her off in the corner with my auto-x trailer and Cherokee and maybe let her run the Dragon. I'm actually excited about that car though, I just wish there was more custom fab that we could do to it but oh well.

But yeah, I'd love to see some of the guys reactions to the cars I want to bring.

You need to give us a sneek peek of this LSX FC........:)

Its all good - its people like you and your buddy who keep me going! Whats a competition if your the only one in the race ya know??

If you guys get something together in 2010, you'll have my business for sure :) I want that front strut bar / brace combo!

Dude, you totally "leaked" a little ;)

Oh, did I mention I forgot all about the tranny fluid so when I pulled the engine/trans the entire case ended up all over the floor? :rofl: now I have to effing lay in it when I'm under the car because I sure as hell am not putting the car down, rolling it out of the garage, then sweeping all of the oil dri up..... so much for that clean garage floor.

Alright - you asked and you shall recieve

Best way to work the underside of a car - upside down!

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1253664249

Alex - the gent who would be partnering with me working the known problem spots. He's a pussy, he wears gloves when he welds :rofl:
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1253664249

Long night, Brian's tired and hopped up on RedBull.
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1253664249

At my house getting cleaned up and sanded down
http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1253664249

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1253664249