hopefully next year I'll make it out there

OMG, the photos finally come out. I hope next year is just as awesome.

Brian, do you intend on going to Sevenstock this year? If so, I wish you could find a way to bring your FC out (even though I know it is a slim shot in hell.)

I would like to go to 7Stock this year but unfortuneately I can't. A very close friend of mine is getting married the Friday before, 09/25 so sadly I can't make it out.

On the bright side though, his future wife is VERY much into the whole 7 thing. She was the one pushing for the two of them to go to DGRR but she started work that week so they had to cancel. Anywho, for their 1 yr anny they're talking about roadtripping out to Cali from CT. Not just for the event but for a vaca as well. I would probably ship my car to AZ, drive out with my dear friend, pick up my car in AZ, and then his wife @ the airport and cruise out to 7Stock 13 together. Enjoy the w/e, ship the car back to CT and hop a plane. My oldest friend lives in Newport Beach and we have had long standing plans to do some canyon carving together, and I need to kick ass M3 owning ass down the PCH and then up it again:driving: Not to mention I owe Daniel a stint behind the wheel for letting me rape his Miata to and from the liquor store more than a few times last year :rofl:

Moral is, the car will be there, but not this year sadly. Which was why I was not going to let anything keep me from DGRR. But now that I've been to DGRR, I can honestly say, DGRR > 7Stock. Interestingly enough..... shipping a car and flying to get it vs driving it out there are about the same cost when you add everything up. Hotels were the deal breaker. I'm too old to stay in anything but Marriots, Hiltons etc. so that was ~$400 each way right there less I wanted to hook up with some BAW'lers along the way... which I wouldn't mind at all..... hrm... so with some proper planning driving may actually be cheaper. Shipping was ~$800 each way, gas would be ~$550, plus food, stops, hotels, etc, days off from work have a cost... blah blah blah....

When are you heading east :rofl: Just ask AJ, as long as you like big dogs, I got beds

I'm not sure when I am heading east, but I know for certain that I am going to try my damnedest to make it out to DGRR next year. I have already got the week prior to SS and the week following scheduled off of work, so I think there are going to be a few of us BAWers driving out to California, and making a few pit stops on the way to visit people along with once we are there.

Regardless, I can't wait to see this car in person. It just sucks that it may be later than sooner.

Oh and yeah, AJ showed me the pictures of your dogs when he was here. Those dogs are definitely big, but he also said that they were some of the best trained dogs he had ever been around. If I ever make it up that way I'll definitely let you know. I don't have any problems at all with big dogs. :icon_tup:

Ah cool about the no probs with big dogs. That was also nice of AJ. He's just happy that I didn't send ~250 lbs of teeth at him :rofl: Nah, I'd never do that.

Shit Dustin, maybe try to head down for Trays little Oct shindig? I'm kinda hoping to attend that. I was thinking about heading to Zoom Fest, but it may be too long of a drive. Then again, since 7Stock is off this year, maybe I'll head down.... who knows. Either way, whenever you decide to head east, I have a bed waiting for ya. And there's always the Oct mt runs.

man, this makes me want to stop my build, because it's hard to imagine it will ever shape up to this!!

Great car all around!

Thanks Nick.

So I figured it was time for an update of sorts since the next week is going to be utter madness.
05/16 - went to the dyno for a comp test for the insurance claim and then we were going to do some more dyno tuning for the 05/17 Auto-X event. My grand debut after stepping out for about 7 years.
So we got to KDR and ran the comp test. The front rotor had three bounces all in the high 112's for PSI. Not bad, consistanct is the word I would use. The rear rotor showed us two bounces @ low 113's and one at 88 psi.... WEAK! Definately a problem. Dave tends to think it's a stuck side seal from the heat. So back and forth with the insurance adjuster a few times that day and then I said to Dave,
So Dave, ya wanna strap her down and have some fun? (with a naughty look on my face)
His reply - You'll break her.
Really?
Yeah, she's hurt and she'll break
But Dave, I've put over 2k miles, close to 3 since the overheat
Yeah, but none on that (as he points to the dyno)
Really? (I say with a powty look)
I can call Enterprise for you right now if you want. Enterprise, They'll take you there (or whatever thier slogan is, I was too busy laughing my arse off with the group of guys that were around)
We all had a good laugh and hung out for a few more hours before I drove back to CT. On the way back I did some light sequential tuning, got home, had a few beers with a friend and decided, fuck it, I'm racing tomorrow
Went to the Auto-X and had a fricken BLAST
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/05170907.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709253.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709360.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709361.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709362.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709361.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/051709359.jpg
http://www.cartct.com/results/05-17-09/05170942.jpg
even though I finished not so well. A few things need to happen. I need more seat time, I need to rebuild the engine, I need the sequentials working, I need a higher rev limit, I need the FE tranny, I need an oil baffle pan, I need something in the filler to keep the oil from working it's way up to the cap and then OVERFLOWING OUT OF THE OIL FILL CAP! and I need some race rubber. We're hoping to get all but the race rubber sorted before the next event on 06/07.

Anywho, in talking with Dave, the original thought was just to crack the rear iron off, fix the stuck seal and run her for how-ever long. Then I remembered the gasket set I won (thanks IRP) and realized that for ~$700 I could rebuild the entire engine. So, that's what the plan is now. I forsee two all nighters in the next week to get her done in time, but I expect to be back on the dyno with Dave on 06/03. So fingers crossed. My new gaskets, side seals and springs, corner seals and springs, and RA Super Seals and springs arrived today. Wednesday night is one all nighter to get the engine out and everything cleaned. Then over the next few days clearance all the seals and then a second all nighter on Saturday to get the engine assembled and dropped into place. Should be a brutal week but whatever - keeps me young :rofl:

Well, that plan was shot to hell. Turns out it wasn't a stuck seal, but instead I managed to break my second side seal :banghead: Well I didn't do it, Goodyear did hen they overheated the engine. I clearanced everything on that side of the rotor to .05mm. When she cooked the seal must have pinned and broke. I'll get some pics up in the very near future but there is a .185-.25" piece of side seal missing. It scored the housing on the way out and took out the turbo's :banghead: :banghead: As per Mazda the twins aren't serviceable so I should be getting a new pair of '99 spec twins out of the whole deal becuase, well it's a superceded number. Lucky me.... not really. If I was lucky I would've been able to enjoy my car unhurt for more than 160 miles. ::banghead::banghead::banghead::

Right now the engine is disassembled and the car is in pieces. I'm so pissed off at the whole thing that if the insurance co gives me any more shit tomorrow I'm going to have the car towed to Dave, all the pieces shipped, and the company can pay him to rebuild the engine, port the housings, paint the housings, assemble the car, break it in and dyno it, oh yeah, new turbo's too.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow............

:( That sucks man. I hope it all works out okay, with the least amount of headache possible.

Least amount of headache would've been, here's the shit that's damages, here's what'll cost. Great, thanks for the check. Instead it's been dragging on for OVER 6 weeks at this point. Faxing parts lists, driving 6 hours for a comp test, faxing that, faxing appraisals, mazda invoices, and everything that they can think of. I've had enough, they've managed to suck the joy out of the car for me. I really just want to wave good bye to it and pick it up in a month or so when Dave's done. I'll miss a few auto-x's and the Limerock track day that I so BADLY wanted to go to but at least it'll be done.

They've been claiming all along that I'm trying to turn a profit on this whole thing which I really wasn't. I wanted fair compensation and they put up a hell of a fight. They don't know who they're fucking with is what it really comes down to :rofl:

Whatever, It'll probably be $9,000 for KDR to do everything (turbo's, painting and porting new housings being a big part of that) but they don't want to cut a check to me for the parts. I don't understand.

Stick it to 'em man!!

Hopefully after your insurance company pulls their dick out of their ass'es they don't spread the word to other insurance companies on how expensive rotary costs are. :)

I have wanted to just give my car to a shop and let them do the dirty work BUT in Montana I AM the shop.

Hang in there and before you know it you will be back on the road. BTW 99 spec turbos will be nice.

They should make ~12 RWHP more at the same boost level and the response is supposed to be even better. That is kinda frightening actually. As the stockers are basically instant.

I tried to warn them when this first started that it was going to be an $8-10,000 claim and when they heard $4,200 for a soft rebuild they were all exited. I asked what happens when Dave cracks the motor open and finds trashed housings, warped rotors, scored endplates etc etc etc and they never answered me. That's when I cracked the motor open. They still haven't answered me yet today. I'm going to call them in a bit. I was VERY explicit that I wanted this done with today. I'm going to call and re-iterate that and then add that my attorney will be involved come Monday. I'm so sick of this shit.

I get sick of dealing with insurance companies. I feel your pain.

Slip and squirm and wiggle their way out any way they can. But boy, a day late on your policy payment and hell will rain down from the skies on you - and it won't be covered :lol:

Best of luck bro!

:rofl: Yeah, I bet you've had more than your fair share of insurance dealings. What they don't realize is who they're trying to fuck with :lol: I've been on both sides of the shit in the insurance industry so I know what I'm entitled to and what I'm not. So.......... I'm done after this last e-mail to them. Now they want the Alldata time for engine removal, overhaul and install. It's 18.7 hours BTW. How fucking ridiculously optimistic is that? And why the fuck am I looking this shit up? Isn't this the adjusters fucking job? He told me how much he earns a year. I thought to myself, Fuck, you get paid that much to jerk people off and you don't even get your hands sticky.... Where the fuck do I sign up? /Tangent.

So I gave them a cashout number, they said no way. I told them they have until Monday night to decide to either pay me, or authorize KDR for everything including two new housings, and a new set of twins. I continued with, one of my best friends is an attorney. He's in CA until Sunday morning. Sunday night I'm buying him a few beers and we're discussing this and he is going to be involved come Tuesday if it's not resolved. We'll see how that plays out. I have yet to drop the bomb on them that my attorney friend was present for some of the engine rebuild, he was there 30 minutes after Goodyear overheated the engine, took a LONG lunch break that day :lol: , and he was there that night compression checking the engine with me and two other witnesses when we found the engine down 20psi from a week earlier and that one low bouce from the broken side seal. I'm waiting to drop that one until last.

Whatever, they're also asking for the Mazda list prices for all the parts. I just sent them a list with $8,602.79 worth of parts on it :rofl:

wait... 3 engines, 'xplain!

First was the used RE that I bought three years ago. That lasted 4.5 hours before, ironically, the same failure happened, just for different reasons. The side seal was carbon locked and broke a few inched from the corner seal. The side seal chipped the Apex seal which finally broke and took out the other two apex seals and the housing, and the rotor. Than this motor lost a piece of side seal and took out a housing........ but the Apex seals are intact..... but that's irrelavent becuase they won't be reused. So that's two motors, I'll be building, or Dave will be building, engine number 3 very soon.

As long as I make the Limerock Track day, I won't have to kill anyone. If the scumfuck spermburping ins co decides not to cash me out, it looks like Dave will have the car for 4-6 weeks which makes me a sad panda.

Although it will give me time to get some work done on my boat. Maybe get that in the water before fall :rofl:

So the Ins co decided that they will cash me out for the parts that I know were damaged. Tomorrow I'll be going over everything again just to be extra certain that I didn't miss a warped plate or a warped rotor or something horrible like that. If everything turns out OK, then I'll be clearancing side seals this weekend and may actually get her done in time for the Limerock track day. That would be SOOOOOOOOOO fucking awesome as I should be rocking some Work VSXX's wrapped in Toyo RA1 r-comp tires too. My pants are tight just thinking about it

Boo....when is track day? I'm coming back 6/21.

Track day is 6/18. Come back a day early and hit the auto-x with me and maybe Alex & Maya on 6/21

GOOD TO HEAR! I should be starting mine by next week. I have been actually driving mine around just with no boost. Weather has been so nice lately and I have been saying fuck it. It felt good just to joy ride

Yes, Yes it does. Shit, I auto-x'ed mine the day after the comp test and accidentally hit the rev limit once or twice. I'm pysched though. After talking with Dave I decided to use the 13B-RE housings that came with the second motor. I have been half-assedly trying to sell them for some time now. I spoke with Dave about them and he suggested using them. He has seen no appreciable difference on the dyno using them vs the TII/REW housings. For those of you who don't know, the ports on the Cosmo motor dive downward after the port opening to meet up with the restrictive exhaust sleeves. Upon seeing this, I opted to buy a set of good condition S5 N/A housings and port those.

Dave was telling me the first set he did when he re-used the Cosmo housings, he welded the area up and then ground it down to meet with the sleeves. The next next identical motor he built he just put the sleeves in. Dyno says no difference. Sooooooo, this motor should be slightly stronger than the last becuase the housings are in better shape. They are near mint.

The rest of the parts that I need to rebuild the shortblock should be here Monday. Everything has been cleaned. Left to do is port/paint the new housings, clearance all the side seals, and pull the turbine cartridges to see if there was any damage to the turbine blades when the chunk of side seal passed through it. I'm hoping that the piece or pieces were so small that no damage was done. If there was damage I'll have to buy new cartridges. I was hoping to get the efini twins, but I just don't have the patience @ this point. I would have to wait a few weeks while the snails and the center piece were out getting ceramic coated. Instead what I think I'll do is buy the twins in a few months and tear them apart. Get a second mani as well and send everything to David Garfinkle for some porting. Then have the pieces shipped to my ceramic coater, then back to me so I can have them for DGRR '10. Along with a few other additions. New undercoating, new paint, new hood, extra gear "in the tranny" :suspect:

So anywho, still hoping to make LimeRock. Really hoping now becuase I just paid for my Work VSXX's with some RA1 rubber that should arrive in a week..... should be a fucking BLAST. I need to get some sort of in-car camera for that.....

So stay tuned. More pics and dyno numbers to come.

WTF ARE YOU WAITING FOR THEN?!?:rofl:

Engine rebuild, dyno, getting my camera back from a fellow forum member........ I may just show up at her house unexpectedly to collect. Be good breakin mileage. She's ~3 hrs away. I suspect I'll have one in time.

Good to hear about your engine getting paid for. Next time i have legal issues, you'll be getting a pm.

Jshiz, the key is explicitly using "scumfuck spermburping" with the ins co.

So that's what I've been doing wrong. I guess "Anal Turd buckets" wasn't explic enough

:rofl: I was lucky in my situation because everything was so miticulously documented. not only by me but by the state of CT. CT video tapes all of thier emmisions tests. So, at the hieght of my being jerked off, to the point where the blisters turned to bleeding sores I told them, "listen you scumfuck spermburpers. Either this gets settled so that I am indemnified, or I am calling a lawyer, getting that tape, all my pictures, all my documentation and I'll see you in court where I will go after the full amount to have a shop repair the damage as well as attourneys fees, rental car, etc etc etc."

That's when things started happening rather quickly. So, if you're ever in a situation like that, document everything you can. The cameraphone is such an awesome invention. I can record video and voice notes on my crackberry as well. Basically don't go for more than you think you're entitled to, stand your ground, and document EVERYTHING. Send emails instead of voicemails, "Spermburper, this is the THIRD time I have sent you what you asked for. See e-mails dated, blah blah and yada yada..... etc etc etc.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Maybe. So pre-overheat I had ~30-35psi of oil on a hot idle. Post Overheat I had ~15+ish. Dave said check the main bearings. Rear main is out of spec about a thou and a half. So Renni rear gear is being ordered. 3 window etc etc etc. Also noticed tonight some gawd awefully slight scoring on the e-shaft. So it looks like I'll be ordering a renni e-shaft as well. FrankenWankel gets more Frankened?

Should give ever so slightly better acceleration from the lower rotating mass and the 3 window rear just gives peace of mind spinning to 7800+

Hrm, better housings, tighter tolerances on the side seals, lighter e-shaft, should beat 313 on wastegate :reddevil:

Sounds like fun! I think I just fixed my smoking problem and rather simply too. lol. $6 worth of pipe. It's a tight fit, but it makes for a much nicer transition from the turbo to the oil pan.

I would however like to see an in detail write up from you on how you spec your engines and build them; work area, seal grinding, new parts replaced, etc. I still have a lot to learn in that respect and I still need to track down vac leaks. I suck at it. I know I have one and I'm pretty confident I know where it's coming from, but I can never find it with the propane method. I think I'm going to make a smoke machine one of these days.

Document your engine build!

OK, I don't think there is really anything special about the way I go about it.

I like to replace all the seals and springs but if I don't, I spec them damn carefully. The last engine I built I actually spent more time playing musical seals and grinding very little off a few here and there than I spent clearancing all 12 new seals for this engine.

A good friend has a sharpening stone that is 220 on one side and 1000 on the other. So what I do is use the 220 side until the seal just barely fits in place, then I move over to the 1000 and grind until it clears the .05mm. If I can get the .08mm in there I move it around to a few different sides until it fits right. Had to do this twice on this motor. If the seal is free but the .05mm won't fit, there is the potential that you are at .049mm and a few strokes will put you out of range. You can always take more off but you can't put it back on so I always count my strokes and check every 7.

The cutting fluid I use is a dream. Cuts though the seals like nothing. So friken fast. Oh, I also buy 14 seals instead of 12. I broke one and the other is a backup now. So nect time I only need 13. but 13 is bad joo joo so I'll still get 14.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706453

For anyone wondering about the 13B-RE housings. They are a PITA! The exhaust sleeves don't line up like the normal housings do, and there is an insert for the egr deal so it can't be tapped. I have a few shots of the port, the TII/REW sleeve, and the plug that I had to make. I was FURIOUS at this little bitch. I took some 3/8" plate that I had laying around and hand fit it to .550" round and then pounded it into the port. HOURS wasted with this. Why did I do this you ask? Well, the sleeve seems like it would allow a decent amount of exhaust gas to get out and up into the LIM heating it. Bad scenario. So now it's blocked off.

As for the ports, I spoke with Dave about these housings. He has seen no appreciable difference with the sleeves mis-alinged. I know, doesn't make sense, but his dyno doesn't lie. I was originally going to hock these housings and buy new REW housings. Now I'll save those gems for the next engine which will be even more beasty.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706453

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706453

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706453

So, after the rotors are set and all the seals are in place, Apex seals and assit pieces glued, springs layed out, and everything has been cleaned and recleaned, and recleaned I start like this.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706453

Then I spend a good deal of time putting hylomar on the housings. Being careful to make sure that it stays on the water side of the compression seal. Don't want that nastiness getting into the combustion chamber. Then one iron @ a time I put the vaseline on for the o-rings. I have a bunch of syringes that I use for epoxy work that make keeping the vaseline pretty neat.

So starting with the front plate on the stand the vaseline and o-ring's go in. Then the dowel pins lubbed with some oil. Then I squirt some oil on the main bearing, and where the side seals and oil control rings would rotate. I use normal mineral oil for this - in the old squirter. Then I saturate the housings with 2-stroke oil smearing it everywhere, in the new red plastic one. I do my cleaning with carb clean, so that takes all the oil out of the pores that are supposed to retain the oil. Then the rotor goes in, e-shaft and center plate. Pretty normal I think

So here we are with the center plate (and the new RX8 eshaft) but no o-rings. I like to do them one surface at a time. What if right? Don't need those bastards swelling so.........

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706952

Put them on along with the dowels. The dowels are there for alignment. Why put a housing on and have to move it? I've moved o-rings out of place before trying to align a housing. now I just put the dowels in first.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706952

Apply liberal amounts of oil

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706952

Insert rotor...... With the last engine, on the last corner seal before the thing was done it was being stubborn. It finnaly moved and jumped out of it's hole and hopped into a collant passage :banghead: It took me about 15 minutes to fish it out with a magnet wrapped in electrical tape becuase it kept pulling towards the irons while I was trying to get it down to the front plate. THen it wouldn't pass through the housing so I had to shave the tape. It was an infuriating nightmare. I was seeing red. Anyway, now when I take the corner seals out I use a magnet to pull them out so something like that can't happen again.

http://rotarycarclub.com/rotary_foru...1&d=1244706952

And then the plate and the tension bolts. Pretty normal or so I think. Tomorrow, or later today actually, I'll set the end float and start putting the periperals on. Still planning on being at KDR on the 17th for a dyno and then hitting Limerock the next day.

I bought a set of Work VSXX's of a friend who is parting his car. They are 17x8 & 17x9 wrapped in 235/40 & 255/40 RA1's. I got them for a deal that I couldn't pass up. I can't wait to so some damage to them. They should be here today... WOOT!

did you get the wheels from someone in ohio? looking good brian!

Well then there should have been pics by now... not a good look TTT......:icon_no2:







:001_005:

Thanks Adam. Yes I did. They should've arrived today but instead when I got home there was a note saying we tried to deliver, but we're too fucking lazy to carry 200lbs of wheels/tires from our truck so instead we're going to leave you a note. The bastards never even knocked. I have two big guard dogs and they didn't make a fricken PEEP all day. Lazy asses. So I'll be signing that signature release and there will be pics tomorrow :)

:rofl: Not my fault FedEx enjoys gargling sperm. I'll get some pics tomorrow.... It'll be late, like really late. Maybe even Saturday...... wait, it's already Friday, so yeah, pics by tomorrow the latest ;)

Our FedEx its pretty cool here. Its always the same guy in his Ryder rental truck(... his FedEx one must have broke or something... times ARE hard right now :rofl:) and he happens to be a fish tank and car guy. He typically hangs out for a bit, after dropping off my constant influx of parts, and asks about the 200 gal aquarium by the front door as well as my FC and my friend's STi (the FedEx guy owns a Subie himself) that's over every once in a while to be detailed.

She's ALIVE!!!!

Started right the hell up @ ~6 this morning. Ran great until the t-stat opened then the coolant temps SHOT to 205*...... fucking air bubble. Oil temps stayed @ 160 though. Shut her down burped the system, started right up again and we sat there and idled for about 1/2 hr. Then I go some much needed sleep, droped her off the stands and so far the first 10 miles have been flawless. Ran a comp test this morning too........ after ~ 1/2 hour of idle she's making 125+ psi in the front & ~130psi in the rear. I are very happy. Now I just need to log a metric fuckton of miles before the dyno on Wed............. anybody wanna come to CT and break my car in tonight while I sleep?

I would've but I left the USA on saturday :lol:

Good job man, can't wait for power results!

Fly me to CT and I'll do it