Well, I have to apologize for not making it out to DGRR again this year. Last year it was my Achilles tendon (oh snap, literally), this year it was the engine build for the RX-8. My buddy Joe Ferguson and I have been working on a pretty sweet Renesis engine build for a long time now, and after a lot of waiting around on parts and some machine work we finally had everything together to do the build and swap it into the car. This happened a week before DGRR and I was hopefully I could break it in and do a quicky tune in time for the drive down, but things didn't go quite to plan (as usual). The engine was throwing a misfire code and I'm still trying to track down the source. My latest theory is a bad knock sensor or knock sensor wiring, having already looked at the fuel and ignition systems prior to DGRR.
Anyhow, I'm seriously bummed out about not making it this year, but hopefully Phil keeps this event going one more year for me
As for the engine build, the full story on it will be in the July issue of Modified but here's a few deets JIC you're curious.
-Racing Beat lightweight rotors, good for 10.5k rpm
-Goopy Performance refurb'd housings and apex and corner seals (we EDM wire cut the rotors to allow for the deeper seated FD seals)
- full rotating assembly including clutch and flywheel professionally balanced
- ported irons and LIM using Racing Beat templates and instructions
- all new OEM gaskets, springs, seals, rings, etc
- Mazdaspeed rotor bearings, flywheel (ACT ProLite) and pulley set (main and alternator, deletes a/c)
- Bully Stage 4 clutch kit
We're hoping to make some good all-motor power out of this build (once I get the misfire dealt with and the engine fully broken in, of course). I'll post up a dyno plot once she's tuned.
A few pics of the engine build, just for fun:
assembling the rotating bits to send out to the balancer
porting the irons...
Checking the porting against the template
Goopy refurb'd housing looking minty fresh -- they not only bring the chrome surface down to a flat, uniform, matte finish that's ideal for seal break-in and seating, they also media blast it so it looks like new from the outside.
Pressing in the Mazdaspeed race bearing
A rotor and Goopy (apex and corner) seals ready for assembly. Notice how Joe has marked them all up so he knows where to put each one after having carefully clearanced them all prior to assembly.
Lets build an engine!
That's Joe's old school 616 up on the hoist, waiting for a 13B swap and some other goodies. He's planning to bring it to DGRR next year.