Diary of a Madman; TitaniumTT's see you @ DGRRXI RE-REbuild

[knonfs]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

Wise man



Yup, hydraulic tubing bender, should open up a few more doors of the things that I can build. Also picking up a 12 ton press this week and a set of some sort of dies

Did I mentioned that I envy you??? LOL

I've done pretty much everytihng on my car, and I can attest that there is nothing like having the right tools (and space to have them)

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

Doing any kind of dual oilcooler setup in an FC is going to be a PITA. Hell, even with my bumper it was a nightmare. So much of that ductin had to be cut away, THEN I had to add a ton of it to the top of the ducts to mate up with the oil coolers. Nightmare.... sorta. The one thing that I wish I had been able to do would've beed to find coolers that I could've tucked up against the wheel wells. The ducting would've been long, tight, and very effective..... and I would've been able to easily add in for brake ducting. I'm scratching my head on that one now but I have a few pretty sexy ideas in mind.

When Dave is done are you going to take the car back for a bit to breakin or just get straight on the dyno?

Yup, I had to cut off a lot of material from the bumper cover, and the ducting... What ducting LOL! Since I went with a water to air setup, I might have space to mount an oil cooler near the factory place. I like you idea, but at this point, I want to keep hings stupid simple. Dont tell anybody, but I am getting tired of all work and no fun with this damn car

I ended up using a used reman rew engine, there shouldnt be a need for a break in Dave asked me to call him on Wed, cant wait LOL!

[EJayCe996]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

If he did the open the door thing and drag the pad.... I concur... however.... if he's thinking about taking the whole brake setup he would first need to upgrade from the 115/110/10 tires that are on there now

The only problem with that is the brake kit is so awesome and would work so well that his FB wouldn't even be able to move even though the brake pedal isn't even depressed.

[WE3RX7]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

Make it driveable and get to CT, I'll help ya street tune her.

Its a trap Vex - he's a hater

With all the simplicity, he won't know what to do! Honestly though, he's a baller...

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by knonfs

Did I mentioned that I envy you??? LOL

DON'T! I've got too much on my plate and things keep popping up! Right now my FC is back on jackstands for a few "minor" things

The Landi is still here and I haven't TOUCHED that in about 6 weeks

The 'vert is still waiting for my loving yet "forcefull" touch

The FD is covered in little helicopter seeds and the first thing I need to do when I get started with that PJ is build a "frame" dolly and a hydraulic rotisserie

My buddy is going to be bringing his FD over so we can pull the engine, paint the bay, do some repairs and more modifications

I want to get the boat out of storage
aaaaaaaannnnnnnddddd I'm working 6+days a week and 10+hrs each day.... I need a clone...

Originally Posted by knonfs

I've done pretty much everytihng on my car, and I can attest that there is thing like having the right tools (and space to have them)

That's something to be proud of right there. Tools are great, space is key..... I've found that cars are much more compact when you don't take them apart

Originally Posted by knonfs

Yup, I had to cut off a lot of material from the bumper cover, and the ducting... What ducting LOL! Since I went with a water to air setup, I might have space to mount an oil cooler near the factory place. I like you idea, but at this point, I want to keep hings stupid simple. Dont tell anybody, but I am getting tired of all work and no fun with this damn car

Yeah, the stock ducting leaves alot to be desired, that's for damn sure..... That's kinda why I ditched everything and started anew. I've found that ducting is key...... And each heat exchanger having it's own source of fresh air is key as well. The exit speed of the air after it passes through the exchanger is abysmal, so having an uniterupted flow is trully beneficial.

I think I'm going to try an A2W setup on the next engine that I build... especially since I'm looking for a stock TII pull-out and I'll be using the stock TII TMIC but with some mods done to increase the flow through it... I'll also be using the Atihun hood that is upstairs in my closet sandwiched between the Landi hood and the carbon fibre Atihun hood for the FD.... yes, that's right, there are currently 3 hoods in my closet.... before DGRRXI there were 4

Originally Posted by knonfs

I ended up using a used reman rew engine, there shouldnt be a need for a break in Dave asked me to call him on Wed, cant wait LOL!

Cool..... I was SUPPOSED to be @ Dave's on Wednesday for the tranny.... but work said, "NO DAY OFF FOR YOU!!!!!"

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by EJayCe996

The only problem with that is the brake kit is so awesome and would work so well that his FB wouldn't even be able to move even though the brake pedal isn't even depressed.

That's becuase the 12a lacks the torque to rotate those 13.25"x 1.25" front and 12.2" x.81" rear rotors

[TitaniumTT]

[QUOTE=WE3RX7;149433]Its a trap Vex - he's a hater [quote]

Yup, so much a hater that I'm think about hitting up C. Ludwig for a SRE for the 'vert if I can't find a complete pull-out...

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

With all the simplicity, he won't know what to do! Honestly though, he's a baller...

This is true.... you'll have to walk me through the helltechs DOS based software oh wait.....

[WE3RX7]

Shit - I'm not even that big a haltech guy. My use has been 75% revolving around microtechs. LT8, LT8X and the LT-10s... then later the interceptor-x. I've only used one haltech before and that was the e6k about 10 years ago, lol.

I think you'd be wise to go SRE on the vert though, it seems like a good unit for the price and can get you where you want on that car.

[hades]

post the fucking pictures you have been hiding.

[TitaniumTT]

I'd say I'll stab you in the eye but
1) You're alot bigger than I am
2) You saved us from the "GRASS!!!!!!!!!"
3) I needed that laugh today

I'll get to them..... eventually hopefully tonight after I go through some laundry and get some stuff organized.... I just yesterday cleaned my car out from DGRRXI.... I found 2 empty 20oz RedBull cans

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

Shit - I'm not even that big a haltech guy. My use has been 75% revolving around microtechs. LT8, LT8X and the LT-10s... then later the interceptor-x. I've only used one haltech before and that was the e6k about 10 years ago, lol.

Oh, you mean that ecu that's so powerful it can't save different maps for fear of the universe imploding?

Originally Posted by WE3RX7

I think you'd be wise to go SRE on the vert though, it seems like a good unit for the price and can get you where you want on that car.

That's what I'm thinking... plus I can build my own harness.... It'll either be the SRE or the RTek 2.0 someone found me a bitchin' deal on Now I just need a turbo longblock hint hint anyone hint hint.....

[TitaniumTT]

Originally Posted by hades

post the fucking pictures you have been hiding.

Tell ya what.... I've got like 100 or so pics, So I'll do like a system a night until thier all done with.... tongiht will be cooling system becuase well, that got the most attention over the winter.....

[WE3RX7]

You can save different maps now, but on the dongle. As far as I know, the ecu still doesn't store them. Not a big deal though really... I can save all the config files to the laptop.

Make sure that RTek is for a turbo engine, not NA

[vex]

I think if I showed TTT my engine bay he would rage and make me his little midget bitch... Though I think I'm bigger than him.

[TitaniumTT]

So, one of the things that I wanted to address over the winter was the cooling system in the little piece of poo. Not that it wasn't running as wonderfully as it should, becuase my coolant temps never got above 175* on the highway as long as we were moving, and never breached 180* on The Dragon or HellBender, more, it was a few little quirks that bothered me about them. One, was the lack of -16 lines on the rad Two wasthe perpetual air-bubble that was ALWAYS in the radiator becuase of how I mounted it, Three was the sheer hideousness of the factory T-stat housing and the maze of passageways in there, four was the air-bubble that always presented itself on first start-up after refilling the cooling system. THe SOP for purging said bubble WAS to start the car, let it get to 185* when the fan kicked on, watch the temp skyrocket to 195*, shut her down, come back in 20 minutes and carefully crack the AST open and let all the air out, add approx 2 pints of coolant, be on your way..... kind of a PITA if you ask me.... so lets address these problems shall we?

First thing I did was get rid of the stock T-stat housing in place of a piece that I built. Pretty simple actually, and very atractive if you ask me. At the end of the day I didn't even need any sealant either, the flange mounts tight enough to use the factory t-stat gasket ring. @ 20psi, there are no leaks. I was pleased



Next up, was tackling the same but this time on the lower rad hose. This is probably the least close to a stock waterpump housing as you can get All the barb fittings have been removed. THe return from the heater core, which also collects from the AST has already been converted to a -10, and right below the new upper rad hose connection you can see what was once a plug has been converted to a 1/4"npt to -4 fitting. This -4 fitting connects to the coolant outlet at the rear iron. This is where I believe the air was being trapped. A long time ago when I first built this engine I took the barb out and tapped it to 1/4" npt and put an allen plug in it. Over the winter all I did was pull that plug out and put in an AL adapter, built a line and plumbed it from the rear iron to the WP housing. I believe this was key to eliminating the air pockets, as well as the mods I did to the rad. You'll also note what was once the return from the turbo's has also been converted to a -6, as was the feed on the back on the WP housing... so yeah..... there is a distinct lack of hose clamps



Here we have the completed WP housing. Everything powdercoated as well.... all the little pieces that I can fit in my electric oven I powdercoat. Anything bigger I send out to a guy I have local who does incredible work.




The thing to note on this pic is the tapped fitting at the top of the WP housing. This is now the highest point of the cooling system on the engine. This get's plumbed into the custom AST that I built that mounts on the passenger side strut tower.



Here we see it plumbed in place. I took the Tweakit Racing Idler pulley kit and drilled and tapped it to mount an adel clamp the keep the line secure and free from the rather quickly spinning belts. I know it's not an ideal routing as this is what is supposed to collect and purge all the trapped air, but it seems to work quite well actually. I believe because when you first start the car up, the waterpump is of course going to try to move some coolant. With the T-stat closed, and no jiggle pin (which I found odd considering it's a Mazda genuine part) the coolant is circulating through the path of least resistance. This would be through the AST and the heater core and that particular line and of course the line from the rear iron to the lower side of the WP housing. I believe that all the air is purged from the system upon first start-up. Any air that makes it's way back into the system upon cooling is instantly purged as well. This is probably why I was able to run 1500 miles without any coolant in the overflow tank and a bunch of air getting sucked back in.... yeah yeah my dumbass didn't fully tighen a cap after checking the coolant and it got lost somewhere in Virgina doing a burn-out infront of some car with the license plate FRSH-SXY I NEED to find a pic of this car... it was epic.... anyway... I knew of the coolant and decided to test how well it all worked... I was pleased. Why everyone ditches the AST is beyond me. I went to great lengths to add one for a good reason.

[TitaniumTT]

Next on the Chopping block was the radiator. When I first had Griffen build me this rad, they built it with 1.5" inlet, 1.75" outlet becuase someone didn't read carefully (not a big deal and to Griffins credit, they wanted me to ship it back to them on thier dime, send me a new one with the proper size on it. I ended up just hitting up my tub of ky (seriously) and smearing it on a stock hose and on the barb, adding a little heat and it slid on and never leaked, so I didn't see the need to send it back, but kudo's to Griffin for their service, couldn't be happier) ANYWHO.... I never liked the way I had it plumbed. It just bothered me. It didn't leak, but getting the t-bolts on was a pain and it just wasn't very visually appealing... so out came the hack saw.

OH NOES!!!!





After that it was pretty easy to weld on the -16 bungs. Griffin warned me about transferring the welding heat to the epoxy on the sides. The answer was to just fill the rad with water. What you DON'T want to do though is fill it with water and then seal it off. When you're welding, the heat from the welding heats the water. This causes it to expand. If you're unlucky enough you get a blowout and hot water in your face...... and no this never happened to me

When Griffin originally built this rad they added a 1/4" female NPT bung on the passenger side tank for the AST... however they put it in the wrong spot. Not a big deal, just add another one higher though, on the adjacent plane where the top of the rad will be. This is the second fitting that is connected to my AST. You can see it on the top right in the pic. You can also see the -6 Male bung lower left that I use for flushing and draining. It works very well and again, no hose clamps.... I CAN'T STAND IT when people plug unused coolant fittings with bolts and RTV... some may or may not remember this rant... you probably would as I had almost completely lost my voice and was getting rather worked up about it



And the rad mounted..... damn that looks alot better than what I started with