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Well I still can remember when the shocks weren’t blowing out beating people in STX on 245/35-17 tires with a 23.5” OD, but can appreciate that nobody will believe it until somebody with smaller/lighter wheels and tires is winning, if it ever happens. My plan is still to try and optimize the 275/35-17, but no point bearing a dead horse.
which I ordered a set of MCS shocks today per the other thread. So hoping those past woes are behind me.
Working on the radiator shrouding and fueling, but got sidetracked finishing up the rear brake conversion; 18 lbs lighter than the fully installed OE rear brakes, but already had 6 lbs of that using the RB 2-pc rear rotors that this new setup replaces. So in addition to the unsprung mass reduction, it at least more than offset the added weight of the JoeFis rear spoiler.
On my car it was a matter of aggressively rolling the fenders front and rear, adding steering limiters to the front, and maxing out the front caster. I had to trim the rear bumper attachment point and the front corner lamp attachment point. That's really it.
I flattened my pinch welds because SM allows it, and it means more steering lock. But it's really not necessary.
Thoughts on installing the offset bushing for the lower hub in such a way it changes caster directly, and not camber?
The OD is 2.5”. The ID may depend on how you configure yours because mine are now different than what was supplied.
On the standard one though he uses a 1/2” shoulder bolt that drops down to a 3/8” threaded end on the top. The shoulder bolt has a 1/2” ID x 3/4” OD sleeve over the non-threaded shoulder end about 2” long.
I seem to recall Tamra mentioning RX8P reworked their mounts, so if you don’t want to disassemble them and assess your own solution then maybe calling them is the easy way out. I’m not sure that you can just throw that much spacer on it because I didn’t try, but I suspect it might need to be longer. I took one apart, assessed what he was doing, and thought it could be done differently.
I don’t care to go into those details and be accused of going full pedantic again , but I don’t mind sharing that it took 3/8” total additional height and I’d recommend the large surface area on top, which it’s only supplied with one big washer on the bottom. They actually sag under engine weight loading more than I was expecting.
since the RX8P website claims they maintain OE height seems like they might provide a free solution, but that’s between you and him.
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Thoughts on installing the offset bushing for the lower hub in such a way it changes caster directly, and not camber?
Which is needed more?
why not reverse it to move the wheel back inward?
a whole bunch of caster is not necessarily a solution unto itself. You don’t know if you’re being told the whole story or not. There might be more involved in it than just that.
a whole bunch of caster is not necessarily a solution unto itself. You don’t know if you’re being told the whole story or not. There might be more involved in it than just that.
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Fair story, just poking around. Want to avoid low steering lock and such.
As for the spacer and mount - I got mind last summer and Scott says these are the most up to date. It's insanely bizarre how deep the small spacer sinks into the poly-u. My OD is 2.25" at the top, but the base is 3". It's sunk so low that I have rattles at low rpm (rough idle, whole different issue) from header and bell housing hitting cross members and random ****. Here's a picture for reference.
Thoughts on installing the offset bushing for the lower hub in such a way it changes caster directly, and not camber?
If your goal is to get more caster, then sure, no reason you couldn't do that.
IMO the RX-8 front suspension can get plenty of caster as it is, but unless you lower the car a ton and run really stiff springs, it needs more static camber.
My fuel tank will be coming out later this week. In finishing up the rear brakes conversion I discovered that the LH e-brake cable got torched pretty good from the small fire situation several years ago, but the one next to it for the RH side was untouched. Looks like gas got up into it was burning internally most of the tunnel length, but the end back where the fire was isn’t damaged. Which I failed to look at it in this area when it was apart previously.
While not my specific reason for pulling the tank; while it’s out I’m going to cut the OE nylon hose barbed end of the metal gas line off, attach a compression fitting to it, then adapt to AN6 connections for it and the pump outlet along with a braided hose for added safety. Was able to get everything out of the way this evening; PPF, driveshaft, e-brake cables, and can start disconnecting the fill inlet and dropping it down next.
Kind of hated to pull PPF and driveshaft out again, but hopefully the tank will be out in the next day or two. Probably going to go ahead and pull the S2 trans out to swap in a rebuilt S1 trans instead while it’s apart. That was going to be the eventual plan any way, so it would have been taken apart again at some point. The whole thing just keeps dragging out, lol.
There is no reason to believe the SCCA has accurate scales, but I feel pretty good about coming in at 2809 (just less than quarter tank) with everything that's still on the table to get done. Did not feel good about bringing a plastic knife to an SM gun fight, but it helped a friend earn a Hoosier.
^^ started my personal diet last week, no point losing 30lbs off the car and carrying it on my waistline instead. was down there up until about a year ago and then started the long slide back when my energy was low. Down at the shop almost nightly now and that helps.
Which looks like total chaos at the moment; literally everything is in progress at all the same time, but all half started and waiting on either parts or time to complete. I’m taking semi-vacation for the next month or so. Hopefully some major progress will get done. Not going to make Nationals, but might get it running by then.
Had a bit disturbing issue on one of my RB front calipers. Went to unbolt the caliper from the bracket and both M12 allen bolt heads literally fell off under light pressure. Looks like the bolt material just stress fractured and completely let go. Of course they broke off high enough into the bottom part of the allen head for the caliper to still be retained tightly on the bracket by the shoulder radius between the head and the shaft. So I don’t think in this case that it would have been a catastrophic safety issue, but it’s still a bit disturbing. I’ll be using a different bolt material and watching my torque wrench setting closely going forward. Just FYI for others. Forgot to take pictures and it’s at the machine shop now fixing that problem first, then machining the brackets down to relocate the caliper to the new non-Sport rotor size.
Also, have a complete used set of both front & rear RB 2-pc rotors in need of a good home. Let me know, they have some life left in them.
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^^ started my personal diet last week, no point losing 30lbs off the car and carrying it on my waistline instead. was down there up until about a year ago and then started the long slide back when my energy was low. Down at the shop almost nightly now and that helps.
Which looks like total chaos at the moment; literally everything is in progress at all the same time, but all half started and waiting on either parts or time to complete. I’m taking semi-vacation for the next month or so. Hopefully some major progress will get done. Not going to make Nationals, but might get it running by then.
Had a bit disturbing issue on one of my RB front calipers. Went to unbolt the caliper from the bracket and both M12 allen bolt heads literally fell off under light pressure. Looks like the bolt material just stress fractured and completely let go. Of course they broke off high enough into the bottom part of the allen head for the caliper to still be retained tightly on the bracket by the shoulder radius between the head and the shaft. So I don’t think in this case that it would have been a catastrophic safety issue, but it’s still a bit disturbing. I’ll be using a different bolt material and watching my torque wrench setting closely going forward. Just FYI for others. Forgot to take pictures and it’s at the machine shop now fixing that problem first, then machining the brackets down to relocate the caliper to the new non-Sport rotor size.
Also, have a complete used set of both front & rear RB 2-pc rotors in need of a good home. Let me know, they have some life left in them.
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After what you went through I think you could be forgiven for being a little heavier than you like.
Well after a series of two hopeful steps forward, 1.5 complication steps back the fuel tank is finally buttoned up and ready to go back in. Won’t receive the fuel line stuff until next week though. So the tank won’t go back in until working out the details on that first. I sure hope it was worth all the effort it took
If anyone ever wants info on fuel level floats, siphon lines, and anything else fuel tank related then I’m your guy. I still can’t believe that although nothing went as planned, where there was a will there was a way and the goal was somehow accomplished. I sure hope it actually works as intended.
Hope to finish the oil cooler line and radiator/shroud revisions next.
I won’t bore you with the pedantic details, but other than putting a hydramat pickup on the siphon side it’s pretty much all OE RX8 parts just assembled slightly different than the way Mazda did it to meet my previously stated goals.
In monumentally dumb decision land, I will be swapping in a reman, doing a lightweight flywheel with an oem replacement level clutch (no winch setup for the trailer yet), fitting the offset knuckle bushing, limiters, messing around until the 315's that I just ordered fit, then installing the Adaptronic and getting the car tuned. And I might try to see if a friend can fab up a new Header. Good thing August is 31 days long I guess, what could go wrong?
I’m not the person you want to ask that question too. Which one of the bazillion things that didn’t go quite as expected is now fixed; the machinist successfully removed the broken bolts to release the front RB caliper and then machined the mounting brackets down to the smaller non-Sport rotor size. There was just barely enough threaded caliper mounting hole length to machine off the bracket and still have the same bolt length and thread engagement.
The same for the overall bracket too as it took more machining of the center area for projection clearance than I realized, but ended up being more weight coming off too. So sometimes things don’t go as expected for the better.
In anther grand episode of 2 steps forward, 1.5 steps back self-fail, I somehow managed to not measure the caliper bolt hole mounting depth vs bolt length accurately on the reworked front brake mounts; they ended up not being deep enough by the amount that was machined off still not sure how that ever happened. It ended up not being a big deal, just time consuming.
Managed to have the correct drill bit and taps on hand and was able to set it up properly in the drill press, then retap them, but it ate up most of my time yesterday getting it straightened out. It’s right at the limit of what hopefully is the safest amount to remove, which having held up 1/16”R from the absolute min amount allowed by the rules helped. Scraping the barrel for every last pound is proving to be quite the chore.
Also managed to swap in the Feed oversize clutch slave cylinder yesterday too; what an aggravating mess. If there’s anything I don’t like about doing car stuff it’s working on anything that involves brake fluid. The slave cylinder in particular is always a royal pain. I’ll be glad to finish up the front brakes and getting everything bled properly ... ugh.
07-10-2019, 12:41 AM
, but I don’t mind sharing that it took 3/8” total additional height and I’d recommend the large surface area on top, which it’s only supplied with one big washer on the bottom. They actually sag under engine weight loading more than I was expecting.
still not sure how that ever happened. It ended up not being a big deal, just time consuming.