In reply to jh36 :
The disc wheels were my second choice. Hard to go wrong with either one.
In reply to jh36 :
The disc wheels were my second choice. Hard to go wrong with either one.
I seem to be bad at taking pictures while racing/working on the Miata. Nevertheless, the team went to Autobahn for the Lemons race in August - I can't remember why but I couldn't go. One of the drivers wasn't paying attention and overheated it. So, last weekend we plopped yet another junkyard 1.6 into it. One of my teammates and I got together on Thursday to tie up the remaining loose ends and get it running. We then dragged it out to PittRace on Friday.
I was first in the car on Saturday which was the first time I had started a ChampCar race. Everyone was well behaved. My stint was black flagged about halfway through but other than that was pretty tame. I set our fastest lap of the weekend at a 2:08. I was getting faster and faster through the session and was looking forward to knocking off more time in my afternoon stint. It was a perfect day for racing.
Everything was going well until one of our drivers got towed in because he had no throttle. Turns out, the exhaust exiting the turbo had totally broken off and was just shooting hot exhaust at the firewall, melting the clip that holds the throttle cable to the firewall.
At the last race, the team had issues with the exhaust hitting the axle flanges at the diff and they had cobbled together a short term solution. Last weekend we pulled the exhaust away from the diff and not thinking it through totally, we rigidly mounted it in the middle. We're pretty sure that's what caused the issue. So, we yanked the turbo, brought it back to my friends shop, bent all the pieces back together and I welded it up. Amazingly, when we fit it back to the car/exhaust Sunday morning, it fit perfect! This time, we used a combination of zip ties and rubber exhaust mounts to hold it in place.
I was first in the car again on Sunday with what I would call a moist track. I turned a 2:11 and was being cautious with grip level, turbo situation, etc. My afternoon stint was full on wet and I ran a 2:13 but it was the most fun I've had on track this year. Great battles with a variety of cars. Just a total blast.
The fate of this car is up in the air. The guy who owns it has now bought a K24 swap kit. We don't know yet if he's going to want us to put it in this car or the Pink Lady which would be a ton of work to get it back to a reasonable condition. Time will tell.
Because it's only been used once this year, I'm taking the E21 to the SCCA Time Trial this Sunday at Nelson. Last night I spent some time making a few changes that will hopefully have it running cool again. First things first, I gave the temp sensor connection a good cleaning. Although the gauge consistently read warm at Schenley, it was a bit wonky and the contacts definitely had some corrosion.
I then put some DEI sheathing over the looped coolant hose at the back of the head.
Next came sitting for a few minutes and pondering whether to cut big holes in the valence. I decided to try a bit of ducting first.
Who knows if it will make a difference but I don't see it hurting the situation. I also re-closed up the holes above the radiator that I guess I forgot to do after putting the new valance on.
There's still plenty of opportunity for air to get pushed out the sides behind the headlights but it's surely better than it was. This is strategy A. Strategy B will be holes in the valence and strategy C will be a finned aluminum cooler in line with the looped hose.
EDIT: Potential strategy C before the in line cooler would be to make room up front for a big ole radiator like the '02 racers do.
I blame my crew chief (me).
Saturday night it was pissing rain but the forecast looked pretty good for Sunday so I was optimistic and put the Hoosiers on. It was raining when I woke up Sunday but didn't rain on my way to Nelson. I was in the first session. It was cold and the track was wet and totally sketchy on the Hoosiers. The rest of my group was on the normal road car stuff (HS4s, etc.) and even they were sliding around. It was sunny though and we had two groups before our next run so I kept the Hoosiers on. This was a mistake.
The track was definitely better but still quite wet and on either my second or third lap, I took a slightly wider line in to Oak Tree, turned the steering wheel and the car just went straight. Literally nothing to be done, along for the ride and somehow I ended ON TOP of the tire wall.
Luckily the damage was only cosmetic and I was able to bend the valence back to a point where I went out for the next session. The car drove straight and felt fine overall. My fastest of that session was a measly 1:28. I think my fast time in the Miata before it had 1/2 of a turbo was a 1:23.
It started sprinkling as we went out for the third session. I was having a good time and the car still felt good but it started to actually rain probably 10 min in and without RainX (no wipers) and my earlier incident, I decided to call it.
On top of smushing the front of the car again, it freaking hailed on the way home. I think I'm just going to avoid Nelson in October from now on...
Truck, Healey and E21 still sleeping but there's been a new addition to the family.
In reply to AxeHealey :
M3/4/5?
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
Yes sir!
Since the M3 is my new daily and my only real plans are to keep it (make it?) reliable, tidy up the typical E36 interior issues and fix a couple body issues I'm not going to start a build thread for it. But a bit about it. 97, M3/4/5 now with ~234k miles. It's had many owners, two ago did a TON of great maintenance about 30k miles ago at what I'm told is a good shop in the Knoxville area. I flew to Knoxville on Thursday, met with the seller, found a number of issues he hadn't mentioned in our extensive discussions, drove it for 30 min, negotiated our agreed upon price down because it wasn't totally as described then drove to my AirBnb and worked the rest of the afternoon/evening. I had a couple great drinks and a "meal" at the Tern Club Thursday night and woke up at the crack of dawn Friday to drive it home.
On both the test drive and the ride home, the car tramlined like I've hardly ever experienced. I know the coilovers were an addition by the guy I bought it from so I assumed he never had an alignment done. Bad tire wear was also an indication of this. I also noticed a rattle/clunk that seemed to be coming right from the trans and some noise of some sort from the rear end. The car also does not like to go into first gear.
The trip home was uneventful and it didn't seam to burn any oil whatsoever.
Last night, I brought it over to a friend's shop and we gave it a good checking out. The good news - the underside is totally clean, like, zero rust. Not just northern rust free. Hooray! Oil pan gasket is weeping but no major leaks. Good bushings most everywhere, rear end is mostly poly. Replaced two exhaust hangers and a couple other minor things we saw.
Found the clunk/rattle near the trans...
...and at least part of why it doesn't like going into gear.
That's not just torn but sort of kinked in a strange position. We also figured out the tramlining. Not only has the driver's side camber plate seemed to have slipped totally out of adjustment but the ball joint is 100% trash.
This morning when taking my daughter to school, the CEL came on. 
Even with all that, I'm loving being back in an older BMW (I really missed this smell, not joking) and the soundtrack is something special.
Biggest improvement I've made so far is softening the dampers. Holy crap it rode hard on the way home. Second biggest improvement is that I've started to clean it. I'm convinced the inside hasn't been cleaned since maybe 1999.
Spring 2022 update for the vehicles this thread is about.
Elmore
Healey
E21
June 2022 Update
Elmore
Healey
E21
A pic of a really nice night time cruise in the Healey last week.
Instead of being productive this morning, I've been looking through my old Flickr album, mostly containing years of rust repair on the Healey. There are lots of things that I totally forgot about doing like having to shorten the replacement outer sills - I'm looking at you NOHOME. Wild.
How about these before and afters. Hard to believe it's the same car.
I'm pretty sure the old pictures are from the summer after my junior year in college - when I really started taking it apart. The pic below is how I remember the car for my entire childhood until I was 15/16 when we got it running again. For the number of years it was stored elsewhere I used to beg my dad for us to go "visit the Healey" and that's what I would see.
Anyways, keep pushing through your project. It'll be worth it in the end...probably.
Hatchet is home which means it's time to fix the bashed valance.
There, fixed!
Hah, just kidding. Come with me, won't you, as I figure out body hammers and dollies.
About 30 min of annoying the neighbors got me here.
There are a lot of compound smushes here *pats self on the back* but I feel I'll be able to get it to at least a respectable level.
I think I'm going to strip the paint of the worst areas. The mix of green paint, blue paint, grey primer and steel make it difficult at times to see, and feel actually, what's going on.
T-minus three weeks to Schenley and I actually have to get the car to Pittsburgh a week early since I have all-day work meetings the Thursday and Friday of that weekend.
AxeHealey said:Instead of being productive this morning, I've been looking through my old Flickr album, mostly containing years of rust repair on the Healey. There are lots of things that I totally forgot about doing like having to shorten the replacement outer sills - I'm looking at you NOHOME. Wild.
How about these before and afters. Hard to believe it's the same car.
I'm pretty sure the old pictures are from the summer after my junior year in college - when I really started taking it apart. The pic below is how I remember the car for my entire childhood until I was 15/16 when we got it running again. For the number of years it was stored elsewhere I used to beg my dad for us to go "visit the Healey" and that's what I would see.
Anyways, keep pushing through your project. It'll be worth it in the end...probably.
Thanks for sharing
In reply to AxeHealey :
Thanks for the pics.
It will get done, just a matter of starting with a partly done project that I did not take apart or do the initial work on. Compounding this is the poor quality of repair panels.
It's coming along.
Spent the last week reading the entire thread in stages and enjoyed every second of it. It's cool to see your skillset progress through the thread. Keep up the good work!
In reply to reiernumans :
Thanks! I really appreciate it. Glad you're enjoying following along.
Valance is done. The pic makes it look better than it is but I'm happy with the outcome.
I wanted speed holes because, well, speed holes but also I thought maybe it would aid in cooling. Probably not. The bit in my hole saw was bent (?) so I opted for the step drill. Annoyingly both middle holes on either side had the drill wander a bit. Not the look I was really going for but it is what it is. I can't decide whether to make block off plates for the funky openings where the bumper shocks came through. You know, for aero.
At Schenley last year, Tivvy didn't like that there wasn't any provision to keep my belts from sliding side to side on the cage. As a quick fix, I wrapped about 3/16" thick of duct tape around the bars to keep the harnesses in place. The kill switch mount I made for the Miata gave me an idea.
They're much cheaper than the things sold by race shops to keep harnesses in place and should serve the purpose fine. New RS4s should show up tomorrow for the Enkeis and I may order a new batch of used Hoosiers for the weaves. Both current sets are 5/6 years old now. Probably time to move on.
Punch list:
Radiator ducting - finished.
Turn signal block offs - finished.
Front end buttoned up.
AxeHealey said:June 2022 Update
Healey
- Been driving it a few times/week. It's really coming into it's form as an old British car and is leaking everywhere - except the valve cover!
A pic of a really nice night time cruise in the Healey last week.
On mine, this gasket was the biggest leak I ever had (#77):
#35 was a close runner up....
In reply to a_florida_man :
Interesting. I don't think there's anything coming out of the block there but I then also have to follow that statement up with the admission that I haven't even looked into it. I just see the evidence on the garage floor/drip pans.
Not ideal.
What you're looking at there is a valve keeper attached to the magnetic oil drain plug. Found late last evening after running the car up to temp to drain the oil. Car seems to run perfectly fine...
Didn't have time to take the valve cover off last night to look into things as I needed to catch a 6AM flight this morning for a surprise trip from my wife. No one can get any parts that I may need in time. Probably will have to tear into the spare engine for anything that is broken.
Making Schenley is looking unlikely.
As bad as that is... congratulations on catching it in time... :)
Wishing you good luck when you pop the valve cover off, hopefully it's just that keeper missing and nothing else is out of wack. If it is worse popping a head of an M30 isn't too bad so an M10 should be 33% easier!
I think it is just a "spare" and all 16 are in place under the cover. If it is from a valve in this cylinder head that valve would already be imbedded in a piston.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
That's what I don't understand. How could it still be running fine? But if it is the remnant of a rebuild mishap, how has it just now become dislodged from somewhere after all this time?
I'll be home tomorrow and will be popping off the VC to check things out.
You'll need to log in to post.
