Icetiva 3 race car build

[ryanprins13]

Ok, I'll try one at a time. First, thanks for coming out to watch Ryan, it was great to meet you at the track (well, the rapidly melting lake).
The engine was another Miata block I refreshed myself, with bearings and rings, but no head work, and the head was scuzzy, so it can do better. It was making 10 psi of boost. I broke it in on a Mustang dyno, and measured 140 hp at the wheels, with corrections for Detroit standard conditions, that's 150, and the standard 1.1 conversion to DynoJet or other dynos makes it over 160 HP at the wheels. It felt like similar power to the last years, just different competition in stud versus rubber class.
The pro built engine made more I believe, as it had the head cleaned up, and made 12 psi of boost. (Boost controller is disabled, so it rises to whatever the wastegate wants to go to based on flow.)
The builder took it apart and found no build error, but two damaged bearings, and say "something went through it". I have heard that before from race engine builders whose engines failed right away. It translates to "not our fault, go pound sand" in my past experience.
My spare axle is also damaged, cracked and bent, so it would just make this a roller chassis. If you have an interest in selling a rear axle I would be delighted to pick it up. pm me on that, please.
The NASCC has a class for ice racers in the road racing category, we call it IT-J. It is not a standard WCMA class, it is a Club class, but it allows a lot of different cars to run (chump and Lemons cars included), so keep on thinking about it! Just be careful of how addictive this is.

Ok, so you should ask him what he left in the block that went through it... :p no reason for a proper fresh rebuild to destroy bearings right away unless the break in was done at 7,000rpm... Are you going to push the re-builder more and hope he re-does it or at least give you a new re-build kit for free so you can do it yourself or you thinking of taking that head and putting it on the block you rebuilt?
With the axle i would prefer to keep mine. I have sold or given away only a couple festiva parts that i thought i would never need and then ended up needing all of them after... I may actually need one of them but i wont know till summer. So if by fall you haven't found one let me know and ill take a look at what i have. In theory i have 2, but i have no idea what shape they are in and they are 1 1/2hrs away from my place and i dont go there often.
Ok, i will look into the IT-J class, thanks. I realize its addictive, i only watched 6 races and now i want to build a race car


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[Icedawg]

Ok, I'll try one at a time. First, thanks for coming out to watch Ryan, it was great to meet you at the track (well, the rapidly melting lake).
The engine was another Miata block I refreshed myself, with bearings and rings, but no head work, and the head was scuzzy, so it can do better. It was making 10 psi of boost. I broke it in on a Mustang dyno, and measured 140 hp at the wheels, with corrections for Detroit standard conditions, that's 150, and the standard 1.1 conversion to DynoJet or other dynos makes it over 160 HP at the wheels. It felt like similar power to the last years, just different competition in stud versus rubber class.
The pro built engine made more I believe, as it had the head cleaned up, and made 12 psi of boost. (Boost controller is disabled, so it rises to whatever the wastegate wants to go to based on flow.)
The builder took it apart and found no build error, but two damaged bearings, and say "something went through it". I have heard that before from race engine builders whose engines failed right away. It translates to "not our fault, go pound sand" in my past experience.
My spare axle is also damaged, cracked and bent, so it would just make this a roller chassis. If you have an interest in selling a rear axle I would be delighted to pick it up. pm me on that, please.
The NASCC has a class for ice racers in the road racing category, we call it IT-J. It is not a standard WCMA class, it is a Club class, but it allows a lot of different cars to run (chump and Lemons cars included), so keep on thinking about it! Just be careful of how addictive this is.

[ryanprins13]

So did you end up finding what went wrong with the engine you paid to have rebuilt? The engine you had in last saterday was a different block that you quickly rebuilt after that right? From the way you easily won the race it looks like it worked quite well was it running better or with more power than you had last year when you got second in rubber class? Watching you guys race makes me really want to try it but i havent yet been able to justify in my mind building a race car that i can only drive and race 6 days a year... :/ i started looking at the rules for summer racing at castrol and it looked pretty iffy as to whether they would let an ice racing car there. To replace your broken rear axle-do you have a good one on one of your parts cars? If not im sure youll find one at a wrecker before january but if not let me know. I have 2 parts cars and one of them probably has a rear axle in decent shape.*


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[94mx5]

Awesome. I actually have a Miata 1.6 Fidanza aluminum flywheel sitting on the shelf that I picked up used and never put in a Miata. I am still getting everything together for the Festiva B6T swap, so this might be part of the plan. Thanks!

[Icedawg]

I noticed your post with the B6T clutch/flywheel and the Miata B6 clutch/flywheel side by side. It appears either works so long as you utilize the matching clutch set, right?

Yes both work, but they use different pressure plates. The Miata is certainly lighter

[94mx5]

I noticed your post with the B6T clutch/flywheel and the Miata B6 clutch/flywheel side by side. It appears either works so long as you utilize the matching clutch set, right?

[ryanprins13]

Ok, wow, thats a short season! Racing 3 or 4 days a week then? When you start racing could you post links to the race website or videos of it?


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[Icedawg]

What is your race season? I thought it would be now.

It starts Jan 24 this year. It takes a while into the winter to build enough ice, so mid to late Jan is when we hope to start. Most racing is done in February.

[ryanprins13]

What is your race season? I thought it would be now.


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[Advancedynamix]

Awsome!

[Icedawg]

Refreshed engine

The blow by was never resolved, so in the off season I pulled the engine and decided to pay a shop for a professional rebuild. That is the first ever pro rebuild I have put in an ice racer. All the cheap solutions have not worked overly well, and cost me a lot of race time.
On taking the engine apart, the cylinder walls looked good, they measured very close to spec, the valves looked decent, so there was no smoking gun. The shop that finished cleaning and inspecting it said the rings seemed to have lost there spring. This was officially a low mileage, 1990 short nose crank block from the Japanese domestic market purchase. If it had been run in NA mode instead of with a turbo under race conditions it would not have shown any problems. But it is a turbo'd race engine.
So here's hoping this refreshed block works well!


I opted for Total Seal gapless rings, ARP head studs, Mazda head gasket, race bearings, honed cylinder, polished crank and camshafts, redecked head and block, 3 angle valve grind.

Now I have to put it all back together.

[festyfreak39]

What kind of spark plugs do you guys use? Jed, i was having similar problems my car was running like poop. I've resorted to putting pantyhose over the air filter.

[Advancedynamix]

I ran .025" in my B6t, and it loved it. The water/meth requires a tighter gap too though. 1mm always seemed so fat to me, especially for a boosted engine.

[Icedawg]

The plugs were a little wide since the Ir plugs were old , between 40 and 50 thou. Stock called for 1 mm, but some threads suggest narrowing to 0.85 mm or so. I reset them to 35 thou, or 0.87 mm.

[Advancedynamix]

Yeah, a fouled plug can cause the oil to dilute with gas and cause blow by like symptoms. What are your plugs gapped to? The b6t likes a tight plug gap.