TwinCharged RX7

iTrader: (14)

You made it on speedhunters. 7th pic down is the one of you and the rest of mikes crew walking on the track.

Way to go.

Through My Lens: Moments In Time - Speedhunters

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Ohhhh Bummer.. Looks how I figured it would look. Chunks of second gear were falling out of the Trans sump when I was draining the Gear oil.


Hey Thanks man! So funny story. I came across a box in my garage.... with your name on it. There were 8 Summit/Jegs Hats in it hahaha.

Pretty sick shot, It was definitely a good evening. That was right after Qualifying on Friday.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Small Update:

As I get ready for This Weekends Top Drift Limited event on Sat/Sun. Our buddy Tommi Shot us the link to the Video Coverage from Formula Drift Orlando. I've got a small little interview in there as well as some sweet screen shots!!

check it out!!!

RuffRx7

So sick dude!!!
Congrats again on the amazing opportunity!!!

quichedem

iTrader: (4)

This is awesome, brother! I'm not a huge drift fan, but I do catch a lot of news through Speedhunters. They do a lot of spots with him and his machines while in the build process and in competition, and I always made a point to read/watch whatever they did with him. Mike is a class act, and that MX-5 is amazing! Glad to hear of your great opportunity, and I bet there will be a day when I see you on a featured Speedhunters article! Keep on doing your thing!

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update: “Will it beat you? …will you let it? And what will you use this valuable experience for?”
Here’s one of the few pictures of Top Drift Pro-Am Round 3 at Walt James Oval. This section of the bank was sick because the wolf literally wouldn’t go any faster… Foot to the floor in 3rd gear and the only way to get it to jump up in rpm was to slip the clutch. Here you can see how much Grip the wolf was putting down… it was actually lifting the passenger side front tire off the ground around the bank. ..and most likely the reason the trans finally decided to go to gear heaven.

Onto to the Update
Well wow…. Guys.. hell of a couple of weeks. But one hell of a weekend. So the last time I posted I was asking if anyone had a low mileage solid condition transmission because the one in the wolf grenaded. Well I found one. Picked one up on Tuesday morning from Dan Kuo @ Garagelife. I got a great deal on it and it was good to see him. I’ve known him for a while now and he’s a good guy with great intentions and solid work. So picked it up Tuesday morning, and pulled the blown trans out on Tuesday night. Believe it or not it only took about 40 min to get out including the draining process. I spent an hour after it was out cleaning and double checking some things under the car. The next morning I had off from work so I purple powered the hell out of the new (used) JDM low mile trans and hit it with a little water. For some reason it seems like anything coming from japan is always extra dirty or corroded or something. But The overnight purple power didn’t really clean it as well as I had hoped. But It wasn’t greasy or oily so I said screw it and started prepping it. Double checked the Clutch release fork, and spent a good 15 min inspecting the Throw out bearing. Last thing I wanted was to put it in and have it start screaming on me. Cleaned it with some W-D 40 hit it with brake cleaner and dried it with compressed air. Pressure spun it with my hand to “Feel” how smooth the bearings were and it was in better shape than my old one. So I put some light lube on it and worked it in a little, double checked, the fork release bolts and inspected the input shaft seal….everything looked great so It was time to throw the trans in. Balanced the Trans on my floor jack and got under the car…. 20 min later the transmission was flush with the engine and I was fastening the first bolt on the bell housing to the rear Iron. Spent the next 15 Min putting everything back together. I DID end up breaking a V-band Clamp though. That bastard turned nice and easy for a few turns then bound up and broke the T-Bolt. Found a stainless one at a local speed shop and went home and installed it. The trans was installed and only thing left to do was put 75-90 in it. Used my Transfer pump and ten min later it was ready to rock. Warmed up the car on jack stands and went through gears 1-5 while the car was in the air just to feel it out. Everything checked out so I took the car out. Felt great, This JDM trans felt much better than my other trans. Lets just hope it lasts a while. So I prepped the car for Top Drift Limited for the upcoming weekend early so that I could attend my cousins birthday the Friday night before the event.
New Trans going in

Beaten and blown old trans

Checked all my nuts and bolts and ended up getting a care package from Megan Racing. WooHoo!!! Been looking forward to these for the longest time. Megan Racing Adjustable Lower Camber and Trailing Arms. Now I could finally Zero out Camber in the rear of the car. I wasn’t able to do that before due to my current ride height. I had the OEM e-bolts maxed out and there was no further adjustment to be made.

Installed them and then spent the next 3 Hours trying to make my Alignment …P E R F E C T. Measuring. Toe plate-ing, Using my level, and even eye balling all the adjustable links until I finally had to stop because I thought I was over doing it haha. I just really wanted it to be as good as possible to make sure I would be able to tell if the car handled better or worse.

Went and filled 15 Gal of E85 down at the Roxford Chevron and pre mixed it as soon as I got home. As much pre track prep as possible… is your friend. The less you have to do while you are there… the better. I wasssss waiting for a part though. My wide band has been throwing the Error code at idle and needs to be replaced. It’s been on the car since my very first dyno session so it’s about time for it to be replaced. I ordered one from a high rated E-bay seller…. But when I got it.. I realized immediately that I had purchased the wrong Sensor. I ordered the Bosch LSU 4.9 sensor when My innovate MTX-L uses the Bosch LSU 4.2 sensor. I thought about just de-pinning it but ended up calling Innovate and asking if that would work. They said no so I contacted the E-bay seller and they don’t carry the 4.2 sensor but would give me credit. Well they don’t sell anything else I would ever need so If any of you guys need and could use a replacement Bosch LSU 4.9 Replacement O2 sensor… I’ll sell you mine for 45 shipped I paid ten bucks more but at this point.. Just want to get some of the cash back.
Also my roommate was going to throw away this sweet *** harbor freight roller cart because it had a slim tipping point. So I busted the drill out and moved the wheels out a couple inches and the problem was fixed! He told me I could have it so I was pumped because it was going to help me quite a bit at the track. I fit all my tools on it that I’d need including my cordless impact and socket/wrench kit my dad had purchased for me what seems like forever ago.

SOOO got to Top drift limted on Friday morning and dropped off my trailer because I had a wedding to attend that night. Picked a pretty solid part right across the pit to where you could see the judged section of the course. Parked the trailer next to my Good buddies who were camping out at the track and booked it to the wedding. Wedding went great and got to see this gal all dolled up…. Pretty lucky!

Got back from the wedding kinda late and went straight to bed. Got up early Sat morning grabbed some ice, some waters… ate breakfast and headed straight out to the track. Got there early and had the drivers meeting. It’s always great being at the track in the morning. The air is always fresh… and although it was hotter than hell earlier on… it cooled off later on, I’m always happy to be there. Our first practice session went pretty good. I had made one really big change in terms of overall alignment of the car and I was VERY eager to see how it reacted.
The first practice session was great because both of my buddies Micki and Ryan were in the same run group (B). It was good to finally be able to drive again with the guys that inspired me the most. Following them though… the first lap I was really surprised at how big of a difference my new alignment made. The car was wayyy less twitchy and far more predictable in transition and OFF throttle which is what’ll catch you by surprise in these cars. They tend to “Grip up” out of nowhere sometimes…which is sketch. But the new alignment settings fixed that and I’m glad that worked out as planned!

I think I’m done driving on federal SS595’s… this says it all. Backwards and Heat cycled..still delamming:

By buddy Tim was “Spotting” for me. He’s been driving for a while now and competes in Top drift Pro-Am with me as well. He’s qualified at every round so far and has been doing Very well! Helped me out a ton in limited!

Got a new Hat ;-) Melin Brand “The Fall”
The rest of Saturdays Practice session went flawlessly…as it usually does. Well the last session of the day, I took the car out and stayed on throttle coming down the Judged downhill section of Horse thief trying to work on some front braking techniques and ended up going off course. Nothing out of the ordinary…just a little slide off where the car remains running and doesn’t even throw up much dust. So, I head off track because it was the last session and I was pretty much over trying the new technique. But then I decided I didn’t want to end on a bad run. So I go back up and while going up the back side of the track the car backfired and cut really harshly. So I rolled onto the throttle again… same thing..before posi vac. So I head off track thinking my plugs are shot because they’ve been used for some 8 events. Swap plugs and decide to do the same thing… luckily I had a bit more time left in practice…but… it did it again! I was really worried at this point so I headed back to the pit and grabbed my lap top. Hooked it up and ran a log. Charlie let me get a lap around the track real quick just to pull some data so I rolled on the throttle less aggressively this time, but again….. same thing. Get back to the pits and packed up all my stuff, was scratching my head as to why the hell out of no where this would happen when my Buddy micki called me and told me our tire shop we were going to get tires mounted at…was closed. I was like…”Great.” No tires….no Drift on comp day and the tire service wasn’t going to be making the event the following day so it was up to us to get our tires done on our own. So I load up all my tires and head back into Lancaster to get my tires swapped out. Get to Tony’s tires on Ave I on the east side and while they were doing all my tires I pulled my log up. Nothing out of the ordinary was showing up at all. Fuel pressure was great, temps were down (surprisingly for a 100+ degree Track Event), EGT’s looked good, Vac was exactly the same. And at that point I was just straight tired. The wedding the night before…the loading process, tires, prepping the car, getting everything ready for the event…. The weekend before and the fiasco of swapping the transmission plus everything else in life. …I closed my eyes in the drivers seat of my truck while at Tony’s tires and kinda just took a deep breath. Sat there for about 2-3 min with my eyes closed and realized how ridiculous I was being. I opened my eyes and opened my lap top again. Pulled up my log I had taken on my first lap at the track AND the new problem log. Then I went column by column UNTIL I found the problem. Oil pressure had dropped from some 120 PSI + at 22% TPS right at about -1 Vac Pressure….to 56 PSI!!! I threw one of my hands up to my mouth and scrolled up and down to see the extent… but Ahhh!! Got it.. I had set up the Adaptronic Low Oil Pressure safety feature on the ecu so it would “Limit” my revs if there were a problem. “Got it” started making sense.. Then I remembered going off track…. And how bad Horse thief had gotten due to being used so much. And lastly, I remember noting I had smashed the oil pan slightly when I was changing plugs. Yeap….that HAD to be it.
So I finished at Tonys with all my tires and rushed over to my garage… Crap.. I had thrown away my spare oil pan 3 months ago while “Condensing” my parts to things I would really need. Go figure right? …..I remember thinking to myself “nahh man, when the hell would I ever need this other than re-building an engine.” Worst part was my gut was saying “don’t throw it away Aaron.” Well I did, and now I was paying for it. But wait.. I also remember Daniel Kuo being out at Willow earlier. So I called him up and asked him if he had another oil pan. He said he did….but he was spending the night at the track for the Comp the next day. …Without any hesitation, Dan said, “Just come pick me up, we’ll go get it and I’ll help you swap it out tonight.” And that’s when I gave up. Honestly… I had given up. I was DEAD tired… it was 6:30 pm.. My truck had no gas in it. I was in town…Dan was way back out at the track, My sister had barrowed my Prius because it gets solid MPG’s, and I’ve heard horror stories about pulling Pans, and how much of a pain it could be. I told Dan I’d call him back and hung up. I got back to my house and nearly passed out from just being exhausted. I’ve been pushing as hard as I could with this dream. And not just the dream of taking the wolf and drifting in general as far as I can. But I’ve also been pursuing a new Career alongside of it… that isn’t easy. Requires more self-discipline than anything else I’ve ever encountered in the “Corporate” world. I’ve got the best mentor in the game but the studying takes up 100% of my free time outside of the track. If you don’t know the material….You’re not going to pass the test. If you memorize the answers…. Guess what.. You still won’t be passing the test. You’ve got to know and understand it. So I’ve been putting my free hours and min all into studying this because It’s what I want. To take the next step in life, and build a future for myself and my future family, this is the path I have taken. But what seemed like an hour was really 5 Min…. A million thoughts going through my head but I was woken up by a text message. It was Dan… “Hey man, come get me, we’ll go get the pan and I’ll help you knock this out.” I was still groggy from my 5 min almost REM deep sleep nap.. I bet If he would’ve have text me right then and there… I would’ve been out for hours. But he did text me, …. So I replied “ I’m not sure I can make it man, I’ll fall asleep driving.” Dan replied “I’ll drive your car, you can rest till we get back to the track.” I closed my eyes again, going through a mental checklist of how long the drive back to his shop would take and then how long the oil pan would take. Well,.. I had left the wolf at the track with some good buddies. So I’d need to go get gas in the truck, load up, drive back into town, switch my truck for my prius, get gas, head to autozone for supplies for the job, head down to Garage life (3) hour round trip, get back and swap the oil pan…which could take hours. But then I realized again… that giving up has never been part of my routine. That giving up could possibly be one of the only things that had separated me from no future with drifting and the wolf….to where I am now. So I opened my eyes and text Dan back “OMW.” Immediately called my sister and told her I was coming to swap vehicles (MPG’s to LA and back would be killer on the truck). She said “No prob.” Jumped in the shower real quick to try and wake up, made a quick K-Cup of espresso and downed it and was on my way to the gas station. Got Gas in the truck, and headed back out to willow. Got up to Horse Thief and cringed when I saw the truck parked in front of my trailer…. And the I knew the owner… and he wasn’t at the track or anywhere near it. There would be no way to get my Car back to my garage unless I used someone else’s trailer… Closed my eyes again… ran through Options… Nothing viable. “****.” Ok whatever…. We’ll do it out here at the track. …Trying to not think about it Me and Dan headed out. Stopped at my sisters house and swapped the truck with my prius, grabbed Gas and A extra Large Coffee and then we were cruising down to Dan’s shop “Garage Life” to grab a spare oil pan. I’ve never really gotten to know DK (Dan Kuo) but for a few conversations here or there and the obvious high 5’s whenever we were the only two rotary guys out at events…and I had picked up my jdm trans from him earlier on that week. But over the next 3 hours.. we shared stories and great Conversation about how we got to where we were with these crazy rotary powered cars. I can honestly say I like the guy, and not just because he was helping me out, but because he was a genuine person with an honest love for Rotary powered cars and drifting. We chatted about set up and turbo choices, GTX vs EFR and tunes/timing, ports and everything you could think about. Our dreams, future builds, what we’re doing now and the numerous people we’ve met that were all mutual friends and acquaintances. I realized that I really liked Dan and was genuinely surprised with his willingness to help. And not just now, but wayyy back when I was first starting my build. He had offered to help me out years and years ago but due to where I was at that time, I had chosen a different route. Anyways, We got to his shop and grabbed the spare oil pan,….and Pick up tube just in case the pick up on the car was damaged and un-useable. We headed back and started feeling it when we got about 30 min away… I was getting really tired. Downed the rest of my Coffee and pulled out one of those little Caffeine shots called “Stok” or something and downed it. The driving was really dragging me down.. but we got out to willow at 11:55 PM. 5 Min before the Gate guard closed the gate… We drove up to HTM and realized just……how….dark…it…was. ZERO light….except the stars. We positioned Dans Truck so the headlights would give us some light and got started at about 12: 15. Over the next five and a half hours, we dropped the sub-frame, pulled the damaged pan off, replaced the flattened oil pick up, put the new pan on, and put the entire sub-frame assembly back on. There were ants, bugs all over us, oil all over us, we were tired…but also just as determined, and we did it. As the light from the sun was peeking over the horizon,… the wolf was back on the ground and all that was needed was oil.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update Continued............




I parked my prius back down at the front, outside the gate so that I could get home for some sleep if need be. Well, I wasn’t sure how much sleep I’d get, but I jammed home. I set five Alarms just to be sure I’d get up but Went to sleep at 6:30 Am. I woke up at 8:30 from a text message from my buddy Micki. “Where you at?” My heart skipped thinking I had overslept…which I had..but not by much. Still slept through the five alarms…and thank god he had text me. Not sure I would’ve woken up. I got to the track just in time for our groups second Practice session. I put Oil in the car and Again, Dan helped me out with a few Hustle things before I went back out on track. Immediately took a look but I new the problem was solved as soon as I started the car and oil pressure jumped up to 116+ PSI. Practice went a little shakey. I wasn’t driving very smooth and I think it was because I was afraid to step on the gas. I was kind of shaken up with that low oil pressure smashed oil pan deal still on my mind. Although I just taken a log and everything was solid all the way to limiter… It was still on my mind. I stopped and closed my eyes before my next run. Just to try and clear my mind. Got back into it and decided to just drive relaxed. Threw down a decent enough run that would’ve most likely gotten me a qualifying position. Didn’t have time in the run group for anymore practice so that was it. I was feeling pretty good about that last run, so I was ok. We went to lunch, drivers meeting then qualifying. I was up. Got ready and up on the grid. Scrubbed my fronts and did a little figure 8 to warm my tires up to temp. Was feeling pretty good after my initiation and was approaching the first outer clipping point nice and smooth so I laid on the gas and hucked it sideways…. My angle coming into the downhill was solid… but for some reason I decided it wasn’t good enough so I nudged it a little more coming into the bowl thinking I could slow it down with momentum and still make it. Well the angle was good…but even laying on the gas wasn’t going to keep me from going off. So I let off and slid to a halt half on track half off the backside bottom of the bowl. I had thrown away my first qualifying run… “Dang it.” Ok, I’ve got one more. Cruised back up to the top and just relaxed, I was really nervous and wasn’t feeling confident at all. But I took this as a test against myself. “To experience the hardest situations, as to better ones self through the experience.” This experience will help me, I knew it would. But in the moment,….it was killing me. Brushed it all off and I was up before I could think again. Scrubbed my fronts but knew my rears were already good. Went extra hard on my initiation and was feeling great,..came down the hill pretty smooth and into the bowl with a little more speed than I thought,.. so I grabbed some e-brake and sort of panicked thinking I would go off AGAIN… used my angle to slow me down but completely forgot to keep my revs up… down shifted and Clutch Kicked pretty damn hard at the bottom of the bowl to “Save” it…and I did… cruised out to the first touch and go then to the second touch and go and finished the course. A HUGE sigh of relief. I was glad to have pulled that one off. Headed back to the pit and started asking my buddies what they thought. The ones in the pit area said it looked “good enough to qualify” but then a couple other people asked me if I had straightened at the bottom of the hill. Which I still don’t think I did. But since they were asking me…I started to second guess myself and starting wondering if I did. I went over it a million times in my head but came to the same conclusion that I was for sure still sliding. Well when we were all called over to see who qualified. I didn’t receive a score. The judges had ruled it a “Straight” therefore I was given an automatic Zero. I was pretty bummed about it, and I still feel the same about it….that I never stopped drifting. But at the same time, the judges are sitting in a spot up on the hill, and from their perspective…maybe it looked like a “straight.” And I couldn’t see it from their perspective so who’se to say I wouldn’t have agreed? Or that had they been in the car with me they would know that I was still sliding? Either way, I didn’t qualify, and I was pretty bummed on it. But I realize more and more that I can simply use this for more motivation to drive that much better. I’ll just have to become a better driver, so that I don’t leave anything on the table to be left up in the air for interpretation. If I drive better, I’ll qualify every time. So this is what I’m using this for. My buddies Ryan Carroll and Micki Frial both qualified…and Micki ended up qualifying first and winning the whole event anyhow. So I was pretty pumped for both of them, but for myself…. A little disappointed…but very motivated to get driving again.
I got some much needed sleep that night, and hit the ground running on Monday morning with an actual alignment. After dropping the front sub-frame I knew things would be off and I wanted to see if all the adjustments I had been making were actually accurate. Believe it or not….The rear camber was dead on, but the toe was off a couple .01’s. The front was another story. -6.5 camber vs -7.9 camber and all wacked out front toe settings. It cost me 80 bucks in the end, but now the car drives straight, and I’ve got the settings I want. Here’s a pic of my settings.
Before:

After


I’m not so sure what was up with the .3 bit of camber missing on the passenger side front… but the guy said he couldn’t get it… and I was feeling bad for him because he’d been working on it for some hour and a half, so I told him don’t worry about it. The car drives straight anyhow… whereas if it didn’t… I probably would have had him fix it haha. But Tire Express in Quartz Hill did a good job and they’ve been changing my tires since I first started drifting. Good business over there. IF you guys are ever at Willow and need someone close to swap tires.. they’re on L-6 and 50th street west. Tell them I sent you ;-)
Driving Straight with my new favor Red Bull Flafor “Cherry.”


I wanted to leave on a special note. Although These past couple weeks havn’t necessarily gone my way…. This is automotive racing. These experiences are inevitable given the fact that I’m a privateer. The only difference is how I decide to deal with them. One person may say “ahh lets go home,” and call it for the weekend. To me… that’s giving up. If there is a way, I’ll be on it… 100%. I’ll fix it if I can, and if the situation doesn’t work out, well….at least I know that I did everything that I could to achieve my goal. These past two weeks have be really hard, on myself and the car. But the issues are solved, and looking forward, what can I do about it? Well.. all sorts of things. I’ve got another spare trans sitting in my garage now. I’ll most likely put it in my trailer “Just in case.” I’m also looking for another Oil pan, and I’m going to be getting a skit plate made to prevent this entirely. But if I hadn’t gone through these experiences now, then maybe I wouldn’t be prepared for them later on in life when the stakes are a bit heavier. I’m taking this experience as a positive one and I’ve learned priceless information and knowledge that’ll aid this journey in the future. This photo I’d like to dedicate to my Dad. A bit late yes,….but nonetheless special. Every time I load up the wolf I put her in a CLEAN trailer, shoe goes to the track, I come home and Clean the Garage and organize all my tools and put the wolf back into a CLEAN garage. My dad taught me to take care of my things. Even if they’re cheap tools,….they’re still mine and they get the job done. This is my discipline, and my art. The way I’ve been taught to do things. Constantly evolving and staying progressive to try and catch up and eventually lead the game. Here’s to dreams and the Life altering hard work and effort that needs to be exulted in order to be persistent in the chase:
Freshly swept and mopped floor of my Trailer


Until next time! Thank you guys for your time! I’ll do my best to keep you updated more frequently!

Stay tuned! More updates soon!
- Ap

#Thisisthewolf

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Small Update: "A little here...and a little There and a whole lot of Wing"


To improve the car... and to really ensure that progress is being made. I've held onto my idea that I should do something to progress the car every day. Small or large... doesn't matter. As long as it's something. The end product will be worth it!

On a side note... I've been working with Ray from Rays Factory on the wing stands for the 1750MM GT wing. Both of us have been caught up with all sorts of driving season busyness...But we finally got the stands knocked out. He wanted to know my preferred height... So I went out to the garage, and started trying to think of clever ways to fix the height on the wing without actual stays. Then I Found a bucket, Plopped the bucket on the back side of the car and sat the wing on top. Made sure it was straight... Took few steps back to admire my work.. and said "That'll do."


Bucket mount

from le front

After that...sent measurements to ray and he had a buddy of his bring his fd over for a cardboard cut out mock


from the side


I really liked the height and over-all mock "feel" Then ray stayed up all night designing the stands...He Sent me this at 4 AM.

And a mix of a few different end plate designs. Very cool!



Pretty pumped with this! Can't wait to get them and install it!!!

I had originally wanted to do a low mount wing. But the truth is.... The rear end of the Fd is a little too skinny...so the wing looks a bit out of place when placed that low against such a "Slimmer" area. Plus... as is.....it needs a diffuser. I had a shine feed version... then sold it, then picked up another Non shine diffusor that was a hell of a deal... sold it to come up with funds for my wheels and then had meant to find the same one...but havn't gotten around to it yet. Plus I know it's just going to get completely trashed under the car there. There are a few areas that are just "Destruction Zones" on drift cars.... and anything under the rear bumper is one of them. I even Managed to ding my sweet ace 4" turn down. No clue how that happened.

Here is a pic of the Low mount I was thinking of going with.


And thanks Angel Chavez AKA Photo.De.Lux for the sick Hi Res shots!!


Stay Tuned!!

More Updates soon!

p.s....how many of you guys would be interested in a Drift Set up at this years Seven Stock? =-)

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Some Tandem Practice trains with the Wyld Stallyns! Check out the wolf in action!

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update - "Gearing up for the Hustle"

Whats up guys!? Hows everyone doing? Kinda missing this forum quite a bit!


SOOO, Where to start... Well how about with "What are the chances of." haha.

So remember at my last event when I had to drop the sub frame with Dan Kuo in the Pitch black Pit over night to make qualifying the next day? Well.. my first qualifying run.. I went off track. And the same.... exact.... thing happend. I smashed the Oil pan AGAIN... in the SAME place. SHame on me but there was no time to get a skid plate made..and I still don't know how on earth it happened. I mean the Engine sub frame sits lower than the oil pan. So I mustve gotten reeeaaaal lucky and hit some sand or a rock JUUUUST right in order to get the pan through the window in the sub frame. I want to get a plate made to put over that...so it doesn't happen again. But geese what luck ayy?



SO yesterday I pulled the bashed pan AGAIN...and swapped it for a nice low mileage one I purchased again off Dan at Garage Life. I also got an additional spare that I'm going to prep JUUUST in case... because I don't know when I'll have time for the car to be down to get a quick skid plate made.

I took this time to go through some parts of the car that were kind of bugging me. On my Data logs through the Adaptronic... I've been noticing that my Voltage has been slowly decreasing at idle... and that my car no longer idles at 14+. It was 13.1... then 12.8 and by the end of the event... which could've blown my motor... it was down to 10.5. Once again.. Adaptronic Saved my motor. Wouldn't let me drive. Caught the oil pan smashed again... and I was able to see my Voltage drop in my logs. Once again... I take a log EVERY event on my first lap... and one on my last lap as long as it's not being judged. This lets me compare to my Dyno logs from when the car was 100% brand new. If things are slowly declining... or there is a change... I can spot it instantly. It's become part of my routine. And again.. I don't want to seem like i'm promoting a product just because of a sponsorship. But On my next build.... YOu can best bet I'll be going with Adaptronic again.
So what happened.... was my Alternator was going out. I was a bit at a loss at first in the garage trying to figure out what was going on because I was installing something else electrical... so I was left scratching my head when I finally realized there had to be another NON related problem. So I checked the Battery...

nope... after killing the car.. batt Volts shot back up..

Checked the Alternator... Bingo. letting the car idle it would get as low as 9.0V...where it normally was at 14.1-14.2. I've had the Alternator for just over a year. But on the car running for under a year. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't covered by warranty because It was pretty expensive for the little amount it was used. But Oh well. IRP did offer to rebuild it but I ended up taking the alternator to a local shop called "Riteway Alternator & Starters." They've been around since the 70's and I've been using their starters on not just my car but Mike's 4-rotor MX-5 as well. So after talking with them they rebuilt my alternator for 130 bucks with Warranty. THey also had it rebuilt in 3 hours... I was pumped about that as well!


But oh yea.. My Ebay push button starter was only making contact very very slightly so it was only turning the starter intermittently on its way back out from being pushed in haha. So I was going to clean it..but Autozone sells them for 10 bucks... So i just purchased 2 of them for when this one stops working as well.


Also, swapped out my Innovate MTX-L Wideband sensor.. which is really just the Bosch Motorsports 3737 Bosch Wideband O2 Sensor.
Love new things!!! Calibrated it quickly which takes like 5 min... and then threaded it into my down pipe.
LSU4.2

Did a whole lot of cleaning under the car and inspecting to make sure there were no Flags. I did catch a couple loose suspension bolts.... Everyone should always check them all before hitting the track!!



And Now i'm just waiting for my New Full Function Engineering Motor Mount Arms to come in so I can bolt the sub-frame back onto the Chassis of the car.....fill her with oil and Give her a quick little test.
Also started using these oil filters.. they're a little smaller than the bosch ones i've been using. But I like them because even after an oil change and the car has been sitting for a few days to let the oil drain from the filter... they're noticeably heavier than the bosch ones.. so i know they're picking up contaminants. They're also easier to grab due to their smaller size.


Pretty pumped for tomorrow. I'll be out at willow tomorrow around 3-4 if anyone wants to come watch the wolf shoot flames for the night event. Mike will be out on Saturday as well. =-) We're getting the MX ready for formula Drift Seattle as we speak! Can't wait to get up there. SO i've got some wrenching to do... just wanted to pop in and give you guys a little Update! Thanks again guys!! More updates soon!

Stay tuned!!

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

Get rid of that yellow top bro. They put too much stress on alternators. If you must run an Optima get a red top.

silentblu

iTrader: (1)

How does a PC925 fair?

IRPerformance

iTrader: (41)

You just don't want a deep cycle battery. They take a long time to recharge and are therefore hard on the alternator. This is coming straight from my supplier of alternator parts. With all smaller batteries you should really keep a trickle charger on them when the car sits.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

^Well The Battery still sits at higher 12v's even when sitting. It's a pretty cool battery and the mount for it is sweet as well. I'll keep you guys updated with how this one works out and i'll make a decision after that. At this point I've got spares of everything though so maybe I'll do something else with my OEM spare, that little alt has never let me down.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update: "What is going on!?"

As the post is titled.... Seriously what the hell is going on!!! Seems like everything on the car just all of the sudden decided to fail. First the back up starter... then my Transmission, then my wideband starts throwing the error code, then my Alternator, THEN....

All was back together this morning after dropping the pan and putting a new one on yesterday. Was waiting for Full Function Engineering's new Motor Mount Brackets with the Key-Way on the bottom for guys who have to take the engine in and out a lot....and or just lift it etc. Anyways..Everything was back together and I put oil in it and hook up my lap top to confirm Oil pressure had restored to where it should be... And Crank the car over and she fires up strong.. Idles good.. sounds solid.. I blip the throttle after she's warm and I hear Theeeee....LOUUUUUDEST SCREECHING SOUND EVER. I was like W T F. Thought maybe I somehow got the belts wet? Blipped it again.... Same thing!! Get out of the car and go inspect it closer with my hand on the Throttle body.. Blip it... Deafening screeching! Turn the car off and un-tension the belts to feel each bearing/water-pump/alt and power steering bearings by hand. ....was none of them... It was my Pineapple Racing Idler pulley. I looked up to the sky and took a deep breath. Where the hell was I going to get another one of these?! But then I remembered MONTHS ago I had sent them a message about the problems some people have been having and they sent me a set of new bearings free of charge! I remember I put the little padded envelope in my tool box and forgot about it. Opened the tool box and there they were!!! Ran to Harbor freight to get some Impact sockets I could use to push the old bearings out and new ones in and Headed back home to get it fixed quick! Used my push claw tool... or whatever the hell it's called to Get the bearings out and used an old bearing to help put the new ones in. Check it!
What is going on!!!

Better tonight than at the track tomorrow though. Check out the Sweet pushing claw tool. I'm sure theres a much more professional name for it.

Then used this because It gave a much more even push around to get the new bearings in straight

Finished!!

Old vs New FFE Bottom Motor Mount Brackets. THe new set up is so much easier to use when installing the engine... the Key-way is excellent and Very high quality. I'm really happy with them....especially after it only took me 5 min to set the engine where it needed to be in the sub-frame. Solid Parts here! Very well thought out.


#primo


Can't wait to start the car up in the morning, I'll see you guys out at Willow if you come!! Top Drift tomorrow Night!!

More updates soon!
Stay tuned!!

djseven

iTrader: (56)

I've got 2-3 oil pans you can have for free in good shape. You pay freight and I'll send them. I always end up with a bunch of them sitting around.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

^Thanks Dave! PM Sent.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update: "If it ain't one thing..."


Whats going on guys?! So as titled... I went through hoops to make the Limited event. It's so weird how things work. I don't know if it is destiny or a test...or just coincidence... but in the Last few weeks... so many Issues have popped up... I'm thinking I'm going to need spares of EVEYTHING for next season.

After I got the new oil pan in, and oil changed thursday before the event... I did my usual double checking everything before being satisfied and able to confidently load the car up for the event. WELL with that... comes a quick cruise and pull to make sure the car feels good. I actually re-set my front sway bar (tri-point engeineering modular/adjustable Bar) so instantly I felt a difference in the way the car felt. I re-tightened all fasteners in the steering and rack itself as well and I was really happy with how tight and sturdy everything felt out there on my cruise. So I did a little pull in 3rd gear and the car took off like a bat out of hell. MUCH faster than i've felt before. THEN It cut out. The feeling of a cut like that is never satisfying. My immediate feeling is that I've damaged the engine. But Everything was fine... it just hit a cut. SO I rolled into it in 4th gear from about 40MPH out in the middle of nowhere. Same thing... Hit a Cut around what seemed like 3500RPM. I was like" what on Earth!!...GREAT!!!" Luckily I had my lap top in the passenger seat so I pulled a log of the same thing. Got home and checked it out. The car was hitting 29lbs of boost and cutting. Made sense... because it felt faster than hell. But I had no clue as to why. Checked settings and lowered my boost cut to 24 Lbs just to keep it safe and started trouble shooting. Now I don't know why.....but for some reason I thought something was up with my WG lines. Although I knew they were hooked up correctly...something in me had me under the car pulling lines and Top caps off my Waste gates. Everything looked as it should so I re-installed everything and tried it again. ......Nope.. Same thing. Boost cut. Adaptronic log tells you exactly why the ECU cut out. "Over boost cut."
So Back to the garage… and at this time it’s getting close to 8 O clock so I really don’t want to be revving the car in the garage. I have really cool neighbors so far.. and I’d like to respect them. So I get back to the garage and look over the log again thinking maybe I’ll catch something. Can’t find anything.. Got frustrated and left the house to go grab an espresso. Called Abel up and let him know what the issue was and he Immediately said pull the gate caps off and check the Diaphragms. I Told him I already did that and they looked great. He tells me “Do it again.” I sigh… but said “Ok.” Went home and took one look at the car and said “too much, I’ll do it in the morning.” Woke up Friday morning and hit the car full force. I pulled the gate caps off again and inspected the WG Diaphragms. They looked fine. I called Abel and he said they’re bad. He wa 100% Certain of it. I told him I checked them good. He said Hook up the Gates directly to the compressor housing and run them 100% Completely Manual ….off the springs. If it overboosts on your springs along. It’s the gates. I did so, and it Over boosted. I went to lunch and was sitting there stressing to myself… Thinking “Everyone is at the track right now getting ready for Practice for the event and the wolf isn’t even drive able.” That’s a bad feeling right there. I drove home and sat in the garage feeling like I should throw in the towel. But Not ashamed I can even think about giving up. So I thought to myself… how to figure this and decided to make a little vac boost leak test kit and jus use it on the gates to see if they’re both opening.

Took a bit to gather all the right parts but I got a little jig set up and hooked it up. At this time it was about 3 o clock in the afternoon …. There were people already at the track and I was no where ready. With that on the back of my mind I hooked up my little test and ran it. I could hear a tiny hissing noise and I could actually hear at least 1 of the gates closing when I let the pressure out of the system. SO I put a bit more Pressure into the system… and all the sudden that hiss grew loud and louder. Then I knew exactly what had happened. I mustve missed a slit in the diaphragm on one of the gates. Pulled both gate caps off and pulled them open and saw it. The rear diaphragm on the comp gate had 2 slits followed by a very large slit that mustve been very small until I started putting more and more pressure into it from my kit.
Check it.. Son of a B….

Pulled it off and got an even better look


So a little background on these gates. Since I’ve had the gates on the car, I’ve only ever opened them up once when I first over boosted on the dyno. We went back a few days later and Made power. Since then… The gates havn’t been opened. And I’ve had zero problems with them since….up until this. So Sitting there with a hole in one of the diaphragms I was done. I called abel and told him the news. He already knew that was the problem but he wasn’t going to rub it in. At this time it was past 6 pm and Practice was well under way out at willow. So I took a deep breath and thought maybe there was a performance shop that had them..but then realized that they’d be closed at this time on a Friday evening. I sat and thought again….and remembered Mad Mike had told me to call him if I needed help with anything and I figured I’d just tell him that I wouldn’t be making the event due to the parts failure. Can’t drive the car like that. I hit him up and was telling him about the gates and he the first thing he says is “Bro, I have spares, do you want me to hustle them out to you tonight?.” And I’m thinking to myself….. “Is he serious?.” But Duh yea he was serious. I immediately told him “No way man, we need those for your car in Seattle.” He replies “nah man, just give them back to me after the event so we have them as spares.” Then I’m thinking…. This could work! So I said ok, well how about lets shoot for the morning because no matter what I’m missing tonights practice. It would take 3.5 hours round trip for me to go down to Huntington beach area where he’s staying to grab the parts anyways, and I wasn’t going to have him make the trip when he was coming out in the morning anyways to come test the Bull at willow anyways. So We set it for the next morning. I got under the car and got the other diaphragm off the front housing just to swap it out.. JUST in case.
That night…Dan Burkett Calls me and tells me He has parts for me off 2 comp gates that weren’t being used from our buddy Aaron at Drift Motion. I was pumped at that because I didn’t want to use Mikes parts just in case we needed them for Formula D seattle. So I agreed to purchase the parts off Aaron …but Mike and Dan would be out in the morning with them. Problem Solved! I met them the next morning and got my parts and told them I’d meet them out at HTM if I could get everything installed before they left. Got home and got the parts on. And installed by 9 AM but needed to run some errands. Had to run to Tire Express in Quartz hill to get some tires mounted and some food for the track etc and eat lunch and breakfast because I’d skipped it. I got out to the track around 2… right as Dan and Mike were loaded up. Got to give them High Fives for the help but wasn’t able to drive with them. Kinda missed out on that but I really just needed to practice on the Walled “Speedway” at willow. This would be my first event with actual Concrete walls on a banked Oval with higher speeds. Mike gave me some pointers and I headed over to start setting up. Clear skies and a solid running car meant I was pumped but a bit worried because I had missed the first day of practice for the event. Everyone probably already had their lines set and were ready to throw down solid qualifying runs.

I went and grabbed some food at the Willow Diner and sat there thinking how fortunate I was to have such solid friends to help me out. I wouldn’t have been able to make it if Dan and Mike hadn’t gone out of their way to go pick up those parts for me. And they didn’t ask for anything, I chose to go with someone elses parts that they went and picked up for me and delivered. But Mike was going to lend me his parts just so I could drive. That’s something else guys. I’m really Fortunate. Can’t be thankful enough!!! I got to the walled Oval and started un-loading the wolf when all of the sudden… Clouds started to gather. And then it hit…like hurricane Gina hit.. Torrential Down-pour on and off for the next 4 hours…..and into the night… I got 3 Practice runs before they cancelled practice due to the track being submerged in over a foot of standing water in clipping zones. No wipers…and no confidence… GREAT try driving in this


ALL 3 of my runs blew major *****. Worst driving ever. But you could imagine throwing the car into the first initiation Bank at 55+MPH on a slick track with Concrete walls where you “SHOULD” be. I spun on all 3 runs. Practice was cancelled for 2 hours and the judges had to re do the course lay-out due to the deep water. Good news was we would get 45 Min of practice. Which really meant 2 pratice runs before qualifying. I decided I was going for it. No more pansy footing it into the initiation. I threw it in pretty hard on my first practice run… and sat mid tohigh bank the whole run but spun on the very last section because it was really tight and slick. I needed to be easy there and drive from the rear of the car more than with the steering wheel.. that was the only way to do this section in the rain… nice and smooth. Linked the course entirely on my second practice run and was feeling solid.. Then practice was over. Drivers meeting was done and we were up for qualifying. I lined up and actually fell asleep in the car waiting on the grid to go. Finally got up there and spun on my first qualifying run. “Stupid,” I told myself. On my Second Qualifying run I didn’t hold back on initiation and ran a solid higher bank run, nailed the clipping points and handled the last tight infield section. YES!! Put up points. I was pumped just due to being able to beat my worst enemy… (myself). Qualifying was done and they started called out the top 16. I was bummed because at top 4 they hadn’t called my name. Thought to myself “dang it, I must’ve zero’d somewhere.” Got to Top 3 And they called my name. “Qualifying in your Number 3 Position… “Aaron Parker.” SOO PUMPED! A Huge relief!! I got a buy run on Top 16 because not enough people put up scores. My first top 8 Run would be vs a Red LS Camaro. I didn’t care who it was. I was just going to drive. I got to lead first… and I didn’t look back. Felt like I threw down the exact same qualifying run for my lead… then it was up to follow. Followed the Camaro as close as possible and he had some major corrections. I came out with the win. Onto Top 4! WOOOHOO!! I was pumped and feeling good. Facing a black bimmer that had podiumed 3rd at the previous round. I knew he was good. But I didn’t care. Threw down a solid Lead run..and follow him well. No decision… OMT (one more time) we go again and same thing on my lead… but he got me on proximity… It was my turn to follow. And I did well..but cut short on the infield section and straightened. Dang it!! He got the win.. I was on for 3rd place battle Vs InKu Nam in the silver 350Z. I had previously beat INku at round 1 at Balcony but this was completely different. We ran and there was no decision… we went 2 one More Times and finally they decision was made but they weren’t going to tell us till the Ceremony at the end. So First, Second, Third and 4th would be announced there at the end in front of everyone who stayed through the crazy windy rain storm. How’d it go?....... well Third place was announced and it was Inku. I don’t know how the judges saw it, and I do respect them But I really felt that I did better. But Oh well. I’m just going to use it as motivation for my next event in PRO-AM on the same course. So in limited this year.. I have two 4th place finishes. Just missing the podium this year. Bummed but Again…I can use this as hunger and to progress my driving. I was pumped I qualified 3rd and although I didn’t get to stand up there on the podium… I know I’m capable of it. I know what I need to do to prep for Pro am on the same track and I’m going to do it. Here are some pics and links to videos for some of you guys to check out if your interested. I’ll be posting more media from it asap! Thanks for checking in guys!! TTYS!!

One of my lead OMT’s vs Inku

I actually really like Driving in the rain =-)
Vid click the pic

ArmenMAxx

iTrader: (21)

Good sh*t Aaron. Your looking really good out there and have really come a long way!

Sucks to see the comp gates fail like that. Its a bit worrisome honestly. Your lucky your running an adaptronic and Ethanol.. people like me running an archaic PFC and 91 may not be so lucky.

Rotate86

always love your updates bro. Good motivation for the rest of us. shows hard work and determination gets things done. cheers

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Do you have overboost protection? May be something to look into. GRANTED the wolf runs are 80% to 100% Throttle for the whole run.... the gates do see quite a bit of heat. I'd say just keep an eye on them or get some type of over boost protection that way you don't have to worry.

Thanks brotha! Glad to hear that. I always wonder if anyone's ever really reading haha

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Rotate86

reading all the way from NZ! followed you on here and Instagram before your involvement with Mike and the boys. you show why Mikes the man. may not be the best(he is bloody good) it's his attitude,love of the sport, love of all things rotary and making the rotary relevant in the general public. best thing Mazda did is get behind him.anyways sorry for the fan boy post lol. awesome watching you progress and how much work is involved for a privateer to compete. jealous of all you guys in the states and the ability to be involved in different motorsports events etc. we do not have that here in NZ.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Awesome man! Really cool! And your right, he really is THAT genuine of a person I think we've got a solid shot at winning in Seattle. We leave tomorrow morning, I'll try to keep you guys updated as possible from the event!

It really is overwhelming...the amount of work that is involved to prep the car for each event. Not even counting the Financial Obligation involved. But don't get me wrong... I'm not taking one second for granted. I'm so thankful i'm able to do this and I'm not going to stop until I'm forced. But I'm pretty confident i'll be able to pursue this for a long time with my current Career choice. This season has taken it's toll on the car but truthfully...she's only running better and better. Starts up like a champ as long as I don't leave the lights on and revs Uber crisp. Abel wants me to come back for a re-tune just to double check everything due to the slight rise in compression over the past year.

I do wish the availability was as easily accessible for you Islanders. Sometimes I do think about how fortunate I am to have these things here and right in front of me. I mean the fact that I was born in California is as big of a head start as anyone could ever need. I mean it's like the epitome of Talent in the States. And thats not saying that the east coast doesn't have talent....but it's just like any Highly Populated area. Pick two drivers... one from a less populated area and one from a highly populated area and there's almost no contest. The congestion of Talent is all Crammed together here which makes the competition level really high.. makes the cars higher tech, and makes it harder to compete. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I really want to be pushed as hard as possible and don't want any sympathy. I know my car is very capable to compete against these Dog boxed V8's, I just need to become good enough to out drive them. And thats my goal. I mean no dis-respect to people in the mid west nor on the east coast when I say Talent. I just mean that Highly populated areas tend to have higher levels of everything, Athletics, Academics, The bar raises with population. So with over 70 Cars registering for events here... Qualifying for a top 16 Spot is going to be hard. But I'm up for it 100%. I'll get there. Just gotta stick with it and keep improving. I hope I can help motivate as many people to chase their dreams as possible. THanks for following brotha! and i'll be updated you soon!

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Also I have to Practically Brand New Turbo-smart Comp Gate 40's if Anyone is Interested in saving some money for new gates. I will purchase Brand New Diaphragms for them and either install them or have them shipped to your address for convenience. Price is $600 SHIPPED

As stated, I'll purchase 2 BRAND new Diaphragms for whoever purchases these and Install them for free or ship them directly to you if you'd prefer it that way =-) Thanks!

Pics: