STS Miata - Project: Stronger Faster Lighter

[aMaff]

Kinda neat how many pieces it takes to make these things tick (edit: heh, a miata that ticks? no wai!). Additionally, inside the 'small' plunger (just above the springs), there are an additional 3 parts (cap, ball, spring).

These should all be getting pre-oiled and going back together tomorrow night. Yay forward progress!

If anyone's curious on how these work (as opposed to more traditional rocker arms:
http://www.miata.net/garage/hla/index.html

 

[TinmanMS6]

Damn, I was about to make a smartass "tick" comment, but you beat me to it with the edit.

Lookin' good mang.

 

[aMaff]

Been a busy night. It's been a minute, but I was finally able to take a night for myself to move forward on this.

Tonight I got around to lubing and assembling the HLAs, and getting the head pretty much back together.
In the back-ground half of the HLAs have been completed, in the foreground I've got the 8 inner/outer plunger assemblies lubed and ready to go into the 8 main 'cups'.

Got them all done. Got to play in a bucket of oil in a quest to get all the air out of the HLAs. Basically you fully submerge each assembled lifter into oil and work it several times until air bubbles stop coming out.

Assembly lube looks pink in the flash. No idea why, it's actually red:

Starting to come together: the exhaust cam, seal and gear are on. Only thing missing's the CAS.

The intake cam goes in.

And: Completion after putting the new seal and the cam gear on.

Now all that's left is to borrow a smaller torque wrench that measures in in/lb (I've already requisitioned it, I'm picking it up @ my soccer game tomorrow) and to torque everything to spec. It's pretty much 'hand' tight (w/ a ratchet). The torque spec on these is 100-126 in/lbs, or ~8.5-10.5 lb-ft. WTF?? You'd think they'd use real bolts for this stuff, not some puny 'sneez and you'll snap 'em' specials.

 

[TinmanMS6]

Nice!

I think I may have to clean my HLAs while I've got my head off.

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

lookin good man

 

[aMaff]

Hot pimpness. I picked up a set of long, quick-start lug studs from Applied Racing Technology.

I should have them by early next week . I could stand to re-pack my hubs anyway, so I'll do these while I'm doing that.

 

[aMaff]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the driver has shaved 10 lbs in the last 2 months, so I'm getting there :-D. I'm *down* to 190 from 200. Honestly, it doesn't look it, but I see myself all the time, so... . 1-2 soccer games a week (starting next month it will be 2 a week) and simply cutting portion sizes seems to be working out pretty well (alright). A few of our local autocrossers and some friends formed a team and joined a co-ed soccer league, and from there I've been 'picked up' so to speak by a men's league team on a different night. I look forward to further progress on that front. After the first 3 or so games where I felt like absolute death afterwards, I've gotten to the point where after a good hard game I feel great, and sleep like a rock afterwards

 

[kcbhiw]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the driver has shaved 10 lbs in the last 2 months, so I'm getting there :-D. I'm *down* to 190 from 200. Honestly, it doesn't look it, but I see myself all the time, so... . 1-2 soccer games a week (starting next month it will be 2 a week) and simply cutting portion sizes seems to be working out pretty well (alright). A few of our local autocrossers and some friends formed a team and joined a co-ed soccer league, and from there I've been 'picked up' so to speak by a men's league team on a different night. I look forward to further progress on that front. After the first 3 or so games where I felt like absolute death afterwards, I've gotten to the point where after a good hard game I feel great, and sleep like a rock afterwards

Someone must have found himself a girlfriend.

 

[autoxes]

Oh, and I forgot to mention: the driver has shaved 10 lbs in the last 2 months, so I'm getting there :-D. I'm *down* to 190 from 200. Honestly, it doesn't look it, but I see myself all the time, so... . 1-2 soccer games a week (starting next month it will be 2 a week) and simply cutting portion sizes seems to be working out pretty well (alright). A few of our local autocrossers and some friends formed a team and joined a co-ed soccer league, and from there I've been 'picked up' so to speak by a men's league team on a different night. I look forward to further progress on that front. After the first 3 or so games where I felt like absolute death afterwards, I've gotten to the point where after a good hard game I feel great, and sleep like a rock afterwards

Come to bootcamp with me and you'll be down to 160 in 13 weeks. USMC death camp diet! (kidding, but I will likely come within a stones throw of 0-5% body fat)

 

[aMaff]

Someone must have found himself a girlfriend.

Well yeah... but if you go back earlier in the thread, it's been discussed way before that happened

Come to bootcamp with me and you'll be down to 160 in 13 weeks. USMC death camp diet! (kidding, but I will likely come within a stones throw of 0-5% body fat)

Yeah... I think I'm good on that. Thanks tho...

 

[TinmanMS6]

Someone must have found himself a girlfriend.

Really? I've always gained weight when I got a girlfriend. Who's he got to impress now?

Come to bootcamp with me and you'll be down to 160 in 13 weeks. USMC death camp diet! (kidding, but I will likely come within a stones throw of 0-5% body fat)

0-5%? Not likely. 5% is about as ripped as you've ever seen anyone. Much below that (like <4%) is unhealthy.

 

[aMaff]

Movin right along!

I had a few hours to myself tonight before I had to pack up the miata for tomorrow's event, so I went ahead and made some headway on this. I got the bolts on the cam shaft caps torqued to spec, got the pistons assembled (the damn clips that hold the wrist pin in are a pain in the balls), installed the oil squirters and got the crank, main bearings, thrust metals and main caps installed and properly torqued.

Assembled pistons. Need to keep them in order because cylinders were machined to the exact size of the piston.

Got the 'top' main bearings in, and the crank dropped in:

Taking main cap #4 off because I put the thrust metals in ass back'erds.

All together. Just waiting on the pistons, but that's another job for another night. I don't think I'll have time at all next week (soccer game tues night, going out of town wed-thurs for work, and have some guests coming into town that weekend), so this may be it for a little while. We'll see if I can't steal some miata-time away on Monday night.

PS: Anyone curious what Un-Shaved Bridgestone RE-01Rs look like after 190 autocross runs, and about 5000 street miles?

All things considered, I'm going to have to say that's not half bad!

 

[aMaff]

Well, wrapped up 2nd place overall for the season today. The guy in 1st ended up 5th in STS2 @ Nationals, so you know, I can't really be too upset. The dude can friggin drive, and he's been blowing the rest of us out of the water all season lol. At least I'm the top of the pile of the also-rans LOL. I have to say though that the talent pool in the ATL region is just nuts. Off hand, I know we have the STS National Champ, 2nd, 5th, and 6th in STS2, ES Pro-Solo national champ, and a bunch of other seriously quick drivers. To even be close to these guys is an achievement for me, so I'm pretty pleased with the performance this season.

Tomorrow's our Champion of Champions, where I'll be giving my all to pick up the "Best of the Rest" honors (we basically run 2 PAX'd classes. CoC, which has all of the Pro class I believe, and all the class champions, and BoR, which is open to anyone else). There were only a couple of the BoR drivers for tomorrow that paxed above me today, and even then it was pretty close, so I'm bringing the noise tomorrow (alright)

After that, the real fun can begin on this build once I find some time to get crackin on this thing lol

 

[Reitrof]

Nice work Andrew, sounds like quite an accomplishment. My congrats to you.

 

[aMaff]

Thanks Bruce, it's coming along pretty well

Tonight, we got the engine about a valve cover and oil pan (and some accessories) short of a long block

Got the pistons in and the head on. It's finally starting to look like an engine, and not some lump of metal layin around my garage.

Here's my co-driver lubing up a piston:

#3 goes in. That piston ring compressor made putting the pistons in SO much easier:

Bottom end's bottomed up

Thumbs up for like-new engine hotness!

Got the head on, along with the plate with the timing marks, the thermostat housing and torqued the cam sprockets down

I can't wait to get this thing finished and in the car to hear it sing! Should be fun (so long as it doesn't self-destruct...)

 

[TinmanMS6]

Here's my co-driver lubing up a piston:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1482.jpg

He's certainly got the magic touch! (naughty)

Things look to be coming together nicely!

 

[aMaff]

He's certainly got the magic touch! (naughty)

that's one of those "oh crap he's taking a picture of me lubing a piston" looks

(idhitit)

(the local folks should find that funny)

 

[low_psi]

Looks like the motor is coming along smoothly!

 

[livelyjay]

0-5%? Not likely. 5% is about as ripped as you've ever seen anyone. Much below that (like <4%) is unhealthy.

Back when I followed the Dallas Cowboys when I was a band wagon rider, Michael Irvin had 3% body fat in his prime. The more athletic pro athletes have below 5% body fat.


Engine is looking good. Makes me want to tackle the job by myself as well when the MSP needs it.

 

[aMaff]

4 steps forwards, 1 giant leap back

Well, made some progress and then regressed today.

Started off by getting the rear main seal / plate on.

Next came the oil pump. Mazda installs the front main seal for you in the oil pump, so, FREEBIE!

The windage tray and oil pickup went next:

Followed by the oil pan:

And everything was going according to plan until...

Snap... failsauce. That's what happens when you get over ambitious and forget that there's a 12 fold difference b/w in/lb and ft/lb. And there was no way for me to get that thing out w/o removing the entire oil pan. So, that's fun. Took the thing all the way back off, cleaned up as much of the RTV as I could, but I'll need to wait until it's set to get some of it off w/ a razor.

Fortunately it came out easily w/ a pair of needle nose pliers, but it's going to be a huge pain in the nuts to go through again. I'll need to get another pair of bolts (pretty sure I stretch the other one), clean up the surfaces on the oil pan / block as much as I can, get another tube of RTV, etc. Not a huge deal, but it is a pain in the sack.

What a bastard: