Another RX7 in the mix

I like oil temp somewhere---but not to look at on stages.

Roadrace in slow production based cars, yeah you have 15 minutes before you're at the end of the straight, no problem to look up from the Tom Clancy novel you took along so you could stay awake on the straights.

Rally, no way.
(the Kau-drajver can peek at the gauges occasionally)

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
mekilljoydammit
I got tired over the years of wondering what the gauges were saying when the engine went away; it makes it take longer to come up with effective solutions. "Did oil pressure go away or did temperatures go up too high? Or were EGTs going weird...?" "I dunno?" "Well fawk, time to start building another one; I'll just guess and throw a bunch of shit at it, maybe one of the things will make it not do that next time."

Build 'em so they don't blow up..
Problem solved

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Hmm.. Lots of people make fun of me for having no guages. I thought it was just me that didn't see the point if I was never going to look at them.. basically if you look at them instead of the road you increase you chances of driving off the road. If you happen to look at exactly the right moment you might save an engine, l but pretty unlikely. By the time a big read light goes on, at best you'll reduce the damage by sutting down instantly, in my experience it's usually already to late.

I have stock dash/guages/idiot lights. I look at the temp guage at the end of a stage to see how long I need to keep the electric fan on, that's it.

-Martin.

Quote
john vanlandingham

Build 'em so they don't blow up..
Problem solved

Yah well, the way the rules for that car are set up, it has to make power NA, with restricted carb and a given style of port. So the little fucker gets worked pretty hard because hey, the driver wants a competitive engine... but cheap! So instead of having the engine building go to a big dollar pro builder shop, it gets farmed out to his son (me). Kinda took some learnin' to do the 'not blow up' bit, and that mighta been less time and dollar intensive if we'd had a good way to see what the temps and shit were like before it let go, is all.

Mebbe some of that ain't as relevant in rally shit though, 'specially for the folks that can throw boost at the problem and turn nice and lazy rpms. I dunno! I've just spent a lot of time on the 'making rotaries live' learning curve, so offering some views from that side of things.

Quote
MRWmotorsports
Hmm.. Lots of people make fun of me for having no guages. I thought it was just me that didn't see the point if I was never going to look at them.. basically if you look at them instead of the road you increase you chances of driving off the road. If you happen to look at exactly the right moment you might save an engine, l but pretty unlikely. By the time a big read light goes on, at best you'll reduce the damage by sutting down instantly, in my experience it's usually already to late.

I have stock dash/guages/idiot lights. I look at the temp guage at the end of a stage to see how long I need to keep the electric fan on, that's it.

-Martin.

Yeah there was a time way back maybe '86 a gang of us were out playing up in the mountains and there was this looooooooooooooooong straight, flat in 4th for maybe a mile andI glance down and see oil psi down about 5-6 psi.. I'm like "whaaa?" then glaced at oil temp and it was up maybe 5-8*, huh? Glance again---
and missed a 90 left.
Straight ahead at maybe 70 mph. Grace dui they had punched in a 1 blade wide new spur--that went down to a turn around area where I could brake then handbrake around...

Motor was dead, too late. Rod1 was pounded, rod 3 bad. (V4 both at front)

That's when I bought a ball nose micrometer for measuring new bearing thickness, sat down and miked about 8 sets of rods and mains and saw .0002" to .0004" variation + and -....

Can just open boxes and throw 'em in cause the box says STD.

I shoot for .002" rod bearing clearance and 2 +.0004 bearings means I had .0012 on some journals---toooo tight.
Ka boom.

Hey Martin I think I have a 50mm solution for you...starting today to disassemble.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Quote
john vanlandingham
Hey Martin I think I have a 50mm solution for you...starting today to disassemble.

Let m know what you're thinking here, remember no orhpans :-)

-Martin.

So what I've gleaned from all this is to put gauges somewhere that will give me diagnostic info when I want it and not when driving. For more immediate information, just have an "oh shit" light installed so I know to shut off my engine and minimize damage if failure occurs.
Luckily for me, I'm already not the kind of driver who lives with his nose in the dash, so I guess I've got a leg up there. But I agree with everyone telling me to keep eyes on the road. I've ridden with people who don't, even though there have been no crashes yet (knock on wood), it's scary as shit when they are looking where they're going.

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011

LOL Anyone else suddenly picturing a dash like so

**Shudder in horror**

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011

Here are the photos of me bending my main roll hoop.

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011

Trimming down the legs so I could fit it in my car. I realized that I don't have a good photo of the final product and went to take one but my camera is suffering from dead batteries syndrome. So more to come later.

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011

Quote
MeCalledEvan
So what I've gleaned from all this is to put gauges somewhere that will give me diagnostic info when I want it and not when driving. For more immediate information, just have an "oh shit" light installed so I know to shut off my engine and minimize damage if failure occurs.
Luckily for me, I'm already not the kind of driver who lives with his nose in the dash, so I guess I've got a leg up there. But I agree with everyone telling me to keep eyes on the road. I've ridden with people who don't, even though there have been no crashes yet (knock on wood), it's scary as shit when they are looking where they're going.

You want at least the bare min for gauges, and mounted clearly for your navigator to see, it also helps to move the wiper controls, lights, and horn to the navigators side.

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Sowa Motorsports
#274 M.Rodzinski
Attending: WWU ~ Vehicle Design
WWU Formula Sae: Powertrain

Previous:
1990 Galant Vr4 (Open) <= Sold
2003 Evo VIII (Open)<= Sold to Joseph Burke

Current:
2006 Evo IX (SP)

Heeeyyy Mike good to see you on here.
That all makes sense. It's going to be weird at first not having anything after I get that all done.

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011

thats some delux shop space...

Quote
alkun
thats some delux shop space...

Yeah no kidding right?
I helped Adam Gormley, the owner of North West Rally Sport move to a larger shop. In return, he let me use his bender and old shop space for a few weeks until his lease on it ran out. Super nice and helpful guy and I owe him bigtime for that.

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"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and have so much more to learn." - Claude Rouelle, Optimum G lecture June, 2011