The FASTiva

[Loren]

Steve and Philip came by this morning to help (motivate me to) work on the FASTiva.

Today's progress included:

Liberating the crankshaft from the original engine so that it can be sent to the machine shop. It doesn't look too bad, there's clearly some main bearing wear, particularly on #3 and #4 journals.


Modifying the swaybar brackets to better fit the Kia Rio front swaybar. We need to position it lower for clearance. My welds are complete crap, but should be sufficient for this task. (I definitely got better as I went) Need to get the other bracket done this week so we can drive it next weekend!

[Native]

Shouldn't you have done both of them?

[Loren]

It took me 3 hours to do that one! I have most of tomorrow off, I plan to get the other one done... hopefully a little quicker and with better welds.

Need to get the crankshaft to a machine shop, too.

[Loren]

Okay, mission accomplished:



I'll share some "tales from the groj" later. Everything is a learning experience.

This set of spaced brackets allowed us to remove a 1/4" tall stack of washers, and achieve clearance from the crossmember under the engine/trans, as such:



Next step will be to cut out the hump in the swaybar, replace that center section with hollow tube (both because it's easier and it's lighter), and then we can finally turn the swaybar over! It is presently installed upside down, which creates an alignment problem where it meets the hubs. Will we notice the difference? Not likely. But, it will keep the swaybar end bushings from destroying themselves, and probably allow things to articulate a little more than they do now.

Oh, and I got recommendations for Steve's Crankshafts. He said he could polish our crank for about $30. For that cheap, I'm not even going to think about lightening it... just gonna go with "cheap". Steve (Mr. Frank), this shop is in your neighborhood. I may hand the crankshaft off to you if you don't mind. It's hard for me to get down there during the day.

[Native]

Bring it.
That is, I can pick it up this weekend.

[Loren]

Steve, I'll wrap the crankshaft and put it out by the front door so you can grab it when you return the FASTiva after the event.

So... tales from the groj...

Ever do stuff that you know is dumb, but you do it anyway? I know that plugging my welder into a light-gauge extension cord is a bad idea. Especially when said extension cord is 100' long. But, it was handy, and I'd used it before. Seemed to work okay, so I ran with it again. Pulled about 10 feet off of the cord reel, plugged it in, and started welding.

Today, because I'm gaining more confidence with my welding, I was doing much longer periods of welding than I'd done before. I was nearly done when the circuit breaker popped. (first time that's happened) So, I went to investigate. When I grabbed the reel, it was significantly warm... and there was just a hint of smoke coming from it. Not good! Unplugged it. Let it rest.

Then I moved my work closer to the outlet and plugged the welder directly in to finish my last couple welds. Using exactly the same settings, I immediately started blowing holes through the 1/8" steel that I was welding! After kludging my way through one welding rod (most of which went to filling in a giant hole that I'd created), I turned the amps down from 90 to about 75. From there, I ended up with some of the best looking welds I've had with this rig! It was giving much better penetration, and much easier to control.

So, lesson learned: I need to invest in a proper heavy-duty extension cord for my welder both for safety and to improve the output and consistency of the welder.

Oh, and the extension cord... I tried to unroll it to look at it and quickly found that it was totally melted together. Pitched it.

[Loren]

Crankshaft is at the shop for a .010" shave, bearings are on order.

Ordered some rear wheel bearings and brake drums, too. Already have brake shoes and hardware. When we get around to it, we'll be able to do the full rear brake/bearing job.

[Loren]

Got some quality time in the garage with greasy engine parts and Steve & Philip today. The refreshed crankshaft is in with new bearings, oil pump and rear main seal cover are in place. Ready for the oil pan to go back on!

From there, it's just a matter of pulling the other engine out of the car, swapping all of the water pump and timing belt parts over to this engine, and dropping it back in. A solid day's work, but very doable in a day... whenever we decide we're ready to do it.

For now, the 190,000 mile engine is running just fine with a little smoke here and there. We're in no hurry.

[twistedwankel]

Cool that you have a new motor ready to drop in if things get "weird" on 18th I won't feel bad if the toast pops up...stand on gas to keep oil off track.
What? No boring, stroking, cams, milling, polishing of intakes, etc?
Wow, you guys really do rely on driving. But then I've never heard of a "trick" Fastiva motor.
My Suzuki had 74HP @ 9500rpm for 550lbs = 12 sec 1/4 mile. The Fastiva has 65HP at what? Tomorrow?
Good thing I'm a patient man but actually need enough time to reach redline before my demise. Whoa.

[Loren]

Cost less to swap in a 1.6 or 1.8 Miata engine and with bigger gains vs. Hopping up the 1.3. Plus, we're having fun playing in M4!

Dan tells me the FASTiva has a cheater tire-to-weight ratio.

[twistedwankel]

Dan tells me the FASTiva has a cheater tire-to-weight ratio.

Is this the Dan Excuses who cannot drive well who has an inferiority complex? Plus a short fuse? Did he just call you fat?

[Native]

At least he didn't call him old.

[Loren]

The FASTiva got quite the workout this weekend with 4 drivers! And in the skidpad challenge, it was second only to the Exocet on race tires. Pretty cool!

[Jamie]

Better check the oil...Ben's runs looked like there was 2-cycle under the hood. Or is that an indication of too much oil...?

[Loren]

This engine is a bit of a drama queen when it comes to smoke. It's not burning as much as it might appear. We did run too much oil by about 1/4 quart about 4 events back. It smokes a LOT when you do that. But, between then and Saturday morning, no oil was added... all the smoke seen between then and the last TBD event amounted to 1/2 quart added at the beginning of this event.

Of course, between 4 drivers and some skidpad time, we did nearly 40 runs Saturday. I probably should check the oil when I rotate the tires. And I should probably rotate the tires!

[twistedwankel]

Better check the oil...Ben's runs looked like there was 2-cycle under the hood. Or is that an indication of too much oil...?

Interesting we did 30 laps in my modified 2 cycle/twin and it's still full. Expected to use 4-8oz. Good ole Mazda techs always overfill every oil change cause they know no one ever checks it until the idiot light comes on.

Only smoke I noticed when Ben took off looked a lot like damp lit pine branches but I'm sure it was coming out of Ben and not the car from all the bark he ate.

I had a 75 Cosworth Vega w/R tires that they put the oil return holes on only one side of the head so on hard right turns it piled up in the cover getting sucked into the pvc system and smoked like crazy when turned left. Or was it the other directions? Been along time ago. But it looked really bad when it wasn't at all. Like Loren said.

[Loren]

Ben and I spent some sweat on the FASTiva today. Scratched a few items off of the to-do list.

Rear wheel bearings and brakes are done.
Lightness added - Removed rear seat, front speakers, and some speaker wire. Maybe 30 pounds total?
Cut metal to finish the rest of the fender flares.
Installed USB power outlet in the dash in place of cigarette lighter.
Advanced ignition timing to go with the tank full of premium fuel.
Rotated and inspected tires.
Cleaned the rear side windows. (The window tint residue has been bugging me since day one!)

The tires are in GREAT shape! Maybe 1mm more wear on the front vs. rear, and no wear issues. Outside shoulders are wearing about the same front and rear. Amazingly, we've got 80 runs on these tires already, and they're still at well over half tread. We'll run them for another ~40 runs and then have Carl reverse mount them. So far, it's looking like they should net us over 200 runs.

Today's improved awesomeness = 30 pounds less weight, and maybe 1.5 hp. That's a 1.6% reduction in weight, and a 2.4% increase in power! Brings our power-to-weight from 29.5 pounds/hp to 28.3 pounds/hp. That's an overall 4% improvement! Surely, we'll be 4% faster as a result. 4% on a typical 45-second course = 1.8 seconds. Yep. We're coming for you Soroya!

[Native]

ok, what's the usb outlet for?

[Loren]

The lighter socket was inop. It just seemed more logical to replace it with a USB port. Price was about the same. What are we gonna plug in besides a phone?

[twistedwankel]

ok, what's the usb outlet for?

To show us old guys what one looks like. I hate abbreviations. How will Dave light his cigar? How will I run my tire pump to adjust pressures? Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. No tire pump cigar lighter. That's just plain scary. But you'll be able to recharge your ipod whatever that is?