Posts from ‘Projects’
Stuff Happens
So a lot of things have happened in the past few months and I’ve been too busy to update.
So on dec 4th i was hit by a girl in a honda accord who was trying to switch lanes and didnt bother to check her blind spot. The result is that my front lip is pretty much destroyed, the bumper took some damage as well as the fender. Im considering upgrading to an aftermarket bumper depending on the insurance situation.
Recently my stock radiator also took a dump, and cracked and sprayed coolant all over my engine bay. So I’ve changed out stock plastic tank radiator for a high performance 2 core aluminum version made by Ron Davis, while i was at it, i also changed out the hoses and replaced them with silicon counter parts made by Samco. While all the cooling parts were out i almost made it an opportunity to install my Mazmart thermostat.
In the near future, i signed up for a group buy for 2 piece Girodisk rotors, they are fully floating 2 piece design with directional vanes, along with new Carbotech pads i think they would make a pretty nice brake upgrade, and good for weight reduction too.
so been inactive for a while, i finally fixed my underbody damage. The shop did a pretty decent job even matching up the orange peel to stock, although they installed my aero flares a little too low, going back to get it fixed soon.
Recently i had to replace my battery and tires, so i got a braille 15lb battery to replace my red-top, and ordered a set of RS-3s. Since i was going to take the tires off anyways, thought i’d give my rims a refresher and get rid of that tired time attack look (its way played out).
Big thanks to Matt at VMR (http://www.velocitymotoring.com) for hooking up the powder coating!
UPDATE: New hardware was bought and we extracted the broken stud. This time we used the correct torque specs and now everything works again. HC’s engine actually sounds great for a higher mileage RX-8 engine. -LionZoo (P.S. Time to update that About page since I’m no longer an engineer. Now I’m even less human!)
So last night i tried to install the waterpump and thermostat after i’ve been putting it off for weeks. I wanted to get everything in before the track day on saturday. The install is pretty simple really, remove battery, loosen alternator belt, unbolt the waterpump, installed new one in reverse order, until i lost a bolt in the engine bay. I didn’t have a magnetic wand on hand (i know i know) and the lighting wasnt too great, so after spending a good 30 minutes looking for it, even taking off the alternator, its soo amiss. Then maybe its the late hours and loss of concentration, i lost ANOTHER nut in the same spot. Then i decided that its probably a good idea to pack up and finish the next day before i make anymore mistakes. Then the worst of the night happened. While putting on the pulley, i over torqued one of the bolts and sheared it. Devastated, i hurriedly threw everything back together and locked the car up and went straight to sleep. This morning i find out i’ve been reading the torque specs wrong on the install diagram. While the rest of the components are marked in ft/lb, the pulley bolts are marked in in/lb, FAIL on my part for not catching that. Well i went out and bought the appropriate tools for relocating my lost nuts and extracting the sheared bolt. As well as some extra hardware to finish the project, hopefully it’ll be a much better night (fingers crossed)
pictures of the damage to come.
Over Xmas i received a nice box with this stuff in it. Thanks to BlackHaloRacing, who make many quality parts for the rx8 my car now idles much more smooth and pulls stronger than before. Awesomeeeeee!
Lionzoo helped out with the install. After a lot of cussing and bleeding it was in. The coils are placed under the upper intake manifold and amidst a tangle of wires and harnesses, making getting them to fit a major headache. Once they’re in tho, they’re nice and snug.
I had been running with Hawk HPS pads for awhile. At the end of their life, they’ve gone off in a seriously bad way. Though they were never what I would call long on bite, on their deathbeds, their friction force was such that I could no longer lock my brakes in the dry in a straight line. That is bad since that means there is extra braking power available from my tires that I’m not utilizing. The pads were also fading to an alarming degree during performance driving* so it was definitely time for a change.
So in goes the Cobalt Friction GT-Sport pads, along with a few colorful words since my knuckles seem to have a magnetic attraction to cold, hard suspension arms. The GT-Sports come with a reputation for good bite and good thermal characteristics, but also a reputation for dust and noise.
Well, after bedding in the pads (and redoing a bit of work, which I’ll recount later), I have to say that the pads are just as advertised. Compared to the HPS, there is no comparison. The amount of bite is through the roof and I can easily lock up my brakes now. In fact, I’d say that people used to normal passenger car brakes would think these pads are grabbier than a third grader. Initial bite is high and they hang on relentlessly even as you load them with enough heat to keep a small apartment warm in this unseasonably cold LA weather. Modulation is a touch trickier as the brakes seem to start off at “lots of bite” and go to “even more bite” as you brake deeper. It’s a tad difficult at first to feather the brakes for initial and mid-corner balance, but you get used to it as the day goes on. As a performance pad, these things are great.
However, they also do dust and make noise. In fact, they made so much noise that I installed a set of shims and some anti-rattle grease in an attempt to quiet them down. Luckily that did the trick; I wouldn’t know what I’d do if it didn’t as though I love the braking power, I also hate my car sounding like a New York dumptruck everytime it comes to a stop. I’m not sure having brake squeal precede your entrance to every place you go to is the grandest of entrances. So two thumbs up for shims and anti-rattle grease as now the only sound I get is the occasional squeal from 5 mph down. It’s not a bad squeal; it’s something I can live with. Your mileage may vary.
The pads also produce an amount of dust that the Tasmanian Devil would be proud of. The dust is a bit stickier than normal, so getting them off is a slight challenge. However, if you have wheels with a glossy finish, waxing your wheels will help ensure that the dust remains easy to remove.
So the final verdict with these pads are that they are a good chance if you do a lot of performance driving. Honestly, I feel they make better track pads than canyon pads as tracks tend to emphasize heavier braking while canyons have a lot of short quick stabs to balance the car. However dust will be a problem: my front silver wheels (THE brightest silver wheels I’ve ever seen) turned almost to gunmetal after a bit more than a week of driving. The noise can be mostly cured, so that’s not too bad. In return, you get a pad with good bite and good thermal characteristics that are suitable up to the intermediate and possibly advance levels for HPDE trackdays as well as most canyon roads.
*Please note that pad fade is different from fluid fade in that when there is pad fade, the pedal is still hard, but the braking power goes off.
