nice, now get some decent rubber for those
Ok, so it's been a strange (tho somehow par for the course) couple of weeks for Dory.
Part I:
I was fed up with locking up my tires CONSTANTLY after the pads had about 2 or 3 runs in. They pretty much became an on-off switch for me. So, I swapped out some HPS pads (from Kevin's GRM car) for my HP+s. While those work great for R-comps, the HP+s are too much for my *decent* street tires. After the pad change, with newer pads mind you, my brake pedal got LONGER. While we were changing the pads, we noticed both calipers were leaking fluid. Well, THERE'S your problem... Swapped in new calipers (HUGE thanks again Kevin) and bled them. The fluid coming out of the driver's side was milky b/c it was impregnated with air. Gross. I'm a lot happier with my braking now, esp that my pedal works again
Part II:
The part some of you seemed pretty interested in at least... Swapped in the new endlinks. Now the POP from the front every time I touch the brakes is completely gone, and the mid-corner 'uncertainty' from the poly bushings is gone. I'm EXTREMELY pleased with them.
Part III:
New shocks. I had the Koni Race shocks (re-valved w/ more rebound) and shortened shocks up front only. This was before I knew that the BIG place you want more travel's the rear. I got a deal on some Races for the rear and jumped on that ASAP. Shortened shocks = more travel = car can stand to be a little lower. I'm not touching the bump stops nearly as much as I had been in the rear, which makes this RWD wonder a lot more predictable. However, I'm a chassis setup n00b, and therefore...
Part IV:
Shock settings. I ran 1.75 events like this. I'm embarrassed to even admit to this. Laddies and gentlemen, boys and girls, listen close. Better shocks don't mean JACK if they're not set properly. I honestly can not even remember how or when this happened, but it did. After my 3rd (of 4) timed runs yesterday, I noticed a pattern. Right turn: Understeer. Left turn: oversteer. Huh? I check my rear shocks (the only thing that had changed that could cause that, besides wonky ride heights). Right rear: full stiff. Left rear: almost full soft. @%&#(@#%&@!!!!! So, for the last timed run I sort of set them somewhere in the middle and hoped for the best. I ran a 47.2, well off the pace, but good enough all things considered. For my 2nd set of runs (time only, aka fun runs), I worked on dialing the rear of the car in. Managed to get down to a 45.7... that's a 1.5 second reduction just by having my shocks properly set up. Too bad those last runs didn't count, b/c I would have won STS2 by a half second. Oh well...there's always the next event
Part V:
Found a surprise while rotating the tires Friday night before the event. Everything went fine until I got to the passenger side rear. Break 1 loose, break 2 loose, break 3 loo... looo... LOOOSE!? Nope. Turned the bar once, twice, and third times a charm: PLINK! Snapped the stud. Sumbitch. And of course, you can't exactly hammer out the stud and replace it in the rear of the miata, you have to pull the whole hub assembly appart. Well, I didn't have the tools, the facilities or the part, so I bit the bullet and took it to kauffman tire to get it done. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I have lug-centric wheels, so I didn't really feel comfortable running only on 3.
Part VI:
Scored a deal on a use Racing Beat header. It's the new design (4-1 as opposed to the tri-Y of the earlier headers). This header makes better power / torque than the last one, so I was happy to find someone selling it used
Only 1 problem: it's wrapped backwards. Anyone know if it would be a big deal to re-wrap it using the same tape, or would it make sense to get new stuff? Also, does anyone know how to undo those metal straps that secure it in place? They look like metal zip ties (but no teeth on the strap). Is there any way to re-use these? If not, I'll probably just install it as-is and suck it up