Racecarsssss Prep
First of all I have way too many race cars for a normal human. Second, I apparently want them all to be drivable for other humans.
The maintenance lists are very long for both the BMW E30 and Mazda RX-7 aka Brapmobile. We are racing the pair in mid November and thus both need to undergo varying levels of general maintenance. This all starts in the middle of October, hoping to be ready comfortably in time for the race. I’ll soon learn this isn’t going to be the case, but again makes it even more important that we started a month before.
First Priority Mini Bike
The vehicle that just carries fuel and is the most awesome must be fixed. It really doesn’t have any issues after the full rebuilt last year, but does continue to pitch off its chain. The solution is a simple tensioner. Confirmed solved after a quick trip around the neighborhood.
Next up….. E30
German engineering seems to be pretty reliable, that or it has been raced a shit ton more and therefore has been beaten to breaking in a all areas. General inspection and new brakes put her in a race worthy position. However with the new team we wanted to add telemetry like Brapmobile has, therefore I did a bit of wiring. Adding in a new digital clock for drivers, an hour meter for me to track abuse and finally some new power sources for the Autosportlabs and GoPro.
For all those people whom have doubted our fuel leak was the cap…. Take a look at this video ——>
She’s Ready minus wheels
The Wankel…
Little did I know. It needed quite a bit of attention. There was a lovely rust deterrent being applied across the engine, transmission driveline, and undercarriage. To test the rust aversion coating it was also leaking water out of the radiator. Turns out racing a car that had basic maintenance after sitting for a decade is gonna have some issues.
I’ll take care of the easy item first, front bearings and brakes. I replaced the bearing and hubs prior to the last race and they seem to be in good shape. I think I used high pressure grease and it shows some signs of degradation, but no bearing damage. Repacking with proper high temperature grease.
These “Brembo’s” are now fresh with Hawk Blue pads and ready to race.
One of the biggest headaches for the RX-7 is its fuel tank. Not because the reason you may think, it actually gets around 10 mpg on a racetrack. However mine gets worse because it’s tank has a leak and massive slosh issues. Those both will be fixed I hope with a bit of POR-015 and a new Holley HydraMat.
The next big headache for das Brapmobile was obviously oil leaks. Rotaries are supposed to burn oil not leak it! So we pulled it 4 weeks before the race. Now mind you I’ve finished rebuilding an engine the night before a track day, this is a Wankel and I’ve never taken one apart nor rebuilt a transmission. So this was a bit nerve racking. Reaching out to my transmission shop and they couldn’t find a complete set of internal parts nor did he have open time slot to rebuilt. We are gonna send it and rebuild after the race if it survives. Perks of racing a 37 year old car.
After pulling the engine and transmission, it was time to get to work.
Power washing the transmission to get off years of grime and oil, then blasting off the engine and a few others parts.
Next Up Bearing and Clutch
Pilot bearing needed to be replaced, unknown age and I was putting on a new clutch. I found out the hard way it didn’t want to be removed. I had to create a tool to make it happen. Drain plug bolt welded to a coupling nut allowed me to adapt the puller tool to an actual threaded puller instead of the slide hammer as was intended. Adding a 6” piece of 1 1/4” pipe and voila the pilot bearing stood no chance.
Getting Closer to Reinstall
Last piece of my plan is to replace the ancient OMP lines. They are very brittle and discolored. I don’t want a failure that will cause a massive fire or catastrophic engine failure. After a bit of research I found this wonderful post detailing all parts required. I sourced my parts from MSC just as the post described and after making the leap to cut off the first line I was in business. Took about 30 minutes to work through them all. Final results are nice and tidy. Glad I did this. Don’t mind all the other rust, just focus on the clean new lines.
Finally the cars are ready
Had both sets of tires mounted and balanced by my local tire shop. Its great dropping off a truck load of wheels and tires.
Tip: Label them with colored tape, its cheap and all 12 wheels came back with the correct tires and directionally correct.
I thought I was done….
BMW decided it wanted some of the fun and started leaking fuel from the top of the tank. A bit of Silver RTV and some crossed fingers. Here is to hoping we don’t have any leaks in the race this weekend. The cars were put on their wheels Wednesday before the race.
