[possibly_burrito]

Do you have any links to some reading to support this? I have been doing some digging but cannot find anything on it!

https://books.google.com/books?id=-...page&q=naca 64-421 compared with wire&f=false


I know you might find it silly, but this is by far the best resource on the Internet for DIY aero: https://www.miataturbo.net/race-prep-75/post-your-diy-aero-pics-63769/



You should consider routing your intake tracts to the inside of your radiator box. This will minimize the drag while providing the same effect. Like this:

But in your case you can just route them to the top of the box for shorter path.

Also, your oil cooler openings are way too large. The opening only needs to be about 30% of the area of the cooler. This will further reduce drag.

Lastly, you should cover up the center hole between the bumper and splitter, or at least duct something useful to that area (like brake coolers!)

 

[SheldonZ28]

Well I finally have some good updates that are worth posting!

I did not spend a whole lot of time working on the car through the end of the summer, as I picked up another RX8 chassis to make a drift car out of and built a couple Lincoln SA200 Welders... so I have been busy still! I did however drag it out in project mode to a car show put on by my car group!

Unfortunately.. As I am infinitely learning and teaching myself as I go, I made mistakes on the design of a couple parts that ultimately would be easier to alter with the engine out of the car. Such is life! There are very few "first design" parts on the car as it is for as car that has not moved under its own power in 4 years LOL!

Starting in December '18, my neighbor and I scored a hangar at an airport local to us for an absurdly cheap rent price, and that has really inspired motivation to make this car finally live up to its dream! Has been lots of work setting the hangar up, but it is definitely a dream garage for the 5 RX8's between him and myself!

I have the car stripped apart yet again, for her (hopefully) final updates to make noise! The chassis is at the hangar now as there is a paintshop on the property where I am going to finally get a proper coat of paint on the car! The rattle can engine bay paint during winter in a propane heated garage obviously did not adhere well and was chipped in many spots from trying to fit everything in. Knowing I would need to remove the engine again for changes, it is the perfect opportunity to just get it done properly!

(Yea that beer is awful, but free is free!)

The grey & red RX8's came as a package deal when I was hunting for a drift chassis

The powertrain is almost done!! I have a few parts on order and some things that need to be tightened up as it is installed but it is pretty well done and I can shift over to the chassis to get it ready for paint!

Pretty confident I am still okay for time to have it driving this summer! I will keep up better with updates!!

 

[ascastil]

That's awesome. Pretty excited to see the finished product

 

[duneless]

I love your build man. I love the hanger your in as well. What I wouldn't do for that space. Keep up all the hard work you do it will always pays off. I was looking at your motor and notice the Turbo smart blow off valves. I have those same ones on my Vsport for some extra noise.

And its cool you know someone with the same passion for RX8's as you do and get together in a hanger to do some work.

Don't get married like the rest of us because you will lose this stuff. Like mine would say "Your not done with that car yet?" '' Are you messing around on me when your there" She would set up shop and think the hanger is her new SHE SHED.

 

[ascastil]

Guess I'm lucky. My wife turns wrenches with me on our builds. Gotta love a girl who asks for car parts for Christmas!

 

[RudyF6]

Guess I'm lucky. My wife turns wrenches with me on our builds. Gotta love a girl who asks for car parts for Christmas!

I thought I was the luckiest one - in our day, my wife helped me build and race 2 off-road trucks!!
For our 20th anniversary I bought her a '72 Chevelle - her dream car!

 

[ascastil]

Well to be fair she doesn't just help build them, obviously she races them at the track too lol. The ATSV is hers actually. I'm just here to read and learn.

 

[duneless]

Well to be fair she doesn't just help build them, obviously she races them at the track too lol. The ATSV is hers actually. I'm just here to read and learn.

Wow I wish. That is the perfect wife. I have to explain what I'm buying and the question is always why? Mine has a 17 durango with a Hemi I convinced her to get. She didn't know what a sport mode was and the shift paddles are just shiny things to her. She just jumps in and drives. Ive done some work to it but she doesn't know what. You guys are lucky and I wish mine would ask for car parts for Christmas.

One time on an on ramp the wife was driving my Vsport and she says what's wrong with your car as she's drifting sideways onto the highway. I said didn't you see the smoke behind you and the smell of rubber? I made her pull over and I drove because she didn't know what was going on. "Woman you were burning rubber and a car that does that is good". Nothing wrong there mama.

 

[SheldonZ28]

Hahaha you guys are funny! Not being married has definitely streamlined the purchase approval process LOL! Can't say I would be that worried about finding a car girl myself, but at the very least she needs to be okay with the cars lol. I am only 28, so statistically I have avoided my first divorce and I am in no rush haha!

Still making good progress on the RX8! Though I am still kinda going backwards, I am excited to be finishing the final components as I go and the end assembly should be fairly straight forward!

I have pulled it apart a bit more as its moving down to the otherside of the airport this week for my friend that is Parks Composites to help me paint it. He is going to re-paint the engine bay for me along with the rest of the car to fix up the paint damage. Painted it last year but it was likely too cold in my garage at the time and it didnt stick well. I could probably live with it as it is, but a nice coat of paint in the bay would be icing on the cake!

I have the wiring harness out again as I am updating a few things in it and setting it up to be joined to the power distribution on my kitchen counter lol. Easier to work on it here than in the car!

Hangar is slowly coming together and getting a bit more organized!

Have the engine over at the hangar now!

 

[SheldonZ28]

Have been deeply contemplating this kit as there is one at a shop locally available from a cancelled order. Car is coming up for paint... But I am torn. I kind of dig the idea of it just looking like a R3 RX8 with some aero and a wheel set! More unassuming!

I have been building up a collection of DeWalt XR/FlexVolt tools as my "hangarmate" is a Mac Tools/DeWalt distributor. I absolutely F'n love these things!

This is one of the most exciting things about the Airport.. This is the only full scale replica of the Avro Arrow in existence! As I noted before, my the White/Black/Orange my car has been through this build has been to tribute the CF-105 Arrow ! This aircraft was a major Canadian technical achievement and one of my favorite bits of Canadian History! Excited to do a photoshoot with the car under it this summer once the model is reassembled!

News article on its move in December 2018! https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/avro-arrow-replica-arrives-in-edenvale-1.4211170

 

[Joseph Upson]

Nice build and the aircraft reminds me of the U.S. XB-70 Valkyrie, which after looking it up I found is likely a descendant of the CF-105 following its near purchase by the U.S. Air Force, prior to its cancellation. https://theaviationist.com/2015/12/09/xb-70-rare-emergency-video/

 

[SheldonZ28]

I know this is the third time I have said this, but the engine is in there for "good" as much as this summer until next winter tear down. Regardless! Its hopefully only a few parts to fabricate and otherwise assembly!

At this point, every part for the swap is on at the very least its second version lol, some are 6-7 versions before I found the one I liked/learned more to redesign. I think I am mostly content with the setup for it now, and have solved all the interference/integrity concerns of previous variations.

I have stopped giving myself deadlines and I am just picking away at it now lol. Looking forward to hearing the first fire up and I am sure the spark will reignite!

My buddy that shares the hangar with me is in the process of fitting an FD RX7's 13B-REW (Vs. the non turbo 13B-MSP of the RX8) into his RX8, lots going on in the hangar!

 

[SheldonZ28]

Bit more progress over the weekend! As usual, found a couple things I am not quite happy with and will recreate some bits to fit better, but getting there!

 

[Hildred]

The block is actually an LLT block. GM is both tight lipped and rather selective when it comes to ordering LF4 parts. The LF4 block is simply not available for purchase, and the LF4 "Service Replacement" engine, is expensive, and is available on exchange only basis. I have some concern over the overall strength of the LLT block vs the LF3/4 block, but I dont think I am going to see any issues best protein skimmer
. The main caps are the focal point of increased strength with the LF4 block, other than the provisions for turbo coolant system & oil drain. I have removed the LLT frost plugs to fit coolant feed adapters and the LF4 heads I have will have their coolant return utilised, with oil drain backs going to AN fittings on the custom oil pan.

 

[jguerdat]

Ummm... "best protein skimmer"??

Somehow I think this got snuck in - hacker? This thread is too cool for that!

 

[SheldonZ28]

The block is actually an LLT block. GM is both tight lipped and rather selective when it comes to ordering LF4 parts. The LF4 block is simply not available for purchase, and the LF4 "Service Replacement" engine, is expensive, and is available on exchange only basis. I have some concern over the overall strength of the LLT block vs the LF3/4 block, but I dont think I am going to see any issues best protein skimmer
. The main caps are the focal point of increased strength with the LF4 block, other than the provisions for turbo coolant system & oil drain. I have removed the LLT frost plugs to fit coolant feed adapters and the LF4 heads I have will have their coolant return utilised, with oil drain backs going to AN fittings on the custom oil pan.

Yes, mine is built in a LLT/LFX block. Yes from speaking to my friends in GM Engineering, They had said the main caps are stiffer, there is a tad more meat around the cylinder liners, but otherwise its mostly cast in provisions for the turbo fluids, as he noted the crankshaft is stiffer than the LLT/LFX counterpart also. Same as myself, I used the coolant returns on the head, and made my own coolant feeds to them. I fabricated my oil pan also, though I am not overly happy with it (My first time fabricating an aluminum pan) and I will likely revisit it for next year. That being said, with the new pan I bought to cut up, the aluminum material and consumables with the TIG, I have about $600CAD in this damn oil pan :suspense: lol, the fun of building these motors when there are no off the shelf options!


Speaking of which, working on updating from a lesson learned when I didn't pay attention to the size of tubing I was using (I should know better) which is too small (2.5") for the slot MAF's to have accurate readings. So now I am working on redesigning the forward halfs of them in a larger diameter tube. Also revisiting my hood latch setup, the oil lines to the filter block, the entire oil cooling system, and a few other little things. Trying to get it to a point where I can actually drive it in between these updates LOL.

Anyway, I put one of my mockup splitter's on it again so I can think out a few possible design changes, and otherwise I am continually fit checking everything.

Made a few changes on fluid line routing, but damn real estate is at a premium!

Finally decided on a solution to my fuel supply concerns (Excuse the hose clamped joint in there, temporary) and ended up with a dual pump setup. Ive written software for an Arduino Uno to control it. Thankfully the RX8 divides it's fuel level sensors, with one on each tank in series. Another stroke of luck, the passenger side of the tank is first in the series, so the Arduino is monitoring the fuel level in the passenger side of the tank to control the secondary transfer pump which will shut down power once it empties the passenger side of the tank. The RX8 OEM setup is terrible at best, and barely supports the Renesis Rotary engines fuel demands, which has them notorious for running out of fuel when the gauge still reads 1/4-3/8 full. The original setup passes returned fuel through a venturi pump to draw fuel from the passenger side of the tank. In all of my experience so far, I have yet to have a good experience with a return venturi pump system keeping up with consumption on the drivers side so I have been back and forth trying to decide what to do. Unfortunately I cannot afford a kickass surge tank with twin external pumps, so this will do for now. Essentially the second pump is just transferring fuel to the drivers side as long as its level is above my specified level resistance.

The first bashbar I made up for my RX8 is now going onto my buddies drift car. Finally a first variant of one of my parts see's use on another RX8 rather than the scrap bin!

Hopefully soon I can post a video of it making some noise!!

 

[Albertan]

I just read through your entire build here. I am just restoring a 2016 ATSV that had some fire damage. I had to splice a lot of wires and replace the engine harness. I was lucky and it fired right up but I got a bunch of strange errors. I will be getting a new ECM. Hope that solves everything. I look at you repinning the entire electrical system. A lot of work. You young guys are much more at ease with electronics than us old guys. Or this one anyway. I originally bought a salvage ATS to swap an LS engine but I like the car and the electronics are well beyond anything I want to do. I looked at the wiring on my 2006 CTSV a couple wire looms to the ECM and that was it.The 2016 ATSV, just massive amount of wires.
Let us hope that it fires right up for you. Good luck. I was going to do an RX7 with LS years ago but then I did a E36 BMW with LS instead. Wiring that was easy!

 

[dgbb]

great build...amazing work.....I had a question about your engine harness....I have lf3 engine trans pull from a 2015 cts vsport and am getting ready to put it into my build....i was wondering if you or anyone knew of a standalone harness for the lf3/lf4?......seems like most shops do not want to take on building a harness for these engines so i thought I would ask...where did you get your harness diagrams from....thanks

 

[Suji]

Yes, mine is built in a LLT/LFX block. Yes from speaking to my friends in GM Engineering, They had said the main caps are stiffer, there is a tad more meat around the cylinder liners, but otherwise its mostly cast in provisions for the turbo fluids, as he noted the crankshaft is stiffer than the LLT/LFX counterpart also. Same as myself, I used the coolant returns on the head, and made my own coolant feeds to them. I fabricated my oil pan also, though I am not overly happy with it (My first time fabricating an aluminum pan) and I will likely revisit it for next year. That being said, with the new pan I bought to cut up, the aluminum material and consumables with the TIG, I have about $600CAD in this damn oil pan :suspense: lol, the fun of building these motors when there are no off the shelf options!


Speaking of which, working on updating from a lesson learned when I didn't pay attention to the size of tubing I was using (I should know better) which is too small (2.5") for the slot MAF's to have accurate readings. So now I am working on redesigning the forward halfs of them in a larger diameter tube. Also revisiting my hood latch setup, the oil lines to the filter block, the entire oil cooling system, and a few other little things. Trying to get it to a point where I can actually drive it in between these updates LOL.

Anyway, I put one of my mockup splitter's on it again so I can think out a few possible design changes, and otherwise I am continually fit checking everything.

Made a few changes on fluid line routing, but damn real estate is at a premium!

Finally decided on a solution to my fuel supply concerns (Excuse the hose clamped joint in there, temporary) and ended up with a dual pump setup. Ive written software for an Arduino Uno to control it. Thankfully the RX8 divides it's fuel level sensors, with one on each tank in series. Another stroke of luck, the passenger side of the tank is first in the series, so the Arduino is monitoring the fuel level in the passenger side of the tank to control the secondary transfer pump which will shut down power once it empties the passenger side of the tank. The RX8 OEM setup is terrible at best, and barely supports the Renesis Rotary engines fuel demands, which has them notorious for running out of fuel when the gauge still reads 1/4-3/8 full. The original setup passes returned fuel through a venturi pump to draw fuel from the passenger side of the tank. In all of my experience so far, I have yet to have a good experience with a return venturi pump system keeping up with consumption on the drivers side so I have been back and forth trying to decide what to do. Unfortunately I cannot afford a kickass surge tank with twin external pumps, so this will do for now. Essentially the second pump is just transferring fuel to the drivers side as long as its level is above my specified level resistance.

The first bashbar I made up for my RX8 is now going onto my buddies drift car. Finally a first variant of one of my parts see's use on another RX8 rather than the scrap bin!

Hopefully soon I can post a video of it making some noise!!

Happen to have finished this yet?

 

[TACoupe]

He hasn't been on since Aug 17 2019

Roy