Joel's LS1 FC parts list/swap thread (remixed)

[ImportEvolution]

We need some daytime shots of the car!

[Bowtie7]

Wing overall shape is from an OEM RE-Amemiya wing.  It's one of the products pending from Ronin Speedworks.
 
Changes:
-Mounts have better curvature to match the back deck of the car.
-Mounts are ~2.5" taller than the RE original so it doens't interfer with your rear view.
-Greater range of adjustement relative to angle of attack
-We smoothed the shape of the wing it in a few places and we're using a stronger layup.
-Three attachment points per mount instead of two for better side to side rigidity.
 
More info coming

First article for the main wing is complete.   Teaser pic but the RE wing would have split in half if I tried this (it delaminated from normal use on a fast car)...



We'll have full info up on www.roninspeedworks.com.  This and the FD fenders have been sucking up most of our R&D time but at least we're getting close.

No lie on the original RE wing. Total pos as far as construction. That is what we had on the FD and it did come apart. Nice job Joel and crew!

[frijolee]

929 Master Cylinder and Booster
 
Y'all know I like playing with brakes...  We'll I finally have a setup that feels as good as it functions.  Short of the engine itself the 929 MC/booster combo is possibly my favorite mod done to date.  MUCH harder pedal with MUCH increased sensitivity at the same time.
 
-FC standard brakes: 7/8" master w/ single diaphragm 9" booster (seems to be two power valve options)
-FC s5 t2 brakes: 15/16" master w/ dual diaphragm 7" plus 8" booster
-FD brakes: 15/16" master w/ dual diaphragm 8" plus 8" booster
-929 brakes: 1" master w/ dual diaphragm 8" plus 9" booster
 
Moving stuff over:

 
Direct bolt in, but make sure you hang onto your old clevis as the pedal arm width is different.  Also the vacuum boost line is on the opposite side.

 
Note the 929 has only two ports (one front and one rear) rather than two fronts and on rear like that which came with the FC.  I've had this standing by for a while based on this thread on da club: http://www.rx7club.com/showthread.php?t=869142
 
However, I was never happy with running a T right next to the booster and I finally figured out a different solution (thanks to Anthony for spotting the key ingredient).  First, I suggest you grab an extra banjo connector from the ABS assembly if you get this at a junkyard.  Alternatively I got my spare banjo from a Miata.  The hot ticket fastener you need is a DUAL banjo bolt with m10x1.0 thread.  Slightly reroute the lines and you're in business.  I'm using a pass through block but the setup is the same with an OEM prop valve.
 

 
I'll warn you that the power difference is pretty high (the extra vacuum assist more than compensates for the increased bore so it takes some getting used to) but the ease of modulation w/o having to completely stand on it is a wonderful thing when you start driving in anger.
 

[spadanko]

looks great. So what kinda years of 929 is it from
nevermind i read your link to the club 91-96

[frijolee]

Yep 91-96, mine was from a car with ABS but I'm not 100% sure that matters or not...   For less sensitive brakes I could see using a 929 booster with a 1 1/8" MC.  I believe Clokker has done a great deal of work playing with even bigger bore MCs.  He's all over the thread I posted above.
 
The other upside of this mod is that the hard brake pedal makes heal and toe shifting easier because it's a lot closer to the proper relationship of brake and gas pedals.  Despite my best efforts my brakes were always too low vs. the gas before and I didn't want to lower the throttle to match least I give up throttle body butterfly actuation range.

[Bowtie7]

It's a great setup and one I have been using for quite awhile with a slight difference being that I use the FD booster mainly because I had them laying around so it was an easy experiment. Bob Beasley used this setup successfully until he went bigballer w/ pedals and dual masters.  There is a cool fitting availale from Mazda that will prevent you from having to go with the "dualing banjo's " setup. It is a part from the later model 929 and works nicely. I modded my plumbing a little to fit the propotioning valve in near the master since I did not anticipate any need to adjust it after the initial install. This car probably wont ever see any track use in it's cushy street trim.

Unable to post pics right now for some reason but will try later.

[Cman]

Thanks for this. I just scored a 929 Master/Booster combo from a local yard for $65. I think I'll add a Wilwood prop valve while I'm in there.

Steve

[frijolee]

There is a cool fitting availale from Mazda that will prevent you from having to go with the "dualing banjo's " setup. It is a part from the later model 929 and works nicely.

I was orginally looking for a single banjo with dual outputs but coundn't find one.  If that's what you're talking about that'd be every bit as clean or even a bit nicer than what I did. 

[Bowtie7]

There is a cool fitting availale from Mazda that will prevent you from having to go with the "dualing banjo's " setup. It is a part from the later model 929 and works nicely.

I was orginally looking for a single banjo with dual outputs but coundn't find one.  If that's what you're talking about that'd be every bit as clean or even a bit nicer than what I did.

the pictures I have are too big to post but the fitting is from the lter style 929. I will try and email you a pic tomorrow from work.

[theantirotor]

Frijolee, I am considering an over the rad air intake setup in my car and was wondering if you could give me a measurement.  After you cut your hood brace out, do you know how much height you had available from the top of the core support to the bottom of the hood skin?

[frijolee]

Let me take a measurement for you.  FYI My point of minimum clearance is back at the intake side T bolt clamp for the silicon intake coupler.  I'd say I only have about an 1/8" at the clamp.

[frijolee]

Realized I never really captured the info on a few topics...

Fixed Back Seats

A comfy as my old Tenzo Rally seats were it always bugged me a bit that I had the extra weight of the reclining ability with a roll bar right behind me rendering all that useless.

When a friend asked if I'd ever consider selling them I jumped at the chance.  We ened up working his stock seats into the deal so I’d have some factory rails to start from.  After a bit of shopping around I picked up a set of lightly used Momo Laghi Evo seats (AKA Acropolis Evo).

They weigh in at about 17 lbs a seat IIRC.  Driver side uses a modification of the stock rails.  Passenger side is full custom.  The framework for the mounting was 1 1/4" angle iron 1/8" thick.  Side plates are 3/16" 6061-T6.

Stock rails:




Welding Angle iron at correct lateral spacing:




Adjusting seat position (lots of tweaking and shimming with wood prior to building side plates, pardon the crappy picture)




End result on both sides (passenger rail on the trans side is pretty weird looking because of the the slope of the floor so I should snap a pic at some point.)

[Bowtie7]

nice work Joel. The p/s is a mondo pia fer sure!

[frijolee]

Speedway Swaybar

A little before going widebody I added a 1 1/4" hollow swaybar with splined ends.  We've thought about this as a Ronin project but it's really too much work to make it an easy bolt in solution so I figured I'd post the info here instead.



What's with the black spacer thing?  We'll get to that in a second...


Picked up the bar and ends from an FC race car that was parting out locally.  Strangely the bar as purchased was about 40" long and I needed 36" to let me turn the wheels at full lock (pretty sure the former owner couldn't do it).  The upside is that Speedway Engineering turned out to be local to me and I got it cut down and resplined for not a lot of money. 

36" length puts the end about an 1/8" from rubbing the wheel wells so it's tight and it meant I needed to trim the edges of my frame rails...

Before:




After:




Basic pieces (thanks to Mike for the powder coating assist to match my brakes.)




The steel plates were my means of tying in an extra nut so I now have three swaybar mount holes.  Stock hardware positions are still accessible plus I now have an extra hole further back for the new hardware spacing.  McMaster supplied the bearings...  http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/117/1146/=c7na70 part number 3813T18




So that part about cutting down the bar?  Well that meant my arms were now bent wrong and didn't land over the control arms correctly. rather than try to rebend I made little tower spacers out of 1/8" steel (already painted in the first picture).  Shot glasses anyone?




Bar has ~1/4" clearance all the way across the bottom relative to hard parts.  However the straight run meant I was rubbing my oil cooler lines by a hair.  Built a couple little sacrificial wear parts out of a PVC coupler to be safe.







One more shot of the end result (there's also PVC as a spacer between arms and bearings on both sides to keep it centered so it can't slide side to side and rub.)




The last thing I'll mention on fitment is that if you're running low and take a healty bump while close to lock you can bind up your steering rod on the lower surface.  I was only able to do this (and barely at that) when really romping through a stoplight about to turn red but I ended up notching the bottom surface of each arm by about 1/4" to give me a touch more space.  No pics but it was basically just carved out using a 2" diameter sanding drum to keep stress risers to a minimum.

Previously the best swaybar setup I'd tried was using an RB front bar with a stock rear bar (~20 lbs total).  This weights ~6 lbs, that's the big upside.   That said, their are probably easier ways to drop 10 lbs.  For me the added bonus is that I set this up so the torsional spring rate of my setup is just a touch lower than the RB bar so I don't run a rear sway anymore either.

For reference

-stock FC swaybar (s5 na) is 0.95" diameter = 546 lbf/in differential compression side to side
-RB bar 1.13" diameter = 1074 lbf/in side to side
-speedway bar 1.25 OD, 1/8 wall = 966 lbf/in side to side (when used with a 7" lever arm).   

End of story: the cornering balance is still right where I like it.  Having played at a few autocrosses since I can say that it seems to work nicely.

[digitalsolo]

Nice setup Joel.   Looks as (over)engineered as I'd expect.