112.8mph Lucky Poos Needed

RiftAmps

Oil Pump

As mentioned earlier, the B6 engine was used in several cars by Mazda. The Oil Pump has a few holes/galleys/passages that are used in some, but not in others. We need to block one of these off. It's the dipstick hole for the 323F. A small blanking plug is coated in RTV, then pressed into place.

Then a small O-Ring is fitted...

...before RTV is applied to all mating surfaces. The pump came with a paper gasket but I prefer to use RTV if I can.

Next up we lube up the crank pin...

...before sliding the pump into place. Dowel pins help locate it in the correct position.

Finally, the six bolts are inserted and torqued in stages to 26Nm.

Emp_Fab

Loving this!  BTW, when I mentioned water injection earlier, I didn’t mean in relation to the cooling system.  I meant into the intake manifold - as in performance boost.

RiftAmps

The provisional calendar was announced today - No Oulton Park but Anglesey is a great shout, any circuit with big elevation changes are fun to drive.

RiftAmps

Pistons

Each piston, gudgeon pin, conrod, bearings, and piston ring assemblies have been weight-matched to the nearest gram, then balanced with the crankshaft as a whole rotating assembly.

The first task after a thorough cleaning is to install a locking clip into the front side of the piston

Then the piston, small conrod end, and gudgeon pin and coated in assembly lube

The pin is then pushed in from the rear of the piston...

...through the conrod...

...and all the way through.

Another clip is fitted on the other side.

And that's it. Rinse and repeat three more times before wiping off excessive lube.

Piston rings are next.

RiftAmps

Helmet arrived back today from the painter. Mega happy with it

RiftAmps

Mallory Park - 26th December

Sod it, I've entered the Plum Pudding races on Boxing Day at Mallory Park. Nick isn't available so I will be doing both of the 15-minute sprint races. As I only did 1 race start this year, it'll be a great opportunity to practice.

Mallory Park is where I took my race license test, so looking forward to going back and really attacking the circuit.

About the Plum Pudding Meeting

While the main racing season usually concludes around late October to early November, that doesn’t mean that any and all opportunities to wheel the race car out of the garage one more time have dried up. Far from it, as there’s still one event that is the perfect chance for racers and petrolheads alike to celebrate the festive season in the best way possible – getting out on track!

Once again, the BRSCC is delighted to be at the helm of the car element of the annual Plum Pudding Races at Mallory Park, a traditional event that takes place on Boxing Day (December 26th) every year allowing some drivers and motorsport fans a great chance to indulge in their favourite pass time during Christmas!

There are separate grids and races for both saloon cars and sports cars respectively, but both play out a little differently than conventional race meetings. Unlike those in the regular season, there are no qualifying sessions here. Instead, the fastest race entry sets pole position rather than fastest lap time. So if you enter first, you get pole position for Race 1. The results of Race 1 then set the grid for the second race with the entire grid reversed to further enhance the action.

All race-ready sports cars and saloons cars are eligible to enter their respective races, with saloons cars ranging from Peugeot 206s, Ford Fiestas and Honda Civics, to Alfa Romeos, Ford Escorts, BMWs and VW Golfs. As for sports cars, you can bring vehicles such as Caterhams, Porsches, Radicals and other sports prototypes, Mazda MX-5s, TVRs and Lotus Elises. This really is an incredibly open contest, so as long as the car meets all the required Motorsport UK safety requirements, you’re in!

As is the tradition, the Plum Pudding meeting will also feature bike races organised by the East Midland Racing Association. More details can be found at https://www.eastmidlandracing.co.uk/.

Who's racing?

- Saloons (2 x 15minute races)

- Sports Cars (2 x 15minute races)

- Motorbikes (2 x 15minute races)

Prep

Brakes - The rear pads were quite worn, so fitted a new set.

Tickets

From £11 each, children under 13 go free.

https://www.malloryparkcircuit.com/event/the-plum-pudding/

Nitefly

Bizarrely, that link takes me to the Silverstone 750 club website!?

CeeJay

I've graced that tarmac a few times, albeit on a bike. Is that Devils Elbow still scarily off camber? Looks a nice fast sweep on paper but it's caught more than a few out, me included!

RiftAmps

Nitefly said:

Bizarrely, that link takes me to the Silverstone 750 club website!?

Weird! Fixed

RiftAmps

CeeJay said:

I've graced that tarmac a few times, albeit on a bike. Is that Devils Elbow still scarily off camber? Looks a nice fast sweep on paper but it's caught more than a few out, me included!

Yes! With a two bumps on the inside. My instructor told me drive around the outside of the corner to avoid them - seemed to work.

Nitefly

RiftAmps said:

Nitefly said:

Bizarrely, that link takes me to the Silverstone 750 club website!?

Weird! Fixed

Hooray, thank you!

rsvmark

CeeJay said:

I've graced that tarmac a few times, albeit on a bike. Is that Devils Elbow still scarily off camber? Looks a nice fast sweep on paper but it's caught more than a few out, me included!

Yes, it is a tricky one on 2 wheels. It caught me out on one occasion.....and once was enough- did enough damage to me, the bike, my wallet and my confidence!

RiftAmps

Piston Rings

Each piston is fitted with 5 rings - a top ring, a middle ring, and an oil control ring flanked by two, smaller control rings.

The top and middle rings cannot simply be fitted directly onto the piston without first measuring the 'end gap'. Each ring has an opening that must be a prescribed width when installed.

The first task is to fit the ring into the block

Then is needs to be levelled about 1" below the surface. Using an old piston is perfect for this

The gap is then measured with a feeler gauge.

For a road engine, you're looking for 3thou for every inch of bore diameter, so approx 12thou or so. In a race engine we want slightly larger - 4thou per inch - so 16thou approx.

They all measure 15 to 17thou, which is perfect.

The rings are then fitted onto the piston and then the skirt, rings, and cylinder walls are lightly coated in oil.

RiftAmps

The pistons are then inserted into the block, #1 and #4 first, then #2 and #3.

The bearings are fitted to the rods and caps before being coated in assembly lube

The cap bolt threads are coated in ARP lube

before installing and torquing in equal steps to 35Nm.

RiftAmps

Sump install

Now that the crank and pistons are installed, we can button up the bottom end of the block. The first task is to install the oil pickup tube

A new gasket sits between the pickup tube and oil pump

As these bolts are only torqued to 11Nm, I used blue Loctite on the threads just to make sure that they don't come loose.

The windage tray stops the crankshaft splashing around in the oil at the bottom of the sump. A bead of RTV is applied before fitting to the block

There are two half-moon oil seals, one at each end of the block. They are held on with a little RTV

The sump gets a good bead of RTV before being fitted to the block and each bolt is torqued to 11Nm in an outward spiral pattern

the_jaffa

Loving this! Thank you

FX_Munkee

Lovely work, just one question - no crank scraper?

RiftAmps

FX_Munkee said:

Lovely work, just one question - no crank scraper?

Not on this one. We thought about it but I'm already massively over budget on the build and the gains are fairly minimal I think. Maybe when we go to ITBs?

rsvmark

@riftamps This thread is rivalling one of Ash’s pickup rebuilds! Great stuff

steveledzep

Yes, I'm loving it too.  Very interesting.