Great news on the brakes, they’re going to cost us less $$$ than we previously thought.
Dave came over this afternoon for awhile and we worked away on the brakes. We got the font calipers off and measured the rotors. Both were at near-minimums for thickness, so we will need to replace those, but we could keep the calipers as backups. The pads were probably at about half thickness, so we kept the pads as backups for the race; we’ll want to put fresh pads on.
The rear axle was a different story entirely. The rotors have to be nearly new, as they barely had any wear on them at all. Both were within 0.003″ of new. The pads on both rear weels were very thick too. We should probably buy a pair of backup pads for the back just in case something horrible happens and we need to replace them following a collision or something of that nature, but barring that, it’s likely that the rear pads are good for the full race.
We pulled apart the front calipers and they are in the midst of being rebuilt. We got them scrubbed clean and all the interior parts are soaking in fresh brake fluid to get them clean. I’ll re-assemble the front calipers tonight. We will have to wait until the shipment with the brake parts arrives after Christmas, as it will also have the rear caliper rebuild kit. Nobody has one in stock in Dallas.
Other good news is that with the headlights removed, it will be easy to route some cool air ducting from the front end of the car over to the front brake area. I’m thinking that maybe taping together some paper towel rolls will suffice.
MR2, Parts, Race Prep
Author: Pat
Last night after the Missus went to bed early to try to get rid of her cold before we travel for Chrismas, I stopped by AutoZone to get the rebuild kits for the front brakes. To my amazment and amusement, they were cheaper than expected. I’ve read up on the procedure and it’s pretty simple. I was expecting to spend about $12 for both caliper sets, but it ended up at less than $6. I had to buy some caliper assembly grease that pushed it higher, but that can’t be avoided. Rumor is that you have to use the special grease for caliper assembly as other greases/lubes will contaminate brake fluid, which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what we’re going for here.
Read more…
Advice from Other Teams, MR2, Parts
Author: Pat
Say it out loud: tars. You know, those four black rubbery things on the corners. Tars. What about them?
After prolonged back-and-forth with Racer Matt, I’ve been hunting for tire advice from veteran LeMons racers the past few days, and in particular MR2 LeMons racers. The consensus seems to be as follows:
- The Falken Azezis RT-615 is the tire to race on in this race for any number of reasons (quality, price, availability, great dry grip and above-average wet grip);
- Start the race on new rubber on all 4 wheels;
- Although it is best practice to have 4 new spares ready to go if/when we sustain tire damage on the car, teams can probably get by with 2 new spares and 2 used spares if we keep our fingers crossed, God willin’ and the creek don’t rise.
New Blue has Miata wheels with 4 very used RT615’s on the car, one of which isn’t holding air worth a darn. The red parts car has 4 dry rotted crap tires that I wouldn’t rely upon to drive to the store, let alone at speed on the track. So although my preference would be to get 8 new tires, my budget-minded suggestion would be to get 6 new tires on steelies and if worse comes to worse use the used RT615’s in a pinch. Thoughts?
Advice from Other Teams, Parts
Author: Pat
As most of you know by now, we have not one but two bad engines. Which is discouraging.
However, I have some very exciting news to share.
Our engine woes may be solved. I did a little hunting online this morning and started calling some local places. Bolt-On Motors in South Dallas (check out the far right side of that photo — is this kismet?) has a remanufactured motor with zero miles still sitting in its crate. The guy on the phone said that they don’t sell many of those motors and he’s had it sitting around for 4 or 5 years and he’d love to get rid of it. Price is right in our wheelhouse, $350. We can have a new motor in the car and still be under the $500 limit before we even sell off any parts!!!
To my mind, this is the answer to our conundrum. We can still use the MR2 and for less investment than a replacement vehicle. Thoughts? Discuss.
Engine Trouble, Knowing Is Half of the Battle!, MR2, Parts
Author: Pat
I was just reading this post on the Grassroots Motorsport site. One of the guys who ran at the Carolina race last year had this advice on brakes:
…don’t skimp on brakes, and make sure to throroughly bleed the brakes, and check for leaks. We went through ~8 bottles of brake fluid, 3 sets of front pads, and 2 calipers(!)
(ed.: Here’s the photo that they posted with this comment):
So maybe we should think about definitely getting endurance race pads (even though they are expensive) to reduce the chances that we have to do a mid-race replacment of pads & especially calipers. That could be a very time-costly decision if we go the wrong way.
In regard to tires, another poster mentioned the following:
Since tires do not count, we went with the 15×7 ten hole rims and Falken Azenis RT615’s, usually around $65 apiece. We had six tires, they lasted the whole time with minimal wear (they are going back this year!) at at least at CMP, they worked very well even on the pig of a car we were running.
Parts, We Need Parts
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