Ash's Supercharged V6 Mk1 Track Car

[Charged V6]

I have been posting random questions on here for a while now but thought I may as well post a build thread as I pretty much have daily questions on this car!

I have been into cars ever since I was handed my driving lisence, this one is one of the better ones I have had, for the purpose anyway, it really does drive tight as a drum, goes well and its bags of fun. The closest thing to a go kart that I have owned, the polybushes and R888 tyred coupled with the Mk1 chassis and lack of computer aids and the V6 are an incredible package. Bags of torque and usable power, very, very predictable on the limit – very much point and squirt.

I am fairly new to RWD, even though my road car is an E46 M3, I love the MR2 though. I have come from a long line of Honda Tyre R’s so its nice to have some torque in my life. Bearing in mind I work in an office for a job, albeit as an Aerospace Engineer but all my mechanics skills are home self-taught. I am not a pro!

Anyway enough of the excuses, a bit about my current situation. The car has been on here for a while. It used to belong to a 'Moustachio'.





I bought it back in May and have lavished quite a bit of time saving the poor tired bodywork from the tin worm. The car was by no means bad, in general it was pretty solid, but had some rust around some of the usual areas such as the bottom of the B pillars, rear arches and the T bar above the windscreen.





Now I am no stranger to rust, I come from the ‘land of the big H’ and my old cars are no strangers to rust, integras and Mk2 CRX’s are notorious for tin worm so I knew that if you could see it on the surface, what is below the surface will only be 10x worse. So the only way to go about this was to chop it out and start with clean metal.
:MK9523tn:
Out comes the recipricator.







After I had chopped out all of the rust I set about welding in new metal. I am not a pro welder but a bit of time with the machine, grinder filler and a bit of paint got me to this.









Now the paint on these isn’t perfect. This is a track car, all I wanted was a reasonable finish that was black. This car is intended for the track, it was never going to win any shows. Function over form. They are black and the car is no longer rusty - so they pass the test!

The Underside of the car was checked over for rot and I think you will agree its pretty clean for a 28 year old jap car!









And the front really close to the floor as the back was on the ramps. Looks pretty cool, the bonnet will be getting painted soon by the way!



After the welding and paint came the interior, I will be tracking the car a bit and spirited road driving so I wanted some firm seats and ‘because racecar’ detail….

So in went seats, harnesses, a flocked dash, and a few other buttons switches and a steering wheel









It also had some wiring gremlins which I had sorted, apparrently the main wire for the COR was earthing in the loom within the door and causing me problems. So I had the wiring tidied.



After this was all fitted it was time to take her for a test drive.



So I did, I went on a few in fact. The car needed a few tweaks, wiring sorting, rad fans needed wiring up, an oil change, boost leaks, a new IAT and other minor details.

Now there aren’t many places I could have put this, and I wanted a slightly aggressive fitment so I decided on a wing mounted arrangement. I would run my lines though the firewall and through the boot lid, slightly external to a wing mounted cooler. Loads of air back there.

ZG Flares Over fenders arrived from the states – yes I know I know. I fixed my arches and now im going to chop them up! DUH





Also it keeps overheating, dunno why maybe head gasket?
Is there anything else you guys could think of?


Any opinions welcome.
Cheers.

Ash

[Jiff Lemon]

Wow! Just wow!

I refuse to comment any further until you answer this:

Capture.jpg

Remote dampers??

[Charged V6]

Haha, yeah. They are Leda remote reservoir damping and height adjustable coilovers.

They are fricking nuts. The grip is insane.

Its set a little hard for the road at the mo, but my word, it will scalp a few on track.

[thomp1983]

given your running issues id of went for the block being cracked but id expect you to find one steam cleaned piston if that was the case and it doesn't explain the coolant all over the back of the car, if it's burning it internaly it will just be disappearing out the exhaust

[Charged V6]

It was just a bit of coolant over the back of the car, a few greasy speckles

[Goldy]

Check your water pump?

[snowtigger]

Check your coolant lines and pipes to the front rad and also the rad itself, if it's original replace with an alloy racing radiator and as above some qh water pumps have less impellers than others, being midmounted the fluid has farther to go and a sc will make the engine a darn sight hotter so you could have an air lock and boil the water off.

I had one and it turned out the rad bleed screw had a defective O ring and kept letting air into the rad and boiling over issues.

[thomp1983]

Mike has a good point about the brass coolant pipes thet run above the fuel tank mine were leaking in several places that were completely out of site, there worth sorting while the engines out, as you've the engine stripped there's little else you can do now but build it back up then get it nice and warm and do a leakdown test, you'll also want to repeat the test on a cold engine

[Charged V6]

I dont think its the headgasket to be fair, dont really wanna take the engine out.

[Charged V6]

Hmmm, I filled the water pipes up with water and blocked the pipe from the back of the car at the engine, under the car, through the rad and blocked the return pipe up in the engine bay with a cap. I drilled a hole in the first bung and then pressurised the system with the air gun from the compressor. There was a decent amount of pressure in there I'd say a couple of bar. No leaks.

Removed the water pump and inspected it, it's plastic and looks like new. Replaced it for now? Is that correct or could it be leaking from the bearing? There were no leaks from here when running.

However the thermostat when removed and immersed in boiling water does not open. To be fair I had an inkling it wouldn't hence I have already ordered a new one from Mr T.