Ive had good luck rebuilding the calipers plus the $2.50 price per kit is great. This field of drivers is quite competitive over bragging rights as there is no prize money for season winners. Some guys are running serious race tires that cost $400 each. The Federal 595 I got are suppose to be a good dollar/performance balance. I paid $330 for 4 shipped and another $85 to mount and balance them. 1. Braided brake hoses that cheap? LINKS!? 2. I think the Zetec will be ok from oil starvation. The 2 part oil pan has a really good baffle (which is incorporated as the upper pan's bottom). Also, the pick up tube sits almost dead center between cyl 2&3. In any case if it starves.. oh well I'm not going to go through the trouble to correct starvation except for keeping the oil full. YEAH! I beat some decent cars from the Novice AM, same class as me just different time of day, stomped most of the old Hondas and even a Tesla Model 3. Honestly though I wouldn't try hard with some of those cars... wouldn't want to hurt them haha.
Replaced and modded some stuff. Fixed the window crank and deleted the door panels. Replaced the valve cover gasket, re-gapped the plugs, and installed the header. Ended up chopping a bracket on the engine and clearance the oil pan due to interference from the header. Current work in progress is the pots mod and cooling fan switch. I figured out a way to use the A/C pressure switch circuit to activate the fan but I need a manual switch to turn the fan off. This saves me having to run a relay and does not affect normal operation of the cooling fan(the fan will turn on as needed by the ECU even if my switch is off). I need manual control of the fan to support the pots mod. Modifying the ECT output changes fuel input and the engine temp that the ECU sees. Next Race is a practice on 10/13/19. Nothing will be official but ill post my unofficial times as usual.
@shake , it makes me smile seeing that you beat a WRX, make me rethink the potential of our Escorts. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The car is back in commuter mode for the winter. Reinstalled the interior and stock tires. It is clear from the event that the race tires helped a bunch. I was running bottom of the Miata pack. About a 2-3 second gain. The bad is the Zx2 is lacking in power delivery to the wheels on corner exits and has significant body roll; I think the 2 are related. The track was quite fast. The best time was 42.5 seconds by an Evolution 9. Installed an LC1 wideband and I finished the coolant fan circuit(works great). I did not complete the Pots or IAT mods. Over the winter I hope to do some drivetrain mods, new brakes, and struts. I'm going to go with a welded MSP protege LSD, Transaxle rebuild, Fidanza flywheel, and upgraded clutch. To get the LSD to work I'll need to make an intermediate shaft(low budget hit). I picked up a Kia driver side axle for $30 from rockauto so I can get some dimensions. I really need to clean up the garage and build a bench before I can progress on the Transaxle.