Se7en, my first impressions

[RGTorque]

I'm sure most of you have seen me in the forums these past few weeks looking for a 7. thanks to the help of member tnttim i was tipped off to a wcm ultralite on ebay. I purchased and had the car shipped to me in PA. My first impression was the lack of words. the quality of the build was waaaaaaaaaaaay higher then expected. I found performance items i did not know about, dampening adjustable coilovers, willwood knuckles, 12" floating rotors front and back (still don't know why), as well as the LSD rear diff. the downside was that the car seems to have never been driven. i was told it has 10 miles on it but the odo reads 1, and has no been calibrated , there is also a leak in one of the brake fittings cause NO front brakes, no ebrake ( cable not hooked up or way out of adjustment), sds engine management that cant control the vvt option in the motor, and the car generally feels a bit loose. to fix this all I'm doing a one over on the car before i do a lot of driving (yes i fixed the bakes before i drove it).

 

in all im VERY VERY VERY happy with the car. the issues it has are MINOR and will be sorted soon.

 

i will post up pics in a little bit

 

 

[slngsht]

Did u buy the rad ultralite with the engine sticking out of the hood?

 

And whereabouts PA? Can you come to the autox on the 13 at Aberdeen, MD?

 

Even if not ready to run the car, just to hang out

 

[Titus]

I think he bought the Miata powered one.

[powderbrake]

I am glad to hear that you are very happy with your purchase. If the speedo doesn't work correctly, it may not have been properly calibrated, see http://autometer.com/productPDF/1140.pdf If you have an autometer ultralite series speedo. I calibrated mine between mile markers on the interstate.

 

By "floating" rotors I assume you mean they can be removed from the hubs. On mine the rotors are bolted to the "top hat" which then is slid on the studs, and the whole assembly is held in place by the wheels and wheel nuts.

 

The ebrake does require some care in adjusting, and is best considered a "parking brake" There is a cable adjustment at the caliper end for the cable slack, and a screw and locknut on the back side that sets the pad clearance. Add some silicone rubber glue between the caliper body and the mounting plate to prevent any rattles.

 

Good luck and ENJOY your new ride.

[WestTexasS2K]

Brian assembled the car but the owner had the fuel injection done else where. But I agree that car is finished well.

 

I use bike mirrors on mine as well. They are a little on the small side but they work. I like the ones Jerry used on his. They look much more functional than mine.

[RGTorque]

yes, the fuel system is on it way out i will be installing the oem harness and ecu then i will look into a little turbo action ... gota catch you s2k guys somehow

 

 

Roman

[WestTexasS2K]

I bet Keith will have some ideas for ya. I think they were having problems figuring out the factory ecu wiring so they must have installed the SDS.

[Keith]

Yeah, I think Brian called me while they were trying to get that car running. The problem was the immobilizer system. I know a bit more about it now than we did then.

 

I also highly recommend you fix that cooling problem, someone's "improved" the cooling setup so the front half of the head won't see any coolant.

[RGTorque]

i spoke to ken at oracle tuning and he said the coolant system is fine. the wiring harness will be coming out soon as the car is road worthy.

[Keith]

My memory was faulty, I went back and looked at the pictures again. It's the rear outlet that was plugged. A common modification to improve cooling on those engines is to plug the front outlet (the primary one on a Miata engine) and use the rear outlet. That's how the engine was designed to run in the original FWD configurations. The Miata setup with the thermostat outlet at the front tends to run hot in #4. By blocking off the rear outlet - the reverse of what most of us do to improve cooling - you're making that #4 cooling problem worse. I'd recommend a stock coolant outlet on the back of the head, hooked to the heater return line. I've run a few cars like that (including my Seven) and it works just fine.