The Riceburner 3.1L

[Riceburner]

Fresh Home from a great weekend at the Nationals. The weather held out for us which was surprising, it's melbourne afterall.

 

The Ricey performed faultlessly, had a little fuel surge in my third and final run but that was due to low fuel levels. New PB too 

 

There was a pro photographer down there, I got a 'montage' print which is 24"x34" and will get it framed. Here's some rough Iphone pics of it.

[luvemfast]

Some great pics there Gareth.

You've also forgotten to tell the story about being interviewed by RACE magazine.

 

[Agno]

Awesome car, so glad I got to see it in the flesh. Sounded awesome too, shame your pretty exhaust manifold has to be covered by the heat shields.

[Riceburner]

Some great pics there Gareth.

You've also forgotten to tell the story about being interviewed by RACE magazine.

 

 

Should be in the next issue, whenever that is 

 

Awesome car, so glad I got to see it in the flesh. Sounded awesome too, shame your pretty exhaust manifold has to be covered by the heat shields.

 

The headers have gone purple and the pipes on the rear can have gone bronze from the heat 

 

I managed to reduce the high res pics instead of the dodgey iphone type!

[Riceburner]

A little video of the Ricey at Phillip Island on 21 April. Had a small problem in first two sessions, ended up finding the slide on #4 had worked loose. Fixed that fairly easy, no other issues.

 

Here's a small video of the third session, tried to follow Gordon but he is gone after the first lap! I managed to do all 1.54's in the third session.

 

[Gordo]

Nice lines Gareth, very consistent lap times on Sunday , well done,your gear changers are nice and quick, what sort of box is that, and are you running a 4.3 diff? Cheers.

[Riceburner]

Nice lines Gareth, very consistent lap times on Sunday , well done,your gear changers are nice and quick, what sort of box is that, and are you running a 4.3 diff? Cheers.

 

I feel sometimes I turn in too early, but once it's in it seems to stay there pretty well. There's a little push in the front and if I get in early I seem to avoid that. Running 4.11 diff, 260z box, it hates the track must be the syncros. You can hear every change up to third crunching. It won't last much longer I don't think  I set the limiter to 7200 and like to stay below 7100 as I only have cast pistons, hopefully it'll live longer that way.

 

I'm open to any suggestions on how to go faster?

[luvemfast]

I'm open to any suggestions on how to go faster?

Take me out for a passenger session.

Your next run, you will get a new PB. I have a 100% strike rate!

I'm here to help 

[Riceburner]

Hahaha, maybe. Would work better if Gordon was driving too!

[d3c0y]

Doing laps with a race instructor who knows the track is really invaluable.

 

 

I did a track day at Taupo in a BMW 320i race car and had an instructor in with me who raced Carrera Cup and V8s. By the end of the day he had knocked 12 seconds off my lap time and was about 4 seconds of his time. If i had more laps im sure i could have gone faster too. That was in about 20 laps, never seen the car or track before.

[luvemfast]

I agree with Jake on that one. Everyone spends money upgrading their car to get quicker times.

I guarantee, a stock 240Z driven properly would be quicker than me around PI in my car.

[d3c0y]

I agree with Jake

 

 

I put that in my signature now right?

[luvemfast]

 

I put that in my signature now right?

I could have been talking about anybody.

Maybe I'm a Twilight fan?

[Riceburner]

Big cam meets the Riceburner  Yes I have gone a little more insane than I already am. Changin it was pretty straight foward, setting it up not so much. A big thanks to Peter, without him I wouldn't have it running!

 

It replaces the old 74 degree cam and let me tell you the 76 is a whole different beast. I'm still having some teething issues below 3500rpm, it spits and runs lumpy like a WRX with a possible miss too. Lol. It comes on and stays on a lot harder than the 74. Jetting seems ok as indicated by the plug colors, timing is at 15 and all in by 2500 at a max of 35. I'm thinking I may have a small carb issue causing it to miss a little and it struglles to hold idle (950rpm) sometimes too. Will see when I get the AF meter on it.

 

It's sluggish below 4k, but I can live with that if it's smooth. At the track this will be very fun.

[peter mc]

Good to see you got it worked out mate , it sould idle at 1100 and be strong at 4 and then start pulling hard at 4500 all the way till 7500

 

[ZED83]

Nice one Gareth your neighbours are going to love you hehe I know mine do.lol

[Riceburner]

Good to see you goot it worked out mate , it sould idle at 1100 and be strong at 4 and then start pulling hard at 4500 all the way till 7500

 

 

I only needed two weeks to get it going  oh the power and the noise is a lot chunkier too!

 

Nice one Gareth your neighbours are going to love you hehe I know mine do.lol

 

I bet they love the 2mins of warm up in all it's spitting glory. Lol

 

How do you other 76ers find your engines below 3.5, rough/missy or just sluggish?

[d3c0y]

I have a bit of a carb airspeed issue at like 2500rpm and have a big flat spot there with the 50s, but i wouldn't call it rough, missy or sluggish (for an engine obviously off the cam). You certainly get a big difference at 4000rpm don't get me wrong it's a whole other story there.

 

 

I get the occasional spit out of the carbs but that is just a balance issue.

 

 

I'm guessing this is the 76 works if PMC is involved same as mine?

[Riceburner]

Yep it's the same camshaft your running, thanks for the feedback. I'll have to give it another check over to see if I can find the real issue, obviously installer error. Haha.

[peter mc]

That cam is a 654a , some call it a high lift 76 , and the cam card from wade is not right , its 314deg and 550Lift 260@50

the cam card is not even close lol its more like a 78cam with 550LIFT

[bluerat]

Great write up in 'Race' Gareth, top read.

[Riceburner]

As some of you know my current 260 box is in need of new syncros, with a few recent drives with the new cam I have also started to hear bearing noise. So with no previous experience I have decided to rebuild my spare RB20det gearbox, What could possibly go wrong! Ha 

 

The gearbox is getting,

1. Kameari super close ratio gear set (ratios 1st.2.427, 2nd.1.677, 3rd.1.258, 4th.1.0, 5th.0.833)

2. All new bearings

3. All new Genuine syncros, doubles on 2nd&3rd.

4. Needle rollers were inspected but had little to no wear so they were reused.

5. I also got a new fifth gear with a ratio of 0.833 as the RB20 is 0.759 which is too low for the track.

 

Here's some pics of the progress so far. I still have to check the end play on the gears, I also still have to torque the main/counter shafts and stake them. As I don't have any crowsfoot wrenches I'll probably weld up sockets and make my own.

 

Does anone know the main and counter torque specs? I can't recall seeing it in my manual.

[Riceburner]

The new R32 super close box is installed  Took me two and a half days due to installer error It's the first gearbox rebuild I have ever attempted, with plenty of advice from some very helpful guys on here and a hand from my brother it all works fantastically! Shifts are waaaaaay shorter than the 260z box and oh so nice, acceleration through the first three gears is much different, at 6,000rpm in first I'm doing 70kph and there's still 1,200rpm to redline. In second and third the power really sends you back in the seat. Ha!

 

The problems 1)Shifter. 2) Reverse switch. 3) Clutch assembly. 4) Box crossmember/Vibration

 

1) The R32 shifter is too fat and hits the console. I cut it down leaving the 10mm thick section only, basically removing the bonded upper section. This is usable but not with OEM L series shift boots as they will stop you from picking 1st, 3rd, 5th. I will modify it to match my 260z offset shifter and be able to use the oEM shift boots.

 

2) I fitted two different reverse switches that were 'making' in different positions (e.g. in or out) and both times the reverse light were on constantly until I picked reverse  :-\ I did put three bond on the terminals to stop them seeping oil, perhaps it has some conductive properties? No biggie, I can fix that very easily.

 

3) The main time cost was the clutch bearing throwout/carrier, during assembly I must have knocked it and one side of the spring had popped off. The result was no clutch, no gears, the only give away was the clutch fork was sitting on a slight angle. So out it all came again, second time was fine.

 

4) Also, I had to customise the centre section box crossmember to get the 30mm extra length required. I did notice a vibration at about 105kph and it increased at 110kph, I'm guessing it's due to miss alignment of the prop shaft??? Maybe I got the height slightly wrong, Kameari do an off the shelf mount made for S30's with the 71C box so I may go down this path. It'll still use the OEM box mount.

 

Any input appreciated...

[d3c0y]

Out of interest what does the new gearbox owe you to date?

[Riceburner]

Out of interest what does the new gearbox owe you to date?

 

As it stands now a little over $2200. If I buy the Kameari mount probably another $200ish. I had really good timing and managed to get the gearsets when they were on sale. It's a fair bit more than I was planning to spend but hopefully it lives for a very long time.