Stay tuned

[Jason@SportsCar]

Made a trip up to AAA Speedway on Sunday to pick up some tires. And there it was in the paddock, the Honda Fit HP racer. They still have a lot of work to do, but it was great seeing the car out there for the SCCA Regional race.

Luckily for them I happened to have a couple of my 13" Jongbloed Racing wheels with me, and they were able to do a test fit. Turns out the wheels we spec'd for the Yaris are a perfect fit over the Honda's brakes.

Hopefully they get the car up to speed and bring it to the Runoffs at Road America.

[Bluevitz-rs]

Haha, man they have that thing slammed in normal Honda fashion.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Pulled the old front off this past weekend. The lower core support was bent up pretty good from the last race. Also the bumper was not salvageable, it was bent to the point of being cracked, and most of the mounts/supports were missing or damaged.

Turns out the #20 Yaris is not going to be used anymore, so we are going to pull all of the support structure and bodywork we need off of it before it goes to the crusher. Best part, since it has the same graphics its just plug and play.

[Bluevitz-rs]

Wha happen?

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by Bluevitz-rs

Wha happen?

Nothing major, just wear and tear from racing. With the 13" wheels I only have about 3" of ground clearance, dipping a tire off the track means the front bumper/belly pan both hit the ground.

Between getting punted at Willow Springs, and jumping off the track at Buttonwillow, the front end was due to be replaced.

[Jason@SportsCar]

We got all of the useful bits off of the 20 car, and it will soon meet the crusher. We swapped the damaged bumper from the 99 on to it.

[cali yaris]

is the cage going to be crushed?

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

is the cage going to be crushed?

Yeah, the whole thing. It's a weld in cage anyway, no way you could salvage and reuse it. The amount of hours that would take does not justify the few dollars saved versus getting a new one built.

The 98 car will stick around for a while, just in case they come up with a use for it - the 98 was supposed to go to the U.S. dealer meeting in Vegas this week, but they took something else.

[ilikerice]

can we have a moment of silence for when it goes to the crusher?

[Jason@SportsCar]

Got the old stuff out this weekend, went much quicker than I thought it would. Unfortunately some parts are on back order so I could not start putting the new motor in yet, hopefully I can knock it out next weekend.

[Jason@SportsCar]

Shiny new motor in place - you could eat off this thing. Should have it back on the ground next weekend, then off to the dyno, and finally a test day at the track.

[ilikerice]

amazing.. looks so fresh

[Jason@SportsCar]

So I had some time to play with this some more while I had two engines sitting on the garage floor. I put both thermostats in a pan on the stove and heated them up to get open and closed lengths.

The Stant MR2 unit will fit. The only issue is the bypass will always be closed - with the stock thermostat the bypass is only closed when the thermostat is open.

So does anyone know what function the bypass has?

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

Another item to put on the to do list. Going to try the 170 degree thermostat from the MR-2 Spyder. Dimensionally is measures the same as the Yaris part - and the Yaris uses the same standard part as the Spyder - so hopefully it works.

$10 VS $75+ for the TRD Japan part.

I probably wont install it until we put the new motor in.

[ROCKLANDTOYOTA]

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

So I had some time to play with this some more while I had two engines sitting on the garage floor. I put both thermostats in a pan on the stove and heated them up to get open and closed lengths.

The Stant MR2 unit will fit. The only issue is the bypass will always be closed - with the stock thermostat the bypass is only closed when the thermostat is open.

So does anyone know what function the bypass has?

"bypass valve regulates hot coolant into the heater core when you're using the heater or AC."-found USING GOOGLE....

[Jason@SportsCar]

Originally Posted by ROCKLANDTOYOTA

"bypass valve regulates hot coolant into the heater core when you're using the heater or AC."-found USING GOOGLE....

Thanks. Since I don't have either of those it should not be a problem.

[Astroman]

Sad! Wish I could swap out the drivers side mirror with mine. Mine was broken at the swivel point and is gorilla glued, and when the glue did set it sagged a quarter inch. Toyota won't sell me the broken part, I need to buy the whole damn mirror.

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

Yeah, the whole thing. It's a weld in cage anyway, no way you could salvage and reuse it. The amount of hours that would take does not justify the few dollars saved versus getting a new one built.

The 98 car will stick around for a while, just in case they come up with a use for it - the 98 was supposed to go to the U.S. dealer meeting in Vegas this week, but they took something else.

[Bluevitz-rs]

They bypass also help let through any trapped air bubbles.

[Jason@SportsCar]

New front end is in place. I decided to put the brake ducts behind the grill this time, looks better, hopefully they still get good airflow. I also moved the tow hook, one less thing sticking out of the bumper.