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 Post subject: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 12, 2021, 12:11 pm 
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I finally get to start a build log!

Browsers of the WTS subforum will know I picked up Geauxkart's partially complete build.

My dad & I loaded up his Denali Saturday morning & made the 600 mile round-trip journey. Fog between Beaumont & Houston, construction in Beaumont & heavy traffic at the MS river bridge in Baton Rouge made the drive take about an hour longer than expected.
I was up at 4:30am & we had it unloaded in the garage at about 8:00pm. Long day, for sure.

Was a pleasure meeting Geauxkart & I'm looking forward moving forward (after moving backward for a bit).

Loaded up & on the trip back home. Stopped to check straps after a few miles & made a pit stop for some LA boudin.
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Home & in the garage, couldn't resist mocking up the nose & fenders to get a glimpse at the future
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Pre-teardown shots, lots of nice parts on here
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Teardown started yesterday morning while the girls were out for a few hours. Will be taking it down to the frame to clean it up & check all the welds (and finish the RR suspension) then paint the frame.

Body parts & wheels off, car up on stands.
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Engine bay teardown nearly complete & ready for engine/trans removal.
Sump tank, catch can, remote oil filters, coolant tank, elec water pump, steering rack, radiator, oil cooler & elec fan removed
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Next up is getting the engine/trans, LSD, suspension & 'interior' removed.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 15, 2021, 11:32 am 
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Bit of progress made last night & this morning.
Got the seats, steering wheel/column & suspension removed from the 3 installed corners.
Just have the pedal assembly, 'dash' electronics & drivetrain to pull, then starts the rust remediation.

The the build can commence. First task will be to finish the RR suspension mounts & add in the LR shock mounts.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 15, 2021, 11:13 pm 
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How are you going to treat the rust?

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 7:54 am 
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Another great start though unfortunate the chassis tubes were not primed as the build progressed. Primer does little to interfere with a weld bead and the paint blister is nothing to remove/clean up and reprime after cooling. To actually remove all the rust is a lot of work.

You can probably find a shop that can dip the bare chassis to remove rust, dip to flush, then dip in phosphorus. Much more effective and less work than trying to remove just the surface rust with a heavy wire cup in an angle grinder to get it all out. Follow up with rustoleum “heavily rusted metal” primer which is a great product, rusted or not. Concentrated “metal prep” comes in a gallon jug at home depot for about $20. Dilute as needed in a spray bottle after wire brushing. Repeat as needed, let dry, then scuff and prime with rusto. For the inside, pour in “boiled linseed oil”, rotate the chassis to coat all the inside surfaces then let it drain. It will take a few days to dry completely inside.

The front suspension points appear to only be tack welded which is great. Get the dims to go into vsusp using the existing slicks to see where you are at and save the specs. Then you can rework the UCAP and LCAPs to work with the new tire size, wheel offset or back space, and speed bump defying ride height.

The rack links look too long for the existing suspension and I spy the rack already has a mount installed. Once the final susp points are determined for desired traits, the necessary rack width, pivot to pivot can be determined and the existing rack altered or replaced.

This was being built as a race car and unlikely to have a traditional windscreen, wipers, and cowl to interfere with access to the hydraulics and electrics, just a quick release cowl panel and maybe a little wind splitter. I’d move the firewall back about six inches or to the aft end of the steering column boot, raise the pedal box an inch with a lip for drainage around the deck and add a cover, panel and seal from the new firewall forward to the foot well firewall, reverse mount the masters to hang forward of the firewall, drop the column support as needed to clear the masters, mount the reservoirs directly to the masters instead of remotely (the bottoms pop out), and move all the electrics forward of the new firewall. Tricky bits can be clearance between the end of the clutch master and the body panel and column clearance around the brake pedal and masters.

You can solve the column issue by installing the masters low and forward, keeping the remote reservoirs high for bleeding and to prevent drain back from the calipers and air pockets. How low to mount the masters will be determined by the pedal pad location for the ball of your foot in normal shoes and a floor covering. A little high is better. Easier to fit a heal shim block for a smaller person than to move the whole assembly later for a larger person. You may need a different pedal box frame to go from aft master, hanging pedal to traditional forward master, floor mount pedals or forward master, hanging.

Are you going to stick with the rotary or go with a small 4 or 6? If converting, with such small OD tires and an rx7 diff (find out the ratio and hope it is close to 4:1), be sure to have a significant over drive gear in the trans if you intend to do any highway driving. Around 0.65:1 would be about right imho.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 11:06 am 
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Bent Wrench wrote:
How are you going to treat the rust?

Initial plan is to see how it goes with a wire brush/wheel & Ospho, still have to finish stripping everything from the frame to get started on that part.
As mentioned in the post after you, I hadn't given any thought about oxidation/rust on the inside of the frame.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 11:15 am 
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Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F wrote:
Another great start though unfortunate the chassis tubes were not primed as the build progressed. Primer does little to interfere with a weld bead and the paint blister is nothing to remove/clean up and reprime after cooling. To actually remove all the rust is a lot of work.

You can probably find a shop that can dip the bare chassis to remove rust, dip to flush, then dip in phosphorus. Much more effective and less work than trying to remove just the surface rust with a heavy wire cup in an angle grinder to get it all out. Follow up with rustoleum “heavily rusted metal” primer which is a great product, rusted or not. Concentrated “metal prep” comes in a gallon jug at home depot for about $20. Dilute as needed in a spray bottle after wire brushing. Repeat as needed, let dry, then scuff and prime with rusto. For the inside, pour in “boiled linseed oil”, rotate the chassis to coat all the inside surfaces then let it drain. It will take a few days to dry completely inside.

Hadn't thought about having it dipped, may look into that, but current plan is elbow grease on a wire brush/wheel & Ospho.
Hadn't considered oxidation/rust inside the frame, so will have to think on that as well. Not sure how well pouring Ospho into the frame rails would work.


The front suspension points appear to only be tack welded which is great. Get the dims to go into vsusp using the existing slicks to see where you are at and save the specs. Then you can rework the UCAP and LCAPs to work with the new tire size, wheel offset or back space, and speed bump defying ride height.

The rack links look too long for the existing suspension and I spy the rack already has a mount installed. Once the final susp points are determined for desired traits, the necessary rack width, pivot to pivot can be determined and the existing rack altered or replaced.

Will look into this once we get to the point of reassembly. It'll likely ride on the 15x10s & Hoosiers until it's closer to needing a change (functional engine in).
Suspension design/tuning is a new bit for me, so it'll be a 'learn as you go' process for sure.


This was being built as a race car and unlikely to have a traditional windscreen, wipers, and cowl to interfere with access to the hydraulics and electrics, just a quick release cowl panel and maybe a little wind splitter. I’d move the firewall back about six inches or to the aft end of the steering column boot, raise the pedal box an inch with a lip for drainage around the deck and add a cover, panel and seal from the new firewall forward to the foot well firewall, reverse mount the masters to hang forward of the firewall, drop the column support as needed to clear the masters, mount the reservoirs directly to the masters instead of remotely (the bottoms pop out), and move all the electrics forward of the new firewall. Tricky bits can be clearance between the end of the clutch master and the body panel and column clearance around the brake pedal and masters.

RE: Windscreen, planning on running a just tall enough 'flyscreen' to keep the wind off the occupants & not install wipers. Fairweather car.
Probably go with some form of quick-release cowl/scuttle cover as you say. Partly for access to the MCs & for ECU access, as it's running a Haltech standalone, not a stock Mazda ECU.
Would prefer to redesign as little as possible. I gave it a test fit as it sits, pre-disassembly & overall it sits well for me, surprisingly even with a pair of Ariat boots on.


You can solve the column issue by installing the masters low and forward, keeping the remote reservoirs high for bleeding and to prevent drain back from the calipers and air pockets. How low to mount the masters will be determined by the pedal pad location for the ball of your foot in normal shoes and a floor covering. A little high is better. Easier to fit a heal shim block for a smaller person than to move the whole assembly later for a larger person. You may need a different pedal box frame to go from aft master, hanging pedal to traditional forward master, floor mount pedals or forward master, hanging.

Are you going to stick with the rotary or go with a small 4 or 6? If converting, with such small OD tires and an rx7 diff (find out the ratio and hope it is close to 4:1), be sure to have a significant over drive gear in the trans if you intend to do any highway driving. Around 0.65:1 would be about right imho.

Plan is to source a running 13B & keep it rotary, again to avoid any major redesign & for something unique (though there are/have been a few Rotus cars on here). There's also a cross member under the current engine that would preclude a wet sump engine install.


Responses in the quote above...
Thanks for all the feedback/suggestions.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 11:29 am 
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If I'm interpreting the pictures correctly, the dry sump pump appears to be mounted too high. The inlet of the dry sump's pressure section should be below the tank's oil level, and the lower the better. As it is, it appears that the pump likely has to suck oil from the tank, which may work, but isn't optimal. Look at online pictures and virtually no car has the pump mounted so high. It's also possible I'm completely wrong about the elevation of the tank and pump...

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 11:45 am 
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KB58 wrote:
If I'm interpreting the pictures correctly, the dry sump pump appears to be mounted too high. The inlet of the dry sump's pressure section should be below the tank's oil level, and the lower the better. As it is, it appears that the pump likely has to suck oil from the tank, which may work, but isn't optimal. Look at online pictures and virtually no car has the pump mounted so high. It's also possible I'm completely wrong about the elevation of the tank and pump...

Thanks, will look into that.
May re-mount the sump tank & take a few photos for reference. New territory for me, so definitely appreciate the insights on best practice(s).
Looking at the attached photo, it looks like the oil pump is just a bit below the sump tank return lines (post catch-can). You can see what I assume is the feed line coming from below & around to the pump.
Will see if I can get a few better detail shots of that setup this weekend. A bit tough as space is tight on the driver's side of the car, in the garage.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 12:20 pm 
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The feed line appears to be routed higher than the pump before turning down towards it. This forms a natural air-lock if the oil level isn't higher than the entire length of the hose. It will work okay if the pump can draw a vacuum ("self-priming"), but shouldn't be counted on. Also consider the corner case where an oil leak has occurred, or the oil level hadn't been checked in a while, and the oil level in the tank is half what it should be. With a true gravity feed setup, it won't cause any problem, but with the pump higher, it's not guaranteed to keep working, and depends upon how much vacuum the pressure pump can pull.

If it's decided to leave the pump and tank where they are, at least route the main feed line under the engine/transmission, then turn upward to the pump (getting rid of the potential air-lock).

There is some good information on the website http://www.drysump.com

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 16, 2021, 2:42 pm 
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Thanks, will look into the feasibility of routing the feed line under the engine/trans.

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 17, 2021, 8:14 pm 
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I'd just buy some Evapo-Rust. Wipe it on, wipe the rust off, hose with water, prime. Way less hassle than sanding/grinding/blasting, and cheap enough too.


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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 19, 2021, 11:52 am 
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Almost done moving backwards. Spent a bit of time in the garage over the weekend.
Got the diff pulled, which was a bit of a chore, as there are 2 longitudinal crossmembers that prevent it from dropping straight out. Took some creative maneuvering to get 1 side of the upper diff mount to clear it, then the other side dropped out easily.
Finished clearing the cowl/dash/firewall. Pulled the brake/clutch assembly & their respective M/Cs, pulled all of the wiring & components (possibly the part I'm lease looking forward to in the future), and got the front brake lines pulled.
I gave some effort to trying to remove the engine/trans, but was not able to separate them far enough to pull them individually. The bellhousing on the trans hits the trans tunnel rails before it's able to fully separate from the engine & the engine is flanked on 3 sides by frame rails, so it cannot be easily moved either. New plan, with them reattached to each other, is to raise them as a single unit, slide forward, then separate them again to remove the engine; trans should follow forward easily.

Just have the accelerator pedal & engine/trans to pull, then I can start rustoration, followed by finish welding & installing the missing bits for the rear suspension. Then comes frame paint & reassembly can begin.

Current status:
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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 20, 2021, 10:48 am 
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Small victory/progress.
Got the trans pulled last night. Took a bit of maneuvering, but it dropped out pretty easily & was a lot lighter than I was expecting.
Now I just need to recruit some assistance removing the lump of 13B & I can start on the frame.
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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 20, 2021, 4:53 pm 
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JAMADOR wrote:
Now I just need to recruit some assistance removing the lump of 13B & I can start on the frame.


Do you not have a hoist?

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 Post subject: Re: JAMADOR's Geauxkart
PostPosted: April 20, 2021, 5:28 pm 
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I do not. Making do with the 3 jacks I have & a helping hand when needed.
Would prefer to not buy a hoist to only use it twice & have to store it. My dad has one, but he lives almost 2 hrs away. If it comes down to it, I'll have him truck it down here, but we should be able to get the engine out by hand, gravity is the only thing holding it in right now.

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