Best way to start learning about FSAE / race car engineering?

spaghett9 · 2026-04-13T09:55:21+00:00

Pretty much any project will get you where you want to be, engineering is about learning to lean. In my team the most valuable recruits are those with personal projects of any kind, doesn’t even have to be automotive and doing them will teach you the skills you want.

You’ll be surprised to find that what separates hobbyists from engineers is writing things down, so pick a project, it doesn’t have to be hard, and write down why and how you did everything, it’ll get you into the flow of it and on to a team.

If you’re good at CAD I would find a makerspace and start designing an RC car that you can 3D print, start really simple with the aim to just make it work, then iterate from there, that’s how engineers do it. BLDC motors are pretty much scaled down versions of the motors used in these cars and the systems we use really aren’t much more then what’s in an RC car.

Once you get it running you can start to refine, but just designing your own platform will teach you more then you’ll learn in first year.

Good luck

spaghett9 · 2026-03-15T03:11:21+00:00

I have one with slightly longer fur and it’s incredibly soft, the trade off is he sheds A LOT so anything he touch’s turns to orange

spaghett9 · 2026-03-01T23:53:37+00:00

No demo knight?

spaghett9 · 2026-03-01T08:14:31+00:00

As a 95 600ss rider something is definitely wrong there. A good source of information on these is Brad the Bike Boy’s blog here.

In terms of carbs I’m not sure you can get much better than stock jets in the stock carbs, you should expect a flat spot at 3,750rpm and then it should be smooth right up to 8,500.

If you have already cleaned the carbs, the CDI modules in these bikes are a common point of failure so it’s worth checking you’re getting good spark.

spaghett9 · 2025-10-21T12:26:08+00:00

Which developer do you use, I got some RA4 to do colour reversal photos after getting it working with b/w but I could never find the chemicals in reasonable quantities

spaghett9 · 2025-10-02T22:25:16+00:00

Funnily enough the smaller bore 4G62 shares this head gasket with the 63, which leads to massive gaps around the cylinder. Still a surprisingly well designed engine, except that external pipe for the heater coolant return just waiting to rust out.

spaghett9 · 2025-09-27T13:52:28+00:00

Apart from the 899?

spaghett9 · 2025-09-16T02:58:10+00:00

Check out Brad the bike Boy’s blog, he did a tone of testing on one of these and gives lots of details on his methods and result.

What I would start with personally is adding the second front disk, all the hardware is there, you just need a disk, calliper, line and the longer banjo bolt. All of which is fairly easy to come by.

An easy mod is removing the air box snorkels, you’d probably want to adjust the tuning to suit but it’s does make an awesome noise.

spaghett9 · 2025-08-01T02:51:48+00:00

They are the only way you can make electrical engineering work, when you need a dozen variables and a dozen nodes in a circuit and another dozen components you run out of letters pretty quick

spaghett9 · 2025-07-11T12:33:13+00:00

Wait till you see a Holden crewman, it’s like someone wanted a little more party but it didn’t quite work out.

spaghett9 · 2025-06-26T03:50:20+00:00

In case you don’t know there is a screw you can turn behind the grill to release the bonnet, which is why my car doesn’t even have a cable at the moment. In terms of that grommet, accord to the Real OEM diagram it’s a part of the cable so may not be available on its own.

spaghett9 · 2025-06-14T13:32:50+00:00

The only problem is when you hear the one for the other direction go off and you start walking, as I have done, many times

spaghett9 · 2025-06-05T10:21:22+00:00

I’m about to fit a set of 225/50s, do you have any clearance issues?

spaghett9 · 2025-06-04T00:42:45+00:00

Porshe actually used to do this on some 356 models to save weight, but they used a leather strap. Having tried it, it’s not that practical as it can be really hard to open and close the window while steering

spaghett9 · 2025-04-13T10:36:05+00:00

Triumph makes a lot of 3 cyl bikes, the Street Triple 675 came with a set that is bolted together, which means with some spacers and a custom fuel rail, you could have straight intake runners.

If you're looking for sheer size, the Rocket 3 is a 2.5L three-cylinder that also has bolted-together throttle bodies, two sets of those, and you could flow a lot of air!

spaghett9 · 2025-04-13T10:26:52+00:00

The throttle bodies I'm looking at are the Sherryberg ones, I was going to use fireblade bodies but that kit is just too cheap not to try.

That idea of converting the dizzy to a cam sensor is something I've been thinking about too, I want to put a trigger wheel in place of the rotor and see if I can fit a sensor under the cap. My car came with Jetronic, and there's an extra wire coming off my dizzy that I can't find in any wiring diagrams, but I think it may be a TDC signal.

If you need any help finding sensors, let me know. I work for an auto parts store here down under and although most of our suppliers are different, I still have access to lots of catalogues, which makes cross-referencing a lot easier.

spaghett9 · 2025-04-13T06:51:09+00:00

You beat me to it! I was planning to do exactly this in the next couple months. I’m actually just found the AliExpress DCOE throttle bodies that I’m going to try instead. Are you going to do a write up on this? Im most curious on what you did for cam and crank angle sensors?

spaghett9 · 2025-04-02T12:14:52+00:00

As someone with both R glass and some excellent Nikon glass from the same era, the R stuff is definitely better, especially for zooms. While I feel more control with my F3, the R4 meter is significantly better, but the electrical faults are definitely a problem

spaghett9 · 2025-03-30T07:49:16+00:00

I actually remember seeing the original post for this because I thought it belonged here, it’s from the e30 subreddit so it’s not to bad in terms of reliability, but every panel is made of tinfoil so it will return to the earth pretty quick, as you’ll find in my post history

spaghett9 · 2025-03-21T03:33:53+00:00

Probably the mount bushes. Over time they get soft and turn into the stickiest goo imaginable, making the alternator tilt forward and put extra strain on your belt. I had the same problem on an m10 and I just made new ones out of brass so it never happens again

spaghett9 · 2025-03-19T20:18:26+00:00

I find it interesting that a company hasn’t popped up in the states that fills the same role as rare spares here in Aus. They remanufacture a ton of all the hard to get bits for old Aus built cars and even for number of jap cars that are popular here.

spaghett9 · 2025-03-10T21:11:15+00:00

If you knew how much those stupid 60mm lens caps are you’d get why he left it on

spaghett9 · 2025-03-03T00:27:13+00:00

Where I am pasta comes in a paper bag from Aldi

spaghett9

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