blowing ps lines

[Steve E]

Paging marc c. Would you call me at 817f999j9878. Heard you have had this issue.
Steve E

[Sharpie]

Post results. Not sure what you mean, but I am interested to know too.

[hornetball]

Huh?

[Rogue]

Didn't Mark end up going with a manual rack?

[jrj512]

Didn't Mark end up going with a manual rack?

He did.

I have already given Mark's contact info to Steve. I think we have a love connection.

[Mark52]

Here's what I remember. After some fairly fast runs at LSP with the engine bouncing off the rev limiter (7,800 rpm as I recall) I ended up with an engine compartment covered with PS fluid. The hoses were not actually ruptured, and I could not really determine the location or cause of the leak. I put new hose on, but same thing happened again soon thereafter. I attributed it to high rpms and changed over to a manual rack. Someone else on the pointy board had the same problem as I recall, but it's not a widespread problem, to my knowledge. I doubt road racers would encounter this problem because they aren't cranking the steering wheel like wounded apes as we Autocrossers do. YMMV

[POS Racing]

Ah memories!
Was that PS leak the excuse that Oriental kid used when he started your car on Fire??

[Mark52]

No, I don't think ps fluid would ignite from contact with a hot header. Oil from the valve cover breather hitting a hot header will definately ignite, as that Oriental kid proved. Ah, the good old days!!

[Rogue]

Maybe a automatic trans cooler and larger reservoir would help with that……But me, I'm a manual rack man.
Does anyone make an underdrive pulley for PS?

[Webspoke]

I had an underdrive crank pulley on the DP car but otherwise stock power steering, never had an issue like that, even running up around 8500.

[Mark52]

It's just not a common problem, otherwise we'd be hearing about it more.

[EricJ]

When I blew PS lines at Cresson, I found a new line was $54 and these were $17.50: http://www.advanced-autosports.com/i...1a19c6ff506043

[Jctattoos]

My 99 miata PS would over flow in an autocross if I filled it to the factory fill line. I just put a little less were it barely touched the indicator stick and it was fine

[Code Monkey]

I have the same problem in my Mazdaspeed6 used for road racing. I think the p/s fluid froths too much and seeps through the plastic cap into the engine compartment. An aftermarket p/s cooler did not help, I tied an old sock around the cap to catch the mess and called it a day. I am thinking about de-powering the steering rack but I am running 255 tires and plan on running 275's in the future....

[Rogue]

Cavitation will expand the fluids mass by introducing air.
A larger reservoir may help with that.

[Robert]

You may want to give Red Line PS fluid a try before more drastic steps.

[jakepkoe]

I had the same problem. In my case, the fluid was working its way past the cap on the reservoir. I tried different fluid but had the same problem.

Short answer: Significantly slow the fluid down and cool it.

Long answer: At high rpm the fluid is "booking" through the system. After going through the pump and the lines and the turbulence at the valve at the rack, the fluid gets worked up/foamy and hot. It needs time to slow down and collect itself - let the fluid separate into "pure" liquid and bubbles so the bubbles can more easily combine and further separate into liquid and air/vapor. Ideally this would occur in a cooler - one with a large chamber with plenty of volume to really slow the fluid down and give it time to settle before moving on to the reservoir. Something like this would be great: http://www.pscmotorsports.com/shop-b...er-kit-12.html - especially if you could mount it vertically with fluid entering at the bottom.

In my case, I just built a simple no-fin 1/2" copper pipe cooler that mounts in the 'mouth' and bolts where the condenser normally mounts. It runs down and back - inlet and outlet on the driver side. Inlet/outlet are necked down from the 1/2" copper to allow the rubber return line to slip over and hose clamp on. I'm super cheap and had most of these materials on hand. You can definitely do better off the shelf. In my case, the 1/2" tube has cross sectional area ~2-3 times that of the factory cooler hard line and rubber return line. Therefore, the fluid should slow ~50-70% in the cooler compared to the return line. And since the total cooler length is quite long, I believe this is giving the fluid the dwell time needed for the air/vapor to separate enough to prevent "blow out." The cooling that's taking place at this time probably helps as well.

The other thing is the reservoir design is lacking for the high speed fluid. The return is situated to cause more turbulence as the fluid enters. If it entered more at a tangent, like a swirlpot, there'd be more chance for the air and fluid to separate. I looked around at the junkyard and found some decent candidates for replacement but figured I'd try the homemade cooler first, and that seems to have done the trick. But, simply replacing the reservoir with one having a better design, more volume, or both might be enough to eliminate the issue.

I tried depowered and really liked the feel but it was a bit much and I went back to power steering. I have my depowered rack if you'd like to try one out before committing (It's off an NA).

[sammm]

When I blew PS lines at Cresson, I found a new line was $54 and these were $17.50: http://www.advanced-autosports.com/i...1a19c6ff506043

So, you can turn your rack into manual one by pulling the lines and putting those plugs in? What about the PS pump/pulley?

[Jiggerachi]

^Havent tracked or autocrossed it since but I just gutted the pump impeller, cut/capped off the lines, and put the belt back on the free 'pulley' with hollow pump attached. I've got maybe 1000 miles on it no issues. I believe there are a few people on Miata.net that did the same and drive their car more than I do.

[EricJ]

So, you can turn your rack into manual one by pulling the lines and putting those plugs in? What about the PS pump/pulley?

I removed the PS pump/pulley, and heat exchanger tube in front of the radiator. AC was already removed, so no belt necessary.
NASA TT/PT rules are OK with removal of PS.