Time is now about November 2014.


Picture of Advanti's yay. More pictures of them on the car later.




First thing's first, the Adaptronic ECU.

I ditched the MAF sensor in favor of using the onboard MAP, pretty simple just ran a vacuum line from an unused port on the intake manifold to the ECU, then wired in an intake air temp sensor into the stock MAF connector since those wires already went to the correct pins on the ECU. Good to go. It also fired right up on the base map that is supplied when you download the software and firmware updates.

I also got the Fab9 COP kit. One of the coils was messed up and wouldn't grab onto the threaded spark plug end, had to go to a motorcycle junk yard and find one because I didn't have time for them to ship me a new one (because it showed up almost two weeks behind schedule) and had a tuning appointment the next day. Still waiting for a replacement, should probably send another reminder lol. No pics of the install as of right now, will add one later.

At UMS Tuning getting tooned yo.





And here are the results. Pretty healthy gains above 4500RPM. This is a previous pull on stock ECU vs. new ECU and tuning. Throttle response is much better too. I really like the flat shift feature as well, it works awesome. The torque curve looks a little wonky but that is just because of the resolution of the graph. Now it runs nice and safe instead of having a huge "V" shaped AFR curve and the timing is conservative. Getting aggressive on timing didn't yield any good gains anyways.

I'm really happy with this ECU. In the future it is perfect for boost, flex fuel, tons of cool features, hooking up to race dashes, traction control etc. I'm not even tapping into what it's capable of but I highly recommend it.



And now I got this gangster sticker. UMS Tuning here in Arizona rocks. Tony knows his **** and can tune just about anything that will bolt onto his dyno. I'm taking my RX-8 with 13b-REW swap there when it's done as well.




Did some trailer upgrades btw.





So first test of the new ECU at Inde Motorsports ranch. Took 2nd place Saturday in TTE, 1st Place Sunday in TTE, and I also took 1st place in the UMS Tuning Time Attack Series. This was the season ender event, so this secured a 1st place season finish in TTE, a 1st place season finish in UMS TA-A class, and I was the overall points leader in UMS Time Attack. Good stuff.

I had a pretty unique instructing experience as well. My student was just 13 years old and he did awesome. This is the only video I got all weekend and it is of him driving, me riding shotgun and talking to him via helmet headsets. Watch till the end, we go off haha. He was picking up some good speed towards the end of the weekend.

 

So fast forward a bit after the Inde event, and I went out to instruct with the Porsche Club of America at Wild Horse Pass (Firebird) West track. That's the track that I hold the TT-E record at.

So I get to instruct for 5 sessions and also drive for 5 sessions, good people, good food, relaxed track day environment with no pressure. It's a nice break from being so focused on being fast.

Anyways, after this event is done I notice there are drift and drags happening over in the other side of the facility. I say **** it, I've always wanted to try drifting and it's only $50 bucks, what's the worst that could happen.

Interesting part, is that this has saved me from going 4 off or spinning and getting DQ'd in some of my fastest sessions at later events. Being able to let go of the wheel and ride out a drift has come in handy.

At first I tried to drift on some heat cycled out 225/45R15 Hoosiers, they have no grip on track but too much grip for me to keep them spinning so I just snapped back straight.

I switched out some wheels, put 225/45R15 NT01's on the front on 8" wheels, and then some pizza cutters out back on the stock 14" hollow spokes. Like 185/55R14 and 600 treadwear I believe. Worked great.

I definitely learned a lot about car control that I can apply to road racing by trying to slide around out there, and there were even a couple Miatas with like 50WHP less than me that were killing it out there, no idea how they do it haha.

I got about 20 runs in and by the end of the night I had one good run where I linked all the corners together, not bad for a first attempt.

Crappy potato camera video and a picture:

 

Still November 2014.

So, most recent outing was at SevenStock 17 at Auto Club Speedway.

I got to try out the new Maxxis RC1's, I really liked them for the price point. They are very similar to NT01's but seem a tiny bit faster. They also don't make a whole lot of noise and it seems the sidewalls are a bit stiffer. Good stuff and looking forward to winning a boatload of these with the new awesome contingency that they have.


On the RC1's I was about 4 seconds off of the TTE record pace, and I was about 5HP underpowered as well. Not bad for my first time at this track. There was a lot of time spent sitting going in a straight line though. I spent the whole weekend getting dive bombed at the end of long straights and getting my doors blown off and not having any corners to catch up in. I can see how that track becomes boring after awhile for low HP cars.

Video and some pictures:




Put on some new stickarz.

 

how are the vmaxxs working for ttd? i was almost positive id have to upgrade if i wanted to get into tt, but you seem to be doing fine with them.

 

I'm actually in TT-E and they're okay but they are on the list of stuff that needs to be replaced, I'm looking at getting some Fortune Autos or something but I'm trying not to spend any money on the Miata, I usually split most of the costs on it but I really want to get my RX-8 up and running. A couple of the shocks seem to have lost oil again, I haven't noticed a whole lot because it was probably a gradual change over many events and I just adapted, but I had someone else drive the car that has never driven it before and it was noticeable to them.

You don't need the absolute best of the best to be competitive though, just get out there. I've set a track record on a shock that was nearly seized.

Also thanks for negative props for just trying to say hi...

 

This is the latest post for the build thread, we're pretty much all caught up. The first two events of the 2015 season had a great turnout for TTE, finally some participation in a class I've been trying to build for more than a year. I got first place for every day of those two events, everything was going good then MCE Dyno showed up to ruin everyone's **** at the third event. I didn't participate in the fourth event, pretty much out of the running for the season. More on that later.

I have some more stuff to post that has happened over the last couple months, mostly things that frustrate me, but I have an event this Saturday to go to and will probably get around to it next week. Anyways. Posting spree is over for now.


Haven't updated in awhile so here's the latest. I'll do it over the span of a couple posts.


TT-E in my region was finally gaining some steam after a lot of campaigning for people to join and stuff. We all pretty much use the Maxxis RC1 since the contingency is so good and they last a lot longer than Hoosiers and the people that aren't competitive I can give scrubs to for free. Win win.



The RC1's were still pretty quick even around 40 to 50 heat cycles. I was only 6 hundredths of a second off of a long standing track record at Wild Horse Pass East at about 45 heat cycles, and that record is a Hoosier record.

Anyways, at that point at about 50 heat cycles they looked like maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of the tread depth was still there and driveable but I let a lot of people drive the car and somewhere along the way they got flat spotted so I'm still not sure how many heat cycles I can get until they're corded.

(Trailer is diamond plate so ignore the pattern on it.)




Now... downside to the Maxxis contingency program, you have to go through a contact at NASA to submit stuff instead of submitting requests straight to the manufacturer like how Hoosier does it. It's been a painful process to say the least and I still do not have all of the tires that I won over 3 months ago.

So I had a set of 225's that I bought straight from Maxxis since you have to show proof of purchase to be eligible (245's weren't for sale at the time). First weekend on them I won a whole set of four tires. I submitted all the stuff, required pictures, forms, proof of purchase, etc. And by now the 245's were available to the public, so for the requested tire size I asked for the 245's. I got a reply back saying that this wasn't allowed (the contingency rules form never said you couldn't claim a different size, or else I would have waited since I worked my classing to fit 245's) and I got bitched out. I argued about it, said fine I will pay the difference in cost ($80), but that wasn't good enough.

The NASA guy told me that I had to buy one 245 at retail cost ($175) and he would send me three for free. Instead of the four that I won fair and square. After this went down, an updated contingency rule form comes out and sure enough, there's a new rule saying you can only claim the size that is on your proof of purchase lmao... the other thing is that he said if I spoke of this to anyone he would disqualify me from the Maxxis contingency program but I don't really give a **** anymore since tires don't show up anyways.

These tires took almost two months to arrive, the contingency ones that is. The one that they made me buy, was on my doorstep three days after purchase (wtf). By the time the free tires showed up I had won four more tires in competition, so I got a shipment of five free tires, and to this day they still owe me two more. I keep emailing the NASA contact but all I get is "Yep I'll check on it," then no response. Going on almost 4 months waiting for the last two tires they owe me.


/rant... for now.

 

So one of the mods that I did awhile back was the Fab9 Tuning COP kit.

It's now sitting in a box in the garage somewhere because I ended up going back to stock.

First issue I had is that it shipped two weeks late, oh well **** happens, not that big of a deal. But in this case I had an event coming up and I received it during the week leading up to that event. I was waiting on these to tune my car so I had already had to cancel and reschedule a dyno tuning appointment because of the delay. I hadn't put in the Adaptronic ECU yet so decided to install these with the stock ECU just to test them out, make sure everything is okay, then put in the Adaptronic and switch to MAP and install an IAT sensor etc.

Second issue, one of the pencil coils will not grab onto the threaded end of the supplied spark plugs. Looks like a manufacturer defect on Denso's part. Since it shipped late I don't have time to wait for a replacement and have to cancel yet another dyno tuning appointment, instead I went to a local motorcycle pick and pull and found a used one until I could get the faulty unit replaced.

Third issue, when they said that a 1994 would require a tach adapter, I thought that meant that the tach would not work without one, not that the entire car wouldn't work. So that was frustrating until I figured that out. My fault for not understanding that, but their website could be a little more clear that the car will not start without a tach adapter. Installed the Adaptronic ECU and everything was working okay.

Went and got the car tuned, everything is going good.

Next issue, at the track event that weekend, I started getting an intermittent miss when at WOT, almost like an ignition cut for a fraction of a second. I had the hood open and the car was running and I could hear a faint electrical snap every once in awhile like something was arcing out.

Looks like the pencil coils couldn't take the heat for some reason? It exposed the coil and was arcing out here.





I gave up on trying to get a replacement coil from Fab9 and just put these in a box and went back to stock. But the worst part is that the missing at WOT that I thought was arcing out, was still there. I'm still trying to figure out that issue to this day.

 

Switched to Treasure Coast fiberglass hard top with lexan window. I think weight went from around 48lbs (OEM no defrost) down to about 15lbs, so about 33lbs off the top of the car is not bad. Mounted with some scrap aluminum that was laying around, and also used titanium bolts anywhere I could since I have a box of random assortment titanium stuff here. Whenever I remove hardware or install things, I try to find titanium bolts that I can use instead.

 

Replace spark plugs?

 

Does it on the Densos supplied with the COP kit, and with stock ignition with brand new blue NGK wires on both NGK coppers and NGK iridiums. I went through and cleaned, sanded and put star washers on every ground that I could find in the car. Also data logged it on my Adaptronic and all sensors seem to be working as they should. Battery was old and wouldn't hold a charge so I replaced that last week. I'm down to either bad alternator (only charges at 13.5v) or the coil pack is bad. Also it's definitely loss of spark because the RPM signal from the plug wire on the dyno drops out when this happens.

 

That bad pencil coil probably hurt whatever component was immediately upstream (wiring, ECU, etc.). Can you borrow your friend's coil pack for a test to rule that out without spending $$?

13.5V is a little low, but you should still have full ignition performance at that voltage.

BTW, probably going to get one of those TC hardtops myself. Thanks for the pics.

 

Possibly, but the unit that is immediately upstream of them is the coil driver box that comes with the kit. I mean I can try to swap the ECU out, the '94 Plug and Play Adaptronic ECU is actually the Universal e440 box. I have another identical one for my RX-8 that I could swap in but I will try the coil pack first. Alternator will be getting replaced though, it's still "acceptable" but I'd rather just not worry about it.

Also the TC hard top is a little cheaper if you can get a couple people near you to do a group buy like I did to cut down on shipping costs. The shipping is killer for just one unit, like 200+.

 

Yep. Already have one other person lined up. Looking for more. Hopefully, shipping to Dallas area is a little bit less.

 

So awhile back at a track event last March, I met Paul Yaw of Injector Dynamics in person for the first time. I had always been a huge fan of their injectors and I have a couple of friends that work there as well. I already have six ID1300's that are going to be used in the RX-8 project that I purchased from them. Anyways, he has a Miata and brought it to the track but he wasn't driving since it had no roll bar. I offered up our Miata for him to do a couple sessions in and it seems like he had a good time.

He also asked me what he owed me for the rental seat time, I said free.99 multiple times but he wasn't interested in that answer and supplied me with a set of ID1000's for the Miata. Super stand up guy, down to Earth and really knows his ****. I can't recommend their product enough. Best stuff on the market right now. Will be installing these soon, I know they're overkill for a 120HP Miata, but they are so linear and matched that I'll still be able to idle perfectly on pump gas, and have enough injector for anything I can imagine in the future.



My dad started on a remote oil filter and oil cooler install. Will post the rest of the pics when it's done.

Mishimoto Thermostatic Oil Sandwich Plate
Mishimoto Oil Cooler (19 Row I think)
Moroso 90 Degree Oil Filter Adapter -10orb
Derale Remote Oil Filter Mount
Wix 51515 Filter (Same bypass/flow as a Miata filter and half the price)
Full Function Engineering Temp and Pressure sensors
Aeromotive -10orb to -10an male adapters
Fragola -10an fittings and black nylone hose


Here you can see the two -10orb plugs that I had drilled and tapped for the Full Function Engineering sensors. Can feed those into the ECU to take advantage of more of the Adaptronic engine protection features.



This is the piece of plastic that is near the front bumper/headlight area. Riveted it there for the oil cooler to sit on so it's isolated.



Used an assortment of nut serts, scrap aluminum, some titanium hardware and rubber grommets to mount the oil cooler. It's fully isolated but is still mounted in there very solid. Just need to make the AN lines and fab up a duct that connects to the front turn signal inlet.

 

The oil adapter octopus was not fun to get bolted up... just need to finish ducting the oil cooler and cleaning up some wiring for front lights in that corner that is being redone.

Also something interesting, the o-ring that comes with the Moroso filter adapter sucks ***** and doesn't sit well in the machined channel. I took a square o-ring out of a Wix oil filter for a 2007 F-150 5.4L and it fit perfectly in the Moroso groove. Much better seal.

 

Decided to relocate the radiator overflow tank. Made some quick custom brackets and that side of the engine bay is much cleaner. Now the hot air from the oil cooler has a clear path to the hood vent, so hopefully it will increase flow but who knows.

Also here's what I'm doing for the turn signal. Step drill and it fits right in there now. Also redid the wiring out to it because the old wires were rubbing somewhere and were just hanging on by a couple strands.

 

So, went to another NASA event, got screwed again.

Apparently my classing dyno sheet got thrown out at the event I did in March when the MCE dyno screwed me over (another competitor did a back to back dyno on them vs. the local dynojet that we are supposed to use for classing, and MCE read almost 10% high on their car, yet some other cars read in line with what they got at the local dyno. I think that piece of **** that they drag around is just a random number generator and the operators are douchebags. They cut into my wire harness for an RPM signal against my will.)

I didn't know a compliance dyno could replace my classing dyno, my mistake, I don't have a problem with that. The problem is that NASA officials knew this though, and instead of telling me in the morning or even at the event that I got DQ'd at so I could fix it for future events, they waited on purpose until after this event was finished and just wiped out all my times and took away the tires and brakes that I had won. I suspect that it's because I protested the regional director since he was running a car in TTE with no numbers on the car, no classing stickers on the car, and no classing sheet on file, that he was running "just for fun" and was going to knock other people out of getting contingency just because he wanted to see some times...

Anyways, I offered to go to the local dynojet right then and there when they informed me to prove that I was compliant but they refused, probably because they wanted to go home instead of doing their job. While arguing with them I totally forgot about the "bad faith" protest rule and them wrongfully withholding this information but they probably would have just brushed that off as well.

So anyways, I WAS planning on doing this....

(GT2052 for Miata next to EFR9180 for RX-8)




It was my secret that I had been planning for awhile in order to achieve a flat horsepower curve since torque isn't accounted for in NASA classing, with electronic boost control and an external wastegate.


But I'm kind of over NASA and getting worked over so I looked at what other organizations I could run with. ProAutoSports is another group that a lot of people at NASA run at as well so I tried out one of their half day "beat the heat" events and it was nice.

I'm planning on running in their PS4 class which is wheel to wheel. Instead of doing the turbo project, that has been shelved and we're getting the rest of the cage finished and prepping for race group instead. ProAutoSports classing takes horsepower and torque into consideration so the turbo is no longer advantageous, and the car is already nearly maxed out for PS4 which is the most popular class anyways and where I will be able to win Hoosiers.

The reason I started posting this build at Miataturbo was because, well, I was going to go turbo. Maybe one day it'll happen but probably not anytime soon anymore. Sorry to disappoint.

Here's a picture from the ProAuto event, you can see the new grate for oil cooler intake, much more open than the turn signal ducts. Also still trying to fix that stupid ignition issue...

 

You mention the ignition issue and MCE cutting into your wiring harness (which just boggles my mind, BTW). Hmmmmmm . . . . Related?

 

The ignition issue had started before they did that. And yeah they did that to quite a few people, I think they even cut into a Raychem harness... it's like really dude, could have just used the plug wire like EVERY other dyno operator ever.

 

how are these guys(MCE) even in business, let alone for a sanctioning body?

so i guess ill be seeing you out there this winter. do you run the whole weekend or just saturday?