When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Lol, I think Rich was alluding to something he might have done at one point
Got the fuel pump replaced on the daily last night, so that was a success.
I then went out to give the new tune Vlad had sent me the previous night a shot and do another pull for him. **** actually cold started last night! I couldn't believe it! Vlad already sent me another tune to try tonight, so will report back tomorrow. But man, things have improved so much in the past week. It really makes me excited to get the car back out on track. Now I just need to convince Rich or Ben to sell me one of their sets of motor mounts so I can actually shift and maybe find 6th gear
Now I fucked up originally and grabbed a hot power, which meant the solenoid opened when I turned off the ignition because I didn't realize that output was grounded when the ecu was off.
Remember this line?
So, looks like my nitrous solenoid between when I checked it after the "solenoid on during ignition off" incident and now, took a ****. The coil was popping fuses and everything was fucked inside the solenoid, I couldn't even get the coil off. I burnt my hand because it was so hot when it happened so I was honestly surprised when I tested it a week or two later and it tested fine. Must have been sitting outside in the cold that finished the job. I'm....not really surprised, but still a bit of a bummer. Anyway, a new one is supposed to show up on Wednesday via summit.
Vlad gave it the go-ahead for spray on Saturday and shortly after I found the dead solenoid. So no NAWS vids this weekend, but hopefully this week! Also hoping to drive the car to work a few times this week after I replace the starter. The car is starting REALLY slow. Like 100 RPM when it was 30* this weekend lol. Obviously not helping cold starts there. The battery is new as of a couple of months ago, but this starter has seen some **** at this point. Gonna toss in another one and see if it changes anything. If not, I'll start looking at grounds/power wires and maybe take the battery to get tested if all else fails.
Obviously not helping cold starts there. The battery is new as of a couple of months ago, but this starter has seen some **** at this point. Gonna toss in another one and see if it changes anything. If not, I'll start looking at grounds/power wires and maybe take the battery to get tested if all else fails.
Replaced the starter last night, that's kind of a bitch of a job for a starter, those bolts suck a bit to get to.
I got a new nitrous solenoid and popped it in. Went for a drive and it was very underwhelming. In fact, I couldn't discern any difference at all. Then I did another pull and noticed the AFRs were just tanking when I pressed the button, so seemed that it wasn't actually opening the solenoid. UGH. Went back home and went to probe the connector and this is what I found:
Derp. You need to fully seat your terminals for them to do things lol. Plugged that in and then asked Katy to press the button while I felt the solenoid (nitrous bottle closed) to see if it would work. It did, so we took it for a drive.
**** is super fun! Nothing overwhelming, I still wouldn't call it fast. But it just makes you laugh, and the burst of torque when it comes on is awesome. Katy tried to take a video from the passenger seat of a 2nd gear pull.
I'll try to get an actual gopro video once things are a little more dialed in. On Vlad's recommendation, I was only doing 2nd gear pulls to keep stress down and had nitrous set from 4500-6500. I'll open that range up eventually as well as doing some 5th gear pulls, but the initial jetting of the nitrous was a touch on the lean side (brushed 13:1 on two of the pulls). Once that's worked out I'll come back with more video.
Overall, really happy with it. It's fun, it's a bit stupid, and I always wanted to feel what nitrous felt like. Pretty much living up to my expectations!
Lolol. ******* Brad's **** is so old and doesn't snap back after you make a turn. Need to channel my inner BMW driver and just never use turn signals in that car.
Also: totally extending the range tonight to play with it some more lol
Work has been really busy the last couple weeks. Calling it quits at 11pm has been pretty much the norm, so that wasn't a ton of fun. I owe Vlad a couple of logs and have been lagging. I did drive the car for two weeks in a row though and everything went well/car started every day! The car drives so much better and is multiple times more fun to drive.
I learned a bit about the lifted setup this year, and overall I'd say things were a success. I do think the tires were a touch too big for stock fenders which is really a bit of a bummer. I found some rubbing on the front edge of the rear. I beat the metal back a bit with a 5lb hammer, but it's still very slightly rubbing on the outside which is pretty much impossible to move without diving into the deep end like @eo2k.
My bump height seemed to be spot on for the front! Very slight rubbing, but nothing too bad.
Because I've got my first trackday for the year coming up on April 11th, I started the process of dropping the car back down again. I pulled the lift kit and dug through my bag of bumpstops to see if anything would fit. My 25mm extended tophats in the front are a little overkill, but I don't really feel like building a new set before the trackday, just too much other stuff on my plate and I'm trying to keep things mellow for this one. Because of that, the closest bumpstop I had to keep the tire off the body was actually the bumpstops I was running previously at like 1.5". I think it might be a touch too much, but I'll run it for now and see where it lands. All that said, that means I've got an extra 25mm of travel at the shock over what I had last year, which is pretty huge.
I've got the front put back together and then I'll be doing the rear tomorrow. I'm hoping to drive it around a bit tomorrow and grab a couple logs for vlad. I've gotta pull a little bit of fuel back out in the nitrous control. Gonna cut what I added in by half and see where that lands me.
Last on the list was getting rid of the stupid *** Mazda comp mounts. Between that and the shifter at the last trackday, I could not find 6th at all and I miss shifted all over the place. So I opted for some AWRs. I got them in the 62 durometer, so I'll see how I like them and may bump them up to 70s depending on how it feels. But I've heard plenty of horror stories of nvh with aftermarket mounts, so I went for the softer ones. Also, I'll be street driving the car a bit.
And then....I finished lowering the car. Rear needed probably 30mm extended bumps, maybe a touch more. I cut the bumpstops down a little for the time being. Either way, I've got buckets more travel than before. The car isn't super low, 5" front pinch weld heights. Kinda wishing I had gone a little lower, but maybe I will later this summer. But after all, this is still a street car.
Because I finished the suspension set up mid-day last week and I was kinda bored, I decided the best use of my time was probably building the 2.5" exhaust I had been collecting parts for, for the last couple of months. I figured if I could do it in <1 week, I would be in good condition. Sundays we generally work on the bmw, so I started Saturday evening and got a bit done. Pictured below: Not MT.net approved maggie because I'm an idiot and ordered the smaller one. I only found this out while chatting with @EO2K thanks for making me sad.
On the topic of mistakes, I bought an 8" flex section hahahaha. It's so dumb. I was supposed to buy a 6". Whatever lol
Also on the topic of mistakes. I guess I used a smaller vband when I made the little adapter section from RB header to 1.6 exhaust. So I had to cut that off and weld a new one on. V band welds are always nice with the big heat sink of the vband. I really need to get/get Katy to turn me some vband heat sinks to reduce warping during welding. Stupid *** stainless. I bought a couple vband gaskets to give a shot, they're coming on Thursday. Will report back with the results. Also thought about cutting some copper sheet on the plasma table lol.
I had been going back and forth on putting a cat on the car. On one hand, a universal one is like $160, so not crazy expensive, but not that cheap either. But on the other, it makes the car a bit quieter as well as outputting quite a bit less ****. The muffler being smaller than planned pushed me over that edge, so I went ahead and got one. My midpipe basically consists of a flex section, a cat, and a resonator lol.
Exhaust came out decent. Doesn't look much bigger than stock, the sound is alright. I really hate how miatas sound, it could be a little quieter. It's a little boomy(?) down low. Idk, maybe I'm being too judgy. I've certainly heard worse. Excuse my mess of a yard, random photos of welds/exhaust:
I've been looking for a better-matched shift **** than my nc 5-speed ****. The nc **** feels a bit heavy on the MR tall shifter and I wanted something a touch lighter, but also teardrop style. Delrin would be a plus here, although I've never had that big of a problem with the stainless shift **** in the LS car. Found this karcepts **** for $60 that is Delrin, weighted, and 150g (nc is 230). I really like it so far, except I'm getting a pretty good rattle at WOT/higher rpms. This could also be because of the engine mounts? Idk, gonna try switching back to the other **** to narrow it down. Not the end of the world, just slightly annoying. I'm sure m.net has 15,000 threads on the subject, could always venture over there.
Last but not least! Corner weighting! Threw the cars on the scales with a full tank and me in the seat (thanks to Katy for helping). Car was a little further off at first (.5%) but I went up a 1/4 turn on LR/RF and down a 1/4 turn on RR/LF and it came out pretty happy. Also check that F/R weight ratio. *Insert perfectly balanced meme here* Probably in part due to the nitrous tank in the back. So, you heard it here first. You need nitrous to achieve a perfect weight balance in a 1.8 swapped na6.
I drove the car for the first time in a while last night, so that was nice. Also drove it to work today. Engine seems to...breathe easier? Possible that it's completely placebo, but it feels good either way. Couldn't get enough camber out of the front, so I stole the ELBJs off of the LS car and I'm gonna get the front end re-aligned later this week. But, at the end of the day, it's ready for the trackday this weekend. I'm pumped!
I'm going to be honest here, I'd pay money for that exhaust.
Not a lot of money, because Miata owner, but definitely something.
Looks good dude! Glad you are keeping the project rolling (trolling?) As long as you like the exhaust, who cares? Also, give it a little time to "bed in" not sure if that's the right term. My big *** Magnaflow took a while until the tone got consistent. I couldn't say why, it just is what it is. You do fantastic work, keep it up man!
When you decide you don't like it I'll take it for 25% of materials cost, and not a penny more. You'll of course need to modify it for me so it'll fit my application but I assume that's included in the sale price? You have a welder, it should be super easy!
02-25-2021, 11:27 AM
2
