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Ha, noones judging you Zak, your driving was fine and clearly you take it to the track for the 10/10ths stuff. I love a good canyon session, but same as on 2 wheels, it's not a ******' racetrack and people who think they are faster than you because they could hang in the canyons are dumb.
I love that the kids dad posted on that video saying the same thing that I said. Haha.
I wasn't hating too hard on him, but the idea of "PB'ing" in a public canyon road is full on cringe to me, I just watched his night driving video where he crashes out, and yeah, kids a dumbass. Fun to watch though, and I get why the kiddos flock to his channel like he's some kind of Togue god.
Zak your driving was fine, but after watching the "I crashed" video I hope this guy matures a bit before he hurts himself or others. Like a lot of people here, I did some aggressive driving as well but none of it came close to going so far into the other lane on a turn that you drop a wheel. And I definitely didn't try to make an internet presence based off of the driving I did!
There are some wild clout chasers out there. I went to The Snake once in 2015 after college. A teenager leaning on a then-new Boss 302 asked me if my 1990 Miata was my second car. That was sort of a surprise. There was also a new BRZ that went for a flight down the canyon and almost took out a water pumping station. Someone told me they were really surprised it happened to him because he was such a good driver. He was 17 and his dad bought the car for him two weeks ago.
I've seen so many videos of people going way above their limit and losing it on the Snake and Dragon. Shame because those roads seem like they'd be super fun if you didn't have to worry about other drivers going nuts on them.
Those are some great stories. The justification of driving skill among the kids is almost hilarious.
Yeah dude, it's a weird scene. With all the roads we have out here, there are a LOT of canyon "driving clubs" which are mostly made up of kids and young adults. I only run with one "club" because they're all either adults or act like such, and everyone that shows up tracks their cars too. And they're cool dudes that I enjoy hanging around, of course.
I usually don't go out to the canyons at peak hours (I try to go early morning or late afternoon/evening. Never late at night when all the kids are double-laning), and so haven't seen many accidents myself. However, there's a couple social media pages that post local mishaps, or the aftermath of, on their pages. I'd say in the greater LA mountain range area, there's probably a couple serious crashes every weekend. That being said, it's usually the "touge racers" double-laning late at night, when there's little to no traffic out. I haven't seen a day crash involving traffic in at least a year or two... luckily.
In the 2.5 years I've had my car, I've watched two separate crashes in the canyons where the car and driver involved did a full tail-over-nose flip or barrel roll. Luckily both ended with no injuries sustained, but I ended up helping out with the aftermath in both instances. This is one of the reasons I'm pretty picky about who I drive with.
Well DAMN, I guess I should make a post about my car in here.
For starters, I need to acquire some basic welding skills. The flex pipe in my downpipe has been cracked for a bit and proceeded to start leaking really bad last week. I thought about just buying a 3" flex pipe and installing it with a pair of clamps. However, there was barely an inch of straight tubing on the front side of the pipe to clamp to, and I eventually came to the conclusion that I should just get it done the right way. I want to go EFR at some point, but that project has been delayed a bit due to the cost of the drivetrain upgrade path I've sent myself down. Ok, I'll just get a new downpipe welded in at an exhaust shop since I'll have the 2560 setup a while longer.
The exhaust shop swears the O2 sensor looked like this when they first put the car in the air.
I brought my car into a local exhaust shop on Saturday morning to get a new flex pipe welded in. The one they installed looks a lot more robust than the original one in my exhaust, so I was stoked on that. I picked up the car and started to drive away, though, and noted my AFR gauge was stuck at 14.7. Damn, I bet they burned the wiring to my O2 sensor or something. I told the front desk guy that my O2 sensor was working when I brought the car in and now it wasn't. They put it back in the lift immediately, but denied messing up the O2 sensor during the repair, citing that they only disconnected the front of the downpipe from the turbo to do the repair. I went back and forth with them for a while, and eventually gave up because I have a bunch of spare widebands at work, and didn't really have a leg to stand on. My AFR gauge is on a switch so I can prevent the O2 sensor heater from causing thermal shock on cold/wet mornings. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I haven't killed an O2 sensor since I installed the switch and started waiting 30 seconds to turn it on from a cold start in the Winter. Anyways, when they pulled the car onto the lift, the AFR gauge was off, so I couldn't prove it was functional before they touched the car.
I went home, popped a new sensor in, proceeded to fail at finding a parking spot at the beach because it was hot and that sh*t was hella crowded, then did a little freeway fuel map tuning. Using the digital dash and portable keyboard for tuning was sublime. So much easier than having to fully take my eyes off the road to look at/play with the laptop. The car was running a little rich across the board as I likely did some autotuning previously before I noticed the flexpipe was leaking. That rich condition probably saved my *** last weekend when my MAP sensor line partially disconnected and was reporting lower boost to my MS. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I checked the plugs and didn't find any detonation, so I seem to have dodged a bullet there.
I didn't get any serious driving in this weekend. Was hot as hell after playing with the tune and I ended up cruising to the brewery with the girlfriend and some homies instead.
Bike park season is in full swing. Our local mountains were gonna be 15 degrees cooler than at home on Sunday so I decided to go up there and do some chairlift laps on Sunday.
Yesterday, I received some parts I've been telling myself I was gonna procure for a while. A set of seat rails so I can mount my old Sprint seat in the passenger side of my car and finally put a pair of door bars in. Naturally, I set aside 30 minutes to pop the seat in and ended up taking much longer than that. I gotta remember the sequence for bolting a bucket into a miata. Loosely bolt inboard side seat rail to seat ----> Bolt inboard seat rail to floor ----> Bolt outboard seat rail to floor ----> Bolt outboard rail to seat and tighten inboard seat rail bolts. No other sequence has worked for me I still gotta adjust the positioning a bit but the car looks much more legit with two buckets now. Just gotta get another set of harnesses. Anyone need a factory NA passenger seat?
Also, I get a decent feeling that much of the crowd on here enjoys a little bit of punk rock. Been playing these guys on repeat in the garage recently. Every single song on this album is a banger. Great driving music too. Thank me later.
Also, I get a decent feeling that much of the crowd on here enjoys a little bit of punk rock. Been playing these guys on repeat in the garage recently. Every single song on this album is a banger. Great driving music too. Thank me later.
You calling me out, bro?
This album slays, the wife approves too. I'm a huge 90's skate punk fan, Pennywise, Bad Religion, Mellincollin, NOFX, etc., though I'm a huge metalhead as well. Good taste Zak!
Not explicitly, but I had my hunches hahaha. Glad you enjoyed! 90's skate punk rules. Millencolin's gotta be one of the best slightly-under-the-radar bands out there.
This is my maximum-effort way of dealing with my air filter that’s been rubbing on my headlight motor since I put the turbo in the car. I’m not anti pop-up, but I’ve always loved the look of the Jetstream NA headlights. A decent bit of weight savings and less clutter in the engine bay makes the swap easier to justify as well. I tossed a generic set of 4x6” LED headlights in them and they’re a touch brighter when directly compared to my current 7” Jeep LEDs too.
Still gotta make a thin lexan cover (aero, yo) and drill out/mount the other light. The first one took me about four hours start to finish. I had to come up with my own way to adjust the beam, as the kit I bought just came with the fiberglass pieces and no hardware. The second one should come together quicker, but that’s a next week project. And paint. Ah yes, I gotta paint them.
I also received the driveshaft for the Getrag swap last week, albeit there was a mixup and I wasn’t sent the rear adapter to mate it to the G80 diff. That’s been resolved and I should have it in hand today. The shaft is pretty beefy, 3.5” thick aluminum tubing. And it still weighs a bit less than the one currently in the car, so that’s cool. Hopefully it’s not hella out of round like the one I got with my ZF swap kit.
I’m headed out of town this weekend and next, and will likely not be doing the swap until after then, unfortunately. Still excited to have all the parts on hand, though.
Those lights are dope, should look awesome with the lexan cover. That style of light always reminds me of old LMP cars.
I know this is MT.net, but damn, with a shaft that big you should put a NSFW tag on the post. Is the rubber boot covering another U joint to get all the geometry correct?
Thanks dude! Yeah, I'm stoked on 'em. I was trying to put my finger on what car they looked like they were from, and I think you nailed it. Initially, I was thinking 300zx but the shape isn't quite the same.
Hahahaha yes, sorry to not include a prior warning with that shaft pic. All should know that it's a d*ck swinging contest 'round here already, so there's no excuse to be surprised The boot is just covering a slip-joint. The ZF trans has an output flange that the shaft bolts directly into, so the driveshafts run a slip joint to allow compression and extension for removal and installation.
Not too far off from the original GT40 headlights. I was thinking something like this or the old Porsche 917 era LMP cars. Interesting on the shaft, but that makes sense. Glad to see some parts are designed around ease of installation/servicing.
Can't wait to see your plex-cover solution. I'd been toying with the idea but I don't want anything that sticks up HIGHER than the housing itself and flush mounting seems nightmarish.
I will withhold judgment until I see the final product.
Sit tight. I'm not going to claim it'll be everyone's cup of tea haha.
Originally Posted by Stock
Can't wait to see your plex-cover solution. I'd been toying with the idea but I don't want anything that sticks up HIGHER than the housing itself and flush mounting seems nightmarish.
I was kinda hoping you'd already figured something out and I could just copy you (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I hit up my buddy Cody, a career welder, last week to ask for his help with welding in the plates required for the Getrag swap. He obliged, and I suggested I could pull the car apart in my garage and have it ready for him to weld the plates in when he came over. One problem, I didn't realize 220V was required for what we were doing, and my garage doesn't have it. Problem two, the dealership I work at isn't stoked on having buddies come over and weld in the shop. Cody came in clutch again and said we could do the job at his buddy's personal workshop. I met him there at 8am Sunday and we got to work.
Miata loaded to the gills Saturday night. Getrag diff on the passenger floorboard, driveshaft and mounting bracket on the passenger seat, two jackstands straddling the roll bar, two more in the box on the seat, axles in the trunk, two bags of tools in the trunk and on the rear deck. The car was noticeably harder to get rolling from a dig lol.
Ready to go in. I wanted to put a 3.73 out of a Cadillac CTS/CTS-V in the car but those are basically impossible to find in an LSD variant. Open diff 3.73s can be found all day. I ended up sourcing a 3.91 LSD out of a Pontiac Solstice. Sounds way less cool but it's the same diff so I'm not gonna make too much of a stink about it. I also opted to put a rubber OEM nose bushing in it instead of a poly one because I've developed severe NVH PTSD from this whole drivetrain escapade.
Cody melt'n steel. His homie's a big Datsun guy as I found out, and quite the fabricator, as can be seen from the car sitting above mine. There was another Datsun body on rollers in the parking lot and multiple straight 6 blocks and assorted engine componentry scattered about the shop. Cool stuff.
The whole job went pretty smoothly, no big hangups to mention. I think it was probably 6 hours start to finish. We weren't rushing even though it was hot as hell out by 10:30.
Marks on the fuel tank from the driveshaft making contact with it when my diff housing arm snapped a while back. That could have been bad!
Plates welded.
Everything minus the ladder bracing installed! Only maybe 1/4" of clearance between the outer axle CVs and the coilover height adjustment collars (not pictured). Gonna have to keep an eye on that.
I forgot to look up what fluid this thing takes. Grabbed a bottle of Motorcraft 80w90 diff fluid and 4oz of friction modifier from work and that was enough to fill the diff. I'll find the factory stuff and fill it with that once I get this other debacle settled...
Yep. I got shipped another corkscrew driveshaft. I was honestly over 50% sure this was going to happen and wasn't even surprised when the driveline started vibrating at 55mph on the way home. I called KPower this morning about getting a refund and they said they'd check with their supplier and see what they can do (my refund for the first bum driveshaft was in the form of a discount on the Getrag swap kit).
I also took the driveshaft into our local shop today and was told that it's non-salvageable (as one would expect). They told me they could build a new shaft and reuse my flanges and u-joints, or they could build me a whole new shaft altogether with the proper flanges so I could get rid of the heavy adapter plates on the trans and diff. I'll probably go that direction to shed some rotating mass. At least then I can say this whole conundrum ended with a positive conclusion.
Hell of an update man, I love your posts. It's so much work and satisfying to see you knock it out like that. As usual I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what fixes your NVH.
I'm not sure I trust any driveshaft shop that isn't in my area at this point. There are a few ones out there highly recommended by the Jeep forums I frequent, but when was the last time you heard of people that built off road XJs having particularly high standards for NVH and balance?
I replaced my stock driveshaft after finding a failing u joint while chasing a small vibration. The Dorman shaft was $200 and had a visible wobble. I returned it. The FM shaft was $300 and looked to be identical to the Dorman other than price and part number, down to the paint shade and sticker, location and size of the balancing weight, and the amount of wobble. Neither made a difference in the vibration I have.
06-25-2024, 01:13 PM
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I still gotta adjust the positioning a bit but the car looks much more legit with two buckets now. Just gotta get another set of harnesses. Anyone need a factory NA passenger seat?
