First update of 2015!

Its been a while since I have posted anything. Weather hasn't been very good for getting anything done. 

This last weekend it was 60f so I got off my butt and finished putting in the replacement drivers seat that fits me better.  It is another Ultra Shield seat like the old one that I purchased from a fellow club member a few years ago now.

Other projects on the list include installing the Flyin'Miata tow hitch so I can pull my trailer to events. This hitch is nice and light weight adding only 8 lbs to the car.  I am also considering the Flyin'Miata butterfly brace to stiffen up the whole car.


For now, I just keep eyeballing the calendar wishing it was time to drive!

Update?

Well, not a whole lot has been done too the car in the last month.  I still have some simple things planned before next Autocross season but they can wait till close to spring to get done.

In the mean time, I manged to get the car on a dyno to figure out what kind of HP I am getting from the motor.

The dyno wasn't able to track my RPM well so that isn't showing correctly. For the run he based the graphs on speed instead.   As you can see it managed a nice 233.5 HP and 208.7 ft/lbs of torque.

We ran it 3 runs and it was extremely consistent.  the graphs where almost identical between every run.

I was also using my tablet to do some data logging just to see what was going on during the runs.  I noticed that at 4300 rpm or so I am hitting 8.5ish PSI of boos, from there it drops by about 1 psi until it hits 5500 rpm at which point it starts to climb again. 

I am not sure why it is doing this.  will have to do some research so I can understand this one.

Also, I managed to use the left over from the original soft top that came with the car to make a version of a Bikini G-String top for the car.  (much needed for the drive to Bozeman and back today.)

the straps hooked on the Frankenstein bolts.

PVC pipe to keep the front of the top in place between the roll bar and top of the windshield.

All in all it turned out good and it saved me a few hundred bucks over a real one.  It's not a pretty... but it works good.

Time for an update

Well, a lot has happened since the last post I made here.  Nathan and I made a deal and I traded my car and parts + some cash for his supercharged 1999 Miata.  So far I am really enjoying the car.

I managed to get the car just in time for the last race of the year for the Bozeman club. I just showed up with it to surprise everyone and boy where they.  All in all it was a great end of the season for me.

On Saturday October 4th I managed to set FTD with the car. Not bad for my first day ever driving it at an event.  Sunday I took second for FTD by .286 seconds.  also not bad for only the second day every running it at an event.

I have a few plans for the car over the winter, nothing major.  I have a different Ultrashield seat that I am going to put in it that fits me slightly better then the one that came in the car.  I'd like to do a bikini soft top for it if I can manage it.

Other then that, it's just a matter of tweaking things to my liking and probably an oil change just for because.

Looking forward to next years events >:-)


Here's the results for the weekend
Saturday Oct 4th
Sunday Oct 5th

The plan for the winter...

So, with everything that went wrong with the car in the last month or so I have been working on deciding what to do about it.

At I am in the process of purchasing a custom built head from Flyin' Miata.  It is going to take a few months before it will be here and ready to install but I will have plenty of time to get it ready for next season.

on top of the new head I have a few other more minor plans in the works.  I am going to build a custom intake setup and get rid of the current "cold" air intake that I have on the car now.  What I have planned should give the car cold air at all times and even possibly a slight positive pressure at high enough speeds.

I am also removing the power steering system to cut a but more weight. I am going to quick/dirty route because I don't want to deal with the 'good' method.  The good method is a bit tedious and a pain in the ass.

With getting rid of the current intake I will be able to add a proper shock tower brace which should stiffen the car up when going over rough sections of road.


The last is a fairly minor change but it will add more comfort when driving the car on longer distance.  I am going to pull up the carpet and lay down some insulation to keep the heat out of the interior as much as I can.  The heat is one of the biggest issues I have with driving the car in the summer with no A/C in it.



There are a few other things that I would love to do for next year as well such as getting a set of Hoosiers but I don't see that happening now with what I have spent so far on the head.  We'll see what happens in the next 6 months though.

Selling my Megasquirt ECU

For those that check out my blog, I am selling the Megasquirt ECU I installed earlier this year.  I don't have any issues with it, just going to move to something else for next year.

Here is what you get:
Megasquirt PNP 2 for 96-97 Miata
Innovate Wideband O2 and Controler/gauge
programming cables
Little hose that attaches to the Intake for the MAP sensor.

I am looking to get $800 for everything.

Reply here if you are interested or know of someone who might be.

Thanks!

Well shit...

So, good news and bad news...

good news first:
I managed to get the engine installed and wired up.  It went in fairly smoothly though dropping in an engine and transmission by yourself in a driveway isn't all that much fun...

I had everything to the point of attempting the first start when the bad news happens...

The intake cam seized to the journal. this gouged it bad enough that the head itself is basically a total loss.  Back to square one I guess. (I will add another post with some pictures of the damage)

I am working on getting something together before next spring... but obviously that means I am out of commission as far as my car goes for the rest of the season...  I have a friend that might let me co-drive with him some times.  Maybe I can convince some others to let me co-drive with them as well.

What broke on the engine?

Well after getting the engine out of the car.  The next day I pulled the head off and found out exactly what the problem was.  Our guess of a broken valve was correct.  One of the exhaust valves in cylinder 3 has a nice chunk missing from it.

There is quite a lot of carbon build up in all 4 cylinders, which is no surprise if you have ever seen my car run at an Autocross event.  The engine burned quite a lot of oil. 

Judging by how the cylinders and pistons look.  The rings are leaking a bit, but not severely.  I would bet that if I threw a new valve in the head and cleaned it up it would run fine. though it wouldn't solve the oil burning issue. 

As you can see from the above picture there is a lot of carbon on the pistons as well.  Amazingly the piece of the valve doesn't seem to have caused any real damage. I haven't located any scratches at this point from it.

Hoping to have the new engine very soon!