HowPrayGame

Howdy

I picked up this 2002 Miata in late 2017 from a family dealership with 127k miles on the odometer, a base model with the Hard-S options, so strut tower brace, bilsteins, 5 speed, and LSD. So far I have modified or refreshed just about every component inside of it, for better or worse. I have picked up a bunch of tools in the process & now I sorta have an idea of what I am doing. There are more zip-ties holding this car together than there should be.



I plan to keep the exterior almost completely stock so I don't regret any of the mods, the urge to bolt on a big wing is strong but I will resist. Here is the current engine bay mess, when I got it, it was completely stock except for a K&N Typhoon intake which heat-soaked too much for my taste in the Florida sun, so I replaced it and promptly cut a hole in my firewall that I will soon no longer need. The factory strut brace is removed as I took it off and couldn't tell the difference without it.



Gold heat tape on plastic intake tubing is dumb, don't do it.
My MS3 Basic should be here within a few days, I have my AEM UEGO in a gutted vent ready to install in the center vent, passenger side, and I have a new intake I fabbed up ready to be installed, 949 Racing Style.


I am going to re-do the lazy twisty wire connector, eventually. Also yes, the sensor is black silicone gasket maker'd in

I originally planned to keep the cowl intake, however I unfortunately ordered a MAF delete tube from BEGI, and stupidly ignored the warning on the forums here that the threaded tube would be not deep enough for the intake air sensor to be in the air-stream.

Next steps are for me to install my VICS manifold after I figure out how to recreate curly's mounting plate for the VCTS actuator to repurpose it for VICS, install the AEM UEGO + properly crimp the wires to my MS3 Basic, and start tuning. Eventually I will Turbo the car, however it won't be until at least 2 years from now. I just got accepted into USF and need to get another 77 credits or so for a Bachelors in Cybersecurity, and turbocharging a daily + only car is not for me. If I can't learn to properly tune my car N/A in 2 years then a turbo probably isn't for me. I am trying to stop spending money on this car other than maintenance, and turbo related mods seem to be the only thing left I could possibly spend money on.

I will try my best not to ask dumb questions, I think my google-fu is pretty good.

HowPrayGame

I just got my MS3 Basic, taking the stock ECU out made me feel like switching to powercards.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

You seem to be missing a clamp.

HowPrayGame

Yep, I plan to install the other clamp once I get the megasquirt installed, next weekend maybe? Getting the stock ECU out makes me want to use a sawzall on the brackets, curse the Japanese engineer who decided that the nut should be near impossible to reach.

HowPrayGame

Hopefully this is the last dumb question I ask, I recently replaced my injectors with rebuild purple tops, which normally flow at 265cc. Mine were flow tested and they flow around 284cc at 43.5 PSI. I am getting ready to install my megasquirt and don't want to mess up my initial fueling values, should I change the injector size to 284cc, and leave everything else alone, specifically the Static/Target Rail Fuel Pressure setting, which I believe is 60 PSI on returnless fuel system NB2s? This is all off of Revs base tune, trying not to change much before starting everything up, unless I need to.

HowPrayGame

Installing everything took me 7 hours, I was working slowly and I took the ECU off the mounting point at least 5 times. It started the first try, then promptly died, giving it gas for a second let it stay running. Fixing the IAC calibration should take care of that. I have a giant mess of wires under the wheel, but it works. The AFR gauge seems super accurate for being connected via Analog, but I haven't revved the car past 2k RPM yet. Eating dinner then I will go do some VEAL. I changed the Injector size to 284, enabled Incorporate AFR, and calibrated a few sensors, then shut the car off.



Messy wiring



And my new air intake, with the extra hose clamp installed.

thebigtuna

Sounds like you are on the right track. Yes, you use whatever the actual flow rate is for the req_fuel (i.e 284). You'll be blown away how smooth the car can be if you put in the time, keep it up!

HowPrayGame

Thanks Tuna for confirming that, it was a question that nobody has seemed to ask before, so I figured it really was that simple and changed the CC value. I will keep tuning it till it is near perfect, not touching the spark map unless I am on a dyno. As this is my daily and I have the next 3 days off work, I will tune it as much as possible. Eventually I will install the Flattop manifold I have and re-tune everything again, maybe get it setup for E85 and see if I can get to 150whp. The goal is to beat a 93 miata with a JR M45 Supercharger, running on P-p-p-power cards, I think 150whp should do it.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Once again, NA6 FTW, best ecu location of all NA/NBs. I have dyno’d a 180*’coupler off the throttle body and it was incredibly restrictive on a 1.6. 108hp, installed a 3D over the rad intake and made 116

HowPrayGame

I saw those 3d printed intakes, I wish there was an equivalent for NBs but it doesn't look like it would be possible without drilling holes. The 180 degree bend seems to be Emilio's favorite, eventually I will dyno it and compare between stock/randall/this intake, as I am curious to see what intake gains what. I am jealous of your ECU location, my back is in pain.

HowPrayGame

I drove around for 20 minutes with VEAL on easy, applied everything, then drove for around an hour with VEAL on normal. The car starts rather weakly, but that's because I haven't touched a single startup or idle setting. Other than that it runs great, already much smoother acceleration than stock. It idles very well, however I will need to check my logs to see how much EGO is kicking in. I suspect its doing a bunch. This basemap is great, thanks Reverant!

What are your thoughts on changing the deadtime for my injectors to 1.2ms? The basemap has it set to 0.9ms and I feel that is a bit optimistic for EV6 injectors. I've read the thread on determining injector dead-times and I feel like just ball-parking it would suffice.

nigelt

iTrader: (10)

Wrong direction. Stockers are more like 0.6 or 0.7. I haven't tested myself, but see this post: https://www.miataturbo.net/ecus-tuni...d-times-60240/
EV14 are usually more like 1.2

HowPrayGame

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, that is impressively low. I may just keep it at 0.9ms for now until I can properly measure the deadtime for my specific injectors. It doesn't seem like it would be very hard to re-tune my fueling with VEAL after changing the deadtime.

90LowNSlo

I don't own a NB (hell I've only seen two in person) but couldn't you run a 45° off the TB that would put the intake right behind the headlight? The 180° just looks like it has a lot of extra length...

HowPrayGame

You could do that, however the length is beneficial, I am not sure why however emilio uses this intake on some of his cars. I cut it to 21" of length as per their instructions here

I was going off of this image as a reference



So far it seems to bang into the hood when I start the car, once I get my startup settings tuned I suspect the engine will buck much less and it will probably minimize it.

90LowNSlo

Just gave that link a read, interesting stuff. I understand moving the intake away from heat will result in more power (or I guess more correctly, less loss of power) but I don't understand the need for exactly 21" of length. I'm sure Emilio has tested a ridiculous amount different intake set ups and I'm sure he's confident in what he says is accurate (and I'm sure it is). I just wonder why 21" is better than say, 12" assuming similar intake temps.... Sorry for the de-rail

nigelt

iTrader: (10)

I think the length has nothing to do with intake temps, and everything to do with the momentum and smoothing of the intake air flow. There is actually an optimal length.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Nope. Soft motor mounts and inadequate clearance of your intake. I warn against tight clearance for this type of intake in the tech article. Pretty normal to take one or two tries to get it to clear everything under load.

Intake resonance. Internal combustion engines are tuned air pumps, much like any woodwind or brass musical instrument. Lengths, bends, interior volumes, bypasses. All tuned to resonate at certain frequencies. In an instrument, we hear the frequencies with the most energy. In an engine, we hope to harness the energy of those frequencies to build pressure at the exact moment the cylinder is filling, or drop pressure at the exact time the cylinder is emptying.

Any N/A intake will deliver the broadest powerband by utilizing a helmholtz chanber, as all the OEM NA/NB intakes do. Tricky to engineer. Best alternative is a specific length and diameter, of which 21" seems to be for the BP. Change bore, stroke or cam timing, lift radically and that might change. Although we have run a wide variety of N/A BP's with this formula successfully.

We publish the info to help the DIY'er. Not enough hardware to make a viable product plan so we gave it away for free

HowPrayGame

I stopped it from banging into the tophat by angling the intake toward the manifold, I suspect non-extended tophat users wouldn't experience this.

HowPrayGame

After some fidding with my Idle VE Table, CL Idle Initial Values Table, and my A/C settings, my idle is fairly stable, my cars A/C now functions at idle instead of hunting for idle constantly causing the A/C compressor to never kick on. I am looking to update my target AFR Table now, the current one is super safe but also super rich. I will probably just dial in my VE table with VEAL before I change it a bunch. Car runs great, and hasn't failed to start on me. Anyone have any insights as to AFR Targets with a N/A build, for a daily driver? It looks like a Brain-style AFR Table would be super fuel efficient, I am just worried about the car running lean all the time.