Ian's 99 build thread
#323
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Santa Clara, CA
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Intercooler is air to water, the two aluminum parts on the right hand side of the picture are the inlets. I don't think it's so much because German as because packaging.
Wastegate actuators look pneumatic, yes.
--Ian
Wastegate actuators look pneumatic, yes.
--Ian
#324
Hot V V8's look badass! I bet 10 years from now people will be yanking these kind of engines and putting them in other vehicles.
#330
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It's a 2016 S6, as listed in my sig.
It's a twin-turbo V8, 4.0L, nominally rated at 450 hp. The 2012-2015 cars got a rating of 420, but made almost that at the wheels, so were generally considered to be under-rated. The 2016s get a rating bump to 450, but AFAIK nobody's dyno'd one yet, so it's unclear if that's a bump in actual power or not.
--Ian
It's a twin-turbo V8, 4.0L, nominally rated at 450 hp. The 2012-2015 cars got a rating of 420, but made almost that at the wheels, so were generally considered to be under-rated. The 2016s get a rating bump to 450, but AFAIK nobody's dyno'd one yet, so it's unclear if that's a bump in actual power or not.
--Ian
#334
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Somewhere in Nevada, on the way to Grand Junction.
--Ian
#335
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That looks like its going to be one hell of a fun trip.
#338
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Spent the day playing with the car at the track here in Grand Junction. It was somewhat frustrating -- the MS3 didn't cope well with the altitude change, it was running pig rich in boost, I don't know why. Rather than try to solve that, I went out and did a bunch of auto tuning runs for fuel last night on the freeway.
Then when I got to the track, it started giving me sync errors in the first session. This is a little go-kart track, think of it as really being a fast autocross with elevation changes and berms, but the same course every time. Since it's small there's no room to pass, so the format is 5 laps -- 1 out lap, 3 timed laps (via transponders), 1 in lap, with 5 cars on track at the same time. Laps run a hair over a minute.
So I was guessing the sync errors were from the cam sensor heat soaking, it was pretty warm today and I haven't run the car hard in 95F+ temps in a while. It mostly behaved itself in the second session, but the third was a washout too. I managed to track down a spare to try out for the fourth session, and it ran great.
Compounding the problem is that when the car starts doing strange things, my inclination is to cycle the key. Doing this at sea level when it's running is fine, because the barometric sensor reading comes in at full vacuum, the computer throws it away as being out of range, and just uses 100, which is pretty much what it always is in San Jose. Not so much here in Grand Junction, and I think doing this to try to clear sync errors was massively compounding my problems.
Given that I have a GM 3 bar external MAP sensor, why do I have the MS3 running in the combo MAP/baro sensor mode, anyway? Good question, I don't know. I thought I had configured it to use both, but apparently not. I fixed that too.
I'm still not sure why the car was running 20% rich, though. I know there's a VE dropoff due to turbo working harder to make up the lower ambient pressure, but is it really that much?
I got a ride in Atomic Bettie (not pictured -- that's Igor above, which is a turbo NB. Bettie is a V8 NC). I wasn't overwhelmed by the power in it -- that's probably because it's down 80 hp (from a nominal 430) due to being a naturally aspirated car at altitude. I think the driver was taking it easy as well, he said the cars were getting pretty hot from running all day. Don't get me wrong, it was fast, it just wasn't the awesome V8 torque sensation I'd been expecting. Maybe it's harder to feel that from the passenger seat.
After 4 sessions I was hot and tired and called it a day. Plus, my truck was fixed, so I needed to go retrieve it.
Here's hoping it holds up for the trip back to California in a few days!
Running the car on FM's dyno tomorrow, will be interesting to see what it puts down at 270 kpa.
--Ian
Then when I got to the track, it started giving me sync errors in the first session. This is a little go-kart track, think of it as really being a fast autocross with elevation changes and berms, but the same course every time. Since it's small there's no room to pass, so the format is 5 laps -- 1 out lap, 3 timed laps (via transponders), 1 in lap, with 5 cars on track at the same time. Laps run a hair over a minute.
So I was guessing the sync errors were from the cam sensor heat soaking, it was pretty warm today and I haven't run the car hard in 95F+ temps in a while. It mostly behaved itself in the second session, but the third was a washout too. I managed to track down a spare to try out for the fourth session, and it ran great.
Compounding the problem is that when the car starts doing strange things, my inclination is to cycle the key. Doing this at sea level when it's running is fine, because the barometric sensor reading comes in at full vacuum, the computer throws it away as being out of range, and just uses 100, which is pretty much what it always is in San Jose. Not so much here in Grand Junction, and I think doing this to try to clear sync errors was massively compounding my problems.
Given that I have a GM 3 bar external MAP sensor, why do I have the MS3 running in the combo MAP/baro sensor mode, anyway? Good question, I don't know. I thought I had configured it to use both, but apparently not. I fixed that too.
I'm still not sure why the car was running 20% rich, though. I know there's a VE dropoff due to turbo working harder to make up the lower ambient pressure, but is it really that much?
I got a ride in Atomic Bettie (not pictured -- that's Igor above, which is a turbo NB. Bettie is a V8 NC). I wasn't overwhelmed by the power in it -- that's probably because it's down 80 hp (from a nominal 430) due to being a naturally aspirated car at altitude. I think the driver was taking it easy as well, he said the cars were getting pretty hot from running all day. Don't get me wrong, it was fast, it just wasn't the awesome V8 torque sensation I'd been expecting. Maybe it's harder to feel that from the passenger seat.
After 4 sessions I was hot and tired and called it a day. Plus, my truck was fixed, so I needed to go retrieve it.
Here's hoping it holds up for the trip back to California in a few days!
Running the car on FM's dyno tomorrow, will be interesting to see what it puts down at 270 kpa.
--Ian
#339
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 5,165
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Put the Miata on FM's dyno today.
It worked well up to 215 kpa. At 240 kpa I started having spark breakup issues, looks like I either need to gap them down or upgrade from the Toyota COPs to the GM coils. Still, it turned out 325 at the wheels at 215 kpa, which I'm not displeased by. The spoolup is slow because of the altitude and because FM's dyno doesn't given the same kind of roll-in load that a dynapack/etc does.
--Ian
It worked well up to 215 kpa. At 240 kpa I started having spark breakup issues, looks like I either need to gap them down or upgrade from the Toyota COPs to the GM coils. Still, it turned out 325 at the wheels at 215 kpa, which I'm not displeased by. The spoolup is slow because of the altitude and because FM's dyno doesn't given the same kind of roll-in load that a dynapack/etc does.
--Ian