jasonb

after 4 1/2 years of fail, fail baboon is looking for redemption in '012.


a brief history of fail

in a move to assure baking in as much fail as possible, car was an abandoned project which was then acquired through a lien sale. naturally we (codriver=papasmurf on ncr) missed the 7 day grace period with dmv to sort the paperwork and had to pay back fees to be able to register it. that 3 units of fail and the car isnt even home yet.

car is rough but it does run sort of. little bit rusty, little bit crashed 92 with a s13 sr20det. motor itself seems solid but the wiring is sketchy and it runs super lean even though all the hardware is stock. an old piggy fuel computer was offered up as a solution and we were able to finally drive it.

in quick succession, a fatcat suspension, 1.8 brakes, a tc design spec miata cage, nice seats (spg xl recaros)/harnesses were all added. after some deliberation a AIM mxl strada dash was ordered. first 6 mo of ownership were good. -1 unit of fail.

it turns out a working gas gauge can be a handy thing.



so after some reading, it turns out the fuel level sender in the miata is a pot which gives 5ohms on a full tank and 114ohms on an empty. fine, except that the AIM wants voltages. ok, i get it, that means a pullup resistor. so I read some more and there are freaks out there with like 100ohm pullup resistors. i guess they never ran the numbers to see what kind of current they are pulling through their gas tank.

I opt for a 12k resistor.

so now i have to figure out what voltages to feed the AIM setup software.

after some *** scratching and poo flinging i come up with these (in millivolt):

(12/(12000+114)*114)*1000 = 112.92

(12/(12000+114)*5)*1000 = 4.95

ok, seems to work. jumps around like crazy, but it works.


a 3.9 torsen is acquired but then progress grinds to a halt for basically the entire rest of the year.

another 6 months go by and diff got installed and and also managed to get the speedo to work, for no apparent reason than because we can. we had asked for abs axles when purchasing the diff and were able to put those to use with a hall effect sensor to feed the AIM



Sometime in '010 I managed to do a 3-2 misshift on the front straight at laguna. I've never misshifted before so I sat down and did some figgering. I guessed that the shifter placement was causing my arm to hit the seat and that was the reason I found 2nd when i was going for 4th

The trouble with the sr shifter is that it has a rubber bushing between the outer shell and the shaft. This means that if you heat up the thing to bend it the way you want you destroy the bushing. It had to be bent so i scraped out what was left of the rubber and poured a urethane bushing in its place. its a shore a 75 hardness and seems to be just about right. shifter position is perfect now, i was even able to shorten up the throw a little bit.

pusha

iTrader: (5)

in for sick nasty bro ownage

jasonb

ima have the reacharound wonder twins coming online here in a bit. i see a line forming at the rear.




one more item of fail: a sharp eye will notice the turbo to ic piping is missing. car would run but cut out when the turbo spooled. pulled off track and discovered the BOV had blown off the pipe. the weld between pipe and flange failed. this ended my 1st day of the weekend. loaded up and hightailed it back to bay area and got to the shop at 5:55 (close at 6pm) and got it welded back up. .5 fail

vehicular

iTrader: (3)

I like this thread already...

jasonb

ms3 + ms3x groks sr20det CAS as of feb 18. woohoo. ms3 isn't completely hooked up yet (its piggy on the stock ecu) but the big deal was CAS support, and thats working.

james murray for president

jasonb

still todo on the fail list. i'm still working on design, but it will be a beefier version of hingstonwm's.

Mobius

iTrader: (2)

I like this thread. 1) it's cool 2) glad to see that someone else keeps a personal fail counter, too.

Seefo

iTrader: (5)

Great stuff,

chpmnsws6

iTrader: (12)

Need a plate welded to the subframe to increase the loaded surface area.

Really impressed with the swap though. Looks fairly well thought out.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Perhaps I'm blind, but I'm not seeing the fail in this thread
Looks like WIN to me

jasonb

i'm still looking for ways to spread the load out. the front of the diff wants to tilte down so first thing i was going to try is weld a section of U stock traverse along the subframe. then take the stub the diff is mounted to and stick it inside the U and do a butt weld to keep it in place. hoping the downward force of the diff will spread out and to the subframe mounts on either side.

i'll mock up something and post a pic as soon as i get some wires back in the car lol.


18psi, ok i see i haz to convince u i haz lots of fail lol.

I bought the megasquirt the end of november '010. Just this month got it built. fail.

I received this nice box of goodies just about a year ago iirc. win. its still in the box. fail. so sad. my company moved to san diego just about this time last year and so I ended up spending 50% time down there. combine that with a few household disasters and that was it. I didn't touch the car in '011 at all.

jasonb

So here's to redemption in 012. The plan is to wire in the megasquirt with the minimal amount of body wiring to run the hazards, brakes, turns, brake master idiot, etc. ordered a fz-1 (fuzeblocks.com) today. its for bikes, but i think can fit everything on it except for the main fan.

tomorrow i'm on the hunt for source for raychem 55 wire and shielding, adhesive heat shrink and deutsch AS connectors (http://www.deutsch.net/deutsch-produ...&s=1&market=10). ok i know, i'm smoking crack on the deutsch connectors, but damn.

vehicular

iTrader: (3)

Well isn't that just the cutest thing you ever saw?


What will your circuits be? ECU power, blinker relay, high beams, low beams, brake light, interior lights? With fans on a separate fuse?

jasonb

first cut on the circuits. i'm sure i'm forgetting something....

i'm thinking 1 fuel pump ok. 2 may need to be a relay with a fuse. suck.


6 terminals of always on (30A total):
brake lights
turn lights and the blinker box
hazards and its blinker box
brake master idiot light
video camera


6 terminals of switched 12v (30A total)
main fan relay
aim dash
ecu/cops 12v/cas 12v
igniter 12v
fuel pumps
o2 sensor

lub

ftfy.

op...you're the man. #truestory.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Got your wiring diagram drawn yet? That will save you a bunch of time in the long run.

SPEC 55 is just a variation on milspec Tefzel wire. Aircraft Spruce is a great place to go for that. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/el/wire.html

RyanRaduechel

iTrader: (10)

If you could post your wiring diagram when you draw one that would be awesome. I want to go the same route with my wiring, the less the better.

jasonb

hornet thank u sir. aircraftspruce kicks ***. everything is by the foot and they have the shielded wire i was looking for for the crank and cam signals.

I will certainly document the wiring scheme i end up with but i'm not sure how useful it will be. since mine is a motor swap i'm getting rid of the engine harness and supporting wiring. the under-car harness (battery to alternator) is still in the car, but i may end up pruning that too. this is probably a lot more scorched earth than most folks would want.

Ryan, maybe check tsb'ers wiring thread, he did a nice job: https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...ht=tuck&page=3

bought some metal to reinforce subframe. it weighs 16lbs. little bit buyers remorse since i just spent a couple days removing weight.

vehicular

iTrader: (3)

I must have misunderstood the circuit diagram. I thought you had 6 total circuits, with a choice of switched or constant.

jasonb

You are totally correct sir.


2nd cut:


6 terminals total

always on (30A total):
1 brake lights/turn lights and blinker box/hazards and its blinker box/brake master idiot light/video camera
2 main fan

switched 12v (30A total)
3 fuel pump
4 aim dash/ecu/cops 12v/cas 12v
5 igniter 12v/o2 sensor/main fan relay
6 switched 2nd fuel pump (if its small) or convert to always on if there is more current available there

i'm going to need some fancy connectors to deal with all the 1:n connections.