ofspunk7

So last project before my tune. I wanted to wire up a new power setup for the GPS unit I have coming from aidandj. Instead of pulling existing power from somewhere I decided to add a new setup. I also ended up spending a bunch of more money on electronics because .... well because racecar. LOL

So father's day present from my wife... Dremel 4000. We I technically ordered it and then asked her if she wanted to make it my gift. LOL
Painless Performance 3 switch fuse and relay setup
2 - USB power ports
A Female / Female USB cable for tuning
USB cable for powering the GPS Unit (GPS unit pending arival)
USB cable to power the Samsung Tablet 3 7" that I picked up for $40 from a friend (not pictured)
V1 radar detector (not pictured) to hardwire in


This is the switched fuse and relay setup. Pretty MINT if you ask me


USB Power. 1 for the dash and 1 hidden behind the glovebox for the GPS unit


Time to get working!


I decided to mount the fused power next to my ECU. Not sure if this was a good idea or not yet. I will have to do some work to remove a fuse if it blows.... but right now I figure it is a few screws and bolts so no big deal. Using velcro again to mount it.


Since I was adding power anyways, I figured it was time to upgrade my power connector. The OEM one had seen better days.


This is the V1 mounted and the USB power for the GPS unit. I ran them up the trim and across the window.

ofspunk7

So.... i setup my wires and hidden USB to power the GPS. This is during the process of tucking wires and getting ready to wrap it all up.


V1 power mounted in this nice void behind the glovebox


Where I "thought" the USB power was going to end up.... THOUGHT being the key word.


Then I attempted to put in the glovebox. I thought everything was out of the way and I was really wrong. So clipped a bunch of zipties and started over. Here is where everything ended up behind the glovebox. It looks a lot better too.


There were two power wires that I was concerned about wear on with the ECU metal plate being removed and installed. So I cut some vac line and made some added protection for my wires to make sure there was no concerns about rubbing.


Also, time to get rid of the $1o gauge pod wire setup I had. This is my first time using a dremel and I am not great with metal work. I am 100% certain that I am going to redo this plate. I think I should have used more templates vs just going for it. It doesn't look bad. However, the mini-Jeff Buck in my head (OCD) is going to make me perfect this. For now it will do. No more projects before Wednesday's dyno time.


Finished product.
Water Gauge
AEM Gauge
USB Power
Female Tuning Port




I murdered the cut on the USB port.... well i murdered all the cuts as I was learning my dremel skills. All of those are hidden by trim. The USB will bug me. I made a trim peice out of a unused plastic cover for Cable TV for the house. I dremeled it down, made mounting holes. Cut a cleaner USB hole for it. Dipped it black..... and my screws were a hair too short to thread the bolts I had. ACE Hardware isn't open at 1am, so I am going to live it it until I make a new tombstone plate.

ofspunk7

So my day was interesting. At one point I thought I was going home with a light wallet and an untuned car. However, things turned around.

So, I showed up with a 20 PSI spring in my EWG. The EWG had been sitting a while and I had not run ALLOFIT in the car pre-dyno day. So low and behold the EWG was seized when we started to do pulls. The turbo would start to spool and then just jump up to 30 PSI and boost cut. We knew something was wrong. So did some checking and testing and figured out it was my 38mm TIAL. I didn’t have my tools and the dyno didn’t have (or seem to have) the tools to remove my EWG. So we ended up just popping off the top. During which I proceeded to drop 2 allen keys into the depths of the dyno floor (oil + dirt + random car juices). I also shot my EWG top into my firewall and put some scratches in my new paint job. Oh well, it happens. So the valve was seized. We could not move it with our fingers. There was talk of waiting until I could replace it. Then I suggested running no springs and just the top to use boost to break it free. IT WORKED!!! However, because the EWG was still on the car (and I am weak) we could not get the 20 PSI setup back in the EWG. So 5 PSI spring was the only other option. So we ran with it and cranked the MBC up until the boost stopped coming.

TO DO List:
Rebuild EWG
Retune with 15 – 17 PSI spring to get us into the high 20’s. The tuner was pretty sure that we could easily run into the 30’s with this setup… but I only had Reverant run a 29 PSI MAF, so we will stay in the high 20’s

Oh, and I picked up my gas from Quick Trip and not Holiday so it ended up testing at E70 and not E85. I will have to fix that mistake when we retune.

ofspunk7

I realize I said 236 in the video, I am not sure if I fat fingered that or if he did....

ofspunk7

Took a 3 hour ride through SE Minnesota and SW Wisconsin. I found some twisty roads, got to enjoy the new setup a bit. Brakes are wonderful! Tune is a lot of fun. I will really push it on the track day I am hosting Friday (the 10th) for the MN Nissian and Infinity club (GTR's!!!). Then I am guessing I will start thinking about pulling that EWG to polish it up and toss in some anti-seize.

My buddy (who some of you know from the Subaru world, Xluben) decided to wake up at 4:30am and drive over to my house to join me for my cruise. He snapped a few pics on the Wisconsin side.

ofspunk7

Friday I hosted a Performance Driving School track night for Minnesota Nissan and Infinity Club. Lots of Z's and G's at this event. One heavily modified GTR running a prototype Modern Automotive Performance build. That car shook the ground when it took off from the paddock. I loved every moment of it. I brought a buddy who runs snowboard comps with me in the winter. He helped run the show to allow me to sneak out for 5 sessions in the Miata throughout the night. I love the power. Got sideways once mashing the gas too early before I was pointed. I have to get more track time with throttle modulation. I had a much better understanding of the powerband as the night progressed. Hit the grass one coming over a crested turn. It was one of those moments where grass to a nice paved runoff was a better call than trying to correct a front wheel going off track. My cone workers were happy to give me **** as I rolled by on the unused paved part of the course (my run off). All in all the car worked great. I noticed more pad transfer in my front Wilwoods than my rear 1.8 swap I just did. So i need to sort that out. My StarSpecs did good, but they are old and tired. So, I spent some money.



Got home at 11:30 pm. Woke up at 4:30am and went on a cruise I setup. Myself + 240 + G35 and a EvoX. We attacked some nice twisty roads while the sun came up. Perfect morning for it. Then I was back home before the kids woke up!

I have to say I love this car. So much more fun on the track than my 09 WRX Hatch was.

Oh, i also felt great about the track night. The Northstar BWM VP came to check out our event and see how they could improve theirs. He heard we had a good thing going. They are a very big name for local track days in MN. He also offered to help instruct anytime we wanted him. Which means I am doing something right. Then MNNI asked me to host another track night for them before the night was over. MN Time Attack is asking us to host track nights in Aug. MN BMW also asked me to run a track night for them. So... Lots of free track time coming this season! I am just happy that i seemed to find a formula that works. My team and our approach, to make it as affordable as possible is really drawing lots of attention.

ofspunk7

RUBBER!

18psi

iTrader: (76)

Very cool man, Congrats on solid power and a fun car.

ofspunk7

Thanks man. I am going back on forth on if I should enjoy the power I have now and get some seat time in. Or put in the 15psi EWG spring and go rent the dyno again and push 8 more PSI though the turbo. It was a fair amount of power on the track. However, I didn't feel overwhelmed or out of control. So maybe push it?!?!?

Either way. New rubber goes on tonight and an alignment.

ofspunk7

Well.... I had a good plan and 20% chance of rain. Had to drive across the metro for the rubber to be mounted and car aligned.

My starting point


After stopping under a bridge in rush hour traffic 4 miles from my destination.... I had to think quick to avoid more downpour in my car. Traffic was going 5mph, maybe.... Maybe less.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

whoever said miata's are not practical hahaha

ofspunk7

The techs at the shop got a good laugh. I am sure the people in rush hour passing me thought I was crazy while I was swapping the tires around.

jimmyneutron

Haha that is awesome! I just wish I could prop you for that! Getting really jealous of everyone's going cars. Love the gold wheels on white

ofspunk7

Thanks man. I am very happy the car is up and running.

I did a quick edit of some Kart footage from last Aug. I figured I would share. It was part of my cousin's bachelor party.

ofspunk7

If anyone local is looking for an event, I just posted two we are hosting in Aug.


Test and Tune Event - Thursday Aug 13th
https://www.facebook.com/events/483285181835565/

Time Attack Event - Friday Aug 21st
https://www.facebook.com/events/1687875638108053/

ofspunk7

Well I will start off with the spoiler because I am very happy with what Adam and I came up with. He is a great person to work with. He did a great job helping me obtain this final product, and he had no idea who Wu-Tang was. Which made it even more amazing when he shot me some of the idea's he had.

Introducing: Shaolin Miata Warbird!





Fuel Gauge is now the Beez Gauge





RPMs with the Wu-Tang Shaolin Symbol





Oil Pressure is now Chambers... notice the 36!



Speedo rocking the Upside Down Wu-Miata

ofspunk7

Water Temp is now the That **** Gauge

Roll That ****
Light That ****
Smoke That ****






The HVAC ended up getting done too! I took some ideas from other HVAC Adam had.

The Fan has a Rasta Rising Sun
The Temp Gauge also has a Rasta theme going Cold to Hot with a Wu W in the middle
I loved the convertable open air and recycle he did on another HVAC system so I asked him to toss that in
Then the final peice.... who needs to know where the air flow is. All you need to know is that Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin To **** With

ofspunk7

So... found some interesting things when doing this project. First of all, one of the previous owners took the gauge hood off, poorly. Granted this is a 25 year old car and 25 year old cheap plastic. However, at 1, 2, 3am... it sucks to find.

My first clue something was wrong. Random glue in the screw hole, and no screw.


Then I sat down in the driver's seat. Following Adam's awesome write up on this website I got in a good position to pull off the hood. I made sure to take my time to think about how and where to pull. I wanted to save my tabs.

Only to find out that they had already been broken off by the previous owner.


Empty hood.... but the tabs were still there. So this is hope right?!?!? They were glued on once, maybe I can keep this hood alive!






NOPE! First one crumbled in my needle nose when I tried to pull it off (by the metal clip). I figured if I avoided putting pressure on the plastic I could save it. So I still had hope. The middle clip is used my fingers, and it crumble just touching it. The third clip I also used my finger but took way toooooooo much time pulling it off. I did get it off with only a small peice being broken.



Also noticed that this dust shield was busted off.



I forgot to snap a pic. But the whole plastic peice on the bottom was missing. There was the two mounting points, but the plastic between was MIA. So everything over the steering column was gone. Which means that I have to save the 1 clip!

I glued the last clip on, but it failed when I attempted to install it. When I snapped these pics I still had hope.

ofspunk7

So I decided to attempt to attach the top of the hood via these two holes and a zip tie!



Made holes in the hood




Yeah, so things got worse. The hole fit a zip tie on the work bench. However, the angle was differnt in the car. So I was attempting to push the zip tie head through the hole... and 25 years of age got the best of me and the plastic hood.



So gorilla tape, because 3am and knowing my daughter is going to wake up in 4 hours... well I thought. She woke up at 5:45am and I hit the bed around 4am - 4:30am. Yet for some reason I am writing this instead of napping right now while she is sleeping.



My chaos of a work station.


Gauges on


Picked up a used window switch from Planet Miata. My windows currently take 2 - 15 attempts to roll up or down. I hope this fixes it. I forgot to test it out last night. I just installed it and put it all back together.



I didn't take HVAC pics. It was like 2:45am when I started the HVAC work and decided to just bust *** on the install and try and get it done and still catch some sleep.


Oh and this.

ofspunk7

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