It's because most cars have mushy bushings, tame book settings and numb steering. The Miata takes a bit of finesse to make it drive well due to these and many factors.

I find it easiest to bring the tech a hard number I want as opposed to a range.

 

I think I should be ok on getting a good alignment. The guy I used in Cedar City has been doing them for 30 years. Old man river type fellow who does everything old school. He only uses the shops machines to verify his alignment and print out the specs for the customers.


What I AM considering, or I should say my father is offering to help me with, is putting the miata on a flatbed and taking it to a dyno and get a full tune done by a guy who has a shop near Vegas speedway.

Guys name is Dynodan(Home Page) and has been tuning for 20 years. Most people in the area recommend him. I'm assuming he has experience with MS ECUs, and using TS, but I need to give him a call first.

While I do want to learn how to do the tuning myself in TS. I think it would be nice to have it done correctly once, and learn as I go afterwards. Plus I'd rather not get a ticket doing pulls on public roads. I haven't gotten a ticket since I was 17, and I'd rather keep that clean record going.

 

Man I hope I never have to do the rears again. The pinch welds on the lip makes it a bitch to get it smooth.

Lesson learned when rolling fenders. Never forget to apply your heat. Roll a 3" section, heat it back up, roll it again, heat it back up....for every part of the lip. Every time I decided I was better than that logic I got a tiny crack in the paint.

Saying that, I only cracked the paint about 4-5 times all together. Luckily it is on the inside of the lip, so you don't really notice. I put a little touch up paint in the cracks to help stop it from possibly growing as well.

Before, there is so much damn material on the rears!



All bent up after about 10 passes



Picture makes it look worse than it is. The pinch welds make it look really uneven but you can only see it when you are looking up at them.



Should have no issues with clearance





Glad that is over with!

 

DRIVE YOUR CAR!

 

Those fat meats look so sexy on there.

 

My tune is *****! I want to, trust me.

 

Looks like a job well done. Now, DRIVE YOUR CAR!

 

The more you drive, the better the tune will get.

 

For fuel tuning, I'll take TS VEA or VEAL any day over a dyno tune. The only reason to go to the dyno is to finalize a spark map in my opinion.

Let me amplify. DRIVE YOUR CAR TO MY HOUSE AND ROLL THE FENDERS ON MY RED CAR!

 

autotune, then hand smooth it out, then repeat those two over and over and over like eleventy billion times, and you have yourself a flawless ve table.

 

Isn't that your track car? Rubber mallet the hell out of it. Or just cut the excess off.

 

PO already hammered the rears so he could fit 205's on 15x6.5. (Seriously, WTF?!?).

It's getting 225s on 15x9s now. It needs your touch, baby!

 

Ugh I bet that looks like hell. I respect the people who do fender rolling and make it look easy. It is a pain in the *** to do.

I wish I would have held out for some 6ul 25x9s to come back in stock but I got a really good deal on my wheels.

Going to check why spark #4 isn't firing tonight and hopefully get it sorted out. I hope it is just the spark plug and not the harness.

 

Tested the COP harness and had continuity through all 4 connectors and the Power Unit. So that isn't the issue.

Time to put the harness back in and the new spark plugs and turn it over.

 

Please do still verify that the MS is firing all 4 cylinders...

 

Easiest way to check this? Or shall I say would I check wiring or software side of things.

 

Hmm I just saw the test modes section of Tunerstudio. Would running the injector and spark give me a clue without running the engine?

 

Yes.

Run the test mode with the ignition on. It'll confirm if the outputs are working.

 

Tested spark and injectors and all 4 are firing just fine.

So I started the motor and still no luck on cyl #4. I pulled the plug and looked in the hole after I started it up and it was pretty wet with fuel in there still.

Timing is showing around 2-4 degrees at idle. Could MS still be the issue or do I need to do a compression check now.

 

Timing should be 12-14 at idle - but that isn't you problem looks like there is an other problem that keeps you from firing nr. 4...