Slowly making progress on the outstanding issues. I was looking for a 3.9 rear end and found one loaded with a os giken. win/win. Pulled the 4.3 this week and got the new rear end installed. Thankfully I had some of the unicorn tear fluid left over from the fiat build.

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Well, the differential swap didn't go great.

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I am unsure if the differential mount or reinforced arm failed first. Looking at the arm the welds weren't great, so maybe it? Either way it pulled the threads out of the differential mount and ruined my weekend. I picked up another mount and another reinforced housing. I'll carry a spare differential with me going forward.

I continue to chase a braking issue. Resizing the master and changing pads moved it in the right direction, however under heavy braking I still seem to have some air in the system. I took the time to setup my laptop with INPA and will be going through the BMW bleed sequence. Hopefully it cares for it. The motive bleeder is not yielding any results. I'll load the CSL programming into the pump while at it.

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Slowly finding the next weak point, week after week.

Ouch, sorry to see your hard work undone!

Bleeding this system sucks. From my experience and from reading info somewhere, I learned that the INPA bleed sequence is for bleeding air out of the module, not for bleeding the lines. The last time I successfully bled the system, I did the INPA bleed for each line, then went around the car again and bled the lines by the traditional two-person pedal-and-wrench method.. There was a big knot of foam in the lines from where the INPA bleed pushed air out of the module. My humble suggestion would be to do this a couple times - INPA bleed, followed by the traditional pedal-pumping bleed. Keep a sharp eye on your master, the last thing you want to do is suck air into the system just as you think you've got it bled. BTDT. I've also heard that some people drive around and make the ABS activate as part of their bleed process. It's probably not recommended, but since I was just bleeding the system, I recycled the non-foamy fluid back into the master as I was bleeding.

I hear you! I feel like I'm in the same boat right now with my build. Thankfully only one scary weak point so far.

This actually makes me feel a bit better that it isn't something I am missing/am on the right track. I cycled all the circuits a couple times, did a 2 man bleed, and hooked the powerbleeder back up. The pedal feels great, but it always has stationary. I'll more than likely do it again and hope for the best. It will be nice to get this one figured and put it behind me.

I got the CSL programming loaded into the abs pump as well. The last step was calibrate the sensors (pressure and yaw.) I definitely didn’t do that previously. Unsure if that had much of an impact. Probably not optimal…

side quest: I picked up a couple year old thinkpad as a dedicated car/tuning/event laptop. My previous unit was small and didn’t like loading maps over WiFi. This unit is doing it no problem. It is crazy how much better/enjoyable a 15” laptop is at viewing the haltech software.

Ah...it made a national event, made all the runs, and drove onto the trailer at the end. progress. The new differential worked out well this time and i got data that shows my top second gear speed is at 74mph, right where I wanted it to be. I'm still getting up to speed on what a prepared car is capable of, but was on pace day 2, so no real complaints.

I'm still driving around a braking issue. The bleed procedure gave me a consistent pedal so that is a step in the right direction. I am going to toss some new rotors (the ones on it were second hand) on the front and see if I can move the needle a bit more.

Nut and bolt on the car after Bristol. It is fair to say I over power KPower's differential mount. I shot them a note that I am pulling the threads out of the 6061 but didn't get much help. Also, seeing where it is bending after the first bolt lets loose I believe there are some opportunities in extending the 45 to the end of the mount. At least that way it isn't wrecking differential housings when it lets go.

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I was already exploring alternatives and had a buddy cut me a couple of mounts out of 7075. Going to give it a go, should be 2x as strong, might be enough, might not. Next options are steel inserts or just making the bottom mount piece out of steel. After that I will throw it in the trash and move to a 8.8.

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Removed the NVH ring from the differential. Andrew told me I should while the differential was out last time. I didn't, so of course it was loose at the next event.

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Here is the day 2 run from Bristol. Good enough for 3rd in XP behind Eric and Randall.

One thing I have never been happy with on the car was the transmission mount. It was aluminum box that sandwiched the frame rails. The shock loads from the dog box seemed to overwhelm it and pulling it out showed that to be the case as it was bent to shit.

picture to show previous setup.


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In comes Precision Welding and Fabrication in Vine Grove, KY. My schedule has been nutty between work and events so I chose to outsource this one. Im glad I did. While I could have managed something myself i would not have been as happy as this end result. I dropped the car off of Monday evening and picked it up Wednesday evening. Super happy with the result and it is much more substantial than what was in the car.


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Hauled the car to Lincoln this week for the pro finale/nationals. It has been a mixed bag honestly.

my 3.9 with the giken in it locked up on my Saturday afternoon runs. It started acting like it had a spool in it. All bad. Drained the 1 event fluid and it was dark as hell but didn’t have anything in it. I’ll wait to diagnose when I get home.


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I swapped my 4.3 in and now I am questioning if I went the wrong way with the gearing. I dropped considerable time and ended up 4th in class. Not quite where I want to be but it was good enough to secure a year end trophy. Given the grief I’ve had shaking the car down it feels like a small win


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A couple days rest and we will see what it does Thursday/Friday at nationals.

The car made it through it's first season with some headaches. I have been formulating my offseason plan for a bit and parts are starting to roll in. This should keep me busy.

Converting from the racing beat swaybar to a small fortune racing tubular. The bar hasn't arrived yet, however I have made some headway in grinding out the old mounts in preparation for it's arrival.

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I have been using about 20' of ramps to get the car on the trailer with the 3" splitter. I want to redo it this offseason to take advantage of the ruleset a bit more and the mounting solution wasn't going to cut it. I picked up some of the professional awesome mounts to make for tool-less removal.

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I'm done messing with the miata differential.

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Finally, anyone that says miatas don't fuel starve is a flat out liar, isn't running the fuel demands of e85, or isn't making power. I have had issue after issue with fuel starvation and need to run a 1/2 tank. Tried a new stock fuel stock, check and double checked the positioning, and repositioned/extended the return. Radium came out with this and I am going to give it a shot prior to plumbing in a surge tank.

Fuel Pump Hanger, 89-05 Mazda MX-5

I did the siphon mod as per Bronson's suggestion and that seems to have solved my slosh/starve issues on steady state left handers when under a half tank. YRMV.

Oh, forgot to put this here. This is what I found when I opened up my giken. It sounded like a maraca when I pulled it from the housing. Guess I know why.

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The splitter on the car was 3" and there was some room to take advantage of the rules a bit more. They allow a 6" splitter, I settled for 5" to not push it. Trip to racer depot for a sheet of birch and a compass for the extension.

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I still need to figure out the rear support. Utilizing the 9lr mount the rear end of the splitter seemed to ride to low relative to the front. Not sure if that was a result of my front mounting solution/ or the 2 piece design of the splitter. I have seen angle iron on the subframe but that would position it in a similar. Think I will start there and see what it gets me. Easy enough to change and seems to be a common solution from others. Open to suggestions on rear support options.

This project has continued. Ended up using a piece of angle I had laying around for the rear support

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and found the position for the front mounts.

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I put the car on the ground to check the splitter height. It is fine, but a bit floppy without the front mounts. The goal of this is to be removable, so I'll be replacing the previous front mounts with some quick release rods.

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Everything came back off and the air dam support was attached with elevator bolts

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Then some finishing work with the sander/router

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Pretty happy with how it turned out, need to figure out a coating. Half tempted to stain the wood and leave the grain showing. Other half just says just spray bomb it.

Geeze, how much do all those bolts weigh? Do you really need all that hardware to hold the airdam in place? At least cut the bastards shorter!

Otherwise, nice job! Just paint it, but one coat only, weight y'know ...

Eh, probably don't need all of them but I don't like the idea of open spacing and ballast up as is. They are low durability m6 elevator bolts so fairly light. Ill need to be strategic with the support rod pucks to.keep them off the ground as they will not survive.

The setup as is is 17-18lbs lighter than the 9 lives unit that came off if it. Tells me I will not be using a truck bed coating, that is for sure.

What length did you go with their universal splitter mounts?

medium.

Spray bomb it is. Highly recommend the "turbo" can for this job. Made quick work of it.

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Support rods added.

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...and done

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I like swaybars in sphericals. Less maintenance, less binding, and with the right arms more adjustment range. Picked up this guy and got around to getting it installed. I had already cut out the old mounts so it was fairly straight forward.

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I did need to drill out the arms as the links provided were for standard hardware and a tad bit small for the m10 949 links. Really wish the black option was available in these.

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But...Houston we have a problem. I knew my old swaybar was pushed slightly forward on the mounts and thought this could be a problem. Well, it is. I was ALMOST able to sneak the cold side pipe past it but it isn't happening. Cold side will need to be remade. Womp womp.

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