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Not sure how effective those brake ducts are going to be given that they're 90* to the incoming air.
It will be a high pressure area so some air will enter and they can be improved by adding a funnel surround (similar to the funnels on ITBs):
Yeah, compounded by being behind that C at the bottom edge of both sides of the mouth. I wanted to avoid cutting the bumper right now, I taped off the gaps up top by the radiator to increase pressure up there with the idea being the radiator should block more air = more pressure to push through the brake ducts. I read up a lot on custom intakes where they mentioned using the above to smooth out the transition of the flow. I think you might actually have something here, if I can get my hands on some testing gear I can make one out of modeling clay and do a few laps to see how temps look compared to the unmodified side.
I wonder if those FLIR adapters for your phone are worth any weight?
Got my hands on a set of the GV front bumper extensions, they should block all flow over the tires and from what I gather they do wonders for front downforce and stabilize the car quite a bit - very noticeable over 100mph. I'll do some coasting sessions to see how she rolls before/after to gauge drag. I'd like to see better fuel economy so I have more gas for driving and use less for driving
Front white part here:
Oh, and the back part above is very similar to what HotRod mag saw w/ their 80 Camaro (see Here) which didn't reduce drag but gave -40 pounds of lift in the rear verified in the (mentioned before) A2 wind tunnel. I suspect even without sideskirts (just like the Camaro) it will also increase -lift and probably not do much for drag since the tires are already out roughly as far as the rear deflectors. Pretty impressive in my opinion.
Car Aerodynamics - A2 Wind Tunnel - Wind Camp Tech Theory
Here, Eaker is examining the stock Z28-type side spats, which did not alter the Cd but added 40 pounds of rear downforce. He thought they may be more helpful in yaw but says testing 0 degrees to the airflow gives you 75 percent of the data you'd need at slight yaw. We also tested the Moon discs, which reduced drag by two to four counts. The farther the wheels are from the outer edge of the fender, the less the discs matter.
I test-fit the deflectors and they do the job I need them to do blocking all but the bottom bit of tire due to camber, the install looks like it'll be a little more involved than I thought requiring removing at least the lip to install them but there's quite a few attachment points so they shouldn't deflect.
Picked up a pair of 3rd gen Saturn SL1s, one being a parts car and a steal at 250 bucks. Going to gut that and pour the parts into the other as well as my GF and a friends cars. Should only be a shell when we're done with it. If I had the time I'd refurb and flip it since there's a few bent? valves. Oh well :P
I thought those trumpets were only effective when used in vacuum?
I wonder... that may be the case. We're going off the 'it works in intakes' idea, but since intakes are (mostly) in vacuum... do they hurt flow at pressure? I'd think not but maybe I need to read more on them.
Got the car aligned on Friday, thought my GV extensions walked away off my front steps but UPS had the wrong delivery address so I tracked it down to a house a block away. WHEW!
Trial fitment test. From the front, you can see both tires completely obstructed - I'm excited to try these out!
From the side; they fit the form of the bumper quite well, just need to get hardware to attach them and figure out HOW they attach, it looks like after predrilling some holes the lip goes onto the extensions first and then as one onto the car.
Got the alignment corrected after a short stint offroading from snap oversteer, no damage but the bolts did slip a bit so it had to be adjusted again.
My alignment bolts have slipped several times. My NB isn't working right now (otherwise I would try them) but Flying Miata now has an eccentric "locking" kit that is supposed to prevent that from happening.
So! I experienced my second Main Relay failure tonight, not the best feeling in the world since I replaced the thing in July (16th to be exact). Going to order some spares...
I have the DW pump wiring stuff, I just haven't had the motivation to install it. Probably something I'll be doing next Spring though to reduce load on that circuit. The increased loads from my DW300 are probably popping it prematurely.
Greased the bushings last night and found my rear upper inside zerks are reachable but I can't get the fitting to stay attached. I'll have to pull them and either put longer zerks in or clearance the material around the installed zerks to get the gun on the thing.
Also, the passenger side brake duct just barely dragged on the inside lip of the wheel and rubbed a small area through except the coils. Another thing to address next year. Le sigh~
Going to put my TSE EFR downpipe (for NA) up on the marketplace here soon. Probably going to sell the hardlines as well since I don't need them, will update here with a link once posted.
I had a downpipe made by an exhaust shop to get the car to FM, I don't think I'll actually use it and could use the money. The hardlines I'm on the fence about, nothing wrong with the parts themselves.
I've been working on the Miata a lot lately, but haven't been motivated to update the thread; I have quite a bit of an update to do now lol..
I have been running my 205/50/15 star specs (z1) on my 15x8 wheels up until yesterday. The ride was very rough on the pothole ridden Minnesota roads, so I decided to get some 225s on there stat. Lucky for me, one of our local AutoX guys was selling some used Rivals (roughly 5/32 tread remaining) with chipping on one shoulder from a sway bar hitting it. He was selling them at $180 so needless to say I jumped on that steal. I am now running them 32f/34r with the chipped tire on the back (less camber) and there is zero noise whatsoever (lucky me!), I haven't had a chance to really push the tires though because we've gotten about 4" of rain in the last week here, all the good roads are too wet
I also have an NB subframe, knuckles, UCAs and steering rack for an NA-NB conversion for that sweet, sweet free caster+camber. I'll be holding off on doing said conversion until I change my suspension setup from Illuminas and FM Ground Control setup to a true coilover setup. I was thinking something like the vmaxx adjustables, though if I can find a used set of AFCOs...
This was only REALLY brought into consideration when I was checking clearance on my SS lines against the rivals and noticed they were hitting the UCAs under full lock, just enough to damage the plastic sleeve. We took a pry bar to the brake line mounts and pried them closer to the UCA bushings and rotated the banjo fittings down a bit. While doing this and dropping the car, I noticed the spring bushing was a little kinked and upon closer inspection I noticed both front ground control sleeves had partially compressed and folded over a bit, changing the spring's angle vs the shock. I took a block of wood and knocked it back into place, but it's a problem nevertheless.
The Hydra is now operating on NB triggers with minimal issue; the main issue is a misfire FM says only happens under lugging conditions (3k or lower rpm). My main issue is it happens a lot during cruise and I'd be worried about it happening at the track (it's a temporary full loss of power, I'd hate for that to happen while apexing an off-camber corner..) - I am going to invest in an NB cam sensor and replace mine (the harness plug was broken off at some point on mine) and switch to that setup, I just can't deal with the misfire issue anymore.
I've also put some of that frost king duct insulation on the inside of my FM turbo filter shield, it still gets quite hot so I'll probably line the outside of it as well. My goal with this is to help reduce intake air temps, and to further help this I want to run a NACA duct driver's light panel to bring in some cold air. I was also considering putting some louvers on the hood immediately following the headlight panel above the air filter to extract hot air, creating a constantly flowing rush of cold air around the air filter, while minimally affecting drag with positive pressure going into the headlight NACA duct, any residual pressure is spit out the louvers towards the windshield reducing the amount of vacuum following the louvers while at motion. Thoughts on this? I will be replacing my dented hood so I'm probably going to give it a shot, no idea what louvers would look best though.
Other mods done so far this year:
-Pioneer AVH-P3100DVD double-din touch screen deck (from my old car)
-Alpine MRV-F400 4-channel amp (behind driver's seat)
-Pioneer 6.5" coaxials in front (can't remember model, they're used from a friend)
-Tite-Seal sound damping (peel-n-seal like product at menards)
-Frost King duct insulation (closed cell foam) heat and sound damping
+Both of the above were used on the doors (inside+out skins), trunk floor and around gas tank as well as on the floor and tranny tunnel. I intend to do the firewall when/if I pull the dash in the future, this is to keep things livable with no A/C. This stuff weighs so little that I doubt I added more than 10lbs. Cornerweight showed 2470 with 160lbs of dead weight before I did the floor/tunnel in a single layer of each. Car is MUCH quieter with a reasonable single coating of both materials.
-Reflectix heat and sound damping (both floor pans and tranny tunnel) - Combined with the above damping, there is minimal footwell furnace now when under boost! The reflectix did most of the work though. I will get some material to line the inside of the tunnel as well to help cut more heat out since it's likely mostly radiated heat of the hot tunnel metal that's making it in now. Debating makeshifing a shield to keep the tranny cool from exhaust heat as well.
-ALARM+REMOTE START - Huge, hoping to deter further thieves.
-Modded trunk lock to allow counter-clockwise spin to disable console release lever inside the car.
I have pulled a rear shelf panel off another car to cut holes and mount either 2x 8" or 10" subs firing forward (into the seats). The goal here is to fill the empty bottom and mid-range with the top down. There are up-firing options but the sound wave goes up and out of the car w/ the top down, firing into the seats pushes the soundwave forward. Well, that's the idea anyway.
For the parcel shelf, etc. did you put the peel-n-seal down first, then the duct king? I am looking to mimic this on my parcel shelf and behind the seats since it seemed like you had pretty decent luck.
It's been a long season, with moving out and the strange weather things have been largely quiet regarding the car. I ordered a 3.308 gearset to replace my 3.909, since they're a unicorn set I am considering going to an OSG diff. Up in the air at this point on if I get one or stick it out with the TorsenII. I am also on the fence between changing cams to 252/256 tomei from 949 or sticking it out with the 264/264 and going nitrous wet shot to improve spool. Probably going to swap cams as there's a big investment in electronics for nitrous..
08-30-2016, 06:11 AM
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