Catalytic converters effect o2 percentages. That's why oem's have sensors before and after cats to ensure they are working properly.

I just doublechecked, that was the flexjoint I was thinking about not the cat. Both widebands are pre-cat.

Gauge and LC-2 correlate to the same readings (12.2-12.4) while ECU was reporting the 11-11.2 while plugged into the LC-2. Scaling is setup correctly and it's set to Gasoline. Considering re-calibrating unless someone has a suggestion.

How are you reading the LC-2 output?

Hydra built in wideband?

I am changing the settings and viewing the afr via Logworks and LM Programmer as well as the gauge (set to 0v=7.4, 5v=22.4), the Hydra I am grabbing from it's own sensor and via the software dashboard on my laptop.

Innovate thinks it might be the sensor, since my sensor calibrated but was not even so much as warm let alone hot to the touch.. Going to try re-calibrating tonight.

I re-calibrated my Hydra L2H2 sensor and then did a re-calibration of the LC-2's 4.9 sensor and I am now within half a point of one another (eg; 12.5:1 on Hydra, 13:1 on LC-2) which is much better. I let the LC-2 sensor run through it's calibration, then I let it sit for a while to get things nice-n-hot and pulled the plug and re-calibrated while hot. I'm going to try re-calibrating the LC-2 again after work giving it further time to get heated up.

I also grabbed the 25-row Setrab to eyeball some locations for installation. There's not much room between the radiator and engine so vertical is out, wheel wells are dedicated to the brake ducts and I don't think above the IC in front of the Radiator would work due to space constraints. This leaves a horizontal install as my best option for an easy-install project. As you can see from the pictures there is good spacing between the undertray and the radiator shroud so I will lay the cooler flat, route the houses in/out on the forward facing side to avoid dealing with the engine and I will mount it using the steering rack bolts and radiator shroud. The air will be pulled from the engine bay through the cooler and dumped out the bottom of the undertray via a duct with a plastic gurney flap to encourage airflow if necessary. I need to get some extra line and a 205* thermostat yet.

While I was under the car, I found I have two leaks identified so far. One on the front end as pictured and another in the back that I believe is the dipstick O-ring. I'm REALLY hoping the front leak isn't the FMS that I didn't swap out on the oil pump..

Fabbed up some prototype brackets to mount the 25row Setrab oil cooler. Due to space constraints it will lay flat and have the fittings facing forward and I will cut a hole in the undertray to evacuate heat - I may add a rubber flap to act as a gurney and draw more air through if necessary (unlikely). It's quite oversize for my application but that helps offset the big hit in efficiency from my positioning. Need to order a 205* tstat yet though, I still have a 180* heh.

3 hours at the dog park yesterday and she was still waiting on me for a walk before my work outside... This let me pull an all-nighter to get the cooler mounted and look into some of the leaking issues as well as get the house ready for rental inspection on Tuesday.

And here's the final mounting point for the cooler. I have a plan to duct the gap between the cooler and the undertray using four L shaped panels that attach to the tray from underneath and either butt up against or sit next to the cooler. I plan to add hood vents this winter so there will be significant up-flowing air through the engine bay and I expect this will cause some air under the undertray to bleed up through the duct through the cooler and up and out. Definitely a weird angle that will significantly kill flow but I can always add a pair of 4" spal fans down the line if need be. The cooler is still quite large so I don't expect this to be necessary.

Knew I should have replaced this thing. What are the odds I can get the timing belt on and set without pulling the valve cover? I somehow doubt I can get the tensioner back on without pulling it and I just don;t wanna. :td:

Old seal pulled, National seal installed using a FM installer tool. Timing is set, just need to put the front covers and valve cover back on.

Spent most of Sunday cleaning the house/garage in prep for the rental inspection but I managed to squeeze in a little Miata time. Engine is all back together, I need to replace the O-ring(s) on the dipstick.

Ordered a 205* Mocal tstat from TSE, while I was poking around I checked out 949racing's site and would you look at that, the street twin FW is available for purchase. Guess I'll be figuring out when to install that next Spring.. Ordered some AN8 hose and fittings as well as a bunch of line separators so I can route this mess back to the sandwich. I ordered two 90* male/male fittings because that sharp and crowded of a bend is probably going to suck with that size line.

Oh, and a local buddy and Miata specialist hooked me up with a seal puller and the FM front main installer. He's picking up a MSM that has ABS on it -- I am heavily considering picking up the whole assembly to swap into Red. Requires a lot of parts...

I have activated the VVT feature and I've been working on getting it dialed in, so far I appear to have it pretty darn close. I have an issue where the target is several degrees more advanced than the actual cam, not sure if that's normal or what the deal is here...?

A few new issues;
-Random misfiring/hesitation - I suspected this was too much dwell for the coils and reduced my dwell but this didn't really fix the issue. Under random load I get almost what sounds like a machinegun sounding misfire. Bad coil maybe? POSSIBLY a bad cam sensor which I hear goes out on the VVT cars? I need to capture this in the trigger testing...
-Car is running into issues with VVT where if I push in the clutch while cruising the car may die. The car also runs choppy when it flares up the RPMs for cooling fan anticipates. I had to fatten up fueling to get it to smooth out it's behavior
-Valve cover is weeping oil on the hotside - Meh.

Got my hopes up when I pulled the plugs and found oil from pulling the VC last week. Cleaned the plugs and the wells real well and went for a drive, it drives better (still stalls with clutch out and VVT active) but I still have some misfiring under load (8-10psi). Going to pickup another set of coils from the scrap yard, hopefully in better condition and also get some new plugs to see if either are the culprit.

I should note I upgraded the firmware on the Hydra from r87 to r88 at the same time I activated my unlock. I might try rolling back the firmware if nothing else works.

Looks like I picked up the wrong size hose and fittings for my cooler, guess I'll shelve that for a transmission cooler down the line..

I hammered out a heatsink for my L2H2 wideband for the Hydra, it's intended to reduce heat going into the o2 sensor. It's not really required in this location and mostly for bungs put very close to the turbo but I had nothing else going on and I stumbled on a 1" copper T union one thing lead to another...

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Ignore the exhaust shop screwup aka those ugly 'welds'.

10AN hoses cut to length and fittings attached. The Mocal fittings are real nice stuff, you can feel the quality of them in their weight alone. Most AN fittings I try to re-use have a tendency to gall the threads when I pull them apart but the Mocal ones came out with just some mild finish scuffing - Good because they are $$$. Put some cut hose around areas that might rub to avoid damage to the lines and mounted it up with my 180* tstat. I have a 205* coming from TSE later this week that goes on during my next oil change. Undertray mounted and the lines clear, I have some hose separators coming in today to lock things down. I'll hold off on cutting the duct hole until next year, time crunch with work and oncall coming up.

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Took the car out tonight and did some pulls while Lacey was running high resolution logging and trigger tests. Trigger tests came back clean, TPS was good as well and there was no Knock to indicate retard. AFR and Advance looks good and it looks like it really wants to build boost but hits a wall at 10-15psi. The AFR goes slightly lean as the misfire is happening but only 1/2 to 3/4 of a point. Boost cut is set to 18psi and the WGA arm is set around 14-16psi and the car never sees 18psi so it's not that. Best we can tell at least one of the coils is missing so I have a lead out on some coils to swap to and test things with. Here's hoping it's a simple fix...

Fabbed up a bracket to mount my catch cans, going to mount them in the washer reservoir location for the time being until I get the ABS components to do a swap over.

Squaring up the aluminum before the final bend...
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Final shape; The left side is slightly longer than the right, initially by accident but it worked out to give more clearance around the clutch line bracket.
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The positioning puts them so far from the FW to try and clear the clutch line bracket and lines below. I will put some aluminum on the back side to spread the load and hopefully avoid any bending action.
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Catch cans are mounted up. Firewall attachment would not work as the 'dipstick' forced me to make accommodations I wasn't comfortable with. Ended up using the Fuse Holder / Washer Bottle bracket. I used 1/16" aluminum angle stock and cut it to 6.5", notched the top for the fuse holder studs, drilled four holes for the mounting hardware and secured it all filling the gap between the bracket and the angle stock with washers to keep the aluminum square. I also added two more bolts up top with washers to make sure nothing broke (the cans are fairly heavy).

I also installed the replacement new D585 coils. One of the four had wear from what appears to be it being previously mounted though I can't say for sure. There's no dielectric grease anywhere nor any marks from securing plug wires so I'm unsure. Will contact the seller later.

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