Also on the list to do is install the 2nd "kan gauge" to replace the coolant gauge. I went back and looked at my logs from the track days and in my last session (if I bothered to look at them on the same day) the logged voltage through most of the session stuck ~12V, so clearly something in the alternator was off and I would've seen it had I broke out the laptop. Anyway, now if it's in my face it'll be easy to check, but a good reminder to check your logs. Having a 2nd gauge will easily let me monitor coolant temp, voltage, oil pressure, oil temp. I will monitor fuel pressure on the original gauge.

So for those that aren't familiar. The kan gauge is sold by BMM (Beer Money Motorsports). For $180 it's a good deal, and I realize after buying 2 I'm getting closer to some sort of digital dash, but I'm old and still like the analog gauges (and it keeps it more oem looking). For the coolant temp gauge it doesn't attach via screws like the oil pressure gauge but is an interference fit in the cluster cover. Jesse was kind enough to print the housing out for me (no extra charge) so I just had to pop it in place. The gauges are configurable via wifi. You connect to the SSID, navigate to a URL, and make updates through a simple website hosted on the gauge. Easy peasy. It reads data over the CAN bus.



There are some minor modifications required to the oem cluster. The white "support" had to be ground down to make space for the plug in the back, and I drilled a hole in the side for the wires to come out.





I think the original wiring for the single kan gauge was pretty clean and nice, but now adding another gauge, I just wanted to get it working. The wiring job is ugly (I had to extend some wires) but it should work fine. Here it is all back together. I updated the firmware for the gauges and updated the layouts and sensors to monitor.





All in all fairly straightforward since this was my 2nd gauge installed. Nice to have a 2nd one that will just display those 4 readouts.

 

Very clean and professional! Funny how that one readout could've saved you that big headache on the drive home.

 

So clean looking! Nice job.

Now wire up the fuel level sensor into the ecu analog input and get ONE MORE GAUGE in there hahahaha

 

For those gauges are you tapping power from the gauge cluster?

I was just looking at some ESP32 gauges and researching about how to DIY something similar. I hadn't considered tapping power from the gauge cluster, but that would be a great solution.

 

Thx, 2 is enough. I recall someone did it already in the BMM discord (getting the fuel level sensor onto the can bus), but it's not something I care to mess with.

Yes. Power, ground, +12v illumination from the cluster. +12v and ground are actually labelled on the back of the cluster for each screw (3 total) which is used to mount each gauge. One screw is ground, one is +12V, and one is signal (oil presure or water temp). The +12V illumination was a solder point I tapped into.

Edit: Shared this in the discord: I soldered the +12V illumination existing solder point. There are 2 ring terminals in the picture. I circled them. I think the left one in the picture is GND and right is +12V. The ring terminals are covering the lablels. They powered the OEM gauge.

 

Awesome, thanks for the tip. Any concerns over additional power draw?

There are some ESP32 boards that come in a similar form factor to those Kan guages and they can be picked up super cheap. I'm not sure about how hard the GUI and CAN (TWAI for ESP32 I guess) would be to program but having power right there would make the install way easier.

 

A couple other people have two gauges and seem to be running them w/o issues. Not sure what the power draw on them is but it's gotta be very small. No issues with one gauge previously, hopefully no issue with two now.

Any smart people want to help me print out a 2d top image from a .step file? Ironhydroxide was nice enough to send me .step files of the diff reinforcement plates but I don't know how to convert them to a 2d image to print as a template. I printed out an image but it's scaled too large. I googled it but am not that smart. I downloaded freecad and didn't have much luck with it. Seeing as how it's only one small piece I was planning on using CAD (cardboard aided design) but figure I should join the 21st century and print out a snazzy template if possible.

 

Just FYI, I printed 3 of those diff plates and a bunch of fuel rail spacers from send cut send. It was like $40, which is their minimum order. Took about a week to get here.

 

Progress is slow these days. Being cold in the garage makes me less motivated to get things done. I did finally get the diff housing prepped (cleaned it up) and cut the plates for reinforcing the diff. Just need to run it over to my buddy to have him weld it now. Yes, sendcutsend and other sites are pretty darn cool and I'll have to keep it in mind for the future. With that said, I bought a 12"x12" sheet of 1/4" Al for about $20, so I already committed to just making one (and I'll have a whole lot of material left over). I made a simple template and did most of the cuts w/ the bandsaw. Cut like butter though Al. It ain't as pretty as a nice laser cut template but once it's welded up it should look the same.




I also got the set of Xidas and figured it'd be a quick install, maybe an hour to swap the suspension.. Started to pull things apart and realized I have to pull that damn really long bolt for the LCA. Of course to pull that the swaybar reinforcement brackets are in the way, and the charge pipe is in the way of that, swaybar mount bracket bolt broke (so I'll have to drill it out) etc.. f*ck. I had limited time and the cold garage floor sapped any motivation to get it done. The front is still up on jackstands till I muster up the desire..

 

I feel your pain, this is why I bought the AWR sway bar brackets after having to R&R those spacer blocks one too many times.

 

Seconded on the sway bar spacer blocks. I wish I had done what Nate just said haha. Those little bastards are a smart way of getting the job done but such a pain to remove. The ride quality of the Xidas will be worth it, though!

What spring rates did you go with? I'm assuming you're running the stock 10k/8k rates on the BC's. I found 10k/8k to be too soft with 245 tires and full aero.

 

LPG workshop heat FTW! While my winters are less cold than some, my workshop is c5m high, and until I got this

, not exactly what I got but close. makes all the difference, and purchase and running prices are quite bearable for the improvement in output over winter.

 

Ya a nice big heater definitely helps. Honestly for me the cold weather just makes me lazy and lethargic. I don't want to make excuses as it's not THAT cold in the garage and I have a half decent space heater that makes a big difference (vs no heat). I usually turn it on and it's probably around 50 degrees in the garage. It won't heat up the whole garage well but works well enough to avoid me freezing my *** off. If I'm right in front of the heater it's toasty warm. It's cheap and effective (and compact). I have a couple dedicated 20amp circuits in front of my workbench so I don't have to worry about overloading the circuit and popping a breaker w/ it on.


So got some more progress. While I had the front bumper off I snapped a picture of all my ducting and ghetto (but effective) taping to seal off the front. I also bent the wastegate arm a bit so it's now nicely perpendicular to the attachment point on the flapper arm. Hopefully this will avoid the tension on the circlip and keep it on.



I also opted to install the fluidampr crank pullley. Pretty straightforward install and fortunately I could just fit a breaker bar between the swaybar and crank pulley so I didn't have to drop the swaybar. I put it in 5th gear and cranked the ebrake to keep the crank from spinning. I couldn't fit my torque wrench in the small space so just used a 1/2" breaker bar w/ a cheater extension and put "a lot" of force on it till I could feel the 1/2" breaker bar joint flexing a bit which is probably ~120lb ft or so. I loctited all the bolts as well. I also got R theory water pump and alternator pulleys as well. Probably not worth the money but I bought them last year.



Also, finished the Xida install. I didn't snap many pics. Here's a shot w/ the cover removed. I still need to set the ride height right now it's all over the place. Spring rates are 18k/9k as recommended by Ed. Definitely a lot more spring than the old BC's but good shocks make a big difference for ride quality so I'm expecting these to ride better. Ultimately, in hindsight those AWR swaybar brackets look nice and are much faster but I already got these cheaper spacer blocks so I'll just run w/ these. They work well enough and hopefully I don't have to remove them many times so not too big a deal. They're cheap and effective. I don't foresee swapping springs anytime soon.



Looks like the old bc coils were 10/8k based on the markings on the springs.


I need to drop the diff off to get welded then swap the diff/tranny, install the passenger seat, install passenger 6pt harness, install 9LR street ****, bunch more little stuff, and it should be good to go. I probably should add ducting for the front brakes at some point as well to extend pad life. Maybe if we get some half decent weather next week I'll be able to pull the car out and see how the new suspension feels.

 

Looks like we're planning to have similar weekends. The weather is warming up here as well and I'm planning to get my diff arm welded up and hopefully get the diff installed this weekend. 6 speed will go in once I've confirmed the diff is functioning properly.

I just realized how similar our cars have become. Hopefully that means its a good recipe!

 

Haha yep, I hope so too. I have no delusions that I'm doing anything unique or special. My plan from the get go has been looking what others have done successfully and simply copying what's worked to have a fun/competent hpde car. If I can make some small improvements here and there great, but nothing revolutionary that's for sure. I would say this car is getting close to being "done" mod wise after this year. Maybe futures years I'll look into full aero but power will stay capped to keep the car (hopefully) reliable. The other thing in future years I probably will seriously consider is proper datalogging w/ an AIM setup. I would probably have to plumb in a brake pressure sensor like @Roda did as it's hard to have good data w/o that. I'm looking forward to getting back on track w/ a proper torsen diff and nice suspension.

 

I was just going to ask what fluids you were planning to run as you made that last post. I'm planning to try out the lightweight shockproof for the diff and some MT90+ LW shockproof for the trans.

Same boat here, hoping to be done with the major modifications in the next season or so and then move on to refining things, adding sensors, maybe some of those CAN gauges, etc... Oh, and figuring out safety gear.

 

I have several more quarts of LE1605 diff fluid so I was going to run that in the diff. I bought a case ages ago, sold a few quarts out of it, and use it in my Honda as well. It's supposed to be good stuff, I forget what rating it has but it's some nasty/thick stuff when cold. For the tranny I think I was going to use the same stuff I put in the 5 speed, the ford unicorn tears XT-M5-QS. I have a few more quarts and people seem to think it's a good fluid. I try to use good fluids. The engine oil only had two track days on it and some minor putzing around so I'll probably wait another couple events till I change it. I think it currently has a mixture of 5w30 and 5w40 in it of amsoil/motul and Rotella T6 (I just used up what I had leftover). Not sure what engine oil I'll use next, probably a straight 5w40 good oil.

 

MT90 + lightweight shockproof felt the best to me over all other fluids I used in the 6 speeds. I'm technically supposed to be a Ford guy but the MT90 made the trans a lot happier to shift when it was cold

Solid progress, Teg! Excited to hear your thoughts on the Xidas. Those are some manly spring rates! I'd have expected a little less differential between the fronts and rears but what Ed says goes haha. You're running 245 Nferras, correct? Stock rear bar with the big Racing Beat up front?

 

Thanks I'll keep that in mind man. Yep 245 Nferas. Ya I was a little surprised as well with such a large spread but I asked him a couple times and that's what he recommended.. I figured these guys have a bit more experience than me so I'll defer to them. So I checked the front swaybar and I don't think I have the stiffest one. I have the 54103 99-05 Tubular Front 1.125x.188 wall bar, I think the stiffest is the 54106 1.25x.188 bar. Honestly not sure what the "spring rate" difference is, but maybe that factored into it as well. The front bar is set to the stiffest setting. I have the rear supermiata adjustable swaybar set on full stiff as well. He recommended these rates for a non-aero car which is why the larger spread. If I commit to some real aero down the road not too big a deal swapping some springs. I could probably get by just swapping the rears even. On the topic of spring rates.. it's wild how damn stiff these springs are. 18 kg/mm converts to 1k lb/in and I'm used to lb/in (we're in America afterall). That's a LOT of spring for this light a$$ car but I googled and I guess the miata has a high or low wheel rate which means mechanically the spring is at a disadvantage per say so the "real" rate isn't nearly that high compared to other cars. Interesting..

I'm expecting the car off the bat to push a bit more because of the larger spread in spring rates but I should probably be able to adjust it fairly neutral with the shock adjustments. Perhaps a touch more understeer wouldn't be terrible though as the car was a little nervous going through the uphill esses at Dominion. Hopefully the street **** will counteract a bit of rear lift at higher speeds. It'll be fun to play with the shock settings once I get the ride height back to where it was. I measured the ride height prior to removing the coilovers and it was 4.5" on the right side F/R, and 4 5/8" left rear and 4 9/16" left front. I need to go back and look at what the heights were when I put the car on the scales but that was pre-turbo. Playing with shock settings is fun to get the car dialed into exactly what I like. If anyone has any roundabout recommendations for how the Xidas respond to damper changes I'm all ears. I should know this but the adjustment ***** adjust both compression AND rebound right? Not just rebound?

 

Yeah, the clickers will adjust compression and rebound simultaneously

Take everything I'm about to say with a whole shaker full of salt.

I'd imagine those sway bars are definitely playing into your spring rate spread. I'm assuming Ed asked you what sways you were running, right? I was running the big RB bar (1.25" like you mentioned) in the soft setting up front, and stock bar in the rear. 14/10kg/mm spring rates and no rake. 5.5" front splitter with a relatively smaller wing. Definitely more front aero than rear. It was pretty oversteery just about everywhere haha. Definitely could've used more front spring rate. Not sure if all that info can help you anticipate how your setup will handle but I figure it might be worth sharing.

A little bit of push to start with on your car would probably be good. I'd rather have that than getting to the track and being surprised by oversteer haha. Sounds like you'll have your work cut out for you when you get it back to the track.