Them's some nice cool temps. Crank that boost pressure up!

Kidding Your car is right at that perfect balance between making good power and not having to spend too many weekends fixing things. Glad to hear it's been rock solid for you so far!

 

Haha yep Zak.. Tempting to turn up the boost, and I'll proly play with boost control a bit, but it's more just to mess around than anything. I wanna do at least 2 weekends this fall at the track and the car should be a lot of fun and reliable *fingers crossed*. Just to comment more on the balance/setup of the car, it's quite "easy to drive" in this current configuration and inspires confidence.

The rear wing (and I'm sure the good suspension) makes it much more stable and predictable at higher speeds. Big fan of the street **** and how it tames the rear end down at higher speeds. I want to hit Dominion early November again for a real back to back comparison to last yr's setup. I don't plan to do many more mods to this thing (maybe brake ducts and MR shifter next yr? I dono) and just want to drive it.

 

Haven't updated this thread in a bit but unfortunately didn't make it to any track days since. I wanted to hit an event at Shenandoah but the one weekend there was an event there I couldn't make it. Eh enough excuses. I am signed up for Dominion next weekend and a handful of friends will be there as well so it should be a good time. I'm excited to turn some laps and compare times to last year. I expect the car to do MUCH better with a closed diff and good suspension. I have been playing with boost control a bit (driving the miata on the street sucks because the track pads screech bad (and I couldn't be bothered to swap pads between events this time)) and it feels noticeably quicker of course around 10-11 psi than ~7, but don't want to bend a rod. I'm going to keep the boost lower at ~4500 rpm and try to get it to creep higher from 5500-7k rpm. We'll see. Only issue then is raising boost cut level >13psi I don't want a lower rpm boost spike and bending a rod..

Anyway, if anyone happens to be attending the event on here stop by and say hello.

 

So lucked out this weekend, beautiful/ideal weather for setting fast times. Highs were in the low 60's with sunshine. Had a few friends also at the event which made it a lot of fun hanging out for the weekend. Dominion is the same track I did this time last year, so it's nice to have a semi back to back comparison, even if it's been a year. Since last year the car has new coilovers, 9LR street ****, 3.6 torsen diff, and 6 spd tranny. Other things were relatively minor performance wise (I added the 2nd kan gauge which is quite handy). Regarding any changes since the last event in June, I added a flyinmiata eyeball vent phone mount (so the phone is easily visible for lap timing) and also added a brace for the coolant line for the radiator. Due to the coupler required for the Megan Racing radiator, it add some weight an I noticed it flopping around more than I'd like when it gets hot, so I added a simple brace close to the radiator. Not much else changed.



Miguel took out his crown Vic.. put a new diff and some suspension on it. Honestly, I am pretty impressed for what it is, but I'm sure the 275 square 300tw tires off his Mustang helped it scoot around track quicker. I went for a ride in it and trying to keep yourself in place is quite a challenge. It's more fun than I thought it'd be honestly. Also had a buddy sign up for his first trackday and he drove Miguel's crown vic. We had a plan to get 4 people on track in it but it didn't work out unfortunately.




What to say first? Car did well. Drove it there and back. Also a proper closed diff makes a huge difference. I gotta say the Miata makes you work for things which keeps it interesting. In the mornings it was low 40's without sun on parts of the track. The Nexen Nfera sport R's took a couple laps to get upto temp when it was cold and so did the engine to get oil temps up. Dominion is also a bit of a bumpy track I'd say. Turn 1 at the end of the main straight has some humps in the braking zone which makes it more exciting w/o ABS. There are a couple other bumpyish parts on track as well where you're hard into the braking zone and you feel one tire lockup as weight comes off the front a bit from the bump but you come back down and it unlocks. Unfortunately a bunch of session got cut short due to black flags and some sessions were only ~20mins due to the way SCCA runs this event, so I didn't turn as many laps as I'd like, but no real complaints.

So regarding the car setup. The Stig was there for the weekend so I got some input from him on car setup. We ended up setting the front bar to full soft and softening up the front shocks 4 clicks on Sunday. We were trying to get some more front grip. I have the SM rear bar set to full stiff. Under hard throttle it pushes a touch on the low speed/tight turns but couldn't quite dial it all out. Overall though the car feels great. Easy to trail brake. I'd say my only complaint is brake feel is tough to nail threshold braking. Sometimes I brake a little too hard and lock them up a bit, but it's tricky too as I said Dominion is a little bumpy. Also, the 6 speed definitely takes some getting used to over the 5 spd (ya I'm beating a dead horse). Finding gears can be a little tricky and takes a session or so to get used to. Also, one minor issue is it seems like I am getting fuel starvation on a long left hand sweeper when the tank is less than half full. Just googling it this morning it seems to be a semi-common issue for some folks. I'm running the DW200. I need to pull the logs from the ECU to confirm it. It happened a few times. The notorious Junk2 TB seems to periodically develop a bit of hang at times (it was doing it a bit on the drive home). It's annoying but not horrible. I have the ebay TB sitting in a box I might swap it this winter.

Lap time wise it's a lot quicker compared to last year. My best time was a 1:35.8 (I should've had a 1:34X but excuses). I was pooped on Sunday and only got 2 sessions in. The Stig managed a 1:33.1. I'm sure one more session and he'd be in the 1:32s. Not sure what's "fast" at Dominion but I think that's pretty quick. I'll get his fast lap on youtube and post it later. Obligatory shot of the car:


Looks like you just have to change the url links to https instead of http which the attachment tool uses..

 

Yeah, pics aren't showing up for me either. Must be a site issue? Hope they get it fixed, I love me a Crown Vic on track. There's actually a spec P71 series that runs here out west. Looks like an absolute blast haha.

Glad to hear you had a good time and the car held up! I can relate to you on the no ABS over bumps part. My NA was ABS-less and a bunch of our tracks have "whoops" right before some major braking zones. I quickly came to the conclusion in that car that lockups were inevitable while driving in anger haha. What pads are you running? Stock calipers, right? I remember really liking the G-Loc R12/R10 combo on my last car for having solid modulation characteristics after they got hot, but it seems most folks on here don't share the same sentiment lol.

 

Ya strange. Not sure what's up with the images. A friend just sent me this from the SCCA insta page. Nice shot. Doesn't show, but shows up when editing..? Old pics seem to load fine. Hopefully it'll fix itself tmw.



I'm running the AFCO F88 calipers, the supermiata BBK with PFC pads. I think it's mainly just driver error and it simply takes some finesse and like you said you're just gonna get some lock at times, just how it is. I'm also running the wilwood 1" MC so the pedal is super stiff with little travel. The car is a lot of fun but definitely keeps you on your toes, which I like.

 

i fixed it.

the URLs needed https, not http.

 

Thanks! I'll just manually update any URLs to include https!

 

Here's Dave turning some quick laps. I didn't take video for me on Sunday and they're slower anyway so nobody cares.

 

Nice laps for sure. The car looks like it rotates nicely and Stig is definitely squeezing it for all it's worth. Reeled in that GR86 hard haha. Love to see it.

Holy hell, though. I didn't notice it before but that barrier on the inside of T2 is CLOSE. Definitely don't want any exit-oversteer there

 

Ya he can drive. Only had 2 sessions in the car that weekend and it took him the better part of 1 to consistently find 5th gear w/ the 6th speed. lol You just go up and to the right smidge and it's there. I think on his final lap he was on pace to break a 1:32 but he said it fuel cut.. I'll have to look into that over winter but it's not a big problem.

When he mentioned that blue GR86 was neck and neck with him in a drag race I had to go look for it and see what it had. It's gotta K swap which makes sense why it was dead even on the main straight! Ya the walls are close but turn 2 is pretty low speed so it would be tricky to really screw up and come back and hit the inside wall. I'm sure higher powered cars that could be an issue if you get on the throttle too hard and loose the rear though.. It's not my favorite track but it's still a lot of fun. Want to get back on my favorite track for sure next spring Shenandoah. Curious to see what the car will run time wise.

I'm really loving the car in its current state. I did play w/ boost control a bit on the street so it runs a few more psi but it's not worth messing with on track for the very small hp bump and likely minimal time difference. It just really communicates a lot to you via everything, the manual rack, brakes, suspension, etc. The good suspension and wing made a big difference. I toy with the idea of gettiing a nice MR shifter, but I'm also strangely frugal at times and not sure it's worth it..?

 

The car looks great, and stig is driving it nicely. He's being super nice to the car while still getting some good laptimes out of it. that's what I like to see from a friend driving another persons car. The car sounds smooth and easy, all good things to say about a highly modified turbo miata.

That said, I wanna see you pilot it! Next time!

 

Ya he's really smoove which is fast. I think one great way to increase smoothness is doing track days in the rain (ya sorry you southern west coast guys don't get rain). It sucks for going fast but a good way to work on being smooth and steady with inputs. I will post a video of me next time. Unfortunately as we all know here, a lot of stuff gets lost over video. I feel like the helmet cams convey a better 1st person real life perspective vs the chassis mounted cams look kinda boring, but is what it is.

A couple small things I didn't mention when I was tinkering w/ the car prior to this last event.. The clutch on my NB has 2 switches. One is for the ecu/cruise control to see when the clutch is depressed and the other is for the starter disable. I had both switches jumped, and intended to put the starter disable on a switch to avoid anybody starting the car accidentally with the car in gear, but on further inspection it looks like there's a good amount of current flowing through the clutch starter wires, so I just left them jumped. I believe it's the ground for the starter solenoid (probably sees a good 5-10amps?) and these are 12 gauge wires. I didn't have a higher amperage switch handy so just left the jumper in. I also electrical tape the jumper wire in place so it doesn't come loose. The other switch I reconnected and nice to see the clutch switch working as expected and registering in the ECU. It doesn't really "do anything" per say but I guess if I wanted to enable launch control w/ the BMM ECU I could now, now that the ECU doesn't see the clutch pedal depressed all the time.


Meaty wires. Can't just use some small 20 gauge wire to jump these..


Also, when removing the cluster and adding the 2nd kan gauge I replaced the bulbs in the back of the cluster. I don't recall if I mentioned it prior in the build thread.. If this is a duplicate post about this my apologies. I'm old and getting repetitive. Anyway.. I used these: Sealight 194 led bulbs. I bought some w/ a couple more onboard leds and they were too bright. These are just right. Brighter than stock. I leave my dimmer on the lowest setting which is perfect to me. Of course, now that the cluster is brighter the other bulbs are darker. The HVAC was very dark and annoying so I had to fix that. Fortunately after some googling they are fairly easy to replace. I found some good advice about doing it w/o even removing it or the radio. You pop the little black covers off of it on the sides, then use the hook tools like for the radio to loosen it, then there's enough slack to use a pick to undo the black clips on top and bottom, and voila!



On removal I noticed one bulb was dead which is why it was so dark and not visible and night time. Unfortunately the bulb condoms could not be removed and were stuck to the old bulbs, but the color difference doesn't bother me much, at least I can now see the hvac panel w/ the lights on. Bulbs used were these:


They can be easily replaced w/ the HVAC panel in place.



And how it is back together. Now the hvac panel is illuminated to the same level as the cluster and nicely visible in the dark.



It's quite cathartic to sort out these little things with the car and keep everything functioning tip top. I could get some green illuminated led's for the hvac panel but it's pretty minor and good enough. The radio colors were changed to green (they're adjustable) so it looks less like christmas in the car.

Finally, in pursuit of making all lights brighter in the car I tried to change the illumination switch bulb as well. I removed it and this is the bulb. I don't have one of these and not sure what kind it is. Ultimately these don't bother me being a touch darker than everything else as you don't need them often. If someone knows if there's an led replacement for these please let me know. If not no big deal. I'm guessing the hazard switch uses the same bulb..

 

So the car is hibernating till spring now. I'm excited to be refocusing on the Honda this winter and make it more enjoyable to drive. I'm fixing the downpipe and making a dual exhaust to quiet it down (at least that's the plan) as well as fixing a cpl other minor things. With that said, there are a handful of things I need to fix on the miata.

1. The skunk2 TB. It tends to start sticking at the end of track days. I'm honestly sick of messing with it so I'm going to swap on the ebay TB I bought which is sitting in a box. Hopefully that fixes it for good.
2. The manifold heatshield that's mounted to the engine needs to be replaced. The embossed Aluminum isn't very strong and weaker for straight pieces, so I need to replace it w/ a straight piece of Aluminum. I'll probably use some Al flashing from HD. I should replace the chassis mounted large piece of embossed Al as well, but not sure if I'll get to it this year.
3. The little Mocal 2 way valve for the gas tank vent I think is clogged. It used to "sing" constantly (releasing pressure) when I turned off the car but no longer does. When I open the gas cap there's a lot of pressure. I'll probably just remove it and leave the tank vented to atmosphere like everyone does.
4. Fix the fuel starve on long sweeping left handers. I had fuel starve with the gas tank <1/2 tank, and the interwebs suggests the sock I have (I used the DW200 sock) isn't low enough. I'll have to look into replacing it, maybe with an OEM mazda sock.
5. Add some kind of strut bar to the front shock towers. This isn't necessary but anything I can do to help tighten up the chassis a bit is welcome. I don't want to lose my MC brace, so I'm thinking I'll have to buy a strut bar and modify it to include a MC brace. Hopefully after all the fab work on the Honda this should be pretty easy.

While building a motor is always in the back of my head I think I'm in the sweet spot now for the drivetrain to last and be a lot of fun. I'll probably tinker a bit more with the boost controller but 50+ whp when I'm just running HPDEs doesn't really move the needle for me. I'll give everything a good once over of course but been happy how reliable it's been and no loosening of bolts which seems to plague some folks. Looking fwd to more track time in the spring!

Obligatory shot of the car cleaned up before winter:

 

Not too much planned this year mod wise, but did a couple maintenance things for this year. The Mocal 2 way valve seems like it got stuck or clogged. It no longer makes the annoying whistling noise (good thing), but it no longer relieves pressures (not good). Cracking the gas cap after a drive there's a lot of pressure. Anyway, so I removed it. Now I have the nice aroma of gas fill my garage after driving the car and parking it in the garage. This will of course lead to another required "fix." At least for now the gas tank is venting fine.


Also, finally swapped out the Junk2 TB for the ebay TB. You can see the spring has an extra coil or so and is a little stiffer. Hopefully this keeps it from sticking.





I also updated to the latest BMM firmware and turned on fuel pressure compensation for my tune (the ECU now compensates for fluctuations in fuel pressure) which is a nice safety. I have to do a mild retune because the fuel pressure runs a static 463 kpa at idle (running a DW200 with the stock NB1 fuel system) and falls to ~425kpa under boost at high rpm. Not too bad. On the note of the DW200.

The one last thing to fix is the fuel starve I was getting on left hand sweepers with <1/2 tank of gas. I found this other thread that says the culprit may be the DW200 seeing any small amount of air? The fix is switching to a Walbro? Would you guys just run a 190 lph or 255? Curious if anyone has fixed this just switching to a walbro. If that's the fix I will likely go that route as it's simple.

 

So, while I figure out the fuel starve, there's one other new "problem" that popped up due to the fuel vent to atmosphere. It reeks of gas in my garage. I'm curious if anyone has tackled this issue? It's not a critical issue to fix immediately but something that's a little annoying. I've been googling and some people say you can install a charcoal canister and vent that to atmosphere, but what considerations are there to do it properly? Some folks on classic car forums say the charcoal canister should sit above the vent location (I guess this makes sense so gas doesn't flow into the charcoal canister and fill it up). Any other considerations?

On some more thought, Todd over on the BMM discord *hattip* suggested maybe stuffing a charcoal canister in this location above the pump? I'll have to see how much space there is. Maybe something like this? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/t...xoC9oMQAvD_BwE Anyone with any thoughts or suggestions I'm all ears!

 

For those zip ties on your BOV/Intake I can't recommend getting a set of flush cutters enough. $3 at Harbor Freight and they are so worth it. They'll cut the extra zip tie without any jagged edges to cut yourself on.

If I had $3 to spend and my choice was between those flush cutters and a beer, I'd get the flush cutters, and I enjoy beer more than I should.





My only input on the charcoal cannister is that I had vented mine from the vent tube in the engine bay over into the passenger fender. I threw a couple loops in the vent hose to be safer. Well that lead to me smelling gas one summer day which was caused by fuel spitting out of that tube. Might double check that you're not leaking fuel back there.

 

+1 I use these things all the time, and bought a couple extra for the shop so I don't have to chase one pair down all the time. Also put a set in the trailer toolbox.

 

I never had a fuel starve issue with my DW200, or my DW300 for that matter. My NA could run laps until the needle was squarely on "E". I thought I read a lot of people saying the 1/2 tank fuel starve was often due to running a different shape aftermarket sock as opposed to the OEM one..?

Also, do you still have the check valves above the fuel tank installed in your EVAP line? I know the NA/NB's had different setups, but those valves are known to stick closed when they get old and cause tank pressure buildup. My NA8 had two and they both clogged. I ended up just removing both and running a short length of vacuum line in place and it cured my tank venting issues.

 

I had venting issues in my NA8. Heat shielding the exhaust under the fuel tank helped a lot. Fuel could be heard boiling after driving :cringe: .

Never found a sticking valve but didn't look too hard.