|
May I reccomend adding an 8kw chinese disel air heater off ebay to the garage as well? They are about $150, and it can even get my unisulated, detached, two car garage to the mid 50s when it is in the 20s outside. Runs on disel, heating oil, or kero. Just make sure to read up on them a bit, they are copied off an old german design and are perticular about fuel lines and fuel pump orientation and such cause the fuel mix is controlled mechanically....
|
Garage heating systems have been on my mind. I can get employee discounts on natural gas garage heaters where I work. I need to get an estimate on what install would be as I'd just prefer to leave that one to the pros. In the meantime, I just have a small LP tank fueled heater and its always done the job well enough for what it cost. Its very possible that with all the insulating I'm doing, that the small heater I have will just be good enough. Wanted to talk to my realtor about ROI on heated garages as I plan to flip this house for profits within the next few years.
|
As you could have probably noticed by now if following along to this hot mess of a build thread, I've really been slacking on getting the engine harness sorted. The only big item to take care of to get the car firing is to finish the engine harness and wire up the essential relays for ECU power. I had purchased an OEM RSX engine harness from a Facebook seller many moons ago, but it really wasn't exactly what I expected. After de-looming it, bare wires were found, improperly soldered wires, broken wires, you name it... Could I have fixed it? Sure! But... After more thought, did I really want to spend a TON of time refurbishing a rough OEM harness and risk burning up a brand new Kpro ECU if I missed fixing a critical wire? Nope!!
So.... a quick call to David at Kpower happened last week and I really lucked out by grabbing the only K24A2 harness that he had laying around in stock. My luck streak continued when I posted the used OEM harness up for sale (disclosing its issues of course) and ended up selling it for a profit. Excited to have this new piece on the car shortly. The only downside to this harness for my application is that there are more wires in the main body of the loom than I have pins available in my bulkhead fitting, so the quick release bulkhead fitting idea will be shelved and I'll stick with the traditional OEM firewall grommet. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8171249b71.jpg |
I'm going for a 6 speed with 4.3 as well, but I'll probably be shifting at 7600 because Z3. My goal was to never use 1st or 2nd on track and top speed is still about 145MPH so the roval at Autoclub is still doable in a draft without hitting the limiter.
|
Not much point in building with the Roval at ACS in mind since it's believed to be closing by next year. Supposedly.
|
Originally Posted by turbofan
(Post 1584061)
Not much point in building with the Roval at ACS in mind since it's believed to be closing by next year. Supposedly.
|
Originally Posted by turbofan
(Post 1584061)
Not much point in building with the Roval at ACS in mind since it's believed to be closing by next year. Supposedly.
Yeah I made those decisions before all that came out. Fuck nascar, they did the same thing to a local track here. They built a wall at Phoenix International Raceway in order to safely make a couple more infield RV parking spots... and that wall blocked the exit off the roval to the infield road course, so they decided no more road course events. |
The engine bay is a dirty mess, but having the Kpower harness sure makes things easy!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2cd25a979e.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c07b48d075.jpg |
Big updates.
The female of the household was gone on a girls weekend, so you know what that means.... a weekend with the boys in the garage! Started working on Friday night. The 5spd in the car didn't have any fluids in it yet, so it was a prime time to have the 6spd installed. I'll say that swapping a trans with the Kswap is a LOT easier than I recall it being on a BP setup. All of the bell housing bolts are easily accessible with a standard ratchet and socket (no extensions needed). The K24 head doesn't get in the way of anything near the firewall and there's plenty of room for your hands. Drop the midpipe of the exhaust out, disconnect the PPF from the trans, and yank the driveshaft and the tranmission pulls right off. While casually working and drinking simultaneously, we had the trans swap done in 2 hours. Added the finest Motorcraft XTM5QS fluid to it to seal the deal. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cc3b97ef4d.jpg Next morning, we started off with some quality thinking fuel for breakfast. Goal of the weekend was to get a running car, so we brainstormed how to get there. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0bf33ed264.jpg First step was finishing up the wiring. Went out and bought some all thread to mount the new battery. Simply drilled through the floor and jam nut the bottom of the threaded rod to the chassis, then its a simple bolt on affair to get the battery secured. Shortened up the OEM power cable and crimped a new terminal on it. Made a new ground strap as well. Happy with the outcome! https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4ec40c9fcc.jpg While working on the battery, I finished tucking the OEM wiring forward of the firewall. The only OEM mazda wires that I have forward of the firewall now are wipers, headlights, and radiator fan wires. Everything else is Kpower harness for the engine. I drilled a hole underneath the cowl, installed a grommet, loomed everything up, and used p-clips to hold the loom in place which seems to be pretty standard procedure on wire tucks. Rinse and repeat for driver side. Happy with how it turned out. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e7f3111a4d.jpg Once the wire tucking was complete, the fenders could go back on for the first time in a year. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c78e551516.jpg Then lastly the focus was on the engine bay. A lot of small projects were completed and I don't have photos of it all, but here's a brief summary:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d905891d69.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2cc8c0d47a.jpg From here, everything was looking like it was ready to test out. First sign of life was when we went to prime the oil pump by simply disconnecting the injectors. With an oil system that is completely dry, this is an absolutely necessary step. That little battery turned over the motor for well north of 60+ seconds. This was very promising After the system was primed with oil, we hooked up the injectors. It took a while to get fuel supply to the rail as those lines were also dry, but once fuel got there, it fired right up! :D I've only had maybe 45 seconds of run time, but everything sounds good and no visible leaks anywhere at the moment. Coolant system still needs to be completely topped off and checked for leaks. The big takeaway I have at the moment is the exhaust is really quiet and the intake noises on throttle hits are quite loud. Absolutely exactly what I was looking for :) |
Love how clean the engine bay looks! Eager to have some feedback on battery life as well.
|
I'll keep the thread posted as I'm curious how it'll work out myself.
This neat little Ktuned oil pressure adapter is worth a post of its own. Didn't have a photo of it, so went and took one yesterday. It's got male BSP threads to go into the block, a female BSP thread for the OEM oil pressure switch, and 3 NPT ports for aftermarket senders. The large hex portion of the fitting against the block acts as a jam nut which also provides some support for the weight of the senders cantilevered off of the block. Without it, the tiny BSP threads would have to support the entire weight of the senders, which isn't as ideal. The jam nut portion also has an o-ring on the internal diameter against the adapter shaft, and an o-ring on the face that mates to the block to help prevent any sort of leak. Lots of thought into this small piece. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b1665fbc4e.jpg |
We've got the same battery in our LD e46, dropped 45 lb and despite people telling us it wouldn't start the car hot, it started better than the stock battery all season lol.
|
Little teaser shot of what I've been playing with over the weekend.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c1e2a7fef3.jpg |
When utilizing Kpro, you no longer need the VTEC oil pressure sensor as VTEC is actuated via RPM & load in the ECU instead. The Kpower harness doesn't even have a plug for it due to its lack of necessity.
The peasant solution would be to just leave the sensor unplugged, but then it just looks unfinished with an obnoxious blue plug in one of the most visible areas on the engine. The JDM versions of the K24A have an OEM plug in this spot, but I couldn't find the OEM part number. After a quick email to David, he mentioned that Rywire sells a super swaggy titanium bolt that plugs this sensor port. If David calls something swaggy, you know its gotta be good right? While the material is surely overkill, it fits the bill perfectly. #muhOCDispleased https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...47bd3a3f34.jpg I was hoping to have the car on the dyno this week, but some last minute Amazon orders to get the coolant system sealed up were supposed to arrive on Wednesday and didn't show up until Sunday night. Might need to push dyno to next week depending how progress goes. |
Still waiting on some backordered items from Black Friday (thanks COVID)... One of them is coolant system related, so I'd love to get that part in before bleeding the system..
Making the best of things, I'm slowly but surely getting the garage insulated. Bernie is relatively upset at the lack of progress on the Kswap too, but don't worry it'll get done soon and more dearly awaited garage updates are coming quickly.. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...df877a9a11.jpg Also sold the truck in December to pick up a newer, nicer, more cost effective daily driver. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...77dacd41b7.jpg That's all for now.. PS: winter sucks... |
Been waiting since Black Friday for this...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ebd130de3d.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0219093a73.jpg Might be able to post up some progress this weekend now! |
Finally got one of the last pieces in the mail I was waiting for. Picked up a DaveFab washer fluid tank...
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c120f7cca9.jpg Now you may be asking "Matt, why do you need a washer fluid tank for your kswap?". The answer is, I technically don't, but I'm being OCD and want a clean looking, yet functional, engine bay. Seeing as I work full-time designing cooling module systems, playing around and taking extra steps on the coolant system just falls in line with what I do every day. From day 1 of the Kswap, one of the main complaints I heard about it was that the system was difficult to bleed. The OEM Mazda radiator location is lower than some of the coolant passages in the head, which makes burping the system a challenge without jacking the front of the car wayyyy up to force the radiator to be the highest part in the system. To overcome that, I had Tractuff make me the custom rear water neck with radiator fill port. This is now my new highest point in the system. The hope is that with the new fill port being the highest point in the system, coolant system bleeding should be much easier (with the car on level ground) and the engine bay won't have that ugly OEM overflow tank catching your eye. Made a quick little diagram to explain below. The DaveFab overflow will be cleanly underneath my GS cowl cover. Relocating some critical coolant system pieces also opens doors to some sweet intake and radiator system ideas on the front end of the car, which I've got 99% of the research done on already. Progress will be slow on that as its not super critical right now, but it is something I really want to complete eventually. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b8b40ac5b8.jpg To make the DaveFab tank work, there is a 21mm hole for the OEM washer fluid pump that needs to be sealed. To retain the functionality of the tank as a washer tank in the event that I ever change plans and sell it, I plan to just pick up a set of sealing washers from McMaster to block off the hole. I'll have a barbed NPT fitting on the passenger side of the tank to run my overflow line to, and it should work out well. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...786fd1dc59.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7f0ec92190.jpg |
Buddy of mine came over and we got a pile of "little things" done as long as the garage finally warmed up to mid-20 degrees!.
....but most importantly, the car is on the ground idling for the first time in 1.5 years! Coolant system completely bled out with the car on the ground as pictured with the handy rear water neck design. Just need to button up some wiring on the interior in the coming days, then it'll be time to schedule some dyno time to make some noise. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b83c7eed2c.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cefb3669c8.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...283273c3f5.jpg |
Long overdue update, so here's been what's been going on the last month or so! Big changes!
Winter can get pretty long and make you have competitive event withdrawals as a car guy, so thankfully Road America puts on some pretty neat Winter AutoX events. While I wouldn't take the miata to one of these (because salted roads and a car that rusts at the sight of salt), I do have the perfect substitute. The S3 daily! I asked a fellow miata buddy of mine if he wanted to co-drive, and it didn't take much convincing for him to jump at the opportunity. Pictured below is us rocking out of Turn 14 prior to entering a slalom at about 75mph (note how flat the car is) https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...86b000b942.jpg The S3 itself is a showroom stock car down to the 400tw all season 225/45/18 tires. I haven't touched a thing on it, and have been just enjoying the car as it sits for a daily. I wasn't sure where we were going to fall, but came out pleasantly surprised with taking home 2nd & 3rd place respectively out of the field of 88 cars that showed up (only to be beat by an STI that by all accounts should have been faster with more power and 30mm more tire). I was bested by Jason in my own car, but that's part of the fun. We were going back and forth all day on who was faster, and he ended up on top in the end so congrats to him on that. We both found it extremely satisfying to have this weird thing called torque from our powertrain, which we were not used to having in our n/a BP life we live in the summer. The A3/S3 chassis is really solid out of the box and with a couple very small tweaks, I could easily see this car being an amazing backup car in the stable that could take home 1st place finishes locally for these winter events. Extremely happy with the purchase so far. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7776bb2240.jpg As can be seen in the photos from my previous posts, my garage was a chaotic disaster zone. Between honey-do list projects, general home renovations, and garage insulation work, there left little space or room to really just focus on the last few items of the kswap that were left outstanding. Fast forward through a ton of beer consumption and some awesome helping hands from friends, I managed to finish the garage insulation project, got all the OSB hung on the ceilings and walls, and finished a majority of endlessly growing honey-do list of the time. Also insulated the ceiling and installed a new garage door opener as the old one was having hiccups. The garage floor was also old, pitted, cracked, stained and disgusting overall, so I had a contractor come in at the end of March to professionally repair and epoxy coat the floor. The end result of both of these big garage projects in March gave me a solid starting space that any car guy would love to have. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...10657057ea.jpg While I still have paint and general lighting to finish in the garage, AutoX and Track day events are starting up soon and I still didn't have a completed kswap. With my new garage workspace finally decluttered and a comfortable temperature, the motivation to just finish it already kicked in. Started with looming all of the loose ends for the modified dash harness. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b231ce37e3.jpg Once the dash was installed, I could start testing all of my wiring to make sure I didn't cut something I wasn't suppose to. While testing the hazards out, I couldn't help but snag a photo on how awesome the switchback halos look on this car. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2039c20988.jpg From there, I had to wire in all of the aftermarket gauges that I added. From left to right we have AEM wideband, Longacre Oil Pressure, Longacre Coolant Temp. The old cig lighter is now upgraded to a USB charging outlet with digital voltage readout as well. Last but not least, the radio works as expected because every true street car needs one. The new headunit makes the simple component speakers that I have in the doors sound far better. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7478c0d45f.jpg Then finally, I got the gauge cluster and sparco wheel installed with the NRG QR. Really liking how the interior is tying together. You can still see the un-loomed power window switch harness off to the side. I've got some ideas on aftermarket toggles that I need to finish yet, but for the sake of time I'm holding off on that for the short-term. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5ef2c47601.jpg So tonight the seats go in. Everything is working except for a low-beam bulb issue on the headlights that I believe I know the issue for. No coolant or oil leaks from what I can find so far, but I do have a slight exhaust leak I need to check in on. I have a tune scheduled for this Saturday with the local shop that Kpower takes all of their cars to, so hopefully we will have a successful session without too many hiccups and put down some nice power! Corner balance, new front end alignment, and remounting the aero to the car will take place in the week following. First event for the car is planned for the 25th of this month so I need to get all my ducks in a row. Hoping to get a few early season AutoX events under the cars belt, so I can hit the ground running for Gingerman at the Miata Meetup the end of May. WOOHOOO! |
Sold the truck in December to get the Audi knowing that if I ever needed a tow rig, the gf's Explorer Sport would be up to the challenge with plenty of towing capacity to spare. Was pleasantly surprised with just how nice this towed.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3b831c1aae.jpg Anyways, what you are really here for... DYNO STUFFFF Got the car down to Mikey at Mspec, which is who David recommended locally (and where David brings all his Honda powered toys). All strapped in and ready to rock. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...049973cbf6.jpg First things first is calibrating the TPS and all that boring IAC stuff. After that, a fixed VTC angle should be ran across the RPM band. Here you can see 10, 20, 30, 40 degree intake cam phases fixed. Once you understand what VTC angle is making the most power at any given RPM, it's as simple as calibrating the VTC angle required against RPM to maximize performance. This single task is, in my opinion, what makes properly street tuning a K-series so challenging to do well. Mikey took practically no time to sort this out, but I suppose that's what you can do with probably 20 years of experience and base timing maps that are proven and ready to rock. The power numbers were already pretty impressive at this phase. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...63a52edf79.jpg From there, it's time for the full power pull! After a few tweaks, and smoothing out some of the torque curve to minimize torque dips/peaks I was left with 231whp / 186wtq. Super happy with that figure for essentially a junkyard motor. You'll likely notice that there are still some dips in the curve. The tuner mentioned that this is likely due to the header design. The Kpower header is designed as good as space allows for in the miata chassis, but could benefit from increasing the size it necks down to in the crossover region by the transmission bellhousing (which isn't physically possible). Nice to understand regardless! https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...915565675d.jpg So far no major hiccups to resolve. Going over the car with a fine tooth comb to ensure I didn't miss a possible leak or loose piece of hardware. Trying to minimize the growing pains that I know all swapped cars generally need to work through. |
One thing you can do to get an even better idea of the VTC values is to tune each of the values as well. Looks like the one making the most power down low is also the leanest by a long shot.
Is there some sort of limitation with that ECU not being able to flatten out the AFR curve? Down low it pops up to like 14 before getting fatter up top then starting to lean out again. Power and curve overall look great though, gonna be a blast on track. |
Originally Posted by Arca_ex
(Post 1597469)
One thing you can do to get an even better idea of the VTC values is to tune each of the values as well. Looks like the one making the most power down low is also the leanest by a long shot.
Is there some sort of limitation with that ECU not being able to flatten out the AFR curve? Down low it pops up to like 14 before getting fatter up top then starting to lean out again. Power and curve overall look great though, gonna be a blast on track. |
Gave the car a much needed bath (first one since probably MATG 2019 if memory serves me right) and got the 10" wide wheels on the rear. This shot made me realize how stupid this car actually is for the street, but I love it.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...259103263d.jpg Next on the list was getting the splitter mounted up. The splitter support bracket which I posted earlier in this thread worked out perfect. It gave me a ledge to rest the rear portion of the splitter on just like you can do on the OEM subframe. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a7b23d63c6.jpg From there, I needed to find a new location to mount my center cables for the splitter since I am running a radiator support bar now. Mounting the eyelets through the bar itself would make them too far forward, so I found this location as suitable. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a6b01887c1.jpg Once I lengthened the center cables for their new location, it left me with this for a complete setup. Similar to what I've been running for years with just a couple noted tweaks. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bdc101b897.jpg Then I was able to get the barge boards mounted up under the car. I don't have the front end aligned yet so don't judge the ugly 16's on the front that are still there. I don't want my eyeball alignment to chew up my front rs4's as I have to drive to my buddy's place to get it on the rack for corner balance and alignment. Will swap front tires over when I get there. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3b94142ce4.jpg |
Put these fancy little Quick Latch Mini's on the bumper so I no longer need to fumble around with the M8 head bolts that attach the bumper cover to the fender. Took a lot more messing around than I expected to install them snugly and keep a good looking body line/gap, but here they are.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...be9b170172.jpg Got the visible edge of the splitter roughly sanded and quickly painted, then was able to do final assembly on the front end. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c20c41a822.jpg Not looking too shabby from an aero standpoint under the car. By sheer luck, this setup fits the limitations on the ClubTR rulebook for GL perfectly. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...662a29f6cb.jpg |
OMG THOSE QUICK RELEASE BUTTONS!!!! :eek:
|
It's been a busy couple days, but TLDR: I've got a running and driving Kmiata!
Drove the car 1.5hrs up to my buddy's shop to get it corner balanced and aligned. Went with the same alignment settings that I've always ran to minimize changed variables on my first event. -3.4F/-2.8R camber settings. -1/16"F/+1/16"R toe settings. Corner turn in with a little toe out in front has always been great, and the toe in for the rear should keep it pretty stable when on power for corner exit. Will see how it works now that I'm making twice the HP/TQ as before. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d0f257b38c.jpg As part of the corner balancing, I had to snap some photos of w/ and w/o driver. The car was 2278 w/o driver the last time it was on the scales with BP power with a 1-2 gallons less fuel in it, so to take 40-50lbs out of the car and get it down to 2235 w/ 6 gallons (1/2 tank), I've been really happy with. I have some line of sight to get the car into the 21xx weight range without tearing out interior bits, but I'm getting to the point of diminishing returns on my dollar in regards to possible weight reduction. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c1c18b62b.jpg Drove the car the rest of the weekend without much hiccup. Currently have about 400 miles / 6 hours of seat time in the car without any leaks which is nice. No regrets in keeping heat and radio in it for the long drives. I do have a couple vibrations I need to sort out in time. One of them is header flange to subframe clearance vibration where the flange barely contacts the subframe and another is the dust cover vibrating against the adapter plate. Some light grinder work should fix the flange issue and some RTV should fix the dust cover issue. I don't have my wideband wired to the Kpro at the moment either, so the car isn't able to trim fuel and run closed loop fueling which is causing some AFR variations between fuel blends. Cruising range AFR's need a little cleaning up as well. Glad to have the car running at the moment now is all. I have the cars first AutoX event coming up this Sunday, so we'll see how it does. Locally, I was a pretty solid top 10% car when I had the BP4W, so the kswap should make the car very competitive now that I'm not at such a HP deficit but you never know what will show up which is part of the fun. |
The good news: I have my wideband analog inputs finally hooked up to the Kpro so I have fuel trims
The bad news: I'm commanding 14.1 during this point in idle warmup enrichment and seeing 18.1. Figured out I have an exhaust leak pre-o2 that is related to the 3 bolt header flange that was rubbing ever so slightly on the subframe. The hardware has loosened up a bit causing a leak, so after letting the exhaust cool off and making a bit more clearance there I should be able to tighten it all down again and solve the issue. *knocks on wood* https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6c2c793d39.jpg |
You win some days, and other days you lose. The AutoX on Sunday was unfortunately one of the latter
One of the reasons I went with the Kswap is the reliability. I expect to drive this car most everywhere just like I did with the BP. After burning through 3 tanks of gas in a week, I felt that the car was running well enough that I trusted to drive it 2.5hrs north to an awesome kart track that opens up for AutoX a few times a year. Technically its more like a time attack as there's no cones to hit or swerve around, but you get the concept. Get from start line to finish line as fast as possible. All seemed well for my first two runs (other than the fact I forgot to check my tire pressures that were WAY too high and the car sideways enough in most corners to give Travis Pastrana a run for his money in Gymkhana), but when I handed the keys over to the codriver after adjusting pressures to more reasonable numbers, the car completely died in an instant about 3/4 of the way through the track. Into the paddock it got pushed... time to diagnose The first observation is the tach wasn't bouncing when you'd go to crank it over. That signal comes from the ECU. Went to look to see if the ECU power light was on when the key was on and it wasn't. The ECU had to have not been getting power, so we jumped into the ECU pinout diagrams to find the switched power pin. It was getting switched 12v. So if its getting switched power, the only other option for it not to power up is that it must not be getting a proper ground. We checked all of the grounds throughout the car (both grounds to chassis and grounds to the actual negative terminal of the battery) and they all checked out. How the hell can an ECU get both power and ground signal, yet still not turn on? Thinking the worst, did the Kpro somehow get fried? We asked around the paddock to see if any Kseries powered car was there that was running Hondata and sure enough there was an S2000 with one. We asked if we could jump in and swap his ECU with mine just to confirm mine powers up on a harness that is known to be functioning properly so we could eliminate either ECU or Wiring source as the problem. He said it wasn't a problem, so we swapped mine in and thankfully my ECU powered right up. So now we jump back to my car knowing that something in the wiring had to be screwed up. The engine harness was really nice quality right from Kpower so I had some level of confidence that portion of the harness was good. All the fuses checked out and we verified all relays worked and signals were going where they should have been on the adapter harness. In an act of utter confusion, I called John from Kpower... He was just as confused as I was based on what I had already verified, but extremely helpful in diagnosis and understanding what wires controlled which circuits as I was more or less just blindly checking things prior to his call. Customer service on a Sunday afternoon FTW. After checking what seemed like everything over the course of 5 hours, I decided to just keep the key (switched 12v) on and start wiggling wiring looms, hoping that somehow, somewhere, there had to have been a loose wire that caused the ECU to trip out and not want to come on..... AND IT WORKED :bowdown: There was a small 20ga jumper wire on one of the relays that I'm still not entirely sure what it does, but I can tell you that when I wiggled it around, it caused the ECU to sporadically turn on/off. I took the only thing I had available to me (painters tape for door numbers) and wrapped the hell out of the wire so it couldn't move, verified the ECU had signal, and the car fired right up! :bigtu: By this time, the timed portion of the events were over and there were only fun runs left to go. A buddy and I hopped in and gave the car one last rip before needing to head home. I missed a gear (thanks OEM 6spd shifter), my driving was lack luster after being mentally burnt out from the 5 hrs prior, and the RS4's were pretty unhappy about the thought of grip in the cold, but I had fun in the run and finally a little taste of what this Kmiata life is about. The car is fast.. like real fast... like "231whp shouldn't feel this fast" fast... and revving it out higher than Dogecoin stock spikes is addicting and works very well with what is typically short 6spd/4.30 ratios.. The only thing more horrible than my excuses for being slow on the day is the quality of the video below, but better than nothing. At the very least, enjoy the noises. TLDR: Car made it 5 hrs round trip to an AutoX event because streetcar, but spent 5 hrs at the track broken down because racecar due to a intermittent connection on the Kpro adapter harness. |
In my limited driving so far, I've grown to dislike the OEM shifter feel on the 6spd trans... This isn't an uncommon review from what I gathered online. Based on a quick internet search, GRacing and MiataRoadster were the two shifter options on the market. The MR comes with a lot of extra parts that I frankly don't need given my shorty console, so the price was reflected in that. Reviews on the GR seemed good enough that I thought I'd give it a shot and save the money on unnecessary accessories. I took a bit of that savings and upgraded to the short carbon knob in the hopes that it stays cooler to touch than the standard metal knob option. Haven't gotten it installed yet, but it appears to be a really nice quality piece. Will post video review once I get it installed.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f1bd472d45.jpg |
Update time! Here's a video of the shifter in action once I got it installed.
Next up was fixing the wiring gremlin that left me stranded at the AutoX event. Here you can see this pin on the relay harness was crimped around the insulation, causing an intermittent connection when you'd wiggle the wire. I cut off the connector and crimped a new one on to fix the issue. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3e9cc59e76.jpg Nut and bolt check the car before Miata Meetup https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8110041885.jpg One of the main points of the kswap for me was to retain n/a reliability with the addition of power. That includes driving to and from the track. The first leg of the trip on the way to Gingerman was rain. It cleared up before getting into Chicago so it wasn't too bad. Made it to the track without a hiccup. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8b574c1d37.jpg Here's a candid shot of us MT members on our way to drivers meeting talking about the color purple. I haven't figured out how I want to photoshop this image yet, but it needs explosions and kittens. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9252df5498.jpg Car had a few tiny little hiccups (mostly related to NVH issues), but overall the car laid down 3 hours of track time with needing nothing more than fuel. I was only at Gingerman once before (for Miata Meetup in 2019) and the car had the BP4W back then. Naturally, I was a bit rusty on the course and very rusty on the car that had changed drastically since then. Most of Saturday was spent dialing in tire pressures, sorting braking zones, optimizing what gears to be in for each corner, and just brushing the rust off of myself. I couldn't find my GoPro at home, so I didn't take video or record any of my laps over the weekend, but by Sunday I was hovering around the 1:45-1:46 second lap zone from what my friends spectating were able to time me at with a stopwatch. The car is a riot to wheel around the course with the K24 power under the hood, and the 6spd/4.3 combo really proved to work out well in conjunction with 8500rpms to use. The biggest area that I have to work on is consistency in braking zones and corner speeds, but I won't beat myself up over that too much given the circumstances. I had a blast and that's all that matters. Practicing and improving the driver mod is the fun part of the build! https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...efd8afa759.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b814aa49fe.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8180597d9e.jpg Pic of the Kswap cars at the event. NB is obviously the answer. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...10e9a5a482.jpg |
Nice, looks like it was a successful day!
|
Had to use the picture of my car behind yours huh? ;)
Good to meet you in person. That session was the most fun one I had all weekend. My Chinese hood pins started failing that afternoon, so I had to cut things short. |
Not too much for updates recently. Car has been running well, so I've just been enjoying driving it around everywhere. Entered the Flyin' Miata car show and took first place in the spicy NB category. Won $50 in-store credit, a tshirt, and some sick stickers. Now if only I had anything from FM that I actually needed to buy...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c80af20b45.jpg Adding to the multiple uses of the car, it works well to haul beer pong tables for weekend parties. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f834b0468c.jpg Maintenance days are always good times. Did the first oil change on the Audi and did some nut/bolt checks on the miata. Still need to clearance the header flange a bit as it vibrates on the subframe under certain conditions. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d26709286f.jpg On Tuesday, I brought both the Audi and the miata to the drag strip. Track prep wasn't great and I honestly didn't care enough to worry about changing the setup on the miata for the purpose of launching or reducing drag, so I just ran it as-is on my exact road course setup. Overall, seeing a 13.37 @ 102 is something I walked away really happy about. The car when completely stock previously ran 15.5 @ 87 as a point of reference. I surprised a fair number of opposing cars and had them peeking through the hood vents trying to see what was under the hood. Pulling some aero off, dropping tire pressure, adjusting dampers, and better prep would likely get this car really really close to a 12.99 @ 105 if I had to guess, but maybe next time. Not too worried about trying to impress anyone at the strip when the car was built exactly NOT for that. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...656a710647.jpg Overall, best times on both cars is shown below. The Audi is just a 1/4 mile freak for a factory showroom turbo 4 banger sedan. Getting 1.7x 60' times on 225 all seasons at 40 psi is stupid. It is extraordinarily consistent on times as all the runs that car made were within .1 seconds and 1 mph on trap speed. It makes drag racing look easy. Can't wait to get a tune on it... https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6fe8d15c5d.jpg |
The thread has been quiet here lately, so I think I'm due for a brief update as to the reasons why. A lot of you already know, but for those who don't, I made a fairly big leap of faith and took a new job back at the end of March at Harley-Davidson as a powertrain design engineer. Designing powertrain parts was always a goal of mine since I was a kid, so it's awesome to now be able to say "I MADE IT". As one could expect, working at an OEM has its ups and downs. It can be stressful, but is very rewarding at the same time. Nothing beats being able to go throw a leg over and test all of the safety factors that you tirelessly put time/effort into designing on your components. The obvious "cool factor" perks of the job are that I get to take home bikes for any vast variety of engineering evaluation reasons (or sometimes just for fun!).
One of these bikes is the new 2021 Pan America 1250. The plethora of positive online reviews for it speak for themselves. My feelings on the bike are overwhelming positive as someone who never EVER previously considered a Harley Davidson product. I've been enjoying putting miles on both the Kmiata and a variety of HD products the last few weeks. They sure do look pretty next to each other in the garage. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...515b3d9c19.jpg No other updates from me though! Plan on doing a nut and bolt check on the Kmiata and driving it down to MATG in a week and a half! See you all there! |
Congrats on the new gig! You're getting to the point on this build where you get to just drive and dial in the car! Not a bad place to be!
|
Originally Posted by vintagerust
(Post 1605249)
Congrats on the new gig! You're getting to the point on this build where you get to just drive and dial in the car! Not a bad place to be!
And yeah, the car is honestly pretty damn close to where I envisioned it to be. I've got plenty of ideas for further updates and improvements, but lately it's just been nice driving and enjoying the car without bleeding money into it like I was for a solid year while piecing the kswap together. I feel like everyone that builds a car for 5+ years has these phases. To give a flavor of what I've got left to really touch: Hubs: currently are original 145k mile units from what I know... Probably should give them attention before I have a failure on track, but so far have had no signs of them being bad. Brakes: currently just running Hawk DTC's on OEM NB1 calipers/rotors all around. They give me plenty of stopping power, so the only real reason to upgrade would be for overall brake system weight savings and having pads that last longer (slight consumable cost benefit) Paint: the car was never a show car (nor do I want it to be), but there's some cosmetic items that I'd like to take care of with a vinyl wrap eventually. Cooling System: the OEM rad setup works, but it's not as clean as I'd like it to look. Being the cooling system engineer I am, I've got a plan to tidy it up (possibly this winter) Interior Wiring: The Kmiata harnesses are a bit long.. would like to tuck them better and clean up the ECU mounting as well as finish up my power window switches Power Adders: This is the furthest down the road idea, but it is feasible to build 2.5L K-series ripper of an engine and shoot for 300whp N/A. Have been in contact with 4Piston to get details on the best way to shoot for this goal. Or for less money, toss boost at it with the miata 6spd being my weak link. Each have pros/cons and I'm in no real rush to do either as the car is a joy the way it sits. Plenty of time to research! |
I just did my front hubs and rear bearings recently. You'd be surprised how much noise you get used to as they wear out. lol
|
Another long overdue update. On my way to MATG, I managed to hit a ~4" tall heat heave in the road at 80mph when following a semi. By time I saw the semi hit it, there was nothing I could do but go along for the ride and pucker the butt cheeks. The splitter and front bumper assembly somehow survived, but the rear 1/8" steel splitter bracket got mangled beyond recognition to the point where the only thing holding the splitter on the car was my 4 cables. The toe on the alignment got knocked out slightly (based on inner front tire wear patterns). The 2-1 section of the exhaust was pancaked flat. The oil pan got a light dent in the front sump, but no leaks. Overall, it could have been worse. Big shout out to Marcus for dropping by the cabin so I could bend the splitter bracket back into shape. Here was the splitter bracket when I got it off the car. It is supposed to only have 2 bends in it haha
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...daf94869c.jpeg Once the car was repaired, it was back to regularly scheduled programming. Led the spirited run on Friday morning up to the Dragon hill climb. Had a really solid turnout of ~45 cars. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...03258351d4.jpg Overall, MATG 2021 was another success! Car managed 2300 miles without much of a hiccup other than the heat heave scenario mentioned above which is no fault of the car. Gained a lot of confidence in the build overall, which was much needed. Was getting about 23-24 mpg in it on the highway at 85mph (5000 rpm) cruising. Managed to take a classic boat launch photo the morning before leaving. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9afce552d.jpeg Since MATG however, I haven't really done much with the car. On the way home from it, I noticed a whirling sound that was speed dependent which is likely pointing towards a wheel bearing going out (not surprised given they are 146k mile originals to my knowledge). I need to get the car back on the rack and redo the alignment and the 4 year old plywood splitter is really starting to look bad. Time to fix it all.. BUT Instead of focusing on car repairs, knowing that the baller billet hubs I want will be a decent amount of cash for not a lot of "feel good" return, I decided to focus efforts on finishing up my garage space when the weather is still nice outside as winter is fast approaching. As of last weekend, I'm happy to see that is DONE!
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...96d9195060.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cfdb57cf0f.jpg |
It doesn't look like much, but I got the garage buttoned up.
Reorganized and wiped down all of the toolboxes which took forever Set up the 500w stereo Hung an extra 32" TV I had laying around in the basement and bought a Chromecast so I can stream videos to it w/ audio through the stereo Hung up some garage decor https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0f490fa278.jpg Started procuring parts for the radiator project this winter. An aftermarket 1985 VW Scirocco rad is what I've found that fits all the criteria I need, but more to come on that later once I get it roughly fit into place. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d46418562f.jpg Lastly, I've been getting sick of being hunched over in the corner of the garage while working on the engine bay OR not being able to get under the car. My solution was to make a set of wooden cribs to roll the car throughout the garage as needed and also set it at a comfortable work height for both above and below work. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e5a7fe631d.jpg |
The paint on the car was never wonderful, and it hasn't gotten any better after years of spirited driving both on and off track... so it's time for a change
Learning how to vinyl wrap... stay tuned https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a5602c8c05.jpg |
I've been keeping my IG page (@leftlane_miata) updated with brief snippets of this, but I don't want to lose track of the value of the build thread either, so I wanted to give all of you MT faithful the detail on the fun I've been having!
Here's the MT exclusive sneak peek... After what I would consider a successful 2021 season of sorting out teething issues on the Kswap, I have decided to give Gridlife ClubTR a run for its money in 2022. It is an 8 event series with your best 4 races being counted towards season points. I'm tentatively planning on hitting up 4 events for 2022 and see how they go. For those unaware, ClubTR is a time trial based class for street cars with full interior (2550lb min weight) and under 2.5L (if NA); Other restrictions apply if boosted. You are required to run Falken RT660 and limited to 255 tire width. That's the short and sweet of it. By sheer luck, my car is essentially a perfect fit to the rulebook. All of the 2021 competition (except one civic) was well over the min weight by several hundred pounds. Most of the BRZ/S2K crowd in the competition from this year will fall in that 2700-2800lb range with driver, whereas I will need to ballast up by at least 100lbs to hit the min weight. This gives me a distinct weight advantage and the current 231whp power level of the k24 doesn't make me any slouch in the straights. It was surprising to see that no Kmiatas gave ClubTR a go this season, but the formula is pretty proven from GLTC. I'm excited for this That said, I've got some work to do! The first step to any Gridlife car is it's gotta look pretty! I've been wanting to do this for years and the push to run it in a series (and the fact my garage is finally a nice finished workspace) finally gave me the push to get a vinyl wrap started. It is a slow but steady process. I'm learning as I go and have made a few blunders. Overall, I'd say the car is awesome from 10ft and 7/10 from 5ft. The first few panels I did could be redone based on what I've learned in my ~15hrs spent so far. Waiting to see how much I have leftover before I think about what panels I may want to recover, but I'm probably beating myself up a bit much here. Even the worst of panels are still better than the black paint it is covered. So much depth and gloss in the paint color compared to before! https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ce7e6b3be7.jpg During the wrap process I realized that I was lazy and didn't feel like wrapping mirrors, so I got a nice little cosmetic item that's been chilling in my "want but don't need" list for years. APR mirrors with RTheory adapter brackets. Drops a couple of pounds up top and the carbon looks really sharp against the metallic gunmetal vinyl. Also peek at the new door/window seals. My old ones were shot with multiple broken clips. The new ones look great. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...40d3585da0.jpg Up next was hubs... I had a rear wheel bearing start to go out on me on the drive home from MATG this year. I decided that now was as good of time as ever to upgrade the front and rear hubs around the car. The fact that I was on 145k mile ORIGNIAL OEM hubs was something I was always a bit weary of the last couple years since moving up to road course activity, so this will be nice to just not have to worry about anymore. I went with BroFab front hubs and Miatahub rears. It would've been nice to get the Miatahub fronts, but given the cost differences (over 50% cheaper!), the BroFab hubs are really hard to ignore. Either option is an upgrade from what I had, so I opted to take the money I saved on hubs to stick into other items that you will read about below. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...81c72df013.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc1dd0380c.jpg I needed to make the shift to a the RT660 tire to run in CTR per the rules and as fate would have it, I needed to replace tires anyways as my second set of RS4's (these being 3 years old) had finally met their demise. Instead of running the Jongbloeds (which have met their rusty/gross fate to Hawk DTC pad dust damage I've yet to figure out how to clean off), I took the opportunity to shift to a lighter wheel and give Konig Dekagrams a go. Kept with the same 15x10+25 size on the wheels and also kept the tried and true 245/40/15 tire size. The Falkens seem to be a bit wider than the RS4, but it should all clear in my fenders without too much hassle. I'll get a photo comparison of the two combos once I get them mounted up. An added benefit to this wheel purchase is that I now have a second set of wheels. The door for tire options now opens up, depending what I want to put on the Jongbloeds. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b1a8ca9ad1.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...127dbc73d8.jpg The last bit of prep is in regards to brakes. My current setup is what I like to label the "spec miata special" as listed below: Hawk DTC60 (front) / DTC30 (rear) pads OEM sized 1.8 calipers/rotors Stainless lines Good fluid It is a good setup and really has done me no wrong to date. Car feels balanced and even without brake ducting, I'm finding that I have far more brake power than I could use on my RS4's. The downsides I've found thus far are: I needed new pads and rotors. If I was to upgrade, now would be the time... The Hawk dust is very corrosive and next to impossible to clean off once it gets wet (see "ruined" Jongbloeds) The pad life at my HP/Speed levels is starting to become an "often" item. On average, I'm about 1-2 seconds ahead of SM pace right now (and getting faster) and estimate to be replacing pads every ~3 events Future uncertainty... Moving to a much grippier RT660 tire, I wasn't sure if a heat related issue may arise on OEM sized brake components that I haven't seen on the RS4. What I knew for certain was, if I was going to upgrade, I wasn't going to mess around with a mid tier level kit. "buy once, cry once" has been said in this thread more than once, and it was time to say that about the brake system. At the end of the day, it's a safety system so even if I don't need it, overkill makes you feel good here. The goal was to run as big of a caliper/rotor in the front as I could physically manage while also keeping future consumable costs as low as possible. For the fronts, I ended up settling on ordering Jerfspeed's AFCO F88 front caliper setup with 11.75" x 1.25" rotors. The F88 calipers use the standard 7420 size Wilwood pad and the 1.25" thick rotors mean that I can use off the shelf parts (not a special 1.1" rotor like SM offers). I am waiting on them to arrive, but am pretty excited. For the rears, I found that the piston ratios while keeping the 1.8 caliper are the best (even with a massive front kit). It's a pretty basic and proven setup to just run the caliper adapter brackets and sport rotors, so that's what I'm moving forward with. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2a2a6ef0b7.jpg I was able to order the pads ahead of time. I'm shifting from the Hawks mentioned above to Gloc R12 (front) / R10 (rear) compound. I've had good experiences with this compound on other miatas I've driven and the material won't ruin my wheels like the hawks if they get wet. Comparing the 7420 pad to the OEM 1.8 rear caliper pad is a pretty great comparison. The 7420's are HUGE (not only in face area, but in thickness) and only a whole $37 more than what OEM front pads would've ran me. I expect that these will last through whatever I throw at them for 2022 and maybe even through a chunk of 2023. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6abec7d58f.jpg So there you go MT faithful... As always, more to come... |
Thanks for the writeup!
You'll need to watch the R12s, the dust sticks much harder than the R10s ( I had that combo on my car, now 10s both ends for exactly that reason). I only ever ran hawks in one event and I wouldn't touch them again, but the wheels with the12s will need a careful clean after each weekend. I don't think they are acidic, but the dust seems to set if left on - I was spoilt by my previous experience with 10s, and discovered the difference a bit too late. |
The goods have arrived and good lord are they beefy!
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...585afada24.jpg More install photos to come once I get to it, but I took these shots of the weights for all those gram warriors as a reference. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...813d29faa7.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...33cb6bf586.jpg |
Good hell those are thick. Makes my 11.75" TSK Dynalite kit look small.
Loving the quality on this build, keep it up man. |
BEEF
|
Made some more decent progress this weekend.
First we'll start with old hub weight https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...50cd7501e1.jpg New hub weight comes out to 1.9lb increase per front corner. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...35e8882418.jpg Weight comes from the spacer needed to get brake rotor offset correct, the longer studs I wanted, and all that extra flange beef. The side by side photo is pretty telling. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bab15fdc4f.jpg All installed it looks real nice and pretty. Peek also at the Jerfspeed caliper adapter bracket that is installed https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c7587a6add.jpg Speaking of brakes, I got the old front caliper/rotor assemblies removed and tossed them on the scale. Overall, it looks like the full Jerfspeed kit is going to add 3.3lbs per corner, which isn't bad at all given the massive size difference. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba6dde3874.jpg To fit the caliper on, you need to grind away part of the ears on the knuckle so that the ears of the caliper clear. Fitment is tight, but a grinder makes quick work of it. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...99ef9edc87.jpg This is an example in the install instructions of the grinding done to give you an idea of the clearances. I took all the material off of the steel knuckle and opted to not touch the caliper casting. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...aad31fe58f.jpg Overall, install went really quick. I'm gonna need to call Arby's emergency hotline as I have the meat sweats. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3d2e94d7dd.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b6b1b7636b.jpg It wasn't confirmed whether or not these clear the Jongbloed 15x10's, but I can confirm they do with a fair amount of room to spare! Even more room with the Dekagrams https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3238afa635.jpg |
I've been kicking around the thought of a BBK project this winter. Your thread has inspired me!
|
I've been kicking the idea for the last 3 years, so I feel you there.. hoping it performs as good as it looks!
|
How does that saying go again "...sometimes life happens?"
Since my last update, a lot of that has happened, and truthfully, I'm plenty alright with it even if it does push some car plans off to the side a bit. I started off in mid-December by somewhat reluctantly (but not really) selling the Audi S3. Pricing on those cars inflated so much in my 1 year (almost to the day) of ownership. It was crazy to watch. I put 14k miles on it, trashed a set of brakes/tires on it at Road America and instead of replacing the maintenance items, I ended up having the same dealer I bought it from buy it back for the easiest (and most fun) $5k profit I've ever made on a car before. Then the question was, "what the hell do you get next in this inflated market?" Well, I found a fully loaded 2008 Avalanche that was plenty clean. 198k miles, 4x4, leather, remote start, heated seats, minimal rust etc all for $8500. For a $3500 kicker on the Audi profit, I had a dependable GM pickup that actually had more features than the Audi (albeit not nearly as exciting to drive). Having no car payment again was a big win and part of the plan. As of me writing this today, I'm already at 203k and she hasn't depreciated a penny from it. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7a0b0243dc.jpg Of course, when you own an LS based vehicle, you can't not buy a bumpstick for it... more to come on that this summer, but I'm labeling it as "preventative maintenance". https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...90ad121484.jpg Xmas eve, I finally did the deed and popped the question to the GF of nearly 4 years. Everyone is excited about it and not having a car payment is going to come in clutch when it comes down to the wedding this October. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2c3a38836.jpeg Shortly thereafter, in early January, we added a second floppy eared family member to the household. Maverick is a 9 week old German Shorthair Pointer. He gets along well with Tucker, the border collie, and they do a good job of tiring each other out. We are still in house training mode, but I'll say that training Maverick has been infinitely easier with Tucker there to show him the ropes. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f86696a494.jpg and last, but not least, we have the latest addition to the household. Anyone that has dogs, knows that traveling with them can become challenging. Seems like you are either stuck with finding a place to board them ($$$), asking favors of friends to watch them, or taking them along where many times its not super convenient. Not complaining about it in the slightest, but it's just reality of pet ownership. We do a lot of camping in the summer and currently have always tented. It was always fine once set up, but we seemed to run out of space quite fast even with our full size SUV. In parallel to this, whenever I'd go to track day weekends in the summer, the last place you really want to go is into a muggy hot tent after sweating your butt off in your car most of the day. Couple both of these things with the fact that both myself and my fiancé can work from home and we took a leap of faith against the better judgement of recent fuel prices I present to you, "that B**** Carol". Carol is a 2000 Coachman Mirada. She's 34' long, powered by a Ford V10 with 44k miles, has a on-board generator, roll-out canopy, on-board LP, 2 rooftop AC units, a central heating unit, more under cabin storage for tools/etc than I can even use, sleeping for 6 (but room for more with inflatable mattresses thanks to the large slide), auto-leveling hydraulic jacks, and a 5000lb tow capacity. She needs a little TLC, but overall, I'm pretty impressed with how much RV you can buy for your money these days. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c2a64d2198.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...09aae89ed.jpeg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5659213e5.jpeg We are planning to take Carol on our honeymoon with the dogs on a big ole road trip through the West this fall. It'll be great to use for track-side tailgating at Road America events, relaxing to have for HPDE/Gridlife weekends regardless on if the fiancé/dogs/friends want to tag along, and then it obviously beats the hell out of tenting on non-trackday weekends. When I ran the numbers, the RV just made a lot more sense for us than the more common 3/4 ton truck / enclosed trailer setup that you typically see in the paddock. The first true test will be in a few weeks where we plan to drive down to Road Atlanta for the TA2 racing that my good friend is involved with. Fingers crossed for no breakdowns :giggle: So that's my update! Weather is starting to warm up here again, so looking forward to spending some wrench time in the garage to get the Miata buttoned up. |
Did you figure out a brake spindle duct setup for the Jerfspeed AFCO F88 caliper setup using 11.75" x 1.25" rotors?
|
For the moment, I don't have any real plans to add ducts. Save the weight/complexity/money for now. I'm not saying I'll never add them, but I had no reported issues with running OEM sized brakes w/o ducts. Without having changed anything that would change my top speeds on track from last year, the Jerfspeed kit should be more than capable without them
|
Tossed ~1700 miles on Carol over an extended weekend to visit Road Atlanta and spectate the Trans Am series racing that was going on. Good friend of mine was running TA2. Got about 8.3mpg @ 70 mph, which is better than I was expecting. Will be interesting to see how she does towing the miata, but I guess that means I need to finish it first :rofl:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/So...-no?authuser=0 |
Man, I'm jealous of the slide out. I deliberately avoided slide outs when I bought mine because I didn't want the complexity/failure points but having that kind of space in a living room would be game changing.
|
The extra space is game changing for sure. We wanted a slide-out but honestly didn't think we'd find one for our rather tight budget. We got lucky with this deal. To your point, there is extra maintenance and leak paths with them though, so having a slide-out isn't all positives.
|
Warmer weather has got the motivational fluids flowing again. Had a pile of rear end parts to get installed.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e2644c3ccc.jpg Went over to a local SM buddies race shop as he had a nice fixture to press out and re-install the rear bearings/hubs because its a common maintenance item for his fleet (surprise surprise). Took off the dust covers for the rotors while we were at it so that the sport rotors fit without a problem. Even with his special tools, my stock parts were seized in pretty good. There's a less than zero chance I would have gotten this stuff out with my available parts. Now that they are assembled though, the beef is real. I'm at a small holding pattern at the shown point though as I realized now would be as good of a time as ever (drained brake system) to replace the tired rear calipers that are presumably original to the 150k miles on the chassis. Replacements should arrive on Friday and will be good for my peace of mind. The GWR adapter brackets fit like a glove! https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cb622c97a6.jpg Now that the rear end was as far as I could get it, it's back to vinyl work I go. Everyone needs a little bass boat flake orange in their life. Got the body panel between the frankenstein bolts completed as well as the whole trunk lid. This is the nicest this trunk lid has ever looked since buying this car... https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3aedf9ec83.jpg Once the trunk was done, it was off to the next dreaded component.. The wing! Now I know I could have simply powdercoated the damn thing.. surely that path would have been a lot easier, but I'm a glutton for punishment, have a pile of extra vinyl (free!) and I like my things to match, so here I go by starting off wrapping the TIG welds and wing supports.. This localized section will be far from perfect and gives the good welds an otherwise horrible looking booger weld appearance, but given the visual location under the wing, I don't think anyone will really see my sins here. From any reasonable standing angle, it will look way better than raw aluminum. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...37455c2631.jpg Taking a scrap piece of vinyl, I wanted to make sure my intended process of applying the vinyl all the way around the wing profile would work as it's not the easiest thing to apply. Turns out it worked pretty darn well, and I'm now being teased of how this thing will look when fully wrapped up... Can't wait! https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2315520314.jpg |
Spent 4 hours taking my time and completely wrapping all surfaces of the wing. Took 12 pieces of vinyl in total and I'm really happy with how it blends the wing into the rest of the car instead of seeing a shiny chunk of aluminum out in space. MT gets the extra photo sneak peek of what the full livery is looking like. Bumpers coming next!
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...61/446/27d.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a10258643b.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...25a749b724.jpg |
Out with the old and in with the new! As long as the brake system was dry, I figured it was as good of time as any to replace the rear calipers for peace of mind. As an added bonus, it saves me the hassle of stripping the paint off the old ones that were well past their prime.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bcc5bf24f3.jpg All buttoned up https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3401138935.jpg Got the fender vents tossed back on in the meantime as well. Wrap is getting closer to finishing day by day https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c41d8f534.jpg |
Sometimes the most elegant and simple designs are the most challenging to think through. As many of you who have operatonal kmiatas are aware, getting a proper length intake in a cold inlet location that isn't prone to being sprayed by water is no small feat thanks to the Mazda radiator placement. I've been working as an OEM coolant system designer for the last 6 years and decided to take it upon myself to fix this on my car in an aesthetically pleasing manner after being upset with options. After scouring the internet for way longer than I care to ever admit, rethinking, overthinking, and rethinking again like engineers do, I've finally got my concept mounted to the car.
Step 1: Welding. Off-the-shelf has done me good so far, but every good project car needs a welder tossed at it. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...17a1d790b5.jpg The intake placement was made possible by running the front bumper support bar that we sell here and generously trimming out the material between the frame rails. It should be no issue to get clean, cold air from the bumper inlet to the filter from the radiator ducting (that I still need to finish up). The intake is held in rigidly by the OE core support brackets for the bumper cover and fits under the bumper cover without interference. I tossed on a carbon fiber intake pipe in the visible area just to be fancy. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...380d90f33c.jpg I found an off the shelf dual pass radiator that (with help from some custom made adapter brackets and a few minor modifications) bolts right up to OE locations on the frame rails. It is dual pass (which cleans up hose routing and eliminates the ugly crossover hose) and slightly shorter than the Mazda core (which allows for intake pipe clearance between the radiator and core support when the radiator is mounted at an angle) all while fitting between the frame rails AND clearing the sway bar. Clearances are tight, but it all fits and nothing is rubbing. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...33b00b77be.jpg While I was in overkill mode, I took my hybrid kpower/tractuff rear water neck and modified the outlet to point more outward (vs under the intake manifold) and made a nice hard line to run to the radiator inlet. The hard line bolts to existing weld nuts in the engine bay. I need to clean up and radius a couple of the square edges on the hard line mounting tabs, but you get the idea. All hose sections were sourced from OE hoses at NAPA. I can fill the system via the rear fill neck on level ground without the need for a fill funnel or awkwardly jacking the front end up. The coolant overflow is hidden in the cowl. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...681520feee.jpg With bumper cover on, I gotta say I'm really happy with how it's all looking. The engine bay looks empty all while still remaining just as functional and nearly as serviceable as before. The real test will come in the next few months of track use, but I expect that I should have no temp issues given the kseries is a lot more thermally efficient than the old 90's tractor motor it has replaced. Given how cold of temps I was running last year on an OE Mazda radiator, I have loads of confidence that this wont give me a problem. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...12570c063e.jpg Also, just because its a cool job perk. I got to take home a new 2022 Harley Davidson Nightster 975 for what we like to call "engineering evaluation". The Nightster was just announced a couple weeks ago, so they are about as new as they come. Magazine reviews are just only starting to come out for them, and you'd be lucky to even see the first ones getting unpacked at the dealer for showroom models, let alone ride one. It's IMO a beautiful departure from the archaic air cooled sportster of days past while still distinctly looking like a Harley. Like any gearhead, there's a pile of things I'd do to it if it were mine to modify, but for a showroom stock bike, I am not getting off of it disappointed (unlike some other offerings of ours that I'll leave nameless for now). https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5975f97f76.jpg |
Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm all for supporting small business and I know inflation is a thing, but can I just say that the price for the NLR CFD endplates is some lunacy? $216 for two 10"x12" pieces of metal? I was never a fan of the dead man logo burned into the side of my standard endplates that I got with the wing years ago (and jhony wouldn't sell me them w/o the logo), so I decided to fire up the CAD machine and do some China level knockoff work.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f0337d66d2.jpg After about an entire 4 mins using CAD and a photoshop measurement tool, I had a DXF of the design. I uploaded it to sendcutsend, and had these bad boys shipped to my door in 4 business days for a whole $22/pair. 90% discount? Don't mind if I do! https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...643356813a.jpg I got them all bolted up. They look nice like you'd expect. Some like me would say they look better because of the lack of logo cutout. The nerdy engineer in me is curious if there's a performance benefit in not having a logo cut in an endplate, but I digress on that topic and don't care enough. I still need to wrap them, but I'll take this as a small victory for myself. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...63ded184fd.jpg |
While I do like what 9LR is doing I'm bummed by the fact they bumped prices so fast/aggressively that they were out of my price range before I got the scratch together to buy their wing. I know that some people won't like this, but I've done similar things to this when the wallet wasn't fat enough to counter the effort of a garage copy, and it looks like yours turned out nicely.
Having seen their endplates in person I also dislike the logo cutout. Someone bumped into the corner on my buddy's car and it bent quite easily because of the holes from the logo |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:42 AM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands