Interesting discussion going on here, it makes me relieved that I typically drive the car 2.5 hours to the track so everything is nice and warm by then. It does make me think that I really need to monitor temps, just because on the street I usually let it reach operating coolant temp, then be there for at least 5 minutes before I start edging into boost, keeping RPMs low but feeding it some boost to warm things up. I have no oil temp sensor so I just do what "feels" right. I planned on adding one along with an oil cooler, but since I typically do time attack and not HPDE or longer sessions I've never really worried about oil overheating. But now you have me worried about it being too cold when I'm ripping it on the streets!

Since we're talking oil temps, this was my plan:

• Keep stock "oil warmer", add thermostatic sandwich plate for oil cooler.
• Big oil cooler on the pass side of the radiator, bolted to the radiator and ducted.
• Maybe a small fan on the oil cooler to pull through the rad/cooler when hot. Maybe not.

My thoughts were that this would help warm up the oil when cold, but should keep the temps at bay with a nice big oil cooler and the hood vents. I see that Zak is running the old wheel well mounted setup, which I always liked, but worried about a bad off ripping lines and causing engine damage. That said, I hope to not have any more "bad offs" anytime soon.

As for the pi dimming, I can't remember exactly but there's a way to do it via the CLI with a pretty simple command. My thought was a nice little script that runs on a 1 min cronjob (runs every 1 min), checks the time, and sets the brightness to a lower level automatically after a certain time period. The script would be super easy to write, and AFAIK I don't have a light sensor or anything like that on mine to do auto-dimming, though perhaps like you mentioned if there's a way I can add a Dial to adjust it that might be the ticket as well.

Dude, why you gotta make me think about sh*t like this!? Hahaha jk, I feel this, though. My only issue with the setup has been the oil cooler eating rocks. I was following another driver at willow springs last year and their car kicked up a baseball-sized piece of asphalt which nailed my cooler and took out a handful of fins. I'd driven my car to the track that day. Luckily it just dented the cooler and didn't cause a leak. The lines on my setup are pretty tucked away but could definitely be damaged if I hit anything hard enough to break my splitter/undertray.

Also, regarding the -8 lines I'm running, thanks @SlowTeg for reminding me about that last week. I hit up TDR asking for the female thread size on my sandwich plate and Dan said they've changed it over the years and offered to send me out a slew -10 fittings they had sitting around if I paid the $5 shipping cost. Score!

Sounds like a solid plan. I guess logging temps first would be prudent, just so you could gauge what size oil cooler you need. I'm actually surprised you're running the car without one, but as you said, shorter sessions don't beg the need as much.
FWIW, I've noted my oil temps drop substantially quicker than coolant temps when I go into cooldown mode at the end of a track session. Usually they'll go from 20-30*F above coolant temps to matching coolant temp by the time I'm back in the paddock. This might be due to the nature of the big ol' 25-row Setrab, but I think I remember it being similar with the smaller TDR cooler as well. Long story short, I don't think a fan on the cooler would be necessary. Although maybe on a street car driven in hot weather, it'd be good to sorta emulate the stock AC fan...

My daddy always taught me "never ask a question that you don't want the answer to". Ignorance is bliss, baby.

But yeah, our format with 1 warmup, 3 hotlaps, and 1 cooldown lap, which is what I usually run, shouldn't really need an oil cooler. Hopefully. It's definitely in the plans to add a setup though, if I can stop wrenching on other things..

Ya honestly, if you've been doing it for a while now it's probably fine. I've been slacking lately with the Miata and need to get back to wrenching. The turbo's just sitting on the workbench waiting to put in some work. :) Question for you about the sandwich plate.. can you stack a thermostatic sandwich plate on top of the oil cooler and keep the intake manifold bracket (I can cut it a bit no problem)? I took a look at it the other day and there definitely isn't a ton of room and oil changes will probably be a pita but if it'll fit I'm inclined to keep the oil warmer/cooler. I removed it on my honda as space was tight and I'm sure it slows oil warm up times.

Great question! I'm running a squaretop with no IM brace, so I can't help much there. I'd imagine clearance would be tight, if it works at all, though.

Running the front splitter on the street.
 

[QUOTE=Z_WAAAAAZ;1650459]...... but could definitely be damaged if I hit anything hard enough to break my splitter/undertray...


How do you find the street driving with the front splitter? Are you scrapping it a lot? I am about to bolt up pretty much the same from aero setup as yours and am wondering about street driving it... i know I will need some kind of ramps for my driveway. How often do you hit your splitter street driving your car?

Yo! The splitter setup is totally streetable by my own standards. Might take a bit of getting used to going up steep driveways at an angle but that’s the only issue I have with it. I was originally running a 4” splitter at a 4” front pinch weld ride height and am now running a 5.5” splitter at a 4.75” front ride height (upped to 245 tires and they rub pretty good if I go much lower than that). I scrape the bigger splitter even less than the little one with the lower ride height. Come to think of it, I haven’t scraped the new one on a speed bump ever I don’t think.

Also, with parking, you’ll get reminded real quick that your car is four or more inches longer than before ;) not a huge issue though since these things are so stubby to begin with.

Cool. That makes me feel better about the 4" splitter and driving it to the track with it attached. LOL Thanks.

Hell yeah dude no sweat. Yeah, I'm too lazy to pull it on and off between track days, even though my splitter is detachable from the rest of the undertray. You'll get used to it fairly quickly unless you have a crazy steep driveway lol.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...49c684823.jpeg
I’ve street-driven this thing several times. Just be mindful and it ain’t no thang.

BIG UPDATES THIS WEEK.

Nah, just kidding. Just a couple quick fun things.


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Took the ol’ piss rocket up to the mountains again today. She’s doing pretty well overall right now, aside from the absolutely murdered rear tires I currently have installed. The rear end is LOOSE, but I’ve grown accustomed to it. I’m saving my good tires for the track so these will have to do for now. Speaking of which, with the vibration on my car being near-nonexistent now until 110+mph, I’m thinking I may sign up for a Streets of Willow track day before full summer hits and it gets even hotter out in the desert. My top speed there is only around 110mph, so the vibration shouldn’t come into play much there.

Last weekend, I noted a vibration resonating through the steering wheel when putting a certain amount of cornering force into the front tires. Thought I might be having a front wheel bearing issue so I got the car in a lift one morning before work and started prodding around in the front suspension. Turned out my 2-year-old ELBJs were giving out and allowing for mad vertical play in the steering knuckle. The left one had about 3-4mm of vertical play and the right one had closer to 2mm. Glad to have caught that sooner rather than later. Supermiata had their ELBJ’s in stock to I grabbed a pair during lunch and swapped them out the following day. Still so thankful I live/work close to them.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5659e69ff.jpeg

Second on the list is probably the first upgrade I ever should’ve done to this car. An actual Bluetooth head unit! I got this thing from my buddy for cheap and made an adapter harness out of a couple kits from Amazon also for cheap. Ever since day one, the passenger side speaker in this car has only worked about 5% of the time. I replaced the speakers shortly after getting the car to no avail and they still sounded pretty awful and were fairly quiet. The head unit swap got both speakers working and the sound quality in general is soooooo much better. I forget much of the time that there are other things I need to do to this car that don’t need to involve speed.


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f415cb129.jpeg

Up next? Who knows. I’m assuming the Getrag swap kit is still 3-4 weeks from landing at my doorstep. I’m trying not to go hog wild with more upgrades after doing the trans and diff swap projects. I would, however, like to get another set of seat rails so I can throw my old Sprint seat in the passenger side and put a set of door bars in this thing. We’ll see…

Welcome to the 21st century, we can run 2 whole speakers and connect wirelessly :D

Man your car is looking niceee. Question. Are you using 9LR sturdy bois to mount your splitter? Are you still running an undertray and fender liners? I skimmed through the last dozen pages to see if I can determine myself but didn't see anything, if I missed it - my apologies.

Glad to be here. Everything else I've done to this car up until now has thrown basic creature comforts to the wayside! :rofl:

I saw you posted some pictures of a book about driving techniques in another thread. Mind sharing the source? Or any other books you suggest?

Yo, yeah! Been reading Speed Secrets and Secrets of Solo Racing for a bit now. Both really good reads.


I don't know if I'm any faster but I sure feel smarter :idea:

While we're recommending books: Anything by Carroll Smith. He had a fantastic ability to take engineering knowledge and put it in a way any enthusiast can understand.

Tune to Win is practically required reading for any engineering student on a Formula SAE team. Drive to Win also has some fantastic insights, and is obviously more in line with what you're asking about. Engineer to Win is a bit more esoteric and most of the lessons learned can't be applied by us consumers that have neither the time, experience, or money to design every single component from scratch. We've got to settle mostly for what's on the shelf. But the design principles in there can certainly help you be better at choosing parts to modify your car.