I... Can't... Believe the idiocy in that thread... that guy needs to be banned sooo badly. Just ban them all.

:facepalm:

please be joking :laugh:

:giggle:

Calm yo titties, I got this. I just didn't bring my laptop with me when I went out for lunch.

Lolwut.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397273205

No seriously, that can't be right. I'm sure I'm just not doing something correctly :loser: posted anyway, zero fucks given. I'll try it again tomorrow when I'm not dodging semi trucks and field worker buses out on farm roads.

Cracked 100whp @5K RPM ... impressive. :rofl:

-Zach

Yeah, I'm sure I fucked that up. I need to figure out what data needs trimming out of the CSV after converting from MSL. That weight is legit though. Car + absolutely full tank of gas + bunch of other shit + my fatass = 2660lbs. I got in line with all the semi trucks at the scales and weighed it before heading out :bigtu:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397494331
IAT piggy. The factory harness now has a weatherpack connector so I can switch between the stock and GM IAT sensors as needed.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397493820
MS3 Basic -vs- stock ECU

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397493820
Yet another angle

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397493820
Brackets! The rear bracket ended up being a simple Z bracket rather than this compound bend fuckery I created

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397493820
Snug as a bug. Again, that firewall bracket is not the final one I ended up with.

In all honesty, I spent all weekend getting my truck running. Again. About a year ago I resurrected it after it had been sitting for 8-9 years after my grandfather passed away. I had the heads rebuilt, but a fully restored Autolite 4100 600cfm vacuum secondary carb on it, installed a custom recurved electronic ignition distributor, MSD6 ignition box & MSD coil left over from my old Mustang, replaced the shattered exhaust manifolds with Sanderson headers and brand new 3" exhaust. Used rims and tires rounded out the package. This truck was a beast!

I loaned the truck to my brother a year ago on the condition that he actually start it up and drive it every once in a while. Keep the tank full, check the oil and coolant, and actually drive it to keep it from varnishing up. I guess this was too much to ask.

When I went to pick up the truck on Friday it was the same oil from a year ago, plus 3 quarts low. There was also no water in the top tank of the radiator and as I found out driving it home, both fuel tanks were empty. Thanks Bro. :facepalm:

Step 1 was cleaning it. I spent 6 hours pressure washing and then hand scrubbing dirt, mold and moss off the paint.

Before:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397495386

After:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397495386

There was about 40lbs of FUCKING PINE NEEDLES in the bed, cab, cowl and underhood. There was also a pile of sand in the passenger footwell. WTF? I ended up removing the entire heater box assembly from under the dash to get all the duff out of it. Because I'm a supergenius I decided the best course of action for cleaning out the cowl was driving down the highway with the vent system unhooked. At about 50mph a HUGE wad of pine needles came shooting out from under the dash and proceed to fill the cab with a cloud of pointy death. It was like when they put people in one of those air chambers full of dollar bills, except with pine needles, and at 50mph. I managed to get something in my eye and pull over without dying, so I counted that as a victory.

Step 2 was ripping the carburetor apart and cleaning it. Every one of the little micro passages and such was blocked, I'm somewhat amazed it ever ran like this. For whatever reason there was a huge quantity of shit in the bottom of the fuel bowls, cloudy light brown floaty clumps of stuff and hard brown flakes. The filter should have caught this but it also might be hardened crap and varnish from the carb sitting unused and full of fuel, or it might be junk from running the tank completely empty. It was like 3 hours with a strand of wire and 2 cans of carb cleaner to get it decent again. I managed to get that in my eyes too :facepalm: Being not a complete moron, I changed out the fuel filter when the carb went back on. It idles MUCH better, but not perfect like it was before when I first put it back together. Another minor victory I guess. The idle is high but its not "vacuum leak" high. I need to figure out why I can't get it to drop down to something reasonable. I also need a cheap tach that will work with the 6A box.

Step 3 will be getting the fluids changed: coolant, oil and transmission. I believe the gear oil in the trans had been changed maybe once between the factory fill in '74 and again when I did it last year. There was significant volumes of sludgy crap in there. It's had good dinosaur oil in it for a year, so its time to change it with something long-term, like Amsoil. I also need to adjust the clutch linkage.

I'll play more with the car this week, I promise ;)

Awesome truck, glad to see you keeping it goin'. Also, glad you learned your lesson on lending cars to your brother with the old truck, and not your miata :P

Re: virtual dyno, make sure you are on a FLAT road when you do pulls, any down/uphill will skew the results.

Also make sure you calculate your gear ratio and tire height correctly as well :)

Yeah, my grandfather taught me how to drive stick in this thing when I was about 14 so I've got an unhealthy attachment to it. Unfortunately my brother just sees is as a dumpster and I need to figure out how to change his attitude. You should have seen the beercans and cigarette butts I broomed out of the bed and left in his driveway :giggle:

As for VD, road was perfectly flat and car profile was set correctly as far as I can tell. I just need to screw with it some more and see what I can make it do. Neat piece of software though, definitely worth the price of admission.

Thanks

Got to love old Ford trucks. They may run shitty sometimes, but they'll run like that forever.

I went and found my favorite 1/3 mile long stretch of 23% grade and did a shitload of VEAL tuning today after work.

• Put it in second
• accelerate car up hill
• modulate the throttle to vary MAP across the range
• climb to redline
• save results
• reboot MS
• repeat in 3rd
• rinse and repeat

Seems to be a rather effective way to sort out a fuel map with a quickness :bigtu:

Sweet! Dat right der is goodness I need in my life ... CNC head is sucking up all my funds though.

I really, really, really want one of those heads. I've been staring at my computer holding a credit card twice now and I just can't bring myself to do it.

But ohhhhhh do I want to...

Staring at the computer, at the CNC head, holding a credit card ... uh huh.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397715621

Well, that's creepy. Glad I've got naked babies in my buildthread now :facepalm:

Something showed up in the mail yesterday! I decided polishing my valvecover was too much of a bastard so I sent it off to begi to get powdercoated wrinkle black.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397755868

It's black, so that's good. Unfortunately the old "10ft, 10mph" thing applies here. Its nowhere near as wrinkly as anything else I've ever seen powdercoated in a wrinkle finish.

I also put a hand written note in the box specifically asking them NOT to powder coat the threads and sealing surfaces for the oil filler cap, PCV, vent and machined locating surface for the cam sensor.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397755868
Oil filler

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397755868
Cam sensor

Ok, I'm really fucking worried about this one. I'm not sure if I should try to remove the coating from the face here or not. AFAIK the machined face in this location is used to locate the cam sensor. This coating is not exactly thin and I'm worried I'm going to have cam pickup issues.

I'm open to recommendations here.

Overall quality is not that great either as the devil is in the details.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397755868
Vent nipple itself isn't coated as per my request, but whatever they used to mask it left something to be desired. Crap in the bottom of the image is casting flash above the gasket rail I should have removed but didn't.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1397755868
Yeah, that's an issue. Good thing its on the back of the cover.

I'm also not sure they did that great a job cleaning it before coating. In the recessed "MAZDA" lettering on the top of the cover, I can see where there is something built up in the bottoms of the letters under the coating. It looks suspiciously like the grime I didn't clean first as I assumed they would be giving the surface a thorough cleaning before coating.

They had me send them a valve cover gasket so they could bolt it to something to keep powder from getting under the cover. Either they didn't use it or that seems to have accomplished absolutely nothing. The damn thing is also full of loose powder, probably from blowing it down the oil filler that I asked to be masked off. Either way I'm really glad I pulled the baffles before I sent it. I need to figure out some way to get it absolutely clean inside before I attempt to use it.

It also smells like paint. Is fresh powdercoating supposed to smell like paint?

I'm still not sure this was a good idea. I should have just had the cover blasted to get a consistent finish and then hit it with satin clear like I did with the intake and compressor housing. I have a feeling this is something I will regret having spent money on :facepalm:

Maybe I'm just too fucking critical.

I'll call around locally and see if I can find someone with a soda blaster or something that is willing to blast out the underside because this is miserable. At least with soda I can flush it out with water.

dude.

that's garbage. tell them to fix or refund

not to start the hate train but that's about what I'd expect from them.

^No question, that's terrible, terrible work. Oh begi... having seen some of the stuff they've put out, I would never let them touch my car.

Its not a hate train when its the truth.

Each time there's a million excuses. Each time it takes forever.

I'm kinda surprised you'd send it there when there's a million places that powdercoat in CA, will gladly ship, and ACTUALLY pay attention to what they're doing cause they ACTUALLY care about their reputation.

Seriously, to powdercoat inside the oil cap threads and cam sensor? Seriously?

Literally no excuse can be made that would justify such stupidity. My dog woulda done a better job.