Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. For all that MT.net has done to help me, I don't mind giving a little something back. And if I can help someone to get through some of the challenges that I've faced, then good.

Now, back to the "good stuff"!

FWIW, here's the AE settings that have worked for me;
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/qH...g=w677-h611-no

Before going on, and as a caution to anyone looking at this, I guess I should outline my setup so that there's a reference point.

'99 NB 1.8L (obviously), .050 overbore w/ 9.5:1 Supertech pistons (not the best for FI, but a holdover from seeking more power when it was n/a), FM (ex-Voodoo) Kit - GT2560R turbo w/ intercooler, 650cc FIC injectors, and of course the MSPNP controlling it all. DIY coolant re-route, Magnecor plug wires, EBay aluminum radiator w/ DIY ducting, stock everything else in the engine bay.

Other than that, I've got Tein coil-overs & springs (700# front, #400 rear), RB tube sway bar w/ adjustable endlinks on the front, BFG Rivals (225/45-15) on 8" Konig Feathers. Offset bushings on the front UCA's and adjustable rear UCA's.

Body-wise, the nose is fiberglass (b'cause of the accident) and the fenders are aftermarket (ditto). The driver's door has wrinkles and the rear quarter has a big-a$$ dent in it. The top is new as of 2 years ago and in the cockpit is a Sparco Sprint V for the driver with a Crow 5pt harness and a HDDD roll bar.

She ain't pretty, but she's all I got!

I know I'm late to the game and you already figured this out - but i had a similar experience tuning my map. Everyone on the forums told me VEAL would tune around my AE (which i guess it "should" from what I've read), but i could never get a steady tune until i disabled AE, tuned my base map, then re enabled and tuned AE. YMMV.

Yeah, so my guess is that VEAL is good for steady-state (or nearly SS) tuning, but fails @ transient stuff. I guess I was expecting too much from the automation.

No worries - learn from my mistakes...

One thing I did notice that seemed peculiar that I didn't mention above was that, when I had a whole lot more AE dialed in, I could see the "Fuel: Accel enrich" jump up (as expected) when the TPS trigger threshold was crossed. Now, with much less AE dialed in, I don't see that happening anymore - in fact, it shows zero everywhere. I didn't notice that at first, but when I did see it, I could see the "TP AE" indicator go from N to Y and the "Accel PW" jump up by the value in the table, but the "Fuel: Accel enrich" stays at zero during that event.

As long as the car is driving well, and the Accel PW goes up (with a corresponding change in the overall PW) then I won't stress about it. But I'm wondering, "What gives?"

IIRC I disabled all the corrections I could find, ran the hell out of VEAL, then turned the corrections back on and manually edited the tables until things didn't get stupid. It was a long and tortuous process, I'm really expecting more out of my MS3 when I finally get to put my grubby hands on it.

Make sure your IAT sensor is somewhere it won't heatsoak. It was awesome trying to get my car to idle at 19:1 on stock injectors when the thermal correction started freaking out :facepalm:

My VEAL filters when AE is active.

I'm pretty happy with my AE settings now. A few more tweaks over the past week have the car responding nicely to the throttle under most circumstances that I encounter on a day-to-day basis.

Now my challenges are eliminating any detonation and dialing in the cold starts.

With the detonation it's a daily cycle of drive with the detcans on and the data logger going, mark where I hear pings in the log, retard the affected cells, burn the new settings and repeat. My biggest problem is that one cycle takes an entire day to complete; listen and log on the way to work in the morning, change, burn and evaluate on the way home in the evening. I try to target a small area of the table each day making incremental changes. It's time-consuming and tedious, but it's the best that I can do for now.

Cold starts are a PITA! So far my target areas to attach for this (based on research) are the Cranking PW and the Crank Advance. Again, I'm going slow and steady with incremental changes with the added "fun" of having variable conditions each morning/afternoon (as in, no two days are the same and morning starts are typically cooler than afternoon starts) so that makes things more "interesting".

But I'm an Engineer, so a methodical approach is "built-in".

Latest update:
I (think I) have the detonation all sorted now. My spark map seems more conservative than most that I've seen for similar intercooled, FM, GT2560-based setups. I thinks that's a result of the 9.5:1 pistons that are currently in the car.

I've also narrowed the gap on the cold-starts. The car cranks w/o the "hydrolock" (as in too much fuel), but still takes 1.8-2.5 seconds - depending on the morning temp - to fire. I need to get it to fire faster than that so that my remote start will work, so that's still a work in progress.

My next tweak has been to get the overrun fuel cut set. Up to now, when I'm at 0% TPS and coasting down a hill, I can hear "pops" coming from the exhaust. And while that's cool-sounding, it's a waste of fuel so I'm going to use the ORFC to get rid of that. Should be fairly straight-forward.

I've been running for a week now with the Include AFR target setting "on", and have a question for the gurus. With that setting on, I was expecting that the actual AFR would track the AFR Target fairly closely. In my datalogs I can see that the two are somewhat close but there are times when the two are significantly different. Am I expecting too much from the ECU or am I misinterpreting what I see?

Once I feel confident about my tune and how to make appropriate adjustments, I'll start turning up the boost! Right now I'm self-limiting at 11 PSI so I don't blow up anything while I'm learning. After that...it's 15 PSI and beyond (at least, as far as I can go with a 2560)!

Also, I've been using ShadowDash on my Android phone to get logs. My laptop is a humungous, ancient HP nw9440 with crappy battery life and I don't want to carry that beast around if I don't have to. ShadowDash has proven to be way-cool (after an initial SNAFU with the Bluetooth adapter).

Screenshot of ignition map? I'd like to see what "seems more conservative than most" looks like.

Also, are you still tuning it with the onboard knock sensor? Det cans?

I believe he mentioned det phones in one of his posts. Although I'm curious what kind of det phones he's using, so +1

Also, just wanted to say I'm loving your updates. Lots of details.

You may need to adjust your EGO authority so that the ECU has the ability to make bigger adjustments in real time if your afrs are way off the target as well, what are your ego settings?

My spark map - in all it's glory (or shame);
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395770313

I'm actually using the audio jack from the MSPNP - right now, that's all I have. It's "reading" the stock knock sensor (putting on flame suit).

EGO authority? That's something new! Right now, it's set to the out-the-box setting (from DIYAutotune) of 15%. Actually, looking at the the EGO Control dialog box (below), there might be some adjusting that needs to be done(?)
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1395770313

For instance;
- What might a "good" Controller Auth value be?
- Shouldn't "Active Below MAP" be higher than 90kPa?
- Shouldn't "Active Below TPS" be higher than 70% (perhaps to 100%)?
- Am I ready to start using PID for the WB Algorithm? (I remember seeing articles about this and my head started to swim, I need guidance here)

I try to be detailed when I write things up; a) to document for myself what I've done, and b) to help others that may read this to avoid some of the cowpies that I've stepped in.

The "include AFR" function only means that the target AFR is included in the fuel calculation. If you change the target AFR the VEtable is still correct (or just about correct) - but it has nothing to do with how close the Target and actual AFRs are,that only depends on your VEtable (or how good VEanalyze or you got it) and allthe other little fuel add-ons AE, EAE, Mat correction etc..

Greets

OMG!! I went to wikipedia and saw what PID control is all about and it brought back horrible memories of a Control Theory course I took many years ago in college...a course that I BARELY survived.

The didn't TELL me that this would be useful to tune my car!!!

So...include AFR allows me to make changes to the AFR table, which get reflected in the fuel delivery based on the VE table which should (but may not always) show up in the actual AFR value. Whereas the EGO PID corrections should (tend to, if well-adjusted) bring the actual AFR values into alignment with the AFR targets.

Include AFR + (good) EGO PID tune FTW(?)!

Looks like I've got another week of tweaking to do.

Not entirely correct, you need to use VEanalyze live in tuner Studio or handtune your VEtable to get the actual AFRs to match the target AFRs - the EGO PID is only for the "little" rest of error you get. You can not use the EGO PID to tune out big failures in the VEtable...

Understood...I should have prefaced my comment with "After you get a decent tune w/ VEAL (or via a dyno session), then...". I stand corrected.

Stupid things n00bs do #417
 

SO, I've been tweaking my Cranking PW%, trying to get to a good cold-start and going nowhere. I've had PW% settings as high as 300% at 20-30*F and (currently) as low as 130% at the same temps with no change in the cold start behavior.

So I began to compare some datalogs for cold starts on several different days and I (finally) noticed something strange...the morning temps over the past few days have been as low as 25* and as high as 40*F but the CLT temps (after cold-soaking overnight) were 50-65*F...WTF!! Obviously, there was a calibration problem (because the temps made sense before the MS was installed - I was using a ScanGauge B4).

Sure enough, both the IAT and CLT calibration values were set to "GM IAT". That was OK for for the IAT (I do have a GM IAT installed), but I have the stock coolant sensor installed in my reroute. So I've changed the CLT calibration as suggested in a writeup on MT.net;
This afternoon I'll plug in these values and "watch the magic"!

Edit: FWIW, after plotting the values for the different sensors, it made sense that the running temps were spot-on, but low temps were off. There's a "knee" in the calibration curve at 68*F. Below that, the slopes of the two curves is different. Above 68*, the temps will be correct. Below, the temps will diverge, giving false reading to the MS - it'll think it's warmer than it actually is so everything CLT-dependent will be wrong. Ain't data wonderful?!

I put in the new thermistor calibration values last night and - wouldn't you know it - this morning it was 55* (as opposed to 25, as it has been for the past week). The only thing that I could confirm is that the CLT and IAT values tracked together during warmup, so I can only guess that these calibration values are better (if not correct).

Next Challenge;

Reducing the time between key-on and engine start. Right now, it's around 1.7-2 seconds to start (damn, it seems longer than that sitting in the car), I'd like to get that down to under 1 second. (again, so that my remote starter can take over that duty - it's nice to start the car from the living room on those cold winter mornings). I think that a few tweaks on the crank duty % will get that dialed in.

After that...something completely non MS-related...installing a tablet into the console (totally for the "Bling Factor"). Right now, I've wired a mini-jack into the stock Bose HU and I've got a home-made bracket to snap my phone into. Plug the jack into the headphone port of the phone, connect the power cable and I'm playing tunes (via Spotify), navigating (using Waze), and reading my engine parameters (was Torque, now Shadow Dash). What I'm shooting for is to (more-or-less) permanently mount a tablet in place of the Bose HU (keeping the amp, for now) and still do all of the cool stuff without the phone.

Time to do some research. My biggest obstacle is to determine the best way to get the signal from the tablet to the Bose amp. I found one article online (can't remember where) that said that the Bose was expecting speaker-level inputs for the left and right speaker signals - which is good because that's what's coming out of the tablet. I'm hoping that I can experiment with that this weekend...pick up a mini-jack to 4-wire adapter from Radio Shack, tap into the amp left/right signal wires, disconnect the HU and plug in my phone, if that works, then I'm golden. If it doesn't then I guess the Bose is expecting line-level inputs and I'll need a converter.

More later...

P I S S E D!!!
 

After WEEKS of crappy weather, and dealing with all kinds of aforementioned craziness we get a week of 70+ degree days and sunshine.

So what happens?

Something stupid...of course! After 5-6(?) years of faithful service my PLX WB controller bites the dust.

I drive home from work, park the car, go inside to start trying to see if I can get the EGO PID loop started. After making some initial settings and loading them into the MS I start the car. Immediately, the RPMs start to hunt so I figured that I needed to start adjusting the PID settings. After a few tweaks, nothing seems to be settling in, so I look at the AFR settings and they're pegged at 18:1! I know that's not right, so I go back to a working tune, and get the same thing.

I start to wonder if the WB calibration values are off, but nope, they're fine. So I'm thinking that my WB sensor has quit on me. But when I unplug the harness for the PLX controller, I see that one of the pins on the connector looks burnt. I open up the case and can see that the circuit board is "distressed" (as in the magic smoke got let out).

DAMMIT!!!!

Now I have to buy a replacement controller, and since I'm at it I'll get the combo (controller, new WB sensor, cable and new gauge) that should settle this and get me back on the road. Although I'll miss most of this week driving m wife's PT Cruiser :jerkit:

That sucks man! I have them in stock if you need it quickly. It seems like Winters last stab at making Michigan miserable for us east coast guys.

To add to this - The Bose amp does use a high level input.. Just replace the amp with a cheap 4 channel (probably way stronger than the factory) and pick up an audio jack. That way you can upgrade your speakers down the road.

PM sent. If you can get it to me sooner than this Thu (without crazy-stupid shipping) then I'll order.

I thought about that, but I'm stuck with the sucky Bose speakers (with the stupidly-low resistance) for the short-term and I don't want to get an amp to accommodate them now and then have to get a different one later. I figure that I'll get the "hook-up" for the tablet right first then do the amp and speakers in a big-bang later.

OK...I'm seriously considering blasphemy, so those with sensitive eyes...LOOK AWAY NOW!

Since it's gonna be Thursday or Friday before my new PLX arrives, I'm considering plugging in the stock ECU and turning down the boost until it arrives. I mean, I ran that way (with the DooDoo box as a band-aid) for over a year, how much harm can 2-3 (or more) days cause?

The alternative is missing the first week of truly nice weather in "PT Cruiser Hell"!

What say you?

WWmt.netD
("What Would mt.net Do?")

Can you get a AEM UEGO or MTX-L locally? You can have one in 2 days via Amazon Prime if that's your thing

Did PLX say anything about the self-destruction?

Hey I actually don't have access to PLX. I shot them a note but for now I'm afraid I can't do that quickly. I do have the AEM in stock and can have it to you tomorrow though. Let me know what you come up with.

Summit has the UEGO in stock, but I'd prefer the PLX b'cause I'm already wired up for it.

The failure is my own fault. I had the controller under the driver seat and my fabricated sliders for the Sparco seat managed to slice through the power lead and short it out. What kinda bugs me is that I shorted the controller instead of popping a fuse.

Like I said...I'd prefer a PLX, but PM me a price w/ shipping to Atlanta and we'll see. I've got an order in-hand, but don't have a tracking number (yet) so I'll RMA it back if necessary (or you'll see a "sell" of a new, in the box PLX SM-AFR combo soon).

Ok, let the weirdness begin...

Last night I plugged the stock ECU back in, expecting to fire it up and go on about my business. But when I started the car it chugged like a train and barely would idle. I disconnected the Voodoo Box with the same effect.

WTF!!!

So I plugged the PLX and the MS back in, just to see what would happen. And - wait for it - the damned thing started and ran just fine.

WTF!!

I took the car out, fully expecting that the AFR readings would go berserk again. But 20 minutes later, everything was good. So good that I put in some initial settings for PID-based EGO control and took it out to verify the settings.

Even this morning the car started and ran like a champ.

I'm going to keep the new box, it has some good features that will be useful and I certainly need the AFR gauge (the Innovate gauge I currently have has a different calibration than the PLX and gives "off" readings). So this isn't a loss, but it sure is a PITA.

Thinking about the whole "why didn't the stock ECU run" problem and I came up with this...I forgot that I had installed the 650 cc injectors and the stock ECU can't handle them, so it goes bananas. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

The downside of that is that I have to swap the stock injectors in when it comes time for emissions testing (cause I need the OBD connector active). That's a pain, but 1 week of crap for 51 weeks of joy is a win.

Two day w/ the old PLX controller in, and the car is running fine. The new one will delivered today and it'll go in this weekend.

I haven't forgotten about the tablet, I'll be making some inroads with that (hopefully) this weekend as well.

This weekend was a royal PITA!! Two steps forward, and three steps back...

I got the new PLX in on Thursday and started bright and early on Saturday (I waited 'cause I could get to a climate-controlled garage, with a lift then) to install it. If you're not interested in the gory details, I've got a question down at Problem #3

Problem #1 I couldn't get access to the "big" lift (the one with the arms that swing under the car and can lift it high enough to stand up under it and work), so I had to use the scissor lift (the one like a giant scissor jack, but only lifts the car up with about 4 feet of clearance underneath - better than jack stands, but not exactly comfortable to work under).

So, after fumbling around trying to figure out the locking mechanism, I got the car up in the air and (finally) got the WBO2 sensor out of the bung (damn you rust!). When I got the wiring for the sensor out, I found this;

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1396875057

Evidently, the wires contacted the exhaust pipe and melted. Inside the flex-tube were several wires that looked like this;

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1396875057

This one was the power for the heater on the WBO2. I'm certain that it had shorted to the exhaust (or another wire) and was causing problems. So - in my infinite wisdom - I had some heat-wrap on hand to make sure that this didn't happen with the new wiring.

Problem #2 I got the new controller wired up, the new harness encased in heat wrap and the harness secured (with metal ties) away from the exhaust. I plugged in the new controller and AFR gauge and turned on the ignition to see if everything worked...and it was pegged at 20:1!!! :mad:

WTF, did they sell me a defective controller?! I turned everything off and started checking wires - everything seemed fine. I plugged in the old controller and...it was pegged at 20:1??? Did I blow out something? I checked fuses, I checked everything I could think of...nothing.

OK...calm down...what can I do? :idea: Well, I can scrap the PLX and go to a local supplier and get an AEM, but first I have to get the car running (no one else is here and I'm 20 miles from home and access to another car). AHA! I have the old injectors around, I can put them in and plug in the stock ECU and get where I need to get. BUT...the FIC 650's have a different connector than stock and I don't have an old wiring harness around. NOOOOOOoooooo!!! :mad:

So I have to do SOMETHING to get the car running as-is. I rummage around the shop and find an old DVM, but the battery in it is almost dead. But it's good enough to read voltages, and I can tell a short from an open - good enough. I start tracing wires on the controller and find out...wait for it...that I had forgotten to secure a ground wire :facepalm: stupid rookie mistake! It didn't take long to get everything back together and the car running but it was 2PM (I was supposed to be done at 11AM), so I packed up and headed home.

Problem #3 The car is running fine, the AFR's are reasonable, the gauge is showing what Shadow Dash is registering (great tool BTW) and I'm happy. I'm cruising down the hwy at (supra-legal) speed, enjoying life when I get a little "cough" from the engine. WTF, it's never done that before? It's only a little thing, and it settles down. Then a few minutes later, it does it again only this time, more so. I look at the AFR gauge and it's starting to go crazy, creeping up to full lean. But when I look at Shadow Dash it's showing almost full-rich (11, 10.9, readings like that). So I back out of it and coast for a few seconds and gingerly reapply throttle and the readings are almost normal until there's another "cough".

So I get off the hwy and pull into a parking lot and shut down expecting to see mechanical mayhem, but all seems well under the hood. So I re-start and continue home on surface streets and the car is like, "Hey dude, what's all the fuss. I'm fine, why you stressin'?"

I've been on the hwy before (with the old controller/WBO2 and some earlier settings) going at the same (or higher) speeds, for a longer time and haven't experienced anything like this before. The most significant change (IMO) is that I've engaged EGO PID control just before all of the "controller madness" (settings below). Could this be my problem?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1396875057

I've even got a log that captures the event (starts after 4315 sec - Shadow Dash doesn't have a "mark" function that I know of). Any help would be welcome (I'll add it in an edit - waiting for Dropbox to sync and I have a meeting I have to go to).

I can't seem to get the MSL to upload, so I put it into Dropbox. Hopefully those that are interested can get to is via this link.

There was torrential rain yesterday so I didn't try out my newest settings - I'll try that tonight (I hope). The changes I made were;

- Turn off EGO PID and revert to "Simple" EGO control
- Go back to an earlier spark map (not much different than the one posted earlier, about a 0.5* advance between 3-4K at 100kPa)
- Re-tuned the WUE - the previous starts were really rich and would barely idle during warmup

This ha BETTER work!

Update:

- Went back to Simple EGO control...no difference
- Went back to earlier spark map...no difference

I took a hard look at the last log file I got during this madness and saw that (when I think I was experiencing one of those "moments" - as I said, Shadow Dash doesn't have a mark function) I'm in a steady state cruise situation when the PW starts to sag and the AFR reading starts to climb to full-lean, that's when the RPM's start to fluctuate and the MAP starts to fall. I get out of the throttle and - after a few seconds - everything starts to recover. There are several of these "moments" in the logfile, but the first one starts around 1228 seconds.

Things to try...

1) It's time for my annual GA "emissions test" so I put the stock injectors back in and plugged the stock ECU back in (of course, the DooDoo box is back in and the boost is turned down), so I'm going to use this opportunity to see how the car runs "stock". This will be my baseline. If it runs fine, then I know that there isn't a system problem beyond the MS. If not...time to go to "Diagnosis-ville".

2) After the inspection; plug in the MS, change REQ_FUEL and see what I have (the classic A/B Test). If I'm good then on to step 3. If not...find out what is causing the problem).

3) Re-install the FIC injectors and diagnose...

This was supposed to be EASY :vash:

Step 1 (almost) complete.

• Stock Injectors back in
• Stock ECU re-connected
• Went to get emissions test, but...

FAILED! Even though the CEL didn't come on, the ECU reported two codes; P0171 (too lean bank 1) and P0705 (Transmission range selector circuit malfunction). The "too lean" can be dealt with through driving technique - been there, done that. But the P0705 generated an immediate WTF!!

First of all, a crappy neutral safety switch (NSS) on the transmission is EMISSIONS RELATED?! WTF, Georgia? Are you kidding me! A bit of investigation (the wires to the sensor on the transmission were broken off) and some research (on a manual transmission the P0705 is most likely from a failed or damaged - in my case - neutral safety switch).

Some more internet searching uncovered that the ECU is looking for a voltage change from the sensor when the car is travelling more than 30kph (that's 18-ish MPH in 'Murica), and within the last 14 clutch depressions. So I rigged up a momentary contact switch from the leads to the NSS into the cabin. That way I can tap the button a few times while underway to simulate the action of the NSS. It's a kludge but (if it works) it's easier than trying to get to the sensor on the trans while it's in the car. It's hell trying to get a wrench or socket on the NSS while in-car. I'm due for a clutch change soon so I'll deal with it then but I need to pass the test and "get legal" now.

Will this madness EVER end???

PS - On a brighter note, the car is running fine with the stock injectors & ECU. That's a relief because now I know that there's not a systemic problem. I just need to know where in my MS tune my FAIL is. Once I get past this emissions scheiss, I'll move on to Step 2.

Update:
Put the 650cc injectors back in and the car ran like crap. So bad even that I reverted to a 6-week old tune that I know ran on the highway (everything else in it was not so good). That at least got me home. I spent the last hour of the day yesterday moving over the accel enrich, cranking and idle settings over into this old tune to create a hybrid that should serve as a baseline for future modifications. I don't know what I screwed up in the last one, but I'll save that analysis for later.

So at this point it's "Two steps back and one step forward".

...so I was VEAL-ing yesterday and my old map was being tweaked and I was thinking, "Now we're cooking! I'm getting back on track". I was only cruising around - light throttle, not much boost - when I noticed that the car seemed sluggish. I'm thinking, "Ha, ha, this old tune was REALLY bad but VEAL will take care of THAT!" I wasn't looking at the computer display 'cause it was on the package shelf and I couldn't see it. But when I stopped I noticed that there was NOTHING corrected above 100kPa!!!

WTF????!! Was all of that previous madness because I had somehow borked the turbo? Did I blow out the diaphragm on the wastegate actuator? AM I GOING TO HAVE TO BUY A NEW TURBO?!!!

While the car (and I) cooled down I pulled off the heatshield and immediately saw that the circlip that holds the actuator to the wastegate arm had come off so that the wastegate was always open - therefore no boost. What a relief (kinda, 'cause I was secretly lusting after a 2871).

I called a couple of local "auto parts stores". When I asked about circlips at store #1 - let's call it "O'Smileys" - the guy responded, "What's a circlip?". At store #2 - let's call it "Schlep Boys" - I was put on hold for 5 minutes before I hung up. Store #3 - let's call it "Autobone" - had at least 3 "ASSociates" discussing where circlips might be located in the store before I hung up. That's when I decided to go to the #1 supplier of performance parts in the USofA...Lowes. There I stocked up on the right-sized circlips (which they called "E-Clips") just in case.

Back home, and in 10 minutes the actuator and wastegate were once again connected, and all was right with the world.




FOR NOW

Look on the bright side, your wastegate flows enough volume that boost creep won't be an issue :party:

WOW! There's a silver lining in every disaster!!

Now that I've got boost again, I ran VEAL on a trip to the south side of town to visit my sister-in-laws (three of them, here for the week). There are still some tweaks to do on the accel enrich, and I have to manually trim the spark map (again). But I think this will be a keeper.

Maybe now I can start to move onto something a bit more interesting.

I did a little experiment this weekend. The reason being that I've pretty much duplicated my old settings (B4 I went down the rat-hole of the crappy highway performance of the past few weeks) and nothing was making sense. What I mean by that is that if I'm almost back to where I was a month ago - barring two differences - then why was the old tune crapping out during steady-state highway cruise but the new tune seems to be just fine. So, one of those two differences is what was causing the problem.

So, what were the two differences?
1. The old tune was using "Include AFR", and the new one wasn't.
2. The old tune was using PID for EGO Control, the new one was using "Simple"

I turned on "Include AFR" and...voila!...the car ran like crap on the highway. Halfway through the trip I pulled over, turned of "Include AFR" and the car ran "like buttah". There was my culprit. I've been running since Friday w/o the accursed "Include AFR" and life is good. I'm sure some of my corresponding settings there are causing the problem, but for now I've got it turned off. The first thing that came to mind was that my fuel and AFR tables are garbage, but when I run VEAL I don't get significant changes (as in the difference plots are mostly white with a bit of pale red or blue) to the VE table. So, I'm counting that as a passable table.


On another front...I did a test-fit of the Nexus 7 tablet in the console. A little bit of Dremel-tailoring and it fit into the double-DIN space of the radio and CD player like a champ. I have to figure out a way to secure the table to the radio surround, but I figure a few well placed clips should take care of that. I've got a few days to get that figured out because my wife - in her latest cleaning binge - managed to "redeploy" the cables and stuff that I was going to use for the tablet install, so it all has to get re-purchased.

For all of you audiophiles out there, look away! Because I'm planning to use the stock Bose amp and speakers - instead of the usual replacement of those with better equipment. Frankly, between the unmuffled exhaust, poly engine mounts and other major NVH things going on, a "quality" sound system is not a priority. All I'm looking for is some additional "noise" of my choice to add to the cacophony!

If I don't get lazy, I'll post pics of the install...

Hey, is this you?

I was digging through some deep areas of the hard drive and found some old autocross pictures.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1399071341

Nah...not me. You prolly have shots of me though at Belle Isle - I'm the black guy with the 10AE and (at the time) the homemade "air dam" under the nose. I usually ran #75 or #175 (in yellow - you know "Maize 'n Blue").

I'm no longer in Deeetroit - moved to Hotlanta a year and a half ago. And my car is a cosmetic disaster following a run-in with a Taurus in 2012. I'd post pictures, but I don't want anyone to scream in terror.

I wasn't sure. I have so many pictures of random miatas from so long ago at auto crosses and everywhere.

I think i've showed you this one before.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...DSCF3079-1.jpg

That one is me!

Well, my in-dash tablet install attempt was a big, fat fail.

I had removed the cassette player years ago (it was crap anyway) and had wired a 3.5mm jack into the harness so I could play my phone through the OEM Bose HU. I thought I could just use that jack -with neater packaging - to feed the signal to the stock Bose amp and all would be right with the world. What I found was that the power for the amp is daisy-chained through the HU. The bottom line...no HU, no amp power, no tunes :facepalm:

So, I decided to do a temporary "Ghetto Install" and mount a plastic sheet on 1/4-in stand-offs in front of the existing HU and then mount a snap-in hard case to the sheet. Then I can snap the tablet in and out, plug in my connections (power and headphone jack) and go. Yes, it's a total hack-job, but it's better'n nothing.

When I get around to swapping my good stuff into the awaiting tub, I'll do this the RIGHT WAY. Until then...




PS - Forgot to mention that I'm getting a new clutch from FM. The one that's in here now is only rated for stock
HP, and I can tell that it's getting overwhelmed - as in, I can't launch hard without the clutch slipping badly. Too much more and I think I'll burn that puppy out. SO, out with the old and in with the new.

Short update; FM Stage I clutch is in and it's amazingly light! I'm breaking it in now, but it's almost scary-light. I'll be curious to see how well it works when I stomp on the loud-pedal.

Also I flushed the engine oil, trans oil and brake fluid and replaced it with T6 in the engine, MT90 in the trans and ATE 200 in the brake lines.

I'm going to a track day at Little Talledega this weekend to see how all of this works - should be interesting.

I <3 my FM1 clutch and stupid light aluminum flywheel. Wife isn't completely sold on it, but I think she just needs more wheel time.

Where is the engagement point on your FM1?

EO2K: I thought I had answered you before. Anyway, I've got the engagement point pretty high up...about the last 2-3 inches of travel (haven't measured, just guessing).

Spent Saturday at Talledega Gran Prix Raceway for a track day;

My hooptie;
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...w285-h160-p-no

'n me getting belted in and ready to go;
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/j4...w368-h207-p-no

Things started out slow 'cause I didn't know the track but it didn't take long before I was catching and passing people that were dusting me in the first session. Just before the third session was ending I started to smell coolant and when I got into the paddock I could hear antifreeze boiling out from "somewhere".

"Somewhere" turned out to be a split water line going to the turbo, so I was finished for the day. I managed to limp to a parts store in Munford, AL (big shout-out to Carter's Hardware & Parts for stayin' past closing time and helping a brotha out) and assemble enough stuff to patch together something to get us back home.

Yesterday was spent replacing my jerry-rig with some Kinugawa braided lines that I had gotten last year, but (stupidly) never installed. I have to do a better job of the hard-to-soft transition (sounds kinky!) between the Kinugawa lines and the water sources on the front of the engine, but I'll take care of that before my next outing.

I'm also revisiting my heat shielding around the turbo. I have been using the FM heat shield that came with their kit, supplemented with some additional heat protection material. But the additional material has gotten shredded due to multiple removals of the FM shield. Now's the time to rip all of that ugliness out and do a better job of it.

I've been watching this thread to see how it pans out and then plagarise!

Latest update...

Heat shielding around the turbo is done and it looks a helluva lot better than it did before. I'm almost proud to open the hood now in the company of others (PS - finished polishing the cam cover too and that helps). I say "almost" because it's still pretty grundgy in there - hey it's a DD, and I'm married, and I'm old, and...

Anyway, I finally loaded some 3rd gear pulls (on the street) into Virtual Dyno and was CRUSHED - my best pull was 161HP @5600RPM. Needless to say, I was disappointed - I was hoping for something around 180 given that I only have a 2560 on a FM log manifold through a 2.5" exhaust.

I'm going this Thursday to back that up with numbers from a real dyno just to get a baseline, but I know that there's work yet to do. I'm contemplating two separate lines of attack, with high- and low-end approaches to either...

Before I go into that, let me just state my (current) goals. I'm not looking for "ULTIMATE POWAHHHH" (at least not right now), just enough to keep a smile on an old man's face and show the kids that old age and treachery can sometimes be better than youth and good-looks. I figure 200-250HP would fit that bill nicely. I thought that maxing out a 2560 would get me there, but it looks like I'm further away than I thought I was. So I'm thinking that the different approaches are - get ready for dated Rock and Roll references; a) The "Stairway to Heaven" - as in incremental changes to get to my goal, or b) "Break On Through (To The Other Side)" - as in a Big Bang wholesale swap-out.

Stairway To Heaven Approach:
Pro - "Budget friendly", can upgrade as funds (and SO tolerance) allow.
Con - Cobbled-together, may not achieve full reliability or longevity.

Phase 1: 3-inch exhaust to "release the Kraken!" (i.e. let the 2560 breathe better). Considering the FM 3-inch system.

Phase 2a: Replace the FM log with a tubular manifold in prep for a "turbo transplant". Options are:

• Low-ball, high-risk; CXRacing T3 mount IWG
• Baller, low-risk; ARTech axial-flow goodness
• Crazy-talk; local fabrication, unknown source

I might just go the low-ball route to serve as a pioneer (aka sacraficial lamb) for the MT community (I saw a thread asking about this, and no one has "bit" yet).

Phase 2b: Replace the 2560 w/ a T3 mount turbo. Options are:

• Low-ball, moderate risk; 3071-esque journal bearing Chinacharger
• Big $, low risk; True Garrett GT3071R roller-bearing goodness

If I do the CXRacing manifold, then why not the Chinacharger? If it all breaks, I'm not out of my retirement fund.

*** OR ***

"Break On Through" Approach;
Pro - Proven system, mfg warranties, "guaranteed" results.
Con - Beaucoups $$$'s and time to get it done.
Big-Baller Option; ARTech manifold w/ EWG (dump tube?) and 3-in exhaust, Garrett GT3071R, etc... [$5-6K?]

Medium-Baller Option; FMIIR Upgrade kit, FM 3-inch exhaust. [$3.5-5K]

Comments?, opinions?, flames?

Just for you BlackBandit, my abortion of a tune (attached). Hope you get your decel cutoff fixed.

As for me, yesterday the car was feeling a bit down on power and I was smelling exhaust fumes so I jacked it up after getting home and did the old "shake test" to see if anything felt loose...nada. The gasket between the downpipe and the cat seemed a bit crumbly, so I ordered another one.

But this morning (trying to get another data point on Virtual Dyno) the car seemed to take FOREVER to spool up. When I looked at the logfile there's a huge (all of 3.5 seconds) lag in spool up on the turbo. I don't think I blew off anything, but I'll check this when I get home.

"If it's not one thing, it's another" - and I was planning on going to an open dyno-day this evening. Guess that's not gonna happen...

The 2560 should more than get you to 250hp... 3071 is overkill for 250hp if you ask me, and it would show in the spool. Unless I missed something and your goal is no longer 250hp.

Also haven't seen any evidence of engine building? From what I've read so far, rod deformation can occur in the 250hp ballpark.

edit: ballpark meaning i'm using whp instead of ft-lb torque, since you've only been referencing hp goals.

Your tune looks fine, you're running a bunch of timing up top that's for sure.

Do you have the datalog of your 3rd gear pulls? If so upload those too.

2560 should be more than enough, period. I made 264 at 12psi on a log manifold 2.5" exhaust and a built engine. With a much worse tune than yours.
I wouldn't go changing anything else in your setup, fix what's wrong.

If you are going to fall down the built motor rabbit hole, I'd give an EFR some serious consideration.

That's what I ended up doing :party:

3rd gear pull from this morning. Virtual Dyno says 171HP @ 6388 RPM, 172 ft-lb @ 4086 RPM (using stock weight + 50lb of tools in the trunk & 180lb driver). Log file is attached.

You're right, I need to find and fix my problem instead of trying to push more air through the engine. :facepalm: When I had less timing up top I only got to 150-ish hp! Playing with that got me to where I am. I'm trying to only change one thing at a time, so "it's taking forever".

The engine internals are all stock - aside from a .5mm overbore and Supertech pistons. It'll be like this until the winter when I plan to "refresh" the insides (then going "built" for safety for if I get greedy in the future).

I know that the 2560 is good for more than I'm getting out, but I'm not sure where I'm going wrong. I'm pushing 195+kPa through the motor and only getting 160-170 (w)HP out, that's not right. But right now, the only thing I can see is that my measured AFR is rising beyond what I'd call "safe" beyond 5300 RPM. My next approach will be to add fuel beyond there and keep at it...

Any suggestions are more than welcome.

As far as the EFR is concerned...I lust after that, but my wallet tells me otherwise.

PS - my problem yesterday was because the circlip came off the actuator arm for the EWG...I'm beginning to HATE this EWG!

195kpa, 13.58psig. 160hp at 13.58psig?!? Something is definitely wrong, and it's not the turbo.

- You're too lean past 5200 rpm and too rich before that. Aim for 11.8 AFR once in boost. This won't cause you to lose power (quite the opposite) but its danger zone
- Run a longer pull
- Your IAT goes up 20* in 5 seconds o_O
- Don't pussyfoot the throttle, lol, slam that bitch to the floor instead of rolling on it for 2 seconds....
- GPS in log is hella cool

oh oh oh also your RPM has a see-saw thing in it - it goes up-down-up-down-up-down in very small increments - that causes Virtual Dyno to give wrong results, or al least it did, a few months back.

Yeah...something is wrong but not quite sure what. I did a compression test about a year ago and was getting (approx) 175's +/- 5 across all cylinders. I'm gonna check them again to see if something obvious pops up.

I'll make some fuel adjustments and try again. I saw the IAT's climbing rapidly and was "skeer'd". BTW, my IAT sensor is in the tube coming from the IC, just before the TB so it's more representative of the air temp going into the manifold (as opposed to reading the under-hood air temp). Perhaps that's just showing the effect of the pressurization of the turbo, even post-IC?

Yeah, I'm a bitch with the throttle...

GPS in the log is a result of using ShadowDash on a tablet. Me likee!

I can feel the RPMs fluctuating too, that had me concerned. When I look at RPMdot in the log, you can see it wiggling up and down. No clue at to what that is...

What Soviet said. Try and get that AFR dead on during a pull... I personally shoot for 12.0 but 11.8 is fine.

Your RPMs are pretty wonky, i'm not sure what that's about.

Also, mat that thing. No more rolling into it.

VD is never really spot on, especially if you've screwed up the correcitons. Dyno it, or do a quarter mile at the strip to get a real accurate reading.

Latest run this morning (had a busy weekend, so no "car love"). VD reports 171HP - better, but not good (log attached).

Changes;

• Running around 12's at upper RPM's, still too fat at the low end.
• Stopped being a bitch with the throttle (is 833%/s ok Erat?)

To Do list;

• Still need to lean out things below 5300, going sub-11 AFR below 4400 RPM. Probably due to over-aggressive AE settings.
• Compression test this afternoon, will report numbers.
• Gearing up to replace valve seals next weekend, because old seals.
• Try to figure out what's going on with the RPM when under load...

Looks like a busy week ahead.

Playing with the the fuel map, I'm getting high 180's to low 190's from VD. Planning to get to the dyno tomorrow evening for some "real" data.

BTW - I checked compression last night and the numbers were so low they were embarrassing. I think my (HF) gauge is crap, so I'm getting another one for comparison. If nothing else, it's showing a difference between cylinders; 1&2 are close, but slightly low, 3 is way low (about 15% lower) and 4 is the highest. I'll report numbers when I get a compression gauge I can trust.

Looks like my engine refresh is closer than I planned.

Don't get hung up on the numbers, consistency is the name of the game with compression test numbers. Having said that, confirming with another gauge is never a bad idea.