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.