SimBa

I started getting suspicious earlier in the week about my beer can patch on the charge pipe. I'm pretty sure it was leaking boost, although I didn't do a proper test to confirm that. For a while my turbo has been making a hissing sound which switches to a pshhh sound as it spools up. I remember thinking that noise started around the time I plumbed my boost controller in. Presumably I turned up the boost and caused a boost leak. That's just a theory for now.

I did this patch when I first installed the turbo kit. At that point I just wanted to get the car on the road and figured I'd fix things later. I swore I used JB weld, but when I pulled it off this week I realized I'd only used RTV.
Again, I'm not 100% sure this was leaking, but I'm going to get a patch welded over it this weekend to hold me over until I redo the IC setup.



To compliment the undertray, I hacked together a heat shield for my intake today. Same material I used for the turbo heat shield.
I'm really enjoying this embossed aluminum material. Really easy to work with but still reasonably rigid.



Not ideal fitment but hopefully good enough.

So, I'm crossing my fingers that between the less restrictive exhaust, revised undertray, intake box and potentially fixed boost leak that my turbo will be spooling easier and my cooling will be more efficient.
I also got one of those bleeder funnels for my radiator. I used it the other day but it seemed like I was getting bubbles for quite a while. I'm not sure if that was air escaping the system or if air was getting into the cooling system somehow. The instant reaction there is that it could be a head gasket, but I haven't noticed any other common symptoms of a head gasket failure, so for now I'm going to assume the bubbles were normal and that there was air in the system.

SlowTeg

It's not clear to me is water temp spiking to 111C max? Did you have the stock undertray on?

Nice work. I need to shorten my hose a bit also (it's pressing a bit on the soft clutch line). The "rats nest" of stuff on the frame rail also annoys me and I want to rip it all out (or at the very least move it). I think I'm going to remove the OEM fuel pulse damper on the frame rail and keep the one on the fuel rail. I was told by someone else that they run it that way and aren't running into problems. When I install the BMM ECU I can remove that mess of stuff as none of it is needed. On that note, the OEM fuel feed line comes up right in the middle of that area which is annoying. I'm debating cutting the 5/16" line and having the line come up above the fuel rail at a different point.. Just use one of these fittings to convert to AN line from hard pipie: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-at165056erl I'm still not sure how I should route it.. any suggestions? I am going to install a fuel pressure transducer inline and mount it out of the way on the frame rail area with one of these: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-at100192erl That should give more space for the radiator hose. Another thought is getting a nice hard pipe made/buy one so the silicone hoes isn't so long. I've seen some people with them and assume they just made them..

I think more and multiple layers of heatshielding is always a good idea. I'm curious to see how your ducting affects temps.

SimBa

@SlowTeg

My car came with this duraflex front bumper that was installed by the PO. I always had the stock tray that goes under the subframe (belly pan?) but never had the stock piece that goes from the bumper mouth back. I didn't even realize that piece existed until recently.

You are correct, that was a coolant spike to 111 C. That was with the storage tote that I had cut up to try and duct air to the radiator. I expect the new coroplast setup will be much better. I'm hoping to do some experimentation in stages.

I'm not really sure about the fuel stuff. I think I've figured out how to get the tank venting and possibly save a few pounds (rear charcoal cannister delete or replacement). I'm pretty hesitant to DIY fuel stuff outside of old carbureted systems, and even those make me nervous.

SimBa

I spent way too much time, effort and money getting this stupid Intercooler pipe sealed up last weekend.

I started off by taking the pipe over to a friends place to get a patch welded up over the large hole. This was the one that was previously patched by a beer can.



We pressure tested it afterwards to see if the weld was sealing. This led me to find out that the JB weld packed in by the PO of this turbo kit was not sealing.


So I went home to remove the JB weld. I figured I'd find some plugs for the bungs that were JB welded and get them sealed up. Well, the bungs were not threaded. I have no idea why they are on the pipe. I'm guessing they were supposed to be tapped for the BOV and the IAT sensor, but maybe the PO didn't have the right drill bit for that?

At this point I'm just glad these didn't turn into projectiles under boost.



The rest of the day was running around to get a tap and plugs, which leaked into the next day finding a properly sized drill bit. Eventually I got the holes drilled out and tapped.
Pro tip, a tap fits quite well into a 12 point 5/16 socket. When paired with an impact wrench these make tapping a bung much easier.

3/8 NPT plugs installed with Seal N Lock

I still need to pressure test the whole Intercooler system, but this should have addressed the biggest culprits as far as leaks go.
A lot of work for something I don't plan on keeping around for much longer, but it was a good learning experience.

Side note, I'm wondering if I'm suffering from a bit of IAT sensor heat soak regarding my intake temps. The IAT is close to the throttle body in a steel pipe.

SimBa

It's hard to say for sure, but I think the ducting and properly bleeding the coolant system has helped my temps quite a bit. It's been colder here lately as well, but at cruise I'm hovering right around thermostat temp (80 C) and sometimes even going a degree or two below that.

I did some pulls last night. Data log shows that I got up to 90 C launching the car and running through a couple gears.


I also ran to redline in second gear and hit 90, but it seemed to hold there. It's hard to tell if there's an improvement and by how much.
Glancing back at some older logs from February shows pretty similar numbers, so who knows. Autocross will tell.

I have turned the boost down a couple pounds and am going to have my fans kick on sooner. Kraken said the exhaust was a ~1 week lead time, although I haven't heard anything in 2 weeks since placing my order. I've reached out a couple ways but haven't heard anything back. The next event I'll go to is in 2 weekends, so if I don't have it by then I'll run my current exhaust at 6 PSI (wastegate).

Fingers crossed. I'm out of town this weekend for a wedding, so if I hear from Kraken tonight or tomorrow I'll try to get the exhaust pulled before I leave on Thursday.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Quite the weekend you had haha. I love hour-long projects turning into day-long projects because I'm missing a necessary tool or two. Every time that happens, I think "Sweet, now I have another tool and won't run into this same problem again." Then another issue happens the next week and I need another specific tool lol.

Michael will either message you ten minutes after you ask a question or not at all until the day before your order ships. Can't hate on it, he runs a big operation for one dude. Hopefully your exhaust comes sooner rather than later, though.

Interested to see how your coolant temps hold up in two weekends. No matter what, I'm expecting an improvement! It's not getting proper hot where you live yet, is it?

SimBa

I figured as much regarding Kraken. I'm not too worried about it getting here before the next event, I just want to have a rough timeframe so I can pull my current exhaust before it shows up. Of course there's someone locally who's parting out a turbo car with a 3" exhaust and a bunch of other turbo bits... A couple weeks too late.

Last night it was around in the 40s F? So pretty cold. During the days we're starting to warm up into the 70s some days, and 50s others. I expect the next autocross event will be around 75 F.

I'm really hoping the exhaust is a big contributor to the temperatures I'm seeing. Otherwise I'm going to have to get way more thorough with my temperature management and/or pull AC.

SlowTeg

All good, I finally ordered a bunch of stuff from summit and elsewhere so I'm gonna get the show on the road fixing the rats nest on the passenger frame rail and installing the BMM ecu over the next week. For the gas tank vent make sure you don't just cap that vent line that used to goto the charcoal canister. You don't want to build up positive or negative pressure in the tank, it needs to normalize. After that I got the kraken kit with full exhaust to install.

SimBa

I think my gas tank lines are clogged somewhere. There never seems to be excess pressure when I take the cap off, and the car is hard to fill even when it's still cold (middle of winter having only driven 1/4 mile to the gas station).

I originally was suspecting the evap delete, but my roommate has the same setup on his car and doesn't have issues. The evap system also wouldn't be active when filling the tank with the car off.

I'm suspecting the rollover valve or something is plugged. I've read up a bit more on how the system works and I've got some ideas to try when I get around to it.

@SlowTeg I'll keep and eye out to see what you come up with.

SimBa

At the last autocross event I crushed one of my 3d printed soft top latch releases. It had been on the car for probably about a year. I have the soft top tightened up pretty good right now, and I guess there was a bit too much tension for the old clip.
Found a different design online and sent a few off to the library to be printed. I decided to go for PETG.

I've been using one of the latches off my hard top in the meantime. I made sure to order a few extras this time in case I have another failure. I don't expect these to be a wear item though. They feel pretty sturdy.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I only ordered 3, but one of the prints must've not been up to par because I ended up with 6 for $0.95.

Raw from the printer

Support material is easily ripped off with a pair of pliers

So fresh so clean


These always seem to need a bit of trimming. After a short time with a file and knife I got the release clip reinstalled and the latch is working great.



Feels nice and sturdy when it's locked


I got ahold of Kraken the other day. They were going to ship my exhaust on Monday (yesterday as of posting). I haven't gotten any tracking info, so I'm in a bit of a void. I'd really like to get it on the car before Autocross on Saturday, but I'm doubting that's going to happen. Frustrating to not know if I should pull my exhaust off now or not. If it doesn't show up I think I'll run wastegate to try to manage heat. I'll also likely do a couple runs with the boost closer to 12 PSI to see if any of my ducting/bleeding was beneficial.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Hey, those clips are dope! Replacements and plenty of spares for a dollar is pretty decent haha.

Fingers crossed Michael already sent out your order and just hasn't sent the tracking info yet. Regardless though, stoked to see if your ducting makes a substantial difference in temps on Saturday! Good luck and keep us posted.

SimBa

@Z_WAAAAAZ did Michael send your tracking via email or did you reach out to him on Facebook? I haven't gotten anything yet.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Email, the tracking info and updates will come from DHL.

SimBa

Well that sucks. It probably hasn't shipped yet then. I ordered that ASAP after our last event to get it here in time. Lead time was supposed to be "around a week" and three weeks later here we are...
Frustrating.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Yeah, that's a bummer dude. Kinda to be expected when dealing with Kraken, though. It's amazing Michael is able to do everything does as a one man show. Can't hate too much.

SimBa

I totally understand the lead time, he's got a lot going on. I've watched some of his recent facebook posts where he's designing new manifold casts. Really cool stuff!

For me, it's just annoying to hear 1 week lead time, assume a 10 day lead time and 10 days of shipping to be safe and make decisions based on that. If I'd been told a month or 2 months to get it I probably would've ordered it still, but I also could have found a temporary solution for the next couple weekends of events.

I'm not too worried about it. I'll just run wastegate this weekend and hope the temps stay in check. I'm extra excited to get my hands on it too to see if it helps with the heat issues. If it doesn't then I need to figure out what's going on ASAP.

SimBa

Spent a bit of time on the tune tonight. My acceleration enrichment has been working pretty well so far while driving. It doesn't bog or hesitate. Leaving stop signs can be a bit rough though, and it's been triggering during cruise.

I've fiddled with the TPS Filter in tuner studio before, but lowered it at some point. I think someone on facebook said this helped them even though it was counter intuitive. Regardless, I turned the filter back up until I saw the TPS ADC value stabilize. This was around 180 of 255 filtering. I later backed this off to 128, which gives me an oscillation of about 1 point at idle with the car on. This eliminated the AE triggering during cruise.

I also was able to lower the AE threshold setting to 20% while it was previously at 50% to prevent the false triggers.

Along with those changes, I increase my VE table above idle (around 36-75 KPA) by a good amount. Sorry I don't have an exact value/percentage, but I'd say ~10%. Coupled with the VE changes this seems to have helped the very slight bog that I sometimes got when leaving a stop sign.

Still a bit of fine tuning to do, but it seems to have helped a lot. I went back to my old tune (pre turbo) where I never had to filter the TPS value (pre engine build/install). That was only using a threshold value of 15% and never seemed to give me issues. I've got that loaded in the car now and will see how it goes tomorrow.

SimBa

Squeaky wheel gets the grease I guess, got the tracking info this morning for the exhaust. Sounds like it'll be here next tuesday. Should give me plenty of time to get it installed and adjust the fuel map before the Porsche club's track cross next weekend. I'm running Saturday only but it should be a good shakedown. First time out at the "track" as well, which is a recently build oval with an infield that the local drifting community has made their home.

Got me thinking though. For this weekend I might take the 2.5 inch section that still exists pre-muffler and flip that over to the downpipe. Basically straight piped for a few feet after the downpipe... The likelyhood of that happening is non-zero. Turbo's are basically just mufflers, right?

Z_WAAAAAZ

Hell yeah dude, run it! Gotta be honest, my car was decently loud without the muffler. Too loud for the street but not too loud for the track haha. Not like anyone is gonna be surprised about an old Miata being hella loud either lol.

Stoked you'll have the exhaust in time for your first taste of the track too. Do you guys have to sign up for a Porsche Club membership to enter their events? They were holding an autocross recently at Angels Stadium only a half hour from where I live, but wanted us non-club guys to sign up for a yearly membership in order to register for the and it was gonna be over $300 total lol.

Hey, props on the progress and developments with your tune as well. You post more often about researching, troubleshooting, and making progress with your tune than you do making threads asking for help. Not that there's anything wrong with asking for help, but it seems you really use this site and your critical thinking skills to the fullest. Exactly how this site was intended to be used.

SimBa

We're going to see about the exhaust, might not be as easy as I though. I'd like to at least have a turn down pipe. Might be more effort than it's worth.

Our local PCA club is pretty small so they need the extra attendance to make it work financially. Works for me though. I love raw timing 911's in my POS. Even better when my buddy in his stock Veloster N does it. P car guys don't like getting beat by $30K imports. The "track" is honestly a bit of a letdown. It was promoted like it was going to be a reasonably sized road course and eventually dwindled down into a small oval + infield. Still, I'm excited to see what it offers.

Thanks, I try. I figure almost everything on these cars has been done before, so there should be some pointers/answers out there. Speeduino is also kinda weird because the firmware is always changing. A pro and con I suppose. I usually defer to the speeduino groups for questions on specific to that. Otherwise the tuning info is plentiful. HPA, this forum, facebook and really any other car forums have good info. A lot of the basic concepts (for example AE) doesn't change much if you're tuning an Evo or a Miata.