b3d3g1

I wasn't planning on it but it would be pretty easy to add with 2 extra wires. I'll see what a good rain light would cost me. I have no idea if there is a standard for blink rate or even solid like a euro fog light.

I was toying with the idea of changing the way the brake lights turn on or off. Maybe instant on but slow fade or delay off might give me an advantage if someone is on my bumper.

I really like that the PMU allows me to see actual current draw. I wish I would have all this info prior to building the harness. It will be interesting when the car is running at full bore.

b3d3g1

Did some further diagnosis and wasn't able to bring the Battery isolator back to life so I by passed it for now. Hopefully I will get some tech support soon or send it in for repair. Too expensive to just write off. Bypassing allowed me to keep working on setting up the rest of the electronics. The CAN Keyboard is pretty cool. I can set colors based on status and put in logic to activate certain circuits based on other settings.

Keyboard starts up when power is applied and the top left power button shows a red status. Push the power button to turn on accessories like Dash, transponder, and USB power socket. 2nd button turns on anything engine related like MS3pro, coils injectors, and wideband. Also logic in these power outputs where power button and ecu button has to be on so I can hit one button to turn it all off. Starter button is setup as a momentary button only active when ECU power is on and RPMs below 500 so I can't accidentally engage the starter. Cool suit, wipers, and fan follow similar logic with needing the power button. The PMU is receiving water temp over CAN and conveniently has a hysteresis setting to allow the fan to turn on and off a different temps or with the push of a button. Top right spare button is an indicator that turns orange or red if the PMU has any over/under currents detected. NOS button is for when i get the danger in manifold error message on the screen but also just cycles through the color options with each button press for now. I also setup the logic with analog inputs for fuel pump control and brake light switch and need to calibrate the fuel level sensor. It was a steep learning curve to get the PMU working but it's really just comparative statements in the PMU software interface and pretty easy to setup as you like. Lots of ways of doing the same thing so whatever fits your needs and it was generally pretty intuitive.

I also started setting up the AIM MXL2 and MS3pro Evo but had some problems with getting the data flowing to the MXL2. I'm starting from a blank slate on both and the first time in either environment so I'm slowly getting used to it. I have to manually create the AIM CAN config for all the data on the CAN bus from the PMU and MS3pro and lots of opportunity to get a check box wrong or CAN Id off but easy enough to test once it's in there. I bought the AIM through Matt at Trail Brake so I'm waiting for a response to the email I sent to figure out what I'm doing wrong. The data is there on the CAN bus but not showing on the screen. The MS3pro is a little overwhelming on where to start so I'm leaving it for last. My goal is to get all the sensors setup properly and at least get the car to run before handling over to a good local tuner. I have zero experience in turnerstudio but I'm hoping I can utilize a MS3pro pnp base map to build off of. I'll be leaning on the content of high performance academy's MS3pro section of their practical tuning class to get everything ready prior to the dyno.

NASA Rocky Mountain had their first event of the year this last weekend and I was pretty bummed to see only 2 cars in ST5. Looks like there were close to 10 in ST6. TT5 had 5 people and a BMW 330i ZHP crushed everyone by a significant margin. Big classes out here are GTS and SpecMiata but that's not an option anytime soon for me. I saw that when I was looking to move out here to CO but I'm still hopeful ST grows. I can always pivot to ST6 if need but I'll keep an out on Utah and Central regions.

Picture when I was playing around with colors. The outer ring color shows up more "white" based in the picture than in person.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Pretty cool to see everything moving along. Sucks about the isolator taking a ****.

My AiM PDM and Dash have been ordered for awhile now but they said they might finally be shipping within the next couple of weeks so I'll be doing the same song and dance with figuring all this stuff out soon.

And I feel you about the low ST turnouts. Here in AZ it seems like everyone is in either Spec Miata, some Spec 944 and then there are guys in ST2 and ST3. I won't have enough power to bring a fight to ST3, so hoping I can convince some people to get ST4 going...

b3d3g1

Hopefully it's a smooth launch from AIM. I can't find a single mention of anyone using an ECUMaster Battery Isolator online so I'm really on my own so hopefully you get the support from the dealer network in the US. ECUMaster does some funky things with documentation. The information you need is somewhere but not in place you would expect. A good example is their tech support pointed me to a CANX configuration file in the PMU setup software to get CAN message structure for the Battery Isolator. Not a single mention of CAN message structure in the battery isolator manual and you don't use the PMU software to setup the battery isolator. I also found ECUMasterUSA's youtube unboxing video of the battery isolator mentioning some of the data available via CAN so I know it is the intention to have that data available.

I did get a response from ECUMaster saying they have a tech looking into my issue with the battery isolator.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Well at least that's some good news. I'm just going to go with the Cartek isolator and the PDM will also have an output in the kill loop so it will just control it manually in case of a crash or whatever other parameters I want to set it up for. No need for the isolator to communicate via CAN in my case.

HarryB

I had missed that thread somehow, but it was really nice reading through it all! How do you like the ETX in terms of longevity? I was thinking of using one in my DD, as the price is right and weight is weight, even on a daily.

b3d3g1

I'm not the right one to comment on daily usage as my car was track only and lived on a battery tender at home. I don't think my ETX9 really deteriorated over time but it was probably right on the limit of what I should have had. I'm hoping ETX14 gives me a little overhead to be more reliable. The only times I needed a jumper pack was the first start on cold mornings at the track with e85. I also had very poorly tuned cold startup parameters for a long time that ended up burning out a starter until someone much more knowledgeable than me adjusted the parameters. For a daily, i would error on the bigger side. No reason not to go with more capacity for a 2 or 3 pound penalty to make sure you can get home or get to work when you want to.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Yah, ETX9 worked but had to be finessed to keep it alive. ETX14 had reserve capacity with only a small weight bump.

HarryB

Yeah, I was leaning towards the 14 as well. Thanks and sorry for derailing your thread!

b3d3g1

I got the battery isolator working. After connecting with the ECUMaster Light Client, I could find the device and it said no firmware on device. Ran the update function and now everything is working. I guess I was depending on the LED indicator on the isolator too much but not sure how I missed that.

Made a gif of the start up sequence to celebrate. I'll disable once it gets old... but it stays for now.

Blkbrd69

Great build.
Did you notice the stress cracks on your battery mount? Bend radius on 6061 aluminum strap bit to tight & will be cracking through with a bit of vibration soon.

b3d3g1

Yeah, I saw it. I was considering remaking it in steel when I made it, but I was ready to move on and got lazy. I'll add it to my to do list. Thanks for keeping me honest.

I'm also using a vice and hammer so probably more induced stress than a real brake. Every time I go down the rabbit hole of buying a brake, I get lost in cheap crap vs overly expensive equipment. I just need a higher quality harbor freight option that isn't DIY.

Blkbrd69

While I'm not a fan of Home Depot aluminum strap, it can be made to work on the cheap. (Just not at my real job).
Use a small deep socket or extension to clamp the strap in the vise to give a larger radius supported bend.

b3d3g1

I had a very productive end of the week. It was an off-Friday for me and I was semi-trapped at home due to having the front end of my truck rebuilt after some very ambitious 4th of July off roading.

Finished up some loose ends on the wiring and started playing around with the AIM setup. Data is flowing but I have to check it is all in the right format and units. Lots of great instruction webinars being published by AIM recently and they just went through their Race Studio 3 Analysis public beta. I haven't used 2 so I might as well work with the 3 beta from the get go but it will still be a little bit until I have on track data to analyze. I can now access all my data at one location as seen in the first picture below. PMU setup CAN, everything else on vehicle CAN, and AIM USB port all easily accessible from the passenger side. I have plugs that fit in to the CAN connectors when not being used that I might tether to the base so I don't lose them.



Started pushing the rest of the harness out the engine bay but spent the majority of my time work on the fuel plumping. Installed new Deatschwerks 450cc injectors along with the radium fuel rail. Plumbed in the flex fuel sensor and FPR all with Aeroquip Starlite -6AN line. I also cut the hard lines going to the engine bay a little shorter to allow me to route them up along the firewall instead of up near the upper shock mount.
This Starlite line is super easy to work with, cuts with good cable cutters and doesn't fray like stainless so hose end assembly is way easier with less blood involved. It's a kevlar outer layer around the same inner tube used in the stainless variety. I've read of people getting a strong gas smell when they use it but that remains to be tested. I'll likely wrap with a little bit of rubber hose near points where it can rub.



I decided to replace all the rubber lines with Aeroquip Starlite. Pretty much impossible to do near the tank with the lines in the vehicle so I had to drop the rear subframe and tank to get the lines out and work on the bench. These lines had so much road grime and crap after 30 years. I wouldn't get nearly as dirty work on the car if I could clean the entire chassis.


Marked all the return lines and fittings with white paint because I always forget which is which and wanted to make it easy in the future.



Fuel filter plumbing was a little bit bulkier than I had hoped but it all fits. In general, most of the fittings were longer than anticipated and let to fairly short hose lengths that seemed like there should be a better way. As long as it works, I'm good.



Also put in a new OEM fuel sock and DeatschWerks 255 pump while I had the tank open and cleaned out the inside of the tank as much as possible. The last time I ran the car, I had some issues with the fuel filter clogging but I had just swapped in a used NA8 tank about 4 months earlier and e85 was probably just cleaning it for me.



Since I had to drop the rear subframe and tank to get to the fuel hard lines, I decided to do some of the subframe maintenance off the car. Cleaned and greased the rear sway, replaced the 9 year old Goodridge stainless lines with SuperMiata orange stainless lines and dropped the outgoing rear Xidas. I had an axle boot split and spit grease all over and never really cleaned after so I got most of the easy stuff.
The main item was swapping out the 4.3 torsen for a 4.77 OS Giken. Ordered the OS Giken fluid and Kmiata diff brace from SuperMiata so I'll wait for this order to arrive before I reinstall the rear subframe assembly.



New diff all sealed up and ready to go. I bought this diff lightly used from Renderous Racing so it has already been broken in with a few track days. Should be ready to beat on from the start and I'm pretty excited to try it out. Haven't driven with an OS Giken before.



Still lots to do. setup MS3pro, new oil cooler setup, Radiator ducting, aero, front hubs/brakes, suspension setup, safety refresh, and some paint

b3d3g1

Got the Kmiata diff brace in but didn't grab a picture. It was generally pretty straight forward. While tightening it down, I could see one of the dimples pushing through the surface so hopefully I didn't tighten it too much.

Spent most of this weekend working on the front of the car. Took off the front hubs, calipers, rotors and brake lines and installed the new supermiata lines. Also pulled the trigger last week on some miatahubs after going back and forth on them. Sometimes, I swapped hubs along with rotors to fix a vibration just to make sure I was good for a race. Hoping this is one less thing to deal with while not having to repack anymore hubs.

Also installed AWR sway bar mounts. I would do anything possible to avoid removing the front sway bar because I hated dealing with the Racing Beat brace with the block and 2nd locking nut. Install was pretty easy with 4 bolts and 2 spot welds to remove on each side. Brackets were pretty tight on the frame rail and everything feels pretty solid. Also installed the thicker walled Racing Beat sway of 0.188" up from 0.125".
.


Removed the home smashed power steering plugs made in an apartment carport back in the day with some MiataSource plugs. Makes it look a lot more finished and wont snag my hand.


Also installed 5X Racing steer rack spacers since I'll be removing the extended lower ball joints to avoid taking additional points in ST.
Cleaned what felt like 5 pounds of crap off the steering rack and front subframe while I was down there.

Stayed at the front of the car and started playing around with the front bumper and radiator support bar. I swas surprised how much stuff I could remove from the front bumper beam just unbolting things. It was like 2 pounds of bolts alone plus some large bumper pieces and the plastic bumper support. Still need to figure out how much I want to cut on the cross beam and retain the tow strap mount. Also need to figure out where to mount the oil cooler but I have some ideas to keep it simple. Replaced the AN outlets on the sandwich plate to accommodate new 10AN lines up from 8AN.

Got tracking info for the splitter mount from Kaze Spec and saw the preview in a FB/Instagram post with the Very Red powder coating to go along with my cage and intake manifold. The splitter mount will bolt over the radiator support bar mounting plates but I might have to add a little bit of filler material to fill the gap in the lower outside corner where the radiator support bar plate is missing material.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

If you haven't planned to already, I'd suggest cutting the beam the bash bar mounting points. Bonus points if you bolt or weld in a smaller diameter replacement structure. Ditching that section really helps with cooling.

b3d3g1

Oh I'll be cutting, just figuring out how far. Finally bought a sawzall using this cut as my justification. I'd like to cut out everything from frame rail to frame rail, but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing for oil cooler mounting and the tow strap mounting beforehand.

b3d3g1

It's been a while since I updated. Family events and emergency bathroom renovation due to leaking sink and mold put a damper on available time in the garage but we're all clear now to get back on this horse.

My goal is to get the car running and make it to a test day at high plains raceway in October before the snow comes. I'm prioritizing my engine and engine accessories prep to be able to schedule a dyno session but that list seems to extend to the entire drive train.
This weekend, I cut out the front crossbeam which was one of those "no going back" moments"



Mounted the oil cooler. Still a few clean up items but new oil cooler mounted and -10 AN lines are made. I plan to eventually have dedicated air path for the oil cooler but that sounds like a winter project. You can also see the brackets for the Kaze Spec splitter mounts in the picture. Still need to put in a filler material the same thickness as the crossbar mounting plate. I think the baby teeth mounting locations are still plenty strong for a tow strap.


I'm swapping in a new SuperMiata crossflow radiator I've been carrying as a Chuckwalla spare in my trailer for a few years but ran into an issue with not having the correct side brackets for an NA. Out going Koyorad just swapped the lower pins and upper mounting grommets to the new radiator but looks like I need the whole OEM side bracket as the one off the Koyorad must be shaped to fit the aftermarket radiator. Sourced one from a friend and waiting for it to arrive, but glad I never had to attempt to replace at the track or I would have been totally hosed. Also mounted a new brushless SPAL fan on the radiator for good measure and/or street cred.

Mounted most of the wiring harness to the chassis. Still finishing up some details on the top of the engine before I mount the harness, but the rest of the chassis is pretty much good to go. Still need to validate all the data is being transmitted and received over CAN in the correct units but I fixed the big obvious stuff.

After the engine is fired up, I'll be servicing the suspension. Bought new SuperMiata upper and lower ball joints for the front end and should be getting my SADfab bronze retrofit kit in the next week or so. Then Slap in the new Xidas with new spring rates of 1100/500 and miatahubs and set it all up. Still retaining Sport front brakes and 1.8 rear brakes and going to try out the GLOC 12/10 combo up from 10/8.

I have plans to repaint a few body panels where the paint is peeling. I was going to do the silver metallic rattle can special but I'm thinking about doing a wrap. This is my top contender so far. Should make the seams a little bit easier to deal with and I would probably still keep the "carbon fiber" appearance on the top half including the windshield frame. It's at least a brewing idea right now.


Overall, I feel like there are a lot less unknowns and this is becoming more of an assembly job now. Biggest unknown is the front ducting but I have a feeling I'll go through a few iterations before I make something that I can live with long term. Excited to get this thing out on track as it's been too long.

b3d3g1

Another typical Monday update. It was a hot weekend but I got a few things done this weekend and even setup a TV to watch the Indy 500 on Sunday.

I spent some time revisiting my oil cooler plans after a post in the oil cooler tech thread. Removed what I had just put in and planned out mounting behind the passenger side blinker on the NA bumper. I'll have to buy a new oil cooler core so I measured out about 20 different options and settled on a the Setrab Series 1 25 row. Put in my order to Pegasus so hopefully I can get that in next weekend. I wanted to make a little more room in this location so I moved the coolant reservoir tank to the driver's side. Was thinking about a nice aluminum tank with but saw a post with the stock tank located under the clutch master cylinder so I started playing around with the stock tank. Ended up finding a decent spot just in front of the wheel hump and bent some aluminum brackets to secure it. I might wrap the side braces in silicone tape just to make sure they don't rub through the plastic.



Spend a some time rebuilding my current and spare Skunk2 throttle bodies with the standard new spring hole, locktite, and even new hardware on the shaft screws. I ended up breaking 1 of the shaft screws on the new TB while I was removing it so probably wasn't the strongest screw to begin with. Already had the correct length TB to IM bolts. Also secured the wiring harness running on the engine a little bit better with some pipe clamps.



Spent most of Sunday rebuilding the suspension in the front passenger corner. Got my SADfab bronze bearing suspension bushing retrofit kit in, installed new Supermiata upper and lower ball joints, and the MiataHubs front billet hubs. Spent more time that I expected just removing the old poly bushings and sleeves but luckily did not stab myself with a screw driver in the process. Ball joints were fairly straight forward but took some finesse since I was using a c-clamp press and the old lower ball joint needed a little extra persuasion to separate. The upper ball joint must have been the original but still felt pretty good. The Miatahubs we're almost as easy as a stock hub to install and finally got the Xida Gen 2 on the car. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't pull the upper long bolt out with the AWR sway bar brackets. I needed another 1/4" of clearance so I had to remove 3 of the 4 bolts to push it down enough. Now I just need to repeat on the driver's side and do the rear bushing retrofit. It's a pretty big difference in suspension movement resistance with the SADfab kit. Too many things will be different for me to single out this change once I get on track but I'm also thinking my alignments will be more consistent.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Setrab 1 series are the most efficient of all Setrabs, per surface area. This info from a shop owner friend that conducted a bunch of testing over several years, but likely prefers to remain anonymous.
Short rows work better than long rows.