Doppelganger, I should add that, despite the error code, there was nothing wrong with the cam angle sensor, after fixing the wiring for the crank angle sensor I put the original cam angle sensor back in just to see, it has not thrown an error or acted up at all. The entire issue was the wiring for the crank sensor.

Jim

install a on/off valve ether before or after your heater core so you can stop hot water from flowing back to the block at the track.

Coils are wear items and degrade over time. .035 gap is on the higher side. Plus gap should be set with a feeler gauge or a real plug gap tool. Eyeball won't tell you if you are a couple of thou off--and a couple of thou could be the difference between getting a good spark or not.

Since you have an aftermarket ECU, it would be simple to replace the OEM coils with better coil on plugs or coil near plugs.

I wish I knew an exact cause/explanation, but I can only guess. I still think that's too much gap even at .035, but that's just my opinion and goes against what most people on this forum believe. Good luck with this and I hope you don't end up wasting money on sensors like I did.

Are you guys at DIY ever going to make a "kit" for retards like myself who are afraid to build my own set-up?

After speaking to a few other people, it seems like it might be the coils indeed. I guess pushing them pretty hard for so long and getting them extra hot at the track causes them to degrade. Unfortunately since it's not something that happens on the street (or hasn't yet) getting another set of coils won't be in vain. A full COPS setup would be nice, but budget is only going to allow me OE replacement coils for now.

I had similar behavior on my 99 (Adaptronic, COPs) that drove me absolutely nuts trying to figure it out. Long story short the problem was the crank sensor. When it heated up, it would begin screwing up the pulse signal to the ECU. It makes the pulse width much too long, like it is 'sticking'. The ECU trigger uses falling edge so effectively it grossly retards the timing. Same thing happened to someone else on m.n and the cure was replacing the crank sensor. I fixed the problem temporarily by switching the crank trigger from 'falling edge' to 'rising edge' in the ECU. Not sure if you can do that. I have since replaced the crank sensor.

May not be your problem but it is worth investigating. Long thread about it here, with some links to other good discussions.
https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...ght=adaptronic

Fleaforea and I have been asking for one for a while.