when using a hole saw in sheet metal, always remember to back it up with some scrap wood. I remembered this on the second intake. Much cleaner and less dangerous.



Final duct. I did not use duct tape to seal the seams, just some foil tape I had lying around. Much better.


Also some rubber trim to prevent me fretting about the aluminum parts rubbing together (pun intended).


After taking those photos, I scrubbed off the sharpie and did a quick scuff pass with some scotch brite to give a minor finish. Sun is at a tough angle, but here it is installed.


The brake inlets are at different heights. Had to be this way under the tow hook. Will optimize after this event, maybe.

 

Looks great. Enjoy it this weekend dude! Glad to see 'er back on track

 

Car won’t rev to redline, trigger synch loss. Probably a bad crank trigger sensor. It’s aftermarket. I can still get around 6k out of it on-track. Will rev to redline in the paddock. Driving it this way for today, will swap to a different, albeit aftermarket sensor this evening after the exhaust cools down. I don’t have spare exhaust gaskets, so I can’t remove the exhaust to make my life easier. I need to order the Honda sensor…

 

Dang! I was thinking about visiting tomorrow morning to see about a ride along, ah well might stop by anyway. Maybe take you out in the green beast. Wanted to mention that my friend in the k swapped civic had an issue with her car on Wednesday. Said it wouldn't rev past 6300, video shows it almost bucking at the top of each gear. Turns out her alternator was crapping out and sending it into limp mode. Not sure if she is using hondata or what tho.

 

@sonofthehill I sent you a PM with contact details and such. Come out today.

I’m going to flip the switch in the ECU and only sync on startup. What’s the worst that could happen?

 

sonofthehill greeted me just as I came in from a long-delayed session on Sunday. He got to join me in the HPDE4 "download" session, which contained some interesting anecdotes from NorCal's version of Abe Simpson, and then watch us weigh Spec Miatas in tech. I often forget how little down-time I actually have during a track weekend! We didn't get to do any ride-alongs or take his very sweet NB out locally, but it was nice to meet a long-time forum member in person.

Flipping the switch in the ECU didn't fix the problem, but it made the engine a lot more predictable. I think I was getting a consistent 6700-7000ish cut-out; I'll have to pull the data.

The prototype AWR mounts worked fantastic. I think they're still "settling" in, but I don't see any shift in engine height or location.

I'm irritated at myself for not catching the trigger issue earlier, at only carrying an aftermarket backup sensor, and for not carrying extra exhaust gaskets, but that shall pass.

I'm trying to decide if the $150 Honda part is more likely to fix the issue than the $50 Denso part. Or maybe I'll go junkyard shopping. I really wish this was a more accessible sensor, both physically and fiscally.

 

This forum is more of a cat place, but Victoria likes cats. And race cars. And racers. And treats.

Please give Victoria some cats!




I haven't had a chance to measure the pad thickness yet, but the new ducting caused no issues as far as I could tell. Maybe a little extra rattling from the floor of the duct - it may need a little stiffening to keep from harmonizing with the shaky engine. I'm also planning a better solution to holding the tow strap out of the way. Once I do that, I may use the R-package "duct" to yeet some air towards the intake. Or I could do something more productive, like finally install a decent-sized battery. Or putting in the effort to replace the headlight covers with some aluminum sheet that attaches to the hood.

 

Cat given for dog. What a ham. You might just have given me the confidence to post our dog too at some point lol.

Stoked to hear the weekend went well for you aside from the sync issue, and am looking forward to seeing how much the ducts helped your pad life.

 

We like dog-branded cats around here too.

Glad you're out on track anyway even with a slightly hobbled car! And Carlos is the nicest guy, cool he made it out there even if a ride along didn't happen.

 

Thanks Ed! Good to meet you Peter! Sort of wish I had taken a little more time to check out your new ducting, I will have to remember next time. Was fun to see your session, looked like you were keeping pace pretty well considering the power and issues. Hopefully you can find a good sensor and get to it relatively easily.
It is always fun out there even just spectating, I am lucky to be so close and spend so much time there.

 

Friday pondering while I’m supposed to be cleaning out the garage so I can finally roll the 928 out of my neighbors driveway and put it in the garage.

Thats a Group 24 battery from my daily. And a 2L Accusump. And there’s still room for the passenger’s feet. I want to keep a passenger seat for entertaining newbies, and for me to ride with faster drivers at the wheel.

I’m also working on the organization system of the trailer. I’ve got a bunch of 2’ x 8’ shelves that used to be in my garage, I’m using one right now but two will probably be better. I’m tired of disorganization.

I have two new NTK brand crank trigger sensors from RockAuto. And new exhaust gaskets. I’m going to take some material off the bottom of the trans while I’m in there to ensure exhaust clearance. And wire in the trans temp sensor, since I had some shifting issues during one session.

Lots to do, in other words. Still nothing on the job front - I had a really bonkers interview on Wednesday, not sure what’ll come out of that. So I gotta make sure I spend enough time looking for good, real work.

 

I cleaned up the car hole pretty good.


And then I put a dirty car in there. I dragooned two neighbors into helping me roll it down the street and up the incline into my garage.


My neighbor brought me a big bowl of cactus salad and some tortilla chips. I'm feeling accomplished and very well fed.

 

Interesting, my brother had one of those - I don't remember it having four lights in the bumper, is that a USDM thing, or model-specific?

You mean your neighbor pushed your car down the street AND fed you What's your address, I think I need to move there ...

 

This is a 1978 model, the first year. There are a number of unique-to-78 features, but the four driving lights aren’t one of them. Though I believe the amber turn signal lens is unique to 78.

The S4 generation has the driving lights integrated into a single housing.

I got two young and fit neighbors to help me move the car. The grandma next door brought me the food.

I help my neighbors quite a bit with different things. Occasionally I ask them for help, but more often they just do nice things for me. I love this neighborhood.

 

Brake duct results:

Pads started at 12.2mm thickness, including the backer plate, for all four pads.

Current pad thickness is almost even, at 11.2 to 11.3mm. A loss of 0.9-1mm

My previous notes indicate that one Sonoma event consumed 1.2-1.8mm without ducts.

I’ll take it.

 

My wife and I have been fostering dogs for about 6 years now so we've seen our fair share of dogs. Pitt mixes are definitely our favorite, Victoria is super cute

Interesting results on your brake pads, I feel like I've anecdotally read that ducts increase pad life by ~2x, your findings seem to back that up.

 

When I first adopted her, Vic was a "behavior team only" dog at the Humane Society. She was a super sweet pittie, but highly reactive and very distrustful. I almost gave up at one point, but we made it through and now she loves people and dogs and cats and everything. It's been a journey. Bringing her to the track was a real help - everyone she met wanted to give her treats when she behaved nicely (aka, I always had treats on hand and asked anyone who loved dogs to offer them to her in return for calm behavior). She's a special girl, the epitome of a pittie mix (pun intended).

I'm not convinced I'll reach 2x pad life, but I'm heartened to see that the pads are wearing very evenly. Thunderhill is next, mid-April. I'll take measurements again before and after that.

 

Nice! Very excited to see this. If the ducts I just set up on my car have similar results, I'm gonna be very stoked haha.

 

God, I really hate this damn crank angle sensor. It is in the most inaccessible location possible and requires unbolting the exhaust to get enough room to screw around. Even then, because the engine is at an angle, it's really damn hard to get a solid grip on the M6 bolt holding it in. I used a loop of safety wire on the last one to help with removal, since once they've been in for a little while, they don't really want to come out. Even though I did this in a way that _shouldn't_ have affected the seating depth of the sensor, I didn't do it this with the new sensor, just in case. Future me may curse today me, but that's his problem.

New sensor is NTK brand, from RockAuto. Consensus on the KMiata FB group is this is the sensor to use.



I actually went ahead and pulled the through-bolt out of the AWR engine mount and lifted this side of the engine a bunch to get some better access. I would never have tried that with the KPower mounts as I wouldn't trust that I'd get the bolt back in, or that when I did, the engine would sit in the same place. It was absurdly easy with the AWR mount. I'd show some engine mount pics, but the prototypes I have are at least one step behind the production release and I don't want to confuse people. Working with AWR and PlanetMiata has been wonderful.

 

What's the expected lifetime on a set of poly differential bushings? When I was lifting the engine to change that crank sensor, I got quite a bit of rotation out of the engine (I left the driver's side bolted on). I went looking at my receipts and it turns out I bought these from FM back in 2017, before I got inducted into the cult of SuperMiata. They're red, which I'm guessing probably means Energy brand? Even with a couple years off for various projects, they've gotten some hard track use.

I don't want to open the can of worms of pulling the diff mounts to check because I'm sure I'll come up with something else to do "while I'm in there". I mean, I need to check the date on the drain plug, I'm probably due for a fluid change at the very least.

I'm wondering if replacing them with new would help with my 4-5 shift. I'd hate to move to delrin, because I've got plenty of drivetrain vibration already, thank you very much, but that's an option I guess.

I really, really need to wire in the trans temp sensor so I can eliminate that as a contributing factor.

Also, I really, really need a job, not only so that I can afford all this ****, but so I stop spending the day thinking about car stuff because job stuff is so disheartening.