Minimizing fatigue and risk took the form [...]]]> Another catch-up post, this time on changes made to Ginger so far this year. Unlike 2009, where everything was about more — more power, more grip, more braking, just MOOOAAARRRR — 2010 is about less — less fatigue, less risk, less over-heating on track,  less wear and tear.

Minimizing fatigue and risk took the form of a Sparco Sprint 5 race seat and a Schroth Profii2 6-point harness. While the seat was installed a long time ago, a few issues cropped up. First, the brackets I got from pitgarage centred the seat over the holes in the car’s floor, but didn’t centre it relative the steering wheel. Result? An already snug cockpit became even tighter to the left as my left harm hit the door panel, making left hand turns a bit of annoyance. Solution? Autox buddy subaphil hooked me up with a machinist friend of his who modified the brackets to put the seat smack dab in the middle of the steering wheel. Very happy with the work he did. Thanks Sylvain!

Then came the harnesses. We drilled the required holes in Ginger and in Christian’s car the same day and Don even came over to help. It went pretty smoothly and eye bolts are now nicely situated. However, its not perfect as my plan to have the stock seatbelt latch mounted with the inner eyebolt didn’t work — the stock seat is too wide to allow that approach. Until I devise a solution, swapping seats means moving the latch from the stock seat to the race seat. Bummer.

Dealing with heat took the form of a Flyin’ Miata Racing Radiator. It’s not the biggest aluminum rad on the planet, but its well made and is a drop in fit. The install was pretty smooth aside from a bit of an issue on the overflow outlet threading, but some teflon tape remedied that. At the same time, I took steps to help with wear by installing an FM Oil Cooler. Great kit, but one of the stainless braided lines had a bit of leak at one of the crimps. I got replacements locally and was good to go — thanks Mike at No Limits. While these two measures helped, they weren’t enough to deal with high-boost track use on warm days.

The next step was try and seal up the nose with plastic to force more air through the rad. Off came the bumper to reveal a mess of A/C lines and weird angles — this wasn’t going to be easy. I made a trip to Canus Plastics and cobbled some bits together. Again, it helped, but wasn’t a fix.

At present, I’m running lower boost levels on track in order to manage heat loads. How am I doing this you ask? Well, I gave up on the Hydra’s electronic boost control and acquired a Turbosmart Turbo Tee boost control. No tools, just one knob with clear clicks. I’m at 10 clicks right now and no where near the fuel cut or overheating. I’ll just keep turning it up until something rears it head.

While low boost is working for me, its not a long-term fix. In that regard, I have following steps in mind to avoid having to remove my A/C. First is the BEGI Scoop, which is reputed to have fixed all heat issues for other boosted Miatas. It should be in paws by early next week. From there, the next step would be either a vent on the hood to give the air exiting the rad somewhere to go; or a ventilation ports in the nose, between the headlights.

Racing Lifestyles Extractor Hood

The hood is not inexpensive, but it could be used day to day if painted. The vents in the nose are not pretty (below), but would be incredibly effective since the top part of the rad isn’t blocked by the A/C condenser. If I did this, I would do one slit and remove the Mazda emblem. Let’s hope I don’t have to.

Not super pretty, but effective

The last add-on was a new air/oil separator. It’s installed, but I won’t know how effective it is until I get some good high boost track runs. For now, it looks to be keeping oil out of the intake system, something the stock set-up couldn’t do.

As expected, install is easy as pie, but set-up is pain, although its all [...]]]> The cooler weather has revealed the cost that accompanies the simplicity of the manual boost control — it starts to peak much higher than desired. So, for $50, I purchased the Ingersoll-Rand boost control solenoid sold for Hydra by Flyin’ Miata.

As expected, install is easy as pie, but set-up is pain, although its all done from the car using the laptop. I’ve been tweaking for a couple of weeks now and I’m getting closer to a pretty nice set-up.

If you have the patience and you drive in wildly variable conditions (sub-freezing to over 30C), then this thing is for you.

At any rate, here’s a [...]]]> Wow it has been a while! We’ve been having internet connection issues, which I’m starting to think is our router. I replaced it with a new one (same brand) and the problems persist. In addition, the new one won’t let me access this site from inside our network. That’s whacky!

At any rate, here’s a quick run down of the last little while:

• We finished 3rd in the Underground Miata Network Treasure Hunt — not bad for our first (and last) time. It was a ton of fun.
• The Big Enchilada is fully installed on Ginger and she’s running really well. She even passed emissions testing on the FM basemap.
• AFCO suspension is also on the car and man does it handle better. Will be getting her corner-weighted come spring.
• I’ve now logged 8 autox events this season and I’m happy with how I’m improving. At the start of the year, I was about 10 seconds of the Fastest Time of the Day (FTD), but that gap is now under 4 seconds. I’m consistently the quickest car on street tires. I’m much more comfy in the car than I was at the start of the year.
• The rest of the season looks like this: MCO Members-Only event on Sept 13; Picton Regionals on Sept 19 & 20; Inter-Provincial Cup on Sept  27 at PMG; and at least one event in October, either MCO or St-LAC.
• Ped is making small improvements with her shoulder and might give driving another shot before the end of the season
• Cruise control is installed. To finish I need to add the factory switch year and wire it to the clutch.
• The Ottawa Mazda Club won our the fund-raising competition with the Ottawa Honda Club — OMC out drove OHC despite Aero’s storming performances in his RSX.
• We appear to have resolved our timing system errors.

I’ll close with this video of my fastest run from the September 6th event:

July 8 was a day discovery. I discovered that air hammers require really big air compressors with immense tanks. I learned that because such compressors aren’t [...]]]> Yeah, I fell behind on my updates, but I have a good excuse: things didn’t go quite to plan, there was an autocross, and I nearly pulled an all-nighter.

July 8 was a day discovery. I discovered that air hammers require really big air compressors with immense tanks. I learned that because such compressors aren’t terribly easy to move, they aren’t typical rental units, which means air hammers aren’t either. I then learned that I had no interest in starting the diff bushings and running the risk of having an undrivable car that I can’t fix. The diff bushing and the engine mounts will wait until I can afford to have them done at a shop or until I can get access to the hoist and tools at my brother’s work. Anyway, I completed the downpipe and exhaust that afternoon, and thankfully it went on much more easily than the stock bits came off.

By this point, Pedwar had left in Zhaan for an overnighter at her friend’s cottage, so I seized the moment (a car that can run) to grab some food and take a test drive. The exhaust note is great — deep and bassy at idle, and assertive and smooth, but not too loud, when driving.

condor888000 came over for a bit to continue work on his camber link, finally getting the whole bushing out with my dremel… (too bad this means he will have to remove the passenger side link, too). I decided to start the throttle body inlet pipe and got it done relatively quickly, only to discover that I had gone too far… I had a vac line with nowhere to stick it unless I did the intake, too. Of course, doing the intake would remove the MAF, which would necessitate the Hydra, which has a map for 550cc injectors. Sigh. So I started the intake. It was easier than the TB inlet despite the number of tubes and clamps, and then I decided to call it a night. I figured I’d hit the sack and get started early on the injectors.

Despite it being after midnight, I couldn’t sleep, so I got up around 1AM, looked up the injector instructions and started dismantling the intake manifold to get at the injectors. It was late so it was hand tools only, as I live in a townhouse and I like my neighbours. About 3:00AM, when I could no longer remember where I was putting down my wrenches, I took a shower, socked back a shot of scotch, and hit the sack. I slept through the 5:30AM alarm and woke on my own at 7:04AM…

… which brings us to July 9th. I completed the injector change, which was initally scary then became tedious, and will be remembered as relatively straightforward. I crossed my fingers that nothing got pinched and that I wouldn’t have a fuel leak. I had to call it a day at this stage because condor888000 was picking me up and we were heading for an autocross at Shannonville Motorsports Park, where Pedwar was going to meet us.

Since it was on the way, we swung into Ogdensburg to grab some oil filters. With a car full of stuff and being two guys, US Customs and Border Protection checked the car and let us go. On the way back into Canada, we got interrogated separately by the CBSA officer who was suspicious of our story, particularly given my two camcorders, my DSLR gear, and the helmets, which still look new. We convinced her we were OK, and she let us go, with no tax paid on the filters, which had been declared.

Despite the delays and condor’s angst about being late, we still made it to the track by 5PM and were ready to go well in advance of the 6PM start time. condor is now officially a “drama llama“, but he’s a great guy and I can’t thank him enough for letting me run his car.

condor888000

The event was fun and felt more like a solo I than a solo II, as there were only a few gates and the rest was following the line of the track. As usual, the crowd (especially Pedwar) was great and the apres-autox dinner at the Loyal Oarsman in Kingston (Bath Road, a couple blocks west of Gardiners Road) was nice, too. Got home about 1AM and fell asleep very quickly.

July 10th: My last day of vacation saw me complete the wiring for the hydra’s wide-band and MAP sensor. I followed the directions and got the throttle position sensor calibrated… and then came the moment of truth — the first start. She cranked to life on the first try and settled into a normal idle. Everything was louder because of the intake and exhaust, but the Hydra’s read-outs looked normal. I completed the wide-band calibration and then took a drive around the block at creeping speeds before parking her again. She seemed a little more prone to stalling, but I’m sure that can be tweaked. I was relieved and elated… remember a year ago, the most I had ever done was change spark plugs and change tires. After dinner, when the car had cooled, I put the O2 sensor into the downpipe and called it a day.

Left to do? Calibrate timing (learning by doing, as usual), clean up interior and install passenger seat, drive and data log. I hope to do all that tomorrow. Auto-tuning won’t work until I get an activation code from Flyin’ Miata, and I don’t expect that before Monday.

Will she run in the autox on Sunday? I don’t know… will have to see how she drives tomorrow.