In reply to EvanB :
In reply to EvanB :
In reply to Knurled. :
He did spray me with the wand...it was refreshing.
In reply to EvanB :
I didn't see the results posted on either WOR or OVR's sites, so, I created what I think are the final results from PE3. This is totally unofficial, of course, but it seems kosher: P3 Unofficial Results
According to what I came up with, it looks like 6th overall out of 35 entries, 21.474 seconds out of first overall (an average of 2.386 seconds/run). 2nd in MF was only 4.513 seconds slower than me (.5 seconds/run), but I played a bunch of catch-up in the afternoon heat: I was 3.752 behind John at lunch thanks to the bogey time (which was dropped) due to the car dying on course and then My 5th run was 5.577 seconds slower since it took me way too long to learn that you don't shift a Civic into 2nd gear on a Rallycross course. Had I taken a bogey time for run 5, though, I would have been only 0.09 seconds over second place.
The big mistake that I made was assuming that everything was okay after run #2. I had a moment of power loss during that run that had me 2 seconds slower than runs 1 and 3, and I suspected at the time that the connection to MS was loose. I fiddled with it briefly before run #3 and that one was fine. Even at the time, I knew I should have done something to make that connection more solid, but I didn't and that cost me a bunch of time. In theory, I should have been able to pull 45s for the rest of the morning heat which would have put me somewhere around 379 seconds which would have been 5th overall and more like 12 seconds over 2nd place.
The good news, though, is that the motor mounts are all looking good and the way I have MegaSquirt mounted now is much more solid than before, so that shouldn't be a problem in the future. I need to put some brackets in to hold the wiring harness better than the zipties, but it's arranged the way it should be now, at least. It sounds like I've got a great line on a better cooling system thanks to the Professor, so if that deal works out I shouldn't need to squirt my wand as much between runs. And - crazy thought - I might even be able to support a co-driver!
In reply to wae :
Support a co driver? That's nuts!
I kinda want to do that but my plans involve bringing a second car.
Results were posted on Facebook. I'll get them up on the OVR site as soon as I remember how.
EvanB said:Results were posted on Facebook. I'll get them up on the OVR site as soon as I remember how.
Derp! I checked the WOR facebook page but totally forgot to check OVR's.
It was on the WOR page. I have done absolutely nothing about it until now.
It was an arduous task involving multiple computers, email accounts and remembering passwords but I have prevailed.
In reply to EvanB :
Do what I do, make every password 12345. Just like my luggage.
In reply to Knurled. :
Samsonite! I was way off!
Swapped the street tires back on the car and took a little drive to try to make the partial throttle response a little better. When starting out or when moving slowly and giving it some light throttle it coughs and chokes which makes for a difficult time getting around grid and to the starting line. Fiddling with the TPSDOT table a bit in the accel enrichment has it acting a little bit better. MAPDOT might be a slightly better way to deal with that, but this is working much better.
While putting the tires back on, I also discovered that the stupid oil drain plug is stripped out so I'm going to have to do something about that.
wae said:EvanB said:Results were posted on Facebook. I'll get them up on the OVR site as soon as I remember how.
Derp! I checked the WOR facebook page but totally forgot to check OVR's.
I had to wait for Ed to send me the info. Then he posted it anyway. So I did the least I could do.
In reply to Jerry :
Haha! I just like to geek out with the numbers so I can verify things like the fact that the amount of power that I'm generating masks my mediocre driving ability really well. 
Something else that I noticed last night that I wanted to be sure I documented is that my dash gauge is reading 20 degrees warmer than the MS gauge. The dash gauge is driven by a sensor that is in the upper radiator hose past the thermostat while MS and the factory gauge cluster are both using the OEM temp sender which is in the thermostat housing itself. The dash gauge also tends to fluctuate with engine speed and flutters a bit when I turn on the headlights or the heater blower, so I think it's a little less than reliable and my heat problems may not be as bad as I thought. The stock gauge cluster needle did creep up towards the red zone at the end of a second back-to-back run at PE2, though, so there's absolutely a problem. But it may not be as serious as I'm treating it.
wae said:Swapped the street tires back on the car and took a little drive to try to make the partial throttle response a little better. When starting out or when moving slowly and giving it some light throttle it coughs and chokes which makes for a difficult time getting around grid and to the starting line. Fiddling with the TPSDOT table a bit in the accel enrichment has it acting a little bit better. MAPDOT might be a slightly better way to deal with that, but this is working much better.
While putting the tires back on, I also discovered that the stupid oil drain plug is stripped out so I'm going to have to do something about that.
I think I have a stock sized tap if you want to see I find you can “rescue” the threads. I also should have a slightly oversized drain plug in my stash that I turned out not needing to use when I cleaned up the threads on my oil pan.
I think I've got the right tap size as well, but if I don't, I may come and borrow yours. I can give you back your Miata tools at the same time -- I've been carrying them around in my car and completely forgot to leave them with you. So far, I seem to have gotten it tight "enough" so that it's not bleeding all over the place. I just don't want to have to dump all that expensive oil after having just put it in the car. I guess I should just go get a new drain pan so I can keep the oil clean and re-use it.
This has arrived:
The fans/shroud are en route still, but that's okay. I really wasn't going to have time to get it all installed before PE4 this weekend anyway -- I started on a project to completely re-wire the trailer and that's going to have to finish before Saturday morning, the GL needs an oil change, and Gencon is coming up fast so I need to get after the helmet I'm making for my wife's costume.
Working around all that, though, I've had it out on the street a bit more and everything is working the way it should be. It's much harder to stall out on initial throttle -- it's still a bit tricky, but not mostly impossible. I found a loose vacuum line and added a zip-tie. By found, of course, I mean I went deep into boost and it blew off; but that's all good now. I continue to be blown away and slightly terrified by how strong it pulls when the tires can find some traction. The torque steer is crazy, but in the process of merging onto the highway 45mph to triple digits can happen before you really even know what's going on.
If I get the oil changed and the wiring done in time, I'd like to adjust the vacuum lines for the wastegate before Saturday. I should be going from the compressor nipple directly to the boost controller instead of pulling that from the "normal" vacuum reference line that makes a long run from the throttle body to Megasquirt and the dash gauge.
Gratuitous pictures of a dusty car:
PE4-actually-3 went well. I was having a particularly hard time finding the right line to drive, but almost nothing broke!
At one point, I got way off-line and noticed that the digital temp gauge went to 68 degrees, meaning that the gauge was disconnected from the sender. The last time that happened, the motor mount failed, the motor rocked, and the wires got pulled loose. When I got back to grid, though, I found that everything was still solid, but I had stuffed half a bucket of mud between the core support and the radiator which moved it enough to pull the wire out of the sender, so no big deal.
When it all wrapped up, I managed third overall and I didn't need a tow strap, a winch, or any pushing.
There is a bit of a problem with something spilling onto the turbofold and smoking off after a run. I'm 90% sure that it's power steering fluid, so I think I need to engineer a new solution for that.
wae said:
There is a bit of a problem with something spilling onto the turbofold and smoking off after a run. I'm 90% sure that it's power steering fluid, so I think I need to engineer a new solution for that.
2nd gen Neon PS pump keeps the reservoir up front with the pump, instead of remote like the 1st gen. The swap may need a custom line, but it has been figured out. I keep meaning to do it to my car.
Congrats on the finish!
In reply to eastsideTim :
I can't imagine that it actually matters where the reservoir is mounted so long as lines can be made to get there and back, right? I should be able to pull that off the back of the head (where it doesn't really fit, anyway), make up some new lines, and mount it against the fender where it's out of the way.
As I told @wae at the event yesterday, this was recorded for posterity. Ever figure out what the electrical gremlin was?
Ha! Thanks for that video! Love it!
I'm not 100% sure what happened -- I've been up to my eyeballs in making something called a "gambol shroud" from something called "ruby" and haven't had time to go out and look. Something has just gotten knocked loose -- no big deal. It occurred to me on the drive home that while I checked the battery cables at the battery, and I checked the positive connection to the relay box, I did not check the ground connection on the non-battery side of the cable. I should be able to scare up some time this weekend to look at it and figure out where the bad connection is.
Gratuitous event video:
I believe I have figured out what was causing the car to not run properly at the last event: I put my jump pack on the car and it started right up, no complaints. With the jump pack attached, I get about 11.5V across the battery terminals when the car's running. When the jump pack is turned off, battery voltage drops to 8 or 9 volts and the car can't continue to idle. I can keep it idling by riding the throttle a little and keeping the RPMs up, but it appears to not be cranking out the correct amount of power. It is the original alternator, so I'm assuming that the fault is there and ordered up a new one. It could be a loose connection of course, but I only feel like crawling under there once. I first was surprised that I never got the charging fault indicator light, but that's not driven directly from the alternator like in days of yore -- the PCM lights that when it sees over- or under-charging. And the ECU is sitting in a bin or box in the garage somewhere. So, adding "voltmeter" to the things I need to add to the gauges....
I had the same issue, mine was a burnt out charging light bulb tho.
Well, good morning Internet!
The car has had a nice long winter's sleep, but the first Points Event is coming up in about 6 1/2 weeks, so it's time to stop waiting and start getting things ready to go. I'd like to say that part of the problem is that I didn't have the shop space opened up and ready to go, but that's really just an excuse. I've just been doing other stuff.
The car was on the trailer, but I needed to use the trailer so I had to move the car off. The battery was dead, so I just dumped the car into the street in front of the house for a while. To get it out of the declared snow emergency, I left it on a battery charger overnight and the next day it lit off right away and easily drove into the driveway. It sat for about a month or so before I lit it up a second time to put it back on the trailer last night. Again, fired right up and drove great back onto (and off of) the trailer. That confirms for me that the rough running I was getting at the end of the last event last year was absolutely an electricity problem and a lack of voltage out of the battery. So, good news.
I put the car in the shop last night after its short trailer ride and my first job is to swap out the alternator. The new one is sitting on a shelf over there in the shop, so it's just a matter of getting it done. I also still have the new radiator and fans that need to go in. Another thing that I noticed last night when I was loading the car is that the welds in the exhaust are starting to get pretty rusty, so I need to address that before I wind up with holes. Of course, the problem is that I might be able to brush out the rust on the outside, but I'm not sure that I can do anything about the inside at this point.
The priority list right now is going to be:
-Alternator
-Radiator/Fans
-Clean up the hanging wires
-Oil and filter change
-Gauges are malfunctioning (the wires have broken on the oil pressure and coolant temp gauges)
-Exhaust rusting
-I'm missing a hood pin
-Stock gauge cluster needs to have its solder reflowed
-Put an interior back into the car
-Rear suspension bushings (That one is tricky because it also involves cutting and re-welding the exhaust)
-The paint is coming off the roof in large sheets. I'm thinking about putting white vinyl on the roof
Now I just need to squeeze that in among all the other projects!
On the alternator, find somewhere that rebuilds them local, I have had zero luck with part store ones. When you reflow the cluster dont get it to hot.
In reply to Professor_Brap :
I've actually got a good auto electric place right down the road from my shop. I was planning to take the original over there and have them rebuild it so I have a spare. The ones I've gotten from oreilly have been okay for me so far, but definitely good to have a "real" one on standby!
You'll need to log in to post.
