i love you.

 

Yeah dude, much respect.

 

Nice!

 

Looking good man, keep it up!

 

The shop did a compression test and numbers looked very good. 160 across the board. Next up is having the shop mount up the new oil cooler. Its gonna be a setrab unit mounted in the area between the intercooler and radiator. I don't have a/c so the whole area where the condenser was freed up.

I have a really cool project that looks like it may be on hold. Later on down I would like to try and make this work. I think it would be cool.

My nephew is a pc whiz, and talked him into helping me work out a budget friendly, remote desktop datalogging setup for track events. Basically what this would entail is one laptop wired and mounted to the obdII port reading the vitals while someone in the pits has the other laptop connected to me via internet and remote desktop. In theory they would be able to read the data live and relay back to me via a headset if needed. I could focus on more driving and less scanning through gauges which is nice.
Well that's just a thought at this point, like I said, that project is way down the line unfortunately.

 

^^ That sounds like an awesome plan!
Currently I have a really cruddy laptop that just uploads my logs to my drop box when I save them (tethered to my phone) then when I get home I look at them on my desktop.

Being able to do it live would be way cooler though, I don't guess I have a reason for it..

 

that live remote view thing sounds awesome. cant people remotely access your desktop now wouldnt that be the way to do it?

 

Do you mean about unknown people getting access into my desktop? Im sure it can happen, but I honestly don't think many people actively looking to hack when you go to track events imo. Im sure in a worse case scenario if I need to protect our connection there are ways to secure it.

Ive kept this idea under wraps for a year or so only because I wanted to work out any bugs before talking about it, but getting this positive feedback from it is motivating me to get this project rolling.

 

It's very doable, especially if the track has wiffi. You will just need to download one of these desktop sharing programs such as webex...etc and give him control over your computer while driving. I would think that would work.

Good luck on your project!

 

So much red tape with California. I finally got my DMV paperwork sorted out so now I can take the car to get smogged and registered. We were going through various exhaust setups to get a good compromise between flow/power/sound levels. Here some unscientific testing for anyone interested:

Baseline comparison was my previous setup that I sold because I wanted something quieter. It was Rhys Millen full 3 " downpipe, Mil spec 100 cell cat, Ryhs Millen resonated catback.
---- It sounded badass but was just a bit too loud (deep bass tone).

Swapped that and replaced with an Titek O2 housing, Espelir DP, unknown test pipe, oem catback.
--- Sound wise this was the quietest, and sounded the most 'refined' at idle and light throttle applications. Did not get to test this WOT.

Then we kept the Titek housing, but swapped out the dp for an RRE downpipe, oem catalytic converter, and non resonated HKS sport full 3" catback.
--- Idle was noiticeably louder than the previous test, in cabin and light acceleration was similarly as quiet though. Again, the car was not broken in or tuned completely yet so no WOT runs.

I have decided to go with the last setup as that was the best compromise for my criteria. The car should be getting tuned here soon, I will update with more pictures soon.

 

So another update. After a whole bunch of running around finally got the evo smogged. I also decided to give it a once over again after a few miles to make sure all was good. I went to drain the oil and did find it odd that the oil was really watery thin. I don't know if this has anything to do with the assembly lube in the motor or what. My coolant looks fine, no leaks. Compression was good so hopefully Im just being paranoid. Here is a vid of that oil to see if maybe I can get some opinions of what you guys think.



I put in Amsoil Zrod 10w30 and a Royal Purple oil filter. Im gonna inspect it in a 100 miles and see whats going on. No shavings or nothing abnormal in the oil. It was just really thin coming out. I honestly cant remember if the shop said they put in eneos or redline 10w30.


Keep in mind it needs to be retuned for the cams. If that rattling you were hearing still persists after the tune I think I might have some issue with a lifter. Damn things are brand new though, oh well. It only starts to happen after it warms up it seems though. Next up is larger injectors and a tune, coming soon.

I would take pics of the car but its really dirty right now so that will come soon.

 

Looks like 10w30 to me... I am kidding I say that because that's what you purchased...


Dan do a lab analysis on the next drain just for grins... you can catch any abnormal metal wears right off the bat.

I reccomend you do labs 2 or 3 times a uear, I know you engine failed suddenly but if for any reason the head gasket was slowly going out you would have caught high levels of calcium in the oil. Or abnormal metal wear patterns.

 

I had to get so much done today I didn't even think about that. I have a few blackstone sample containers, I should have gathered some of that oil. Next time for sure.

I have posted on this forum about how street friendly my comp flywheel is. Well after more miles, even the moderately low weight flywheel I have is quite a bit more tedious in low speed parking lot situations. Eh, in the end oem is the best option.

I love the lope on these cams, crazy thing is they aren't even supposed to be super aggressive. Im sure a lot of this can be toned down with the tune.

 

After researching whether or not to go go back to the pricey iridium plugs, I decided that for overall benefits go with copper plugs. I swapped out the oem IGR plugs that were in it initially in the last video for a set of br8es ngk copper plugs. I set the gap to .025" to get a baseline. My last iridium plugs I gapped to .031" with no problems. I haven't measured yet what gap the oem plugs that were in were gapped to. The shop put those in when they were getting my car back together. Anyhow, here is the video.



Shortly after this video I found a puddle of coolant that I traced to what seems to be from one of the turbo coolant lines. Of course it buried down there between the block and exhaust components so now I need to see what is going on. It doesn't seem to be a big deal, just a minor setback. Here is a pic of the possible culprit, I believe its number '16'.





...edit...
Found the issue. resecured the clamp on the line, pressure tested it, no more coolant leaks,yay.





I swapped out my odyssey pc680 for a oem sized Miata battery. Cranking time is faster, no more of that slight lag from the mini battery. Its nice to leave the car parked for a week and know it fire right up.

My ACD relocation project seems to be working like a champ. No issues or leaks.

My prosport gauge is still doing that annoying thing its always done and I think now Im just gonna ditch it for an autometer or AEM gauge. I have had prosport send me replacements with no avail. What will happen is every so often I will start the car and no matter how much load or throttle input the engine sees the needle will stay at '0'. keep in mind the gauge reads -30 to +30. Its a mechanical gauge with a straight line to manifold vacuum T'eed into the FPR vacuum line, if that matters.

 

here are some new pics after cleaning the car back up. Sorry for the glare. Got to love California though, its January, and it was 83 deg today. I'll get better ones up soon with a better camera than my iphone.

Heres a quick shot of the HKS sport exhaust.












Engine bay cleaned up a bit. I still need to finish routing the vacuum lines and a few connections.





Now that I relocated my ACD pump to the trunk I thought I would be hearing that pump going off all the time. Honestly I don't hear too often like I imagined. When it does its only on for a little bit. I have the rear seat completely out so I am able to hear it when and if it comes on.