| MIATA BUILD |
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 | |  | June 13, 2011 - The new wheels are here!
The selection was pretty tough, actually. I'm allowed to use a total of 8 tires during the race, so I need 8 wheels. Given that I'm going to run a 225/45-15 (more on the tire selection later), I wanted something wider than the 15x7 wheels I have now. That's a shame, because I have a full set of 8 of those. Oh well.
So I wanted either a 15x8 or 15x9. At Flyin' Miata, we have a collection of both. I decided to go with the narrower of the two because it'll give me a bit more sidewall flexibility for following the rough surface. That narrowed it down to three basic choices: the TR Motorsport C1, 949Racing 6UL and the new Konig Wideopen. The C1 is the least expensive of the lot, but the heaviest by several pounds. The Konig is a brand new wheel and looks to be a pretty good value, but it's unproven. More importantly, we didn't have any I could borrow so I'd need a full set of 8 of either.
Meanwhile, the 6UL is both the most expensive and the lightest at 12.0 lbs on our scale. It also seems to be pretty strong. But we have a set of 4 of them at FM, so I only needed 4 new ones to get my full complement. That makes them the least expensive option really.
The black is a satin sheen. With polished lips, they'd look pretty killer. Better than other black/polished 6ULs I've seen that had a glossy center. They're not going to stay black, though. The car needs white wheels, and Emilio at 949 says the black is the best base color for paint. I just have to decide if I'm going to use proper car paint or use Duplicolor wheel paint. The advantage of the latter is that it's easy to touch up should the need arise.
I can hear howls of protest now about my painting plans. I'm okay with that.
entry 861 - tags: wheels | | |  | June 15, 2011 - Time for some paint on the wheels.
I decided to paint them with rattlecan paint instead of proper car paint - even though I had all my painting gear out for working on another car. The main reason was that it's easy to patch if it gets chipped. I'm using Duplicolor wheel paint, and I've had good luck with it in the past on three other sets of wheels. It's also just plain easier to deal with.
First, I scuffed them up a bit with a Scotchbrite pad, then wiped them down with wax and grease remover. Emilio at 949Racing had told me that they didn't need to be scuffed, but it can't hurt to give the paint a bit more to adhere to.
Unfortunately, the local auto parts store only had one can of white. It would have been more than enough to do just the faces, but when you're trying to paint the barrels of 8" wide wheels that just doesn't quite do it. One can did this - they're covered, but a little patchy. I'm not too worried about that, the inside of the wheel isn't that visible. I shall obtain another can later and do the front faces. Those will be blinding white.
entry 862 - tags: wheels | | |  | June 17, 2011 - The tires are here!
Long-time readers may remember the decision process for the tires in 2008. I finally went with a 205/50-15 Toyo RA1, and I'm happy with that.
But the rules have changed. Specifically, all tires must have a minimum treadwear rating of 140. That means no more nice sticky R compound tires. This leaves me with what I call the "Azenis class" of tire, the gummy street tires designed for autocross. We are allowed to run 8 tires this time instead of 6. Given the ability of this car to spin the wheels, that may not be a bad thing.
The tire size was fairly easy this time around. With my new power/weight ratio, I want as much tire as I can get. And in the stock tire diameter, that means a 225/45-15. In that size, I have the choice of two tires: The Hankook R-S3 and the Toyo R1R. I'd love to be able to run the Dunlop Star Spec, but it's simply not available in the size.
Asking around, it appears the Toyo is a better tire in the wet and possibly overall. So, 225/45-15 Toyo R1Rs it is! I like to call them "pirate tires". Arrrr!
There actually were a couple of other options out there. The Toyo T1R comes in a 245/35-16, but that's not the right tire for the job. The R1R comes in a 245/35-17 that could work, but it needs a 17x8 wheel at minimum and preferably something wider - which isn't really available. So we're going with the light and tested setup we have.
entry 863 - tags: tires | | |  | June 28, 2011 - Remember the fuel line fitting that popped off?
I did some digging after the last failure on the track and discovered I wasn't the only one who had experienced this. In fact, one of our customers had even had the same experience. There was definitely a problem.
Luckily, I also came across a new design from the same manufacturer. It wasn't even production yet, but a fellow on the LS1Tech forum had a pre-production piece. I spent some time on the phone with Russell fittings and managed to get my hands on the part number for the new design. We returned all the stock of the old parts that were on the shelf at Flyin' Miata and the new ones have just arrived.
That's the new one on the right. As you can see, it screws together instead of relying on a piece of plastic. Much more reliable. Even though the factory uses a plastic clip design, there's something about this particular implementation that just isn't right. Russell makes a big deal about proper installation when you call their tech line, but even then they fail - and the factory ones don't need the same installation procedure they call for. The new one is a vast improvement. This should be the end of surprise fuel baths for the engine.
entry 864 - tags: fuel | | |  | June 29, 2011 - Good news!
The engine computer is back from being reflashed, and it's working far, far better than before. Many more horses now live under the hood. It's not yet perfect, but it's now running in closed loop and with long term trim so it'll get better. Best yet, I can now get in to the computer to tune it. So we're well on the way.
I also discovered an advantage to flexible air dams. There's a piece of road nearby that was torn up for construction and hasn't been repaved. There's a slight drop down to the gravel/dirt level. Well, when I (purposefully) took this at a high rate of knots, the air dam bottomed out and became a snowplow. A truly impressive cloud of debris was raised. Back in the garage, there's no damage to the dam and a few screws that have pulled out. I was going to replace those with bolts anyhow, so no harm done. And yes, I do need to lift the car up. I'm pushing it right now to find out where the weak areas are.
entry 865 - tags: power, V8, air dam, aero | | |  | June 30, 2011 - Nancy is the sister car for the Targa Miata at the race.
It's almost ready to run as-is, but it does need a bit of extra rally prep. The most obvious is the Terratrip rally computer.
Why does this car run a Terratrip while the Targa Miata runs a Coralba? Cost. Eric got a great deal on the Coralba five years ago, and it's a great computer. But this fully-featured Terratrip is far more affordable and has proven itself in club competition over the years. The one thing it's missing that would be nice to have is the "pilot speed" function, which tells the crew how many seconds they need to gain/lose in order to hit a specific average speed. Still, the average speed display will work well.
entry 866 - tags: Nancy | | |  | July 6, 2011 - More useless equipment.
Well, hopefully useless. If all goes according to plan, these will never do us any good. But given the performance of the car, it's better safe than sorry.
For those who don't recognize them, they're HANS devices for Janel and I. If the worst happens, they'll help keep our heads attached to our necks. Not cheap insurance, but better than the alternative.
entry 867 - tags: safety | | |  | July 6, 2011 - A new intercom for the Targa car.
This one, a Peltor FMT120, has a few features the old FMT100 didn't. Aux in (for a phone), separate volume controls, etc. Most importantly, it has an audio out. When combined with the new video camera that arrived last week, this means we'll be able to have Janel's instructions as audio for the in-car footage instead of just engine noise. That should make it a lot more interesting to watch.
The old intercom will go into Nancy, the sister car on the team.
Progress on the car should resume shortly. Lots of fine-tuning to do.
entry 868 - tags: intercom, video | | |  | July 9, 2011 - Since neither my helmet nor Janel's came with HANS anchors, I had to install them myself.
It's not a terribly difficult job. As you can see, Janel busied herself with personalizing her HANS device as I drilled into her helmet. Well, we have to be able to tell them apart, don't we?
entry 869 - tags: HANS, safety | | |  | July 11, 2011 - Yup, that one's done.
That's not just cord you can see, but steel belt. In three places.
entry 870 - tags: tires | | |  | July 11, 2011 - The car's on the lift again, getting a number of upgrades.
New 550 lb front springs, an increased ride height all the way around, the new intercom, some heat shielding, air dam repair, skid plates (if I get time this week) and the like. I'm also removing the old sponsorship stickers in preparation for this year's batch. Yuk, that car needs a wash.
entry 871 - tags: work | | |  | July 12, 2011 - One of the items on my "fix it" list was heat insulation.
That transmission tunnel gets a bit warm. So I turned once again to Reflectix. It's basically heady-duty bubble wrap with an aluminum coating. It weighs nothing at all, is completely waterproof and costs about $20 for 50 square feet. Perfect. On this car, I covered the inside of the transmission tunnel on both sides and on top back to the gearshift.
I use a waterproof foil tape to attach it to the car. I've found that, as long as you give it a clean surface to attach to, this stuff will never let go. In fact, there's still some of the tape from the previous heat shielding stuck on the bottom of the car where I can't get it off!
entry 872 - tags: insulation | | |  | July 12, 2011 - The original hood prop wouldn't fit the engine bay anymore.
But I have one of the old Flyin' Miata shock tower braces in my "stuff for the Targa Miata" pile, and we used to offer a hood prop that mounted to those. So I installed it. Voila, problem solved! And an increase in front end rigidity, too. There are some who don't think a shock tower brace does anything on a Miata, but you can see the distance between the towers change as you lift the car up! That's even true on my caged, seam-welded car. Regardless, even if it didn't do anything, it does make an excellent hood prop mount.
entry 873 - tags: stiffening | | |  | July 13, 2011 - Check out the race wheels!
It's a pretty cool looking car with the crazy Toyo R1-R tread pattern and the white wheels. The ride height is set fairly tall as well, to give me room to deal with the roads. Right now, it's at 13.5" front and 14" rear. Current spring rates are 550 front and 450 rear. That's a fairly high rear spring rate, but this car has always needed more rear spring than usual for some reason. It could be the way it gets used! Normally, I'd use a 375 or so to match those fronts. There's a V8 customer car at FM with that exact setup and it's a sweetheart.
On the road, the suspension feels pretty good. The car hasn't been aligned since the ride height increase and a changed lower control arm, so I've not gone far. But it does seem to have the right suppleness I need. One thing I've learned about the AFCOs since the 2008 race is that they love stiff springs. It's almost as if they ride better with the heavy springs than they do with the light ones as you move into the higher damping settings. I'm looking forward to running this car at speed.
I've also moved it to my home garage for a while. I find it easier to work on the car at home instead of staying late at work. That's the theory, anyhow. I've got a good list of jobs to do on the car. Little stuff, but it still needs to be done and it all adds up.
Driving the Targa Miata and the LS1-powered MGB back to back also illustrates that I need to spend more time tuning the Miata's engine. It doesn't feel anywhere near as strong as that MG does, despite a similar weight on the two cars.
entry 874 - tags: suspension, wheels, tires | | |  | July 16, 2011 - How's this for a cool garage?
The two Targa cars, the Seven and the LS1-powered MGB. My garage currently has a very high power/weight ratio.
entry 875 - tags: cool cars | | |  | July 16, 2011 - Can you fit a 225/45-15 tire in the trunk of a Miata?
Yes, with the help of a big enough hammer. While I am allowed to carry a space-saver (and I might), I realized that if we did have to change a tire I'd have no place to put it. Since the trunklid is held on by pins, leaving the trunk partly open wasn't really an option. So I stopped for hammer time.
entry 876 - tags: spare | | |  | July 17, 2011 - When I first got the car running, I was short of time and didn't have a set of GM plug wires.
So I picked up a set from NAPA that were designed for the engine. No problem there, except for the fact that a couple of the wires were in contact with the headers. As you can see on the blue wire, that's not good. I first came across this at the track day at High Plains, and worked around it with some ziptie guy wires. But something needed to be done.
The factory wires I picked up are a better option in two ways. First, they have this nice 90 degree bend so they're tucked in close to the block. Second, I also picked up the metal heat shields that come on these engines from the factory. The NAPA wires can also accept the shields. Between the bend and the shields, they fit much better than before.
Interestingly, a crate LS3 engine comes with the heat yields but has a straight wire. Go figure.
entry 877 - tags: plug wires | | |  | July 17, 2011 - One problem the car has is very high intake air temperatures.
I've looked at various ways to try and pull cool air into the intake, but most of them involve more surgery than I want to do right now. There's a lot to do before Targa and not much time! So I decided to do the best I could with what I have.
Step one was this heat shield. It isolates the filter from the headers, hopefully cutting down the heat transfer a bit. It actually has a bit of history to is, it was part of my transmission tunnel cover on the Seven when I first built the car. It does cut the filter off from the hot headers pretty nicely.
entry 878 - tags: heat, intake | | |  | July 17, 2011 - Now that the heat shield is in place, I need to find a way to get cold(er) air in to that area of the engine bay.
The classic way to do that on a Miata is through the turn indicator opening. I've been collecting parts to make something like this for a while, and here's what I used: an LED light for a motorcycle, a multiple-purpose grill topper, a piece of 3/4" steel strap and a stainless plate in the shape of a Miata turn indicator.
entry 879 - tags: tsi, intake, heat | | |  | July 17, 2011 - The final product.
The light is quite visible when lit, but hidden when off. I drilled some holes in the 3/4" strap to allow a bit more air through, and the mesh is simply folded around the stainless steel plate. It only took a few minutes to put together. You can buy a setup that looks a lot like this from KG Works for an eye-watering amount of money, but this should work just as nicely. In previous testing, I've seen similar setups drop intake temperatures significantly. We'll see how it does here.
I only did one side until I determine how it works. I may or may not do the other.
entry 880 - tags: tsi, heat, intake | | |
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THE DIARY