No, not what you're thinking.
Over the next few weeks (hopefully) I'll be assembling, testing, and installing a new computer for my fun little POS of a car.
Behold my new nightmare:
I get to build the whole thing essentially from scratch, program it, and with any luck, tune it. 
16 replies to this topic
#1
Waco
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Posted 08 March 2013 - 08:06 PM
Booyah.
#2
Onion
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Posted 08 March 2013 - 08:20 PM
That hilarious moment when you find a way to make the miata run even more lean.
Pardon my smugness, I now have carbs. 
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#3
Waco
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Posted 08 March 2013 - 08:27 PM
More lean? Methinks you don't understand why I bought this. It's to keep it from being so damn lean. 
And smugness? No, I don't understand. You have carbs (hard to tune at best), static timing (distributor), and a 41 year old motor. :tongue: You may have a 50% advantage in displacement but you have a massive disadvantage in terms of tuning for area under the power curve.
My boss's son works at a performance shop in town though - with any luck I'll be able to do a before/after dyno (plus some tuning time on the dyno too) so I'll be able to judge whether or not this was actually worthwhile.
Booyah.
#4
ccokeman
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Posted 08 March 2013 - 10:43 PM
This should be interesting! I hope the ECU and added tuning capabilities improves performance on the Miata!
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#5
Waco
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Posted 08 March 2013 - 11:04 PM
If it doesn't...well...I'm doing something wrong. Just deleting the AFM should help massively.
Booyah.
#6
Waco
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Posted 09 March 2013 - 06:48 PM
Progress - all resistors and diodes mounted. The first few were a little rough...but I got my skills back pretty quickly. :tongue:
Booyah.
#7
sword_fish
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Posted 09 March 2013 - 07:03 PM
man, there's no way we can outsource such parts locally. and the guts building it our own... how i love America 
goodluck with your project Waco, fire in the hole! 
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#8
Waco
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Posted 16 March 2013 - 07:26 PM
So I've been super busy and forgot to keep updating this:
Earlier this week:
A little less earlier this week:
And yesterday:
Car lobotomy is ready to go...as soon as I find time to actually do it. My first USB->RS232 adapter was busted so I had to wait for another - but the second one worked like a charm! Apparently my soldering skills aren't too bad.
First startup should be "soon" using the standard base maps. After I confirm everything works as intended I'll start hacking up the car to wire it for the wideband O2 sensor, setting up the MAP sensor and removing the AFM, and rewiring the fuel injectors for sequential injection.
Sometime down the road I'll grab four spark coils to run coil-on-plug ignition (instead of the stock wasted-spark setup).
A dyno stock is unlikely at this point but I'm expecting a good 10-15 RWHP minimum simply from the optimized spark timing (even from the base map with no tuning) as well as the AFM delete. On a car that probably only has ~95 RWHP it should be a very nice gain. 
Booyah.
#9
BluePanda
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Posted 16 March 2013 - 07:44 PM
lol. Since Waco post a pic -- see that big white spot on the front of the car? Right between the stripes? hehehehe I hit a nice big rock a semi barfed at me on the way out to NM...couldn't avoid it. Sounded awful -- 
Really thought it was going to be worse, but least Waco said he'll fix it eventually
#10
bp9801
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Posted 17 March 2013 - 12:24 AM
lol. Since Waco post a pic -- see that big white spot on the front of the car? Right between the stripes? hehehehe I hit a nice big rock a semi barfed at me on the way out to NM...couldn't avoid it. Sounded awful --
Honestly wouldn't have noticed if you didn't mention it. Shouldn't be too hard to fix at all.
Let's hope Waco doesn't somehow set this car on fire with his overclocking. 
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#11
IVIYTH0S
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Posted 17 March 2013 - 04:41 AM
Looks like a neat project, I'd love to do/learn something like this. I wonder if it'd benefit me much on my car though.
lol. Since Waco post a pic -- see that big white spot on the front of the car? Right between the stripes? hehehehe I hit a nice big rock a semi barfed at me on the way out to NM...couldn't avoid it. Sounded awful --
Honestly wouldn't have noticed if you didn't mention it.
Let's hope Waco doesn't somehow set this car on fire with his overclocking.
+1
It still just looks like a flare of light reflecting from the flash of the camera
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#12
Waco
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Posted 22 March 2013 - 05:13 PM
The car started and idled on the first try and all of the sensors work. Holy crap I did it.
Now the tuning begins!
Now the tuning begins!
Booyah.
