March 2016

Fuel Testing

My injectors are back from Witchhunter. I completed the fuel lines and fired up the fuel pump.  After slowly ramping up the fuel pressure  to 60psig I discovered the tiniest of leaks at the fuel rail connection. More like seepage. I'm not taking any chances with fuel.  The cheapo Summit -AN fitting was locked up in it's threads and not reusable.  I bought a couple of Russel fittings and re-assembled everything.  No leaks!  I flushed the system for 30 minutes and changed the fuel filter.
Here's a couple of pictures of the line routing on the 99 fuel rail for reference.

Low Pressure Return

-AN Conversion Point Supply

Return to the Regulator Inlet

99 Rail Connections Supply on the Left

While cutting fuel hoses I learned how badly harbor freight cut off wheels really suck.  When I switched to a quality wheel, the cuts were so clean and much less dust ended up in the lines.  Speaking of the dust, a good way to clean the lines after cutting is to pig them out with a few foam ear plugs and compressed air after cutting. The size is perfect for -6AN lines.

Final Wire Routing

I installed the  the ECU and wideband controllers, wired up the Longacre oil pressure/water pressure gauges and routed the revised alternator wiring.  I decided to go with NB2 alternator control so that I can utilize the alternator off at WoT feature.  I left the battery in the trunk for now. I'll move it to the passenger floor later.

Holy Crap! It Runs!

It started and died, crud.  On restart I opened up the idle screw on the Skunk2 TB a bit and we're off to the races.  Base timing set, sensors calibrated, alternator working, ahhhh the satisfaction. My idle after warm up is ridiculously rich.  I'm a total newb at tuning, it may take a while to figure it out.  My water temp gauge also died. Shipped back to Longacre Racing for repair.  Wiring cleanup/ wire management is a near future project.

I got the wheels back on and ran it up and down the driveway a few times.  Boy is it zippy!  I need to prep my E-Street car for my first event in two weeks, so it's nice to be mobile so I can get the 2002 in the garage if, that is, I get a break in the rain.. Speaking of wheels, My 15x10 6ULs are here!

After idle tuning, I need to decide where to go next, suspension or out for the cage build. I'll cut the windshield and doors before I go out for the cage build.  I'm going to need a trailer soon.

Chop Chop!

I finished my idle tuning in open loop. I'm pretty happy with it.  Today was the day.  Time for the windshield to come off.  Since I just cleaned up the inside, I decided to take some extra care mot to make an extraordinary mess inside the car.  First, I removed the fenders to prevent any unwanted damage.  Next, I put down plastic and sealed off all the electrical work I just completed. Then, i cut out the windshield using a windshield wire saw, which was surprisingly easy.  This step is optional, but made the pillar cutting super smooth.

Finally I marked the cuts and went to town with the sawz-all.  The A-pillar was buttery soft to a new blade. I expected way more effort.  I was working alone, so I cut about 90% through on both sides then just wiggled it off. I cleaned up the edges with the angle grinder and hit all the raw metal with a shot of primer.  The whole thing took me less than 2 hours.

Next up, door gutting.

Door Prep

I made contact with my cage builder.  He's pretty busy being spring time.  I'm slotted to go in for my cage build in mid-April. I did a rough door gut to make room for the door bars.  I had one mishap.  I used the sawz-all on some of the thick stuff and jabbed my door skin.  No punch through, but it made a visible dimple......well crap.  By the time I got to the second door, I had it figured out.  I used a combination of sawz-all, angle grinder, Dremel, and heavy duty aviation snips.  The snips work nicely for the thinner stuff.

Closing out some details

This has been bugging the crap out of me.  I have a lot of wiring below the exterior fan intake.  I finally decided to cap it off.  Cut sheet metal, bolted through the grating.  Hit the edges with seam sealer.  It'll need one more time around with the seam sealer to completely seal it off.

I also spiffed up my intake.  I added a port for the IAT sensor and a bracket to support the filter.  I ran a bolt through the filter with a metal/rubber washer sandwich. The nut on the outside of the sandwich is JB Welded to the bolt, don't want any of this going down the intake.  That would be bad.

Ready for cage install

I'm basically satisfied that I'm ready to go out for the cage build.  I need to cut my dash bar and remove the unwanted bits, but I've go six weeks.  I'm waiting until the cage is done to start on the suspension.  I might start on my spoiler since I can leave that hanging during the cage install.

Autocross starts this weekend. Test and tune Saturday and Event #1 Sunday.  My E-Street Miata is ready to go after un-fucking my parking brake it's working perfectly....god I hate that thing.  She's wearing brand new Bridgestone RE-71Rs.