RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
May 19, 2011 21:13:14 GMT
|
It lives ;D All went well with the mapping, I'm still running the base map for the ignition, but it seems to be very much on the safe side. The fuel base map was all over the place and made the car run rough as hell. Anyway, the result so far having got the fuel map pretty good, the yellow lines are the old ECU, the blue lines are with the megasquirt on there: 10bhp gain, from 104 to 114bhp, 5lb-ft of torque gained, from 94 to 99lb-ft, but most noticably when driving it, the torque curve's soooo much flatter now, much more pull low down, and it still keeps going high up. It'll be interesting to see what sort of difference I see in mpg too, besides anything else 30 limits have gone from cruising in 4th gear to 5th, which should help a little. In other news, I found out earlier that I've got a job I applied for a couple of weeks ago, as a result my total commuting mileage will be going from 236 miles a week, to 40 and I'll be trying to cycle that most days.
|
|
Last Edit: May 19, 2011 21:13:49 GMT by RobinJI
|
|
|
|
|
May 19, 2011 22:03:25 GMT
|
Good work, i like the home tuning. It must be nice knowing you built the ECU and wrote the map and the engine runs. I would love to do it myself.
Congrats on the new job too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
May 19, 2011 22:59:36 GMT
|
Are you gonna play with the ignition timing sometime?
|
|
Koos
|
|
|
|
|
Looks like that motor wants a bit more advance on the high end.
That really is the best feeling. I have done 3 Megasquirt builds now and it feels great every time. Especially when the dyno operator compliments you on your tune
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
Cheers, yeah, it's a great feeling to have it working properly. I'm pretty chuffed with the results, I wasn't expecting there to be so much room for improvement low down.
I will be playing with the ignition once I've got some form of det-cans.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Awesome work Robin. It's been a while coming, but well worth the wait, the time and the effort.
I bet you're chuffed to bits? And you get to play with it/tweak it to make it 'just right' too.
Looking forward to you taking me out for a quick blast in it....
Very well done. There must be something very satisfying about a car running on management you built. ;D
|
|
|
|
qwerty
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,410
Club RR Member Number: 52
|
|
|
Thats flipping awesome Robin! I'd love to have a go building a megasquirt so I can run bike tb's on the engine for the cortina. You've inspired me to go and look into it in more depth.
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
Thats flipping awesome Robin! I'd love to have a go building a megasquirt so I can run bike tb's on the engine for the cortina. You've inspired me to go and look into it in more depth. Definitely do. To be honest, the only real issues I've had while building this have been caused by the awkward cam position sensors on the mx5. If you were fitting one to a ford using a normal toothed pulley crank position sensor, and an EDIS set up it would be much more strait forward. I'm looking forward to having a play with the ignition map. Bruce, I'll be hoping to make it up to A52 this evening, I don't know if you'll have time or space, but it'd be awesome if we can wind my rear coilovers back down at some point, as my c-spanners seem to have gone missing and I had to raise it rather a lot to get it on the rolling road. I'll definitely take you for a spin though, the bottom end grunts much better, with no sacrifice high up (in fact a gain there as well, haha) edit: come to think of it you're welcome to take it for a spin your self, you'd get a better idea of the difference from the drivers seat, as a lot of it's improvements at part throttle too. Oh, and the induction noise is amazing without the VAF in there any more, sounds great even with the standard exhaust on it. ;D
|
|
Last Edit: May 20, 2011 8:40:59 GMT by RobinJI
|
|
|
|
|
***** EXCITED FACE *****
^ Me ^
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi, I'm Rory, a long time lurker of Retro rides and the numb nuts in the Black Primera GT who gave you the thumbs up on the M6 the other day!
I said to my girlfriend, look at the mx5 thats how one should look, as i got nearer i saw the area 52 sticker and realised it was you, been following this car on here ever since bruce got hold of it! Love it.
Ive got a 1995 mk1 1.8 in a tatty red fairly slammed too! Only probs with mine is its in need of an mot now and it needs a 440mm cat stuck back on to pass, a new rear box and ever since i changed the g.box and elft the battery off for 2 weeks i now no longer have ignition! I'm no good with electrics so I'm a buggered at the moment!
Was good to see your 5 in the flesh dude!
|
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
Hey seismic, Cheers. Unfortunately, if you saw it on the M6 it was not me you saw driving the car, but it's new owner Adam (Quirky-Classics on here). I had decided after 10 months or so of ownership that the MX-5 was just too impractical for me to live with as a daily driver. As amazingly fun to drive as it is, I seem to spend a large amount of my time on big, flat, strait a-roads, or dual carriageways, where I longed for relief from the road noise and cramped interior of the little Mazda. I've also been feeling the lack of a decent boot and back seats to be a handicap for my other non-car-based hobbies, as well as to a small extent my social life. So, as a result of this, I decided I wanted another decent sized estate, a deal was done, and Adam now owns my MX-5, and I now own his old Volvo 240 GLT. The thread for which can be found here. The new wagon on its trip home:
|
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
So... er.... I may have just bought this back. It's changed colour and gained a few bits in the mean time, but it's now sat in my garage: Dropping it off: And how I ended today: To explain a little, after I sold this, it ended up back with one of the other Area 52 guys Gaz (PickMeUp on here) and as he'd moved away since it's been sat for a while. I've been daily driving my Scirocco for quite a while now and It's great, but I started getting the itch for venturing out on track. I contemplated buying something diesel and estate shaped, and then stripping and caging the Scirocco to have fun in. That idea was put aside when I decided that'd be boring, and that it'd be much more sensible to keep daily driving the 200000 mile '80s coupe and buy something even less sensible for having even more fun in. I mean why have one fun car and one sensible one when I can have 2 fun ones? Importantly though, even though both cars aren't your average run-around, they can act as back-ups for each other, so if the 'rocco hurls it's toys from the pram, I've always got the MX-5 to get to work in. I'm really looking forward to that ability as it means I'll be able to work on the Scirocco to a standard I'm much happier with, as well as getting the fun of playing with the MX-5. Since I had it, it's obviously had a lick of paint, the current colours a bit of fun, but not really my bag. It'll be getting a new top-coat of something a little less loud. The spoiler's also been removed for similar reasons. It's also gained a new wide-band lambda sensor, a lot less interior trim, a pair of bucket seats, a pair of harnesses, a harness bar and I'm pretty sure a 4-branch manifold. Along with the cage and megasquirt both of which are still on there, it seems a good start for a bit of fun on track. Plans are all a bit hazy right now, but are firmly based on the idea of it being a road legal track car. Something built to still be enjoyable on the road, but mostly just focused on performance. Plus looks will come into it too, as cars are more fun when they make you feel good even when you're stationary. It'll get paint as mentioned, and I'm keen for it to loose as much weight as possible. I've already started stripping anything un-necessary from the engine bay. Power needs to increase somehow too, this'll most likely be in the form of a turbo strapped on the side, but I'm not 100% set on that route yet. I've already got one turbo converted car after-all. So yeah, that's more than enough rambling on from me for now. It probably won't be on the road for a month or 2 as there's no rush, but I'll try and keep this up to date.
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
So this evening I spent a while playing with seating positions (trying to get the seat a touch lower) before having a look at my idea of fitting a 1.8t VW throttle body. This is because the MX-5's throttle body doesn't have a proper position sensor in it, and has a messy and somewhat clumsy by-pass idle control system on the side, as well as bits of vapor control emissions stuff built into it. The 1.8t VW throttle body controls idle by simply electronically tweaking the throttles position and has a proper position sensor in it. Also, I've got a spare. It looks promising, amazingly 2 of the mounting holes actually line up and the air-path its self's easily close enough that I can port out the manifold to match it nicely. The other 2 mounting holes are close enough that slotting the manifold slightly will get them in. Just need to look into the mods the ECU will need to control the idle with it. I knife edged the butterfly while I was at it too, probably won't make any difference, but every little helps and I felt like tinkering with something as the sun was shining.
|
|
Last Edit: Apr 8, 2014 20:05:16 GMT by RobinJI
|
|
|
|
|
Plans sound good, as ever - looking forward to seeing this come together, and the Scirocco come on in leaps and bounds once it doesn't HAVE to get you to work on Monday. I still think that a supercharger is preferable to a snail, but that's just me. Perhaps set one up with a bypass and a clutch so it doesn't destroy the economy while pottering about.
|
|
|
|
djoptix
Part of things
Citroen BX 16 valve
Posts: 333
|
|
|
Can't believe you got rid of the wing!...
*wonders how it would look on a BX*
|
|
OMG i totally would have that car if a) you lived closer b) i had the dosh c) i could sell this rusting mk1 Civic d) my benefits come through e) my wife would let me f) my mum would let me g) you'll MOT it
|
|
craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
|
|
|
Its good to see the old girl getting some love again Was surprised to see how well the graff paint had stood up to a couple of years living outside and how good it looked on the bini rims (not a patch compared to the mazda speeds or my old bandies ) The wing should sell easy enough over on nutz
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
|
Cheers chaps. Craig, yeah, the paint's held up well, I'll be sticking with the Montana stuff to respray it as it seems to go on nice and evenly and last well. Plus I know I won't have reaction issues with it.
The wing will be kept 'in stock' I don't dislike it at all really, it's just not right on a 115bhp car that'll occasionally get used to commute. Once the powers increased a fair chunk and it's got some front end aero on it I'll see how I feel about putting it back on. I'll have to mount it through the boot lid though, as it'd started bending it pretty badly!
James, I'm still debating which way to go, ultimately, what I'd really like to do's an engine swap to something with more power NA, but in the mean time I'll probably strap a turbo on for some cheap fun. I could be tempted by an M62 though. Decisions decisions.
|
|
|
|
craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
|
|
|
considering the speed and conditions in which we painted it, I was amazed at the outcome. Def awoke me to the possibilities of graff paint, and sooo much choice of colour. Fat Caps were impressive in the size of the spray pattern too. The boot did look like it wasn't happy with all that down force Having been out in a M42 blown 1.6 (dyno'd at just over 200 BHP), the sound and delivery was addictive and I would have thought more suited to the track than a turbo. I do like the idea of a high powered NA lump dropped in, S2000? I always fancied the idea of making one light and then dropping a bike lump in
|
|
|
|
RobinJI
Posted a lot
"Driven by the irony that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
Posts: 2,995
|
|
Apr 10, 2014 20:10:54 GMT
|
Haha, the paint does look a bit rushed, but it's held up well. I'll more than likely just go straight over most of it after a good key as it seems to have stuck well. I came across the first unexpected issue earlier, the alternator's completely seized up I thought I'd throw the belts back on but found the crank pulley was missing 3 of its 4 bolts, then noticed the alternator wouldn't even turn anyway. Balls. Ah well, they seem cheap and plentiful second hand, and it's laughably easy to replace. I also pulled the rocker cover and cam-belt covers off to check everything out and give it all a good clean down so any leaks show up easily once it's on the road. I did dig out an alternative front bumper I've got lying around too. I'm not sure on the looks until I've seen it fitted properly with the front on the ground, but it'll be much better aerodynamically and it'll help with future plans, which is why I've got it. I expect I'll fix it up (it's a bit smashed up at the moment, can't complain as it was free!) so I can throw it on when I paint it and see how it looks in place. If I don't like it, then at least it'll be fixed so I can be of use to someone.
|
|
Last Edit: Apr 10, 2014 20:23:49 GMT by RobinJI
|
|
|