The Miata experience: his and hers.

Loaded Capri #2 into the container today, so it's finally out of the elements.

Been a little while without an update...  I spent the last couple of weeks tidying up small stuff on the NA, trying to get ready for a couple of upcoming events.

One task was finishing the new splitter, constructed from 1/2" Birch ply from Home Depot Racing.   This is a basic Supermiata style splitter/airdam setup, but I'll go through the steps.  I added about 1" all the way around, and added straight ends so I could use fences.  Once the shape was cut out, I added the t-nuts to mount it to the car.

From there, it got polyurethane sealer all the way around the edge.  Here in the Southwest, it's enough.  Wetter climates would probably need something a litte more robust.

Next up was the landscaping edging, which provides the backing for the air dam.

With paint, and a fresh air dam.  I cut the airdam against the natural curve of the material (because that put the 'prettier' side out), but I didn't like the way it was deforming, so I'll go back to the old air dam for now.

With the end fences and old air dam

I'm not sure how effective the fences will be, but they shouldn't hurt at least and they add a more 'finished' look.

The last mod I had time for before our next event was a coolshirt setup.  For the price of these things, they should at least come with some kind of mounting plate.  Since I was pressed for time, I slapped something together out of steel angle, but I will re-do it at some point when I have time to deal with TIG welding an aluminum mount.  TIG was just going to be too time-consuming for what I have available this week.

I built the bracket to mount to the existing passenger seat rail mounts.

All done...

Easy and quick, but the weight bothers me, so I'll replicate it in aluminum at some point.

Today, the E36 got its first ride on the lift for an oil change.  It's kind of surprising how my Miatas and the Touring barely fit on the lift.  I have to have them perfectly centered or the front arms want to extend too far under the car.

With the oil changed, it's time for a wash/wax/detail for the Touring.

I washed and detailed the Touring today.  I continue to marvel at how nice it is for a 28 year old 3 series.  I guess the Germans take better care of their cars than most Americans.

In reply to Rodan :

Where are the rear window switches for the e36??

In reply to Rodan :

Where are the rear window switches for the e36??

In reply to jfryjfry :

Rear windows are crank... I guess it's a Euro thing?

Rodan said:

In reply to jfryjfry :

Rear windows are crank... I guess it's a Euro thing?

And a neon srt4 thing!

That's so interesting!   A cool mod would be to put in the power windows and switches from a sedan

There was a somewhat local E28 Alpina B7 Turbo, a crazy expensive car back then and still today, it also had crank windows just in the back.

I wouldn't change them, it's just another thing that makes these Euro cars more unique over here (as someone with crank windows all around in my E28).

It would be handy to have power in the rear, but I can reach the rear passenger window crank from the driver's seat, so it's not really a big deal.

More prep for the next track adventure... washed the RV today.  I used to joke that washing my truck was like washing a city bus.  This thing really is as big a city bus...  

I just couldn't wash that.  Heck, when I owned large SUV's I barely washed them, until I got the Adam's truck brush. 

It takes my wife and I about 2.5 hours to wash it.  You have to work your way around, drying as you go or you just end up with water spots everywhere.  The worst part is the height, and having to go up/down a 10ft ladder eleventybillion times, because a brush won't get into the nooks and crannies of the awnings and such.  And coordinating the washing time so the sun's not on it while you're washing.  Which means an early start so the east (shop) side is shaded by the shop, and you can get the whole thing done before the sun's on the west side.

If all goes to plan, there will be an RV carport over it the next time we have to wash it, so the sun won't be an issue.

Off to get the propane tank filled next...

After action report...  High Plains Raceway in Colorado

I had heard of HPR, but had never had a lot of interest in trekking there, as it's not really on the way to anywhere we've been in the last few years.  Then we had a race at HPR in the GRM Assetto Corsa Sim racing league, and I discovered that it's a pretty cool track.  So we decided to add it to our itinerary...

HPR is a solid two-day haul for us, and we spent the first night out in Santa Fe, NM.  The first day wasn't much fun, as it was HOT.  The dash A/C in our RV has been on the fritz, and with all the issues getting the race car done, I never got around to diagnosing/repairing it.  I didn't think it would be an issue, as we usually run the generator and the roof A/Cs going down the road in the summer anyway because the dash air can't keep the whole rig cool.  When it warmed up, a few hours in, we flipped the generator on, and the A/C units wouldn't start.  TLDR - it appears our auto transfer switch for the AC power isn't working...  so we arrived in Santa Fe pretty well baked.

The good news is shore power is working fine, so as long as were hooked up we have A/C.

Sunset in Santa Fe...

The next day's run north into Colorado was a lot cooler, so we weren't completely wasted when we got into HPR, set up in the paddock and unloaded the cars.

I just want to say up front that HPR is a really nice facility!  I'll get to the track later, but the facility around it is well set up and well run.  Nice, big, well delineated paddock spaces, electricity for RVs, showers, food service, fuel on site, etc.   Definitely one of the better 'small' tracks we've been to.

Our first day was an open lapping day, which was a new format for us.  Most of our areas trackdays are run by different organizations and they all have delineated run groups.  This day was run by the track, and was open lapping, except for the first hour, which was split into 'slow' for 30 min and 'fast' for 30 minutes.  After that it was go out when you want.

Since I had some sim time, but my wife had never been there, we took the E36 Touring out for two laps in the 'slow' group so I could show her the track and lines.  After that she took the Miata out, and started learning the track.  We spent the rest of the day taking turns.  I was working on learning the 'IRL' track, sorting the video settings on the AiM camera, and a few other minor, and one major thing.  More on that later.

Keeping cool was a challenge with temps in the 90s, so we eventually put on the coolshirts, which was a major revelation.  Should have installed one years ago!  If you're even thinking about a coolshirt system... JUST DO IT.  You can thank me later.  Can't believe I waited so long.

My wife, headed out in her coolshirt...

My sim time on HPR really helped me get up to speed quickly, even more than my prep for Chuckwalla in CA.  For one, I think the HPR track is a better model in Assetto Corsa, and I also had a better idea of what does/doesn't translate from sim to 'IRL'.  In any case, by the end of the first day I was into the 2:07s.  For comparison, a couple of Spec Miatas were running 2:12s.  I've used Spec Miatas as a bench mark for a long time, as I was usually 1-2 seconds quicker than a typical SM on a given day with the previous engine.  I'm pretty happy to have been running 5 seconds faster with the K Swap, and I know I was leaving at least 1-2 seconds on the table with a couple of corner entries at HPR.

The track is very fun... and technical!  Lots of elevation change, and blind corner entry.  Definitely challenging, and while there's not a lot of walls, there are some bad places to have an off.

The good news is that our brakes were back... I decided to upgrade our pads from G-Loc R10/R8 to R12/R10, and they were really good.  The bad news is that the crank position sensor issues I was having on our first outing were back with a vengeance....

The Crank Position Sensor....

After our last outing, I took a dive into the data both on AiM and Link.  I was able to determine the 'miss' or cutout was an intermittent loss of crank position sensor signal (Trigger 1 on Link).  It's only happening at full throttle and over 5000rpm, and only on track.  No hint of it at all on the dyno.  An examination of the wiring showed no apparent problems, and continuity was good.  Since the engine was a used JDM unit, I hoped the problem was simply a bad CPS, so I obtained a new, OEM Honda part and installed it for the weekend at HPR.

Unfortunately, the problem was still there, from the very first session.  It came and went, unaffected by continuing attempts to figure out the cause.  In the last (hottest) session of the day, the car worked perfectly...??

Some more good news, even with temps in the mid 90s, coolant temps never broke 200*F, and neither did oil temps.  IATs stayed only a couple degrees above ambient.  

I had high hopes for the next day (Saturday), to attack the couple of corners 

Saturday at HPR was with the Porsche Club Colorado region.

Compared to the AZ PCA, the CO PCA was way more anal about everything, but also much less organized.  The run groups were also too big.  My 'advanced' wasn't bad at 21 entries, but my wife's 'intermediate' was way too many at 31 cars.  As it turned out, it wouldn't matter much, but had I run the whole day I'm pretty sure I would have been very hard pressed to get a clean lap at speed.

I don't want to throw too much shade on the CO PCA, because they're really nice folks, and we've always liked running with PCA.  And maybe I was jaded by running the open lap day prior....  

But, like I said, it didn't matter. Finished the out lap, caught a Cayman, got a point by, and the car was cutting out again.  E36 M3...

More examination in the pits didn't turn anything up.  I had forgotten to pack wire, so I sent my wife off to town for some wire, and tinfoil.  I tried wrapping the section of the harness with the crank sensor wiring with foil for some additional heat/electrical insulation, and added an additional ground wire from the timing cover to the chassis.

None of it helped.

Last ditch was a second new CPS, this one aftermarket*... so I installed it, and the weather rolled in...  Severe thunderstorms for the whole area.

They don't shut down for rain, but they do for lightning, and we had plenty of that.  And hail.  And lots of rain...

Long story short, we ended up being done for the day, so I never got to try the new CPS.

*The new CPS is a Beck/Arnley part I got from RockAuto, and it's IDENTICAL, down to the Mitsubishi triple diamond molded into the plastic and the part number etched on it, to the OEM Honda part I got from the Honda dealer for 4x the price.

Next time you come up here ping me.  As far as the open days at HPR, I can't stand them.  I rarely get clean laps and have seen some really dangerous driving on track.  No tech inspections, everyone thinks that they're fast, so go in the "fast" group, but are clueless.

I usually run with PCA and have found that if I grid behind all the Cup/GT cars in the expert run group I get clean track time for the entire session.

It might be worth checking the pin/connector at the ECU for the crank trigger signal in case something is just tweaked a bit and not contacting fully. I know it's a completely different setup in my car with an ECUmaster but a I had a wire connector on the harness side of the ECU not quite right and lost whatever signal was on it. It's always frustrating chasing an intermittent issue.

In reply to docwyte :

Will do.  I had forgotten you're in the Denver area.

I might have been overrating the open day because it was a Friday and there were so few cars there.  I don't think there were ever more than 6-8 cars on track at any one time.  I'm sure it's much more crowded in cooler weather and on weekends.

In reply to adam525i :

I have done  continuity checks from sensor to ECU and not found a problem.  See next post...

This morning I called KPower on an unrelated issue, and while I had them on the phone I mentioned the CPS dropout issue.  They mentioned they had experienced the problem, and told me if oil gets on the CPS it can cause an intermittent loss of signal.

So, TIL that the cavity where the CPS lives in a K24 should be dry.  I did not know that, this being my first experience with K engines.  Mine have been coming out with oil on them, so apparently I didn't get something adequately sealed when installing the timing cover.

This also explains why it didn't have the problem on the dyno, as oil had not had time to build up in there.

I've got my fingers crossed that this is problem....