Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
5/4/20 12:12 p.m.

Id like to thank you again for posting when you scrapped something that didn't work but was a significant financial loss. It gave me the courage to get the duster fixed by dumping the megasquirt. 

Crackers
Crackers Dork
5/4/20 12:32 p.m.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Has anyone called dibs on the MS? I might be interested in it. 

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
5/4/20 12:35 p.m.

In reply to Crackers :

Already on a car in Kansas city! Lost my ass, but totally worth it. 

volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter)
volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) PowerDork
5/5/20 8:10 a.m.

If I make twice as many mistakes in my ES build I'll consider myself lucky, and the project a success. 

By the way, if you need a manual Miata rack, I found and bought a second one.  It's yours for what I paid for it plus shipping. 

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
5/5/20 8:20 a.m.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) :

Very much interested. Ideally I would have it shipped to Port Huron and drive over, but broder closed at the moment. M $$$ and we can make it work.

 

Pete

volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter)
volvoclearinghouse (Forum Supporter) PowerDork
5/5/20 9:49 a.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

No worries, I can hang onto it a bit and wait for things to open up.  Will message you with the cost.

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
7/6/20 8:44 a.m.

Well, for those that are interested, a short update.

 

Since the weather has gotten hot, the Fitech has started to live up to its marketing claims. The car is running well and subject to having to juggle cars to get it out of the garage, it has been getting miles on it. Saturday saw 100 mile drive is hot weather with no issues across midtown traffic or the open roads. 205 degrees stuck in traffic and 195 on the hwy. Hums along at 2000 rpm @60 mph with plenty of giddy-up if I press the go-pedal.

I do need to get on the AC if I am going to use it as a destination driver in the summer. While not terrible, there is a lot of greenhouse to the car. The good news is that I am not finding the drivetrain heat intruding into the cabin to be an issue.

Still a laundry list of details to get done, but they are on the back burner as I work on selling the MGB  GT to clear up space and time.

 

ps...the Fitech still has to go.

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter)
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) Dork
7/6/20 12:51 p.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

I'll admit that I thought you'd already swapped in a carb.

Though, I'm happy the FiTech is behaving for you now.  At least you're getting to enjoy the car a bit.

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter)
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
7/6/20 12:52 p.m.

You have officially cursed yourself by saying its behaving itself. At least in my experience with megasquirt and ez efi.....

 

Glad you're enjoying it!

Indy "Nub" Guy
Indy "Nub" Guy PowerDork
7/6/20 2:11 p.m.
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to NOHOME :

I'll admit that I thought you'd already swapped in a carb.

Though, I'm happy the FiTech is behaving for you now.  At least you're getting to enjoy the car a bit.

Yeah, I thought you ditched the FiTech a while back.  Maybe you just threatened to.

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
7/6/20 2:17 p.m.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Fitech is working fine, too bad that now it wont data-log. Just another example of how it is a poorly developed product. The carb is literaly on the shelf ready to go on. I have a fuel regulator to reduce the pressure from the in-tank pump, so other than some re-wiring it wont take long.

 

The MGB on the other hand is taking forever to get out of the shop, it sounds like a maraca when I go for a drive and yet the source has eluded me. Just did the differential spider gears and new u-joints as a hail mary and no change. My rule is to not have two imobile projects if it can be avoided...hence the Fitech reprieve. And I am getting some miles and smiles out of the Molvo chassis; that bit seems to be really good.

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
9/24/20 10:06 a.m.

Been tooling around in the Molvo and just letting it be "Done enough for 2020" Fitech still has to go, but not keeping me from driving; its only sin is 9 mpg. Did figure how to get it data loging again, just another stupid Fitech foible.

 

What has floated to the forefront is the choppy ride from the back. I have a set of Factory Bilsteins and the stock (red) springs that came in the front of a Miata now moved to the rear. My gut feeling is that with the Roof structure, re-enforced sills and frame rails, the Molvo might be more torsionally rigid than the stock Miata. If that matters.

 

Not sure what to attack first? Should I just toss the original rear springs in the back and keep the Bilsteins shocks or should I look for a softer shock/spring combo?

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter)
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
9/24/20 6:46 p.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

If damper shafts are exposed, I'd start by cinching a zip tie around the shafts to see how much travel I'm using. If not bottoming out, I'd put in a softer spring.

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
11/4/20 9:16 a.m.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Speaking of....

This took me way longer than it should have. The Fitech did actually get better when the weather was warm, so I kept driving the car this summer. Albeit at 8 mpg.  As soon as it got cold, it went back to stalling at intersections. 

The Fix I hope.

 

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter)
TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) Dork
11/4/20 9:27 a.m.

In reply to NOHOME :

That is some impressively bad gas mileage.

I hope the carb works out better for you.

Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter)
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) MegaDork
11/4/20 9:33 a.m.

You came to my solution to megasquirt as well.

Bypass regulator was the solution for me stepping down efi fuel pressure to carb.

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
11/4/20 9:34 a.m.

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

Fingers crossed. 

Hey, NoHome, I saw on the cheap auto Miata thread that you were looking for either a button, or HVAC panel. I have reached an agreement with the seller, and will have the car in hand in the coming weeks. I got a good enough deal to just pass those parts along. We'll work out the details once I confirm if it is indeed, an AC car and the needed parts are present and accounted for. 

Cheers!

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
1/2/21 2:54 p.m.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

Let me know what works your you and we can get it done.

 

Pere

pres589 (djronnebaum)
pres589 (djronnebaum) PowerDork
1/2/21 5:30 p.m.

I missed the previous FiTech in round file update to this thread.  Which carb did you go with?  How's it going with that?

Shavarsh
Shavarsh New Reader
1/5/21 9:37 p.m.

Just read the "scrap bin" update. Thanks for writing that. 

mannydantyla
mannydantyla Reader
2/4/21 12:54 p.m.
NOHOME said:

What has floated to the forefront is the choppy ride from the back. I have a set of Factory Bilsteins and the stock (red) springs that came in the front of a Miata now moved to the rear. My gut feeling is that with the Roof structure, re-enforced sills and frame rails, the Molvo might be more torsionally rigid than the stock Miata. If that matters.

 

Not sure what to attack first? Should I just toss the original rear springs in the back and keep the Bilsteins shocks or should I look for a softer shock/spring combo?

I ended up using stock NB shocks front and rear in my frankenwagon and it not only gave me a little boost in ride height that I really needed, but it also fixed the rough ride, especially in the rear. I also put about 0.5" of aluminum spacers between the top of the shock/spring and the frame, like you did I think. 

However if there is a passanger then one of the back wheels rubs just a little. I meant to hang onto the NA shocks so I could experiment with putting the front ones in the rear and seeing what ride height that gave me, but they ended up in the metal recycling bin when I moved from Oregon to Kansas. 

NOHOME
NOHOME MegaDork
4/11/21 9:42 a.m.

This probbly belongs in the "Today I learned..." thread, but will put it here as part of the ongoing story.

 

The Molvo was running rough. Would not take any throttle input without going into a hole that it would not chug out of. A LOT of searching and carb adjusting landed us at the HEI distributor. The Vacuum advance can was broke and the three of the magnetic pick-up points were hitting the rotor. 

 

Being fed up with after market high tech that never fails to fail, I grabbed a stock points  distributor and a standalone 12 volt HEI coil that was in the stash.  Fired it up and ran like crap. But it ran.  We thought it was timing. Weird but the timming light suddenly was not flashing even though it was clipped to nuber one cylinder wire on a running engine? Throttled it to try and keep it running so the timing could be set and it suddenly geysered fuel out of the carb, all over  the person doing the timing, the engine bay and ceiling.  It was kind of cool because you could see the compression driven fuel burst as they were being pumped by individual cylinders. Would have been a major fireball had it ignited. 

Two distributors, a capacitor  and three rotors later, the Clue was that Mustang keep pointing out the HEI coil was getting hot. The lightbulb came on that perhaps the coil was firing too much voltage for the points gap to handle. Tried a normal ballasted coil and the Red Adair show came to an end.   Hopefully back on the road this week after I put all the wires back together in  more orderly fashion

Dont run one of these with points

 

Rats nest to be sorted. Have to say I do prefer the look of the points distributor to the huge GM style HEI. 

 

759NRNG
759NRNG UberDork
4/11/21 6:31 p.m.

"I know .....I'll get to the spark plug wire looms next....leave me alone"

Shavarsh
Shavarsh Reader
4/12/21 12:31 p.m.

Hey Nohome, what accessory drive are you using? It looks like 90's mustang stuff to me, do you know how far it sticks out from the block? I need to change my setup when I add the power steering pump and its between mustang and explorer stuff. Also I had a similar fuel geyser experience running low voltage to a pertronix distributor. If you like the points distributor look the pertronix cast distributor is a good option.

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
h0LGghzXxPHh13NaI2uenfnQfsGK2EP8rIrbYWWd4fntjZHndTaR5qsamRCgL9FM