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| Racing and modifying our car | ||||
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 | April 8, 2009 - More airflow management. This tombstone bolted to the top of the radiator seals against the hood, forcing air through the radiator and IC. entry 76 | |||
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 | April 8, 2009 - A terrible picture of a good thing. You can just make out a foam block glued to the inside of the bonnet. This is the final thing directing all air through the rad and IC. entry 77 | |||
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 | April 8, 2009 - Coolant re-route. The thermostat has been relocated to the back of the cylinder head, which is where Mazda put it in the 323, the car the engine was designed for. When they put the engine in the Miata, they compromised the coolant routing through the engine for packaging reasons. Between all the recent changes, I believe we have made big strides against the over-heating beast. So far: new fan and shroud, bigger mesh in the mouth, mouth sealed so all air goes through radiator and IC, coolant re-route. At Laguna Seca, car would peak at 92C after a brisk 20 minute session, with ambient temps around 15-17C. Running the car at our local kart track will tell the tale for sure. It is the perfect storm of overheating causes-low air density, typically high ambient temps, no humidity and a very busy track where you are in the boost a lot, but never go over 75 mph, so no good airflow. entry 78 | |||
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 | April 8, 2009 - Water injection! As fuel quality/octane drops, ignition timing under boost has to drop with it, causing higher EGTs and less power. Enter water/methanol injection. This has the effect of both cooling your intake charge and upping your effective octane. Both things are great for power and safety, UNLESS you have tuned to take advantage of it and the flow stops. This is where the box to the right of the reservoir comes in. It is a flow meter, tied to both the Hydra engine management and a dash gauge. The Hydra fuel and timing base maps are tuned without the water injection, but auxiliary maps are tuned with the injection and are only used when there is water/meth flowing. This way if the flow stops, fuel and timing go to safe maps and you just lose power 'til you restore the flow. Wonderful stuff! entry 79 | |||
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 | April 8, 2009 - Gauges. On the left is the Snow Performance water injection flow gauge. On the right a standard FM boost gauge. entry 80 | |||
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 | April 8, 2009 - AIM dash. This thing is cool. It plugs into the Hydra ecu and gives us whatever info the ecu has, apparently including an imaginary sixth gear. entry 81 | |||
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