FM Westfield racing and modifications

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.

Gauges.

On the left is the Snow Performance water injection flow gauge. On the right a standard FM boost gauge.

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!

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.

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.

More airflow management.

This tombstone bolted to the top of the radiator seals against the hood, forcing air through the radiator and IC.

Big mesh!

This is the new grille, made from hardware store mesh. Smaller wire and at least 1/2" holes. Way more airflow through now.

This is the standard Westfield grille.

Fairly tight mesh, which doesn't help airflow through the radiator and intercooler.

Thrill ride time!

Tom Matano buckles in to the Westfield. Does he know what he's in for?

Can anybody smile any more than that?

Gauges and dash.

The AIM dash is working great and ties to the Hydra for its information. Not much else in the way of gauges, just water flow (on left) for the Snow Performance water/meth injection and an FM boost gauge. The Snow gauge ties to their safety box, which tells the Hydra to switch to a safer fuel/timing map if the flow drops.

Sub belt.

The Brits don't seem to necessarily believe in anti-submarine belts, but they did send a pass through that I cut into the seat bottom so I could use one. I feel much more secure with five point belts. Thanks to Tom at Hard Dog for supplying the belts.

A little mix'n'match on the seats.

Finally got around to mounting the Westfield race seat on the driver's side. Had to leave off the interior trim panel to clear the outer edge of the seat. I also converted from 3" to 2" harnesses to avoid the shoulder belts chopping my head off.

This is why you want to wear eye protection in a Westfield!

Typical rocks and gravel you find inside...

A little interference.

You can see the polished area on the edge of the tire. The yellow dust is from taking a die grinder to the fender lip.

No fenders and wiiide wheels and tires.

These are 949Racing's 15x8" wheels with 225/50-15 Nitto NTO1s mounted. Had to give up the front fenders to fit these and do a little grinding inside the lips of the rears.

Another shot of plumbing.

I wrapped the turbo outlet pipe with heat insulation to keep the intake air cooler. One thing is for sure, the system works. At 15 psi, intake air temps (while under boost) at the end of a 20 minute session at Laguna Seca maxed at 22C. Ambient temp roughly 15C.

Another shot of IC plumbing.

You can see the WI nozzles on either side of the pipe going to the throttle body. I went back to one nozzle after hooking up the Snow flowmeter and seeing 700CC!!/min of water/meth at full boost.

The intercooler is back.

We tried running with just water/methanol injection to help with overheating on the track, but it didn't really help and I didn't like the intake temps, plus it still got hot at the track.

Sway bar!

This is an FM rear swaybar, cut in half, shortened, sleeved in the middle and welded back together. Seems to work nicely, front tires are wearing more evenly now in track use. Still need to figure out a rear.