clokker

iTrader: (2)

So, the "improvements", such as they are, are done.

Remarkably, it's mostly functional.




And the answer is no, the cup holders won't deploy if the flash drive is in place.
TBH, I don't even know why I put the cupholder back in...because it was there, I suppose.

Anyways, I built a panel of 1/8" ABS to position the three components relative to each other. The cupholder is screwed to the plate, the headunit is cinched in place with the standard stereo mount collar and the cubby w/door is just a friction fit in it's opening.
The assembly is held in the dash cavity with three blocks of foam and the whole thing sandwiched behind the centerstack bezel.

It seems acceptably sturdy and secure, especially given its simple nature.

The stereo's finish trim is too wide to fit, I'm not exactly sure what to do about that.

Other than this simple job, I've done nothing of note.
Gearing up for the imminent assault on the CO emission test...always a daunting task.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

My adventures (and education) in car stereo have continued and stage one (actually getting sound from all four corners) is complete.

Background reading has lead me to conclude that when it comes to car sound you are basically just buying your way up the ladder, your wallet is the determining factor.
It seems that at the very minimum one considers the headunit as a mere signal generator, the device that sends sound to a separate amp(s) for multiplication. Depending on the built in amp doesn't seem to be a path to success.

That's all fine and I get it but until I'm sure I'll get much use from it (I haven't had a car with sound in maybe fifteen years), just the minimum will do.

Saturday I visited the junkyard and after several hours, found a set of Infinity Reference series 6 1/2" round speakers (model 625i) that looked intact and worth trying.
Spent the princely sum of $8 for the pair.
Got them home and mounted in the rear tower adaptors, where they sounded like...absolute ****.
This was discouraging.
So far, the Radio Shack bookshelf speakers (which, I must note, are built like tanks- all cast aluminum- and of surprisingly tricky design) are the only things that sound even remotely OK.

I hooked the RS boxes back up and they just lie flat on the rear deck, tweeters pointed forwards and woofers aimed straight up. That seemed to give the best sound coverage to the front area.

Decided to mount the Infinitys in the doors...they had to be an improvement over the missing cones of the stock speakers.
And in fact, they are.
They sound much better in the doors and the whole soundscape is not awful...at least, sitting in the garage.

Now I need to get the radio working.
Either I need an antenna for the back or an adaptor (male>male) for the windshield antenna...not sure which would be better.

Oh, before I forget...my car did have a discrete "door woofer" amp mounted at the very end of the dash. As surmised before, this "amp" can be removed and the remaining plugs connected to each other, restoring continuity from the center stack to the doors.

Wednesday I get to place my final (semi) big parts order.
For the upcoming emission test I'll be getting new plugs, thermosensor and O2 sensor.
Unrelated, but still necessary, are new Bosch Icon wiper blades all around and two new hatch struts.

That will pretty much finish off this thread I think.

REAmemiya_fan

clokker

iTrader: (2)

As I await my "pre-emissions" parts delivery (new plugs...platinum for only $6.50 apiece from Rock Auto!, O2 sensor and thermosensor...along with three Bosch Icon wipers and new hatch struts), I looked over the rest of the car and realized the oil was low.
Not a big surprise, changing the oil cooler lost some oil and I've put about 1k miles on her since mid-December, so I went to get some.

This is the weird part...
Walmart sells a 5 qt. container of Castrol GTX 10w/30 for $15.50 and individual quarts for $5.99.
How the **** does that make any sense?
I understand that gas/oil prices are completely capricious and untethered to any sort of reality and that packaging costs money but really, the price difference seems very out of whack.
Almost insulting.

The new hatch struts will arrive today and I'm very interested to see what shows up.
They are billed as direct replacements for the coupe (all models, so I assume they mean w/ & w/o rear wiper) but are only $28 apiece, which seems quite cheap compared to others I've read about.
Wouldn't it be nice if they work?


Yeah, I'm betting they won't either.

cluosborne

I recently replaced my hatch struts, and later did some searching to see if someone weighed the rear hatch. I posted a thread about it.

It turns out that the hatch with glass without wiper weights about 57 pounds. So, as long as the gas strut has a lifting force of 60 pounds (120 with two), then it should lift the hatch by themselves whether it has a wiper motor or not.

But, the generic ones won't be provisioned for the hatch light or that electrical bit with the rear wiper motor. You'll need to fit those (or not).

When fitting them, either have a friend hold the hatch up, or brace it. One worn strut obviously won't hold the hatch up (though, you'll still be able to lift it). Once you have a new strut installed, it'll have no trouble holding the whole hatch up (the extra weight of the motor might affect it). Once both are in, work the hatch up and down. When you pop open the hatch next time, the hatch should rise by itself.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Yes, I had read it.
I believe that the struts we have are identical, with one exception.
The kits I got included an extension that adds 1" to the overall length...a discrepancy you noted in your writeup.
I just now put them on, they install easily and fit well.
As cluosborne found, the cover trim on the pillar ends does not snap into position.
It seems like it wants to, I'm hopeful a bit of trimmage will fix it up.

It now takes a rather determined effort to close the hatch, a minor inconvenience when the enthusiasm with which it opens is displayed. ****** would break your jaw given the chance.
The Dr. Lector of lift supports, I'll need to be wary.

Also received the Bosch Icon wiper blades.
They installed as wiper blades do, no drama.
The weather is of course bone dry, so all I can say about them so far is that they look pretty spiffy, for wiper blades.

My order shipped from four locations, I have the spark plugs and O2 sensor but the thermosensor has yet to arrive. Maybe tomorrow, probably Monday...no big deal either way.

I'm hoping this is the last of the "boring" money expenditures.
All told, with shipping I just spent nearly $200 and there wasn't a damn thing worth taking a picture of.
It's pleasing, in a mecha-nerd kind of way, to know that the car is in tip top condition mechanically (albeit mostly stock) but it would be nice to splurge a little on something I could see.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, Sweetheart's pampered, garage queen days ended:


I'm having some flooring replaced and the workers are using the garage as a staging/cutting area, so into the cold she went. And naturally, it snowed.
I installed all the goodies from last week and there was little to no difference...she ran well before and now she runs weller, I suppose.
The emission test will be the proof.

The Bosch Icon wiper blades seem quite good, granted I've only used them a little as I drove home in the storm yesterday, but no chatter, streaking or missed spots, so I'm happy.

I had to make a few jaunts today in the storm's aftermath and must say that I'm amazed at how capable the RX can be in bad conditions. Keep in mind that I have wider, high performance tires that shouldn't work at all in the snow, yet I don't seem to have much trouble with traction or sliding. I watched a Honda Pilot do a 270° spin as it slowed for an intersection, the RX just stopped, no drama.
Of course, the Honda driver was probably an idiot, the dirty little secret about CO is that Denver gets very little snow and we're no better than a Floridian when it's slippery. The standard preventative measure is a SUV of some sort which apparently will allow the driver to ignore physics...until it doesn't. All the disabled vehicles I saw in the storm's aftermath were SUVs.
Go figure.

Moksha

iTrader: (5)

+1 ^

I must have saw two of those in the ditch this morning and a Awd crossover. Granted the driver was a woman from Chile of all places

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The llama was a dead giveaway.

ScrapFC

iTrader: (5)

Nice progress! Now we just need enough NoCo rotorheads in one place at one time to show those Southern guys that there's something north of the Springs!

If you don't mind the casual insults of winter, the RX7 can be a lot of fun in thin snow-pack. I'm still running mine on dedicated summer tires, and the only time it is any real problem is on sheet ice. I took my old one snowboarding once on bald summer tires, and it was still fairly controllable. (Not recommended. My wife was unamused.)

Still never ceases to amuse and amaze me how many people think 4WD or AWD = super powers.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Well, some things have been happening.

Dave (ScrapFC) drove down from Ft. Collins and relieved me of the non-wiper hatch that I'd cleverly hung from the ceiling and then run into daily with my forehead. T'was nice to spend a bit of time with someone as geeked out as I.

The car has been running beautifully, which, combined with an unusually springlike day, convinced me to attempt emissions testing.

Which I failed.
Envirotest measures in grams per mile (GPM), my HC was 3.0, limit is 2.0.
The CO was 30, limit is 20.

The car has brand new NGK platinum plugs, new O2 and thermosensors, fresh oil/filter.
Recently overhauled intake.

I came home and:
- Dug out my spare TPS and tested per FSM (no dead spots, upper/lower limits spot on), installed it and warmed the car to adjust. Ended up right at 1v when hot.
Perfect.

- I had never actually checked the timing after stabbing the CAS, it ran so well I just sluffed it off. Timing was advanced about 5°, so I reset to stock.
Idle is smooth and regular so again, perfect.

- Finally, I went through all the solenoids and verified proper hose orientation and electrical operation.
That was ******* tedious.

I added a gallon of denatured alcohol to the (guesstimated) 3 gallons of gas remaining and went bravely back for the retest.

Which I failed.

The good news is that the CO passed, only the HC failed...but the HC actually got worse, 3.8gpm instead of the previous 3.0.

I'm running too rich.

It occurs to me that I've made some rather significant changes to the intake and possibly airflow has been compromised. I've noticed no signs of this as I've driven, but what do I know?
So, I removed the Chrysler airbox and slammed a big K&N directly on the AFM.
Airpump got it's own cute little filter as well.
Like so:


I have enough of the doctored fuel for one more attempt (which I have to pay for...grrrr!), and would love to get past this.

ANY IDEAS WELCOME!

pfsantos

iTrader: (1)

Maybe your cat isn't doing its thing anymore?

Do you have the split-air hose going to the cat (the one from the back of the intake manifold (IM has a passage from the ACV)? I see you have the air pump, but can't see the other stuff.

Not sure how your test is...idle, or x RPM? On Dyno or no?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I have an entirely stock exhaust from manifold to cat (even the precat) and yes, the air supply is connected and functional to the cat.
The test is on a dyno, the tech follows a pattern on a screen...from zero up to 60mph, with designated shift points. Lasts about 3 minutes with the car speeding up/slowing down kind of randomly.

DeaconBlue

iTrader: (31)

That sounds like the same IM-240 dyno test we have here. Based on the HC number alone (not to mention the high CO number) the cat(s) are not up to stuff anymore or are at least not hot enough for the test. How far do you have to drive to the emissions testing station? Have you been out on the highway and given her a good hard run?

Encase you maybe interested, I have a fairly new slightly used 1-pcs Catco S5 n/a cat assembly just sitting in the garage. I used it to get the car registered here in Ohio and then installed the CorkSport header (eliminates the pre-cat) and a new main cat. The car passed the testing here with the Catco unit with flying colors. If you are interested I can also scan the test results and send them to you.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

your test is a little different, we do a static 15mph and then 25mph.

but the function of the ACV is pretty critical, its in "port air" during the test.

also its in closed loop, so the o2 sensor matters. i'd recommend building the test light thing you can plug into the diagnostic connector, so you can watch the O2 sensor cycle. i have one and i added two more LED's for the ACV solenoids, so i can watch them too, blinking lights are cool!

the split air pipe is a red herring, its not used during the test, and you can remove it and results don't change

i run stock timing, but i've found advancing it raises Nox, but doesn't really have an effect on HC or CO.

RXSpeed16

iTrader: (41)

^+1. I run vacuum directly to the split air port on the ACV, bypassing the solenoid. I forget which is which on the ACV, but if you run vac to the relief nipple, it'll dump air out the relief tube. Hook up constant vac to the other port for the test and cap the relief nipple.
You can also tweak the AFM spring to lean it out a little.

And make sure your throttle body dashpots are adjusted correctly in case he isn't smooth with the throttle.

Edit: That's also the loneliest empty map sensor bracket I've ever seen.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

The long national nightmare is over, my plight will no longer saturate the nightly news...Sweetheart passed on the third try!
She ran with the intake as pictured above, the only other change was to retard the timing a bit.
(I don't have an adjustable timing light so I can only guess, but I'd say about 5-8° from stock.)

NOX and CO remained essentially the same, HC dropped from 3.8gpm to 1.3gpm (limit is 2.0).

The ACV was left intact and functional.

So, that bought me two more years.

A smaller, but still comforting, bright light to shine out of this darkness was the performance of the cooling system and BAC.
Throughout the extended waits while idling (each visit averaged about 25 minutes in line), she just sat and idled smoothly, the fan cycling ON/OFF almost imperceptibly (hence the shoutout to the BAC), temp well under control.
I'll now default to assuming the fan is working fine and focus my paranoia on something else.

This last test did go somewhat differently than the previous two...I'm not sure exactly what happened.
After running the dyno cycle my car had always gotten a "Second chance" screen and the test was rerun. The first tech explained that this happens either when the car comes close to passing or the tech screws up and not enough data was gathered, so an immediate retest is run.
This last time, after the first dyno run the screen called for "Supervisor Override" and some guy came over and powwowed with the tech.
I fully expected them to retest but instead, off the rollers she came and she had PASSED!
I have no clue what that was about and honestly, didn't care.

The final administrative hurdle has now been passed and Sweetheart will soon be fully legal for the first time since 2007.
And maybe I can move on to more fun stuff...

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

cool!

DeaconBlue

iTrader: (31)

Congratulations! It is always good to get hurdle done and out of the way.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Oh, you have no idea.

This project was weird from the beginning and I had to invest the time/energy/money before applying for the title and registration.
The old California title was a problem but it was solved with money (I had to pay all the late registration fines from 2007 to the present) and I now have a valid hardcopy in hand.
With a valid emission pass I can get the final registration which not only makes the car completely legal but also elevates Sweetheart from "garage project" to "asset"...she can now be legally sold.
Not that I plan to do that, oh, heavens no.

But I could if I wanted to.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

So today the cleanup from the emissions frenzy begins.

Timing goes back to stock...easy peasy.
More difficult is deciding what to do about the intake.
I made the classic modders mistake and made too many changes at once, there's no way to isolate the airbox swap results from the change in timing and additional alcohol in the fuel.
Was the Chrysler airbox really too small or was it OK?
Who knows?

TBH, I haven't been totally thrilled with any of my intakes, maybe now's the time to rethink it altogether.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Oh, one more thing...
I just got around to reading the FSM timing procedure and see that Mazda wants the green check connector grounded during the check.
What exactly is this little bugger doing?

The only explanation I've heard was that this tells the ECU you're making changes and prevents it from trying to compensate (via the BAC primarily, I'd assume) while you're in process.
Dunno if that makes sense or not.

When I went through the chassis harness this fall I screwed up and deleted that check connector. The wire is still present but wrapped up in the loom...not very accessible.
I had run into this issue previously as I adjusted the idle (which calls for grounding that connector also), so I've been thinking about it for a while.

Although I have future plans to redo the harness, now is not the time and I'd prefer to leave it alone for the nonce.
I figured that it would be easier (and more elegant as well) to go direct to the ECU, intercept the orange wire at the connector and run a switched ground in the cabin.
Not sure where to specifically site the switch but I'm sure there's a lot of room/options in the dash.

Even this is more work than I want to do right this second, so the question is:
How necessary is this test connection?
What is it doing?

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

the good news is that the idle "map" in the ECU has the same -5 and -20 timing up until 1100rpm, so if the RPM is under that, you don't really need to jump the initial set connector.

i'm not sure what it actually does, the FSM says something about a fixed BAC frequency, and maybe it turns the part where the ECU looks for the right idle speed off?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

A few updates:

Tags acquired, she's completely legal for the first time since 2007.
All told the process cost $350, much more than I'd planned for, discretionary spending severely curtailed for this month.

I haven't done anything to the intake, she runs quite well as currently setup but I have to think this will change as ambient temp rises and the IAT climbs with it.
I had removed the passenger side beauty panel to make room for the air filter and decided to maintain symmetry by removing the driver side as well.
I might like it better this way...more purposeful, less styled.




Swapped the Miata steering wheel back in after discovering that the FD wheel is very slippery, especially while wearing gloves. The Miata leather is grippier and the wheel looks better also, so it's on probation for a while. I'd like a thicker rim with the "*****" at 10 & 2, that's now on the junkyard list.

The much maligned driving lamps have continued their migration and are now mounted higher and uglier.
TBH, they are mostly useless as driving aids, not focused usefully but very bright.
They do however make wonderful "**** YOU!" lights...a supernova in the rearview of dawdlers and the unaware- FTPs on steroids, if you will.
This amusement will certainly wane and I'll probably delete them but it's fun for the time being.


I'd been hearing the occasional groan/creak from the rear end and took advantage of our oddly springlike weather to investigate. Seemed like a good idea to revisit the subframe and axles after the reinstall, see if anything had loosened up.
Nothing had.

Figured I would try running without the rear swaybar (recommended by ScrapFC and others), with the wheels off t'was easy to remove the endlinks and ziptie the bar up and out of the way. Turns out, the noise I'd been hearing was the swaybar bushings, probably the originals.
If the bar gets reconnected, I'll have to replace them (and the endlinks too, I suppose).
Limited driving hasn't shown me much difference although I'd like to think the rear suspension is a bit more compliant. I ought to play with the dampening adjustment on the AGXs also...paid enough for the privilege yet I've never touched them.
Silly person.

Although this chassis is markedly quieter than the '91, there are a few interior noises I'd like to address.
Both the glovebox and the cubby below the headunit are hard plastic and loose items rattle/slide annoyingly. I went to Hobby Lobby and found 12 x 18" sheets of 2 mm thick foam that I'll line the plastic with...should do the trick.


More dire though is the state of the defroster vents, source of the greatest amount of ruckus. They are just awful and I'm missing some critical chunks, so repair is difficult.
Replacement makes sense but I absolutely hate the original design, it's needlessly complicated and oddly flimsy.
For the moment I've quick-n-dirty ziptied the vents down but that's a very temporary solution as I ponder the situation.
I think I'll remove the vents altogether to explore how effective the defrost airflow is without the directional vanes of the vents...that will tell me how complex this project needs to be.
Another item to look for in the junkyard...

With 1800 miles since rebirth, I've had to add a quart of oil...pretty reasonable consumption for this engine.
The cooling system is very stable, I've topped up maybe a pint since the last bleed session.
No drips/leaks on the undercarriage, brake and clutch hydraulics are dry.

All in all, she's acting like a pretty decent car.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i approve! car looks great.

re the sway bar shock stuff, play with it, if we were on a closed course with a stop watch, we could try full stiff and full soft, and the laptimes would be almost the same, so it just boils down to driver preference. so play with it, and see what you like

re the beauty panels, i think you've hit a happy medium, the ones you've got today, look nice, but its not too radical departure from stock either, so it looks good, clean and not weird.