@R-R-Rx7 , @Carlos Iglesias Obviously I should have consulted you guys before I did this, would have taken a lot less time! For $30, I'll go ahead and get that crimper just to have one. I had no idea about the Banzai bracket, would have assumed it oriented the same way the Sakebomb one does. Hope my soldering job proves good.

PSA for all: Consider getting rid of your GM 3-Bar. Mine may have been a knockoff (supplied by Speed1 years ago), but for the $40 bucks or so for the Haltech, just get the motorsports grade.

 

before you buy the tool. do some research . i do not know enough about these "budget" tools. i have been using the HDT-48 for the DT/DTM/DTP etc for many years and never looked to get another one. from what i see, the one i posted is good for 20-22AWG. you might need multiple ones depending on the job you are doing. You may find other options out there with the adjustable wire thickness just like the HDT-48 but like i said i dont know enough about the other options

 

Ah I see... yeah the real deal is heinously expensive. I also installed a 0AWG ground from battery (in rear) to block (install pics coming), and did buy a massive hammer crimper for that. Thank god I did. You can't solder those. Even with my 1000 degree iron it won't tin the wire or melt properly. I think its because 20 feet of cable that big is a massive heat sink.

 

Another good place to get real deal crumpets is on eBay. Aircraft suppliers will sell tools when they refresh their tooling. They have FAA calibration requirements and will often sell an otherwise perfectly good tool.

 

So what's next? Grounding.

Reading up on Haltech tutorials, one thing they recommend is that you have a big ground wire running from battery negative to the motor block. With mine having been relocated to the hatch years ago, its only grounded to the chassis back there. I decided to bit the bullet and run a 0/1 AWG cable. I ordered 25 feet of the stuff, plus sheathing, terminals and heat shrink, and a huge hammer-crimper.

The biggest bitch was routing it, I spend hours with a coat hanger and other contraptions trying to push something through from the passenger door sill carpet, past the bins, and into the trunk... not wanting to take my whole rollbar and bins out. I finally got lucky, and saw a faint white tip of coat hanger through one of the seams between the plastics, and was able to fish that ************ through. Then I pulled it back with the 0AWG cable attached. The plan was then to run it up past the ECU, out the fender hole above it, and through the engine bay opening behind the fender liner, and to the block. It wasn't easy, but I got it there. And left the chassis grounds front/rear there as well. I even put a new grommet on the chassis exit above the ECU so it won't cut it. A fair amount of knuckle, hand, and wrist skin was sacrificed in this endeavor.

I had about 10 feet of cable left over that could be trimmed off, but 25' of cable (and the 15' still left in the car) of that size is HEAVY. I'd wager no real weight savings in the lighter battery anymore. But, they live better out of the engine bay, and all my Haltech wiring harness is set up for it to be back there. C'est la vie.

 

You truly did yeoman's work on this one Peter. The attention to detail (and lbs of skin) will assuredly pay dividends in reliability and ease of mind.

Speaking of, please entertain a recommendation if you foresee any more small connector crimping in your future, Buy a proper crimper for Deutsch hardware (i.e. DMC tools). Improper crimps like cold-solder before then are "Murphy's" favorite gremlins! The inadvertently easy to impart pain involved in seeking them out and destroying can be life-sucking! Buy the tool used or bite the bullet and buy it new. I am dogmatic that like a torque wrench this is one of the VERY few tools where "there is no substitute". Full stop.

 

Thanks Carlos... definitely would. I THINK that's it. I'm relocating the AIT to the elbow but it looks like there's enough existing wire. So, if something is funky, won't take long to track it to my solder job. I used a 1000 degree iron I have from soldering NiCad batteries when I raced RC cars, so it should hopefully be a good joint on that tiny wire.

 

Final piece for the weekend, I installed a signal conditioner and jumper harness supplied by @C. Ludwig to facilitate the addition of traction control and boost in gear. Quick shout-out to @R-R-Rx7 for telling me the connectors I was looking for were actually by the ABS, not down by the transmission!

Now it has a happy home on the fender, after I opened up the slot for an M6 bolt.

 

Final updates: I decided to relocate the AIT to the elbow to avoid both heat soak, and any water contamination from the WI. Thankfully there was enough wire already on the harness. Then it was time to plug in the lappy, throw it on the @JP3 Motorsports stand, and reconfigure the Haltech to use the motorsports MAP sensor. There's a preset available in the drop-down once you select the channel, so even a moron like me can do it. Unfortunately when I powered up the car, there was an awful buzzing that I figured MUST mean I shorted something, but thankfully @R-R-Rx7 was able to easily diagnose it from a phone video as the idle valve. a quick pull and clean with choke cleaner, and it seems to be OK.

Then there was the small business of stuffing everything back in by the ECU, which is an unholy mess of plugs, wires and devices. Seriously took me a couple hours to painstakingly stuff it all in there, zip ties some cables, and throw on the @SakeBomb Garage foot rest for good measure. I also pulled the airbag module plugs so I can start clearing out the airbag stuff underhood and save a little weight.

Car started right up and ran normally, so I'm at least slightly more competent than I give myself credit for. The better grounding may have solved some of the fuel gauge discrepancy I see between key-on/engine started. We'll see.

 

Keep an eye on those soldered pins. The heat from soldering can weaken the copper wire and make it more brittle up to 1 inch from the solder joint, plus the flux inside the solder seeps up the wire and may corrode the copper over time. The most likely failure is from the copper becoming brittle, not from flux corrosion. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but if you have a way to secure the harness to avoid vibration that should help. The big dollar crimpers are very nice but I think many $30-50 universal crimpers can do an acceptable job on Deutsch pins, especially if you have a couple of spare pins to use for practice. Deutsch pins are quite forgiving compared to some other crimped pins.


I haven't tested this but my scratch calcs suggest that 2AWG wire should work for battery relocation cables, especially if you're doing both the positive and negative. It might even be possible to get away with 4AWG if using nice wire and doing both positive & negative, but I wouldn't be surprised if starter speed suffered. My car is much closer to stock, I'm still not sure if I'm willing to run cables through the cabin for a battery relocation.

 

Another update!

I've decided to ditch the OEM fuel filter for something easier to change, and meets the filtration specs for ID injectors. I settled on the ID 750 filter, which has a lot of great features (including a pressure purge feature, which is great), and for which @JP3 Motorsports makes a tidy mount. I decided that hose barb fittings that plumbed this thing into the factory lines didn't seem great. For one thing, the barbed fittings for 5/16" hose were only 3/16" ID themselves, and that spelled restriction to me. I decided to update to AN hose/fittings all the way to the rail.

I went with Earl's 350 Series ultralight nylon braided hose, and matching Earl's swivel fittings. I went -8 from the pump to filter, and -6 from filter to rail (I can make it -8 later if I want, but I thought -6 would fit better under the factory shroud for now, and I didn't want to do anymore surgery. With smooth fittings, that means a minimum 3/8" ID all the way to the rail. I'm getting pretty good at building AN lines. If you get the Koul Tool (google it), and some non-marring vice inserts for AN fittings, it's pretty easy.

 

Very nice. Is the 350 series the kind that doesn't let fuel vapor out?

 

Update:

I believe it was Max Cooper who said, "The bliss lost with the loss of ignorance can be regained with good tuning." So true.

All of the latest updates I've been doing have been in anticipation of doing some additional tuning. We had good fuel maps from the dyno sessions at IRP, but with limited time and road tuning before I needed to take it, the drivability and boost curves were less than stellar. It was rough and stumbly below 3k rpm. We had trouble getting both my high (20psi) and my low (12psi) on the same actuator spring, and did a last minute swap back to the low, that had the boost oscillating at higher levels, while not spooling well.

My last updates were to swap the Bosch 750 primaries to ID1050 injectors that I felt would be more precise, and to plumb the actuator in the dual "high back pressure" configuration with a true MAC valve instead of the stock EFR 'noid. The idea is to give the solenoid/actuator more power over the spring. A quick email to John Renna for an adjusted primary injector configuration map helped my load it up and pay a visit for some fine tuning on road. What a difference! We spent about a half of a rainy day getting all the drivability kinks out, and now I can cruise around at 1800-2000rpm, smooth tip-in, idle, SO much better.

Then we tried swapping canister springs, but that produced quite a bit of creep so went back from 10psi to the 7psi spring I had. With the new plumbing configuration though, its a whole new ballgame. We got a solid 12.8 psi setting done, that creeped a bit in the 30-degree weather, and decided to set up the 16.3psi setting, and now that one is bang on. Spool is awesome, 1 bar by or before 3k rpm (starting at 2k rpm). In fact it was SO strong, after a 3-4 shift the boost rose so quickly as to outrun the FPR and trigger the Haltech FP safety (since corrected with adjustment). Car is an absolute filthy animal at that boost level in cold weather. we dared not push it any higher but I've no doubt it'll make 20psi now.

A HUGE thanks to John for working through these kinks with me, we'll likely do a warmer weather regroup in the spring to do the other levels, but I can finally feel confident this car is right. Stay tuned for some awesome not motor/tuning related mods I can now pull the trigger on over the winter!

 

Minor update, inspired by the recent thread I took a look at add-ons for seatbelt guides for race seats, and found these Bride pieces, available from Evasive Motorsport. There are several brands out there, but most are imitation leather and generic and not the right vibe. These are built for race seats, with a curve formed for the shoulder wing, and are made from race seat fabric, with velcro and carbon fiber accents. They fit perfectly on my Sparco EVOs, and my only minor gripe is the Bride logo embossed on the lap belt guard (I'm all Sparco on the interior). This will hopefully also guide the shoulder belt a bit lower. I'm so low in the car now, the shoulder belt cuts right across my jugular, and so I rarely wear it as in an accident, the belt stiffens up, I might get cut and bleed out quickly.

I also fixed my map pocket lid, which had busted at some point with shop wear. The tough part was, it wasn't the lid or pin itself, but the little nub at the back that's part of the pocket/door trim itself broke off. So, I'd need a whole new one but also to disassemble the whole door again. No thanks. So, I drilled an appropriate sized hole where the nub was, and threaded a grub screw into the hole in the pocket lid, and it would JUST snap back in, and now more solid than before.

 

I’d recommend relocating the fuel filter to the other end of the fuel lines.

Have a big headache on my hand now as the PO used full length non-PTFE hose with the filter at the rear that’s succumbed to e40 fuel and leaking. Which potentially means it’s shedding internally and is not only going to require replacing it all, but pulling the injectors as well to verify they aren’t collecting crap and/or fouled internally.

so in addition to converting to nomex-braided PTFE flex-hose lines, the two long lines (supply & bypass return) running the length of the car are going to instead be replaced with the same cunifer hard line that I recommended to you for the rear ABS conversion being considered with the filter positioned as close to the engine as possible to minimize a similar future occurrence.

even if you don’t run e-fuel those lines are likely going to leak fuel vapor smells as per another earlier comment.
.

 

The plan was always to replace the fuel feed hardline with a -8 sized one with male AN fittings on each end. I'd like to get that done by whomever I have make the brake lines. For now though, I haven't noticed any fuel vapor (I mean, more than these cars generally have).

 

Always enjoy reading your updates and progress with the car Peter. Funny, our builds are so similar.
I might have missed this in your thread, but are you running closed loop boost control? I am having inconsistent target boost with variable ambient temps. 50/50 water meth makes it all the more tricky to dial in. Curious if you have the same experience.

 

Thanks man! I'm pretty sure it's closed-loop, but I think some variation with temp is pretty normal. In the frigid cold we were only able to go but so low, but in the super hot weather we last tuned in, it was significantly lower. I'm just running washer fluid as WI. That's why we have 12 settings on the rotary switch I guess. Start a little low in cold, high in heat.

I was saying to John, the only boost control I've really seen NOT do that was the standalone Blitz SBC I used to use, which had it's own solonoid and a boost reference line fed in. It was absolutely the easiest to set up (I set up all four settings in about an hour on the road), most consistent and accurate control I've ever seen. I'd still be running it if it wouldn't mean I didn't have Haltech safeguards anymore.

 

If you really wanted to, you could still use it with the haltech safeguards. I think you can just wire it so that the haltech activates a relay supplying power to the boost controller. Then, when you hit the safeguard trigger, it deactivates the relay, and boost controller then shuts off, bringing you back to wastegate spring pressure.

 

Your not the first person to mention how well the Blitz SBC worked. I do like how adjustable the close loop boost response is with the haltech but its a shame it doesnt do a great job correcting to target boost levels. Crazy to say I found my 8374 to be too snappy sometimes leading to bit too much midrange wheelspin existing lower speed corners. I like the idea of a rotary **** to manually adjust boost, will probably add it if I have any more space on my can adapter. Keep the updates coming.

 

The Haltech control (like I recall the Adaptronic) I'm sure is very robust for people who want to futz with it, but to me its too complicated. The SBC was simple, two settings:

1. How much boost do you want? (Vent)
2. How fast would you like to get there? (Gain)

The logic did the rest. No multiple RPM targets, or layers of logic. Perfect for idiots like me. Takes a pull or two to figure out that 20% was 12psi, then a few more to see that 35% was 15psi. Then turn up the gain till it spikes too much for your taste (I had mine set at 99%).

I'm not sure if you're running that 20psi on track, but IMO that's the issue you need to turn that down. You could use traction control to mitigate the spin, or I've heard of people using drive-by-wire throttle to limit boost (by limiting throttle response).

 

Agreed Armen, Peter is one cool cat. I have taken a lot of motivation from your build as well



Is this a suboptimal location as well?

 

It's too cold to really drive this holiday, so I decided to play with my IC7 dash configuration, to get a good street and track set up. I went with the "dual hero" setup for street, as it gives me analog style RPM and Boost gauges, with fewer other parameters, and then the "single hero" configuration for track that focuses on the tach, with more parameters including the new trans temp that's built in to the Haltech.

I went with a "whiteface" style in daylight, because I thought it created a better hierarchy for the circular guages, and greyed down the color of some of the gauge labels to help the legibility with fewer things screaming at you. At night, all the white turns orange to mimic the factory gauges and the rest of the interior illumination. You can play with this stuff endlessly so I'm sure I'll tweak and change them over time, but these seemed like good starting places.

I've also got a much nicer matching '93 style gauge hood to go in, but I don't dare attempt to disassemble this stuff in this cold. Gotta wait for spring.

 

Minor Update:

While I love thew Joyfast shift **** I had, its just a little on the dainty side. Perfect for a Miata, but I find myself using finger tips or half a hand when shifting, so I ordered up the large version (original was a small, they make small, medium, and large). It pains me to put anything heavier on the car, but I think this will be weight well spent in shifter feel. It's HEAVY, and you can get a proper full-fist man-sized grip on it. See the before and after from small to large. They also thread on. I will never again use an adapter/set screw based shift ****, having had them come loose in my hand on track. All the gusto!

I'm also sure there's lewd joke to be made here, maybe I'll leave that to you, the readers. Have at it.

 

"Oh my Mr. Hahn! But your ****. It's so long..."

Sorry I couldn't help it.