I was the first person in the office today. That's not unusual. I just did not suspect it would happen when the first step of my commute was putting a fresh starter into the M3.
I'm glad it's in there, I hope it works better than the previous starter, and I'm really hoping it doesn't rain.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Finally, un-messed the MX-3 Intake
My latest combinations of intake fixes finally got the MX-3 running well again. There is now 99.8% less J.B. weld around the intake tract.
The first problem was with the throttle body. While I had ground it until it appeared to fit, I was still off a few thousandths of an inch and I believe that was causing a bit of a leak. In my frustration and aggression I may have been a little over zealous with the angle grinder. Over zealous enough to actually make a hole into the IAC valve's air passages. This has led to retaining .2% of the JB Weld. The pictures of this fix didn't come through with my phone's camera.
I've also learned quite a bit about the Mazda KL series V6 in the last couple of weeks. Our car originally came equipped with a KL-K8. This is the 1.8L V6 that Mazda was insane enough to build. According to any record I found this is the smalled V6 ever put into a production car. It could have had a super-high-RPM, awesome headed, crazy wonderful S2000 appeal to it. But instead of being made by Honda or Nissan, who would've done such a thing, it was built by Mazda and they sorta skimped a little in the corners. This ensured the car would feel "peppy" for people who'd never driven a car that was actually "peppy." The computer and various accessory electronics are still all powered by the K8.
Recognizing this fault, the previous owner swapped in a KL-ZE engine. This was the V6 put in various Japanese Mazda's into the late-90's. This V6 has 2.5 liters of displacement, good cams, higher compression, and usually comes equipped with a good intake and throttle body combination. We didn't get that whole good-intake-throttle body business. Instead we got the intake with giant blue boogers.
The throttle body we fitted to our new intake is from a KL-47 (Millenia). The intake itself is from a KL-G4 (Late 2000's 626). I came to discover that the castings for the KL-ZE has ports for EGR built into the heads. On the KL-47, the old intake with Cookie Monster's mucus, this port is blocked. No problem! On the new intake, the one without the sticky-blue, there is plumbing for this hole. This created a giant vacuum leak and the car would barely idle. I plugged it with a frost plug from the local parts store. The car now runs and drives as well as it ever did before and we mitigated the risk of instant and unexpected engine death from JB-Weld failure.
The first problem was with the throttle body. While I had ground it until it appeared to fit, I was still off a few thousandths of an inch and I believe that was causing a bit of a leak. In my frustration and aggression I may have been a little over zealous with the angle grinder. Over zealous enough to actually make a hole into the IAC valve's air passages. This has led to retaining .2% of the JB Weld. The pictures of this fix didn't come through with my phone's camera.
I've also learned quite a bit about the Mazda KL series V6 in the last couple of weeks. Our car originally came equipped with a KL-K8. This is the 1.8L V6 that Mazda was insane enough to build. According to any record I found this is the smalled V6 ever put into a production car. It could have had a super-high-RPM, awesome headed, crazy wonderful S2000 appeal to it. But instead of being made by Honda or Nissan, who would've done such a thing, it was built by Mazda and they sorta skimped a little in the corners. This ensured the car would feel "peppy" for people who'd never driven a car that was actually "peppy." The computer and various accessory electronics are still all powered by the K8.
Recognizing this fault, the previous owner swapped in a KL-ZE engine. This was the V6 put in various Japanese Mazda's into the late-90's. This V6 has 2.5 liters of displacement, good cams, higher compression, and usually comes equipped with a good intake and throttle body combination. We didn't get that whole good-intake-throttle body business. Instead we got the intake with giant blue boogers.
The throttle body we fitted to our new intake is from a KL-47 (Millenia). The intake itself is from a KL-G4 (Late 2000's 626). I came to discover that the castings for the KL-ZE has ports for EGR built into the heads. On the KL-47, the old intake with Cookie Monster's mucus, this port is blocked. No problem! On the new intake, the one without the sticky-blue, there is plumbing for this hole. This created a giant vacuum leak and the car would barely idle. I plugged it with a frost plug from the local parts store. The car now runs and drives as well as it ever did before and we mitigated the risk of instant and unexpected engine death from JB-Weld failure.
 |
| Winning? Seriously, Mazda, less creativity please. |
Thursday, August 9, 2012
The Start of the MX3 Rally Car
This one doesn't have any cute nick names yet. No MESStang, the MESS3, etc. It's a Mazda, we're going to put a cage in it and then go dodge trees in Rally America.
It's cute, eh?
I'm not a professional mechanic, but I don't think "put more goop on it" is better than spending $7 on an intake gasket.
Oh good, JB Weld Stalagmites.
This is the new ground clamp. It's also the anti-theft device. Note the high quality Walmart nEverStart battery.
After discovering our high quality intake, I ran to the junkyard and got various KL-series V6 parts without a lot of knowledge about what actually fits. This is a KL04 intake. I was told it doesn't fit into the MX3 on various Mazda forums. Well, jeeze that sure does look like it fits. Oh, and the TB is the KL47 (Millenia), which also "doesn't fit." The throttle cable bracket rubs on the brake reservoir, by a few millimeters, my angle grinder will fix that later.
Oh, we were also told that it will hit the battery. Damn, one of these times the Internet will be right.
While I was pulling the old intake, I saw and felt there was a paper towel in the back. That happens sometimes and didn't really worry me. It didn't worry me until the intake was off and I realized that it was used to hold in a large wad of JB weld. The paper towel was an integral part of this intake. Whoever did this work really needs to remove themselves from the gene pool.
Monday, April 2, 2012
24 Days Left - It ... runs?
With 25 days left, I finished and installed the new clutch-slave mounting bracket.
The bracket isn't perfect as the slave still gets a chance to "rock" inside of it's mount but at least it is no longer only half-disengaging the clutch.
To celebrate by birthday, I holed myself up with Jim in the garage. We attacked the Mess3 with a single minded focus: make it run. I did add a small provision: make it run, without major leaks. While installing the clutch bracket pictured above I discovered this little gem of a problem:
A bloody red coating of transmission fluid all under the engine compartment. That's not to say I thought anything was wrong with the transmission. BMW kindly uses ATF for power steering fluid. The stock M3 power steering pump is actually mounted in the Ford accessory bracket with the assistance of an adapter plate.
I spent some time disassembling the power steering pump Sunday morning to discover that one of the copper crush washers in the Banjo fitting for the reservoir feed to the pump was leaking. It was leaking badly. When you are the owner of the only car of its kind in the world, it can get difficult to source specific parts. I am, essentially, the only parts book for my car. I need to know the exact make and model from which a part originates. Without that information the parts stores are fundamentally useless. I'll give an example via dialog.
Me: "I need an oil filter."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "Um, it's a 1997 BMW M3, with a Ford 2.5 liter engine, the Block is a '91, the head is a '74, the oil pan is a custom racing unit from KevKo, and oh, yeah, it has a custom turbo setup using a center-mount header from a company that no longer exists, but the turbo is a Precision 5857."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "The oil filter is for a 1988 Ford Thunderbird."
Parts Store Staff: "5.0?"
Me: "No the TurboCoupe, 2.3 ..."
Even with all of those "problems," the line that connects the factory M3 power steering reservoir to the factory M3 power steering pump should be something that is relatively easy to find. And from what we discovered, that line is available, it is just a three day wait to get the line. Oh, and that line will still not come with the small washer-like fittings that we need to. So the dialog really went like this, with every parts store within a driving distance of my home:
Me: "I need a 16 mm copper or aluminum crush washer."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "Do you have crush washers?"
Parts Store Staff: "Yep, some."
Me: "In metric?"
Parts Store Staff: "I don't know. Maybe."
Me: "How about some crush washers for the power steering pump line for a 1997 BMW M3."
Parts Store Staff: "Let me check."
At this point, I assume most store staff have actually just gone to get coffee, the computer crashed when they got back, so they went for lunch, then after the tech from central IT fixed the computer, they pick up the phone again.
Parts Store Staff: "I can get that in about three or four days."
Me: "Just the washers?"
Parts Store Staff: "No, the entire line."
Me: "Does it have the washers."
Staff: "Let me check".
Coffee, IT problems, Lunch, pick up phone again."
Staff: "No, it says we will have to get those separately."
The saving grace in this dialog are two of the Napa stores in my area. They know that I'm usually "up to something" and generally try to be helpful. Failing to find the washers on Sunday, Jim and I decided to instead use a substantial amount of aircraft Form-A-Gasket on the washers and see if that was up to the spec of handling the pressure.
We had dinner, rushed to clean up the tools, and around 9:00 PM had the car idling in the garage. Given the amount of tools, rags, and various garage bits that had found their way into the engine bay over the winter, and especially the last few days, it was amazing we didn't lose a wrench.
After playing with the idle and low-load tunes for an hour, we were able to push off for what really felt like, another maiden voyage. We worked through some of the significant hiccups and low-load drive-ability issues. Even some of the off-boost high-load drive-ability. But our quest for a tune was ended early. One of the intake tubes blew off on a low-boost run and the wide-band oxygen sensor stopped working entirely.
More to fix, more to loathe, but more progress has been made.
Also, here's a picture of the new breather can. I made it myself. Some of the welds are pretty ugly, the gaps from my precision machining and raw material quality left much to be desired. I ignored most of that bug running the welder hotter than I should have...
To celebrate by birthday, I holed myself up with Jim in the garage. We attacked the Mess3 with a single minded focus: make it run. I did add a small provision: make it run, without major leaks. While installing the clutch bracket pictured above I discovered this little gem of a problem:
A bloody red coating of transmission fluid all under the engine compartment. That's not to say I thought anything was wrong with the transmission. BMW kindly uses ATF for power steering fluid. The stock M3 power steering pump is actually mounted in the Ford accessory bracket with the assistance of an adapter plate.
I spent some time disassembling the power steering pump Sunday morning to discover that one of the copper crush washers in the Banjo fitting for the reservoir feed to the pump was leaking. It was leaking badly. When you are the owner of the only car of its kind in the world, it can get difficult to source specific parts. I am, essentially, the only parts book for my car. I need to know the exact make and model from which a part originates. Without that information the parts stores are fundamentally useless. I'll give an example via dialog.
Me: "I need an oil filter."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "Um, it's a 1997 BMW M3, with a Ford 2.5 liter engine, the Block is a '91, the head is a '74, the oil pan is a custom racing unit from KevKo, and oh, yeah, it has a custom turbo setup using a center-mount header from a company that no longer exists, but the turbo is a Precision 5857."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "The oil filter is for a 1988 Ford Thunderbird."
Parts Store Staff: "5.0?"
Me: "No the TurboCoupe, 2.3 ..."
Even with all of those "problems," the line that connects the factory M3 power steering reservoir to the factory M3 power steering pump should be something that is relatively easy to find. And from what we discovered, that line is available, it is just a three day wait to get the line. Oh, and that line will still not come with the small washer-like fittings that we need to. So the dialog really went like this, with every parts store within a driving distance of my home:
Me: "I need a 16 mm copper or aluminum crush washer."
Parts Store Staff: "Make and Model?"
Me: "Do you have crush washers?"
Parts Store Staff: "Yep, some."
Me: "In metric?"
Parts Store Staff: "I don't know. Maybe."
Me: "How about some crush washers for the power steering pump line for a 1997 BMW M3."
Parts Store Staff: "Let me check."
At this point, I assume most store staff have actually just gone to get coffee, the computer crashed when they got back, so they went for lunch, then after the tech from central IT fixed the computer, they pick up the phone again.
Parts Store Staff: "I can get that in about three or four days."
Me: "Just the washers?"
Parts Store Staff: "No, the entire line."
Me: "Does it have the washers."
Staff: "Let me check".
Coffee, IT problems, Lunch, pick up phone again."
Staff: "No, it says we will have to get those separately."
The saving grace in this dialog are two of the Napa stores in my area. They know that I'm usually "up to something" and generally try to be helpful. Failing to find the washers on Sunday, Jim and I decided to instead use a substantial amount of aircraft Form-A-Gasket on the washers and see if that was up to the spec of handling the pressure.
We had dinner, rushed to clean up the tools, and around 9:00 PM had the car idling in the garage. Given the amount of tools, rags, and various garage bits that had found their way into the engine bay over the winter, and especially the last few days, it was amazing we didn't lose a wrench.
After playing with the idle and low-load tunes for an hour, we were able to push off for what really felt like, another maiden voyage. We worked through some of the significant hiccups and low-load drive-ability issues. Even some of the off-boost high-load drive-ability. But our quest for a tune was ended early. One of the intake tubes blew off on a low-boost run and the wide-band oxygen sensor stopped working entirely.
More to fix, more to loathe, but more progress has been made.
Also, here's a picture of the new breather can. I made it myself. Some of the welds are pretty ugly, the gaps from my precision machining and raw material quality left much to be desired. I ignored most of that bug running the welder hotter than I should have...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Holy Crap, I'm going Racing, Days Remaining 27
Today, I got the call that let me know, I'll be able to run at the ECTA's "Ohio Mile" event that runs from April 27-29. Myself and my unholy creation will be there.
Which may be a feat, as this is a current progress picture:
Which may be a feat, as this is a current progress picture:
Monday, January 16, 2012
TSD Rally 2
We have embarked on our second Time-Speed-Distance Rally. The intended route was from Duluth to Ely, MN. After a slightly rough start, Andy and I started to develop a communication system and my confidence in our car, a 2001 BMW 325xi is growing.
That allowed use to be within less than 10 thousandths of a minute on two of our stages. We were able to analyze our deficiencies on the other stages .
A rude message was echoed into our head: keep a full size spare.
While traveling to the next stage we were interrupted by a bit of an inconvenience:
That rock left us with a "did not finish" in the rally and 250 miles of driving on the donut spare.
That allowed use to be within less than 10 thousandths of a minute on two of our stages. We were able to analyze our deficiencies on the other stages .
A rude message was echoed into our head: keep a full size spare.
While traveling to the next stage we were interrupted by a bit of an inconvenience:
That rock left us with a "did not finish" in the rally and 250 miles of driving on the donut spare.
Monday, January 2, 2012
The First TSD
TSD = Time, Speed, Distance.
Not a terribly enticing name for a "racing" event but a couple of weeks ago I participated in my first "Timed Rally." The concept is fairly simple. There is a fixed starting point, ending point, and a few fixed check-in points. The goal is to maintain the suggested average speed across all points between the fixed points and the end points. This does get tricky, however, as accuracy matters much more than it does in horseshoes.
When we started chatting with others participating in the rally, they claimed a "good" run was a score of 40 points over the course of the rally. When we, myself and my navigator Andy, realized what this meant we were pretty floored. A point is awarded for every tenth of a second above or below the target time. A rally lasts approximately six hours. So that means, over six hours of driving, a car was able to time their arrival times with no more than 4 seconds of inaccuracy using nothing more than the car's odometer, speedometer, and a stopwatch.
This type of racing may seem anti-climatic. For me, it is a bit. There is quite a bit of math, quite a bit down time, and the speeds that need to be maintained are only a struggle because of the conditions provided by the road. However, Andy and I are taking it all in as a part of a training program.
The goal is to run in September's Silver State Classic Challenge. The race is run in Nevada on closed public roads. The course is 90 miles long and the goal is to travel the course at a given average speed. The minimum class speed is 95 MPH. This means, over 90 miles, the goal is to average 95 MPH. There are twists and turns across the 90 mile course and we'd like to run in one of the 100-110 MPH classes. To do this we established a bit of a plan:
1. Train our navigator/timing efforts. This is why we were doing a "TSD Rally." It helps develop a communication system, a vocabulary, and coping mechanisms for when things are going right or wrong.
2. Get the car ready. The intent is to run with the M3. The validity of this as a "good idea" may or may not pan out but it's my preference to run the car I've been tweaking for a year. The car is still untested, undyno'd, and has never seen a rolling speed of greater than 80 MPH. We may need to find some time on some private roads. Or at least a dyno cell.
3. Get the logistics ready. We are coming from Minnesota and will need to plan on transportation of ourselves, the car, and everything we need to support the car and ourselves. This will probably be the most difficult part.
So, the boring part, learning to navigate is step one. We did reasonably terrible at our last TSD and are hoping to do a few more in the coming months.
Not a terribly enticing name for a "racing" event but a couple of weeks ago I participated in my first "Timed Rally." The concept is fairly simple. There is a fixed starting point, ending point, and a few fixed check-in points. The goal is to maintain the suggested average speed across all points between the fixed points and the end points. This does get tricky, however, as accuracy matters much more than it does in horseshoes.
When we started chatting with others participating in the rally, they claimed a "good" run was a score of 40 points over the course of the rally. When we, myself and my navigator Andy, realized what this meant we were pretty floored. A point is awarded for every tenth of a second above or below the target time. A rally lasts approximately six hours. So that means, over six hours of driving, a car was able to time their arrival times with no more than 4 seconds of inaccuracy using nothing more than the car's odometer, speedometer, and a stopwatch.
This type of racing may seem anti-climatic. For me, it is a bit. There is quite a bit of math, quite a bit down time, and the speeds that need to be maintained are only a struggle because of the conditions provided by the road. However, Andy and I are taking it all in as a part of a training program.
The goal is to run in September's Silver State Classic Challenge. The race is run in Nevada on closed public roads. The course is 90 miles long and the goal is to travel the course at a given average speed. The minimum class speed is 95 MPH. This means, over 90 miles, the goal is to average 95 MPH. There are twists and turns across the 90 mile course and we'd like to run in one of the 100-110 MPH classes. To do this we established a bit of a plan:
1. Train our navigator/timing efforts. This is why we were doing a "TSD Rally." It helps develop a communication system, a vocabulary, and coping mechanisms for when things are going right or wrong.
2. Get the car ready. The intent is to run with the M3. The validity of this as a "good idea" may or may not pan out but it's my preference to run the car I've been tweaking for a year. The car is still untested, undyno'd, and has never seen a rolling speed of greater than 80 MPH. We may need to find some time on some private roads. Or at least a dyno cell.
3. Get the logistics ready. We are coming from Minnesota and will need to plan on transportation of ourselves, the car, and everything we need to support the car and ourselves. This will probably be the most difficult part.
So, the boring part, learning to navigate is step one. We did reasonably terrible at our last TSD and are hoping to do a few more in the coming months.
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