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Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23593)
Today was its first day on the road, and WOW!!! What a day! It's AMAZING!!! I drove around for probably an hour, all over the place, on the freeway; ran like a champ. This week I'll setup front end alignment and initial smog test appointments, then comes the ref.
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how are you going to get around the gas tank not being the gto tank?
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Originally Posted by portabull
(Post 23598)
how are you going to get around the gas tank not being the gto tank?
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Did it pass and get the carb sticker?
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Originally Posted by New2miatas
(Post 23780)
Did it pass and get the carb sticker?
Other than that, the car runs and drives great. Zero fault codes. |
Originally Posted by New2miatas
(Post 22774)
If you don't mind me asking, what are you guys doing for the gas tank?? I think that's often the big hang up with the rules now.
Being in Ca, I'm also watching this thread closely because i'd love to do an LS NB. The ECU can't be reprogrammed, other than VATS removed, which we did. I'm this close -> <- to going to ref, but need to deal with the valve tick. :happysad: |
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Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23188)
Water temp senders: There are two, the Miata and the GTO. The GTO was already in place towards the front of the driver side head. The harness connects up to it already and feeds the pcm as required, so no work was needed there. For the Miata cluster gauge, a stock Miata sender is needed. They can be purchased anywhere for cheap, or keep your old one. It screws right into the other head by the passenger side firewall. We replaced the cheap rubber washer with a crush washer. Also, be sure to retain the connector from the Miata harness. I let mine go with the engine/harness by accident. It wires right up to the gauge with only one wire. the other two wires are not needed and we sealed them up. (Pics to follow) Unlike the Miata oil pressure gauge, the temp gauge works well. Any stock Miata sender will work. I happened to get this one: Beck Arnley 158-0604. You can see the three connections. Only one is needed for the gauge: VIO/WHT, violet and white. Looks like purple and white.
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Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23187)
Speedometer: This was easy. I bought a Dakota box for $85. After some trial and error, we figured out how to program it. It appears to match perfectly while running on stands, but may need additional setting while actually driving. So we are leaving that in a place where we can access it once the interior is re-installed. (Pics to follow)
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4 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23194)
Wheel/tires: My original research suggested that a 245/35 on a 17x9 with something like +35 mm offset would fit, with some fender rolling. (This goes against what the purists say and advice from Goodwin, 949, etc, but we're dealing with horsepower in the many hundreds, so why not?!) We were able to borrow a set from Cord at Catfish (thanks Cord!), who is located next-door to Monster Miata in San Marcos, CA. Instead of 245/35, his were 235/40. They looked awesome, but running the suspension to extremes proved that they were too large in every direction. Rather than gamble with purchasing a set of 245/35, I tucked my tail between my legs and got a set of 15x9 Advanti Storm S1 +35 in grey, and 245/40 Maxxis Victra VR-1. They look great. I have yet to run them to extremes, but they should only need a fender roll. More on that with pics later...
Maxxis |
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23594)
For whatever reason, the skip shift is not functioning, which is good. The solenoid is hooked up and it should work, but it goes from 1st to 2nd every time. It iisn't throwing a code. So I may be able to write that off as done.
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2 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 23595)
We seem to have a problem. The tank is now at 3/4 full, per the Miata gauge, yet the GTO ECU is still reporting 100% via the OBD reader. So we need to solve that. It may not matter for smog, if I take it will a full tank, but I will sort it out eventually.
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Went to the BAR referee. Didn't pass and it wasn't pretty, but the list of items isn't bad and we're working through them...
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Glad to hear the project is moving forward!
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 24197)
Keep us posted! I'd love to see this car get through. -Z |
Originally Posted by zandr
(Post 24198)
Glad to hear the project is moving forward!
The programming requirement is interesting, that wasn't mentioned when I took my E-Rod through. As to the CARB approved CAI... Which vehicle does it need to be approved for, the GTO? Keep us posted! I'd love to see this car get through. -Z Apparently we picked the "wrong" ref to go to. People change over time and it wasn't the same guy. This guy seemed confused about items and couldn't tell me what parts were incorrect, only that his books didn't show the correct parts. Unfortunately everything was documented by the ref, including photos, so even if I go to another ref, which I will, I still need to get the original ref's listed sorted. Fortunately I've been able to sort it all out since and have solutions for everything. Your E-Rod may have been handled differently because it was an E-Rod. Or you had a "better" ref. Or you did it before 2015. Oh, my ref mentioned that even the E-Rod has strict requirements for things like MAF placement, so I probably got the worst guy ever. lol Onwards! |
No, I got dinged for MAF placement. It has to be in the middle of a 6" straight section of 4" duct, at least 10" from the throttle plate. So, I had to build a ridiculous hot-air intake (out of OMG NOT LEGAL IN CA parts... sigh) to get through the ref. He spent a long time measuring cat-to-port distances and so on, but the MAF was the only thing that failed. It then took some tuning to get the fuel trims close enough to get the monitors to set.
(You did have your readiness monitors set, right?) I went through the ref in September of '16. |
Originally Posted by zandr
(Post 24200)
No, I got dinged for MAF placement. It has to be in the middle of a 6" straight section of 4" duct, at least 10" from the throttle plate. So, I had to build a ridiculous hot-air intake (out of OMG NOT LEGAL IN CA parts... sigh) to get through the ref. He spent a long time measuring cat-to-port distances and so on, but the MAF was the only thing that failed. It then took some tuning to get the fuel trims close enough to get the monitors to set.
(You did have your readiness monitors set, right?) I went through the ref in September of '16. Interesting about the MAF. Where was your ref? |
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 24201)
Interesting about the MAF. Where was your ref?
Ref was in Alameda. Ended up going to San Jose when I got it signed off, but that was just down to scheduling. |
Progress on a number of items (pics to follow):
Some of the above experiences are good examples of why having a donor car is very helpful. I can't count the number of parts that have ended up being used from it, and I still have a ton more, like wires, connections, hardware, etc... Plus I've been selling parts off it to help pay for the build. |
We revisited all of the schematics, diagrams, and wiring, which lead to a fix for the "no start on first crank" issue. It turns out we were running power from the wrong Miata ignition switch and triggering power to a lot of things on run but not also on start.
We mounted the rollover valve on the fuel tank cover. It looks OEM. I made an appointment to get the ECM programming certified by a GM dealer next Monday. The next day I take it back to the smog referee. I'll report how the goes. |
Obtaining an invoice from a GM dealer stating that the ECM has the OEM programming was a huge headache and took two trips to dealers. That cost about $275. I won't go into the details, but it's done. I got it. All of the smog ref's issues have been resolved except a couple of error codes from an O2 sensor, which I'm fixing now. Swapping the G8 cats out for the GTO cats is causing majors headaches. So far that has caused at least 8 error codes, and they are all mostly related to the placement of the O2 sensors. Essentially all four were too far back, by only about 4 inches. It's nuts how sensitive they are to placement. We added new bungs and moved them forward, which has solved most of the codes, except the two right now. Anyway, still making progress. Oh, a rock chipped the windshield which caused it to immediately crack. So a windshield is in order. Not complaining though. The old one had the usual pitting from many miles. Onwards...
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So close. On the O2 sensor location, what is the specific distance the ECU appear to prefer? I have heard several distances from the collection point (not the flange bolting) and am wondering if that could have caused my first two sensors to give intermittent sensor readings and cause the computer to kick on the code. |
I don't have an exact answer on distances, but as close to stock as possible seems best. We moved all four O2's closer to stock and the ECM is much happier. I was just recently given the OEM distances from each exhaust port to the cats and O2's, so at some point I'll measure mine and have a better picture.
Here's what kills me... I originally had G8 cats (4) in it because I simply had those. The ECU was happy. Not a single code for them and the sniff test numbers were great. Then the ref spanked me and I had to put the GTO cats (2) in. Since then we've had codes o'plenty. But the thing that really gets me is that the four G8 cats should have been more emissions friendly than two GTO cats. So this has nothing to do with reducing emissions. It's simply red tape BS. Oh well. Rant over. Onwards... |
Originally Posted by CARBoy
(Post 24590)
So this has nothing to do with reducing emissions. It's simply red tape BS. Oh well. Rant over. Onwards...
Thanks for sharing. |
SUCCESS! We passed the CARB referee and it's truly CARB legal now. This ref was much more knowledgable and could discuss all of the components and issues. Finally I can get to the fun of really driving it!
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Congratulations! Didn't you work with Martin in the early stages of this build?
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