The V8 Miata does it all from track warrior to every day hauler...

I had a most interesting weekend playin with Jenna!  It started with a call Friday morning to play that night with a band I have never heard or worked with before.

You'd think going live with a completely unknown band would be enough to make the night interesting, but I had been pondering how to fit my drums in the car for sometime and I decided today is the day!  

It was a very enjoyable night and the ride home with the stars overhead was stunning!

Before I got home I had a removable luggage rack/ tire carrier whose supports will double as wing mounts designed in my mind! ;-)

Saturday morning it was off to autox with her. I wish I could say it went as well as the gig did but 2 minor issues resulted in major oil leaks that kept me from racing.  The good news is they were cheap to fix and not related to the conversion. The bad news is I need to fire my mechanic!  

Long story short there will never be another trip to the track without checking that the drain plug is tight!

Side note- there was a Camaro built for Good Guys events there. About half the car was carbon fiber and it had a built LS7 in it that sounded amazing.   

I wasn't planning on racing Sunday but since I missed Saturday I decided to duck out of church and hit the track. Sunday was much better and I got all my runs in with no problems.

                                                                                         Photo by CMatson Photography. Click for his FB page

I did have a couple issues though. It was jacket weather and cloudy out but the temp gauge still went from 195 to 215 on course. It came down right away but no way would the cooling system handle the track on a hot day. The other thing was the alternator quit charging. The power wire from the dash quit sending it juice but the charge light did not come on. 

Photo by CMatson

I ran a new wire to the alternator last night and I'm not sure if I am going to put a new radiator and volt gauge in this fall or wait till the spring but I will post on my efforts.  

  Photo by CMatson

You'd think I’d be the fastest Miata there but I’m not. A friend of mine who is an excellent driver runs a 4 cyl NC on race rubber and is always faster than me. It’s a drivers game so I guess I need to fire my driver too! 


It’s interesting that in my little town no body pays any attention to the car. There is not another Miata around so nobody knows what the car is much less that it shouldn't sound like it does. But at the autox it’s a whole other world. I finally got to the point I just leave the hood up because people kept asking to see it!

Photo by CMatson

Next race is the 28th and quite a long drive to get to so I am hoping for no problems.  I'm really excited about it because there will be 2 other V8 Miatas there duking it out!
I pray this post finds you happy, healthy and loving large! 

Time well waisted - Stripes!

I was having kind of a cruddy day on Saturday so with the DIY back window job finished I decided to do something frivolous and fun. The other option was the honey do list that so it came to pass I laid out some stripes..;-) 

First up was more vents in the hood for more air flow and painting the back side of it.

I tried 3 shades of gold and 1 of silver but they all looked fake and plastic to me.  So I thought I would try subtle with this bronze color.  Yeah because there is so much that is subtle about this car! 

I think they look a little green and blotchy because there are so many other colors under it.

You can click on any photo and it will get bigger, except this one...

  

Oh and I took the baffle out of the cut out pipe. Since it has stripes now I felt it needed to be louder.  And it is!

Don’t even think of getting in my way!

The new gas station in town has some bright lights that was fun to play with.

 

 The new shorter air box

I'm still not sure on the color yet but I like the size and shape so this will give me an idea of how it will look when I paint it for real.

I don't go anywhere without my proudly worn USS Bataan hat!

 

In Him is life, and that life is the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:4-5

Autocross this weekend Lord willing.  Have a GREAT week!!

LS1 V8 Miata Cooling and Hood Venting 101

TECH OVERLOAD ALERT!  This post is long and techy so if you have no interest in solving cooling issues (or seeing what I mess I made of it) then skip down to the bottom couple of photos. 

 

With the dangerous 250 degree temp reading at the autox I went back to work on the cooling system to see where I went wrong.  And the answer is pretty much everywhere!  (Note to self if the temp gauge ever goes over 225 again at a track event take the hood off ya bone head!!) 

NEWS FLASH +++ This just in from the well duh department +++  

There has to be less air pressure under the hood than outside for air to flow into the engine compartment. 

No kidding...

So with a bit of tape and plastic streamers I quickly found out that at speeds over 20 mph I had more pressure under the hood than outside it.

Why?  Because my hood scoop was open to the rear which is a very high pressure area.

At 20 mph streamers at the back of the scoop sucked into the vent and by 60 the airflow is so strong one of the streamers broke off and went inside the engine compartment.

Hey I know, I'll leave the parking lights out to get more air flow :-)

Sure what a great way to funnel a ton of air pressure into the engine compartment BEHIND the radiator.  Over 20 mph there was so much pressure under the hood it was impossible for air to flow through the radiator.   

OK lesson learned time to get out the saws all…

Check out these pressure measurements on the hood at 60 mph.

As you can see having the scoop open at the back was a disaster for air flow out but what is more interesting is how negitive it is in the front.  The scoop he has here actually had air flowing out of it! 

So with that info I plugged the hole in the back of the scoop with Great Stuff foam

 
and added new vents in the low pressure area just behind the radiator to draw air out.

 I went the low budget cut and bend route.
The photos don't do them justice they really do look cool on the hood.

For more info on airflow see this great 3 part article CLICK HERE 

 

OK so now that I have the pressure lower under the hood than above it will air flow through the radiator? 

NEWS FLASH +++ This just in from the dope slap department +++

A 4 core radiator with a 2 core A/C condenser in front of it has considerably more resistance to air going through it than the unobstructed gaps all around it. 

Roger that... 

OK so not only does the pressure have to be lower under the hood than outside, there also has to be no other way for air to get in except through the radiator. Lesson learned and here we go.

This is how I had the radiator set up before I put the bumper cover on.  There are 2 problems with this.  First it is wide open on 3 sides for the air to go around and second I had the pusher fan wired backwards so it was pulling.  (Insert dope slap here...) Hey I turned the fan blade around when I put it in so it should have been right!


So I stopped by the scrap aluminum scrap yard and picked up 3 bucks worth of old signs and flashing to make duct work. 

First up more foam to seal up gaps in the frame.

Then with a roll of high temp aluminum tape and a pile of rivets I went to work making ducts around the radiator.  I built a wall with roof flashing on both sides of the radiator sealing it to the frame,
  then made a box around the bottom, 

and sealed the sides to the radiator with more flashing.
(Notice the new larger power steering cooler. The one 5 photos up was not big enough and I cooked the pump at the autox. I got this one off a jeep in the bone yard for 6 bucks.)

I recycled a railroad sign!

I sealed up the top,

put the bumper back on and sealed the sides of the bumper cover with an old license plate.  Yep it needs paint...

Since this is grass hopper season I put a screen on it but still ended up with dozens of them in there.

Results?  AMAZING!!  It still heats up to about 210 in an autox run but cools back down to 195 right away when you stop flogging it. I am a little concerned about track days but am hoping with the higher air flow at speed it will be alright.  

Problem with it is it hanges down too far and is too ugly so it's back in the shop to take most of the part below the bumper off it.

In other news I corked up the exhaust cut out and took my sweetie down the Loess Hills Scenic Byway on Sunday afternoon.  That’s 210 miles of hilly, twisting 2 lane with epic views and wonderful corners.  We spotted a 427 Cobra on the way and as tempting as it was I respected the legend and did not pass him.  (Truth to be told had I been alone I would have challenged him to a duel.  On guard you Cobra!)

Anyway after a lovely dinner in downtown Omaha it was 80 mph on the freeway back home.  425 miles of all kinds of driving and I got 24.8 mpg. 
Now that is a hybrid worth driving!  

 

9/20/13 Update.  Check out the newer posts for added vents to the hood and changes to the cooling system. She still overheats at the track so the radiator and ducts will be replaced with larger ones.