Jerrah

Lack of choice?

Jeremy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:03:39 +0000

Yesterday I investigated five seperate bike shops on the south side of Brisbane and was quite disappointed in the lack of choice and variety in the stocked mountain bike tyres.
Very few UST choices and shops universally only carried the Maxxis range – and even then they left out the more interesting choices.
It’s no wonder so much business goes overseas to online bike stores, not just for their low prices but if you want variety you don’t appear to have much choice!

Someone is wrong on the internet!

Jeremy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:09:06 +0000

Not sure who the author is of this gem but I thought I’d share:

Jay Leno and James May

Jeremy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:16:02 +0000

I was reading the mx5cartalk forum and it has been claimed that Jay Leno quite likes the Mazda MX5 and has used a supercharged one as his daily driver.

In the same thread was a link to a James May article where he suggests putting an Alfa V6 into one.

DIYPNP Progress 1

Jeremy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:06:55 +0000

I haven’t had much time to work on the DIYPNP this week but I’ve added the resistors and diodes.

Getting there

DIYPNP ECU kit arrives!

Jeremy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:30:47 +0000

My DIYPNP engine management kit arrived today. I haven’t had a chance to do much with it yet but I hope to regularly post updates of my progress.

As you can imagine I have a fair bit of work ahead of me. A workmate has given me a challenge of getting the ECU running and tuned in my MX5 by mid December. We’ll see how I go.

Adjusting Koni Sport shock absorbers.

Jeremy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:43:15 +0000

When I purchased my Mazda MX5 it came fitted with Koni Sport shocks which were set to their lowest setting. These particular shock absorbers have three different adjustments for height based on a sliding spring seat and a circlip. Whilst they are a very popular replacement shock absorber for many different vehicles the best guides I’ve seen for adjusting the suspension height refer to ‘compress the spring and then move the circlip to the next slotted position but without any photographs describing exactly what that is.

I thought having recently raised my MX5 from the lowest setting to the middle setting I would give back to the Koni Sport owning community with some photos of exactly what the circlip system looks like.

First step is to compress the spring to take the load off the spring seat.

I purchased the spring compressors from a generic autoparts store locally. They were pretty cheaply made but more than adequate for the job. Unfortunately they seem to have an extremely long thread which made them awkward to work with in the small space available to me around the MX5 rear suspension. I have considered cutting them down but I managed to get it to work ok.

Lifting the spring seat to show the next circlip slot.

Once the spring tension has been eased you can lift the spring seat up to expose the middle circlip slot. I just used a flatbladed screwdriver to lift the circlip from the low slot and slide it up into the middle position. After I had ensured that the circlip was securely placed I lowered the seat and released the spring tension.

The circlip and seat in the middle position.

MX5 painting

Jeremy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:46:02 +0000

This last weekend I have been helping a friend to paint their car. Well I’ve been getting them to do all the sanding and surface preparation and I’m silly enough to do the paint spraying (and inhaling). This weekend we got an undercoat layer on the outside of the panels and did a coat of colour on the inside of the panels just to seal them off. Next weekend we’ll do the final outer coats.

The unfortunate thing of spraypainting with just a dust mask for protection is you’re really without much protection. Fortunately I’m not spraying two pack but I’m still not feeling the best after the experience of spraying in a comfined space. Before I do any more I’ll be buying a proper breathing mask that can supply an external air supply.

Wet and dry sanding of the door.

The undercoat was looking so good my friend said he was tempted to paint his whole car that colour.

Inside of drivers door painted.

Inside of front guard painted.

Pallet used to hold panels whilst painting.

The wooden pallet and wire hook method of holding the automotive panels proved to be a very effective way to suspend the panels whilst painting whilst keeping them very solidly mounted.

I’ll try to post an update on our progress next week but it will depend on whether the weather is suitable for painting.

Basic settings from 90-93 MegaSquirt I

Jeremy — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:51:34 +0000

I am in the process of undertaking a DIYPNP project for my 1991 MX5. This new kit is based on the Megasquirt II design and won’t work with the existing Megasquirt I baseline maps.

I may try to use the 1.8L MX5 DIYPNP maps but I plan to double check these settings against the known base settings for the 1990-1993 B6 engine.

	B6 (MSPNP)	BP (DIYPNP)
Standard Constants
Required Fuel	13.4ms	13.0ms
Injector Opening Time	1ms	1ms
Battery Voltage Correction	0.10ms/v	0.20ms/v
PWM Current limit	100%	75%
PWM Time	25.4ms	25.6ms
Fast Idle Threshhold	80.0F	140F
Barometric Correction	ON	ON
Control Algorithm	Speed Density	Speed Density
Squirts per Engine Cycle	2	2
Injector Staging	Alternating	Alternating
Engine Stroke	4-stroke	4-stroke
Number of Cylinders	4	4
Number of Injectors	4	4
MAP type	400kPa	400kPa
Engine Type	Even fire	Even fire
EGO Control
EGO Sensor type	Narrow Band
EGO Switch point	0.510
Ignition Events	72
Controller step size	1%
Controller authority	5%
Active above coolant temp	160F
Active above RPM	1500RPM
EGO Correction Counter	Ign Pulses

Idle valve frequency	62

Tuesday

Jeremy — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:47:24 +0000

Went out to pick up some 2nd hand racing tyres & found no less than 5 nails though the casing.
I instead came home with a perfect dasboard & heater box.

Queensland Raceway 03/09/2009

Jeremy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:03:39 +0000

The MX5 club of Queensland is held a sprint track day at Queensland Raceway today. I recorded some video and photos of the action.

My NA6 ready for some track day fun.

This was my first time around Queensland Raceway and I completed 16 laps of the Sprint circuit and 23 laps of the Clubman. I even managed to do a alternator/waterpump belt change between sessions – I only made the next session by the skin of my teeth and was the last car out of the pits.

My best times of the day: Sprint 1.09.4168 and Clubman 1.11.5856