Sprocket's Competition

[j2k4]

Yeah, the "lack of top-end" is a poser, even given the final drive; two OD gears ought to give a nice chunk of that back.

Valve train is reasonably fresh, isn't it - no weak springs?

What's he turning, or haven't you a tach?

BTW-

The pile-o-parts continues to grow - I just rec'd the turbo rebuild kits for the 13G (standard size on the export/GTO version of the Mitsubishi) turbos I bought (which should be here tomorrow).

I intend to use these to familiarize myself with the data-logging set-up and learn how these things tune.

Should be good for about 50 HP.

I got a super deal on the snails - usually $1200-1300 rebuilt for a pair; I'll have about $375 in these.

[clocker]

Yes, we have a functional tach.
Heads (and all components) are new.
She runs out of steam around 4500 rpm...we're told an LT4 cam (unique to the Vette), ported heads and beefed up valvetrain are what we need.

Now that she's a runner I'm hoping we can get the Vette guys to deal with us.
Last year I took the car by a Vette specialist shop and they wouldn't even look under the hood, had absolutely no interest in working on the car.
Now that we've elevated our game and the car isn't an obvious POS, I'd like to see if we can't get access to their knowledge and maybe even have them build up the motor.

Neither Sigfrid nor I have the background in Merkin iron needed to get this thing right.
We need some outside expertise.

Good deal on the turbos, Kev.
You should get that thing dynoed before you start all this upgrading so you can verify results.

[j2k4]

Closest AWD dyno is 300 miles away in Wisconsin.

These have been done to a fair-thee-well anyway; typical stock wheel HP is 240-250 - parasitic loss is large on these.

When we tear into it this fall I'm going to let the compression #s tell the story - if it's fairly uniform and 150-ish, we'll call it good and go from there.

Anecdotally, there is much merit in going with an unmolested stock-block; Matt Monett's Stealth broke into the nines on a 120K specimen - so the story goes.

The way it works is, guys build acceptable platforms - according to a couple of paths/formulae, then tune them (phone advice is easy to come by from the several big shops) well enough to drive them to a dyno-and-tuner (again, the several shops thing) where the badasses make them come alive.

The process is downright incestuous, truth.

It's not a big community - I've already made a few enemies-for-life doing the political thing.

BTW-

Ask S. to tell TJ I will swap him his health-club membership card for whatever historical paperwork he has on the car.

Please.

Just another add:

I've been poking around on the Factory Five site.

Very interesting.

[clocker]

I've been preparing for this weekend by studying wiring diagrams...what a PITA.

It's been fruitful though, I'm beginning to see just how much useless crap is still in the car and how much simpler/more rational we could make it.

Traditionally, Mazda uses one wiring harness for each model and that harness has provision for every possible accessory available, whether your particular car came with it or not, the wiring is there anyway.
From what I can tell, about 90% of our engine bay wiring is completely useless at this point and it would be simpler to start from scratch and remake the harness to include just what we need rather than modify what we now have.
We can relocate the components that are left- mostly relays and fuses- to a less conspicuous spot (I know just where!) and really clean things up.

We'll see how it goes this weekend.

[j2k4]

A lovely idea - cleaning things up.

Like to do it with the Stealth, but.

[clocker]

So, I had a productive weekend...if by "productive" you mean "destructive".
End of day two and I don't have the entire wiring harness removed yet...this thing is monstrous.
Sigfrid and I started yesterday morning by stripping the interior, including the dash.
It was immediately apparent that just cleaning up was not going to get it, we needed major surgery.

Modern cars have such incredibly complex and interconnected systems, all of which seem linked to the ECU in one way or another.
We don't have the stock ECU anymore, nor ABS, nor airbags, nor AC...you get the picture.

Anyway, getting everything out means stripping the whole front end off as well, so we end up like this...








Looks like fun, don't it?

[j2k4]

I really try not to do too much of that type of thing.

I spent a large chunk of Saturday morning inside the Stealth stripping it's interior from the front seats back.

I spent a large chunk of Saturday afternoon extracting myself from the car.

I spent most of Sunday morning moving very (very) slowly.

I really need a small, talented Japanese automotive intern to do this stuff for me.

[clocker]

I really try not to do too much of that type of thing.

I spent a large chunk of Saturday morning inside the Stealth stripping it's interior from the front seats back.

How come...lose a quarter?

I spent a large chunk of Saturday afternoon extracting myself from the car.

I know that feeling.

I spent most of Sunday morning moving very (very) slowly.

Yeah, know that feeling also.

I really need a small, talented Japanese automotive intern to do this stuff for me.

That's racist.
Can I have him when you're done?

Feeling kind of overwhelmed this morning as I look at the carnage.
It's too late to go back, so I just have to hope that I can figure this all out.

Not really too worried about the engine bay part, that will be tedious but not difficult...it's interfacing with the dash harness that concerns me.

Some of the switches provide power, some provide ground and in at least one case (the main light switch), it does both.
Need to be careful I don't zap anything and burn up the car.

Now there's a pleasant thought to begin the week.

[j2k4]

Indeed.

All I need to do now is dope out why I lost power to the antenna (I went back to the extendo-unit because I found a good deal on the OEM units) merely by taking it out an reinstalling it.

[clocker]

Well, the bay harness finally hit the ground around six last night.
I know I sound like a broken record but I'm still boggled by the complexity and extent of a modern day wiring harness.
The harness and associated components- fuse/relay boxes, airbag sensors/actuators, anti-lock brake wiring,etc.- weighs 32 lbs. and is 11' long.

This project is taking a discouraging amount of time, I was completely naive about the complexity and difficulty but hope that things will progress faster now.

I've also taken a few side journeys I hadn't anticipated.
Our GM engine harness and ECU interface with the Mazda wiring at only four points- it gets switched +12v from the ignition switch, and sends signals for the tach, speedo and fuel pump (the latter we don't really need).

During the original swap these wires were hard mounted (crimped/soldered) and had to be cut to remove. I've gathered them together to a four pin connector to make future work simpler...the entire engine harness is now standalone and runs through it's own dedicated firewall grommet so when it's replaced (oh yeah...it needs replacing also!) nothing else needs to be disturbed.

Our battery- relocated to the trunk before I came onboard- had two heavy gauge cables running to the engine, one to the starter and one to feed the fuse box(es) and connect the alternator.
I've pulled one of them (Sigfrid is quite fond of zip ties, I must have cut about two million of 'em to free the cables) and rerouted the other.
Again, it needed to be done but slowed down my work in the bay itself.

Mazda had three large relay/fuse boxes in the bay originally, we now have one fuse box (sourced from a Suzuki Samurai) and standalone/individual relays.
This isn't quite as elegant as the relay boxes but while perusing the junkyard I saw far too many boxes with melted components...one mishap and the whole box is trash.
This way one bad relay can be dealt with individually without messing with everything else.

Of course, the standalone system takes more room and we don't have a lot to spare if the wiring is to be hidden.
I've found a solution that best addresses the constraints I've set and that's my main priority for today. It's unorthodox but clever, I think.
Once the location of the fusebox and relays is finalized I can begin to construct the new harness.

As ever, I remain optimistic.