I had a big work day today. I drove the car, with my buddy Andy, to Bonky's place to do some work on it (same place where JLee and I built his dump tube).
First thing we did was to massage the exhaust a little bit. The side-pipe was kinda cool, but it'd smack into the running board occasionally, and a LOT on hard launches. So, as I mentioned before, we re-made it to dump just before the rear axle. Here is how it went...
If I had a cat, this would be the cat-back exhaust:
... and here is where it fits under the car. Note the smashed frame rail, someone tried to drop it onto a jack-stand. I think there may be Flyin' Miata frame rails in my future...
So then I sliced and diced with an abrasive chop saw, fitted, tack-welded, re-fitted, broke apart, cut with a chop saw, re-tack-welded, re-fitted again, tack welded the hanger, re-fitted, then seam-welded everything and the results are...
Boom! Done! Greatly improved ground clearance and reduced noise in the driver's left ear, though the passenger gets to enjoy a little more engine noise too. It sounds pretty great I think.
So I also needed to make a license plate bracket for the front to stay legal in NH. While crawling under the car to figure out where I could mount it, I cam across one terrible thing:
That's my front sway-bar, with no nut on the end link D: put a nut and washer on and we're off to the races...
Next I noticed another terrible thing:
The crankcase vent tube was kinked really badly. That explains why I was getting more oil in the catch tank at the dragway... LAME. How do you fix a kinked hose? I can't buy a pre-formed hose, and stores are pretty damn far away... So I did this:
Coil spring in the tube! Worked like a charm. Don't worry, it is impossible for that spring to get inside the engine.
So with two disasters averted, I worked up a license plate holder that mounts on one of the tow loops, also called the the 'baby teeth.' It bolts through and clamps on like this:
And looks like this:
Pardon all of the bugs... unavoidable this time of year in NH.
All in all it went very well, everything turned out great, and the car is legal and a lot more worry free/pleasant to drive! I spent no money on any of the parts, which was also awesome, we just salvaged everything from scrap Bonky has kicking around.
And, a new video, now with less wind noise and real spark map and better exhaust sound! Enjoy. The car doesn't sound as fast, but it feels so, so, so much better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orRqT6hkHg4
First thing we did was to massage the exhaust a little bit. The side-pipe was kinda cool, but it'd smack into the running board occasionally, and a LOT on hard launches. So, as I mentioned before, we re-made it to dump just before the rear axle. Here is how it went...
If I had a cat, this would be the cat-back exhaust:
... and here is where it fits under the car. Note the smashed frame rail, someone tried to drop it onto a jack-stand. I think there may be Flyin' Miata frame rails in my future...
So then I sliced and diced with an abrasive chop saw, fitted, tack-welded, re-fitted, broke apart, cut with a chop saw, re-tack-welded, re-fitted again, tack welded the hanger, re-fitted, then seam-welded everything and the results are...
Boom! Done! Greatly improved ground clearance and reduced noise in the driver's left ear, though the passenger gets to enjoy a little more engine noise too. It sounds pretty great I think.
So I also needed to make a license plate bracket for the front to stay legal in NH. While crawling under the car to figure out where I could mount it, I cam across one terrible thing:
That's my front sway-bar, with no nut on the end link D: put a nut and washer on and we're off to the races...
Next I noticed another terrible thing:
The crankcase vent tube was kinked really badly. That explains why I was getting more oil in the catch tank at the dragway... LAME. How do you fix a kinked hose? I can't buy a pre-formed hose, and stores are pretty damn far away... So I did this:
Coil spring in the tube! Worked like a charm. Don't worry, it is impossible for that spring to get inside the engine.
So with two disasters averted, I worked up a license plate holder that mounts on one of the tow loops, also called the the 'baby teeth.' It bolts through and clamps on like this:
And looks like this:
Pardon all of the bugs... unavoidable this time of year in NH.
All in all it went very well, everything turned out great, and the car is legal and a lot more worry free/pleasant to drive! I spent no money on any of the parts, which was also awesome, we just salvaged everything from scrap Bonky has kicking around.
And, a new video, now with less wind noise and real spark map and better exhaust sound! Enjoy. The car doesn't sound as fast, but it feels so, so, so much better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orRqT6hkHg4