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Thread: mrpham's build

  1. #46
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Custom Wiring Harness - http://omgpham.com/custom-wiring-harness-part-1

    I decided that since my car would be off the road for a month or two as I work on the engine, it would be a great chance to do a custom wiring harness for the car. This would mean the body and engine/ECU wiring harnesses would be separated and independent of each other. Try to keep it all as simple as possible, will be especially nice to have a dedicated harness for the Megasquirt =)

    So I was lucky enough to pickup an entire wiring harness (body, main, power, dash) for a decent price and got started working on it.


    I've stripped the following from the harness so far:

    • All engine wiring
    • Air Flow Meter
    • Ignitors & coils (going COPs for the Megasquirt)
    • IAC valve
    • Purge valve
    • O2 (going dedicated wideband)
    • AC stuff
    • Power-steering
    • Clutch switch
    • Neutral switch
    • Fan switch (Megasquirt will control fans)
    • probable more... can't remember


    All engine/ECU related fuses and relays will be kept separate and located close to the ECU. The engine bay fuse/relay box will be made redundant and relocated under the dash as there will only be four fuses used at that location.



    After a long day of peeling tape and cutting wires...


    99% complete with the main harness, you can see the pile of tape and wires removed in this photo. Seems a bit excessive doesn't it?


    This is the wiring kit from DIYAutoTune, pretty handy. Will be used for engine to ECU wiring.


    I then spent the rest of the afternoon de-pinning the ECU terminals so I could salvage the pins to re-use. It sucks having a budget...

  2. #47
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    ITB Clean & Paint - http://omgpham.com/itb-clean-paint

    My ITBs were pretty dirty so I had them sent out to Chilton Engineering for some sand-blasting, got it all back today and they came out great! It was also recommended that I give the ITBs a coat of paint to keep them clean.

    I picked up some VHT Primer Coat and Quick Coat in the aluminium finish, was considering painting them black but decided against it. Some clean silver aluminium will look spiffy in between the black adapter and velocity stacks.



    Fresh from the sand blaster, so clean. Had to mask the ITBs again to get it ready for paint. VHT Primer Coat and Quick Coat in aluminium finish.


    I was told a long time ago to always have spray cans dipped in hot water while you paint, apparently it gives a better spray or something. Don't know if it's true but it kind of makes sense.



    Hanging out on the clothes line getting the primer coat sprayed on.


    Primer coat all done!



    Top aluminium coat lightly sprayed on, did a few "dusting" coats before I did a wet coat.



    Top coats all done and left to dry.


    All done!

    Going to give it a week to completely dry before I start putting it all back together.

  3. #48
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    ITBs muhahahaha - http://omgpham.com/itbs-muhahaha

    So I'm still waiting for the paint to dry on the ITBs, going to be a long 7- days... But I couldn't wait so I did a dummy fit of the trumpets (velocity stacks) on the ITBs.

    I'm so WET with excitement!



  4. #49
    Admin / Pit Boss / Miataholic Phatmiata's Avatar
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    The attention to detail on this is insane!! Love it! Keep it up!

  5. #50
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phatmiata View Post
    The attention to detail on this is insane!! Love it! Keep it up!
    Thanks mate!

  6. #51
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Custom Wiring Harness Part 2 - http://omgpham.com/custom-wiring-harness-part-2

    Over the last couple of days I finished off the main body harness, it's basically just wiring for the exterior lights and all in-cabin stuff plus fuses. It started out as a big mess but I think I did a pretty decent job in cleaning it up, also was able to relocate the engine bay fuse box to under the dash.

    Another thing I did was remove all the stupid tape Mazda used on "wire splits" and replaced it with heat-shrink, I HATE TAPE!


    I used zip ties instead of tape to bundle the wiring harness, all engine bay wiring will have convoluted tubing to protect it from stuff.



    Removing the stupid tape and replacing it with heat-shrink.




    Main body harness completed, now to start on the power and engine harness...

  7. #52
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    ITB Synchrometer (Syncrometer) - http://omgpham.com/itb-synchrometer-syncrometer

    I picked up a Synchrometer from a local Motorsport business, Dirt Devil Ind., just located 30mins from Brisbane. It's used to tune/sync ITBs or carburetors for a smoother idle and acceleration. It's not really necessary but why not hey?

    It works by measuring air flow through the trumpet (velocity stacks). The synchrometer has a tapered rubber tip that inserts into the ITB opening, than using the bypass adjust screw to set each throttle body for the right amount of air flow at idle.



  8. #53
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Mate dropped off some Toyota COPs (Coil Over Plugs) for me today, going to use them with the Megasquirt instead of the factory ignitor/coils. Should be killer





    We also tried out the Synchrometer on his ITB'd Daihatsu Mira Van, it's a fucking beast!

    http://omgpham.com/synchronising-ians-itbs




    It's a slightly tedious process because adjustments on one throttle body will affect the others, so it can take a few goes to get it right. Once the ITBs are synced though, the idle speed needs to be adjusted too, with Ian's car the idle ended up being higher.

  9. #54
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Build Update - http://omgpham.com/build-update

    Not much has been happening but some updates for the build so far.

    I received my first batch of Brake Cylinder Braces, so took some photos of what it looks like installed. It's too hard to take photos of the install, so will be doing it on a bare chassis in a few weeks.


    Excuse my dirty engine bay.

    I've also decided to ditch the old style CAS and go with dedicated crank and cam angle sensors. They're used in later model BP4W engines as well as NB6 engines.

    Started my ECU harness too. Re-used the ECU connectors and just de-pinned the terminals so I could solder new wires on. Was a tedious process but well worth it, sensors/injectors/coils connectors will be installed later.


    mmmm so fresh so clean.


    Cleaned up all the connectors that I plan to re-use, de-pinned and bought new rubber seals.

    Picked up this cool passenger foot well plate from MX-5 Plus. No idea what brand it is, but it looks useful as it'll give me more space for the MegaSquirt and fuse/relay panel.



    Made a decision to get rid of the of standard coil/ignitors and go with the very popular "Toyota COPs". Coil-On-Plugs provide a much better spark as well as giving me sequential spark with the MegaSquirt.

    Last edited by mrpham; 05-24-2012 at 02:13 AM.

  10. #55
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    ITB Assembly - http://omgpham.com/itb-assembly

    The enamel paint on the ITBs finally dried, didn't air dry in 7-days like the instructions said. And I actually had it in the oven for a total of 12-hours at 60degrees. That was annoying...

    Anyway, I had some time today so I went for a drive in search for new throttle plate screws. The factory screws are M3 which are "mushroomed" from factory to stop them from ever backing out. I drilled these out so I could pull apart the throttle bodies for sand-blasting and paint. Checkout the photos here - http://omgpham.com/itb-strip-clean.

    The shop is called Small Parts & Bearings, they stock a huge range of screws and taps. Had a chat with them at the shop and they recommended the M3.5x0.6 Hex Cap screws. I bought the required tap too, total was $18. Not too bad I thought.


    First step was to drill out the hole slightly and then tap the new thread.


    Just test fitting the new screws, had to cut/shorten the screw too.


    The assembly station, used a syringe to apply oil in the tight spots. Also picked up some spare ITBs for parts, was great having them there so I could check how everything went back together.


    One throttle body done, three more to go.


    All four throttle bodies assembled!

    This next part is a bit hard to explain, but basically the Toyota throttle linkages don't really match up with the stock Mazda throttle cable. There's a bit of slack as well as not enough travel in the throttle pulley. The idea is to make more space between the throttle cable stop and the throttle linkages, this removes any slack in the cable. It's quite straight forward to do, just have to move some parts around so that the throttle linkages sit on cylinder #3 and #4 instead of #2 and #3.

    After re-assembling the throttle bodies, the service manual outlines the procedures to adjust all four linkages that "daisy-chain" the throttle bodies together. I'll do that in the next couple of days hopefully.


    I can't wait to get these on the car!

  11. #56
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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  12. #57
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! moerdogg's Avatar
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    Awesome build! Those ITBs turned out great!

  13. #58
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    ITB Update - http://omgpham.com/itb-update

    In my previous update I posted up about reassembling my ITBs. I had to use new screws to hold the throttle plates as the old ones were drilled out, they were replaced with socket cap screws but I was recommended to use something with a smaller profile head. I've now replaced the screws with button head socket screws.


    The screws were also cut down so not much thread was left sticking out on the other side.

    Spent some time over the weekend dialing up the ITB adjustment screws, still a few things to sort out and hopefully they won't cause issues down the track.



    Stupid little adjusting screws, very tedious!


    Finally received my FPR adapter piece for the M-Tunes fuel rail.


    Gave the foot-well plate a good clean.

  14. #59
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! friday's Avatar
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    I dig the car, it looks great with those wheels.

  15. #60
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! mrpham's Avatar
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    Wiring Update - http://omgpham.com/wiring-update

    Small update... some wiring parts arrived and picked up a white board to help me scribble down wiring stuff. It's been pretty handy



    According to the MegaSquirt manual, it's a pretty good idea to shield the TPS and trigger wires. So have been on the search for a flexible 2-core shielded cable, ended up deciding on a microphone cable from JayCar (part no. WB1530).



    Terminated the shielding into it's own BLACK wire, this will grounded at the ECU end and left floating on the sensor end. The BLUE wire will be used for sensor return and the WHITE for sensor ground. The +5V/+12V wire will be run externally to the shield.



    My awesome PURPLE (and grey) Deutsch connectors, all solid terminals too.


    This is the relay block I'll be using, it's all modular so you can expand if needed.

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