The Rebirth

[BigMike]

Oh, I forgot to include how I did change out the above orange 2 amp 5 vdc relay with a more heavy duty 10 amp 5 vdc relay that also fits my breadboard soooo much better. It has a nice, positive insertion/snap into the breadboard and is very solid. Requires a lot of work to wiggle it off so I am very happy with it.

Sorry for the blurry picture, it's the only one I have.

The way it's working is that it is a DPDT relay (double-pole double-throw) meaning it has two isolated circuits. One circuit grounds the water injection solenoid while the other circuit grounds the blue LED I've installed into the face plate (that I don't have a picture of). And that's it. Pretty simple.

Pic of old 2 amp 5 vdc relay (from reply #394) that I had to "strap" down using extra wires due to how lose it fit:


Also note how I moved the LCD wire from P2 now next to the yellow Servo wire at P13. SO MUCH better. Cleaner, neater, and stronger as the two provide support for one another. (This was listed in the v3.1 Release Notes shown in reply #398.) The red and gray wires that are twisted together and leave the picture to the left are the new wires for the injection solenoid LED indicator lamp.

[BigMike]

March 19, 2015: Stepped down to 10 GPH nozzle, Shortened line to nozzle

According to this page, approximate nozzle flow rates are as follows:

• 5 GPH nozzle: Good for small displacement engines in the 150-300hp range.
• 10 GPH nozzle: Good for small displacement engines in the 200-450hp range.
• 15 GPH nozzle: Good for a large displacement engines making more than 400hp.

I've been testing a 15 GPH nozzle I had from when I Supercharged my Hilux, and a few days ago I received new 5 & 10 GPH nozzles from McMaster Car. So I figured I would switch over to the 10 GPH nozzle, or the M10 / 3178K76 nozzle.

Also, I have not tested how long I can drive aggressively on my 1 gallon water tank. Will it last for a full 20-25 minute track session? Concerns I have are... 1) I do not have any system of monitoring my water level, 2) I have yet to connect an indicator lamp for when the pump cycles, 3) If I run out of water the pump will just run forever, and 4) Even if I go up in the foothills for some spirited driving, there is no way I'll be using nearly as much WOT as on a track.

So I figured dropping down 1 injector size would be a good idea. If I run through the entire tank on my first session then I could always switch to the even smaller (5 GPH) nozzle easily before the next session.

Also, I finally got a 90-degree elbow and shortened up the distance between solenoid and injector. After doing this I realized..... why didn't I just get a 1/4" x 90-degree FITTING? Well, I already purchased it so as redundant as it is it's going into service. Also shown are these neat little red safety clips to prevent the push fit from being pushed apart, but unfortunately they don't work on all the fittings (McMaster Car P/N 51055K413).

[BigMike]

March 19, 2015 (continued): Something special came in the mail!

Uhhh ohhh!! What could these be??

[BigMike]

March 20, 2015, The final day: Changed Oil, Washed Car, plus other BONUS things!

Finished off the last two items: Changed oil & washed car! The list now looks like this:

Completed "WHAT HAS TO BE DONE" list: (T-MINUS 2 DAYS)

• Driver's rear wheel bearing
• Machine Brake Rotors
• New brake fluid
• Fix my axle seal leak
• Install new Redline MT90
• Address Clutch Master Cylinder Issue
• Water Injection
• Mount S/C & IC Fan Switches
• Mount dash mat
• Mount Propeller LCD panel
• Add a switch to my speaker system
• Change engine oil
• Clean air filter
• Wash the car

I also did the following extra stuff:
- Inspected spark plugs (they have almost 70k miles on them and I plan to replace them soon). Gaps: Cylinder 1: 0.045", 2: 0.045", 3: 0.045", 4: 0.048". Cyl 4 was strange, so I closed it down to .045".
- Measured Tire Tread Depths: Driver's Front: 6.38mm, Rear: 5.56mm, Passenger's Front: 6.38mm, Rear: 5.45mm. Decided to not rotate them (assuming the fronts will take more wear on the track).
- FINALLY replaced my original faded Marlin Crawler Turtle Stickers, which were installed back in the summer of 1999!!
- Installed a cool "I Love My MR2" sticker but way it was packaged confused me and I thought it was white. I need to order a white one now and replace this one soon.
- I built and installed a nifty Heat Shield. Ever since removing the rear carpet I had no idea how hot it gets back there. This shield is VERY nice. I got this header ceramic coated before installing it but if you ask me they did a crappy job and the coating has long since flaked off. That header gets pretty dang hot. Either that or it's running so rich that my EGTs are too high ... but I'm making good gas mileage so it's probably not that.
- Added a remote way to access the memory card of my Propeller. This way I can cycle it out easily in between sessions to label each data logging without needing to remove the new front aluminum face/cover.
- Ran Compression: Cylinder 1: 180 PSI, 2: 181 PSI, 3: 177 PSI, 4: 170 PSI. Hmmm a bit low on cylinder 4. Interesting...
- And finally, METHANOL!!!!

[BigMike]

March 20, 2015 (continued)

Regarding the methanol, I did some research. I was originally going to go with Denatured Alcohol, which is 90+% ethanol and can be found conveniently at hardware stores, but I found that it doesn't have as good of benefits as does Methanol so I looked elsewhere. In the past I had purchased a 5-gallon bucket of Methanol but the problem was that I use it so slowly that the alcohol would go flat before I could even use it all. So looking around I found that I could use HEET, a gasline antifreeze, which is 100% methanol and can be found at any auto parts store. So I did some different shopping around and took some notes:

HEET, Amazon, one 12oz bottle - $4.70 - price per 1/2 gallon: $25.07
HEET, NAPA, one 12oz bottle - $2.49 -  price per 1/2 gallon: $13.28
House Brand, NAPA, one 12oz bottle - $2.22 - price per 1/2 gallon: $11.84
Case of Polar, Amazon, twenty-four 10oz bottles - $27.95 - price per 1/2 gallon: $7.45

So while $7.45 per use seems like a lot (50/50 mix), the Denatured Alcohol approach is over $15 per half-gallon. So this approach is more than 50% cheaper and it's of a better, preferred methanol alcohol.

Broken down per bottle, it's $1.24, and if I use six, then it's a 46.9% methanol and 53.1% water (by volume). I'm happy with this.

Here I am entering five (because I was only down to about 60% water). I did have a bottle of HEET in my garage that was a few yrs old, but I figured what the hell so threw it in.

[Sirdeuce]

E-85 $3.00 per GALLON, that's uh $1.50 1/2 gallon.

[BigMike]

E-85 $3.00 per GALLON, that's uh $1.50 1/2 gallon.

Wouldn't the plus ~15% gasoline cause issues with my ECU and AFR?

[Sirdeuce]

I think the bigger concern would be mixing with water, as the gasoline may try to separate from the mix. The ethanol would mix with the water quite well. As for messing your AFR with the minimal gasoline you'll be injecting? I would think not. Never know 'til you try though.

[BigMike]

"100 pounds boost"

Never know 'til you try though.

Let's give it a go!

[Sirdeuce]

100lbs boost? Look into diesel tractor pulling. the rigs there use stooped boost levels.

[BigMike]

Oh man, I just realized I haven't updated this thread in so long

Been super busy with work events, wheeling, working on my truck, and also my wife and I have gotten an apartment in Clovis so we've been busy moving all our stuff back from San Jose! Whew it's been one heck of a busy summer to say the least!

I still need to post about my track day at Thunderhill

[Sirdeuce]

YAY! No more long distance relationship!

[BigMike]

I heard there have been a lot of juicy updates! But I don't see any! Come awn! Where are all the updates??

[BigMike]

Ok guys, gonna try to get some updates posted finally

The track event was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I should have posted a full trip report afterwards but I became very busy with wheeling events in my Hilux as well as other work on my car which is why I haven't made much time for posting here. So for now I'd like to move this thread along as I have a TON of updates to post.

I will create a separate thread for the Thunderhill track event and update this post with a link to it once I do. I did write a comment about it on a different site so I'll quote it here:

Because I had zero track experience I was supposed to sign-up for a required Driver's School but the school was full. I really wanted to attend since a fellow MR2 friend had invited me & was already registered, plus traveling there with a friend is nice since it's a 9 hour round-trip drive to the track (yes we drove our MR2s!).

So I decided to register as a normal driver and sent them an email about my situation. They thanked me for the email but said the driver's school is mandatory. Unfortunately the next available school wouldn't be for another month and worse yet it is on a Monday. So after a few more emails they offered a full-day on-board Instructor for an extra $100 as the only way they'd let me on the track. I promptly agreed to this and WOW what a GREAT decision that was!

The gentleman in my car is Andrew, the NCRC Driving Instructor assigned to me and he was AMAZING. Great coach, very polite, very calm, very well spoken, easy to listen to and understand. He gave me the option to have him drive my car first which I thought was a great idea and WOW right from the first corner I was AMAZED at how fast we were going!

Having Andrew drive my car for the first gave me the opportunity to jump straight-in with both feet at full speed. After three laps it was my time to drive and after having experienced the expected pace I entered the track at full speed from the very first corner and never looked back.

This was such a great experience and I HIGHLY recommend anyone thinking about tracking their car to have an on-board instructor for your first session. I was on the track with other novice drivers & I could see that very few were taking the proper driving line Andrew was teaching me. Without Andrew I would have just followed any random car & would have started my track experience with bad habits.

SO MUCH FUN, CAN'T WAIT TO DO IT AGAIN!

[BigMike]

Ok so I will update this once I post a separate thread about my Thunderhill experience. As for now I've got so many updates I'd like to get this thread moving, so here goes:

April 8, 2015: Installed new plugs

Outgoing plugs were IK22 Iridums installed sometime in 2011 (I can't seem to find where I documented this?). At reply #321 I mentioned them having about 60k miles as of June 2014. According to my Gas Cuddy app, my car was at 296,258 miles June 24, 2014. April 6 of this year it was at 305,139 miles. So my old Iridiums probably had 65 to 70k miles on em. Not bad

Factory gap was 0.030" and I believe I left em this way. The last pic is blurry but you can still see how worn out the ground electrode was