Sorry for the update lag, been crazy lately...

Update 30!

We quickly figured out that the area where the Miata gas pedal/throttle cable and the S2000 throttle body/intake manifold meet was going to be a problem. The cable on the miata is longer and bolts in further away from the TB than in the S2000 so a custom bracket had to be made.





The fabricator himself:













Anyway, another area where Miata met S2000 was the clutch line that feeds the slave cylinder. The Miata's slave is on the opposite side and we didn't have the soft line that connects the hard line to the slave. I decided to order all S2000 OEM parts to complete the area:



I installed the hose and the bracket that comes on the S2000:









We then ran the fan switch wires and grounded the starter:









Connected the upper and lower radiator hoses and installed a plug for the obsolete heater hose opening:











This is where the battery will go once the mount comes in:



Here is the temporary oil pressure gauge hook up, my oil filter sandwich adapter is still en route and I wanted to make sure we could read oil pressure incase we start the engine:



And thus, days and days of wiring would begin:

 

Update 31

Now a master of brackets, we located a spot for the ECU behind the dash and my dad began to make brackets to hold it:















We then put velcro on them and screwed them in:









In the mean time, John Dario and I were trying to figure out the wiring diagrams and wiring what we could:

 

I need NOS Brah!

 

You'll notice the updates lack many pictures...

The reason is because much of the last few weeks has just been studying the S2000 Electrical Manual and trying to figure out what we need and what we don't, what we have and what we don't, etc.

So Update 32 rolls in...

Random wiring pics:







You can see our fuse box over there in the corner and the main 100A fuse, these replace the large fuse box that's under the hood in your S2000:











After mapping out and basically designing the electrical system for this thing, we ended up using the engine wire harness in it's entirety and about half of the driver's side dash wire harness:





El start button and it's relay which would need to be rewired:







Rear subframe brace:







Without going into too much boring detail, we basically connected what would actually plug in to the ECU/engine sensors and tried to crank the engine. Every time we tried and it didn't start, we'd pull out the book and test continuity to the ECU/coils/starter/alternator, etc. Over the last two weeks we found out that:

-The ECU needs 3 power sources from the large engine compartment fuse box, two 7.5A and one 15A
-The alternator utilizes a 15A wire that backfeeds the system and charges the battery which is independent from its connections to the engine wire harness
-The coil packs are not powered by the main harness, they have an individual 15A feed from the fusebox.
-The AEM EMS does NOT like to lack a signal from the coolant temperature sensor at the back of the intake manifold, we had left it unhooked because I'm running a separate gauge and because we couldn't fit the plug on it (too close to firewall) and the engine was VERY unhappy. We ended up drilling a hole in the firewall large enough to both plug in the sensor and change out the sensor should we need to.
-The engine start button has a complicated circuit board and needed a 30A relay to work correctly, the starter solenoid wire had to be run individually and the start button rewired.
-The gauge cluster does not receive power from the dash harness, it needs its own 7.5A feed from the fuse box.
-The power feed to the alternator must always be on and cannot be switched.
-Killing the fuel pump and or the coils results in a choppy, bad sounding engine shut down, it's necessary to kill the ECU for it to die gracefully.

To make a short story long, end result is that we have two small fuse boxes and used 2.5 wiring harnesses rather than 3 large fuse boxes (EPS, Main underhood, and driver's side interior) and 9 harnesses that come stock on the S. The immobilizer system and key switch are totally bypassed and I can manually control the rad fan, all gauges, fuel pump, and ECU.

 

I DONT KNOW IF YOU ALREADY have one but i still have that gaugecluster i want to get rid of

 

So here is shots of the engine running.

Oil pressure:



Laptop monitoring the AEM, OHM meter showing that the alternator is charging:



Gauge cluster (coolant temp, fuel level don't work):



Once we sorted out the coolant temp sensor issue, the engine ran much better. This past weekend we got it up to operating temperature and adjusted the base timing with a timing light and the laptop. Next up is tidying up the wiring harnesses and attaching them to the firewall so we can put the dash back in.

 

Alex great work and great progress on what will soon be an excellent track car. Who will be tuning your AEM?


Armando

 

Good question, I started the with the base map last Wednesday and have been tweaking it since. I've done basic stuff like:

1) Set base timing
2) Calibrated the throttle position sensor
3) Fixed values in the Intake Air Temp sensor calibration (they're WAY off from AEM)
4) Fixed values in the Coolant Temperature sensor calibration (these are slightly off)
5) Set the check engine light to come on if the car goes over 210F
6) Tweaked the idle enrichment map so that it reaches operating temp more smoothly

Etc, so basically the car can be driven but I wouldn't beat on it or anything. Originally I wanted to learn to tune on this car but at this point I'm ready to take it to a dyno and have it done exactly how I want by someone knowledgable.

I loved my Frank tune on the silver S and it's a shame he's gone so I'm going to go talk shop with Jared from JDM Motorsports this week to feel him out. He has a Dyno Dynamics machine (load dyno, very important to me) so we'll see, otherwise I'm off to 2NR WERKS up in Tampa.

I'd much rather have JDM do it because they're local and this car will have to be retuned when the Hytech Header and Cams arrive. I'm crossing my fingers ;p

 

Why the 2 mph reading on the gauge cluster? You going to yank the bulbs out of the fuel/temp gauges prior to final?

 

I'm going to guess that the car was in the air and the rear wheels where slowly turning.

Nice progress Alex!! Looking forward to seeing the beast soon.