1968 Viva HB + Mazda quadcam V6 - now sold to a good home!

interesting that you couldn't get the torana dash to fit. I see from the steering column in yours, you have a early model. mine being a 69 hb torana I have got a hk holden steering column. I tried to put on an early series parcel shelf like you have but it just wouldn't go...I don't think that would be why the dash doesn't fit though .

You gonna make the gathering this year Alex?

So you're being owned by a small cute ball of fluff? Cats really do have it sussed don't they?!

Are you defo going to go 2.5? How about a turbo 2.0?

I reckon best bet is to buy a van and sell it on afterwards if you're here for a while. Done right they are a stable currency here. Land of the long white van etc etc..

Updates on Vivadom..

Its not getting wet carpets anymore!!!! My drain holes must be working.

I have finally got a new serial to Usb adaptor cable. No one in NZ could guarantee a cable to work with windows 8 and they all either had the prolifec chipset (no good) or couldnt tell me what they had.
I ended up buying one from the UK via Ebay and it arrived 4 days later. The new cable has a FTDI chipset inside and this works properly with windows 8 without constantly disapearing etc.

Next time I build a MS2 I'll build an adaptor inside the casing so I can just use a Usb cable straight out.

So after putting this job off for ages this afternoon Hannah and I created a new 16 x 16 fuel table to replace the current 12 x 12. With the new extra 4 lines we have filled in some areas where the old table would run out- mainly below 30 KPa and above 6000 rpm. Along with this the new table has more bins in the middle area for the most commonly seen areas in usual driving.

I thought I was going to have to start a new project in order to go up to 16x but then discovered I could just change the table size in general settings. Sweet as. This saved heaps of mucking about.

So I warmed the car up first and then Hannah loaded the new table on. The engine ran fine as the old table figures where still there. But with new areas not yet tuned we went for a drive and tuned it using the autotune feature. It still blows me away how quick, effective and easy it is to tune this megasquirt on Tunerstudio. Within 15 minutes the car was even smoother than ever on the new bigger table. Idles better because it used to fall off the bottom line below 30 KPa and use the last seen figures. Now its tuned properly in that area. The engine falls back to idle smoother and the general cruising areas on the map are neater. All equating to a even nicer car to drive about town. Off throttle with the new lower lines its running much leaner where it used to be quite rich. Economy will be even better. It still drops below 20KPa on a closed throttle but I will reinstate the fuel cut again and can then save more petrol.

Big mistake of mine was to cap the load at 95 KPa. I didn't think the car was seeing that high being N/A but I was so wrong. The last table went up to 85 but I never thought much about it. Now even at 95 it still goes off the map under heavy load up hill in say third and goes super rich. curse word! So I will look over the table and merge the closest lines so creating a new line up to 100KPa. Then more driving and smoothing of the map where it doesnt get seen so much.

I have not even touched the ignition table yet. But it seems safe enough for now with it in mind that we will hopefully get even better power and economy when we do look into it. I will get a friend who has done much tuning to help me with this as I am still learning. But boy its fun- Both Hannah and I are loving it! Beats the curse word out of messing with needles, jets, springs etc. :smile: Its so cool to click a button then feel the car getting better and better as I just drive it.

So some exciting pictures of lots of numbers for them that like lots of numbers... Any advice will be much appreciated as so much to still learn. Fun stuff this.

Ahhh quite possibly Claire's mx5. She is making adaptor kits to suit mx5's and has sold a few already with some going to the states. Quite a sweet swap I think- I would love an mx5 with this engine! There is a thread here for mx5' V6 conversions. Maybe about 8 done so far worldwide?...

forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=434146

Good info- cheers Steve. Yeah this morning I re-did the top line to 100Kpa and smoothed out all the weird numbers plus decreased all the really rich big numbers along the top. Then loaded it and drove. Just as you have mentioned we saw over 100kpa every so often when really gunning it along the flat.

I like to think that I have somehow built the Uber inlet manifold that has a mild supercharging effect. Its certainly not suffering from lack of air :-)
So now I will add yet another line up to 110 and blend two of the middle lines where numbers are similar. Cover all scenarios.

I agree with the 'autotune, manually smooth, autotune, manually smooth' approach too. Auto tune aint perfect, or actually its just tricky to get it to see some areas of the map.

We have not set AFR targets- well other than what ever the default targets are set at? So what ever its trying to tune the table to wont be perfect I guess. Certainly it doesn't want to lean up the top numbers much more than 11.5~12 which I think is still to rich.
Without looking yet I am figuring that the default ignition table is a bit retarded which wont help for a clean burn at such high revs.

So still more tuning to do but its fun and improving with every mile. We certainly went through plenty of fuel today and it will be interesting to see the next mpg figures at fill up time. But boy its quick and when this little V6 sings past 6500-7000 it sounds amazing!!!! :-)

I'd have a look at the ignition table sooner rather than later, just to make sure the numbers look vaguely sensible. I presume you've also used the fixed timing feautre and a timing light to confirm that the numbers in your table match those the engine sees?

It's well worth setting up the AFR table, at the moment you're likely to be just tuning to whatever AFR is equivalent to 2.5v coming out of the wideband. Most peoples AFR tables are only very basic, mostly 14.7 AFR, moving to 12.5-13.0 at what and often about 14.0 at idle (while everything else is not 100% sorted a slightly richer idle is more stable and easier to live with). Turbo engines obviously benefit more as you need a larger range of AFRs from cruise up to full boost. Some guys have experimented with lean burn, running as lean at 17 AFR at cruise. With the right ignition mapping there are gains to be had, but messing with it I just felt it was tiny gains for a noticeable loss in drivability.

By that you mean. " you should just ditch the carb and inject this engine Alex..." from ages back? Yeah OK... You told me so. I ditched the whole engine and fitted injection
:-)

I still have a big soft spot for rotaries and still nothing ever can beat the smoothness in power deliveryof a rotary. Or the simple engine bay. But wow I love this V6 soundtrack, the lowdown urge and yeah this injection melarchy is fun!

HAstandard- this is it for now. At a later date I do see two little turbos though....

steve- yeah at the first start up I checked the timing and it was almost spot on which is nice as it showed that I pressed my trigger wheel on accurately. Then my timing light died and has a odd bulb I can find a replacement for yet.

I'll have another look at the ignition table tonight and check it out. I realise that when I change it then the VE table will be out again.

I also need to look at the AFR target table as I think it is set to drive the auto tune into richer numbers high up. according to all the megasquirt using owners on probe talk these engines can run quite lean on cruise without any loss in drivability. Certainly seems ok so far. My cruise is still richer than it could be at between 14.7 to 15. Many are going around 15-17 with great economy.

My idle is hovering around 13.5-14 and stable...once the engine is hot. I still think the new Tridon branded thermostat is too keen to open and the engine runs cold. Will even drop 10 degrees down a 400 meter descent. Takes quite a long spot of idling for it to get to 80. I can't believe it's just my big alloy radiator at fault because at the end of the day it's the thermostat that dictates how much water can flow through the system. I have heard some bad things about Tridon brand thermostats so will buy a genuine Mazda item... $$$$$$ I bet.