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Chainringtattoo's Build Thread

64K views 313 replies 38 participants last post by  mtnghost 
#1 ·
I figured since things are slow around here I'll start a build thread. I've actually been modding the car since August so I'll catch this thread up in short order.

I've done several things already. There are more things to do in the coming weeks. I've made some mistakes which I've mostly been able to overcome. Maybe this thread will help someone avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way. In spite of the things that have gone wrong I'm happy with the car and the direction I'm going.

We'll start with April 12, 2018. That's the day I flew into Houston, TX to pick up the car from Northside Imports and drove it 1400 miles back to Grand Junction, CO. I had my first bit of bad luck on the drive through West Texas as I hit a sand storm that lasted about two hours at least. Visibility was so bad at one point I had to stop and wait it out. Fortunately, the paint didn't suffer too badly.

Here it is at the dealer.


And here it is two days later all cleaned up from the sand storm.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
July 20, 2018 - 3,933 Miles

Thanks to my good friend @depotdan, I got a sweet deal on a GFB GV+, my very first mod. I highly recommend this as a cheap and easy first mod. It's not a power mod but does make the car run smoother. This is about 20 minutes to install. Put a towel or something underneath just in case you get clumsy and drop a screw. This can be installed without removing the coolant tank but I take off the two bolts holding the coolant tank and shift it to the side just so I can get better purchase on the hex screws holding the diverter valve on.

I've since moved on to a different blow off valve so if someone wants the same sweet deal I got on this GFB send me a PM so we can let this live on in someone else's car.

 

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#3 ·
June 16, 2018 - Grand Junction Motor Speedway

So my bad, I got out of chronological order right off the bat and missed my first track day in the Spider. After all, this is what the build is all about. If you don't know where Grand Junction is, well it's a long way from everywhere. We don't have a real road course here so we make do on a .9 mile kart track. It's a lot of fun and it's a fairly safe place to drive. It's not as good as a real road course but much better than an autocross course in my opinion. And you get multiple laps in a session instead of one 40-60 second run. You're going to work your tires and brakes on this course.

My best time this day was a 70.71. To give some perspective, on this day a course record by car was set at 59.502. That's an insanely fast time. The guy who set it is a great driver and set it in a 300 HP Mazda Miata NA with full aero package. My car was bone stock this day. Not even the GFB was on it.





You can see how many tight turns the GJMS has.
 

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#6 ·
So my bad, I got out of chronological order right off the bat and missed my first track day in the Spider. After all, this is what the build is all about. If you don't know where Grand Junction is, well it's a long way from everywhere. We don't have a real road course here so we make do on a .9 mile kart track. It's a lot of fun and it's a fairly safe place to drive. It's not as good as a real road course but much better than an autocross course in my opinion. And you get multiple laps in a session instead of one 40-60 second run. You're going to work your tires and brakes on this course.

My best time this day was a 70.71. To give some perspective, on this day a course record by car was set at 59.502. That's an insanely fast time. The guy who set it is a great driver and set it in a 300 HP Mazda Miata NA with full aero package. My car was bone stock this day. Not even the GFB was on it.





You can see how many tight turns the GJMS has.


This looks like a really fun track !!!
For a stock car to be that close from the track record speaks volumes of its
Capabilities and your driving , well done !!! Hopefully I can join you one day next year . You’re not too far ? haha .
Oh and from my experience you’ll go faster with the top up , just slightly less fun :)
 
#4 ·
Fun looking track!
 
#5 ·
June 22, 2018 - Infotainment tweaks

This was actually my "first"mod to the car and the one that still has the biggest bang for the buck. A big shout out to @ameridan for his fantastic blog. Dan has spent a ton of time adding content on our 124s and I refer to his blog constantly. If you haven't done the infotainment tweaks yet I highly recommend it.
 
#9 ·
July 27, 2018 - 4,095 miles

Took the car to the Western Colorado Dragway. My best run was a 15.349 @ 87.38 MPH. All part of the testing process. I think that time is a bit generous because a storm was blowing in and I got a bit of a tail wind. The correction factor is also generous because of the altitude and desert heat.

@Spoolin32 stay tuned. Track videos coming.





 

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#10 ·
August 25, 2018 - 4,843 miles

Installed Tork Stage 1 tune.

August 31, 2018 - 4,960 miles

Dynoed the stock and Tork tune at Flyin' Miata. Dyno numbers are uncorrected and were done on a Dynocom 5000 series 2 wheel dyno. Dyno numbers are wheel horse power.



4th Gear Pull
Stock - 150whp/179.2 ft lbs torque
Tork Stage 1 - 179.7 whp/207.4 ft lbs torque


A 5th gear pull with Stage 1 yielded 177.5whp/228.6 ft lbs torque. The yellow line is the Tork tune. The green line is Flyin' Miata dyno test of an EC ED+Lite.


For giggles I asked for a comparison of the Tork Tune against Flyin' Miata's 2019 Miata ND2. Remember these are uncorrected numbers.


The Tork tune is better everywhere but where the stock tune feels more linear, except for that weird dip at 4700 RPMs, the Tork tune definitely has a peak at 4,500 RPMs before it starts tailing off. I was expecting about a 20% WHP gain and that's what I got. The torque bump is massive and definitely made the car more fun to drive.
 

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#11 ·
September 7, 2018 - 5,026 miles

Took car to Western Colorado Dragway to verify dyno results. Car is stock at this point with the exception of the Tork Stage 1 and the GFB DV+ diverter valve.

Best run was a 15.031 @ 91.62 MPH. Once the correction was figured in the horse power numbers matched the dyno numbers from the previous week. This seems to be a very good way to back up your dyno results and if you can't get to a dyno, to figure out how much horse power you have.





September 8, 2018 - 5,070 miles

Track day at Grand Junction Motor Speedway. I missed the July track day and there wasn't one in August. It was brutally hot this day and no one was posting very good times, still I managed to set a personal best of 69.995, about 7/10ths faster than my previous time. The Tork power helped and gave me another gear I did not have on one section of the track. Counter clockwise on this track is a bit more challenging as you get into a four wheel drift coming into the long sweeper. You need to straighten the car up here before you brake hard or the rear end will pass you up.
 

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#13 ·
Took car to Western Colorado Dragway to verify dyno results. Car is stock at this point with the exception of the Tork Stage 1 and the GFB DV+ diverter valve.

Best run was a 15.031 @ 91.62 MPH. Once the correction was figured in the horse power numbers matched the dyno numbers from the previous week. This seems to be a very good way to back up your dyno results and if you can't get to a dyno, to figure out how much horse power you have.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hNJuHB7H5M

September 8, 2018 - 5,070 miles

Track day at Grand Junction Motor Speedway. I missed the July track day and there wasn't one in August. It was brutally hot this day and no one was posting very good times, still I managed to set a personal best of 69.995, about 7/10ths faster than my previous time. The Tork power helped and gave me another gear I did not have on one section of the track. Counter clockwise on this track is a bit more challenging as you get into a four wheel drift coming into the long sweeper. You need to straighten the car up here before you brake hard or the rear end will pass you up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHJhK_D2A-0

Seriously great driving !!! Thanks for the share
 
#12 · (Edited)
September 19, 2018 - 5,276 miles

Not a mod but important to what happens to the car later. I took the car in to the dealer for the U76 recall. In preparation I flashed back to the stock tune. The dealer botched the install and the next day the car died in the middle of the road while I was out for a drive. It had to be towed 60 miles back to the dealer for a brand new powertrain control module (PCM) to be installed. That took a week while the dealer waited on parts.

Lesson learned here: IF YOUR CAR IS RUNNING WELL DON'T LET THE DEALER TOUCH IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO.

 

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#14 · (Edited)
I picked up the car from the dealer today and all seems well with the new PCM, in stock form at least.

I also installed a set of Enkei TS-10 wheels that I bought from Auto Ricambi and shoed them with a set of Dunlop Direzza ZIIIs in 235/40R-17. This is a really nice wheel/tire combo that I'm very happy with. The wheels are lighter than stock wheels but unfortunately the tires are heavier so I actually had a slight net gain at each corner. I originally ordered a set of Bridgestone RE71Rs but was afraid I'd get some rubbing when I lower the car. The Dunlops looked like the best second choice but were a bit more expensive than the Bridgestones.

The Enkei TS-10 are beautiful high quality wheels. I did not remove the TPMS from the stock wheels and instead bought 2 sets of TPMS from Amazon that are working well. I Just wish they came in black. I used McGard wheel lugs I bought from Good-Win Racing. These are very nice and highly recommend.


Side by side view of stock 205/45R-17 vs Dunlop 235/40R-17


This wheel tire combination fills out the wheel well nicely and doesn't rub. I haven't lowered the car yet but others are running this same combination with no issues on lowered cars.


My one gripe. Pay attention to where your installer mounts the balancing weight when you pick them up. I didn't and I still haven't gotten around to having them move it to a less visible spot.


Oh yeah, look whose car is on the cover of the 2019 Fiat Club of America calendar. :D
 

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#41 ·
Exact same combo I had on mine. Loved it.
When I got mine they added lack weights to the wheel. Shane they didn’t do that.
+1 on the ceramic coating those babies.
Looks sharp!!
 
#18 ·
October 2, 2018 - 5,863 miles

Installed the Eurocompulsion front mount intercooler. I did this by myself and took my time. I think it was at least 11 hours total for me. So far, no issues whatsoever with the intercooler. My only concern is longevity of the hoses as no matter how you route them, you will have slight rubbing against something.





Stock vs EC intercooler



The stock IC piping chokes down to 1.5" (38mm) in places.


So don't do what I did at the end. After 11 hours I wasn't thinking straight and wanted it to be over with. I carelessly banged down my negative battery terminal cable with butt end of a screwdriver and broke the sensor. I didn't even see that sensor until I broke it. If you do this you'll get a warning that your battery is no longer charging and you need to pull over immediately. I was able to repair the sensor with some glue but my dealer kindly gave me a new one under warranty. It's a good thing because this part is $500!




 

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#19 ·
October 6, 2018 - 5,886 miles

Back to the point of the build. Track day at Grand Junction Motor Speedway. Car is on stock tune as I still haven't gotten a new tune from Tork after having the PCM replaced after the recall debacle. Mods for this session are the new wheels and tires and the EC intercooler. Oh yeah, the stubby antenna probably helped knock off .5 second as well.

My best lap of the day was a 67.171. I've been grouped in with these people for the last couple of track days and now I'm pushing past them. Today's time is 2.824 seconds faster than my previous outing. I'm down 30 HP today but the tires and cooler weather more than make up for the lack of horsepower. I'm really pleased with the Dunlops. Once I got them scrubbed in they started hooking up really well.



 

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#20 ·
October 7, 2018 - 5,925 miles

Installed the Good-Win Racing SportCat and Roadster Sport resonated exhaust. This installation would have been fairly easy if it weren't for the cheap bolts used on the stock catalytic converter. More often than not they snap off when trying to remove. That's what happened to me and I ended up having to go get new ones. Save yourself some trouble and have spare grade 8 x 1.25 x 35 (or 40) on hand. Total install time was about 12 hours because I spent four hours looking for parts.



I had to tap out the bolt holes in order to get the new ones to screw in.


This is everything you have to remove for the SportCat and exhaust install.


The stock heat shield goes back on the SportCat. Brian Goodwin says they have moved the position of the O2 sensor for future versions. That's a good thing.


While I was at it, I threw on the PTP Turbo blanket. This is a nice mod. I can tell a difference in under hood temps just using this blanket. Plus I think it looks kind of cool.


And this is what the final product sounds like.
 

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#22 ·
October 24, 2018 - 6,371 miles

Installed the Forge recirculating blow off valve and the Forge Intake Pressure Compensation Valve.

I consider the Forge BOV to be an upgrade to the GFB DV+ Diverter valve. Is is a huge improvement? Not enough that you can tell by seat of the pants driving but with a boost gauge you can tell that it's slightly better because it holds boost just a bit better than the GFB. If you aren't after every percentage point of performance I don't think it's worth it over the GFB. It's not a cheap mod.

Now the IPCV is a different story. The idea behind the IPCV is that you can use a light spring in the BOV as the IPCV is going to send pressure to the top of the BOV on boost to keep it closed which allows you to run the light spring instead of a heavy spring to keep it closed as boost pressure increases. The light spring allows a quicker recovery than the heavy spring does. Does it work? I have no idea if it's an improvement or not. I can't think of a way to really test this to see if it improves anything. It might be worth if you are pushing high boost on one map and lower boost on another. The reason is that the IPCV allows you to run varying boost pressures without losing performance in the BOV due to mismatched spring rate. There is one drawback to the IPCV that I will cover in a future post.

The thread that covers the Forge Intake Pressure Compensation Valve in more detail can be found here.





I mounted the solenoid here because it was the only place I had with the stock air intake.
 

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#24 ·
Installed the Forge recirculating blow off valve and the Forge Intake Pressure Compensation Valve.

I consider the Forge BOV to be an upgrade to the GFB DV+ Diverter valve. Is is a huge improvement? Not enough that you can tell by seat of the pants driving but with a boost gauge you can tell that it's slightly better because it holds boost just a bit better than the GFB. If you aren't after every percentage point of performance I don't think it's worth it over the GFB. It's not a cheap mod.

I'm with you 100% on that assessment. The Forge valve is quite a bit more expensive, and the installation is more complicated. It's improvement over the GFB is very slight and for most people, probably not worth it.



There are however some cases where I think the Forge is absolutely a better choice.


1. If you need that last bit of power, and need it consistently.

2. For tunes beyond our Phase 2, I suggest using it.
3. If you want that whoosh sound when the valve blows off, the Forge (specifically the atmospheric version) is the best way to go. If you are doing self tuning it's a big plus because you can easily tell when and if the valve is opening.


Greg
 
#23 · (Edited)
October 24, 2018 - 6,382 miles

Finally, after waiting almost a month, I received a new tune from Tork for the replaced ECU. My original handheld stopped working and I had to buy a new one. The original handheld was only able to read the stock ECU twice before it locked up and couldn't read again. Sending it back to Tork didn't fix it so in the end I bought a second one.





John sent the tune to me around 9:30 PM the night before I was making a 600 mile trip down to Phoenix to attend the Bondurant school and while I was at it I figured I could race @Calehedron at Wild Horse Pass.

I hated not having any test time before embarking on a 600 mile drive. The tune was not performing well on the drive down and I knew I couldn't race it. I didn't yet have a boost gauge but I could see my tachometer rising and falling as I tried to accelerate. It was also backfiring a lot and I was getting a strange noise from the engine in the 4000 RPM range as I tried to accelerate. It sounded like valves clattering at high speed. Whatever it was, I decided it was best to go back to stock when I got to Phoenix.

I reached out to John and he sent me another tune around 4 PM on October 26. I loaded it and drove the five miles straight to Wild Horse Pass to meet up with with @Calehedron and @zxtwou2. It was bumper to bumper traffic the whole way so I barely was able to get into third gear, let alone see if the tune worked or not.

In the first race I got off the line pretty good and handily beat Ken, who did not get off very well. But looking at the time and my trap speed I knew my car was down on power. Way down. And I knew his car was faster. My time corrected to 14.772 @ 92.223 MPH which is about 3/10ths off when I had done earlier on just a tune and no mods. I'm car 123 and Ken is car 14.



On the second run I nailed the light with a .055 reaction time but I was too enthusiastic and spun the tires and before I could grab second gear I heard the engine get REALLY loud all of the sudden. I thought for a split second I had blown the engine and in my lapse of concentration I hit the rev limiter. I shifted and kept my foot in it but before the 60' line Ken came rocketing past me and was gone. He had set the fastest 1/4 mile time by a stock turbo 124. He went on to break his own record again another day. I had blown my mid-pipe apart at the sleeve. I borrowed tools from other racers and fixed it in the pits. I had to drive the car home 600 miles the next day so figured best not to press my luck. Besides, I knew my Tork tuned car was not as fast Ken's EC tuned car.



The tune had boost dump issues. It turned out to be something John could not fix.
 

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#26 · (Edited)
October 27, 2018 - 7,634 miles

I got together with a couple of friends for an impromptu track day and what turned out to be the last one of the year. My best time of the day was 66.201. That's 4.5 seconds faster than my first day out when the car was still bone stock. It doesn't sound like much, but it is. The temps were in the 50s and later the 60s so it was very favorable for fast times. The video of my fastest lap didn't come out very good. I think I'm around 66.7 in the below video. I can see several mistakes I'm making and know where I need to improve. The fast guys are telling me I'm still leaving almost two seconds just in mistakes.



The Fiat 124 is considered an economical car but it can be quite uneconomical if you push it. I burned almost two gallons of gas in less than 10 minutes on the track. >:) I showed up with almost a half tank of gas thinking that would be enough for the day but after just two sessions the fuel light came on and the range indicated 0.


So how much did the mods help? Well, when the car was still completely stock I asked Brian Ruble, who holds the track record in both directions, to go see what he could do in the car so I'd know how much I was leaving on the table as a driver. His best lap was a 68.88 compared to my 70.71. Now I'm almost 2.7 seconds faster than Brian was. Yes, the mods helped but much of that time is simply due to better tires. My goal is 64s for next year. Our club divides up into five categories. The car is already fast enough to compete two categories up now. We might change the classification system up next year so we'll see where I shake out.

Unfortunately, my lapse in concentration cost me when I missed a turn, went off track and a cone knocked off the passenger side rocker panel. No serious damage was done but the repair cost me $546. I had the body shop make the modifications recommended in this technical service bulletin. If you are tracking or autocrossing your car you should do this because it doesn't take much of a blow to knock the rocker panels off.







And finally a comment on the Goodwin Racing exhaust. If you don't get the collar exactly centered up on the mid-pipe you're going to find yourself fixing a rattle a lot or worse, blowing the mid-pipe apart during a race. This was the fourth time I fixed a rattle. The best way is measure and mark a spot so you know that you get equal amounts of collar on both sides. Then torque down like mad. The below photo was taken before I hit the cone and the wheels got so hot the center caps fell off. Fortunately they all fell off in the pits. I've since reattached them with high temperature adhesive.
 

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#27 · (Edited)
Seems like you installed a lot of mods after the U76 fail and before your new tune. I think John could be right that something might be mechanically wrong with your car considering both your Tork and EC tunes had the same issue on the first revision. It might just be a small problem that is unnoticeable on the stock tune but really comes out on a hotter tune, and EC might have compensated for it so your car can run even though the root cause is still there. This is why I always install my mods one at a time and test between each mod... if a whole bunch went in and something went wrong the possible causes could be endless.
 
#29 ·
It's a possibility John is on to something. And I had originally planned on doing one mod at time. But I had already set many balls in motion months before the recall fail and decided to stay on track so I could get some testing in at the track before the end of the season because the first season was about preparing for the upcoming season. I never thought proven mods like an intercooler and exhaust would cause any problems. Those were the only two substantial mods that I didn't remove in looking for the cause. Hindsight I suppose. Maybe @tuning@eurocompulsion will comment if he made allocations for mechanical defects in my car.
 
#30 ·
Definitely check for kinks in the intercooler hosing, especially the very first bend after the turbo outlet. If you disconnect the hose at the turbo outlet and the end of the hose extends way past the turbo/hose interface when allowed to sit naturally, you may have a kink at the first bend that can disrupt airflow. Something worse than that has happened to me because of the kink.

I don't think there's much that can go wrong with the exhaust.
 

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#31 ·
I should have the car up this weekend for more scheduled mods so I'll take a look. I don't think that is my problem but worth a look. I've got almost 2,400 miles on the intercooler now and I think if I had a kink like you're talking about I'd be able to see that in the boost levels. On a separate note I've also done a boost leak test already and it took 20 seconds to drop from 25 PSI to 20 PSI and forever to drop from 15 PSI to 0. I'm good to go there.
 
#34 ·
HAHAHHAHA

well the good thing is... @Chainringtattoo you are stirring the pot on your OWN thread. AHAHAHAHHAAHAH


aloha mike
 
#36 ·
November 4, 2018 - 7,689 miles

Installed the Vaitrix boost gauge. This is a really nice looking boost gauge that matches the decor of the car very well. Unfortunately, it's not a cheap gauge. I think it has been popular with many members here. It has two features I like. One, you can set an alarm for a maximum boost level and two, you can recall the max boost you saw during a particular run.

I think my only major complaint of this car is that it didn't come with a stock boost gauge. That's because Fiat let Mazda design the interior. Once you have a boost gauge you wonder how you got along without one. Especially if your are into really driving your car hard.

Since installing this gauge I've had a recurring problem with the needle slapping off the -30 mark when I go off throttle. This is occurring because the gauge is losing signal due to a poor power connection on the back. The small connector won't lock in and the vibrations of the car are working it loose ever so slightly and the signal starts dropping again no matter how many times I reset the connector. Fortunately, I bought this from Eurocompulsion so they have offered to replace it but before I ask them to do that I'm going to go over all my connections one more time just to make sure it isn't user error.



When I was done installing the boost gauge I did the CLD sound deadening mod in the trunk. I didn't think this mod was important until my wife and I took a trip one day and I noticed how much better the car sounded with the trunk full of stuff. After I installed the Goodwin exhaust I needed something to knock down the buzzing and drone. Five tiles did the trick for me. I just tapped around and stuck a piece of tile where I heard the gong sound. When I didn't hear the gong anymore I stopped. Yes, I added weight to the car. Maybe 8 ounces in total. I don't know for sure as I didn't weigh each tile. But because the Mrs already hates my exhaust I decided I'd at least try to make it a little more tolerable for her.

 

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#37 ·
@chainrintatoo . Steve I’m happy that things are finally turning around for you. You’ve had too many months of frustration. Finally you can take the time to enjoy your car again. I won’t stir the tuning pot. I’ll just say that you are on the right track. Looking forward to meeting you at Fiat on the Rockies.

I saw a clip of your drag strip on MotorTrend TV. Pretty cool.

Dan
Thanks Dan. And speaking of Fiat in the Rockies I think @68wooley and I need to get back on planning that.
 
#40 · (Edited)
December 15, 2018 - 8,035 miles

Installed the Forge waste gate actuator.

For most people this is a completely unnecessary mod as the stock waste gate performs sufficiently even with the added boost of after market tunes. But as with most after market parts, the Forge just does it better and looks cooler doing it.

I purchased the Forge WGA when I was still hunting for a solution to my boost dump issue thinking this might help. It alone didn’t solve the issue but did allow Toby more tuning options as the Forge unit has a greater adjustment range than the stock WGA. Plus, did I mention it looks pretty good?

For comparison, the stock WGA has a crack pressure of about 6.5 PSI. I ultimately set the crack pressure on the Forge to 11 PSI after replacing the stock yellow spring with the lighter green spring. For more discussion on the Forge WGA see this thread.

73866


73867


73868
 
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