Mx-3 Meet, NFS Shift & MX-3 Progress

Well the second official Mx-3 meet of the season went off well this past Sunday, with about a dozen members showing up. Weather looked promising, but the wind was cold, despite a sunny day.


Well another Need For Speed game is coming out for later this year. Need For Speed Shift looks to be taking the lines of ProStreet, but kicking it to a professional level, similar to the Project Gotham series, and looks very nice! Release date is currently September 22nd of this year for North America. I still haven't gotten Underground yet, so I guess I need to jump on getting those.


I had some time to work on the Xterra. I've figured out how to bypass the vacuum solenoid for the boost bypass mod. The problem is that despite everything working well with no codes, it's dropping boost down to 2psi once warmed up, and apparently this is a common problem with these trucks. Although with the boost bypass done and getting a full 6psi, it's still adjusting the timing. Fortunately fuel economy isn't really affected, but it would be nice to have the power it suppose to have, cause it feels quite good when it does. I'll have a bypass workaround posted in the next few days. This mod does not gain an extra 2-3psi as many have said it's suppose to do, it's just a fix for the boost loss that people have misinterpreted by those who do the mod on Ford Lightnings and Cobras, and GM Cobalt SSs and Ion Redlines.



Been working on tearing the motor out of the Mx-3, taking advantage of the nice weather and so far that's going fairly well. At this point, I just need to remove the axles, unbolt the mounts, and it should be out pretty quick. Work schedule has changed as of yesterday, so that won't happen until the weekend now, at least. I'm not in a rush at this point anyway, and once I'm ready to continue with the built, no matter how busy things get, I don't have to worry anymore about making time to pull out the motor. I'm glad I got progress done while I could.

Speed Traps Not Actually...Wha?

I've made an interesting observation. Yesterday I noticed a cop car parked on Welland St, just north of Killaly St E. Ironically, there was no officer in or near it, that I noticed anyway, and still no one was there when I returned down that road 15 minutes later. And just today, the same situation, this time parked in the lot of the burnt up Garrisons on West Side Rd. Again, a cop car, but no officer nearby. A dozen minutes later, we drive by, but not there's a second car pulled up beside it like they would when 2 cops are talking to each other, but again, there's no one in that first car. This would be, and I'd say an efficient way, of controlling speeders and those who run stop, by tricking motorists into behaving. This isn't something you want to gamble on either; whether or not a cop is actually there.

Also with this absolutely nice weather we've been having, the cops have been out, so be careful. There seems to be a few new unmarked units; a black with black tint Crown Victoria, and a totally stock-looking Chevy Impala where the only giveaway would be the lights on the rear deck of the car. It's got no tint, hub caps, and not antennas except for one in the location where the OnStar antenna would sit...very, very sneaky.

Knock Sensor And Boost Bypass

The knock sensor relocation mod for the Xterra is finally done. The instructions listed on http://www.nexterra.org/ by daggerdoggie were good, but his wires colors were off, as well as his pictures didn't show enough detail, so I've made my own instructions. There listed in the mods under the Xterra's Project page, but if you want a quick link, you can check it out here:
http://www.nd4spdse.net/projects/xterra/knock/index.html



Despite replacing the knock sensor, I'm still only getting 2psi of boost. I think there's something wrong somewhere, either in the vacuum bypass actuator is getting stuck, a vacuum leak or a check valve in one of the vacuum lines (if there are any) are bad. I also looked into trying to figure out this boost bypass mod and the more I look into it, the more it doesn't make sence, especially when I get no gains physically tying the bypass closed. The only thing I can think of is the stop screw may be stopping the bypass from fully closing, so I'll have to look to see what that does if I adjust it

Top Gear posted a bit of interesting news. If you've ever seen the Lamborghini Reventon is an awesome car, designed with influenced aspected from aircraft, including it's LCD dash. Only 20 of the beautiful cars were made. Well, it seems that even the rich are hurting for money, since 7 of the 20 Reventon's have been listed for sale recently, quite sad.
http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/lamborghini-reventon-2009-03-11

Oh, and one more thing. It seems that Duncan @ Titan Winches Roof Top Tents have gone up in price. He said he won't be carrying any in stock since their cost went up almost $200. Kind of unfortunately, but I am glad I got mine when I did. He said if he's order them in, he would organize it as a type of group buy, so for anyone interested, keep it in mind. I'm not sure what the quantity he needs on an order, but I hope for those interested something can be arranged.

Work, Work And Choices...

Well, I've eben really busy, between work, and even doing some computer work. Works been slow, so I've been keeping myself busy and making a few extra bucks on the side, even have to do some work designing a webstore for a company in Welland. I actually haven't has much time to even fire up the 360, surprisingly enough. Actually, I've done some running around getting shipping quotes for the SRD reproduction tie bar. Speaking of which, those are official for sale. You can see the official thread here:
http://mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=68926

I installed a boost guage in the Xterra. The interesting part about that it that I've been only boosting 2psi most of the time. I have hit the stock 6 on a few occasions, but I think it's a limitation by the ECU because of the knock sensor code. As far as I've read, the ECU isn't suppose to limit boost, but I think that may be false. We'll see what happens after we put in the new knock sensor. Also with that, I ordered a knock sensor and the Maxima pigtail from Welland Nissan. The pigtail actually came in damaged. The parts guy stared at it for about 30 seconds before saying he'd order a new one. I'm going to give him a shout tomorrow since I'd like to see about getting that done ASAP, maybe even Friday is things pan out. We'll see what the boost guage says after that's fixed. Here's a link to the knock sensor work around. Just a note, that's $300 in parts, after taxes:
http://www.nexterra.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2071&highlight=knock+sensor

I've also got a line on a job, which I should hear something about it this week. With that, I've been thinking about a commuter car since the Xterra is far from fuel efficient to do a 200km round trip daily. I was at first thinking about importing a Mazda 626 hatchback, also known as the Efini MS-6. I got a quote on a '91 with only 47'000kms on it, but they're asking $8700. I was honestly expecting a bit cheaper, considering it's not a high-demand car, but we'll see what else comes up. There's also getting the option of a domestic 626, or even get a used 4cyl Mazda6 for that price. The Mazda6 seems to get a bit worse milleage than the 626 does. Under the new EPA system, the MS-6 and '93 626 would get about 28MPG, the 2000 626 is apparently rated for 25mpg (28mpg before the EPA correction). A '93 626 probably wouldn't get the 28 from the milleage it'll have, maybe the MS-6 might. Those are all for automatics, since I'm not getting a manual to drive in traffic, as much as I'd like to, it just doesn't make sence. I also got thinking and looked into it, but the Millenia S, the supercharged 2.3L V6 gets the same milleage at a 4cyl Mazda 626 of the same years...PLUS it'll have alot of toys, including heated seats, leather and just better styling. But it would require premium fuel, but I'm guessing the MS-6 would too, more likely using a FS-ZE. So I'll be looking more into it, and the MS-6, and I don't want to jump the gun before I do hopefully get the job, but it's an idea.

Oh, and just a bit of news, I guess a record got broken for the fastest ticket issued at 250km/h. Way to go kid! Well I'll say one thing, if you're going to get caught doing 50-over, might as well go faster, the consequences are the same anyway for 150-over, no?