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PostPosted: December 5, 2013, 1:27 pm 
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Joined: May 10, 2010, 12:46 pm
Posts: 78
Mhm wrote:
Would you be willing to share the info Burns provided on the header and exhaust design.
I'm also going to use the ZX12R engine in my build and would need to build a custom header for it.



Sure. The first thing is there are two designs: one for a 4-2-1 and one for a 4-1. Though the 4-2-1 had a slight performance gain over the 4-1, I still went with the 4-1 because I expected it to be easier to package and it was cheaper to buy one 4-1 collector than it was to buy three 2-1 collectors. The 4-1 calls for primaries that total 24" in length. The original design was for the first 12" to be 1.5" OD stepping to the second 12" being 1.625" OD. That makes the collector have 1.625" inputs. Finally, the collector is a 2.25" OD on the output.

Here's the catch though: the exhaust ports on the ZX12 have a rather small cross section: 1.283 sq inches. That's equal to a 1.278" diameter hole. The ID of the 1.5", 16ga pipe is 1.375". So there would be relatively large cross section change right where the head meets the first primary diameter. So we revised the design to a tri-step header. Keeping the same 24" overall length primaries, we now have the first 8" at an OD of 1.375, the 2nd 8" at 1.5 OD and the 3rd 8" at 1.625 OD.

16ga pipe has a .0625" wall. Since each step is .125" on the diameter, the small pipe fits snugly into the next larger size which makes setting up the header a little easier.

Hope this helps!


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PostPosted: December 5, 2013, 1:35 pm 
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Joined: May 10, 2010, 12:46 pm
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paigeo wrote:
Where did you get your info , hardware and software to reprogram your ecu? I have a 2005 ZX10r and am hoping this will work on it. Any help will be much appreciated.


I got everything from a bikeland.org member who goes by "Ridgeracer". He basically reverse engineered the ECU which is detailed in an epic forum thread here:
http://www.bikeland.org/board/viewthread.php?FID=1&TID=23797&

Some more practical information (kind of a summary of what to do) from the same guy is on another forum here:
http://ecuhacking.activeboard.com/f315286/kawasaki-zx-12r-ecu/

My guess is that the work he did for the '12 won't apply to the '10. It's very specific to the chip used in that ECU: a 16bit motorola chip.

There is a ZX10 area of ecuhacking.active board here:
http://ecuhacking.activeboard.com/f378445/kawasaki-zx-10-ecu/

A quick scan looks like they figured it out for the later models but maybe not the '05?


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PostPosted: December 18, 2013, 12:49 pm 
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Joined: May 10, 2010, 12:46 pm
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Quick update: The ECU reprogram worked! I set the rev limiter to 6k and gave it a shot. Hit the throttle and it just bounced off 6k - fairly smoothly too I have to say.

Made a lot of progress on the exhaust. It's finally hanging on it's real mounts (instead of a 2x4 and an aluminum bar bolted across the seat mounts). I got some silicone sandwich mounts from Jegs that turned out to work nicely. I also expanded some pipe to make the outer portions of the double-slip connection for the collector. I got those and the spring tabs welded on. The outer tubes made it much more difficult to fit the collector. Previously, with the runners bolted down to the head, I was able to slip the collector on and off fairly easily. I was happy with this as it meant there was little binding (stress) in the pipes (also meant I did a good job of fitting the pipes). Now, it's all but impossible to slip the collector off. Oh well, I'll just have to see how it works out.

So the exhaust is nearing completion. It's at least to the point where I can drive around with it and it won't be super loud. I still have to test the primaries for small leaks. Also waiting on some CNC pieces from a friend that make a smooth transition from the exhaust port, a "D" shape, to the tube. Ultimately they will be ceramic coated, but the guy I spoke with said to run them and get the car tuned before getting them coated. Apparently they've coated pipes for new builds and then people run lean while tuning and they get so hot that they ruin the coating.

I'll be a little distracted this weekend and next week as I'm moving to a new garage (again). But from here what remains is mounting the body and doing the lights & wiring. Also, I checked with the DMV and they didn't even get through the 500 SB100 numbers (for smog exemption) this year. Which means I don't have to rush to get things done.

Sandwich mounts. Installed with a locknut because you can't crank them all the way down or you'll lose the flexibility in the joint
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I simply use a 1/8" stainless bar to get from the exhaust clamp over to the mount. This should look clean when the body is installed because the bar will just go through a thin slot in the bodywork.
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The forward mount of similar construction
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The double slip and springs. The primaries have pipes on the outside (what you see) as well as the inside of the collector. This lengthens the path air has to travel to escape which reduces the amount of leaking and noise at the joint. What you can't quite see here is the collector is expanded one size where the internal primary pipe comes in. This prevents a change in diameter in the transition from the primary to the collector. I'm very happy with the stuff I got from Burns Stainless. They made the collector-back including the custom mid-pipe and custom mods to the muffler. Lots of attention to detail and craftsman quality construction. Not cheap, but a good value for quality of the product.
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The exhaust is finally mostly done. This was my last big fab project and I'm glad to be on the downhill side of it.
Image


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PostPosted: December 19, 2013, 9:23 am 
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Joined: September 22, 2005, 8:12 am
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Location: 4AGE in S.E. Michigan
Just a small amount of hi-temp RTV on the I.D. surfaces of each of those slip joints will prevent any exhaust leaking. Nice looking set-up on the exhaust. Dave W


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PostPosted: December 23, 2013, 3:59 pm 
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Well that's certainly a good idea. Thanks.


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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 12:49 am 
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Posts: 78
Quick update. I've been busy on the car but pretty bad about updating here. The body is mounted and the wiring is almost done. I basically had to deconstruct the ZX12s harness and the steering column components of the miata's wiring, then reconstruct everything including the new lights, fan, fuel pump, fuel level sender etc. It was a big project but I made a "master plan" in powerpoint that featured the wire colors and gauges, connector pinouts etc. which made it go pretty smoothly.

Electrical status: All of the lights work. The ZX12 instruments work and the engine runs. The only thing that remains is the wiring for a few extra gauges and switches.

I have a long list of small "to do" items which includes fixing an oil leak on the engine and finishing the interior of the body panels. This means disassembling much of the car and pulling the engine. But! once I knock things off the list I'm looking at final assembly which is an exciting prospect.


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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 12:53 am 
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My brother moved to LA and we are sharing a garage now. It was a pain to move everything, but the new space is a lot nicer.

Image


Here's a shot of me lowering the body tub onto the chassis.

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Holes cut for exhaust and suspension.

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Rear fenders, rear lights, fuel cap, side mirrors, scuttle, hood, hood latches, nosecone, front fenders, headlights and front turn signals all trimmed and mounted.

Image

Image


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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 1:15 am 
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Onto the wiring!

I bought a wonderful bundle of cable from diyautotune intended for the megasquirt ECU. It comes with 32 different colors, each labelled, 12' long out of 20g TXL automotive wire. Great for having a different color for each thing on the car. For example, the LightGreen w/Pink stripe is fuel level signal. Here's the link.

Battery mounted low and centered

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The "master plan" and some of the wires and tools used.

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Fuse blocks and panels to mount the relays and ECU

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Most of the relays mounted. Also the turn signal flasher, speedo healer and ECU

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Obligatory "wiring madness" photo. Not as bad as it looks though. The stuff draped over the roll cage is actually just the remains of the megasquirt bundle.

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Given the location of the ECU I was able to shorten its harness by about two feet. Luckily I was able to find the right pins for it which made shortening the wires much cleaner than cutting and splicing.

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Here the wiring is basically done. I just have to loom and secure everything. Fuses on the left. Relays next to that. You can see the bundle that extends to the bottom right of the image goes off to the engine - using the OEM connectors for when I have to pull the motor. You can almost make out the bundle running to the rear of the car along the trans tunnel. In the top right of the image is the bundle that goes to the ZX12 gauges. Finally, at the right side of the image you can see the bundle that goes under the steering column. That heads to the front along the left side of the frame for the lights, horns and fan.

Image


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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 1:23 am 
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Front Lights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBT8WpcXAto

Rear Lights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofo_KSkBl-4


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PostPosted: June 12, 2014, 10:35 pm 
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I wanted to get some input on the intake. I thought about doing the log-style-through-the-hood type of air intake/filter:

Through the top:

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or through the side:

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Upsides? It's relatively cheap and guaranteed to get cold air. A couple downsides for me: The biggest one is noise. The car is already very loud and I would prefer a manifold to keep the noise down. Two, I think a properly designed manifold will result in more power and better throttle response. Three, I mocked up what it would look like and since my engine is very tall, the filter assembly would stick pretty far out of the top of the hood and it ruins the lines of the car. Finally, I'm not crazy about cutting a huge hole in the body-work.

So I'm leaning toward a manifold like this:

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or this:

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or this:

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Since my engine is very close to my hood:

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it works out rather serendipitously that a 90deg 2" CLR tube both re-routes my runners and extends their length to a total of 13" (from plenum to intake valve) which will give me a 4th wave harmonic at 7750 RPM (my peak torque) and a 3rd wave at 10500 RPM (my peak power). Given the plenum design features I want: a decreasing cross section to maintain air velocity and velocity stacks sitting above the floor and not too near to the sides so they don't sit in the boundary layer, I end up with about a 3 liter plenum volume. Besides the general rule of thumb that less volume = better throttle response at the expense of top end power I've had a hard time nailing down a theory that dictates quantitatively how large the plenum should be. FWIW the Internet says anywhere from 0.5 to 1 times the displacement of the engine for naturally aspirated. Seeing as it's 1.2l, that's not very practical. Also FWIW, I've read a few FSAE papers that put the volume between 2 and 3 times engine displacement. They run restrictors, so I'm not sure that's a good datapoint either. Anyway it flushes out, I'm at 3l which is 2.5 times my engine displacement.

What I've been winding up to the whole post, whew, is I'm mostly wondering where I should get the air from. As I see it there are basically two options: one, run a pipe (tube, duct or whatever) forward and over the top of the radiator to grab cold air as it comes into the nosecone (as I've seen a fellow MNRer do),or two, run a pipe back toward the scuttle and grab air from a duct in the side or top of the hood (as caterham does).

Option 1:

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Option 2:

Under the hood:

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In action:

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A way to do it from the top:

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If I were to do Option2 I would most likely do a side-version rather than a top version as I said before, I'm not crazy about ruining the lines of the car. The interesting thing about Option2 is that when travelling at speed I get to take advantage of the fact the air is running by the car. That should help drive air into the intake. On the other hand, the air basically has to do a 180 in order to get to the engine. I figure that the momentum would be enough to make the turn and still be better than grabbing what is most likely stagnant air from the nosecone. Finally, with Option2 I get slightly more room as the engine bay tapers narrow-to-wide as you travel rearward. This allows me to extend the runner length to 18" which gives me a 3rd wave at 7750 RPM and a 2nd wave at 11500 RPM (my redline). These are one order lower than the 13" design which means the harmonic effect will be stronger.

On the other hand, if I'm already running a pipe up and over the radiator, why not continue all the way to the grill and have fresh air driven right into it? Maybe that's the best option.

Thoughts?


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PostPosted: February 6, 2015, 9:21 am 
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Joined: October 14, 2010, 7:55 am
Posts: 8
Location: England UK
Great build, and hats off to you for going the car gearbox route with all the engineering that's involved

I don't know if you had to cut the bodywork for the oil filter? as you can buy relocation kits that move the filter elsewhere in the engine bay

curious whats that bracket to the right of the battery is it an exhaust bracket

with the air filter i have mine sticking out the top of the bonnet/hood as the ZX14 is rather tall, i have an air scoop covering it just incase i get cought out if it rains! not that it rains much here in the UK!
keep up the great work :D

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PostPosted: February 6, 2015, 1:00 pm 
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Thanks. I considered an oil filter relocation but I went with "keep it simple and add lightness". I cut so many other holes in the body I figured what was one more?

Yes, next to the battery is an exhaust bracket. It picks up the exhaust just aft of the collector. I have another bracket back by the muffler. I struggled with the exhaust brackets. I couldn't find many examples online of things to copy. It's a difficult thing because 1) you want to hide whatever your doing for vanity's sake 2) it needs to be compliant to accommodate the motion and vibration of the engine 3) you don't want to put too much stress on the header/runners 4) you need to constrain the exhaust in 6 degrees of freedom especially in rotation about the fore-aft axis of the car - you don't want it drooping down. You can see I have a two-piece isolating grommet that sandwiches around the bracket that's attached to the chassis. Coming in through the body work is a long tab that picks up the clamp at the aft end of the collector. A through-bolt holds it all together. We'll see how this works in practice. So far so good.

Do you have a thread for your ZX14 build?


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PostPosted: February 10, 2015, 5:05 pm 
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Joined: October 14, 2010, 7:55 am
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Location: England UK
Sadly i didn't have the capacity to build a car and also do a build diary! i did take a photo diary though, as you need it to prove you build the car yourself when it comes to registration and getting plates

so i'll have to put a diary together when i get a chance

I forget your engine is 180 degress around so the filter would be where your suspension is so no big deal and less weight is good for a BEC

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PostPosted: February 11, 2015, 9:56 pm 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Its probably too late since it looks like you have the holes drilled, but I had my battery (PC680) in the same position and was it was terrible. If you had a passenger you had to worry about them catching their foot on the cables and if you ever had to jump the car or remove the battery it was absolute torture.

I'd reconsider that location if you can.

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PostPosted: February 12, 2015, 12:45 pm 
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You're probably right. Getting it installed down there was no picnic. I thought low and centered was the optimal place. But if I had just put it up under the scuttle the wiring would have been shorter which would be less weight. And those are the chunky cables that run to the starter. I did install battery posts under the scuttle to help distribute the power and ground. So If I have to jump it I have relatively easy access. And I'm probably going to end up putting in a kick panel so passengers do kick it. But yeah, it's not a great spot.


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