UPDATE 14 MAR 2020: For discussion, see the Google group. Comments from the old WordPress site have been migrated there.

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I bought and really like my Kenwood Excelon DDX9903S headunit. I had it in my WRX, and moved it to my LS430. It supports Android Auto and CarPlay, which I find really useful when driving.

However, it has a nag screen every time it boots up. This got me curious as to how it worked, and see if it could be patched to skip this disclaimer. I figured it probably ran Linux on a SoC, as pretty much everything does nowadays. So I grabbed the latest firmware for it (mine was already updated to it), and started probing.

S_V2_7_0008_0600_AT1.zip

Extract that and you get 3 folders under S_V2_7_0008_0600/:

BOOT_V2_7_0008_0600_release/
MAIN_V1_0_2758_0400/
SOC_V2_7_0008_0600/

A somewhat local place had a surprise dyno day so I went to try and tune my car a bit. Was somewhat successful, reaching 405 HP and 420 Ft-lbs. before giving up. I was hoping for 450 HP, as my turbo and injectors should be able to support it easily, but oh well. I couldn’t get past ~14psi or so. But I kept experiencing some spark blow-out and had a rear main leak, so I decided to cut it short.

Surprise, surprise, my old favorite Gentoo Linux is now running on a Tesla Model S. Hope he doesn’t emerge world while driving.

Got a new oxygen sensor installed, tuned it a bit, and went to an autocross in my 280Z a couple weeks ago. I was third in my class! Out of three, though. So last. Still, the real victory is that my car made it there, ran, started and restarted fine, and then made it back home. I also got to try my slicks out for the first time, and man, they make the car much more predictable.

It’s been a while since I’ve worked on my Z. I’ve been working on rebuilding my wife’s 300ZX, which is progressing slowly. My Z had a dead oxygen sensor and was not tuned correctly. It also had a fuel leak. But last week I fixed both of those issues and now it runs like a champ. I then leaned out the fuel table by about 25% (I had richened it up when the sensor died to be safe).

So I picked up a Bosch 044 fuel pump for a song, and decided to get rid of my Fuelab Prodigy pump. I almost wrote about the Fuelab install, but since I intended on replacing it, it wasn’t worth it. It was just too much for my vehicle, even at my target boost levels. The Fuelab pump was brushless, and so was very picky about voltage. It was unusable during cranking due to a large voltage drop because of my small battery.

It’s been a while from the last update, but the build is winding down. That’s good, because I’ve put entirely too much effort into this.

I figured out how to secure the tires. Using some 1/8” steel angle ($30), I made some mounts.

When I first installed an aftermarket ECU (Megasquirt I) in my 1984 300ZX, years ago (almost 10 as of this writing!), I used the recommended GM sensor for coolant temperature. It required a bit of machining to fit the sensor, nothing major.

With my latest engine (and the two cars it was in), I decided to use the OEM Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor, since hey, why not? It was already there, in an optimal spot. All I had to do was make software changes to calibrate MS-II to it’s temperature/resistance curve. I had the data in the Factory Service Manual, all was well.

I finished up the tail light and signal wiring. I still have 4 LED clearance lights to place somewhere, but I’ll wait until I figure out what else is going on the trailer before placing them, in the hopes I can place them higher up.

So I’ve got this autocross bug, despite being a terrible driver. After about 5 seconds of thought, I came to the conclusion that I must get an autocross trailer in order to improve my skills.

So, after a bit of research it looked like item #90153 was the thing to get. The key is it has 12” wheels, whereas the cheaper one (#42708) has 8” ones. The larger the wheel the less RPM the wheel bearings see, which is good. The increased payload capacity and trailer height were just bonuses. Since I plan on hauling some wheels and tires and some tools, I don’t see coming near the 1000+ lb. payload capacity. And if you wanted to carry more, all you’d really need is some better tires, since that’s the actual limiting factor. However, I don’t recommend carrying anything near the payload capacity.

Note that this is one of the few big-ticket items you can use the 20% coupon on, so if you want to save $46 or so off the price, use one! I got it and built it:

I also picked up a trailer jack, LED lighting kit, 1-7/8” ball, and ratcheting straps from HF. From elsewhere I got a backup alarm, more LED lights, battery tray, some wire and a voltage gauge.

I then painted the frame and wheels to match my 280Z: