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De powered my steering rack today.

4K views 35 replies 18 participants last post by  oregonmon 
#1 ·
After reading posts and agreeing with alot of guys here that the power steering for my 90 was way over boosted I decided to depower.

My last car was a 79 911 with manual steering that was fairly heavy with 7" wide front wheels and I figured if the Miata was at the most as heavy as that I'd be okay with it.
So removed the belt took a quick spin, thought hey not too bad and then the following day went along with removing pump, reservoir, hard lines, a couple of brackets, soft lines and plugging the two holes on the rack with bolts from Schucks. Fairly straight toward process
A rough weighing of parts comes to about 10lbs +\- not including all the fluid and the fact that there's no belt drag on the motor. ( no a/c already on my car)
Driving wise it is heavy when at full stop, of course but when cruising and making 90 degree and less steering inputs it's fine. I don't have to worry about this as a daily driver.
The removal of these parts and my recent DIY intake mod removes clutter from the drivers side engine bay.

The blue glove on the rackin the next pic is protecting the other hole in the rack as the 2 holes were a different size and still need to find a plug for.


 
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#3 ·
Put the stock air box back on and return the AFM to it's original position. You'll eff up your motor because rotating the AFM throws off the air/fuel mixture.

Oh and put your heatshield back on. It really does work and hides the ugly stock header.
 
#4 ·
Eh rotating it does play with a/f ratios however it can be used to some benefit. SM folks use those spin brackets for the 1.6 intakes but they've also got time spent tweaking the afm once they've done that.
 
#5 ·
I hear the gains are little to none and can give worse fuel economy.
 
#7 ·
They also have 10+ grand into their motors alone :whistle:
 
#8 ·
I see no real difference with the AFM being sideways although I did wonder about it. My first drive out, I thought I had a bit of a rough idle but that went away. I do like the extra little intake growl in high RPMs but it's not nearly as loud as some of those Hondas on the street.
I'd like to say it wasn't a placebo effect but the air intake seems to like the upper RPM range now. Although I've just installed the Racing Beat exhaust, removed the power steering pump/belt and changed the airbox setup so a combo of those 3 are hard to separate. Anyway, I'd like someone with real knowledge or Dyno sheets (no offense Flyin) explain to me why this air intake setup is detrimental. From what I read the stock air box is a terrible heat sink.

Also I ended up removing the heat sheild since it was cracked. I thought it was the source of a rattle on deceleration but what I think the rattling/vibratiing is, is the 7# Fidanza flywheel. Whoa! that thing is noisy but it revs well.
 
#9 ·
Don't know why it would be bad for the car as long as you aren't throwing any codes. I would agree that you should put the header heat shield back on and then maybe make some kind of heat shield/ducting for the intake.
On another note. I felt a noticeable difference when I put on my RB intake. Sounds good, and improved my gas mileage a little bit too. Maybe just get one of those?
 
#10 ·
iRoadster - As far as I know OBDI won't throw any codes for much of anything.

oregonmon - I'm no expert, but I remember reading about the ill-effects of a rotated AFM somewhere on here or over at m.net. As for the air box, Norman put baking foil on his heat shield and noticed his air box was a lot cooler to the touch.

edit: here's a thread that goes over messing with the AFM.
 
#12 ·
As for the air box, Norman put baking foil on his heat shield and noticed his air box was a lot cooler to the touch.
I still want one of those Track Dog header blankets.

Here, you can kinda see what I did with the oem heat shield. It's got 4 or so layers of tin foil neatly (as possible) wrapped around the piece. I did some very unscientific before and after testing using my hand. Took the car on a moderately brisk 20 min drive then pulled over and felt the side of the airbox assembly and noticed it was quite warm. Went home, did up the manifold with the baking foil let the car cool down for a few hours then did the same. Airbox was much cooler and in general the engine bay when popping the hood felt cooler. Did it help? Who knows. Is my engine bay ghetto, maybe. :p It's survived 2 track days and a year of street use and still looks good!

 
#15 ·
From what I read, it actually says that going counterclockwise richen the mix. Which mine is basically turned 90 degrees counter clockwise. Who knows? But I did look at the company who runs Spec Miata and they make a "spin bracket" to spin the AFM to finely tune it. Sort of funny I thought.
 
#19 ·
Spec miata guys also tweak the little spring inside the AFM as well. As I'm sure the OP read, it's a little more involved than just rotating the AFM..... if of course he wants to do it the right way ;)

I'm really nervous when messing with engine management stuff, cause with my luck my engine would explode XD

edit: I did advance my timing to 14* (with the help of a friend) and I noticed a difference in the top end.
 
#17 ·
Yeah... you really should tear the rack down and remove the valve inside. It's not that hard to do. Just be sure you have snap ring pliers. Other than that, it isn't difficult. Basic tools and a dremel or angle grinder will do it. It makes a huge difference, or at least it did on my car.
 
#25 ·
Sorry to bump an old thread... But I just have to ask... Does a full de-power make A LOT of difference? I yanked the belt last night just to see, and i DID NOT like the results... I've driven manual steering cars, and I felt like the miata was fighting me in hard turns...
 
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