Thought it was about time...

[fxdlidon]

...I registered on here.

As I'm now on my 2nd Beat :) - had to sell the first one to help finance my AZ-1 and I've missed it ever since.

Picked up a silver one saturday, few litttle niggles but nothing major and won't take long to get sorted.

Don

[steveinjapan]

...I registered on here.

As I'm now on my 2nd Beat :) - had to sell the first one to help finance my AZ-1 and I've missed it ever since.

Picked up a silver one saturday, few litttle niggles but nothing major and won't take long to get sorted.

Don

I for one would love to hear your impressions of the Beat vs the AZ-1.

[TADO]

hi don!! nice to see you on here! :bounce:

[fxdlidon]

^ Hi mike :)


I for one would love to hear your impressions of the Beat vs the AZ-1.

I also owned a cappo for a year and a half so you'll need that in there too. Your not the first person to ask for this and I'll try and do my own thoughts on A vs B vs C when I get a spare hour or so.

[Mylee]

Welcome :)

[old'uns]

hi Don, doesn't look too bad although i'm in 2 minds on the wheels?
Pajero gone or going?
AZ engine sorted yet?
so many Q's !!!!!

[fxdlidon]

I'm not sure about the wheels either - I think they might look better after a clean, all the detail is obscured by grime, but we'll see...
Pajero is staying (it's a pajero mini, a kei, for everyone I haven't met) I need something to bring home the weekly shop in and neither the Beat or the AZ-1 are any good for that. Anyway I'm going to see if I can coax enough power out of the engine so's I can use it to trailor the AZ-1 for trackdays. One of my big worries on trackdays is "what will I do if I total the car, how will I get home?" so it would be nice to get that out of the way :)
AZ-1 is still with Tom having major heart surgary. Not helped by a 1 month delay over the winter because I'd bought the wrong clutch - it uses an alto works one not a cappo one as I'd thought - oops! Should get it back soon though :D

[fxdlidon]

Well I've had it for over a week now and I'd forgotten what fabulous cars these are. The handling puts the cappo and the AZ-1 to shame (I think it's cost me about £2000 to get the AZ-1 working this well) and the gear box, for a cable linkage, is an absolute dream :)

But why-oh-why did Honda have to stick to the rules??? Both Suzuki and Mazda built their cars measuring the 64bhp limit at the wheels (ok, so they cheated :)) and the Beat just seems so underpowered in comparison. Has anyone ever fitted a turbo? it just seems the logical way to go to me.

[old'uns]

restricted by gearing though?
even with 64bhp or less, mine still hits limiter at 140kph @ 8500rpm so more power will hit it quicker?

[fxdlidon]

Limiter is a doddle to bypass, even on the standard ecu. Mines gone away just for fitting a speedo converter. On my last Beat (UK spec) I fitted a converter on the vss feed to the ecu which killed it - well unless your planning on doing more than 140mph :)

But the plan wasn't to use the stock ecu anyway - I was thinking about using an Adaptronic (http://adaptronic.com.au/products/e420c.html) the same as I'm using on the AZ-1. I'd certainly need something to be able to map the different fueling requirements.

It's just I've got a spare HT07 turbo sat here...

(You know a lot more about Beats than I do, we can talk about it saturday)

[old'uns]

(You know a lot more about Beats than I do, we can talk about it saturday)

doubt it!

regardless of limiter or not, i was thinking more along the lines that regardless of power, the only way to increase speed is to increase RPM or change final drive ratio's
or am i getting confused?

[unclejemima]

restricted by gearing though?
even with 64bhp or less, mine still hits limiter at 140kph @ 8500rpm so more power will hit it quicker?

I thought it hit 140km at about 7500rpm...? At 8500rpm (redline) I'm not sure I'd want to go much higher in the interest of engine longevity.

I've only had mine up to 135km/h or so, and I recall it being a around 7500rpm, but I honestly don't remember. I'll have to try this in the summer and see.

I have the stock ECU, and I've seen 9000rpm before (by accident, 1st gear around a corner and I could not see the the tach as the wheel was in the way) but doing 9000+ rpm on a high speed run...I would not do it with my Beat :)

[maiku]

I asked my mechanic about the turbo option during the rebuild
He said that it's not recommended to do because the compression ratio is so high now.
Not impossible to do, but at over 10:1 it's going to be difficult to tune

[old'uns]

I thought it hit 140km at about 7500rpm...? At 8500rpm (redline) I'm not sure I'd want to go much higher in the interest of engine longevity.

I've only had mine up to 135km/h or so, and I recall it being a around 7500rpm, but I honestly don't remember. I'll have to try this in the summer and see.

I have the stock ECU, and I've seen 9000rpm before (by accident, 1st gear around a corner and I could not see the the tach as the wheel was in the way) but doing 9000+ rpm on a high speed run...I would not do it with my Beat :)

i'm sure the stock ECU is 1st-4th 9k, 5th 8.5k? as i found out first time on M/Way, 86mph...drrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
ECU i have in now has the A-chip in so no limiter in any gear, doesn't stop me revving it though!

[TADO]

glad you're enjoying it don! wish we could come down tomorrow with you guys :(
you can buy kits that use jazz/fit gears to give a sensible motorway gear but the price is ££££££££££
i wish there was a way to squeeze a bit more out of the engine but keep it 660cc. ive seen a few of the japanese guys running the greddy e-manage system.

[unclejemima]

you can buy kits that use jazz/fit gears to give a sensible motorway gear but the price is ££££££££££

Wow, this sounds neat. Do you mean the jazz/fit gears will work in the Beat transmission to give it a lower ratio or are you talking the axle ratio?

I've just never heard of this before, interesting...

[steveinjapan]

The stock Beat has perfect gearing - for Japan. Motorway speeds are limited to 90 to 110 kph although enforcement is rather minimal. I like the rev limiter because sometimes it gets too busy to watch the tach. Only hit it once and it was like a drag chute popping, in second gear.

[TADO]

ahh, sorry, i think its a today gear they swap in, here you go:

http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/368780/car/275128/3588216/parts.aspx
http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/354207/car/257169/1188893/parts.aspx
and:
http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/230665/car/359342/2317955/parts.aspx

more info:
http://www.surgeon.co.jp/orijinaru_pa-tu_c.html

it would be nice to be able to cruise a little more gently - our autozam carol is so much nicer on the motorway than the beat!

RSMach also do a full gearset:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Frsmach.com%2F

[bigB]

Duh. Bigger tires will better your speed./and freeway ride :)

[old'uns]

...and slow down acceleration

[old'uns]

out of interest Don, with Andy saying he thought it was running rich what sort of mpg did you get?
worked ours out on the tankful to get there & to the end, with approx 50m m/way & the rest a good thrashing through the 'box...49.8mpg :)

[fxdlidon]

I got around 45mpg over the whole trip. About 50 miles of m-way and the rest Welsh roads (up and down the box).
Took the air filter out last night and it was filthy, (no oil though :)), so replacing that should make a difference.

[unclejemima]

ahh, sorry, i think its a today gear they swap in


That makes more sense. I think the Today had the same engine as the Beat (E07A with MTREC), but tuned for everyday use (more torque, less rev's) and I imagine the gearing would reflect that.

[fxdlidon]

Well a successful weekend's tinkering. I've now got the CD changer I picked up from Em (while we were up in N Wales) fitted, and I've now got a lacerated wrist (from re-fitting the radio) but music :) Fitted a band expander while the radio was out so I can actually pick up UK radio stations too!

But please can someone help me with my last niggle - where exactly is the ignitor? I've looked, on the firewall, but I can't find it and I'm sure that's why my tacho's bouncing.

[fxdlidon]

^forgot to mention - after cleaning out the air filter and taking the 1cm slack out of the throttle cable the car is running/driving loads better :)

[maiku]

From what I've seen, the electronics on the back of the tach might just need to be replaced. They start to develop some rust/corrosion

[Steve_M]

But please can someone help me with my last niggle - where exactly is the ignitor? I've looked, on the firewall, but I can't find it and I'm sure that's why my tacho's bouncing.

This is what the Ignitor looks like (see attached pic)

If i remember rightly its on the drivers side chassis leg above the gearbox or could be on the bulkhead that side.

[fxdlidon]

Thanks for that. On the bulkhead to the left, a bit below and in front of the distributor. Unfortunately that wasn't the problem so it looks like time to check the connections in the console.

[fxdlidon]

From what I've seen, the electronics on the back of the tach might just need to be replaced. They start to develop some rust/corrosion

that was it - tacho has now stopped bouncing :)