well, the cage is finished. i am sunburnt all over from the welding and i ache. but the damn cage is done!
the rear mesh is at the judge's request. they wanted something just a little more substantial than glass in case something tries to intrude that way.
this is definitely my best cage yet, i'm quite proud of it.
also got all the electronics mounted:
the empty fuse block is for the gauges and the lights that aren't in yet.
and finally, i spent a bit of time figuring out how to use megasquirt and i started leaning things out and the motor really starts coming alive with a much better idle. i was able to get all but cylinder #3 firing well.
#3 cylinder appears to have it's cam phased completely wrong. not quite sure how, but i know how it has to be fixed unfortunately. looks like the motor has to come back out so i can get to the rear mechanical cover. after that everything should be great and the motor will just need to be tuned further.
the vacuum is sill a problem but for all i know i'm pushing air into it from cylinder #3. i'll fix #3 and see where that places us at that point.