92turbomiata

Here's a crappy night video of a 1-2 pull with a little of 3rd gear. I was just testing out the gopro trying to get video of how the exhaust sounds and trying to get less wind noise.

I will get some better day time video of the speedo and what not. Anyways...

that7guy

iTrader: (1)

Nice job with the wire tuck. I want to try it myself once my car no longer needs inspection.

92turbomiata

Yeah luckily where I'm at we don't have inspections so I don't have to worry about it.

The wire tuck isn't really hard, just time consuming. Plan on not driving the car for at least 2 weeks once you start. I probably could have done it quicker but I kept procrastinating so it took longer than it should.

The engine has been running pretty good but I have been dealing with some break up in the high boost/high rpm area. I have tried several things with the tune but nothing really seemed to help. So I did some messing around and made the stock Miata spark plug wires fit the ls2 coils better and then ziptied them in place and the break up pretty much went away entirely. So today I looked around locally for some ls coil boots and crimps so I could try and make my own wires. But I couldn't find anything so in the end I ended up buying a spark plug wire set for a 2004 corvette and they fit perfectly. The wires are also much shorter so it even looks better. The spark plug boot is small so it doesn't seal the spark plug wells really at all but it shouldn't be an issue since I don't drive this car in the rain or anything and I'm under the hood everyday checking things. Now the engine pulls nice and hard with no break up. It bogs a little at redline but that's a tuning issue that I can now fix now that it's finally running properly. I guess the stock Miata wires weren't making good enough contact with the ls2 coils and were arcing and not generating a good enough spark.

I'll get some more/better videos up over the weekend.

92turbomiata

Corvette spark plug wires installed

92turbomiata

Finally got a decent video of a couple 2-3 pulls since it is running a lot better. It was hitting about 15psi then immediately dropping to 10-11 and staying there. So these runs were basically on 11psi and its still pretty damn fast. Once I can get the EBC to behave properly it will be turned up to about 20psi. That should be scary. Anyways heres the video

92turbomiata

Ok a little update.

Finally got my hands on a 6 speed from a 2000. I was tired of breaking 5 speeds and being scared to get on it and it assplode again. Pulled the engine and trans out this weekend and got the 6 speed put in. Filled her up with the Ford trans fluid. Finally got to take her out for a spin last night and all I can say is 6speed is sex. It shifts so much smoother than any of my 5 speeds. Of course the powerband and gearing is way different but in a good way. I like it. I still have a 4.1 diff so that may get changed out one day. It so nice to not have to worry about the trans blowing up. But now 1st and 2nd are pretty useless and 3rd gear is not much better.

I also finally got lucky with finding a 99 miata in a local pick n pull that had only been there for a couple of weeks. The car had rear ended someone I guess as there was damage to the front core support and radiator but everything else was fine. The engine was very clean. It had just got a new timing belt, oil change, etc. So I tore the cylinder head and intake manifold off of it and walked away only paying $148 for an entire 99 head and intake manifold, fuel rail and also cam and crank sensor for future use.

My question for you guys since I don't have any experience with the newer heads is this. I checked the clearances on all of the shims on top of the lifters with feeler gauges and there were a few that were in spec but the majority of them were .001 on the loose side. Now is it ok to clean this head up and run it as is? Or should I take the time and figure out which shims I need to order and re shim the entire thing? I would rather not as I know the shims are pretty expensive and it is kind of time consuming. I did quite a bit of searching about running a 99 or newer head that had slightly loose clearances on the shims but couldn't really find anything.

6speed



99 head and intake

92turbomiata

Ok time for a crappy update.

I got the 99 head from the junkyard cleaned up and checked and installed. At the same time I installed a FM 36-2 trigger wheel and a crank trigger sensor I got off the same car I got the head from. Got it wired up and fired up the car and it worked like a charm. No more spark scatter or drifting with increasing rpms. All around it seemed to just be smoother and have better throttle response. Test drive was amazing. I wasn't expecting a huge difference with the 99 head but I guess since it's turbo the better flowing head helped big time. Car was definetaly the fastest it has ever been and Virtual Dyno showed it to be just over 300whp.







I also got rid of my DIYPNP and got this to replace it since I needed more I/O's and features like boost by gear since now with the new head 1-3 were pretty useless and still spun in 4th.





I drove it around for a few more days and then out of nowhere it started making a semi loud knocking noise. Car still ran strong. I was hoping it was just something in the junkyard head and would be an easy/cheap fix. I tried troubleshooting but didn't really come up with anything. So I parked it and started tearing into it. I pulled the head off hoping to find something there but everything checked out. Then I found this in cylinder number 2 which wasn't there last time I had the head off a couple weeks ago.





So out the engine came so I could take the oil pan off and pull that piston out to try and figure out what happened. I was thinking a cracked ringland or something but was really surprised when I found this.







It turned out to be a broken wrist pin! snapped cleanly in half! I emailed supertech and they pretty much admitted to it being a manufacturing defect and told me to send the piston and wrist pin back to them so they could check it out. They told me that they would replace the piston and also send 4 new wrist pins.

So basically the engine is f*@ked. I have to get new rods. And new pistons since I'm scared to put these back in. And since it scored the cylinder wall I have to have the block bored and honed to the next size up. I have to rebuild the entire engine that only had 5000miles on it because of a manufacturing defect. Needless to say I am quite pissed off.

For the next build I am looking at the 84mm Wiseco 10.5:1 pistons since I'd like to stick with the high compression setup. Will also be going with Eagle rods this time. It will be at least a month before the new engine is done do to money restrictions at the time. It sucks not being able to drive it again. But hopefully the new engine won't have any parts with defects this time. I'm also tempted to build a high compression N/A engine for as cheap as possible since I recently acquired a 95 block with pistons, rods and crank. Do you guys think I would be ok running new 01 pistons that are 10:1 and stock rods while trying to make as much hp and spinning it to 8k? I like the idea of a light, all motor, autocross miata so I am looking for a cheap shell or miata with a blown engine I can put this other engine into. It's not a high priority so it will probably be a few months before that happens and I also want to get my engine rebuilt and get my car back up and running asap.

timk

That really sucks dude. :(

carnut169

Seems like they should offer more than to just replace the part with the defect. At the very least they should pay to repair all associated damages. If they were really interested in making it right, add for time/ labor as well. That's BS!!

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Nobody is ever going to cover associated damages, that's part of playing the modified game. I do think perhaps a whole new set of pistons would be reasonable since you now need a larger set due to the overbore.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

It's also part of the OEM game if you are foolish enough to buy heavy machinery from Caterpillar as opposed to a manufacturer who cares about their customers. A contractor who bought a 938G loader had a manufacturing defect in the pin that held the bucket to the loader arms. When the pin broke it bent the arms. Caterpillar gave him a new pin (~$250) under warranty. When he asked about the bent loader arms, they said they would gladly sell him a set for ~$14,000.


Most manufacturers treat their customers better than that.
Kawasaki treats their customers better than that.

DNMakinson

iTrader: (3)

+1

ThunderKunt

All that from a wrist pin failure jeez that sucks. How is the cxracing manifold holding up?

92turbomiata

Yep all that from a broken wrist pin. I'm going to send the piston and pin off tomorrow and also shoot them an email saying that I want a new set of oversized Pistons since it now needs to be bored over and having a set the same size would pointless. I do have a spare block that hasn't been bored over at all that I could use them in but like I said I'm scared to use them again. And in the emails they said that that those Pistons (the 11:1 compression) are not made for turbo applications only N/A or nitrous but I figured that was because they were such high compression. They also said they are designed differently and the "turbo" pistons which they say are their two lower compression sets, come reinforced and sometimes the wrist pins are even made out of different material that's stronger. I call bs since basically and forged piston and wrist pin should be able to withstand basically any power the BP can throw at it. Maybe I'm wrong but I would think the wrist pin would be the absolute last failure point in an aftermarket forged piston. I'm hoping they replace all 4 Pistons with the next size up but either way I highly doubt I'll use them as I have lost faith in their products even though I'm sure I'm in the very small percentage of failures like this. I will however, use them in my spare block for a high compression, all motor build I'd like to do. Shave the head and block to get it up around 12:1 and run e85, other supporting mods like intake, headers, etc. it would be nice to see around 150whp.

Oh and the CXracing manifold is still holding up like a champ. No cracks or anything. Like the description says it's pretty thick stuff. My only complaint is that the number 2 runner is to close to the lower radiator hose causing it to contact it. For now I have just been running it like that with DEI Heat tape wrapped around it and it's been fine. It's not optimal by any means and now that the car is down for a while I will be taking the mixing manifold off and cutting about an inch long section out of it and rewelding it back on. This should give it a nice clearance and will fix the problem. Last complaint is the turbo flange came warped. I have been running it like this without to much problem but now that the car is down I will be getting this milled flat as well. You get what you pay for. By no means is it perfect but it works great and has held up very well so far with 5000+ miles on it. But at the same time I wish I would have just waited on Abe to make me a tubular style log manifold with external wastegate and dump tube and 3" downpipe for not much more than what this setup cost. That's the one thing I do regret as I'm having a hell of a time having decent boost control with an internal wastegate. I just upgraded to a turbonetics dual port internal wastegate in hopes of better control with the EBC but this happened right after it was installed so I didn't get a chance to try it out. Sorry for the long posts lol

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Surely the difference between the two scenarios is not lost on you though. Caterpillar made and assembled the whole thing, so of course they should fix the whole thing. Supertech built and sold an individual part, so they are only responsible for that part. As mentioned above, however, offering a whole new set of pistons would be a great gesture to make it right. Expecting or hoping for anything more than that is a little ridiculous IMO.

92turbomiata

Yeah I totally agree. I never expected them to replace anything besides the piston. I actually wasn't even expecting them to replace the piston or wrist pin. I figured they would argue that it wasn't a manufacturing defect and it was improper pin to rod bore clearance or some bs like that. So I'm quite happy that they are replacing the piston even though I won't be reusing them. And they can't go back now since I have in writing from them that they will replace the piston. I am still going to try and see if they can't replace all the pistons and wrist pins to the next size over. Either way I still have another block that hasn't been bored over so I will still be able to use them on my high compression N/A engine build no matter what, because at this point I don't trust those pistons enough to put them back in my higher $ turbo engine.

Schuyler

iTrader: (1)

I just read this cover to cover, nicely done. Hope things work out and you have it back on the road in the next month or two.

I would push for exchanging them for oversized.

Golferluke

Great build thread, Ian's a great guy and has helped me a ton. Look forward to seeing where your build goes from here.

92turbomiata

My precious













Waiting on the machine shop to finish my block up and check my crank. Once I get that back it will be time to reassemble and get this thing back on the road. In the mean time I'm taking a shot at midly porting and polishing the 99 head since I had to tear it down anyways to put in new valve seals and the dual valve springs and titanium retainers. I am far from finished but this is what it's looking like so far. Will post up more pics later when I'm done.

Girz0r

iTrader: (1)

ermahgurrd.