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Now that I'm approaching the end of this swap I figured I might as well start a build thread. Bought the car a little over a year ago, 2003 SE with 74k miles on it. Bought a hardtop, put in a Blackbird Fabworx NA GT3 rollbar and did some track days. Decided to do a K24 swap back in early December so I emailed David and got it ordered. My build has followed very closely with Savington's K-swap how to.
First step was tearing out all of the old stuff, Not the most fun job working alone but it went relatively smoothly.
Interior stripped and ready for rewiring. I basically used the same exact wiring path as the old engine harness. Actually took the two mounts off of the OEM ECU and used them to mount the new Honda ECU for a clean install.
Got a motor out of an 08 TSX with <50k miles on it for $1300 shipped. Had to tear into the new motor to change the oil pump and pan. Dat VTEC goodness.
New motor installed. It was a tight squeeze but it surprisingly went smoother than I expected. A load leveler is a MUST for this.
New Tillet B5 seats that I installed after buttoning up the interior. Thanks to Brexit these were a pretty good deal. Weigh next to nothing and so far very comfortable for me (6'0" 190lbs).
And here's where it's at now. First startup was about a month ago but I've been waiting on the exhaust. Found a great deal on a used Artech from Zoot. Bolted up an the test pipe was about 25" too short. Found a fabricator to extend it as well as add a flex and cat.
Initial test runs have been promising. Didn't get into it too hard because I want to break in the clutch a bit.
Things that still need to be done:
Exhaust is up against the subframe in the rear even with hose clamped hangers.
Need to add heatshields for the oil filter and a big one on the header. I might have some tabs welded on the header and make an aluminum heat shield to bolt to it.
Intake needs some adjustment as well as a hole made for the IAT sensor.
Noticed a hesitations when rolling into the throttle as well as popping on decel. Potentially a TPS calibration issue.
Your seat headrest being right next to the roll bar makes me nervous.
i don't disagree. I don't particularly like how they're mounted right now. The driver's seat needs to shift inward a bit. I also need to get padding on the upper cross brace.
Thanks David. Your kit has made this a very straight-forward and simple swap. From car running with the stock 1.8 to fired up with the K24 was exactly one month. As far as the TPS, I did a rough calibration but while driving around with the Torque app open I was seeing about 8% throttle position at fully closed so I need to tweak it a bit more. Also love the contrasting red valve cover. I had attempted a paint job on my original one and failed so I found a nice powdercoated one on ebay and pulled the trigger on it.
Thanks David. Your kit has made this a very straight-forward and simple swap. From car running with the stock 1.8 to fired up with the K24 was exactly one month. As far as the TPS, I did a rough calibration but while driving around with the Torque app open I was seeing about 8% throttle position at fully closed so I need to tweak it a bit more. Also love the contrasting red valve cover. I had attempted a paint job on my original one and failed so I found a nice powdercoated one on ebay and pulled the trigger on it.
Glad to hear it. We've tried to remove 99% of the guesswork.
Yup, once you get that TPS calibrated correctly, things should smooth out for you. Shoot me an email if you're having any further issues.
__________________ KPower Industries
Home of the original KMiata Swap
Got the exhaust off of the subframe last night, just needed to loosen up all of the vbands and shove it up into position then retighten. I looked into the TPS calibration and it was already reading about .45v at closed throttle when .48 is the minimum. Adjusted it up to .48, started it up, and Torque was reading 10% throttle fully closed. Readjusted the TPS all the way down and could get it down to 7%. I don't really think that fixed it but once it's not snowing out I'll take it for a test drive to verify. I also haven't ruled out fuel injectors since they were sitting for so long. I might pull them out and send them to be cleaned soon. Fuel Injector Clinic the best place for that?
TPS is fully calibrated and driving much better but the issues aren't completely gone. Trying to do any troubleshooting with Torque datalogs is near impossible though with 1 second time intervals so I went ahead and ordered the KTuner board to go in the ECU which will give me access to everything. Driving it has been a blast so far. Pulls like a freight train. I'll try to take some video in the next week or so.
KTuner board is a very simple installation, especially when the headers are already on the board.
The newest Revision 1 board has a flex fuel input, 2 VR/Hall effect inputs, 4 analog inputs, and a spot for a bluetooth module or a screen. I have the bluetooth module on order, but for now I just have to connect using the mini USB port to my laptop. You can also see I reused the stock ECU mounts on the Honda ECU. Fits very nicely in the stock location.
I haven't had a chance to use KTuner much yet. From what I can tell so far, the interface is not nearly as polished as Tuner Studio but there aren't a whole lot of lacking features. The board has a nice onboard logging feature that will hold about 10 minutes of data at 100Hz and longer at lower frequencies. I'll have to play around with a little more to figure everything out.
So instead of getting my old injectors cleaned, which would be $25 each plus shipping each way, I found that RDX injectors are only a bit more (under $50 shipped each), are 410cc instead of 310cc, and are a newer design with better spray pattern so I pulled the trigger on those. The harness plugs of course aren't the same so the recommended Toyota plugs were bought as well and a quick depinning job later and everything was in.
Started working on heatshielding as well. Bought one of these along with some 5" hose clamps. Straightening it out kinked it some which helped to keep an air gap along the shield.
Also bought some DEI shroud and baked potato'd my harness that's close to the header.
I still need to make a bigger shield than the OEM one for the oil filter, a header heatshield to keep heat away from everything else on that side of the bay, and try to shield the exhaust going under the block.
Couple more updates. Ended up replacing the Skunk2 throttle body with a cheap ebay one that's also 70mm. The Skunk2 one had consistent closing issues. It would stay about 2-3% open until you blipped the throttle to get it to shut. Sounds like it's a common problem with those. The new throttle body has water ports built into it that interfere with the alternator position so those had to go. Also had to trim the piece that hits the throttle stop because it was binding on the kmiata TB adapter.
Drivability is much improved with the new throttle body. Shifting feels a ton better since it's not rev hanging all the time.
Made up a new oil filter heat shield since the old one was too small to protect from the header. Still working on a main header heat shield.
Yeah, too many issues with that throttle body, they are being replaced with another throttle body in the kit as soon as inventory arrives. The throttle body adapter has been modified to provide more clearance for the throttle wheel, and the new throttle bodies will have the extra ports milled off already, and pins pressed in any holes that aren't needed.
I am always looking for ways to improve the product line. Even though this throttle body isn't made by us, there were too many reported issues to keep using it.
Glad to hear the car is driving better now.
__________________ KPower Industries
Home of the original KMiata Swap
Just finished up replacing diff bushings with ES poly ones since trying to shift now felt like grabbing at a moving target. Install went pretty smoothly. Using a little punch and a hammer to get the old bushings out was a pretty simple job. Added Supermiata rear swaybar too while I was back there. Suspension setup is now: 550/350 w/Two-Six revalved Bilsteins, 1 1/8 RB front and 14mm rear both on full soft.
Got rid of the crappy Summit air filter I had started out using and bought a Hybrid Racing velocity stack filter to replace it. Only way I could fit it was to take out the fog light
TSE Dynapro BBK and Wilwood prop valve installed. Going to be running G-Loc R12s front and R10s rear at Savington's recommendation. First track day of the season is next Saturday so I'm trying to get everything buttoned up before then.
I guess I was granny shifting and not double clutching like I should...
That happened on the first session of the track day today about 10 laps in going down the front straight. Miataroadster shifter with an extension. Luckily there were enough threads to to take off the **** and use it on the rest. Motor performed awesome today. Tons more power now and shaved almost 7 seconds off my time from last year. On the fourth session I felt a really strange knocking in the suspension. Pulled off the track and found out the nut on rear lower control arm outer bushing had worked its way off and was MIA. Big thanks to slammed200 for coming through with a spare to keep me going for the last session. The sleeve in my sadfab bushing disappeared along with the nut so I'll need to do something about that. Overall pretty successful track day with a couple of minor hiccups.
Damm, i forgot that you were runing today, wanted to go and see your car... i waited to sign up and the event was full on Sunday 🙁
What lap time did you get to?
btw, i have some spare new exentric washers if you need one
02-08-2017, 08:38 PM
Zellers' 03KSE
2
