hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Hmmmm . . . . Sounds like your innate Scottishness costs you a lot of money. I recognize this.

It is extremely hard for me to bite the bullet and pay money for quality. In the rare times that I do, I don't regret it. But I still always have the urge to go cheap.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

I have no regrets making my DIY manifold from mild steel. It might be heavy and flow really poorly, but my car made good power with it. I'm happy I didn't just buy one, building one is a good experience.

I also have no regrets running an ebay IC...

soviet

iTrader: (10)

Regrets:
- Spending money on NEW suspension that is not Xida. I bought Koni Sport and sold them for 1/2 price QQQ
- Spending money on MS2 instead of going to MS3X right away
- Not rewiring my car while it was apart
- Not using crimp tools earlier (they are a godsend for wiring!)
- Not doing LeMons earlier

callmelinc

Wow, I hope when I am done with my car I don't have a list like this. I can understand the lack of motivation.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

the lack of movitation is mainly cause the car works well and im lazy and cheap.


basically: buy good parts and make sure you have a 1.8L



I should add the rx7 clutch diff and clutchnet clutch.

callmelinc

On the regret list?

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

yes

neogenesis2004

iTrader: (12)

I never had any issues with my RX7 diff or clutchnet clutches...

I think the reality is that everything Scott touches goes to ****. Or he secretly sabotages his car to get his bros to come over to his garage to work on stuff on the weekends.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

the rx7 clutch diff sucks, no one should use one.


and the clutchnet clutch has a 70:30 failure rate on this site with member who try it.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Oh yes, I forgot about this one.

I very much regret buying clutchnet clutch and PP.

That was a significant waste of money, and time...


All you guys saying you regret getting MS2 instead of going MS3X right away make me nervous. I haven't even installed my Reverent Enhanced MS2 yet...

qax

iTrader: (1)

Should have just spent 6-7k to buy a mid pack SM for track duty only, learn how to drive with it, then move on to s2gay or something; instead of compromising everything on the street and hoping to have a dual purpose car which cost more money anyways.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Reverant Enhance MS2 > MS2

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

So your favorite ebay intercooler was 12x12x3? What sort of power were you making at the time? I have been looking for something roughly the same as the FM intercooler in size but am kind of intrigued by the idea of something a little smaller to increase airflow to the radiator.

AbeFM

iTrader: (3)

Why DID you start with MS2?!
You had damper issues? I don't want to hear that. Still trying to talk myself into not needing one.

What coil issues did you have?

Konis need the race valving. Not saying Xida isn't better, but they are certainly pretty good.
Have you been rewiring? I'm about to tackle that, not looking forward to it.
What crimp tool do you like?

+1 on lemons. Super fun. Wish there was a good crew down here to do it with. I've gotten a lot of trophies but could have had more fun.

I have a couple friends in the fab business, who've both made about half their stuff mild and half stainless. The first couple were mild for added cheapness, then a bunch of stuff in stainless.
Now they make everything in mild because they are tired of fixing, fixing and refixing the stainless stuff which keeps coming back broken.


I might do an Ebay radiator and IC to replace the FM ones I paid way way too much for.

I really, REALLY don't want to disparage FM, but honestly I can say 2/3 of my regrets come from FM products.

*The Twincooler sounds awesome, gets lots of looks and interest from people checking out the car, but I don't think it cools nearly as well as a big rad and putting in an oil cooker.

*The oil cooler lines require you to pull the intake manifold brace, and that made my secondary injectors fall off. 4 or 5 times. Lots of rewelding, strengthening, etc. Total joke.

*The oil return line fell off over and over with the FM set up. Added some brass pipe, problem went away, but it's much lighter now with solid lines.

*The water lines fell off over and over. I bought their upgraded lines. It did the same. Bought more upgraded lines, they did the same. I had wrapped things in foil, heat blankets, everything I could think of, kept losing lines. I added some hand-re-shaped DSM OEM hard lines, similar to FM's new set up and they just barely worked. Finally I made custom lines for everything, it rocks 100%. Tools and materials cost just what FM's lines cost, and I could make 3 more now.

*The FM wastegate set up could never handle my boost. I redid this several times. Eventually, porting wastegate, adding springs, making a new bracket got it under control.

*The FM manifold gave me issues, but I think it was overheated by a PO.

*The "upgraded" FM intercooler is no bigger than the previous. I even asked for the biggest one they had. TOTALLY should have gone ebay. The silicon lines are nice though, thermal efficiency aside. Props. :-)

MS2! OMG what a ******* horridly annoying piece of ****. Of course, there was no MS3 then, so I can't regret it too much, because it's worlds better than:

FM Link Piggyback. And ALL piggybacks. I've spent more time dicking with people trying to run MS1 or 2 in piggy mode, it's **** **** ****. Never do it. NEVER. You spend weeks chasing your tail trying to trick things into thinking other stuff isn't there. FM O2 clamp, rear O2 sensor trickery.... All a huge joke. I can't stress enough the retardedness of piggybacks. Definitely lost a motor from one computer not knowing what the other was doing.


Things I like:
My super old style FM BOV. Used to stick and be crappy and I'd clean/lube it all the time. Then I turned it upside down and it's not stuck once. Awesome, two stage... Just zero complaints about it, one of the most trouble free parts of the car.

I love my COP setup. I don't know why everyone hates. <$100.

550cc low ohm evo injectors. Newer stuff is better, but they were like $80.

I regret taking off my super cheap anti-sway bar. The OEM one is nice, but very heavy. The first one felt much stiffer than none, but no stiffer than this.


Toyo T1R/T1S - both very cheap, light, great in rain. Can't find them anymore, and R1R is spendy.

Kosie rims - 12 lbs, tires are SO cheap in 15x7.

Probably my Koni Race shocks. No one riding in the car could ever tell I had 700 lb springs in it, felt wonderful, could take mom/girlfriends/etc in car with no complaints even on rough roads.

New deck and amp. And putting speakers into luggage tray. None of those thigns cost me over $100, makes radio usable at 100 mph.

Bought car 1 year old (in '01) for 7k with 10,000 miles on it, as a well done salvage title car. GREAT place to save money, everything looked sweet, car's been a dream to own, no inherited problems. Worth taking the time to pick out the right car.

Not cheap, but 6 speed and 3.6 gears has made the car so much more refined. :-)

HID H4's to replace halogens. I could never go back, well under $100. Just adjust them right.

As people said, take your time, make stuff look nice. Underhood is up to you - but in the cab and the outside of the car people will see and judge you by. Cops as well as real people. black out intercooler, keep tailpipe tame, etc.

My SPEC stage 2/3 clutch. I haven't had any issues with the FM one, but the spec one really felt great, and held power. So far I'm not yet trusting the FM one, doesn't seem too hard to get too hot, and the pucks/no-pucks spec always treated me right, went through a couple of them.

Short shift kit - real, displaced fulcrum kind. Doesn't do a damn lick of good for performance, but I like how it felt.

Air horns!

Exhaust - I probably have $150 in parts in it, 3 inch all the way back (friend welded, now I could myself).... Which brings up best point:

Don't be afraid to spend the money to buy tools to do it yourself. In the end you'll have a shop and skills. Manifolds I would probably buy, but everything else.... Look carefully at doing it better.

callmelinc

Over at roadsterdrift these were talked about OTC Ratcheting Terminal Crimpers 4497 - SummitRacing.com . They said they were real great. although summit's site doesn't appear to be selling them at the moment I am sure other places do.

RedCarmel

iTrader: (7)

After doing a ton of research on tool related forums I found a lot of very experienced tradesmen swore by the most simple tool. Klein 1005 for about $25.

Klein Tools Product Catalog - Crimping/Cutting Tool ? Non-Insulated/Insulated Connectors

Has worked well for me so far when doing crimps with non-insulated connectors. I don't use insulated connectors so I don't have any experience with that yet.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

here's a before and after of the 12x12x3 vs the 18x12x3:



Because it was so large it has a bigger pressure drop and the spool suffered slightly. Since I drive a shitty no-torque 1.6L, it was noticeable. (the dip in torque was due to wonky boost control at the time)

Abliet the AITs were never more than 10°F over ambient.






now I have some tube and fin IC that I doesn't seem to be as efficient as the 12x12x3 where I see my AITs get higher than I'd like in boost. The turbolator count when you looked through it left little to be desired. The core is also getting beat to hell by rocks.

compare this to a BELL IC core:



OEM MSM core:




I wish I had a BEGi IC or something with a rock solid well constructed core with miata specific mounts.

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Thats a fine crimper, but when you're re-wiring a whole car your arm will fall off if you dont use a ratcheting crimper. And that seems to only be for the junky stuff they sell at hardware stores, not legitimate crimp connectors. I bought the blue handled crimper from eastern beaver. Its worked well with sumitomo connectors so far, but even doing the COP harness my hand was getting tired. I picked that one since it should be able to crimp most pins I'll run into in a miata.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

that crimper posted looks like ***.

you want this with the correct dies for your contacts:
Ratcheting crimper for Weather Pack connectors DIYAutoTune.com

worth it.


although I still use my wire strippers that does an okay job at best...but i still solder them to the wire for extra insurance.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Yes I know, that's why I purchased it.

But everyone is so hot n bothered by MS3 right now...

I doubt I'll take full advantage of the capabilities of the E-MS2, not sure why I would need MS3.