My 2nd post will be an introduction/love story
04-06-2015, 06:39 AM
#1
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Location: Charlotte NC
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My 2nd post will be an introduction/love story
Hello my name is Zack. I live in Charlotte NC where I am a junior in Mechanical Engineering Technology at UNCC. I bought this 1990 miata a year ago last February with 138k on the odometer.
The previous owner built the car for the most part. When I purchased the car it had already been 1.8 swapped, coolant re-routed, braided brake lines/clutch lines, roll bar, PS delete with depowered rack, etc.
I had never had any interest in miatas. My automotive history was a clusterfucked train wreck of turbocharged 240sx and dude love stance cars. However, at the urging of my room mate at the time I went to test drive this car and something magical happened: I realized that every single car I had built to haul *** in a straight line and explode shortly afer had been a waste. Seeking the high fives in parking lots for picking up road reflectors during lane changes was completely asinine.
This car has become a tool to make me a better driver, it grows as I grow. Currently it's running on a Rev built MS2, Spec Stage 1 clutch with ACT pro lite flywheel, stock 1.6 vlsd blessed with holy water, Flyin miata springs, swaybars, frame rails, butterfly brace... and AGX shocks that I bought before I learned to read. Separating the car from the pavement are the venerable 15x7 kosei K1's shod in 205/50/15 RE-11A rubber.
This was taken whilst in progress of megasquirt installation as you may notice by the dikes on the core support and lack of hose clampage on the intake tube.
I'm leaving out some bits as we all have miata machines here so nothing is exactly exciting or novel on mine.
I have laughably autocrossed the car, (I don't think CSP-T is a real thing..)
I drag race the car, and to much of the dismay of the members here I drift the car.
It's not great at anything, but its good at everything. At the moment I am doing a bunch of reading to try and get the car ready to do a track day this summer. I am an extremely active member of this forum, but I don't post because I learn best with my mouth shut (or fingers idle in this case). If I have anything pertinent to ask that I can't find, I'll lay it on you guys, or if you have any questions for me feel free to ask. In any case thanks to all the guys here who take the time to keep this place riff raff free and keep the knowledge and ideas flowing. It's been a fantastic resource so far.
The previous owner built the car for the most part. When I purchased the car it had already been 1.8 swapped, coolant re-routed, braided brake lines/clutch lines, roll bar, PS delete with depowered rack, etc.
I had never had any interest in miatas. My automotive history was a clusterfucked train wreck of turbocharged 240sx and dude love stance cars. However, at the urging of my room mate at the time I went to test drive this car and something magical happened: I realized that every single car I had built to haul *** in a straight line and explode shortly afer had been a waste. Seeking the high fives in parking lots for picking up road reflectors during lane changes was completely asinine.
This car has become a tool to make me a better driver, it grows as I grow. Currently it's running on a Rev built MS2, Spec Stage 1 clutch with ACT pro lite flywheel, stock 1.6 vlsd blessed with holy water, Flyin miata springs, swaybars, frame rails, butterfly brace... and AGX shocks that I bought before I learned to read. Separating the car from the pavement are the venerable 15x7 kosei K1's shod in 205/50/15 RE-11A rubber.
This was taken whilst in progress of megasquirt installation as you may notice by the dikes on the core support and lack of hose clampage on the intake tube.
I'm leaving out some bits as we all have miata machines here so nothing is exactly exciting or novel on mine.
I have laughably autocrossed the car, (I don't think CSP-T is a real thing..)
I drag race the car, and to much of the dismay of the members here I drift the car.
It's not great at anything, but its good at everything. At the moment I am doing a bunch of reading to try and get the car ready to do a track day this summer. I am an extremely active member of this forum, but I don't post because I learn best with my mouth shut (or fingers idle in this case). If I have anything pertinent to ask that I can't find, I'll lay it on you guys, or if you have any questions for me feel free to ask. In any case thanks to all the guys here who take the time to keep this place riff raff free and keep the knowledge and ideas flowing. It's been a fantastic resource so far.
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04-06-2015, 08:51 AM
#2
SADFab Destructive Testing Engineer
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I realized that every single car I had built to haul *** in a straight line and explode shortly afer had been a waste. Seeking the high fives in parking lots for picking up road reflectors during lane changes was completely asinine.
but I don't post because I learn best with my mouth shut (or fingers idle in this case). If I have anything pertinent to ask that I can't find, I'll lay it on you guys, or if you have any questions for me feel free to ask. In any case thanks to all the guys here who take the time to keep this place riff raff free and keep the knowledge and ideas flowing. It's been a fantastic resource so far.
but I don't post because I learn best with my mouth shut (or fingers idle in this case). If I have anything pertinent to ask that I can't find, I'll lay it on you guys, or if you have any questions for me feel free to ask. In any case thanks to all the guys here who take the time to keep this place riff raff free and keep the knowledge and ideas flowing. It's been a fantastic resource so far.
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04-07-2015, 07:19 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Charlotte NC
Posts: 152
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The car actually ran 9.69@71.25 in the 1/8th mile with the factory ecu and 104whp/95wtq. It put down 120whp/113tq on the same dyno with the ms2 so I'm imagining a 9.3-9.4 isn't out the question. I just fear for the vlsd's life.
With the factory ecu the fans never came on and the gauge would creep towards maximum cowbell after a few laps. I later learned that I could make the fan come on manually by grounding the the sensor in the coolant re route block off plate on the front of the motor. It's all a moot point now, since the car is running on the ms2 now both fans come on around 200.
I actually have a hard time getting the car to operating temp typically. It's got a 195* thermostat but it still never gets above 160F in normal driving conditions unless it idles for 15-20 minutes. I've read that it kinda comes with the territory with these cars once you put larger radiators and do the coolant re-route.
With the factory ecu the fans never came on and the gauge would creep towards maximum cowbell after a few laps. I later learned that I could make the fan come on manually by grounding the the sensor in the coolant re route block off plate on the front of the motor. It's all a moot point now, since the car is running on the ms2 now both fans come on around 200.
I actually have a hard time getting the car to operating temp typically. It's got a 195* thermostat but it still never gets above 160F in normal driving conditions unless it idles for 15-20 minutes. I've read that it kinda comes with the territory with these cars once you put larger radiators and do the coolant re-route.
Last edited by tehzack; 04-07-2015 at 07:31 AM.
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04-07-2015, 10:15 AM
#8
mkturbo.com
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I actually have a hard time getting the car to operating temp typically. It's got a 195* thermostat but it still never gets above 160F in normal driving conditions unless it idles for 15-20 minutes. I've read that it kinda comes with the territory with these cars once you put larger radiators and do the coolant re-route.
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04-07-2015, 11:41 AM
#10
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Location: Charlotte NC
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A cursory google search leads me to believe this is the mixing manifold (mine pictured):
Here is the blockoff plate on the front of the head:
Here we have the cat hair covered upper radiator hose running to the thermostat (I verified it to be 195* when I pulled the motor to reseal / put clutch in):
Then from there it runs to an aluminum block thing bolted to the back of the cylinder head:
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