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2 Miatas = 1 Race Car
I figured it was time to start a build thread as I am waiting on parts with nothing to do. Anyway, this is my car and a few might recognize it from a couple weeks ago.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...18d42905c9.jpg You may of read my intro post here where I show the progression of my car over the past 2 years. Long story short, I bough another Miata already turbocharged and am using it as a donor for my Miata. I also bought a 1.8 off craigslist from who I believe to be Vtechkiller2000, or at least another guy in Iowa with an Ecotec swapped Miata. This motor was built by a local racing shop that specializes in V8's but one of the employees is a 4G63 guy :). Here is my list of go fast parts:
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7bb151669b.jpg |
So as mentioned in the last post, I had my engine built. After I picked it up from the machine shop, I went through and painted it and make it look nice.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...de4c41d85b.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...010c90019b.jpg Since the shop dipped all of the metal into a hot tank, the back timing plate was starting to rust. I painted that, and now looking at these photos, I forgot to paint the front of the block between the water pump and oil pump. Next was to clean the nasty intake manifold, which wasn't hot tanked. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a5443eecc1.jpg I used some degreaser and that didn't get all of the carbon out of the inside. So I soaked it in carb cleaner and lit it with a torch, and that worked perfectly. Then I used some VHT Header paint on the intake and throttle body. I just taped off the IAC as the screws holding it on were stripped out :vash:. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...04f61a8886.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...53db53386b.jpg |
So I painted the front of the block since I realized I missed it, and painted the cam gears. The gears were starting to corrode and looked dated. I just wired wheeled them and used my leftover high temp engine paint.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fee935d62e.jpg I got a remote oil filter kit from amazon (Hayden Automotive 291) and it comes with hose barbs, but no rubber hose. So I'm going to get AN lines. I'm also missing one of the plugs for the housing, and I was wondering if it would be okay to use that as a turbo oil feed? (The missing plug is seen in the photo) I had a spare Porsche 944 oil filter that fit perfectly on it, and it's approximately twice the size of the Miata oil filter. So if anyone wants to copy this setup, it's like $70 with rubber lines and a filter :) https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9159b10756.jpg Also, my ATi damper finally came in today from FAB9, now I just need to get AN lines and a manifold. Here's a new vs. old of my dampers. The clear coat of the supermiata damper is peeling off, but the two pieces don't rotate so it technically could be re-used, I just don't want to chance it. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f6b20b46cc.jpg https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bbfb48cb65.jpg |
More progress than me in 3 posts. Fuck my life.
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So today I went on the advice of everyone with a recent Boundary pump and replaced the front main seal, the boundary one feels like ABS plastic (Pic below) compared to the OEM one.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...298ba80661.jpg Next I chopped my valve cover. I couldn't find a protege valve cover in any local junk yards so this is the next best thing. I used a table saw and belt grinder to make it pretty flat. I sprayed it with some VHT Wrinkle Black, will gets pics of the results tomorrow. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d9959a6cab.jpg I also ordered a dress up oil cap from retro modern. This one looks pretty and is cheaper than Garage Star's oil cap. The packaging was pretty snazzy :) https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...24c6911f3f.jpg |
So the VHT Wrinkle paint came out very spotty :( I stripped the paint and i'm going to redo it. In the mean time, I finished taking out all of the control arms on the donor Miata, it's just waiting for me to swap the control arms from my Silver car.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5fe4813b59.jpg The driver's rear LCA was mangled and the nut for the shock broke off. Someone tried to fix it before and cut open the arm and tacked the nut on, but did a really shitty job and didn't close up the cut open section. I don't have a welder, so I bought a used LCA. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d94bb3986.jpg I made the $5 bushing tool to pull out the stock bushings of the used LCA. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b1ffb0cfeb.jpg Then I painted the LCA semigloss like all of the other suspension bits. Now I just have to remove the Energy Suspension bushings from the mangled LCA and put them in the "new" one. I had some leftover Header paint, so I painted the mixing manifold, and pulled the nipple for the water line to front neck. I am going to drill/tap this hole for a 3/8" to -4 or -6 an for turbo water feed. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c988f7d0a6.jpg As shown in the last pic, my incorporation of space age materials. I wrapped the heater core pipe with DEI reflect-a-gold. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5ce8b01376.jpg And a "while I was in there" I painted the dipstick tube BBQ flat black and installed a new dipstick with new o-rings. (I might wrap the dipstick with Reflect-a-Gold too) https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7feb87cf8d.jpg This is my last week of school, so I will get plenty of free time to finish the car over the summer :D |
I went through my list of parts I still need to order, and thought I could just get a new clutch and reuse the flywheel. I took the ACT off and was surprised at how worn it is. Unfortunately, the flywheel is a 200mm 1.6 size and not the 1.8 size I thought it was. So I ordered a FM happy meal after comparing prices/wheel Tq for a 1.6 clutch.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a840096144.jpg As I previously mentioned, I finally received my ATi damper and installed it. They aren't kidding when ATi says this is an interference fit. It looks like I need to trim the lower plastic timing cover to fit over the new damper. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bd4639d19e.jpg Finally, I setup my Harbor Freight Drill Press and borrowed a bandsaw to make EGR block-off plates. I also made a front water neck delete plate, but it came out terrible. I went ahead and ordered a Hawley Performance block off plate. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3046a39ef6.jpg Since I used some mild steel bar, I used my favorite BBQ paint (Dries in 10 sec with heat gun), RTV, and blue loctite to attach the plates. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bab2c8038d.jpg I redid the wrinkle black paint on my valve cover and it someone came out worse. The first time I did it, I had 2 spots that weren't evenly wrinkled, but this is something else. I called around getting quotes from local powder coat shops, and unfortunately the only place to not have a $100 minimum has a 3 week lead time. Let's hope that the third time's a charm for the wrinkle paint. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...184985291e.jpg |
I received my block off plate from Hawley yesterday and installed it to finish up the front of the engine.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d055b1f72f.jpg Finally put the timing belt back on and related covers. I had to trim the bottom timing cover to fit the ATi damper. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba2bd999c9.jpg I was doing some cleaning, and found my old oil feed line from the 1.6, and had an idea for a turbo water line. My plan was to run the water line from the M-Tuned reroute on the back of block, but I found these fittings from Russell. They convert the barb end on the throttle body to an. Then run the water line behind the back timing plate to the turbo. This way I can keep the stock oil cooler and throttle body cooler without just capping all of the lines off. For the second water line I will go with my original plan of tapping the mixing manifold for a AN fitting. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f82097e97a.jpg Anyone want to give input on this idea? |
Over the past few days I have been working on suspension swapping my silver Miata. To start, all of the bushings in the control arms were re-greased and new ball joints were installed.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f01ffba921.jpg https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...af9ddfacb1.jpg Before I install the front suspension, I decided to order R package tie rod ends, as the originals were shot anyways. They should be here tomorrow, so in the meantime I moved on to installing the rear. When installing them, I used anti seize on all of the bolts, and the captive nut for the coilover on the passenger side almost broke. Luckily, only 1 tack weld broke on the nut, so it didn't fall completely out. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2f34725ce9.jpg And a "While I was in there" I painted the edge of the seam with rust reformer on both sides as surface rust was starting. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...23174a10a8.jpg |
I finished up the suspension swap on the front. I installed R package tie rod ends from Priority Mazda. While installing, the passenger inner tie rod boot had a large hole so I ordered new boots and had to wait for those to show up, and then take the tie rods back off to install them.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...df4c993a67.jpg The suspension is now sorted with the exception of new end links. This is the first time the car has been back on the ground in almost 2 weeks. The car is scheduled for an alignment tomorrow. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...de8df460a4.jpg In the meantime I got some more goodies in the mail; FM clutch kit, FM manifold with inconel hardware, and Flowforce injectors. |
The donor Miata is finally back on the ground after sitting on jack stands for ~2 months. This thing is also going to need an alignment after the engine is put back in. This car didn't get the full treatment of cleaned control arms and poly bushings as my main car, but did get new tie rod ends (non r-package) and ball joints.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2fe7341ec7.jpg I also had to track down a manifold stud. Since the car is old and Japanese it uses JIS metric standards, which is M10x1.25 for the studs. Nobody in town except a specialty bolt shop had one, and it's anodized red and technically 2 mm longer than the oem studs (50 mm vs 48 mm). The same place only had 3 nuts for the manifold, so I ordered 9 new nuts from Fastenal. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f65e761a3b.jpg After putting the manifold on, I realized I forgot to order the EGR cap from FM. I found out the EGR is a M22x1.5 bolt and I didn't want to have to order a bolt + shipping from FM, so a drain plug works perfect. I got this from NAPA https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NDP7041048# If anyone wants to delete EGR on a FM manifold or stock manifold that's what to use. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e3e4c7d86f.jpg |
Since it is summer time and I am out of school, I have been ironically busy. I haven't gotten much done in the past couple weeks except install my new wideband. I have an AEM UEGO that works perfectly, and I was going to buy a new face plate/ring for it when I saw the newest AFR gauge from AEM, the X-Series. I ordered one and it is pretty trick. The thing is incredibly thin and light and supports CAN, but I don't have a CAN module for my MS. The main reason why I purchased it is because of the faster response time and 4 digit display.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a02a519522.jpg I 3D printed a gauge panel to sit under the radio, but my printer had other plans and turned the print into spaghetti, so I ended up buying an A pillar piece. *As a side note, make sure to check that your boost gauge light isn't burnt out before installing everything :vash: https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a9c82c9f0c.jpg I need to dial in the idle a little more as I am running about 1 point rich during idle, but the rest of my map looks good. By the end of next weekend I plan on having the 1.6 out :) |
The plan was to pull the 1.6 out of the car, but my nice box of AN fittings came in and it turns out a couple of fittings were wrong. I ordered 3/8 npt instead of 1/8 npt for my water lines and have sent them back to exchange them for the right fittings. I want to make sure the built engine is completely done before I pull the 1.6. The same day I ordered the fittings, I ordered a Cappuccino washer bottle. Why? Because I have changed direction on the build to keep AC and thought I might as well keep the washer. However, the stock bottle is ugly and in the way of a prime location for a remote oil filter. I was honestly surprised that ordering the bottle from rakuten and shipping to Iowa took 4 days. Using Revlimiter's article I made my own brackets to attach the bottle. I bought an assortment of M6 x 1.0 bolts, washers and Nylon lock nuts and a 1/2" spacer, cut into 3/8" and 1/8" pieces.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...59ca196517.jpg https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b4a9bf9181.jpg Replaced the bolt on the firewall holding the brake booster hardline with a M6 x 1.0 x 35mm bolt and the 1/8" spacer. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ed94fce6b6.jpg Then flip the washer hoses and extend the washer harness and used zip ties to somewhat hide the wires. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6e90f68fb3.jpg I also pulled off my radiator cowl as it rubbed through the paint and caused some surface rust. I sanded down the area and used some touch up paint. When I put the cowl back on I will use some foam strips on the backside to prevent this from happening again. I also diagnosed my high idle with a small tear on the vacuum line on the megasquirt, and replaced the line. By the end of the week I will get my replacement fittings and finish the engine, then tear the 63k 1.6 to put in a freshly built 1.8 :) |
To finish the engine I received a nice box full of vibrant fittings and hose from JEGS to finish the engine.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...81506df368.jpg I also took the oil pan off as I now want to keep AC and the previous bung would interfere with the compressor. So, I had a -10 AN bung welded on directly under the turbo and the previous bung cut off and welded shut. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5ec1f6fe8f.jpg Next I tapped the mixing manifold for a 1/8 npt for a turbo water line, but thought I can actually keep the "oil cooler" and throttle body cooler by installing a tee fitting. I couldn't find a tee with 1 male and 2 females locally, so I just used a union fitting to attach the tee. Then finished it off with a 1/8 npt to 5/16 barb. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...24fceb3227.jpg Since I ordered the fittings before I had the tee idea, the tee has a 90 degree hose end. I might swap it with a 180 degree end, but this should work. Since this line is very close to the manifold, I will cover it in fire sleeve. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...51db045fc0.jpg I then ran some silicone 5/16 hose from the throttle body to behind the timing plate to the barb. This hose will probably interfere with a power steering belt, but I will delete PS and keep AC. (after eyeballing it, the hose might fit) I wrapped the hose in reflect a gold, but that didn't work well on the hose, so I will swap it for fire sleeve too. To prevent vibrations from cutting a hole in the hose, I used 2 P-Clamps bolted to the backside of the timing plate. If this setup fails, I can remove the hose and tee fitting and just run the AN line, but i'm just trying to experiment. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...204c1e1497.jpg Here is a nice shot of the setup from the front. I used a 45 degree fitting on the oil drain for a nice look and shorter line. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a712048abd.jpg For the second water line I simply used the extra 1/8 npt source on the M-Tuned reroute. I had to gently file the hex base of the fitting down as it hit the coolant sensor. This was only done because I used a -6 to 1/8 npt hose end which has a larger base then a npt to AN flare + hose end. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d7a5015c38.jpg For the oil feed I used a 1/8 bsp male to female with a 1/8 npt tee from Pegasus Auto Racing. Then a -4 line to turbocharger. (I have a oil restrictor fitting if needed) For a way to plug the hole temporarily, I put the 1.8 oil pressure sender in, but will swap to the 1.6 style. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fea0cd0284.jpg |
well shit
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Looks like a fun build. What are your plans with the old SuperMiata damper? I'm putting together a budget NA motor and could use a decent damper.
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Originally Posted by Midtenn
(Post 1430933)
Looks like a fun build. What are your plans with the old SuperMiata damper? I'm putting together a budget NA motor and could use a decent damper.
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Over the past couple days I pulled the 1.6 out of the car. The engine/transmission from my silver Miata had 63,819 miles on it... but now it's getting a newly built 1.8. I learned from the other car's engine that the Harbor Freight 1 Ton engine hoist hits the front bumper, and removed it.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...776fa14df3.jpg And after 2 days, she's out. This is the first time most of the bolts in this car have ever been touched since the factory, and I broke a 3/8" impact socket adapter on a PPF bolt :mad: https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ab8b9fda68.jpg Since this engine is going into another car I plan on selling, I will diagnose the oil leaks, replace gaskets and clean it up. |
I couldn't get my turbine housing on my Garrett to separate from the CHRA, and I used two propane torches and a mini sledge. So I took it to my local machine shop and they heated it up with a proper torch and air chiseled the thing off. As seen in my last couple posts, I used my BEGI Chinacharger to mock up my AN lines while I was trying to get the turbo apart to clock it. I should've gotten a new exhaust housing, but i'm not going to spend any money on this Turbo, as I will either go to a GTX series or EFR later on down the road.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0016dc0a15.jpg The subframe in the car had a lot of nasty oil on it, so I pressure washed it and wiped down the engine bay. Mazda likes to use some ugly seam sealant AFTER the paint job, but I don't want to pull everything out to "shave" the engine bay and then paint it. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...74b8cf44e2.jpg I Also pulled out the power steering rack, and replaced it with the rack out of my second Miata, which has a true manual rack. I know some people will like the steering ratio of a de-powered rack better, but this rack is fine for me. I also took time to cleanup the rack, install new inner boots, and strip/paint the center part of the rack. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...007ac0a196.jpg Next I tried to do some sort of heat insulation on the transmission tunnel. Unfortunately, about half of the material fell off, so i'm left with 1 small piece. I might go the ND miata route with perforated insulation installed with an air gap, but I don't want to drill any holes/rivets. I may end up installing the insulation underneath the carpet in the future. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1d15d32e6e.jpg I also cleaned up my 6 speed and have the turbo clocked where it needs to be, but I need to find/make a new wastegate actuator bracket. |
A little tip I learn from talking with a thermal insulation supplier at work, make sure you seal the edges of the insulation with high temp liquid silicone or a sealing tape (like aluminized tape). The foam/composite materials will absorb moisture and oil and can break down overtime.
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