91 BRG 1.8BP MK turbo build
 

Parts are starting to pile up, so I guess I'd better start a build thread...

The car is a 91, and I'm swapping in a 1.8 engine for a turbo build. My power goals are ~225WHP/200WTQ. The suspension & brakes are resonably sorted out already. The car is one of two DD vehicles, and I don't have plans to use it for anything else at this time. Below is a summary of the intended build. I already have all parts, with the exception of the kit Lars is building. I've put an asterisk next to things that are already installed.

Mechanical:
1.8 swap into 91
Mk turbo kit + oil lines + cat
4.1 torsen
*5sp
ACT ZM1-HDSS 1.6 clutch
*F1 10 lb 1.6 flywheel
*Poly bushings
*FM VMAXX coilovers
*OEM front sway/no rear sway (60.5% FRC)
*Depowered rack
*Momo steering wheel
*Frame rails
Competition motor mounts
*Stock brakes (carbotech rotors/hawk hps pads)
*15x7 Advanti storms
*Nitto NT450’s
*PS/AC/charcoal/cruise delete

Electrical:
*DIYPNP
EBCS
Sequential injection
*GM IAT
*1.8 TB w/VTPS (currently running modified 1.6 VTPS)
*Innovate WB O2
Flowforce 610 injectors
Mechanical boost gauge
*Odyssey PC680 battery

Plumbing:
Coolant reroute
2.5” IC piping
28”x7”x2.5”CX IC
Type S BOV plumbed as BPV
3” to 2.25” inlet
AEM dryflow filter 3”X5”
Dezums style air/oil separator

this is what the car looks like now
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


this is what the engine bay looks like now- wait- WTF?
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


This is a $4 hot air intake rescue. The car had the classic "CAI" sitting on top of the exhaust header when I bought it. The free.99 cowl induction beauty you see here is made from: old subie intake bits, a PP one gallon paint can wrapped in heat wrap, and a $4 piece of dryer exhaust.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


This is the laguna blue & tan that died to make this swap possible. I scored the engine & torsen dif from this car. 102k miles.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


After getting it home & degreasing it, I discovered that the rear 1/2 moon oil pan gasket was leaking. 1st time I've ever seen the pan gaskets go bad on a miata. So the pan came off, which at least means the oil return project will be pretty clean.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


The CXracing IC. It has turbulators all the way through, but not super dense. Get what you pay for I guess.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


I had an injector harness from a cali 93 with sequential injection. I hacked it up to build a EV14 PNP harness for the FF610's, as I'm converting my MS 9093 to support sequential injection when I do the swap. I soldered, heat shrunk, & wrapped the harness in super 33. If anyone thinks soldering these connections is a terrible idea, please advise.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113


I'm using a type S knockoff as a BPV. In trying to cut costs, I noticed that I could get a 3" pipe with a greddy flange for $17, while the same pipe with a simple hose barb was $34. Since I'm doing a coolant reroute, I recycled my thermostat housing & bolted it straight up to the greddy flange. Total cost for a recirculating BPV (minus some rad hose) $55.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457290113

more to come!

I finally drilled, tapped, & re sealed my pan. This was a first for me, so I hope it goes well. I replaced the pickup to oil pump gasket, front & rear half moon gaskets, & used "right stuff" black.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457662840

I was cleaning out my HLAs & shot one of those microscopic check valve springs out into the wild blue yonder. It took me about half an hour, but I found it. Thanks for the miracle mr jebus.

For those of you who have refurb'd HLAs, do you put them back in limp or hard? I've been filling the inner cylinder completely with oil, which makes the HLA go full staff. I feel like this will eliminate any clatter on first start, I just don't know what it will do to valve seating.

Regarding HLAs, it looks like having the cam torqued down for a day got all the HLAs bled down & seating fully.

Pulled a bonehead move today. I threaded an oil feed adapter into the OEM oil feed port on the driver's side of my '94 block, not the oil pressure sensor port on the passenger side where it belongs. The adapter is threaded for 1/8" BSPT. It doesn't look anything like the thread on the OEM port on the driver's side, but I had pipe thread goo all over the threads so i just didn't notice. Fortunately, the adapter was considerably softer metal than the block, so all the tread damage was on the adapter.
Oh well, it's only $25 bucks for a nice replacement. I'm sure I'll brake more expensive bits before it's all over.

Here's where I picked up the replacement:

Trackspeed Oil Feed Adapter

So you have a passengers side oil feed on the block, why are you running twice the length of oil line? Same difference as using the oil pressure sender.

Your "delta" tube and fin intercooler looks a hell of a lot better than any I ever received, though.

I got the oil lines from Lars for one of the MK turbo kits. It didn't occur to me that it would pull oil from the pressure sensor because I had the convenient hot side ports available. It makes sense for a kit though, as only a few years have the hot side oil port.

I saw a pic of a delta IC you posted a while back that looked pretty butt. Even so, the CX IC looks about half as dense as the turbulators on my OEM STI IC.

Because I keep cost low by minimizing parts inventory. Also the port on the driver side is a weird ass thread pitch that my hydraulic shop does not carry a fitting for.

Hey. That doesn't go there. No. Stop.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1457983216

Kinda hard to see, but the FF injectors & rewired harness went in. I had to extend the lead for the single wire sensor in the head to accommodate the coolant reroute.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1458090122

Started the swap, and started breaking things. I mashed my TPS, so I could use one if anyone has an extra lying around.

I also noticed that I busted a sway bar end link (which explains a lot), so I used it as an excuse to upgrade to RB 15/16” solid front/14mm rear & supermiata end links. Combined with the vmaxx coils, the new setup will give me a 59.2% FRC, & 2096 lb-ft/deg roll stiffness.

Engine & transmission are out. VLSD is swapped out for the torsen, & the diff/single piece CV's are installed. The driver's side rear axle nut was so seized that I ended up shearing something internally in the old CV after I gave it hell with a 6 ft breaker bar. I ended up pulling the whole CV, lag bolting the inner flange to a fence post, cutting about 3/4 of the way into the axle nut with a 4" angle grinder, then giving it hell with the 6" breaker bar. Luckily, the CV wasn't seized in the hub.

I've got to rewire my WBO2 to move the controller out of the engine bay so Brain doesn't berate me (also so I don't cook it when the turbo goes in), wire in EBCS, and wire up my MS & wire harness for sequential injection. I have a '93 Cali injector harness on the 1.8 now, and I will need to swap out connectors for the TPS, & the main input connector to the injector harness on the car side. I'm also putting in a refurb kit for the clutch hydraulics. I can't wait to eliminate the hard line to the slave cyl. The clutch hard line mounting bracket that's common to the bell housing & starter is one of my least favorite parts of the car to work on. That and the rear CV/hubs. Those really suck.

I'm wiring up the harness for sequential injection. My intent is to use 18 AWG TXL to run two extra wires for INJ3 & INJ4 from the DB15 on the MS, to the connector on the injector harness. Does anyone think this wire is too feeble to hold in the smoke for this application? I can't imagine the run will exceed 5 ft. 18 gauge TXL is what the EV14 pigtails use, but the OEM injector harness wires are all AVS-1.25: SWS Wires and Cables for Automobiles

Refurb'd the clutch hydraulics, eliminating the dreaded lower hard line. Also got the clutch & flywheel mounted. Easy things to do when the engine's out.

Not sure if I should start with a 1.6 base map, or a 1.8. Does it matter?

Change your required fuel to go from the 1.6 engine to 1.8 and then everything else should be pretty close. There is nothing else major that you should really need to change. This is assuming you already had the EV14 injectors running on the 1.6 engine.

I think I have a NA8 VTPS if you still need one.

Thanks- I found the shards of mine & humpdy-dumpdied it back together. We'll see how it holds.

By the way, I grew up in Aurora. Probably caused trouble in Oregon City once or twice...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462083327

here's the engine in. This is how I'll run it NA at first. That's a FM CAI box. I mounted my ECBS into the inside of the box for future tubros. The oil line is only poking through the cowl to keep it out of the way while I wrench.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462083535

This is what the DIY coolant reroute looks like at the front of the engine. I'm going to have to cook something better up when intercooler pipes get involved.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462083744

Nuts. I missed a connector that I needed to swap. I kept the 1.8 TB, so the IAC still needs a connector on the harness side.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462084047

I ordered the FM 1.8 swap kit, but I deleted the 1.6 TB adapter because I wanted to keep the 1.8 TB. The throttle cable left a bunch of slack even with the cable adapter because there is no TB adapter in between the IM and TB. I had to make an extension plate.

****EDIT******

I had my wires crossed. switch the red & grn wires.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462084286

I'm intending to run the car using the OEM 1.8 variable TPS. I rewired the 1.8 TPS using the 1.6 wires as pictured. I hope this works...

I only ran the stock injectors on the 1.6. But you're saying I could roll over my old tune with changes to the req fuel, and the injectors? I'll also need to update the sensor calibrations.

I gotta improve the cold start. Man, it sucks. I also need to sort out the acceleration enrichment. I'll post some of my butt map/logs after I start up the new motor.

Home » Shop » Connectors / Harnesses » Sumitomo » 2 Way Plug Assembly for Japanese applications (Connector + Lock), Green

This looks right for the IAC connector! Hard to find on the forums, as most people retain the 1.6 TB & IAC.

The above connector is the correct fit, but the OEM pins are slightly wrong. Since I didn't have the correct pins on hand, I modified the OEM pins. Here are the mods I made to make the pins seat & lock. In each pic below, I've completed one pin in the step described so you can compare before & after:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462591310

Squish in the side tabs so they are flush

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462591310

File the tags flush on the nose

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462591310

Hog out the locking detent so it extends about 1/16" closer to the nose.

This all took about 5 minutes. Not as clean as using the correct pins, but it gets the job done. If I had to do it again, I'd just buy the connector with the pigtail already included.

Had to do a bit of a reroute of the coolant...reroute. I had the hose drooping low, and there was no way I could burp the line. Here's the new routing. I spliced in the OEM 1.6 radiator hose.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1462847999

I'm sorting out my map for the FF610 injectors I ordered in February. Based on the recommendations from this thread, I'm running the following:

dead time = 1.179ms@13.2v
battery correction = .144v/ms

I've multiplied my static flow published on the cards I received with the injectors by 1.04. Here are the injector serial numbers, published flow, and corrected flow

serial # published corrected
f6ak43 609cc 633.36cc
f6ak49 614cc 638.56cc
f6ak55 609cc 633.36cc
f6ak62 610cc 634.40cc

the average corrected flow is 634.92cc. I input 634cc into tunerstudio.

does this seem sane?

Did you do your coolant reroute with the motor in the car or before?

I did it with the engine out. I had tried running the hose lower down closer to the alternator. With that big dip in the hose, you get a big air pocket it the line that will never come out.

Changing injector dead time from 1.179ms to 1.124ms due to silly math error I made last night.

Everything is buttoned up, and I'm calibrating my tune. I've got the TPS wiring fixed & the TPS is calibrated now. The only things left to do are to tweak the Hz rate for the IAC, test my injector & spark sequencing, & fire it up! I should have enough time in the next couple days to get it running...

Car started right up first crank. Only tuned the idle cells, because I couldn't get the clutch to operate. Hopefully there's just air trapped...

Had to move the idle VE up about 25% from 57 to 72.

Fiddled with the clutch pedal, and got it to engage. I've auto tuned up to about 3k. Gotta chase down a noisy exhaust leak somewhere.

I'm having to add a lot of fuel to my VE table.

Checked your required fuel is close? I hate chasing down exhaust leaks. Glad you are getting somewhere

Exhaust leak fixed. Drove the car to work today. Auto tuning. Need to adjust the sway bar end links.

Ugh. 4 days on the road, and I have two symptoms: low voltage, and the thermostat gasket for the OEM thermostat neck block of is weeping.

I guess I'll pull the alternator & get it tested. Sure hope I'm not hunting grounding demons...

OK, so the alternator ground post nut had walked loose. Easy fix there. Cranked on the coolant neck cap, but my gut says it's a crap gasket.

Trickle charging the PC680 battery back up. It was reading at 11 volts by the time I got home.

If that was more than an hour your battery is toast. That or your charge is toast.

Fingers crossed. I don't really want to buy a new battery.

Battery charged right up & car drove in to work fine. The coolant neck is still leaking though.

Still fighting exhaust leaks. I'm gonna try doughnuts instead of gaskets at the fwd & aft cat flanges.

I always just use red gasket maker instead of gaskets. Slob it all over and let it dry before you start the car.

Damn fine idea. I'll give it a shot.

Fixed both the exhaust & coolant leaks. The exhaust leak was from a very dead gasket caused by incomplete clamp up. I bought stainless hardware, and the washers were riding on flange welds. I'm going to try just a plain gasket & see how it holds.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1463792706



The coolant leak at the blockoff plate was due to the sheet stock of the plate being thinner than the sholder on the stud in the coolant neck, which prevented full clamp up. A couple washers solved this. The gasket was ruined though, and had to be replaced.https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1463792706

I've been dicking around with my VE trying to get it to run ok. I've been chasing heat soak in the IAT, making tuning my idle cells a bitch, and giving me lean hot start issues. I spent some time sealing up the CAI box with some speed tape, and things are much better. I ended up telling it to ignore MAT correction during ASE. I am going to pay much closer attention to IAT while tuning idle, and see if I can settle on some values I like. I'll see if I can get a decent map & log up for critique tomorrow.

Here are my most recent tune & log. I'm really green at this, so I'm open to any good advice.

Time for a cosmetic project. Greg's Revlimiter video inspired me, so I'm cleaning up my dash. I've got one of the horrible painted dashboards, and it's super gooey.

The project will include painting the top and shroud black, the leading edge tan, swapping in a set of Revlimiter gauges (modified alpha), and swapping in a 1uF cap filter for the tach.

Here's my shopping list in case someone wants to replicate:

SEM landau black
SEM camel tan
SEM Plastic prep
SEM adhesion promoter
1uF tantalum capacitor (they have these in the brick & mortar stores for $2, otherwise go digikey)
Version alpha Revlimiter gauge

Dash project went beautifully. It was labor intensive lifting the old paint without damaging the plastic (dot 3 & green scotch brite worked best).

Got an alignment today, but didn't hit the numbers I was hoping for. I was aiming for a super miata dual duty with auto x rear toe, but I came up short ~1° of neg camber up front. My pax front is wonky, and the camber is the limiting factor. Here are the numbers I hit:

Front caster: L= 4.0°, R= 4.4°
Front camber: L=-1°, R=-.9°
Front toe = 0°

Rear camber= -1.4°
Rear total toe .38° (~1/8")

I'm thinking extended ball joints should give me what I need. Good thing an alignment only costs $83.

Shiny dash is shiny!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1467121016

I added 3 oz of weight to my shift knob with tungsten putty. They sell it as either fishing weight or pine car ballast. The putty has about the same density as lead. pine car hobby kits also sell more pure tungsten weights, but they are 3/8" OD, and won't fit up past the M10x1.25 threading in a miata shift knob.

Also, knob is apparently a censored word according to IB, you hoser.

Nice progress so far. Thought I was the only BRG MkTurbo kit, but I guess I'll be the only 1.6 BRG. I might be finished with mine first though.

Attachment 176221

My intercooler piping was just welded up today, now waiting on powder to be finished.



That dash looks great. I probably need to do that with mine eventually.

Thanks! I'm just tinkering while I wait on my kit. Let me know if you decide to do the dash job, I'll walk you through my lessons learned. I think it set me back about $75.

Your alignment is gross. 1f/1.4r?!

Yeah, life sucks. I was shooting for 2f/1.7r. I'm planning on fixing the front with extended lower ball joints. Any recommendations on the rear? Are eccentrics the only way, and are they worth it for .3 deg rear camber?

Or I guess I can try lowering it an inch to see if I can pick up the static camber I want. 3.75" pinch welds in the front seems kinda low for the street tho.

Yeah I am going slow. Currently waiting to get my diff back and bronze inserts for my bushings. Then I can get suspension back on my car and into the garage to finish exhausts. I rather not build the exhaust going around the diff without the diff there because I don't want it to be hitting there and such.