aaron's build thread - more fail to come
 

Well, figured I would throw one of these threads up for myself. Been lurking mainly, but posting here and there when I can. I only picked up this car a few months ago, and progress has been kinda slow but should pick up soon. I sold my 07 MS3, which was my DD/fun car...but shit kept breaking etc so that got annoying. I've been DDing the miata but going to most likely pick up a 04 Mazda6 as a beater/dd..then the real fun can begin on the miata. I've ordered most everything, the last of it which should be coming in this week, and will all be going on over the next few weeks/months....fail depending and when I get time.



Quick rundown of stuff:

1999 Miata base model (5spd, has PS, and AC, that's it) 130k miles... compression test was 210psi across the board

Stuff I have/getting/will be going on:
-Garrett GT2560
-ARTech manifold, DP, Exhaust (being made)
-550cc (getting cleaned)
-DIYPNP (installed)
-Devils own meth/water.. plan to run 3gph nozzle with water
-Godspeed 28x6x2.5 interfooler
-LC-1 w/ XD-16 gauge
-Autometer ES 20psi mech. boost gauge
-Hallman Evo RX mbc (I might run EBC, we'll see)
-HKS SSQV
-FM happy meal clutch
-FM sways
-Tein Flex 9kg/6kg
-FM Brake kit thing (rotors, pads, lines, etc)
-TRM C3M wheels (15x9) w/ RS3 225/45/15
-HDHCHT rollbar
-DIY coolant reroute w/ some misc begi parts.
-Some sort of Momo steering wheel
-3.9 Torsen

That's all I can think of, biggest thing that I can think of that I still need/to figure out is FMIC piping.. and need to decide steel vs aluminum. Trying to find someone who can weld Al around here, then I'll be set on that route for sure.

I've been running MS on my stock miata for over a month now, DDing it. It works fine, fueling calcs suck because the stock IAT temp sensor sucks, but whatever it's worked without any real issue.

Not much to show right now cuz as I said, I have not put a lot on as I'm still DDing it..minus MS and the rollbar and now the gauges (rice), but I will update as I go! Thanks for looking.

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I can tell my thread is going to be a huge hit already.. lol

4x4 i know!!! coilovers, sway bars, clutch, flywheel, upper and lower shift boots come in tomorrow. rotors, pads, brake lines, spark plug wires are on back order and will ship from FM as soon as they get the rear rotors in (all thats missing)

manifold update.... he (AR tech) estimates NEXT weekend that, plus DP, and exhaust will be complete!

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Sounds like a nice build. I wish I had a 1.8...

Oh and ARTech stuff FTW

yeah man. i looked around and for the money I don't think you can really beat his stuff, especially downpipe and exhaust is really reasonably priced compared to others out there, and they look very well built too.

Well there goes having the fastest miata in the Ft. Walton area....no reason you shouldn't be at 250whp within the next couple months.

This thread makes me want to buy more goodies for my car.

Having a hard time findind a DD that I like/want... a bunch of crap just came in and i wanna install it asap. yeah 250 is the goal, we'll see!

these tires are pretty ridiculous, it's hard to get the rear end to come out at all now (with my totally stock engine... lol)

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_9Kr_cGb9rtI/TL...0/IMG_0203.JPG

copy cat w/ the wheels :)

Glad to see you on the miata now! I'm recognized your forum handle from MSF and M3F. Selling most of the parts on my MS3 the power and problems associated with the car is just getting old. Keeping the BC Coilovers though since I like them better than the stock suspsension. Might need new wheels and hoping to spring for 17x9 rp-f1's by summer.

seeing this makes me think i should uprate my tire size from 195's haha

Suddenly schedule-40 manifolds are standard fare.

well i have nothing better to do than update this..so might as well...

ARTech/Abe ftw

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and finally got a new daily driver, after the exhaust stuff is done I'll be installing this stuff in all my free time lol.

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Nice.
http://www.weeklydavespeak.com/wdext...ges/ricola.jpg

well, was going to put the coilovers on yesterday..but both lower ball joints up front broke (boots tore), so i just went ahead and ordered new ones...now gotta wait until those show up. exhaust and suspension is totally off the car now just waiting for the new stuff to come in.... also working on my rice mods (see below)

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As of right now the car is on jack stands... no exhaust, no suspension. Waiting for the exhaust to get done....ARtech actually made a wrong downpipe for me (got me confused with another guy) so now he is remaking that and doing the exhaust.

Also removed the entire suspension, Tein Flex coilovers, along with sway bars probably gonna be going on tonight or tomorrow sometime, but not gonna take it off jack stands until I have the exhaust and all that crap on there. Might swap injectors too. Also have this steering wheel and hub I should probably do also. Also swapped motor mounts last week.

After I get the turbo mounted up etc... I'm gonna have to tweak suspension, get an alignment and all that, while also figure out my FMIC setup. I found a local guy to weld aluminum, so I now I need to get the core mounted, and try to eyeball the best I can what piping/bends I'll need and go ahead and order those and start cutting etc.

Here is how it sits right now: yeah my garage is messy, I haven't felt like cleaning it up yet.

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bout time for an update

coilovers all installed

Tomorrow going to install the oil, water lines etc etc hopefully get it started up.

Then to order FMIC piping and get the core mounted... still have clutch, rear end swap, lots of other crap.

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painting manifold

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You don't think the paint will peel?


Great progress and good job by the way

Is that RTV between the turbo and manifold and turbo and DP?

18psi-

from what I found on google and people I know who has used it... some guys love it, lasts a long time, others peels right away, think its a POS etc. The difference seems to be in the prep work/following the directions... I roughed up the surface, cleaned it really well, and following the paint application/bake procedures to the T. Crossing my fingers... never used this stuff before haha. it says good for 2000 degrees F. I"ll let you guys know :). I figured now was the best time to do it if I was gonna. I'm purely doing it to avoid rust on outside... obviously ceramic coating inside and out is the best way to go.

wonton- Yeah I used too much, but since then I pulled it all apart again to paint the manifold so I get to give it a second shot haha. I was able to peel off some of that excess so it wasnt so ugly looking, but there was some overflow on the inside as well... probably no big deal but I'd like to avoid that and having it fly thru the turbine.

Thanks!!

I used the exact same stuff on my downpipe and exhaust. It works great and is still fine.

The manifold, however, gets A TON more hot than anything post turbo. I'm curious how long it will last.

curious as well, i fugured turbo to DP is acceptible. but am iffy on the mani to turbo.

Well long story short, I needed to drop the oil pan, so I just pulled the motor instead. Never done anything like that before, but really wasn't that bad, and now that it's out, a lot of other stuff like clutch/flywheel, coolant reroute, and oil pan tapping will be 10x easier. Waiting for a few parts to come in...hopefully this week, probably have the motor back in in 1-2 weeks i hope.

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Good call on pulling the motor.
And nice progress man.

If your timing belt/water pump haven't been done yet now is a perfect time to do those too.

it has like 20k miles on new pump/belt... i think I'm gonna pass on that, save that for a year or two down the road haha.

also should be getting all new coolant hoses and some misc hoses to replace in the mail today. Also clutch was ridiculously easy with motor out (never done the swap before either on any car).

if you have the resources I would almost recommend pulling motor as step 1 for any somewhat in depth turbo build, it is definitely saving me a lot of headaches in the long run I think, plus it's all a great learning experience for me.

fuck I am tired.

Did a lot of work today with steve (thanks steve/messiah).

I replaced all of the coolant hoses... steve did the injectors, then we went to tackle the oil pan. I also mounted the manifold and turbo and ran the oil lines.

Got it dropped... realized you needed/car used rubber gaskets for front and rear, so I ended up driving 1 hour each way to get some, ugh. Spent a lot of time scraping RTV... but it's all back togehtr now with a properly tapped drain and clean oil pan.

The fail that started it all:

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Win:

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hey, you drilled your oil pick up dude...

Yeah, someone told me they used a stepped drill bit and it worked out great, of course the one I picked up was smaller I guess, so I had to go in further. Halfway thru the drilling process I could see it thru the hole but i wasn't totally clear if I would make it or not. I said screw it and just went for it. Been a good experience pulling the motor etc though.

So my advice on this is.... (I'm sure I wont be the last to do hit the pickup)... get a big stepped drill bit, aka so the 2nd step or whatever is the size you want- and you should be golden. I even bought an actual regular drill bit but there was no way I could even reach the side of the pan at a decent angle.

Wait what?!? Abe is making NB turbo parts now? omgz.

yeah, he has an NB now to make parts on... do it!

Might I suggest something better than a hose barb on the oil pan, especially now that you have the pan off. $10 for a AN fitting, and $40 to have it welded to the pan. Oil drain tube leaks suck, yet are easily avoidable once the pan is off.

He's already got it back together, so I doubt that'll happen now. I'm sure the rubber hose wearing and leaking will be a problem before the npt barb leaking at the pan.

That was the problem I had, and I couldn't get a clamp to hold stainless steel hose on tight enough to be leak free, so I screwed a npt-an fitting in. I have yet to take my own advice and weld on a bung yet. I've snugged my fitting And/or completely resealed it a number of times.

it crossed my mind, but I hadn't planned ahead on that, and I didnt want the motor to sit like that for a week or whatever while I got the bung....had time to work on the car again, etc. I used a good bit of rtv to help seal the threads (hopefully)

well.... it runs. been busy with the holidays and getting ready for deployment, but i got it to the point where I can start and drive it at least. So now it's stored at home until i get back!!

Some issues I'm having that I did not have with the car pre turbo (I was running MS pre turbo)... Coolant temp is stuck at 180. The car dashboard (by speedo) is reading temp just fine, but MS is having an issue reading it. Same for AFR...my XD16 gauge just shows "---" which means its getting no signal from the LC-1, and looks like MS might not be seeing the reading at all either. My fuel table was good before I did all this, so I just ran open loop and drove it about 2 miles home it was fine... but I probably just need to pull apart the ECU and check connections it sounds like? Other than that all was great, started up pretty easy, no leaks, etc etc.

looking good, too bad you wont be able to drive it for a while.

I drove it 3-4 miles home, it ran alright...but i wouldn't wanna do any sort of extended driving on it till my ECT and AFR issues at least is sorted out. I got all sorts of weird looks on the road because it was so stupidly loud lol

but yeah... mid march i will be able to get back into it, hopefully done just in time for spring/summer weather up here in Ft walton

Was the full exhaust on in that video? Sounds nice. I'm having a similar one made.

nah, open 3" catless downpipe. was a cellphone recording so sound was pretty crappy, it's obnoxiously loud (but kinda cool i guess? lol). I need another v band clamp then I am going to hook the rest of it all up together. I only have 1 small little muffler otherwise so it will probably sound pretty similar just not quite as loud..

Never ever coat the inside of a turbo manifold, especially with a ceramic coating. You don't want to chance anything peeling off and hitting the turbine blades.

Got some lame videos. tuned enough to run and be safe, but really just for shits and giggles more. wont do anything else now until im back.

Set my suspension today...ride height, preload, etc etc. Going to get alignment tomorrow, hopefully.

Also went WOT for the first time..video below. its just WG pressure, about 10psi or so, non-intercooled.. Not really tuned at all, just wanted to see how it would do. Once I get the intercooler stuff done I will start really going at it with the tune (AND TURN UP THE BEWST!!)

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Looking good! Grats on boost!

Looks like that nice warm weather you have helps nullify wheelspin haha

Welcome back. Be careful with that 10psi stuff until you have either WI or intercooling. Looking forward to seeing you finish this thing (oh yeah, they're never finished, are they?).

After viewing datalogs..looks like I got up to like 14psi for a split second.. looks like boost creep or something. Kinda scratching my head over this one, I will play around with the WG preload some.

Either way I only did WOT a few times in short spurts, but definitely going to take it easy until I get IC and meth on this weekend...hopefully then it will be pretty much done, other than tuning.

Very nice. How are you liking the open dump tube?

I was a little worried at first that it would leak at idle/cruise and sound like crap...but it's not at all so I am very happy...gotta have my rice factor!!

moved radiator and mounted up the IC and stuff today...been a long day, but really happy with how it all came out. It was dark when we finished, so only have a few crappy pics. Better ones to come tomorrow.

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Moving the radiator. That's cool. Have others done this? I haven't seen this before (maybe I just wasn't paying attention).

I did that on my 1st setup too. Not bad, but make sure you shroud the top or you're going to have really shitty airflow to the rad

hornetball, you have an NA, it's much harder. The NB is screaming to have it's radiator tilted back with simple strips of metal.

Yeah, it really was not bad at all. Anyone who buys the TDR intercooler kit for NB is a tard lol.

For the stock brackets (i should have taken a pic...).. You just have to elongate one of the holes, and for the other, i slightly elongated it diagonally so i could tilt it back a little as well. There's bolts right below where the brackets mount, it works out really really well. I used the TDR instructions to help me out along the way if I wasn't sure about something.

Have intake.... but now that I've actually gotten on it, I'm definitely getting boost creep. Kicking myself for not getting EWG now... not sure if I am going to go EWG route, or send turbo off to get IWG ported. Seems like everyone with GT2560R who had any creep...porting from Begi fixed everything (and I saw a post from 2008 they offered to do it for free for ANY Garrett turbo...wonder if they are still doing that).

I checked range of motion of the WG flapper-fine. Actuated the WG with air compressor-fine, doesn't limit movement at all. No pre-load at all...and just running WG pressure (7psi actuator), with the source as the turbo comp outlet. FYI the datalog is 2nd gear...but I do have sorta long gearing- 5 spd, 3.909 rear end.

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I like the small intercooler. Oversized intercoolers hurt.

still boost creeping, but got some pics today!!

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Still creeps up top...but i 'fixed' that by just running 16 psi across the board :) lol.

Got it tuned pretty well today and consistent at or around 15-16 psi... Also, this is what happens when you park your other car too close the exhaust of the miata lol.

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Your CLT is jittery as hell.

Camera fail on my end... didn't get the speedo too well on the 2nd half of the video, was more focused on the road and shifting I guess. 3rd tops out at something like 92mph. (5 speed, 3.9 gearing)

Was out of town for 2 weeks, just got back and starting playing with the car again. Boost is pretty good at 15-16 psi, but only if I work the throttle a certain way. Drag race style, thru the gears I don't overboost at all and it's great...problem arises when I'm in part throttle boost...lets say 10 psi, then I go WOT, it will WAY overshoot and hit boost fuel cut (18 psi) instantly, then after that it will settle down to target. I have a feeling this inconsistency is ultimately because my car can't control boost that well. It's pretty annoying, I didn't notice it today until I found some 'decent' curvy backroads etc.... on the street never had the part throttle to WOT overboost issue.

Also got another speedo vid thing, but I forgot my camera...so this is my phone...it's kinda fail. It randomly skips at the beginning, I guess the incredible acceleration messed the phone up (lol)... went all the way from a stop to top of 4th gear... this sort of scenario it's running well. Note that my drivetrain still thinks I'm running the standard 4.3 rear diff, when I really have 3.9, so my speedo is pretty far off, especially at higher speeds. 3rd tops out around 92 mph, 4th around 122 (speedo over 10 mph off at 100+)

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