Been sitting around and thinking about how I want to go forward with this all..... 1.) Install this new head as is, short term, until my original "built up" head is done... or 2.) Forget about the original built head more or less, and just plan to use this VVT head long-term. I'm leaning towards option 2 more at the moment, because I have a feeling my original head is still going to take awhile to finish up... there's just issues that I don't quite know how they will be solved yet.

The new head I purchased looks pretty good all-around, had around 60-70k on it, which is nothing on these motors. Still, now thinking that I may end up using this head more long-term, I want to check out a few things before I bolt it on. Started tearing it apart (removing the cams), so I can check the cam lobe/bucket surfaces and plastigauge the cam journals. Hit a snag and called it quits for the night, but everything looks good so far. I will probably just clean up the carbon buildup on the head, and check the deck for flatness and if it all checks out- call it good. Part of me wants to totally take it apart, clean it up really well, do a full fresh (deck, resurface, lap the valves, mild port/polish, check rest of components out to make sure in spec), but I don't want this to turn into another thing that causes lots of downtime.... ugh.

Will probably start soldering up the wiring for the VVT controller tomorrow.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376279026

I would say that it depends on what you do with the car. If you want a street set up with good manners all around, I would say the VVT is the better way to go.

If you want a fire breathing monster that has all out full throttle acceleration, the other head with monster cam will suit you better. You will be limited with how radical you can go with the VVT cam.

Two different animals. I would go with the VVT for now since you have it, and run it with the stock cam and see how you like it. If you do, go from there.

All cams, buckets removed. Everything looks good so far. Plastigage later this week and going to check the deck with a straight edge. Started cleaning up the combustion chambers with a brass brush.. Got 1 basically done, then the dremel decided to die. Got a new one, gonna finish it up tonight and clean up the runners as well..... Followed up with a quick water leak test on the valves.

Hopefully it all comes together for an engine assembly this weekend.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376535925

Well, time for another daily update. These small useless updates should tell you how anxious I am to get this thing up and running. Finished cleaning up the rest of the head for the most part... I'll attack the head gasket surface a few more times and give the outside a bit more of a clean I think tomorrow. Plastigage is here... but I don't have a torque wrench at the moment. Loning friends tools and taking a year/never getting them back ftl.

Having some issues getting the computer and VVTuner box to communicate. Not sure if I wired up something wrong.... LED light on the side comes on.... checking wiring now. Software is finicky though, so who knows.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376535942

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376535942

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376535942

lookin good.

gl with vvtuner: they are usually a huge pain in the balls to get to cooperate

Yep, wiring issue. All working well now (minus the normal VVTuner software quirks). Apparently pin 9 needs grounded as well, even though I believe the instructions say it is only needed if you're outputting the crank/cam signals to the EMS after it's read by VVTuner. Found some random blog on the interwebs saying both need to be grounded either way.....that fixed it. I will be sharing the cam/crank signals with VVTuner and MS, as was discussed in the most recent "I can't get VVtuner to work" thread.

Looking good! How long you think until you get it back together?

Got everything back, minus my original head (have the VVT head for now). Got the short block back on the stand tonight.... will start putting more stuff back on it here the next few days and weekend. Put the VVT head back together a few days ago, just need to throw the valve cover on it.

For VVT head oil line, I suppose I can just run another T somewhere off the oil port on the intake side of the block?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377135960

VVT head all cleaned up, new seals, reassembled.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

Better late than never for this thing.... hondafold. Godspeed intake manifold for B18 GSR (blox/skunk2 knockoff), with water-jet cut flange based off the original intake mani flange. Have a Godspeed/blox TB for it.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377140462

Get a good pair of Heim joints and run one from the stock brace location to the underside of the plenum, and either another underneath to the other side (one to tbody one to firewall side) or one from the valve cover bolts and one from underneath. I'd hate to hear about that weld cracking like so many others..

Edit; Does that intake sit further back (towards the firewall/away from the radiator) than the factory intake? It would make doing a coolant reroute much easier if so. Could even run the piping under (or over) the manifold's runners.. And are you going to try to make an IAC fit somehow?

Der-

Thanks for the tips on the bracing. I have a local friend with a welder, will go to work on it sooner rather than later. I need a bracket welded on anyways for the throttle cable. Might wait until the block is back in the car for bracing, just to make sure there's no clearance issues.

Just eyeballing it, looks like the throttle body will sit a few inches "back" compared to stock 99 IM/TB.

I have the stock honda 2-wire IAC. It bolts directly to the manifold, definitely will be looking to get that working with Megasquirt. Mazda 99 valve is 2 wire as well, and both operate at ~500hz stock, so it should be fairly straightforward in getting it working and wired up.

Going back to Dale's today to get more parts that I left there... such is the joys of a long-term build I guess. Once I get the missing oil pan stuff there, motor will be 'ready' to put back in the car.

Glorious. I expect you'll have it running by Friday, just in time to smash some Hondas. :giggle:

woot woot

next weekend on the road I'm hoping. Need an oil banjo bolt, which won't get here till mid next week, hopefully.

Don't know what it was, but I had the hardest time getting the engine in this time around.... lining up the damn motor mount bolts. Oh well, calling it quits for the night now.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377927064

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377927064

Great work man. Can't wait for dyno and videos of this bad boy

Lookin' DAMN good. In for results.

Woke up this morning and realized the honda intake mani fitment is a little tighter than I thought. When I placed it on there last night (not bolted down), it wasn't even really close to being flush with the head. Putting it into the correct position it starts to hit some stuff.

First thing is the hard line coming from the fuel tank- this will get in the way of the idle valve. But, cut it a little short and using some soft fuel line should be an easy fix- I already have a bunch extra lying around from the Mtuned fuel rail.

Second thing is the big AC hard line hits the back/bottom of the plenum. It looks like it can be bent out of the way with enough clearance to account for engine movement etc.... might get a little sketchy though lol. Removing AC in Florida is almost not an option though, for me at least.

I've read through a few threads but no real conclusive info on the pulsation dampers on the NB fuel system. I've read FM usually removes the one right off the tank line (the one in the picture below)... I believe 18psi removed his on the rail itself with no issues. What about removing both? I will try to retain both for now-- but eventually I will be adding a return line, so it won't really matter then.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1377968804

Small update. Did all the wiring junk for the ID1000s and COP conversion. Pretty tedious, but I think it turned out pretty well, everything checks out with the multimeter.

All the odds and ends parts are in the mail and should be here for the weekend- looking good for a start up this weekend. As long as I have the time (Masters work like to eat up my weekends now...)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378353356

Making progress, but not going to have the time to get it all wrapped up this weekend, sadly. Plus, everything has been going pretty well, I don't want to rush into any of this. I did experience some fail today, I punched a hole a AC line, so I just pulled it all out-because racecar, I guess. Calling it quits for the night, almost there.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378601303

Rotate that radiator pipe 180* and run it over the runners, that's what I plan to do when I get a new intake.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

Started it up this afternoon (would have been last night...but dead battery, doh). Got the idle decent, checked the timing offset, no leaks. Needed a bit of cranking of course to build some fuel pressure, but it fired up right away. Around 50psi oil pressure on cold start (mid 80s outside temp here), and 15-20psi hot idle according to my VEI gauge.

Gotta button a few more things up to get it road-ready.

Lol. :giggle:

It is looking real good. You must be getting the, can't wait to drive it, high.

This looks amazing. Great work

Fired it back up and went for a drive tonight. Not everything went smoothly. In the garage at idle everything seemed great, but once I started driving if I ever went to around 3500-4000 rpm it kept freaking out/cutting out (the tach would drop as well). Over the next few minutes it got worse. Car stalled at a few stop signs and it was kinda a bitch to get started again. At one sign it would not start at all. I got out and pushed it off the road into some parking lot. Still no luck.... I was about to call home to get a ride home or whatever, but tried it one more time and it did fire up. I noticed when cranking, it would stay at 0 RPM when it was not working, then when a valid RPM readout came through, it would try to catch, so I had a feeling it was something related to that. On the way home it was very jerky/cutting out a lot, but I made it back.

I was a bit frustrated, it's been over a year and a half since I drove it, I did all sorts of electrical wiring changes, so I was dreading the troubleshooting to come next. I did a quick datalog in the garage before I came in trying to reproduce the cutting out issue, along with a composite datalog.

Looking through the datalogs, I believe it's a pretty simple issue. Every now and then one of the 'triggers' on the crank sensor gets missed and it gives a sync error and freaks out. Cam signal is solid. Normal datalog shows loss sync code 31 and 32s, which I read is cam related, but it certainly appears to be crank for me in the composite logs. Thinking back now.... I remember putting the crankshaft position sensor on and just kinda eyeballing it (while thinking... I bet there's some sort of gap spec you're supposed to use here... I'll get back to that later). Doh, live and learn I guess. I'm not going to fix it right now, but I'm fairly certain that is the issue here.

Took a quick video for proof that it's running. Also, this turbo is LOUD... even at the 4psi or whatever spring I have in my wastegate right now.

You think the cutouts have to do with the wiring you added in for the VVT box like mine?

Sounds good man. In for some videos of it terrorizing the streets ;).

Yep, it most definitely the air gap between the crank pos sensor and the toothed wheel. Running like a champ now. Put 20 miles on it tonight, up to ~25 total, going to change the oil/coolant and install my radiator fans (dumb move... I thought I could throw them on after I installed everything, but nope I'm gonna have to drain the coolant just to get them on). Pretty hot inside the cabin just driving around with no AC, no shifter boots, and heater on full (just to be safe since no fans at the moment), lol.

Feels pretty quick, even at 4.5psi, but maybe that's just because I've been driving this Tacoma for awhile now... lolz. I'm going to be out of town for a few weeks starting next weekend, so I just want to get everything squared away for it to be in decent driving condition.

Final engine bay shot:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1379884270

I've been out of the town the past 2 weeks, but as it is now I have about 250 miles on the engine. Upped the boost to around 12psi peak today. Been so long ago since I dynoed the 275whp to compare, but I the top end is much stronger now, it keeps pulling and pulling. Probably due to the new honda intake mani.

Random video from today, I was just driving around to put some miles on it and mess around with my camera. Has an annoying buzzing background noise...gotta figure out a way to get rid of that.

Sweet video, looks pretty quick already at 12psi. Get a nice clean 3rd or 4th pull to redline so we can run it through virtual dyno and see what it says.

Congrats man, glad to hear your new motor is running so well.

That was what I first notice with my car also :) With the Honda intake it pulls incredibly. People here don't know what they are missing ;)

Damn, i want one to go with my new setup.

Well, I guess I wasn't totally full of shit when I felt the car now pulled and pulled more towards redline. As far as boost control right now, I just have the 5psi spring in the wastegate, running open loop boost control (solenoid running 35% duty across the board... haven't messed with closed loop yet), hence the slow building of boost/lack of low end torque and whatnot. Looks like boost peaked at around 14psi and hangs out in the 13s in the upper RPM.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1381811333

Looks like I need to raise the redline huh?

no, looks like you need to get boost control working.

but seriously, that's great man, congrats.

Nice. When are you going to turn up the boost? lol.

Taking it slow. 300 miles on the engine now. A few hundred more and I will swap over to some synthetic oil and call it game on. I'm also waiting on a vvt connector, so I'd like to wait until vvt is working before I really start to dig into the tune. Been taking to a dyno shop regarding getting a spark tune as well.

Stock returnless fuel system may be my limiting factor before too long. Just remembered that was something else on my to do list.

You should attempt to find the limits of the stock system 1st, in the name of science :brain:

I certainly will. I don't feel like diving into any big projects for a while. Just want to drive and enjoy the car for awhile. Plus, I'm going on another deployment in about a month, so there's another 4 month wait/no progress period lol.

Nice man, it's got to be a good feeling just driving it around. Certainly looks promising, I can't wait to see it progress.

No big updates here, just continuing to put miles on the car and enjoy it at 13-14psi. Got closed loop boost dialed in pretty well. Vdyno shows weak low end torque though. Probably a combination of 1.) Large turbine housing 2.) Honda intake mani and 3.) No VVT yet. I was waiting to get an electrical connector for the VVT oil control valve- it's here now and wired up. This week I plan to get it all hooked up and running.

Been browsing around looking for a good VVT map/table. y8s posted what appears to be a decent one that's been tested. Another option is just running DIY's and increasing the Y axis into boost. I'm not all that smart on VVT, only recently started paying attention to the nitty gritty details of those threads, now that they apply to me.

Thoughts?

Here's a quick vdyno and crappy video of said pull from tonight (been messing around new camera...audio is terrible from the vibes). I started the pull at about 3k RPMs in 3rd gear, so this is also about worst case scenario as far as showing turbo spool potential. I hope VVT will improve it as well.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...gear-again-jpg

vvt should seriously improve that powerband.

I prefer y8s map to DIY's. Don't worry about the boosted rows, they won't matter.

what does your timing table look like?

I still have the Mazdaspeed 3/6 Cobb ATR tuning software on this computer so I took a peek into their stock tune VVT values and some of the Cobb OTS tunes. More modern direct injection engine, etc., yes, but it may still provide some insight.

It more or less matches what y8s had going on with his table I believe. Little to zero of cam advance below 1k rpm and low load/MAP, for general 'stability' I presume. Then right around the transition into boost, start advancing the cam, full advance all the way from 1k to 3k RPM, then taper off by 5k or so. My takeaway was full advance before you expect the terbo to be spooled up, then start to taper it off.

I think in theory you want to run as much cam advance as possible such that intake manifold pressure > exhaust manifold pressure, to avoid reversion. Having a large turbine housing should allow you to run more advance in the higher RPMs, but I don't see a good way to approach this precisely without measuring exhaust manifold pressure, so screw that.

Here's my timing table... open to criticism as always. I'm guessing there's plenty of be gained in the low end from this as well- IIRC most miata spark tunes come with a low point around 4k, with more advance both below and above 4k. Mine's more or less flat-lined till 5k, then I start ramping up slowly.

I've been in talks with a local tuner regarding a spark tune. I just need to get VVT up and running, table/values set before I want to fux with that. I really don't want to go crazy trying to optimize VVT vs timing... just want to get a reasonable VVT table and set it and forget it.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382414481

VVT is up and running. Just fired it up, idled and varied RPM a bit to make sure the default PID values worked well- they did.

Here is the VVT table I just pulled out of my ass. Mainly based off of what I saw in the stock Mazdaspeed 3 VVT table and my above Vdyno plots. My thinking went something like this: Max advance below turbo 'fully spooled' point, to help spool, then taper off. I know a lot of you guys run zero advance below 3kish RPMs for jerkiness or whatever. I'll give this a go and see what happens, this is just revision 1.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382498897

Not bad. now lets see the VD plot of what this did to your midrange

And can also you post your VD log file here? I get a boner when I’m comparing different setups in virtual dyno, and there's nothing shameful about that :hs:

VVT stopped working, I'm guessing OCV went bad?

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...working-75693/

Been dicking around with VVT for a few days, it's not working right. When the oil is cold, it works just fine, but when it gets hot and thins out, it can't advance the cam more than a few degrees. Solenoid appears to be fine, I think the actuator itself in the cam gear may be jacked up or some of the oil pathways leading into, or something.

Short term I don't feel like messing with it or tearing the engine back open, so screw it, I just miss out on some low end power, not the end of the world to me. Here at some point I'd like to pull my valvecover to paint it and get some bungs welded on for catch can setup... that might be a good time to address the VVT stuff as well.

Changed the oil last night to Rotella T 5w40 and calling "break in" complete. Time for moar boost!

you may get it working with rotella. mine is actually SUPER sensitive and I think that's in part due to the rotella

Rotella is where it's at anyways. I couldn't believe the hot oil pressure difference between the syn 5w30 i was using before and the rotella t6 i switched to. Went up a good 10psi of oil pressure when super hot. Awesome shit.

Sadly the vvt test I did last night was with the rotella. I will look into the vvt issue in the future but not right now.

Reverent MS3 on the way as well :-)

Well, looks like I might have to start using 4th gear if I want to do virtual dynos from now on. Tires must of slipped a little around 6k for a split second, I turned the smoothing all the way up to try and get rid of most of it. This is at 20psi.

I'm only running a 5psi spring in my external wastegate, but it's hitting 20psi at 50% duty cycle no problem. Think there's any benefit to swapping in a stiffer spring to bring on the boost on the boost a little quicker, and maybe easier to tune closed loop for a nice solid curve? I can't imagine a time when I would want or run less than about 15psi, so I might go ahead and swap in the 1 bar spring anyways.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1382929940

niceeee

yeah might wanna run over 10psi base spring if you're going to be over 20

Still haven't gotten around to switching EWG springs yet... honestly not sure if it will even help since I am only hitting 50 duty cycle on the solenoid and the way I have it all plumbed it (at 100 duty cycle, equal pressure is applied to both sides of the EWG spring)... highly doubt the exhaust pressure is cracking it open, even if it's "just" a 5psi rated spring, would still require quite a bit of force.

Basic MS3 is here!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man, this thing looks so awesome. Blown away by the overall quality and fit/finish. HUGE step above his old MS2 enhanced units (not that they were bad).

Some of the wire colors don't match the documentation I got with it, so going to confirm what is what off the DB37 and more than likely move my MapDaddy 4 bar sensor over to it before I throw it on the car this weekend.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1383187372

DO WANT. :drool:

Well, bad news today. Something is fucked on the engine. I was doing some 3rd gear pulls, dialing in boost today, in prep for some spirited driving tomorrow. The last pull I did was a full 3rd gear (was gonna virtual dyno it).... everything went fine. Then I proceeded to put the car in 6th gear and continue the small drive home.

Not too long after that, I noticed high oil temps for just cruising around.... around 250F. But I was thinking "eh, I just got done with some pulls, I'll give it a little time to see if it cools off"- this was driving at around 60 mph. It started to rise actually, which concerned me, and oil pressure was lower than normal. Now I was paying a lot closer attention to what was going on, I downshifted and heard a definite knock from the engine. At this point, I'm looked for the next side road and pulled off. I also noticed that oil pressure was now dropping like a rock if I gave it any sort of load.... like 2k rpm, just normally accelerating or whatever. Any sort of accelerating of the engine, free rev, etc., there is a definite, loud knock.

I let the oil cool down, checked again and it was all still there, just as loud. Left the car on the side of the road... gonna get it towed tomorrow (getting dark now and don't feel like dealing with it). I did check the oil level and yes, it's fine. I'm not sure smart on engine builds here, but probably some sort of bearing gone bad?

Damn Aaron, that sucks so bad.

I would say there was a bearing issue. A spun bearing would be my guess.

I guess I will be pulling the engine, and tearing it down myself or take it to Bogus and let the tear down begin to see what the issue is. Bogus did all of the assembly on the bottom end- but I guess it's too early to start speculating too much as to what happened. Feeling very unmotivated overall right now... but I'm going on a 3 month deployment here in a few weeks, I have some time to think it all over, lol.

Holy shit dude, that really sucks. Sorry to hear it. In for postmortem pictures.