Arca's R Package Racecar Build - K24 Swap
 

If you've landed here, I hope you enjoy the reading and here are a couple more places to follow along:

Instagram Link: @hmrfactory

YouTube Link: www.youtube.com/HMRfactory


I've been cruising around these forums for a bit and figured I'd post my build thread over here as well. It's just a naturally aspirated TTE car but still plenty of fun at the track. Here goes nothing.

Update: The car has evolved into a K24Z3 swapped wheel to wheel full rotisserie build racecar with the goal of competing in NASA Super Touring 4 (ST4), GridLife Touring Cup (GLTC), and ProAutoSports Production Sedan 2 (PS2).

So, the background story for this car and build starts about August 2012. I'll cover what's been done up to this point then go from there. I have a build thread on my other car and thought it would be nice to have one for the Miata as well.

Anyways, I had been tracking my then daily driver 2005 RX-8 for about a year, and my Dad came out to the track a couple times to hang out. Miatas are of course very popular out here at NASA AZ and he got a ride along in the same car I got my very first ride along in as well, my friends 1994 Miata. After talking to some other people about cars and costs and other questions, he found that the answer was always Miata, so the search began to find a Miata project that we could both work on and drive. This is my "Plan B" car for when I'm unable to drive my RX-8 and is my dad's dedicated track car. The RX-8 is undergoing a massive rebuild right now and has its own build thread which can be found at the link below if anyone is interested.

https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...care-me-89524/

So our search for a suitable car started. Our budget was about $3000 and the important things on our list was 1994 or 1995 so we had OBD1 with a 1.8L, and it had to have an LSD in it already. We had a couple cars sold out from under us before we could even show up to look at it.

The first car we actually got to see was a '95 M edition, and the guy swore up and down that it just needed a battery and it would work fine... we hooked it up to jumper cables from our F150 and it would crank and crank and not fire, pulled the plugs and did a compression test right there (guy wasn't expecting that), cylinder 1 had a ton of oil, 140PSI, then the rest of the cylinders were less than 50PSI. 150 mile round trip that was a total waste of time and even with a blown motor and trashed interior he still wouldn't budge from $2500 asking price so we told him to kick rocks. Then I reported that it had a blown motor on the Carfax because fuck that guy.

After browsing Craigslist for awhile and not seeing anything we liked, my buddy (the one that gave my dad a ride along in his Miata) sent me a link at about 8:30PM. A 1994 that was perfect for what we needed... $3500 asking price, figured maybe we could talk him down a bit. The ad had only been up for about 45 minutes so far, and I was sick of people beating us to cars, so I called the guy anyways at 8:45PM on a Monday. He said he already had two people coming over to look at it the next morning, so I asked him what his crossroads were, and he was only 3 miles from my place. I asked if I could look at it tonight and he said that was cool. Grabbed my dad and jetted over there to check it out, and it was better than we could have ever thought.

It was a 1994 R-Package with 103k miles on the clock, kept mostly in Colorado driven by the guys mom, only during summers (no rust) and it was even serviced by Flyin' Miata regularly. Not even a hint of lifter tick, no accidents and it drove awesome on the test drive. The only thing not stock were the shocks (no "R" bilsteins) but they were getting replaced anyways. While we were there, his phone was ringing off the hook with people offering almost $1000 over asking price, but we were lucky he was a stand up guy and fellow car enthusiast and he said if we wanted it for the $3500 full asking price, it was ours. We agreed and we were back the next day with cash and took it home. That's where the fun starts.


June 25, 2012:
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So first thing's first... I'm 6'5" and my Dad is 6'2"... the first and biggest challenge is making it so we can fit in the damn car. We came to the conclusion that a bolt in roll bar was not going to work for what we need (the seats can't go far enough back) and that we need to have an aluminum seat bolted straight to the floor.

After doing some research we purchased two seats from Ultrashield. All the Kirkey seats I have sat in I hated, so we kind of took a gamble. On the website, they say you only need one measurement to buy a seat... you sit on a bench, put two boards down the sides of your hips, stand up, and measure the distance between the two boards. Luckily for both my dad and I, the measurement was 17", so that was the size seats we ordered, and we lucked out because they fit awesome and are super comfortable on track.

Drivers Seat: Ultrashield VS Halo 17"
Passenger Seat: Ultrashield Spec Miata 17"

The drivers seat I like a lot, holds you in very well. Also since it is technically a circle track seat, they made the driver side Halo piece shorter than the other side, which works out well because it doesn't hinder entry/exit at all.
The passenger seat we were just looking for the lightest solution possible.

My buddy Stenos ("Noz") sitting in what would essentially be the seating position. This is the same guy that I mentioned earlier that gave a ride along to my dad and played a large role in us choosing a Miata. He helped out a TON with working on the car and it is definitely nice to have someone who knows what does and doesn't work on a track car. It's nice to avoid wasting time with trial and error type modifications and car setups and be able to just go with stuff that works well right off the bat.

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Testing the position for the drivers seat.

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Got some harnesses from Crow Enterprizes. The purple ones are for the RX-8, blue is for the Miata. They are 6 point camlock with pull up lap belts, all 3" with sewn in shoulder pads. If you don't have a head and neck restraint, the shoulder pads are awesome. Great price on these as well, and they offer a recertification service that you can use when they expire, it's only like 60 bucks to send them in and they replace all the webbing so you're good to go for tech inspection.

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While we were stripping out the interior we also removed the sound deadening with dry ice. It took about 10 minutes total... just crush up dry ice into powder/tiny pieces, spread evenly, wait until you start to hear it cracking then it just lifts off with a putty knife.

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So after the seats went in, it was time for the rollbar. The seats are just bolted to the floor, took a little encouragement with a BFH for the trans tunnel to move over a little so the drivers side would sit flat. Also shot them with some gloss white Rustoleum.

The car got dropped off at Fathead Fabrications and I told him exactly what I wanted. It is a 6 point that is legal for NASA Time Trials. The two door bars attach near the base of the main hoop and land where a normal full cage would. We were considering a full cage but given how tight on space it is in there, this was a good option.

All done:

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Another thing we were in search of is a hard top. They are stupid expensive on Craigslist most of the time around here. Like $1000. My dad was on Craigslist one day and spotted a Red '91 Miata for $1500 and it happened to have a non-defrost OEM hard top on it. We went to go check it out immediately to see why it was so cheap. It was an automatic and the owners said that they thought the transmission was blown and that's why it was so cheap. They said it would seem to slip and not want to shift and all sorts of stuff. While my dad was talking to them I pulled the dipstick for the trans fluid while it was running, and it was bone dry... I walked over and handed them $1500 and said we'll take it.

Took it home, filled up the trans fluid and it worked perfectly. So we took the hard top off, painted it white, put it on our car, and then sold the '91 Automatic for the same price we bought it for 3 days later, and let the new owner know to watch the trans fluid level. Free hard top, fuck yeah.

The '91 Automatic:

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Hard top rattle canned and put on, also got new license plate in the mail.

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Next step of the equation, weight reduction and some creature comforts.

So list of weight reduction as of today:
Removed interior
Removed A/C
Removed side windows
Removed Charcoal Canister and EGR System
Removed Headlight assemblies
Removed airbags, sensors, module
Gutted Doors
Gutted Rear Deck
Sound Deadening removed
Cut out some brackets from trunk
Removed brackets under the hood for fuse boxes etc.


Here's the gutted doors, left the door bars in for extra side impact protection. You can also see here that we rattle canned the cage blue, you'll be able to see it in future pictures.
We were able to take out nearly 80lbs of weight between all the metal and glass in the doors... one of the best things we ever did for weight reduction. You can even go a step further than we did and get 1.6L door skins, they are lighter than the 1.8L. My buddy did this but we didn't bother.

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Then painted them white and covered sharp edges with some trim (trim not pictured).

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One other thing is that when we bought it there was an extra valve cover in the trunk. We painted it white to put on later. Also installed a Samco Silicone Hose kit and the Ancillary line kit in blue.

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Also had to do something about the steering wheel because it was too large and in a bad spot. Also I needed a quick release to be able to get in and out quickly, my dad didn't seem to mind a fixed steering wheel though.

Ordered up:
Momo Hub Adapter #5702
Momo Mod.78 Steering Wheel (330mm Leather)
NRG Gen 2.0 Quick Release (Black/Charcoal)

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Now, out of all the parts that I've gotten for this car I've only REALLY regretted one part. And that is the Ralco RZ short shifter. What a nightmare. It seemed like a good deal, but once we got it (it includes no instructions whatsoever by the way), it really seemed like someone drafted this on a computer without ever actually trying to install it on the car. I won't really get into it that much but holy hell, it took an entire day of grinding, test fitting, grinding some more, and custom making a few parts in order to even get it to drop in the turret. After that it worked great for awhile but now it is getting shitty. The shifter shaft can rotate about 20 degrees either way because it only uses one locating pin and it must be reaming out the plastic slot on the shifter ball.

I did, however, like the cheapo Sickspeed 2.5" shifter extender and the VooDoo Piano Black weighted shift knob. Those are nice pieces.

DO NOT BUY THIS:

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Also the rest of the interior tub was painted gloss white, and the rear deck and trunk was painted matte black with the hope that it would reduce glare in the back window. Worked out pretty well.

Here are some interior shots from about Feb. 2014.

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Alright, so, prep for the cars first track event. The event was October 27/28 of 2012, so we had been working on the car for about 4 months. This was right after I decided to put the RX-8 aside for a rebuild, so I would be driving the car in NASA Time Trials and my Dad would be doing his first event ever in HPDE1.

So we had ordered the Flyin' Miata Track Package which includes their Vmaxx Track Pack Adjustable coilovers and their front and rear sway bars.

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The coilovers were on backorder, we thought they would arrive in time but they got delayed. We got the sway bars in before the event along with some 949 Racing Endlinks, but our shocks were blown.

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My buddy Noz came to the rescue and let us borrow his old suspension setup which was the Flyin' Miata Stage 1 with Tokico adjustables and lowering springs.

Being that my Dad was just getting into doing track days I decided to start with some good street tires.

225/45R15 Hankook RS-3's. These things are awesome for a street tire, but they like a LOT of camber. Unfortunately we were maxed on camber so outer edge wear was a problem and we had to flip them a couple times throughout their life.

Just in case anyone is wondering, those are 275/40R17 NT01's for my RX-8 in the background.

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And of course some 15x8 6UL Gen 3's in black. I know the tread is backwards I just threw some on for a picture.

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We also threw on some Hawk HP+ Brake Pads for starters and some cheapo blank rotors from O'Reilly's and bled the brakes with some ATE Super Blue.


Other tune up items we did before the event were:
NGK OE Spec Copper Plugs
NGK Spark Plug Wires
Amsoil 75w-90 GL4 Trans Fluid
Amsoil 75w-90 GL5 Rear Diff Fluid
Rotella T6 5w-40 Oil
Wix Oil Filter






The first event at Firebird Main Course went awesome. HOLY HELL was this car fun to drive. The suspension was too soft but it was still awesome, I couldn't wait to get some coilovers on it. It felt like driving a go kart and I loved the feel of not having power steering. The car ran flawlessly the whole time and I was pumped to do a few more mods then just drive the crap out of it for awhile and really work on that driver mod.

My Dad was hooked after his very first session on track. He did really well and advanced quickly. By the end of the weekend he was already all the way to HPDE3... I think his previous experience racing pro BMX when he was younger helped him out here.

Good times.

Here is a picture with my buddy after the first day of track goodness at a gas station. His car is on the right. You can see where we were going with the stickers and would soon be confusing almost everyone at the track... this was the start of the twin Miaters. :icon_cheers:

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Some more stickers went on and here are some photos from the second day.

My dad getting some seat time in HPDE3:

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Me, just decided to throw the car in TT-D for that day:

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My buddy Noz two wheeling:

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Me two wheeling:

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Twin Miaters!

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Alright, so we made it through the first track weekend and everything was working awesome. The timeline is now at December 2012.

Time for some more mods and to start adding a little power.

We did a baseline dyno run at Evolution Motorsports, I was working there at the time so was fortunate enough to use the dyno for free for a couple different nights spent testing stuff.

All the car had was a Roadstersport 2.5" test pipe and was at 14* timing and that's it.

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It made 100RWHP and 94RWTQ.

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Using some parts laying around at work, I pieced together some stuff to make an intake that was housed where the left headlight used to be, and my dad built a plexiglass airbox to seal it off from the engine bay. It draws air in through the turn signal duct. Dat ram air yo.

Trying to figure out placement.

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I cut the little accordion looking section, rotated it 180 degrees and use a small piece of exhaust pipe the same size as the tubing and this is how it turned out. Not bad.

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Building plexi glass box.

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And then this is the final version. You can see that at the shop my friend Dan helped me out a bit with a 90 degree silicone coupler and a different filter setup. I'll explain why we did this for the next picture.

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So. I tested two different intake variations. One with the normal blue filter just put straight onto the MAF, and the other is a velocity stack from one of the Evolution Motorsports intake kits and one of their filters. On the graph you can see the baseline of 100WHP, then the blue regular filter was 107WHP, and then changing to the velocity stack and red filter gained 2WHP almost everywhere on the curve for a total of 109WHP with just the intake, 2.5" test pipe, and 14* timing.

The peak torque shifted down a bit on the RPM's but I was very happy with solid gains everywhere, and it only cost me about 40 bucks in supplies.

Another thing to mention is that I tried two different crossover tubes, one with the helmholtz resonator and one without, all it did was make the 2000-4000RPM range more wavy with the resonator, and without it the line split through the wavy section meaning there was no difference in torque or power at all. Did three pulls each on each tube to verify. All within 1WHP of each other for the entire graph.

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Also I painted the heatshield white with some super high temp paint... it lasted two events before it started to get yellow then did matte black header paint later...

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One thing I noticed at the track day is that I was forced to shuffle steer in one of the very tight corners. I hate shuffle steering, I don't ever like to let go of the wheel when I'm on track.

The problem is that the manual rack in the R Package is much slower than a normal power steering rack. So we picked up a power steering rack for 40 bucks, looped the lines and stuck it in. Good to go. I thought about doing the full FM depower but it's already easy enough to steer that I'm not going to bother. The only time it is excessively heavy is when the car is moving less than 5MPH.

Then, got the coilovers in.

FM Vmaxx Xxtreme Track Pack (9k/6k springs).

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Also shortly after the coilovers we did Energy Suspension Poly suspension bushings all around, as well as poly diff bushings. Really liked this mod, everything just feels tighter and more precise. Can feel the road a lot better.

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Getting the car corner balanced and aligned by my friend Robert. At the time he was the service department manager at Evolution Motorsports, where I worked. He used to do setup and data acquisition for many race teams including Indy car and different road course series, he knows his shit. Turned out awesome. 50/50 crossweights with me in it, and 50/50 front to rear... also I went with the 949 Racing track alignment.

Car weighed in at 2150 without me in it and at a half a tank of gas, we were still working on weight reduction, like I said about our "weight reduction list" earlier, it happened over time. Weren't quite finished yet.

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So after the alignment and corner balance and getting everything sorted, we decided to just drive the crap out of it for awhile and learn the car before doing much else.

Also if I hadn't mentioned it before, I found a killer deal from a local guy selling a brand new set of Goodridge stainless braided brake lines. Awesome upgrade for any track car.

Here's the list of mods up to this point, which is late January 2013.

Weight Reduction:
Removed interior
Removed A/C
Removed side windows
Removed Headlight assemblies
Removed airbags, sensors, module.
Gutted Doors
Gutted Rear Deck
Sound Deadening removed
Other misc. stuff removed.

Engine/Intake/Exhaust:
Custom made cold air intake with velocity stack
Roadstersport 2.5" test pipe
NGK Copper Plugs
NGK Blue Plug Wires
Rotella T6 5w-40 Synthetic Diesel Oil

Drivetrain:
Ralco RZ Short Shifter (Do not buy this... took a lot of fab work to get it to work and it's starting to get sloppy.)
Sickspeed 2" Shifter Extender
VooDoo Piano Black 2" Weighted Shift Knob
AmsOil 75w-90 GL4 Trans Fluid
AmsOil 75w-90 GL5 Rear Diff Fluid

Cooling:
Samco Blue Silicone Radiator and Ancillary Hose Kit
Secondary Radiator Fan Removed

Suspension/Brakes/Wheels/Chassis:
Replaced stock manual steering rack with de-powered power steering rack (quicker ratio)
Flyin Miata VMaxx Track Pack Coilovers
Flyin Miata Front and Rear Sway Bars
949 Racing SuperMiata Adjustable Endlinks
Energy Suspension Poly Control Arm Bushings Front and Rear
Energy Suspension Poly Diff Bushings
Hawk HP+ Pads
Cheapo O'Reilly's Rotors
949 Racing 6UL Wheels 15x8"
6 Point Custom Roll Bar by Fathead Fabrications
GoodRidge Stainless Braided Brake Lines

Interior/Exterior/Electronics:
OEM Mazda Non-Defroster Hard Top
Ultrashield VS Halo Aluminum Seat 17" (Driver)
Ultrashield Spec Miata Aluminum Seat 17" (Passenger)
Crow Enterprizes 6 Point Harnesses (Blue)
Small Fire Extinguisher
Painted Interior White
Painted Seats White
Painted Rear Deck Area/Trunk Matte Black
Painted Roll Bar Blue
Momo Hub Adapter
NRG Gen 2.0 Quick Release (Black)
Momo Mod.78 Leather Steering Wheel (Flat, 330mm)
Radiator Protective Mesh Mounted Inside Bumper
Driving Lights Mounted In Bumper Opening


The only thing on here that I didn't mention was the radiator protective grille and the driving lights. The lights are just some cheapo square lights from O'Reilly that I mounted in the bumper opening for driving on the street at night. They are technically too low I think but I haven't gotten pulled over yet. You can see them in various track pictures of the car, usually turned sideways to avoid rock damage on the track.

The radiator grill is mounted where the A/C condenser would normally go to guard against rock damage.


So we hit the track!

Here are some different photos from around that time. Might not quite line up with the timeline in the thread but oh well.


Cruising to P1 Kart Circuit a.k.a. Musselman Honda Circuit on the southern outskirts of Tucson. They have fun little open track days on a super small and technical course. It's like autocross speed on a road course type track, kind of like a stepping stone if I had to compare it to autox and road course driving.

Remember mine is 883 haha.

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Light speed flyby:

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Getting some seat time at P1/Musselman:

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My dad:

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This is at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in Desert Center, CA near Blythe. My dad is driving in all of these.

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My dad was having trouble with heel toe downshifting. We thought of making a simple pedal extension, but after seeing another competitor eat a tire wall (cosmetic damage, driver was fine) when his foot slipped off the brake (stock rubber covers) we decided to just bite the bullet and get the FM pedal kit. I like this kit a lot, feels great and makes heel toe shifting easier as well.

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So, everything was going great and then we had a problem with the car. Front right wheel bearing started to go out. Did some research and saw the horror stories of bearing and/or hub failure. Replaced all four of them with Dorman Hub Assemblies and Precision Wheel Bearings all purchased at O'Reilly's.

Also at Chuckwalla I accidentally shifted from 3rd to 2nd while coming out of a corner... I figured out later that both of our stock motor mounts were pretty much torn in half. What happened is that when I pulled down on the shifter to go to 4th, while letting off the gas, the driveline leaned over since it wasn't under load and lined up 2nd gear for me. I wrapped the tach, the needle went past 8... probably hit about 9000RPM while shitting my pants at the same time. Luckily the car was totally fine, no damage, still made the same power on the dyno, disaster avoided.

Shelled out for some 949 Racing Poly Motor Mounts. We got the middle stiffness durometer, do yourself a favor and get the softest one... it is still MUCH stiffer than even the Mazdaspeed mounts. With the middle duro the whole car vibrates like a mother between 1000 and 1500RPM but feels awesome on track. Highly suggest these things.

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Right after this, the clutch started slipping at approximately 106k miles. It was only slightly and during very quick shifts, instead of grabbing the next gear right away, it would slip down to meet the RPM's like a slipper clutch you see on drag cars even after you let the pedal all the way out. Decided to just take care of it instead of letting it develop into a bigger problem.

Ordered up:
1.6L Exedy Stage 2 Thick Disk Clutch Kit
1.6L Fidanza 7.0lbs Aluminum Flywheel
TechnaFit Stainless Braided Clutch Line (If I did it again I would get the 949 Racing line that deletes the pigtail.)

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I figured this combo would be good on the track, and with the decreased clutch size in addition to the lightweight parts, would make for a considerable decrease in moment of inertia.

If money were more... abundant... for this build, I would have went with the 949 Racing 7.25" Twin Disk setup.

So I managed to put about 350 city street miles on the new clutch before hitting the track, I was a bit afraid that it wasn't broken in yet but it worked flawlessly. This is definitely the best setup that I can think of without going to something crazy like a tiny twin disk. One of the best upgrades to the car by far. Rev matching got a lot easier, engine was more responsive to throttle input, and the clutch felt great. I was able to shift a bit quicker too because of the decreased mass and moment of inertia of the tiny three puck clutch disk.

So fast forward a little, I'm working on the car, and I decide to change the shock stiffness... I turn the knob, it feels a little gritty like sand or dirt got in the knob (even though the rubber knob protector was properly fitted the entire time) and then oil starts dripping out of it at an alarming rate... awesome...

If you bounced the car up and down you could hear air traveling through the valving... ON BOTH FRONTS. EFF.

Luckily, they have a 2 year warranty and Flyin' Miata is awesome and sent me some replacements ASAP. I wouldn't hesitate to buy them again since they are backed by a good warranty and the stand up people over at FM. The warranty was process was painless.

I think it was just a singular bad run because the rears and the replacements they sent for the fronts have different batch codes on them and are still doing awesome.

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Pulled them off and the shock that wasn't leaking was nearly seized. I could move the shaft at all, even in a vice.

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So. The time finally came that my dad was getting ready to get his Time Trials license. We figured we would slot the car into TTE with a dyno reclass, so it was time for the biggest round of mods yet.

First: Throw the cat on and get emissions and reg done for the next 2 years now that I'm about to make it even harder to pass visual inspection... The charcoal canister was still in at this point. Passed with flying colors and the guy didn't stall it even with the 7lbs flywheel and tiny grabby clutch.

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Now for the parts that are going on in this round of mods...

Engine/Intake/Exhaust:
Exhintake Cam Mod (Use another exhaust cam on the intake side)
New NB Purple Injectors (265cc @ 3bar)
5xRacing Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator
5xRacing In-Line Fuel Pressure Gauge
Racing Beat 4-1 Header (Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Fel-Pro Exhaust Manifold Gasket
Racing Beat 2.25" ID Test Pipe (Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Roadstersport 3 2.25" ID Exhaust System (Connecting Pipe Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Gates Racing Timing Belt
Gates T-Belt Idler/Tensioner
Gates Racing Water Pump/Alternator Belt
Nissan Pump Co. Water Pump (made in Japan) with 3D Cast Impeller
Fel-Pro Front Main Seal, Cam Seals, and Valve Cover Gasket
Fresh NGK OE Spec Copper Plugs

Cooling:
Mishimoto 55mm Radiator
NRG Air Diversion Panel
Secondary Radiator Fan Removed
Stant 16PSI Radiator Cap (Mishimoto cap is known to fail)
Stant SuperStat 180* Thermostat with jiggle pin drilled out

Suspension/Brakes/Wheels/Chassis:
Hawk HT-10 Pads
More Cheapo O'Reilly's Rotors
Bleed with ATE Super Blue



So before I broke down and ordered the RB 4-1 header, I came across a craigslist find. Unknown brand header with a JASMA tag that came over on a JDM 1.8L. Runners had cracking at the flange. 20 bucks. Tits.

I took it to my buddy Al (he is the fabricator at Evolution Motorsports where I worked at the time) and he welded it up really nice in exchange for some Guinness. Score.

I did some research and I think it is the HKS header for 1.8L, but I tried to put it in and of course it hits the steering shaft... bad...

Right hand drive only. Womp womp. So it still sits in the garage, I don't even know what to do with it.

Also in this picture, Roadstersport 3 catback, and we switched to the RB test pipe so it was 2.25" and matched the header and catback pipe size.

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Partz:

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Installing with help from Noz, he helped out a shitload with getting all these mods on the car.

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Shinyyyyyyyyyyy

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Also later I got the header, test pipe, and midpipe all ceramic coated on the outside and inside. Helped cut down on heat in the engine bay a lot. Ignore the bottom pipe, that's a 3" ID midpipe for my RX-8.

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Recent engine bay shot, this is what it looks like at the moment:

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To the track! Everything was awesome during the shakedown.

Getting sideways in the tower turn at Firebird Main, tire walls and k rails on both sides lol.

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This event was a good learning experience (we never get rain trackdays here in AZ), except for the fact that our intake is not... optimal... when it is raining. Sucked down enough water to piss off the MAF and had to dry that out then tape everything up. We ended up losing the O2 sensor a week later, probably related. Threw a Denso unit in, good to go. But ever since then our gauge cluster is kinda... twitchy. Thoroughly cleaned and re-did all of the grounds and still no change. It doesn't really affect performance but maybe I'll address it later.

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Also we decided that for better cooling we were going to copy something I did on my RX-8. This company called GenRight OffRoad sells louver panels that are made for jeeps, they rivet on to almost anything.

Cut some holes, rivet them on, bam, better cooling and improved aerodynamics.

I can't find a picture of them on the Miata... here is what they look like on the RX-8, I'll throw in a picture of them on the Miata later.

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EDIT: Here are some pictures of them on the Miata.

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So, to the Dyno.

We had to use a DynoJet because that is the only legal Dyno for doing 2WD cars for NASA classing purposes. We were going to use a Dyno Reclass to fit into TT-E, meaning that we no longer had to take points for engine modifications or for weight reduction, but instead were given a minimum competition weight and a maximum wheel horsepower that we have to follow.

First pull on the dyno it belts out 130.8 RWHP. Sick, more than I thought it would make.

After running some numbers we figure that 128RWHP would be a good horsepower limit (you also have to give yourself some room for error in case you get put on the Dyno for a compliance check). I dumped a little fuel on it with the 5xRacing adjustable FPR and backed the timing off to 10* and got a repeatable 125 RWHP. Perfect.

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So the dyno reclass that we got back was base class TT-E, Maximum RWHP of 128, and Minimum Competition Weight of 2355. I weighed the car again, and with half a tank of gas and me in it, was 2370. Wicked.

The mods taking up our 19 points to stay in class:
+10 Hoosier R6 Compound
-1 225mm Tire Width
+3 Limited Slip Diff
+2 Sway Bars
+3 Adjustable Shocks
+2 Springs

At this point I'm thinking, time to go rape and pillage TT-E with this completely dialed car, and we go out and do some events and it's awesome. It felt a bit faster but... not really that much for some reason, but hey I dyno'd it and that thing doesn't lie so I was happy.

The only thing I didn't like is that on the stock ECU I can only move the fuel line up or down... and for some reason once it got to closed loop, it would run at 13.0:1, dip WAY the hell down to 10.8:1 and then go back up to about 12.0:1 by the time it redlined.
WTB engine management...

So we submit all our info, register the car as a Team Car with my dad being the owner and myself the secondary driver, so that I can jump out for a session to set a good time. I'm still about 1.5 seconds faster than him on local tracks and anywhere from 3 to 7 seconds faster on tracks he hasn't had a lot of seat time on.

We had to think of a name, so we thought of the time when the track goes cold, and when the track goes cold it is always Beer:30. We are more of a drinking team with a racing problem anyways. :icon_cheers:

They let the name through LOL:

Attachment 183970

You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Corona.
/F&F

Attachment 183971

Here's the bad news...

I just recently had the car on a Dynapack at UMS Tuning for the UMS Tuning Time Attack Series compliance checks, and it only pulled 113RWHP, and usually Keith's Dynojet (the one I used earlier) and Tony's (UMS Tuning) Dynapack read almost identical. WTF.

I noticed another thing while it was on Tony's dyno, it redlined at 6,900RPM's instead of 7,200RPM like it did on the Dynojet. Here's where I fucked up. I did some research only to find out the tach is off and really the '94 1.8L redlines at 6,900RPM. Tony set the RPM on his dyno using a digital timing light, so that the RPM's were correct on the dyno. On the Dynojet, I held the car at 4,000RPM while looking at the tach to set the RPM... you can see how this shifted the entire torque curve up on my Dynojet graph by almost 350RPM's. If you do the math and shift the line over to the right spot, I really only made about 115WHP on the Dynojet since horsepower is a function of torque.

Right now I took a little fuel out and bumped the timing back to about 15* BTDC and it feels a lot better. I need to hit the dynojet again, do it properly this time, and adjust my dyno reclass to be more competitive.


Anyways, after that wall of text, here's a recent video at Inde Motorsports Ranch. In an earlier session that day I was only 0.9 seconds off of the TT-E track record. ON A SET OF 225 NT01! Seriously wish I would have had some Hoosiers that day, I would have had a fighting chance at setting a track record that day.

I had just grown enough balls to throw the car into the turn after the main straight without even touching the brakes. Just a little lift, and throw it in. For my super fast lap I almost didn't even let off... nearly flat out and I dipped 2 wheels off on the exit pretty good, that's the kind of stuff on track that I live for, it was pretty terrifying to say the least. Data says the fastest I got through there that weekend was 96MPH.

Current date for reference at this point is about March 2014.


One mod that I really liked that I forgot to mention was in this little video. This is the guy that I bought my cam from to do the exhintake mod lol.



Other stuff that is happening:
Just got some TRMotorsports C3M's in 15x9 and put some 225/45R15 Hoosier R6's on them. Will take pics soon. Barely fit with roll and slight pull. Paint on the fenders was not a happy camper...
Just got the master cylinder brake brace and a nylon shift knob from Garage Star. Installing soon.
Have most of the components to do an oil cooler setup, that is on deck as well.
Remote oil filter setup as well.
Miataroadster Short Shifter from this last group buy should be shipping next week. Hopefully it gets here before next weekend because I'll be out at the track. I will be sure to get some footage with my new GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition. It is ballin'.

Stuff I want to do in the future:
COP Conversion and Standalone ECU. Probably Adaptronic PnP.

Also just ordered some of these... 15x9 with 550kg load rating and 12.2lbs.

Attachment 183968


To recap, here is where the car stands in terms of parts I've thrown at it etc.

Weight Reduction:
Removed interior
Removed A/C
Removed side windows
Removed Charcoal Canister and EGR System
Removed Headlight assemblies
Removed airbags, sensors, module.
Gutted Doors
Gutted Rear Deck
Sound Deadening removed

Engine/Intake/Exhaust:
Exhintake Cam Mod (Use another exhaust cam on the intake side)
New NB Purple Injectors (265cc @ 3bar)
5xRacing Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator
5xRacing In-Line Fuel Pressure Gauge
Custom made cold air intake with velocity stack sealed off from engine bay
Racing Beat 4-1 Header (Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Racing Beat 2.25" ID Test Pipe (Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Roadstersport 3 2.25" ID Exhaust System (Connecting Pipe Ceramic Coated Black Inside and Out)
Gates Racing Timing Belt
Gates T-Belt Idler/Tensioner
Gates Racing Serpentine Belt for water pump/alternator
Nissan Pump Co. Water Pump (made in Japan) with 3D Cast Impeller
New Front/Rear Main, Cam and Valve Cover Seals
NGK Copper Plugs
NGK Blue Plug Wires
Rotella T6 5w-40 Synthetic Diesel Oil (No HLA tick at all)

Drivetrain:
Fidanza 7.0lbs Flywheel for 1.6L (Converted to 1.6L Clutch/Flywheel. Smaller and lighter)
Exedy Stage 2 Clutch (3 Puck Thick Disk NON-HD) for 1.6L
TechnaFit Stainless Braided Clutch Line
Ralco RZ Short Shifter (Do not buy this... took a lot of fab work to get it to work and it's starting to get sloppy.)
Sickspeed 2" Shifter Extender
VooDoo Piano Black 2" Weighted Shift Knob
AmsOil 75w-90 GL4 Trans Fluid
AmsOil 75w-90 GL5 Rear Diff Fluid

Cooling:
Mishimoto 55mm Radiator
NRG Air Diversion Panel
Samco Blue Silicone Radiator and Ancillary Hose Kit
Secondary Radiator Fan Removed
Stant 16PSI Radiator Cap
Stant SuperStat 180* Thermostat with jiggle pin drilled out

Suspension/Brakes/Wheels/Chassis:
Replaced stock manual steering rack with de-powered power steering rack (quicker ratio)
Flyin Miata VMaxx Track Pack Coilovers (9k/6k)
Flyin Miata Front and Rear Sway Bars
949 Racing SuperMiata Adjustable Endlinks
Energy Suspension Poly Control Arm Bushings Front and Rear
Energy Suspension Poly Diff Bushings
949 Racing Poly Motor Mounts (Get the softest ones, we did medium and it's too harsh even for a track car)
Hawk HT-10 Pads
Cheapo O'Reilly's Rotors
949 Racing 6UL Wheels 15x8"
TRMotorsports C3M 15x9"
Stock 14" Hollow Spokes for the Street
6 Point Custom Roll Bar by Fathead Fabrications
All New Wheel Hubs and Bearings
GoodRidge Stainless Braided Brake Lines

Interior/Exterior/Electronics:
OEM Mazda Non-Defroster Hard Top
Ultrashield VS Halo Aluminum Seat 17" (Driver)
Ultrashield Spec Miata Aluminum Seat 17" (Passenger)
Crow Enterprizes 6 Point Harnesses (Blue)
Trans Tunnel Heat Shield
Small Fire Extinguisher
Painted Interior White
Painted Seats White
Painted Rear Deck Area/Trunk Matte Black
Painted Roll Bar Blue
Momo Hub Adapter
NRG Gen 2.0 Quick Release (Black)
Momo Mod.78 Leather Steering Wheel (Flat, 330mm)
Radiator Protective Mesh Mounted Inside Bumper
Driving Lights Mounted In Bumper Opening
Mad stickers yo

GarageStar brake master cylinder brace installed. I can notice a difference in pedal feel on the street, it feels good. Just more... crisp and precise I guess would be my best description. Can't wait to try it out on track next weekend.

Attachment 183966

Also switched out to the GarageStar nylon shift knob. It only weighs somewhere around 40 grams, it's super light. It is 1.75" in diameter. I actually like it better than my 2" VooDoo magnum which is considerably heavier. It just feels more raw since all the extra weight isn't there to dampen some of the feedback you get through the shifter. Can't wait till the Miataroadster short shifter gets here so I can try it out with that. They were supposed to ship out last Monday the 3rd, but I emailed them and they still haven't shipped... waiting on the delrin shifter bushings to be machined apparently. Hopefully it makes it here in time to drop in for the event next weekend.

Attachment 183967

Middle of March 2014:

Shifter came in today (fuck yeah) in time for the track weekend! USPS 2 day flat rate ftw.

Miataroadster Shifter Tall, Straight, and Bootless is what I went with. Looks great in a race car that doesn't have a center console. It's about the same height as the old Ralco RZ shifter with 2" extension on it. Maybe a tiny bit shorter.

Pros:
-Super solid
-High quality
-Everything lines right up and drops right in
-Feels awesome, no more shifter slop or shifter rotating in the turret.
-Shifts are nice and short and crisp even with the taller knob location.

Cons:
-According to the group buy thread on M.net, it was supposed to be $330 shipped, with a $25 dollar discount for omitting the upper rubber boot. My invoice was $325 minus $25 but there is a $20 shipping charge? What gives? Shipping was supposed to be included AND it came in a flat rate box that I know for a fact costs $12.35 to ship anywhere in the country lol.
-Did I mention already that this thing cost me $320 bucks... it's awesome but it's expensive. There is literally no other decent competition, they pretty much have the market cornered since nothing else comes close in terms of quality and function. You can tell there's no direct competitors because these used to be less than $200 not that long ago...
-Estimated ship date was 3/3/14. It didn't ship until 3/12/14. I sent an email 5 days after the expected ship date wondering where it was and was told that they were being delayed because they were still making the delrin shifter bushings. Would have been nice to at least get an email notifying me of this instead of having to ask what the heck was going on.


Here's the kit. Also I have sitting there an aluminum Mazdaspeed shifter bushing that I used instead of the delrin one supplied with the kit. It fit a lot tighter, but still not tight enough to "snap" onto the shifter tip. Good stuff though I like this bushing, super mechanical feeling which I love. Also pictured: GarageStar 1.75" Nylon shift knob and VooDoo 2" Magnum shift knob in Piano Black. I went with the GarageStar shifter I like the lighter feel better, it's barely 40 grams compared to the 175 gram VooDoo.

Attachment 183960

Sucked out and replaced turret fluid with my favorite stuff ever. I used this last time as well but figured some fresh fluid couldn't hurt.

Attachment 183961

Installed:

Attachment 183962

Also I got a used hard wired transponder so I don't have to pay for rentals anymore.

Mounted behind the rear bumper with a clear shot at the ground. (I know there is only one screw, I was finalizing the positioning so it was level.)

Attachment 183963

Guy that owned this before me put in a fuse that you can pull to shut it off, but used crimp connectors and electrical tape. I hate crimp connectors so I will redo this later. Have other stuff to prep and load in the truck before I take off for the track weekend.

Attachment 183964


Also got one of these bad boys for the GoPro for this weekend. I'm going to try some twin Miater bumpdraft shenanigans with my buddy Noz, will hopefully have video next week for you guys. Anyways, time to finish loading up and then get some sleep so I can hit the track tomorrow. Woot.

Attachment 183965

Some last minute shitty cell phone pictures with the TRMotorsports C3M's since I don't have any pics of them yet. 15x9" +36 with 225/45R15 Hoosier R6's. Barely fit with a fender roll and slight pull, and they rub at full lock, not sure where though but I can feel/hear it.

Also better view of the vents.

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This one came out blurry but screw it. Just wanted to show how stupid huge these tires are on this car.

Attachment 183958



Here is 225/45R15 Nitto NT01's mounted on 15x8" wheels vs. 225/45R15 Hoosier R6's mounted on 15x9" wheels...

Attachment 183959

Still March 2014.

So, last weekend went pretty damn well.

1st Place in Time Trials TT-E Class on 3/15/14
1st Place in Time Trials TT-E Class on 3/16/14
1st Place in UMS Tuning Time Attack Series TA-A Class on 3/16/14
New Personal Best Lap of 1:06.322

Time Trials was freaking close... I beat my best friend Noz by only 0.013 seconds. He is co-driving another one of my friends cars, a silver NB with pretty much the same power and weight as me.

Some video.

Some pictures of my dad driving.

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More footage. Bump draft practice with my buddy Noz lol.



Thoughts on the Miataroadster Short Shifter:

It worked awesome, way better than the Ralco RZ piece of garbage. Feels a bit more mechanical, probably due to the aluminum shifter bushing, it's slightly shorter than the previous setup and the throws are a bit shorter as well. It feels good and solid, really helped increase my confidence with shifting, ever since I've missed a gear and spun this engine to 9000RPM, every once in awhile I'll question myself when I make a shift, even though what caused that was ripped motor mounts. But this new shifter helped clear my conscious a bit haha.

Also I figured out why the old shifter got sloppy and rotated in the turret... I finally looked at it and noticed that the plastic guide that the locating pin sits in (you can see them on the ball of the new shifter) was made of shitty plastic and literally disintegrated. It wasn't even there anymore. So it was just a metal pin clicking around in a metal channel that was twice as wide as the pin... I replaced the turret fluid so hopefully there's no chunks floating around. I'll try to get a picture of the failed one in a bit.

So some updates.

I managed to get a TT-E class record at Wild Horse Pass West Course. I crushed it by over a second, on 15 heat cycle Hoosier R6's. Had some close competition though, my buddy Noz almost beat me again. Close battles all the time with him, good stuff. Makes up for the lack of people in TT-E lol.

Results, look at Sunday. Team Beer:30. Green = Track Record
NASA Time Trial


I am taking a trip to Minnesota soon to see one of my sponsors for the RX-8 and will be purchasing a new ECU for the Miata so I can try and make up some of that lost power. UMS Tuning here in Mesa will be tuning the car and hopefully with a standalone I will be able to get some of that missing power back and fix my horrific AFR curve. I dyno'd at 115WHP and I want to be at 125WHP. Since I'm making peak power at the rev limiter, bumping the limiter up a little will probably do this. Right now stock is limited at 6900RPM and I'd like to bump it to 7200.

What ECU am I getting? An Adaptronic plug and play from TurboSource.com - Turbochargers | Turbo Components | Heat Management | Performance Parts |.

Adaptronic Select Mazda MX5/Miata ECU

Also on the to do list is getting my oil cooler stuff that I got awhile ago installed.

And the Advanti S1 wheels came in. Yay.

Time is now about November 2014.


Picture of Advanti's yay. More pictures of them on the car later.

Attachment 183943


First thing's first, the Adaptronic ECU.

I ditched the MAF sensor in favor of using the onboard MAP, pretty simple just ran a vacuum line from an unused port on the intake manifold to the ECU, then wired in an intake air temp sensor into the stock MAF connector since those wires already went to the correct pins on the ECU. Good to go. It also fired right up on the base map that is supplied when you download the software and firmware updates.

I also got the Fab9 COP kit. One of the coils was messed up and wouldn't grab onto the threaded spark plug end, had to go to a motorcycle junk yard and find one because I didn't have time for them to ship me a new one (because it showed up almost two weeks behind schedule) and had a tuning appointment the next day. Still waiting for a replacement, should probably send another reminder lol. No pics of the install as of right now, will add one later.

At UMS Tuning getting tooned yo.

Attachment 183944



And here are the results. Pretty healthy gains above 4500RPM. This is a previous pull on stock ECU vs. new ECU and tuning. Throttle response is much better too. I really like the flat shift feature as well, it works awesome. The torque curve looks a little wonky but that is just because of the resolution of the graph. Now it runs nice and safe instead of having a huge "V" shaped AFR curve and the timing is conservative. Getting aggressive on timing didn't yield any good gains anyways.

I'm really happy with this ECU. In the future it is perfect for boost, flex fuel, tons of cool features, hooking up to race dashes, traction control etc. I'm not even tapping into what it's capable of but I highly recommend it.

Attachment 183945

And now I got this gangster sticker. UMS Tuning here in Arizona rocks. Tony knows his shit and can tune just about anything that will bolt onto his dyno. I'm taking my RX-8 with 13b-REW swap there when it's done as well.

Attachment 183946


Did some trailer upgrades btw.

Attachment 183947



So first test of the new ECU at Inde Motorsports ranch. Took 2nd place Saturday in TTE, 1st Place Sunday in TTE, and I also took 1st place in the UMS Tuning Time Attack Series. This was the season ender event, so this secured a 1st place season finish in TTE, a 1st place season finish in UMS TA-A class, and I was the overall points leader in UMS Time Attack. Good stuff.

I had a pretty unique instructing experience as well. My student was just 13 years old and he did awesome. This is the only video I got all weekend and it is of him driving, me riding shotgun and talking to him via helmet headsets. Watch till the end, we go off haha. He was picking up some good speed towards the end of the weekend.

So fast forward a bit after the Inde event, and I went out to instruct with the Porsche Club of America at Wild Horse Pass (Firebird) West track. That's the track that I hold the TT-E record at.

So I get to instruct for 5 sessions and also drive for 5 sessions, good people, good food, relaxed track day environment with no pressure. It's a nice break from being so focused on being fast.

Anyways, after this event is done I notice there are drift and drags happening over in the other side of the facility. I say fuck it, I've always wanted to try drifting and it's only $50 bucks, what's the worst that could happen.

Interesting part, is that this has saved me from going 4 off or spinning and getting DQ'd in some of my fastest sessions at later events. Being able to let go of the wheel and ride out a drift has come in handy.

At first I tried to drift on some heat cycled out 225/45R15 Hoosiers, they have no grip on track but too much grip for me to keep them spinning so I just snapped back straight.

I switched out some wheels, put 225/45R15 NT01's on the front on 8" wheels, and then some pizza cutters out back on the stock 14" hollow spokes. Like 185/55R14 and 600 treadwear I believe. Worked great.

I definitely learned a lot about car control that I can apply to road racing by trying to slide around out there, and there were even a couple Miatas with like 50WHP less than me that were killing it out there, no idea how they do it haha.

I got about 20 runs in and by the end of the night I had one good run where I linked all the corners together, not bad for a first attempt.

Crappy potato camera video and a picture:


Attachment 183942

Still November 2014.

So, most recent outing was at SevenStock 17 at Auto Club Speedway.

I got to try out the new Maxxis RC1's, I really liked them for the price point. They are very similar to NT01's but seem a tiny bit faster. They also don't make a whole lot of noise and it seems the sidewalls are a bit stiffer. Good stuff and looking forward to winning a boatload of these with the new awesome contingency that they have.


On the RC1's I was about 4 seconds off of the TTE record pace, and I was about 5HP underpowered as well. Not bad for my first time at this track. There was a lot of time spent sitting going in a straight line though. I spent the whole weekend getting dive bombed at the end of long straights and getting my doors blown off and not having any corners to catch up in. I can see how that track becomes boring after awhile for low HP cars.

Video and some pictures:




Put on some new stickarz.

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how are the vmaxxs working for ttd? i was almost positive id have to upgrade if i wanted to get into tt, but you seem to be doing fine with them.

I'm actually in TT-E and they're okay but they are on the list of stuff that needs to be replaced, I'm looking at getting some Fortune Autos or something but I'm trying not to spend any money on the Miata, I usually split most of the costs on it but I really want to get my RX-8 up and running. A couple of the shocks seem to have lost oil again, I haven't noticed a whole lot because it was probably a gradual change over many events and I just adapted, but I had someone else drive the car that has never driven it before and it was noticeable to them.

You don't need the absolute best of the best to be competitive though, just get out there. I've set a track record on a shock that was nearly seized.

Also thanks for negative props for just trying to say hi...

This is the latest post for the build thread, we're pretty much all caught up. The first two events of the 2015 season had a great turnout for TTE, finally some participation in a class I've been trying to build for more than a year. I got first place for every day of those two events, everything was going good then MCE Dyno showed up to ruin everyone's shit at the third event. I didn't participate in the fourth event, pretty much out of the running for the season. More on that later.

I have some more stuff to post that has happened over the last couple months, mostly things that frustrate me, but I have an event this Saturday to go to and will probably get around to it next week. Anyways. Posting spree is over for now.


Haven't updated in awhile so here's the latest. I'll do it over the span of a couple posts.


TT-E in my region was finally gaining some steam after a lot of campaigning for people to join and stuff. We all pretty much use the Maxxis RC1 since the contingency is so good and they last a lot longer than Hoosiers and the people that aren't competitive I can give scrubs to for free. Win win.

Attachment 183933

The RC1's were still pretty quick even around 40 to 50 heat cycles. I was only 6 hundredths of a second off of a long standing track record at Wild Horse Pass East at about 45 heat cycles, and that record is a Hoosier record.

Anyways, at that point at about 50 heat cycles they looked like maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of the tread depth was still there and driveable but I let a lot of people drive the car and somewhere along the way they got flat spotted so I'm still not sure how many heat cycles I can get until they're corded.

(Trailer is diamond plate so ignore the pattern on it.)

Attachment 183934


Now... downside to the Maxxis contingency program, you have to go through a contact at NASA to submit stuff instead of submitting requests straight to the manufacturer like how Hoosier does it. It's been a painful process to say the least and I still do not have all of the tires that I won over 3 months ago.

So I had a set of 225's that I bought straight from Maxxis since you have to show proof of purchase to be eligible (245's weren't for sale at the time). First weekend on them I won a whole set of four tires. I submitted all the stuff, required pictures, forms, proof of purchase, etc. And by now the 245's were available to the public, so for the requested tire size I asked for the 245's. I got a reply back saying that this wasn't allowed (the contingency rules form never said you couldn't claim a different size, or else I would have waited since I worked my classing to fit 245's) and I got bitched out. I argued about it, said fine I will pay the difference in cost ($80), but that wasn't good enough.

The NASA guy told me that I had to buy one 245 at retail cost ($175) and he would send me three for free. Instead of the four that I won fair and square. After this went down, an updated contingency rule form comes out and sure enough, there's a new rule saying you can only claim the size that is on your proof of purchase lmao... the other thing is that he said if I spoke of this to anyone he would disqualify me from the Maxxis contingency program but I don't really give a shit anymore since tires don't show up anyways.

These tires took almost two months to arrive, the contingency ones that is. The one that they made me buy, was on my doorstep three days after purchase (wtf). By the time the free tires showed up I had won four more tires in competition, so I got a shipment of five free tires, and to this day they still owe me two more. I keep emailing the NASA contact but all I get is "Yep I'll check on it," then no response. Going on almost 4 months waiting for the last two tires they owe me.


/rant... for now.

So one of the mods that I did awhile back was the Fab9 Tuning COP kit.

It's now sitting in a box in the garage somewhere because I ended up going back to stock.

First issue I had is that it shipped two weeks late, oh well shit happens, not that big of a deal. But in this case I had an event coming up and I received it during the week leading up to that event. I was waiting on these to tune my car so I had already had to cancel and reschedule a dyno tuning appointment because of the delay. I hadn't put in the Adaptronic ECU yet so decided to install these with the stock ECU just to test them out, make sure everything is okay, then put in the Adaptronic and switch to MAP and install an IAT sensor etc.

Second issue, one of the pencil coils will not grab onto the threaded end of the supplied spark plugs. Looks like a manufacturer defect on Denso's part. Since it shipped late I don't have time to wait for a replacement and have to cancel yet another dyno tuning appointment, instead I went to a local motorcycle pick and pull and found a used one until I could get the faulty unit replaced.

Third issue, when they said that a 1994 would require a tach adapter, I thought that meant that the tach would not work without one, not that the entire car wouldn't work. So that was frustrating until I figured that out. My fault for not understanding that, but their website could be a little more clear that the car will not start without a tach adapter. Installed the Adaptronic ECU and everything was working okay.

Went and got the car tuned, everything is going good.

Next issue, at the track event that weekend, I started getting an intermittent miss when at WOT, almost like an ignition cut for a fraction of a second. I had the hood open and the car was running and I could hear a faint electrical snap every once in awhile like something was arcing out.

Looks like the pencil coils couldn't take the heat for some reason? It exposed the coil and was arcing out here.

Attachment 183930



I gave up on trying to get a replacement coil from Fab9 and just put these in a box and went back to stock. But the worst part is that the missing at WOT that I thought was arcing out, was still there. I'm still trying to figure out that issue to this day.

Switched to Treasure Coast fiberglass hard top with lexan window. I think weight went from around 48lbs (OEM no defrost) down to about 15lbs, so about 33lbs off the top of the car is not bad. Mounted with some scrap aluminum that was laying around, and also used titanium bolts anywhere I could since I have a box of random assortment titanium stuff here. Whenever I remove hardware or install things, I try to find titanium bolts that I can use instead.

Attachment 183915

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Replace spark plugs?

Does it on the Densos supplied with the COP kit, and with stock ignition with brand new blue NGK wires on both NGK coppers and NGK iridiums. I went through and cleaned, sanded and put star washers on every ground that I could find in the car. Also data logged it on my Adaptronic and all sensors seem to be working as they should. Battery was old and wouldn't hold a charge so I replaced that last week. I'm down to either bad alternator (only charges at 13.5v) or the coil pack is bad. Also it's definitely loss of spark because the RPM signal from the plug wire on the dyno drops out when this happens.

That bad pencil coil probably hurt whatever component was immediately upstream (wiring, ECU, etc.). Can you borrow your friend's coil pack for a test to rule that out without spending $$?

13.5V is a little low, but you should still have full ignition performance at that voltage.

BTW, probably going to get one of those TC hardtops myself. Thanks for the pics.

Possibly, but the unit that is immediately upstream of them is the coil driver box that comes with the kit. I mean I can try to swap the ECU out, the '94 Plug and Play Adaptronic ECU is actually the Universal e440 box. I have another identical one for my RX-8 that I could swap in but I will try the coil pack first. Alternator will be getting replaced though, it's still "acceptable" but I'd rather just not worry about it.

Also the TC hard top is a little cheaper if you can get a couple people near you to do a group buy like I did to cut down on shipping costs. The shipping is killer for just one unit, like 200+.

Yep. Already have one other person lined up. Looking for more. Hopefully, shipping to Dallas area is a little bit less.

So awhile back at a track event last March, I met Paul Yaw of Injector Dynamics in person for the first time. I had always been a huge fan of their injectors and I have a couple of friends that work there as well. I already have six ID1300's that are going to be used in the RX-8 project that I purchased from them. Anyways, he has a Miata and brought it to the track but he wasn't driving since it had no roll bar. I offered up our Miata for him to do a couple sessions in and it seems like he had a good time.

He also asked me what he owed me for the rental seat time, I said free.99 multiple times but he wasn't interested in that answer and supplied me with a set of ID1000's for the Miata. Super stand up guy, down to Earth and really knows his shit. I can't recommend their product enough. Best stuff on the market right now. Will be installing these soon, I know they're overkill for a 120HP Miata, but they are so linear and matched that I'll still be able to idle perfectly on pump gas, and have enough injector for anything I can imagine in the future.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434069578

My dad started on a remote oil filter and oil cooler install. Will post the rest of the pics when it's done.

Mishimoto Thermostatic Oil Sandwich Plate
Mishimoto Oil Cooler (19 Row I think)
Moroso 90 Degree Oil Filter Adapter -10orb
Derale Remote Oil Filter Mount
Wix 51515 Filter (Same bypass/flow as a Miata filter and half the price)
Full Function Engineering Temp and Pressure sensors
Aeromotive -10orb to -10an male adapters
Fragola -10an fittings and black nylone hose


Here you can see the two -10orb plugs that I had drilled and tapped for the Full Function Engineering sensors. Can feed those into the ECU to take advantage of more of the Adaptronic engine protection features.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434069578

This is the piece of plastic that is near the front bumper/headlight area. Riveted it there for the oil cooler to sit on so it's isolated.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434069578

Used an assortment of nut serts, scrap aluminum, some titanium hardware and rubber grommets to mount the oil cooler. It's fully isolated but is still mounted in there very solid. Just need to make the AN lines and fab up a duct that connects to the front turn signal inlet.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434069578

The oil adapter octopus was not fun to get bolted up... just need to finish ducting the oil cooler and cleaning up some wiring for front lights in that corner that is being redone.

Also something interesting, the o-ring that comes with the Moroso filter adapter sucks balls and doesn't sit well in the machined channel. I took a square o-ring out of a Wix oil filter for a 2007 F-150 5.4L and it fit perfectly in the Moroso groove. Much better seal.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434251931

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Decided to relocate the radiator overflow tank. Made some quick custom brackets and that side of the engine bay is much cleaner. Now the hot air from the oil cooler has a clear path to the hood vent, so hopefully it will increase flow but who knows.

Also here's what I'm doing for the turn signal. Step drill and it fits right in there now. Also redid the wiring out to it because the old wires were rubbing somewhere and were just hanging on by a couple strands.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434321047
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https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1434321047

So, went to another NASA event, got screwed again.

Apparently my classing dyno sheet got thrown out at the event I did in March when the MCE dyno screwed me over (another competitor did a back to back dyno on them vs. the local dynojet that we are supposed to use for classing, and MCE read almost 10% high on their car, yet some other cars read in line with what they got at the local dyno. I think that piece of shit that they drag around is just a random number generator and the operators are douchebags. They cut into my wire harness for an RPM signal against my will.)

I didn't know a compliance dyno could replace my classing dyno, my mistake, I don't have a problem with that. The problem is that NASA officials knew this though, and instead of telling me in the morning or even at the event that I got DQ'd at so I could fix it for future events, they waited on purpose until after this event was finished and just wiped out all my times and took away the tires and brakes that I had won. I suspect that it's because I protested the regional director since he was running a car in TTE with no numbers on the car, no classing stickers on the car, and no classing sheet on file, that he was running "just for fun" and was going to knock other people out of getting contingency just because he wanted to see some times...

Anyways, I offered to go to the local dynojet right then and there when they informed me to prove that I was compliant but they refused, probably because they wanted to go home instead of doing their job. While arguing with them I totally forgot about the "bad faith" protest rule and them wrongfully withholding this information but they probably would have just brushed that off as well.

So anyways, I WAS planning on doing this....

(GT2052 for Miata next to EFR9180 for RX-8)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1435343145


It was my secret that I had been planning for awhile in order to achieve a flat horsepower curve since torque isn't accounted for in NASA classing, with electronic boost control and an external wastegate.


But I'm kind of over NASA and getting worked over so I looked at what other organizations I could run with. ProAutoSports is another group that a lot of people at NASA run at as well so I tried out one of their half day "beat the heat" events and it was nice.

I'm planning on running in their PS4 class which is wheel to wheel. Instead of doing the turbo project, that has been shelved and we're getting the rest of the cage finished and prepping for race group instead. ProAutoSports classing takes horsepower and torque into consideration so the turbo is no longer advantageous, and the car is already nearly maxed out for PS4 which is the most popular class anyways and where I will be able to win Hoosiers.

The reason I started posting this build at Miataturbo was because, well, I was going to go turbo. Maybe one day it'll happen but probably not anytime soon anymore. Sorry to disappoint.

Here's a picture from the ProAuto event, you can see the new grate for oil cooler intake, much more open than the turn signal ducts. Also still trying to fix that stupid ignition issue...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1435343145

You mention the ignition issue and MCE cutting into your wiring harness (which just boggles my mind, BTW). Hmmmmmm . . . . Related?

The ignition issue had started before they did that. And yeah they did that to quite a few people, I think they even cut into a Raychem harness... it's like really dude, could have just used the plug wire like EVERY other dyno operator ever.

how are these guys(MCE) even in business, let alone for a sanctioning body?

so i guess ill be seeing you out there this winter. do you run the whole weekend or just saturday?

I think NASA just sticks to it because "that's the way it's always been". And they stay in business because NASA pays every time they put someone on the dyno, so they changed the rules the day of the event that said we could only use Arizona Dyno Chip for testing and compliance, so they could pay MCE $70 in order to DQ me and take away all my contingency lol. At one of the events I think they ran like 50 cars in a weekend, most of them were voluntary but still like $70 a pop that's decent money.


And yes I'll be out there, I always do both days, win more tires that way. Will you be at the Inde event in September?

probably not. need to get it turboed and tuned, i want to stay close to home for the first track day just in case whatever happens.

Plenty of time man. Just go anyways, Inde is an awesome track. If you break, I'll have my trailer there and we can tow your car home and drive mine back. It's still registered and insured.

in that case i may go. having my 2nd kid here soon too, so im not sure how free ill be, ill let you know.

My dad got the ducting finished up for the oil cooler. Same plexi that the airbox is made out of. Used heater hose on the edges to seal to the cooler and so that the plexi doesn't melt. It's pretty much sealed to the front turn signal opening, turned out pretty good.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1436157922


Also found this piece of aluminum pipe and a couple t-bolt clamps laying around, much smoother and simpler than the previous setup that was here which was a combination of a bunch of clamps and couplers and pieces of exhaust tubing and a 90 degree silicone bend. Can look back in this thread if you want to see a picture of how it used to be.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1436157922

Took out all of the things. It's now at fab getting the front half of the car caged so it will be ready for wheel to wheel.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1439181847

Getting pretty excited about the cage. Pics below are just various stages of completion. The first couple with the shiny tubing is just a practice piece with cheap tubing before bending up the more expensive DOM tubing so don't freak out.

The fitment so far is nuts. There are a lot of places around the top that you can barely fit a sheet of paper between the bars and the hard top. Everything is super tucked, you can barely see any of the forward half of the cage from the outside. I'm 6'5" and size big so space was critical for me and Junior at FatHead Fabrication is doing an awesome job. Should be done soon.

In the meantime here's what I've ordered in preparation for the jump to wheel to wheel.

Joe's Racing Switch Panel (Ignition - Start - Universal Switch x2)
Joe's Racing Master Cutoff Switch 4 Pole
Joe's Racing Window Net Mount Kit 18"
Joe's Racing 17" Wide Angle Mirror with 9" brackets.
RaceQuip SFI Mesh Window Net
AllStar SFI Rated Rollbar Padding (6 feet)
2.5lbs. Halotron Fire Extinguisher (Will also have 1lb. Sodium Bicarb extinguisher as well)
Master Cutoff/Fire Extinguisher Stickers

Also:
Supermiata driveshaft
Set of 15x9" Advanti Storm S1 in Grey
Need to order 205/50R15 Hoosier R7 (new class I'm going to at ProAuto has a 205mm tire width limit.)

Pics, remember that it's not done yet. Still door bars and gussets for various parts to do. And the firewall landing points etc.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1440147280

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https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1440147280

I really like the way that came out, that guy does really good work.

That cage work looks awesome.

As long as you're doing cage work, you might think about revising the seatback brace to tie into the cage rather than the sheet metal bulkhead. Just a thought.

Thanks guys. I think I might have forgot to mention that he also did the rollbar like three years ago which is back half of the cage that is still painted blue. The forward landing boxes that are blue were from the previous doorbars that were cut out to be redone with full nascar bars.

I like the brace where it is. It's actually just resting against the middle C channel reinforcement that's welded into the seat. I don't have any second thoughts about the seat mounting in a crash situation. I'm not really a fan of having a pole bolted into a piece of sheet aluminum that is aimed at my spine is all.

<p>Cage looks tits. You should throw that 9180 on the miata and see what happens :)</p>

Probably wouldn't make boost until near redline then the motor would come apart lmao. I have a GT2052 and some Turbosmart goodies sitting here but maybe later.

<p>Would be a good show though :)</p>

Whats the RX putting down? or you dont know yet? only read last page of build, looks like its not done.

And BTW, non equal length primaries blowing up engines and turbos. WT actual F?

Yeah some of the people over there are not so bright... should have seen the thread where someone said that e85 would melt the aluminum rotor housings. LOL. I mostly hang out on rx7club for info, way better over there.

The RX8 isn't done yet, but it should be able to break 600WHP and around 500WTQ.

I want a ride. Is it going to be street legal by chance?

EDIT- OBD2 car, nvm

Yup. Just barely. Doing my best to keep a passenger seat in it as well.

OMG that will be giggles with the ricer crowd, especially in mesa.

Heading out in a few hours to pick up the car, roll cage is all done. Getting super pumped about doing some wheel to wheel stuff, I've only done one race before but everyone in the field had at least triple my horsepower. Still beat 3 guys though LOL.

To do list:
Paint Roll Cage
Install Roll Cage Padding
Trim and Install Dash
Reinstall Seats/Harnesses
Reinstall/Mount ECU
Mount Window Net
Mount/Wire Master Cutoff Switch
Mount/Wire Switch Panel for start/ignition/transponder/laptimer
Move Wired Transponder to Front Bumper instead of Rear Bumper
Mount Blind Apex Lap Timer
Install Roll Cage Mounted Rear View Window
Swap in Supermiata Driveshaft
Change Trans/Diff Fluid
Install Front Windshield (Already Scheduled)
Get Hoosier R7's Mounted
Stickers... lots of stickers...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1440717924
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1440717924

I love how the gussets tie everything together. Both literally and figuratively.