Hoping you guys can help me. I decided to run a catch can, for real this time. Plan is to run both sides to a VTA can and cap the PCV inlet on the intake. I can't find anything saying what people are using to cap that inlet on the intake. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

It was definitely scary seeing all that oil. Luckily she didn't lose oil pressure or anything before I killed her. Drove her pretty hard today and she loved it.

The Sport Z plus will be more than sufficient for my use. For now anyway. The guy I got the Torsen diff from today has been racing Miatas for 20 years and told me I need to get both of my cars out to Hallett. We talked for quite a while and he seems to be a pretty accomplished racer. Definitely piqued my interest.

Ooof. Had a bit of a heart drop moment reading the oil line debacle haha. I had the same thing happen to me on my turbo car. Oil return line softened up and popped off a few minutes from my work. I left to road test another car I'd worked on and saw the snail trail of oil going through the parking lot. "Dang, what idiot spilled oil all over the lot?". The idiot was me lol. Glad you caught it before it ran completely dry!

For capping the manifold side, I just left the PCV valve installed and put a cap over that. Something like these. A hose clamp for added security is a good idea too. I don't remember the exact size needed, however...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/13215474775...3ABFBMzvu5lOZl

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you. Vacuum caps, of course it would be that simple lol.

After sending Shane my last round of logs he suggested doing some work to get my IAT's down. They're about 40 over ambient on a 90 degree day. CLT is not a concern despite the lower hose touching the header. He suggested an undertray to start as my car doesn't have one but looking at it I'm fairly certain it was taken off when the car was boosted due to the IC piping being in the way. Do I order a OEM undertray and hack it up kind of defeating the purpose, or is there an undertray that takes IC piping into account? Should I get a bigger IC? What can I do to get my IAT's down?

I have a stainless steel undertray from moss miata. I think they make the same design just in aluminum now. You won't have to hack it up for IC piping because It only covers the bottom and its cheaper than a new factory plastic one. I also have the bottom of my IC braced to it.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7890e7f769.jpg

P.S. take your time to dial in the Meister's when they get there. they should be pretty close if you leave them alone and put them on but I shortened mine and messed up the settings when installing mine and it took me a good day to get the preload and damping settings right. They literally made my wife and I sick with the quick eyeball setup I did first, but now that I have them dialed in the car rides as nice as my dad's mk6 golf R on KW V3's

P.S.S. I also just remembered that you kinda NEED to brace the undertray to the intercooler cause with an intercooler installed you have to get rid of the plastic piece that the factory tray and the moss one connect to... That's probably why the previous owner left it off.

I had a brain fart on my last reply. Meant to say I just capped the vacuum nipple on my intake manifold. Don't know why I mentioned the PCV valve at all, but it looks like you got the message.

Making a flat undertray will help you with temps everywhere. Even if they're not an issue now, your CLT's are likely going to get higher than you'd like while driving the car in anger in warm weather.

Real common practice is to cut your own out of plywood and use one of the many premade mounting options out there. https://9livesracing.com/products/st...mounts-post-on But yeah, any undertray will help you out a lot if you currently have none. Ducting as well. I'd do both of those and then reevaluate if you need more intercooler. I'd imagine you won't.

I was literally coming to ask about the air guide, you answered my question. Thanks for the input, I will probably get the same tray.

Your IC is mounted way better than mine. Mine is mounted from the top with 2 metal strips attached to the same bolts as the bumper. Kind of ghetto. I will see if there is a better way to mount it. It's in there pretty good I tried wiggling it today and it doesn't move.

Oh yeah I didn't really think about that, I have the kraken kit and this intercooler is VERY solidly mounted to the tow hook/baby teeth mounts. yeah I would make sure that intercooler isn't going anywhere before hanging the front of your undertray off of it.

What use is an undertray full of holes? It defeats the purpose entirely.

Coroplast is also pretty easy to work with and cheap. For my newer setup I bought a sheet from HDR but my old setup was some political signs that were cobbled together. The oem undertray can be trimmed and patched to allow for IC piping.

IIRC the OEM undertrays aren't crazy expensive. My car has always had an aftermarket front bumper, so I didn't even know about most of the undertray bits for a long time.

I still run the OEM belly pan (?), with additional ducting and such from the coroplast. Far from the best example on here, but I think it's decent enough

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1b1e725a39.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...738824fd53.jpg

Not bad work at all man, has it improved your intake temps? Main issue I'm having is when my temps get up to about 130, that's when I start getting the idle dips when stopping because the car is running lean ( we've discussed this before). I'd like to be able to get my IAT's within 20 of ambient but airflow isn't going to help when a lot of my driving is stop and go in town.

I have a CX Racing IC which I know isn't the best so I'm thinking maybe a similar sized higher quality IC would definitely help. And maybe getting more fresh air under the hood to be taken in by the air filter.

The main thing I have to keep reminding myself is this is a street car, not a racecar. I want to drop a ton of money getting everything up to racecar spec and it's not really realistic or necessary.

I've been looking through a bunch of threads here and noticed you guys breaking out the pitchforks when noobs come here asking to be spoonfed lol. I read back through this thread and I want to thank you guys for not roasting me. I do appreciate all the input you guys give me.

You're asking the right questions and putting in the work. I'm here for it lol.

Go make a damn undertray and get those IATs down! :rofl:

I'm swapping shocks right now. Got the front 2 and passenger rear done in less than an hour, of course the last one has to be a pia :bang:
The control arms are a pretty poor design IMO. The nut for the lower bolt broke off and it's impossible to get in there to line it up. Debating if I just want to cut a notch to access that side or keep fighting it trying to get it lined up. But even if I get it lined up I'm not sure how I'll hold it to get it right. Damn it!

While I had the front jacked up I swapped out my BOV. The old one was either stuck shut or so loose it just whistled all the time. No in between. New should work a little better.

Out with the old...
This is not my best work but they're in.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...571f1380e6.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e8a740d705.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0c9fce2c81.jpg

Quick little review of the MeisterR Sport Z Plus...
They're amazing. They ride really smooth and the car feels so much better. Way less nvh. No bump stop cruising. Just smooth and exactly what I needed. I drove down every street and crossed every railroad crossing I've avoided in this car and i don't have to avoid them anymore.
My only complaint, and something I saw others complaining about today but not when I did my research before buying, the rear doesn't go low enough. The front OOB height was perfect, almost flush. The rear was about 3 inches to high. I pulled everything back apart and lowered it as far as it would go and it's still 1.5-2 inches higher in the rear than I'd like. I'll take some pics next time I get her out of the garage.

New BOV is a bust. Doesn't open even at the lightest setting. My options are limited because of the style of BOV, it's a basic 2 bolt. Turbo flutter is cool but BOV is cooler lol.

I put the catch can in as well. Not super happy with the overall install or location of my MBC but it's what I had to work with. I removed something, don't know what it is and haven't looked it up, just added a connector and connected the 2 lines going into it together. I left the PCV in for now, I don't think it even works anyway. When I hooked the line up to it I blew threw the line and sucked and it went both ways. If I understand the function of a PCV it should only flow out.

Here is what I removed/bypassed. Hopefully it's nothing to important lol
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...09e60715fc.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b87a4a7284.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ae7bd2797a.jpg

After doing some more research on the catch can situation, I gutted the PCV valve just to be sure there's no restriction. I would like to have some sort of fitting there, I don't like the fit of the PCV in the rubber grommet. I dread the day it pops out and coats my bay with oil.

Today, in summary:
Sport Z Plus shocks are a win. Way better than I expected. It does make me wonder how good a more expensive kit like the Tecnas or even Xidas would be. I'm pretty happy with the route I went though. My wife even approves. The only reference I have is stock from my daughters 99 and the Racelands I took off this car, but these are better than stock even. The front tires rub the fenders before they bottom out. As I said earlier, I do wish the rears would go about an inch lower but it sits ok the way it is.

The only reason I wanted to add a catch can was to keep oil out of the intake and the combustion chamber. The intake already has a pretty good coating of oil in it, I saw it when I initially installed the FF injectors on the old engine. Hopefully I don't run into any issues down the road, the topic of catch cans here is a mixed bag with lots of differing opinions.

The BOV, still a source of frustration. The old one either vented more than I felt it should or not at all. I wasn't a fan of the high pitched whistle either. New one won't open at all. Lots of turbo flutter which sounds cool but I don't think it's ideal.

Next on the list:
Rear brake pads, noticed the ones on it are getting thin. Especially the driver's side. I thought I bought a set of Eagle yellows a while back but I couldn't find them today. Was going to change them while I was in there. Front pads look fairly new. All 4 rotors look great. No ridges or anything.

I need to get the Torsen diff in and honestly should have done it today. I was just excited to see how the new shocks were and didn't want to add 2-3 more hours to the job.

Undertray/ducting. I'm going to spend some time researching this before I dive in. I know I need to get the AC condenser out which will help. Still wondering if a more efficient IC would help as well.