bring all your CT boys out to the meet my local car club is hosting- Aug 29th I believe in Warwick, RI. I posted all the details up in the events section.

back to Dent Sport in the morning!! Wish me luck!

Had to cancel the appointment today. On a whim I started the car to check for leaks again, and as soon as the motor warmed up it started leaking oil somewhere from the front. I can't tell where as I have all the timing covers in place. It's always something..... I have tomorrow off from work, so hopefully it will just be something small and easily fixed, but knowing my luck, most likely not :rolleyes:.

I found the leak! I replaced the cam seals as I originally thought they were the issue, but it turned out to be a leaky front crank seal. After I swapped out the seals I ran the car for about an hour, and went up and down the street with it a few times (private roads). So I'm hoping this was the last little gremlin and it will be smooth sailing at the dyno this time- I don't want any more issues!

Good shit. How does it run now? Engine was pretty loud in that clip.

It runs better. The lifters quieted down a bit. It has a small stumble when revving up around 2k, but I'm sure that can be tuned out on the dyno.

Have you changed your acceleration enrichments at all? I know the base map has them off. There's a few threads floating around that will have some settings you can start with.

I haven't touched anything yet- leaving that all up to the tuner to square away.

For those with launch control- what are you setting your RPM limit too?

I don't have it but think 3500-4000. You should wait till you have it tuned and can see your torque curve and base it off that and your traction (or lack thereof).

I was planning on waiting until after, but was just curious. That's a good tip though, thanks

Well, good news and bad news. The bad news is there is still an oil leak- I'm going to yank the engine back out as I believe it's leaking either between the block and the pan, or the block and the oil pump. The other thing that happened was I blew out the diaphragm in the vacuum booster on the last pull we did. The car technically is drivable now, so once I fix the issues I'm going to put some time on the engine before I head back to finish the tuning.

On the last pull, the car made 256whp. I took some videos, I'll post them when I get the chance.

found a guy locally with a brake booster, going to get it tonight. The plan is to start tomorrow night after work and hopefully get everything back together by Sat night.

took the car to work today- I am loving it!

Don't be afraid to post up some more pictures and videos!

You drove it to work with no vids or pics? For shame! How is the traction or lack there of?

Your car is really awsome. Overall, the project looks like a quality job all the way through. I like the color choice. My only gripe is the odd looking tire stretch.

here's a vid of one of the dyno pulls. It was to ~7300rpm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKSZ_4uaeGk

I still have to go back to finish the tuning of the upper RPM range, so I've only been revving it to like 5-6k- it's still really quick though.

That should tide you over for the time being ;)

Yanked the motor over the weekend to fix the leak I had between the pan and the oil pump (that damn rubber gasket). I ran out of steam yesterday, but I am about 90% done. Hoping to get it back in working order after work today.

I forgot to mention I also raised the motor up a bit with the big washer trick in preparation for when I lower the car. The fact that the pan was about flush with the subframe bothered me. I'll take a pic next time I'm under there.

So new problem :vash:. I recently pulled the motor to fix a leaky oil pan gasket. I got everything back together, and when I started it up, the car is idling around 2000, fluctuating sometimes up to 2800 rpm. It's pulling ~17mmHG vacuum at idle (used to be over 20). So OK, must be a vac leak somewhere. I pressurized the system up to around 10-15psi and I am getting some air flowing out of the catch can. The catch can was also about 1/2 full of oil (not sure if this is normal or not). I'm running a PCV valve from a 323 to a catch can. I was able to blow through 1 side of the PCV valve, so I believe it is functioning properly. I also tried removing it from the system entirely, which didn't fix the idle issue.

Here's an old pic of the engine bay showing how I have my catch can routed for reference:
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Any ideas? The car ran fine before.

You need to cap the pcv port on the manifold- based on the pic.

Why? This is how it was before, and it was working fine.

where does the manifold side of the pcv system going?

it looks from your description that both sides of the Valve cover go to the catch can and thats where the pcv is.... but im unsure about where the manifold side goes from the description....

I capped the port the PCV is routed to in stock form on the IM.

I just did another boost leak test with the valve cover off, and it seems like one or more of the valve seals is leaking. When I pulled the spark plugs out, cylinders 2 and 3 had a little bit of oily residue on them. If it's not one thing it's another..... boy do I have good luck!

Ouch man.

are the seals new or still the original ones

good luck

Yeah I misunderstood him- it is capped off on the manifold. Everything was new, and the car's been running fine for 2 weeks now.

*edit* that is an old pic of the engine right after i mounted the catch can, hence why things are missing from the engine (like that cap for instance)

No miata updates yet, but I do have news to report! I just picked this up on Tuesday to replace my jeep as a daily- 09 Mazdaspeed3 GT with 30k on the clock.

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I love that car. I will own one someday

Price?

Any fears of throttle-lift catastrophic detonation?

Gonna fix the fuel pump or whatever shit that causes that?

Motor mounts? See this video: http://www.automobilemag.com/multime...287/index.html
About halfway in, you can see the engine moving by about a foot in between shifts.

I would like one but I already have two cars.

It's got a full warranty until 90k, so no worries.

Is that just a summit catch can? I'm looking into getting one myself and was curious what your running.

more or less yeah. It's actually a track dog racing, but they are basically the same thing

Don't park under oak trees. My MS3 was virgin until today ... now my roofs got about 70 shallow dings in it.

Also, if the car doesn't already have one get an intake and if your wallets healthy a reflash. The COBB shorty intake, turbo inlet and reflash made a world of difference on my car. It also, however, voided my warranty.

With 30k it's probably a little late, but if you do a lot of highway driving and the front end is currently chip free it's worth investing in some 3m film. These cars have a lot of vertical area on the nose which takes a beating. My first 3 had severe chipping on the front end all the way up to the mid plane on the hood at 50K.


-Zach

Great Job :cool:

Have you installed a restrictor in the right hose, which would run to the stock intake pipe? The hole in the stock restrictor is about 1mm.

How much oil pressure are you running with your ms pump?

no restrictor, but i don't see how that would help in any way. Oil pressure is normal

You don't want a restrictor with boost- you want the tube to vent at it's full potential. Restrictor would hurt not help.

that tree is an optical illusion, it's out in the yard a bit. It's 100% stock, gonna keep it that way for a bit (got the extended bumper to bumper warranty). There is really not much chipping on the front, which is surprising. Again, not really gonna do anything to it. If I can do a reflash and still stay off the radar I'd consider doing that

Without restrictor you suck more oil mist and maybe you have more vac.

Here are some explanations:
http://www.accessecu.com/cgi-bin/dow...in%20v1.03.pdf
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/pcv-replace/

why?

Everything changes when you add boost. Take a look at OE solutions for venting (blow-by) with boost. Plus- with a catch can there's no concern with passing oil mist. AAMOF you want to pass that mist as it's a water/oil mix that should be removed.

Yes, but in my opinion you need vac to suck the mist. Without restrictor you should have less vac under the valve cover.

what has to be done to put a 1.8l throttle body in a 1.6l car?



background info, I have a 95 motor in a 1990 chassis. I am running a tps sensor from an auto 1.6l car, with megasquirt. Currently I'm using the Flyin miata 1.8l swap kit.

no one has done this before?? Just looking to see if I can use the TPS sensor I have now on the 1.8 TB, or if I can use the 1.8TPS sensor with my wiring harness, or would I need to cut and splice in a new connector?

I would have to think it would be a cut and splice affair. I am still using the 1.6 tb with a bosch vtps.

SO it looks like only the TPS plug will have to be wired in. The 1.6 harness only has 3 wires. Does anyone have a diagram of how to wire it in?

Thanks for the link. I ended bringing the car to Dentsport for them to diagnose, so I'll keep everyone updated with the results.

Got the car back, they fixed the idle issue. There was a 2mm gap around the throttle body mounting holes and the holes in the flyin miata adapter- welded them shut, redrilled them a little lower and my idle issue is back to normal, so 1 problem down.

They didn't look into the oil consumption problem, but did note that it's not good... I'm going to run a compression and leakdown test and go from there. The catch can fills up with oil really quickly. It pulls 21mm of vac at idle, and is making full boost (14psi off the wastegate). It doesn't blow smoke at all. The car has had maybe 2 tanks of fuel run through it.

update:

I did a compression test after letting the engine get up to operating temp. My results were 218-218-220-220. The plugs looked normal as well. I took the oil cap off while the engine was running and there was a steady stream of air and oil dropplets coming out. I don't have a leakdown tester, but that's next on the list of things to check once I can source one.

I lowered the car on Friday and took some pics. I want to lower it more, but I need to trim the inner fender lips a bit more in order to do so.

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Car looks good, did you figure out what was up with her?

Nope not yet. I'm gonna see if putting some time on the motor helps out

I've run an additional 1.5 tanks of fuel through the motor, and still no change concerning the large amount of oil I'm getting in the catch can. The car runs fine otherwise, starts right up, no smoke out the back, etc etc. I'm going to guess valve seals, which was one of my original assumptions. I will most likely be putting the car away soon anyways for the winter and to start on the next phase of my build.

I've decided to put the car away for the winter, to resolve this oil issue and start on stage 2 of my build. In preparation for that, I have been getting the garage up to spec. I hung up some shop lights, got a new stereo, a kerosene heater, and hung an original Mazda dealer banner from 1990 when the miata was first debuted!

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My lovely wife recently surprised me for my birthday with a new rolling workbench/tool chest. It's frigging sweet! Took about 3 hours to assemble and fill with my tools

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I have a few more additions/changes planned for the garage, but it's essentially ready for work!

About 2 weeks ago I went for a last ride of the season with a friend and his 99 2.5 RS. He took some really nice photos, thought I would share:

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:drool:

favorite!

noice looking car there

thanks guys, still a lot left to do, can't wait for next season!

So what are the winter plans? Good lookin shots also.