miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

So everything seems to be going well. Break in is complete with an uneventful 600 miles so I started to boost her. Ran 14PSI flawlessly and once the Adaptronic Rapid Learn had dialed in my fuel I cranked it to 17PSI and I cant keep the tires on the car

Happened to park next to this pig. I could have saved on the meter and parked under him.


I noticed some oil on the bottom of the engine when I was changing out the Break-in oil. Seems to be coming from the oil feed line where it attaches to the block.

After tightening that up I decided I'd paint and install my catch can.


I went with this can from flebay so that it could be opened and modified to act as a real catch can. This requires a removable top and a nylon shower luffa. You cut the rope off of the nylon material and shove it inside the can to act as a baffle. Then I sealed it back up and painted it the usual wrinkle black.


I mounted it using the factory emissions canister location with some modification to the bracket.




Overall- I think it came out very clean.


The car is hauling ***. There shouldn't be too many street cars that can hang this summer.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

in for vids

curly

iTrader: (25)

I had this problem with hose barbs and hose clamps.

NPT-AN adapters and a home made SS line fixed any potential oil leaks. Didn't have to cut it off every time I wanted to remove it either.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Sexy, sexy build thread.

Subscribed for vids.

573

iTrader: (2)

This is an awesome build. I respect your attention to detail--the car looks great!

I met a guy named Max the other day and I assume he's a friend of yours because he was telling me about somebody in the area who has a white turbo Miata with Adaptronic. Given your location, I'm sure I'll run into you on Woodward some time once cruising season starts again.

05pearl

iTrader: (4)

^ Wow, I remember cruising Woodward in high school in my friend's 67 Camaro (I may be old, but I'm not that old - it was a classic in the early 80's, lol). Now miatas are cruising Woodward - who would have thought. Wish I could do that with my MSM, but I live in CO now, :sigh:

Golferluke

How have i missed this until now? I'm going to be putting rods in mine shortly, expect thread views to raise sharply.

If somebody told me to imagine an engine bay that had a black wrinkle can explode I would have thought they were nuts but that thing is pure sex.

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

So my oil leak is annoying. I went to the shop last night and tossed it up and it looks like the Stainless turbo oil feed line coming from the drivers side oil location is a bit chewed up in some places. It's also leaking from the fitting on the block.

After reviewing some pictures I remembered that the 94 and earlier blocks have a turbo oil feed location on the correct side of the block. No need for the 47 inch stainless line running under my engine



I'll go after work and pick up the fittings and likely use what's left of my huge stainless line to make the connection. It's good when things work themselves out like this.

jbrown7815

iTrader: (1)

My god this thread is sex. Has me so motivated to go and work on my car! What is your mechanical background? You make this all look so easy...

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

Thank you. I'm just an enthusiast. I worked at a speed shop for awhile to explore a hobby of mine and it turned out I was actually very good at it. Automotive paint, mechanical (when the mechanic was confused) and electrical install/fabrication were my focuses.

But for the most part it's attention to detail and a resourceful personality that produce this type of work.

The way I've always looked at it is "If someone will charge me to do something that doesn't require the use of special equipment or machinery, then why not tech myself to do it and add it to the arsenal of things that I'm good at" That's why I like giving back to this site- There are other people in the situation I was once in and it had helped me so I try to make most of my posts resourceful and to my knowledge valuable.

curly

iTrader: (25)

A few casts variations/years don't have that hole drilled/tapped, so make sure you see a bolt there before diving into that oil feed project. They'll actually be two bolts there, one for coolant and one for oil, make sure you're looking at the right one.

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

On the hi-res version of the image I can see two bolts threaded into these holes...?

curly

iTrader: (25)

Oh is that your engine? Thought it was just a random image.

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

That's mine.

jbrown7815

iTrader: (1)

What are the exact specs to your cams?

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

Exactly stock right now.

jbrown7815

iTrader: (1)

But much better than stock

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

Sorry guys- It's been cold so I stopped driving it but I found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V2GQ...ature=youtu.be

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

So in prep for some Dyno tuning I've picked up an EGT system. I went with AEM to keep a theme in the car and because I should be able to run the 0-5v output to my Adaptronic for datalogging.

My methanol is now operating at 275-300cc progressively starting at 3PSI. I'll leave the AEM flow meter gauge to do some logging and then I'll create an input for that on the Adaptronic too.

miatauser123

iTrader: (7)

After putting about 1500 miles on the car I decided to check the general health of the motor. I have not exactly been easy on the poor thing and it was not built by an engine builder (because I built it on my kitchen table!).

I ran a compression test and I couldn't be happier.

Dry Test:
Cylinder: (1) = 150.00 (2) = 149.5 (3) = 150.5 (4) = 150.5



I gave myself a pat on the back. I'm glad my cocky attitude about not paying anyone to do something that I can teach myself how to do, paid off.

Now to finishing that EGT Pyrometer installation. I picked this location for a number of reasons- because it was accessible with the header installed, it was easy to check for leaks, it was free from interfering with other items in the engine bay and it's about the perfect distance from the exhaust outlet.




I did my usual, sleeving and heat shrink overkill deal. The wire supplied with the kit starts out with this braided wire for heat and then turns into this god awful YELLOW! So I covered it and ran it into the cab along with the methanol feed line.



Came out clean if you ask me...



Then as a lastish step before getting into some serious tuning I needed to install and wire up my intake air temp sensor. I ordered the GM open element sensor from DIYAUTOTUNE. Found HERE.

I wanted it to be near the throttle body for accuracy but not after the Meth because I'm not sure how long that would last and it might cause false low temp signals.

So I picked here. It's maybe 14 inches from the TB and after the intercooler.


Welding the bung on started with removing the powder coating.


I clamped it in place and tacked it to make sure everything was where I wanted it to be.


Everything looked good so I finished up the weld and spayed it with some durable flat black paint.