ByteVenom's build thread
 

Some background:
I bought my car 2 years ago in May of 2015. It started off as a semi rusty, completely stock (with plastidipped rims, gas tank filer lid and mirrors) 2000 NB with 160k-ish miles on the clock.
6 months later, I was driving on the way to school, car started to make a very weird whining noise. Revved it out onto the highway, and the whining became a clanking, and the clutch pedal wouldn't go down easily.
Turned out that a flywheel bolt had fallen out of the crank, and that was causing all kind of fun.

Current Specs:
DIYPNP
Churbo (T25 T28 GT25 GT28 GT2871 GT2871R GT2860 SR20 CA18DET Turbo Turbocharger turbine eBay)
eBay intercooler kit, 2 inch hotside, 2.5 inch coldside
2.5 inch downpipe.

Pics:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...28729ca5a7.jpgFirst thing that had to be done was the front main, water pump etc
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b5e89d495f.jpgInstalled a new top, took literally the whole day.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c6538ef004.jpgThe rust
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...38b2fa1518.jpgThe rust exposed
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...71734e7026.jpgNo more rust!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4843d2eabf.jpgThe daily
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bfe4005485.jpg
Old motor out
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3cd3636bdf.jpgEngine bay looks so empty sans turbo.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1a4d24a78b.jpgThis is a muffler from a turbo Subaru. I should get the Subbie burble because I have this right?
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...019731bd8c.jpgTurbo #1 damage


Now the car sits in my garage awaiting a new turbo after cooking the old turbo.
Basically I didn't bother hooking up the coolant lines because I had misunderstood someone when they said that "Street cars don't need coolant lines".
I also have a very weird stuttering while in boost and going into boost, I've no idea what it is. The AFRs are fine. I'll tackle that once I get my new turbo in.
My plans for the future are a ball bearing churbo, Toyota COPs, EBC and EWG.

How do I edit these pictures in the forum? Right now they're way too yuge.

I had no idea you had the rust fixed on the car! Looks real good!

Looks like I convinced you to start a build thread after you. I think Chris is going to do the soon shortly!

And bollocks, I forgot to grab the stock flywheel from you when I was there!

I should get a honda fit

that rust

shuddered in real life looking at it

That's like 99% of miatas that have ever seen winter in this neck of the woods.

Coming from a Miata, the Honda Fit is not that bad. Sure the steering isn't as direct, but it definitely is a lot of fun. The engine is pretty peppy too!
You can also fit a whole Miata drivetrain in the back with the seats folded down.
And 36MPG is refreshing from like the 8MPG my Miata got when turbod.

I never got a picture of the rockers, they also were rotted through. The shop threw them in for free because they had to take an extra month and a half.

Errr, how bad was your fueling? I got like 22 mpg and that was mixed driving and I was hitting boost all the time to let VEAL do its thing.

I'm still not confident that my injectors are seated properly or my dead time is still off.
On my way to school I was constantly flooring it and then letting off. Maybe my accel enrich is still way too high. Who knows.

Send me a message when I get to my folks place and I'll send you my tune again. You can compare the injector info etc.

You've also driven my car now, so you know what it feels like compared to yours.

I know, crazy right. I bet you thought SF/Pacific cars were rusty.

I had a cherry rust free 66 Toyota Stout pick up that came from 18's neighborhood. The oldest Toyota dealer in the state is there, cars don't rust at all around there. They rust bad in SF ,but they rot away, very quickly on the East coast.

If a Miata had that much rust around here it would be considered totalled.

​​​​​​​Mazda2 is more fun, Fit fits for shit in it. Both are great vehicles.

Wait are you claiming that not having coolant hooked up caused the turbo to fuck up and cause that blade damage?

Yes, and also when the compressor housing fell off the wheel was still spinning.

New turbo came in today! Definitely bigger than my last turbo, but we'll see if it fits when I get around to getting it onto the manifold.
The oil drain flange from my previous t25 turbo didn't fit, so I drilled out the holes, and hopefully with some RTV I can help it seal.
Coolant hookups are the same thread.

Downpipe didn't fit my strange 5 bolt T25 flange from my previous turbo, so I cut up (makes me sad :squint: ) my T25 to vband adapter and used that flange.
Lol, we'll see how my welding turns out. That being said,my biggest recommendation for those looking to build their own turbo setups, should definitely invest in the 90$ HF flux core welder just to make things happen and learn.

The turbo also comes with an owners manual with installation instructions! Super cool! The wastegate is listed as 8psi, I'm a tad concerned because from what I've seen, an 8psi wastegate could lead to some high power levels.

No.

Double no.

The Mazda2 is a decent little car but the Fit is quite a lot better IMO. Lots more space, better mileage, still fun to drive. MUCH better tech. Couldn't even get bluetooth in a Mazda2 in 2013...

Going to post pictures soon. I took the head off to do the headgasket last weekend. Cylinder #1 (front) was wet with oil and both ports were greasy. Guess that was my oil burning problem?
I redid the valve stem seals as well as cleaned up my 110k mile head a bit.
Car burned oil on first startup, but cleared up after a minute or two. It seems as though my turbo is leaking, or oil is pooling somewhere. My car burns oil for a little bit, and then its completely fine. Will leakdown test if a local shop will let me do one for the cheap.

I finally got to drive my car again, made it perfectly fine to my buddies house. The tune seemed a bit off (lol, especially b/c I'm the one tuning it), but it pulled hard when it was supposed to. The car did seem to really NOT want to rev hard at WOT though. I'd get to 4-5k, the tach would cut out, I'd let off and the car would misfire loudly. But after this, it'd be perfectly happy again. Could these misfires damage my WB sensor?

As the car heat soaked, it would start to cut out. The ignition system was cutting out. The gauges and everything was fine though. Alternator cable was loose, CAS wiring was shot. Repaired the CAS wiring just to test. It was too late in the day to do anything, but see if the car idled.
Ordered a brand new Crank and Cam sensor, let's see if those make anything better. I really hope everything's fine with my harness.(Although I do have 1/2 a complete harness from my engine swap).

Will hopefully be buying an OBX differential this weekend, no more open life. I've honestly no idea how to swap one, but intuition and the internet are things.

I also figured that I really need a lift to design my new exhaust. Chest pressing exhaust pipe while the car is only 14 inches high on jackstands is not very pleasant. More developments on that process to follow.

Swapping the diff isn't 'hard'. There's just one way it'll go on.

It's just going to be a pain in the ass. You should start spraying liquid wrench now.

Do you get notifications for every post I make? haha

I already know one of my diff/ppf bolts is completely rounded and stuck in the diff, so idk how thats gonna work out.

Those bolts are big and tough. Rounding them will require the application of substantial force. How sure are you it's rounded?

It wasn't pretty to begin with when I got the car. I guess the PO may've used the wrong sized socket or something with an impact. The first time I did my clutch, I hit it with an Oxyacetylene torch for a while, tried a pneumatic impact with a hammered on socket and no luck.
Then in my garage I tried again with a breaker bar. I pressed my back against the wall and used my legs against the bar. The bar bent like 20ish degrees, but the bolt wasn't going anywhere. The bar slipped off a couple times and in that process knackered the head a bit.

Although I will admit that the first time, I did not want to mess up the bearings in the diff by heating it up too much, so I was fairly light with the heat.

Alright, so new developments.

Got sequential injection for the DIYPNP. Best. Decision. Ever. Car doesn't get 8MPG anymore.

Decided to ditch chinachargers, and go for an SR20 GT25. I don't know why this isn't Miataturbo's go-to charger, like the Force Flow kits are for injectors.
What size (and thread) oil restrictor should I be running for it?
Got an LSD! Picked up an OBX Helical 4.1 ratio. More on that later.

Alternator turned out to be bad, so picked up another one. Let's see how that one turns out.

Oh lordy, taking out the PPF-diff bolts has been a nighmare. The outermost bolt came out perfectly. The second one in....I've been at it for hours. The head was rounded, so after destroying it some more, I welded a socket to it. Well, I didn't realize that my Home Depot socket was a 3/8, so I used my 1/2 to 3/8 adapter.....which snapped. SO I welded that to the socket too. This combination of fuckery got the bolt turning. However now I'm stuck. The bolt unthread itself fine from the pressed in nut up top. However, now it's just stuck. I can turn it freely, but it won't go down. I've tried applying downward pressure while turning, and that has limited success. I've tried heating where the bolt sits in the differential with a MAP torch. This has slightly helped the bolt move down, but not by much. I'm going to go to the Hazard Freight tomorrow for some chineseium pry bars and see if I can maybe get more leverage.

I also ordered an eBay catch can, the 40$ one. It has a baffle in the picture, so its not just an empty can. I'm going to throw some steel wool in the reservoir for added filtration however. I'm not really too sure where it goes in the PCV system however. Does it go in between the valve cover and the PCV valve? I'm guessing it doesn't really matter where it goes, as long as it goes somewhere. It's not like anything flows until the PCV valve opens up anyways.

Started building my 2.5 exhaust system. I ended up running out of time, didn't weld a flange for the muffler, and in my rush, I didn't realize that my exhaust was going to hit my driver's side axle. My lady-friend's parents invited me over for dinner, so I didn't have much wiggle room for time. I drove over to her house straight piped and my exhaust ever so slightly making fun scraping noises. I'm not really sure what kind of impression that made,...

Is it a legit t25 off an SR20? If so then it is a highly recommended t25 on here. It is the best bang for the buck t25 on the market for a stock motor.

Well, it says Garret on the side, and I bought it off zilvia.net. It has yet to arrive, but the guy had a lot of good feedback, so lets hope its legit.

Turbine housing is seized onto the CHRA. I tried some heat, but I don't want to toast any seals/bearings before I even get to drive the thing. I'm soaking it in WD40 Penetrating fluid for the next day to see if it'll help.
I'm also buying a bigger bench vise b/c my HF one rotates way too easily.

Very tempted to delete PS. Once I get the car back together (Kirk Racing Roll bar going in this weekend), I'm going to drive without the belt to get a general idea.

WD40 is trash, get some PB Blaster. T25s are always siezed like that. Put the exhaust housing into your vice and stick a jack handle into the outlet and shove on it. I noticed every single bolt on my new chinacharger was loose. That blade damage might have been caused by the thing just coming all apart from loose bolts if you didn't snug them all up.

Are you sure you can drive without the belt? I don't think that's advisable.

I've had some very good luck with the WD40 specialist fluid.
My compressor housing just spins if I do that.

I don't see why not. The pump isn't spinning, so it's not overheating.
All I'm doing is moving the fluid around by hand then.

Isn't there something else on the belt too?

Get out the torch and heat the exhaust housing up. Heat it up good and hot, hot enough you can't touch it. Might take a while. Once it's hot start banging on the side of the exhaust housing with a hammer as hard as you can.

AC is on the PS belt but that's it.

It's just an accessory belt so PS and AC.

Edit: ^ beat me to it.

Pull the lines off of the power steering rack and drain it or it will be impossible to steer with the belt off only. They fluid will severely restrict the movement and the force required will be incredible. After you take the line off grab a wheel and rotate the steering left to right using the wheel because it will move much faster than if you are turning the steering wheel. Get as much out of the rack as you can before driving it. Then if you don't like it you can always refill the power steering system. It probably needed the fluid changed anyway because it was likely original 20 year old fluid.

This won't cook any seals, or bearings?

That makes sense. Once I get my LSD in, I'll try that. Thanks!

On another note, I got a COP setup. I know LS coils are /the/ way to go, but for the price I paid for these I can't complain. They're from BP Performance Specialty, so I'm eager to see how they do.
I did ask the guy on FB about what dwell I should be running on my MS. His response was "There's no need to adjust dwell. Because smart coils"....Not sure what that means.

Worst case scenario, I just bought a 1/2 complete wiring harness for an LS coil harness.

From the picture he sent me, the harness looks well made and it comes with an aluminum bracket which also looks to be well made. I'm optimistic about it, but I probably should have asked about the coils beforehand.

They're coils from a 01-05 Corolla, so 1ZZFE. He claims he made 650 HP with 35PSI using the same model coils.

Smart coils, huh?

Do you know about turbos bro? I don't think your torch will get it hotter than your exhaust will.

A MAP torch will reach almost double the temperature of the exhaust gasses that come into the turbo. Also, I'm heating one spot versus the whole thing.

On another note, does anyone know the size of the differential housing bolts? I misplaced two, I'm thinking that they're just the standard M8X1.25 as most of 12mm bolts are on Miatas.

Deleted PS by draining the fluid and removing the belt - I love it. The road feel is absolutely fantastic, I just notice that off center the wheel is easy to turn, but anything beyond 15* of steering wheel movement requires a bit more effort. Why is there an inconsistency?

Installed Yellow bilsteins in the rear with Tein S.Techs, and a Hard Dog Hardcore M1. I'm not sure if its the lack of PS, the bar, or the suspension, but the car feels much tighter.
SR20 turbo spools almost instantly, no issues there.
Considering selling my DIYPNP. I might go to Greece this summer, so it might be possible to pick up an MSLabs MS3.
I hear a knocking noise from the rear end however when turning. I'm thinking it would be an axle that wasn't pushed all the way in when doing the LSD swap. Does this make sense?

.

On jack stands its the same. On the road it seems to be slightly less effort for the first 10 or so degrees. As I drive the car more, I notice it less/the issue seems to be going away.

Also FML, I broke the bolt for the Crank sensor. It kept on coming loose, so I went to tighten it and boop snapped inside whatever boss it threads into. While drilling out the bolt, the boss snapped.
I managed to get a stud into the left over hole, JB welded the hell out of it. Then JB welded my crank sensor onto that. I really have no idea what to do as a more permanent solution.
From my observation, the crank sensor bolt seems to thread into the oil pump. ...so, is an oil pump replacement in order?

​​​​​​​Yep you will need to replace the oil pump.

Womp womp, and that can't be done without pulling the motor/subframe.
Any alternative solutions (not based on alternative facts) ? Maybe mounting the Cas on the other side of the pulley with a bracket? Grinding down the AC bracket to get the cas to mount onto the mounting bolt?

When that happened to me I took a pair of pliers to the CKP bracket, bent it up, and bolted it to the AC mount so the sensor was in about the right place.

I ended up fabbing up a new bracket.
Just to meet room requirements, I decided the CKP would reside at about 5 o'clock (in relation to the crankpulley).
I had some 1/4 aluminum bar lying around which I drilled one hole into. I then screwed it to AC bracket. From there I positioned the CKP and ensured it could be positioned tangent to the timing wheel.
From there I marked where the CKP hole was on the aluminum plate. Drilled it and attempted to position everything for the first time.
The CKP's plastic body was hitting the crank pulley, and so was the bracket.
Out came the angle grinder and clearancing began. I had to remove a decent amount of meat from both the sensor and the bracket.
However, after gapping the sensor, I still was not getting any sort of sync. I noticed that the sensor was way too far forward. I moved the sensor behind my bracket and added washers in between the AC bracket and my fabricfucked bracket.

Now the funny story.....my no RPM sync reason was 32. Which relates to a cam sensor issue.
I had an extra cam sensor lying around (the original from the motor). Stuck it in, and car started right up.

More fuckery ensued. My TPS is giving a shaky value which activates accel enrich. I switched over to MAP accel enrich so that the car wasn't adding fuel Willy nilly. I've ordered a new sensor, checked my grounds and I'll see what happens from there.
The car also ran like absolute crap. Any throttle above 20% resulted in insane misfires. I checked my cam timing and it seemed to be 2/3 teeth off on the exhaust cam. I'm thinking that when I first had my crank sensor fail the engine bucking caused timing to jump.

I haven't had the chance to drive the car yet.

Alright its been two months.

Got a RusEFI Frankenso, and oh so thankful for it. My car has never ran so well. To those that are sketched out by the "DIY-ness" of the product, if you're willing to do some work on your end to make things work, on the cheap, it is SO worth it.

Updates in terms of hardware:
New SR20 turbo, with fresh rebuild. Smoked a ton with no restrictor, with a 1.5mm restrictor from eBay motorsports, zero smoking.
Finished my custom 2.5 exhaust. I need to adjust some hangers, and probably redo the section that goes by the diff. I get some major vibrations from there. Car is still much nicer to drive now that its muffled. I have so many burnspots from welding and forgetting that metal gets hot.
I'll admit my flux-core welds look nothing like sweet dimes. But they look 10x better than they did 2 months ago.

I think the car is fairly sorted for now, I'm looking to get an EWG eventually for the taco taco manifold.

My biggest issue however with the RusEFI, is that there just isn't much tuning knowledge on the internet yet. I can't yet just ask on here what different knock values mean from the sensor, and what threshold to use. My next objective is definietly to make sure I'm not knocking in boost.

That reminds me, does anyone know how to use one of the eBay MBCs? I bought one like 6 months ago, and could never figure out how to get it to work. It would always just to shoot to unlimited boost. My GT2554 is fun at 8PSI....but I definitely want to get to 12 (top at 14 eventually), to get to 200-230whp.

EBC is on my mind as well, thinking of using the MAC valves. Does anyone have any experience using those? I've heard those are used by AEM for their TruBoost controllers.

The cheap MBCs all work the same. With the screw all the way loose you will be on wastegate pressure and as you screw it in the boost will go up. Sounds like you either have the screw too tight or the vac lines backwards.

no they don't. there's the bleed type garbage, and there's the ball+spring type which actually works

Just get an ebc brah...

only if his ecu can control it.

I should be able to using RusEFI's Flexible Logic (FSIO). I just need to power it, and wire in a signal.

Any advice on how to route the exhaust from the driveshaft, through the diff and out? 2.5 seems kinda big for the space between the underdiff bracing and the axle. I could try adding another hanger somewhere to prevent movement. Going down hills is a terribly loud experience, as the exhaust is bouncing off the axle.

You should come look at the routing on my FM one when you're here this weekend.

I've also noticed some fun oil burning on decel. However it only seems to happen after boost (anything above 100kpa).
I'm running a baffled catch can, and a 323 GTX PCV valve (Well, I ordered a beck/arnely one that was the right p/n). I need to get access to a leak down tester, but the last time I did a compression test, I was around 180 across the board. - before someone loses their top because I tried saying my engine is probably healthy because of a compression test, I'm aware a compression test doesn't tell you everything.
Rings?
I did my valve stem seals recently (Mahle). Maybe I messed up the install and damaged them? I just pressed them on until I f

Will most likely be buying these vents: NB Miata MX-5 Hood Vents ? R Theory Motorsports they look siqqqqq, and do exactly what I need.

Also, I for some reason cannot get below 750 rpm no matter what % my idle valve is at. This might sound like a dumb question, but I'm running 16 degrees of timing at idle. Could this be it?
I'm very unsure of why I'm running so much timing at idle. Once I get back to my car, I'll set it back down to 10 degrees and see if things go back to normal.

Is that your volvo? I'd love to get a P1800ES one day.

It’s my girlfriend’s dad’s!
I welded the front rockers back in, most of it had rusted away.