Chiburbian

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I put it all back together today and put it on the bench. For some reason my MapDaddy was reading 83kpa while realtime barometric pressure was 98kpa or so. I disassembled the megasquirt and did some troubleshooting. Looks like the map daddy has failed.

Makes me wonder how long it has been like this (since I don't typically look at initial barometric pressure)

If it's been like this for some time I am probably pushing a bit more than 12psi... haha

Chiburbian

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Just got back from a trip with family.

Guess where I went...

Chiburbian

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This is quite lame (with no really great pictures) but... I installed the M-Tuned coolant reroute over the last week. It took me far longer than I had expected due to missing tools, dropping things, working behind the engine against the firewall blind (removing old gasket mostly) and some other headaches. Taking my time I am guessing it took about 8-10 hours.

Areas where I would make changes should I do it again?
- Ideally do install of distibution block on back of engine with engine out of car mainly due to old gasket material being a pain to remove in the tight constraints. In the end I left a little on there that I couldn't remove. You can SEE it on the head but you could only barely feel it. I am not getting any leaks but if I did I don't know if I'd bother trying it again with the motor in the car. I'd likely just pull the motor with as long as it took.
- Have all my tools ready to go, including allen wrenches etc. I had to make three trips to hardware store. (this cost me about 2 hours)
- Use worm style hose clamps to secure heater hose to distribution block rather than OE spring clamp style. There was simply not enough space for pliers and other tools. (this cost me at least 45 minutes before I just switched to a worm gear hose clamp)

Oh, and add another hour to burp the cooling system, but honestly at that point you are in the home stretch and you can pretty much do other things as long as you keep an eye on it. I think I had my front wheels at least two feet off the ground. I did it with a lift at a friend's shop.

"Before" pictures:

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Price update:

Megasquirt 3x, knock, clock, mapdaddy: $865
Harness, wiring etc: another $150 or so
AEM wideband: about $180

Clutch/Pressure Plate from 949racing: $638
Tein S-tech springs: $230
Supermiata front and rear sway kit: $449
Fatcat Motorsports bumpstops: $80 (?)

Timing Belt: $58
Water pump: $57
Injectors: ID1000 Injectors: About $500 (I forget the actual price and they have since increased)

BEGI manifold, downpipe, 2.5" midpipe: $250
Fab9 Stage 1 intercooler, Black: $289
Custom Charge piping and couplers, powdercoated gunmetal grey: ??$$ Estimating $400
Turbosmart Vee Port Pro Blow off Valve: $150
Precision 4828 turbo: $1,250
BEGI oil/water distribution block and braided drain: $289
Electronic Boost Control from DIYautotune: $47
3" Magnaflow muffler fabbed locally: $340
Inconel manifold to turbo studs with locking hardware: $155
Coolant reroute kit, M-Tuned: $300
Custom radiator and intercooler ducting: ??$$ Estimating $200

Bought and then sold:
RX 460cc low impedence injectors: $70 + $15 for pigtail parts. (-$60: selling this weekend)
Intercooler + charge piping + blow off valve: $150 (-$150 hopefully selling this weekend)

Total price thus far: $6,900 + $9,500 (car) = $16,400
(car had only 40k miles on it when bought and was beautiful)

Planned purchase:
XIDA CS with helper spring and NB tophats: $2,309
6UL x4, 15x9: $700
Lugnuts, valves for above: $94
RS3, 225/45-15: $484
Alignment bolts, fresh: $80

After the above: $16,400 + $3,573 = $19,973
If i'm lucky I can sell:
Bilsteins + Tein-S springs: -$200

So the moral of the story is that building a fast miata RIGHT costs money, even when the turbo parts are bought used for the most part.

Chiburbian

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I got my Fab9 intercooler in the mail on Saturday and was excited to open it up and test-fit it... Until I saw this:







I contacted Fab9 to see how they want to handle it. On one hand I don't think the damage will effect the performance of the intercooler in any measurable way (at least to me) but on the other hand I paid for a NEW intercooler and this one is damaged.

I am conflicted. What do you guys think?

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Ehh, I'd hold out for a new one. They aren't exactly El Cheapo ebay intercoolers. Definitely let Fab9 know, I'm sure they will get you sorted out.

Chiburbian

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I emailed them on Sunday. If I don't hear from them by end of the day I am going to call them first thing tomorrow. I need to start fabbing my ducting by next week.

EDIT: New info. I got impatient and called him after lunch. Good thing, he never got my original email. He is going to be shipping out a new one. In the meantime I can use the old one to fab up the charge pipes etc.

THANKS BRYAN!

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Terrible time for the weather to break on me. The car is still sitting outside at the shop that will be doing my ducting which I am not too pleased about. I had one of my shock bushings fail and I am holding off on replacing the bilstein partly out of laziness and partly out of... other reasons

I never got the replacement intercooler from Bryan nor did I get the RMA to send the old one back. I need to call him again on this.

And I got my emissions testing notification in the mail. Needs to be tested by the end of February. Drats, with snow starting to become more common I don't know if I will have the car on it's original parts fast enough to get it to the testing area before it gets salty. I am hoping I can get an extention to change my testing date a couple months later. EDIT: Just got off the phone with the secretary of state. I can get a four month extention which places my renewal time in the end of June which is perfect. I will post more info on this if there is anything to it.

Also, I will be posting pics of some neat stuff soon...

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Blaen99 who is using the same turbo as mine did a really monster pull the other day.

Just for reference, here is his boost spool vs mine:



He is using the same turbo and manifold but has a full 3" exhaust and a number of other improvements upon my system. I am hoping to make some further progress soon.

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

**** **** **** **** ****.

So that coolant re-route I did a couple months back is leaking at the back of the block. I really don't feel like playing oragami fingers again trying to clean the back of the block off, thinking of pulling the motor and trans out to make it easier.

Am I out of my mind? What else should I do in the engine bay while I am at it?

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

if that was a chinacore, it'd probably have fared much worse.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Loosen or even unbolt the PPF at the transmission, jack it up and you'll gain a LOT of room for fixing the coolant reroute.

Chiburbian

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Chinacore? You mean in regards to the damage to the intercooler from shipping?

Yeah, I agree.

Took me a minute to think how a chinacore somethingorother could have anything to do with my coolant leak.

Chiburbian

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Enough to fit a 90 degree die grinder with 3m disk you think?

Anyone recall if the coolant reroute used the same gasket as the original heater discharge?

Chiburbian

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This is the first installment of my "shiney new parts" series...

First is my new blow off valve. Turbosmart Vee Port Pro:

18psi

iTrader: (76)

I love those. I think its the most compact valve out right now?

Chiburbian

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No idea. I "specc'ed" it out a month or two back. Size wasn't as much of a concern as sound and performance. Size only factored in regards to I didn't see the reason to have a massive BOV at my power levels.

Chiburbian

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I visited the shop last night and my charge piping was in the process of being fabricated.

Nothing was on the car during my visit but I did get a quick walkthrough of what/how it was going to be done.

The air filters below are the old air filter that I was running and the new one. The filter is going to be placed directly behind the headlight and a box is going to be built to insulate the intake from underhood temperatures.



The next picture is an example of the kind of weld we will be considering to mate the Flyin' Miata cast turbo outlet to a V-band. If it is the "right kind" of cast iron my fabricator feels he can make a reliable weld. This is just an example that he had around his shop to show he has done this before reliably. This is a turbo that he had been running for awhile on a car and hadn't cracked.

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

****'s happening!

Going to tease a bit first...

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

And then there's this:



Couldn't be happier: