actual progress.. of my lovely work lol
- Picked up a k20 starter
-Started on some of the trans swap stuff like cutting the tabs off the zf-320. (need to drill hole for starter next)



- worked on charge harness and split the alternator and starter positive wires.., tucked away the harness on chassis passenger side for the bmw transmission since the pff is deleted.
I got side tracked and started removing some rust on the driver side motor mount area.., Got so side tracked with this i realized the only paint i have is silver.... So i decided **** it silver it goes, I'm not leaving it bare and proceeded to put the depowered power steering rack back in..(this took a while figuring out how to put the coupler back on and alot of hammering)



finished the day off by putting in the clutch pedal (my car was auto) and putting in the master clutch cylinder
I found it useful to use a deburring tool to enlarge the hole, a fresh blade and several passes made the perfect flush fit - initially I was going to go with hole saws which was a bad idea since it would've moved all over.



still have a large list to tackle.. Will focus on finishing up the Motor / Trans as the differntial will be the hardest for me since i have to weld. I am a big beginner.
I bought a new copper clamp for my welder which im hoping will help me deal with that part, we shall see my terrible or great results soon enough

 

needed some seals i realized like the input shaft seal in the front of the trans and the rear output shaft seal.. and the axle shaft seals for the diff. I'm waiting for them to come in as i dont want to put the transmission or diff in and then have it leak on me.. in the meantime




i knocked out a few things on the motor like the throttle body install /injectors - noticed the intake is very dirty inside so i will go back and clean the inside of it, its been sitting for a long time..
turns out the 1500 cc injectors i purchased (SEP) are LS2 style and leave a gap of a half inch.
I made some spacers from leftover old build parts... Drill pressed the hole - got a few long bolts from home depot m8 x 1.25 30mm and cut the flange on them a bit on a flap disk to make them fit with my cheap fuel rail .... fitment is not bad at all, seems to seal well - spent some time filing straight





next i need to grab an alternator and test the fit ac compressor after i fix the AC bracket.. i break bolts so often.. I'm really getting used to this sadly... haven't mastered the welding a nut over the old bolt..
i tried that for for a bolt on the side of the motor for the motor mount and it didn't go well for me LOL. in the end i ended up drilling and retapping which is most likely what I'll do here aswell.

 

Rear Control Arms removed.. lower shock bolt spinning in place, endlinks siezed up. I threw it all away after taking the shock out with a crowbar holding down on the welded nut that was spinning in place and a impact on the other side.
I had forgotten all about the racing beat adjustable front and rear sway bars that have been sitting since the beginning of this build thread that i got off of one of the NA's, Those will make it in now.




Drilled and tapped the AC plate



Tranny front seal replacement (so greatful to have that circle flywheel piece that came with the k24, its helped me put in so many seals on this motor, trans and diff. )



Bellhousing cut for starter


Bellhousing side cut view for starter




Motor and trans finally fitted up ( I am using PMC motorsports for the adapter / flywheel , and mostly everything else is K miata )





Rear trans seal also replaced after test fitting the trans and motor and ran into an issue!

Oh no! I'm missing some parts again! The joint for the trans is missing



Axle seals replaced


called up Kmiata and let them know once again and they were able to get it to me with my kmiata conversion harness that i had planned on purchasing.



differentials mock up


had the plate held like this


passed the strike test with a deadblow, i will most likely go back anyways and clean up the welds with a grinder and maybe do another pass, toss some paint on and get ready to drop in the motor / trans!





.. back to waiting for parts to arrive.. need two lower control arm bolts, endlinks, a rear hub ( one has some play i noticed ) and those shields under the diff / gas tank area that are completely rusted off....FU RUST

 

I'd suggest putting down the welder and finding a new hobby

 

ill take that for my first welds

 

shhh.. it works. i hit it a few times

I was doing all of this blind by the way, i only just figured out how to configure the hood darken settings so i can see the beads, my first beads were on the miata

 

Dude. Stop doing that ****, sit down at a welding table, watch some youtube videos and understand how the equipment works, and actually practice a little. That doesn't look safe at all.

 

Those tabs are breaking of FUR SHURE.

 

This is not trash talking, this is serious feedback. Cut those off, practice on scrap until you get an acceptable bead and then try again. Those WILL fail.

 

I wont lie, my feelings are hurt.


Definitely not safe.. and i was also off by 0.2 degrees... Did not require much cutting to take them off.. I got one good corner weld in and the rest I was able to wiggle / pry off the rest with a screw driver and pliers. I have cleaned them up for now and hopefully can reattempt them this weekend


Practice welds.... 6013 1/8 is much easier than 6011 for me... I cant keep the ark lit on 6011 3/32..

 

While the delivery might have been a little harsh it's not meant to hurt your feelings. Well not entirely.

When I have some more time tomorrow I'm going to post links to some resources for learning how to improve on welding. Do you have access to a mig welder? Stick welding on thinner metals is not easy to do, especially in the space that you're dealing with.

Post info on your setup. What welder you have, what material prep you did, what consumables you are using, and what hood you're using and we can go from there on how to make some improvements.

 

I'm glad you dug in. This is one of those lessons where you need to see something scary in your work to really make you re-evaluate your standards. You'll be better for it!

This being said, I'd still not used any of those practice welds on anything structural. You'll get it dialed in.

 

Nah I appreciate all the comments, especially the ones saying I am doing it wrong.

I had a good laugh at them.. I'd rather mess up some welds and reattempt rather than let the car sit for years

I am using a vulkan protig 165 - running off AC 120 atm STICK

I've been dialing the settings in depending on the electrode specifications in the back of the electrode case and the manual stick range settings for the welder.. As far as prep i am using a flap / grinding disk on an angle grinder.. the hood is a generic amazon auto darkening hood with 1-14 range settings

Planning on picking up some different electrodes today to attempt some more beads.. the goal being.. get these brackets welded in correctly with stick.. then pick up on learning tig as i have plenty of SS material ( everything to build a manifold, prebuilt collector ) and a new argon tank that i have no idea how to get the cylinder cap off yet LOL.. Ill get there

I want to make my own turbo manifold because I like learning new things and making my life hard / easy. ( plus k miata turbo manifold is out of stock )

 

Wait you have a TIG welder and you are using it to stick weld?

 

Well yeah.. After everything I've read that is what was recommended getting started with ( Assumed it would be easy.. HA).. Guessing you are suggesting just going right for TIG ?

 

If you're going to weld it with the subframe still in the car, then I would suggest a MIG, given your newb status. However, I'd highly recommend just tacking it in the car, and then removing the subframe and TIG it on a bench. Trying to work the throttle out of position or using the finger switch (and being stuck with a fixed amperage) is going to take some practice, which is well beyond the basics of just being able to lay a bead.

Your practice welds look very cold. And this is backed up by your admission that you could remove it very easily. The weld should be stronger than the base material. I'd recommend upping the amperage and practicing more.
You can start by watching a bunch of videos from Jody: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqq...j4-UApS_m_6mPw

 

you were right on point with amperage being too cold @engineered2win the difference is pretty astounding as far as strength goes.. I gave up trying to pry the practice plates off would need to cut to get these off for sure.

Welds are definitely getting better, ran into an issue with my machine cutting out all day that was haunting me soon as I turned up the amperage which resulted in some unfinished practice welds..

I realized only after taking a break for the day that me having a power strip was most likely the issue...






used 6013 rod..... Plan is to attempt to stick weld the plates in again after a bit more practice and then definitely going to practice TIG welding for the turbo manifold.. I finally got the cap off the argon cylinder.. it was cross threaded! had to hit it with a deadblow to knock it straight

 

Motor, transmission, differential are all in. Ran new AN6 lines and adapters back to the fuel pump assembly, added a 5 micron fuel filter, Aftermarket FPR, also wired in most of the car at this point, like the injector harness, the only thing left is the cluster connections and I can Hopefully get a first start in the coming week or two

All old emissions stuff in the rear was pretty much just hanging because all the brackets holding them up rusted, deleted it all...

Walbro 525, deleted FPR in-tank, Flex Fuel Sensor velcro'd to the top of the fuel tank

Clutch in at this point.. ACT 6 puck sprung ... staring at the PMC adapter with anger because of the mis-alignment caused in the rear bracket

Here we can see the mis-alignment caused by the PMC trans adapter... It shifts the transmission more straight than the kmiata adapter plate as far as i can tell... I plan to add some washers to fill the gap till i can find a better solution ..probably tig welding a small block onto the trans adapter to make up for the distance

another look at the trans..


Working on TIG welding practice at the moment, just got my stubby gas lens kit ..so far so good with that I am sad i don't have any pictures to show as some were actually really decent - getting the hang of it fast...ill drop them in next post.. i need to purchase a few more things to start backpurging my welds anyways.

my plan is to tackle the exhaust first then proceed with the turbo manifold this upcoming week. Just added a bench grinder and belt sander to my list of tools..

still waiting on a few connectors for IACV and trying to figure out wtf the 3 plugs are for that go to the right side of the engine bay..... Slowly but surely.