miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

We can definitely set up. Wait until the motor is broke in and the car is tuned later this summer. I'm going to take it to diy for tuning.

I think the seal issue resulted form the motor sitting for so long after it came back from the machine shop. 4 months with no lubrication. Friction against the crank probably melted it slightly or pulled on it slightly.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

Car still leaks I'm loosing patients. I'll have to pull the front of the motor apart again. The only thing left now is the oil pump might be leaking. Unfortunately I have to drop the oil pan to fix this. I guess I'll wait until after the 200 mile break-in period. Since I am going to change the oil then anyway. I think my transmission might be leaking as well. I can't tell if it has its own leak, or the oil is spraying on the trans and dripping down.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

Both my cam seals are leaking. It doesn't appear to have been the crank seal. Never a dull moment though. You can call it divine intervention, or really bad luck.

I pulled the front covers off the engine so that I could fire it up and check for a leak. Car is up on jack stands. I fire it up, get down under the front to check for leaks, and all of a sudden I see fluid poor from underneath the engine. I quickly look to find the source, and I can see it is coming from the fuel rail/ I blew an injector o-ring. It's kind of amazing that it happened at the best position possible for a repair. Unfortunately I didn't get to see where the leak was coming from at that time; So while I was at the parts store picking up an o-ring I didn't know I should have been picking up cam seals as well.

After the front crank seal replacement, this is a much easier job. I'll replace the seals tomorrow, then resume the leak hunt. Still pisses me off since the head was rebuilt with new seals. I guess these seals just can't sit for a long period of time with no oil. The felpro seals seem to be better quality anyway.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

It's been a long journey chasing this oil leak, but I think I am going to have it beat tomorrow when I check again. After replacing the seals for the second time I was able to pinpoint exactly where the leak was originating. It appeared to be the seam where the cam bearing cap meets the head. I checked my manual at it says there should be some sealant under that cap, but it didn't look like there was any. I decided to pull the cap and put some on. Imagine the rage I felt when my wrench spun freely and the bolts were loose enough to spin with my fingers. No ******* **** there was a leak. The guy who rebuilt the head tightened every cap but that one, and didn't put any sealant under either cam seal cap. I'm willing to bet that tomorrow I have no leak, I will have spent approximately 24 hrs trying to fix the leak, and spent $100 bucks on seals and a timing belt.

The head work was done 4 months ago, so I probably don't have any recourse with the head guy. Should I go in and say something or let it go???

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

Wow, it's been a while since I posted an update. The car is still leak free, yay! I'm in the process if getting the car ready for a DE event at Barber motorsports park in birmingham, AL. My car idled fine, but it smelled rich when I would drive it. The black stains appearing on the rear bumper started to confirm this. Turns out my wideband went south, so I still have to tune the fuel again. I think the gauge was giving a bad reading so it autotuen richer than it should. I had a MS 6 speed put in since something was up with the first 6 speed. As it turns out there may have been nothing wrong with it, but that will be determined by the new owner of my old 6 speed. I sold it cheap though. The next problem was that my turbo came with a 25psi WG. Are you serious? It took about 3 weeks and $100 to replace the WG. I think I would just buy the chinese 10psi gate on speedyracer sight since I still had to customize the one that i bought. It is currently untested since the wheels are off the car getting ready for my spring spacers to be installed. That was another fiasco mentioned earlier. I didn't realize that the bilstein perches were going to be about an inch lower than my kyb agx perches. Imagine my surprise when my car was an inch lower than planned. Curly hooked me up with some wicked nice spring spacers. They are at the machine shop be modified to fit the bilstein perches as I write this. An $80 investment to raise the ride height an inch is well worth it, and the cheapest option so far. I've got a tuning session scheduled at the end of the month on a steady state dyno that Bryan recommended. It's the closest quality dyno to me. The last guy that tuned my car seemed ok, but then again, he wasn't very familiar with the LINK. I think a steady state dyno tune is a must. I should probably just tune it myself since the autotune feature is so good. I also installed the door bars. These are going to cripple me getting in and out of the car. I painted them flat black so they are very suttle. They fit well in the car. The seats retain their slider movement. I also ordered a set of RE11 today from costco. after tax and with $70 off it was still $543. That does include mounting and balancing. This weekend I'm hoping to do the closed loop idle tuning, and some closed loop boost tuning. Dyno time isn't cheap with a good tuner, so the more I can do myself, the cheaper it will be..

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

I feel like a big *****. My car is scary fast. At 200HP it was fast. At the current unknown level it is nuts. I'm really glad I got the call that my new tires are in. The kumho AST just iaren't sticky enough.

The WG actuator has allowed me to actually step on the gas and stay in boost without smacking into the boost overrun protection. The crazy part is that it is a 14psi WG can. The car keeps pulling and doesn't seem to quit. It's exactly what I was looking for, but I must say I am a little worried about my track day. It is not difficult to break the tires loose.

I got sideways today pulling onto the interstate in 2nd. I thought I busted 3rd gear because it didn't seem to work. Nope, 3rd is fine, tires still spinning. This is with a 6sp and 4.1 rear. I think the 3.6 R&P will be in my upgrade plans next year.

I need to do some datalogging so I can see how fast the china 2870 spools. I was doing autotuning today. I will get dyno numbers on the 25th

curly

iTrader: (25)

Sounds like fun to me. What is your wheel/tire setup? Just take it easy at the track. The surface is much gripper than an interstate on ramp, and your tires will be warm too.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

I'm running 15x7 team dynamic pro race 2. Currently on kumho AST. New tires this week are potenza RE11. Should be a nice change.

curly

iTrader: (25)

225?

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

205. I read that 225 on a 7" wheel didn't gain enough to make it worth it. IF I went 225 I would have run rs3

mazpr

iTrader: (1)

I would go to the shop and call them out straight up, but be sure about as once you start talking you dont want to look like a jack-***.

I hate damn machine shops, all are crap, BS!

curly

iTrader: (25)

It's worth more grip if you're willing to sacrifice some sharpness and "feel" that is numbed away when you go with the bulgier 225. You also have to raise it a bit since 225/50 is taller than stock. On a plus note, you can get away with a higher ground clearance with it still looking uber lowered, since it fills the fender well a bit better. I've had both 205 and 225 on 7" wheels, and I think it'd come down to which ever I could get a better deal on. If it's only $10 more per wheel, I'd probably go 225, otherwise I'd stick with 205. You can tell I've been doing some tire research lately. Must...Save...Monies....

GeneSplicer

iTrader: (14)

we're tuning right now, currently adjusting the intake cam for max power (roughly 7* retard) and at 237rwhp@12psi... should be pretty nice once he hits 20psi!

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

We ended up at 19psi. 288hp, 257tq

I couldn't get the closed loop boost to work, so we were using open loop. It's fairly smooth, but may have caused a few HP up top. It is a very safe tune. I am happy with the results. Especially the smoothness of cruising around town.

We did run into a spot at 6k where it seems like the spark drops out, then picks back up. It was intermittent. We think that it has something to do with the COP harness that I made. I'm going to redo it.

When I get closed loop working i will take it up to 22psi.

Tuning the P term was completely unresponsive. I could only get WG pressure and that was it. I started at 100 and worked down to 50. Nothing happened so we went to open loop. Dyno time costs money.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

congrats dude.
those power numbers look decent indeed.

think you'll break 300 on 22?

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

I thin I will. I'm going to redo my COP harness and then try to figure out the closed loop stuff. Then I'll be able to put it on a local dyno for cheap and do some max pulls.

This was on a Dynojet 224XLC inground load bearing chassis dyno for reference.

I'll have to post my curves and an MSQ so people can see the intermittent dip at 6k. I have a pull with it and without it so people can see what I'm talking about.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

Here is my recent dyno tune. It's a load Eddy steady state dynojet 224XLC. I was going for a safe tune that would give me no risk for detonation. I was hoping to break the 300whp mark at 20psi, but it didn't happen.

There was a strange intermittent drop at 6k rpm that we think is coming from my cop harness. I've bought some replacement cop connectors with wires already attached to eliminate my shoddy craftsmanship.

Two runs are logged. The "clean" run and one with the drop.

Where do I go from here? I'm going to get a Map Daddy sensor so I will feel comfortable going to 24-25psi. I think the standard diypnp sensor is only good for 21-22 psi. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Before increasing the boost to that level, I am going to dial in the closed loop boost settings. The steady state tuning of the none boost cells made for a very nice drive home.

My diypnp psi and the dynojet differed by about 1 psi. The diypnp was about a pound higher. He pulled his point from a vac port on the front of the manifold. I pull my MS reading from a port that is shared with the fuel injector rail. Should I change mine to a different spot?

Feel free to add ideas, areas for improvements, thoughts on what could cause the intermittent drop at 6000rpm.

Also this is with an intake cam gear retarded by 7 degrees.

Fourth gear pulls with 6sp and 4.10 rear

mazpr

iTrader: (1)

Super sick build, congrats!

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

I pulled my transmission tonight. What a pain in the *** this is. Thank god I read the thread on here and m.net about clutch replacement. I bough the swivel extensions from HF today. I don't think I could do it without these. It's hilarious when you think about the length of the extension and the 70 degree angle of incidence.

It took 3.5 hrs to get the trans out. i haven't pulled the clutch and flywheel yet, but that is the easy part. I'm a little annoyed at my mechanic that installed the trans a month ago. It is very obvious that I have oil leaking. I thought it was coming from the CAS, but it appears that the silicone sealant that was used on the valve cover broke down, and it is actually leaking from the cover. The clutch and pp don't appear to be coated in oil at first look, so I am still placing blame on a failing pp as the reason for the clutch slipping.

I left my Artech DP in place and pulled the midpipe. It would be a little easier to remove trans without the DP in place, but it would have been more hassle. I'm worried about the installation. I think it is going to be a lot harder that the removal. I'll time the install as well and post the followup. This will be my first clutch swap for a miata while the trans is initially in the car.

I'm also going to install a breather tank. Mainly to relieve pressure in the engine to prevent blowing out the seals. . Obviously a valve cover gasket will be in order. I'm not going to use baller AN fittings. It's going to be brass and cheap hose from Home Depot.

I've decided to keep the 6-puck with XT pressure plate. I'm not going through this again in 6 months if I change turbos. Drivability is just going to suffer. Maybe going to a heavier flywheel will help.

miatauser884

iTrader: (11)

It took he me an hour to do the actual clutch swap. Then it took me 5 hours to get it all back together. i could have easily saved an hour by dropping the DP. It was a paint to drop the trans, and work it back up into place. I'M going to bleed the system with a bleeder pump, and check the free play. Overall, I'm glad I experienced this. I would not do it again. The $350 my mechanic charges me to do this is well worth it for me to drop it off in the morning and pick it up int he afternoon.

While I was waiting for the clutch to arrive, I did take the time to install a catch can, and tap the valve cover.

I also found that my tire had rubbed the wires in the wheel well to a point where it almost caused problems. I will have to move these tomorrow.