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Made some progress on the car this weekend. Saturday was dedicated to destruction (removing the last of the sound deadening, removing OEM seat floor mounts, etc.) and Sunday was spent making parts to mount the steering column. Pretty happy with how this setup came out. I cut the factory brackets off of the steering column so that there was just a round shaft left to clamp onto, then made a clamp out of 3/4" aluminum. The shaft collar and sheetmetal extension brackets were intended to only be used for mockup and measurement purposes, but the column is rock solid as-is. I'm still going to make a final set of one-piece brackets out of 3/8" or 1/2" aluminum but that's much lower on the priority list now. These will do for a while.
Also did this. I've never really liked the spec miata pull cables for external trunk release, so I disassembled the factory trunk lock cylinder, removed all of the guts, drilled a 3mm dowel hole through the cylinder and through a spare key blank, and then pinned the key in place. I bought this silly anodized titanium key off one of the forums a few years ago and figured I might as well finally use it for something lol. The only weirdness is that I had to enlarge the hole in the bumper cover for the key to fit through, but it isn't noticeable unless you know.
Also, I can confirm that 15x10's fit fine with a flat roll in the front and a flat roll and slight pull in the rear without issues on an NB chassis. I run that setup with 245 RS4's
WRL just started allowing ballast this year if you want to always run the fiberglass doors and not mess with putting two sets of numbers on two pairs of doors, check out the rule book for what allowances they are making, nothing crazy but easily enough to offset the doors
Glad to see you sharing this stuff publicly man, you're a real genius with this stuff
WRL just started allowing ballast this year if you want to always run the fiberglass doors and not mess with putting two sets of numbers on two pairs of doors, check out the rule book for what allowances they are making, nothing crazy but easily enough to offset the doors
I just saw that this weekend. 150lb ballast allowed this year, but you have to take a 0.2 p:w modifier for running ballast. Weird rule. I think I can get to the weight I need with steel doors and an oversized battery and be able to run at the lower p:w ratio.
Swap kit arrived last Friday but I’m still having trouble getting an engine. I had been eyeing 3 or 4 good $700-800, 15-20k mile engines within 90 miles on car-part.com, but when I started calling around trying to buy one last week they were all already gone. Opened my search up to almost 200 miles but still couldn’t find anything with a combination of price and mileage that I liked. Finally just said **** it and paid $1330 shipped for a 2017 Buick Verano LEA with 23k miles from LKQ. It was supposed to be delivered today, but instead the tracking website showed a “delivery exception”. After 30 minutes of phone calls, the motor is still in Georgia because LKQ chose a freight company that doesn’t ship to Kentucky, but the engine still made it onto a truck somehow and then had to be returned to LKQ. What a clusterfuck.
Anyway, I went ahead and transferred the holes from the "racer" flywheel adapter and redrilled my flywheel for the ecotec bolt pattern. The ecotecmiata guys recommend a grade 10.9 flanged hex bolt for this location but I'm not sure this flywheel can handle the added diameter of a flanged hex bolt. I might just stick with these 12.9 socket head cap screws. Still need to check clearance to the clutch disc.
FYI someone on Facebook mentioned that they bought a rebuilt LE5 from Alpha Fab Industries for $1k + shipping. They should be able to provide you with a good LEA engine as well and their customer service is absolutely superb.
Good to know. Low miles LE5s are getting hard enough to find that an alpha fab rebuild is probably a really good option, especially at that price. There are still plenty of good LEAs available though and I would definitely prefer a sealed OEM engine over a rebuild. My LKQ order hasn't been cancelled so I'll hopefully have an engine by the end of the week.
The cheapness of OEM GM parts continues to surprise me. I bought a used CTS pedal off ebay a couple weeks ago for $40, just because it's what was recommended in the swap instructions. I started to mount it this weekend but wasn't a big fan of the GM angle bracket, so I started searching for how other people had done it. After finding Ryan's thread with pictures of mounting the Camaro pedal, I decided I wanted to go that route, and Amazon had a brand new GM pedal for $64 shipped! I really need to start looking up new part prices before buying used ebay stuff. The Camaro pedal is also about half the weight of the CTS pedal, probably all because of the metal angle bracket that's no longer needed.
Also pictured here is a 2011 equinox engine bay harness that I got for $128 shipped. Not sure yet how much of it will get kept, but it should have all of the connectors I need and was barely more expensive than buying the 3 ECU connectors alone. I bought an E39 ecu also, but after following portabull's thread today and then talking to Matt at ecotecmiata, it's possible that I bought the wrong part number E39. Will update once I figure that out. It was only $22 shipped so no big deal if it's wrong.
Camaro pedal- AC Delco 22741799
Connector- AC Delco PT2712
Wiring harness- 20913053
Was it E39 that doesn't support Miata tachometer output? My E67 drives Miata tach, but it doesn't have a VE table. Instead, it uses a combination of tables with some formula. My tuner was not amused. You should check whether E39 is similar before you commit. Someone on Facebook is about to release MS3 wiring schematics specific to our swaps.
Yeah, Megasquirt and Haltech can't control direct injection yet, and I'm currently not interested in spending the money on a racing ECU that can control it. I'm keeping the engine portion of this swap super simple, so HP Tuners should easily do everything I need. Plus I get a classing benefit in WRL by using a flashed stock ECU instead of an aftermarket standalone.
Matt at ecotecmiata has been super responsive and extremely helpful. I've been really impressed so far. He checked the calibration numbers printed on the cases for me yesterday and it looks like both of the E39 ECUs that I have are for V6 cars and won't work. I need to find an E39 that came out of a vehicle originally equipped with an LEA, such as a 2011-2012 Equinox. He suggested buying it through car-part.com, and calling the junkyard to 100% confirm that they're shipping me the exact stock number out of the correct car I need, not just an identical part number ECU. The hard part is that V6 and 4cyl cars have the same GM part number, so you really have to go through some effort to find out what car it came out of and not just buy based on part number. I'm sure this has already been covered in multiple swap threads, and I probably even read it at some point in the past, but I'm just learning it again. The LEA never came with a manual transmission, so at least I don't have to deal with that added complication on the ECU side. The automatic calibration is the only option and apparently works fine with the right tweaks.
LKQ still can't figure out where my motor is. Multiple phone calls again yesterday, and at 4pm (while I was in Tennessee) they left a voicemail saying it was delivered and signed for. I'm in the shop now, and it ain't here. The plus side of this is that once the motor gets delivered, I will have the opportunity to discuss compensation for lost time. Fingers crossed that I get a 2017 23k mile LEA for like $400 shipped. Lol
Sand the paint off the oil pan where it seals (you may have to wait for your engine to show up first), then scotch brite it for a few hours to prep the sealing surface.
Then for the trans adapter I had to countersink a hole or two a little deeper so the counter sunk bolts sat flush.
Also, we lengthened a few of the bolts to take advantage of every thread available. You just need to grab some longer ones obviously, then start shaving the ends off until they fit just perfect. i.e., they ship a 45mm because 50mm would be too long, but a 50mm shaved down to 48-49mm is perfect.
Yeah I'll definitely be paying close attention to bolt length. I was a little surprised when I opened the box of parts and saw that the adapter plate is 1/2" aluminum, not steel. The full 12.7mm of thread engagement is already borderline for an M12 bolt in aluminum, so custom length bolts are definitely worth the effort for any holes that end up being blind on the backside after bolting the plate to the engine. It would be nice if the adapter plate were steel and the oil pan aluminum, instead of vice versa. The oil pan weighs 17lb!
LKQ update:
My engine is still in Georgia. The "delivered and signed for" notification yesterday was from the freight company returning the engine to the original LKQ location in Georgia, for a second time. LKQ used the same exact shipping company, twice, even after the engine getting returned the first time because that company doesn't deliver to KY. Twice now the engine has been loaded on a truck, driven around Georgia for a little while, and then returned to the same location. If they get it fixed and shipped with a different company tomorrow, I should have it by Wednesday. Or maybe it will get loaded on the same truck again and driven around Georgia for a few more days...
Motor arrived last Tuesday and I've been making some good progress, but we had an emergency come up at work last week which is going to steal all of my free time for the next 2-3 weeks. I spent a ton of time in the garage this past weekend to make up for all of the miata time I'm about to lose.
Motor arrived with zero accessories, a busted intake manifold, and multiple broken sensors, so I spent the end of last week ordering and sourcing the remaining parts that I needed. There were also tons of shards of plastic in the intake ports when I pulled the busted manifold off, and the valves were open on 2 cylinders, so I had some fun with the bore scope and airblow trying to clean the plastic out of the cylinders. This motor has been full of headaches so far... I'm half expecting it to explode on the first startup.
The starter that I got had some interference with the motor mount bolt. The bolt cleared, but the nut wouldn't go on. Just needed a little touch with the grinder. I was told this is a rare issue that only happens with certain starters? :shrug:
The oil pan looked really good in visual inspections, but the sanding block showed some high spots that would have caused sealing problems without plenty of RTV. I spent quite a while cleaning it up.
The welds on one side of the pan also interfered with the bolt heads and needed a little work with the die grinder.
02-26-2018, 03:42 PM
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