Ed's 2nd Mission - S2 build
 

Been in southern california for 4 months now. Haven't driven my 10AE much (now named Sonic). Have always known I want to get into w2w eventually, and watching the Supermiata S2 races has lit the spark again. Also want to play with some enduros.

A deal popped up on Alex Renderos' old S2 car with an updated cage, so I bought it. As it sits now:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...06ffe25f10.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...484c24545e.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...af39b8f8a3.jpg
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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dfaabeca9d.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...35f6d75d00.jpg

I'm having him do a few more things to it - I want to get the cage extended through the firewall to the shock towers, mostly. Has fresh paint on all panels. Will be running a composite hardtop, trunklid S2-style spoiler, and front air dam - all Renderos Racing bits. For now i'll stick with the livery Alex put on it. Pics before car was disassembled for cage updates:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3e98f5795.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3128babf2.jpeg

I bought the 104k mile VVT from @UK_Miata_Parts , should be on its way from the UK already. Still in search of other bits, but have a line on most of what I need.

Plan is to finish getting Sonic dialed, do a couple more track days this fall, ending with Miata Reunion at Laguna Seca. The most ideal scenario would be someone meets me at Laguna, buys it and tracks it that weekend, then takes it home. Once Sonic is gone, the rest of the parts will be acquired and the car will be built! Link to for sale thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/cars-sale...1/#post1465303

I am excite. This is my third ground-up build, but the first one that's actually a racecar :party:

Becoming a true 949 guy. First, you give your street car a name. Now you're going S2 racing (which is darn close to the original 95R project Emilio did many moons ago -- I still love the clone I built). This is good to see . . .

sub'd!

Thanks to @Silentoreo34 I believe I've sourced my 5-speed and 4.3 Torsen, pending verification of 4.3 torsenness after pulling it from donor car.

Still need:
-seat/harnesses
-net
-fire system
-kill switch system
-ECU
-wire entire car
-Front bumper
-ideally, a bunch of ABS stuff. Full lines, block, knuckles. This may not happen.
-probably more stuff I haven't thought of yet.

I wish you the best of luck. I am in the middle of this and I probably have 100+ hours and god knows how much money sunk into it. You get knickled and dimed as it goes on. I would highly suggest using a stock NB chassis harness and not doing that one from scratch.

Yeah, my plan is to hire John. Will depend on a couple things. It's not too bad if it's a race car without an interior. Miller and Vegas are both fully redone wiring.

Man I'm jealous. That shell was a hell of a deal. If I'd been on that side of the country I was going to make a serious inquiry.

It sure was. Very fortunate to know Alex and be in close proximity to him. The bonus is that the tub was already at his shop so it makes getting a few things done very very easy haha

This. Spent all of my mods money on wiring this year. Have tons of time into it. Full regerts.

Engine arrived today. Thanks @UK_Miata_Parts for the very reasonable shipping time!

The valve cover and intake manifold are gorgeous. The head being painted red... Holy shit it's ugly. But, Racecar. Also, sweet red silicone tubing. For sale: Sweet red silicone coolant hoses - all of them.

Dat UK patina doe.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...715ed7eefc.jpg
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Following! :)

Recently rewired 90% of our car when we swapped to an ecotec. The GM ECU and harness has all it's own ground points and power wires, so I just needed a 40amp relay to power it, and a relay to control the fan. I used this guy:
https://ceautoelectricsupply.com/pro...relay-sockets/
to get a custom relay panel, I asked for covered fuse boxes and all heat shrinked connections. It's a little spendy at $400, but it's super clean and well laid out, and still 20% the cost of a SmartWire setup.

All you do is wire a cable to the power buss from the kill switch so it activates usually the ECU and display (AiM, RacePak), and maybe a wideband. Then use a switch panel something like this:

https://express.google.com/u/0/produ...BoCD3UQAvD_BwE

to turn on/off whatever you want, or again make something yourself like that.

What I suggest is starting with a stack of paper, and writing everything down that you want on the car. Kill switch, brake lights, cool suit, fuel pump, list goes on. Write down what needs to be powered when. Like I don't like it when you need a switch for the fuel pump or transponder. That's two very important items that have a kill switch, toggle switch, fuse, and maybe a relay that can all fail and end a race. Anyways, once you write all this down, start thinking about where you want it all located. For a race car, I probably wouldn't suggest the OE NB ECU location cause it's dumb. You'll need room for the relays, switches, ground bus bars, power bus bars, and fuse panels, and again all of them probably won't be in the OE locations. Then once you've got all that, start writing down your wiring diagram, tweaking it as necessary, getting as much detail written down as you can before beginning. Something that really helped me was starting with a OE rear wiring harness. That wired my fuel pump, tail lights, and brake lights, and made it so I could splice into by the driver's left knee rather than snaking wiring all the way back.

It's a lot of work, a little daunting, but cheaper than paying someone to do it for you. I choose the middle ground by using the relay panel, but between that and the PnP ECU harness, I really hit the ground running with the rewire job.

Damn Josh, excellent input, hugely appreciated. The plan so far is to pay John or Alex to do it, but maybe I will do it myself. Not rocket science, just time consuming, but I will definitely take your suggestions if I go the DIY route.

Josh, that is worthy of its own thread if you haven't already.

Warning: that was half what I did, half what I wish I had done.

E, do we not have a electrical thread somewhere? Would be helpful I guess. I’ve been wiring random DC electrical bits and bobs since I was ~10, so it’s all second nature to me and easily understandable. I tend to skip the planning phase too often, but I’ve worked with Ed lots and as long as he does the planning and research, he or anyone else could get it done.

An electrical subform isn't a bad idea. I'll come up with a proposal for the mods.

:likecat:

There is currently an electrical subforum under ECUs and Tuning. Very new, so there are just a couple threads on connectors, but there is a lot of content waiting in the wings on more specific elements like fusing, charging systems, etc.

Starting with a prefab solution like that fuse panel can definitely be a big time saver.

https://www.miataturbo.net/electronics-122/

Perfect. All you Josh.
John will probably have a few things to add as well since we have been wiring our cars from scratch for over a decade.

First step was checking the condition of the engine. Started with a compression test.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...de26effd48.jpg
176
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...06b88212d9.jpg
149 :(
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...409c8e0029.jpg
180
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...40f6920ce3.jpg
170


womp womp.

Retested after drizzling some oil in the cylinders:

1-215
2-185
3-180
4-189


Looks like she's tired, folks. Was hoping to not have to go into this one, but it is what it is. Will probably still do a leakdown test for shits and giggles, but I've basically determined that this engine is now a core.

Plan B: Look for another donor from Copart.

y'all keep your fingers off NB2's in california on copart, mmk?