Faelflora breaks his promise, time to part out car. GIT THE SAWZALL!
 

Let's get to the details. I have a 2003 LS Miata with a 6 speed and a Torson. I bought it in 2004 after driving RX8s and WRXs and other sporty cars. This Miata though called to me. I'll tell you all the special story since you are all cat loving ------s as well. Simply- I walked into the dealership and this Miata had just been detailed, but there were fresh cat paw prints all over the car, walking up the hood, over the convertible top, and over the trunk. When I saw that, I knew that was the car for me. And it was. Here's the blingiest pics that I can dig up of it from the good old days, before I whored it out doriftoing and finally turboing.

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When I bought it, it had been very tastefully modded by the PO with that Racing Beat Wing, a stupid style bar, a spiffy radio and mediocre sound system, and the Enkei RS5 which is in my opinion, a much better looking wheel than the 6UL but one RS5 is about as heavy as 2x 6ULs...

I looked at turboeing since day one but I had never turned a wrench on a car before in my life so the intimidation factor made me wait until warranty ran out. What a waste. I burned out the factory clutch a bunch of times and Mazda happily paid for the replacement but I shoulda gotten a ACT.

Driving stock was fun but I remember the moment oh so clearly when while attempting to merge onto a state highway, I couldn't pass an accellerating Toyota Prius. That was such bullshit and plus, almost every single day some dipshit in a much faster car would try to race me. Ugh.

In 2006, I bought and installed a bunch of stuff:

BEGI S5 GT3071 and I'll need your help to figure out the damn trim
Hydra w/ 750cc RC's
KYB AGX w/ FM springs, sways
Enthuza 3" catless midpipe + a catted midpipe that has just sat in the garage doing nothing
6UL's all around
Dual sensor EGT gauge (fuck yah IMO)
FM EXTREEEEME Clutch Happy Meal (ACT extreme PP, extreme organic disc, 9lb flywheel)

Couple notes on that stuff:

The BEGI S5 install brought me many tears and despair. After notable injury to my car's frame after sawzalling the fucker with too much zest to get the turbine in, I experienced two busted SS oil lines, dead boost gauges, swapping out wastegate/BOV springs and other etc crappy issues. After several more parts mismatches and hapless neophyte wrenching though , I finally got the kit on the car securely and it's been very good to me for the past 30K miles. The turbo is still spooling, the couplers haven't popped off despite my intake piping being sodden with oil, and the SS lines have proved their sturdiness by sawing through my power steering pump (nothing JB weld couldn't fix :jerkit:). BEGI has also provided very good and devoted customer service which has been much appreciated. Looking at the kit with some of my current knowledge, I can see that the entire thing was pretty much a custom kit and they did a good job on it.

Hydra is hydra and it's the only EMS I've fucked with and it's neato but the UI is fucktarded. I've seen some other interfaces and they like, work like they weren't coded for some high school project. Whatever. Jeremy in his curt glory is always helpful despite making me feel like I am sounding very stupid. For newb "tuners" like me support with this stuff is very important. One important thing to note-- I'm not sure how powerful the Hydra CPU is. When I last dyno'd I ran out of fuel over 6500 and leaned out. The Hydra caught detonation and retarded. The thing is though, on the street, it never retarded on me in that RPM range. I'm not sure that the CPU has enough hertz available to react quickly enough before engine damage. That closed loop knock detect functionality is good but I am getting a secondary system just for that. Just in case. Knocklite.

The KYB AGXs are OK. For DD they are OK. For performance driving they are meh. I really expected a lot more from them. I would have sold them but resale on them is crap. Shame on you FM for selling such a mediocre shock and spring.

The Enthuza is loud as an Apollo rocket and just about as unpleasant to spend extended periods of time with (likely). Everyone for 5 miles around can hear me coming and this exhaust is probably why only built STIs and Z06's race me nowdays (they win. Not for long though). I have to wear earplugs every single time I drive it and long trips with my GF suck because we have to yell the whole trip to hear each other. Decent work by Jason@Enthuza but I really have to put a resonator in the midpipe. The WOT roar and idle is mean as hell though.

6ULs are this shiznit but brake dust destroys the finish. If there's any metal plating specialists out there please shoot me a PM because I'm trying to figure out how I can get a coat of copper plated onto these wheels. DIY style plez so i don't have to pay $200/wheel at a shop. Tarnished copper would look awesome with my paint color.

Yes I love the Dual EGT gauge. It gives me real and useful tuning information and when I WI my car it will be so useful. I have a sensor on #1 and #4. The temperature variance between the two cylinders is never more than 100 degrees. I've only run 12 pounds of boost so maybe with more fuel the whole single feed fuel rail issues would start to show but for now my data indicates no problemo. Of course, I do have a log mani and more accurate numbers would be obtained on a S4 style manifold with individual runners.

The ACT EXXXTREEEEMMEEE clutch and organic disk is the shiznit. I have launched my car way too many times and launched it way too hard and callously each time. This clutch just grabs and grabs and it makes me happy. I've driven it in shitty motherfucking dieinfuckinghell DC traffic (stopgostopgostopgo) for years now and it's about as lovely as a clutch with this torque rating could get. It's never slipped and it's the never gonna give you up never gonna let you down of clutches. Despite the love it will not be able to handle the new torque powah (according to JayL research labs) and I'll be swapping it for a ACT sprung 6 puck.

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Sooooo

on to the rest.

I got sick of losing to WRXs and vettes and want more powah. So it's time for a built motor. I've always googleyeyed over Eliminator, MikeE85, JayLs, MarkPs etc cars and I want my Miata to be that fast! Or something approaching that. I did a shitty rushed job on my turbo install (don't make your first install on your DD!) and wanted to redo a lot of things-- install lines properly, clean up leaks, make my engine bay look good vs. the sooty oil covered disgrace it is now. Also, my motor seeps out a good amount of oil from the RMS, valve cover, oil return bung etc and blah that just sucks. ANNND my oil is blacker than <something racist> after only a few hundred miles and I've really run this motor hard so there's all my justification for a new engine.

As is pretty obvious, from day one of buying my kit I had plans to get a motor. It just took a lot of time to get the money to do so. For a while I was thinking that I would assemble the motor myself but the reality is that I would probably fuck it up. Even people that know what they are doing sometimes end up with piles for all sorts of reasons. That sucks and so my plan is to put this built motor in, and then take my time over the next few years and build up this motor I am pulling. I'll go realllll slow.

So here's what's in the longblock:

Head:
FM ported and polished '01 VVT head
Port matched lower intake manifold
+1 exhaust valves
FM adjustable cam gear (you can't see it cus I gotta cut the cover. will do. Later.)
FM Springs
Stock deck

Bottom:
FM Weisco 9:1 (can I have a sponsorship yet please??? it feels more like I am sponsoring FM :facepalm:)
Weisco rings
Belfab H beam rods
Billet Oil Pump Gear
Stock bearings
ARP studs
ATI Dampener --- this thing is a fucking lot of money and it had better do all sorts of amazing things
Stock deck


The motor was assembled by Ed York @ York Automotive. He builds Sealed Spec Miata motors and he knew all the right answers to any motor building trivia questions I could throw at him including Miata specific questions. He is a top Spec Miata driver in the area and also used to race corvettes, was a top driver on the vettes etc. His shop is in Mt Airy MD and he has a dyno dynamics. Prices for motor assembly were very reasonable and he patiently answered all my ignorant questions. He also does race alignments. I may be organizing a dyno day up there in springtime.


Yup I think that's it.

So I'm pulling the stock motor and putting this one in. And I'm doing a few other projects at the same time. Here we go. Here's the list:

----

-Mazdaspeed motor mounts
-Mazdaspeed/comp whatever diff mounts
-3.6 rear w/ rx7 clutch lsd - if I can't get this together it might go in later
-Hydramist with super uber tank location. 2 nozzles- one on intercooler, one a few inches away
-Replace all coolant hoses
-Do BEGIs new "street" reroute
-Fix a stupid PPF mounting nut that stripped (one of the foot long bolt nuts)
-Clean the engine bay till it shines damnit
-Fix sawzall fucked frame rail
-Wire up hydramist to have relay from EBC so I can run "low boost dry" and "high boost wet"

This time, Daddy has loaned me his spare car so I will take my time and not rushfuck the install. When I put in the kit the first time, I had to rent a car for a few weeks towards the end :( Many tears.

Last of all I forgot to mention the most important stuff!

Here's my goals:


Stage 2: (I'm at Stage 1 now right???)

Built engine + Hydramist = Close to 400whp as I can get before I run out of spark



Stage 3:

Intake manifold + moar spark = better fucking be over 400whp






The road to stage 3 is unclear. I will probably go with MSDs because they are awesome and red and WHEN THE FUCK WILL SOMEONE COME OUT WITH A GOOD LAB AND REAL WORLD PROVEN INTAKE MANIFOLD FOR THE MIATA?!?!??? COME FUCKING ON. If nobody does that then I may just end up sticking with the factory one and leave it unmolested.

Very nocturnal.

Any pics with 6ul's? When is the overhaul?

Final post of the night:

Here's where I am as of today:

This is how the engine bay looked before we started making it better ;) The car is dirty bleh.

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Here's a close up of the engine bay. The shame. I've been uneasy about going to any car meets because I've been embarrassed about the condition of it.

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The turbo side is filthy. This is from bolts backing out and sooty exhaust flying all over, the oil lines rupturing and plurging oil everywhere etc whine whine.

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Now to the good stuff. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED A CATCH CAN. The intake is full of oil from routing the breather to the intake.

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Well this is the turbine and it actually looks pretty cool with all that oil.

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S5 outlet.

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The only real hangup was a bolt that had stripped on the factory cross brace. I had to drill the bastard out.

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The bolt. Fuck you and die.

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A shitty picture of the car.

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The engine bay with shit gone.

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This is a crankshaft that some member sold me which is at the upper limit of factory tolerances. .040 or something clearance. It was plastigauged. If you are building an all out drag only or race only miata this is for you I guess.

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What it's all about. The built motor. Yayyyyy! I bought my own engine lift and it was amazing. I will do pullups from it every day from now on; it's so sturdy. It's 2 tons capable. Next week I will try using it to get my entire car off the ground :giggle:

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Round 2 should be coming tomorrow.

Awesome parts list, but not keen on the car styling. Keep us all updated :)

Nice project.

Stock cams?
Will take some boost for 400whp on a 3071.

2 bars and gunnin

Might as well improve spark now. I suggest/use LS2 truck coils because they're hella cheap and hella good.

Do you mean these:

Part# 12558693 - coil
Part# 12569188 - bracket
Part# 89017477 - Harness

Are the coils seriously priced around forty bucks?

Yes, stock cams. And yes, it will take some boost to get there :) To make it easier, I might be looking to part ways with my S5, GT3071, and downpipe if I can find a buyer. AND also if I can find a good GT35 setup for a decent price. :vash:

pink and teal = Bronski Beat

Even better... The ones I got were # 19005218 used from a 2006 Tahoe. These are rumoured to be the hottest variant of the LSx coils. Came from Tompkinsville Auto Salvage 888-482-0016. Paid less than $40 for a set of 4 shipped, including the harness which I used for the connectors. They had lots in stock.

These are supposed to be more powerful than the MSD coils, but do not offer the multiple spark. They are what all the big power / FI vette people are using.

Looking great

Why did you do +1 on the exhaust valves only? Driveability issues with +1 on the intake side?

I assume you're using the Hydra to control the VVT. Please keep us updated on how that works out - I'm interested to see how big an effect the VVT adjustment has at higher boost levels (18psi+).

Also, call Emilio at 949 for a clutch. After owning and driving both, his twin-disc is easier to live with than a 6-puck ACT is. I think he offers a heavier flywheel as well (normally his clutch weighs as much as a stock setup without a flywheel).

If your a chick, awesome build.

I'm not a chick. :facepalm: Is my build still awesome?

Pink and teal?...I like your turbo and stuff...haha

Lose the wing and it will look better. Definitely a unique color.

Or just become a girl.