The forever project
 

So my car has been a project for the last 6 years that started as a long-shot to even turbo the car. I've taken a long and expensive route to get here but I think I'm finally on the home-stretch on my project.

I started with a Brilliant Black 97 with some passenger-side fender trauma and a heavily worn top with a torn zipper. I bought a simple Wiseco 9:1/Carillo H-beam rods and 99 head with no porting done. I then spent a year with a built motor and no turbo hardware until the next spring, when I purchased and started the install of my FM2/2560 kit. Over time I added things like shocks and springs, tophats and chassis stiffening.

After 3 years of driving she met her unfortunate end hugging a light post evading an accident with a far more expensive car. I bought my current car (Red 95) from a friend of a friend and transplanted my whole setup. The car has extensive hail damage, which is why I got a 32k mile car for $3,000. Almost nothing from the 97 was broken, which was fantastic in my book. At this point the car is turbo with a nice setup of suspension and stiffening.

That's pretty much by backstory, I have been too lazy to start a build thread until today however the weather is shitty so why not start now? :party:

My current setup as of April, 2013:

The Car:
1995 Miata, Red - Bought with 32,000 miles - I bought it with that hail damage
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
The hail damage:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603

The Engine:
94 1.8l block (yay driver side oil feed, got lucky on this one)
Wiseco pistons, 9:1cr
Carillo Rods
99 Head
Garrett GT2560 turbo - home port on the exhaust housing
99 Intake w/ VICS controlled by EMS
3" Turbo-back Exhaust with a high-flow Magnaflow muffler. No resonator. Sounds mean, and a "too damn loud" for my neighbor apparently.
Mazda competition motor mounts

The engine, pulled 4-6-2013:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
The inside, after ~20,000 miles. #4 is damp, and from the looks of the head it seems a valve seal was leaking..
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
After an hour of cleaning with a toothbrush and some brakleen.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
The 99 head, notice the wet valves on #4.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
This show's the work when I was partway through porting the turbo. This was taken about halfway through my port. I still have some work to do though.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603

The Drivetrain:
Factory 5spd
ACT XACT Pro-light Flywheel
SPEC stage 3 clutch, 6puck
99 Torsen II 3.909 rear differential.

The Electricals:
Hydra 2.7 EMS
DW1000 injectors

The Suspension:
Tokiko Illumina shocks
Flyin Miata Ground Control kit
Flyin Miata front and rear sways
Flyin Miata butterfly brace
Polyurethane bushings in the control arms
Polyurethane bushings in the differential
Konig Helium 15x6.5 wheels

The Cooling:
CX Racing intercooler (not sure on the size)
Mishimoto 55mm Aluminum radiator
Full aluminum boxing around radiator and intercooler

Just a slight increase in surface area...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
FM Intercooler, a good starting point, but not as good as I'd like..
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
CXRacing intercooler. Quite a bit larger than the one I got with the FM kit.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603
Undertray; the cooling with this setup was significantly better than my unboxed setup previously.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699603

Pending work:
Harddog double-diagonal Roll bar
Full re-tune of the map post head work, including tuning for general street use
Improved turbo-oriented Intake Manifold

Soon:

+1mm SuperTech SS Intake valves
+1mm SuperTech Inconel Exhaust valves
Shim Under Bucket setup
Supertech valves, light double spring kit. I hope to have a 7600rpm fuel cut, 7800 hard cut redline
SuperMiata harmonic balancer

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699773
http://949racing.com/images/products...zda_damper.jpg

And I'm really hoping the oil on the engine/cradle is just from a bad PCV valve or valve cover; the oil seems to cover everything from the valve cover down. Thoughts?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1366699773

"And I'm really hoping the oil on the engine/cradle is just from a bad PCV valve or valve cover; the oil seems to cover everything from the valve cover down. Thoughts?"

Is that 710 thingy in place?

I'm assuming you already have new crank/cam seals? My crank seal was leaking a few months ago and I had oil everywhere.... Glad that's all over now lol

Yeah, I had a bad rear pan seal that squeezed out and rubbed on the flywheel, leaking tons of oil. I fixed that issue though 3 years ago. It's dry back there now. I'm thinking the PCV was leaking or the valve cover gasket was leaking because I had oil all around the engine including on top of the intake and exhaust manifolds where they bolt to the head. My CAS has always leaked, no matter what I do.

I'm going to get head work done to it and decide what I want to do after that. I want to put a TODA cam gear on the intake and cut the valve cover, but still want to use the sensor to rid myself of the CAS.

710 thingy? I'm not sure what you mean.

In other news, I ordered the BEGI coolant reroute. It's not as nice looking as the SuperMiata one, but for $80 less I can live with it. Now I'm just waiting on a response for my machine work. Anyone know if the car will sound different after the new valves/portwork? I'm itching to find out.

See below

Hah, I get it now. No, I think it was just the valve cover gasket. :)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1367083953

One step closer. I got the transmission out last night surprisingly easy, just unbolted the PPF from the transmission and slid it forward until it came out. All I need now is the head work completed and I can put the car back together. Still looking for a machinist that wont break the bank, I'd like to keep it under 1300 if I can.

I'm having some trouble locating a machinist that I can afford and wont ruin my head, anyone have any suggestions? One local shop didn't even know how he would shim a Shim Under Bucket setup...

Sent the head out to get ported and parts installed, I'm already suffering separation anxiety. From what I gathered I might have it back before June, just in time for the snow to finally die.

The head is currently at the machine shop waiting for a teardown. He asked about Bronze valve guides, which I spent some time researching. I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the cost of more rebuilds due to the possibility for the guides to wear faster.

Anyone got any thoughts on these?

I've been trying to reach the machinist for the last few days and he's not responding to my emails, I don't much care for having a car taking up my garage and no idea when I'll be able to put the engine back in and move it. :ugh:

I don't want to get locked out of autocross for the whole season again :crx:

So the car needs sound deadening on the package shelf (lots of vibrations while cruising) and heat shielding for the transmission tunnel because the downpipe makes the tunnel crazy hot.

My solution? I have some left-over dynamat that I used for my DD that I will be putting under the carpet to stop whatever is buzzing at 70mph / 3500rpm. I originally considered Frost King duct insulation, however it was almost $20 for a 15' x 12" x 1/8" roll. I instead opted for this stuff:

http://www.artisan-distiller.net/php...9c201fa36d5ca6

Reflectix ducting insulation - essentially foil bubble wrap. This roll measures 16" x 25 x roughly 1/4" thick and cost me 11 bucks, $14 with duct tape. It's lighter than the Frost King solution as well. I'm going to cut it into sections and duct tape it to the tunnel and cover it with carpet.

The second solution I will put into place if this doesn't work, is a sheet of aluminum cut to fit the transmission tunnel, and held away from the tunnel about 1/4" to allow for a heat barrier. I'm hoping to avoid this since it's so much work though.

Installed the Reflectix and got the Transmission bolted in and attached to the driveshaft. Now all I'm waiting on is the head to put it all back together...

My head has been at the machine shop since May 8th, is 2 months time long enough to do a port? I know it's the race season, but I feel like I'm getting pretty much ignored when I email or call for an update. If it hasn't been touched maybe I'll just call and have it shipped back so I can reinstall it and start my own race season; summer's going to be exceptionally short this year methinks.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1373672717

I've gotten an update on my porting, all the work except shims and final assembly is done. Lash should be set to .01 intake, .012 exhaust +/- .001.

+1mm Intake and Exhaust valves are machined in and installed! Head is looking really good right now:
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1373664091

All valves and springs installed, just waiting on the shims for the SUB setup:
Attachment 185305

I only have a picture of the intake runner, but it's looking pretty good! Note the bronze guides and check out that edging!
Attachment 185306

Just waiting on shims (up to 10 business days) and final assembly. :party:

Balancer is installed, and I have a tracking number for my Cylinder head. Progress!

Update! Engine is installed, just need to attach some wiring and torque down some bolts. Hope to get it running tonight, gotta get tabs too.. :drool:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1375803966

I installed the coolant reroute to the head, however it leaked as soon as I added coolant. :vash:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376075534

So I've pulled it off and cleaned the back of the head with lacquer thinner. Man, that was quite possibly the worst thing since ever. Look at the space, and take into account I installed it out of the car, and didn't flatten the speedo cable on the firewall at the time:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376075534

Seems the BEGi supplied gaskets are pretty bad at sealing. I picked up some of the silicone-ringed gaskets from FelPro (35251) with the silicone facing the BEGi-supplied ring so when I torqued down on the bolts, the silicone was pressed into the step machined out by BEGi for the thermostat (it's on both sides of the piece). I also RTV'd the assembly together, like so:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1376075534

Long bolts are used to hold the old heater core hose fitting to the new assembly. Finger tighten to hold it together until the RTV sets a bit (1.5 hours in my case). I then RTV'd the back of the last gasket (already RTV'd on the assembly on one side), stuck it down and bolted it down finger tight and let it set for 4 hours and torqued it down.

Here's hoping this disaster doesn't repeat itself...:facepalm:

It lives!!! I'm pretty sure the sound is the lower timing belt cover rubbing on the timing gear's attachment bolt heads. It'll wear off, right? :facepalm:

Yeah, the noise at the end was the lower timing belt cover rubbing on the 36-2 gear's allen head bolts. After a few miles of driving the noise is completely gone.

I've also found that the car is impossible to park without power steering; I'll likely be putting it back on in the following weeks.

I installed the NB crank sensor over the weekend using Jeremy's install writeup; however they call for a 36-2 wheel, not a 36-1. I took a grinder with a 1" wheel and scored the back of a tooth next to the missing tooth, then broke off the tooth with a pliers, then cleaned it up a bit with the grinder. Extremely quick and easy, I didn't even need to pull the pulley. I advise removing the alternator belt as a precaution though.

I then started the car after adjusting the settings for 36-2 configuration and found it was running about 25º retarded. I adjusted the timing reference angle to 65 (as low as it would go) and got to 2-3º ATDC. I ended up setting the sequencer to 137 (each mark is 10* give or take) and reference angle to 87. This resulted in a DEAD ON 10º advance, very little fluctuation compared to using just a CAS. I have my idle set at 10-12*, 900rpm and roughly 14.3:1 afr. IAC is at 35% and intake idle temps are at 160 at idle. I need to find out a way to get this upper coolant hose off my intake hose, my IAT shouldn't be that high, should it?

I have found however, that upon driving it last night the car seemed... sluggish. Like it lost power from this change. I ran some logs but nothing looks out of place so I'm at a loss. Today as I was going to lunch and noticed my idle vacuum is 12-14inches instead of the usual 18 or so. I looked over the engine bay and found no vacuum leaks. I did adjust my idle speed from 1000 or so to 890, wondering if that's what brought this on. I'm going to check compression on the motor nevertheless as a precaution. Hoping I didn't damage something while it was running at 20-25* retarded. It was only for a few minutes and completely idle, but who knows.. :facepalm:

Resolved; I had reverted a setting on a map on the ECU and it also reverted some trigger settings. I'm seriously considering a swap to a MS3pro after talking to Emilio. The Hydra is nice if you know what you're doing, but most of the tuners I talk to don't want to touch it..

What exactly would I need to replace from my FM2 kit to swap to a MS3pro? Can I use the same knock, wb02 and air temp sensors? I'd like to build in an EGT sensor, if for nothing else than to kill the engine in extreme rich situations.

Car overheated yesterday, the radiator fans weren't switching on. I was luckily close to home and put a box fan on the radiator support and leaned it against the hood prop to cool the engine. Either a fuse or the temp sensor since the relay clicks when I ground TFAN in the diagnostic box.

In other news, I'm looking into getting a few new gauges: AFR/EGT, Oil/Water temp, and I already have the FM boost/vac gauge so I can hold off on that. My big one though is AFR/EGT. Should I get digital or stick with mechanical gauges?

I am happy with the Zeitronix combo. Had to replace the EGT probe, but you can get non-Zeitronix ones pretty cheap. The Wideband has been operating since installed 8~9 years ago.

I've pretty much settled on VEI gauges. I can get all 3 gauges, a EGT probe, water/oil sensors and a vac/boost sensor for a relatively reasonable $430+s&h. Pretty sure the Hydra can output a 0-5v linear curve for the AFR signal. I really want to wire in the EGT probe to the hydra so it kills the car if EGT peaks above a certain temperature (not sure how high, 1800? Can the inconel valves handle that?) but I'm not sure it can do that.

They'll all be red gauges and I'll replace the light covers in the factory cluster with red ones. I'm thinking it'll look pretty good.

Had the car on the dyno Monday to get some of my fueling issues corrected. We fixed the fueling and adjusted AFR targets to get more fuel economy (15.6:1 cruise AFR and more clear transitions into boost).

We tried to get my janky MBC working but it doesn't seem to work very well, I would have very unstable boost and it fluctuates a lot and sometimes overshooting significantly. At present I have the MBC on and set to ~14psi to keep the WGA closed until the last minute and aid spooling. I'm hoping I can find an EBC to work with the hydra, though. I tried setting up my Ingersoll-Rand EBC tonight but I think the solenoid is a dud now. I set min/max PID% to 100% and set the cutoff RPM to 0; should it not make some sort of noise from the solenoid?

And this is what I found when I went outside to go to work today:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1378740860

Top was installed last Fall, less than 1 oil change on it.

You sure do got some purdy hands.... yessir....

That was my sister, lol. Wondering if this would fall under renters insurance or car insurance? I think I'll be parking indoors from now on.

Depends on your coverage i'm sure... Did they get anything from in the car?

I don't know whether your car was locked or not, but you NEVER lock a convertible. The corollary to the above is that you don't keep anything important inside a convertible.

Of course, if it's just random vandalism, you're SOL anyway.

All they got was the faceplate to the deck. Didn't even try to steal the deck. Doors were unlocked.

I guess thieves don't even consider the possibility that the car could be unlocked (sigh).

I'm getting ready to pull my radio altogether along with the door speakers. Never use them. One less thing.

Good luck with insurance.

Update on the car situation; car is currently parked with duct tape sealing the top. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. As I don't have a charger for my laptop I can't tune the car and I haven't been motivated to drive it because everytime I see the cut in the top I get pissed off. :vash:

Bummer about that top man.

People are terrible.

Nice build.

Could you post more details and pics if possible of how you ducted or "boxed in" your radiator and intercooler. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do something similar soon.

Seriously man, get over it. :dealwithit:

If this is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you're darn lucky. Just read a story about a 5 year old being gang-raped in Pakistan. Think about that!

Miata tops are cheap and easy to install (E-bay works fine). As for your laptop, get a charger or newer laptop and start tuning.

This is the best time of the year to be driving the Miata with the top down. :skid:

No whining!

Brace yourself. Top down Miata season is coming.


:pitlab:

This. I disabled my trunk release and valuables go da'boot. I lock the glove box to protect minor items (registration).

Only time I lock my car is with a hardtop on. Which means if I drive my turbo car with AEM gauges and other swag it always has a hardtop if I'm parking somewhere other then a coffee shop w/ windows.

-Zach

I've been in the market off and on for a rollbar and a hard top. It's a work in progress, though on the bright side my friend needs a new HG and wants me to help pull the head off. This means I get to test several parts from his car to see if they fix the car bucking; The wiring harness on the back of the head, the TPS and the CAS if absolutely necessary. I need to get a charger for my laptop before I swap over to those sensors though..

Been too long since my last update! I got my taxes back and figure it's time I splurge just a tad on the car; I had been holding out for a set of 6ULs, but the overall difficulty in acquiring a set and the likelihood of one being damaged on MN's asstastic roads means I'm going to have to settle. I've been fighting between 15x8 and 15x9, and I've decided I will stick with 15x8 for the DD aspect, I will probably buy a set of 15x9s in the future for tracking but I like having the option of un-stretched 205s.

As for the wheels, I opted for the lightweight and decent looking Konig WideOpen wheels in Flat Black (because screw cleaning brake dust). You really can't go wrong with 15x8 wheels at 13.4 pounds and only $109. The fact that they are in stock mid-march means I should be able to find one if I break one this summer. I'll put the Heliums on my DD and since my Star Specs are still fairly new, I'll just have them mounted to the new wheels.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1394780890

Here's what the car would essentially look like with the new wheels (though in black lol):
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps2bb8b799.jpg

Next up on the chopping block is a roll bar. I thought I'd gotten lucky and found a used local one, but alas it was just a fancy style bar that looked like a roll bar. I'll probably pick one up closer to Spring so I can install it. Thinking a double-diagonal hardtop safe bar is what I'll look for. The top is still cut from that break-in, and I don't care to report the claim yet because I can't drive the car out to have it looked at.

And lastly, the car still has that oscillating issue from last year; First thing I want to try is a fuel map from before I noticed the issue, perhaps 2012. I'm going to get a new TPS and a good engine harness if the map or TPS aren't the issues. I had plans for a vacation of some sort, but if I can get the car running reliably enough to be safe to drive cross-country I think I'll take it to FM to work out all the minor fueling and performance kinks and check out the mountain roads on my new wheels :party:

I LOVE dem wheelz, what offset did you get? I've got the +25 on mine and they are PERFECT offset wise imo.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1394811873

Agree. Great looking wheel. I run Enkei RPF-1s on my Silver car. Love the look and they are STRONG and LIGHT.

That cracks me up seeing you complain about the roads around the twin cities. I was up there visiting my Mom and Stepdad for 2 weeks last June and I was blown away with how much better the condition of the roads are up there compared to here in Pittsburgh lol.

Update! Wheels arrived today, they look better than I imagined. Didn't come with stems though, it's going to be 60 today and I can't wait to take the car out...

Fire: That looks fantastic! I got +25 as well, and that is exactly the look I was hoping for. Are those 225s? I'll be running 205s until they are finished off. Did you have to roll your fenders much?

PAn: The roads are just terrible the last few years, they were much better just a few years back but the state has really been letting the condition deteriorate here. I bent a wheel and an upper control arm on an offramp that was VERY short with a wall at the end and a sharp 15mph right.

I've been heavily considering dual gauges for my 3-pod a-pillar mount for a very long time, after all more info is more better right? Well after seeing a car with 3x dual function gauges I have decided to just go with EGT on the top, AFR in the middle and boost/vac on the bottom. I'm not sure what gauges/sensors to bother with, what's the resolution like on electronic gauges? Do they update slowly? Would it be better to stick with an electronic gauge?

I'm considering changing the internal dash lights from green to red, which means I'd like something that would at least semi-match the dash. I have the FM boost gauge, but I might replace that because it tops out around 20? psi. When I go EFR I'll probably go into the mid 20s for boost, so a matching boost gauge would be good too. Oh, and since my deck's face was stolen, I need a new radio. Something that has red in it.... lol

I've been working on the Miata a lot lately, but haven't been motivated to update the thread; I have quite a bit of an update to do now lol..

I have been running my 205/50/15 star specs (z1) on my 15x8 wheels up until yesterday. The ride was very rough on the pothole ridden Minnesota roads, so I decided to get some 225s on there stat. Lucky for me, one of our local AutoX guys was selling some used Rivals (roughly 5/32 tread remaining) with chipping on one shoulder from a sway bar hitting it. He was selling them at $180 so needless to say I jumped on that steal. I am now running them 32f/34r with the chipped tire on the back (less camber) and there is zero noise whatsoever (lucky me!), I haven't had a chance to really push the tires though because we've gotten about 4" of rain in the last week here, all the good roads are too wet :crx:

I also have an NB subframe, knuckles, UCAs and steering rack for an NA-NB conversion for that sweet, sweet free caster+camber. I'll be holding off on doing said conversion until I change my suspension setup from Illuminas and FM Ground Control setup to a true coilover setup. I was thinking something like the vmaxx adjustables, though if I can find a used set of AFCOs... :party:

This was only REALLY brought into consideration when I was checking clearance on my SS lines against the rivals and noticed they were hitting the UCAs under full lock, just enough to damage the plastic sleeve. We took a pry bar to the brake line mounts and pried them closer to the UCA bushings and rotated the banjo fittings down a bit. While doing this and dropping the car, I noticed the spring bushing was a little kinked and upon closer inspection I noticed both front ground control sleeves had partially compressed and folded over a bit, changing the spring's angle vs the shock. I took a block of wood and knocked it back into place, but it's a problem nevertheless.

The Hydra is now operating on NB triggers with minimal issue; the main issue is a misfire FM says only happens under lugging conditions (3k or lower rpm). My main issue is it happens a lot during cruise and I'd be worried about it happening at the track (it's a temporary full loss of power, I'd hate for that to happen while apexing an off-camber corner..) - I am going to invest in an NB cam sensor and replace mine (the harness plug was broken off at some point on mine) and switch to that setup, I just can't deal with the misfire issue anymore.

I've also put some of that frost king duct insulation on the inside of my FM turbo filter shield, it still gets quite hot so I'll probably line the outside of it as well. My goal with this is to help reduce intake air temps, and to further help this I want to run a NACA duct driver's light panel to bring in some cold air. I was also considering putting some louvers on the hood immediately following the headlight panel above the air filter to extract hot air, creating a constantly flowing rush of cold air around the air filter, while minimally affecting drag with positive pressure going into the headlight NACA duct, any residual pressure is spit out the louvers towards the windshield reducing the amount of vacuum following the louvers while at motion. Thoughts on this? I will be replacing my dented hood so I'm probably going to give it a shot, no idea what louvers would look best though.

Other mods done so far this year:

-Pioneer AVH-P3100DVD double-din touch screen deck (from my old car)
-Alpine MRV-F400 4-channel amp (behind driver's seat)
-Pioneer 6.5" coaxials in front (can't remember model, they're used from a friend)
-Tite-Seal sound damping (peel-n-seal like product at menards)
-Frost King duct insulation (closed cell foam) heat and sound damping
+Both of the above were used on the doors (inside+out skins), trunk floor and around gas tank as well as on the floor and tranny tunnel. I intend to do the firewall when/if I pull the dash in the future, this is to keep things livable with no A/C. This stuff weighs so little that I doubt I added more than 10lbs. Cornerweight showed 2470 with 160lbs of dead weight before I did the floor/tunnel in a single layer of each. Car is MUCH quieter with a reasonable single coating of both materials.
-Reflectix heat and sound damping (both floor pans and tranny tunnel) - Combined with the above damping, there is minimal footwell furnace now when under boost! The reflectix did most of the work though. I will get some material to line the inside of the tunnel as well to help cut more heat out since it's likely mostly radiated heat of the hot tunnel metal that's making it in now. Debating makeshifing a shield to keep the tranny cool from exhaust heat as well.
-ALARM+REMOTE START - Huge, hoping to deter further thieves.
-Modded trunk lock to allow counter-clockwise spin to disable console release lever inside the car.

I have pulled a rear shelf panel off another car to cut holes and mount either 2x 8" or 10" subs firing forward (into the seats). The goal here is to fill the empty bottom and mid-range with the top down. There are up-firing options but the sound wave goes up and out of the car w/ the top down, firing into the seats pushes the soundwave forward. Well, that's the idea anyway. :giggle:

So I was bored and looking at my timing map and compared it to some well known, high performance setups and found I could be doing better in the timing department (in some cases, much better). I decided to merge some of the spark map from a similar user's configuration (Paul's 300/270 2560 99 motor) and carefully log for knock.

Here's my old timing map, compared to paul's map it's quite tame in some places. There's some really high cruise cells and I'm wondering if that's why my mileage sucks. I currently get 20-22mpg with mostly freeway driving and very little boosting.
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/...g.png~original

Paul's spark map (circa 2008?) from a very similar setup. Not sure if his head was ported or his engine internals, but I know his exhaust manifold was an absurdflow tubular seen here. His setup made 300whp / 270tq on the same turbo.
Attachment 184859

And here's my spark map after adjusting much of it to be similar to Paul's. I've adjusted a few vacuum cells but otherwise this is what I'm going to try out.
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/...2.png~original

I'm hoping I don't have to fight fueling too much now, but we'll see. Maybe I'll win the lottery and I will get the power without the trouble this time. :party:

So far so good with the new timing map, and the interpolated fueling is fairly smooth as well.

In other news, I've been having my accessory belt slip when starting intermittently for a while now and finally got to replacing it, and I've noticed a disparity between the voltage I get at the battery posts and the voltage reported by the ECU. I'm getting increasing volts as it charges from starting going from 14.25 to 14.75 at the battery posts, and 13-13.3 volts reported by the ECU. Prior to replacing the belt I noticed the voltages dipping as low as 12.7v with everything on and the car idling.

I have both the Left-front grounds cleaned, head stud still attaches to the stock location and the multi-ground strap moved to the bolt on the fender wall that holds on the diagnostic box. I'm a little perplexed, and wonder if this is why the DW1000s are having trouble idling... I shall call FM tomorrow.

Sure wish I could explain this, my volt meter reads the same on the battery as on the alternator. I have cleaned the PPF and both engine bay grounds by the brake booster. Still getting low voltage according to the hydra. My next concern is my COPs could be at the wrong dwell (ECU reads wrong voltage, sets wrong dwell when system is 1.3v higher than ecu believes) and thus, be running hot. Thoughts?

Here's my misfire/bucking issue shown in a log. Note the RPM jumping up and down, it feels like the car is being rocked progressively harder back and forth parked in gear. Could this be a bad COP or wiring from the Crank Angle Sensor causing this?

Under FM's suggestion, I have added a new lead to GB11 and tied it to a ground that I sanded down behind the passenger seat. I also just finished adding a 1k ohm pullup resistor (1k ohm, 5%, 1watt) between BAT+ and tach due to the tach wipping up/down after a hard pull and pushing in the clutch to shift.

I am also going back out now to splice a T into GB12 and seat that with GB11 to bolster the grounds further. If I still have a misfire issue, it'll be (in my opinion) due to Crank Sensor signal pollution. You can see in the log above when I have a misfire the signal is erratic. Another symptom is the trigger shows missing teeth where there aren't any when the issue happens. This is very hard to get a screencap of, it has to happen very shortly after I start to pull a log of triggers, and you can't just use the hydra's logging function to do it either (sigh..) -- perhaps I need some sort of shielded wire for the crank sensor? I used a trailer hitch style cable with a 5' tail on either end, and spliced it in per FMs directions (wanted to be able to disconnect without pulling the sensor off the motor) and it seems to work fine honestly otherwise.

One last thing I might try if I get done in time tonight is to change the triggers to Rising/Rising as per Jeremy, they tend to run more smooth.

After taking the car for a little drive (10 minutes or less) I didn't notice any misfiring, which was fantastic news. The only problem I have at this moment is that the pullup resistor for the tach signal doesn't appear to be working (tach at 0 and doesn't move).

Changes to Hydra harness:

-Relocated tach from BC12 to inj6 plug (added a 1k ohm, 1watt, 5% resistor between BAT+ and inj6) on BD10 - OHM tested to 986 ohms (same as the other unused resistor in the pack) and 11.86v off on the tach side, ~12.3v on the BAT+ side with the car powered off.
-GB11 - Plugged in a wire I had crimped by someone there a while back and ran it to a ring terminal on a hard chassis ground
-GB12 - T'd off and run to 1K on the small harness as there was no wire on the FM harness to tie into for my year (95) and put a spade connector in the middle for future removal.
-BC03 - T'd off and ran to same ground as GB11 (about 6-7" up and to the right of the ECU, sanded to a near-mirror finish and self-tapping screwed in) - Went ahead with it just as a precaution.

I found after my last alignment that my ride height was... off. It turns out the front sleeves for the ground control kit were heavily damaged on one the inside edge giving them about 3/16" worth of useless thread. I decided I _COULD_ flip the shocks, but we found I had some very minor bind on both sides and decided to pull the setup and swap for coilovers. After some considering I elected for XIDAS, but had to back down for now when I reconsidered my budget. I'm now putting in a set of FM V-MAXX XXtreme Track Pack with 504#/336# springs and 112# tender springs as well as install my NB front subframe, rack, UCA and uprights and to install grease zerks while everything is out of commission.

Well, it's been a grueling last week pulling the suspension, bushings, cleaning and installing zerks and re-installing all of the bushings but I'm finally on the home stretch. Saturday afternoon we were pounding out the sleeves when my dad missed the mark and hit his thumb with the hammer, almost put a end to the day when we thought he was going to need stitches (he's on blood thinners). Luckily with some quick cleaning, alcohol and neosporin we avoided that. Two days later and it's already closing up (he thought neosporin was a waste of time). After some recovery we boxed things up and went to the shop to press out the bushings and I bought dinner.

As it sits right now, the arms are ready to be installed, then I need to install the depowered NB rack, transfer tie rods and prime the bushings with grease via my new fancy grease zerks. Once that's done I'll drop it and set ride height and eyeball alignment until Saturday. Thinking 11.75"F/12"R to start with, the NB setup tied with my r-package tie rods should help with bumpsteer too. The car has handled 'meh' since I pulled it out of storage this spring so I'm pretty excited!

Edit: Pictures when I get home from work.

Finished installing all of the arms and knuckles last night, and I've just gotta get the rack mounted and I can set alignment and ride height. I had to jack the springs up 2" in the back to clear the axle, but the tender springs sit flat anyway so I should be able to still set a relatively low ride height. One thing I can say about these so far is that adjusting those perches is a tough workout with the included adjustment tool, what airhead thought it was a good idea to make it a ratchet head? And why put stickers on the shock for the adjustment knobs and not just stamp it to the adjustment knob itself? All four stickers were peeling off the shocks when I got them, I don't expect them to last long on the car :P

Anyway all of the arms glide free, though I did have to pull the rear inner bushings out again because I didn't grind out reliefs to accommodate the zerks, and they wouldn't fit in the mounting holes properly but that wasn't too bad. The only thing I have left is to install the rack and tie rods, and I can torque things and set ride height. I found last night that NB racks can't accept NA inner tie rods, so I'm picking up a pair after work today. Wish I would have known sooner though, rockauto has them for half what I'm paying in the store today..

My phone's data cord is broken, so it's taking a bit of work to get the pictures off. Anyway, the VMAXX springs are still breaking in a bit, they settled a quarter inch on each side and I adjusted it out however they've since settled another quarter inch on one side and eighth on the other. I'll drive the rest of my tank out before I readjust it again, there's probably some more settling to go.

Oh here's a shot of the bucket seat I've had laying around forever. An old (99?) momo start. Super light and actually not that uncomfortable actually. I need a bigger seat for my passengers though, nobody fits in the momo heh. :giggle:

So it's been a week and a half and 2+ tanks of gas, I seem to have settled rather evenly at 1/2" sag on all but the RF, which was 3/8". I'm really liking how well it handles, I really need to get some seat time in a car with some XIDA gen2s to compare to these...

So I've been away for a while due to some real life stuff but I'm back in the game this spring.

-Last October the 14th, I was driving to work and took a left on a poor-visibility 2way stop intersection, looked right, left, right and turned my head left as I creeped forward to get a better view and ended up clipping the running board/wheel of a Navigator which flattened my bumper and deployed my airbags. Seems the damage was limited to the upper half of the bumper and the hood/fenders, but the radiator and IC setups are OK. Insurance totaled the car because airbags so I bought it back. As it sits we're waiting for a friend to finish his catfish swap so I can buy his shell and fix my car. She's presently parked, but I'm already getting the itch to drive her as the weather warms up here in MN.

-Over the winter, I scored a Hard Dog single diagonal roll bar and ryoku rob tow hooks, they're all in great shape. I've also got a set of DIYMotorsports door bars and will install those along with the roll bar when we start working on the car. I'm also going to get the boss frog arms as I've heard good things and have stiff springs so they should help solidify the car.

-With the announcement of Fab9's EFR manifold, I've decided on the EFR 6758 as my future turbo upgrade. I also plan EGT sensors per runner and debating EWG or IWG, the EFR IWG works really well and I might not need the EWG...?

-Another upgrade I've long been considering but haven't had the gusto or know-how (or money) to do is upgrade my cams. I am currently torn between Kelford and Maruha cams, and I'm pretty set on 264s instead of 272s to keep the car street friendly. Since the cams will shift the powerband higher, I'm going to get adjustable cams and tweak the intake cam to move my spool further to the left. The lift on both of these is rated at ~10mm.

Aside from these bits of work and getting the car running, I'm very excited this year is looking to be a very fun one. If anyone has experience with aftermarket cams, am I looking at needing to have the head machined for the lobes to clear the lifter bosses? If I'm lucky and don't, will I need to do anything or are they install and break in?