I was talking with a good friend of mine and he suggested the 7163 twinscroll solution instead of the 6758 as the 7163's upgraded wheel design mitigates the spool delay significantly from the larger size and a twinscroll solution will make it even more responsive (re: faster than the 6758?). I have decided I'm OK with transmissions blowing up, it's just a part of the fun. I'll just keep spares on hand and bring tools to the track to pull my transmission if I have to until I get a 6spd.

I'm also very likely getting those high lift cams, probably from Maruha (maybe kelford?), though they do have a 256/264 duration camshaft, 264/264 should work well since I'll have less backpressure with a TS housing and the larger A/R hence reduced chance of reversion no?

It's official! I've ordered the cams from Kelford and they'll get to figuring out the grind. I'll need to pull the head as I can't find anyone willing to shim the thing in the car, I'd do it myself but I want more precision and less guesswork in this build. I went for 264/264 and 9.1mm lift (.358268") - Going to fudge the overlap a bit and try the cam at their suggested timing and go from there. I've got a before dyno at my current setup, I'll be doing an after dyno once I get the cam on and timing+fueling set. I'll do a third with the IM and TB on as well so folks have a good idea of the transitions since we have a weird lack of proper CONTROL testing done on our comparisons (especially from vendors). My only changes will be cams, IM and TB. I'm going to shoot for an 8k redline and see how the HP/TQ move with the changes. The testing location will be the same, with same Dyno setup. I'll be quite sad if we can't find power and only end up losing it... :P

I've ordered the gaskets for the head->block and I/E gaskets as well. I'm using the 99 HG as suggested by others since I have the re-route. I also ordered Frog Arms from FM and adjustable cam gears as well. The only bits left are a squaretop that I'm waiting to get to the states and a Skunk2 TB. I'll be port matching the intake to the TB and taper off to smooth the transition like another user did.

I'm also still on the fence about 6758 vs 7163ts - I'm hoping there's more dynos out there of comparable engines so I have something to go off of other than conservative boost levels or improper testing. These changes wont happen until the car's parked for winter and I have some cash to play with but it never hurts to keep them in mind, right? Now if ONLY my Rivals could put the power to the pavement!

Progress update!

I received a bunch of parts, still have some to go though. I tried putting on the Singular Motorsports 3" brake ducts. The balljoint area impacts the rotor as well as two other locations that will require some massaging. Broke two of the heatshield bolts off too, even with penetrant. I'll be drilling and tapping the holes later, fun. I can see that the cooling should work great, though.

Bonus: My friend is swapping his rollerskate into an exxocet. I scored his chassis and claimed the radiator support. Hoping I can make enough off the parts to make it a freebie.

Now the wait for space on the frame rack so we can pull the front end out. Looks like the rails crumpled up a bit, but according to dad "Oh hell that's not bad at all, it's all cosmetic. That'll walk right out." - Pretty excited!

Ordered or have on hand:
-Viton CAS seal because OIL LEAKS SUCK (seriously Im on my 4th seal and it's weeping AGAIN)
-Replacement soft top
-New EBC from FM to replace the spotty Ingersol Rand unit
-FM Solid sway bar mounts
-Full setrab 25-row oil cooler kit
-Maruha 264/264 10mm lift cams (Kelford couldn't meet my window) - ETA 10-12 days (no 'shipped' confirm from Saiji yet)
-Maruha carbon timing cover (gotta cut my valve cover now...)
-Sliding cam gears because overlap
-Hard Dog single diagonal roll bar (used, no damage) and HD harness bar
-DIYRoadster door bars
-Boss Frog frog arms
-Trackspeed brake ducts
-Squaretop manifold (will get Skunk2 TB for over-winter project)

Luckily I have a great hookup on body work so this all came out of the insurance payout for the car. The rest will either go to paint when we fix the body or an EFR 6758 setup (fab9?) - I want to have my car up and running by the end of the month... better get to work!

Massaged the brake ducts some more and they fit rather well, I put the driver's side on after breaking two of the bolts over there too (I'll be a master at drill/tapping after this!) - Did an inventory to make sure I have all the parts to complete several parts install as well as gaskets I wasn't sure if I had. Forgot to look for the door bars, though.

And I finally got a tracking number from Saiji, better start pulling the head..

The head, squaretop and cams are at the machine shop for prep and installing. Lost an ARP grade8 washer at some point, may have been stuck to the bossing when I pulled the head off. I rolled the head over with the valve cover on to wrap it in cardboard. It's either somewhere in the valvetrain or got lost in the sea of crap in the garage. I advised the machinist and he's going to look for it while working. Will a factory washer fit over the studs if I cannot locate it?

Also took the radiator to a welder to have the inlet turned to the left and get it out of the way of the piping. I orginally was thinking a 45* to the left, but refreshing my memory on the video in post #21 you can see that would just point it right at the intake tube. I called him and had him make it a pair of 45* angles to make a full 90* swing to the left. Should have something to show tomorrow night.

Lastly I shipped my DW1000 injectors off to be cleaned today. It's been a few years so I figure it's about time.

Hello thread followers. Been busy working on the chassis and getting things squared away. Took a bunch of pictures and figured I'd add a few here.

I've added heat sheilding to the transmission tunnel as well as the firewall and along the downpipe area to cut down on radiant heat bleeding into the footwell. I used the DEI heat shielding with fiberglass backing and scrubbed the tunnel down. Things are looking pretty well in there, I got everything up to the top of the transmission. When I blow the next 5speed and pull it I'll finish the tunnel work and probably make a shield for the transmisison to protect it from exhaust heat as well.

Next up I've had an aluminum welder cut off the inlet from the radiator and turned it left and angled it up enough to clear the fan attachment so I can still use it. The height is low enough to keep it from creating an air pocket. In the picture you can see the radiator has a slight twist to it, we've since set it on some 2x4's and carefully torqued it until it sat flush. Looks like the oil cooler will fit between the radiator and the sway bar, too. Thanks for the idea for placement Aidanaj.

Had to cut the FM frame rails to make room for the frame rack hangars so we could pull out the twist. Applied some heat and pounded out what we could but ended up cutting windows to finish it up. It's ugly, but it'll work.

-Right rail was 55mm down and 8mm to the right
-Left rail was 4mm down and 9mm to the right
-Both are within 1-2mm variance from factory

Added in 949 racing adjustable endlinks (front and rear), the FM sway bar mounts and the Frog Arms (painted red). The sway mounts didn't sit flush with the bottom of the frame (slightly cockeyed) but were as far up as they could be topping out on the attachment bolts. While adding things I noticed I lost a shock adjuster. Since I'm under warranty FM has shipped me a replacement but I'll hold off on installing it for now since I'm sitting pretty with my current settings.

Lastly, in preparation for receiving my head back from the shop I have crafted a spacer from some Ace Hardware bits. The crank bolt is a 14mm x 1.5 fine pitch bolt, but is far too short to clear the water pump for the crank degree wheel. I added in 2x 1" steel sleeves and two washers. The first washer keeps the sleeves sitting flush on the crank. The back sleeve keeps the degree wheel flush on the sleeves. The bolt is 90mm long, providing just enough length to get things spaced out properly. The wheel is flat and stable, now I just need the head so I can dial things in. Total cost: $12.09

To install before the head arrives:
-Roll bar
-Door bars
-Top
-Dash

Look what just came in the mail! I forgot the outlets on these are all vband (even the t25) - this should make disconnecting the exhaust massively easier. :party:

Got the top and package shelf panel pulled, mock fit the roll bar to see how things fit. Looks good so far, though I have to figure out what I'll do with the ECU...

In other news, the machinist found my missing ARP head stud washer and he put in an order for shims to finish installing the cams. So far it looks like I'm on track for finishing project work to coincide with getting the head back to put the engine in. Hopefully if all goes well I will have things finished before the end of the month.

Over the weekend I installed my roll bar, door bars and started the swap of my top. Cutting the trim panels was a lot of work, but they came out looking acceptable. Not looking forward to pulling the top off the frame again, but hopefully I can get this finished and installed before too long. It's like nature's fighting me with this 70%+ humidity out there..

Built a mount for the oil cooler last night, some aluminum angle material and stainless hardware from Ace to get things rolling.

1.5x1.5" 1/8" thick angle aluminum
4x 5/16" Bolts
4x 5/16" Nylock nuts
8x 5/16" Washers
12x 5/16" Rubber washers

I assembled the mount like so, using rubber washers to help isolate most of the virations:

Bolt | Washer | Rubber washer | Cooler bracket | Rubber washer | Angle aluminum | Rubber washer | Washer | Nylock nut

Seems to be pretty solid, there's about 3/8" in between the sway bar and the oil cooler in the picture though it may look like less. I intend to shave 1/8" or so off the fan studs as needed to clearance the hose as it appears to be a hole waiting to happen. Thoughts?

Next up: Pull the old off and install the replacement top

Got the interior all buttoned up last night and trimmed the floor mats to clear the door bars. Installed the MOMO bucket seat, just BARELY cleared enough to get the bracket bolts attached. Sat in the seat and found the door bar works very well as a left leg rest and does not interfere with the dead peddle at all.

Also shaved 3/32 off the upper radiator stud to clear the pipe from the cooler install, also shaved some off the bracket where it was contacting the tube. Had to shave 1/8" off the bolt as it was just barely too long for the stud+bracket and it bottomed out in the stud. Still touches the coolant tube but not nearly as bad as before.

Took a few pictures of the passenger footwell, trying to figure out what we're going to do for the footwell sub we've been planning so roadtrips can have something to listen to. It'll probably be removable if we can make it happen. The box will be made out of Fiberglass and we're thinking of squeezing a JL 10TW3 down there as it only requires 3.5" mounting depth and .5³ft for a box. Looks like I have an easy 12" wide by 10" high, I'm going to remove the air conditioning box and put an AC removal duct in place. Should free up a few pounds and some verticle room for the box.

Now it's just the fenders/hood/bumper and engine to go! Just waiting on the machinist to gauge for shims...

I'm pretty patient as I have had side-projects to work on up until now, however I am fast running out of both projects and summer days. It's taking a pretty long time for what seems like a relatively simple task. I'd do it myself but there was some machining that needed to be done and I want the head dipped. Hoping this is the last time I need a machine shop to do work on this thing... The wait is always agony! Where'd I put my beer...

Lash caps ordered, they didn't have many of the sizes we needed so I ordered sizes up and will shave down the stems to suit, hopefully it wont be too much of a headache. Found a pair of valve stems were ground too short and may need to be swapped out so I have ordered an intake and exhaust valves as well. They should arrive by Wednesday, hopefully things line up and I don't need to order any more shims.

Pulled the A/C evaporator out and plugged the ports in the firewall as well as the drain in the transmission tunnel. It went remarkably painless, I was surprised. Just had to pull the glove box and the metal bracket the hinges attach to, then two bolts on the condenser box, a pair of wires and unlatch the clamps then pull. That thing has to be 6-7 pounds easily, and in a high spot too. Should open up the dash area and allow me to squeeze the sub further back in the footwell saving legroom. I've picked up the sub, should be in town next week. Excited to build the box and check out how it comes together while I wait for my head to be finished. For comparison's sake I added two images from google that show how the evap sits when installed.

By the way, raising the top with a bucket seat (or seats) and roll bar is a tight squeeze, no room between the headrest and bar at all. The price of safety I suppose. :dealwithit:

Dropped off shims, seals and a set of intake/exhaust valves in case the shortest end up needing shims bigger than can be bought. He gave me an estimate of next week. Time to button up the front end and get it all ready... :D

Hey look what came in the mail! Some MSM sport brakes! Debating on if I want to install them this season or wait. The almost $300 in XP8 pads is a deterrent, that's for sure.

Put them in, it isn't a "Forever Project" until you go over 3 years:giggle:

That's probably going to happen actually, I want to get the car moving first so that I can break in the cam but once the engine is ready and any kinks are worked out I'll swap the brakes out and go with a full set of carbotech pads. Trying to decide if I want the same pads front/rear with the sport setup, I've been using softer pads in the rear to date however the change in bias and rotor size has me wondering. Some research points to just using XP8 front/rear so that's what I'll likely do.

In other news, the subwoofer I ordered came in. I weighed it up and it came to 10lbs on the scale. Pulling the A/C evaporator freed up ~7lbs so I'm gaining a net 3lbs, the box will have to be calculated in but the added weight sits lower than the evap box so I think it's pretty reasonable compromise. I attached a picture showing roughly how it will sit in the footwell, I have a grill that will sit over the woofer so feet can be rested against it. The loss of leg room is relatively negligible so far and both I and the GF were OK with it. The woofer looks huge down there, but when the top goes down the extra surface area will be appreciated considering all the bass goes out the roof.

I might need a bigger alternator. :)

Worked on the car this weekend, mounted the bumper and fenders and found the fenders weren't quite lining up, go figure with all the smashed stuff we ficks'd. I also mounted the front tow hook as can be seen in the picture. Still have to torque down the fender/bumper PITA bolt. Have to mount the hood as well, might get to that tonight so that I can re-mount the latch and intercooler and reattach the boxing material. Note, fenders only have a primer/basecoat and jams. The whole car will get a respray at some point but for now the goal is driveable. I'll have Montego Blue headlight covers, trunk and bumper cover for now.

I also ordered a set of Cibie H4 housings and 90/130 bulbs. I'm excited because I've only ever used the OEM sealed beam bulbs in both of my cars. During rain I might as well not even have had headlights except for the other drivers so this will be an extremely welcome upgrade.

Sounds like I might get the head back this week. Only caveat is I can't seem to find the hardware to attach the maruha cam cover which is an unexpected expense. We believe it's at the machine shop with the head, worst case I'll run naked until I can get replacement hardware.

Spoke to the machinist and he apologized as they had a regular client come in with some work they needed done. Sounds like early/mid next week now.

In the interim, I have finished installing the sheet metal and put the hood on, installed the new Cibie housings and those 90/130 bulbs. I also installed the Hard Dog leather bar/padding cover. Looks great and the install was fairly seamless. Car looks pretty good so far!

Edit: Oh and the valve cover came back, looks pretty spiffy! I kinda want to paint it now. But what color? Red to match the car? Black? A nice clean glossy grey?

I don't think I would feel safe with those front "ramps":eek:

They're actually pretty secure, I've got them screwed together and the top set are nailed only because I only needed them for this repair (I can twist them into a diamond and get them on/off with a single jack), though if one or both were to fail somehow it would just drop that wheel and perhaps have the car sit cockeye until I fix it, I've been using these mostly to assemble and torque down the front suspension. I'm paranoid about things going wrong so I made sure to test these things, though I can see where you're coming from. :)

I forgot to add, I installed some sill plates I got when we cut up my friends Miata, I think they look alright and protect a frequently scratched area. Here you can also see the DIYRoadster door bars and how they hug my Momo Start seat.

Reinstalled the aluminum to box in the IC/Rad. Needed some massaging to straighten up but otherwise bolted back on pretty painlessly. Tonight I spent part of the night getting the GV lip back on. Polyurethane is some rugged stuff, the accident hardly phased it at all.

I also cleaned the pistons of carbon again; a toothbrush, rags and brakleen and it came pretty clean. Rotated the crank a few times to work any carbon off the ring(s). Looks pretty good! Pardon the carbon buildup though, I was running rich for a while after reassembly last time.

Should hear back from the machinist this week and I can hopefully finally start reassembly. Gotta source a pair of the 6" fender->chassis brackets, headlight plastic covers and front splash shields+hardware. Also gotta roll these front fenders too..

Sounds like another 7-9 days after getting a 'real talk' with the machinist. I get that you're busy guy, that's why I'm not rushing you. Just wish a valve lash adjustment didn't take over 2 months to complete..

Very nice! I got the spray nozzles I ordered from Rosenthal yesterday. I had to scrape some paint down a bit in the grooves it squeezes into on the passenger side because the hole's were not quite correct (yay aftermarket!) but otherwise was painless.

In other news, my package from Planet Miata with all of the brackets I am missing arrives today instead of Monday. Headlight cowls and hood bumpers as well as both of the 6" brackets for the fender/bumper to the chassis connection which were siezed and broke off, I didn't feel like drill/tapping them because they were also bent up too.

Going to call the machinist today for a followup, hoping he doesn't delay again or I might not get to drive the car this season, we're due to move out end of October so this is cutting it close. Maybe I'll get lucky, I want to go to the track at least once this year and definitely dyno the new cams for a comparison for folks.

I got a call from the machinist, he's largely finished tipping the valves and is ready to assemble however the keepers are a little dodgy. He's finding the stems have a little play and he is very worried the valvetrain could come apart at redline so we ordered a full set of keepers from SuperTech and had them 2day shipped. With any luck, I'll have the head back in time for the weekend!

In other news, I have got most of the body work done on the front end. The fender/bumper/headlight area is out of alignment but it is what it is for now as we're moving out in October. I was hesitant to put mismatched panels on but the Montego is growing on me, I might leave them as-is.

I took a look at the squaretop manifold and decided to be productive and port/polished my squaretop a bit to get rid of the casting lines and a few lumps in the throttle body neck, you can see the comparisons in the pictures I've attached. In the future I'll get a Skunk2 TB and port match the intake to the new TB.

In the pictures, you can see I pointed out some casting marks on both sides of the neck, as well as some running the length of the inlet. There were also a pair of lumps, one for one of the TB mounting studs which I ground flush and sanded down. The other I assume is to shadow the vacuum port directly behind it. I decided not to grind it down flush but did polished it with the abrasive wheels. The selection of polishing stuff locally is dissapointing, all I could find was some sanding drums and 50/80/120/180 grit stuff and the reach was lackluster too, but it did what I wanted for now. I'll do some more porting when I have a bench to work at.

Wondering what folks think of this catch can, or a similar model with 1/2" or 5/8" size tubing? I'm thinking I'll cap the intake and tap some 1/2" or 5/8" fittings into the valve cover ports for tubes to run to the catch can and then a tube to run to the turbo inlet area, goal being to keep the crank case in vacuum and keep oil from weeping out of the engine seals.

Any thoughts guys?

Got bored tonight and grabbed the drill. I proceeded to step the 1/4" hole between the center baffle and the driver's side baffle breather up one size at a time gradually sizing up the hole until I felt it was closing in on the top of the cover; I ended up at 27/64 which is a pretty respectable jump from a quarter inch. It looks to have a good deal more volume to flow through it now though the baffle plate sits pretty low impeding the exit a bit. We'll see if this helps correct my seals weeping oil.

This will have to do for now though, I plan on revisiting the catch can idea next year. Probably going to copy bbundy's idea seen here at some point, sans the PCV port due to it's terrible baffles causing oil to spray out of the PCV port:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1440563487

I will then consider dumping into the exhaust (unlikely), pulling into the turbo inlet tube (likely) or venting like bob (unlikely).

I dropped off the keepers and cam seals last night via the shops' mail slot. Might hear back today on a completed assembly (gasp!). We shall see. I also ordered a check valve for the PCV valve hose (insurance against pcv failure).

I'm going to run without a catch can(s) for the two ports and see how the engine responds; if I have oil in the intake I'll put a can on the PCV side. I'm not switching to the squaretop until I get a cams-only dyno anyway so some oil in the VICS intake is not a big deal. The exhaust port has never had issues with oil or residue but this drilled out VC might change that outlook drawing more air through the baffles.. We shall see!

Problems in new camshaft land! No clue here, but likely going to cost me the rest of the season in delays if it's really a problem with the cam/lifter interface...

In other news, I pained the valve cover with wrinkle paint and baked it a few times (heh), I attached a few pics showing how I taped it off. I also hit the casting lines around the edges with a Carbide bit and 50/80/120 grit sandpaper drums. Could have went finer but the paint covered it up pretty well. Make sure when you paint you check under/around any obstructions. I missed a small crevice you can't see on the pass-rear corner and there's a minor thin spot under the exhaust side breather port otherwise it turned out great!

I put 4 coats 8-9 minutes apart on in a hash pattern as directed like | then -- then \ then / each coat to almost running. I then left it in the garage for 24h to dry. It's a very slow dry so things were very soft when I checked up on it however after I baked it in the oven for 20 minutes at 200, waited 4 hours for it to cool and checked it out things were much better. I then baked it again for another 30 minutes at 225, another 4 hours to cool and one last 15 minutes at 300 (keep a close eye at this temp). FYI, the smell's not all that bad really, most of it comes during the first few bakings, having a window open helps a lot though I burned an incense and it covered a lot of it. No lingering smell, either.

Feeling stretched thin with work being busy as it is, I haven't even been able to put the head on the block yet. My plans tonight are to put the head on and clay test the clearances at Maruha's suggested centerlines which by the way, HOORAY they found the cam card for the cams buried under some boxes at the machinist shop. On them they had some suggested centerlines to use, race spec 105-110*, street 110-115* for both intake and exhaust. I'll have my break-in oil on Wednesday so I may have it running in time for MAPs Proving Grounds next weekend. Gonna be tight..

Also, may gopro the degreeing process so folks have a visual aid; something the Miata community is in need of. Thinking 110 would be a nice compromise between race and street and adjust from there.

Scurried about on Saturday picking up some 1/8" brass rod and an M3.5 tap, I tapped a 5" section of rod for an extension on my dial gauge. Worked pretty well, it sits firm but the brass threads shouldn't hurt the gauge if it's off a bit. Miata heads suck for degreeing, you can't get to the lifter around the cam, so that idea went out the window. Maruha was pretty clear I can run stock gears if I want to run their recommended settings and at 110* both cams seemed to show full open so I'll trust them on this.

I finished a mockup of the head on the block, I have to admit when I first assembled the engine I never clay tested or gauged clearances. I never imagined I'd actually get this far and that was 8 years and many many mods ago. But here I am today, so close to what I pictured when I started. So I've clay tested clearances and what I found was a little scary at first until I did some reading and calling around.

Piston to head: .035"-.04 (gauging clay is tough)
Intake to Piston clearance: .060" or higher all eight
Exhaust to piston clearance: .115" or more, all eight

Essentially, the bigger intake valves line up with the pistons relief cuts however they are not a large enough diameter to accept the valves. They were designed for stock valve sizes, are 7 years old and I'm sure Wiseco had no reason back in 2007 that they would have to worry about +1/+2 intake sizes. This might not be a show stopper however, the lowest overall clearance appears to be roughly .055-.06.

I was going off a .08 / .10 suggestion for intake/exhaust to piston clearance; however some research has lead me to believe I will be OK with a .06 PtoV clearance on intake as A; the piston is chasing the valve and B; I have (new) race springs (ST double 63# seat) to prevent valve bounce and a lower weight valve train w/ SUB which further amplifies the springs affects and C; the clearance piston-to-valve is greater than the distance piston-to-head by almost double. Re-cutting the valve pockets on the intake is a top priority once I pull the engine again (which is likely when I put the EFR on) but I have cabin fever and need some road time.

The exhaust valves fit into the relief pockets perfectly and that clearance of .115 should be a safe value. I can play with timing either way on the exhaust, I can only retard the intake which consequently will increase the piston-valve clearance. I might end up going this route, the overlap is powerful with these cams stock:

I'll just leave this here for future reference;

For those that didn't know, the Purolator L14619 oil filter fits the factory oil cooler, is substantially larger and has more interior surface area than the stock sized L14612. The rubber seal just barely (fully) contacts the water cooler/heater but in 2500 miles I didn't have a leak. I'll run it again after break-in, I'll use the factory 14612 until break-in is complete since I only got 4qt of oil. More filter is more better though, anything that might prolong the life of the engine.

The project progresses! Tonight I installed the fuel injectors, intake and harmonic balancer. Going to put the exhaust manifold and reroute neck on, then it's just a matter of putting the engine back into the car, hopefully tomorrow night. :party:

Well! I've gotten the front end all buttoned up and cleaned the valve cover gasket area, it's all ready to seal up but I'm going to pour oil over the cams before I put the VC on tonight. Attached is what it'll end up looking like. I've also hit the clutch/flywheel and pressure plate with a dual action sander running 80grit. Took ~7 sheets but I got both sets ready to go, with minimal loss of material on the clutch (just needed scuffing on the glaze).

Whats left to do?! Well lets see, tonight I will install the reroute thermostat block, clutch and flywheel. Going to try to stick the engine in the car tonight if I can, the goal is to have it running tomorrow. Here's hoping!

Edit; the oil cooler sandwitch plate wont go on until breakin is complete, I'll do that after I change the oil.

Engine's in the car after some shenanigans with missing hardware, luckily ACE was open late so I got the studs I needed. Coolant's filled, the fuel is hooked up and all electrical connections are ready to go. Going to fire it up this afternoon, excited! :party: Still need a windshield and driver's window though. :p

IT LIVES!

Congrats!

Thanks! Car sounds MEAN too with the new cams, I'm really digging the exhaust beat.

I did a filter dissection to verify proper breakin, just filter media and oil so I filled another with oil to prime it and slapped it on, I'll run the break in fluid for the first few hundred miles. I also finally put the car on the ground as well and have an appointment for Tuesday for the wndshield to get replaced but I'm going to sneak a ride around the block to seat the suspension so I can torque down the endlinks.

Not sure what to do about the airbags, the steering wheel I can slap a spare on to cover it up for now, but the passenger tore open a big hole hmmm.

Tune's all out of adjustment, I think I'll have to have it retuned from base. As a bonus that means I can put my flex fuel hardware on if I can find someone to tune it soon.

That lifter tick is concerning though. I took the car out for a spin real quick to evaluate it and it's loud enough to hear at over 40mph with the window down (driver's was blown out in accident). Not sure what to think of that, the lash was set 3-5 thousandths loose all around however I don't think that would cause noise as loud as this, would it?

Can you take a video with a decent mic? I'm sure there's a ton of sound in there we're not hearing in all that distortion.

Edit: Something's fubar with my camera's ROM so I will use the GoPro from now on. Sorry for the poor quality :)

Edit2: Talked to SuperTech and after explaining what's going on he suggested I MIGHT be able to use 6mm caps on the valve stems instead of 5.5mm for the lifter bucket stems if there's enough clearance between the valve stem tip and the keeper/retainer. They have a much larger selection in the 6mm size too which is fantastic. I'm going to get the lash on all of the lifters tonight and try to pull the cams either tonight or tomorrow to get the current shim sizes and then do some maths. I might be OK, maybe. :party:

Is there a physical difference between the two or is it just thickness I wonder? If the lip around the edge to keep it on w/e it's situated on isn't taller this will work out juuuuust fine I think. Need a sample to look at though..

Oh dear, we've found the source of the lifter 'tick'. I don't know if that's a missing shim or what but I'm going to pull the cam off in a little bit tonight and inspect the bucket and any carnage in there. I'm hoping it's a missing shim but I'm afraid it's probably a bent valve (howinthehell)... Makes no sense because I was careful to rotate it in time with each other and to transport it on a thick blanket...

Do those cams have a reduced base circle?

Look at the lifter on the left that looks "ok". It looks like it's about to fall out of the bore to me. One on the right has damage to the side of the lifter, suggest it's rocking around in the bore.

Side loading as was previously discussed + what appears to be the lifters coming up too high out of the bore is my guess as to what caused this.

I've never run shim under bucket, but I'm guessing the shims aren't that thick as the gap you're seeing, right? If so, bent valve, and cause would be side loading on the lifter from the cam design would be my guess (side loading and lifter too high in bore).

Well I believe I may have scored the engine assembly failure lottery and gotten lucky here folks. The marks you saw on the lifter are actually just crap from the disassembly and my gloves, it wiped right off.

I pulled the cam off and we found what I had thought, the shim (2.7mm) on lifter #7 must have fallen off the post during assembly, IE it was not sitting between the valve stem and lifter post, but in the cavity between the two and bouncing around. There is superficial surface scratching on the retainer, the valve looks the same as #8 and the lifter has the same superficial scratching from the shim bouncing around in there. The lifter boss was completely safe, all of the aluminum was protected by the bucket and the bucket only shows minor wear on the post; only the surface coating shows any significant wear. The shim looks flawless, seriously I don't know what it's made of but wow it's spotless.

I've decided to run the engine as-is since it looks to be only surface area damage. I made sure I was extra careful to re-assemble things and torque them down and re-measure the lash on all of the lifters in the area. #7 shows a slightly tight .008" on lash, there's no available caps under 2.7mm except 2.4 and months of downtime is not an option, neither is pulling the engine again right now. It's a tough call but nothing's really damaged beyond superficial damage except for the coating on the lifter post which if it comes down to it, I can replace next summer.

Ordered a Radium FPD-XR inline fuel damper, I'm preparing to install the FM Big Flex Fuel kit. I have a dyno tune session reserved for 10-6, later than I'd like but at this point I just want everything kosher before it's parked for the snow season. With any luck I can get an e85 tune in place on the map depending on how much time is left over after tuning with the new cams.

Fired up the car this morning after reassembly and it sounds MUCH better. I still get some tick when it gets hot but it's the same as I had before the cam swap. The idle is very lopey though, and my vacuum is hovering between 6-8" whereas before I'd sit at 18-20. I blame 44* of overlap lol.

Tonight I'm going to focus on cutting down on overlap. I plan to retard the intake 3-4* and see how it idles, then advance the exhaust a few degrees as well. Maruha gave me a 110-115 'street' range for centerlines, I may go all the way to cut overlap down to 34*. Currently editing a video clip taken with the gopro that is much better quality than my S3 could spit out.

Here's a pair of clips taken with my GoPro, one is with the 110* separation angle, the second is 115*. The vacuum at 110* was between 8-6" and very lopy. After adjusting the cams 5* Intake retard, 5* Exhaust advance, I have 13-14" vacuum and a very nice idle.

Still on for the tune on the 6th, I'm picking a fender roller up over lunch and then I get the subwoofer box built next Sunday the 27th.

110* LSA:


115* LSA:

Sweet, the 115 sounds like something you could live with daily. I'm curious to see dyno results. Are you planning to play with the cam timing any at the dyno?

Yeah, the plan is to enjoy the car at cruising speeds and staying out of boost. Build a (removable) fiberglass subwoofer footwell box on the 27th with my audio installer friend. The week of the 28th-2nd I'll put the FM big flex fuel kit on and have the tuner set the cams as needed on the dyno on the 6th and get a good map up to at least 16-17psi. May have time to do an e85 map too, but we'll see. I'm worried the clutch wont hold up, it was slipping when I pulled it (oil on flywheel/disk) and I hit it with some 80grit and the dual action to clean up the glazing and it looked great. This worked before so I figured why not give it a shot and save some cash? Haven't put power through it yet though, maybe I'm just supercritical because of all the changes... I'll need something that can hold 400-420# torque give or take, thinking about Spec Stage 3+ with it's 400# capacity, but GG dat 600$ price tag..

Rolled the fenders last night, I don't have any rubbing anymore, yay! Got some chipping even with the heat gun but I hit it with some touchup paint and it's looking better. The fenders only really have a base coat and jams painted to keep rust off right now.

I also took the car to work today, car runs surprisingly smooth considering I'm still running the previous map. Turbo reaaaaalllllyyyy wants to build boost, like badly. It's a struggle to stay out of more than a couple psi to avoid a rough spot in the map around 2750-3250 or so. I really missed driving my car, guys. This dyno tune can't get completed soon enough, missing the boost something fierce.

Hey look what came in the mail today! I picked up a Radium damper for my big fuel kit to avoid drilling the rail or any other unnecessary nonsense. I got the FPD-XR which is good for 43-78psi (static) - The FM kit suggests running at 60psi so this puts me right in the damper's sweet spot.

I also got a Moroso oil/air separator because my intake was filthy after only MAYBE 5k miles since I got it cleaned last. Been thinking about just putting on the squaretop manifold for the retune on the 6th, along with the fuel setup and connect the oil cooler.

In other news my steering column and wheel have play from side-to-side, even with the two bolts and fittings torqued down under the dash. I adjusted things and for some of it out but there's a lot more than I'd like. With every bump the wheel ends up jarring itself back and forth. :jerkit:

Worked last night into the wee hours on finding the ideal spot for and installing the catch can as well as setting up all of the AN hardware for the oil cooler. I also layed out my big fuel kit and determined I need a female-female 6AN union otherwise I have all of the hardware required to get it installed over the weekend. Last thing I wanted was to get to 90% and fall short.

I got an alignment this morning as well as a cornerbalance, new car weight with driver is 2523 pounds, pretty reasonable with the addition of the roll and door bars as well as the frog arms. Went with a balanced street/track setup that so far drives pretty snappy on the street:

Front:
Camber: -2.1º / -2.1º
Caster: 5.0º / 5.0º
Toe: 0"

Rear:
Camber: -1.8º / -1.8º
Toe: 1/4" total, In.
Thrust Angle: 0º

Thursday I'll probably put the oil cooler back in and cut the hoses to length. I haven't heard back on if we're still building the subwoofer box yet so Sunday I'll start installing the flex fuel kit if he is not available. Assuming I don't break anything I'll be in line for my retune in 13 days.

Drained the oil and primed a filter, installed the sandwitch plate, cut the oil cooler lines to length and hooked up the oil cooler. Fun learning experience assembling the AN hoses since I've never had to do that before, I can see why folks use them a lot, they look sexy as hell all buttoned up. Tore up my hand on a bit of fray through my gloves, stuff has bite that's for sure.

Calculating out the oil capacity of the cooler using this post by aidanaj, my oil capacity should be;

Miata 1.8l engine (4qt)
Oil cooler (.55qt)
3' of hose (I'll go with .2qt)
Totals 4.75qt, not bad.

I'll post pics later, gonna go pass out.

Oil cooler's installed, managed to smash the squaretop into the bay without pulling the engine but it took all day to get everything apart (starting to feel old...) - So far everything's running smoothly. Just gotta install the fuel kit and then it's off to the tuner for big powah!

Added some water wetter to the coolant (mostly distilled water with some residual coolant) to try and combat boiling in the turbo after shutdown. I also shipped my map off to FM to get things ready for Flex Fuel and removing the VICS control I don't need anymore.

I've been thinking I need head shielding between the tranny/diff/tank and exhaust ever since I opened the tank one hot summer day and found hot gas fumes pouring out. Probably not good for preventing knock right there. After seeing these posted in Aidanaj's build thread I picked up a 2' and 3' sections. The 2ft should protect the transmission and the 3' should cover the tank and diff, though there's some play in there. Hopefully they'll get here by end of the week and I can slap them on before the 6th while doing the fuel kit install. :party:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1443476397

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1443476397

So I've installed the two heat shields; took maybe 30 minutes once things were in the air. The 3' length was perfect, it covered the areas exposing the fuel tank to heat and is flexible enough to adjust how it was positioned. The 2' was a little short but covered most of the transmission case. The clamps feed through and the positioning is a little tight but it looks like it'll work pretty well. I'll see how they hold up.

Four days left to retune, I need to hookup the flex fuel kit and MAC EBC from FM, otherwise it's ready to go; predicted to be in the 70s Tuesday too :party:

I thought I was going to be completely ready this time, HAH! Yeah right. Tuners wanted to reference the FPR and damper to manifold pressure, something my feeble mind didn't think to do because the directions said it was unnecessary (because who runs 20+ psi?) and as I was exhausted by this point I didn't do that step - Lo and behold I should have done that step! Had them run a vacuum line to both FPR and damper and hook both up, I left the car there to be tuned. Because of this delay I might have to leave it there until Thursday, we'll see though.

They were pretty perplexed by my '1-way' fuel system (fm flex fuel kit) however I had Jeremy explain how it's still a two-way setup with the FPR and filter in the rear - they hesitantly agreed to run it. Not sure why they felt like the fuel pressure drop would be greater than a front-mount FPR than between the regulator in the back and the rail in the front; the line running between the two points is almost 50% larger than OEM and the fuel rail is dual feed so I think I should be safe with this setup. It's always something...