No way, I want my turbo to hit block

 

Ok so the mani is finally back on for good.

I measured the water line nipples today and discovered something weird: the water neck one is 8mm, and the mixing mani one is 10mm. WAT? This sucks, and I'm wondering if I should still order -6AN braided lines?

 

Indeed, thats why the begi kit includes some aluminum piece that switches from 8mm to 10mm. I tossed it aside, lubed up the hose and forced it on the 10mm mixing mani nipple. Was virgin gay guy tight.

I used regular hoses for the coolant though, not braided.

 

I think that's the key: the rubber lines can shrink/stretch, the braided not so much.

I ordered all the little odds and ends besides the actual braided water lines for now. I think I'm going to try to find some local so I can try them on or check them out before I buy them. I don't think they will stretch at all to accomodate any diameter difference

 

When I sought BEGI for knowledge about oil and water lines, they that running this "mixing box" for my setup/goals wouldn't be proper/right. (I forgot their actual wording)

I don't really understand the mixing box, is it like a vacuum box where it gives you more water ports?

 

Yeah I don't like the distro block setup. Way too much clutter and potential points for failure.

Anyway my braided return hose from Siliconeintakes came, and it's wayy too small. Its smaller even than what their stupid diagram shows, let alone what I need for my 5/8" barbs.

The cool thing is their return policy is awesome so its all going right back.

I guess I'll just pick up some "LOL" hose for now

lol

 

Check around for hydraulic shops. My local one is an Aeroquip dealer and has most parts in stock for making lines. I go up one day during lunch and get one side of the hose made. I get the line a bit longer then I know I will need. That night at home I test fit the line and mark the proper length. I go back at lunch the next day and they finish the line for me. The Aeroquip stuff is a bit more expensive, but having things done perfectly and supporting a local shop is worth it.

 

Definitely do this. The guys at my shop know me by name now and they're extremely helpful. I've gone in, handed them stuff, they look at it walk to the back and pick out the right part without measuring anything.

 

Sounds good, I'll look around tomorrow.

 

You'd be surprised at the shops that do hydraulic hoses. There is Princess Auto in Canada which are known to have cheap (mostly crap) parts, however they have on-site hydraulic hose assembly and it is good stuff and cheap!

 

New turbo inlet came yesterday from SI. Really happy with the inlet/intake setup and overall all my piping now.

My lesbaru had a thermostat crap out on me the other day and I had some other projects too, so didn't get to work on the miata, but its all good now so today I should be able to really get crackin on it.

today is all about getting the timing belt back on, setting timing, and re-installing all the covers, basically sealing the engine back up since it should be all set now.

Since I have to work under the IM to install the oil feed line, and its a super huge pain in the rear, I'm considering pulling my vtcs mani and just throwing on the squaretop right now instead of later. This will make oil feed install easy peasy and I'll be rocking a proper IM from the get go. I dunno

 

Pull the oil filter if you havent, it should allow a lot more room to work on it. I did mine in a dark garage and found it very easy. But if you're gonna pull the mani anyways then have at it.

 

Yeah I'm going to throw on the squaretop.

Anyways, the slowness of the progress is truly sad, but at least the engine is back in one piece.

 

turbo not hit shelf?

 

Nope he'll be aight.

 

LOL! Faefae's prolapsed cavity never ceases to amaze.

 

I feel yah. Seems like mine has grinded to a sloe PAC lately. Lots of tedious things on the "to do list".

Keep it up! You'll get there. That valve cover looks amazing BTW.

 

This will never get old. I want this in a T shirt lol. The picture then below it "All of it"

 

Alright so yesterday was an excercise to see how badly I can skin my knuckles and cut all my fingers. Great success lol, I look like I'm emo now.

Couple frustrations:
-the fm lower rad hose, while all cool and silicone and everything, isn't shaped perfectly to go around the ac compressor, and while its better than the stocker, I'm not super duper impressed with it and how it fits/clears things. Trimmed it to fit, but it touches the ac pump in a couple places and my OCD doesn't like that.
-this 01 all options car is cluttered with way more lines and hoses and brackets than my previous '00 LS. its frustrating, esp since this is the 1st time I'm trying the "traditional" fmic routing and the location just under the compressor outlet is PACKED and everything is uber close/touching/snug. I don't like this, but I guess it will work.
-the FM silicone hotside piping is uneven where it mounts to the compressor. one side of it is way thick the other side is thin, like there's a flaw in the casting or something. this makes it IMPOSSIBLE to use any sort of t-bolt clamp. I have like 10 different ones/sizes, and none fit. They're all either too big or too little, literally by a cm or two. This pissed me off more than anything the whole night.
-had to trim the turbo-to-dp bolts as the ones begi provided were way too long making it physically impossible to mount the dp.
-the lower rear manifold-to-turbo nut is insanely hard to get to on this big ol gt2871r and took like 2 hours of my time to get on and tighten.

The up side is that the mani/turbo are bolted down for good. Water lines are halfway routed, oil drain is fitted, lower rad hose is fitted, and fmic hotside is fitted.

Anyways, more torture today, hopefully less painful.

 

I started reading the build thread start to finish on Saturday. It's just as good the second time. Maybe even better, because you already know how it all turned out.