High milage abused MSM back from the dead
 

I bought my 04 MSM 2 years ago. Some kid bought it from the original owner with a blown head gasket, that he replaced with his dad. Kid could not get insurance and I ended up buying it for cheap (I wanted a project… and boy did I get one!). The car was all stock except for FM Willwoods.

I spend the next few months fixing everything. The car probably only saw regular oil changes and nothing else except hard driving. When I pulled the head to redo the head gasket install correctly, I knew I would be doing a full rebuild when I saw the bores that sat with coolant in them for some time.
I drove it for a bit, but with only 120psi compression. Then i parked it for a year so I could finish building my house.

The rebuild went from a rods and cast pistons build, to a full forged bottom end with headwork and oversized valves. I have you guys to blame for that. Well… that and waiting so long I saved up enough to go from a budget build to a proper build)

Specs are:
MSPNP-Pro
84mm Wiseco 8.5:1 Cerakote thermal barrier and anti friction skirt coat.
eBay rods with ARP bolts
Balanced rotating assembly
new OEM oil pump gears and harmonic damper
Blocked off oil squirters
ARP studs
1999 head gasket
DIY re-route (yay for access to a lathe and HAAS)
Mild port cleanup
+1mm superrich exhaust valves with Cerakote thermal barrier
Stock intake valves backcut and Cerakoted
Valve seats cut to match and lapped
OEM valve guides and 94-98 valve springs
Combustion chambers deshrouded and Cerakote Thermal barrier.
(I also built a nice jig to grind valve tips to get valve lash in spec without having to change shims)
Removed VTCS butterflies and welded up intake manifold.
Ported stock turbine housing wastegate
Low milage stock IHI turbo from m.net
Coated stock turbo manifold, turbine housing, elbow with Cerakote thermal barrier coating because I had a bunch left!

And because I like to play with fire: an eBay stage 2 clutch and lightweight flywheel (This is a test because I don’t care if I have to pull a tranny) EDIT: That was dumb. Bought a Supermiata setup.

Um… and other stuff too!

Oh! and some 230cc EV14’s that someone on the old mazda-speed forum who worked at Toronto Injectors modified and flow matched. EDIT: that was also dumb, bought some FF.

The machine work was done by Brian at M&B Cylinder Heads (who is a great guy and is a wizard) He is one of the best 2JZ experts in the country, builds engines for Jeff Bush, Corksport, english racing, and ETS. He was nice enough to do all my machining and let me do my assembly work, and charging me very little. He usually does full builds, so I got lucky. I also delivered him clean parts for machining so that helped.

A few days ago I cranked it until I got oil pressure dropped in plugs and it fired right up, it idled so smoothly I could only tell it was running by the sound. Now I am breaking it in on the stock ECU and watergate pressure before I plug in my MSPNP and get to tuning (And scary with the stock ECU running 14-15AFR at low boost so being careful)

Hey look pictures!

Car ran great for about 40 miles. Then I got a bad cylinder 1 misfire. I have not started my troubleshooting yet, but I am leaning towards a bad injector because my AFR's were doing weird things. Going back to the stock 265cc's until I get someDeatschwerks 450cc's.

For now I am sticking with the stock turbo, and hoping I can make 220-250 with it. After I kill it from running 15PSI then I will upgrade to something better. But I will be happy at that power level, I would rather make as much power as I can with the IHI, and focus of sorting out the rest of the car (replace worn out stock MSM suspension, wheels tires, learn how to drive more gooder)

dont get DW

do yourself a favor and get ID or FF

Is it because DW are not EV14s or is there another reason that I am not aware of? I am familiar with Injector Dynamics, what is "FF"?

I could not find a smoking gun. The car idled perfectly after it cooled off for an hour. Plugs looked fine (new BKR7Es) New NGK wires, and #4 cyl would have a missfire too if the coil was bad.So either there is a problem with my #1 cylinder modified EV14 when it gets hot, or the adapter harness DaveB included in the kit. I put my stock injectors in, the car runs fine, but I swear it does not rev up as fast as with the other injectors, granted it may be my imagination, but still.
As a note I have not installed my MSPNP Pro yet. I want to get problems like this sorted before I introduce a standalone into the mix.

Why not RX-8 425's?

Because inexpensive modern alternatives exist

MSPNP Pro installed. It fired right up on the first try! Right now I am learning the software and trying to get a better cold idle. GM IAT also wired in, I welded a bung onto throttle body elbow.

My dumb ebay clutch experiment was a failure. I ordered it long before I started my rebuild, or did any research. It was fueled by whiskey and hope when I was stuck far away from home. A proper 949 clutch is on the way.

Here is a pix of my stock injectors, the crap I bought from DaveB on the old Mazda-Speed forum, and the awesome Flow Force injectors I learned about here:https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1573b23412.jpg
At least I have 3 good 330cc EV14's left for my evil Gambler500 "Geo Metro china charger direct port blow up this shit" project!

I finally had a bit of time to work on the car. I am still learning about the MS and how to get this thing to run well. Other than that I got the 949 clutch and flywheel in. I also put in a new fuel pump for safety's sake because I keep adding fuel in boost and occasionally have my AFR safety kick in (still at 7-8 psi or stock for now).
I also removed my soft top when I did the fuel pump because I never use it. Going to throw that and my stock shocks/springs up on Craigslist.

I feel sorry for the car I have maybe put 200 miles on it in the last 3-4 months. Life gets in the way of Miata fun sometimes.

After research here I am using the wisdom of the turbo kitty and moving my IAT from the stock location in my (BEGI) metal throttle body elbow to my intercooler end tank. The black stuff is B 1/2 an amazing aerospace sealant. This crap can seal everything from fuel tanks, to canopies on fighter aircraft... good enough for anything on a Miata.

If this does not solve my hot restart problem I will get a Radium fuel rail and convert to a return fuel system (with the stock damper on the new fuel rail). I have an Aeromotive referenced FPR in my scrounge box from my old ITB Miata from 10 years ago. But I may run it at straight 60psi. Need to do more reading as time permits.

I made a rear diffuser. It was "designed" with some stuff I read here, and pictures of other Miata aero. Made with some scrap aluminum I acquired, help together by Olympic locks. Will it work? Heck if I know. If it is crap then I will in brace my inner rice!

I dont have much time with my poor Miata anymore , so I made this over a few lunch brakes at work.

Pix to come after I finish it. You can tell it is awesome, or tell me it is shit later.

Here is a pix of the difuser I made. I did not like the mounting method so I took it off until I have time for something better. I dont really need it anyway, I just like how they look.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e89c1d10ce.jpg

That was over a year ago.

I recently built this exhaust. 3in 300series stainless with v-band clamps and the MiataTurbo SS magnaflow. At first I tried Blue Deamon stainless innershield wire (which sucks) because I dont have any tri-mix. Then I settled for using Solar Flux B on the back side of the weld and just using normal wire and C25. It sounds great, but at low RPMs and off throttle/part throttle I can feel a burbly vibration under my seat. I am guessing it is because I used urethane hangers that are transmitting too much vibration. It was hard to fit around the MSM bracing, so I ended up modifying some of the stock MSM braces.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1daa4d5d87.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c1bf0cbe0.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...283abb49d9.jpg

I hired Curly to tune my car, which will happen later this month. It will be nice to have someone with more experience on the MS3Pro to sort out my tune. That is the biggest thing that has been holding me back from driving the car more.

Tuning went great BTW, car made 218hp/235ftlbs IIRC, I'll get some dyno files and graphs posted asap. We were a little disappointed in peak numbers, but that's easily explained by the baby MSM/IHI turbo. We compared his run to about half a dozen other MSMs I've tuned on the same dyno and between the head work, 3" exhaust, and 40k turbo, he did spool 2-300rpm sooner than all of them while making the same power at 1-2psi less. Built engine performed beyond expectations, giving us zero headache in terms of smoke, noises, or leaks. There was a possible misfire on the final runs with the plugs gapped at .030", other than that it was headache free during it's ~20 pulls.