Marvin

I'm back baby. I think I have a hoarding habit and its likely that I've cornered at least the local market in this year and paint scheme combo. So here we are. If you took 30 seconds and read through the roller coaster of emotions in my meet and greet thread with a witty title, you would see that I had big plans for the previous vehicle. The problem begins though, with day one where I discovered that the previous owner who had lived in both Hawaii and Florida had let it develop sill rust, a resprayed paint job, and generally took a lackadaisical approach to preventative maintenance.

Cue me, an idiot. I bought the car sight unseen and then proceeded to disrespect it by showering it with money, suspension components, an exhaust, and eventually an MS3 and a fully built engine including all the shiny bits both upstairs and downstairs. Think forged JE, boundary engineering, inconel valves, a EUDM intake w/ ID725s and a Radium fuel system. The patient was certainly unstable. The doctor, distracted by the callings of my day job but also learning as I did it which when it comes to wiring at least is a true challenge. The patient rejected the surgery. With the new BP4W DOA, I wanted to drive a Miata again. A real one. Not a shitty, rat infested respray that had just burned down my savings account and could be a car I could keep for a long, long time and do things the right way. Slowly, enjoying the time and driving. Not a 2 year gap of sitting in the garage and never seeing the fruits of my time spent.




Enter BlueTwo. Another 94' Laguna Blue. This one is only half a gem. Maybe a diamond in the rough type. Mechanicals are not perfect, but its a true california car with no rust and a fresh coat of factory paint and show-gloss clear on top. Matching Hardtop. When I say this car looks good in person, I mean it. It looks like a new Miata until you pop the hood and see an oil leak. but seriously. It wasn't clean, and the previous owner went as far as to roll the fenders a bit, but the body is straight, the paint is 99.9999% and totally awesome....and the A/C blows cold. The power steering doesn't squeal. Its what a 24 year old car could be if it wasn't owned by someone like me. So I bought it. And now begins the transfusion. I've already snuck my Fujitsubo exhaust and Advanti wheels on, the car already had a racing beat sway bar setup with 949 endlinks and a RB header and intake.

What to expect in a pure JDM staged fashion where none of the numbers matter, only the end state.
All the trim bits that I spent money on - window molding, garage star delrin door blocks, revlimiter gauges, 90-93 dash. NB seats. Renown leather steering wheel. Then a million tiny OEM Mazda things I've bought over the years from Priority Mazda.

Blackbird fabworx rollbar
949 Xidas
MS3PNP Pro
ID725s (When I feed it corn, I'll hawk these and get something bigger)
Supermiata radiator and coolant reroute
BP4W machined head w/ supertech bits, inconel valves, EUDM intake w/ skunk2 throttlebody. NB throttle cable.

Once all this stuff is running well and I'm caught up on the maintenance that wasn't done by the PO, and I find a 3" exhaust guy, I'll drop the TSE kit on. Artech is no longer welding, I'm not super excited by the FM product. Basically, I'm looking for something as quality as the downpipe itself from the Trackspeed kit. I'll take recommendations.

Thats enough for now, its only the first day but it can't be as bad as the past few weeks trying to sort through what to do next. Now its time to keep this project moving.

Marvin

Well, the comment about taking it slow turned out to be spot on. But I'm back on the road. And it runs. And its way more fun than I thought ~240whp would be.
Two graphs are E85 on EBC @ 10-12psi, and E85 on 7psi wastegate. Just because the stock transmission already hates me. And yes, once it gets fully sorted, it will get turned all the way up.




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mjcanton

Beautiful car. Are you running EFR at a flat 12 psi or are you tapering up at higher RPMs?

Marvin

The whole curve is held back a bit. Engine still has stock rods and a 5-speed so the idea of mechanical sympathy applies. I also just found an e85 station two blocks from my house...so a major win there. My daily is a 2018 WRX with a little bitty turbo that has instant spool and compared to it, the 6758 has ever so slight lag, but not enough that you feel without. I'm sure once I do the rest of the engine right, I'll crank it up and put 14lb springs back in the wastegate.

The whole car has been worked over a bit one way or another. I think critical next steps are heat control, oil temp control, and a bit of interior safety.

Marvin

Mild effort at managing some of the heat. Not my best work with safety wire, but pretty and functional come second to pretty functional. I definitely need to get an undertray for the car, water temps don't really want to settle down to reasonable levels. With the PCV port plugged and my catch can running off drivers side only, I'm still getting a full "cup" in about 100 miles. I may end up moving to an AOS to make sure I can keep enough oil in this thing or a restrictor of some sort.

A few things I didn't mention earlier. I'm probably forgetting more too. I'll post pics of the interior when its closer to finished.
ID725s
Skunk2 Throttle body with drilled out spring perch
NB IACV
Continental flex sensor
DW300 with pump re-wire
Radium Engineering FPR and direct mount rail
Supermiata Twin Disk clutch.
XIDAs, RB front and rear bars and SM endlinks (Mazdaspeed upgraded mounting brackets),
New hubs and wheel bearings, ES bushings (I've got a sadfab kit to install, just haven't done it yet)
New rear axles
Factory new differential with Kmiata brace and delrin mounting kit.
New SM driveshaft
Enthuzacar full 3" exhaust (Magnaflow)
4 port MAC EBC,
Turbosmart dual-port wastegate w/ 7" spring for now.
Supermiata coolant reroute w/ radiator
Trackspeed Engineering Precision Intercooler, and of course turbo kit.

I'll definitely have to get 15x9s or 15x10s for the new dinner plate sized brakes I'm planning on running. If I can fit 15x9s and it saves me from going whole hog on the fenders, I may do that.

Marvin

Small update: Seats and harnesses in and looking good. PCI mounts help tremendously and only downside of being a tall guy is not having room for a slider with a helmet on. Brakes as expected, nowhere close. In fact, laughably far off and I'm sure everyone here will guffaw mightily when they see a 15x7 with an expensive ST kit. Wheels will have to get upgraded shortly, anyone have any experience with Deka 15x9s and Stoptech? I would jump straight to 15x10 but the need to blow out the fenders by a mile and potentially damage the paint has me holding off for now. But it will help with traction...which is an issue. Another interesting discovery is the rotors smash up against my Singular 3" brake ducts which are also flush/impacting the tie-rod end. Not much room in that department I guess. Big boy brakes and cooling are not easy in a small car I guess.

Second question. I've followed the "how to catch-can" thread fairly religiously but as always, I'm at a point where I what I'm seeing doesn't make sense. Cold side is capped, no PCV valve, intake maniforld capped, exhaust (hot side) is hogged out to -8AN (1/2") and set up to a Moroso catch can with a breather vent. When this car was NA, I never saw a single drop in the can as expected, under vacuum. With the turbo, the can fills up within 60-100 miles on E85. It is a bit milky and gassy, so I'm happy its not going into either the intake or pre-turbo but its accumulating a rate that makes me think there is blowby in the rings or the valve seals. Anyone have any other thoughts? Other option might be a Radium AOS plumbed in to the oil pan to keep consumption under control.