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Continuing the work.. one thing I purchased a few months back were door bushings from Moss. I will say install was a PITA. I installed the passenger side first and I had to sand it a whole lot. I used some grease to mark where it was rubbing but definitely a pita. Eventually I got the door to close without having to slam it. The driver's side I messed with for a little bit but I think something may be off on the driver's side of my car. Maybe the door is bent..? After some sanding I couldn't get the door to close so said to hell with it and put the stock one back on. There is some strange looking where on the OEM bushings so maybe the door is tweaked/bent..? I'm not sure it's worth the headache/work of installing them but the door bushings are cheap.
The order from TCM came so time to pull the tranny. I tried to order parts ahead of time to fix things as I come across them. Dropping the tranny in the Miata is pretty straightforward. The hardest part was disconnecting the damn downpipe/exhaust pipe after the manifold. I was quite concerned I'd end up stripping a nut or one may not come out or break and I'd have to pull the manifold but with some patience and lots of swearing I was able to get all the 3 nuts off. I'm not sure why but the nuts gall pretty badly on the studs which makes them so hard to remove. Mazda didn't put them in a easy to access spot either and you can't get an impact on them. I got some new replacements from HD and hopefully they'll be easier next time around I remove them. The plan is next time I pull the exhaust it'll be to install the Kraken turbo kit.
First time using the 4 post for "real work" and it's certainly nice being able to stand under the car while working (removing the exhaust nuts would've been a sumabitch on my back). I borrowed a friend's lower tranny jack and while it was helpful the lowest lock on the lift was about 8" or so too high. Fortunately the Miata tranny isn't too heavy. Muscling the tranny back on was a little dicey since it's higher than I'm used to (usually I put the tranny on my chest and knees and pop it into place but being a little higher made it a little dicey).
With the tranny off I replaced the 3 tranny seals (they sell them together), cleaned it off with brake cleaner, cleaned around the engine with brake cleaner (from what I see these engines just like to leak) replaced the rear main seal, and rebuilt the stock shifter. I opted for the ACT pro lite flywheel (I think 10lbs) and the SM clutch (as if you couldn't tell by the orange color lol). I've always had light flywheels in all my cars and the Miata sorely needed one. I don't want to have to pull the tranny again before installing the turbo so just changed the clutch now. The rear main seal didn't want to come out easily but did some quick googling and one suggestion was to drill a self tapping screw into it to pry out. Bingo! That worked very well. The nice thing about this car is you can find any info about these cars on the interwebs.
With the tranny out, I also replaced the oring on the dipstick tube and replaced the diff bushings with ES bushings. Man, the OEM bushings have a ton of slop in them. I followed the interwebs' suggestion for installation. I lowered the diff down and used an air hammer to drive the bushings out. Not too bad a job.
Another thing that made sense was to replace the clutch MC, slave cylinder, and replace the wonky looped line with a braided line. Nice new fresh parts, don't want to have to worry about this stuff later.
I did some other little things like get the shifter insulation and replaced all the rubber shift boots. I also got the 9" long soft strap from seatbeltplanet so it should be easy to swap between 3 and 6 points for the track.
I wanted to take the car for a spin yesterday but the weather didn't cooperate. Old RE71Rs and snow/ice don't mix. I could barely make it down my flat street so I turned around and came home. Another day.
I think I got the "underneath" stuff on the car done for the most part. I swapped places in the garage and I'll be putting it on jackstands to do a lot of the suspension/etc. work. I have to discharge the AC then I will pull it. Parts piled up around the car.
Nice! Dunno how I've never seen the self-tapper trick on the rear main seal. Definitely adding that to my trick book for next time. I had the same experience with the downpipe nuts on my stock exhaust as well. I was able to get an impact on them and the nuts came off but took all the threads with them lol.
Did you wind up going with the organic or hybrid 4-puck clutch disc? Curious to hear your thoughts on it once you get to go for some proper drives with it. I went with the 4-puck SM clutch on my car but definitely would have gone organic if I wasn't shooting for my current power level. The 4 puck is a little chattery/noisy/aggressive even for my taste.
Nice progress! Smart man for taking care of all the "little" tasks before getting to the serious stuff. I feel your pain regarding the exhaust nuts - I can't wait to get rid of that section.
Did you wind up going with the organic or hybrid 4-puck clutch disc? Curious to hear your thoughts on it once you get to go for some proper drives with it. I went with the 4-puck SM clutch on my car but definitely would have gone organic if I wasn't shooting for my current power level. The 4 puck is a little chattery/noisy/aggressive even for my taste.
Sorry I left that part out.. I went with the full face sprung disc over the puck clutch. I like the stock like engagement of full face discs and it doesn't look like I'll need the added holding power of the puck clutch (I am looking to limit things to ~250whp). Hopefully it can hold the power without issues.
One other small thing I could see when the tranny was off is it looks like the OEM pressure sensor is leaking not from the threads but through the electrical connection (I think). Also whatever's above it looks to be leaking as well but not sure. Is that the knock sensor?
Next time you do an oil change, check the nut under the oil filter that holds the 'oil cooler' sandwich plate in place. I just dealt with that coming loose on my NB, and have seen that before on Miatas. Might not be leaking now, but it will eventually.
I really like the direction you're taking the car, great choices all around. I've been fussing around with my Miata for years and am sometimes jealous of other people that have the confidence to jump right into the deep end and and get a ton of mods done in relatively short time. Well done!
I'm not sure if there's any feedback on the hardtop wing, but the hotboi in me has always liked the look. Add some vortex generators for extra swag.
I've only had them on a few days on the street, but so far my custom Afco BBK setup is working great. I can't wait to see how they do on track. I'm sure you'll like the SM setup.
Thx for the input Roda. I will definitely check the oil filter sandwich nut. Definitely something that would have slipped by.
I've been around cars (and tinkering/maintaining them (mainly been a honda guy)) all my life so I have a good idea of what I want and generally know what to do/look out for. I'm fortunate to have the means to be able to pull the trigger and buy all the stuff I want now and simply not have to wait years. This is sorta my mid life crisis build per say. Buying a Porsche to putz on the street wouldn't do it for me and I couldn't justify really tracking a newer Cayman as maintenance costs, running costs, possibility of putting it into a wall would be much more costly. I also like tinkering..
Appreciate the feedback on the hardtop wing.. For now I'm just gonna leave it since the seal underneath is damaged and I think it looks ok. It likely does nothing for aero but oh well.
One other thing I might need to sort out sooner than later is the fuel setup. I know the NB is returnless.
So the goto setup seems to be a DW200 pump and FF640 injectors. Is there an upper power limit with this setup on an NB? With a vacuum referenced FPR the NA should be able to make more power than the NB due to higher fuel pressure. The FF website says 300whp but not sure if that's just for the NA.. https://goflowforce.com/products/fue...it-miata-xrnhx
DW200 and FF640s will get you to 250whp on pump gas with your setup with plenty of headroom to spare Can't remember if you were looking to do e85, you might be closer to the limit on them if you want to go with corn juice.
Sensor above your oil pressure sender in the pic is the knock sensor. The threads don't connect to any oil passages, though, and won't be the source of a leak.
DW200 and FF640s will get you to 250whp on pump gas with your setup with plenty of headroom to spare Can't remember if you were looking to do e85, you might be closer to the limit on them if you want to go with corn juice.
Sensor above your oil pressure sender in the pic is the knock sensor. The threads don't connect to any oil passages, though, and won't be the source of a leak.
Thanks I guess DW200 and FF640's will be the choice then. e85 is nice but I wish they sold it at the track. I'm probably too lazy to buy jugs and haul it to the track vs just adding a few gallons of 100 octane to mix with 93 if I'm really concerned about detonation. These motors seem to be a-ok on 93 and ~250whp or less so I probably won't mess with e85 and installing an ethanol sensor. You're in CA and they don't sell 93 which blows.
After getting things all buttoned back up with the car I drove over to my friend's shop and had the AC discharged properly before removing it. I was pleasantly surprised with how the car drove. Felt pretty good. Raising up the rear a bit helped the ride and the new diff bushings surprisingly weren't too bad from an NVH perspective. Maybe the OEM bushings were quite worn. I probably need to rebleed the clutch pedal as engagement is just off the floor but that's not too surprising. I'll bleed it again and maybe adjust the clutch pedal (there seems to be a bit of slop at the top of pedal travel).
I yanked out all the AC components, nice to have more space in the engine bay. I got a neat little duct from TCM that replace the OEM evap coil box. I just reused the clamps for the oem evap coil and it smooshes the duct a bit but it does the job. I didn't have to break out the duct tape. Saves a couple pounds and the evap coil accumulates junk. For now I will keep power steering installed. Is the OEM power steering system problematic on track? I thought I read people complaining about problems with it overheating and acting up..? I don't have a shorter belt for PS only so I'll have to see how the car feels w/o the belt on when I get it back on the road and go from there. I gotta start tearing into it and do a bunch of work now.
Also got the wheels/tires mounted and balanced. I went with the Nexen Nfera Sport R 245/40/15s. I'm sure I'll have to roll my fenders good, hopefully I can keep the fender liners. If that's a pipe dream someone please let me know. Sorry for the shitty picture, I got lazy and just snapped one quick.
Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to replace my evap core box with that TCM unit. Looks like your system's ready to be cleaned out anyways haha.
I personally never had problems with my OEM power steering overheating and losing functionality on track, even on 95* days. I deleted my PS before adding forced induction, so no data I can provide there. Sounds like it's a YMMV situation either way.
I personally never had problems with my OEM power steering overheating and losing functionality on track, even on 95* days. I deleted my PS before adding forced induction, so no data I can provide there. Sounds like it's a YMMV situation either way.
Sounds good. Sometimes people do dumb things so hard to say if it's an issue with the pump or just a bad setup. People have these big equal length manifolds, put no heat shielding around parts that don't like heat, and wonder why things melt/break.
Regarding heat and lines.. do you turbo guys reroute the heater core water line that runs under the manifold? I am thinking I will look into a new "mixing manifold" that moves the radiator hose over to the left a bit and reroutes the heater core water line. The line under the manifold seems like not too big a deal but where it comes back up and enters the heater core I'm guessing will be very close to hot bits. Has anyone routed that differently? If anyone has some links or examples please post them up.
Are you retaining the heater? If not, you can use the hard line from the mixing manifold and modify it to work with a re-route and bypass the heater.
Stock on bottom, modified on top:
90* hose to connect to re-route housing
FWIW, I eventually removed my PS becuase it would consistently boil on track in hot weather. I think it has more to do with wide, sticky tires than heat from the exhaust manifold...
Are you retaining the heater? If not, you can use the hard line from the mixing manifold and modify it to work with a re-route and bypass the heater.
Stock on bottom, modified on top:
90* hose to connect to re-route housing
FWIW, I eventually removed my PS becuase it would consistently boil on track in hot weather. I think it has more to do with wide, sticky tires than heat from the exhaust manifold...
Nice work! I don't have the skill to cut and reweld the stock water pipe but I can ask a friend. Yes I am going to keep the heater core since it's still a street car. I guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I install the turbo.
I wasn't pointing fingers at anyone.. I'm just amazed the dumb things some people do and wonder why they have a problem. The sticky/wide tires makes a lot of sense.. I'm definitely leaning towards just deleting the PS pump as well. Thanks.
Thanks... that thing was not fun to weld. Even after extensive cleaning I had a lot of issues with contaminants.
Ya a small pipe like that is a pain but I see your thread and you got some nice fab skills! I like that mount for the proportioning valve, and brake tee also.
I wouldn't worry too much about the coolant line... there are lots of turbo Miatas running around with the stock coolant lines.
I have a bad habit of overthinking a lot of things but on the flipside I really try to avoid problems and headaches down the road. I will most definitely be making some heatshielding around the manifold and just like to keep any rubber pieces well away from heat. Hopefully there's plenty of clearance.
Ya a small pipe like that is a pain but I see your thread and you got some nice fab skills! I like that mount for the proportioning valve, and brake tee also.
Thanks! If I'd really been thinking, I would have put them on the outboard side of the M/C, but I was trying to keep the stock lines with some minor mangling. V2 will be outboard with all new hard lines.
I have a bad habit of overthinking a lot of things but on the flipside I really try to avoid problems and headaches down the road. I will most definitely be making some heatshielding around the manifold and just like to keep any rubber pieces well away from heat. Hopefully there's plenty of clearance.
It's definitely better than finding problems when you get to the track and bodging up some half-assed solution after it fails. I'm amazed (horrified!) at the "preparation" I see on some cars at the track!
01-16-2024, 04:47 PM
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Can't remember if you were looking to do e85, you might be closer to the limit on them if you want to go with corn juice.
I'm probably too lazy to buy jugs and haul it to the track vs just adding a few gallons of 100 octane to mix with 93 if I'm really concerned about detonation. These motors seem to be a-ok on 93 and ~250whp or less so I probably won't mess with e85 and installing an ethanol sensor. You're in CA and they don't sell 93 which blows.
