SlowTeg

Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's a "good" way to avoid everything unless you move the fuel stuff that mounted on the frame rail. On that note what IS that stuff for the NB mounted on the fuel rail? It looks like some sort of pressure regular but I thought the NB's is in tank? Is it a pulse damper or something? It could certainly be tidy'd up and done neater and take up less space. For how big the engine bay is in the Miata I'm quite surprised how tight some things are. I guess one of the advantages of a skunk2 manifold is that it makes the fuel rail more accessible. I want to add a fuel pressure transducer when I switch over to the BMM ECU and I'm thinking of how I'll do it. The space around the fuel rail is very tight.. Maybe an aftermarket fuel rail with a port that feeds a line connected to the pressure transducer..?

Finally spent a little time going over the Honda and giving it a good once over and checking things. Just a couple very minor things and she's lookin good.

SimBa

You might be able to free up some space near the fuel rail with a different intake manifold, maybe the squaretop? Just reread what you said above, I thought you meant a Skunk2 throttlebody, not an intake manifold.

Regarding the fuel stuff, I believe you're correct that there's a pulse damper there, among other things. I would like to clean up/relocate that but it's not going to happen until I have a really good reason to.
I have AC still, so I'm also fighting those lines coming out of the firewall for reroute space.

SlowTeg

Ya the squaretop hugs the engine tight which leaves more space by the frame rail but not much around the fuel rail. When it gets time to install the FF640's and switch to the BMM ECU I'll definitely be ditching the evap canister and figure out what to do with the jumble of fuel lines. It can definitely be moved a bit out of the way closer to the shock tower. I should do some googling and looking through other build threads to see what other folks are doing.

SimBa

Any reason you're going with BMM? Not questioning the decision, it just seems to be one of the least common ECU choices. I haven't looked into it enough to know the pros/cons.

SlowTeg

It seems like a good value for the ECU and the support forum seems knowledgeable. The ECU has a built in wideband controller which is nice one less thing to buy. I was thinking of doing a megasquirt but I don't think the tuning requirements will be too complicated so the BMM should suffice. There's a discord and the owner and others seem to be very helpful answering questions.

SlowTeg

So I picked up some PFC 11 front and 97 rear pads for the miata and will install them this week in addition to some little things to finish up before the track weekend.

Brought the car for a corner balance and alignment and miraculously the car corner balanced near perfect so we didn't mess with the ride height at all. I will have to double check the ride height at each corner but I raised the rear up a tad as it settled a bit in the rear. Ride height should be 4.75" in the front and maybe an 1/8" lower in the rear. I was happy to see the total weight. Nice to get a baseline and it makes sense why this car is so easy to roll in the garage. 2341 lbs w/o me in it, but that's with the spare and tools in the trunk (I forgot to take them out). With me in it the car 2525 isn't bad at all.




Alignment going in the caster was very high ~7. The lowest we could get it was in the 5's. Driving it prior to the alignment the steering was heavy and this makes sense. A little odd we couldn't get caster <5 but it is what it is. Steering feels fine and not bad at all (yes it's not light but not bad).







Front and rear camber is about the same at ~2.8 but I can always add more down the road. Took the car for a spin and it feels good now with the swaybars hooked up (I'm running SM solid endlinks). These tires definitely have a lot of grip. The street pads (wilwood bp20's in the front and stoptech street in the rear) don't have a lot of bite so the track pads are definitely a must for the track. Gotta button up a handful of small things and excited to get this thing on track.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Nice dude! The alignment looks good. FWIW, I maxed out at 4.7* of caster when I was running about the same camber and ride height. Obviously you’ve driven it around already, but I think the steering effort will be just fine with 5.3*.

How come you went a touch lower in the rear than the front?

SlowTeg

Ah just dumb luck/laziness. The car settled a bit and these BC coilovers are a pain to adjust. I remove the lower bolts and twist the whole lower "body" to adjust the height. I guess the nice thing about the adjustment where you spin the lower body is it doesn't affect shock travel at all. Normally the more you lower the car the more you limit suspension travel (by having less range of the shock). I guess I could also adjust the upper two collars as well. But ya, long story short it's a pain to adjust the height of the lower body in the car (I have to use a prybar to push down on the suspension so the lower mounting point clears the control arm so it can spin). I have had some Miata folks tell me that some folks run with the rear lower than the front to get more weight on the rear so figured it wasn't a big deal as long as it was close.

SimBa

Built in wideband is a cool feature for sure.

It sounds similar to Speeduino from a support perspective. Lots of people on Discord/FB who are willing to help out. I like that there's a community behind it, but have also been bitten by FW bugs and missing features at a few times. It hasn't been enough to push me to MS yet, but I give people a warning now when discussing ECU's. Usually it does everything I want, but if you're not willing to tinker with it a bit, then it's probably worth the extra money to go with something more developed.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Totally get it. You've got so many other changes going on in the suspension as well that you won't know what needs to be changed until you drive it at this point. I was just curious if it was deliberate or not.

In regards to changing the height on the BC's, I've always just put the rear end of the car in the air, loosened the lower collar and rotated the entire upper assembly using one of the spanner wrenches to adjust ride height. Takes a step out of the equation haha. Am I missing something here?

SlowTeg

Ya we'll see, I'm a serial tinkerer so I'm hoping it'll be fine. I'm definitely not blind to the fact that the megasquirt would be easier/simpler because of all the existing users and info out there.

Thanks you made me think for a second and realize I'm an idiot and don't need to undo anything but loosen the bottom collar like you said.. *smh* The whole assembly will spin you just need to take the load off of the corner by raising up the side.

SlowTeg

Man.. what's up with Miata batteries these days? I've come to learn they are a U1R size, and I guess not many (any?) other cars use that size so many places don't stock them, and thus they are more expensive. I thought miata stuff was cheap but I just bought an H8 AGM for my 328 daily and that was $180 from Walmart. Only place that carries U1R AGM locally it's $220 from AAP.. I couldn't justify paying that price for a tiny battery. I ordered one for $145 online.. *fingers crossed* I did consider a lawn/garden battery or another size.. Is there another size people use on miatas? Maybe a 51R?

Z_WAAAAAZ

I can't speak about the alternate sizing, but I just put an Antigravity ATX-12-HD battery in my car. Didn't take very long to make a hold down bracket for and shaved 20+ lbs off the car compared to my stock battery. Started the car fine too in 35*F weather, although I haven't tried to start it in anything colder. Still cost around $275 after shipping and the post adapters I needed to buy. But a little more cost than a regular battery for 20lbs of weight savings..? That’s pretty huge. Thought it would be worth mentioning but I also totally get it if you just want to stick with a stock AGM.

OptionXIII

Someone on Reddit posted this lightweight Li-ion battery a few weeks back just after they installed it, so no long term feedback. But at the same price as a regular Miata battery and less than 7lbs, and with good reviews on the Zon, I have to say I'm tempted to try it. At 700 CCA it should have no trouble turning over the Miata engine, even if it's got an optimistic rating.

SlowTeg

Thanks guys but I'm gonna rock the stock AGM as I don't want to have to worry/think about the battery. The higher amp hour LiPo batteries are still $$ and not worth it to me.

Just to record things I went out to measure the ride height on each corner and the passenger side are both at 4.5", driver's side front 4.75" and driver's rear at 4 5/8". So, looks like the passenger side settled a bit. I will probably raise up the right side front a bit to 4.75" just to try and keep the tire out of the fender liner. I know it'll affect the alignment slightly but should be fine. I think I'll get the harness installed as well before the weekend.

SimBa

I'm eyeballing a Noco NLP20 for my car when my current battery bites the dust.
600 Cranking Amps
7 AH (18.9 Lead Acid Equivalent)
3.73 LBs
5 year warranty
$180

There's someone who frequents the forum/FB/Reddit who is running one. I figure it's worth a shot considering it's in the same price range as a parts store battery. I'm kinda surprised I haven't seen more people running them.
I think I'll need to print/fab up a bracket for it though, as it looks to be quite small compared to the stock sized units.

SlowTeg

So I figured I might as well install my harness before the track weekend. I used a backing plate and eyelet bolt for the sub mounts and the lap belt on the tranny tunnel. On the driver's side I used a bendable "eyelet" that goes into the stock seatbelt location. This makes running 3 points on the street and 6 points on the track easy. Here they are installed. I didn't take any install pictures.




I also got PFC 11's for the front and 97's for the rear. Today I swapped pads and Murphy's law struck.



I'm not sure what the problem is but this is the first time I've swapped pads with these calipers. Basically, the nuts for the bridge bolt uses a lock nut. When tightening it down it started to gall/seize. I could feel it and the nut started binding up before even contacting the caliper.. pos. I'm not sure if Afco/stoptech supplies the hardware or who. Either way if you're running the Afco f88 caliper I gotta wonder if this happened to anyone else. I'm not a complete moron and this definitely wasn't on me. The driver's side I was able to reinstall but I could feel it starting to gall/bind up but it got tight. I full expect the driver's side bridge bolt to break next time I swap pads. Here, you can even see a picture of the galling on the driver's side bolt caused by the lock nut.


So, fortunately I ran to the Depot and picked up another 1/4" 4.5" long bolt. Whew. I got some lock washers but no luck nut. This bolt isn't doing a whole lot and I don't think a locknut is necessary. I have a bridge bolt on my stoptech calipers on my honda and never had this issue swapping pads many times but it doesn't use a locknut. I don't understand why the locknuts gall sometimes like this.. maybe someone can explain it to me.


Good thing I ordered a new battery.. it started the car a week ago but the thing is dead dead even w/ a tender. New battery in. Like I said I didn't want to have to think about it so got an AGM oem replacement.



I raised up the passenger side so it now reads 4.75" and the driver's side now reads 4 7/8" but that's close enough. Passenger rear reads 4 5/8". I took the car for a spin and she feels good! It's a cool day here so it's definitely making a little more power. The pads have a lot of bite which is nice for the track. I realized the prop valve probably had a little too much rear bias which made the street pads feel even worse, but the front wilwood bp20 street pads are definitely too gentle for my liking. I think I got the pads bedded in well and boy do they screech! Brakes feel good though. The silver wheels are now a shade of gunmetal. They'll be black after this weekend.




I can't really tell how the car handles for now in terms of understeer/oversteer but I'll figure it out quick and make some adjustments this weekend. Thanks Zak for your advice in terms of a starting point with the coilovers. I think I have them now a few turns from full soft so they definitely need to be stiffened up a bit. Car feels good and I'm looking forward to some fun.

OptionXIII

No such issues for me. I've probably torqued those bolts down twice on each caliper with no snapping off, but I did notice that the lock nut was uncomfortably tight and seemed to be damaging the threads more than any other lock nut I can recall using.

I have had an issue with the bleeders though. One bleeder I removed had a very clear divot in it, right where the taper seals to the caliper body. Multiple bleeders have weeped ever so slightly, but that seems to have stopped after a track session put some real heat into them. This is my first go with aluminum calipers, so I am not rushing to overtorque them and damage the caliper body. For my DIY Afco setup I ended up going with the Supermiata style of hose where one bleeder is replaced with a banjo bolt, and the NPT fitting is now just a plug. That let me get rid of the worst bleeders.

I ordered two pretty pricey brass bleed screws off eBay that will go in next time I bleed the brakes. Since these calipers are no longer available, I'm gonna do whatever I can to prevent damage to them.

SlowTeg

Ya bizarre.. not sure what the issue is but just be careful. I always start threads by hand and just torque the bridge bolt down enough so that the sleeve no longer spins. No tighter than that.

Interesting I haven't fully removed a bleeder but did notice the bleeders tended to weep a bit unless they were good and tight. I will keep an eye on them for sure. Like you said, I'm wary cranking down too hard and damaging the threads on these calipers. They don't seem to be weeping anymore so that's good. Regarding the bleeders.. is there any concern with brass bleeders if the calipers are Aluminum? Maybe they're an alloy not pure Aluminum. I thought I've read that Aluminum and Brass don't like each other and can corrode against each other over time..? Honestly not sure just throwing that out there.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Thank me later only if/when you’re satisfied with how the car handles! Now onto playing with the prop valve next. I think you’re gonna be stoked with the car given all the work you’ve put in haha.

Regarding the bridge bolt/nuts galling, I had one on my BX11.75 Wilwood kit do the same thing as well. Maybe the same bolt supplier or something? I actually uninstalled and reinstalled the nut a couple times because it felt like I must have been crossthreading it at first. Weird.