I Have No Idea What I'm Doing™
 

Hi all, I've finally made the first steps in my master plan (which seems to change every time I think about it) and want to share with everyone. Here's my intro thread to give you more info on my car and my goals for it.
https://www.miataturbo.net/meet-gree...ro-post-93516/

But here are the basics. The car is a 1990 that I've owned for about ten years now. I'm not planning to do anything special, this is just going to be a plain old turbo build. Right now I'm thinking it's gonna be a FMII kit with megasquirt.

So anyway I got the motor out two weekends ago, and then because of work/personal commitments I wan't able to touch the car until this week. I took the whole week off work to get shit done.


Well here we go...

ms is a good choice.
fm2, meh, much better alternatives out these days. but it's not bad. at least it's not bottom of the barrel begi lol

Untouched...and dirty. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc4e093393.jpg

Pulling the motor went pretty smoothly. Had it out in about three hours maybe. The only thing that cause a problem really was the exhaust studs at the end of the manifold. Had to heat those bastards up real good, and I managed to destroy one of them. Didn't get a pic of them.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...42de7f64e7.jpg

There was a lot of gear oil around the shifter turret even though the small boot looks intact. Not sure how it all leaked out, I'm guessing that when I did the shifter rebuild a few years back I put a bit too much oil in the turret?

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...137390d847.jpghttps://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f59b9f33fc.jpg

I saw a version of this neat little trick to hold the trans up with the PPF out in someones build thread a while back. Shoutout to whoever it was!

Also, PROTIP: Take the shifter out of the trans before you try to pull the whole engine/trans out. I didn't and it dragged on the trans tunnel, which made it a bit harder than it should have been to get the motor/trans out. I was a bit worried I might have damaged the shift forks or something but it still seems to row through the gears fine.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...475c3a2aa1.jpg


As you can see, the bottom end of this motor and the trans were absolutely filthy. My valve cover leaked for a long time and it really made a mess of the whole engine.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...94ad14b76e.jpg

While I was fighting with the shifter not clearing the trans tunnel, the engine oil pan nicked my headlight panel. I was a little more than mildy annoyed by this.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...422e080865.jpg


Next up was cleaning the shit out of everything...

Is that corvette a '73? Looks good, any mods?

my dad has a '79 we wedged a 502 into.

Sorry about the monstrous pictures. It wont let me resize them when I edit the post for some reason.

Didnt get too many pictures unfortunately, it was a pretty dirty job and I wasnt able to get my phone out to take pics too often. As you can see I also pulled all the AC stuff out and removed the windshield washer tank

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2c879882b1.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a9e77c0cde.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...51f236ffc7.jpg


Here's a close up of my looped PS lines. I used an air saw to cut the lines, messy but effective.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b7ef7e1460.jpg

To plug the rack I took the stock fittings and cut the lines then crushed them closed in a vice. Cleaned them up a bit on the grinder.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...78ddb4dd44.jpg

The Vette is '70 I believe. It's mostly stock from what I've seen. The shop that I'm borrowing space from is a corvette specialty shop that my dad started about 12 years ago. I worked there while I was in high school. That is a customers car.

Funny, there is actually a 502 crate motor sitting in another corner of the shop that is destined to go into a '57 chevy. Guy is having the car resto-modded frame up. You can actually see the frame for it leaning behind that corvette.

Next up: Timing belt, water pump, and coolant reroute.

This picture doesn't accurately show how filthy the front of this engine was...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...99b947419d.jpg

I didnt have two crescent wrenches so I had to very gently grip the exhaust cam with a some flat-jaw vice grips. They worked just as good.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9c85ade8ca.jpg

Comparison of the original water pump and the new Gates pump I bought from 949 Racing. Notice the beefy cast impeller on the Gates unit compared to the stamped steel original.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7334b2099b.jpg

The new Gates timing belt, which I also got from 949, was super tight and it was rather difficult to get it over all the pulleys. Took me a few tries to get the timing right.

I bought a new crank bolt but I elected not to remove the original. It has never been removed from the factory and I dont want to open that can of worms. The way I see it, either the crank is fine, which I think it is, and in that case, why touch it? Or the crank is fucked, in which case, I've already lost.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0a3af974a3.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...288d2d952d.jpg

Reroute was very simple, though I'm glad I had the engine out to do it. The included instructions were very thorough, but weren't really need for the most part. I used the supplied stick-on gaskets and applied a thin coat of Right Stuff to the other side of them.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...76262d4743.jpg

I'm not sure why my "M-Tuned" reroute says K-Tuned on it, but it all went together fine so :dunno:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...53f6875003.jpg

Dont question the donkey.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5a907a8836.jpg

As you can see the old powdercoat on my valve cover hasn't fared too well. I did it myself years ago. Our shop actually has a semi-legit powdercoating setup, completely with huge pizza oven.
Besides the big flakes that came off, the whole cover is flaking and I think a good power wash might strip it all off, but I'm thinking I'm going to try to find another cover and have a professional shop redo the powder coat. That's a project for another time though...I want my car back!

So that's where I'm at so far. What's left is a few small items before the motor is ready. I've got to get a replacement exhaust stud for the one I had to cut, find some caps for the AC lines going into the cabin, and do a bit more engine bay cleaning. Then the clutch, put the motor back in, and radiator. I'm hoping to have the car back on the road by the end of this weekend.

One thing I found out today is that the axle nuts are different for the 99 torsen I got. I can't use the nuts that came off the 1.6 axles. I've havent been able to find the part number anywhere online, but I need to get these ASAP. Anyone know if Autozone, NAPA, etc. carries these? I'll have to call around tomorrow.

My next priority once I get the car back on the road is to figure out all this megasquirt nonsense. By the time I get to where I'm ready for the turbo, things might be different. Right now though the completeness of the FM kit is looking very appealing to me.
As the thread title suggests, I have no idea what I'm doing.

May I ask why elected to not do front main seal, cam seals, and rear main seal while everything is out and apart?

Because I'm a fool and I didn't think to order them with the rest of the parts I bought. I did buy a rear main seal which I will replace before the new clutch goes on.

In hindsight, I would have waited until winter to do all this so I would have all the time in the world to go through every seal and hose and what have you in the engine bay

K-tuned is the parent company of what used to be M-Tuned. Don't worry about the name difference.

Check out MKTurbo.com. You will be surprised how much I can save you over the FM2 once you start pricing everything out.

^ true dat. I'm working on an MKTurbo setup right now, and so far I've been very impressed with everything.

I would also replace that cursed water plug on the back of the head while you've got the motor out. Cheap insurance.

I'd go MKturbo over FM without a doubt

If the front seals aren't leaking, don't sweat it. They aren't that bad to change with motor in the car.

Interesting. I know the MKturbo kit is like the go-to budget setup, but how does it compare to the FMII performance wise, not taking money into account? Both can reach my power goals no problem, but how does the T3 turbo do against say the 2554 in terms of spool, response etc?

Small update:

I've decided to a slightly different route, sorry to disappoint you turbo fanbois :skid:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...512994b031.jpg


Seriously though, didn't get too much done today, couldn't stay at the shop very long. When I previously removed the VLSD from the car, one of the halfshafts got stuck in the hub, but I got it out today with the help of a puller and an impact gun.

Speaking of impact guns, to get the axle nuts off the shaft I had to bring out the monstrous 3/4in impact gun. I had previously tried a 1/2in impact, and a breaker bar with a five foot long jack handle on it and it was actually rolling the car over the wheel chocks with the handbrake on. Then the 3/4in impact got them off like they were hand tight. Thing is a beast.


I did a little weighing of my clutch components as well. I'm sure it's been done before but I figured I'd pull out my trusty fish scale.

FM Level I Happy Meal Kit:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...63301f71e6.jpg


Stock 1.6L Clutch Assembly:
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1347a07ac3.jpg


FM I pressure plate is a bit heavier than the stock 1.6, but the lightened flywheel obviously makes up for it.
FM pressure plate+flywheel = 22.25lbs
Stock 1.6 pressure plate + flywheel = 25.78lbs

The new friction plate is a full pound heavier than the stock 1.6. I wonder if I will be able to notice the difference shifting.

I also found some new axle nuts to fit the 99 halfshafts, so that's cool. I had to go to two different Autozones because they both only had one in stock.

Hopefully the motor with be back in tomorrow. I still need to try and get that exhaust stud out. I tried today by heating up the manifold until it was glowing and grabbing the stud with vice grips, but I started to twist the stud. I'm almost certain it's going to snap if I try again. Might have to drill it out...

There are a lot of variables that can affect this comparison. For reference I started 10 years ago with a Begi S1 2554 setup. It is close to a FII setup. When I first built my MKTurbo test setup I was trying to mimic my old setup as closely as possible, but for much cheaper. Overall the 2554 will have slightly better lowend response once you mate it with a 3" exhaust. Once you get past 3500rpms or so, the differences start to go away and they become much more even. One thing you have to take into consideration is FMII performance out of the box is not that great, since the stock exhaust will limit you.

If money was no issue, then a TSE is the setup you want. If money is a concern then MKTurbo is a much better bang for the buck then FMII.

You guy are doing a good job of swaying me. Honestly I was flopping between the FMII and the MKturbo kit for a while, then I started thinking I might go full DIY and buy an EFR, get a custom manifold and exhaust made, etc. But in reality I dont think I can devote the required amount of energy to a project like that right now. Maybe when my 1.6 explodes I will spring for a 1.8 and get the TSE kit...

Anyway, my car is back on the road!

This is a 1.8 comparison. 2554 with a 2.25" exhaust and hydra 2.7, verse an mkturbo setup.
Attachment 229747

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...52afd38a6e.jpg

New exhaust stud installed. I also went super ghetto and just sealed the flange with RTV instead of waiting for a new gasket
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a5421d02b4.jpg

Torsen getting all cleaned up.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...064f723a93.jpg


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...427a0285d5.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...03e5ab38b7.jpg

One thing about the CSF radiator: The top right threaded boss for mounting the AC fan is too shallow. As you can see in the picture there is a metal bracket there that is thinner that the other mounts. The screw bottoms out in the boss. I ended up cutting about 3mm off the length of the bolt to get it to work. No big deal really, but something of note.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b37d26c02.jpg

Radiator dropped in ezpz. I was a little worried the fans might hit my Racing Beat tubular bar, but they cleared. It is VERY close though.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...91977832fe.jpg

I was fighting with the stupid coil that goes inside this hose for a while until I tried lubing it with hand soap. Slid right in then. I cut about six inches or so off the hose.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6b0d0e4b9d.jpg

All buttoned up.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3bbfd87fd9.jpg

:D

I'm not sure if I did something wrong de-powering my rack, but it is much tighter than I was expecting. Everything I've read and heard about looping the lines like I did suggest there's barely a difference in effort once you get moving. That is not the case for me right now. It takes a lot of effort to turn more than 30 degrees or so, regardless of speed. I'm gonna need to look into this further.

The clutch is gonna take a little getting used to. I gotta dial in the engagement point a little, but it bites much more aggressively than my stock clutch did. I feel like I'm relearning how to drive at the moment. Just a matter of getting used to it I guess. As advertised the pedal effort is barely more than the stock 1.6 clutch. I get a little chatter from the clutch moving from a stop, but again I think I just have to learn how this clutch engages. It seems like its just from the stiffer clutch springs.

Anyway, I'm very happy to have my car back. Hopefully I can figure out whats going on with my steering, or maybe it's fine and I just need to stop being a little babby.

That's a nice looking torque curve. I'm assuming black and pink are MKturbo. That really hits home how important the bigger exhaust is! If I do end up going FM I would for sure get a 3 in exhaust made for it, obviously that cost is piled onto the cost of the kit. I guess it comes down to how much I'm willing to dump into this car. I've already spent close to 3k getting to this point...

Now that my car is ready for more power, I'm really gonna start weighing my options.

All you did was loop the lines. That only makes steering more difficult. You have to properly de-power the rack.

Yeah I guess. Like I said, pretty much everything I read suggested that looping the lines was almost as good and once you got moving it was barely more effort than power steering.

Anyway, I went on a few good shake down runs and I'm already used to the feel of it. Maybe in the future I will de-power the proper way, and I'll probably go for a bit less caster next time I get it aligned. I do like how easy it is to tell when the front gets light. The feedback is nice. I could use some arm exercise anyway.

Honestly the car feels pretty great. I got the clutch engagement dialed in just where I wanted it. The torsen is doing it's job of chirping my tires on low speed turns. I have a feeling my car is gonna start eating my star specs rapidly, but I'm happy.:likecat:

Torsen shouldn't be chirping tires, it's not a locker.

So I have kind of a crappy problem. Since I upgraded the cooling with the radiator and the reroute, the car takes forever to warm up, and if it's at all cool outside it will never reach normal operating temp . If it's below 50 and I'm just cruising, the gauge will barely go above like 10 o'clock. I figured it was something with the thermostat, so I went ahead and bought a stant 195 degree tstat to replace the 180 degree one that was supplied with the reroute. Installed it yesterday (about 50F) and now it seems that the cooling system is so efficient that the 195 degree tstat wont stay open during normal driving. On my test drives my gauge would start going hot as soon as I got stuck behind someone and had to cruise. When I was able to get on it, the tstat would open and the temp would be normal. Likewise if I leave the car idling it overheats.

Basically my new radiator works so well that my car overheats...:ugh:
I guess I need to put the 180 degree back in and try blocking part of the radiator?


Oh also I bought this
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3995eac872.jpg

sounds like you could have air in the systemm.

That's a good possibility.

I'm honestly not convinced that is the issue. I do have a vacuum purge coolant filler system that I can use to make sure, but the way the car was behaving doesn't indicate an air pocket to me. Like I said it will run fine as long as I stay on it. It seems to me that when the tstat is open and allows coolant through the radiator, and the engine isn't producing much heat (cruising), the radiator is cooling the system back to below 195. The remote tstat housing is allowing the head to overheat before the heat reaches the tstat. Maybe I'm wrong but if there was air in the system I don't think that driving harder would cause the temp to go down.

It's like a extremely under-damped system. Maybe if I drive it for longer it will eventually reach equilibrium, but obviously I cant be going around overheating until that happens. Maybe I'm overthinking this and it is just a bubble...

Making sure the cooling system is burped properly is the easiest thing to start with. I use a Lisle funnel, and when everything is up to temperature I squeeze and shake the hell out of all the coolant hoses. I can almost always knock a few bubbles loose.

If that doesn’t work, perhaps you could go back to the 180 thermostat but drill a small hole to permit some coolant flow through it while it’s closed.

Hmmm, something seems very off. You should always be able to get the coolant up to 185 or 195... Did you get a decent brand T-stat? I know many have like 1-2 brands they trust, maybe yours is sticking?

Also, for proper depowering: Project Miatabusa Part 5 - De-Powering the Steering

Hey everybody, So unfortunately I did not get a chance to do anything further with the miata before old man winter forced me to park it for a few months. Though on the plus side it seems like the issue maybe fixed itself? When I drove the car to it's hibernation den it seemed fine, and since I parked it I've gone and let it run until it gets warm a few times. It hasn't overheated on any of those occasions. So maybe it was just air in the system that has worked it's way out. I still don't understand why it would be fine if I drove it hard, but overheated when I was cruising. I'll have to wait until spring to find out for sure.

This winter I'm planning on doing some suspension refreshing. I'm considering switching back to rubber bushings because I'm starting to get sick of how harsh the poly ones ride, or I might buy new polys and shave the ends so they dont make the control arms all stiff in the subframes like they are now. I'm sure that's a big part of why my car rides like ass. I'm also gonna fix the ride heights which have been totally screwed up for a while. I'm kinda tempted to paint my control arms something flamboyant while I have them out. I was thinking red or orange.
I've actually read through that before, but thanks for the link. I might consider doing that in the future but honestly I was just being a babby about the steering when I first did it. I got used to it pretty fast.

I think the turbo is getting pushed back another season, but we'll see. I dumped a decent amount of cash on this S60R I bought, and I'm not sure I want to drop turbo kit money at the moment. I will say driving this turbo car around has only reinforced my desire to turbo the miata. This Volvo pulls pretty hard for a 4000lb sedan. The miata feels downright anemic compared to it, and I never really felt that way about the miata before.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b12b825328.jpg

(Emphasis mine) It's not a matter of just 'getting used to it'.There's a ton of slop from the torsion bar in the power steering valve assembly still being allowed to twist; (start at 30 second mark)
Up to you, but having driven it both ways, its significantly better post-welding. Zero slop, instant and crisp steering input and feedback.