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Coworker of mine wanted some headlight work done on his G37 coupe. Nothing fancy besides some paint work, which was a nice change of pace from what I'm used to. Amazing how something so simple can make such a big impact. Turned these around in a few days for him at the end of last week.
Received a few PM's from people here wanting a set of vents for their car on top of the group buy I had already organized which is awesome. Getting them powder coated took a bit longer than I was hoping for, for reason you will soon read about. One thing my powder coating guy and I went back and forth on for a while this week was powder type. Ideally, I'd like to powder coat the vents while flat, then have the customer bend them. We did a trial with intent and his standard medium gloss black powder, but we were running into some hairline powder crack issues along the bend joint. He contacted his powder supplier and ordered a sample of this sweet post-formable powder which should fix this for future orders, but I wasn't happy with delaying timing any longer.
This could only mean one thing... I pre-bent all of the vents myself, so that way we could use standard powder. My fingers still have a slight loss of feeling in them as I'm typing this.
Ended up being very happy with the finish on the parts, and I know you guys who ordered will be as well. Got the group buy of vents all shipped out on Friday, so I'm excited to see some stuff I designed on some other members cars.
Good friend of mine who is big into woodworking decided to completely surprise me and make a nice sign with the side gig logo. If you are reading this and want his contact info, just toss me a PM. He did amazing work on this piece and I'd highly recommend him. It'll be great to use in replacement for a watermark with some of my product photos.
Wrapped up my weekend with a time trial race at the local karting track on Sunday. Tucker, the Left Lane supervisor, was the first to prepare himself for the 2 hour trip. As it turns out, there's more of a function to deleting your center console than just weight reduction. It gives prime doggo seating!
It was pouring rain all day, so for those of you running RS4's you can understand what my struggles were. Traction. Definitely not my first tire of choice for wet conditions, but its part of the compromises you have to make in the 245 wide tire market. I really like the tread life I get out of them, so I'm willing to give on wet handling for that. Somehow still, I ended up being the second fastest RWD car of the day in the wet. I was bested by a really well setup S2000 on RE71r's. It was a great exercise in car control, so while the car wasn't as fast as I'm used to on dry pavement, I still enjoyed the event.
On the way to the event, a friend of mine caught some of the aero in action with "poor man's CFD", aka rainy conditions. The fact water and air is exiting the vents should put most of the "do these vents actually work?" questions to rest. It's also pretty cool to see the water shedding around the tire from the wheel spats
Headed out to Road America on Sunday to catch one of the last autocross events of the season at their karting track. While cruising up to RA, friend of mine caught an awesome roller shot of the car.
Ended up doing extremely well given the circumstances placing 21 out of 161 RAW time. My 143k mile OEM clutch is starting to slip at launches after 3 years of abuse and the RA kart track is a known horsepower course. Knowing that, having a lowly 110whp n/a BP4W miata up near the top 20 against cars with nearly twice the power (or more) is something I can walk away very happy with. Excited doesn't begin to describe how I am to get the K24 in this car and be back next year with sights set on top 10 RAW on a street tire. I better get to work.
Nothing huge going on for picture worthy updates this month. I was very busy and in Shanghai for a week due to work
K-swap related updates:
Storage insurance officially was put on the car as we had our first light snowfall yesterday. Having a few buddies over this Saturday to help quickly drop the BP4W and sub-frame from the car.
If any of you are from the mid-west looking for a nice condition BP4W, engine harness, or sub-frame, toss me a PM. I created a facebook marketplace ad for the parts today.
Ordered - used K24A2 alternator & starter
Ordered - custom upper water neck with the help of David at Kmiata and Robert at Tractuff.
Reasons for the custom portion of this you will find out later in the build. I'm trying to look as far ahead as I can with the "as long as I'm doing this, might as well do this...." items. This component is a key part of that.
Ordered - small lot of OEM bolts that I'm guessing a majority of people need for the swap. Most junkyard motors wont come with starter and alternator hardware as they sell those components separate. I also accidentally threw out the water neck gasket during disassembly of the K24, so I ordered a replacement as it was cheap. Here's the list of part numbers, descriptions, and quantities to reference:
18714-RAA-A01, EGR Gasket - QTY 1
90025-PNA-000, Long Alternator Bolt - QTY 1
95701-08055-08, Short Alternator Bolt - QTY 2
95701-12085-08, Starter Flange Bolt - QTY 1
90027-PND-A00, Starter Special Bolt - QTY 1
Ordered - used (never installed) Kmiata wiring conversion harness
In Process - sourcing an OEM RSX engine harness.
Not K-swap related:
Planning out how the front end aero on the car will be updated this winter. With the upcoming switch to the V8R tubular sub-frame, my current splitter mounting design will no longer work as the rear portion of my splitter is supported by the lip on the OEM Mazda sub-frame. This lip by the steering rack doesn't exist on the tubular sub-frame.
Kazespec and Nine Lives Racing have both came out with off the shelf splitter mounting solutions. I need to make a decision on which makes more sense for my goals. I have time here, so I'm waiting on seeing some feedback from others on these options before pulling the trigger. I already have a 10mm thick sheet of alumalite to replace the 2 year old plywood that has more than paid its dues, so that material update will be happening for sure which I look forward to.
The biggest decision will be if I want to keep using an OEM front bumper with GV lip and wheel spats, or upgrade to an air dam setup. Functionally, the air dam would be better and lighter and I'd have more splitter height and design flexibility. Looks wise, I think the OEM bumper with spats is better as it keeps some of the cars "happy face" personality. Like I said, decisions....
Also planning out how to drop even more weight from the car in addition to the above updates without giving up DD amenities. Currently at 2278 lbs w/ full tank but would really like to see sub-2200. Chasing after 78 lbs!
In Process - Kswap should be good for ~30 lbs given the current trim of my car.
Ordered - Mat Russell NB bumper support bar.
Dropping 9 lbs from the front end and making radiator ducting more straightforward is a win-win as long as I'm redoing front end aero anyways.
Cheap short-term ideas (weight savings TBD)
Lighter battery
Swap double-din touchscreen headunit to a single-din one with cubby storage spot. I don't like this double-din anyways
Swap power antenna with a fixed antenna.
De-loom and de-pin interior/exterior harnesses to eliminate anything no longer used.
Replace OEM steering wheel that still has the disabled air bag in it with a suitable Sparco wheel and QR hub.
More expensive long-term ideas. (weight savings TBD)
The car will need a brake upgrade at some point after the swap. This should be a performance and weight savings win at a higher cost. Just not in the budget at the moment.
If anyone ever comes out with a lightweight hardtop that I can trust to not leak in the rain while sitting outside, it would be a quick way to pull at least 35 lbs from the top of the car. This has been very tempting for me for a while, but everyone I have spoke to with lightweight tops complains on fitment / leaks.
Anyone else have something they feel I'm missing here?
So the K swap will work just fine with a V8R tubular subframe? I like the idea of being able to buy that separately and spread out the expense to something usable with a BP in the car too. Especially since it would allow for the K20/24A swap too.
Wilwood Dynalites are pretty affordable as far as brakes go, and a good bit lighter than factory. I think Goodwin's kit is somewhere around $500.
So the K swap will work just fine with a V8R tubular subframe?
I should clarify... V8R makes the subframe for Kmiata... engine mounts are welded in Kmiata specific locations on this subframe is my understanding... if you buy the subframe ahead of time, it'll be nothing more than a big garage paperweight until you start the swap.
1 12-pack of brews, 2 buddies to help, a pile of power tools, and a couple hours of semi-motivated work led us to this point yesterday.
Everything pictured is now for sale
...and here's what I'm left with as a new starting point. Didn't realize just how filthy my engine bay was until I took this photo. I've got some work to do!
Oh the joys of de-looming harnesses. I was just so excited about it that I started delooming the OEM BP4W engine harness when I didn't even need to because its being replaced by a RSX harness . I'm going to try to make this wiring progression as good of reference material as I can for everyone that may be following in my footsteps. I'm hoping it will also be good reference for me in the event I screw something up and have a "no start" condition this upcoming spring .
The plan is to tuck the wiring and run only the bare essentials to make everything look clean and tidy because I'm a big time fast n furious fanboi like that. This will include completely deleting all AC, Power Steering, Cruise Control, Windshield Washer Motor, Brake Fluid Level, OEM Diagnostics Box, Evap System, EGR system & Air Bag wiring including the multitude of relays associated with those systems. Maybe an easier way of saying it is that the only OEM Mazda wiring forward of the firewall being kept is going to be headlight, radiator fan, and windshield wiper motor wiring. The engine fuse box will be relocated to the interior of the car next to the new ECU in the passenger foot well area behind the dash.
Current status. Engine bay wiped down and de-looming nearly complete on the engine bay side.
Rywire makes a basic OEM style of replacement harness for $650.
Their fancier tucked mil-spec harness with bulkhead connector can exceed $1300+.
OEM from Acura is $610.
Used OEM harnesses can range from $150-350 depending on how lucky you get in finding one and its condition.
None of these harnesses are built for a true RWD specific layout if you want wiring to look super clean, so there'd be some modification I'd be making regardless of choice. The last option of buying a used harness was the path I went down.
Bought this used harness on the wonderful world of Facebook as a "working harness" for the lower end of the used price point knowing full-on that I may be in for a treat. I was not disappointed. At initial glance it seemed like a decent harness. All of the connectors were in good shape (albeit dirty), so that was a good win!
I did notice that there was aftermarket loom on a vast majority of the wires. It was not the split loom, so that means the previous owner either properly de-pinned and repined the connectors (unlikely), or cut and reconnected the wires somehow (more likely) to get the loom installed. Time to do more de-looming to figure that out!
Upon investigation, I was left with vast variety of "connections". Consistency was not the previous owners forte when it comes to wiring... some uncovered and bare wires, some well heat-shrunk wires, some completely disconnected or broken wires, some electrically taped wires... you name it, this harness has it.. Classic example of getting what you pay for, but it can all be fixed.
Now you may be thinking, "Matt, you are spending all this money on this K-swap, why don't you invest in a better harness to control it all that won't potentially give you issues down the road?". To you who think that, you have a fair point and I won't argue your logic.
For everyone else that wants to try and ball hard on a budget, this thread is for you! I have the skills to properly fix what I have, am just a glutton for punishment, and really don't mind big wiring projects. This will be a fun one!
I hate car wiring. But only when it is in the car. Once it's all out and cleaned, it isn't bad at all to work on a harness. I would say buying a messed up harness so you have all the right connectors and going from scratch is a fine move.
Welp here's another K swap thread for me to follow.
Huge pet peeve of mine when people solder wires together at the same point. You just end up with this tumor in the loom. Staggered joints always look and feel better.
Wire-Worx has an OEM style harness for ~$500. He's emailed me saying he's willing to make custom lengths of certain circuits and delete some things to fit our applications.
Agreed on the wiring tumor with cutting everything at the same spot. I looked into Wire-Worx. It would be ideal to make a custom harness specific to a miata, but spec'ing out things I wanted still got me to a $500+ harness. Depending how mine turns out, I could also update to a nicer harness later. Right now, dollar bills are talking to me and the used harness makes sense. Time will tell if this comes to bite me.
In the name of helping everyone out that may be in my shoes. Here is all of the relevant diagrams to reference for the 02-04 RSX Type S engine harness. It helps having Acura technician friends
No VSS? On NB, the VSS and reverse sensor will still be picked up by the OEM Mazda wiring so the OEM speedo and reverse lights will still function properly. Technically the Kpro shouldn't need any VSS inputs, but I am keeping that wiring on the RSX harness for future possibilities (ie traction control systems reference these pins I believe).
No Trans Wiring? Trans wiring is driven by OEM mazda wiring. I believe nearly all of the RSX trans wiring can be eliminated with exception of what's stated above.
Necessary Sensors List
TPS
MAP
IACV
Cam Position
Crank Position
Knock Sensor
Oil Pressure
Engine coolant temp
Injectors
Coils
VTEC Solenoid
O2 sensor VTC solenoid IAT
Appropriate Grounds
I haven't gone over everything with a fine tooth comb yet, but off the top of my head the above are what you need. Someone who has done this before can jump in and correct me if they see an error. Added items/comments in bold.
Next batch of parts came through the door last night.
Worked in conjunction with David at Kmiata and Robert at Tractuff to be able to have my cake and eat it too for this one-off rear water neck piece. More to come later on why this should be a trick little add-on over the standard Kmiata piece that most people get. Quality of the work by both parties is top notch.
Received what I believe should be the last of my wiring with the Kmiata conversion harness. Thankfully, I won't have to de-loom this one!
Also got my super legit bumper support bar in. Mat even surprised me with a custom baby pink paint job at no extra charge, what a deal!
09-28-2019, 10:24 PM
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. I'm going to try to make this wiring progression as good of reference material as I can for everyone that may be following in my footsteps. I'm hoping it will also be good reference for me in the event I screw something up and have a "no start" condition this upcoming spring 
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