Intro turned hopefully epic build thread
 

Hey guys, Adam here. Been a member here since December when I got my first Miata, a 1992 C package with only 68,000 miles :fawk: My boss got me hooked on them after driving his for the first time. I already knew I wanted to turbo it before I bought it. I did a bunch of research on here got everything ordered that I needed. It was fun for about a week before I had all my turbo goodies in, and about another week to get everything installed in my garage, all without having to post any threads on here asking noob questions :noob:.

Pics of car when I first got it.
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Pics of turbo goodies.
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Installed
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New wheels and tires
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Front lip
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Ran great, stock clutch couldn't handle the power so I upgraded to a SuperMiata organic clutch
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It worked great until I got bored at 10psi and turned it up to 15lbs. I wanted to test the limits of the stock 1.6 so I converted to E85 and ID1000s and also a FM stage 2 clutch since the SuperMiata clutch was starting to slip.
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Oh yeah and I blew up the stock 1.6 VLSD at the dragstrip after multiple passes. I'm surprised it lasted this long, I sure beat the crap out of it. So I swapped in an open 1.8 diff and I got a Rx7 clutch type lsd and installed it at the same time along with Solid Delrin diff mounts.
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Started getting spark blow out with that much boost and e85 so I got myself some LS truck coils and fabbed up this custom laser cut stainless bracket. And went sequential ignition at the same time.
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At this point the car was pretty fast and seriously fun. I also competed in local autocross and many trips to the drag strip. Best pass at the 1000 foot track was 11.25 @ 100mph on street tire.
But of course this had to happen at some point since I know I was past the safe limit of the stock rods.
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Don't hate to much. It was fun and a huge learning experience. It lasted for a good 6 months of beating the **** out of it. But now comes the good part...

Welcome.

Awesome intro, love the pictures and carnage.

Engine-popping success! ;)
When you get it running again, wrap that stainless braided oil line so that it doesn't wear a hole in the brake reservoir or the brake line.

Oh and heres a quick, crappy video (its only the first race) from a couple months ago racing my buddies boosted integra at the drag strip. This was before I went E85 and higher boost. It was a crappy run around 11.70 I believe.

^ what i was gonna say.

Cut some rubber tubing down the middle and slip it over, should do the trick.

Good build so far though. I'm shocked that little 1.6 took all that boost. Then again, the blue one i built is running around at 15lbs on a td04 (against my best judgment because it's on my tune). You should be able to get some decent internal parts for a 1.6.

Love it. Good quality work. Fun to be had with building up a new motor as well. Good luck with getting it back together again.

Yes at least I blew it up the right way lol. I will definitely wrap the oil feed line when I get it back together.
I will post more pics of all the new engine goodies later tonight.

Oh no, no more 1.6 :cool:

So I was lucky enough to get a free 1.8 engine from a 94 along with the transmission. Only problem was that it had been sitting for 10 years so you can imagine how much gunk and corrosion was built up from old fuel sitting in the engine. It was so bad on the head that it ate into the intake valves and valve seats. I figured it would be cheaper to be a used good head and rebuild it vs. getting the old one machined with new valve seats, etc.

Here is the engine before it was pulled.
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Here you can see some of the nasty gunk and cylinder wall rust that had built up over the years.
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Block is at the machine shop right now getting magafluxed, bored and honed.
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I tore down the "new" used head and cleaned it really well. Cleaned all the HLA's, put in new valves and put it all back together. Much better
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New valve seals
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Painted valve cover, I like how it turned out.
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Now all the new parts.
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B.E. street oil pump
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Still waiting on a few more parts to come in and for the machine shop to finish up before I can start assembly on the new motor. Still undecided on turbo manifold and downpipe setup since I can't reuse the ones from the 1.6

I really hope you had the head machined

Cause it looks like you hit it with a wire wheel

Yes that was a pic before it was decked

Welcome to the site 92turbomiata, thanks for joining up!

Looks like a lot of fun, welcome.

Here's a hint though, when you click the IMG link on photobucket, it copies everything you need, just paste it into the post. Do NOT click the image button, then paste it. That's why you're getting the double [IMG] [/IMG] tags.

More goodies arrived

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1407183833

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1407183833

Supertech 11:1 pistons. I will be strictly on E85. Should be a good combo with boost. Hopefully I will have the engine put back together and back in the car in the next week or so. I'm really excited to see how she runs on the new setup compared to the old 1.6 setup

11:1 and boost? Really?

Damn.... that tune had better be spot on... lol
Im definitely looking forward to the results, no matter which way this goes. haha

Yes, if I were on pump gas I would have gone much lower but since I will be on e85 all the time I figured I would give it a shot. I know the tune we still need to be pretty spot on.

In for more catastrophic failure!

Ok what would you guys recommend for a built, boosted motor on e85? 9.5:1, 9:1, 8.6:1? I'm all ears since I don't want another catastrophic failure. I did some research on here and have seen people running 10.5:1 on e85 and I also talked to Bryan at Fab9 and he said I would be fine on 11:1 and e85 as that is what he is running in his miata.

If the tune is good and you run e85 all the time, AND you ensure it's good quality ethanol that is actually 85% ethanol, it should be alright.

I would trust what Bryan says more than all these haters posting in here

Not hating. I genuinely enjoyed the picture with hole in the block. I support you trying them out, just take it to a very good tuner.

Great build and awesome pictures! :)

I, for one, welcome the 11:1 CR.


I like the build!

That's a seriously strange wastegate setup, though. :lol:

Thanks guys!

Are you talking about the original external wastegate setup I had? It was strange but it did work well.

I got the block back from the machine shop today finally. Looks nice. They are still working on the crank since it had to be ground down slightly.

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Is this going to get an MLS headgasket? If so, the block surface doesn't look adequately prepared to me.

Ok guys small update. Still waiting on the damn machine shop to finish my crank but I should hopefully have it back by tomorrow, or the end of the week at the latest. Thats the last thing I am waiting on before I can start assembly on the engine. I got bored so I did some mocking up of the parts to get an idea of how everything would look and to make sure everything would fit properly.

Painted the block
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1408492329

Test fitting manifold
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If I end up getting the crank back in the next day or two I should have everything back together and the engine back in the car by Saturday. It sucks having the car down for this long as I'm having Miata withdrawals. She'll be alive soon though.

I also welcome 11:1 and boost :)
At the power level you're looking to pursue, tune has to be good either way. And I bet most saying it will fail aren't running e85. (I know it doesn't make your engine indestructible, but you sure can do some absurd things with the stuff.....assuming its actual e85)

Any time you try something uncommon, you're going to get some razzing if for no other reason than to make sure you've completely thought it through.
Vlad is right; your tune needs to be good regardless. Good luck. Check out nitrodanns 12:1 build.

Wow, that is coming together quickly. The exhaust manifold looks glorious!

Maybe it is just the angle of the photos, but how is your hood clearance with the wastegate bracket?

I think the manifold looks awesome, very sturdy and fits well. Can anyone guess what manifold that is? lol

It's probably the angle but if you look you will see that the wastegate bracket is just sitting there, it's not actually bolted to the turbo yet so its sitting up a bit higher than it should be. When its bolted on it is at the same level the oil fill cap is at so it shouldn't have any issues with hood clearance.

I have a pretty good local tuner who is going to help me out with tuning it. I even bought this thing to make an electronic det can just to be on the safe side.

Pocket-Size Stereo Amplified Listener - RadioShack.com

I was gonna go with knocksenseMs but after doing some research I found it to be pretty much crap and I trust my ears over that thing. My buddy has a turboXS Knocklite that I may throw on there as well...we will see.

is it the $700 ebay special? I forget the name.

haha not quite $700 but yes CXracing. I know it is a risk going with it but it seems very well made and quite sturdy. I've heard pretty decent things about their "new, thicker" manifolds :jerkit: so I guess I'll find out soon enough.

CX Racing?

oh nevermind, I was thinking of that other one (made by a local guy actually).

but hey, everyone keeps talking about the cxracing and no one has really tested it for us yet, so this is actually pretty cool :)

Ah, you beat me to it. Did you buy the entire kit from them? It looks pretty decent for how cheap it is.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1408551949

Were you thinking of DOC? It looks like a direct knockoff.

No I just got the manifold and v-band downpipe. I didn't need the turbo as I already had a few laying around. I'll upload a few more pictures of the manifold and downpipe ihere in a minute incase anyone is curious how it looks.

Ok here are more pics of the manifold and downpipe

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1408553542

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New radiator

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DING DING DING

we have a winner.

Yep. And yes, it does look awfully similar...hmmmm

The buy it now on the DOC is like $800 and the cx racing is like 430 for just the mani. I'm intrigued. Not sure it's inexpensive enough for me to personally not have Abe muster one up.

I wanted to have Abe make up a mani and downpipe but the lead time on it was at least 2 months and I needed something quicker than that. Maybe one day I will get him to make something up for me but for now I will see how this Cxracing manifold does.

Do you guys think I should spray some high temp ceramic coating on there? or leave it as is? I'm not gonna wrap it.

I would leave it as is to eliminate any variables for the testing/results/etc

Plus some companies will void any "warranty" they may offer if you wrap/coat

I think I will leave it as is as you suggested.

I just went by the machine shop and they said they won't be done with the crank until monday afternoon. The have had it for a damn month now, getting slightly irritated. I guess my plans for having it put back together this weekend are gone now, oh well it's suppose to be 100+ degrees this weekend anyways.

Quick question. Being this will be my first engine break in I want to make sure I do it right. I think I'm going to use this oil on the first start up and then change after 30-40 miles. And keep using this oil for the first 1000 miles or so and then switch to synthetic. What do you guys recommend for break in oil? Detergent, non-detergent?

AutoZone/Engine oil SAE HD-30 1 qt. (60144) | Engine Oil | AutoZone.com

Use a regular conventional motor oil for break in. You want the detergents to help trap small particulates from building and break-in and contain them in the oil filter. Using break-in lube during assembly of components is a pretty good idea. Using a supplement with ZDDP for break-in also isn't a terrible plan.

I used the regular Rotella T (white bottle) for a recent break-in. Dino oil + high detergency + high additives + cheap ($10/gallon at Wally World). Break in went well.

great intro, love your set up. good luck with the build, can't wait...

Ok finally making some progress after getting the crank back from the machine shop. I started with the bottom end assembly and everything went together pretty well, plasti-gauged everything and all looked good. I should be dropping the motor/trans into the car Saturday and hopefully first start up/break in later that day or Sunday if I run into any snags. Here is some eye candy.

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Looks awesome.

This would be a good time to do a reroute and get rid of all those little potential coolant leaks (I mean, small water lines).

Yeah I really need to do that now since it will be much easier and cleaner looking. I think its just crazy that the reroute kit is so expensive. Only thing is I don't think I will be able to get it shipped here by friday without paying an arm and a leg for shipping.

If you piece it together yourself it's not too bad. I think I did my reroute for ~120. put it on my tab.

You never reminded me to look for the crank trigger stuff. I'll try to remember to look tonight...
I might be able to get out of the house Sunday afternoon if you have it ready by then... So keep me posted ;)

Haha yeah I totally forgot about that when I got my crank back and was able to start assembly. Let me know what you find. I checked the B.E. oil pump and it already has that hole tapped for the sensor so it should bolt up no problem.

You don't happen to have any coolant reroute stuff laying around by any chance do you?

That would be awesome if you can make it out Sunday for first start up/break in to make sure I didn't over look something stupid. It's always nice to have another set of eyes to check your work.

Made good progress this weekend even though I didn't get to fire her up like I was hoping. Ran into a few small snags here and there which I kind of expected. Main one was the original intercooler piping on the throttle body side not working since the the 1.8 is longer in the front. I have got that taken care of now and also switched to a throttle body from a 02 miata to get rid of the IAC hose that plumbs into the intake piping and clears up a bunch of room. But of course the connectors were different so I had to source the connectors from a junkyard but got lucky and found both the TPS and IAC connectors at the first place I went. I hope to get everything buttoned up and get the engine started up sometime later this week.

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Echoing what others have said: Cool project and great intro/following progress. Sub'd and excited to see your CXRacing results etc.

Mani looks good, awaiting results. Do the reroute!!!

Thanks guys. Trying to get everything finished up today and hopefully started for the first time. There was a bunch of small stuff that needed to be done that I didn't realize at first.

I ordered a Begi rear spacer, Kia water neck and front block off plate. Should be here Monday hopefully. Kinda wish Begi wasn't so slow on shipping. I ordered the parts Monday morning and they didn't ship them until today. I should of had the re route parts by now if they hadn't took so long. I was wanting to do the re route before I started the car for the first time but I can't wait any longer! It will only be run for a couple of days before I get the re route done.

I will post back here after I get her started up and drive her for the first time. Hopefully the break in goes well and nothing breaks! Wish me luck guys!

Please shield that heater hose that goes next to the downpipe. Rubber will get brittle and rupture.

Looks good. +1 on heat control. Plastic brake reservoir is something else that gets soft.

Fuck yeah

Great intro thread, too.

Looking good man. I hope the "high compression" E85 setup catches on. We will be shipping another boost hungry 11.5:1 engine out on Tuesday.

Mazda guys are late to the game on this one (we also don't have highly competitive, sanctioned 1/4 mile "Miata only" shoot-offs like the Honda crowd does either). After some dialing in I've got very healthy EGT's and more aggressive timing than I would have been comfortable with on my previous setup. Can't beat the across-the-board benefits of going high compression & E85.

In for updates...