EErockMiata

Not trying to **** on your build, I love reading your threads and your fab/mechanic work is awesome to see... but why go through the trouble of an engine swap to make the same power as a mildly modified bp motor running e85?

shuko

A "mildly" modified BP motor that makes 160whp+ on e85? I think we might have different ideas of what "mild" is.

This is a $1000 junkyard motor with forged internals that, unmodified, makes 160+ hp out of the box. With bolt on OEM turbo or super options you can go straight to 300 whp territory. The VVT on both intake and exhaust cams allow awesome torque at low RPM, which you won't see in your mild BP build.

Mainly though, I like tinkering and swapping and fabricating. Throwing money at a BP motor is much less fun than figuring out new ways to put square pegs in round holes.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Pconlon

Flyinglizard45

Same reason I went with ecotec over a turbo BP. reliabilty and torque.

What are you running for wiring harness? any of the stock functions or strictly race car chassis harness setup?

shuko

Strictly race car setup. I try to keep the engine harness completely standalone and segregated from the car. I ordered an Alphafab harness and ECU about 6 weeks ago but nothing has shipped yet. I'm starting to contemplate doing a DIY harness and ECU combo.

nigelt

iTrader: (10)

A guy in SoCal built me a harness from 8-foot MS3Pro flying leads. He turned it around in a couple days and it's pretty tidy. He does a lot of ecotec and other GM harnesses. I'm running (by running I mean, plan on running, when it is running) full standalone with a MS3Pro EVO. I did that for turbo power, but it's an option either way. It didn't come out cheap though, it was in the $7xx range IIRC, plus the ECU and leads from DIY.

Flyinglizard45

I think i'll eventually end up going to a megasquirt setup to gain some hp with more tuning capability.
I'm currently working on removing any wires not needed for the ecotec to run while retaining all of my cluster / combination switch functions. Kind of in the middle of street car and racecar grey area that never ends well.

greddygalant

iTrader: (3)

We used the standalone race harness from efotex Miata and have been very pleased everything works really well.

shuko

I'm not dead!

New rear bumper and trim piece to be ST5 legal



Beefier cover plate for the spare tire cutout. I used rivnuts to anchor it.


I ripped out everything inside, including wiring


and built some fancy ducting



hoses and stuff



The build went on hold again due to a move to a new house. It was close enough we just flat towed from old house to new:



More space to work but now we have to set everything up again



My wiring harness and ECU finally arrived!!



I built a fancy center console thing to house wiring and switches, and the fuse/relay box



ECU and fuse box mounted



IT STARTS AND RUNS AND MOVES UNDER ITS OWN POWER!

shuko

The setup from Swap Specialties did not include a tachometer out from the ECU. A bit of web searching seemed to indicate that it was as simple as adding a few wires...

On the GM E67 ECM, you can get a tach signal from pin 25 on the J1 (blue) connector. pin 24 is a pull up resistor to make it useful for most tach-driven devices. I ordered some pins (Molex MX64 33467 Series Female Unsealed Terminal 0334670005, Cable Range 20 18 ga (0.50 0.80 mm2)) and added them to the J1 connector, then connected the wires together and to the Traqmate tach input, and it works perfectly. I checked the tune to make sure "crank" type RPM output is enabled - it won't work if the tune is set to serial or frequency engine speed output.



Upgrading the house... air conditioned garage is the best garage.


Amazon special marine switch panel, and Baofeng radio mounted in the center console


Adding Tech Flex to the harness



Things lighting up


Big beefy battery in the rear again



Interior coming together:



Getting fancy with the brakes. All hard lines replaced with steel braided lines.



Bias valve in the cockpit


To make the air dam more sturdy, I went all Forged in Fire and hammered/welded a strip of steel in the shape of the bumper edge:



Aluminum sheet attaches to that


Building another fancy articulating lower air dam / undertray



Front aero coming together



Custom headlight doors and a little bump in the hood to clear the VVT solenoids





This design adds a lot of complexity but it's nice to be tolerant to off track excursions, and to load the trailer without special ramps or disassembling everything.


I added the popup headlight assemblies back in, and will be putting bulbs back in.


Getting things ready for a shakedown



How the undertray and stuff all fits together:



Whipped up a cover for the flywheel:


Finally out at the track



And a dyno!

shuko

I had issues with gaskets exploding and bolts loosening at the exhaust flange during the shakedown


So I replaced the flange with a vband



250 lbs of ballast




Whipped up a quick catch can






A bunch of oil plumbing. I put a bypass adapter in the block, and routed the oil to two parallel oil coolers, then through a remote filter, teed to an accusump. This was $600 in AN fittings alone.



Fancied up the graphics



So nice to have the air dam/undertray articulate



And off to TMS!



The car ran great! It's right at home in ST5 - On Maxxis I run 2400 lbs at 162 whp, and on Hoosiers run 2465lbs or so. The Ecotec is pretty good on track. The low end torque really helps pull away from corners.