ryansmoneypit

iTrader: (6)

We must continue on, for the sake of burning rubber instead of money.

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

Quoted for posterity.

Scaxx

Alright, after calming down, coming to terms with the fact that this is going to be more expensive than I had originally hoped, and turning the situation over in my head for a few nights, I've decided that I'm gonna get higher compression forged pistons.

Reasons for this: Holding off on the cam it should be a similar cost. Running the numbers with the added cost of buying two tools to flycut the pistons comes out to similar money as new pistons and a balance. The other thing I hadn't taken into account is the fact that flycutting the pistons will cut weight off the pistons which means a crank balance either way, which basically means that I can settle for a smaller cam or it's still going to be more expensive than I had hoped. And **** a smaller cam, right?! The other advantage to this is that the pistons should be lighter which means less rotating mass and quicker revs. Also with higher compression, my magic number of 500whp will easily be achievable in the future with a nice fat cam.

So that's where I'm at. Gonna fully disassemble the engine tomorrow and take the block to the machine shop tomorrow to talk to the owner about what his recommendations are and discuss my options. I'm trying my best to make the best of this shitty situation and plan for the future. It ******* blows but there's nothing I can do to change it now so it's just time to move on I suppose.

Also that quote is totally going in my sig

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

AFAIK, forged pistons are usually heavier than cast pistons. Unless stock pistons are also forged.

Scaxx

Possibly, from what I've heard a lot of the time they come out lighter because they can machine more material off the bottom. That and lighter pins so it comes out a bit lighter in the end. We'll see, on the other hand adding material to raise the compression will obviously add weight.

The scale will tell the truth haha

Scaxx

Could be wrong, either way, I think that's the route that I'll end up going. In the end, I think it'll be better. Maybe one day I'll bite the bullet and get a tilton 7.25" clutch to really make this thing rev. Probably after I finish my god damn degree, at least I graduate this may

Scaxx

Yesterday I took apart the shortblock, boxed and bagged it all and put it in Brad to take to the machine shop. I'll hear back from them next week as to what my options are. In the meantime my girlfriend and I are wrapping up the cobra IRS swap in her mustang. Really excited to get it done, car should be pretty ******* sweet without the solid axle. Maybe I can convince her to replace that rusty old 302 with an ls someday. If it was my car I'd have a turbo 5.3 in it but I doubt she'll go for that haha

OGRacing

iTrader: (1)

good luck little buddy!

Scaxx

Thanks Johnny! I need all the luck I can get haha

Been trying to find things to do on my car lately, kinda going crazy with not having much to do on it. This weekend I added a couple rivnuts to the driver side floor so I could bolt the floormat down to protect the heat shield from getting roughed up by my feet as well as well as not get stuck under the brakes. Today I added a couple grounds to the license plate lights since they didn't have them. I also attempted to make a bracket for the headlight lid but it was a bit too flimsy and not accurate enough so it didn't sit right. I have a feeling it's gonna take a few iterations haha

I also cut off the very tip of the stock muffler and hung it in the stock location, just for ***** and giggles. I'm honestly just reaching for things to do. Also brought my tires inside since the temperature is starting to drop into the mid-low 40's.

Oh, one other thing. When I drove the car and we were come down from about 100 I didn't really notice any massive improvements in braking ability. Of course I wasn't fully braking so I couldn't compare it but it wasn't like an overwhelming improvement. Well I was looking at my brakes today and noticed that the rears had way more dust on them than the fronts. Guess who had the bias set all the way to the rear??? This guy! So yeah, that could have been fun. On the other hand, it's kinda confidence inspiring that it braked that well with just the rears, I suppose the extra 60mm of tire helps with grip as well. Needless to say, I went ahead and shifted the bias more towards the front so I don't forget next time.

Yes, I can feel you shaking your head at me Johnny hahaha

Scaxx

Little fun update since monday was my birthday. My girlfriend got me the FM 3" lift kit for Brad. Holy **** talk about a pain in the ***. You had to push the control arms down so far and then wedge a screwdriver under the shock to get it into the location, took me waaaay longer than I thought it would. That said it's pretty sweet, you can work under the car on a creeper without even jacking it up. Looks funny and feels so weird to drive but it should be fun on some logging roads and in the snow. My parents got me a steering wheel, an OMP Targa. Really happy with it, I'll get a quick release for it soon but for right now it's just sitting on the hub, that said it looks very at home in the interior. Also I finally sent the switch that jegs sent me back since they sent me a single position switch instead of a dual position and so I couldn't hook up the blinkers. It should get here saturday. Oh I also cut some more weight out of Audrey, took luggage rack off and cut up the trunk a bit, decent bit of weight. I'd like to take at least another 20-30 lb out of the car but there's more I can take out once I build a cage.

Weight

Parts

Wheel

Front Up

LOL

Interior

aidandj

iTrader: (5)

Did you loosen the control arm bolts? With rubber bushings they will just bind if you push them down far enough.

Scaxx

Yeah, that made a giant difference but it was the last quarter or half inch that was the bitch, the geometry just doesn't want to go down that far. I honestly think 2.5" would have been much better. I need spacers in the rear for stock tires, the cv boot is really close to rubbing on a bolt now and the front shock will pretty much rub on the control arm at full droop, it's very slight but it's still annoying.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

The cv joints will handle much less torque at higher angles, so watch them.

Scaxx

That too, luckily my winter tires are old and hard so I don't get a whole lot of wheel hop.

Scaxx

Well looks like the engine failure wasn't from too much fuel in the cylinder like my buddy and I started to suspect. Nope, there was debris inside the engine. I can with pretty much 99.99% confidence say that that was n't me since I was extremely careful anytime I did anything with the engine, the ports were always covered, etc. At this point though there's nothing I can do, just move on. Oh and the crank needs to be ground because one of the tolerances on it was off by .001....yay.

Tonight I sanded down my control panel aluminum, if you look at the last picture you can see lines up it from when I had marked it with a pencil and then erased it. Made it look much more uniform. I also added a resistor in between the tach and the meter fuse line in the dash so hopefully my tach will finally work. I had put a resistor in before but I put it in the wrong place so let's hope it works. Oh and now my wipers fuse is going off so I need to figure out where the short is happening, other than that all my lights work, including the blinkers which I finally got to work since the switch came.

Scaxx

Well it snowed here for the first time since I got my original miata 3+ years ago. Well I guess it's snowed since then but it's been shitty snow, it was 2-3 inches the other day (I know that's like nothing for some people). Brad tackled it like a complete champ with the snow tires and lift. Car was super predictable and we went and found some open parking lots for shenanigans. Lots of fun was had. Of course the snow is already gone since it's Seattle, but it was fun while it lasted.

No real updates on anything other than that. Engine has been at the machine shop for about a month now but I was told it was gonna be a wait so I'm not too concerned. Plus it's a machine shop so who knows how long it'll actually be. Just hoping to have the car running by April. If I can get the engine back around March that's completely possible. So I guess let's just hope it doesn't take them four months haha




Confused chicken is confused

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

Atleast you got to enjoy some time in the snow!

Scaxx

Well the semester finished on friday, sure am glad to be done with that one. I got some carbide bits for eating through aluminum, not really that exciting but whatever, they're nice for welding cast stuff. My girlfriend also printed our sounding rocket nozzle design, it's half the size. A lot of work went into that nozzle so I'm pretty proud of it. We also had a tour of Paccar's technical center up in Mt. Vernon, really cool place. Hoping I can get a job or internship there after school, they seem to like people that have automotive experience and I may have a couple hours here or there.

Other than that I ordered, or rather my parents ordered a bunch of stuff for the blue car (since it's going to them). I need to get my girlfriends mustang out of the driveway but after that I can pull the smurf around and start working on it. Nothing too crazy as far as parts, mostly just maintenance stuff. Although I did get a supermiata 1.6 flywheel and a stock clutch so that should be kinda fun.

Scaxx

Long update, also some of the pictures are being wonky and sideways right now, hopefully then un-wonk (?) themselves. Been a somewhat busy winter break, family friends, the holidays, all that ****. This week I finally got to really crack down on the projects. Now the good things is, it hasn't been raining this week. Instead what that means is that its ******* 30* outside. I know, I know, the midwest folk have it much worse, but that **** still sucks to work in. Been freezing my damn *** off every day.

Started off the break by bringing the engine inside and cleaning it off. I then did the clutch and weighed the whole assembly with the old flywheel and new one. Good chunk of weight gone (scale is off by 2-3 lb high).





Then I moved the blue miata into the driveway, and that's when the holidays started to hit and the workflow slowed down.
Lots of miatas!


For the holidays I got some car related stuff. On the top of my list was some air dam plastic for well...making an air dam. Also got a quick release for the wheel so I can be like the cool kids and hang my wheel from the mirror or hang it out the window while I drive down the highway with my vape. In all honesty, I'm trying to get one of my buddies to pay for a tubing bender if I build him a cage or a tube front end and that way I can build myself a cage, at that point, I'll need the quick release. Also got a 4"-2" reducer and I'm gonna play around with it in a special exhaust tip to see if I can't quiet my exhaust down for the street. It'll be easily removable, not sure if it'll work or not but I wanna try at least. And last I got some Hella projectors since I got rid of the pop ups but I still want headlights. Don't really have any pictures of the stuff I'm realizing now, except for the air dam material.


Oh and then my buddy dropped by and decided we were gonna make a pulse jet out of some spare material he had kicking around one day. The steel was .03" so it was a bit of a challenge to weld at points where he didn't bend it well enough and there was a gap but I managed to not butcher it. Pulse jet was loud.

Then my rear brake on brad decided to seize on the way back from the parts store. Smelled brakes about a block from my house, got to my house and they were smoking....yay. If you look closely you can see it


Owner that had the blue car before me made some....uh....interesting choices. Not really sure why he removed the gas tank but he did, so I went and picked up a new one from a dude parting out a miata. He also decided he was gonna drill some spot welds around the gas tank cover area, but he ******* drilled them will a drill and just punched through both sheets. I guess he'd never heard of a spot weld drill He also made some interesting electrical choices. For instance, the miata has a fob that can pop the trunk, it has an automatic antenna, electric door locks, and he converted it to electric windows with some ******* device instead of just getting electric window regulators. I have a feeling I'm gonna wanna shoot myself with the wiring situation at some point. Whatever though, hopefully, it doesn't give my parents too many problems since at the end of the day, they're getting the car.

Like I said, it's bloody cold outside and there's ******* snow on the cars. My hands are like rocks but they're getting used to it, been spending about 6 hours outside and 4-6 in the garage every day this week. Also, the jack isn't actually supporting the car in the picture, it's just sitting there for when I had to jack it up again. This was when I was doing the gas tank


Then in true mt.net fashion, I put the engine and trans into the car.


The racing beat header looks nice in the engine bay, kinda excited to start the car up


This is where I'm at currently. Cooling system is together, whole drivetrain is connected, some of the electronics are connected. Hydraulics are connected. The biggest part left is getting the rest of the electronics connected, homie decided to cut some **** when he was taking the engine out. I swear, some people should just not be let anywhere near wires. He also did a reverse wire tuck where he pulled all the wiring out of the places that mazda tucked it from the factory so that it's ALL out in the engine bay. ******* drives me nuts when I see clutter like that but it's going to have to wait till it's not freezing out. Other than that the engine bay is looking decent, gonna fab an aluminum cold side intake for it as well.


Here's where the projectors are sitting, I was gonna try to fit a set of high beams as well but I'm contemplating just doing low beams and calling it good. I'm thinking of making brackets for some lights to go in the brake ducts for street driving if I'm taking it on a road trip or something. Still undecided on that, have some led 1" turn signals coming though that'll go in the corner of the turn signal housing.


And last but not least, and not miata related, but I saw this a couple blocks from my place. I realize this isn't a mustang forum but this car kinda holds a special place in my heart since it was literally the car that got me into cars all those years ago. Wanted and thought I was gonna own a mustang for years until highschool when my dad's old stories of the lightweight British cars won me over. Anyway, it's a2000 SVT Cobra R. 1 of 300 made. Even though it's not in perfect shape I don't care, I had to get out and take some pictures of it. The little kid in me playing gran turismo 3 couldn't resist.


Overall winter break has been pretty decent, I'm hoping to have the blue miata ready to run by the end of break so I can fab an exhaust for it during spring break and then my parents can have it. Should have the headlights finished up by the end of break as well and then I need to pick up some birch for an undertray so I can also make the air dam. I'm thinking just an undertray right now since I don't have the budget for a wing until I get a decent job and a splitter alone is just gonna give me more oversteer. Also, can't remember if it was who it was that mentioned anxiety after finishing engineering senior year but I think I already see what you mean, I had nightmares of not finishing homework or showing up late to a test for a week after break started. It was super weird, I'd wake up in the middle of the night absolutely panicked, never had that before.

RalliartRsX

I love those Cobra Rs and it is one of only a few American Iron vehicles I would ever consider owning . Remember those from the Dave Coleman days with a test against the Elise 111!