Mazduh

Did a few things today. Car is starting to look like her old self again...

Swapped the MSM tail lights to the NB and MSM trunk.

Mazduh

Does anyone know if I can take the MSM's window switch that has the quickpress button that lowers the driver's side windows all the way without holding it. Put it in the 99, and have the same feature? The 99 does not have this.

I also discovered/realized the 99 doesn't come with a gaslight. Mileage is almost the same on the clusters, do you guy's think if I swap the MSM cluster into the 99 the gas light will function? Or is there more too it than that?

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

Yes but it's pinned backwards. Repin the connector.

Mazduh

That rollbar I picked up a while ago that was powdercoated an ugly purple. I roughed it up a little bit and painted it silver.



Primer



Picked up GM Silver, the photo doesn't do it justice. Also painted the harness bar.

Mazduh

I wanna give a member on the m-s.com forums, Hox, a big thank you for hooking me up with a free used pair of Garagestar door bushings. Installed them 5 minutes after opening the mail. The doors are definitely harder to close now, it took some adjusting to get them to sit perfect. But it's actually not bad that I need to slam the door now, it's not like my gf will mind since she's always slamming the door on the miata anyways. ;D





Initial impressions are positive. Like I mentioned, the doors are definitely harder to close now. I have to close the door pretty hard, but I haven't noticed what other's have said about it causing the door to misalign a little with the car. Looks and seals fine. When the car goes over bumps now, it might be placebo, but it feels more solid. Not really sure how to describe it, just has a more solid feel to the car. I wouldn't say it's as dramatic as when I installed FM rails on the MSM. But these definitely are helping something on the 99. The doors don't have any play anymore when closed. Not that I think they did before, but with the door closed it just feels strong. I dunno, take that for what it's worth lol.



I'll take, what is the quickest way to ruin a C7 Corvette for $500 Trebek.

Mazduh

Made some progress over the long weekend. Got the suspension pulled off the MSM and swapped over to the 99. Process went extremely well and I got most of it done in 3-4 hours. The plan is to put the stock nb suspension back on the MSM chassis so I can still move it around when needed. But I'll get to that another weekend.





Seriously impressed with this car every time I work on it. The stock suspension came off the 99 so easily, i barely had to use my impact gun. I only had trouble with one of the upper strut nuts in the truck, I almost managed to round off the edges but managed to get the bolt loose before having real trouble. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't succeed, that's quite a difficult place to get any tools to do anything.



Not sure if this is normal or not, but I never adjusted or touched the height adjustment of the coilovers when they were on the MSM. I just moved them over. But when everything was said and done and i lowered the 99 off the jackstands. It sat practically 4x4 compared to the MSM. I had to lower the coilovers a whole inch to get the car to sit at the height that I wanted. I didn't think there would be that drastic of a difference but I guess I was wrong.


Right now the front is about a quarter in too low for my taste and the rear is about a quarter inch too high. I'll adjust accordingly when I get some time. I usually run a 12" height in front from wheel center to fender and a 12.25" height in rear.


Went to Kalamazoo MI to visit some friends this weekend.

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Good progress Phil.

Mazduh

Bossfrog sent me a care package for my rollbar. Since the previous hardware that came with the bar was all rusted and corroded to **** I decided new coat of paint and new hardware was in order.

I'm trying to decide if I want to try and install the bar before the car goes in storage next month or wait till spring.

Lokiel

When swapping shocks, you really need to let them "settle" a few days. I've swapped 5 MX5 shocks now and they all got progressively lower over the next few days. Now I wouldn't spend too much time "dicking around" with ride height after the installation, I'd wait a couple of days after driving the car a bit and set the ride height then.

Mazduh

Even when they're used shocks? I thought that really only applied when they were new.

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

When you put them in did you torque down your a-arms when they had a load on them? Otherwise, your bushings are acting as springs themselves.

Mazduh

Well yeah. I used a jack to load up the lower control arm and then tightened things up. But even then so, that shouldn't effect the actual height of the car if you're measuring from the wheel hub to the fender edge.

Meh, regardless, I just readjusted the coilovers and it's fine now. I honestly believe something on the chassis might have been tweaked or bent on the MSM since I always had trouble having the same height on each side of the car. Even on completely flat ground I always had to balance the passenger side about a quarter inch difference from the driver's side to sit at an equal measurement without me in the car.

Mazduh

So I've decided to sell off the turbo setup from the MSM. I just sold my ms2e in 6 hours of posting it on facebook to another MSM owner. The turbo setup I have a local buddy interested so he'll likely be picking it up off me.

That funds me $2100 to source a new turbo setup for the 99. I'm keeping the MSM motor to sit on a stand in my garage for a while and slowly build it over time. So that goes on the backburner for now.

I can probably throw another couple hundred dollars out of pocket into the money pool so let's say I have a $2500 budget to source a manifold, turbo, downpipe for the 99. I can build the oil/water lines myself and figure out an intake and intercooler pipe setup later. I already have a mismatch of ic piping and intake piping from other projects laying around, or I might just have my buddy make me something down the road. But for right now, the priority will be sourcing a nice turbo/mani/dp over the winter.

What do you guy's recommend? I realize a $2500 budget isn't enough for an efr setup, plus I think that's sort of overkill. My goal is to build a reliable 220-230hp setup on the stock motor for now that later on I could crank up to 250-260hp on a built motor. I'm not looking to make 300+ hp. It will be a street driven car with probably around 6-7 track days a season and some autox weekend toy.

The FMII setup looks to be the most reliable and tried and true setup, but I'm willing to look at other options or sit around and find something used for a deal. I'm thinking a Garret 2560r will be more than enough for my needs.

I've got my eye on the MKturbo stuff, but I'm not sure about how to buy since I believe it's just a group buy atm. I'd prefer to be able to put in an order and have stuff ship soon. I shot a pm over to shuiend with some questions.

Thoughts/opinions would be appreciated.

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

I sent you a response. I honestly think going with a TSE setup will be the best long term for you since you want to track the car.

2manyhobyz

iTrader: (4)

Phil, tell us about the 16G that was on there. Pros/cons. I thought spool up was supposed to be pretty good. I was thinking about turbos off Volvos, Saabs, something that is known for fast spool but has a larger displacement motor to offset the fact it will need to spool around 18-20 psi max. Maybe the Ecoboost turbo from a 2.3ltr mustang. We have an opportunity to think a little outside the box for quick spool and mid-range torque.

Mazduh

I could post more information on it if the BNR website wasn't under construction atm and I don't have any info on hand. I don't really have any spool data or anything on hand. I really have no idea how well this turbo works since I only had it on the MSM for 2 weeks before the crash. I never got a chance to run more then wastegate pressure or even get to a dyno. From what I understand it's kind of a unicorn turbo because I've not seen anyone else run it yet, besides the bigger evoIII 16g BNR offers.

I've decided to sell it since I figure I can find a better flowing manifold and downpipe setup. Those both would be the choke points of this setup. Though I do believe I could easily reach my goals with this setup, I just want to opt for a cleaner configuration then sticking with the OEM MSM stuff.

I have had the idea to get a custom manifold and downpipe made for this turbo that matches the stock MSM IHI flange, but then I'd be paying out of pocket vs. recycling this setup to afford something else.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Uh, yes it is

Trackspeed EFR Turbo Manifold 1.8L

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

+$500 for down pipe, +$129 for Inconel studs + shipping and handling, so a little over what he wants to spend. BUT I totally think the TSE setup is the way he should go even if he has to save up a bit long and goes over budget.

Mazduh

I totally forgot last time the MSM was running I had all water in the radiator with zero coolant. It's getting colder here and dipping down to almost zero at night. So I slapped a few things together to get it to idle so I can add a bottle of coolant to the radiator and circulate it through the motor before the freeze.

While I did so I played around with the slowmo feature on my new phone. I dunno thought it would be cooler then it really is.



Sadly this will probably be the last time this motor runs before coming out of the car and sitting in the back corner of my garage for some time.

Mazduh

I'm not posting it here since I'd rather sell local then ship everything. But the complete turbo setup off my MSM from the manifold/turbo/downpipe to intake etc is for sale Asking $1500 firm. Just PM me for more info, I'm mostly just posting it around facebook.