RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

Thanks! We'll be having some events this summer that should be worth driving up this way for.

I picked up a Ryobi 6" DA from Home Depot Friday afternoon, definitely worth the $25 I spent on it. Messed with it a little today and got most of the swirls and scratches out of the hood. If I had more time I would have done a more thorough job, and the rest of the car. But I remember why I haven't bought a black car in so long. lol

Yesterday Doppelgänger modified the plastic front bumper support so now there's barely a gap between the hood and the bumper, it improved the look a lot.

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

Haven't updated this in over a year, no boost (or V8) yet so it's largely uninteresting for this group. lol Going to stitch some updates together:

My previous plans changed a little bit, I got engaged to my g/f of almost 7 years now this past December, so we're shopping for a house, planning a wedding, and all that good stuff. The car has gotten some new toys but the LSx plans were put on hold. I decided that I'll keep this car as a reliable daily until after we get settled and then get something else for a daily/backup so then I can turn it into a toy.

Last July the stock radiator let go, so I snagged a great deal from someone on here on a used PWR:





In August, I got a Beatrush PPF Brace from a local friend:



Makes a noticeable difference, mostly on launches, and there's also a little more gear noise transmitted into the cabin, but that's ok by me.

I coordinated a group buy on some Hard Dog roll bars for our local Miata forum and ordered one for myself to replace the old rollbar:







I invited everyone over to my house for a tech day/install meet because of our roll bar order and we installed 5 or 6 roll bars and got various projects done on other Miatas, not to mention just having a great time:

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

Then in September I snagged a pair of the Morimoto Mini H1 Bi-xenon projectors to start a retrofit, like the setup being sold on another forum, but I like doing my own work:





In the meantime, the whine from this new coldside charger is much different than I expected, it did purr at idle though. Unfortunately power delivery was completely unchanged, so I uninstalled it.



We had a meet at R-Speed in October and I bought a set of I.L. Motorsport pedals:



In December I got a black MSM rear view mirror:



I also got a pair of MSM door sills. The stainless on the sills helps break up some of the solid black of the interior, I like them a lot better than I thought I would.



Over my Christmas vacation from work I finished the headlight retrofit:







The HID bulbs were progressively getting bluer as I used them which I didn't like (I ordered 5000k and ended up with about 10000k, lol), so I pulled them (cheapy eBay kit) in favor for the Morimoto 4300 HIDs :




I was gifted a D-Technique center console kit in exchange for some work, very few of these in the US from what I've read. Makes the interior feel a lot more roomy and overall I enjoy it a lot. Now my elbow doesn't have to fight with the center console. I lost the mounting point for my ScanGaugeII, which I enjoy having, so I'm going to have to figure something out there.



I've also been silently accumulating parts to turbo the car on an extreme budget, I've missed boost like crazy, and some good deals have come along:



So far I have:
- MSM manifold, turbo, and downpipe elbow (very low mileage parts)
- MSM water pump inlet
- MSM turbine brace
- Stock 99-00 "downpipe"
- Enthuza Turbo XR Lightweight from an MSM
- Walbro 190lph fuel pump
- Supra Green Top injectors
- FM Happy Meal w/ Level 1 Clutch Kit and 10.3lb flywheel (lightly used, about 3-4,000 miles)
- MSM engine mounts
- FM Silicone Intercooler Pipes

The MSM turbo assembly bolts up to the stock 99-00 downpipe as seen and lets me retain my existing exhaust and the XR bolts up to the midpipe normally as well. So from the downpipe back I'll have my RoadsterSport midpipe and the XR, all 2.5". I'm going to send the turbine housing to BEGi to get the wastegate ported to prevent boost issues.

Right now I only have a little over $500 total invested in the system, mostly due to receiving parts for working on other people's cars. At this point I need an 01-05 EGR pipe, intercooler, and something for engine management. Should be ready to install after that. I hate to say it but I'll probably go with a piggyback of some sort. Not going to be running a ton of boost on a turbo this small and I need to stay OBDII compliant, so a standalone isn't currently fitting the bill and no one has really gotten a parallel setup running consistently without a CEL that I know of. Myabe that will have changed when I'm ready to install this stuff. Regardless I won't have to fight with the ECU as badly as MSM owners do.

The goal is to make around the same power as the MSM owners do with intake, injector, exhaust, and intercooler upgrades. So I guess just a hair over 200rwhp, anything better is icing on the cake. Granted this won't be as powerful as my red NA was but it will be a ton more fun than n/a and will hold me over until I can put an LS in this car.

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

Snagged a great deal on a Daikei hub and a Momo wheel:



I finally got another 3-point brace. Had one of these on my NA and it made a noticeable difference, it did on this car too, completely eliminated the tiny bit of 60-mph shimmy that was present and made the steering tighter and more precise:



Just because I take pictures of just about every project I do or part I install, I was going to take a picture of the 3.9 TorSen I picked up, but I realized it was pretty dirty (not caked oil, just normal accumulated grime from life on the road), and everyone who knows me knows I'm OCD about installing clean parts. Out came the degreaser...





Much better! :lol:

So then I decided to slam my car...

































Just kidding, had to pick up the rear and with the help of a good friend we pulled my 4.3 TorSen and got my 3.9 TorSen installed, not much to show here, just the "old" vs. the "new":



And a shot of the 3.9 carrier hanging in its new home:



Meanwhile, my friend's idea of helping was creating towers with sockets while the diff., PPF, ladder brace, and assorted other tools all fell on my face:



I kid, he helped a lot and I'm lucky since I asked for help at the last minute. Definitely appreciated! We knocked the job out in just a little over 5 hours, had a few stubborn bolts and those pesky PPF pieces, but no major issues thankfully. We got done, took it for a test drive, and while I was enjoying the lower RPMs we heard a horrible rattle. Got it back home, turns out I left the trunk unlatched. Oh well, that's what you get for being tired sometimes.

I also finally got around to replacing the windshield, it had a crack in it that was starting to grow. New glass is awesome! It's almost as if the glass really isn't there.



I decided to trim a convertible boot I had to clear the rollbar, much cleaner look IMO:



I got jealous of the Carbing tow hooks I put on a friend's NA Miata, plus some people kept asking why I hadn't deleted the "baby teeth" yet, so I got myself some hooks as well, although a less expensive option from RennenMetal. I have done business with him before and as always the customer service is top notch. For whatever reason the first shipment attempted never made it to me and the tracking information never updated from "shipped" so he immediately sent another set to me using a different shipping company. Don't get that level of service much anymore.

Anyway, onto the quick pictures:





The rear hook is bent specifically to clear the MSM rear lip and does require drilling one hole for installation (easy though):



And that's where things are currently...

jyoo

Dang that a CLEAN daily ! I hope I can find one in that condition soon.

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

So almost 3 years since I've updated this. I've had the car for 4 years now and resisted the urge to seriously modify it. I've done some things here and there:
- Pieced together an 11" Wilwood BBK for a fraction of the retail price, doing this at the same time that the 11.75" kit came out helped a lot.
- Swapped around a few intake and exhaust setups
- Installed a BP5A intake cam
- Did a few interior/comfort mods (Eclipse vents, radio/speakers, RevLimiter gauges, etc.)
- Installed FM frame rails
- Removed the Bilstein PSS coilovers in favor of a Tein Flex 9/6kg setup

In late 2012 I was stopped in a right turn only lane and the driver in front of me decided to throw his truck in reverse to go straight instead. He ended up parking the back end of his truck on my hood. Claimed he couldn't see me but I could see his face clearly in two of his mirrors. Regardless, I ultimately ended up with enough money to get a full repair/repaint + a hardtop, so it all worked out.

After all that, I've mostly just driven it to and from work and whatnot. However, one evening not too long ago I was discussing V8 swaps with my wife and how I had basically written one off for a couple years when she surprised me and told me that I should just install a turbo for the meantime. I didn't give her a chance to change her mind.

I've pieced together quite a few "budget" kits and while I thought about going that route again, I realized this time I wanted new parts and didn't want to take the time to chase parts down, so I ordered a kit directly from FM. Since my car was used as a test mule by DIYAutoTune for the 99-00 MSPnP Gen2 I decided to get one of those as well. In the meantime I'm utilizing a Voodoo box and enjoying 8psi (don't kill me). It has its limits but it does work well for this power level and it plays well with the stock ECU so I can have boost and pass yearly OBDII emission checks. The MS is going in as soon as I have a chance to order larger injectors and have the time to properly tune it.

So over the course of two weekends, I pulled the engine/transmission, did the timing belt and seals, installed a lightly used FM Happy Meal, MSM engine mounts, and installed the turbo kit. The related project pictures follow.

Last shot of the "before" engine bay:



After getting the engine out, the first order of business was removing the old exhaust manifold studs, a few put up a fight, but that didn't last long:



New vs. old (new from MiataRoadster):



New studs installed and torqued:



Started working on the timing belt and such, front of the engine was still a bit dirty:



So I cleaned it up, it helps seeing when something might be wrong. I also coated the cam gears:



New timing belt and seals installed and the covers reinstalled, along with new MSM engine mounts:



Cleaned up and coated the upper half of the subframe, it had some missing coating which had surface rusted, along with the entrance to the transmission tunnel. Can't always see it, but it's there:



Meanwhile I got the hotside parts ceramic coated, more so for long term aesthetics:









Installed the manifold:



And then hung the turbo:



Stage 8 & inconel hardware between the manifold and turbo and and Nord-Lock washers for the rest:



This is the FM coldside piping with their prototype Throttle Body Inlet Elbow. The IAT port and blow-off/bypass valve are all integrated into the silicone pipe. There's a short 3" coupler in between the lower pipe and elbow:



IAT port, will come in handy when the MS goes in:



Slightly used FM Happy Meal going in, starting with the 10.3 lb flywheel:



The rest of the clutch:



All buttoned up and ready to install in the engine bay:



Engine in the bay:



Hotside all buttoned up. I splurged for the FM hardlines with the kit and also got the Fab9 COP kit:



Everything installed along with an AutoEXE brace. This brace has the brake master cylinder stopper on it, which I had rewelded to the correct location for USDM cars and it makes a noticeable difference:



Also got my FM Shroud and SPAL fans installed, I also linked the trigger wires so no matter which fan is coming on both fans run:



Front bumper trimmed for the intercooler piping and installed, the Fab9 intercooler is black and hides very well in the mouth. It is more visible in person but still pretty well hidden:



One thing I definitely want to tackle is adding more shrouding so the heat exchangers are as efficient as possible. The car is in no danger of overheating in general daily driving or long drives or even Mitty parade laps, but I know it can be better.

All of this was done in time for The Mitty, so my car got to hang out at the FM tent with Whiskers, the Catfish kit car:



That's it for now. Heck of a long update, thanks for reading if you made it!

18psi

iTrader: (76)

that's GREAT man, glad you boosted this one too

and if the doodoo box is just temporary I think we can all "look the other way"

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

EPIC update, was not expecting that. I should reach through the monitor and slap you for the doodoo box, but it's clear a proper EMS is in the works so I'll let it slide.

Car looks fan ******* tastic!

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

lol Thanks guys! I'll consider myself properly chastised. Once the MS is in and set the Voodoo will only be in the car when the stock ECU is, so I can pass emissions and renew my tags.

Proof of existence:

XxxMonoxideChild

I love the cut valve cover. And that Autoexe is just the cherry on top.