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Sunday was dedicated to insulating the tunnel. I ended up turning the U shaped Mazda part into an L. Much fiddling, trimming, and the like. It's held to the tunnel by M5 rivnuts which extend into the tunnel, providing a 1/4" or so gap in places. I folded over as many edges as I could, which improved the overall stiffness. No way I could have done this with the transmission in the car. Not sure how much it'll do to keep temps down, but it's worth a shot.
I reconnected the steering shaft and that's about it. Next up is the engine.
may want to put some silicone on the other side of the rivnuts to keep water out.
Great looking project! I couldn't imagine moving the entire garage. Yikes.
Do you have anyone for Haltech tuning? If not, try Z-Car garage in SJ when you're all set. The owner is a Spec Miata racer and they do tuning for a lot of high dollar race cars and street cars. Hoping I can get my SR20 powered car running Haltech 750 down to them.
I bought another Miata. '96 with 123k. Body rough, interior decent, drivetrain decent, suspension shot. This will be my "driving around" Miata. I forgot how much fun these are stock. This one has all the options except leather, so it should have the Torsen. On the drive home from Oakland, I dubbed her "Blinky" because the left headlight kept bouncing around. I was almost afraid I'd get pulled over for pretending to be a cop or something. Turns out one of the bushings on the headlight arm was completely missing. Easy fix with a part from the '94. The name is a good laugh - "Project Blinky" amuses me because this car is clearly not Death's horse (ref Project Binky).
And finally, the engine has gone into the '94. I only put one scratch into the firewall paint, I didn't smash the FPR gauge, and all the clearances I adjusted were adequate. It just needing a bit of lifting from underneath to get the driver's side bolt to slide home.
Of course, during the course of this project and the move one of the long engine mount bolts went missing. I spent too long searching for it, so I got out my thread gauge and then measured the bolt. I'm standing there thinking "M12x1.25, 90mm long.. wait, I bought some big 90mm bolts I didn't use". Sure enough, I had four. So I used two of those. After finding those, I was looking for a different bolt (NPT plugs, actually) and picked up a bag that, of course, contained the missing bolt.
Great looking project! I couldn't imagine moving the entire garage. Yikes.
Do you have anyone for Haltech tuning? If not, try Z-Car garage in SJ when you're all set. The owner is a Spec Miata racer and they do tuning for a lot of high dollar race cars and street cars. Hoping I can get my SR20 powered car running Haltech 750 down to them.
Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier. I haven't nailed down a tuner yet. Do you know if Z-Car has Haltech experience? I've touched base with 18psi, and have been suggested Jai at Blacktrax, and now Z-Car.
Originally Posted by Zed.
Sir TP would be proud
Rich.
Thank you! Yes, the levels of wordplay amuse me. See also Blinky the three-eyed fish from The Simpsons (when they were good). There's going to be an orange fish somewhere on the car at some point.
Originally Posted by Wingman703
How's the valve cover to hood clearance? I've seen it being a 50/50 shot on weather it rubs without body spacers or a shaved valve cover.
That test fit is a long way off. I have the shaved valve cover waiting to go on. I'm hoping that's enough, I'd really rather not go spacers.
My dog really likes the new Miata. He's a good boy.
I'm building the world's most expensive oil pressure sensor solution. It starts with this fitting, which turns the 1/8 BSPT oil pressure sensor port into a 37 degree flare, which while technically not exactly an AN fitting, is close enough. There's also a fitting that goes from 37 degree flare to a 1/8 NPT female. I've already got the fancy Honeywell pressure sensor for fuel, it makes sense to me to run the same one for oil pressure, since I'm not using the Miata dash. I'll mount the sensor to the body and run a line to the block. It's better than having a big honking sensor hanging off what I'm sure will be a very shaky engine.
Fits perfectly and even comes with a neat little cover...
I'm attaching things to the engine now. Intake manifold is on, plenty of clearance to the ABS lines. I couldn't even begin to find a sane way to get a torque wrench on the bolts, so they're just on there as best I can. 16 ft-lbs isn't a lot of torque. I've started laying down wires so I can get an idea of routing and start measuring. I need to place an order tonite to get the coolant hoses so I can factor them into the wire routing.
Here's a better look at the ABS plumbing. I tried fitting the brake vacuum hose, but I don't like that it almost kinks coming off the booster. Has anyone come up with a good routing or alternative part? I'd like to keep the check valve too if I could.
I made a quick-and-dirty block off plate for the IAC. 1/8" aluminum bar, holes punched in it, a smear of Permatex gray. Done.
In other news, I'm pretty sure I lost the little 90-degree bracket that goes between the end of the transmission and the PPF. The local junk yards are devoid of Miatas right now, so that's a problem for another day though.
For the brake booster on my car I used the oem line that goes from the booster to the metal hardline on the firewall. I shortened the miata hardline and used a section of hose that came attached to the oem intake manifold on my K24.
Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier. I haven't nailed down a tuner yet. Do you know if Z-Car has Haltech experience?
Definitely have experience w/ Haltech. They are also a dealer. Larry Chen featured them on a segment as they cleaned up and tuned his SR20DET powered 240Z that is running - Haltech.
they are super busy though. The owner is an active Spec Miata and Vintage racer. They also help w/ dyno time for lots of area shops - like Canepa.
If you are talking about the piece with 2 holes to bolt to the end of the tranny and a threaded hole for the third hole in the PPF, I have an extra for you. Maybe someone you know is going to Sonoma next Wednesday night I can give it to them. Lots of SJ folks there.
If you are talking about the piece with 2 holes to bolt to the end of the tranny and a threaded hole for the third hole in the PPF, I have an extra for you. Maybe someone you know is going to Sonoma next Wednesday night I can give it to them. Lots of SJ folks there.
Yep, that's exactly the part. Unfortunately I don't know anyone headed there for next Wednesday.
Friends are running in the NHRA Nationals this weekend, are you going? I expect it'll be a zoo, but I've never been and I've got an excuse.
I will be avoiding whine country for the weekend, yep a zoo. If you are in Sonoma on a weekend (a different weekend) I could drop it off one morning. Otherwise any Wednesday night that we are racing will work. I'm not too far from the track either.
I spent quite a bit of time this weekend laying out the wiring harness. It's not done but the layout is neat and organized. I also put the crank pulley on and tightened everything there to spec.
For fun, I put the SuperMiata BX11 brake kit on. It's about as easy as changing rotors. I had only a little bit of an issue getting the bolts to thread in freely. Tolerances are tight. It just meant keeping bolts evenly loose as I tightened them. No need for shims, everything seems to be nicely lined up and the pads just drop in.
Absolutely massive amounts of clearance inside my 15x9 Konig Dial-In.
Too tired to post photo update, but I’m making progress. And yet this was the weekend of breaking things. After carefully shortening the oil cooler lines for the new engine, I made the mistake of trying to thread a M22 fitting in on with the cooler in place. I cross threaded it of course. Despite efforts to save it, I’m pretty sure it’s FUBAR. Then tonite I was trying to bend the arm on the accelerator pedal and snapped one of the doohickeys that does the magnetic bit of the position sensing. Ugh.
I'm frustrated at the poor decision-making of my predecessors on a project at work, so I decided to take some time to goof off and update.
This picture is now out-of-date, but after some consideration, I decided I didn't need the battery all the way in the damn trunk. And while I'm at it... It's now a LiFePO4 8-cell, non-BMS battery in the engine bay. I made the aluminum mount myself. I do tech for NASA NorCal and with both HPDE and race cars, some of the stupidest stuff we find is with battery mounting and terminal protection. So I spent some time making this mount good. The battery itself weighs as much as the wire that used to run from the original battery to the fuse box. 3lbs, according to my bathroom scale.
In my quest to measure ALL THE THINGS, I wanted an oil temperature sensor. After much gnashing of teeth and analysis paralysis, I decided to say screw it to trying to find a 1/8 NPT oil temperature sensor that wasn't proprietary and expensive. So I took my cheap sandwich plate adapter and drilled it out for the far-more-common 3/8 NPT size and slammed a standard, cheap GM sensor in there. Job done.
I happened to have approximately the right-sized drill bit in my inventory, but it was a cheap thing I picked up at a yard sale. It had probably never been used and didn't want to cut aluminum. I'm obsessive about sharp drill bits, but at >1/2", it was bigger than my Drill Doctor (which is only satisfactory at its job) could handle. So I free-hand sharpened it and it cut through the aluminum like it wasn't even there. I'm no pro, but everyone should know how to sharpen a drill bit by hand.
I've gotten the exhaust installed. It was a tight, tight fit. I had to file off some of the slave cylinder mounting pads on the 6-speed in order to get the pipe to fit. The rear brake line runs awfully close to the exhaust, even after I bent it away some. I'll have to insulate that. The exhaust clears the inner axle joint by approximately the thickness of a zip tie. That's close.
Finally, I put together my DBW pedal solution. I was going to use a Honda Fit pedal, but it wasn't feeling right. The pedal spring was way too tight, the motion would have left the pedal far off the floor at WOT, and the mounting position was wonky. After a nice evening with a neighbor tasting Japanese whiskey, añjeo mezcal, and Paradiso tequila, I made the mistake of tackling the pedal problem. I tried to bend the metal pedal arm, but instead snapped off one of the all-important sensor ears. Damn. So I went in another direction. If you're following Project Binky, they recently put a DBW pedal in their car and when they were explaining why they chose a Subaru Legacy pedal, it ticked every single box I had in mind for my pedal. So I bought one on eBay. It's perfect. Metal mounting bracket, adjustable spring tension via two exposed springs that can be easily swapped, metal arm. And unlike the Honda part, it looks like it might be possible to remove the metal arm without destroying the thing. The pedal swing is much more stock-like and ends up stopping just short of the floor, thanks to the bracket I made. My bracket is not up to Binky standards, but it'll do.
Yes, this was stick welded by a near-complete novice. It's ugly, I'm ashamed of the blow-outs, but it gets the job done. And that little flange I folded in the 1/16" steel added so much stiffness!
Here's where the pedal ends up. I'll take another picture later after I've hit the monstrosity with some paint and nipped off the little M6 stud that's in the way. And reinstalled the brake pedal. The pedal is a little too far inboard for easy heel-and-toe, but I'm going to kick that can down the road. Job done, giving me one more of the remaining hard points that I needed to define for my wiring harness.
That's all for today folks. More updates the next time I feel like slacking off...
07-06-2021, 10:21 PM
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