One of the Build Threads Of All Time - NB
 

Heyo, finally making a build thread. Been too lazy to sit down and actually try and remember all ive done to this car and the 4 others I owned. Lets get those out of the way really quickly.

1.OCT 2022 1990 miata, 170k ish miles, bought for 4k stanced to the ground. Bought with a "small radiator leak" but ended up being a full waterpump and timing belt job. This car threw me into the deep end of mechanical work and was textbook hotboy lack of maintenance. Racelands, horrible interior, straightpipe, and trainhorns.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc4b3f892.jpeg
It overheated so bad it shut off multiple times driving home. Had it 4 months, did my best with it but ultimately sold it for 4500. absolute pos.

2. Feb 26 2023 - 1994 (?) miles . Got this car for around 3400$, was sold as an M edition and with a hardtop. Didnt know much about miatas and their trims, engines, much atp, drove an hour or two from where I sold the previous na, and bought this. It started dancing with the temp gauge on the way home about 30 mins in. "no problems" Wouldnt idle when it would start. Got it home, looked it over more trying to figure out why it sucked at idling and overheated. Discovered it was a 1.6 swapped 94! Thats just swell. I really like the hardtop in this car, and didnt hate how it looked. Ultimately I sold this quickly for about 3k hardtop included.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cf4fc6676.jpeg

3. March 2nd 2023, first NB! ( I had hated nbs before this) "Why would anyone want an nb, theyre horrible and have no popups!" Little did I know. I had a guy contact me through the listing of the previous Na asking if i wanted to buy a good running miata for 2k, it was at the mechanic for a new main relay. I told him sure, and I went to check it out. Found this dusty ol nb1 where he told me it was, and the mechanic had permission from him to let me test drive it. I immediately loved how smooth it was. It was a great example, minus the extreme rust all over the chassis. Black interior, 200k miles, but ran perfect and was super comfortable. Probably because it was the only miata Ive owned with stock suspension. Either way I loved it. Didnt do much of anything to this car besides maintenance. Sold it April 28th
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bf5c3f0d3.jpeg


4. April 29th 2023. 1995 "midnight purple" Na. this car was special, I bought it and drove it home 13 hours with bucket seats and a straightpipe. Was an interesting drive. This car was great. At some point I had done a maintenance job and never checked base ignition timing. Was running 19 degrees all summer. Definitely contributed to it starting to burn oil I feel. Nothing super crazy that I can recall. It had ugly black wheels I traded for some 97m edition stockies that I LOVED. I still miss them and wish I could get them back from the girl I sold this car to. I didnt know it when I owned this car, but it had a torsen (this is important later) Had a cracked cam cap, and cracked oil pan. sold it because I was tired of the na, and found a "great" nb to get.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...db399c109.jpeg


5. Current Car Nov 22nd 2023. 2002 Nb, base, with convenience package. Drove to arkansas or kansas from texas to get this one the day after I sold the na above. Fell in love with this car. I cared a lot about good paint and oem-ness of a car at this point. I started developing a frontal lobe and opinions on certain things that were and werent for me. Ie: not slammed on racelands. I drove to pick it up, and couldnt find a single issue with it, It had a "new" engine (later found the matching vin on the oil pan, shouldve checked harder ig) pristine black interior, not my favorite wheels but the paint was beautiful as a whole. I got done with the test drive, and decide to check under the small tupp kit for rust. Its bad. It was previously a saint louis car, but the frame rails and under the sills were rusted to hell. I was bummed, I drove 12+ hours to see a car that was supposed pristine. I got about 2 grand off, drove it home, and with a hard to kill "i can learn how to fix it" mentality I got it home.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...75170d6fb.jpeg
Day after I got home with it. They had tried polishing it before I got there and they did a horrible job. Also note the horrible spec D headlights. If spec D has no haters I am dead. I did nothing but random maintenance and personal preference things for a while. First thing I noticed. It had no torsen. I couldnt do fun little donuts or kick the rear end out. This was a big issue for me, because those little hits of happy juices are an addiction. With the help of a friend I welded the differential. (I said the frontal lobe was still developing not that it was fully developed.)

This lead to me hating how the car drove, being terrified that the diff was going to blow up. I bought an open diff, swapped it back in and went on with my life. Happily ever after.
Just joking, After I swapped the open diff in, I found an rx7 clutch type lsd in the junkyard and threw it in after seeing that it would fit. I drove it like that for a bit, but never could get the axle seals to seal. Turns out this was a circlip issue iirc.
Finally after a few months, I found a torsen type 2 with poly mounts near me for 300$!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...444707ec3.jpeg
I could make a whole album of photos just of me having the diff out of this car.
On the way to pickup the differential the bum ass mini cooper s decided it wanted to do what it did best and eat an exhaust valve- --unrelated

During this whole diff fiasco, I painted the wheels white because I love white wheels.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f4e8b426a.jpeg
a good friend of mine in the miata group I made for my town let me know that my door and quarter panel are two different shades, I never got to unsee that. Thank you Jason. I also was perusing the junkyard for fun as one does, when I spotted that wing on a ford focus. I had minimal tools, but it came home with me for $14 total. Already a close enough blue to just mount to my trunk and run it. You'll notice that I am a junkyard demon in due time.

Blah blah blah, painted valve cover, more maintenance, short ram intake rerouted to a hole behind the passenger headlight, putting the filter in the foglight area for maximum coldness.

Once upon a time, idling at a friends house about to leave. I hear a very terrible noise while talking to him outside the car. the noise gets worse, I go to check on it, and before I can get to the car, the harmonic balancer, crank bolt, crank boss, and 2 belts roll out from under the car which is now, not running.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1f53d7674.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d2807a38.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5d1d1a6fd.jpeg
Luckily. Im surgical with this shit. Just kidding. Im not a religious person, but it definitely took some higher power for me to get that out.

Next, time to wrap this thing. Now, my previous car I jumped on largely because of the color. Midnight purple has always been a dream color of mine. But that last car just wasnt midnight purple , if you know what i mean.
Here some photos of the rust under the kit, and prepping for the wrap.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...aabd23ef4.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5229c0ae8.jpeg


Definitely was in a wreck before being a rebuilt oklahoma title, but I had found the old auction photos, and it wasnt very bad.
600$ worth of 3m 2080 High Gloss Flip Deep Space vinyl film, 2 days of gruelling work, and some lack of attention to detail later:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...15af40d72.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...223648133.jpeg

Midnight purple she was. The 3m film was incredibly easy to work with. Having helped a friend wrap his hood in cheap film, you get what you pay for. This film was great to work with, hasnt peeled up a bit, and looks faNTASTIC.
Of course I had to do a little something in the interior to match.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...26fd531c8.jpeg

Very happy with the cars looks at this point. Not so much its bones.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bdf3be423.jpeg

Miata hardtop on my roomates cabriolet e46 m3. fit the width perfectly, matched up great to the top, didnt quite get the length right i suppose.

I realize this is going to be mostly pictures with comments on the pictures for a while, who doesnt love a picture book?
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...80a7a0aa7.jpeg



Here is a horrible photo of the engine bay after some time in my ownership, it was all oversprayed and primered when I had gotten it. I wanted to somewhat do something to get it looking not unkempt.
Yes that is rebar welded to a mount to keep the engine from twisting from all 110 horses it was pushing. And laugh all you want, it made my gates great to slam through. Here is a photo of the glossyness of the vinyl I used. It is beautiful.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cfc71fea4.jpegIIRC at this point in time, im battling a tiny crank wobble, and overheating with the ac on at idle. Also saw my first s15 in person around this time, was beautiful, if its not obvious yet by the badge on my bumper, big fan of those.

Got mishimoto fans and shroud kit to fix the issue! Word of advice. DO. NOT. USE. MISHI-FUCKIN-MOTO. FANS. read that. read it again. now go ahead and read it one more time. God awful fans. I was none the wiser. still overheated.

My first NA had a huge set of train horns, with a large air compressor and 3gallon tank. They would blow your head off. I put some in this car with a small kit from vevor. Was nice to have onboard air for a low tire or small burst of compressed air. Also the train horn of course. I had a lot of nice mods in the interior including a kenwood double din with wireless carplay.
This ended abruptly when my car was stolen from my apartment complex one morning at 7am ish. Joyrided (rode?) by crackheads, who promptly ripped everything out of it (headunit, train horns, compressor/tank, radar detector, dashcam, and since I had previously gone to the junkyard the day before - all of my tools!)
They sold all of this within an hour or two, and decided to take my - mind you- midnight purple 2002 modified miata to a dollar store, and shoot up hero1ne in it. This being as bad as it was, I was glad they were dumb, and I got my car back same day and told to clean it out to make sure it didnt have any needles the police and dea had missed. This was annoying and a setback. To make a long story short on the crackheads. Despite my push for restitution, the DA office after about a year of calling them and communicating. Decided for themselves that they didnt want to go for restitution. The main guy, Zach, had gotten out of jail by the time I had gotten this info. Got rearrested, and then got out again. These were drug related crimes. This annoyance reflected in my voice towards said DA office. Who was promptly let know that him going to jail and getting out got me none of my stuff back and helped me ( the victim) in no way whatsoever. The tools from my machinist uncle who had passed were gone in the wind.

I moved out of my apartment and into a house with a two car garage. This spoiled me. I had accumulated a very full closet of parts. and my uncles old toolbox was passed down to me, missing the tools now mostly.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ea055c0a9.jpeg

Silvia approves of the partially moved in garage.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c0b855f60.jpeg
The bashbar I had previously welded up for fun for my last na bolted right up to my friends nd, also fit under the bumper. Score for him.




This is the end of the first get up to speed post. My Icloud hasnt backed up anything past here and I dont feel like manually moving photos from my phone. Will continue in the morning!

This is unrelated, but this is technically the first vehicle I turboed. A friend got this for $600. it need a radiator, and the interior was disgusting. Went ahead and used a turbo he had lying around. Turned the headers upside down, welded the hell out of it and used the rest of the exhaust to connect the othersides cylinders to the manifold. Made about 4 pounds of boost. Absolutely loved this car.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...449d6e551.jpeg

moved pretty good for an old mercedes wagon.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3594d0ccf.jpeg


It seems we've jumped back to hotboy. Just kidding. I love the reflective tint, I can still see out, but cant see in. This hasnt gotten me in trouble for 8 months, but as of today I got pulled over and told to rip it off or get a citation. The tint is cheaper than the citation.
Cannot remember why or what I traded for this bag setup, but I traded something plus money for a bag setup. Silvers neomaxx super low coils converted to bags. Aliexpress air manifold and controller, and I had a bagged miata. For all of 7 days. It was the most uncomfortable thing Ive ever rode in. The slammed na on racelands rode better. Was very cool though. I had wanted bags because the friend with the aforementioned ND, had showed up to my abode with a bagriders kit, which then got installed.

During the bagriders kit install, I was in the middle of a transmission swap on my car. When I purchased it, the transmission had always sounded like it had straight cut gears. This didnt bother me, but it had developed what sounded like input shaft rattle when my foot wouldnt be touchin the peddle. 5th gear had also started grinding. I found an na trans and threw it in along with a new clutch and lightweight flywheel.

Got this little suede wrap on aliexpress for $4, figured id give it a shot.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...82b31be55.jpeg
Did a bad job, but its holding up, and when I want a new one it was $4.

Got the turbo for the eventual turbo build on march 10th 2025.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...416dfbf5f.jpeg
Went with way too small of a choice.

Changed to some f1r wheels after the aforementioned nd got tboned and i profited some wheels from it. Also decided to leave my oil cap off after chanign the oil and lost that on the highway, along with a lot of oil.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1ce69ae31.jpeg



new non oem oil cap who dis. Also dont ever use that cloth tape on stuff, its a horrible mess for future you. Forgot to mention I got this aluminum rad for my birthday. Didnt solve my overheating issues.

Convinced Nd nerd to buy an nb2 after he sold the wagon. Small lil trip to huntsville and a reckless driving ticket each later ( he said we raced from a light, that our cars can do 150 and hes seen them run, and that we would be losing them) (We were single file leaving that light.)
After getting stopped, the one issue my friends nb2 had that the salesmen let him know, is that it wont hot restart. You cant get it to start again if you turn it off hot. This wouldnt have been an issue, until the officer stopped us and wanted the engine off. After hes done grilling us on the side of a highway outside a sh1th0le profit town, he stood there jabbering while we tried getting the nb2 started. he finally left after 30 mins of trying everything i could possibly think of. 2 hours from initial stop time, we got it started and headed to a pitstop, where someone gave me buckets of oem and aftermaket mazdaspeed miata parts. genuine buckets. A waffle house stop after that and we were home.

A few days later I get a notification of a lifetime. A text notification of a junkyard. This junkyard is in san antonio, i live in lubbock. (6 hour drive) but its a notification that a miata has arrived to their lot. This was good news, but not anything special. It was an nb2, again good news, but nothing crazy. Now a small sliver of the photo uploaded, showed a hardtop on the car. I had to make a decision that night, sleep, get to work on time, and miss potentially a junkyard hardtop for $170?? Sleep is for the weak anyway.
I left town at 2am after sleeping an hour or two, arrived to the junkyard around 8:10am. They opened at 9am. There was two people in line. Long story short. I got a hardtop, oem headlights, and some other odds and ins for about $250.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...72dff42d3.jpeg
Had all strikers, a 2004 oem hardtop with the headliner and trim pieces. This thing was pristine. Not a single scratch or issue.

got back to lubbock around 4:55 with it. Stopped by my house a block or two away from work, then worked from 5- 1 am. It was a long day that one.

Way to save that NB! I prefer the looks of an NA, but the NB is by far the nicer, quieter, more rigid car to drive. When I got my NB it actually blew my mind how quiet and smooth it was. I always knew they were the same chassis so I figured it would be about the same, but definitely not. I always recommend an NB to anyone getting into a miata, they are definitely the sweet spot.

And way to go on that hardtop. A 6 hour trip for "maybe" a hardtop is insane, and I applaud you. That's how life goes though, if you want something you gotta make that shit happen.

A continuation.

On that same hardtop trip i got a pair of oem headlights to swap out my spec d(ogshit)’s installed a slim sub/amp combo in the trunk a few days after, and bought another piece of the turbo puzzle.
what i had been lead to believe was I was getting 1000cc fic injectors from a part car, they were not, they flow tested fine, but i had no data for them. 200$ for sketchy injectors smh. Bought the intercooler kit as well as an aem 4110 wideband iirc.

finally got some spal fans. This fixed all of my overheating issues, big fan (no pun intended) of them. They pull air like crazy. Definitely wire them to their own relays though.

Those oem headlights I got - i decided to retrofit some bi led projectors and haloes into them that I got off aliexpress for around 90$ shipped. This wasnt a hard process and the light output is better than a lot of modernish cars- anything with halogen bulbs for sure.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...049e6bc50.jpeg
Great job getting photos of literally anything useful for this install moron
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8163d3183.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3c1aeebb1.jpeg
I didnt get any actual photos of the process, but I have some from doing the same thing with another set. Not sure if I have enough for a write up, but its simple enough.

next in the timeline;
turboed the friends silver nb
was a fun process, he had gotten a random “kit” for cheap and decided to throw it on. Took a day or two but was great. Hood dump, otherwise stock car, 15psi on the laggiest t3 you can imagine. The stock suspension practically let the car do a backflip during pulls. This was a nice practice run to learn for my own turbo.

edit: almost forgot to mention thanks to @Watterson02 for the gnarly deal on the manifold, downpipe, and midpipe shipped to my door. Absolute lifesaver

time skip, turboed the car bla bla, speedyefi ebay turbo cast manifold shit injectors, got it dialed. Ive only ever run e85 when its been turboed. Come to think of it I havent put gas in this thing since the first week of having it on a standalone. Ethanol just smells too good ig. Traction is an issue with a 5 speed and 4.3. Better with a torsen, but short gears and turbo dont mix. Bald tires dont either. Got her some fresh rt660’s they were a nice improvement. Definitely grip up when warm but only 2nd gear. 1st is unusable.

made some digital det cans, used them a few times but dialing timing with e85 isnt the scariest thing. Ive just done vd pulls a degree or two at a time until it makes less and less, then back it off to where the gains make sense.

clutch started slipping. I had been wanting to pull my own motor out for a long time. My bay had bad overspray, it was dirty, still leaked oil. Needed a clutch. Had access to a giant diesel cherry picker my roommate used for his mini cooper engine (unsurprisingly) so this was super easy, first time ever engine was out in about 2 hours, but largely due to taking everything out of the bay along with it so I could paint it.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...21c14e122.jpeg
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https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...977d3a725.jpeg
So: a reseal, clutch, cleanup bay and engine , weld up some holes in the bay, cut out rusted front frame, weld in patch panels, paint, reinstall, tuck and clean wiring!

the rust was pretty bad. I had bought patch panels a year ago for them. Finally got to put them in. Great panels, i got them off etsy.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...275db1455.jpeg
All better!
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...746194f5f.jpeg
Etch primer i think
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d4f413f9c.jpeg
Black base with a rattle can of color chnging clear flake from autozone, then 2k clear
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dca300b37.jpeg
Didnt need it anyway?
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...034c9225a.jpeg
The new seal somehow sealed.

got all that done. Getting the timing gear off has always been an issue, last time i put it on, i used a cranksaver and the bolt and ran it all in mechanically. They didnt want to budge this time. Junkyard nb had freshish ones, i decided to lean on that.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d8c9cc6cc.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1a30e0a5f.jpeg
Its not max effort, its not minimum effort, its just getting it to look half decent.

start to finish this took monday to sunday iirc. Was the longest project ive done with the car down.

I was pretty happy with the result at that point.

One day whilst at work, i did a small pull. Afr gauge to 10, misfire, ethanol smell. Try and start. Nothing. Log seems fine other than the afr. Push into a lot, try to start, strong eth smell but no leaks, eth vpor coming out of valve cover vent… hmmmm…. Try to start one last time. Hydro lock time baby. Left the car in the lot and used the other one to work, i went ahead and took the plugs out and poured some marvels mystery oil in the wells while i finished my pizza delivery shift

shift over, grab tools, spare stock injectors. Oil. Go change injectors and oil. Soak up intake manifold runners full of ethanol. Ethanol leaking from tailpipe. One of those shitty injectors stuck open.
dont but sketchy shit and still run it.
got unused 700cc kraken injectors next day for 75 somehow.

anyway being the junkyard demon I am, noticed our local yard had gotten a 2004 special edition(?) in. Naturally I got the large tupperware kit in great condition minus the lip (damn) with mounting hardware for about 60$
that car was destroyed, it had no engine, or trans. Was an auto too. The other nb that had been in that yard was better. It had a drivetrain, disconnected though. Someone had taken its axles after it had sat for months. I needed something from it and looked through the diff to discover that there had been a torsen sitting there for the taking. Next day picked it up half off for about 100$ sold it same day for 700$

went ahead and bought some forged rods, my engine had been burning oil for a while and I had planned on rebuilding it fully, and wanted to take a decent step towards progress. Also got an engine stand in the same mentality.

then I went ahead and did some super progression by hitting my spark cut limiter pretty hard. The #4 rod did not exactly enjoy this.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...574081952.jpeg
Scoliosis

nothing really notable about the rebuild. Needed it back on the road so i did what I could.

forged rods, arp mains and rod bearings. Used glass and sandpaper to deck block and head, used a new straight edge to check. Worked great. New valve stem seals (which still leak dont use fel pro but also maybe my guides are bad idk). Redid lots of seals. Head went in dishwasher, oil pan , windage tray, oil pump also got dishwashered. Everythint else soaked in diesel and gas in a 5 gal bucket. Cleaned everything good, measured clearances, brush honed, back together.
Also installed a digital oil pressure gauge at the same time.
scariest startup of my life, took forever to build oil pressure.
started great, broke rings in, went home and changed oil. Then changed oil at 50 miles, 100, and 500. May be overkill, but i was bound to miss some junk after grinding a piston on the crank counterweights.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fb0125f24.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ea53e13ee.jpeg
Finally decided to get new head bolts after reusing my stock ones 3 times. New ones did this. Straight back to rockauto for a refund. Stock head bolts get a 4th turn.


all has been well. Been beating the hell out of it. Havent comp or leakdown tested. But it runs fine. I do need to figure out decent catch cans and venting. Im just not happy with what its got.

i finally got a fuel pump (ti 255 per @curly and an alternator as well. Its crazy how properly working items can positively impact a cars driving experience. A lot of problems the alternator had been causing due to weak voltage were nice to not have. I had noticed it stopped charging under high load, and finally gave up while i was at work. The three spares i had didnt work either.

after 8 months of daily driving. I got pulled over by a sheriff for the mirror tint. He was upset at the windshield. It measured 17% (legal here is 25% on front side windows, nothing in windshield) he even pointed out my eyebrow was too low. I ripped it off mid stop to which he let me know if i wasnt able to get it off, i wouldve gotten a citation. And while I do miss my windshield being tinted, 30$ and 3 days later I had 30% mirror tint back on the sides.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...73ddcae97.jpeg
Someone buy this damn m3

also finally got around to wiring up boost by gear. This wasnt too bad, and is a nice thing to have.

FINALLY got a bigger turbo!
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2e5f439f8d.png

was listed as a generic turbo. Luckily he had a picture of the part number. When i was looking at bigger turbos, i had memorized the 2560’s part numbers because i would google them so much. It paid off, because a good used ball bearing 2560 for 130 shipped sure is nice.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...007103360.jpeg
Old vs new. Disgusting vial oil burning rascal on the right


after fiddling with my horrendous downpipe and turbo bolts I finally got this installed before I had to go to work. I only got a few good test hits and none of the logs like syncing long enough for limiter.

Right before the laptop died I got one log where I turned the boost control to “idk what this will make but itll definitely make something” did the hit, stopped the log, turned boost control down, laptop died.
That turned out to be around 19psi peak, tapering down to 18.5.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8542ad70ee.png
Red blue green all the same boost, played with ignition timing, orange was 19 psi
You can see that that 19psi log stopped at 5k, though i pulled all the way to my soft limiter of 6800. I wonder what it would have made. Corrected was 296whp
not sure if corrected is what it would make at sea level or what it is making corrected to my altitude. Who knows. All I know is that it isnt as crazy as I had imagined.


lots of things omitted i think im finally caught up. I definitely left out a lot of yappable content, but i wanted to be caught up for future trials and tribulations.

Man, good hustle with this thing. Those frame rails were fucked, looks so much better, and I bet the chassis feels stiffer too.

Good work on that vent rod too. It's like a coming of age ritual for us around here. I've never seen them bent that direction though, they usually bend the other way. Neat.

I like your DIY approach to things, it's fun to read. I've done subaru blocks and heads with glass and sandpaper and they came out perfectly and held up till this day. If you take your time and do it right they come out great. I do the same to plane turbo manifolds, turbo flanges, and the like. Never a leak.

Your valve leak is probably the guides. I regret not having mine done with the head. Brand new super Miata stem seals have always leaked on my build. I later read Emilio say to always do guides even if they measure in spec. Now I know.

Yeah dude, that foam in the frame rails is crazy, good work on those. Also, props for DIY decking the block and head. I've seen videos on that method before and thought it was really neat, but I'm not sure I'd try it myself.

I've also played around with the corrections on VD and I believe they are supposed to try and correct your air temp/density to a standard. A real dyno apparently has the sensors to do that automatically but I don't think VD has a way to grab those from logs. Still not 100% what the best method is, but my numbers seem closer to what I'd expect when I turn corrections on.

it was there for structural integrity i imagine, dont let your structural spray foam get wet.

telling people who ask how much it makes “300 ᴄᴏʀʀᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ᴀʟᴛɪᴛᴜᴅᴇ“ feels the same as telling people “my car makes 350 at the crank”
Damn sea levelers getting accurate virtual dyno runs without cognitive dissonance when asked about their cars.

well, was doing some more vd testing tonight with vd. Cannot for the life of me get a good third gear log, spinning, sync issues, bumpy roads. Also new development being clutch slip I think. Cant do a full power 4th pull because the clutch slips on initial hit. Anyway. One of the 3rd gear pulls i did get, I got a crazy lean spot. As if my pump couldnt keep up. I had a little less than half a tank of e85, a new walbro 255, injectors didnt show over duty. It was fine for some other pulls but on this one something checked out, whether it be fuel pressure or something else. It was definitely worst case being mid pull but at least I was on ethanol? It felt like my boost duty had cut in half for a split second. Here are some logs and the tune if anyone can figure anything out. Also can see the very obvious clutch slip.

No bueno, couldve had a melted piston or something. that wouldve sucked. For the meantime ive turned the boost down, i cant use any acceleration gears anyway until im on a fresh road and the tires are hot. Need to go grab a 3.9.

Some screenshots if you dont want to open log.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ac6216fb7f.png
lean
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ee619c0a1b.png
clutch slip

That's exactly why I turned it up to hit 300 uncorrected :bigtu:

Which is great until the trans blows because it was 330 lb/ft instead of 300 lb/ft...

2560 is already out of breath I think. Could probably do a pound or two more, though getting good logs is the issue atp.

Well a not so good update. Was doing some pulls/tuning with a friend. Got done and was heading home after the last pull. Started smelling oil after said pull. Next light a mile down, car shutoff slowing to idle. Not uncommon so i went to restart it. Crank told me what i needed to know. If youve ever heard a car with one cylinder not having compression you know what i am talking about. After i got it started, it started smoking plumes of oil smoke.

got it home. Oil out of all of my fresh seals, zero compression in cylinder 2. Surprisingly the rest of the cyls had 150 warm. Plugs looked whitish except for 2 which was black, as if rich for a while.
afrs were good on the logs. I had put in different numbers curtesy of simbaa for my wideband calibration. Nothing too far off of what i had and it got my afrs to match up.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a61df11f30.jpg
How shes going to sit for now.
But afrs were slightly rich at 11.2-12 on the gauge and in ts during the pulls.

im kind of tired of doing mechanical work atp, its exhausted my backup savings when I rebuilt it the first time, along with just tiring. Ive always prided myself on my ability to just put my head down and get stuff done, but i am honestly a little heartbroken and ashamed. We’ll see when the teardown happens. Im guessing ill be looking for a new block atp. Given the symptoms. Seems like i toasted #2’s rings, just dk how.

take your guesses and bets!

Fuck man, that sucks. Honestly, assuming your base timing was correct, I'm going to take a SWAG on a cracked piston. That would probably be pretty obvious though. I'll pour some Rotella out for you

Aww shit man. RIP. You'll have it back in no time, I'm sure. Let us know what you find.

Plugs if anyone interested
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...26a2bacda.jpeg
4321 left to right, cyl 2 is the no compression


about to start pulling this thing.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...596b28b29.jpeg
Lets see how long this takes

Pull time!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9c06f4baf.jpeg

Im not sure exactly what happened still. I went to dinner after i pulled it, just tore the head off. First impressions are (???) im still not sure what happened. Heres some symptoms.

car died after doing pulls, did pull, mile later smelled oil but no misfire, mile later died coming to red light. Restarted and heard no compression on a cyl. Got it started (with a misfire ofc) lots of oil being burn. Plumes of smoke. Got it home a few blocks away. Comp test was 0 on cyl2 fine on rest of cyls.
both catch cans were full of oil, both spewed oil out.

lots of oil out of previously non leaking seals.

no knocks i can find. The oil was pretty sparkly with some on the magnetic plug - this was 600 miles of break in, with oil changed 10, 100, and 500 mile marks. HOWEVER this was 25? Miles of higher boost and power than the car had seen. 15-19 psi on a 2560 compared to 200whp. Maybe just harder break in?

my current guesses as of right now are that i lifted the head with my 4x reused head bolts - ring gap closed??
I dont think the rings are done for, cold with a rudimentary paper test, it pulls vacuum and air rotating it. As seen in the video attached. I took a lot of pictures if anyone has ideas.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0ed0347ae.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4a308a7ef.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c782781f9.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d90e04120.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b683d9361.jpeg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9cbeba9e5.jpeg
There are scratches in the bores that i can see, nothing i can feel. As you can see cyl 2 is a lot cleaner, has some weird crust on things that chipped off into the cyl.

best thing i can think of is lifting the head or headgasket leak to one of the oiling passages, pressurizing the crankcase, filling catchcans, burning oil, and leaking oil out of every oriface.

WE HAVE A WINNER!
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ef824b4c1.jpeg
Too little too late referencing that spicy timing i suppose

haha, you work too fast, pulling engine and tuning. Post the timing map, WAIT for responses, THEN load the map. I think you did those things in reverse order this time around.