I'm gonna keep this intro post free of pictures, I'll post those later.
Basically my **** got wrecked, and I'm planning on buying a daily after the winter. Since I no longer have to daily the car, and will have more than just a weekend to work on it. Why not build & (more)boost?

Current plan:

• Chassis - Find a clean chassis, preferably a 96-97 for ease of wiring. Though any year should be fine, these are pretty simple.
  
• Engine - Total 1.8 rebuild, new gasket, seals, etc
  Bore .5mm/.020" over.
  83.5mm pistons - undecided on brand
  Forged rods - probably Manley
  Keeping '96 head, refreshing - need to research more on this, not sure how much the head can be improved, I also probably won't have $$ for 99-00 swap.
  
• Turbo
  Likely getting rid of the FM manifold/downpipe and gt2560.
  Artech Manifold, downpipe, exhaust?
  2860rs? Investigating other turbo options as well.
• ECU
  Probably getting rid of Reverant MS2 Basic for a MS3x.
  Get EBC working - didn't get a chance with last set up
  Get Launch control working - because lolricer

Goal is 280hp. We'll see how it works out.

 

solid plan, should hit goal no problem.

I'd definitely look into a 99-00 head though, it's quite the improvement.

2860r is basically what you already have. do you mean RS? (tater) it all depends on your power goals and what you want your torque curve to look like. if I was building an engine again, I'd go bigger though. at least 2871 since it's really close to the tater in spool, but nets more topend.

 

Car totaled:

And I'm driving my beater winter car for the rest of the winter:

It still looked presentable in that picture. That was almost 5 years ago, but I don't have any recent pictures. It's more rust than metal now. Love that car though.

Onto teardown day 1..

 

Yeah I meant RS. discopotato. (where the **** did that start?)
I'm definitely looking at the 2871 as well.

I'm hesitant on the 99-00 head just because of the investment. And partly ignorance. I'd need to get a different fuel rail, intake manifold, and probably other things, correct? Seems expensive, but I'm still going to keep an eye out for one.

 

Teardown day 1:

Started her up and drove into the garage... Still runs great and the exhaust sounds awesome. Made me a little sad thinking that's the last time it would ever start up in its current form.

Part of the bumper/trunk actually is touching the tire (and not just the bumper cover - it's metal) so I'm pretty glad I got this towed originally (I was considering just driving it the ~3 miles home).



Exhaust off, this was the only aftermarket part damaged in the accident. Really sucks, since it was installed pretty recently. Exhaust was bent forwad and down, kinking the midpipe and muffer elbow. The rear tow hook dented the muffler itself.



Test pipe is OK I think, but everything else is scrap.



Noticed the PPF was really close to the driveshaft while under the car, am I crazy or is it not usually this close? Totally possible this got bent.





Hood off, rad removed, intake removed


That's it for now, should have a bit more out tomorrow.

 

 

Disco Potato

 

^ Yeah I read that article shortly after I posted that.

Got a bit of work done yesterday night, as it was ~60 or so degrees out and pretty nice. Much better than 33 and snowing like tonight..

Got all of the wiring disconnected (I think/hope). Front harness for the tps, etc. Rear/under intake harness for alternator, starter, oil pressure. Also removed the injector harness and coils+bracket for some breathing room. Removed two passenger side bellhousing bolts to free all of the wiring that runs with the PPF and the clutch slave line.

Got Power steering drained and disconnected from rack, A/C "Drained" and disconnected from compressor.

Still have to disconnect fuel, and also drain the tank (full tank of 93, don't wanna waste that).
I should be able to just run a line from the feed into a gas can, right? Then turn the key on, which should turn on the pump? amirite?

Also built this:


$48 at harbor freight. Not the nicest thing in the world, but it should work fine.

Booked up this weekend, most likely will pull the motor next Saturday.

 

As planned, motor is out. I ended up having to remove the transmission first to give myself a little more room. Probably wasn't 100% needed but I didn't feel like fussing with it too much.

Teardown should begin tomorrow.. Probably going to put the 2560, fm manifold & downpipe up for sale pretty soon. Not really sure where to price it yet though. The Reveant MS2 will most likely be sold, as well as the Artech 3" test pipe (since that's the only exhaust bit that didn't get kinked in the accident).
Classified ads to come in the next few days..

A few boring pictures:




Harbor friend hoist + engine stand worked pretty well!

 

Accident blows. I was rear ended just this past week so I feel you. Thankfully the damage wasn't substantial. Just marks on my rear bumper from the person's license plate and front end. Still sucks though coz I just had the car resprayed by Maaco this year.

Hopefully we can work something out on the FM setup so I can fund your goals.

 

If you are thinking about going with the GT2860, I'd recommend a slight shift and go with the Precision 4828. Blaen99 is seeing some rather tremendous numbers out of it and believes he is nowhere near the ceiling. (he is at 348whp, 280lb/ft)

I have the same turbo and am pretty happy with it but I do not have a built bottom end.

 

I've been following that thread, it looks really promising.
I'm not sure that turbo is in my budget though, I'm looking more in the range of used 2860s, 2871's.

unless you want to sell yours

 

Ahh, I had the idea you were buying new for some reason. Full-race.com lists a GT2860 at $1,186 and I see the 4828 at $1,449 list price. I'm sure you could chop a few bucks off of those numbers.

My point is though that that is not even $300 difference. To me it seems like money well spent.

 

^^I'll have to look into a bit more, we'll see how the budget works out

 

Yeah, buy the the turbo close to last... (IMO)

 

So I know literally 3 days ago I said I didn't have the budget for a new turbo. However now that I'm starting at my Paypal account and Fab9's price of ~$1,450 for a EFR 6258 I'm seriously considering it.

Would this be total overkill for 300 hp goals?

 

Big new. New car!

Picked this up yesterday as a non-runner. PO said it would crank but not start and wasn't sure of the issue. Everything seemed to check out, it's got minimal rust, hardtop, tan leather interior, 182k on the body but apparently recently repainted.

It's got one of FM's suspension kits w/ springs, shocks, sways and what looks like adjustable links, so that's cool.

Today I dove into to figure out the no start issue. It looks like it was getting fuel. Checked spark and didn't get anything from either coil. Checked for power at the coils, that checked out OK. Checked for power at the CAS, OK. Checked for pulse from the CAS - nothin. Bad CAS? pulled it out and spin it by hand, heard the injectors fire, saw pulse on the multimeter. So the CAS is good. After poking around with various other ideas, it dawned on me that the position of the CAS keyway hadn't really changed even though I cranked the motor quite a few times.

Ended up pulling the valve cover and sure enough.. broken timing belt. So, easy fix and it should be in running condition. I'd like to get the chassis up and running so I can make sure I don't have to troubleshooting anything wiring/harness related while also trying to break in an engine & tune a new megasquirt.

Anyway. PICS. I guess I forgot to get any of the inside/engine, oh well.



\

 

Very nice! Should be back turbo powered in no time. (if that's what you want)

 

Some lame updates:

1. It's been cold as ****.
2. Bought timing kit for the blue car.
3. Finally got around to getting the black car back on stock suspension so I could roll it out of the garage. I pulled a few other things off it as well.
4. Pushed the blue car into the garage to get it running. I'll probably get it registered & inspected and drive it for a week or so to make sure everything is in working order. Kind of pre-build shakedown. I also want to see how the FM suspension + sways feel compared to the Megans/stock sways.

4x4 Miata lol


I'd also like to clean up this mess before getting started:

 

I'm also considering keeping stock pistons to save a few dollars, and use that to pick up an EFR 6258. Like, really really considering it.