ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

You should manufacture and ship with your kit a billet, tighter tolerance alignment tool.. I saw some online, but not for this trans/input shaft.

KMiata

I thought of that. I actually have a friend who owns a BMW performance shop cut apart an input shaft and try using that instead. apparently there is just as much slop and it made no difference. So someone would need to actually engineer and machine something.

TonyMontana

As I told Ryan we ended up doing mine by eye...the tool was **** and everything was off. Had it been on the car it would have been a real bitch.

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Well i hope i did't garf up my pilot bearing or knock it out of the flywheel.. How would i know if I did that?

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Was able to get the clutch done before work this morning and got new fluids in the trans and diff.

Got it in the road in our business Park area and it feels amazing. Shifting is crisp and clean. Clutch took one shift to figure out and the ACT clutch/pressure plate combo that Kmiata hooked me up with is awesome.

As a side note for anyone installing the kit, if you use the clevis that comes with the new clutch kit oush rod, you will need to bypass your clutch cutout switch wiring.

Very happy with the setup so far. I'm excited to install my new hood, sway bars, do some wire tidying, and hit a test and tune at Big Willow here asap.

Lexzar

iTrader: (2)

Your build is pretty much my dream build.

Can wait to see it tear up the track

18psi

iTrader: (76)

absolutely love that torque curve. every properly set up and tuned efr seems to be putting down that type of curve, and it's absolutely beautiful

'grats man

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Time to rethink everything...

Made it to Big Willow for a test and tune yesterday. Laid down some decent times in the low 1:33's, not bad for only my second day at this track and my first time on a track with my new power and fully redone car. Rev limitered out going into turns 8 and 1 @ 140 mph. May need to do something there...

Long story short, grenaded the motor. Water/oil temps were safe (ambient temp was 40 degrees). Not sure what let loose. Hesding into turn 8 all of a sudden the largest plume of blue smoke started coming out of my exhaust headed into the pits and started taking aalook around. Externally, everything looks perfect. Took the plugs out and 1 and 4 show signs of lots of loose pieces inside the cylinder. I'll have to get into it to see what happened. I'll pull the MS3 logs and see if I can see lean conditions orndet or something...

Anyway it has me rethinking my track car's powerplant. Making 90hp per cylinder in a motor that was designed to make around 25 is really stringing it out. I want something that's track reliable all day long while ringing it's neck around the track.

I figure I have a couple options:
LS3 V8 swap? Gobs of power, decently heavier
LFX swap? Less power than I had, but should be reliable and is super light weight compared to a turbo BP/LS3
K swap of some sort? Built naturally aspirated K or turbo k20?
Another turbo BP? Literally everything is already setup for one, just need a reliable longblock (Trackspeed) and throw it in there and keep going. Just a bit anxious to go right back to the same setup and risk stringing out another motor. Heat issues are also very obvious. Melted the paint on my hood and the air filter on the driver's side of the motor. I can't even imagine how hot it would be on a 90 degree+ day.

Thoughts?

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

Were you running E85 on track? This is written assuming you weren't. Check the log for knock/det events. You're running 9.5:1 compression Pistons so it's possible that your tune couldn't compensate for the higher IATs you'd see under track use and you didn't have the wiggle room that might have helped.
I guess it would apply even if E85 was used.

Sorry about the motor. That's a huge bummer...

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Running straight e85.

Savington

iTrader: (31)

Very interested to see the post-mortem, especially the condition of the other pistons. I've run a somewhat similar setup at somewhat similar power levels at Big Willow in 100*F heat with no issues (forged BP, ~350whp, E85), so there's something that can be fixed here.

dleavitt

iTrader: (1)

Major bummer! I'm curious as to the issue as well, by this time next year I should have a very similar setup and I would like to avoid blowing my expensive engine.

TonyMontana

Sorry to hear about the motor. I suppose on the motor you’ll have to decide how many cylinders you want...I’m partial to high hp 4 cylinders because I just think they’re fun. I owned a z06 and gt350 so I have zero interest in a v8 swap in my car. Six shooter and I had our motors done by a super reputable shop for well below 10k. I just cant imagine spending that on a BP engine. I think all things said and done I’m into my engine for 5200$ with the parts and machine work. Obviously I assembled it myself. I won’t quote reliability on mine for obvious reasons but Sixshooter is running in the 300+ hp range and he daily/track drives his engine. For me if/when my engine pops all out turbo k20/24 build for me...if this car stays reliable long enough I’m buying another Miata and building it more than this one with that engine...if this motor blows quickly it’s going in this car. Reality is knowing the tiny bit more now over when I started I wouldn’t have even bothered with a BP engine as for maybe a tad more money I could have easily broken the 450hp mark and shot for big numbers on a k series. Since you’re like me and don’t really seem to have a budget I vote swap it now for something else and build something better. It seems the limits of a BP engine have been shown and if you think want more than that just swap now...if you’re tired of building for the moment just put another BP in and try again. A forged bottom end should be relatively cheap and you have all the other parts but If you are seriously thinking of spending 10k plus on a long block I think that is much better spent swapping in a better motor. Not sure what you ultimately like but that’s my thought process.

TonyMontana

Plus as an aside as you Im sure already know David at KMIata is just fantastic. Him and Shandelle at V8 roadsters are by far the two best people I've bought things from. For me thats worth its weight in gold so David will have my business next.

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the input.

Using my current EFR on a K20/K24 sounds like it could be fun. Talking to David about our options now, plus I can use my existing trans and drivetrain.

TonyMontana

I support that plan...once this motor eats **** or I get bored he will have my money for the next project. If you do a big k series turbo build document a lot lol because I will be headed down that road as well. I think the BP will be fun but the K series I'm sure is just on another level. Find a solid local fabricator for your manifold and exhaust and Im sure you will have a beast of a car. David will lead you in the right direction. Good luck.

Edit: Also Im fearful of the under the hood heat issue too lol. When I just casually drove the car home from the exhaust shop and I opened the hood and it was crazy warm/hot under there. The SPAL fan was a tornado of warm air and I can easily see that the filter will have a short life span. Its been so long since I've driven a turbo miata so I can't remember if thats normal but I also had the same under the hood temp issue like you and that was casual low RPM highway cruising home. Should be interesting lol.

KMiata

Good talking with you yesterday, but definitely sorry to hear about the engine. I know it had to have been a total riot while it was running.

Also I appreciate the kind words and I'm glad you both are enjoying your BMW trans kits. Although I'm an N/A guy, a 400whp stock block k20 with your 6258 would be really fun. That's old news in the Honda world, but we've only seen a couple turbo K swapped Miatas so far. Mainly because the drivetrain option has only existed for a few months.

As always, hit me up if you'd like to chat.

dc2849

damn, sorry about the motor. I'm in HB as well though! Let me know if you need an extra pair of hands working on it. Toby just finished tuning my turbo build too. Shoot me a message

ooja3k

iTrader: (1)

Preliminary investigation shows I dropped an intake valve. Still need to pull the head. Guessing that the VS855 springs weren't strong enough for a combo of boost and high revs constantly around the track.

On another note, my LFX and MV5 trans arrived yesterday. Ordered up the V8R swap kit, gaskets, freeze plugs, MAF adapters, etc to try and get this thing back up and running as soon as possible after reading Ryan's Hypermiata through around 5 times.

I will be listing for sale in the sale section literally every part from my EFR build and BMW trans swap, so keep an eye out there.

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

How high were you revving up to?