Redo - 3 Builds for 5 years.
 

This is my 3rd motor in the car and I planned on being a lot more comprehensive on my documentation but due to some phone issues i'm missing some pretty machine work and howto information. I had to replace the phone mid build and the pictures never made it to my backup account.

Well I disappeared for a while but i'm back. I stopped driving my miata after it got into an accident. It was my fault and nobody was involved. I cracked two 6uls and ripped up my fender. My front bumper cover got trashed in a separate incident along with my hood. Some Mexican backed into me and took off. I mention it's a Mexican because it was a Mexican. NOT a Mexican-American aka an American.

I'm a Locksmith and own a 1996 Dodge B series van, 2001 Audi A6 (c5) 4.2L, 1999 Jeep Wrangler (tj), 1990 Miata. I do all my own work on the vehicles and between real life and Maintenance on my vehicles sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. Anyway I'm finally catching up on everything in my life and now ready to give my Miata some serious TLC. I was into supras and evos for a bit and had some fun too in the last few years but really was wasting my time.

Previous Setup:
1.6L Begi Log
Begi-S Downpipe
ebay IC
MS1
Tein Flex (whatever spring rates emillo recommended think it was 12kg front 9kg rear)
15x8 6ul
RX-7 460cc injectors
Innovate LC-1
GM AIT
2.5" Custom Exhaust (magnaflow muffler).
Garrett 2560r
1.6 Flywheel Exedy Stage 2 clutch
5-speed

Current Build:
1.8 out of a 99.
1.8 Begi Log
Begi S-4 Separated gas DP 3"
Built Head 99 - valves, springs, ported.
Built 99 Short Block - 8.6 Supertechs, Ebay Rods (same as m-tuned, eagle, man... I ran into several pictures of them all having the sameproduct code), ACL Race Everything.
Billet Street Pump 2 shims
ebay IC
MS1
Tein Flex (whatever spring rates emillo recommended think it was 12kg front 9kg rear)
15x8 6ul
Stock injectors
Innovate LC-1
GM AIT
2.5" Custom Exhaust (magnaflow muffler).
Garrett 2560r
1.6 Flywheel Exedy Stage 2 clutch
5-speed :(
Coolant re-route via Begi Spacer
Toyota COP
ARP Head Studs
ARP Main bolts
ARP Rod Bolts

So here's the deal. I plan on street driving some; 6k miles a year. I'd like to Track it ~8-12 times a year as well.

Future Plans Performance todo list: In no particular order.
TSE Mani & DP
efr 6758
v-band 3" exhaust
6-speed
upgrade my ms1 to ms3 or sell my ms1 and make an ms3?
1000cc injectors.
TSE Radiator
MBSP
949 Twin Disc Clutch
XIDA's
Harmonic Damper/Balancer thinggy


am i forgetting anything?

Safety:
I need everything. Brakes, Bars, Braces

Eventually after I finish all the upgrades I don't plan on Streeting the car at all really. I want to buy an NB and then put all my left over parts that i replaced on it. The log,dp etc...

The 1.8 swap was kind of easy but came with lots of small issues. I sent the head in to get built and ported and while i waited for that I stripped down the short block and rebuilt my first motor. It wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. After getting the begi stuff off the FS section I realized why I stopped buying from them. You'd think though if it were used it would be modified and correct... nope. Same crappy craftsmanship as before. I can't believe the wastegate would open into the separated gas exit and cause like an 80% obstruction. UNACCEPTABLE. I bought another flange off ebay and welded a partition in it and it was much better. now allowing more movement and a lot less obstruction of the wastegate. I am NOT a fan of their 2 piece downpipes as this is the second one that hasn't fit correctly. I had to heat up and manipulate/move the bolt bracket that holds them together. I forgot to move my FPR from my 1.6 to the 1.8 so I had to take apart my IM and remove the fuel rail... doh! A quick search on here yielded some information I felt dumb about. I was like "why doesn't this fpr fit". After searching MT.net I read "put it upside down". I put it upside down and then bent the nipple so it's almost 90*. Because the donor car was in an accident some of the plastic connectors were broken . Everything else has been pretty smooth. I repainted my engine bay and am ready to drop my new motor in. I still have to move my clutch, starter, and setup my cops but other than that i'm just about done.

I'm still undecided on what to do after i get everything in. Opinions on tuning? Should I run the car on oem ecu for break in period? I saved my AFM and could just leave my turbo on and put filters over the suck and blow holes so the turbo won't actually function other than a crazy fan in my engine bay. Or should I run ms which isn't really tuned for my current setup. my injectors are different , motor, etc...

Upullit:
I got 7 coils off a 2001 tundra (the 8th was misisng... lol) out the door after tax $60.17 I think I did pretty well. I snagged the wiring connectors too :-D they wanted to charge me 15 per plug + 4 per connector but I threatened to put them all back and go somewhere else and so I got them for 8 per plug + a 10% "good customer" discount...lol. He said he'd pretend he dind't see the connectors.

I also just bought a new alternator for my 1.6 DOH! I grabbed a thermostat housing off a kia sephia 2000 and an alternator off a 96. I pulled three alternators. All the cars had 160k+ miles on them so I figured I didn't want an original alternator. Eventually I found an aftermarket one took it to Orielly's and got it tested. I am going to save my 1.6 alternator just in case and get a bushing so i can move the pulley over from my 1.8 to the 1.6 if i need to later. my total upullit for 7 cops, alternator & kia thermostat housing was. for whoever is thinking of a swap you'll read this in tons of swap threads. for the alternator don't forget to get a alternator bracket. it will be frustrating and waste time. luckily my motor came with one. the kia one would also probably work and only takes like 5-10 minutes to get off a upull it including the alternator. i chose not to use my 1.6 pulley because i plan on getting a harmonic balancer and you can't use a balancer with a vbelt pulley (i don't think).

60.17 cops w/ connectors
5.23 thermostat housing
32.08 alternator

under 100 buck. score!

btw: I also attempted to put the 1.6 coils in the 1.8 bracket and it worked ok but it would require a few bushings and the pack would be backwords. I wanted cops anyway so i ditched that idea.

I'm sure there is more I have to say but this thread isn't going anywhere and i'm hungry.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356926386
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356926386
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356926386
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1356926386
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Looks like a fun project. Lots of work there.

I have a coil plug that looks just like that. It's the other side however. Still odd cause I feel like I have that exact same pic.

Rad, awesome pics. Looks like a nice build, some quality parts here.

Any chance you will be selling that Begi downpipe when you get the Artech parts? I really need one ;)

I forgot to mention since I added the extra flange on I had to bend the heater core line. It was hitting the downpipe.

I'm sure I will sell it eventually. If you do buy a separated begi dp make sure you're aware of the issue described. Anyone I have spoke with regarding that downpipe has some kind of boost creep and had to do something to fix it.

Love the very solid start to this thread. Love the pics. Love the thoroughness.

But

Maybe I'm confused or tired or whatever, I don't get which setup you're doing NOW: is it the begi log/garrett turbo and you plan on the efr setup later, or you're going to an efr setup now from a begi setup?

Yeah I get you. My current Build is actually still in progress. It's essentially done but my motor is not in my car as I was cleaning up my engine bay. I speculate having it in and running by the weekend.

I kind of got tired and hungry before i really explained myself but the todo list is where i plan on going with the car.

I figure with my current parts (the ones in the pictures) I should be at the limits of my clutch and transmission. As I upgrade i'll start moving the todo list into my current build.

At the moment i'm leaning towards this build order:
megasquirt 3, 1000cc injectors
clutch transmission at the same time (for obvious reasons)
artech stuff/efr

The mbsp and xida's, damper will all fit in somewhere but i don't have a rhyme or reason to put them ahead of anything else.

So this weekend I spent some time working on the car. Last week I went snowboarding everything went on hold.

I rattle canned my engine bay black with some krylon and as I put things back in the bay it was scratching easily. I really had been bothered by it so I took a bunch of stuff back out and decided to try another approach. I headed over to ace and bought some of this stuff.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964

The results were pretty good.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964

I decided on it because it's about 40 degrees out during the day at the moment and my garage has a sand rail in it, my motor, an old Harley, and a 250cc dirt bike. The oil based enamel worked very well especially since the sun was beating on it for 4ish hours. I was able to use several different sponge brushes and go over the bay very thoroughly. The only spot i'm not happy about is the front driver side under the headlamp cover. That was the firt place I test painted with flat black. The flat black turned out TERRIBLE and when i painted over it, it wrinkled some. I'll wet sand it down later and redo it for peace of mind. I know it's not a big deal but it will bug me if i don't do it. Even though it'll be sitting under the lamp anyway.

Now I don't have to worry about my bay scratching easily :) also i have plenty of paint should something get scratched.

Next I moved on to..... COPS!

I know it's not really necessary but I wanted to make sure the elements never made it into my plug wholes. I used some 3/4" rubber grommets. They are a little small for this application so i had to trim them up a bit.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964

Because the grommets were so tight they actually held the cops in really well. I was debating wheather to even use a mounting bracket. The main rail here is completely necessary though. The tundra cops are very tall. I used poly spacers as you can see with the grommets. This is to make up the additional room so the plug would sit flush on my aluminum bar. It is 1.5" Aluminum by 1/8" thick. Since I had some extra aluminum laying around I figured I'd make a bracket to hold the cops down (since I couldn't use the oem mount point on the tundra cops. there wasn't enough room. I cut off the oem mount points with a hacksaw). I made some individual brackets. It's probably a better idea to do this for lots of reasons but I didn't like that I couldn't get every bracket EXACTLY the same. I'll probably change to something like this in the future.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964

This was my end result. It's not quite as serviceable but it looks clean and is simple.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358141964

I still need to make the wiring harness. A while back I burnt out an igniter with my megasquirt. YES I read the instructions but somehow I fucked them up haha. Anyway now I have an extra one to make a pnp harness...

I'll try and tackle that tomorrow. Anyone know off the top of their head what a good length is for that harness? I understand there is a variance. But wouldn't mind if someone had a rough guess on how much wire I'm going to need. I picked up 3 rolls of 16 guage 17' the other day. would say 5' be a good length for the longest part of the harness?

Before I left I broke open my earl parts to make my braided stainless return line and feed line. I also replaced the feed fitting with a restrictor. Apparently Begi doesn't give you one unless you specifically ask for it. I've read lots of opinions on it and Garret apparently says to run one so since they designed it I think it's probably good idea. The return line was cake to make but the feed line was a bitch. I stabbed myself with tiny stainless wires until got smart and taped and cut the line.

Anyway I know this isn't the first time any of this stuff has been done but it's the road i'm going down. I've had to move a bunch of times in the last year or 2 and so it's been rough completing projects. In march I'll finally be back in my house and be able to use my new three car garage. I currently have to commute 20-30 minutes to work on my car.
http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/...ps77bf1f4d.jpg

p.s. that f20c miata thread makes me hate myself. screw you HONDA. SCREW YOU AND YOUR HEADS AND YOUR VTECS. SCREW YOUR PREBUILT FORGED INTERNALS.

I'm also pretty set on going efr after I get situated but am still curious on the garret gtx numbers. Unless I missed something I haven't gotten to see any miata dynos with them. I remember reading aaronc7 has one but never got dyno. Maybe by the time i efr (next 6 months to a year) they'll have vband housing? I don't really feel like EVER wrenching on a manifold or downpipe/turbo again. it's not so bad when the motor is out but it sure is a pain in the ass when it's in. Not to mention messing with the studs. I know the inconel blah blah blah. but can you blame me for wanting all vband?

Did i do it right? 8 pins, 6 connected, 1 bridged?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...-years-p21-jpg

1) I have a headache
2) My soldering iron kept cutting off and on during my soldering causing me to want to break stuff.
3) That shit inside the igniter is really annoying
4) My solders weren't sticking.

/sleep

Your work looks good, heat shrink FTW!

I used to think I couldn't solder, then I learned about this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1358392969

A flux pen is truly MAGICAL. Words cannot describe how much better my work comes out now. I also stopped using garbage leadless Rat Shack solder and switched over to MG Chemicals Sn63/Pb37 solder. They sell these at Fry's Electronics if you have one nearby.

good looking thorough thread.. i like clean engine bays :D

yes, flux pens help out a shit tons, espeically on contacts that dont want to take.

thanks. I kind of feel like a retard. I used to solder a lot and actually have a flux pen but forgot they existed. Also I was using someone else's soldering iron and solder. I normally get good solder from the local electronic store. Fry's is nice but in phoenix. none in tucson :(

The last time I soldered was years ago when I made my megasquirt. I used fancy sparkly blue speaker wire. remember that brain? xD

also i'm assuming since nobody told me I did it wrong I followed the circuit diagram correctly? As mentioned I am a little rusty and lacking confidence. It makes sense to me to not connect pin 1 and 8 but feels wrong to leave something disconnected that was once connected.

Pin 1 and Pin 8 run up along the factory harness to the back of the head. The OEM path is ECU>Pin2/7>Pin1/8>Coils. All you're doing is cutting in at the halfway point and running your own wires.

so motor is going back in, in the next few days. I was going to throw my 1.6 clutch and flywheel in and just drive it that way but since the 1.8's are more torquey

1) put 1.6 flywheel and exedy stage 2 back on. the 1.6 exedy is only rated like 160ish lb/tq.
2) upgrade clutch to fm1/fm2/949 twin disc
3) upgrade clutch to fm2 & 6-speed transmission

I only have about $1000 bucks I can spend...
I sourced a 6-speed from a 2003 se w/ 39k on it. $700
Fm2 looks like it's going to be my guy. w/ stock 1.8 flywheel. So anyway 6-speed and fm2 incoming. Unless someone can convince me it's really worth saving up for the twin disc. I'm not so sure it's really worth it. I'll be daily driving this thing for a little while anyway and have a/c.

I can spend about ~1000 a month on this thing till it's done so i'd only be waiting for 10 more days.

annd......

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1358819617

fm2 clutch on the way and flywheel is getting the rub down if you know what i mean ;-)

it's shiny on the inside too. I wasted a lot of time cleaning out my crummy 5-speed.

anyone that cares I've got a 1.6 begi log manifold and begi-s downpipe, exedy 1.6 stage 2 clutch w/ only about 8k miles on it. PM me if interested. I'll take pics in a bit and throw them up on the FS section in the next month or so. If you want them and are in a hurry i'm not so don't expect rush service.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1360640728
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1360640728
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1360640728
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1360640728https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1360640821


It's in.

I have a very detailed busy job and it's proven difficult to remember all the details of my build and the details of all my current work. After dropping my motor in i realized that the sender unit for my cooling was not plugged into the back of the head. I also was quite confused on where it goes. When looking at the head from the back it is on the drivers side of the rear water port (basically below your heater cool line from the back of the head). I have a 99 head so it's plugged ( with an alan #5metric). After searching I guess the 99 has a 3 wire harness where it pulls both for the ecu and temp gauge from the same sensor. Gathered that from one of hustlers threads. thanks hustler.

SO that brought up another question for me. I mean it seems like a no brainer question but It never hurts to ask for confirmation. Do I pull my 1.6 L wiring for the fuel injectors and sensors and swap it with the 99? I really don't see any other options but didn't see it documented anywhere.

Ok so I know I stopped posting on progress and I stopped taking pictures as well but I have now passed emissions.

Issues I ran into: I got a head gasket kit that had a different intake manifold gasket for each year they changed it. I think I put the 94-97 one in because I had a huge vacuum leak and as embarrassing as that is it's the truth and I fixed it. I then was able to set my timing and then realized i had a sweet puddle under my car. The 1/4" npt plug i put in my sandwich plate was letting a decent amount of oil through it so i removed and put some sealant on the threads. I added a restrictor to my turbo and it sounded like it wasn't getting enough oil when i was at idle so i also removed it and it sounds much happier now.

I also installed an ebay radiator since mine was gross and crusty. One day i'll get a tse baller one but that is not in the budget right this minute.

My idle jumps between 800 and 900. My afr is kind of bouncy as well. I hooked my lc1 directly to the harness. I passed emissions and now im ready to move on with driving the car on a regular basis. I have a couple questions.

The rpm @ idle is 800-900. Is it normal for it to stray like that? My afr is also bouncing between 14.3 and 14.8 or so. Sometimes it blips into the 15's. I do have some older gas in there that i probably should have dumped.

Also My coolant temp gauge in the car was chilling in the middle and the one in TS said it was 197 while idle in the emissions line. 205 or so on the emissions dyno. What should i expect for the gauge cluster temp gauge? At what point should it start climbing? I also know my motor is brand new. What kind of extra heat should i expect from that?

Awesome! This thread is exactly like by build. What did you end up doing to use the BP, sensors wise? Did you swap over all your 1.6 sensors, or use the 99 sensors?

I'd also assume you would use the injector harness from the 1.6 if going that route, that's what I plan to do at least. Any other details or tips for someone putting a BP4W into a 90?

For tuning idle, I found these links to be helpful:

Tuning idle with MegaSquirt - DIYAutoTune

How Do I Tune My Idle With A Standalone? - MX5nutz

Tuning Idle Valve - Ms2 - MX5nutz

In fact, I think I PDF'd the MX5nutz pages and saved them somewhere. I also have some notes in my massive thread of fail in the supercharger section, around page 4 IIRC

Thanks G. I have never tuned a car before or been involved this much with the ECU. I like it but it's different. On my EVO I just took it to the dyno and they made it purr. I didn't have any of these symptoms.

I have read so many things about ms1 being shit compared to ms2 or ms3 when it comes to a nice calm quiet idle. I've also read Joe say ms1 can be just fine. I have a handful of things to upgrade and among the first on the list is injectors and ms3. I haven't decided what to upgrade first ms3 or injectors.

Fire: You brought up something I meant to note in my build thread for other people doing this kind of work. I should have taken pictures and I wanted to document this build thoroughly because although mt.net is a wealth of information, the information is EVERYWHERE. Half the information you need is in some thread 16 pages long on page 7. The other half the threads you find in your search say learn to search!

So I regret buying the 1.8 swap kit from FM. The only thing I used off of it was the throttle cable bracket. I reused all my 1.6 sensors and wiring harness except for the tps and iac. My 99 motor came witht he engine mounts for a 1.8 so now I have 2 brand new 1.8 mounts sitting here (pm me if interested). I ended up using the 99 throttle body and I went to a junkyard and got a tps connector and iac connector off a kia sephia. on this page https://www.miataturbo.net/general-m...t-70034/page5/ I list the vehicles I found to have said connectors. I didn't bother looking up the wiring diagram either I just matched up the orientation of the plug and winged it and soldered those connections together. It all worked fine. the 99 tps calibrated just fine in MS.

The 90 tps sensor is useless anyway but if you plug the 99 tps into the oem computer it will fry the sensor. The 90 sensor is 12v while the 99 is 5 i think. So you don't want the oem computer shoving 12v down to the 99 5v.

Also Fire, my exhaust didn't mate up. The 1.8 is a bit longer and that causes the dp to sit in a different place from my last one. It's probably ~2" difference. Because the begi separated gas dp sucks and I had to put a spacer in that moved my dp back half an inch or so. I had another 1.5 inches to make up for. I don't like my exhaust at all but the guy that built it used a sleeve to connect the cat back to the rest. I just loosened the sleeve and was able to make up the rest of the distance and orientation. I'll weld up a real exhaust later but right now I just want to get all the tuning and stuff ironed out.

If I can think of anything else I'll fill you in.

Thanks for the details Kris! So from what I've read is the 99 IAC valve operates on a different frequency ( I WISH I would have saved the thread I read that in, because now I'm looking for those details again). Did you adjust the IAC valve settings in your MS when you went to the 99 sensor? Perhaps this is part of your problem.

My plan for the swap is to use all the 90 sensors and harness, running the 99 TB with TPS and IAC valve, and even wiring up the VICS eventually.

Thanks again.

I don't think it would be involved with my issues. the biggest problem really is the lean blips. I'll log it and show. I am leaning at it being bad gas. I had maybe 1/8th of a tank. I should have dumped it :(. I added 5 gallons though so I need to burn through it.

It could be I guess. I know iac is mostly with warmup but I've read some things about it. I'm not in boost yet though. I won't connect my wastegate back up until I've gotten a few hundred miles on the motor.

edit: good thought though. I'll pull it and see if it changes anything. I read on m.net something joe said about moving idle settings over from the 99 msq. I live in arizona and shouldn't have any issues right now without it plugged in.

MX-5 Miata Forum - Hooking up a 99 TB to a 92 Harness with MSPnP

https://www.miataturbo.net/megasquir...s-15819/page2/

I'm sure theres more out there. Somewhere between 20-30hz it looks like ?

Edit: just read your last reply. Honestly I'm not 100% sure how much the IAC valve would effect your issues - BUT it is called an idle valve, so i'd assume it could have something to do with your idle issues.

thanks. I just decided to trade cars for the day so my daily is on the shelf. i unplugged the iac and drove back to work on my lunch break. It doesn't feel any different without it.

My clutch is making a funny crying sound when i use it. the only time it's completely quiet is when i'm leaning on it just a touch. Other than that it actually drives pretty nice. Next on my todo list I think other than the tuning and break in is depowering my power steering rack. it always leaks and one of my control arms rubs on something i think so seems like the next logical thing to do.

I just dealt with this recently... most likely culprit is the throw out bearing. How old is the clutch? :(

the clutch is brand new fm2 clutch. it is a weird sound. It's like whistling and i don't have to actually engage the clutch to hear it. When I say whistling. I mean I can whistle songs by slightly tapping my clutch pedal less than an inch. It genuinely is a whistle. Still think it's the throw out bearing? Sounds like this except mine does it only when im pushing in the clutch. Guess it probbaly is the throw out bearing. lame as hell. I just put all this shit back on the car.

I'm still investigating but spoke with FM and was pointed out to me that it likely could be that the nipple on the slave cylinder is vibrating against the shaft arm creating that noise. Told me to lube it up and go over my clutch adjustment process. I'll tonight or tomorrow but since i only get the squeal right as the slave cylinder is engaging the shaft arm that makes me feel relieved because i feel that makes a lot of sense and i'm probably in good shape!

This also makes sense since my slave cylinder is new.

A nice glob of grease fixed the squealing.

I bought an earls sandwich plate and it failed on me. The spring and ball bearing came apart. I had a backup glowshift just in case but was rather disappointed in the earls plate.

Bad news. Yesterday while going for a nice cruise I believe my head gasket to have failed. A very white cloudy smoke was coming out of my tail pipe as I shifted (mostly out of first). My radiator was definitely missing coolant.

It was a felpro mls and my head and block were freshly machined. I freshly calibrated my wrench before I torqued so I'm kind of concerned what did it. I will do a leak down test today or tomorrow to determine what caused it.

I'm not sure what to do now as far as replacement. My head was decked and the block was as well. I didn't overheat anything as I shut it down and had my uncle trailer me as soon as I figured tit out. I only had the internal cluster thermo gauge but it was still in normal operating temp when I shut it down.

ouch. comp/leakdown pronto.

I've seen them fail for no reason whatsoever. Most hold up perfect though. Good luck

I always see people asking about leak down tests and I built my own tester so ill document my testing and tester. My misfortune at least can maybe help someone else later. Booooo

Here is the leak down tester I made. I went to harbor freight and bought a regulator, female air fitting, male air fitting, and a standard pressure gauge. I also picked up from ace a #60 drill bit and a 3/8 male/male pipe. The none brass male to male pipe I filled with jb weld and then drilled a hole in it. The only part of the leak down tester that is missing is the hose from my compression tester that screws into the spark plug hole. I almost forgot i did buy a 3 ft 3/8 air hose lead from hf as well and put a male end on one side. My compression tester had a 3/8 screw on spark plug compression tip adapter. I just unscrewed it off my compression tester and screwed it on the other half of the 3 ft air hose lead.
Attachment 72223
The air compressor I was using only has an 80psi regulator on it so thats the highest I could set mine t8o. The idea is to hook the regulator side up to the compressor and then the other side up to the air hose lead with the spark plug air adapter on it.
Attachment 72224
You want to hook up the air hose lead after you've screwed in the air hose line.
Attachment 72225
At that time the pressure gauge will will dip.-This happens to be my 4th cylinder. It dropped to 40 psi. That means I have 50% leak down. I like to normally use a compressor with more than 100 psi. This way I can set my regulator to 100 PSI. It makes it very easy to get precise readings. 100 PSI regulator with the pressure gauge reading 95 means you have a 5% leak. I guess the idea is anything under 30% is acceptable. The less the leak down the better the compression. The beauty of making one of these yourself is including a compression tester to steal some parts for you can have a compression tester and leak down tester that works very well for less than $50. If you want to be super cheap you can probably get it together for around $20. Now if you buy the cheapo harbor freight leak down tester the pressure isn't adjustable. It's much easier to diagnose with this type of leak down tester than it is the cheapo one because you can up the pressure. It's much easier to hear 40 psi leaking (40% of 100 psi) out of your exhaust or intake then it is 12psi (40% of 30psi).
Attachment 72226

I had 190 psi on cylinders 1,2,3 for compression test and about 112 or so on #4.
Leak down was 10% roughly on all cylinders except for the 4th. 4th was 50% as mentioned. I ordered a new head gasket and will probably swap it out on the weekend. I will be doing a deck check prior to re install.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1365656383https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1365656573

Cleaned up a little after removing the head gasket.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1365656383
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1365656383

Is this from detonation?

I'm going to update with a few pictures now of some random stuff. Maybe make this thread a little more entertaining for myself and others. I have neglected the build thread and although I have a semi cookie cutter build I will eventually be deviating from the norm stuff after i get it all sorted.

The car runs great but has a bunch of stupid quirks.

First pictures are of dents from neighbors party. Some schmuck backed into my car and cause some really annoying to fix damage.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402102059

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402102059

I got THE dent and some others fixed. I'll take some before and after of how it looks currently a little later.

I am going to create a list. the 10 most annoying things about my car. This will be the 10 things I'm working on fixing and yada yada. I think If i work on a list this will improve my tracking and prevent me from going all over the place. Probably wrong but it's the plan.

I've been working myself to death and had some housing issues. Not having a garage has greatly detoured my miata lovin'. It's been about 6-8 months since I've really put any effort into it and now that I finally tackled and finished my ms3x batch upgrade I'm moving forward full steam.

1) ren I trern cronners my streering real brend.

2) My "power" steering is more like intermittent steering. It leaks and sometimes it grabs; sometimes it doesn't. It's pretty exciting steering tight corners you have to really pay attention.

3) My exhaust tea bags EVERYTHING. The cat also vibrates against the body sometimes and I don't love my magnaflow muffler. It's oval but it's not the awesome truck one (even though I've had one sitting on my parts shelf for over a year easily).

4) I have NO A/C!!! We've only had 44 days over 100 this year. no big deal. Who needs a/c?

5) My waste gate is only 6 psi and I have a built motor with a gt2560r. Should be running allofit.

6) My BOV doesn't work very well in low boost scenarios. I LOVE the way my blitz bov sounds. But I don't like getting that flutter just by letting off the gas during cruise.

7) My head unit gets to decide when and what I listen to. It doesn't respond to me pushing any buttons and sometimes it doesn't even turn on (it is super old in its defense).

8) I have a factory spoiler. I also upgraded to hydraulic lifter for trunk. It promptly slams in my face after I open it.

9) My car is multi colored thanks to a neighbors house party awhile ago. Neighbor backed into car pushing it into a wall. New fender, front bumper, hood. Pruple bumper, white hood, black fender, red car.

10) My intercooler bracket broke. It now hangs and looks JDM TIGHT YO!

10) My intercooler bracket broke. In combination with my awesome body panel coloring. My car looks like some mexicans hoopty.

SO I read a bunch of good things about the NGR BOV working really well. Well they are reasonably priced so I bought one. Now I haven't installed the product but they are marketed as a BRAND NEW BOV. They are supposed to be greddy rip offs but with internals that don't wear out easily (the greddy type-s was known to have a diaphragm that broke easily). You be the judge.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402103915

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402103915

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402103915

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402103915

None of that looks freshly machines and there is dirt in every nook and crany. There are wear marks and it is VERY obvious it is not NEW. I wrote them a long concerned e-mail saying they were being very misleading. The repsonse from them was basically. NO WAY WE GET THESE RIGHT FROM THE FACTORY! They then proceeded to apologize and gave me some JDM TITE YO blue silicone vacuum hose, a flange, an extra diaphragm , etc...

I think the effort is there and I appreciate the service. They sent me a new one that is yellow and not purple. This one was cleaned MUCH better but it still isn't fresh out the factory. Anyway this is my opinion and review obviously. If you buy one from them I wouldn't expect to get a BRAND NEW bov but it will be cleaned and then they will add their rugged diaphragm so you can make jdm tite PSHHH sounds if you like that sort of thing. I'll probably make it recirc since I like the quiet. The blitz was the perfect sound for me... oh well. I have other things more important to work on. Moving on!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402104298

NEXTTTT I was on ebay and found a sparco steering wheel l575 be the model i thought.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402104649

I bid 150 bones thinking it was legit. Allt he pictures and everything indicated it was. I got it int he mail and it looked really nice. I was super stoked! I then flipped it over and found there is no "Made in Italy" stamp on it. Sparco stamps that and then typically the month and year it was made below where it was made. SOOOOO mad. I just paid 152.50 for a piece of shit china wheel that bends! I already have one of these! Anyway I sent it back and got a refund.

I've had all these parts forever and they have just been sitting here waiting for me to use them. I'm showing them off right now I suppose because this weekend I plan on putting pretty much all of them on and fixing these annoyances I've had for so long.

I bought a Grant wheel because I couldn't find something I liked for less than $200 Maybe one day I'll get a nardi corn wheel but not today. This Grant will have to do. I bought a 5 hole to 6 hole 1/2" aluminum spacer to make it fit on my momo hub.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402105009

I have a straight through pipe from silicone intake a 180 bend of stainless 304 and a 90 bend of 304 stainless as well as a 4' straight section. Igot a bunch of vbands so I can swap out my straight pipe and cat if necessary.

I bought the vbands from ACE. I hadn't read any reviews on their vbands but thought i'd give them a whirl. they look pretty ok. The silicone intake pipes are slightly bent and i'll have to massage them to get the vband to slip over straight pipe.

I took some detailed picks of their vbands so everyone could see in detail what they offer. I haven't welded in a while but this weekend I plan on taking my 110 mig and some .035 316SLI wire with some tri-mix to this exhaust. I'm sure it won't be tig rainbow glory but hopefully I can shoot out a nice product. There are surprisingly few exhaust shops in town that weld tig.

I probably should have just bought one from abe or tim ages ago but I always enjoy the I built that feeling. And so far I've pretty much put together and built everything in my car so why stop now. If it goes well I will probbaly weld up my IC piping in stainless and then maybe a manifold and downpipe for an efr.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402105009https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402105009https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402105009

did some exhaust work today. mig stainless on a 110 machine. it turned out ok. short arc 110 mig welding on thin sheet. 16 gauge or thinner is pretty challenging. its challenging because the stainless really wants to distort.

anyway the welds are very functional but not super pretty. I primarily did this because everyone i know is always acting like stainless mig is kryptonite. the worst part is you can only weld an inch or two at a time without getting much distortion. I feel if i had a 220mig i could use spray arc. although you use more amps you spray; so the overall heat being absorbed is much less. i only did a couple pieces and called it a day. ill get more pictures when i'm done.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1402276961