The Riviera Blue Miata
 

During the COVID quarantine, I fully restored the 1990 Miata that was handed down to me way back in elementary school (more on that later). I slowly added a few cosmetic things like wheels, roll bar, hardtop, etc., in high school and early college, although it remained almost entirely stock, looking towards the day I could have the time, money, and place to do the full restoration and mods it deserved. That came suddenly in March when my college classes went virtual, I acquired the finances needed, and I found someone who would let me work out of their body shop and use all their tools for free, in exchange for painting the car when the time came.

I stripped it down to the bare chassis, got it media blasted, welded a lot of rust (including chopping the a-pillars and welding in new ones), fixed all the dings and dents, and resprayed it in Porsche Riviera Blue, one of if not the rarest color Porsche has ever produced. Along the way, I fully restored everything. And when I say fully restored, I mean fully restored. every single part of the car was restored, either by replacing parts or restoring them to like-new when possible - down to even sanding and painting every nut and bolt before rebuilding stuff, as I plan to keep the car until I can no longer physically drive. Where I could, I replaced stock components with upgraded ones as this car will become my weekend/autox/track warrior, especially once I can afford a normal daily. Mods right now are mainly in the handling, braking, and ergonomics department, as I unfortunately ran out of money before I could start the turbo build, but every system of the car did receive a performance upgrade.

I made a restoration build thread full of pictures, details, and videos to follow along and log the progress of the restoration, which also explains how I got the car in elementary school and why it means so much to me, which can be found here: https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=716038

The end goal is to build a canyon carving beast, similar to Greg Peters' miata, while also keeping it comfortable enough to drive whenever (AC is a must, at least while I'm in Florida) I want, and clean enough to pull off being a show car (at least at a shitty show, lol). My build thread on M.net was archived and saved in the "good threads that were saved", meaning i can no longer post in it. That, and considering I am turboing it, are the reasons I am starting a new build thread on here. All in all, the restoration took me 904 hours. Main plans for the future include turbo, big brake kit, and functional aero.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c2d650b359.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...498afcab85.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...53cae7cbba.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...439c6b8fd7.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...076efcb6f4.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...69554af7bc.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1473028db8.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8c1f89c70c.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6cb96b8f38.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c4d8c2f45.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...80cfe016e9.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2647526fd2.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...eedc5ad3ab.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cf0dbf9aac.jpg

Beautiful. Like the green tie in.

Gorgeous, excellent work!

Jeffbucc, is that you? I'm joking, but you should dig up his restoration thread if you haven't seen it.

That thing came out fantastic man, beautiful, great work. Time for boost!

Thank you, I think it blends with the riviera blue perfectly. When I get the bbk and pull the engine again for turbo, I'll probably have it all powdercoated Kawasaki green since it's lighter and I feel would look better. This is just grabber green from a spray can.
Thanks!
funny someone mentioned his name so early on in this thread lol. I remember in high school before I could even drive, sitting on the bus on my way to school in the mornings reading his thread every day for about 2 weeks. It's a shame he never posted an update again.. i wonder what him and the car are up to now. I thought about linking my thread in there as well, but I know one of the mods doesn't want people that aren't him posting there haha

can't believe it's been over a year since this thread got an update. I moved to DC shortly after the restoration for a short-term job, leaving the car in Florida at my parents' house to spare it the misery of salty roads and dings and dents from street parking. talk about hurt. Moved back to Florida in mid-august when a dual job offer as a junior race engineer/race tech at a race team and general mechanic/technician at a mechanic shop was offered to me by a long-time acquaintance. since then, I haven't really done anything else to the car as my plans have been to $ave dat money (cue lil dicky) for the quality turbo build I've dreamt of for years. Happy to say black friday treated me well with a decent deal on a MegaSquirt 3 Pro and an AEM afr gauge though, so I guess this is where we pop champagne and celebrate the beginning of the long-awaited turbo build. except I probably won't install either of those for at least another week or so, since I still have a good bit of reading and learning to make sure this doesn't turn into a blown engine swap build thread instead (ill admit I'm a wee bit afraid), and work keeps me pretty busy (test day this weekend at the FIRM). but it will only get better from here, folks

some glamour shots because i'm excited and I like to play around with my camera. 2 of the 3 black friday goodies I acquired, the third being a stage 1 Fab9 intercooler that should get here by end of week. per logical sense and also greg peters' turbo miata series, I'll be piecing my kit together in order of essential parts, buying and installing all of the supporting mods that don't require actual turbo hardware first, tuning accordingly and ensuring no problems pop up, one item at a time. once I get the ecu and afr working and the car runs well, ill do the radiator (still deciding between Koyo hyper v-core, flyin miata crossflow, and the supermiata crossflow, so feel free to chime in on your experience or thoughts on the 3), then interfooling the car to determine my intercooler pipe routing, and lastly fuel system and ignition system. after that, the real turbo parts will begin to roll in. eager is an understatement
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9c7ae5a7bd.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1648b6aae2.jpg

Since you asked me about this in a PM I figure I might as well reply here.

All 3 are good quality. A Crossflow design maximizes core area and efficiency so I'd eliminate the Koyo downflow on a FI build.

Outside of that, The Supermiata crossflow has a 5 year warranty vs. the FM 2 year, and the Supermiata one is $50 cheaper.

His statement holds regardless of radiator choice. Whether you are running our rad, FM's, or even Trackspeed's monster of a rad, you need hood vents to keep a turbo Miata cool on track.

Will the 5mm thicker FM core help? Maybe. Will it make the difference between needing hood vents and not needing them? No.

To be clear, the whole "keeping a turbo miata cool" thing means allowing you to run full pop for a 20+ minute session. Even without hood vents you can go out and have a good time for a few laps, then run a cool down lap, then go for it again.

yeah, i kinda figured as much. i don’t mind the hood vents, i look forward to them for both the performance and the aesthetic, especially since a good design helps with reducing lift and i plan on developing some functional aero for the car, it’s just not practical for me yet.

Other than that doubt i had, i was leaning towards the Supermiata unit already, since it has higher fin density (19.5 vs 18 i believe) and is lighter weight. the warranty you mentioned is an attractive bonus

in other news, this train of thought pretty much went out the window. the foundry producing Kraken’s cast manifolds notified him they are raising their prices, forcing
him to raise his prices to compensate, which is happening sometime this week.

I spoke with him over the weekend to get my order in before the price increase kicks in, and i placed an order for one of his low mount t25 garrett manifolds and 3” downpipe. I’m really excited for this piece, as it seems to be the best turbo manifold that’s been designed for us so far.

He also mentioned that he’s been working on a billet aluminum mixing manifold replacement, since the oe unit has to be hacked and rewelded in order to work with the low mount. It’ll come with AN fittings, braided hose for the heater core, some barbs fittings, AN plugs (i think) and even a turbo water return line port for the turbo feed. He said it should be ready by early January, and sent me pics of the CAD part. it looks pretty damn sweet. It also makes me believe i’ll be the first person, or among the first few, to get this, so that’s a pretty neat brownie point too. +1 for unique parts. I did ask him about CFD or flow bench tests, which he said he didn’t have, so there’s a little skepticism there, but the rest of his stuff seems to be top notch so i’m sure he has his shit together and knows what he’s doing. The price he gave me for it was killer, too

Love love love that color. I love my kraken setup. It has served me well

Oh yeah, forgot to comment on that. This car is totally fire, looking forward to the completed build.

thanks, i appreciate it. pics don't do it justice to be honest. the paint looks insane under the sunlight, very deep but very bright. at a meet from a few weeks ago
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bd82aa014e.jpg

small update since not much is new - i reached out to Michael at Kraken last week regarding my order that was supposed to ship/arrive mid-January; he said some problems with the machine shop have pushed orders behind, but 1.6 orders should be getting fulfilled this week, meaning I'll be receiving a special package from Bulgaria by end of February hopefully. the only other significant purchase for the turbo build so far is a new rear end. 2002 type II 3.909 torsen LSD, 2002 driveshaft and 1999 axles. using fm's ratio calculator, this taller gearing should make the car much more practical and useful at my power level with boost.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2220851eb7.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9f60b54744.jpg
between the subpar packaging and fedex handling the packages like a sack of potatoes, a few of the cooling fins cracked on the housing. pretty upsetting, but it is what it is i guess. maybe I'll weld some material in to fill out the missing chunks when i weld in the arm reinforcement plates, at least to make it look symmetrical again. that damn ocd of mine

meanwhile, im enjoying the car as much as i can and getting some seat time. did my first track night in it last week at my local track (PBIR). fastest lap was a low 1.45, and consistently hit mid 1.46s on Proxes RR and hawk blues. SMT times on that track are around the 34s, so im pretty pleased with my pace considering it was my first time on that track and the lack of good lighting made it hard to look into some of the corners and learn them well.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ebae9044cf.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...92131f9e34.jpg
aside from a coolant dribble coming from the 2 thermostat neck T hoses which popped up 2 days prior to the track night, the car performed perfectly with zero issues, which is very rewarding for me as its the first project car that I've tore down entirely and rebuilt.

regarding the coolant leak from the thermo neck hoses, I plan on running the next track day (March 3) and want to fix the leak beforehand. I believe I can completely cap off the thermo neck T, and simply connect the 2 hoses, right? the hose coming from the air valve on the top side of the intake manifold to the hose going to the mixing manifold. temporary solution while I get my qmax reroute and delete the neck all together.

track night next on the 3rd so I'm prepping the car in the week leading up to Wednesday. Looking to get a 1:42 now that I've driven the track and know it better. I think it's attainable and corner balancing the car, hawk blues in the rear and a slightly tweaked alignment should help. Might stiffen the suspension a bit too, an instructor told me I was a bit soft for the toyo slicks I'm running.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f5aedcbf69.jpg

i fixed the leak mentioned above today by removing the thermostat housing T with pliers and drilling the hole out with a 21/64 bit, then tapping and plugging it with a 1/8th NPT square head plug. used a 5/16th barb to connect the two lines coming from the T. cleaned debris from inside the thermo housing as best as I could, put it all together and let it warm up and idle for a while to make sure I had no leaks. Drove it somewhat hard around before heading home and it had no leaks or other issues, so I'm gonna say everything's good. Flushing the coolant out tomorrow and nut and bolting the whole car. i have a small to-do list to get through, so ill be working during my lunch and after work for a few days.

also picked up some slightly used toyo r888rs for cheap after getting a few nails and a sidewall bubble in 2 tires last week. im using them for the street since I have used slicks from work that I use for track days. I'm rubbing a little on my current ride height when going over large dips or small bumps, and i wasn't before on my dunlop direzzas or yokohama advans in 205s, so there's definitely less sidewall stretch and a bit larger contact patch width on the 888r's too I believe. aside from the slight rubbing and a squeak from the RR bushings which I'm fixing soon, the car is feeling really good. love driving it

small update and Kraken appreciation post :dealwithit: 6 months of waiting for my order was so worth it. I know I don't need to bring praise to his products in this forum since we all know how quality his work is, but god damn this shit is top notch. Welds, material selection, completeness of the kit, everything is amazing. And not to mention that he packages and protects the contents inside the orders better as a one-man operation than some bigger companies I've bought from in the past (shout out to ESR for packaging my $1400 order in what could've been a Lays potato chip bag...)
Also,
this piece is killer, and the whole bundle he pieced together for it is amazing. looks great, weighs nothing, configurable for AC and non-AC set up, has accessory ports and is so much smaller than the OEM mixing manifold.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...37713fbb75.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4dd914c0ff.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cc48a6716d.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c283c469dd.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...51864e45e3.jpg
was gunna run a catless exhaust but Cheezit insists otherwise

:likecat: for the coffee table .... :bowdown:

thanks :cool: I was able to piece most of the table for free... only paid for the intake mani and glass.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...49bfe0b9b4.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b8990a6dda.jpg

Hmmm, I should take back that cat, it should be a turbo VC .... ;)

Seriously, love your work there.

anyone know if you can splice into the oil pressure sender and OE water temp gauge sensor at the back of the head to feed data to aftermarket oil pressure/coolant temp gauges? Would like to keep the OEM ones in the gauges while also adding some aftermarket gauges with more accurate readings.

took a little break from turbo things to save up some money and do some planning for my move early next year. I'm going back to a bit of planning now though... also got a spare 1.6 engine that overheated and blew a head gasket from work, so im putting it on the engine stand to serve as a mock up motor for when I make my oil, water lines and do some wiring.

bought the turbo this morning at work, my card didn’t go through last night for some reason. gt2560r, .64 a/r and internal wastegate with 6-7psi actuator from atp turbo.

also bought all of the fittings for the oil and water feed/return. once i get these parts and the turbo i can throw it all together on the spare engine that’s on the stand and get hoses made to the lengths i need.

for sensors i picked up the 1/8 bsp to 1/8bsp with 1/8 npt adapter fitting to fit my oe pressure sender hole and run an aftermarket oil press. sensor while keeping my oe gauge functioning. oil temp i’m going to drill just above the drain plug and get a bung welded in there for oil temp sensor, as well as a bung for oil return on the hot side. aftermarket water temp will be ran off the supermiata qmax reroute at the back to one of the npt fittings. the front of the head will be capped and i’ll remove the tstat neck.

i’ve drawn a pretty useful diagram of the engine with a couple of different views for the purpose of planning most of my sensors and feeds/returns on my laptop using microsoft whiteboard. wish i still had my solidworks license to make 3d models of everything

the stand engine is a 1.6 long nose with a blown head gasket, it was swapped out of a car at the shop and i kept it to use as a mock up engine. and possibly build once i’m done with the turbo kit and put that on the car.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9bfbc0602.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3f42364a6.jpeg

it was disgusting when i threw it on the stand and i’ve been slowly disassembling and cleaning it during my free time at work to have it as a clean engine to work on. i’m putting the valve cover on later today and next week i’ll start putting my kraken parts on the engine and the various fittings and turbo i’ve ordered as they come in

next step is ignition. i was so ready and looking forward to building my own ls2 coil kit with custom harness and bracket but with more recent searching i’ve seen those coils have become harder and more expensive to find. the r8 coils seem to be the more popular choice now and they’re considerably cheaper, plus no leads. i need to look more into it but i guess that’s what’s the ideal go to conversion is now

fedex is screwing me. the driver came to my house but didnt drop the turbo off yesterday. so i changed the drop off location to a walgreens pick up point down the street from me for today, but it might not get delivered today either.

once ive got it though, ill put on all the fittings i have here for it and get some hoses done to the adequate lengths and sizes i need for the oil and water. did everyone know the big rubber plug on the intake side of the block is a hose barb into the crankcase? for the oil return in GTX. why do people who don't want to tap into the pan use this as an oil return?

im a bit confused with injectors. 1.6 with a gt2560r with flex fuel (85), planning for 225-250whp. some 600cc should be fine for that, but i want some decent headroom as i plan to build an engine once im done with this turbo project and will be aiming for around 350whp with that. using an injector calculator and from what i've read, 1000cc injectors are what I need.

Flow Force and Injector Dynamics seem like the two choices so, other than the hefty $180 difference, is there anything of notable difference between the ID1050xds from 949racing and the FlowForce 960cc injectors?

taking advantage of supermiata’s Orange November sale to purchase my qmax reroute and supermiata radiator. however the website keeps crashing and/or not showing any products under the Orange November page. im guessing the servers are just over crowded right now… any other guesses @emilio700 @turbofan ?

I was going to pick up a set of the ID1050xds injectors as well, but im gunna go with the Flow Force 960cc instead. no one i’ve spoke with has brought up a significant reason for picking the IDs over the FF… and the price difference is real nice. unless there’s a competitive discount for the IDs or i find other info, the FF should do more than enough for me.

i think FedEx is finally delivering my turbo today, too

shit's busted bro

Having some serious technical difficulties this morning, hoping it's up and running shortly.

The product sales prices are accurate but the Orange November page isn't live yet. But if you can go in and shop, you'll see the sale price.

average day in the life over here.

no worries, ill get in when I get in. hopefully nothing's sold out by then or the site isn't showing in-stock items out of stock like what happened last year.

I haven't been able to load any page other than the home page and the orange november page, they all just load until they crash

finally got my Supermiata order placed after 3 hours of dead-end screens and crashed shopping carts :dealwithit: can't wait to get these parts in.. i've been wanting the qmax reroute for a long time. Also just got email confirmation from FedEx that the turbo is delivered and ready for pick up at the drop-off point, and i'll likely be registering for my end-of-November track day tonight after work - Its a good day!

Thanks for being persistent!

It's been a very exciting week. My Supermiata order shipped out Tuesday, and I picked up my turbo on the way home from work that day.

I present to you all the heart of my build, a mighty GT2560R. to be specific, a Garrett GT2560R with Flanged Compressor Housing, T25 .64 A/R Internal Wastegate Turbine Housing, Standard 6-7psi Actuator from ATPturbo.com

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...489fc3d5a0.jpg

I threw on the oil feed+return and water feed fittings I had waiting for it that night. Took the turbo and Kraken stuff that's been hiding in my closet for many months to work on Wednesday so I could start mocking up the stand engine. Here's the billet mixing manifold setup, too... I still haven't seen a single person on here or the Facebook groups with one of these, and it's not any type of purchase option on Kraken's website when you build out a turbo kit. Does anyone know if he just gave up on this project? I can't believe I would be the only person that ended up with one of these.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d7d49a11fc.jpg

There's no orientation signage or installation directions, but I believe I had the hose on backward in this picture above. I thought the hose barb fitting should go on the metal elbow end of the hose to help orient it into the heater core hose (the elbow is bent toward the camera in this picture; tough to see). However, with the low mount mani and turbo installed, it became very hard and illogical to route the hose between the turbo and block wall with the straight end of the hose pointing it directly at the turbo. With the hose flipped and the metal elbow on the compressor side of the turbo, though, the elbow actually kinks the hose up perfectly between the turbo and block wall with about 10mm of clearance from either one. It fits so well that I have to assume it was designed like this. I flipped the hose in the pic below.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0853bb3a54.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0c89921ceb.jpg

The mixing manifold is awesome. Hella bling, has a front and side-facing port for the rad hose on AC/Non AC cars (includes billet AN cap to plug the unused hose port), the braided hose with fittings, and a AN (i believe? AN4 maybe?) port with included 1/4" hose barb fitting for the turbo water return.

To round out the week's excitement, I registered for the Sebring track event on Black Friday. It'll be my first time driving Sebring, and likely my last (at least in the Miata) since I move out of Florida early next year. We're running the full course, so I'm happy to get the full Sebring experience in one event. I might get to trailer my car to the track and back too, depending on trailer space - i'm working the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving weekend with my work and we have to make several trips to the track since we always run 5+ cars for that race

Good luck, hope your fillings are well secured!

now to keep buying stuff... i gotta buy a water return fitting for the turbo and a AN water return fitting for the mixing manifold, and compressor housing in/out flanges.
things im currently stuck on and need to figure out before buying the parts above:

- since i plan on running AN lines for everything, i'll have to replace the water return hose barb that came with the kraken mixing manifold with a AN fitting, but I can't do that without figuring out the thread type of that port. I would believe it's AN because everything else is, but the fitting came installed on the mixing manifold with PTFE thread seal tape, which makes me believe it would be NPT instead (please don't be BSPT). I'll figure this out at work tomorrow.

- I want to run 3" intake piping. Don't know whether to get a 3" flange, or a 2.5" flange with a 3" to 2.5" silicone reducer elbow like @DNMakinson and @The Australian did in this short thread (posts #3 and #6). conflict is that i dont know if i'll have enough room for the 3" compressor flange + the 3" silicone elbow to the filter without hitting the mixing manifold and water return line which are directly in front of the turbo a few inches away (the perils of low mount turbo). I think it would work, but it's a tight space to eyeball so many things. Otherwise, 2.5" flange with 3"->2.5" silicone reducer elbow it is.

Here are the 2 flange kits i'll pick from:
3" inlet, 2" outlet: https://www.ebay.com/itm/264208467039
2.5" inlet, 2" outlet: https://www.ebay.com/itm/264568584026

Any thoughts or opinions? if anyone has a low mount kraken kit with no AC or PS, your opinion or experience would be great:x:

I don’t know what the inlet flanges look like. Main thing is to have all diametral changes as gradual as possible The tapering elbow did that for me.

i’ve linked them here below

it’s just a flange with a pipe on the end. this is the 3”, inlet on the left, with the 2” outlet flange on the right.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ed57171b2.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5a6887a86.jpeg

one issue solved. sent Mike a message last night and had a response a few hours later. the fitting is M8x1.0

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d3239c4b5.jpeg

with the thread type cleared up, i bought the missing fittings. M14x1.5 -> AN4 for the turbo water return, AN4 -> M8x1.0 for the mixing manifold water return.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6fd811897.jpeg

being a standard metric fitting, do you guys think i should use PTFE thread sealant tape on the fitting? his pre-installed fitting had tape on it, but non-tapered threads shouldn’t have any sealant.

he did post something about how the raw aluminum fittings he chose have no coating and need some type of lube coating in order to “lock” properly. any idea what he means by this?


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...164e914c9.jpeg

​​​​​

no new updates as of now. Waiting for black Friday before I buy more things so I can get whatever savings I can find. fingers crossed that @nigelt has one so I can pick up injectors (FF960cc), pump (DW200) and coils (FF R8 Kit). also need to place a large order from @FAB for my oil p+t and water t+battery volt. gauges, flex fuel sensor, boost control solenoid, and a few other things, so i'll place that order end of November to see what black Friday sales pop up on his site.

​​​​​as far as this goes,
i pulled the fitting on Friday to double check that the threads were M8x1.0, and all of the PTFE tape had backed itself up and bunched up against the face of the fitting. guess that answers that question - no tape. Cheezit also wanted to examine the fitting, for cat purposes i suppose.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0736f9f6af.jpg

got the supermiata radiator and qmax reroute after another small headache with fedex... they are both such good looking pieces :likecat:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1c44a6c0f2.jpg
then realized a few days later that i would need more clutch for where i want to be with the car. I knew i wanted a supermiata clutch but wasn't sure which one, eventually decided on a 1.8 lightened flywheel and 4 puck sprung sport clutch combo, which im really excited for and also curious to how it'll feel in terms of pedal force and driving feel. also excited to see how it reacts, since it's a few pounds lighter than my current oem 1.6 set up. thanks to ed for helping me through some questions, mvp employee for sure.

also did my track day at sebring last friday. it was great, a really fun and bit challenging track, i definitely struggled to get a good rhythm going in the first run and half of the second. by the third and fourth i felt a lot better and had watched some instructional videos, and shaved 6 seconds off my best run 1 time. if i haven't moved to dc soon after i finish the turbo build, i'd love to get back out there with more power and new tires. dave from flag to flag photography killed it with some pics, i'll be placing my order for a few of them tonight. real nice guy toohttps://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...be95ef924c.jpg

also placed my flowforce order of 960cc injectors with dw200 pump and r8 cop kit early last week, and it shipped this morning. i should see it by the beginning of next week hopefully! and Frankie was super helpful with some questions. smaller more personal companies like flowforce and supermiata and AWR are one of my favorite parts about the miata community. on the other hand, i also bought an aem boost gauge on amazon, which was kind enough to not package it at all whatsoever outside of the gauge's own box, and when i opened it, everything was tossed around and not in place, including the gauge :facepalm: i'm returning it and reordering with the option to have it placed inside a bigger box with packaging foam or whatever. the build is feeling so close to being ready and im so excited.

got the car up in the air over the weekend to swap my street rotors and pads back on and give it a general lookover underneath. looks like the emergency dipstick tube rtv silicone leak patch is doing great - not a drop of oil after commuting to the track and back with 4 hard sessions.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...73916ab002.jpg

on the other hand, i have water coming from my overflow tank when im on track. never on the street or long drives, though. my oem temp gauge works, and ever since i took the ac stuff out, it sits at 11 on the clock no matter how hard i drive, getting closer to 1145 by the end of my 4th and final session.
is the car getting too hot? or could it just have some air in it and its causing it to come out? i did find the small hose leading back to the water pump manifold leaking a bit from a loose worm drive clamp.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1ba3d064fc.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e8479aab27.jpg

does this look like oil that could be coming from the head gasket itself? i had no reason to look for it since the car drove on track and still drives great, but i noticed it while looking around under the car.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a9e40181fe.jpg

on the turbo build end of things, i received my flowforce stuff over the weekend - its very hot. didn't realize how huge the r8 coils are lol, theyre rockets. injectors look great, they came with a flow test numbers card but unless im retarded, i couldn't match the serial #s on the card to the injectors. i want to put them on the mock engine to look at the wiring, but i don't want to damage any of the seals or orings on the injectors themselves.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...df70558998.png

also got a set of singular motorsports hood vents from supermiata. thankfully the clutch and flywheel i ordered last week aren't in stock yet, so i was able to just add the vents to that order. anyone know if you can get their additional maximum attack side vents separately? i don't want them now, but they look so good for a more serious business car. maybe one day
http://www.singularmotorsports.com/w...an_old1_ed.jpg

awr mounts are on the way too, and a bunch of stuff from fab9 including bov, boost solenoid, e85 gm sensor, gtx pcv, 2 catch cans, gates rAcInG water pump kit, and stage 8 locking hardware. expect fancy pics when its all here. also, got the replacement aem boost gauge, this time properly packed with air cushions around it in a bigger box. the gauge itself looks great and itll be a great match with the afr gauge