been there done that, raged just like you.

I was able to get them out eventually though by applying constant pressure on the torx/wrench while tapping it with a hammer.

I'm sure the shop will get them out easy with a chisel, my dad's done that before took all of 5 min

Mine came right out. :giggle:

I had to use an easy-out on Oregonmon's VVT gear, they're loctited in there pretty well. Scared the shit out of me, but they all came out no problem. The torx hole makes lining up the drill pretty easy.

Also about the MSM mixing manifold: as an fyi to anyone else, you can NOT flip it without extensive modification, it'll hit the alternator belt. The modification involves cutting the heater core hard line section off, and welding it closed.

Progress.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1421027318
Attachment 130858

I was able to take the vvt cam gear to an engine shop close to my house on Friday. It took him all of 5 minutes to remove the 3 screws with an impact driver....and he didn't charge me anything. I think I found my local trustworthy mechanic if I am out of my element on something. Conclusion: I need an impact driver.

Timing set, easy peasy.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1421031647

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1421031647

I now know why people like to pull the tranny with the engine. Realigning it was a bit of a bitch but I got it in.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/...pspwexxj0i.jpg

Then the motor mount on the passenger side would not align.

Attachment 184488

I just needed to remove two of the bolts on the block so that I could swing it into place and then bolt it back to the engine. Sixshooter decided to drop by and help me start bolting things back on. We noticed I forgot to attach the vvt oil hardline to the block. This became quite the challenge to put in place with the engine in and the intake manifold installed. Sixshooter so graciously took on this bitch of a project which seemed rather frustrating. Great success!

Attachment 184489

There is a lot of little stuff left. The only big parts left are bolting up the hotside, getting the vband flange welded onto my old exhaust to mate with the downpipe, and routing the intercooler piping. I am hoping to start the car next weekend and get the exhaust welded early the following week so the car is full streetable.

There was more progress this weekend but not as much as I would have liked. I spent both Saturday and Sunday morning looking at tow vehicles. Good news is that I found one! It is an 03' Toyota Sequoia.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1421640109

The rest of my time was spent test fitting everything on the car to make sure no further modifications would be necessary. I also painted the valve cover.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/...psre7pwybi.jpg

Completed the coldside intercooler piping as well.

Attachment 184478

Attachment 184479

I would have completed the hot side piping as well but I am going to need to either modify the headlight housing or widen the hole behind it. I am not actually sure what the piece I need to remove from the housing does. It is pictured below:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1421640109

Can I cut that piece off without consequence or should I just make the hole bigger?

I am also having trouble getting my reroute radiator hose to fit over the kia thermostat outlet. The fitting seems to be very close to the outlet on the back of the head that routes to the factory oil cooler? Has anyone else had this problem? It is very frustrating because that whole assembly is a bitch to get to back there.

I'm guessing that white thing is a supporting/stabilising shaft that your headlight assembly slides into, in which case, DON'T remove it!

I thought the white thing was a vent for the head light.

This was Sixshooter's guess as well. I did not want to assume.

Blinker oil drain plug.

Cut it off. If you find out later you need it, use glue.

What are you going to do with all that built motor/tube mani/big exhaust/EFR power you didn't have before? Can you handle it?

just wanted to point out that you are literally carrying out everything I would ever do to a miata engine:

VVT - check
built bottom end - check
baller hotside parts - check
EFR - check

Now start participating in the transmission upgrades thread cause even the 6sp won't last long on your car now

Already working on something :party:

Oooh, do tell?

He's got plenty of disposable income right now for cool stuff. Good job, low overhead, no wife, no kids, no mortgage, no car payment. And he's currently between girlfriends. Seriously, he's probably snuggled up between two girlfriends right now.

All in good time...

sounds like soviet a couple years ago

and that resulted in a bunch of WIN

:party:

This last weekend I figured out my lower radiator hose path.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422409668

Then I moved on to my hot side intercooler piping. Started by opening up the hole behind the headlight.

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/...pslv7nchb4.jpg

Then I was able to cut and route the piping.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422409668

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422409668

There were some other little things accomplished but this is how it sat on Sunday evening.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422409668

All that is really left is the reroute hose, mounting the catch can, exhaust, and air filter. I am really hoping one more weekend is all I need.

Seriously nice MSM. I just wish mine had the good seats.

Updates?? Hadn't realized you were going with a 7163 as well until someone mentioned it in my build thread. Going to be watching how things go together closely now! Excited to see another 7163 build going on at the same time.

This is similar to what I theorised was the best radiator hose routing for the MSM:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1422409668
If you modify the the mixing manifold outlet so that the rear barb angles downward 45* (ie. cut, rotate and weld), the hose can run diagonally behind the AC unit, under it and straight to the radiator barb since there is enough room for the hose behind the AC which this photo demonstrates.
This is how it SHOULD have been routed in the first place, much more direct.

Update from last week and today coming shortly. I just had it all typed up and hit backspace on accident and I lost it all. Short story is that I got everything hooked up and tried starting it. Oil pressure, check. Fuel Pressure, check. No Spark.....Then I realized that I never hooked up the cam sensor because I need to extend the wires on the plug or cut them out of the stock harness and route them to the back to the head where the vvt sensor is located.

I never updated from the work I did last weekend because I almost rage quit and killed it with fire. The car should have easily been able to be started last week but I had a huge fucking fail. However, everything is all better now and it wasn’t that big of a deal.

I began by installing my catch can setup which I am extremely pleased with by the way.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1423356672

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1423356672

I then finished hooking up the coolant reroute (Sorry no pictures). This left only the downpipe and dump tube left. I thought this would be cake and I would be able to start the car up with no problems. Boy was I fucking wrong. I could not for the life of me get it to line up even close to correctly even with the help of both my Dad and brother.
http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/...psauiewhzf.jpg

Attachment 184420

I decided to take a look at Abe’s pictures again because something just didn’t seem right. This is when I realized that I had the turbo angled completely wrong on the manifold……
I should have noticed this before as I had looked at Abe’s photos multiple times but due to the angle of the pictures it wasn’t as obvious as you would have thought. I had oriented the turbo pretty much completely straight and parallel with the block like you would expect and it fit just fine. However, I forgot that Abe mocked it up with a normal AC compressor, which is bigger than an MSM compressor. He had to angle the turbo slightly so that it was clear the compressor. Sounds like no big deal right? Well it was a problem. Once I angled the turbo the downpipe lined right up without any problem. Rejoice!

Attachment 184421

Then I realized I had designed all of my oil/water lines and intercooler piping around how I had originally oriented the turbo. At this point I became visibly angry and wanted to throw the turbo down the driveway. :vash: After I collected my thoughts and relooked at everything I was able to just reclock the center section of the turbo which allowed the water lines and most importantly the SS oil feed line to still work. I just needed to redo the oil drain line and the intercooler piping right before the turbo.
I was able to get everything I needed during the week and I began work again early this morning. I redid the hot side intercooler piping a little and the new path is actually much better. I also got the oil drain line hooked up. I put the downpipe on and then the dump tube decided to be a HUGE fucking PITA which took me almost 2 hours to get on correctly. Hooked the battery up and pulled the fuel pump relay. Before I did anything else I doubled checked everything I could think to make sure I had hooked up all the lines correctly and such. I then put a little oil in the turbo to prime it, put oil in the engine, and coolant in the radiator. I ended up having to hook the miata battery up to the sequoia while I turned it over to prime the oil pump because it was weak. I got oil pressure after four cycles of about 10 seconds. Plugged the fuel pump relay in and then primed the fuel pump about 20 times to fill the lines back up. Then it was time for the moment of truth……no dice. I had no spark. I tried switching out the coils. Still no dice. I noticed I also have no RPM signal on tuner studio. It was getting dark so I decided to wrap it up and took a shower. Shower thoughts are always the best. I never hooked up the cam sensor because it is located on the back of the vvt valve cover but on the front of the MSM valve cover and I hadn’t extended the wires to reach. I will do this first thing tomorrow and hopefully it starts right up.

Might I recommend a shower beer next time around? ;)

Sounds like progress! Its always the little things that end up screwing you and making you insane, but it sounds like you've got it well in hand.

Shower beer ftw!

Good progress ... almost there.

That's some patience right there. I ended up finishing my engine swap at 3:45 in the morning because I kept saying "almost there, one more thing"

That's also how you end up with two kids

People who have never done an install with a bunch of brand new parts always learn a lot during the process. The biggest lesson I learned was that the big parts go together mostly but the little pieces, parts, fittings, hoses, angles all make it a big PITA. It always seems to take a few extra days (or weeks) to get the right small parts to finish.

I rewired the cam sensor this morning but there doesn't seem to be adequate spark. Occasionally I will get a backfire during cranking. There is a relevant log attached in the following thread:

https://www.miataturbo.net/megasquir...7/#post1204114

Any help would be greatly appreciate as Sixshooter and I are stumped. We are going to try using a better battery as we noticed the voltage seems a little low.

I got the same thing, backfire, bad spark. New plugs fixed it. Which is weird because it ran fine. Then sat for a week then needed new plugs. Throwin out ideas.

Plugs are brand new. Rev says the engine is not getting a proper cam signal so I am going to look at the wiring this week to make sure I didn't mess something up.

Generally back fires indicated timing related issues. If you're confident about your timing belt job, then start looking at which channel is firing which injector, same for spark. I just did a '03 VVT swap in a '93 with a '05 wiring harness and a MSPNP Pro. Ended up having to swap injectors 3 and 4.

I'll look into this but that would be surprising as I am using the stock msm harness and it is wired up the same way it was before. I think the backfires are due to excess fuel in the cylinders from no spark and then having one or two random spark events while cranking that cause a backfire. The backfires are not eve close to regular. I might crank it 3 times with no backfire and then get one or two the next time. This makes me think it is a wiring issue with the cam sensor like rev suggested. One or more of the connections is probably messed up.

By now we are usually telling people to look at the OEM 4 tooth timing wheel and make sure its not installed backwards, but you are using something else correct?

No, I am using the stock wheel.

Didn't see the other thread, sorry about that. Derp

If Rev says is not seeing cam signal and to check the wiring, then yeah, check the wiring. Do you have another cam sensor you can throw at it?

I have a spare I can test but I don't think it is the sensor. The simplest conclusion is that I fucked up the wiring when I extended them. There are 6 total connections of which I only needed to mess up one. I will try the other sensor first though since it would involve the least amount of work.

If anyone can go back into the thread I linked above and offer some help, I have included an update. I appear to be getting crank and cam signal. After more research it even looks that it may be correct. Still no spark and I am at a loss.

I'm about ready to either pay someone ungodly amounts of money to get my car running or just set it on first and roll it into a lake. This is absolutely infuriating. Tried everything and it just will not start.

Has mechanical timing been verified? Have coils and injectors been tested in test mode?

Start at the coils, and work back until you find where the signal is broken. One of the clamp on amp meters might be helpful.

If you don't have a spark output at the ECU, then you know where the problem is.

I have a digital multi meter. That's about it.

Check for signal before the coil pack. I would have to look up the amperage of the signal but its just a 5v trigger signal. An oscilloscope would be ideal but something might work. If you aren't getting spark at the plugs, and you're ECU says its doing what it should be then there is a problem between the ECU and the coils, either a broken wire, a bad ignition driver, or an unplugged wire.

Unplug the ECU connector and check connectivity with the multimeter between the coil pack connector and the ECU, that will help narrow it down too.

Also I just remembered that my timing light can catch the 5v pulses to my COPS, so that could work too.

I own none of these tools and diagnosing electrical gremlins is way over my head. I understand the basics but thats about it. This sounds more and more like I should just open my wallet and pay someone else to do it because I don't want to spend another two months troubleshooting.

Timing light and multimeter would do it. I haven't been fully caught up but does the stock ecu still give you spark?

I wouldn't even attempt to run the stock ecu on this car. Tons of sensors that were present from the factory are missing.

The MS and all of this wiring is exactly the way it was when it was running. The motor has changed and I extended a few wires. The wires I extended were for the cam sensor, coolant sensor, and oil pressure sensor. I have already established with composite logs that both the cam and crank signals are now perfect.

Can you unplug the injectors and try and get the coils to spark. Because it really sounds like an ecu or a wiring problem.

Sixshooter, would you be able to do a continuity test with the multimeter? If you have continuity between the ecu and coil packs, and you have tried different coil packs and plugs, then you either have bad luck or its the ecu.

Have you seen my thread when I had a very similar issue?
https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...d-issue-77427/
I sincerely feel bad for you and have no advice other than try what I tried in my thread.

The kicker is I sold the whole engine to dopple, who threw it in and it fired right up. Blows my mind still to this day.

That thread was so depressing. It did make me want to recheck my mechanical timing after how many times you did lol. One encouraging part is that my composite logs look perfect. I need to run the ms in test mode and check the injectors and spark again.

ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

http://vid1286.photobucket.com/album...psakkjeoz0.mp4

I don't have a youtube account and I can't figure out how to directly embed the video from photobucket. I also filmed this vertically like a noob but I was more focused on the car than the video.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
YISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

:party:

so what was the culprit?

I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say it was the backassward cam? :)

Was the VVT thing just put together wrong?

So far we haven't disassembled the VVT cam gear but it looks like we might have to anyway. We noticed another marking on the cam gear that was located at exactly the right degree that the cam appeared to be off. So we set timing with the other mark and then it fired right up. The problem is that when we are looking at pictures of how you set timing on a VVT cam gear the original slot marking that I used is the correct marking and the little dot marking that we are using now is not the right mark. Everything on the actuator can only bolt together one way due to the bolt spacing so I am really confused as to how it could be off 90*. Something is not right and it looks like we are going to have to take it back off.

and I know for a fact the vvt gear doesn't have 90* of adjustment, lol
weird, but at least you have a car that fired up already, and making progress.
really happy for you

The pin on the cam, that locks the vvt gear in place, is barely bigger than 3-4 other holes and slots on the back of the cam. If you wrech it down tight enough, you could put it on the wrong hole. Rotate it until it slides on smoothly and easily.

brain just exploded from all the possible innuendo's

And he didn't even mention lube :(

DING DING DING :idea: We have a winner. The cam gear slid on the dowel in the wrong hole. It didn't really fit but the bolt held it tight enough. It was a super easy fix and it started up no problem once I put it back together. There is a lot of little things that need to be messed with but I should be able to drive it to the exhaust shop next week to get the midpipe mounted to the downpipe so I can start driving the car on the street. Tomorrow I am going to start buttoning everything up.