As someone finishing up finals week as well, I wish you the best of luck!

Also, in for epic V8 awesomeness and the eventual " when did I end up backwards?" That will go with it (first couple of autocrosses I did that just on stock power. My car's alignment caused nasty throttle lift snap overstere though.)

-x_25, I'll make sure to get some video of the first runs for everyone. If I push the motokart hard enough I may even be able to pull off a 720 for you guys hahaha

Went to my girlfriends last night since I probably won't see her until after finals, so I got home a little later than I would have liked this morning which meant a little less time in the garage. Somehow I lost one of my junk radiators and couldn't find the brackets to put the new one in cause of that. Really need to stop losing parts, could have sworn that I had that rad in the scrap pile, maybe I put it in the dump pile, I'll find it eventually. Anyway since I need to have the frame rails on so I can fab a trans crossmember I decided to start that mini project. Got one side on before I decided to go back in and study.

I also need to raise the car up higher, it's too low to work well under. Speaking of the motokart I may just buy a new harness for it since the wiring is butchered by the previous owners (heroin addict who traded the bike to his dealer for drugs who then sold it to me for nothing). We'll see, really wanna get that thing running again.

Progress pic, it's not much but hey, it's something:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450131050

every little bit helps.

welcome. Ive been racing a LS1 powered miata for quite some time now. if you run into hiccups just ask. i've rebuilt my car 2 or three times by now. about to do it again. :P

Hi Johnny! It was actually your glowing review of the hp efi that pushed me towards it. I was gonna shoot you a DM on instagram, but how are you liking the holley gauges so far? I've been thinking of switching to something like that down the road to simplify stuff a bit but I'm still going back and forth. What changes are coming to the miata this time?

The gauges are really good. Just get yourself the newer bigger dash. I had the old one and the screen was kinda small. Made it really sketchy to see redline when your moving at 130mph.

Are those the v8 roadsters headers?

Yep, haven't test fit the passenger side which I hear is tight on the subframe but they're beautiful and very high quality.I'm trying not to test fit them too much since the black ceramic coating scuffs super easily so currently they're sitting in my room wrapped up.

a new set of headers is on my list. i currently have the terrible sanderson 1.5" headers. i'm about to cage the car and i figure i could carve up the side rails and do side pipes. or go the easy way out and get v8 roadsters headers... decisions decisions.

when your ready for your first fire up send me over your tune. i'll check it over and compare it to mine. make sure it's safe to run.

I'll make sure to do that, thanks! And as for me, I'm not a big fan of miata's with sidepipes, but to each his own, anything is an improvement over the sanderson's haha

First day I really got out in the garage this week, decided to throw the engine back in the car and put some of the suspension on. I need to figure out a mounting solution for the sway bar so that it doesn't contact the crank pulley but I also need to try to get the endlinks as straight as possible. I also decided to put the xidas in since the control arms were flopping down and driving nuts.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450764001

Right before work I decided to pull the fuel pump to put the new one in and the only damn screw I needed to take off stripped. I'm waiting on the assembly to dry off and air out so I can cut a slot in the screw with a dremel.

Tonight I cut the radiator brackets off and started to mock up the radiator, I'm going to push the bottom further forward for a little more clearance but first I need to make the top mounts. I'm thinking of using the nb top mounts on the radiator instead of the na since I think they'll be easier to make brackets for and a little stronger.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450764001

After I finish that stuff I'll probably cut the bumper support for the intake, weld that up and then drop the engine back out. I still need to finish the bodywork in the engine bay. Fucking bodywork.:vash:

i gave up on messing with sway bars. broke down and bought a flying miata v8 sway bar. i was thinking about getting some old NASCAR ends and one of their rear bars. but for under $200 the FM bar is working fine.

This is the car I should have built

-Johnny, I may end up just going with the e30 or e36 (can't remember which one it was) option if I get tired of messing with this one but I'm gonna at least give it a shot.

-psyber_0ptix, some days I wish I had built something closer to a supermiata with a much lower budget that would have gotten me more seat time sooner. But I think in the end I'll be happy that I built this, sure as hell has taken long enough though! haha

Finishing up my christmas shopping right now, just drained a bit of my bank account but whatever. Gonna go try to get the radiator in since I have the day off. Didn't get anything done yesterday cause my girlfriend and I spent the day together. We very rarely get a full day together since our work and school schedules basically never line up. So yesterday we went and got breakfast, saw the new star wars, went to a christmas light show and then finished the night off with some steak at my parents house and a few episodes of Dr. Who. Hopefully I'll have some progress to report in a little while.

Progress has been made! Got the radiator fully mounted today. It's mounted at about a 5-10* angle off 90, I'll probably change it to a steeper angle down the line a ways but for now I'm happy with the placement. It sits about a 1/4" off the core support on the top and a zip tie's width away at the welds. Other than that it's level with the core support and very steady, I tried to shake the shit out of it and it didn't budge.

I still need to trim the tabs just a touch and then throw some paint on them but other than that it's done. After I got the radiator in I put the car on dolly's since only one corner was on a dolly for some reason. It now sits a little higher and can be pushed around the garage which is very nice. Here's some pics:

This is the top mount:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450933057

This is the radiator sitting in the car without any help!
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1450933057

Do you have a ls7 intake? I have an extra one.

-Johnny, funny story about that. I bought an ls3 one from a corvette a while back without doing enough research and it comes with a weird lump on the side, maybe a silencer :confused: Anyway, I cut it off, patched it, and I think it'll work but I was planning on just buying an ls7 one sometime down the line. Long story short: I'm an idiot haha, I'll pm you about that one.

Yesterday I decided to pull out the sandblasting cabinet to finish the spindles which were the only thing left to sand blast and paint. It takes about half an hour to set it up because I have to get our second air compressor out from behind a car, get the vacuum out of the basement and then run a shit ton or air lines all over the place.
Of course after I had set everything up I noticed that the damn spindles were already done. I had finished sand blasting them months ago and just left them in there. So I basically wasted an hour after I had put everything back, but at least they're already done. I took a picture of them but it's blurry as hell so I didn't feel like posting it.

After that I put the fuel pump assembly back together with the new pump. Had to use the dremel on the only machine screw so that I could get it off but it finally came out.

Also finally started my dad's brewing sculpture yesterday. One of the main reasons we got the tig welder is so that I could weld his brewing sculpture for him since he's really into brewing beer, wine, and a little grappa once in a while. Finished the first section of it today, lots of welds but it's good practice for sure! Laid down some really nice beads on some of it.

Anyway, hope you guys are having a good christmas and spending it with your family/friends.

Can I come borrow your sand blasting cabinet...all my arms and spindles need it badly. :)

Don't beat yourself up too bad. I've had 4 different variations of cold air intakes. The intake temps where astronomical on All of the 4" tube combinations and k&in filter bolted on. I bought a ls2 c6 assembly intake (the one with two filters) and later found it was super restrictive. I could feel the power gain when I got the ls7 intake. It also helped keep my intake temps down.

-aidandj, if you toss some money my way I could probably do it for you while I'm not in school haha

-Johnny, sounds like my chain tensioner for my last go kart, went through about 4 designs before I finally got one that didn't break and was still adjustable, not looking forward to getting to make another for the new kart.

Anyway I had an engineering club meeting today so I didn't get any work done on the car, we got the rover apart and started looking at redesigning the suspension. We also got a pallet of carbon fiber that we'll be making the frame rails and the arm out of to reduce some weight.

Just sent some money to Johnny for an actual ls7 intake so that'll get here one of these days. Other than that I got the radiator fans and shroud in the other day. I need to figure out the lower radiator hose cause I wasn't able to cut the one that flyin miata gave me enough to make it fit, the top one on the other hand fits well after I cut it. I then did a little grinding on some stuff I had been meaning to cut in the interior. For christmas my parents gave me a new set of welding gloves and a gift certificate for v8 roadsters, I'm loving the new gloves and hopefully I'll be buying my rear end set up in the next 1-1.5 months.

Need to go get some gas for the tig tomorrow, so I'm gonna do that and then hopefully get some more work done, I'm thinking about dropping the engine back out and connecting the transmission. I need to start looking at making my transmission crossmember.

Pictures:

Gloves:
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1451347689

Radiator with fans and shroud
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1451347689

HA! feel free to ask me any questions you come up with. like your kart i've spent money 2-3 times on almost every component. my wife wants me to add it up, but i refuse lol.

I'll pm you. I'm going up through seattle soon, and it would be awesome to get my rear spindles done. They came from somewhere salty.