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Simple '93 street/fun car build
Been wanting to put one of these together mostly for myself to document my build that I've been working on for a few years now. It started off as a fun daily that needed a lot of work to keep stuff from breaking on me and has slowly turned into a fun street car that I take to autocross (and hopefully some track days in the future) every now and then. Warning photo dump ahead:
I bought the car in July 2016 as my first car that wasn't a hand-me-down. The guy selling it had it as a shop car at some boat repair shop, and as I understand it they got it up and running then let it sit before selling it. I paid $1500 for it, which I feel was decent cause it was pretty clean overall, but it definitely needed some love. Immediately after buying it and pulling out of the parking lot the car died due to the battery terminal breaking off and the car stalling due to old gas. I was able to get someone to rescue me and bring me a terminal, and about halfway home, the lower radiator hose cracked and it started puking coolant. Luckily I was able to limp it home before it started overheating. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...afe23efaa2.jpg I didn't even have the car 24 hours before I had to fix shit on it. :rofl: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9f98dd0c35.jpg And I gave it its first bath. The paint was pretty nice on it when I first got it. I think the owner before the previous owner had it repainted not long before I got it. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...eb49feb79b.jpg Spent the first year with it mostly fixing all of the neglected and hack job shit that had been done to the car. I ran a carfax report and found out that I'm the EIGHTH owner of this car, so can't really be surprised about some of the shit I found. This was me replacing the main fuse that someone had bent together after it had popped. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8878bf9ec6.jpg |
After 6ish months I got a new exhaust as my first mod for the car. I ended up going with a Yonaka catback exhaust since it was only like $200 and didn't sound awful in the Youtube clips I saw. I've been really impressed with it. It's got a nice deep sound to it without any rasp, and it's not ridiculously loud. I've had it on the car for 5 years now and has it's held up great.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a10bc78ab1.jpg Ended up putting the top down in cold weather and split the rear window. I was so pissed because the top was in pretty good shape, and I only had broke college student money to get a new one. I tried to do it alone and it was a total bitch to put on. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...250e4c1a8a.jpg One major problem with the car that I found out shortly after buying it, was that it burned a TON of oil. It was going through a quart every 200 miles, closer to 100 miles if it was a lot of highway driving. My trunk was filled with this for most of the early years of owning the car. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ff72ce4edb.jpg It was getting to the point where I was buying a jug of oil almost every week, so I started to put my pennies together to try to swap in a new motor. I had really wanted to do a 1.8 swap on the car, but didn't really have the time nor the money to try to piece together everything needed for that. I was working a summer job while I was off from college and needed the car finished before I had to go back up for school, so I opted to just swap in a low miles 1.6 motor. The car had around 180k miles on it, and I was able to get a motor from Treasure Coast Miatas with only 80k miles on it. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...10a4b0a0ce.jpg This project was probably one of my favorites that I've done to the car so far. Before doing this the most I had ever done to the car was swapping out parts here and there, so this was my first major project. Spent a lot of time planning everything and making sure I ordered all new seals, gaskets, etc. It was a super satisfying project to be able to completely "refresh" everything and spend a little time each night after work going through everything. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ecfe98cec3.jpg This was the old engine after I had picked everything off of it. The pallet that the engine came on made a nice work bench. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1d2970c629.jpg While I had the valve cover off, I gave it a nice clean paint job with some wrinkle black paint and red lettering. Wish I had a photo of all the new stuff in the engine bay :( https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4d37394d5e.jpg |
I was having some trouble getting my posts to work, but here's everything about the car as it sits today:
CHASSIS & BODY The car when I bought it had about 176k miles on it, and today it's sitting at around 210k.
Engine that came with the car was burning tons of oil, so I swapped in another 1.6 (Wish I did a 1.8 swap, but oh well) with 100k less than the chassis.
Not a whole lot going on here. Most of my work on the interior has been replacing the worn out stuff.
Pretty happy with how the current setup has been, but want to make some changes.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1539f7106a.jpg https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e385198fa0.jpg https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...27104733b1.jpg I don't have any good pics of the interior right now, but I'll probably take some when I get all of the center console stuff back together. Instead, here is a pic of when I was replacing the carpet and found out the floor pans were crustier than I thought :( I was able to wire wheel off all of the crust and spray rust converter on what was left. Hoping to get the holes patched up at some point. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c2ddea1566.jpg And that's pretty much how it sits today. I've been spending most of my time trying to figure out the Megasquirt ECU and getting the car running well enough to get back out to autocrossing. It's been a pretty big learning curve, but I feel like I'm starting to get a hang of it. The car runs decent, just a few little issues that I need to figure out. It's tough trying to drive and tune it all myself, so I've been just working on it a little here and there. As for what's next, I just placed an order for a turbo kit from Kraken. Was trying to wait until my tax return came, but wanted to get it ordered now, since it might be a couple months before its shows up. I went with their low mount setup, Garrett 2554R, and their intercooler kit. Super excited for that, but want to get the tires sorted out before then. They are already pretty sketchy on stock power, so definitely not with 180+ hp :rofl: Pretty excited for what's to come. I bought a 2017 Civic Si last March to replace the Miata as my daily, so it's been nice to be able to just tinker on the car without stressing. It's looking like 2022 should be a fun year for the Miata. |
Images are broken for me BTW. If you just paste them in it looks like it works but it only works from the computer you made the posts from. Might fix it to re upload them with the image uploader.
Edit: They're working now, weird... |
Oh, thanks for the heads up. I re-uploaded everything with the image uploader, so hopefully that fixed it.
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Installed a boost gauge today because the empty spots in the dash are starting to bug me, and it'll be one less thing that I need to do once my kraken kit comes in.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...844c72f979.jpg I forgot how much of a rats nest it was behind there. Made sure to try to tuck stuff up better this time before putting everything back. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a108da18a2.jpg One less hole in the dash. Still not ready to commit to putting the air vents back in. When I was doing some research on the Megasquirt CAN bus, I found some videos of people creating little CAN gauges using an arduino. I've already got a bunch of arduino parts lying around from some other projects, so I bought a few of the MCP2515 CAN controllers to try to play around with that. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f2ae8c401b.jpg Currently just playing around with the OLED screen and displaying data. The board in the bottom right is the CAN controller. If I'm motivated this weekend I'll rip out the megasquirt to get the CAN all wired up and start messing around with getting the arduino to read data from the ecu. |
Been working a bit on the CAN gauge. I did some digging and found this YouTube video of someone who had already created something that was pretty much exactly what I was wanting to do, which is super convenient. I was able to trace the video back to an msextra thread with more details:
https://www.msextra.com/forums/viewt...p?f=67&t=52539 It looks like someone took this project a step further and put up a pretty much complete project up on GitHub complete with PCB design and 3d printed gauge housing: https://www.msextra.com/forums/viewt...p?f=67&t=56565 I really like this one as a good starting point as there are a few things I'd like to change about this one. I forked the repo here's the link for anyone interested: https://github.com/tshea113/MSCan_Gauge So far I've removed the GPS and the accelerometer. I don't really care about this data and the sensors added another $50 to the cost. I've been able to test the UI a little bit with what I've got on hand, but rather than trying to hack it to work, I've just been waiting for the parts to come in. Everything was about $60 from adafruit, and the remaining components and PCB will probably be another $40ish. My goal is to flesh out the instructions a bit more on this, so that it is more accessible to people that would like to have a more DIY option for a CAN gauge. I spent yesterday getting the car wired up for CAN, which was just wiring a few jumpers on the Megasquirt and building out the harness. Currently waiting for some Deutsch connectors to come in so I can have a plug for the gauge and the 120ohm termination. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...85527a4795.jpg |
The parts came in last week and I was able to get everything setup with the teensy. I spent a few days banging my head against the wall trying to get the teensy to read the data over CAN with no success. I was able to verify with a little usb logic analyzer that the megasquirt was sending the right data, but for some reason couldn't get the teensy to read it. I had tried setting up the arduino to try to talk with the teensy over CAN and still couldn't get the teensy to see anything. After doing some digging, I realized I was using a newer version of the CAN library than the original code which had some changes to how the CAN connection was setup. After making a few changes, I got it to work!
Really excited to see it working. I'm pretty happy with the data views that were already created, there's the dashboard that's shown in the video with a bunch of data, single gauge screens that you can scroll through, and several histograms that plot data like in mega log viewer. I'd like to update the navigation a bit to make it easier to find specific gauges, and maybe have a bit more customization on the dashboard. That stuff will likely come later because I want to get the PCB finalized so I can get something that I can mount in the car. As I said before I removed the accelerometer and the GPS from the original gauge, so that should free up some space on the PCB to add some inputs for more analog sensors. The teensy has plenty of analog I/O, so having a few extra sensor inputs would be nice. I'll try to get a better video of the different gauge views next time I'm fiddling with it in the car. I got so excited it was finally working I didn't think about that :D |
Your location says Austin TX, but I recognize the location in your autocross picture a few posts back. I'm in Clermont FL and have been autocrossing with MSCC and CFRSolo for ~7 years now. I've got the LO MSM with the Turbo Kitty sticker on the back. :party:
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Yup, I just moved to Austin at the end of 2020, but before that I used to bounce between Sanford and Gainesville FL. I'd autocrossed with FAST and the corvette club several times when they were still doing events in Brookesville. I think that event was my first time with MSCC (or maybe the Porsche club I can't remember), and I had done another at the FIRM before moving, so we may have been at the same event! Really missing having so many autocross opportunities, it seems like there's an event somewhere in central FL every weekend. :cry:
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I was able to solder up the 1.3" screen that will be going in the gauge to replace the 0.96" screen I already had. It made more of a difference than I expected. I had the gauge on the passenger floor because my CAN wires were too short, and it was still pretty easily viewable. Anyways here's a video for those that are interested:
There are still a few bugs in the single gauges that need to be addressed, but overall it pretty much is plug and play. I was able to get the PCB finalized and ordered along with all of the components for it. I stripped it down to the bare essentials for V1, so I can have a working gauge in the car while I work on other features. Everything should arrive in a week or two. Once I have the gauge mounted I'll be able to determine which gauge screens work best for the placement and what menus make sense in the car. Right now it's kind of annoying to look for the gauges you want, and there isn't much customization as to what is displayed on the screen. |
PCBs finally came in! Pretty happy with how everything turned out. Soldering the smaller stuff was surprisingly easier than I figured and didn't mess anything up too bad :)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...58bce425a7.png https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...91bf12b364.png The gauge will connect to the car with this nice molex connector. I'm going to put some deutsch connectors between the molex and the car, so that moving the gauge doesn't require cutting into the car's harness, I'll just be able to remake the sub-harness. I was short a connector, so I will have to wait until that comes in before I can test it in the car. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cb0af6925e.png I still need to finish up the design for the gauge housing, but here is an idea of how the screen and LED ring will look together. The ring just barely covers some of the corners of the screen which is a bummer, but shouldn't take up too much screen area. So far I have a shift light for the ring that progressively lights up the ring until the set RPM where it will blink. I've also made a coolant warning that you can set that will cause the ring to blink when the temp gets too hot. I'll probably add some more once I've got it mounted and working in the car. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d845375e9e.png Here's a video of what I have for the menus right now. The main menu lets you pick which gauge type you want to see, and there is a settings menu for configuring the gauge. The settings save to flash, so they persist after the car has been turned off. You can kind of notice towards the end how the screen likes to bug out sometimes and shift everything down a row, but I'm hoping that's just from it being on a breadboard. |
Quick update from some work I did today. Pulled apart the dash to get the harness for the gauge built. I was able to use the existing connector I had for my boost gauge power and ground and just slapped another deutsch connector on the CAN wires. I then built a subharness to go from those two connectors to the connector that plugs into the gauge. Everything looks to be working right. :)
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2f4a8201e9.jpg Well, actually that's a half lie. I did notice that the power signal that I'm using causes the gauge to turn off during cranking, and that is causing the screen to not come back up once the car starts. I'd rather not have to run a new power wire, so I might try poking around at the software to see if I can make it work. I'm working with a friend of mine that is good with 3d modeling to get the gauge housing designed and printed. I should get sometime next weekend, so I'm hoping to have a working gauge in the car sometime next week. Super excited! :party: |
The gauge stuff hasn't really made much progress since my last update. The worldwide chip shortage is starting to become an issue with some of the parts I used, notably the Teensy 3.2 microcontroller and the CAN transceiver chip. Luckily there is a newer Teensy 4.0 that isn't supposed to be affected, so I was able to port everything over to that. Downside is I will need to order a new PCB as the CAN pins are different, but it's not a huge issue since the first board I made works for now. I have a few extras of the CAN transceiver chip, so I should have enough of those for now. I've been polishing up the code and finalizing the UI stuff while I wait for my friend to have some free time to help finish up the housing. Once I can get that, version 1 of the gauge should be good to put in the car. I had to mock up something out of cardboard to make testing it in the car easier.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d2bb20c1db.jpg I didn't have the LED ring attached in this setup, but the actual housing will have it. It's just barely bigger than the screen. I saw on facebook that someone was selling a VVT head for $100, so I picked that up today. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...354128cd09.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7525a2943b.jpg It was in really good shape, so I couldn't pass it up. Guy had bought a VVT engine to put in a Lotus Seven kit car, and only needed the short block. Really cool guy. Not really sure what I wanna do with this thing, since I just bought a kraken kit for my 1.6, so I figure I'll just hang onto it and keep an eye out for a cheap 1.8 short block that I could build on the side. I really want to get the rust on the car cleaned up before I start dumping money into a built motor. I also had a set of the M edition door sills come in the mail today. Honestly I don't really like them as much as I thought I would, so I'm a little bummed about that. They definitely need some cleaning up, so maybe I'll feel a little better after that. For now they at least cover up my crusty door sills :) https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b1552e27a4.jpg And a non-miata update is that I adopted a kitten this past week and wanted to show him off. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...24b2d58108.jpg We named him Larry, and after a day he was already playing with my other cat :) |
Haven't had much to update over the past month or so. My friend that's been helping print the housing has been running into some issues printing some of the thinner parts that sandwich onto the front, so it may need a bit of a redesign. I'm not in a rush to get that finished, so it's slowly moving along.
I signed up for an autocross at the end of May, so I'm pretty excited for that. It's been over 2 years since my last event, and my first event since moving to Austin. To get the car ready, I took a stab at doing a DIY alignment on the car since the last alignment was probably 3 or so years ago when I first put on the new suspension. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e2b4cec082.jpg I built some blocks out of 2x4s and some of that smooth pressed wood shit that is used on cabinets. My jack stands couldn't go high enough to run the strings, so I copied the pvc mounts that I saw another user around here use. It was kinda a bitch starting out, but I feel like I was getting the hang of it towards the end. I went with the supermiata dual duty setup, here's the measurements I took with before on top and after on bottom: https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6a34325947.jpg There was a lot of "eh good enough" happening, but the car drives better than it did before so I'm not stressing over it. I ordered a set of RT660s off tirerack, and those are getting put on Saturday. They'll be my first set of 200tw tires, so I'm excited to see how they feel. Once those are on, the car should be ready to go. |
I got the RT660s put on the weekend before last. I've just done a little bit of street driving and a trip to some twisty roads, but so far I'm really impressed with them. Both the alignment and the tires have the car feeling way more predictable in the corners; I really like how the car turns in with this setup. It's crazy how much variation in width there is between these and the DZ102s that they replaced, despite both being 205s. The Falkens are noticeably meatier.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...294e0446dd.jpg I have an autocross event this weekend, and it's my first event since March 2020. Since then I've put in the Megasquirt and all of the supporting mods for that, so I'm pretty excited to get out and race with the new setup. I also bought an external mic and a roll bar mount for my gopro to try to upgrade my recording game a bit. I'm really bad about remembering to set it up, so the only other footage I have is from one of my first events back in 2018 :facepalm: Also, something big finally showed up in the mail this week. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...854ce024f7.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f03c4095a8.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...378843d601.jpg It was almost 4 months to the day since I ordered, but its finally here. I'm really impressed with all of the stuff that this kit comes with: all of the lines and fittings, a new billet mixing manifold that retains the heater hose, blow off valve, and then all of the big stuff. The autocross is on Sunday this weekend, so I won't get to start putting this on until the weekend after. I'm registered for autocross events in both the June and July, but the June event is on June 10th. That really only gives me 2 weekends to get the turbo on and tuned, which I don't see happening at all, so I plan on just taking the Civic to that one. I'm hoping I can get the car sorted by the event on July 17th. I originally wanted to try to tune the car myself, but I may end up just playing it safe and taking it somewhere. Would suck to try to take it racing on some half baked tune and end up breaking the car. I'm optimistic that I can get the car buttoned up in a month and a half, but we will see. :) |
Autox event went really well, and I'm super happy with how the car is set up. The jump in the amount of grip I get with the RT660s over my last tires is crazy, and the new alignment has the car wanting to turn in harder without kicking the ass out. My gopro took a crap after my second run, so of course I only have my two slowest runs. This run was a 43.597, and my fastest was a 41.052.
I was able to setup my CAN gauge in the car by just shoving it into the radio hole. It's not pretty, but it was nice to be able to monitor MAT and coolant temps while sitting in grid. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...606a34f537.jpg Now I can focus on getting the turbo stuff installed. I didn't realize Memorial day was next weekend, so hopefully with the extra day I should be able to get everything put on. |
The 660s are great, just beware when co-driving or taking fast back to backs as they can get real slick when hot. Also they kinda blow in the rain from what I can tell. That being said I'm totally buying another set, love them.
Your can gauge setup is way nice, It's gonna look so much cleaner than the rpi tuner studio setup I have. Love that style of display. |
Originally Posted by soot
(Post 1622346)
The 660s are great, just beware when co-driving or taking fast back to backs as they can get real slick when hot. Also they kinda blow in the rain from what I can tell. That being said I'm totally buying another set, love them.
Originally Posted by soot
(Post 1622346)
Your can gauge setup is way nice, It's gonna look so much cleaner than the rpi tuner studio setup I have. Love that style of display.
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My 3D printer showed up yesterday, and I was surprised how easy it was to get it up and running. The thing prints really good right out of the box, so far I'm super impressed.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...045ebef5dc.jpg I'm working on printing everything I need to finish up the enclosure, so that it keeps the noise in and dust out. Once I'm finished with that, I'll take a stab at printing the gauge housing. More importantly, today I started working on getting the turbo stuff on. I was able to strip off all the intake and exhaust stuff as well as drain the coolant and oil. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e2ff39ff72.jpg Then I tackled drilling and tapping the oil pan. Interestingly the Kraken kit comes with a 3/4 UNF to AN bung instead of NPT which I've never heard of. Doesn't really matter since it's getting JB welded in there. I was really fighting with the tap to get it to go in straight, but it eventually worked out. I couldn't find my JB weld or my mineral spirits, so I'll finish that part up tomorrow morning. Note my leaky and neglected steering rack, that'll be my next project after the turbo stuff is wrapped up. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6044f8046b.jpg I went to go put on the oil feed and saw this. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...26eabb90e3.jpg What the fuck? This is a 1.6 out of a 1993? Where the hell are my oil and water feeds? I did some googling and found this: https://www.miataturbo.net/general-m...6-block-40334/ Ok cool its a crate motor. I bought this engine from Treasure Coast Miata a few years back and according to them it had 80k miles on it at the time. Now I'm wondering did the car it come out of have 80k miles and this engine possibly has less? I remember when I got the engine I was surprised how clean it was. Anyways I was freaking out that I would now need to order a longer line and an adapter to tap into the oil pressure sensor, but luckily the Kraken kit comes with the fittings to do it either way. That's where I stopped today. Had a bit of a late start because I was messing around with the printer all morning, but hoping to start a bit earlier tomorrow to beat the heat. Goal for tomorrow is to at least have the turbo on, make all of the AN lines, attach the new mixing manifold, and plumb up all of the oil and water lines. Maybe more if the heat doesn't get to me, but it's been a very hot May here in Texas. |
Made a decent bit of progress today, but it was a total pain in the ass the whole way. I'm working out of a tiny apartment garage, so this is a look at my work area.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8fe17fad91.jpg I struggled a bit making the AN line for the oil feed, but eventually figured it out. The fitting started to get chewed up when I was tightening it, so I left it until I can get a proper wrench tomorrow. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b4c2d654e.jpg Once I got that on, I started fucking around with the new mixing manifold stuff. It's a nice piece, but the part that connects up to the heater hose does not fit up right. I tried several different orientations, but it would either bunch up towards where the manifold would be or get in the way of the dipstick. It comes with a fitting to put the OEM hard pipe on, but the hard pipe was not even close to fitting. Eventually I got the AN line to fit kind of ok. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9c5b79f884.jpg I think this photo was before I did some more adjusting. The final fitment was a little better. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3483f71dbb.jpg And finally I started to lower the manifold into place. It looks like some power steering stuff is in the way, so I'm guessing I will have to jack up the engine a bit to clear them. I was pretty beat at this point, so that's where I called it. I'll pick it back up tomorrow. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ff9c911f3b.jpg Seeing it kind of in the car feels really good. I'm not sure if I'm sold on the low mount vs the high mount though. It's a really cool setup, but it's such a bitch and a half to get in there and pretty much impossible to get to any of the lines once it is in. I'm leaning towards deleting power steering just to make my life easier in the future when it has to come out again. I intend to autocross the car more, so I'm curious what people's experiences with running a depowered rack on an autocross car. The steering rack needs new seals, boots, and tie rods, so the rack has to come out whether I decide to go through with it or not. |
I ran to Harbor Freight this morning to grab the remaining tools I needed, and was able to get the oil feed stuff wrapped up. I double checked the AN fitting and everything looked good, so I tightened everything down.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1d4270a191.jpg Before I started fucking with the turbo stuff again, I wanted to put on this air valve delete plate I had bought off of @thehakunamiata on instagram. Youtube had recommended me a video of someone swapping a miata engine into an MG midget, and I commented to see where he got it. He ended up pointing me to the guy I ended up buying the piece from. It's a nice piece and it's nice to delete those coolant lines that make getting the TPS off a pain in the ass. I had originally planned on deleting the water neck, but since I didn't have the water port under the exhaust, I left it on. That'll be a project for another day. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...629d015187.jpg So the thing that has been causing me trouble with the low mount setup is this power steering cooler hard line that goes up right where the turbo sits, but I was able to bend it out of the way enough to get the turbo on. The amount of room under the hood is crazy with everything tucked down so low. Despite being a major pain in the ass to work around, it really is a good looking setup. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3e94af8046.jpg But that wasn't the end of my fight with the power steering cooler line, It's still in the way of both the oil drain line and the hot side intercooler piping. The oil drain line can be routed in front of it, but that makes things crowded in the hole that is supposed to be where the intercooler elbow shoots through. I forgot to get a picture of the elbow, but it's essentially an L shaped hard pipe that bolts to the triangle flange on the turbo. I'm wondering how on earth it is supposed to fit down there because when I did a test fit it opens up right behind where the oil drain fitting is. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...efae63f531.jpg That's about where I gave up on the turbo side of things. I'll have to see what I can do about bending that power steering out of the way some more and hope it doesn't break. If it does I'll either create an AN line that I can route out of the way or just pony up and rip out the power steering. I didn't feel like stopping for the day, so I started to fit up some of the intercooler stuff. The intercooler fit up nicely and mounts to the bolt holes for the baby teeth. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f38e55c513.jpg Cold side piping all fits really well and went together pretty easy. Air intake temp sensor mounts on the passenger side of that vertical hard pipe, so I'm hoping there isn't any heat soak issues. Should at least be better than my previous setup though. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b0542b229f.jpg And that's where I stopped for the day, feels good that it's starting to come together. Once I can get the turbo stuff figured out the car is pretty much done aside from a few small things. I'm really hoping I can get it figured out without having to delete power steering right now, so I don't have to delay things further. I'll spend this week trying to figure that out. |
I was able to get in contact with Kraken to get some reference images of the intercooler piping all bolted up. He responded pretty much instantly which is very impressive, but here's what he gave me:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7630cb166b.jpg It's a really tight fit, and the piping comes really close to where I have the oil drain drilled into the oil pan. He suggested I give the 45 degree or straight AN fitting a try rather than the 90, so I will see if I can make that work when I pick things back up this weekend. Looking at this routing, it looks like I definitely will have to do something about the power steering hard line. With how the pipe mounts, I may be able to just bend it out of the way rather than cutting it and replacing it with something flexible. Hopefully anyone else running this setup can get some use out of these pics too. In hindsight, it may have been smarter to test fit the turbo and piping before drilling the pan to get a better placement. Drilling the pan seemed like the scariest part of the install, so I wanted to get it out of the way. Measure twice, drill once I guess. If I can't get the oil drain to clear, I should be able to get an shorter adapter for the turbo and run a silicone pipe elbow off the turbo rather than the hard pipe. That should give me a bit more wiggle room to get out from the steering rack area. |
... or cap that fitting and drill another?
|
Originally Posted by Gee Emm
(Post 1622698)
... or cap that fitting and drill another?
I guess that's an option. That would require pulling the motor though right? It looks like from that reference pic I can probably make it work where it's at. If that hard pipe doesn't work I'll see about either modifying it or replacing it with a silicone elbow, and I'll have to start looking into moving the drain or ripping out power steering lines if I can't get anything else to work. |
Alright, another weekend of trying to get this turbo on. I removed the power steering cooler hard line, so I could at least get the pipe on and see what the clearances were like. It kinda works, but still comes pretty close to the oil drain when a fitting is on. With everything bolted down, it's pretty much sandwiched between the oil drain and the steering column.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...93bebad884.jpg It kinda looked like any sort of barb coming off that power steering cooler feed would push the turbo pipe over too far. At this point I just decided to ditch the power steering. It's not worth the trouble to try to work around it, and I was leaning towards getting rid of it eventually anyways. My main issue with doing it now was that I didn't want to have to pull the rack, put all new tie rods, and realign the car until after the car was back up and running again, so for now I'm just going to loop the lines. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2b0c1f11dc.jpg There's miles of room now with all of that stuff gone, and I was able to get in and clean a bunch of caked on gunk off of the subframe with all of the power steering stuff out of the way. I was able to get the hardlines cut, but I need to get some proper fitting hose and some clamps to finish it up. I also ordered some plugs to cap off the holes that are open. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9015508f9c.jpg I had to run around town to find a pair of snap ring pliers that were beefy enough to get the compressor housing off. The only pair that I could find were a straight par, which was good enough to get it off and let me play around with clocking the turbo a few different ways. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0e9954c696.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ec22312c48.jpg With the power steering lines out of the way, I might be able to make the original route work. An alternative is to have the pipe come out towards the side and route it down. I may end up ditching this hard pipe and replace it with a silicone elbow, so I can shorten the elbow a bit and rotate it where it needs to go. I also got an adjustable wastegate actuator bracket, so I can clock the turbo if I need to. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...95ae4fc09a.jpg I think it should finally start coming together soon. Once the stuff I'm waiting on in the mail shows up, I should be able to start finalizing the intercooler piping and get everything back together. |
that kraken kit is tits
|
Alright I think I have the intercooler routing figured out. No matter what I tried, I could not get that turbo outlet pipe to work coming out from below.
The 90 degree fits pretty close, but it's pressed up pretty hard on the steering rack and the fitting. Not really realistic for this to work. https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dae8a69e65.jpg No way the 45 degree fitting works, can't even get the housing on. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bb3e2e017c.jpg And the straight fitting would have to be bluetooth for this to work. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...257eb5df96.jpg So I ended up making things work routing it out from the side. With the pieces in the kit, I can at least get the car running and driving. I think I'm going to have a shop fab up an elbow that tucks down under the chassis a bit more and runs closer to the subframe. This will look way less goofy, and give me a place to route the intake. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...27b6793c59.jpg The only thing left is to figure out what I need to do to mount the wastegate actuator. With the way the turbo is clocked, I might be able to find an off the shelf bracket that'll work. If not, it's a pretty simple bracket, so I should be able to just make something simple. I'm an idiot for buying that other bracket since it doesn't fit this turbo, and even if it did, it doesn't work with the turbo clocked this way :cry: https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...332ba93563.jpg Bummer that this intercooler kit was such a pain in the ass, but I'm just glad it's almost done. As long as the downpipe fits up, I don't see anything else really holding up getting this thing back up and running. Probably won't have much time this weekend to work on it, since there's an autocross event on Sunday. With the Miata still down, I'm gonna take the Civic and see how it does; It's completely stock and on Firehawk indy 500s so should be a fun time. |
Well, when I went to leave for the autocross on Sunday, I came out to find one of my tires flat, so I ended up having to miss the event and go get it patched. It was 104 degrees that day, so not super bummed I had to miss it.
As for the miata, I was able to get the oil drain hose built and test fit. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2151847a8f.jpg It's pretty kinky and I think I could've got away with cutting it just a hair shorter, but it works and I should be able to angle the 90 degree fitting up enough that I won't have any drain issues. It's such a tight run, that I probably would've just done a rubber hose if I was doing my own kit. I got some clamps, so I could finish up the depower stuff. Ended up just reusing some of the hose from the power steering. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...adba34dcb2.jpg Just testing it while it's on the blocks, the steering is really not that heavy at all. I found out I measured caster wrong when I was doing my alignment, so when I retook measurements, I actually had around 3 degrees of caster rather than the 5 I had originally thought, which explains why the steering felt so light and darty. I think when I go in and do a proper depower I should be able to set it at 4 degrees and it'll be perfect. And lastly, I finally got my new wastegate actuator in the mail today. It's from Kinugawa, and from the measurements I took, it had the exact length, offset, and bracket I needed for my setup. I saw a few threads on here that said they weren't total junk, so I went for it. With a little bit of bending, I was able to get it to work. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...36a62ef703.jpg I had some clearance issues getting it to mount on the back with the water line, so luckily I was able to make it work on the front. So happy it worked without me having to build a bracket. I just need a couple more odds and ends and I'll finally be able to get this thing started up. I just need a couple metal elbows and the wastegate actuator clip, so I should be able to get that all on amazon. Shooting for this weekend to get it all wrapped up. :) |
haha, awesome. i just literally welded by AN10 fitting for the oil return yesterday!
cna't wait. |
I was so close to getting the car to start today :cry:
I finally got all of the parts I was waiting on, so I was able to get all of the lines attached to the turbo, and get the turbo mounted pretty easily. Getting all of the manifold bolts tightened was way less of a pain than I thought it would be, and I was able to get all of the piping finalized. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e034ed0d34.jpg I'm not super happy with the hot side routing, but it works and everything goes where it needs to be. I added some heat shielding to the oil feed and the heater hose that run right next to the manifold for some extra protection. Eventually I'll need to create a proper heat shield that blocks off that entire back corner, but that'll come later. I filled the engine with oil, changed the spark plugs, put in the 323 GTX PCV valve, and put on the downpipe. The V-band coming off the turbo was super easy to get to through the subframe, and the bolts to the cat ended up being more of a pain. The flanges don't line up all that well due to how small the cat flange is and the way that the flange is oriented it's a major pain in the ass to get to the nuts. I really want to get rid of the stock cat and get a high flow cat that I can connect up with more V bands. The very last thing I needed to do before I could start the car was to fill it with coolant. I got the car filled up and noticed a waterfall coming from the AN line that connects to the mixing manifold. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dfa225d54e.jpg The car wasn't even on and it was pouring out, so I figured it was just loose, but the fitting was already tight. After pulling off the line and taking off the fitting, I see this: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9f39ff1808.jpg Cool. This line was pre-made by Kraken and I wasn't really bending the line all that much, so I'm guessing it was damaged when it was built. I'm pretty annoyed I have to build another line for this, but I had bought some extra AN line to reroute this line in the future so it's not a huge deal. The barb that comes off this line is way too close to the header, and I was only able to get it where there was about half an inch spacing between the rubber hose and the header. I'm probably going to have this line come out under the turbo and over by the brake booster, so that I can route the heater hose to the right. Something like this: https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9d779b4226.jpg I'll try to get something to work with what I have on hand, and come back to it later when I have a better idea of how I wanna do the heat shield. I'm really hoping I can finally get the car started tomorrow. There's still a bunch of little stuff I need to do before the car can drive, but I really just wanna hear the car run. |
Got an early start today, and was able to get a bunch done before it really got hot out. Yesterday I grabbed this cheap clip on bench vise from harbor freight for like $20, and I feel like a real dummy for not getting it sooner. Way easier to cut a straight line and screw on the fitting without pushing out the line. Should've done that sooner, but always forgot until it was too late.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2a0324e708.jpg I learned that the extra AN line that I bought was the rubber hose kind rather than the PTFE kind that comes with the Kraken kit. I couldn't get it to work with the Kraken fittings, so I ended up just cutting off about a half inch off the original line and routing it a bit lower. I need to do some more reading about AN stuff because I'm a bit confused on whether the two lines need different fittings. Anyways, I was able to get coolant put back in the car and get the wastegate line routed. No more coolant was leaking, so I was finally able to get the thing started. Nothing blew up and I didn't see anything pouring out from anywhere, so it was a good start. The exhaust seemed way louder than it should've been, and I eventually found that the V band wasn't on right. It's so nice finally being able to ditch the cracked stock manifold that I had on the car, and not have it sound like a tractor when starting it up. Everything looked good, so I took it out for a test drive. The exhaust probably half as loud as it was before, and the turbo noise is way louder than I expected. Not complaining, the car makes all of the right noises now. My AFRs weren't crazy off from what they needed to be and I just let autotune run while I did some slow pulls. I pulled off to check for leaks and noticed the oil feed was pissing oil from the block side. I got it home and thought the line was messed up, but it ended up just being loose. After that I mostly just drove around trying to get it tuned. Here's a bigger pull that hit around 5 or 6 psi. I'll try to get some better videos once I get the tuning mostly finished, but so far I'm super happy with it. The 2554 with the kraken low mount spools really nice, and it'll be really nice to see how it does once I start pushing it higher. I brought the car in because coolant temp was starting to creep up into the 220s. I think I just need to bleed the coolant some more because the fan is working and I wasn't really pushing the car. Either way, I'm glad to finally have the car running and driving again. I severely underestimated the amount of work needed to get this all done, but I still had fun doing it. I'm hoping I can get the car tuned before next month, because I really wanna get this thing out to an autocross. |
No real updates on the car, I've mostly just been driving around getting the fuel map dialed in. I've noticed it's running quite a bit hotter than when it was stock, which I guess is pretty expected, but even during idle and cruise its still creeping up into the 200s. The car has a stock radiator that's relatively new, coolant reroute, 180 degree thermostat, and an undertray which I just got fitted back up today. I think my next step is going to be replacing both of my fans with a set of OEM fans. My driver's side fan died on me years ago, and as a quick fix I bought a cheap electric fan from autozone, cut out the OEM fan, and bolted it in the shroud. You can kind of see it in this old pic:
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...713a6dab5d.jpg It's smaller than the original fan, and definitely does not move the same amount of air as the passenger side fan. The passenger side fan I had turned off because it makes this horrible whine that I'm guessing is from the motor/bearings. Hoping to get this ironed out before my next autox on the 17th. I finally picked back up making some progress on the CAN gauge. I've been getting better at 3D modeling, and have been messing around with getting the housing for the gauge designed. Here's my pile of failed attempts: https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dec0d8f895.jpg It's been tricky trying to get the clearances for everything right since the entire package needs to fit in the 52mm gauge pod, but I finally was able to get something working. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e0c52d744c.jpg I eventually want to mount it in the air vent, but it fits perfectly in the existing radio bracket gauge hole. I'm super happy with how the packaging came out, it fits together really nicely and is no bigger than the boost gauge next to it. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cb95500c43.jpg I added an access hole, so you don't have to disassemble everything to update the software. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...79e0815764.jpg And all of the connections to the car are made using the Molex micro fit connector. I may end up changing this connector in a future revision though because I cannot get the pins to stay in the male side of the connector. They are super delicate and like to push out way too easily, so I may size up to a larger molex connector since there's plenty of room to run a 4x2 connector. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8e4c1702a9.jpg I didn't feel like pulling everything apart, so here's an example of how the PCB is mounted using one of the failed prints. The board is secured with 4 M2 screws into some nuts that press into the bottom of the plate, and the plate just slides in. The LCD holds the plate in place on the front which is also screwed in with 4 M2 screws. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0ba114971f.jpg I still need to figure out how I'm going to mount the faceplate, but here's a test design to see how it would look. The holes around the screen are for the LED ring. I'm thinking I'll just keep things simple and do some countersunk screws rather than try to some sort of clips. I care more about it not breaking or rattling than I do about the face looking super clean. I'm super happy to finally have some sort of a final product though! There's a bunch of little things I need to change in software and about the board design, but it's nice to finally have something that can go in the car. |
I've found that the undertray plays a huge part in keeping coolant temps down. I'd guess that the radiator is your weakest link in the cooling system. One way to keep temps down would be to run distilled water and water wetter. Even on ~90 °F days I'm still seeing solid 190-195 °F temps when cruising with a 195 thermostat. When running normal coolant it was about 5-7 degrees hotter
Next would be to get a supermiata crossflow :) |
Originally Posted by ryansmig
(Post 1624358)
I've found that the undertray plays a huge part in keeping coolant temps down. I'd guess that the radiator is your weakest link in the cooling system. One way to keep temps down would be to run distilled water and water wetter. Even on ~90 °F days I'm still seeing solid 190-195 °F temps when cruising with a 195 thermostat. When running normal coolant it was about 5-7 degrees hotter
Next would be to get a supermiata crossflow :) Supermiata crossflow is definitely in my future, but for my wallet's sake, I'm hoping I can push it out until next spring :cry: |
This is a really cool build thread! I actually just finished up my own turbo build so it's interesting to see the different struggles you went through compared to me. I have a high mount 50trim turbo and my oil lines went far better than what I see you had to do. It's nice to see you got it all sorted and are driving the car! Boosted is a whole different world from the stock form.
I love what you did with the custom gauge to show all that data. That's super cool and I may have to do something similar in the future. Like you, I am mostly just working on map tuning and enjoying the ride. Great build. |
Haven't really been doing anything post worthy the past few months, mostly been enjoying the car around town. I'm starting to notice some coolant and oil leaks, so I've been gathering parts to redo the oil feed and drain. I was able to re-tap the oil drain for 1/2" npt, so I can replace the Kraken bung which uses some weird 3/4" UNF threads.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dc6d7f7101.jpg I'm pretty sure there is a small oil leak coming from the oil drain, so I'm converting from AN to 5/8" rubber hose. You can kinda see where the mixing manifold is leaking, so I'll have to get to that once I pull the turbo out to finish the oil lines. I've been fighting leaks with that thing since I put it in the car, so I'm not sure if I'll keep it or not. I've been running my CAN gauge in the car for a few months now, and I'm really happy with how it's come out. https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fc17b2dbbf.jpg This is the dashboard view that gives a bunch of basic info. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c217869ada.jpg And then there's a single gauge mode that is much easier to see at a glance. The analog boost gauge is kinda useless now, so I'll probably ditch that soon. I also want to get rid of the ddmworks radio surround since I don't run radio anymore, and 3d print a block off plate to mount the remaining gauges. Here's the repo for the gauge in case anyone is interested in building one themselves. I'm working on getting Teensy 4.0 support since Teensy 3.2 is OOS for the foreseeable future. I'll add instructions and stuff once that is complete. https://github.com/tshea113/MSCan_Gauge I've been playing around with the idea of making another gauge that uses this circular LCD screen. It's multicolor, higher resolution, and the LCD screen is easier to see in direct sunlight. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4b1e4aae6d.jpg I'm still in the experimenting phase with this one, and trying to be a little more deliberate with the code design to avoid some of the annoyances with adding features to the previous gauge. It probably won't be ready for a while, but here is the link in case anyone wants to follow. https://github.com/tshea113/teensy-CAN-gauge |
Originally Posted by tshea113
(Post 1634670)
And then there's a single gauge mode that is much easier to see at a glance. The analog boost gauge is kinda useless now, so I'll probably ditch that soon.
Easy to read and understand at a glance when you're at speed. You get used to the needle position that indicates "good". https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a02edb8d_b.jpg |
Originally Posted by Panici
(Post 1634716)
I'm a big fan of analog gauges. I even use them in TunerStudio on my digital dash.
Easy to read and understand at a glance when you're at speed. You get used to the needle position that indicates "good". https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a02edb8d_b.jpg Yeah, analog gauges are nice to have, and that's part of the reason I want to get that circular screen working. |
Been slowly working on the car over the past month, mostly being held up due to waiting on parts.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f79c9213f5.jpg This is the intercooler piping we are starting with (minus the air intake), and I really hated how the pipe has to snake up and around to make that three bolt flange adapter work. I ended up finding this compressor housing that has a normal coupler instead: Housing Link https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5a3e3e4258.jpg What I didn't realize at first, was that you needed an adapter to get this housing to work. After researching, I found that this is a T04b sized housing and you need this adapter ring from a GT28 turbo to get it to work. The housing then bolts on with some retaining clips. https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...cb261be962.jpg Because the housing was much bigger and I now had to mount the wastegate actuator to the back, getting everything to line up right was a total bitch. I ended up buying a torch and bending one of the straight rods to get everything working. Ended up coming out alright. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d6c1024d1d.jpg The new housing is MUCH larger and makes it look like I've got a big boy turbo, but it's still just a stock 2554r. The part I care about the most though, is the fact that now I can clock it straight down and have a straight shot to the intercooler, rather than having to snake it up. https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...eba9b0ee08.jpg While I had the turbo off, I ended up re-sealing a few fittings that were leaking, and re-routing a few hoses. I removed the AN line that went under the manifold and replaced it with this 90 degree barb, so I can route the heater hose further from the manifold. I also replaced the oil feed with a premade hose because the old one was leaking. https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a2670a437a.jpg The oil drain was leaking, so I replaced the AN oil drain with a 5/8" hose. The NPT to barb fitting is a good bit shorter that it replaced, so it makes the oil drain routing so much easier. https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...562742dcb4.jpg And here's the final product. I'm really happy with how much cleaner it all looks with the piping down and out of the way. After running the car for a bit to bleed the coolant and taking it on a short test drive, I don't see any major leaks, so hopefully I don't have to pull this all apart again. The turbo spool sounds totally different with this setup, and I'm not sure whether that's due to the shorter turbo intake (it's just a single 90 elbow instead of a longer pipe that goes behind the headlight) or the new housing. I don't really notice any major performance differences with the larger housing just from the quick drive. I noticed with everything back together, the oil pressure gauge is freaking out at high RPMs, so I will need to look into that. I pulled the sender off to remove the oil feed tee, so it's probably just a grounding issue or something. |
Finally got to take the car out and do some autox with the turbo on the car.
The extra power was a lot of fun, and we got lucky with some overcast weather keeping it from being too hot. The on and off rain wasn't great for surface conditions, but still had a great time. Hoping to be able to do this more regularly because the XB class has filled out a lot since the last time I was out. Signed up for the July event and hoping I can put down some more competitive times. |
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