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Started off with a stanced 1990 miata and wanted to start tracking/autox'ing the car so the bank took a big hit the past few weeks...






so a lots of money later, I ordered most of the parts to "re"build the car.

Hopefully this coilover build can be referenced by people who don't want to dig through the "quintessential ebay thread"

First the koni yellows (thanks to Good-Win-Racing!) and obx coilover springs to replace racelands:

No pictures of the koni yellows, but I do have pictures of the perch, which is what I believe to be one of the most important part of the suspension build.

Heres the koni perch (all 4 are the same):



Notice the groove in the perch above. I've researched and many say that the ring will fail if you don't have the groove to cover the ring because with heat, the ring will expand and if you do not have the groove machined in to stop the expansion, well you can guess what happens...

The obx coil over kit I ordered off of ebay, it was for an nb miata, rates are suppose to be 370, 275 I have no means of measuring it but I will believe them to be around that range. This is close to what ground control gives you if you don't specify. The front springs are 6" and the backs are 7"...

back springs:



front springs:



the sleeves:


The sleeves are actually stepped and have a ring about 43mm so it does slide onto the ring but there is a lot of play and more importantly, NO GROOVE TO HOLD THE RING!

to remedy my situation, I had my machinist machine the koni perches to the inner diameter of the sleeve because I wasn't going to use the perches and the perch already has the ring groove in it.



NOTICE THE RING GROOVE!



here is the machined perch in the sleeve (though the sleeve is upside down):



THE SLEEVE IS UPSIDEDOWN IN THE ABOVE PICTURE!
don't install it like this because it is upsidedown! the ring inside the sleeve will pop out and the sleeve WILL drop if you don't listen...

I couldn't/didn't want to find an o-ring that would fit between the sleeve and shock to stabilize the sleeve so I used gorilla tape instead. I wrapped a piece of paper towel around the shock body then started wrapping tape around that so I could slide my "o-ring" out:



I found out its easier to wrap more tape then cut off what you don't need than having to keep adding tape.

Making sure it fit:



Here is what it looks like when slid out of the shock body:



I then wrapped below the koni ring to stabilize the bottom, no pictures though =(


HERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT MEASUREMENTS:

the inner diameter of the koni perches is about 42mm. When my machinest used a measuring caliper, it was about 42.25mm.

The obx sleeve has a 55mm inner diameter on one side and a 52mm inner diameter on the other (3mm step to hold the 43mm ring).

I had the perches machined to have a 55mm outer diameter to fit inside the sleeve while keeping the ring groove intact.

I had ISC extended top hats on the raceland that I used on the koni yellows, the hole is too small to fit the koni so I used a 1/2" drill bit to bore out the tophats.

Initially I wanted to use the tender springs from the raceland coilovers but it sets the perch too low and it won't fit/hits the A-arm so I took off the tender springs and ran it with just the obx spring.

Here it is with the tender springs installed:



While doing my coilovers I also bought new brakes and rotors.

old rotor and pads off (they were still good too!):



Heres the new stuff (hawk hp plus and some autozone blank rotors):



Don't have pics of the install but its pretty self explanatory, cleaned the oil off the rotors with degreaser and lubed the back of the pads, pins, etc...

DIY MEGASQUIRT (built by me a while back)!

no pictures of the actual build but I followed the diyautotune page and it was pretty simple, can't really mess it up if you are following the schematic



took about 5 hours to build, firmware didn't flash with my mac, but it did with a pc, weird. I highly recommend the power supply diy autotune sells so you don't mess up your car flashing firmware.

AEM UEGO WIDEBAND!
A necessity when running standalone, I removed my o2 and replaced it with the wideband and ran the wiring through the transmission tunnel and up my shifter straight to the megasquirt. I just wired it to whatever aem wanted, IIRC 12v and ground. then ran it up behind the radio and replaced a vent.




I flashed the basemap that diyautotune gives with the miata, the car starts up then died, played with the ve table around idle to get it to stay running. I also installed the gm IAT and removed my afm and airbox and replaced it with an autozone cone filter, i kept the resonance chamber or whatever you call it though. I'll take pictures of it when its morning!

Here is tunerstudio!



I also bought a BMW vtps and replaced the stock on/off switch tps i had. I think I have it wired backwards because tunerstudio reads high when throttle is closed and low when it is opened, I tried switching the 2 outer wires but it seem to make it read funny/worse.

Found a whole set of 205 50 15 toyo proxes ra-1 for $140 on craigslist!

They are unshaven and have lots of tread left, I heard they last longer when shaven if the track is dry though.



The konig wideopens 15x8 +20:



UPDATE: 8/27/13 Hard Dog Roll Bar came in today!


Prepping for install:



THINGS ALREADY INSTALLED:
- diypnp, afm removed gm iat sensor installed
- aem uego wideband
- bmw vtps
- coilovers
- new rotors and hawk hp plus pads

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a weird problem with the car also started. ran and drove fine for the last few weeks since megasquirt, now I have a high pitched hissing sound (kind of sounds like sand in a can) when driving under load (not from my cone filter). though this is due to a vacuum leak but i tried revving the motor while listening to it in the bay, and I can't replicate the hissing noise without load. checked all the vacuum lines I could visually see and all of them are fine. I sprayed carb cleaner on all the hoses while running and nothing happened. Plugged in my laptop to see what the motor is doing and at idle my map sensor reads about 35 kpa. if i step on the gas a little bit while driving it instantly jumps up to 98kpa and goes pig rich because it thinks its at WOT and it barely makes it to 40mph. will try replacing the vacuum hose that goes to the map sensor tomorrow, even though i visually didn't see any cracks I'll also redo my vtps wiring tomorrow to see if that helps. hmmmm

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

why not tune the car?

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It is tuned...

supercooper

"took about 5 hours to build, firmware didn't flash with my mac, but it did with a pc, weird. I highly recommend the power supply diy autotune sells so you don't mess up your car flashing firmware."

NOT "weird" at all actually...
Why dont people get it yet????
I figured after 10 years of obsolete **** products, people would stop buying Electronics from a fruit company... wake up and smell GOOD modern technology, lol. My damn cell phone can do more...
Dont be a hipster. :P




OTHERWISE, great job so far!!! Very clever fix for the O-ring issue too. lol Keep us updated on how it holds up!
And, please dont ever put a mustache on your miata... lmao

OH! on post pics of the wheels on your car! i bet they will look awesome!

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

i didnt know that an ecu "thinking" i was WOT and running like **** consituted "tuned".

supercooper

He might be a prior Honda owner... Sometimes they consider them one in the same

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I've uploaded my tune, idle was "okay" but everything else ran fine, afr's are fine, timing is whatever the basemap was so it should be conservative. I'll post up a log tomorrow morning

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just got the toyos mounted on the konigs:

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heres the log file, the kpa jumps up to 98 while my throttle position is at 17% at around 49110 seconds

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got the car fixed, turns out it was a clogged cat! sawzawed off the cat and bam, it runs fine, just sounds like poo, will be welding a resonator to replace the cat soon!

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how she's sitting right now:

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This also came in!

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welding a resonator in place of the cat (no emissions here in MN). the whole exhaust system in stock. Even after the resonator, it still sounds like stock.

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picked up this this little guy for $100! its an s15 t28 ball bearing turbo with about 50k miles, no shaft play and no crud on the chra.