I hate to say it but life has a tendency to take things over. Do as much while you can.And by the way how does that diff feel with the 3.63. Still as breathtakingly fast? You do have it in right?

It's still sitting on the floor. I don't really have a place to perform the swap. My mud/gravel driveway is too soggy from melting snow.

I expect it to feel a bit slower, but I look forward to not spinning tires in third.

You do know someone that has a lift:idea: I will be off th week of 29th

Interesting proposition! I'd have to be able to get an alignment somewhere as well close by as well. But first and foremost, I need to get my exhaust back from Abe. It'll be so quiet!

That's cool, did you go with the MT approved version?

Yes! I wish I had remembered to take a listen to yours before I left. I had forgotten. I can't wait to get it back, just patiently awaiting a big package in the mail.

Hey Psyber, all I have to show for the last month is a smashed door and fender, show me something good! How is the car coming?

Oh no!

I have...new speakers and an amp waiting to go in the car among everything else. I'm still waiting on Abe to send my my downpipe and midpipe back :(

I miss my car.


Then just gotta do all the rear end stuff, and source an NB steering rack for the front.

What are those shiny subframes and where did you get them?

V8 Roadsters | Horsepower is a beautiful thing...

Elite Series | V8 Roadsters

Still waiting for my exhaust. It's been two months. I've forgotten what it's like to drive a miata.

Things to do:
Exhaust
rear subframe
rear diff
rear axles
transfer rear brakes
new control arms
front subframe
engine mounts
new steering rack
oil relocation
stereo/speakers/amp
Flex Fuel conversion
New sway bars and endlinks


these are just parts that have been sitting around -_-

I've noticed that the Swaintech White Lightning coating is flaking off on the collector. I don't know if I want to send my stuff back to them if it's just on buyed time. It's a lot of money to have it work for a season and disintegrate, I thought it would have been better quality than this.

I may just spray it with Silicone VHT paint, heat wrap it, spray with silicone VHT to seal it, then wrap with foil and safety wire the shit out of the manifold.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1458503027


Ships out this monday! Soon, smurfette, I'll be putting new parts in you

It's been a long time since I've logged in here. Holy balls...those subframes. Can't wait to see it.

Hey dude, is that guy that fixed up the body if your car still taking on work?

I need some rust repair and a good fender pull all around.

The exhaust ships today, it's been 2.5 months since I've driven her.

As soon as I get that diff and the fuel bits in, it gets retuned with e85, and the hunt for wider tires begins. Maybe I drop by RI end of May.

Nope, I don't think so. I wouldn't recommend him anyways. I have to have the rear quarter re-painted. The rest of the paint around the body wasn't sprayed evenly either. But, I got what I paid for. It's a sign that I should just swap everything into a OBD1 shell :)

Don't you mean catfish?

Bronze or Tungsten 6UL's?

Tungsten. Bronze has gotten too gold with the latest gens of 6UL

tungsten is pretty much the MT standard these days lol

Love the updates to happen, my exhaust will be near the same with what we are building. I know the feeling of missing driving our smurfs for sure. I dont know if this helps your decision of color of wheels but my jongbloeds on the smurf for comparrison
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=145917945420160223_190347 by todd wilson, on Flickr

Maybe my inner 22b fanboi is getting the best of me.

Already ordered the tires, just gotta get some rust repaired and hammer some fenders. I'll order the tungsten 6UL's to get them ready.

Taking off work on Wednesday to get the exhaust back on. Stereo might be this weekend, then starting to arrange space for the subframe/diff/control arms.

probably start with the rear first. Then sort the front out later when I procure a steering rack and Xidas. I may just have a shop take care of that job. :/

can someone photoshop bronze on the smurf lol

Your blue looks slightly different than my blue; a bit darker. Maybe it's just cam settings? Or mine is just ancient and needs to be resprayed anyway.

Kinda digging the Mustang smurf blue




I guess this does look like poop

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...w-img_0915.jpg

Bronze :)

Edit:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459261699

Pay no mind to the Rotas...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...34c94f6f_b-jpg

Ho damn. I kinda like it :3

I'm taking off early today to take delivery on the exhaust bits. I have to prep them a bit before tomorrow's install.

I really really hope to get this thing running again. I have so much more that needs to be done. Waiting on Rosenthal for rack parts. New tires come in Thursday. Brakes/Oil cooler sometime next week.

Install rear stuff, front stuff, then with tax return get new wheels and try to find a body shop to tackle the rust.

If you want to talk offline about the rust, feel free to message me and I can give you suggestions. Although, after mine is all said and done, I kind of wish that I just found a non-rusty shell instead, and did a swap. My rear quarter isn't doing too hot. I now have to decide on finding another shell, or cutting most of it out and running flares. Hmmm.

I don't have the facility to do a complete swap again. Though it would be easiest :/

God forbid I ever build another car (I'm getting tired of this game), it'd have to be when I have a garage of my own. At which point it'd probably just be a v8 catfish with a unmodded daily driver sitting in the driveway. And a rustbucket smurfette as a track only death trap


...or whoever buys this car can just shove everything into a new shell/NB

Quit being a pussy, v8 catfish sounds perfect for a DD.

<3

So I got the exhaust back, but Abe forgot the e-vac/ventury bit as well as a ring gasket for the sanitary clamps used.

I thought I was so close to get this running. In the mean time, I started wrapping the downpipe and will wrap the turbo manifold. The White Lightning coating by swaintech is flaking off even though it's supposed to be damn near indestructable. Oh well. I don't have time to send this back up and get it recoated if it's just going to do the same thing.

Silicone VHT paint
Header wrap
then sealing with more Silicone VHT paint and contemplating wrapping it in heavy duty foil and safety wire.

Last time I did this to my old subaru 4" downpipe, I could literally grab the pipe bare handed at operating temps. Either way, I hope this mitigates the amount of leg roasting this summer until I fix A/C

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459283875

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459283875






I underestimated the size of the muffler. I can't wait! Time to sell off the original. Any takers?

Booo Swaintech


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459283958

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459283958

finished wrap, but will spray the vht sealant tomorrow. then figure out what to do

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459290312

I have been taking apart FailFlora's car and he had shit manifold wrapped in that heat wrap. Anywhere I have had to touch has basically come apart and makes your skin extremely itchy. After that experience I will never wrap a manifold.

This...

I had PTP lava wrap on my downpipe, flaked off easily after heat abuse.

It looks like your ceramic coat may have been thinned out in that area? :dunno:

This will probably be the last time. Aside from having few heatshielding options and even fewer fab skills, Just wanted to keep some temps down for the summer. If I where to wrap it again, I'll just order the TSE cast manifold. I was going to change setups, but I figured this still works for now, and I needed brakes and an oil cooler more than turbo bits. I'm just tired of heat blasting my legs.

future projects.

Have you put vent ducting stuff along your trans tunnel yet? I bought some stuff from home depot racing and it along with the downpipe being wrapped drastically cut down on the temps in my cabin on long drives. This is what I used on my car.

That's a great idea. Is it adhesive or just kindof lays there?

If I can get the car going soon, I was planning on doing the stereo revamp this weekend. Would be a good time to play with the trans tunnel.

I have mine in the trans tunnel under the car. One side of that wrap stuff is sticky but I did not trust it. So I also bought some 3m spray adhesive that I spray up there before I put it on. You want to get the trans tunnel as clean as possible so the stuff sticks well.

Kinda digging the Mustang smurf blue


[/QUOTE]
mine has been resprayed in its life and will be again im planning not next down season but the year after to get it all redone

Would using the gold DEI heat shielding have the same impact in that location as what you mentioned doing/ using? Essentially they both reflect the heat correct?

I highly doubt it. That gold heat shielding is about as thick as tin foil, the stuff I linked to is 1/8" thick. But saying that I have never tried it so I really have no clue.

Eh, idk, the DEI stuff is specifically designed to REFLECT heat within engine bays for sustained periods of time up too 850* and to ultimately protect anything from heat (within recommended temp range). I don't personally think that HVAC insulation is the right product for the job. Not saying it won't work, clearly you have used it with success, I however have not.

https://www.designengineering.com/ca...r/reflect-gold

Okay so I got everything going I jump start my car and recalibrated the mtx-l but now the gauge shows full lean condition at idle

I'd really love to drive the thing but lights already going down and I'm wondering if the sensor got messed up for sitting 2 months or???

The insulation is also reflective. And it is insulation, which insulates, because it is insulation. Air is highly insulatory, which is why there is closed cell foam on the sticky side.

I got the gauge to work after calibrating another two times. I think the battery was so low, it wasn't storing or calibrating correctly so after it sat there running under it's own power for a bit, everything went fine finally. It was low to the point where the gauges where bugging out.


I have to say, the exhaust is super quite from the outside with a deep tone, but it's still a bit noisy on the inside. I am pretty much convinced it's a function of the exhaust urethane hangers.


This exhaust is actually quite amazing, Abe did a bang up job. He modified the downpipe by flipping the flex piece forward so it doesn't interfere with the FM butterfly brace. By keeping the orientation of the midpipe, he was able to redesign the exhaust slightly such that the muffler sits waaaaay up high and out of the way. You can't even see it from behind the car under the bumper. Also all the pipes have no chance of interference anywhere. Holy shit it's magic. Clearance for days. I love it. Driving around there was no rattles or banging or shifting of pipes. I'm so happy.

That being said, I may try switching to traditional rubber hangers to see if this helps with the noise. Also might look into the 4th Exhaust hanger mod if Shuiend makes it up this way :3

I think Abe did a better looking job on your exhaust than what my local guy did, plus it was $$$sive. Disappointed in your Swaintech job too, but under this kind of heat I guess nothing holds up forever. I have rubber on my exhaust hangers but worry about it ripping under the weight of massive magnaflow.

Get some metal clamps that you use on coolant hoses and put them around the rubber hangers and tighten them down. This will help prevent them from ripping.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1459530488

Can I undo/use these two bolts under the hinge to install a board across the trunk to mount an amp and crossovers? Is this a water barrier or will anything fall from behind?

If you place a board or anything across there the hinge will hit it.

Got it to work.

Board doesn't extend to the hinge and an L cut allows the spring to clear. Amp and crossovers fit perfectly next to each other. Now I have an awesome template for mounting amps in miatas lol.

The shitty part of the night was realizing that the door cards are so shallow, I had to build out the base and mount the speaker over the door and use the covers it came with.

Then realizing how much doors rattle in general. I will be revisiting this once more when it's warmer out. I have to take the board down again to carpet it and tidy the wiring, but it feels nice to drown out my drone with music.

Door rattles are solved rather well with greasing/servicing the window mechanism, some CLD (constrained layer damping) tile and some butyl rope. I get my supplies from sound deadener showdown. Don there makes great stuff and it isn't too expensive when buying in smallerish quantities. 4 or 5 tiles form him should cover the door needs.

Thanks for the info!

I hear it mainly between the doorcard and upper plastic interface. You can press on it and it stops buzzing. I think I'll order some of the butyle rope and CLD to stick on the outer door, then maybe get a MLV with closed cell to sandwich in the door card. Maybe hot glue key spots of the doorcard interface to see if that keeps it from rattling. Either way, this is my first venture into any car audio and I can see already how people spend hours and hours.

I already want to take the board down to tuck the wires neater and carpet for fit and finish.

Neat wiring and carpet really make things look great.

Rattles between things can be stopped with foam tape or felt tape, I would avoid hot glue in a car, the sun can melt it on a hot day!

I have spent hours and hours on car audio, I am about to pull my daily appart and redo all the wiring for a system upgrade (once school is done for the year). I just finished the amp rack for the Miata the other week.

Let me knownif you need any help with any of it, though doing the math and design for an audio system is a lot of fun. Wait until you discover just what a DSP can do (and how many amp channels you end up wanting. My daily is going to have 11 amp channels when it is all said and done...)

So, I'm enjoying a smoothly running smurfette after brain just fixed up the ms3. I need to adjust the pid for idle since I replaced the idle control valve.

Cleaned her up and she got a small new look.

Time to listen to 15 jazz bands converging on DC for a huge lindyhop exchange.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1461771127Picked up my last parts from Rosenthal before the parts department closes for good. It was convenient to have been able to walk over for quick last minute parts. :(

Sad to hear Rosenthal Parts Department is closing 7pm this Friday. For good.

I thought they had a plan to keep the parts department open elsewhere????

Edit: sounds like the official announcement will be made tonight about what's happening: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread...=607177&page=4

Are all bushings on the NB rack molded to the rack itself? I don't know how I'm going to install the urethane one as the passenger side looks different.

Shit I don't follow miata.net. Much. Hopefully still close by

What the hell? Is that a legit manual NB rack?