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Oil pump is a Basset Down Engineering pump with Boundary gears. The only real thing left now is to figure out what crank damper to get, but there only seems to be the ATI one at the moment?
Right so I'm facing a bit of a predicament with the 5, with regards to the engine build.
There's seemingly two options I have:
1) Continue with 99' cylinder head route, I still need to buy the cylinder head from a friend, and a VVT bottom end. But then I already own a very nice 323 cam cover, adjustable cam gears and I'm running Ms2e. This will be coupled with a flat top mani that I already have, and should give me reasonable scope in the future for cam changes etc.
2) I already have a VVT head in the garage that I got when I bought a full engine, now I could use this head instead as VVT appears to be good at controlling the spool on the turbo and getting the torque in even quicker. As I understand it I could potentially also run a cam gear on the exhaust too? To go down this route though, I would need to sell the 323 cam cover as it doesn't fit, I'd have to sell the basset down billet oil pump I've bought, and the Ms2e, to then buy an Ms3 and Boundary engineering VVT pump.
Option one is a net cost of £130~ roughly, and option two £350.
What are the opinions of the two? In my head VVT option sounds better, as I'll be sacrificing aesthetics for a considerably more powerful ECU and more control over tuning. But there is the drawback that there is almost no VVT cam choices if that became an upgrade in the future and I don't know what the longevity of the VVT solenoid is?
Changed my steering wheel again, the Nardi was too thin and too close to me, the OMP had a nice feel but too small. Settled finally on a Momo Protipo which for lack of a better word, is perfect.
I ordered one of the China knock off Skunk2 throttle bodies... this came surprisingly quick! just over a week from ordering it. Build quality on mine seems fine, there's very little in terms of manufacturing marks that I've seen mentioned in various reviews of them. Shame it's not black though... although I might get it powder coated. I do plan on securing all the assembly with various Loctite.
And probably some more interesting parts, after doing fair bit of reading I went for the Volvo valve springs, I'm not wanting to run any super high rpm but it's nice to know there's a little bit more in it, and also my plan was to freshen as much as I could afford to whilst doing the build to save me needing to take it apart again.
Ordered them from Summit racing, again, really quick shipping from those guys, had it in the UK in under a week I think.
Finally, an order from Fab9... I've gone for +1mm intake & exhaust Supertech valves, and an ATI damper with 36-2 trigger wheel. I'm still waiting on this parcel, but when it arrives I'm pretty much good to go with the build then. In the future I may look into cams, but I've seen some really good power figures on other builds with only valve work. Plus, they're expensive!
I've decided to stick with the 99 head, and square top inlet combination, but I am planning to move to the crank angle and cam position sensors rather than stick with CAS.
I think that's probably it for now... I know in the future I would really like to move to some kind of tubular manifold and a GTX turbo but that'll have to wait for now, I'm pretty sure the cars still going to be insane fun with the current setup once the new engine is in.
I've not updated this for a while due to being stupidly busy.
Here was a picture of the parts I'd collected before dropping them all off with the engine builder:
Quite excited to get that back from him, he's busy building a Ginetta for the start of the racing season and then he's sorting my engine.
Rough specs of that are:
VVT bottom end
Eagle Rods
Wiseco 8.6:1 83.5mm
ACL bearings
ARP Head & Mains
OEM thrust washer
Basset Down Engineering oil pump (Boundary engineering gears AFAIK)
ATI Super damper
99' cylinder head
+1mm Supertech Exh Valves
+1mm Supertech Int Valves
Volvo valve springs
I've also received a Walbro 255 & dedicated wiring harness from Fab9. I was really surprised how thick the cables were for this, but I've never fit a high flow pump before.
On top of that... I've also decided to upgrade the ECU to keep the new engine in check, so I spoke with Dimitris and ended up ordering an Enhanced MS3 which I'm excited about. Hopefully that should arrive in the next week or two.
Ordered the medium JoyFast **** from Rev9, what a work of art that is! Feels great to change gears with.
I'm now looking at potential turbo upgrades, ideally GTX2867r territory to really make the most of the new engine. I'd like to think next year maybe I could look at a gearbox upgrade, not sure whether the K-miata kit will work out cheap enough with import duty to the UK or potentially someone here will have a better option than the 6 speed by then, who knows!
Outside of the car, I managed to get myself a new job as a senior software engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, which hopefully I can start mid-May, and I got myself a cat... you guys like cats right?!
On top of learning to fly I have literally had zero time to breath. I'm hoping now the weather is getting better (it's never great in Manchester) then I can spend some more time with the car and start enjoying it this summer.
The car stuff is nice, too. Did you read the thread about the ATI damper problems?
No?? When I was reading up there wasn't really any other option and I still don't think I've seen the new Supermiata one out yet? But like I say... been busy
Just read the ATI thread, I believe I'm in the problem zone and my damper is with the engine builder but luckily he's not begun yet. Going to get him to check for me and if its wrong then I'll have to totally mess around getting it back to the States from the UK providing Fab9 will sort it for me. Man this sucks 😫
New ECU arrived swiftly from Dimitris, so that night I shot home like sh*t off a shovel and started swapping it over.
Chaos, removing the Ms2 which had a harness far too long, I will shorten that for the new owner I think...
It took me about 2 hours to remove the old one, neaten the wiring up and install the MS3e, and maybe a further 10 minutes with the laptop to get it working sensibly although the basemap was very good. It was just a case of getting the idle sorted.
Then I wired up some new sidelight bulbs, for the smoked sidelights which come from the US I think. I really like these over all the others I've had/tried so they will be staying.
Then came this weekend, I knew I was going to an Mx5/Miata meet on the Sunday morning so I wanted to get the EBC working again. Initially I just planned to do that, but alas, I ended up doing much more.I relocated that to the air bag location that I previously had the MS2e in. A bit harder with the MS3e because there was no long harness that would make it simple so I had to fight with the thick engine loom and cable tie it in place over the top of the heater pipe behind the dash so that the two plugs would be close enough to the air bag location that I could plug the ECU in. After that I ran a nice thick ground cable from the inlet manifold to the foot well and spurred 4 wires off it, 1 for the wideband, 1 for thhe ground ground coming from the ECU that allows EBC to be anabled, and then 2 spares for when I connect up the boost map switching and table switching control. I could always re do that and add more grounds if needed. I also mounted the ECU on some foam padding that I had lying around in the garage, so there's no rattles etc. It sits nicely wedged in when the air bag cover is installed. Then I neatened up what was left and cable tied things in place, now the CAN connector and USB cable are in the glove box for easy access. Overall I'm happy with that installation now, it's much much neater than what I previously had.
Then on Sunday I got up really early, like 06:30 early, to get out mapping again with the EBC now wired in. Luckily the settings that were there worked straight off so I just upped the duty table and generally sat at a nice 12psi all day, with the occasional boost cut at 14 psi. Part of the mapping was on the way to the Bunch Of Fives meet in North Wales, we ended up driving 46 cars to the Ponderosa Cafe and then after there I went on a bit of a hoon and headed home. All in all a good weekend!
I've ordered a new part which I will update once I've got it installed.
Really really happy with how MS3e is running the car, I'll be happy once I've connected up all the spare wires to their associated uses to make the most of it.
I have done a lot of things since the last update...
Firstly I got my replacement ATI damper through the post which I've handed over to my engine builder, he's starting the build now very soon. Seriously excited about that.
Then I buggered off on my honeymoon to Mauritius which was pretty bloody lovely.
Spent a whole load of time whilst I was away studying for my Air Law exam as part of my Private Pilots License, glad to say that I passed that exam when I came back, just another 8 exams to go
I started a new job, I'm now a software engineer for Jaguar Land Rover, who have opened a new office in Manchester city centre, the two main floors we're having are still under development but we're working in the building already. It's been a pretty insane first few weeks but it's great to work in this industry now. Especially as I'm likely to be getting an insane deal on a Range Rover Velar. We've got some awesome views too:
Interestingly, I'm working alongside a team in Portland, Oregon so if I ever have to have a trip there I might see what Miata community is knocking around and see if I can get to a meet.
So. Back to car stuff, I've had a couple more part deliveries in the last week. Firstly, an LS coil kit from Hawley Performance. I got brackets, coils, and leads from them, along with the connectors that I need to make up a loom with so I'll be looking for some guides soon. These seemed to come highly recommended on here so I figured I'd go for them to stop me encountering any issues later down the line when I crank the power up even more.
Secondly, a 3 inch exhaust from Kraken. I opted to have an interchangeable back section, so I can run either the Magnaflow silencer or a straight pipe section depending on how loud I want it that day :P
One thing I might get changed eventually is 2.5 inch flange at the beggining of the exhaust, as I'll be getting a custom 3 inch downpipe done at some point I'd rather it was 3 inch the full way through. Not really an issue at the moment as my Flyin Miata downpipe is 2.5 inch anyway.
That's about it for the time being, I really need to start getting the car in a position where it's ready for the new engine. I still need to fit the new fuel pump, wire the coils in and get them set up, paint the engine bay (and the car), sort out a new battery, fit my mini amp and door speakers...
Great progress man and congrats on all the life things: cat, new gig, honeymoon. Awesome!
I wonder how your exhaust will sound. I opted for the 'base' silencer and I'm not a huge fan of how it sounds since it's too loud for me. I have a big magnaflow muffler that I have sitting here waiting to be swapped out so hopefully that improves the tone. I'm curious how the mid sized magnaflow you have affects things!
Great progress man and congrats on all the life things: cat, new gig, honeymoon. Awesome!
I wonder how your exhaust will sound. I opted for the 'base' silencer and I'm not a huge fan of how it sounds since it's too loud for me. I have a big magnaflow muffler that I have sitting here waiting to be swapped out so hopefully that improves the tone. I'm curious how the mid sized magnaflow you have affects things!
Cheers!
I'll get some video's up once it's on. I found the Flyin Miata exhaust too quiet so I'm hoping this is louder Certainly should be with the non silenced section in !
Originally Posted by aidandj
Currently residing in Portland Oregon, working as a software engineer. Let me know if you have any openings
I'll find out on Monday, I'm not sure what's available there with being in Manchester but I imagine I'll be able to check.
I currently have an FM setup with a GT2560R, inconel studs and stage 8 locking hardware.
I've narrowed down a few potential routes to go with the new engine now being built;
1 - Keep the FM mani, studs and locking hardware, sell up the GT2560R, buy a GTX2867R + ATP Housing and have a 3 inch down pipe fabricated, AK Automotive who are building my engine here in the UK did this with good results. Probably also the cheaper option.
2 - Sell most of the kit I currently have FM mani, studs, GT2560R + oil feed and drain, FM elbow and downpipe, FM cat(decat) and FM exhaust, then go 100% custom:
2.1 - Tubular mani with T25 flange - GTX2867R / EFR 6758
2.2 - Tubular mani with V-band - GTX2867R / EFR 6758
Now I think I'l prefer the GTX idea based on cost, over here there's about £500 difference between a GTX and EFR turbo. I also need to decide whether the ATP housing is sufficient to control boost, or whether I need to look at going for an external wastegate option.
Another decision is turbo placement, top or bottom mount, I really quite like the idea of having the turbo mounted lower down, so that the down pipe can be considerably straighter than high mounted setups where it has to twist and bend all over to get past the edge of the engine bay etc.
Very much welcome opinions on any of this. I must also point out 400whp is my absolute limit for long term goals, I really don't want to breach that level over here, I think I'm already being daft enough as it is on our roads.
I have a GTX2867R on a tubular Artech manifold with a 3in exhaust and big MagnaFlow. It uses the .86 Garrett hotside IWG housing. At ~20psi it's about 330whp and has exceeded the capacity of my 6 speed. I am finding it necessary to get the KMiata BMW transmission kit.
It's a fine turbo but it does not perform as well as an EFR. In some ways that was a moot point because it made all the transmission could handle and there wasn't any reason to have anything more awesome. It will likely make 400 horsepower, fuel permitting, with a little more boost. And I see that you are making the value judgement of the best versus good enough with a 500 euro price difference and the fact that the efr is currently out of stock.
My spool numbers are in the show me your spool thread if you want to compare them. Bear in mind I'm using an NA8 head and intake if comparing to NB spool numbers.
I have a GTX2867R on a tubular Artech manifold with a 3in exhaust and big MagnaFlow. It uses the .86 Garrett hotside IWG housing. At ~20psi it's about 330whp and has exceeded the capacity of my 6 speed. I am finding it necessary to get the KMiata BMW transmission kit.
It's a fine turbo but it does not perform as well as an EFR. In some ways that was a moot point because it made all the transmission could handle and there wasn't any reason to have anything more awesome. It will likely make 400 horsepower, fuel permitting, with a little more boost. And I see that you are making the value judgement of the best versus good enough with a 500 euro price difference and the fact that the efr is currently out of stock.
My spool numbers are in the show me your spool thread if you want to compare them. Bear in mind I'm using an NA8 head and intake if comparing to NB spool numbers.
Yeah, I have a 6 speed to go on this engine, but the K-Miata kit is on the cards (next year). Most likely just the box though, adding the Getrag diff adds a ton more cost with our lovely import duty and VAT added on.
It's looking most likely that I'll go for the GTX option, what are your thoughts about the ATP housing vs external waste gate? I feel more inclined to go external wastegate? that way should I change the turbo again in the future, although unlikely, it'll mean less issues if I don't already have a port there for a waste gate.
12-07-2017, 05:55 AM
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