The turbo sits further outboard than I'm used to seeing on most cars. Is the weight supported by any sort of structure beneath?

No, I have seen one build using a bracket spanning the gap between the head and flange, but the two Dave's that form the company have done quite a lot of testing with them and had no issues so far, including a trip to the ring.

Ok, just a lot of weight leveraging from the top and bottom manifold studs.

Would you suggest supporting it?
I've always wondered whether supports work or not, do they not create a solid point that would stop the manifold moving position slightly when it's expanding?
Is the support in aid of the head or the manifold?

-Lew

They were supposed to be helping the manifold not to crack, and the studs to fail less often connecting the turbo to the manifold. Some of the problems people encounter are also related to the weight of the exhaust or twisting movements from the motor moving in its mounts and the exhaust not having the right kind of flexibility.

But to answer your question, I don't know if you need a support or not. It would be conjecture on my part.

Right, the engine is cracking on now so I need to start looking at the other parts I need to buy.

Oil feed .. Now from what I've read (on here) the feed to an EFR should be no longer than 18" is this possible on a Mk2.5 block/99 head? My current feed from my FM setup comes from the oil pressure sensor

Oil return.. Another spout of reading told me that I need to match the drain outlet the whole way to the sump, I need to figure out what size to get welded into the sump as my engine builder needs to know fairly soon.

Water feeds .. I was intending on core plugging the thermostst housing take off on the head as I'll be running a coolant reroute , I'm not entirely sure how I should then run the water lines around the engine, if I should ditch the oem oil warmer and ditch the water line to the throttle body etc .

-Lew

Throttle body is to prevent icing. May not be needed with the turbo. I kept the water/oil cooler/warmer because it is multi functional. It cools the oil when the oil is hotter than the water, too.

The manifold guys are awaiting a batch of billet collectors before they can finish my manifold so hopefully it should arrive this weekend.

In the mean time I've ordered a full set of Superpro bushes - minus the ARBs and diff fillers. Already have the ARBs, not sure what to do about the diff.

I'm getting there slowly, I think early next year I am going to order all the remaining bits I need to rebuild the underside, hubs, ball joints... all the boring stuff.

What I can't weigh up is how badly I need a K-Miata ZF/Getrag box swap, it's insanely expensive to get it over here, probably circa £500 just in import fee's, but with the much smaller market in the UK I can't see anyone producing something similar.
It'd just be really nice to have that when putting it all back together.

Car stuff aside, I passed another two flying exams this weekend, I got 100% in Navigation and 92% in Operational procedures. Meaning I've done 3 of the 9 exams I need to do... yay

-Lew

Is it any cheaper to send it one or two pieces at a time so it appears less valuable?

I think K-Miata would have to send it as a gift or something (maybe a Christmas prize winner? who knows lol) and a customs agent would have to turn a blind eye to get it through free of duty.

Even then I think the exchange rate pops it out at £2,000 which would be like replacing 7-8 6 speed gearboxes.

But you can make much more power than 6 speeds can handle with complete impunity!
And they actually shift nicely, lol.

I'm not sure I can though, we've got some pretty good pump fuel here but it's certainly not up to E85 standards.

Couple more bits turned up this week.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6e9570826b.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c4902bbcd7.jpg

Both these came up at really good prices recently, a mix of Winter sales and Christmas really brought the price down. I've heard mixed reports on the Skunk2 Inlet, but at the end of the day I really don't want to run the OEM one and have my TB fail and kill the engine. Already seen the damage it did to a friends.

Still waiting on the turbo manifold to arrive, not sure where that's at although they do give a 4 week lead time so maybe I need to just be patient.

-Lew

The engine is coming together now, I don't think it will be long until I have it in my garage. Last remaining parts are the oil return in the sump which I'm waiting on the delivery of the part, and then Dan can put the rest together and get it shipped to me.

Starting to build some enthusiasm for the car again now that my house is coming together inside.

A couple of pics... can't remember if I shared a pic of the flywheel... it's pretty lightweight! And I can't remember the exact clutch spec but it's a twin disk beast. Who knows what it's going to be like on the road lol

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0e6b9446ae.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...10be5e345e.jpg

I do actually have some good quality adjustable cam gears in the garage too, with pick ups on them, so I'm tempted to swap them over once I get it back. Just not sure exactly how much I'd benefit from them? Am I able to shift the power band or will that be a cam swap jobbie?

-Lew

On Christmas eve my manifold finally arrived. All I can say was it was certainly worth the wait.

It feels substantial, let hope it is!

They also threw in a bottle opener which I thought was a nice touch.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bf9f9cd5c0.jpg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...66867733e4.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...27d947e4ba.jpg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1204442bde.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e9095a1209.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...612d408480.jpg

I'm hoping to start working on the car again in the new year, I can't do anything until I get the underside prepped and painted.

-Lew

It's beautiful!

That manifold is sweet. What's the downpipe and exhaust look like? Is that to be fabbed later?

Downpipe yet to be fabricated but the exhaust is a few pages back probably (pics). It's a 3 inch kraken system with interchangeable rear section.

So excited for this, I'm curious about that head and how it responds on the dyno.

Also, twin disk isn't too bad on the road, it engages quick and takes some getting used to with a very narrow window of operation but it doesn't chatter like ceramic picked I've used in the past.

A few more bits done on the engine, there's now an oil return fitting welded into the sump. I went for a female fitting so I can change what I use if I find any issues with a setup I go for, it's currently got an AN adaptor screwed into it.

And the ATI Super Damper is now on too. All I need to do is post the cam cover and some bits to my engine builder who's going to weld the fittings on for oil breather etc and get it powder coated for me, and then I think it's done in terms of the engine itself.

A couple of fairly non interesting pictures!

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...61b3f0d81b.jpg https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...88b30806d9.jpg https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f4ab8e336c.jpg

-Lew