Arkmage's Build Thread: A story of ignorance, procrastination, and indecisiveness
 

Finally getting around to fabrication so it's time for my build thread. I've owned my miata since June 2003 and been wanting to boost it for about 4 years. I started collecting parts in January '07, it's now October '07 and my sorry ass is finally putting things together.

This is my daily driver, so I assemble what I need to get some parts fab'd and then put it back to stock to get to work on mondays. Last weekend I mounted the intercooler. It's a chinacooler 18x12x3 (overall, not core). Fit is snug, but only required minor bending of AC dryer lines. There are also two lower mounts that I don't have pics of (pics were crap so I deleted them).

Tonight I got all the cold side plumbing done (pics tomorrow when it's light out). Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the downpipe and hot side plumbing done.

Only items that are still missing are injectors and clutch. I plan to run rx7 460s or 550s (depends on what I can find cheap, 460 will have to be upgraded later when I move out of this turbos efficiency range @ 220whp).

Total cost to date is ~$1300 including MS.

damnit... the "I" in the title should be an "A"...

really your title should be hustler's title. at least you're building it man!

Interesting thread! I'll be fabbing up my IC mounting brackets here this weekend, hopefully if I can find the time.

Took me all day... actual working time was probably less than 3 hours, but we made a few trips to town, watched petite lemans, browsed the forums, etc.


New pics:

and one last one for now... working on the downpipe ATM. Gotta make a run to the store for more sawsall blades. Should have it ready to post by mid afternoon.

those intercooler pipes mild or aluminized? might want to give them a token paint job since they're down where they can rust easily. especially the welds.

lookin good otherwise. get yourself a cheap harbor freight chop saw. saves a lot of hassle with the sawzall.

Aluminized... have a friend at work that is going to sand blast them and epoxy powder coat them for me when I'm done. Rust isn't a concern :)

Wish I had bought a chop saw, but $15 in sawzall blades is cheaper than $150 for a harbor freight chop saw.... it cuts through the mild like butter, the SS for the downpipe is proving to be a bit more of a bitch however.

nice. love the hard coatings.

I was really thinking of the $40 chop saw, but oh well... ;)

I know a few people with the $40 HF chopsaw, works like a champ.
Coming along nicely. I really like my PC'd IC pipes and valve cover, tough stuff. Are you mig welding your stainless downpipe tubing?

I may be missing it, but i cant find the $40 chopsaw on HF's website, i typed chop saw into the search bar and the only thing that came up was the $199 one :td:

cut off saw? they had a 59 buck one last time I looked. you know how HF is though. cheap today, dirt cheap in a week.

true

Yes, already did. Penetration was "OK" I would have liked better but I didn't have a beefy enough extension cord to carry the power. This will hold... I've had much uglier welds hold under pretty extreme conditions... so I'm not too worried.

Hot side is done... need to do some clearance cutting of the under hood bracing, but the piping is done. Tomorrow I'll weld up a modified wastegate bracket, trim the hood, and weld up the flange for the downpipe to mate to my cat.

After tomorrow all I need to do is fix the spark on the MS (not sure what the deal is, but the car won't start on MS spark), drill the oil pan, install the oil lines, weld in the bungs for the IAT, O2, idle bypass, and breather tube, then tune it. Basically I'm less than a month from boost.

lookin good dude. Where's your bov?
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

Hey, i'm going to be using a turbo similar to what you have but I was hoping to be able to swap a larger TO4 compressor on to it. But judging by this picture https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...7&d=1192307859 i'm going to have some clearance problems with the shelf area. Can you take a picture more from the fron't or kind of eyeball the clearance available for a larger compressor for me please. I haven't done the turbo hybrid yet or torn my current turbo kit off the car to check it myself. Might have to stick with the 60 trim setup I have laying around.

Looks awesome though, I like the downpipe. Is the first bend coming off the turbo a U bend or a chopped 90* and white diam tubing did you use?

As for spark not working on your MS, try switching the COIL outputs, i've found that COIL OUT A needs to go to COIL 2 and vice versa for COILBtoCOIL1. Just backwards of what you think it would be.

BOV is in the mail... should arrive tomorrow courtesy of urbansoot.

1) There is roughly 1/2" between the compressor and the shelf, you should be able to double that by bending the lip of the shelf down with a set of vice grips. I think your can get a to4e in there without too much effort.

2) The first bend on the downpipe is a chopped and mangled 90*, the downpipe was originally made for a prelude and was modified at some point before I got it... then I chopped it up even more to make it sorta fit... the pipe is going to rattle like a mofo between the tranny and steering column. I plan on this being a temporary pipe only... once everything else is sorted out and running I'll likely take the car to BEGi and have them do up a nice one for me.

3) MS is now running spark. I swapped channels, that was apparently the issue.


**************************
Pics of what I got done today before putting it back to stock for work tomorrow. Also, pics of the IC and piping out of the car for clarification. BOV will likely be mounted behind the bumper cover in the section that comes out of the IC (on passenger's side).

Yeah looks great man. Going stealth with the black chinacooler? :D