Lazzers build thread.
 

I need to start my own thread and show you guys how my car progressed over the last year. I'd be posting pics but I can't go advanced to attach them :confused:

Then get a photobucket for free and just post links to the photos. You can upload up to 10 photos at a time and then you don't have to worry about bandwidth/storage on the forum.

Yep. Its really easy and well worth it. And when you post, you can either post an IMG code, which will show us the picture, or a url, which is a link to the picture
Good Luck Lazzer.

www.imagestation.com or www.we-todd-did-racing.com also.

Ok I'll get to it soon. Too dark to take the IC pics but I have an '06 Evo 24x12" IC in there with 2.5" coldside and 2" hotside but the hotside is steel because my aluminum tubing hasn't come in yet. :vash: I have lots of other little diy mods I've done here and there. Like a big honkin' spiral cell battery.
Here's the wideband.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...Wideband_2.jpg

How do I post photobucket pics in here that show the picture in the post?

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here is your photo you wanted to upload.

BTW quick how to

way 1: in photobucket under your photo you will see a link that starts with [img]http:....etc Take that whole link with the img tag and paste it into the post.

way 2: on must forums there is series of buttons above your post area. The one that looks like square box with some little triangle layered like mtns. click that button and then add the url.

hope that helps

btw what wide brand is that and how much did that run you????

NGK Powerdex AFX
http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/product...x.asp?mode=nml
It has 9-16:1 (0-5v linear) output for ecu.
I paid $250 for mine locally. Here's one on ebay for $240.13 shipped.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NGK-N...spagenameZWDVW

I've never had to calibrate it since installed a year ago.

I'm going to have to get back to this thread. I didn't think I had as many pictures as I did. I need to sort them in order.

cant wait!

Im not so sure about that wideband, NGK is a reputable company for sparkplugs, but not for O2 sensors. Also it only reads as lean as 16:1, which is about as lean as you ever want to go probably, but I prefer my LC1 that reads between 10:1 and 20:1

It was cheap and in stock at the time. So far it seems to be working. I don't run any higher then 15:1 and that's under very light deceleration. I needed something quick for automapping a stand alone.

Ok, here we go. Oddles of pictures to post soon. Here's my story.

I was getting tired of driving my powerless '98 Chevy Lumina. When I was 16-18 years old I owned 3 Chevy Monzas. One had a 400ci 400hp smallblock in it. I bent the car with the torque and junked it. I hadn't owned a Monza since. I found one on ebay for $1500 but money complications and shipping charges kinda screwed up that deal. I decided to buy my old boss's '85 Firebird TransAm. 65k original garage kept. It just wasn't "fun" and I always wanted a Miata. =) Only blue or black would do. I sold the TA on ebay with the soul intention of buying a Miata with the money. Turns out the mid-point between me and the TA buyer's house was near Joilet Illinois. That's where the Laguna Miata was waiting for me. =) $3700 So I drove the TA down there, met the buyer of that, recieved $4000 in an envelope, and handed it straight to the Miata owner (less $300) I drove the Miata home.

Now, the original intention for this Miata was a 4.3L Vortec swap. I already bought the v6 and it was sitting on a stand waiting for a Miata to put it in. I had so much fun zipping home in my little Laguna that I couldn't ruin it by putting a big heavy American anything in it. Can we say boost? I looked at some turbo kits and it was out of my budget at the time. I decided to make my own... ALL OF IT. $250 later I had a homemade manifold, homemade downpipe, ford probe turbo, and PVC chargepiping. The IC (also probe) came shortly after to help the detonation issues. The IC allowed me about 8lbs and I ran this for a few weeks before I switched to a steel (exhaust) hot-side IC pipe. PVC was melting. =)

Greedy for more power, and still dealing with fuel/ignition issues, I chose to upgrade everything a piece at a time saving the engine build for last. The first thing was to get rid of the bandaids. I bought 550cc Venom injectors $375, an AEM EMS $610, Aeromotive 1:1 fuel pressure regulator $150, and stainless braided fuel lines and AN fittings $125. I ran this for a year tuning on the road. This was all during summer '06

This summer ('07) I decided MORE POWER and I chose a tubular T3 manifold $50, Saab T3 turbo .48t/.42c $81, homemade 2.5" downpipe $50, Full 2.5" exhaust with cat $200, and a Mitsubishi EVO intercooler $free with 2" hotside and 2.5" coldside aluminum charge piping $250-ish. All T-bolt clamps and silicon couplings. It's 99% completed excluding the engine build.

I hope you enjoyed my little Miata story. Pics to come soon! I'm posting them on Photobucket now.

EDIT - By the way. Before this car I knew -nothing- about turbos.

Here's the car as I was shown.
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Here's some $40 wheels I got a deal on. Note the dent in the fender. I got most of that pounded out.
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Here's the stock engine bay but I painted the valve cover.
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Here's the first turbo setup I made.
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The downpipe flange
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The crude install. Don't laugh too hard.
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If anyone noticed the blow off was missing! Here's my solution with the probe bov in recirc.
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This was the install of the Probe intercooler and the steel hotside pipe (1 7/8" exhaust tubing).
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And here's the fpr fittings. I welded a steel AN fitting to the stock regulator flange after I wiz-wheeled the stock fpu off of it. =) You can see the MAP sensor on the firewall. The EMS and 550s were in at this time.
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I bought a new camera by now. =)

Here's my tubular manifold I picked up for $50. I split the $200 bill with a buddy because it came with a turbo I didn't use. Also here are some pics of the heatshield I made to keep my brakes cooler. It works very well. You can see some of the PVC piping still being used as intake plumbing and also the "cold air" mod thru the firewall into the cowl. Spiffy! =)
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Now with the good stuff. The EVO IC install! =) Yeh that big pig fits in there. TOYO radiator makes it. I took the drivers side lower radiator support off the frame and planned on welding it back in front instead. That gave me a bit more room for the hotside pipe. The original fans have been replaced with mini fans (parallel wired) which also gave me more IC pipe room. The a/c is still in the car but the dryer is being moved where the purge can was.
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MONEY SHOT! How's this for sleeper?
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I fooled with subs from 8" to 12". The best one out of 6 configurations I tried was my own little diy slot-port mini-box for some old MTX 8s I had laying around. That box hits 25hz-125hz no problem. The 6.5s and seat speakers take over from 125hz up.
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Last, a few odds and ends things I did to the car. I'm still working on the 2 tone interior but I'm doing it right. That's vinyl on the door not paint. How about a big battery? A must have for b-b-b-bass. Also is the radiator shield I made to keep the air from flowing over the rad. A nice touch. =)
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Hope you like it. It's been a long project making/modding/adding/upgrading little things here and there. Oh and if anyone saw any zipties, Braineak did it! :gay:

damn. Nice thread. Lots of pics. Looks like it's come a long way :)

Lazzer, great build thread. COP and heat shild are very impressive. The route im going with my build is very similar to yours, sans some of the nicer items such as ems, cop, and that pretty tubular mani.

Quick question, since im running a saab turbo, what would I have to do to be able to convince you to fab up another one of those dp flanges. Pm me if youre interested.

great work, good thread

-dan

I dont understand why I'm the ziptie nazi. I use them religously.

Philip is the ziptie nazi your just our little scapegoat....:bigtu:

When I have a shop and access to every Miata configuration (manifold,turbo,ect.) I'll manufacture them. :bigtu: Untill then every setup is alittle different. It wasn't easy cramming a 2.5" downpipe in the car. It's made out of 7 wedges cut from a J-bend to snake it around things. It's one of the nicer pieces of fab work that went into the project. Shame it's burried.

I do too. Just having some fun with you Braineack.

T3/T4 hybrid upgrade. I've added a T4 compressor housing off an Internation Harvester truck turbo. It's a .60 ar with a 60 trim wheel. It sounds 100x better then the T3. The T3 .42 that was on there made an aweful sucking air sound that got anoying.
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Wow first time ive gone through all of this thread. They saved me from reading thousands of words to explain the same thing. You really went from super hardcore ghetto (like the worst Id seen with that pvc pipe) to clean and well put together. Pat yourself on the back cuz it looks like a good setup you got now. I bet that old manifold was really fucking up your spoolup and overall power. I am curious as to why you ditched locating the filter in the cowl?

I have a section of pipe I can clamp in anytime. I made it sectional like this because it's louder when it's in the cowl. Remember the bottom line "goal" of the ghetto setup was to see how cheap I could boost a Miata. $250 As simple as that log manifold was, it worked great. I'm still upgrading as time goes on.

Do you have to move the can to fit that IC in there or could you shove the intercooler to the side like a lot of guys are doing?

curious to know what kind of intake temps you get with the filter in the firewall like that. might be beneficial-and easy-to go ahead and punch a hole in the firewall and build a cold air isolation box. think 'randall intake for turbos'.

See post 20
https://www.miataturbo.net/showpost....8&postcount=20

I saw that, but you didn't specify if it was necessary or if you just did it so you could center the cooler ;)

Taken off my iat sensor on a +/-78deg day I tried it both ways. Under the hood = 104deg. In the cowl = 85deg. Almost 20deg improvement was well worth it. I'm having issues with my iat at the moment. When I replace it and recalibrate it I'll have the digital temp probe installed. I'll take some measurements again and post the numbers. There was a huge improvement with idling in traffic. I can damn near idle forever with minimal increase in intake temps.

Oh... Yeh it has to come out to fit that Evo IC in there.

Where'd you get the low-pro fans from?

Pepboys.

Anything goofy you had to do to get them to work?

what air filter is that? Sweet build. That heat shield is kick ass.

There each running off the oem relays but I tied the relay signal wires together so they both come on.

Thanks for the props. The air filter was something my buddy had kicking around in the garage. It's a k&n. A bit beat up but it works.