Savington

iTrader: (31)

To be honest, I just got done building my shortblock and I wouldn't do it again myself. If I had to do it again, I'd send the motor to John Day in Texas and pick it up 3 weeks later. You'll spend a couple hundred bucks more, but it will be done totally right and you'll know it. You can't build it yourself without some specialty tools anyway (bore gauges, micrometer, etc).

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

Seems like this John Day fella is pretty popular. I think I'm going to have to have a talk with him. Anyone have contact info for him? I can't seem to google him :(

hustler

iTrader: (6)

no on the water; yes on everything else.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

972.235.7405, tell him Trey Rozelle sent you.

I don't know why he became so popular here but I selected him because he's put together several FI miata motors that have seen hundreds of sessions on the track. I can also think of 5 engines built by other people with "issues" large and small. He does tons and tons of machine work for professional teams, shipping stuff all over the nation. Like I said earlier, I've talked to a lot of people and no one had anything bad to say about him other than it taking too long. He's one of the few machinists I know of that I would trust to assemble an engine, and not pull a "switcheroo" on using parts other than requested which seems to be a major issue with a few machine shops around town.

DeerHunter

Hi Fooger. Thanks for volunteering your car for the 3" NA prototype. I just had the production unit installed on my car and I am extremely pleased with the results. Peak torque occurs 1,200 rpm earlier and drivability is vastly improved over the 2.5" unit I had before. Best of all, it sounds absolutely fantastic. Not boy-racerish at all, but producing a mellow, deep sound that encourages me to turn the stereo off around town. The best part is an intoxicating burble on the over-run. I think you'll be very pleased with it indeed.

I'm not sure what ECU you plan on using, but if it's a Hydra, I really recommend the Hydramist. It works hand-in-fist with the ECU to maximize performance and safety - something that can't be said for standard WI units. I'm able to run high boost (20+ psi) on 91 octane Colorado "squirrel ****" and my intake temps actually decrease during a dyno run!

One other component to consider is the ATI Harmonic Damper (Flyin' Miata 1 800 FLY MX5s). It not only helps prevent your oil pump from shattering at high power levels, but it makes your engine almost as smooth as a V6 (I'm not kidding - the typical 4 cylinder vibration is almost eliminated).

R.e. the transmission: One big bucks option is the Quaife gearset, but the cheaper route is a 6 speed from an NB. It doesn't shift as nicely though and you will need a longer ratio rear-end to give you usable gearing.

Finally, if you want the best available (IMHO) Miata suspension for street and track, consider the AFCO system that FM offers. It performs like a champ and the extra travel designed into it allows it to work much better on real-world roads.

Good luck with your build. The results will be worth it (I get a grin every time I drive my car).

l_bader

Another Texas Miata engine builder is John Long ( John Long's Automotive Specialists - Auto Repair, Maintenance, Performance - Round Rock, Georgetown, TX ). He is a former Mazda Master Mechanic who focuses on Miatas and RX's in conjunction with his commercial autoshop. His service manager is Dan Pedroza an SCCA Miata driver. - They are the shop I used to build my engine prior to taking it to Corky for the HE-X build.

Drop the idea of an oil scraper and knife-edge the crank...

- L

M-Tuned

iTrader: (6)

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t35744/

We just started the group buy at $299 for our Rods. They even come with ARP 2000 bolts now

hustler

iTrader: (6)

Hardly. Robispec > fatcat > AFCO Look at the shock dynos and championships.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

I love "engine build" threads... I learn something new every time. Fooger, there's a thread you should read. Search under my username for a thread titled "Pricing a mild build"... good info.

Just to throw some extra stuff out there (I'm going to babble for a minute because I've got the time)... there are a few '99-'00 stock longblocks out there that have been running 300whp with an acceptable amount of reliability. A big turbo will get you there fairly easily on 93octane and some good tune... 15psi on a GT30 and you're there.

I'd really like to be able to do it in the 15psi range on a GT2560, with a big fat torque curve and full boost by about 3500rpm. I think with a 2.0 stroker, lotsa headwork, cams, custom IM, WI (for the ****-ton of timing), 3" dump, tubular mani, EW, etc... should be in the cards... but I'm on a mortal budget (as in, if I exceed the budget, the wife will find out and kill me) so all of that **** is out.

We're right on the edge of efficiency with the GT2560 at that power, so heat is a big factor and the BP isn't known for it's flow-ability.

3" exhaust and a straight-through muffler are mandatory... external wastegate will help tremendously with boost control, but cost is factor, so having the internal wastegate ported and using closed-loop EBC is my route.

Aftermarket cams are too expensive, but an exhintake swap and some adjustble cam-gears have shown to make very impressive gains on NA cars, I'm hoping the FI gains offer the same ratio with some tuning. Protege valve cover=BLING!

There is a big movement right now towards custom intake manifolds. Emilio at 949 broke it down for me one afternoon about the flaws of the '99 manifold wrt packaging constraints for incoporating the VICS system. Some guys have gutted the stock '99 mani various ways with good results on the top-end and little to no loss through the midrange... low power suffers a little, but boost is a cure. At a minimum, I'm going to be modifying the stock IM to achieve a bigger plenum and possibly removing the VICS. I'M HOPING that somebody will have a direct PnP turbo application IM for a reasonable price (w/a bigger TB that will utilize the stock throttle cable) before I'm ready to buy in about 6-7 months.

A nice big intercooler that fills the whole nose... probably in the 27x10x3 size range w/around the radiator pipng and a Forge BOV mounted on the coldside using a 1" t-coupler. 2.5" piping is a favorite around here although Corky says all the time that 2" is plenty big enough for 300whp. Plus, 2" is a lot easier for routing the hot-side... and if you're going with a big radiator and fat swaybars, 2" make A LOT of sense. I have no need for AC/PS, so my options are less limited... but WITH AC/PS, any DIY guy up to 300whp should stick with 2" IC pipes to eliminate a lot of headaches.

So far the Godspeed and Mishimoto's are holding up well enough that I'm convinced. If you're going to the track, maybe a Koyo is worth the peace of mind, but I'm on a Godspeed budget. For bling, I'll probably go with the 12" ebay fan special, but the dual stock fans are a good design and work well enough. Combine a larger radiator with a good re-route, and you're set for 300whp on the street. The BEGi S4 mani/dp setup is a no-brainer for the price and reputation. I'll get the 3" option and have a couple extra bungs welded on. I've got local connections and a 3" exhaust will be cheap and well made. I'd love the Savington-style polished duals, but it's not in the budget.

I'm also hoping DIY has a PnP MS for 99's ready early next year... and it has onboard wideband and dual-map EBC. I've got a great idea for installing a pushbutton switch on the shift-**** for mometary high-boost activation (remember the "Go-Baby" switch from "Gone in 60 seconds")... on a Voodoo Magnum **** should be easy.

OK, planes are landing, gotta go.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

samnavy's Kaczinski diatribe ftw!

I can put down 300whp at 15psi on my gt2860rs.


If you ever plan on tracking this car, even once, get v-bands on everything. I'm pretty pissed about my hardware loosening right now.

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

Deerhunter - glad you like the 3". I cant wait to get home to see how it sounds. If I do a WI, I'm heavily considering the Hydramist, but I do have a budget to work within. If I can get to 290hp safely w/o WI, and my goal is only 300hp, then it's going to have to wait awhile. The same thing goes for the ATI damper. It's a big chunk of change that I can add a few months down the road. The Quaife gearset isn't even in my consideration set right now. I've looked at the AFCOs, and they're not what I'm looking for. This is a 95% DD build that will see 1, maybe 2, autoX per month in the summer, and 1, maybe 2, track days per year. I've spent a lot of money on the motorcycle for track days, so most of my track days will be on two wheels: I value some good "knee time" very highly!

samnavy - I had read your thread probably 3 times before starting this one - indeed, it does have some great info. Let me know how the search for an IM goes. Regarding the radiator, I dropped in the big Koyo unit from FM at the same time I did the FMII install. I threw the FM dual-Spal kit on it 2 weeks later. I love your idea for the maximum boost button on the shifter ****! I think I'm going to keep my button on the right pedal though :P It doesn't make sense to me to have to perform an additional action when I want to go somewhere!

hustler - my non-V-band hardware is already installed. I've seen the prices for those things, and I think I'd rather get off to a bad Michael Jackson photo than redo all of my hardware right now :O If I start to have issues with my current hardware, I'll definitely look into it. It's just not one of those "gotta have it" things right now.

The info in this thread has been INCREDIBLE compared to what I was expecting. It's great to wake up to 10 new good posts. Keep the opinions/experiences/etc. coming! I was half expecting a "use the search, jackass. /thread" post Now I'm pissed that I'm still deployed, I wanna go home and tear my engine out! *sigh* 3 more months.

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

New Questions:

Auxilliary Oil Cooler? Is the water-to-oil cooling block enough when combined with the reroute? I've read complaints that adding an oil cooler makes the oil "too cool", even with a thermostat. Car never sees anything that isnt full synthetic.

Dual Feed fuel rail? I've always been of the opinion that, with a proper fuel pump and FPR, the dual feed rail is simply a gimmick. It seems like a proper set up will leave injectors 1 and 4 within 99.5% of each other, or better. Has anyone lost an engine yet to a single feed fuel rail with a quality fuel pump? It just seems like the money here would be much better spent elsewhere.

RotorNutFD3S

iTrader: (33)

I have never seen oil temps so hot that I thought I needed an external cooler, sure the temps go up when driving aggressively or in boost for longer than a quick run, but nothing scary. I also don't like the thought of adding more potential points of failure in what's basically the lifeblood of the engine system. If you plan on tracking the car a lot, you may want to consider it, that beats on the car and heats it up more than on the street. Or, just see how things are without it, and if it's too hot for comfort, add one.

A while back most everyone that had issues were breaking something in cylinder #4, so the thought was that cyl.4 was running lean and that the fuel rail had something to contribute to that. But then the coolant reroute idea took off strong (even though some had been running it for a long time) because there was a lot of heat to alleviate from the back of the engine.
I run a dual feed from M-Tuned because it's honestly not that expensive to do so, I think it still helps equalize everything, but at the same time, a proper reroute will help cure the heat issues that plague the rear cylinders and cause problems.

fluke

The fuel rail, if there was an issue, wouldn't be solved w/ either the FPR or line pressure (pump), ppl were under the impression that the flow losses across the length of the rail were large enough to lean out cyl #4.

There was a great thread here where someone actually bench tested various fuel rails at different flow rates, no appreciable difference from cy #1 - #4.

M-tuned rail is nice, and cheap; I didn't bother though, money went elsewhere.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

the fuel rail is fine and you only need the oil cooler if you're going on the track.

DeerHunter

I think what gets lost in the discussion about various shock combos and their relative merits is this: The AFCOs are designed to be a comfortable (i.e. lots of travel with little chance of bottoming out) street suspension that can hold its own when you autocross or do a track day. Many of the banzai systems that people are in love with are track suspensions that may be (barely) tolerable on a daily driver.

On my recent trip to Texas, I was very pleased with just how well-controlled my suspension is on all kinds of roads. At highway speeds, it's almost plush, but with none of the float that a typical plush suspension offers. Turn-in is razor sharp and I could pick off apexes with surgical precision.

If budget is a concern, you'll get 80-90% of the results (at least for the street) with the FM 2.5 suspension set-up. It's not as controlled during fast transitions and severe bumps, but it's waaaay better than stock.