Miata LFX Swap (Singular Motorsports & Good-Win Racing)
04-18-2017, 03:04 PM
#541
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 3,303
Total Cats: 1,216
Undecided. I would, but the rules say no adjustment of suspension by driver while on the racing surface, so it would only be usable in the pits. However most of the indecision stems from having several ideas for alternate locations I'd like to move the sway bar to, dependent on a few other things. It's likely to be something I kick around ideas/designs for for a while. 
Last edited by ThePass; 04-18-2017 at 03:17 PM.
Reply
0
0
04-23-2017, 11:30 PM
#543
This is kind of random but I'm replacing a lfx in a impala at work at it got me thinking about these swap threads. Are any of the camaro guys seeing any problems with dropped valves/broken valve springs? We've had a run on impalas grenading themselves over the past couple months. I think mine is the 3rd one to drop a valve and I vaguely remember doing a valve spring a while back. We see way more fwd lfx stuff so I was just wondering if it was something all of them are doing. Sorry if this has been covered before I searched here but didn't find anything.
Reply
0
0
04-24-2017, 07:22 AM
#544
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 211
Total Cats: 34
We currently have 3 LFX swapped cars that see track time and daily abuse, that rev limiter comes up quick. We haven't had any issues. I know some the of the early motors had a timing chain issue that was recalled.
Last edited by unk577; 04-25-2017 at 06:56 AM.
Reply
0
0
05-08-2017, 03:33 AM
#548
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 3,303
Total Cats: 1,216
After shooting the quick vid of the nose removal I was ready to put things together for good. Got fluids in it and everything ready to rock, time for a test start. Moment of truth for the wiring. Flipped the main battery switch on and cranked the motor to verify oil pressure... cranked great but no pressure. (side-note, we use a direct mechanical gauge for initial verification so no question of electrical gauge accuracy). It's conceivable that the pump just doesn't generate enough pressure at cranking rpms, so we did a start up. Ignition on, fuel on, and she fired right up (yeah baby). Promptly shut it down just a couple seconds later because still no pressure.
The troubleshooting began. I won't bore you with all the things we checked that weren't it, here are the important things we did learn:
First, the adapter plate from Keisler:
the ports I had previously marked IN and OUT are in fact the other way around. I can't recall what we based the original assumption for which was which on, possibly the sensor port location, but one way or another once I had the oil pump out of the motor and blew air through the pump outlet hole in the block it was pretty clear. This wasn't the oil pressure issue, it just meant the flow through the filter and cooler would be opposite from what I intended, for anyone else who may use this adapter plate here's the confirmed flow direction:
Now on to things that likely did have something to do with the issue...
Getting to the pump means removing the front engine cover and timing chains. Removing the pan means separating the engine from the subframe. Optimistically, we started with getting to the pump.
Side note about the timing chain: the GM FSM leaves some confusion about the right process to secure the cams, remove the chains and align everything for reinstallation. The process is actually much better covered by this video from Cloyes, and yes you actually lock bank 2 and then rotate the crank almost 90° before locking bank 1... which feels very "wrong" knowing it's an interference engine
The one detail they leave out in that vid is locking the cams in place before removing the chain. Use camshaft retaining tools pn EN-48383 available on amazon.
The pump turned out to be dry. Presumably turning the motor upside down on the stand to swap the oil pan drained everything from the pump and now it couldn't build any suction. However, filling the pump with assembly lube to prime it still didn't do the trick. So then I replaced the pump with a new Melling unit:
Primed this one with assembly lube as well, still no dice. On to the pan.
Suspended the engine from the top and dropped the subframe and pan:
We even pulled the main caps to check the bearings, which turned out to have an interesting coating here but everything checked out OK:
With no glaring issues with the pan or pickup I squirted as much assembly lube as possible up into the passage in the block that leads from the pickup to the pump, oiled both sides of the o-ring that seals that pickup to the block, and reinstalled the pan. Cranked the engine and voila, oil flow!
It's likely that the issue was caused by compounding things: the pump being drained dry and needing to be primed, perhaps too large of an air pocket in the pickup tube, and perhaps also the o-ring being dry and not sealing fully. For others to have the best shot at avoiding this, I'd recommend that when you flip the motor to swap pans, fill the passage in the block with assembly lube that's thick enough to not drain down the pickup when you flip the motor back over, and also lube that o-ring up. With that you'll probably be good to go. If not, the pump may need to be primed.
Everything's back together now and the engine fires up and has full oil pressure. Working through many other little things that come with a brand new build right now, will continue to update as I go.
The troubleshooting began. I won't bore you with all the things we checked that weren't it, here are the important things we did learn:
First, the adapter plate from Keisler:
the ports I had previously marked IN and OUT are in fact the other way around. I can't recall what we based the original assumption for which was which on, possibly the sensor port location, but one way or another once I had the oil pump out of the motor and blew air through the pump outlet hole in the block it was pretty clear. This wasn't the oil pressure issue, it just meant the flow through the filter and cooler would be opposite from what I intended, for anyone else who may use this adapter plate here's the confirmed flow direction:
Now on to things that likely did have something to do with the issue...
Getting to the pump means removing the front engine cover and timing chains. Removing the pan means separating the engine from the subframe. Optimistically, we started with getting to the pump.
Side note about the timing chain: the GM FSM leaves some confusion about the right process to secure the cams, remove the chains and align everything for reinstallation. The process is actually much better covered by this video from Cloyes, and yes you actually lock bank 2 and then rotate the crank almost 90° before locking bank 1... which feels very "wrong" knowing it's an interference engine
The pump turned out to be dry. Presumably turning the motor upside down on the stand to swap the oil pan drained everything from the pump and now it couldn't build any suction. However, filling the pump with assembly lube to prime it still didn't do the trick. So then I replaced the pump with a new Melling unit:
Primed this one with assembly lube as well, still no dice. On to the pan.
Suspended the engine from the top and dropped the subframe and pan:
We even pulled the main caps to check the bearings, which turned out to have an interesting coating here but everything checked out OK:
With no glaring issues with the pan or pickup I squirted as much assembly lube as possible up into the passage in the block that leads from the pickup to the pump, oiled both sides of the o-ring that seals that pickup to the block, and reinstalled the pan. Cranked the engine and voila, oil flow!
It's likely that the issue was caused by compounding things: the pump being drained dry and needing to be primed, perhaps too large of an air pocket in the pickup tube, and perhaps also the o-ring being dry and not sealing fully. For others to have the best shot at avoiding this, I'd recommend that when you flip the motor to swap pans, fill the passage in the block with assembly lube that's thick enough to not drain down the pickup when you flip the motor back over, and also lube that o-ring up. With that you'll probably be good to go. If not, the pump may need to be primed.
Everything's back together now and the engine fires up and has full oil pressure. Working through many other little things that come with a brand new build right now, will continue to update as I go.
Last edited by ThePass; 07-10-2017 at 01:15 PM.
Reply
1
1
05-24-2017, 04:15 PM
#554
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 3,303
Total Cats: 1,216
As sometimes happens with long term projects, personal life stuff has kept me from the car for a little while. Getting back into it now, but there were still a few updates from the past few weeks:
Got a fresh windshield! Should be able to see things again which will be a nice change.
Made some shock reservoir brackets and had those powdercoated:
Front reservoirs are now cozy:
Also treated the car to a new seat! The Cobra Evolution is probably my all-time favorite seat, been wanting one for a long time:
Every time I put a seat in a Miata I am reminded just how much work it is to get a seat fitting just right. This seat is replacing an old Sparco Circuit and just because every seat has its own dimensions, layback, etc. fitting the Cobra took some cutting and welding to tweak things for this new setup. Finally happy with it after three days of after-work time spent, it's super low, reclined a bit more than the old seat, and pushed as far back up against the cage as possible - you can barely slide a piece of paper between the seat and main hoop. I'll be adding a steering wheel spacer to adjust for this seat being further back than the one it replaced:
With the engine running now I get to find all the little details that need to be sorted out.
One of the things I was spinning my wheels on for a while was a power steering leak. Turned out it was the pump itself leaking. Got a new pump, tapped for fittings, ready to go back in:
The next thing I'm working on solving is with the Racepack. Currently not getting any PIDs through the OBDII plug, not sure if it's stuck looking for the other rental Camaro I tested this dash on or what, but right now it tries to pull the PIDs and says there are none. We can plug in a scan tool and communicate just fine, so not sure what the issue is yet.
Second dash related thing going on at the moment is reading the oil pressure gauge. Wiring is all good and I'm getting voltage input from the signal wire and that's fluctuating appropriately with changes in RPMs but I cannot figure out what the voltage scaling is for this factory GM sensor. All research so far says it should be approximately 0.5V=0psi and 4.5V=120psi but that must be off because with that scaling it's only outputting 3psi at idle while a mechanical gauge confirms it's idling at 10-15 psi.
Got a fresh windshield! Should be able to see things again which will be a nice change.
Made some shock reservoir brackets and had those powdercoated:
Front reservoirs are now cozy:
Also treated the car to a new seat! The Cobra Evolution is probably my all-time favorite seat, been wanting one for a long time:
Every time I put a seat in a Miata I am reminded just how much work it is to get a seat fitting just right. This seat is replacing an old Sparco Circuit and just because every seat has its own dimensions, layback, etc. fitting the Cobra took some cutting and welding to tweak things for this new setup. Finally happy with it after three days of after-work time spent, it's super low, reclined a bit more than the old seat, and pushed as far back up against the cage as possible - you can barely slide a piece of paper between the seat and main hoop. I'll be adding a steering wheel spacer to adjust for this seat being further back than the one it replaced:
With the engine running now I get to find all the little details that need to be sorted out.
One of the things I was spinning my wheels on for a while was a power steering leak. Turned out it was the pump itself leaking. Got a new pump, tapped for fittings, ready to go back in:
The next thing I'm working on solving is with the Racepack. Currently not getting any PIDs through the OBDII plug, not sure if it's stuck looking for the other rental Camaro I tested this dash on or what, but right now it tries to pull the PIDs and says there are none. We can plug in a scan tool and communicate just fine, so not sure what the issue is yet.
Second dash related thing going on at the moment is reading the oil pressure gauge. Wiring is all good and I'm getting voltage input from the signal wire and that's fluctuating appropriately with changes in RPMs but I cannot figure out what the voltage scaling is for this factory GM sensor. All research so far says it should be approximately 0.5V=0psi and 4.5V=120psi but that must be off because with that scaling it's only outputting 3psi at idle while a mechanical gauge confirms it's idling at 10-15 psi.
Last edited by ThePass; 07-10-2017 at 01:11 PM.
Reply
1
1
05-24-2017, 05:35 PM
#555
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 997
Total Cats: 156
Is the racepak terminated? In the camaro, the dash is one termination point and the ecm is the other. If you put a multimeter across the can+ and can- in resistance mode you should see 120ohm.
Reply
0
0
06-05-2017, 07:12 PM
#559
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 3,303
Total Cats: 1,216
With the bulk of the swap done and the thing even running (!!) it can be frustrating at times to still have many little details that come with a fresh build that need going through. Half of them don't even have to do with the LFX swap itself. Tonight I'm making the rear brake/turn/marker lights sub harness. In the mean time, reposting this pic because it just gets me so excited for what this car is becoming 
Last edited by ThePass; 07-10-2017 at 01:05 PM.
Reply
3
3
06-15-2017, 12:42 PM
#560
Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 3,303
Total Cats: 1,216
Another item not directly related to the swap but equally important. This was also one of the final things left before this thing is rolling 
V8R/Stoptech STR21 rear brake kit. This is a race only kit with no e-brake. 6 lbs lighter per side than my old rear brake setup.
Pads are Performance Friction 11's to match the front.
V8R/Stoptech STR21 rear brake kit. This is a race only kit with no e-brake. 6 lbs lighter per side than my old rear brake setup.
Pads are Performance Friction 11's to match the front.
Last edited by ThePass; 07-10-2017 at 01:02 PM.
Reply
4
4
