Thinking about going V8, what are my parts worth?
 

This is just a feeler to see how much more money I need to bleed out of the wife before I start this project :) Right now I have a 99 with an FMII kit with Hydra. The whole car has 43k miles on it and I have maybe 500 miles with the turbo, new clutch, etc.

So here is what I would get rid of:
FMII kit with Hydra - software estimates 210 rwhp as it sits right now. Tune is not optimal yet, so I know there is more to be had
Stock engine - I haven't done anything to the internals of this at all but it is very low mileage for its age
5 speed transmission
ACT HD clutch, stock flywheel
4.30 Torsen Diff

Possibly some other parts, but I think I can keep just about everything else.

Depends on the engine.

I would estimate the following:

5 spd trans- $150-250
4.30 torsen w/ axles and drive shaft - $850-1100
ACT HD clutch (low mileage) - $150-200
99 engine - $750
FMII Hydra kit - $3500+

What would it depend on? I bought the car from the original owner in 2001 with 5003 miles on the odometer. Talk about a wasted lease... Anyway, the car has been in my care ever since. As I said, I haven't done anything to the performance of the car since this summer, other than adding a new muffler in 2005. The plugs and wires were changed with 30k maintenance. Anything else?

Oh my bad. Your thread title is "what are my parts worth". I thought you wanted to know how much what youre planning to do will cost.

heh, that is a different list. And it keeps growing. :(

of course you are in San Pedro, I want a new trans/clutch on the east coast.

you should sell the car all together and find a cheap NA.

+1

or tune the one you got, cuz it will be a bunch faster when it's putting down 250-260 to the wheels. tune & get a new r&p

word. i run a stock 99 motor and am putting down some much better numbers than that. no desire to have a 200 lb heavier motor on the front of my car. and with that 4.30 rear it should get up and go even quicker.

You may consider selling the hydra seperately.

once im done with my turbo car, i want to buy a really cheap beat up NA and fabricate my own LS1 conversion kit, but this is scheduled for like 3 years from now...no sense in converting a turbo car to a V8, so just get you a cheap NA and build a V8

but to answer your question, you should be able to get about 5K-6K for your parts if you do decide to sell them

Why a V8, what makes the motor you have unsuitable for your goals?

Mark

it's too hard to get 50,000,000 HP from a 1.8L... only formula 1 can pull that off.

i hope your kiddin, i know that you know that it can be done with 2-3 PcPro's

yeah, but with 3 PcPros you are dumping in so much intercooler... I mean fuel... that you might as well have a v8... you'd get better fuel economy.

not if you add two timing cards

3 PC Pros is waaaaay to much cooling! You will shatter the intake manifold when the freezing air enters the throttle body.

It's like pouring liquid nitrogen on a hot motor.

It isn't unsuitable, I just am unhappy with the current results. The car drives ok, but just doesn't sound good. I feel like I have to kick it in the butt to get it to do anything and that isn't what I wanted the turbo to feel like. I know there is probably something wrong with the install right now because the turbo doesn't reach full boost until almost redline and something isn't preventing the kit from massive boost creep at the high end. I took a friend out today and the Hydra was cutting fuel around 6k rpm. This means I was getting 14psi instead of the 12 I want. ARGH!! I don't want to grenade my engine, but I am a logical guy and I can't seem to find a primer on "if your data log looks like _this_, adjust _this_ to fix it". I understand the principle of a boosted engine, I just am not fully sure how to get the Hydra to do what I want.

This was just a feeler to get an estimate of how much more it was going to cost me to get something stable and consistent. Quality features in a daily driver :)

lolololol

Ok this is precisely what I thought was going on. I think that you need to get the car sorted and keep your head cool a little longer. Really you should be able to have a car that feels every bit as strong as a V8 (although at slightly higher RPM's.) It's not unreasonable to expect 240+ ft/lbs of torque and 240 RWHP from 4000-7000 RPM with consistent boost.

Since you have an FM kit, hold their feet to the fire and get them to help you troubleshoot the car. They are normally pretty helpful, even if some of the staff there can be annoying, still they know the system and have seen all these problems before.

I fear a V8 swap may not be the solution that you are really looking for.

Mark

You belong on this forum. You've got to be kidding. You're going to sell a 250whp miata and stuff a 200+lb v8 in the car because you don't like the way it sounds?

Everyone talks about how FM will shoot a load in your mouth if you buy shit from them, so why don't you call them up, ask them questions about their "superior to MS (because it uses all the factory sensors)" engine management and maybe you'll get bukkake'd.

Lets see...you're overboosting...I wonder what you can do? Obviously you need to sell the car because no one has ever fixed over boost, or experienced it and lived.

Ok ok, thanks for the level headed feedback guys. I am going out of town on business for a month so I will have some time to figure out what I need to do to fix this problem. As I said before, I was just 'thinking' about it. Of course, when I told my wife I was thinking about it, that is when she finally authorized the turbo kit. You are right though, I am probably jumping the gun a bit and should just focus on getting this fixed.

so I got a damn flat in my miata today. I burned the car and left it on the side of the road.

how did you burn it...po pro died on ya?

Hrm... I get the hint I am being made fun of here... ;)

I think you will find debugging your current setup will be much more time and cost affective than a v8. I personally would like a v8 as well, but I love the turbo and won't change this car. If anything I'll get a v8 in addition to this one.

The fact that you aren't making boost until high up in the range suggests that you have one of the following problems:

1) A boost leak. One of your intake pipes is probably leaking. Easy way to find the leak is to put a PVC cap into the ends of your piping at the turbo and TB. In one of these caps thread in an air line fitting and hook up a regulated air supply @ approximately the level of boost you run. If there is no leak, inspect the two couplers at the turbo and TB ends, and call it good. This is probably the number 1 cause of low/late boost.

2) WG is failing open. This is usually caused by improper arm tension or a worn/weak spring. If you can open the wastegate by hand without significant difficulty while the actuator and arm are attached then this is most likely the culprit. Retension the arm much tighter and/or replace the actuator.

Your overboost problem is likely caused by:
1) Inadequate downpipe flow from the wastegate port. This can be solved by enlarging/smoothing the tubing from the wastegate exit to the rest of the downpipe.

2) Electronic boost control not tuned properly (if it's electronic)

3) Faulty wastegate actuator. This can be tested by hooking up regulated air to the actuator and creeping the pressure up. determine what pressure (if any) causes the wastegate to fully open and go from there.

My guess would be that you are experiencing a combination of boost leak and wastegate failing closed. Once the airflow from the turbo exceeds that of the leak in the plumbing your boost shoots up. Either the wastegate is not responding fast enough or is not responding at all.

I agree with you, but I don't think I have a boost leak right now. Here are two of my data logs. My feeling is the most likely culprit is #3 but the replacement FM sent me did the same thing. Maybe I should take Stephanie up on her offer and get the BEGi unit to see if that improves the situation. These logs don't show the boost creep problem. I am going to do some more runs tonight and show you what the car is currently doing. Maybe I should close this thread and make a new one for diagnosing the problem...

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6...ov04wd3.th.png
http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8...v042gn3.th.png