Ziggo

Took care of a couple little issues today since I cant drive the stupid thing.

I finish wrapped the engine harness with 3M Super 33 electrical tape, so now everything is pretty and if I ever have to get back into the harness I will have to deal with a goopy mess.



With that done I buttoned things up around the fuse box, including reinstalling the washer fluid tank and pump, and replacing a length of the hose that was FUBAR. I tested the wipers, the blades need replacing, but possible more concerning, they fail to fully retract. There is apparently alot of slop in the linkage at the first wiper. Not sure if its intentional or if there is some kind of bushing missing there.



Also tore apart the steering wheel horn switch. The horn wasnt working, so I jumpered with with the QR hub removed, *beep beep* Then I jumpered it with the hub installed from the spade contacts, *beep beep. Installed the base of the switch, and jumpered the two contacts you see below *silence*. Turns out the outer larger pad was open to the spade contact on the back. I have no idea why, so I fixed it like a mechanical engineer, by slathering it in solder till I got good contact.






Apparently applies to Italian components too. Awesome quality control there momo. I also fixed a dust shield that was dragging on the front drivers side rotor in about the same fashion that the above "russian" was fixing his spacecraft.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Just came through here and gave you a bunch of props for all your thorough work. Seriously shoddy luck but great work man.

On the radiators, you've obviously gone for a best-of-the-best approach. That being said, many have had good luck with the simple eBay radiators for around $100 shipped. That's what I'm going to run, for better or for worse. We will see how it works.

Ziggo

This worked pretty well. Did it by myself, once I had the second quart in the funnel I went under the car with the empty bottle and the plug. Once it started dripping I pulled the hose and put it in the bottle and put the plug in.




The crimp tool for working on the ECU connector I purchased was this one.



These are the transmission plugs that I used when I dropped the transmission. Cheaper than replacing the XT-M5-QS fluid I just put in there.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Try to sub-$200 mishimoto ones, godspeed, or OBX racing. Laz's $100 radiator didn't seal at the cap, and although it lasted ~2 years I think, the end tanks were bulging. The "name brand" ebay radiators seem to be made with thicker material, so I'd splurge the extra ~$100 on them.

You got lucky, I usually make quite the mess pulling the hose out, getting it on all sorts of things I can't reach to wipe off.

redneck4Christ

Subscribed so I can follow this version of your build thread too.
Lookin great mang!

rleete

iTrader: (21)

We're still talking about the transmission, right?

Ziggo

Koyo Hyper V radiator installed. Also had to replace the lower radiator brackets since they got bent in the jack fiasco. Everything is working great, the single fan is able to drop the coolant temperature to 185 pretty quickly in a 90*F garage, so it appears it will be sufficient. Spent some time tuning the PID loop for the IAC. Still don't have it perfect, every so often the car wants to idle at about 650rpm instead of 850. Other than that everything is working great. I picked up a plastic welder at HF today with the intention of crafting a new undertray for the car, as well as some radiator ductiing. Two rattles to resolve as well, one is the hood, right around the passenger side hinge, the other is the passenger side mirror, which appears slightly loose and kinda wobbles about. I did disconnect the dash buzzer so I don't have to listen to it sing me the song of its people anymore

Also, the car sounds like *** with no catalytic converter. It buzzes like a trashy honda. Will have to do something about that at some point, though its pretty far down the list.

The VE table is coming along, this is the latest with smoothing applied. It has an interesting inflection at 4000rpm that is visible through the entire range of manifold pressures. The fact that at full throttle the car is exceeding 100, even reaching 110 indicates to me that its flowing pretty well, though having never tuned one of these before I have no idea if what I am seeing is, great, terrible or typical.

Ziggo

Not much to report. Car is running well. It oscillates idle slightly at startup, but is rock solid otherwise. Have not fixed my rattles yet, but work is going to be crazy for the next month or so, so I won't have time for working on the car.

took my son for a drive, blew his mind. Considering his usual experience is the back seat of mom's crossover, front seat in a convertible is quite shocking I imagine.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

How come he gets a racing seat before you do?

Ziggo

So my last post was June 13th, between then and this past weekend I had exactly one day off of work. And technically I went into the office on the 12th and 13th.....

So updates? I made it to 500 mi on the miata and changed the oil and flushed the coolant. I also resolved my startup idle issue with a bit of time in megasquirt and adjustment of the idle air screw. Sounds like a massive vacuum leak now, which I guess that's what the idle passage is. Also went underneath and checked all the bolts I could find. The only loose one was the bottom bolt of the alternator, so I readjusted tension and tightened that back up. Resolved a belt squeal on startup with that.

I've been eyeballing 15x9 wheels wrapped with rivals on tirerack, but I think the next step is to get the car to the shop and have the race seats and roll bar/low door bar done. I've not driven the car in a couple weeks with the daily high at 100+ no AC is really a deal breaker. The shop I want to use is 2 hours away at MSR cresson so it's a bit of a haul. Might try to drive it down at 6 am or something to avoid the heat.

Was also pointed out to me I may be using the wrong location to source the MAP signal, the nipple between the two middle runners. The Logs look OK to me, but is the oscillation at WOT a problem?

Ziggo

Nevermind. I used the port by the brake booster. Better to be lucky than good.

Ziggo

Dropped the car off at the shop today and spent some time sitting in various miati. Me getting in and out of a race seat, in a caged miata without a removable steering wheel was nuts. If the car caught on fire I am pretty sure I would just burn. I would have to start a training regimen to do it, pulled my back something fierce.

Settled on an Evo 2 seat. bolted to the floor, with the optional cushions removed and a bar in the top of the hardtop I will be good to pass inspections. Not going to cage it. Does mean I need to come up with a hardtop in short order.

Ziggo

Spent some more time at the shop evaluating fit today. It seems the floorpan can remain in place but absolutely every other trick in the book must be used. The seat has to be located right on the floorpan with all of the OEM seat mounting "humps" removed. As my helmeted head is about 1/16" from passing the broomstick test. The side mount seat bracket needs to be modified to lower the seat as much as possible, as well as canting the seat back some more. This is all with the padding removed from the seat. For DD work the padding will be in, so there will be a bit of foam applied to the bar so I don't crack my head on it.

I also went and sat in an ND, and surprisingly I fit. I would say its about the same as my NA was with the foamectomied seat, and thats with the OEM steering wheel. The steering wheel in the ND can be adjusted up which does wonders for making leg room.

Ziggo

After almost 14 months its finally ready to go to work. Going to leave the crappy wheels and tires on there for a bit to learn car control before I go to something sticky and wide.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

I like this build.

Where did you get the pins for you connectors when you re-did everything?

Ziggo

This is the link for where I found the part numbers. I ordered to pins off of Amazon just because that was what was most convenient for me.

JRWeeks

Looks good. I hate looking through a car and seeing shoddy work. Currently ripping through my Mazdaspeed 3 (2007) and the previous owners did some stupid stuff. Sooooo, I get to play with that....After my husband's ls6 RX7 is off the lift.

Ziggo

Had a hell of a time passing emissions, found a signal issue with my wideband, all documented here : Help me pass emissions - Miata Turbo Forum -Boost cars, acquire cats.

Finally got it working though and through inspection. So time to final prep stuff for getting out there and competing.

Couple of things ordered, 225/45 Rival S and SFI rated padding for the roll bar.

Spent today screwing around with the seat position trying to find a way to mount it such that I would pass the broomstick test : top of helmet 1" below the bottom of a bar between the windshield and the rollbar. I can pass by adding a bunch of gangster lean to the seat, but I will need to make new seat brackets, or make risers for the one I have. I've decided this is an insane requirement in a miata. Whats nuts is, with my head situated such that I pass the test, my eyeline is just above my (reduced dia) steering wheel and my 5'4" wife does not pass the broomstick test while seated in the passenger seat. Maybe my helmet is just massive, or there really is just about a 2" range that your head needs to be in. Any higher and you will fail the test, any lower and you cant see over the steering wheel.

Planning on running at least a few auto-x to get a feel for the car, looks like I will be classed in Street Prep, though the car is actually setup decently for it, with the exception of not having a splitter/spoiler, not really worried about winning anything though. The necessary steering wheel swap was always going to put me in street prep. The swapping in of 1.8L stuff also puts me in there.

Ziggo

I finally got the seat in a proper position to pass with new seat brackets and a significant lean back angle. Got the new wheels/tires on and my first cut at an alignment done.

Targets were:
4.2" front, 4.7" rear pinch weld
-2º front, 1.7º Rear Camber
-6.5º Caster
0 Toe all around

I managed to hit these numbers, at least as accurately as my ghetto setup allowed me to. Went out for my first auto-x and had fun. Car was pushing but I was also incredibly late for my turns nearly all the time. gotta be much faster on the wheel than on the road track.

I started tearing down the 1.6 motor because nobody wants to bite on the motor, but I've gotten requests for parts. As suspected, the rod bearings were trashed on cylinders 1 and 4, and apparently it was bad enough on cylinder 4 to kill the piston skirt somehow. The block is in great shape though, can still see the x-hatch on the cylinder walls, and there is no "lip" at the top of the cylinders. It is impressive how much crud builds up on the pistons and valves over 180k miles.

x_25

Nice build so far! I really need to get to work on passing the broom stick test myself (not that tall, but I am allllll torso).