Well I did the swap, it didn't take long at all. I zip tied the belt to the intake cam and marked the belt with a sharpie on the I and the E before removing it. Swapped in the cam with the drilled pulley (bought it that way) and put the belt on just like it came off with the sharpie marks on the I and the E.

When I first started the car it would idle at all then it cleared up. Now it idles fine (moves SOOO much more air through the exhaust pipe)

Here's the problem, the car has no low end AT ALL. From idle to 1500rpm the car is painfully slow. If I don't rev it over 2k it'll fall on its face.

From 2k-4k rpms it's got no pull. And I can feel the power surge almost like its got a miss, but I hear no miss. After about 5k the car will come to life.

I've been searching and getting mixed reviews on the cam. Some people say it kills bottom end while others say it adds lots of low end tq.

I'm also running 10 degrees of timing. Plan on bumping it up to about 16. Is it possible that a lack of timing could cause these problems with the cam?

I'll be putting in new plug wires today and I'm not sure if I should bump up the timing now, or wait and double check to see if the car jumped time on the belt.

I'm just trying to get a plan of action together here

 

Considering you mistook a cam for a turbo, im not surprised.

 

1. Put your old cam back in.

2. Find your missing power and driveability.

3. Go to scrap yard and sell your special cam for a dollar or two.

 

I am NA running 14 degrees of timing and noticed a huge bump in power from 3500rpm up when I did my exhintake.

Could be off a tooth on the belt? or the cam was drilled slightly wrong.

I didn't do the drill I used adjustable cam gears.

 

I wasn't expecting a large leap in power, not even a super noticeable one. I just wasn't expecting my car to become completely undrivable under 2k. This is the slowest car I've ever owned, my last two made decent power (full bolt on speed3 at 19psi and a bolted SR S14) this isn't my first time around the block. If I can save myself the troubleshooting time I'll do it.

I'm really just looking for someone to say "the exact same thing happened to me, I just changed xxxxx and it was all cleared up!"

Right now my plan is to bump it to 16* and see if the bottom end comes back at all. If not, I'll be pulling the cam cover and checking cam timing. If it doesn't clear up I'll go back to stock cam.

Annoying how I can put an FP BLACK and cams/valve springs in an Evo and it'll run but god forbid I touch my miata

 

 

I'll trouble shoot it myself. -.-
I haven't decided if buying an adjustable cam gear is worth it. I could just sell the cam and through an extra 400$ and pick up a ported nb head.... Another 150-200$ to install with head studs and decent HG. But then thatd set me back on the megasquirt and turbo.

 

sounds like something is off with the install (I haven't done this myself). double check timing...

 

That's what I'm thinking. The car is drivable, I won't be able to pull it apart till tomorrow afternoon.

If it slipped a tooth on the crank id image itd throw off ignition timing as well. Easy way to check is to just use a timing light. If the timing is retarded which is very well could be, then I can only assume the crank slipped a toothe. However, if the timing is spot on 10 degrees then it'd leave only the intake cam that could be off a tooth.

If all timing is good then the gear might be drilled incorrectly. Nothing else on the car has changed.

Do you concur?

 

You bring shame to my glorious name.

 

It is one of two things. You are off a tooth on your timing or the gear was drilled wrong. Your ignition timing is not relevant at this point. Only your mechanical timing...which is messed up. I've done this swap on a few motors (including my own) and it should run pretty much the same with maybe a slight bump higher up...but it'll be barely perceptible.

 

That's what I want to hear. I just got done talking to soviet and it ran fine in his car so that rules out bad drilling. At this point I'm confident that it's off by at least a tooth on the intake cam. The crank and exhaust shouldnt have been able to slip as I used zip ties to keep constant pressure on the belt

 

You compare an 80hp miata to a 300hp Mazdaspeed3 in terms of being "slow?" Well there's your problem...

 

Well I could compare it to the 450whp evo9 that I just did a cam and turbo swap on

Fp black..WOT 4000rpm.. Laag......4500 rpm.... .........BOOOOOOOOOOOOOST!

 

This is my cam btw. I made a whooping 102whp on it on Ed's dyno, which was awesome considering stock 94-97 with megasquirt would get like 94whp. I was going to use it for my turbo build but just got a 99 head instead.

I could have drilled it wrong, but more likely you're a tooth off.

 

That's what I'm thinking. I'll be pulling it apart in a little while

 

I would also double check the timing. My car out of boost with an exhaustake swap is plenty peppy

 

every noob that does an exintake ***** it up... every single one it seems.

 

Noob here did it right.
Have done several timing chains/belts before though... So I guess I am just a turbo noob.

And it was my exhintake swap that gave me the hunger for more power.

 

im a noob to the miata, but thats about it.
ive done plenty of work on a couple Evos, Speed3s, tons of 240s, done a few sr swaps… blah blah blah.

any ways… it only took about 45 min to get it straightened out. pulled everything back apart, counted the teeth on the belt, and the cams were dead on. i look down under the water pump to see that the crank pulley has already gone past its mark. yep… pulled the belt off and reset it all. threw it back together, cleaned the TB and reset the idle.

cars feels great. seems a little more peppy above 5K. just as i suspected… its still slow.
its cool… i just remembered my girlfriend has a Disco Potato sitting in her closet.
collecting turbo goodies slowly but surely.