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Thread: For more speed, add lightness

  1. #61
    Supporting Member Vegard's Avatar
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    Woooooooa! Awesome!

  2. #62
    Admin / Pit Boss / Miataholic Phatmiata's Avatar
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    Excellent !!!

  3. #63
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    It was a painful wait and very costly but the heart wants what it wants. I'd been wanting a M2-1001 front bumper for 10 years now and it's finally come to fruition. I took a chance on this bumper that did not have a detailed auction description. I suppose that was a good thing because it probably kept potential competitors away who would have only driven up the price. Conference with several JDM experts confirmed that it was most likely D-Technique. Thankfully I won the auction, but the boat had already sailed and I had to wait for the next container to get filled up. That took several months. Then slow boat + customs + LTL freight delivery. To give you an idea of what it costs to import a rare front bumper from Japan, take the street price in Japan and then triple it. Maybe subtract a hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars for those on the west coast who don't need to ship it as far. Big thanks to JDM Palace for brokering this deal and handling all the logistics.

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    Stealth97 (08-09-2015)

  5. #64
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    I finally got a chance to work on the Miata again. Since last time I saw the car my dad got the exhaust system installed. It's now Racing Beat from nose to tail: 94-97 header, test pipe, resonated mid-pipe and power pulse muffler.



    Stainless steel ARP 12-point hardware


    The coolant reroute is mostly finished. There's still a few packaging issues we need to resolve due to the ITBs so we'll probably make some brackets to support the 1.25" diameter water hose from the rear water outlet to the radiator so it doesn't rub against the AC lines or the alternator. You can see in the video below that 949 Racing have placed their remote thermostat housing much closer to the radiator, apparently because of packaging issues.



    The instructions provided by M-tuned say to mount the remote tstat much closer to the fitting at the back of the motor, pretty much the opposite of what's pictured above. I'm not sure if copying 949 Racing's setup will help us with our particular packaging issues. I also seem to remember like 15 pages of technical discussion on MiataTurbo.net about the remote tstat location and I thought the consensus was that it should be located close to the rear outlet (if not in the back of the head) and that it had something to do with coolant warm up times. Don't some people even remove the jiggle pin to increase the amount of bypass flow also? I can't recall if it also had anything to do with whether you had the heater bypassed or not. Anyhow, I think we've got enough room as is, we just need to make sure there's no rubbing. We also found that the NB lower radiator hose will not work for us because it kinks, rubs agains the AC compressor hose and is too close to the header. Instead, I'll go back to the 3-piece NA6 setup. Fortunately, we hadn't thrown away the old parts so I could mock them up and verify fitment. Will order new replacements.





    My dad also removed the Flyin' Miata sway bars and stock sway bar mounting brackets and installed the beefy AWR sway bar mounts, a Racing Beat 94-97 solid front 15/16" sway bar and a used OEM 12mm rear sway bar with Energy Suspension poly bushings. We had to go with the NA8 front sway bar to clear the longer BP motor as the NA6 sway bar was fouling against the AC compressor. Now we've got a fraction of an inch clearance. The sway bars were also chosen with a future set of XIDA 550/350 coilovers in mind.





    Today we pulled the stereo system out completely to simplify and add lightness... and to make room for the Innovate WB02 and MS Labs WB02 canbus module in the hole behind my new Roadster Tech Rack System with blanking plate. Eventually my DIY door panels will get replaced with some plain carbon fiber or vinyl door cards with no speaker hole cutouts. Right now the speaker grilles are just covering some empty holes.



    We also removed the RC car AM/FM antenna and replaced it with a Roadster Tech blanking plug. We didn't have any polishing compound or cleaner wax on hand so I still need to clean up the paint in this area.


    We also got the air filter situation figured out. My dad made a paper template that we repeatedly refined until we got to the final spec. Measure 50 times, cut once. Tomorrow we'll actually see how well it fits. It's a bit awkward to fit because we're keeping the AC system, which posed some challenges when it comes to packaging. We considered custom AC lines but in the end we decided to forego that route because they're costly and quite frankly it's a pain in the butt to adapt the Miata's metric evaporator fittings to standard AN stuff used for most aftermarket AC stuff and there are no speciality shops in my area to help make it happen. So the goal for the air filter is to clear the high-pressure AC line, the low-pressure AC line service port and the underside of the hood.

    Tomorrow we will continue with cutting the custom air filter backing plate. Once that's sorted we can make the custom fuel lines and start getting the MS3 installed.

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    CarbonMiata (08-29-2015),Greasemonkey2000 (08-30-2015),Grip Driver (08-29-2015),Phatmiata (06-28-2016),Slampen (08-30-2015),WASABI (11-17-2015)

  7. #65
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by freedomgli View Post
    I just realized that is the catch can I made with the help from my welder friend Isaac @ Spiess Fabrications. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself! I made two, kept one, can't wait to install it. Inspired by the setup Ocean @ Chikara makes. It used to be that you had to be someone special to get one of his catch cans. Now Chikara makes them in small batches to supply regular customers.









    Last edited by freedomgli; 08-30-2015 at 12:56 PM.

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    etikoner (08-30-2015),Phatmiata (06-28-2016)

  9. #66
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone etikoner's Avatar
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    Love the attention to details.

  10. #67
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Thanks man. The devil's in the details. Apparently, I have a honkin' ginormous v2.2 ECU from Reverant. So big, in fact, that it can't fit completely on the Singular Motorsports ECU bracket. No problem. Zip ties and industrial strength velcro to the rescue. Never mind the rust in the passenger footwell. The bracket that the ECU cover mounts to got wet years ago when the AC evaporator drain line got blocked up. I've got a brand new, non-rusty cover to go over the ECU when it's time. I'm also going to remove the sound deadening material since it's just a moisture trap and clean up that general area before I button things back up.





    Got the air filter base plate cut today. The holes are port matched perfectly so no turbulence. Cut the OEM chassis harness TPS connector off so that I could fit the TWM supplied connector instead. Had to use a combination of my Weather Pack crimp tool with the die block removed and some small pliers to crimp the new pins. Got the injector adapters installed onto the injector harness. Had to redo most of the injector harness wrap because it was falling apart. Looks brand new now. Started laying out the routing for all the other wires and vacuum hoses. Didn't get as far as I'd hoped but now is not the time to cut corners. Re-packaging all these components is critical to ensure long-term reliability.

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    HarryB (11-15-2015),WASABI (11-17-2015)

  12. #68
    Idling - Listen to it purr... Oregonmon's Avatar
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    Great build, reminiscent of my own. Any updates?

  13. #69
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Nothing major to report. Got the new Mazda ECU bracket to replace the rusty one. Got new 1.6 lower radiator hoses and hard pipe (needed because the one-piece 1.8NB hose wouldn't clear the front sway bar and AC lines). Thought about a bracket to space the lower radiator hard pipe approx. 1/2" closer to the motor and away from the frame rail so nothing rubs. Project is now on hiatus for the long winter. Garage has no heat nor insulation. Hope to resume in April.

  14. #70
    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone etikoner's Avatar
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    Awww. Things were getting so good... What suspension is this car on?

  15. #71
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Good things come to those who wait. Patience is a virtue. Suspension is MSM Bilsteins and Tein S. tech springs but soon to be replaced by XIDA 550/350. Billies were supposed to be a "temporary" setup but been on there for years now. As a wise man once said, save your money and buy the right stuff the first time. The Billies ride too harsh for my taste but perhaps a revalve could fix them.

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    etikoner (11-19-2015)

  17. #72
    Idling - Listen to it purr... Fercho's Avatar
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    Great job!
    Will be under 900 kg?

  18. #73
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    Probably not. I haven't weighed my car yet but I imagine I'd have to lose the AC, roll bar, and a bunch of other stuff to get below 2000lbs. The goal is simple and lightweight but not too extreme.

  19. #74
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power freedomgli's Avatar
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    It's going to be 80°F today where I live. Unfortunately, the Miata project is still hibernating in a cold, unheated, non-insulated garage in upstate NY. So instead I am acquiring more parts, tools and knowledge so that we can work on it when warmer spring weather permits.

    I wasn't really happy with the compromises we had to make with the air filter position in order to clear the hard AC lines, hood, coolant reroute hose and other underhood components. The packaging is all very tight in that area. So I've decided to take the road less traveled. It is a costly, complicated and challenging road but it should get me to where I want to go. I've ordered a new air filter base plate and I will make a custom coolant reroute hard pipe and custom AC lines to replace the OEM hard lines so that I can get the clearance I need to position my air filter in a better location. This will also help immensely if/when I upgrade to a cold air box further down the road. Most people don't have this clearance problem as they either don't have the coolant reroute or they delete AC at the same time they install ITBs (because racecar) but keeping AC was a project requirement.


    ^^^ get the aluminum 18JC50 blank plate. It's much easier to drill than the powdercoated steel plate.

    The AC system was professionally evacuated prior to pulling the old 1.6 motor out and left with a partial vacuum inside. It was converted to R-134a a few years back with a new compressor, drier, adapter fittings, etc. so the system is in good shape and I intend to keep it that way. To make the custom AC lines using Aeroquip EZ-Clip system fittings and hoses, I must first undo the fittings on the existing AC hard lines and measure them. Because the AC system is sealed, anytime you open the system you risk introducing contaminants such as moisture and non-condensible items. As such, you should limit the amount of time the system is spent open to the atmosphere and then after the repairs are made you should draw a deep vacuum on the entire system to remove the contaminants prior to refilling with the correct type and amount of refrigerant and oil.



    Accordingly, I purchased a used JB Industries Platinum DV-200N vacuum pump and a new CPS Products MA1234 Pro-Set Manifold A/C Gauge Set with Hoses. With these two tools you can perform most routine auto AC system diagnostics and repairs.



    I went a bit overboard on the vacuum pump but I figure better to have more tool than you need rather than less. It's no lightweight at 31lbs. It's made in the USA, supposed to last a lifetime, has the best reputation on the market, repair parts are widely available and I saved more than 1/2 compared to buying new. It's designed for professional HVAC techs to pull a deep vacuum on auto and residential/commercial AC systems and is rated for continuous use. I also plan on using it for vacuum bagging some future composite projects or maybe vacuum resin infusion process. I ordered a few replacement parts to refurbish it: feet, handle w/ safety cap so it doesn't leak oil during transport, o-rings and 2 quarts of compressor oil (special type of mineral oil that gets changed after every use). I found instructions online that talk about flushing the pump to get all the old oil and contaminants out. I ordered 2 quarts of the special JB vacuum pump oil. Hopefully it will be enough.



    Initially I was planning to purchase a micron gauge to measure how well the vacuum is working (better than guessing), some hoses and fittings to connect the vacuum gauge to the pump and/ AC system. Well I decided to get the AC manifold gauges instead of the micron gauge. The AC manifold gauges will simplify hooking up the vacuum pump to the car's AC system and it has a composite gauge on the low pressure side that reads vacuum, although not to the same level of detail or accuracy as the micron gauge. From my research, very few auto AC techs use the micron gauge. Heck, few residential/commercial/refrigeration techs use it either. It's an advanced tool for advanced users and costs $150+. Maybe another day....

    Here are some pictures of coolant hard pipes I've seen on the web. Feel free to post other trick setups you've seen. Thoughts on aluminum pipe vs. stainless, clamps should I try this new Gates Power Grip heat shrink clamp?



















    Last edited by freedomgli; 03-09-2016 at 11:28 AM.

  20. #75
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power MLambert19's Avatar
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    This last post is of particular interest to me, as I've been looking at filter options for my to-be-installed Jenvey setup. I've read 90mm horns will fit, but will a 100mm (430x140x100) filter clear everything? I too, hope to retain A/C for future Florida and XC road trips.

    Not running a coolant re-route at this point, either... but I'll be happy someone charted a path for me to follow if ever I do.

    I love your car, attention to detail and simplicity. Great stuff. -Matt

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