STS2 Miata - Project: Stronger Faster Lighter

[amaff]

Well, apparently this was one of the things that Jack "nuked," so lets start fresh. I'll be grabbing the posts from what I guess I consider my 'main' forum, so if they seem a bit disjointed, I apologize. Try to keep up ;)

06-30-2008
This evening I realized that over the course of this season, I'm taking nearly 100 lbs out of the car. ~ 60 lbs of roll bar, ~ 30 lbs of power steering, 6 lbs of wheels, a couple pounds per seat, uber light weight lug nuts... That's damn close to 100 lbs. When I set out to do these things, I really didn't think about the impact that would have. When I got it corner balanced at the outset of the 2008 season, it weighed in at respectable 2130 lbs. Doing a quick and dirty number crunch, taking 100 lbs out of the car is shaving about 4.7% of the weight at the beginning of the season. In a car with ~105 WHP (give or take), that's pretty darn significant.

Original power to weight: 2130 / 105 = 20.28 lbs / hp
New power to weight: 2030 / 105 = 19.33 lbs / hp

Given those 'goal' numbers, I really want to see what we're taking off the car. In an effort for accuracy, I will hopefully be picking up an accurate postage scale this week and weighing what has come off so far, and will continue to do so over the next couple months as the pounds drop. Once that's done, I can start on the engine rebuild and really see what this ol' girl can do!

~Andrew

[amaff]

06-30-2008

Lost some weight today, and will lose a couple more pounds next week.
Installation was pretty simple once we had a plan. Problem with the 1st time you do it is that the plan goes through a few iterations before you finally settle on one that works. Part of the problem is that the seat isn't perfectly flat on the bottom. It's hard to describe the mounting, but long story short, these seats are about as low as you're ever going to get in a Miata with sliders. I love it! Seating position is lower, so the line of sight is no longer through the top of the windshield lol. The layback angle is the same as the Corbeaus, and as these aren't tube framed, they fit a ton better in the car. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures of the install, but we basically used 2 lengths of steel angle iron, and the seat is bolted down in 6 places along the bottom. VERY sturdy, and way sturdier than my Corbeau sliders that kept falling the F apart lol. The middle 2 holes we drilled directly into the top bracket of the slider and threaded those, and the 2 other pairs of holes (front and rear) are in the angle iron and use bolts, nuts and lock washers. Grade 8 hardware was used for everything.

Before:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_0878.jpg

After:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1422.jpg

Look how much room there is in there now LOL
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1424.jpg

This is what they look like with no covers:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1426.jpg

I'm kind of sad to see it go, but it was a lot of weight up high in the car. It's a beautiful piece that will likely be for sale soon. It was right around 60 lbs, so my car should be less than 2100 lbs now!!!! It's probably closer to 2070 or so based on what it weighed at the tour. Extra bonus is that the kirkeys + mounting hardware come out to be about 5 lbs less (at 26 lbs once ballasted) than the Corbeaus. I'm very happy with the results. I won't have time to work on the car this week (my folks will be in town), however I'll take s'more pics when we do the 2nd seat. Now that we know how to do it, installing the 2nd seat shouldn't take more than a couple hours.

[amaff]

06-30-2008

Ok, so I went ahead and put together an extremely technical drawing of what we did.

Please keep in mind that I haven't done the passenger side one yet, so it may be a little different.

The angle iron that we used was 1". It butts right up against the seat supporting the load on the front and rear very nicely. Anyway, the holes on the angle iron line up with the 2 stock holes on the ends of the sliders. We used 3/4" bolts on those. The 2 middle bolts go through threaded holes in the top of the slider. The front and back bolts have a washer on top of the seat, then use lock washers under the nut under the angle iron. I ended up using 2" bolts for those. The 1 1/2" could have worked, but was a bit skimpy on threads. 1 3/4" would have been ideal, but lowes didn't have any.. Note that the bolts holding the seats to the angle iron are inboard of the ones holding the angle iron to the sliders (towards the middle of the seat). That's the simplification I was talking about :p

===========

So today I actually went for a decent ride with the new seats today to Advance auto (30-ish minute round trip) to order a part for the Celica and I have to say I'm VERY happy with them. The seats have basically become a part of the chassis. It's no longer "riding ON a seat IN a Miata." No, now it's something different. Now it feels like your *** is bolted directly to the chassis of the car. The communication of what the car is doing is simply astonishing. I figured there'd be some difference, but it literally feels as though you have become part of the chassis of the car, it's amazing and I love it :D

[amaff]

07-03-2008

Well, I kinda sorta caught a break tonight and had some time to do a little more work with the seats. The passenger side to be a little more specific. I must have lost my stock passenger side bracket when I moved, because I couldn't find that thing anywhere. I picked one up from a local miata-graveyard type yesterday and went to town tonight. Putting together the seat bracket is pretty simple and just requires drilling 4 holes in the angle iron. Make sure you measure correctly as with the 2nd one I was just a hair off. The dremmel made short work of correcting that error.

Pics:
The bracket as it sits stock. I just used the 4 stock holes at the ends of the top 'rails' for the brackets
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1431.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1432.jpg

Painted:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1433.jpg

You can see the front angle iron through the anti-sub strap hole. It lines up pretty much perfectly with that front crease. The rear of the seat sits nicely on the rear bracket for support.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1434.jpg

[amaff]

07-10-2008

so I finally got that postage scale to weight some stuff, and we got the other seat bolted in tonight. Pics of that to come.

Weights:
- 50 lbs - Roll bar + mounting hardware
- 30 lbs x 2 - Forzas & bracketry
+ 25.4 lbs x 2 - Ballasted Kirkey
========
-59.2 lbs

So I overshot my estimate based on the weight that Mark from Kirk racing gave me on the roll bar. In either case, that's still a fairly significant weight savings :D. Now for the power steering and battery ;)

Here's a few pictures of the install:
Rear of the seat. The angle iron is butted right up on the bottom of the seat here:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1436.jpg

Front of the seat. Angle iron again providing support:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1437.jpg

Securely mounted ballast (2.5 lbs + hardware) (Todd, this answers your earlier question):
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1438.jpg

Mounting complete. The outer middle row bolts are threaded directly into the stock slider:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1439.jpg

Installed :D:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1443.jpg

A few numbers:
The stock bracket w/ angle iron bolted in was 7.85 lbs. The 'Naked' Kirkey is 12.15 lbs. Once the seat is bolted down (6 bolts, assorted washers, nuts, etc) and the cover's on, the whole thing (including the mounting bolts to the chassis) weighs 22.95 lbs. We added that 2.5 lb weight to the bottom to bring the whole shebang to 25.4 lbs.

Any questions? :p

[amaff]

07-21-2008

We got the manual rack swapped in this weekend and lost about 21 lbs (just over 20 lbs of hardware, give or take 1 lb for PS fluid) which is exciting, but less than 'advertised' by the masses. No real pictures because, well, it's just not that sexy ;). Old busted off, new hotness on. Unfortunately, no driving impressions yet because A) the alignment is going to be EFFED, and B) I'm waiting for a couple dust boots for the outer tie rod ends to come in from MazdaSpeed before I button everything back up. I'm calling one of our local awesome alignment places tomorrow morning to set up an appointment for next Thursday for the alignment.

However, it's not all bad news. 20 lbs off of the nose of the car, ahead of the front axle line, is never a bad thing. Basically, we pulled the pump, reservoir, cooling loop and the bracket. The 2 big ticket weight items were the pump and the lump-o-metal bracket that holds it to the block. The PS rack itself was actually a couple of lbs heavier, so we lost weight just in that as well.

Now that we're mostly done w/ the weight reduction (well, battery... but whatever) we can start to make her move a little better. Granted, taking my 160k mile power steering pump off has to help at least a little...). This will be my first engine rebuild so I'm doing a ton of research. I know I can't overbore because the 1st factory over is .025, and the ST (well, stock really) allowance is .020, so that's out. It's really just going to be parts bin balancing the rotating assembly, getting the tolerances as tight as the FSM allows, decking the head and, if the FSM has a spec for it, the block, and get the head re-worked. The biggest question mark for me is what I want to do with the head. I'm still in the planning phases of that. It's going to come down to what the biggest bang / $$ is. If I can just get it pressure tested and some seals replaced pretty cheap if necessary, I'll go that route. The $ on a crazy *** valve job / replace everything in the head idea may be a bit more than I'm willing to spend for what won't amount to a huge gain on the B6.

I bought an engine a couple months back, but really haven't had time to do much on it. I have torn the head apart and will start rebuilding the hydraulic lifters here at some point. I borrowed a hoist to get it off the crate on the floor to drain the oil, and to get it onto the engine stand (totally worth the hassle of going to pick up and re-building the hoist in the garage). After this I'll start tearing everything apart and see what kind of situation I'm looking at. I'll probably have everything acid dipped so I can start 100% fresh and not have to worry about a buttload of contaminants.

FWIW, this will be my 1st rebuild, so I'm really stoked, so there will likely be a **** ton of pictures of that process once we begin. For now, you'll have to settle with this :p

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1452.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1453.jpg

[amaff]

07-22-2008

wewt more progress. Got the engine on the stand tonight and made some progress tearing the thing down. I keep getting amazed once I tear into new things in cars how simple everything really is. As usual, no surprise, it's just nuts and bolts! Crazy huh? ;)

FWIW, it looks like the oil pan has been off of this motor before, which raises an eyebrow, but I can't really find anything terribly out of shape, so if there was a repair done, it seems like it was done well because I can't find it. The only think is that I removed about 5 lbs of RTV from the block from that.

I'm looking for a couple words of wisdom now though: Any thoughts on how to remove the front and rear 'plates' (the ones that hold the main oil seals)? I can't seem to figure out how to work them loose. I don't really want to start bashing stuff w/ a hammer b/c it's aluminum, so really, any advice is appreciated.

Pics for Shawn:

There is literally an ~1/8" layer of grime on the bottom of the oil pan. Nasty ****.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1456.jpg

Pics 'inside the head'
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1457.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1458.jpg

Various stages of disassembly:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1459.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1460.jpg

EDIT: Other things that can and will be done now that I have the documentation:
Head decked 0.2mm
Block decked 0.2mm
First factory overbore
I should also be able to get the gaps on the rings as tight as the FSM allows. Pretty much every one of these things will help with power.
Is it sad I'm getting excited for what may or may not end up being 10 hp? I'm going to cry if it makes the same as the engine currently in the car LOL

[amaff]

07-24-2008

No real progress yesterday as I'm kind of stuck until I can get this crank pulley bolt cracked. I should be able to do that tonight. I'm borrowing my co-driver's compressor and impact gun (evil)

However, you don't even want to KNOW how fast my toolbox is now!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Houses/IMG_1461.jpg

[amaff]

07-26-2008

So yes, where are we? The 'other' engine is totally torn apart, I'm more than likely going to have OPM Autosports in Cumming, GA (lol cumming) do the machine work on the block and head, and the maintenance on the head. I was marveling at the fact that the entire bottom end of this engine (not including the block and oil pan, but pretty much every damn thing else), in labled bags, fits in a 12x12x8" tupperware box. And the lid closes lol. For someone who's never done this before, there's surprisingly little there. I actually was taken back at the simplicity of the thing. We all know the principles of how an internal combustion works and all the components, but I guess for me it all seemed overly simplified until I tore this thing apart. You look at it and go 'nope... that really IS all there is to it' haha

This afternoon I finished up the work on the manual steering rack conversion. I took 'er out for a spin and it feels great! It's not very heavily weighted and feels really direct. I was actually surprised at how light it was sitting still in the garage. I have to say I'm very pleased with the results.

Only a couple minor issues cropped up... the manual rack had outer tie rod ends, but the dust boots were in crappy shape. Getting them off wasn't terribly difficult, but as the ring that seats the boot on the ball joint of the rod end is rigid, and makes for a VERY tight fit, getting them back on is best described as a royal pain in the balls. The problem is, it's nearly impossibly to get it seated using 'standard' hand tools. So, I figure I'd RTFM and see if I couldn't garner any wisdom from the FSM. Well, there's a SST (special service tool) that's used with a press to get these things on. Great... now you tell me...
Now I have to go out and pick up one of these schfancy SSTs :(
And by schfancy SSTs, I mean a $0.56 PVC 3/4 > 1" PVC fitting. Because the fitting was smooth on the inside, it wouldn't risk tearing the boot like a metal 6 or 12 pt socket would. The 1" fits pretty much perfect over the boot, and the smaller 3/4" side fits over the stud on the rod end, and is an excellent surface for hammering ;). About 5 minutes on the work bench and I had re-greased and re-booted the tie rod ends.

Also, during my 1st drive I noticed that the steering wheel was about 1/3 turn too far to the left. I mean... it LOOKED like we had the rack straight when we put it on, so wtf? LOL. Oh well, lesson learned... put the steering wheel on once the wheels are on the car so you KNOW, not before. I removed the wheel, set it straight, and got it 99% right. Any other corrections can and will be changed via the alignment. My options were either a hair to the left or a hair to the right, so it's REALLY close.

In my short drive, the alignment didn't feel terrible, but I could tell it's not 100%. The toe is WAY out. I'm heading to GTE for that on Thursday. We'll see if they can't squeeze some more caster out of this thing. After they get that done, the only thing left to do is bolt the engine splash guard to the bottom of the car and autox it on Sunday (drive2)

[amaff]

08-01-2008

OMG sex. Today the manual steering swap was completed in that she got put on the alignment rack and dialed in. The product of just slapping the new rack on the car and calling it a day without even an eyeballed toe adjustment was a VERY vague / twitchy car.

After getting it up on the rack, it appears that was the product of having 1.8 INCHES of total front toe out HAHAHAHAHA. Apparently the car this thing came off of was WAY off because everything's right where it was when I bought it. Anyway, we dialed in a touch extra camber all around while we were there, and I think this'll help settle the rear down some while giving the front a little more bite. The rear camber was a compromise b/w myself and the co-driver, as he's having a bit of a... spinning... problem. Hopefully it doesn't settle it too much or it'll be going right back to where it was, as I like the car a touch loose (he likes it with a touch of push, so...). Anyway, the car feels great. Haven't exactly driven it in anger yet, however the manual rack is DEFINITELY more connected than the powered one. I've never street-driven a car w/ manual steering, but it's a huge difference. It's obviously weighted heavier than the powered rack, but the biggest difference is simply how much feedback you have. Totally awesome, and I'm really stoked about it.

Now... if I could figure out a way to tow this thing to Alabama this weekend so I can autox it. Problem with the new seats is that I've got about an hour, hour and a half max range in them before they become painful. I really need to look into making a couple of foam inserts to fix the *** / lower back area.

[amaff]

09-26-2008

Finally getting started on this thing. I've had the motor back from OPM for like... weeks at this point. Everything looks great, and I've been taking care to occasionally spray down the freshly bored cylinders w/ WD-40 to keep any surface rust from building up.

Last night I finally went through with the HLA cleaning procedure (I've got a pic of all the HLAs sitting out to dry on my phone, it may be up next week some time as I'm out of town for the weekend) which took about an hour and a half. HLAs 1-15 came apart just wonderfully... #16 literally took us half an hour to separate, which was incredibly frustrating, but regardless I eventually got it.

We soaked them for 5-6 minutes in a tub of that car-cleaner solution... the kind that were you to forget a rubber gasket in your carb would dissolve it. I think on the side of the can it says "don't touch, breath in, drink, or look at this stuff, because it will kill you and your family". It's nasty stuff. But on the plus side it got everything squeaky clean. I used a spray bottle cap to make a make-shift parts washer to rinse everything in brake clean to get that crap off of the parts and have set everything out to dry.

Next week I'll be able to fill each of them with oil properly and get them all back together. After that it's only a matter of installing the cams to have the head back together, and phase 1 will be complete.

Next comes assembling the piston / rod assemblies. That should just be loads of fun, what with the little (but stiff as hell) clips that sit in the groove on either side of the wrist pin. They were a pain in the *** to remove, I'm not looking forward to installing the new ones. After that it's a matter of putting the new bearings in where they belong, dropping the crank in and and piecing this thing back together. I'm really looking forward to having a new drivetrain in this thing for next season :D

[amaff]

09-29-2008

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/Photo-0026.jpg

Kinda neat how many pieces it takes to make these things tick (edit: heh, a miata that ticks? no wai!). Additionally, inside the 'small' plunger (just above the springs), there are an additional 3 parts (cap, ball, spring).

These should all be getting pre-oiled and going back together tomorrow night. Yay forward progress! :D

If anyone's curious on how these work (as opposed to more traditional rocker arms:
http://www.miata.net/garage/hla/index.html

[amaff]

10-06-2008

Been a busy night. It's been a minute, but I was finally able to take a night for myself to move forward on this.

Tonight I got around to lubing and assembling the HLAs, and getting the head pretty much back together.
In the back-ground half of the HLAs have been completed, in the foreground I've got the 8 inner/outer plunger assemblies lubed and ready to go into the 8 main 'cups'.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1464.jpg

Got them all done. Got to play in a bucket of oil in a quest to get all the air out of the HLAs. Basically you fully submerge each assembled lifter into oil and work it several times until air bubbles stop coming out.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1465.jpg

Assembly lube looks pink in the flash. No idea why, it's actually red:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1467.jpg

Starting to come together: the exhaust cam, seal and gear are on. Only thing missing's the CAS.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1466.jpg

The intake cam goes in.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1468.jpg

And: Completion after putting the new seal and the cam gear on.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1469.jpg

Now all that's left is to borrow a smaller torque wrench that measures in in/lb (I've already requisitioned it, I'm picking it up @ my soccer game tomorrow) and to torque everything to spec. It's pretty much 'hand' tight (w/ a ratchet). The torque spec on these is 100-126 in/lbs, or ~8.5-10.5 lb-ft. WTF?? You'd think they'd use real bolts for this stuff, not some puny 'sneez and you'll snap 'em' specials.

[amaff]

10-08-2008

Hot pimpness. I picked up a set of long, quick-start lug studs from Applied Racing Technology.

https://appliedracingtechnology.ipower.com/products/Copy%20of%2018%20studs%20web.jpg

I should have them by early next week :D. I could stand to re-pack my hubs anyway, so I'll do these while I'm doing that.

[amaff]

10-10-2008

I had a few hours to myself tonight before I had to pack up the miata for tomorrow's event, so I went ahead and made some headway on this. I got the bolts on the cam shaft caps torqued to spec, got the pistons assembled (the damn clips that hold the wrist pin in are a pain in the balls), installed the oil squirters and got the crank, main bearings, thrust metals and main caps installed and properly torqued.

Assembled pistons. Need to keep them in order because cylinders were machined to the exact size of the piston.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1470.jpg

Got the 'top' main bearings in, and the crank dropped in:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1471.jpg

Taking main cap #4 off because I put the thrust metals in *** back'erds.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1472.jpg

All together. Just waiting on the pistons, but that's another job for another night. I don't think I'll have time at all next week (soccer game tues night, going out of town wed-thurs for work, and have some guests coming into town that weekend), so this may be it for a little while. We'll see if I can't steal some miata-time away on Monday night.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1477.jpg

PS: Anyone curious what Un-Shaved Bridgestone RE-01Rs look like after 190 autocross runs, and about 5000 street miles?

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1473.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1474.jpg

All things considered, I'm going to have to say that's not half bad!

[amaff]

10-11-2008

Well, wrapped up 2nd place overall for the season today. The guy in 1st ended up 5th in STS2 @ Nationals, so you know, I can't really be too upset. The dude can friggin drive, and he's been blowing the rest of us out of the water all season lol. At least I'm the top of the pile of the also-rans LOL. I have to say though that the talent pool in the ATL region is just nuts. Off hand, I know we have the STS National Champ, 2nd, 5th, and 6th in STS2, ES Pro-Solo national champ, and a bunch of other seriously quick drivers. To even be close to these guys is an achievement for me, so I'm pretty pleased with the performance this season.

Tomorrow's our Champion of Champions, where I'll be giving my all to pick up the "Best of the Rest" honors (we basically run 2 PAX'd classes. CoC, which has all of the Pro class I believe, and all the class champions, and BoR, which is open to anyone else). There were only a couple of the BoR drivers for tomorrow that paxed above me today, and even then it was pretty close, so I'm bringing the noise tomorrow (alright)

After that, the real fun can begin on this build once I find some time to get crackin on this thing lol

[amaff]

10-13-2008

Tonight, we got the engine about a valve cover and oil pan (and some accessories) short of a long block :D

Got the pistons in and the head on. It's finally starting to look like an engine, and not some lump of metal layin around my garage.

Here's my co-driver lubing up a piston:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1482.jpg

#3 goes in. That piston ring compressor made putting the pistons in SO much easier:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1483.jpg

Bottom end's bottomed up
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1484.jpg

Thumbs up for like-new engine hotness!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1485.jpg

Got the head on, along with the plate with the timing marks, the thermostat housing and torqued the cam sprockets down
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1488.jpg

I can't wait to get this thing finished and in the car to hear it sing! Should be fun (so long as it doesn't self-destruct...)

[amaff]

10-20-2008

Well, made some progress and then regressed today.

Started off by getting the rear main seal / plate on.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1489.jpg

Next came the oil pump. Mazda installs the front main seal for you in the oil pump, so, FREEBIE!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1490.jpg

The windage tray and oil pickup went next:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1491.jpg

Followed by the oil pan:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1492.jpg

And everything was going according to plan until...
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1494.jpg

Snap... failsauce. That's what happens when you get over ambitious and forget that there's a 12 fold difference b/w in/lb and ft/lb. And there was no way for me to get that thing out w/o removing the entire oil pan. So, that's fun. Took the thing all the way back off, cleaned up as much of the RTV as I could, but I'll need to wait until it's set to get some of it off w/ a razor.

Fortunately it came out easily w/ a pair of needle nose pliers, but it's going to be a huge pain in the nuts to go through again. I'll need to get another pair of bolts (pretty sure I stretch the other one), clean up the surfaces on the oil pan / block as much as I can, get another tube of RTV, etc. Not a huge deal, but it is a pain in the sack.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1495.jpg

What a bastard:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1496.jpg

================================

Ok, so I thought something looked funny in the picture of the oil pump. If you look closely, the oil seal isn't exactly... sealed. So I went ahead and ran downstairs for a second and grabbed the original one. Here's the fitment on that:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1499.jpg

Note the snug fit of the oil seal on the crank.

Here's a closeup of how the 'new' pump sits:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1502.jpg

That would be, to say the least, a bit messy. Mazda Motorsports sent me the oil pump for a 1992 "big nose" crank engine instead of a 1991.5 "long nose" crank like I requested when I called in the order. Grrrrrrr. Looks like I'm going to be sitting on hold for a while tomorrow... fortunately I should have the guy's direct extension so I can call him and get this sorted quickly (hopefully)

In conclusion, there's always a silver lining. Had I not broken that bolt, I would have had to take off the oil pan (if I even noticed it) after the RTV had set, and been a whole nother pain in the balls. *sigh* at least it's starting to LOOK like an engine...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1504.jpg

[amaff]

11-23-2008

Alright, well after about a solid month of 3 steps forwards and 2 steps back, I FINALLY got this thing together for the most part. Really the only thing I can do now is install the timing belt and the timing belt covers and then I'm pretty much ready to pull the old engine out and get the new one in.

Here's where I started the day:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1514.jpg

Had to re-do the front main seal since I managed to flub that up the 1st time, then got the main timing pulley on.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1516.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1521.jpg

Then the head:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1522.jpg

And finally the water pump went on pretty painlessly. I say painlessly... I was having some issues getting the bolts for the tensioner and idler pulleys threaded. Thanks to Kevin's suggestion, I took a little closer look @ the holes and found a bunch of leftover metal from the casting that was mucking up the 1st couple of threads. Apparently quality control on new mazda parts has been lax of late lol. Once I cleaned those up they went right in.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1524.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1525.jpg

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

hell yeah! it's gonna feel good!

[amaff]

Alright, after doing it totally wrong the 1st time, I went back and finally got the timing set right on the cams. Then I looked down and noticed that while trying to get the belt on the crank pulley, I apparently managed to rotate it a couple teeth... so pull the belt off again and... well you get the idea. In either case, I finally got the damn thing set right. Now I just need to clean up and install the timing belt covers, and then it'll pretty much be ready to go in :D

[amaff]

1 step closer:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/Photo-0001.jpg

Pulled pretty much everything I could easily get to with a wrench or socket / unplug. So far I got the intake and radiator out, all of the major coolant hoses, the exhaust manifold, cat and cat-back, disconnected the neutral / reverse switches and speedo cable on the transmission, moved the breather hose from 1 engine to the next, installed the thermostat / thermostat housing on the new engine and cleaned the coolant off of the port on the back of the head and unplugged a bunch of stuff. Tomorrow I need to run to the parts store to pick up a bunch of oil, coolant, a couple of filters and some gear oil for the "fresh" transmission, and some delicious beverages for the folks who'll be helping out. Kinda lookin forward to it :D

[amaff]

We swapped the engine out and the new one in within about 4 hours. We've run into a couple snags. We were getting a weird noise coming from the front / head area. Looks like SOMEONE forgot to tighten the timing belt tensioner pulleys 0.o (I'm an idiot), so I'm pulling the front covers and what not off to do that. Pics to come later

[amaff]

FINALLY! Out with the old and crusty:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1545.jpg

And in with the new hotness:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1547.jpg

Simply insert part A into slot B:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1546.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/Photo-0002.jpg

And you're done! We ran into a couple snags like not tightening the idler pulleys and then the water pump pulley, forgetting to put on the lower radiator hose before filling it with fluid, and had trouble setting the timing, but we finally got everything set. We cranked it 'dry' (no fuel or spark) to build up oil pressure. Once it did we hooked plugged in the coil packs and the injector harness and it literally fired right up!! I was thrilled. It was actually kind of fun working the kinks out with the new engine. Hopefully I can get a good break in done tomorrow and go from there. I'm excited :D

[metalman]

You always remove/install engines with the headlights in the up position?? :lol:
If I did that I'd smash something! :D

Looks like its coming along nicely.

[amaff]

You always remove/install engines with the headlights in the up position?? :lol:
If I did that I'd smash something! :D

lol I know right? No, what had happened is, I popped them up to make it easier to get to the radiator bolts, then we pulled disconnected the battery to start pulling electronics... so we were kinda stuck that way until we were pretty much done. Oops!

[metalman]

then we pulled disconnected the battery to start pulling electronics... so we were kinda stuck that way until we were pretty much done. Oops!

Umm..the motors have these little knobs on them.... ;) :D

But, I get the idea.

[amaff]

Umm..the motors have these little knobs on them.... ;) :D

But, I get the idea.

I thought about it, but we had plenty of room to work.

[metalman]

LOL well you did good. The headlights are intact! :D

[silver280zx]

Nice! It looks like its going well. I just did the engine seals today, its all to familiar, lol.

[amaff]

w00t! The car runs AND drives! ;). I took it out on the road today to get the rings seated and start breaking her in some. It feels good. About as quick as the old motor, but then again I haven't really wrung this one out yet. Gonna wait a few hundred miles and then see what happens. Also it's saying something because we retarded the timing about 5 degrees back to the stock 10* before TDC so it *should* be noticeably slower. Of course, it could all just be placebo effect and wishful thinking, so fingers crossed.

Anyway while it was up on jackstands I went ahead and started on another project I've been putting off for far too long and did the front wheel studs. The rears will be done... uh... eventually lol

Here's what we started with:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1548.jpg

Knocked the old studs out:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1549.jpg

New vs. Old
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1550.jpg

Starting to put them in:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1551.jpg

1 corner done:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1552.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1553.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1554.jpg

Wheel on:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1555.jpg


It's a lot easier to work with the wheels now. And oh yeah: They're kinda pimp ;)

[metalman]

I thought you were supposed to redline it and hold it there for 30 minutes to break in??? :lol:

Sounds like your just about finished.

[amaff]

I thought you were supposed to redline it and hold it there for 30 minutes to break in??? :lol:
no that's tomorrow ;)
Sounds like your just about finished.
Almost is a relative term. After I do the rear wheel studs, change the rear differential, put in new rear lower control arms and the Megasquirt, then I'll be almost finished ;)

[mustangtomiata]

yeah after a motor is first built you have to hold your foot on the floor for it to start and then after it hits the rev limiter precisely 15 times then you can let off.

[amaff]

I bought the race team a christmas present today:
http://www.soloperformance.com/Longacre-Complete-Wheel-Alignment-Kit_p_104-1141.html
http://www.soloperformance.com/assets/images/ProductImages/longacre/longalignkit.gif

Bubble gauge, standard toe plates, and sprung for the 3 point wheel adapter. Next step is to build a few stands and rig up some grease plates :D. Alignment rack on the cheap y0!

[RotorNutFD3S]

Wow, that's a good price too. Very cool find!

[amaff]

Wow, that's a good price too. Very cool find!

Yep. And free shipping through Dec. 31st w/ their coupon code to boot! ;)

[amaff]

Passed emissions today which is good because the registration is up this month.

Next on the list, in some sort of order:
-advance timing as soon as I finish off this tank of fuel and throw in some of the good stuff
-get the stock bushings out of the 'new' rear LCAs
-install long wheel studs on rear hubs
-swap poly bushings into new rear LCAs and swap new LCAs onto the car
-Install megasquirt & street tune
-Dyno tune the megasquirt
-swap in the fresh diff w/ new bushings

Our first event is likely going to be towards the end of February. About all of this should be done by then. The only one I see as probably not happening before then is the diff, as it's not really on my critical action items list. Neither are the studs, but I'm going to have the rear corner apart to swap the LCAs (with less bent ones) regardless, so I might as well while I'm there.

The new engine has about 350 miles on it. I'm still DD-ing so by early to mid Feb when the MS goes in we should be all broken in. I'm getting kind of excited about this. The engine *feels* strong, and I'm looking forward to what the dyno will say (I'm going to be booking 2 or 3 hours of dyno time, so we'll likely do a couple baseline runs w the stock ECU / timing advance, then hit it with the magaskeet
:D

[amaff]

Got myself some birfday present:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1557.jpg

:D

[metalman]

Got myself some birfday present:
:D

Sweet!
I figured you already had these cheapies though....

http://iscracing.net/images/01miataupperplate.jpg

[amaff]

Naa, they lower the car a bit too much for my tastes. I know they do custom ones, but they're not exactly the easiest company to work with / get information from so I went with the path of least resistance, what with it being my birthday ;)

[metalman]

Naa, they lower the car a bit too much for my tastes.

Arent you running coil overs?

[amaff]

Arent you running coil overs?

yeah, but the issue of the rear suspension geometry going all wonky once you get passed a certain point remains unfortunately. I've actually got the rears as high as they'll go right now in an effort to get more positive (er... less negative?) camber lol

[metalman]

Hmmm I see.
I know a few that run those on the rear of Miatas in autox, and I wasnt aware they had any issues...thats why I asked.

[mustangtomiata]

What did you do with the old Corbeaus? I would like to inquire about them.

[amaff]

I sold those long, long ago

[amaff]

How about summa dem apples!?

113.8 WHP, 98 ft/lbs! That's a gain of right at 10 WHP with the engine in exactly the same configuration as the old one (same mods / timing / stock ecu). Not bad for my 1st engine build, and not bad just in general for a B6

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata_Engine/IMG_1559.jpg

And to show her undying appreciation, my car decided to rupture its heater core, so now I've got to pull the entire friggin dash out and get that fixed. Unfortunately I've got bigger fish to fry for the next couple weeks, so that's going to have to wait. I'm going to bypass it today as a temporary bandaid. Hopefully I can find a good one and have time to replace it before the Dixie tour. Ugh... 1 step forwards 1 step back.

The Megasquirt goes in tomorrow, we hit the dyno for a tuning session next week, and hopefully all will be good in the world again lol

[amaff]

More bad news with some good news sprinkled in for funzies:

02/14/09

To say it was an interesting day at the dyno would be an understatement. For about the first 2 hours everything went great... until the car started falling apart. I don't have the graphs for the day, having left pretty frustrated when we left, but it wasn't all bad. I'm going to try to have Arthur e-mail those to me.

By about noon Kevin had the car in really good form. It wasn't making a crapton more horsepower (117.? whp and 99.8 lb/ft), but kevin found significant gains in the midrange through adjusting the ECU timing advance.

We decided we were pretty much done and would let the car cool down to make an apples-to-apples power run as had been done with the last dyno (notice on the graph it gained 2-3 peak HP and 3-4 lb/ft). Similar gains would put us over 120 hp and 100 lb/ft, which was my goal. Well, that's when it all fell apart. An electrical issue was giving a very spotty signal from the temp sender that controls how the enrichments are handled. After managing to get the car started again (which was an effort), we did 1 last run that wasn't really worth much due to the sensor being out of whack.

Then as kevin pulled it off the dyno, the muffler fell off taking the tail end of the cat with it. You can see on the metal of the cat where it had been leaking for a while (about 50% of the way around the tubing) and it finally gave up the ghost today. And then back at Kevin's house, we were swapping the stock ECU back in (he's going to try to track down where the signal noise was coming from on the MS) and I was pulling the WBO2, kevin noticed that there was a crack 1 one of the runners of the header. Very hairline, but it wasn't there before. It probably came from having a ton of weight (header / cat) hanging off the back of the header without any support (the muffler has a hanger on it, but as we revealed previously, it had fallen off).

Summit Racing has a Magnaflow direct-fit cat for $108 or so that I can pick up in the middle of next week some time, and I've got an appointment w/ a fabricator friend to drop the header off on Tuesday to hopefully have everything back together by Friday / Saturday so the car can get aligned on Sat.

Of course that means I still need to pull the rear lower control arms, swap all the bushings over to the straight A arms and have the wheel bearings rebuilt. It's going to be a long week, but we're getting there. I'm extremely happy with the promise that the Megasquirt showed, and it proved that there were some pretty stout gains to be had by getting control over the fuel and timing in this car. If Kevin can get a couple kinks worked out, we're going to be looking fantastic :)

======================
02/19/09
We finally got all the bushings swapped over to the good rear lower control arms last night. This morning I grabbed the re-packed hubs / spindles from Korey. Came back to the house and started putting bolts into holes O.o

Got the rear suspension back together; new top hats peeping out the bottom
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1563.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1564.jpg

Header's back in. See if you can figure out which one was the runner that got re-welded. Dave is ridiculous w/ the welding.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1566.jpg

Replaced the cat, re-painted the cat-back w/ another coat of 1200 degree flat black ;)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1565.jpg

[amaff]

I guess I should update this now that we have had a real event (as opposed to a TnT in wet cold weather): The car feels absolutely phenomenal. If you were to do a graph for the car, w/ the x axis being time and the y axis being "awesome", there would be a massive peak on the right side of the graph. The extra power from the rebuilt engine is nice. Combine that with losing 100 lbs from the car over the last few months and she'll get up out of her way. And the changes we've made to the suspension have made the car so much better to drive. I haven't been that happy coming back to grid in a very long time. It's predictable, the front end bite is insanely better than it was last year, we've cured the snap oversteer and the rear end, while it will still dance with you, is very, VERY controllable.

With everything I futzed with over the off season, I was convinced that we were going to show up for the first event with a steaming pile of *** of a car. Instead I now have a car with limits that I was unable to find this weekend. I paxed 12th out of over 150 cars. Not that great until you look at the list of national trophy and championship winners who were in the 11 slots ahead of me. I'm extremely pleased with that performance and can't wait to get the lighter wheels w/ better offset so we can run the 205 RE11s. We're still on old RE-01Rs... most of the ST/S cars ahead of me were on fresh, 225 Toyo R1Rs. I also can't wait to see the tire war begin @ the dixie tour this weekend

[Pitt]

Got any action shots from the event?

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Glad to hear it's all working out for you mate.

[amaff]

Glad to hear it's all working out for you mate.

Heck yeah dude, thanks :). The car's just so good now. 12th in PAX and 25th raw time in a miata on street tires in this region is no joke :D

[MoD_Scotty]

Awesome.

I wanna know what those louvers in your garage go to!

[amaff]

I wanna know what those louvers in your garage go to!
They go to the celica that's also in my garage :-p

[FooSchnickens]

I've often wondered if a car other than the KG Works "Stratos" Miata could pull off the louvre look...

http://www.kgworks.co.jp/eng/image/4c52-e.jpg

[amaff]

Got any action shots from the event?

Taken by our resident photog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/atlantamx3/2009AutocrossPointsEvent1030809#

it's pretty naked right now. Mazdaspeed, Bridgestone and SCCA stickers will be going on for contingency at the National Tour this weekend:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_EnfBz3pV1SM/SbR006cFe0I/AAAAAAAAN3A/aBBCJXjmTe4/DSC09684.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_EnfBz3pV1SM/SbR16oKKKvI/AAAAAAAAON0/v5Z9Ob0Vgo0/DSC09878.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_EnfBz3pV1SM/SbR6KwYevdI/AAAAAAAAP1w/lt04fMMMR8U/DSC00783.JPG

[amaff]

My buddy Barry (IIRC Jack had him do the MX5Atlanta.com stickers) is whipping up 1 of these for under my hood

http://www.bdtgfx.com/proofs/explode2.jpg

[amaff]

Video from this weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By3nBAgAsO4

Forgive my melon getting in the way. It was the 1st event w/ this mount so I wasn't quite sure where to put it. I should have it rectified this weekend, along w/ taking care of some of the vibration hopefully.

[amaff]

Mo Pawah!

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1588.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1589.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1590.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1592.jpg

(And did the mazdaspeed decals. No pics tho :()

[Pitt]

love the explode sticker!

[metalman]

Yeah, the sticker rocks.

[amaff]

New 'street' wheels. Going to put full tread tires for use as transport / rains. They're Team Dynamic Motorsports Pro Race 1.2s, 15x7. Local SCCA T3 guy that was selling the race car was getting rid of them. They have never been mounted on a car before and are absolutely immaculate. I think the anthracite will look good on the black. Got them at used price for essentially brand new wheels

http://www.msprotege.com/members/aMaff/IMG_0362.JPG

http://www.msprotege.com/members/aMaff/IMG_0363.JPG


EDIT: The tires on there in the pics were the dude's rain tires. I've currently got some nearly dead RE-01Rs on there for the Evo School in Atlanta next month, but the full tread 195 RE11s will be going on after that / once I get tire money from my last co-driver.

[RotorNutFD3S]

Nice score!!!

[amaff]

New mod! Now I won't be driving all over carnation (as they say here, apparently...) on the "race" tires:

Curt hitch
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1602.jpg

Tire Tail (bought used for cheaps :D)
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1601.jpg

Only 1 strap here. I'll probably use 2 when I'm doin' it for realz. I need to go get a couple smaller ones tho, the 5 ton 3" straps I have are... a bit much for this:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1599.jpg

Remember, there will be 2 straps holding these things on, along w/ the pins / plates.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1600.jpg

And now that I'm done in the garage, the fun can start :D
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1604.jpg



BTW, just so we're clear, I like craftsman tools. Not terribly expensive, but pretty good quality. And this is my favorite in my arsenal :D
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1605.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1606.jpg

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

Sharp wheels. What on earth is that wrench? A high tech bottle opener?

[simontibbett]

Who sold you the wheels? Paul?

There was Team Dynamics for like $150 at RA this past weekend with Hoosiers mounted.

[amaff]

Sharp wheels. What on earth is that wrench? A high tech bottle opener?

THAT, my good man, is a Craftsman bottle opener. And it's totally awesome :D. I got it as a housewarming gift, and have put it to good use ;)

[amaff]

So far this week, besides installing the hitch, I've rolled the rear fenders, got my shaved RE11s mounted.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1612.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1611.jpg

The 205/50/15 RE11s about .8" wider than the 195 RE-01Rs, but for whatever reason (I think due to the tread pattern or lack therof once shaved) they look like steam rollers by comparisson. Fortunately they're only .3" taller.

So, if you were wondering what a buttload of tire looks like on an STS car...

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1616.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1618.jpg

[amaff]

Comparison: 195/50/15 RE01R on a 7" wheel vs the 205/50/15 RE11 on a 7.5" wheel:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1619.jpg

FWIW, the RE01Rs sit pretty flush w/ the rim on a 7" wheel, where the 205s are actually a little pinched on a 7.5" wheel, so the difference in height's not in the wheels


fMore pics of the TD wheels and the tire tail (I'm out of town tomorrow so I packed up the car so it'll be cocked locked and ready to rock Sunday morning):

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1620.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1621.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a247/amaff/Miata/IMG_1622.jpg

[mustangtomiata]

Man I LOVE team dynamic wheels...I wonder why. Antracite looks awesome.