91ish Miata drift/autox & future projects with 15psi88 & friends
 

Well, how about a new project to help keep some new posts on TST?

Introducing our 91 (maybe?) Miata drift and autox project. Not sure of the year at the time of this post.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4567/...e3291bb5_z.jpgCapture by Pat, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4564/...e2a4cb73_c.jpg557937_581257645255447_1356636484_n by Pat, on Flickr

15psi88 bought this thing just over four years ago. At the time, he and I were looking for Miata project but were unable to find anything for a reasonable price or that was not destroyed. He found this car through one of his customers and took it on as a solo project. He did some stuff to it right away and then put it on the back burner where it sat for almost exactly four years. We went and got it this past Saturday and brought it to my shop so we can actually do something with it.

Our group of friends always jokes about "time-sharing" things; everything, actually. So, we finally did it with this project which is a group effort of four of us. 15psi88, myself, and two other friends (IG: @toothless69 & @e_mik011). We also have some other projects/cars lined up for after we knock this one out.

We have already started doing some stuff on top of what 15psi88 did four years ago. For now, though, how about some pictures. Apparently I missed focus pretty bad in some of these; ya win some ya lose some.

Some shots from the day we brought it over to my place.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4585/...07947c13_c.jpgIMG_2559 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4568/...491aec70_c.jpgIMG_2564 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4520/...54689e45_c.jpgIMG_2565 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4556/...f4b89405_c.jpgIMG_2566 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4520/...437f067b_c.jpgIMG_2567 by Pat, on Flickr

And some shots from working on it last night. These were mainly just to collect some random details around the car with the intention of filling space in this thread, lol. So, there really isn't a logical order or reason to any images in this post.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4540/...e4365868_c.jpgIMG_2583 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4579/...5f10dac2_c.jpgIMG_2585 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4545/...20bf4d4b_c.jpgIMG_2588 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4580/...664cf9e2_c.jpgIMG_2587 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4540/...0e376b30_c.jpgIMG_2577 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4585/...83010bdd_c.jpgIMG_2579 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4515/...880077b3_c.jpgIMG_2580 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4580/...39c096e6_c.jpgIMG_2581 by Pat, on Flickr

However, we did manage to get the differential pulled out and welded last night. Like always, thankfully 15psi88 has the welder/fabricator skill set covered. @toothless69 did most of the work getting the diff in and out. Everything went smooth enough. The way the diff mount on the car with the torque arm was new to us, as well as the way it splits apart. Otherwise, the only hiccup was catching a pig mat soaked in brake clean on fire when beginning to weld the diff.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4570/...944ea6f4_c.jpgIMG_2582 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4558/...7c7c9451_c.jpgIMG_2586 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4517/...5a1d4ba0_c.jpgIMG_2575 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4570/...77e1ac80_c.jpg23585182_1712661408768175_367489917_o by Pat, on Flickr

This looks like a blast!! I need a Miata......

More work was done last night. A little bit of cleaning up and a little bit of gutting and lightening.
Doors gutted and washer system/wipers removed. Also got rid of the rear/upright part of the quarter window frame.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4541/...53b62c3c_c.jpgIMG_2589 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4529/...161270cc_c.jpgIMG_2595 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4567/...171bd506_c.jpgIMG_2596 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4582/...bcb9e6fb_c.jpgIMG_2594 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4568/...e3d715a5_c.jpgIMG_2593 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4515/...cd46fb3a_c.jpgIMG_2591 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4538/...409330c8_c.jpgIMG_2592 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4583/...7e164463_c.jpgIMG_2599 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4525/...31166f3e_c.jpgIMG_2598 by Pat, on Flickr

That's one holy miata. What size turbo are you putting in it? :driving:

I may have parts if you need something.

Umm, not really sure. Whatever the little 100 dollar T3 ebay turbos are lol. The info on the ads say roughly 56mm .63 a/r on the exhaust and 51mm on the compressor.

This is gettin' serious in a hurry ha ha

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4563/...dbb72a49b7.jpg23633531_2055530064668382_407546992_o

me too...... we can have a survivors of TST miata meet

Haha, that would be great. :driving:

Some more things got done on the car, but I need to upload some pictures from my real camera. Also, I was out of town for work Thurs-Fri, so I just have some screenshots and saved pictures that the guys sent me. Hopefully I'll have some decent pictures of everything from the real camera uploaded tonight.

They got the car torn down to do the timing belt and such and found the timing belt seemed brand new-ish, so I guess we're just leaving it alone. They also got things sorted out and made for the coolant reroute. Obviously, the Miata guys would be familiar with the reroute. For those that aren't, it just puts the water inlet/outlet on opposite ends of the engine. When they stole this engine from the 323, they put the inlet and outlet right beside one another on the front of the engine which is no bueno. Fortunately we have an engineer/machinist in our group, so we got a nice billet blockoff/sensor port made for the front. I think the rad hose you need to use is from a GMC Yukon, I think. Item 6 in the diagram below. I think we need to get some random fittings/plugs/adapters yet to finish the coolant stuff and also to make the turbo feed work. Otherwise, things are moving along great.

We should have most of the parts coming this week to finish the big stuff. The 100 dollar ebay manifold is mounted with the stock manifold gasket reused. The 100 dollar ebay turbo should be here this week along with the 137 dollar aluminum rad/dual fan setup. New plugs and wires are on the way, as well. I forget if we've ordered anything else in the last few days.

Anyway, a few pictures.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4515/...f4b1f388_c.jpgIMG_2730 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4557/...ab0ef486_c.jpgIMG_2729 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4519/...e7b2f213_c.jpgIMG_2618 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4530/...8f5069a5_c.jpgIMG_2617 by Pat, on Flickr

I'm very interested to see the results from the ebay turbo. Ive pondered making the purchase myself but have to many other car tasks to take care of.

What are you using for tuning? May want to check this guy out (arduino based ECUs) for dirt cheap. He was selling PnP miata versions for like $200.
https://speeduino.com/shop/index.php
https://speeduino.com/wiki/index.php/MX5_PNP

Interesting. Unfortunately, I really know nothing about electronics or tuning, so one of the other guys would know more what they're looking at.

However, for now we have an old version Track Dog fuel card, I think, that 15psi88 bought when he originally bought the car. So we're going to be limited to 5psi or whatever. I'd like to have a mega/microsquirt setup myself, but I don't think we want to spend much money on an engine that's surely going to blow up. Eventually it may either get 4G63 or LS swapped. Hell, there's even a chance of a Ford modular 2v V8 that is laying around.

We got the Kia water neck and plug wires yesterday. Didn't work on the car. Pulled in the one guy's daily driver A3 2.0T to do a dogbone insert. **** went sideways in a hurry.

Current state of things:
Miata sitting outside getting frostbite with the Talon.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4554/...65c0d97a_c.jpgIMG_2747 by Pat, on Flickr

Other than that, some random pictures, including the busted dogbone mount on the A3. Like I said, **** went sideways. What should have been a quick install turned into dropping the subframe and all kinds of ****.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4523/...1bde02b9_c.jpgIMG_2744 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4572/...286919a3_c.jpgIMG_2737 by Pat, on Flickr

And otherwise, just the random pictures promised from over the weekend. Included is a DSM 20G with all the wrong configuration, just for the photo opportunity, hung on the manifold.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4573/...eb87845c_c.jpgIMG_7802 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4522/...473d139c_c.jpgIMG_7804 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4582/...7da692b9_c.jpgIMG_7803 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4550/...b3ee6466_c.jpgIMG_7805 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4551/...20c8aee8_c.jpgIMG_7806 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4527/...d284b0af_c.jpgIMG_7808 by Pat, on Flickr

Just got word from 15psi88 that the turbone landed on his desk today.

Now, none of us know what the heck turbone is supposed to be - a typo, a knock off name, who knows - but we're pronouncing it tur-bone because we're childish and think it's hilarious.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4525/...b7118326_c.jpg23847990_2058067934414595_95403720_o by Pat, on Flickr

Hahahaha Turbone :banana:. That's great.

Didn't do much last night. Mocked up the turbo and the charge piping. We're hot-piping it. We're also going to put a wastegate on the turbine housing and weld the internal shut. We're are now really thinking about doing some kind of standalone ECU or... something. The stock MAF sucks and we want more than 5psi haha. Oh, and our buddy is machining another block-off plate, this time for the intake manifold.

So anyway, another shot of the turbone and the mocked up piping.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4586/...7708c2ab_c.jpgIMG_7817 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4520/...2d1564ac_c.jpgIMG_7816 by Pat, on Flickr

Great progress so far. That turbo looks okay at least.

Yeah, the turbo honestly doesn't seem that bad. I don't know how on earth you can produce one for 100 dollars, but we'll take it, haha.

As for updates, mainly just some pictures. We got the new block off plate but we don't have any hardware that's the right length for it. We got the new rad in (my internet is shamefully pathetic at my house, so apparently I never got the rad pictures uploaded this weekend. I'm posting this from my parent's house because they actually have internet). You can see the rad in these pictures, but I had some other shots I wanted to post. Anyway, we got the charge pipe and the intake pipe figured out. Kyle (15psi88) taught Drew and Eli to TIG this weekend which ate up some time while we otherwise didn't have much to do. They both welded part of the intake pipe. It wasn't the prettiest stack of dimes in the world, but they learned a valuable new skill that most folks building a car will never know, including myself at this juncture. There was also just a lot of general ****ery this holiday weekend.

So, we didn't do much. We 100% decided we're getting either MS2 or that Speeduino setup. But that's not going to be until spring, most likely. Oh, and we got a new temporary stablemate. We got that slow piece of **** Viper out and moved our buddy's single turbo Camaro in so Kyle can weld a 10pt cage in.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4574/...5434ce5d_c.jpgIMG_2758 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4520/...78d9c1ef_c.jpgIMG_2766 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4516/...22f66c67_c.jpgIMG_2767 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4548/...aacbec8e_c.jpgIMG_2768 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4532/...36008241_c.jpgIMG_2769 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4563/...7bb69e81_c.jpgIMG_2776 by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4521/...4b14f08c_c.jpgIntake by Pat, on Flickr
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4542/...f83184b2_c.jpgCamaro by Pat, on Flickr