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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 4:08:18 GMT
Hello everyone! I'm Stuart, I'm from the US (for you UK members, yes, I'm fat), and I'm finally getting around to starting a thread here. I've enjoyed watching everyone else's builds, so I'm throwing my build out there for everyone to enjoy. I've never done a build thread before, so I'm sure I have lots to learn about creating an interesting thread. I'm also doing it to motivate me to spend more time working on it...
Background story - I've autocrossed a STS 1991 1.6 Miata for the past 11 years or so. I've also attended Flyin Miata's Summer Camp for the past 8 years or so. I've had the urge to turbo my STS car, but I can't do that without bumping SCCA classes. I've put so much time and effort into building the car to the rules, that I couldn't just tear it all apart. So, two Summer Camps ago, FM had Exomotive's XP-3 out at the track, and I had to have one. It also opened the door for me to build the car to however I wanted, as opposed to building it to the SCCA rulebook.
On to the build, which I've titled NoCo BBE - Northern Colorado Beer Budget Exocet So far, this has taken way longer than I anticipated/had hoped for. The goal is to build this as cheaply as I can. So, many used parts will be going on, as well as reusing as much as I can from the donor. Speaking of the donor, here she is in all her neglected, salvage titled glory:
If you look close, you can see the smoke from the tail pipe... I named her Poof. This photo only shows light smoke. Usually, Poof could fog out the whole neighborhood. I suspected stuck oil control rings. Poof had also been wrecked (hit in the front and the rear) and rebuilt, but the subframes and everything Exocet related seemed straight. All this helped me finagle the price to half what the seller was asking, but I still think I paid too much for it. Drove it home and parked it until I got the chassis.
I ordered the chassis through Flyin Miata. It was cheaper for me to go get it through them than it would be for Exomotive to ship it to me, so I had a buddy with a trailer and a truck help me out. Two of us could lift it, so we carried it in and set it up on jackstands to paint it.
I used Rust Bullet to paint it. With a brush. And a buddy. And beer.
It's like POR-15, but it's UV stable and does not require a top coat. If anyone wants to buy a quart of it, I have two left over. bought way too much. Only took one quart to give it two good coats. This (and many more) were on me for like a week. They don't lie about it not coming off...
This is what happens when you forget to paint some parts...
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Post by gl21133 on Mar 30, 2015 13:09:22 GMT
Can you put a top coat on the rust bullet? How's the finish? And where in NoCo are you?
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 14:04:07 GMT
Can you put a top coat on the rust bullet? How's the finish? And where in NoCo are you? Yep, sure can. Rustbullet.com has all the info. Probably the best pictures I have for finish are:
Before (white residue is from acid prep spray) 
After 
If I remember correctly, this is after the first coat. I did two coats for piece of mind. All done with a brush.
I'm in Loveland.
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 14:10:11 GMT
After the chassis was painted, tear down of Poof began. 
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 14:24:06 GMT
Wiring harness out of the car 
Then it was time to separate the roller skate from the tub. Had to use a big impact gun to get the bolts off. 
The project sat like this for a little while. I sold the entire tub to a guy who just wrecked his Miata. I was able to recoup 75% of my purchase price. I also sold off a power window motor, the top, trunk lid, and seats. I still have a few little things to sell, but so far, the donor was "free"!
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 14:40:54 GMT
I was left with: 
Overall, not too rusty. But, if you notice, nothing from the shifter forward could rust, thanks to the liberal coating of dirty motor oil covering everything. The kid I bought Poof from commented on how "clean" the engine was. How he'd "never seen an engine so clean before." That should have been red flag number three or so for me. (Number one should have been the smoke. Number two should have been that the 90000 miles indicated on the instrument panel didn't match the amount of wear on everything else...) Yes, the valve cover was fairly clean 
I guessed the cover had been off recently, cleaned, and replaced. More on that later...
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 14:54:18 GMT
Since I was having so much fun, I just kept going 
With help (and more beer) we got the engine on a stand and started opening it up to see what secrets it held... 
Discovered that the valve cover had been off to complete a fairly recent timing belt/water pump job. Looking inside the engine, there are some signs that the motor has done more than 90000 miles... 
Keen eyes will notice the amount of oil/dirt on the engine block. Actually, on everything. Keener eyes will notice there is absolutely no RTV on the head where the cam bearing journals and CAS sensor is. So, when said timing belt was done, the valve cover was slapped back on and presumably leaked from at least those spots. I would guess that the cover was leaking long before this happened though. The CAS O-ring was so brittle, I guessed it had never been replaced. Which would account for the quart or two of oil on/in/around/all over the back of the engine and the entire transmission. |
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 22:32:37 GMT
Pulled the head off to reveal a future diamond mine 
Surprisingly the cylinder walls were in pretty good shape. Still had cross hatch marks, and none had any ridge at the top of the cylinder. 
Pulled the mains off and removed the crank. Old bearings were worn, but not damaged. Crank journals were in decent shape. No ridges/gouges, no marks. Overall, the motor was in better shape internally than I had expected it to be in. 
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 22:48:41 GMT
Now I had many smaller filthy parts. 
Outside to scrub everything down. And scrub some more. And then some more. This part sucked. We scrubbed for a couple of hours. It got to the point where we said "good enough" but it was much better than it was before. I don't have pictures of the engine block, but it got liberal coats of degreaser.  Not sure why this picture is upside down, but you get the idea. Just flip your computer over...
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Post by USStu on Mar 30, 2015 23:21:15 GMT
Here is the $2.00 reason for all this extra work: 
That is a set of stuck oil control rings. Every piston was like this. All this work to replace $2.00 worth of parts. Remember, you get what you pay for, and Poof was free. After a lot of soaking and scrubbing, this is what I had. 
I thought I had a picture of one with new rings in it, but I don't. I'm finally to the point of assembly! Honestly, this all took way longer than I anticipated. If I had bought a better donor, I would have had this thing running by the end of last summer. But, I just keep telling myself, it was a free donor, it was a free donor, it was a free donor... Engine going back together. New King rod and ACL main bearings. 
Clean pistons with all new NPR rings going back in to freshly honed (by me, not by a machine shop) block. 
Apparently I stopped taking pictures after this... I continued to clean the deck of the block, and de-carboned the head. Some how I never took a picture of the head, but the valves and the combustion chambers all looked like the tops of the pistons did. Again, more time lost to the neglect that Poof had endured. It did give me a good reason to have a few more beers while playing with an engine... I cleaned everything up and buttoned the head back on with some ARP studs. The only photo I have of the completed engine is this one 
You can kinda tell it's cleaner... It sat like this for a while, until I lured my buddy back over with some beer to help me stab it all back together. Ok, realistically he needed his engine hoist and his engine stand back, but whatever. I installed a clutch from Flyin Miata, we bolted the engine back to the trans and front subframe, and dropped the chassis onto the drive train. 
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Post by BTD on Apr 1, 2015 4:26:24 GMT
Good to see another CO car, I'll have to swing by next time I'm up North!
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Post by USStu on Apr 1, 2015 15:15:28 GMT
Good to see another CO car, I'll have to swing by next time I'm up North! Feel free to! |
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Post by USStu on Apr 27, 2015 3:12:21 GMT
I haven't updated this in a while... I don't have any pictures of what I've been working on, but I'll try to get some soon. I did want to say how helpful Fedhill (http://fedhillusa.com/) has been. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do for fuel lines. I was going to convert to a returnless system with the Flyin Miata kit, but decided not to do that. Then I figured I'd try to do AN lines on my own, but the cost was well above what I wanted to spend. Talked to a local shop that specializes in tubes and hoses, and they said they'd run all new steel lines, but labor alone would be some where near $200. Factor in materials and I'm way above what I'm wanting to spend. So, since Exomotive used Fedhill as the supplier for the Cunifer brake lines, I figured I'd see what they had for fuel lines. I called them up and spoke with a gentleman who was very helpful. He set me up with 5/16 Cunifer line for fuel, and rented me the tool to flare both the brake and fuel lines. The rental tool is WAY better than the local O'Vancedcheckerzoneboys parts stores rent. You get it for two weekends for $25. Just need a bench vice to mount it in. It works great. I highly recommend calling them up if you are looking for a way to run your fuel/brake lines. Cunifer is super easy to work with, bends by hand, and flares easily and cleanly. |
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Post by USStu on May 17, 2015 0:27:59 GMT
Couple of quick updates with some crappy pictures:
Mounted my seats on the factory sliders after bending the mounting tabs flat. 
Here is a shot of the Cunifer fuel lines, obviously not mounted and secured yet. 
And a shot of the rear distribution block for the brake lines. Like many others, I had to rotate it to clear the chassis. The rear brake line is the Cunifer line and fittings that came from Exomotive. 
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Post by USStu on Jun 11, 2015 20:33:56 GMT
Edging ever closer to firing Poof back up... I'm struggling with the 80/20 problem. Where 20% of the project takes up 80% of the overall time. I spend too much time trying to come up with the best solution to the issue. Like the fuel lines. I spent waaaaaaay too much time trying to figure out what to do to secure them. Here is what I ended up doing: 
I bought some aluminum angle and cut and bent it to fit down the bottom square bar on the chassis. I drilled holes and riveted it to the chassis. The sticky mounts and zip ties are a temporary solution for now. I'll add actual brackets at a later time. The brake line runs on the top of the aluminum angle.
I also spent waaaaaaay too much time trying to find a good location for the fuel filter. I was about to give up and buy an inline one that was kind of ok, but much more than I wanted to spend on an iffy solution. I went out one last desperate time and came up with this: 
There is an existing hole right where I bolted it down at. The filter clears everything and is solid. Yes, I have way too much hard line, but I purchased more than I needed (just incase) and have sent the flaring tool back a long time ago, so I'll live with being able to have .02193 gallons more fuel onboard.
She's coming along. Next up really is wiring and mounting the radiator. Then odds and ends like new hoses and brakes, and then the first test drive! 
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