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Post by rumm on Sept 2, 2016 2:09:07 GMT
Camber is directly dependent on ride height. I think there's a decrease of about a degree of camber per inch of drop, but it clearly a curve so it depends on where you are on the curve. www.flyinmiata.com/projects/Indy/images/untitled-1.jpg If the rear camber creates tire wear/heat balance problems, you could probably fix it by picking up the rear an inch or so. jwagner, thanks for the info. I'm guessing that is part of the reason that I see recommendations that the rear is raked about one inch higher. I'm currently sitting about even at about 4 inches ride height at the front and rear jacking points. I will definitely try adjusting the rear up a bit if I start seeing an issue with wear. |
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Post by rumm on Sept 21, 2016 19:41:34 GMT
-- 250 Mile Update --
Every time I take my car out I'm amazed at how fun it is!
Each time I drive, I find new things to fix or improve on.
At the top of that list is my leaky rear main. Apparently when I replaced it, I didn't get a good seat (or pressed it in too far). So sometime over the next few weeks I plan to pull and replace it. Anyone in the bay area have the flyin miata tool I can borrow? If not, I'm going to pick one up. I know it isn't necessary, but after I bonked one install, I figure it will be worth the cash for the next one.
Next up on the list is correcting my exhaust issues. I modified my NB exhaust to fit. This involved cutting out the resonator and putting in a couple short bends to get it the correct angle to fit. These modifications caused the exhaust to hang pretty low. I recently raised the rear suspension about an inch and a half to correct this issue temporarily. Additionally I hate the look of the rusted/old muffler on the back of the car. This leads into the conundrum that I feel like almost all of us have faced. Do I buy a part only to replace it later? I definitely plan on doing a power upgrades in the future. I'm currently contemplating if the exhaust is bad enough that I need to replace it or if I can hold out until I reach the more power phase. Maybe I will just cut it shorter and hide it instead.
I noticed that I have trouble reading the stock cluster due to after market steering wheel and seating position. I plan to resolve this in the near future by replacing my cluster with an old nexus7 I have laying around. Although I'm unsure what to do about the fuel indicator at the moment. I will figure that out when the time come.
I will add that I still question the overall reliability of my rebuilt engine. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier in the thread. I had a "incident" (aka I'm an amateur mechanic failure) on the first drive with the rebuilt engine after installing it in my donor miata. Long story short, upon starting it for the first time, I had issues with oil pressure and had a camshaft seize and break the timing pin off. Turns out when I installed my oil filter relocation kit, I installed the input and output lines backwards, causing the oil to simply back-up behind the back-flow valve in the filter and not flow into the head. I cleaned up the head and all the material I could see but the head wasn't very salvageable due to the journal getting gouged. In the long run, I ended up picking up another head and calling it good. Ever since this occurred, my idle feels a bit off, almost a little shaky. I'm unsure if this could be a bit of material from the head/camshaft making its way down into the bottom end, or if it is just normal with the SuperTech the forged pistons. When I have the engine out to replace the rear-main, I may pull the head and/or pan to take a look. If it turns out that I hosed this engine, I will probably be looking to swap in something with a bit more power in the long run. If the engine checks out, I will probably prepare for adding a turbo by drilling and tapping the oil pan.
Rumm
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Post by steadfast on Sept 21, 2016 20:36:54 GMT
I have all the fm tools, come and get them.
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Post by SeanW on Sept 21, 2016 21:50:08 GMT
Very cool update! I'm dangerously close to being able to do SB100 on my Exo. Mirrors, body work, windscreens... Yeah. So close!
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Post by rumm on Dec 1, 2016 20:21:09 GMT
-- 2500 mile update -- Where to start!?! I have spent the majority of the past two months driving my car everywhere that I could. I put easily double the miles on the Exocet that I would have on my daily driver. In early October, I got around to pulling my engine and changing out the rear main, it turns out the rear main wasn't leaking and instead it was the oil pan gasket. As long as I had it apart, I pulled the pan and looked for debris, there was some, but not a ton. I went ahead and threw it back together and started preparing for my trackday at Laguna Seca in November. For the track day I was told I needed fenders (NCRC). I purchased some color matched fenders from Exomotive, a few weeks later they arrived. Installing the fenders was quite a bit more work than I had expected. Overall I'm not really happy with how the fender stays fit, but I can remedy that in the future. I also had to lower my seats so I would pass the "broomstick" test. I had quite a bit of trouble with finding the best way to do this. I'm only 6' tall (1.8288m for a bunch of you), but with the Corbeau FX1 Pro seats, I was unable to get low enough while sitting on the square tubing on the floor board. After quite some fidgeting, I ended up tilting the seat back about 6 inches and using the side mounts to some custom welded brackets, and I barely clear the "broomstick" test when the seat cushion is not installed. On Nov 21st, I officially put California plates on the car. So happy to be done with the SB100 process and repeated trips to the DMV. On Nov 25/26th, I drove down to Salinas and attended a track day at Laguna Seca. The drive down was the furthest I had driven in one sitting. Overall the car was pretty comfortable to drive. We spent the night and headed the rest of the way into the track in the rain. I was extremely slow and couldn't hit the right line all day, but it was a ton of fun. Around the third session the track finally started to dry a bit and I was able to get on it without fear of spinning out. But that is when disaster struck. I came around turn 5 and started to hear an engine noise. I limped the car to turn 10 and came off and had to call it a day. I tore the engine apart over the next couple days. Turns out that I spun the #4 rod bearing, so I'm currently debating my options for a path forward. The crank journal has a small amount of scoring, I believe it can be polished out pretty easy. I'm planning to pull the crank out to inspect the crank bearings as well, but I haven't had a chance to make it that far. At the minimum I'd need new bearings and to clean up the crank. If I decide to rebuild and continue, I will probably pick up some new rods as well. I have also been pricing out an LFX swap as I think it would be more reliable power but as usual when it comes to more power, I haven't been able to decide what to do. I will post some pictures eventually. I keep forgetting to take pictures when it isn't in pieces  Don't judge the video too harshly, it is only my second track day. lol |
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Post by steadfast on Dec 1, 2016 23:16:53 GMT
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, but use this as an effort to build something more reliable. I'm not sure what your budget is but options could be:
J-swap
K-swap
LS-swap
LFX-swap
Ecotec
I feel like they all will cost $6-8k, so it is a matter of choosing what works best for you. Of course the easiest fix would be to throw in a low mileage 1.8 and call it a day... This will likely be around $800-$1k.
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Post by SeanW on Dec 2, 2016 3:13:33 GMT
Sorry to hear about your bad luck, but use this as an effort to build something more reliable. I'm not sure what your budget is but options could be: J-swap K-swap LS-swap LFX-swap Ecotec I feel like they all will cost $6-8k, so it is a matter of choosing what works best for you. Of course the easiest fix would be to throw in a low mileage 1.8 and call it a day... This will likely be around $800-$1k. I keep thinking LFX or Ecotec, myself. I've talked to the guys at Ecotec Miata a bit which has me leaning that direction if I were to swap away from Mazda power. It's relatively inexpensive and the 2.4l (LE5) takes boost extremely well. (The 2.0 turbo parts bolt up nicely, I'm told.) LE5s are also relatively inexpensive and the Ecotec swap kit is by far the least expensive kit I've seen in terms of initial cash outlay. When I pop my motor chances are strong I'm going to the path of built 1.8L Miata motor madness, tho. |
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Post by Trenon on Dec 2, 2016 4:49:44 GMT
The built 1.8 is probably more expensive in the long run. Custom drive train is in order which is the big part of the expense of other kits.
There really isn't a good affordable transmission that can hold power for the miata.
Source, have a built 1.8. Aiming for ~400 whp.
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Post by phocup on Dec 2, 2016 8:09:26 GMT
This is something I'm debating myself. I emailed V8Roadster a few days ago about LFX kit for the Exo and haven't gotten a reply yet. As far as I know no one have done an LFX yet swap yet so if you go that route, you can be the first and grab the LFXOCET custom plate !  However, if your power goal is more modest .. 250WHP ish .. you could get that with a junkyard 1.8 and a $1500 MKTurbo kit. Everything with electronics and tuning could be sub $4k if you shop around. Unfortunately it gets much much more expensive real fast when you want to step to the 300-400 range. Though its not 'bragging rights' impressive numbers on its own, 250WHP in a light weight Exo is about 6.6# / HP. Assuming a 1650# weight for an Exo with turbo kit. IMO, that's more than most drivers can handle on the track and definitely more than most need for public road. Its hard to judge purely based on that video since it was rain condition, so perhaps you were just being extra careful, but I did notice that most of the track ( even on the straights ) you're only using half your power band .. that's roughly about 100WHP. Also, it depends on what your personal goal are. If you're looking to be the fastest driver you can be, having too much HP at the start tend to slow down the learning progress. If you're just looking to have a load of fun spinning tires and kicking up rocks, swap in the biggest engine you can afford!!  PS. You might want to make it a habit to avoid apex'n the first turn on your out lap. Not sure if that was a rule for RCNC or not, but it could lead to some bad situations. |
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Post by phocup on Dec 2, 2016 17:58:40 GMT
Actually got a reply from V8R this morning ..
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Post by calibuild on Dec 26, 2016 19:50:15 GMT
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Post by rumm on Dec 26, 2016 20:28:03 GMT
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Post by rumm on Dec 27, 2016 19:12:48 GMT
So after a few weeks of waiting and thinking, I have decided to go with a rebuild and a turbo. I dropped off my block, a new (used) crankshaft, and some Manley rods at Rob's machine shop last week. If all goes well, I expect it back roughly the second week of January. During delivery my block rolled over and crushed the factory oil warmer/cooler, bending one of the coolant lines, so I need to find a replacement in the next few weeks, anyone have one laying around? If I'm unable to find one, I may try to bend the coolant line back.
Before I go on my turbo part shopping spree, I had a few questions for folks that have went down this road:
I'm planning on throwing the Exomotive turbo exhaust on with the FMII no electronics kit. I have seen videos of this, but it is hard to determine how loud it is, has anyone metered their exhaust? Since I'm in California, I cannot legally exceed 95db.
Is a coolant re-route required in the Exocet? From my understanding it flows air quite a bit better than a stock Miata. I also have the upgraded flyinmiata radiator and slim fans.
Thanks,
Rumm
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Post by SeanW on Dec 27, 2016 20:30:29 GMT
As a matter of insurance, I'd go with a coolant reroute. While airflow around the motor is better the issue is that coolant still has trouble getting around all of the cylinders without it. After bumping up to a dual-core radiator a lot of my overheating issues NA have been largely resolved but I'm still going to do the re-route when I turbo my Exocet.
Speaking of which, I'm pretty curious about your experience going with the FM setup. I'm sort of rolling my own with the use of a Kraken cast manifold and TD04L-13t turbo from a Subaru Forester XT. ( backed up with Megasquirt, ID1000 injectors, Deatchwerks fuel pump, etc...) I'm still pulling all of my parts together but I'm looking to land at around $2500 for my setup.
Tell me more of the machine shop that you're using? I want to have the head on my BP rebuilt since a couple of my HLAs sound like they're on their last legs.
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Post by calibuild on Jan 1, 2017 19:29:53 GMT
Hi Rumm - when you went to get your brake and light inspection, know you mentioned having to get the license plate light hooked up. My question is, does it have to be mounted, or just show that it lights up?
Since I don't have plates yet, not sure where to drill the holes. I can just pull my plate of my existing car and use it as a template though.
Also, any idea if a front plate is required?
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