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Post by gt3m3 on Sept 3, 2017 22:19:56 GMT
Despite my lack of mechanical talent, I have decided to build a race Exocet for time trials that is also street legal in Arizona. Im done with turbos and would love a k24 swap since it is so light and happy Reving, but the ecotec Miata guys seem to have proven their system works in endurance racing. I'm still in the planning stage and would love to hear that this can be reasonably done.
PS. Has anyone built an Exocet without purchasing and stripping down a whole Miata? I'd like a 6 speed and Torsen diff which I cannot find on a donor anyways. Since I'm planning on buying new brakes/hubs/radiator/fuel pump etc. There doesn't seem to be too many Miata parts left to buy from salvage. A small cost savings doesn't seem worth the extra mess and effort. Someone set me straight.
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Post by snowbird1 on Sept 4, 2017 6:17:31 GMT
Although stripping a Miata can be a bit messy it is a great way to learn about the car and the source of a lot more parts than you will imagine you need. In theory you could get the frames, controls etc from the salvage yard but the time and trouble involved could well be more that a donor strip, a bit depends on how friendly you local salvage yard is.
I would advise a 'quick and dirty' build using the stock Miata parts then upgrading with your race spec components. A Miata/Exocet is very easy to work on.
Where abouts in AZ are you, I am near Bullhead City (or will be later this month) and happy to help where I can.
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Post by gt3m3 on Sept 5, 2017 3:08:46 GMT
Thanks snowbird1. Im in Phoenix year round. I appreciate the input and am looking for NB donors. Starting with the bp engine would likely get me street legal faster, but I can't stop wondering if I could skip the tear down and start ordering and powdercoating right away. When my track car sells I'll have much more room to work, so not in a big hurry yet.
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Post by beardy on Sept 5, 2017 3:50:49 GMT
not even close, but I' working on it...
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Post by jwagner on Sept 5, 2017 17:08:59 GMT
Stripping a car down is a pain and takes time, but when you sell off all the stuff you don't need it can be nearly free. I'm working on a K20 swap since I want to stay under 2 liters.
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Post by rc58 on Sept 5, 2017 18:17:38 GMT
The couple on youtube (search Crossthreaded) who is building one bought a Roller Skate (Rolling chassis without a body) and started there. I dont think its a bad way to go but there is value in the parts that you pull off of a good Miata. I am a few months into my build and paid $2000 for my 2000 with 95k miles hit in the side by a deer. I have recouped 25% of the cost with selling the hood and top. Its been a slow process selling off parts so dont go in thinking you will sell everything in a week.
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Post by nakedbee on Sept 7, 2017 16:16:00 GMT
If you have any questions about the Ecotec let me know as I'm nearly finished with an LE5 build.
If I had to do it all over again I would of found a good running Miata and started there but I had the grand idea of doing an ecotec straight from the get go. I bought a non running but fully intact 90 for $500, used everything I could and actually made $100 off the deal LOL.
Anyway from there I bought a 2008 LE5 with 26K on the clock for $500 and also picked up a solstice AR5 transmission and a CTS getrag diff. Along with that I also bought an E67 ECU and a wiring harness for a solstice from ebay. After realizing my great idea of making my own motor mounts and modding the K member wouldn't work out to plan I broke down and bought the Ecotec Miata mounts and oil Pan along with the V8 roadsters getrag rear diff mount and stage one axles.
You would figure it would be pretty straight forward from here but oh so wrong LOL.
First of all when using the the AR5 transmission with the Ecotec, in normal configuration the motor leans to the passenger side 10%, well.... the Ecotec Miata mounts are setup to keep the engine completely flat. I could only modify the mounts enough to lean the motor 5% before the driver side mount hit the steering rod knuckle thing. This sounds all fine but with the engine flat the trans is leaning to the driver side 10% which makes 5th feel more like 1st, now my 5th feels like 3rd so we will see how that goes.
One good thing is that you can use the oem solstice driveshaft with this configuration with no modifications at all, saved some $$ there.
Oh and that 2.5L Ecotec sounds like a good plan as the exhaust is on the correct side and all but.... and a big but is that the ecotec Miata oil pan will not fit the 2.5. That motor is also much taller, at least under the crank than the 2.4/2.2 etc and I would assume huge clearance issues with the subframe.
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Post by gt3m3 on Sept 8, 2017 22:37:57 GMT
Nakedbee
Sounds like your driveline will be bombproof. How are u integrating the "rear harness" to fuel pump/ brake lights etc to the ecotec ecu? How much of the Miata harness/ fuse/relaybox are used? Any issues connecting the ecotec ecu to the Miata dash? Any thoughts on using the racepack street dash or similar alternative. Thanks.
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Post by nakedbee on Sept 10, 2017 20:44:04 GMT
I pretty much used the entire body harness including the wiring that comes off the steering wheel and routed it into the wiring tray.  (this by no means is complete, still have to tighty everything up and add loom.) The wiring that comes from the GM ecu also is routed to this area and I soldered/heat shrunk everything. Instead of messing around with the stock fuse box I just bought the one above and added the necessary relays. As far as the cluster, I will be using a 10" windows tablet running HP Tuners. The tablet will be my gauges, tuning and radio. |
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