If I had that kind of space to work in I could accomplish anything.

 

Back when I was buying the lines, my thinking was that IF the hydraulic fittings were strong enough for that level of pressure and an industrial environment, then they should work fine for my application. Yes, not as strong as the AN, but definitely an upgrade from barbs and hose clamps. That said, I ran an oil cooler on my ITA Miata that used barb and hose clamps for a full season and never had an issue.

 

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RF and RR are going to the owner of the SM I now have ride in.

 

Sweet garage and sweet resurrection! What happened to the LE interior as from that last pic, it looked like you put a black one back in? I loved that combo, and I almost bought a silverstone just so I could do the same!

 

Once I got the dash out I could see that it was cracked in multiple places. That said, I've got can of SEM red color coat that is supposedly a good match for recreating an LE dash. Driver's seat was already worn and now has a hole in it, so that should be replaced too. The rest of the interior is in usable condition and on the shelf. But that'll come later. I'm focused on getting the driveline over to the chassis and making some improvements in the process.

 

Ahem, what is going on with this!

 

^^^^ im back in the states. just got through catching up on the updates, also wondering if you've had any new progress

 

Well, I got the oil pan off the engine to reseal it. Between work, kids and trying to get some bids for the backyard project I haven't had any time. Period. I thought I might get to it this month, but was approached about offering it up as a FreeEMS platform (open source diy engine management- forum here). I was involved (did the fuel tune) in the first ever install/tune of FreeEMS, so there's a special connection.

This means I don't have to do anything for an engine management install- which I would have to do with the LINK from the crusher. So it's sitting until the end of this month when the FreeEMS guys will show up for the install. After that I'll pull the stock 1.6 and associated parts.

 

is fred coming back to the states??

 

Quite possibly.

Here's what I did instead of work on this project

 

Got a full day (9-4) in on the new car. Removed the nose, hood, headlight covers, engine, trans, driveline and rear subframe with attachments. Just going to bolt up my old sub since it's got the 1.8 parts.

 

Glad to see more progress!!!

 

I'm beyond jealous of your work space. Glad to see some new updates!

 

This is manly ****.

 

Agreed. Id much rather be racing than working on my project as well. Its gonna be hard taking my car bumper to bumper like this with the risk of damage after all the work I've put in on it..

 

Now that everything is pulled, I can start working on the changes to be done before the engine goes back in whenever I find blocks of time. First things on the list are mod'ing the subframe crossover to make some vertical space for the oil pan, mod'ing the oil pan accordingly, following yank/dc's designs on the pickup to reduce the front end height of the oil pan, and new motor mount solution to get the engine lower so I don't have to shim.

After pulling the 1.6 yesterday, I checked out the motor mount location on the block and realized just how much of the engine is cantilevered forward of the mounts as delivered stock. My assumption from this is that the as long as the transmission is supported sufficiently/properly, then the engine/trans work as an assembly for total support. And this is a 1.6, so I'm assuming a 1.8 has even more mass forward of the mounts.


I'm supposed to be back in that car beginning of October and it just got smacked around last weekend at Charlotte (no fault of the owner/driver- that's just SM). I opted out from this weekend just because the risk in the sprints is higher. I have some parts for it, but the ***-end will be getting pulled, cut, welded...

 

Engine mass ahead of the mounts does not really matter per se. What matters is when the mass is forward of the axle centerline. Mazda found much improvement when they shoved the NC engine 5.3 inches rearward compared to the NA / NB cars. I have long thought that the Miata engine in the earlier cars could be moved backward to good advantage. And lowered. The Miata would *love* having something like a 48% front / 52% rear weight bias. Especially for those guys with actual torque.

 

I know you said "per se" which would mean relative to the mount itself - but I think you meant in relation to the entire vehicle balance. But in relation to the mount itself (bushing & mount assembly) I'd think that having the a larger load cantilevered beyond the mount would be much harder on the bushings- and everything else managing that load. I'm not an engineer, but I'd be far more comfortable with the upper mounting point than the lower in this pic.

 

The drivetrain includes more mounts than just those on the engine.

Some folks believe that cantilevered mounts affect the weight on the front wheels. They don't affect it at all.

What matters is where the various masses are located, not how they are retained.

 

I think we're all on the same page as far as overall weight distribution of the car. like you say, its not where its mounted, its where its located with respect to the wheels/contact point with the ground. To M2s point tho you are correct in that by mounting the engine mounts further forward there would be less load on them possibly returning longer life. since you don't have a trans mount like us TII guys you'd just be transferring more load to the rear diff through the torque arm.
.. just an engineering students thoughts.