Hey everyone. Been putting this thread off for a while out of laziness, so there is a lot to update all in one go. Hope you all enjoy this thread as much as I am enjoying the build.

So let me start off with a few photos of my car. The car is a 1994 C Package with ABS. I purchased the car 2 years ago, with 117,000 miles. It's an OEM (original paint!) Brilliant Black, with original factory hardtop with headliner and defroster. The car came with an inch of maintenance records, roughly 4 owners. Decently clean car, no frame damage, no structural rust. The car came with a hard dog ace roll bar, TR Motorsports 15x7 wheels, and FM Vmaxx xxxxxxxtreeme (****).

I threw some 15x8 RPF1's, Dunlop Direzza ZII 205's, lots of fun interior bits (garagestar, revlimiter), FM frame rails and a few other stuff.


This quote is taken from post 2, to make it easy for people viewing the thread to see.




After a compression/leakdown test gave me 157, 160, 130, 160 numbers, I seriously contemplated starting a serious build with the car. Then this happened.



Blessing in disguise. This damage caused me to rip the car apart and go all out with it. I bought a super clean OEM brilliant black door, and started ripping **** out.






Started laying down this thermo-tec supressor, and cleaning up all the surface rust around the car.




Swapping the wiring over from the 1.8 dash bar to the 1.6 dash bar for my NA6 dash swap.





Garagestar Fender Braces


DIYRoadster Door Bars and Blackbird GT3

 

And now the fun stuff begins. For the turbo build, here's my parts list.

I sourced a JDM BP4W block, 40-50k miles, and 190 compression across the board with 0-1% cylinder leakdown. Keeping it stock internals.

Running a Haltech Elite 750 ECU with Boomslang Harness.

Turbo Kit

• Fuel Injector Clinic 650cc
• FM DIY Kit
  • FM Manifold, Downpipe, Turbo Inlet
  • Garrett GT2560R w/ Inconel Studs
  • Intercooler and Piping
  • Custom Braided Lines with AN Fittings (ditched the rubber lines near the turbo)
• Innovate MTX-L Wideband
• Enthuzacar Turbo Racer 3" with 2.5" to 3" test pipe

For the supporting mods, I have these:

Bracing

• Blackbird Fabworx GT3 Rollbar
• DIYRoadster Door Bars
• FM Frame Rails
• Garagestar Fender Braces

Suspension

• 949 Racing Supermiata Endlinks
• 949 Racing Xida; 700/400 w/ Spherical top mounts
• Flyin' Miata Rubber Bushing Replacement
• Flyin' Miata Sway Bars

Clutch

• FM Stage 1, with Flywheel (Happy Meal)

Cooling

• 949 Racing Coolant Reroute
• 949 Racing Crossflow Radiator

As well as pretty much all engine seals, new hoses here and there, fresh undercoating, heat shielding, etc etc. Lots of little stuff. Do it right, do it once.

And now, more pictures!




Cleaned, inside and out, all seals redone, Cometic head gasket with ARP headstuds, JDM BP4W.




Old engine coming out. Now before I get **** for not doing the work myself, I am not a natural wrench. I love driving, and wrenching is good fun too, but I am not confident in my abilities to properly set up a car. I would much rather trust the car to my buddy Richie and his techs, who have done this exact job millions of times on a **** ton of Miata's. VL Motorsports in Livermore, CA. In their yard you will find a few FD RX7's; FB's, and FC's, turbo and supercharged Miata's, a rack full of 10 or so rotors and rotor housings. These guys are good. Shameless plug. They use Haltech Elite's in all their cars. They use a dynapack dyno.







Good fun!

 

Just wanted to share Richard's car. He is one of the owners of VL Motosports. Thought many would enjoy checking it out.

It is running a built 1.6 (I know I know, many here will disagree. He built it as an experiment, but I'll let him chime in and comment on it. )
It is the Begi Alpha Omega Kit, GT2860, Ohlins Suspension, some stiff *** clutch.

And of course, (in progress) running a Haltech Elite.

 

Build looks promising, and I can always appreciate a clean black and tan. You and I seem to share a similar philosophy of "Buy once, cry once.", although I can't say that I've done a good job of executing upon such idealism thus far. Good luck with the build!

 

Thanks! Forgot to mention, I've converted the black and tan to an all black interior, with an NA6 dash. No 90's ****(air)bag weight and a much cleaner look. Going for a spartan minimal interior, but a complete interior. It is a street car after all.

 

I love seeing all the nice details for street use, like replacement rubber bushings instead of poly. If you don't go all the way with the bronze sleeves, rubber is definitely the way to go over the plain ES kit.

PM me if you need to borrow a press to get those in

 

Thanks, yeah I don't need constant squeaks. The car is setup does have compromises in terms of NVH and comfort already, but I thought the constant reminders that I have poly bushings would get old fast.

I'll definitely keep ya in mind!

 

Couple more fun photos.

700/400 Xidas



And of course my turbocharger.

 

A couple photos showing some thought process behind the parts I decided to go with. (BP4W and FM DIY Kit)

BP05 Head vs. BP4W Head flow angles.



I know anyone can fab a cold air box like this up, so this really isn't a Flyin' Miata shill post, but they had a great image on their website of the thermal readings when using a properly set up cold air box. This combined with the (soundly engineered) NACA duct headlight should be real good for intake temperatures.




And while I anxiously await my car being ready to drive, here's a shot of a car I saw. 993 Carrera 4S with what looked like a pretty rare package. Carbon buckets among other little trim pieces here and there.

 

Nice build! I sent Richard an Elite 750 Base map for a 1.6l recently. Must have been yours or his.

 

I think it was one of the tech's cars. I actually drove that car with half the tune finished, felt awesome at 156whp. Richie finished the tune and pulled 180whp :-)

Here's a video engine getting pulled at VL.
>5mins

 

Did you have any trouble with the DIY door bars lining up with the holes for the BBFW roll bar? Still haven't installed my roll bar yet, and would love to add door bars.

 

I did have issues getting the DIY Roadster door bars and Blackbird Fabworx bar to play nice.

What I would recommend is to have your BBFW bar completely installed besides the main hoop (the part that drills into the panel behind the seats where the DIYRoadster bars will be going). Have someone hold the bar out towards the door sill to where it will be bolted on the floor, and then just drill through both bars on the rear deck. The drill bit will just take the path of least resistance.

I originally drilled through the blackbird bar, then tried slotting the DIYRoadster bar into it. It was much more difficult to get it done with the hole already drilled in the rear deck.

 

Beautiful!

 

Couple photos of the car as it get's finished with it's engine swap, and getting ready for smog.

Pretty 949 suspension components visible. Also now sporting a 949 sport puck sprung clutch with flywheel.


And the BP4W in it's currently unbuttoned state.

 

Okay. Took my car out for a drive today, completely bone stock NB engine with all emissions equipment, stock exhaust, etc to pass smog.

The car has a stupefying amount of drivetrain noise.

949 10lb flywheel, garagestar delrin mounts, AWR engine mounts.

What's the biggest culprit lol?

And to all the dudes who pushed me to 700/400 Xidas, they are brutal. I've got them on 5/6 clicks. I am strongly considering dropping to the 550/350 rates.

 

awr mounts likely biggest

 

I have Xidas with 700/400 rates, too, and I think they're more comfortable than the Koni yellows/ FM springs that they replaced. However, I did go with the NB top hats, so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

Aside from the (still important) decision on whether you need that much spring rate, try full soft on the damping. Gotta explore the full range.

 

^ What he said. Just run full soft on the street and report back.

Also the delrin mounts transfer a boatload of diff noise. All sorts of clanks and bangs, especially on decel.