Right, time to start a build thread so I can ask stupid quesions as I work.

Lets go over the list of parts I have on hand.

One, AEM UEGO wideband O2 sensor. Ok, off to a good start.

One, VDO boost gauge. Not bad. It took a while to find one that only went to 15psi.



One, dissasembled and cleaned, HKS BOV. Old.





One, 1990 Miata, in red. Lightly modified. Hmm...



One, 1.6L B6 engine, stock. Also indludes 5 speed and VLSD. No, that's all wrong...



One pile of tubing and hoses....



One pile of brackets... Hmmm... Brackets?



One auxillary rising rate fule pressure regulator. Wait, what? No! Ok, no, I am going to be a good little noob and buy an MS3 and install that first (probably the only thing I will do right in this build). That said, I do have the RRFPR.



One Eaton M45 in need of a rebuild. Wait a second, that's not a turbo, what? This is going all very, very wrong....









Well this hasn't gone well at all...

 

OK, yes. It's a supercharger build. Why? Cause I got the thing dirt cheep and I have always wanted a car that sounded like a Tie Fighter (IE: Had a supercharger). I also love re-building mechanical things, so one that needs the rear bearings replaced and the snout rebuilt is fun. I have the tools to do it. The rotor pack seems to be in fine shape, bearings are good (almost no axial play to speak of), though I don't know how the seals are. I will burn that bridge when I get to it.

Eventually, I do plan to go turbo. So all the supporting mods made will be done in such a way that I can sell the supercharger kit and easily transition to turbo.

This car will mostly be used for puttering around, autocross, and I plan to eventually get out on track with it. I have done one track day in my 2011 Honda Fit and it was a blast, but getting below the rollbar (short legs, long toros, 5'11) is proving difficult.

Plan for this build:
Learn to tune and install MS3x and wideband (There, doing that first like a good little noob. It is where my tax return will go.)
Rebuild the supercharger
Design and build a belt tensioner/idler setup. This kit was for a car with AC and no PS, so it used the unicorn pulley.
Install supercharger and get everything tuned and working as the kit was designed.
Do coolant rerout sometime.
Install overlay pulley and ebay type intercooler, Flow Force injectors, as well as second throttle body to deal with the known supercharger hot side problems.
Possibly make over drive pulley for supercharger.
Hit 8-9ish PSi (fingers crossed) and shoot for 160ish rwhp. Nothing crazy.
Kill clutch.
Replace clutch.
blow up VLSD
Put in torsen.

 

Ok, time for a quick background of this car. (not exactly in chronological order, but close)

Bought it with 116,000 miles on it with a '93 motor in it. Mostly stock except for stereo.



Put some tires on it, took the style bar out and started autocrossing. Much fun was had.



Did a bunch of maintiance, put some koni yellow's on it, installed rollbar.





Build alignment jig, did alignment, more autocross.







Got hard top.



Hit 123456 miles.



Replaced amp, speakers and headunit that the previous owner put in so it would sound decent. (need to replace the wiring still, but it is ok for now. Need to replace the strips of wood the PO glued to the carpet as well. Bah)













Put on a cheap set of FM spring, did more autocross, got new tires!



Rolls bars and diy end links.



Eventually got fed up with the low stancenation type life of sagged first gen FM springs, put on ebay sleeves and summit springs.



Went to car meets, picked up spare VLSD for $40 (becuase $40).









Did timing belt, waterpump and hoses. Found out PO welded the timing sprocket on. Whelp...



And that was last weekend.

More or less how it looks now. (also my friend's turbo 91, that I am keeping a build thread going for as well).

 

Picture of the end links won't show up in the previous post for some reason and I am proud of them, so here they are.



First stupid question.

Does anyone recognize this aftermarket radiator, and is it useable, or a POS? I can't seem to find any info or markings on it.



Second question, well, more of a sanity check.

For the MS3x. After looking through all the guides, I will need the Ms3 kit, the extender board, 72 pin denso connector and GM IAT sensor to build/install it. I just want to make sure that is all and I am not missing anything.

 

Found a torsen sooner than expected. Supposed to be 155k miles out of a 2005 MSM. And yes, it came with the unobtanium axles. Only reason I considered it. Ended up being $540. Little more than I wanted to spend, but it was local. So now I don't have to worry about that.

I will need a driveshaft though, anyone know a good source for a cheap 1.8 driveshaft?

 

I don't like cheap,

Miata Driveshaft

 

You are supposed to pop the spring perches off before you put the sleeves on.

 

Maybe someday, for now, a used one will have to do. I need to save up for Xidas (buying this diff is totally helping with that. )

Normally yes, but with the very small diameter of the koni yellows, there would be no way to make the sleeve sit on the clip ring without making a perch of some sort. So I elected, through lazyness, to leave the stock ones on, rather than make my own. Also, I don't know if it can be seen, but there are three set screws at the top of the sleeve that hold it centered (they have loctite to keep them from moving around). So far it is working well, did 6 autocross events with RE-71R and nothing moved/broke. So I am considering that a success.

I am going to attempt to not spend any more on the suspension until I can save up for Xidas (doing terribly at the saving part...).

 

Junkyard?

 

that's the plan, but most miata's in the north east end up at planet miata before they hit the junk yards. I will be keeping an eye out though.

 

Junkyard: Check Philadelphia CL. There's always a few Junkyard Miatas on there.

 

Sweet, I will look in that area.

Looks like my choices nearby are one for $95 at the local junkyard (if they actually have it, it's on car-part) and the rest are 150+. Had no idea driveshafts were so expensive?

 

i had a 1.6 with an M45, drove the **** out of it and never had a problem with it but i had an IC bigger injectors, an MS1 and a good tune. The car was quick but not fast

 

Then I drove the **** out of it and put a turbo in it that made 240 hp at 11.5psi....drove the **** out of it even more until the throttle body shaft snapped, sold the engine/turbo and the new owner is driving it still... it won't die!

 

I have actually watched that video more than once. The sound is wonderful. The end plan is m45, intecooler, injectors, dual throttle body and rag on it. I have been trying to set this car up so it is capable, but doesn't bite, if that makes sense. My friend's who have co-drove it so far at autocross have said that it has been a success. Very easy to drive right out of the gate. I figure, for someone still learning that will be best.

As far as quick, but not fast. I am very fine with that. The thing still gets ahead of me at autocross as it is. In the group I hang out with though, my friends all say I have the fastest car if we aren't in a strait line.

The only reason I am interested in changing the diff out, is that the other goal is to make something that can just get beat on without worry. To that end, I have decided to deal with throwing belts rather than spending $$$ on manifolds and hardware, at least until I actually learn to drive. *puts on flame suit*

Also, mind if I ask what pulley ratio you were running?

240 at 11.5? Goodness, that makes me scared for what my friend's 91 might actually do! I have heard about the throttle body shafts, but have not found a solution that is known to work to keep that from happening.

 

My sc was an old unit with the big nose pulley, i dont know the ratio but i used a trackdog overlay pulley except when tracking it, it made 9psi with it at 4500 rmp and then droped to 7psi at 7k. Either way you want to use an ic with it, that sc does a better job at heating the air than at building boost.
I had a torsen with a 4.1:1 in it.
Good luck

 

This is all wonderful news, since it is nearly the exact setup I will be using. I also have the older supercharger with the nose pulley noone makes, as well as a TDR overlay I found local and cheep, so I grabbed it. The MSM Torsen is supposed to be 4.1 as well. Intercooler is on the list to do before the TDR pulley goes on. I do plan to try it sans intercooler at the stock boost level though (want to get data points for temperature and such)

I plan to see how small of a pulley I can make for it in the future, but that project is a while off. Probably the 67.5 that the 1.8 kits came with is the smallest, I might ne able to eek out 1-2mm smaller, but would need to do measurements. It would really be raising the intake temperature though doing that.

Looks like this will be very close to what I want.

I also just found your picassa album that you linked on m.net while doing an unrelated search. That radiator and intercooler looked wonderful. Nice fab work!

 

Wrong thread

 

Finished cleaning and fixing up the BOV. Supposedly an original, but old, HKS? Seems to pass all the fake/real things I can find. It was cheap enough it doesn't mater either way though.

So, this thing was caked in RTV. Some days I think you should have to pass an IQ test before being allowed to buy RTV... Slathering a worn out o-ring with it does not fix things.









Also, whoever took it apart to put the RTV on it just grabbed the valve shaft with a pair of pliers or something...



Anyway, ran all the parts through our ultrasonic at work with some Citranox, cleaned the valve shaft up with a file carefully, and then used (carefully) a fine wire wheel to clean up all the RTV. Came out well, I think.





And the Flash Gordan ship... I mean blow off valve, is back together. Need to pressure test it at some point.



I left the "patina" on it instead of really shining it up, partly because "aint nobody got time for that" and partly because I don't want it to stick out like a sore thumb in the engine bay.

 

Found a deal on a used, Braineack built MS3x. Ended up being less than if I had bought the MS3 kit and expander. I'm not afrade of electronics assembly (built a decent amount of equiptment for work) but pre-built and cheaper? Not passing that up.

Time to re-read the megamanual and download the softare.