Shucks...have a 3.90 sitting out there waiting to go in...should have gone the other direction.

 

looking good dude. maybe clean it up a little inside?

 

I'll gladly trade you my torsen 4.10 for it

 

PMed

 

Workin on it...it's still unfinished as I just put in the carpet and painted the dash. Wrapping up trim pieces now. It was HORRIBLE before.

 

Lower.....4.44.

 

They dash looks too shinny maybe you should have painted it flat black? Or is it just the picture

 

The contrast between the dash and center console isn't really as bad as pic shows.

I did use the gloss black as I was afraid of how flat would turn out...it has about twice the glare as the OEM pieces...but it works for me. I was just sick and tired of tan...all three shades of it. Two shades of black is much better.

I really have just been slapping stuff together though due to lack of time. Main goal was to get it ready for winter (defrost etc) since I was running around with nothing but a dash-bar.

I really like it...and for the first time in years it feels like a complete...clean car.



Last night I use the same vinyl and fabric paint on the faded passenger seat and it turned out nice...atleast until my daughter sat in it. It is usually sitting in garage in front of car for her to sit there and "help" me while turning wrenches. She walked out there while I thought I was alone and plopped down. Man was her mom mad! Spent five minutes scrubbing her elbows and hands.

 

I just remember that you took your rear sway bar out? Why did you do that?

 

It's back in right now...serves as a "fuse" for the stock 6" rear end until I can swap in the 3.90. Basically causes me to slide before I'd put enough stress on diff to blow it.

When I ran without it I definitely had more rear traction coming out of corners.

 

Got it! I've been running my 1.6 at 15psi with no problems so far. I do have an open 1.8 in the garage but I've been lazy to swap it. I guess I should cause I hate these 4.3 gears

 

Do you hate acceleration?

 

I've cleaned up the interior a LOT more...

But have mainly been working on other things:

MSM SPRINGS



Cut one coil off the Mazdaspeeds which put me right back at 13.0/13.25, and installed 36mm FCM bumpstops. Not near as stiff as I thought it would be...and didn't hit my comfort OR handling targets, so I may make some more custom perches to seat eBay collars with QA1 springs (suspension redux VII).



COOLANT REROUTE



Dropped average coolant temps ~10*. I used to stay between 207*F and the 215* MS limit, and it now stays right at 198*, with an occasional rise to 203*.

I thought about doing a detailed write-up, but will save the effort since it was simple really. If anyone wants details they can PM and I'll post pics of hose numbers, where I cut, and how I routed.

I swapped the waternecks and went spacerless...but I would go with a spacer for the heater core supply if I could do it over. The rear neck puts the ECU sensor right into the front cam gear cover, and I had to remove that cover. I didn't like having the wiring that close to the gears:



and I later found another reason to hate removing that cover - https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t29408-6/#post484351

The extra hose is ugly, but hasn't really gotten in my way at all, even when I was resetting the timing belt.



UP NEXT:

-I've also begun a DevilsOwn WI install...but can't work out some issue with the trigger for the relay. Everything is in and wired up...but when I plug in the relay the pump stays on. This is with the pressure switch feed on "Normally Open" tab. If I switch to the "NC" tab the pump never comes on. I am thoroughly confused by all this...and ready to spray the "super blue."

-I've also got a beat up low pro headlight kit I'm going to clean up, replace bulbs in and install.

-Roll bar is out at the moment until I can put proper padding on it.

-More chassis stiffening in the works, as well as a stereo install as I can no longer live without music

-TIRES Mounted some 215/40ZR16 Kumho SPTs on OEM 16x6.5s and will put them on car soon. Hopefully be able to go forward instead of sideways when I roll into the throttle in second gear now.

 

Could you route the heater core line around the intake side? Zip tie it to the main hose, it'll look much cleaner since it's already going that direction. You could also get rid of that finger tight hose clamp.

 

I did replace the finger tights...just had some sitting in garage and ran out of good ones. God I hate those things...look like a good idea...but always leak.



My problem with routing around intake manifold was the sharp angle you'd have to make to get it to go over the copper line. It would rub either head, valve cover, manifold or heat shield.

Now, if you put a little pipe connection back there to mate with the factory hose or other molded elbow it would work.

 

You could use that spring trick that M-tuned uses on their reroute kit to avoid the kink.

 

Haven't seen it...just a coil around the hose though I'd imagine...still awfully tight. Now that I've cut that piece I don't think I have enough slack to go back and change it.

I've got a blank spacer sitting on the shelf that I'll get around to machining one day. I want it to have a heater core feed nipple, ECU sensor spot, and standard water temp gauge sensor spot.

 

Coil goes inside actually, instructions with pictures on are their site.

 

Let's see some pics with the new wheels.

 

Still just cell phone pics.

Been raining too much to wash it...so can't justify pulling out my wife's new Canon.











Also got the water injection working...turned out to be a dead Nason pressure switch. I replaced it with a 4psi Hobbs NO, which looks like it's closing at 5-6psi. This is good since I was going to set the adjustable at 7-8psi, but the next step up in a Hobbs was 10psi, and it wasn't in stock at NAPA.

I've already advanced timing about 20% (5*+ in boost), and am a little more aggressive than Scott's old Super 60 Map. I plan to get close to Hustler's numbers (timing advance map, not dyno) when I actually pull out the det cans.



Also got another Tbird turbo in yesterday. These have a larger compressor than my RHB5, and are a common upgrade in the IHI world. This one has minimal shaft play, and was supposedly rebuilt about 5K miles ago. I had a beat up one on the shelf I was going to rebuild, but I may just run this one and see if it doesn't **** the bed.

I plan to make the jump from 12 to 15psi soon. Will work on it after finals since the compressor inlet is a little different and won't work with the BEGi pipes.