project ride the cheekbone
#485
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Did a thing over the long weekend. Stefanst had graciously offered to supervise the DIY bilstein suspension build and help with the install. I took a study break to go do so.
Started out by sanding the rust off the shocks and getting ready to paint them
Taking over my mom's back yard. It's been nice to be home with a dog and a nice back yard.
I bought metallic silver paint. It came out like glitter. Stefanst offered to get me rainbow stickers for them. Sadly, he was kidding.
I did forget to tape up the rods, but managed to get all the paint splatter off with brake cleaner and a rag.
Assembly line. We ended up not using the newly cut grooves for the spacers since I wanted to stay around stock ride height.
Almost done!
Anddd in!
Thanks again to Stefanst for all the help and guidance and hangouts when I've been sick of the books while I'm home. Also huge thanks to bahurd and the DIY thread folks for all the help getting the things I needed together. One of Stefanst's friends has an awesome machine shop and cut the grooves in my shocks when we were all hanging out there. And the he let us work in the shop area after he was done for the day so we didn't have to be out in the rain.
So... I forgot to measure what my ride height was pre-install. Does anyone know what the stock ride height is for a base NB1? My driveway back in MA is stupid and there's no way I'm getting my car up there if it's lowered by more than half an inch or so. I was thinking of using keith's ride height from the targa miata, which was 14F/14.5R as a starting point. I think that's probably just about stock, no? Either that or starting with 13.5F/14R and evaluating based on how ridiculous it is to pull into the garage back home.
Pretty stoked to get an alignment give this thing a bit of a break in. Steering wheel is basically cross eyed right now haha.
I'm honestly really happy with the car right now. I know I'm not even close to taking advantage of the power capacity of the stock engine, let alone Todd's turbo setup, but I'll install EBC and get around to tuning that when I get time. The spring Todd had in the EWG maxes out at around 7 PSI, so I'd like to end up with a 7-12 PSI range for the EBC. Should end up in the 220-230 range max. The 160-170 it's at right now is pretty awesome for a DD. I'll have to do a bunch of things to get underhood heat controlled before running it at 12 for any appreciable time. Probably starting with some shielding for the turbo and manifold. It's a bit hard to put together because of the EWG so I'll have to get some metal, reflective shielding, and get creative with a dremel to cut something out in a decent shape to stop everything in there from melting. I know the singular hood vents help force air through the radiator, but I'll have to do some digging to figure out if there's ways to do things so the heat from the back gets sucked out a bit more. Guessing the additional ventilation from the singular vents probably help push the hot air around the manifold and turbo back through the opening for the exhaust.
As an aside, there's this picture. I've confirmed that the joins for the feed aren't leaking oil. Where could this be coming from? I thought oil leaking from the turbo seals would show up in the exhaust?
Did a thing over the long weekend. Stefanst had graciously offered to supervise the DIY bilstein suspension build and help with the install. I took a study break to go do so.
Started out by sanding the rust off the shocks and getting ready to paint them
Taking over my mom's back yard. It's been nice to be home with a dog and a nice back yard.
I bought metallic silver paint. It came out like glitter. Stefanst offered to get me rainbow stickers for them. Sadly, he was kidding.
I did forget to tape up the rods, but managed to get all the paint splatter off with brake cleaner and a rag.
Assembly line. We ended up not using the newly cut grooves for the spacers since I wanted to stay around stock ride height.
Almost done!
Anddd in!
Thanks again to Stefanst for all the help and guidance and hangouts when I've been sick of the books while I'm home. Also huge thanks to bahurd and the DIY thread folks for all the help getting the things I needed together. One of Stefanst's friends has an awesome machine shop and cut the grooves in my shocks when we were all hanging out there. And the he let us work in the shop area after he was done for the day so we didn't have to be out in the rain.
So... I forgot to measure what my ride height was pre-install. Does anyone know what the stock ride height is for a base NB1? My driveway back in MA is stupid and there's no way I'm getting my car up there if it's lowered by more than half an inch or so. I was thinking of using keith's ride height from the targa miata, which was 14F/14.5R as a starting point. I think that's probably just about stock, no? Either that or starting with 13.5F/14R and evaluating based on how ridiculous it is to pull into the garage back home.
Pretty stoked to get an alignment give this thing a bit of a break in. Steering wheel is basically cross eyed right now haha.
I'm honestly really happy with the car right now. I know I'm not even close to taking advantage of the power capacity of the stock engine, let alone Todd's turbo setup, but I'll install EBC and get around to tuning that when I get time. The spring Todd had in the EWG maxes out at around 7 PSI, so I'd like to end up with a 7-12 PSI range for the EBC. Should end up in the 220-230 range max. The 160-170 it's at right now is pretty awesome for a DD. I'll have to do a bunch of things to get underhood heat controlled before running it at 12 for any appreciable time. Probably starting with some shielding for the turbo and manifold. It's a bit hard to put together because of the EWG so I'll have to get some metal, reflective shielding, and get creative with a dremel to cut something out in a decent shape to stop everything in there from melting. I know the singular hood vents help force air through the radiator, but I'll have to do some digging to figure out if there's ways to do things so the heat from the back gets sucked out a bit more. Guessing the additional ventilation from the singular vents probably help push the hot air around the manifold and turbo back through the opening for the exhaust.
As an aside, there's this picture. I've confirmed that the joins for the feed aren't leaking oil. Where could this be coming from? I thought oil leaking from the turbo seals would show up in the exhaust?
#488
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Join Date: Aug 2016
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So need less oil pressure into the turbo, right?
Would a larger drain line help even if the fitting size into the pan isn't changed? I know that's garretts first rec. Or do I just need to get a smaller OD fitting for the oil feed where it meets the turbo?
Would a larger drain line help even if the fitting size into the pan isn't changed? I know that's garretts first rec. Or do I just need to get a smaller OD fitting for the oil feed where it meets the turbo?
#490
I'm more concerned about the lack of helper/tender spring sliders, myself. That's a really bad idea.
#496
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Interesting...
What's the risk of not running the sliders? Binding?
I have delrin washers beneath the helpers. Have 4 more spares I could have run between the spring and PU isolators but didn't think that was necessary.
About the rears being on the new grooves for the circlips... It's possible I goldfished, but I think the height adjustment worked fine so we left it.
What's the risk of not running the sliders? Binding?
I have delrin washers beneath the helpers. Have 4 more spares I could have run between the spring and PU isolators but didn't think that was necessary.
About the rears being on the new grooves for the circlips... It's possible I goldfished, but I think the height adjustment worked fine so we left it.