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It was 2 degrees F this morning, but a package from across the pond warmed my heart today
Packaged quite nicely Obligatory cat inspection Old housing is a lot cleaner. I was going to take this apart and clean and reseal it anyways, so might as well swap housings 4.1 on left, 3.6 on right — will pop the axles in and count rotation to confirm 3.6 when I get the chance
Also got the weldable diff braces from Miatacage and some competition diff mounts. Plan to clean it, have it welded, do the seals, and paint everything with the same stuff I used on the transmission
I have someone local interested in the 4.1 Torsen for $700, anyone wanna beat that?
diff bushings kinda sucked to get out, found best success with air chisel turned up to 120 and folding the inner metal on itself starting with the split spots
Got the miatacage reinforcement welded in (thanks Napp Motorsports) Cleaned up the housing the best I could with degreaser, scrubbers, steel wool, and some air tools. Cleaned up the diff mount bores a little, seemed like some of the old bushing metal was stuck in there and wanted the new ones to go in nicely Love this tractor paint, has held up great on the transmission
will let this dry a bit, flip it and hit the other side and then get the new seals, bushings, and fluid in and slap it back in the car.
It is "Majic tractor truck and implement paint" that I get at Tractor Supply -- oil based, good stuff. I got it in a spray can for this, but they have brush-on too. Used it on transmission, head, and block and everything has held up great the past year with multiple heat cycles. I know its just a diff, but it can't hurt and looks WAY better than when I got it... even if nobody ever sees it
Picking away it on weekends, got sent the wrong axle nuts so just waiting on those to get it back on some wheels
Good enough! Just love the kraken exhaust
Next weekend:
- 180deg thermostat
- clean up the front where it kissed something
- supermiata radiator and hose
im also trying to find a 3.9 speedo gear, but am having trouble finding a straight answer
For a 6 speed in an NA chassis, am I able to just replace the speedo drive gear to the 3.9 gear (yellow I think) or do I have to get the housing which offsets the gear to be able to engage? I know with the 3.6 gear, that’s the route, but unsure about the 3.9. Anecdotally it seems the 3.9 with 225 tires appears to be a little closer to actual speed, so would be really happy if it’s just a quick change and i don’t need to buy the housing… any insight?
Fit my old fans to it without much issue — might go back to stock fans, not sure yet Fits nicely Tried to make sure my intercooler is level this year, it somehow got off center last year and drove me nuts so secured it better this time
got the 180 deg thermostat in, wasn’t too bad of a job
swapped out the redline transmission fluid for the magical ford stuff
I ordered the blackbird fabworx aluminum coolant reroute hard pipe and should be here this week, so will be nice to get the coolant system back together
and sold the 4.1 Torsen to a somewhat local forum member for 750 so happy with what that swap cost me overall
not super scientific, I know, but some small changes *feel* better!
High boost canister, straight wastegate Old log of medium canister (8.8psi max straight wastegate) PTP blanket and fresh FM air filter With blanket, high boost canister, and fresh filter
Boost really does seem to come on sooner, I attribute this more to having an appropriate spring weight for the wastegate, but did notice temps were cooler with the blanket (oil and water)
still burning a little oil, thinking it’s valve stem seals on cyl2 possibly but going to run it until winter and then tear down. Smoke and oil loss is minimal after fixing pcv, car runs strong so sending it!
What's the diameter and part number for that filter?
Also, got a lot done on this since the last update but no pictures, trying to button up the intercooler piping and bleed the coolant since we are going to hit 70 in Rochester this week -- another week or two for the salt to wash away and its Miata season again finally
The routing of the top coolant hose is SO much better, the blackbird fabworx hard pipe is nice -- super simple, probably could have made it way cheaper, but this was easy mode all back together, I would like to make an intake airbox like the FM one I had on the previous setup. The extra length of the EFR pushes it forward and doesn't work with the FM box, might try to modify it ~2k on the engine build
Got the car back together and out for a couple shakedowns:
The 3.6 is great, makes the 6 speed more usable, revs are down at highway speed significantly
With 3.6, indicated speed is 60 = 66mph gps, indicated 70 = 77mph so I would like to fix that, trying to read up on building a mechanical sender but meh
Coolant and oil temps are WAY down, very very pleased with this
Before I was seeing 210-220 coolant temps and high oil temps 240ish on the highway just cruising at 70mph
Now with Supermiata Rad and 185 thermostat I am between 175-195 coolant and oil between 210-220 at 75mph -- makes me way more comfortable and confident I can push the car a little = more fun
I currently have a 3.63 rear gear with a 4.10 Speedo gear in my 6 speed. With a 245/40r15 tire my speedometer is closer to being correct than it was with the 4.10 rear gears. It’s off my maybe ~2mph cruising at 80mph.
I currently have a 3.63 rear gear with a 4.10 Speedo gear in my 6 speed. With a 245/40r15 tire my speedometer is closer to being correct than it was with the 4.10 rear gears. It’s off my maybe ~2mph cruising at 80mph.
I am on 225x9 but will need new tires this year so might consider 245s -- certainly an option, 2mph I can tolerate