05/19/09 UPDATE: Lucy is debugged as far as we possibly can go. Fixed a fuel leak, oil leak, fuel evap line, coolant leak, loose idler pulley, broken crank sensor wire, etc. It gets picked up tomorrow to go to Atlanta for a customer exhaust from Enthuza.
Big thanks to John Long and Ernie Miller for getting me to this point. Couldn't be done without you guys by any means.
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05/13/09 UPDATE: Thursdays at the shop are normally the most hectic ever. I *hate* thursdays and anyone on my Facebook knows this. Team FTW goes from For The Win to F The World. But....the dash wiring harness that we needed came in on Wednesday so I knew we could fire up the Miata on Thursday.
John did a bang up job finishing up the wiring in record time and when we first tried to crank it over.....nothing. Just crank crank crank, but nothing. We tested for lack of injector pulse and/or spark and got neither. We wondered if our power connection to the PCM was bad, but we doublechecked our wiring and grounds and then went to square 2. Hmm....look at that. The crank sensor behind that starter looks lonely. Yah, we think it needs that harness connector to mate with. Oops. Connected the ckp sensor and tried cranking again and nothing.
Crank crank crank crank and then the battery starts to get weak. We scratch our head a bit more but then wonder if it's just taking longer to prime the fuel to the rail again. We start cranking again and can hear popping in the intake then before you know it the greatest sound in the world, the loudest open-header noise VROOMWOOFLEWOOFLEWOOFLEWOOFLE and I think 3 guys stood around with woodys.
I do have an oil leak to fix tomorrow morning, which should be simple since it's just at the oil cooler line at the block, then we clean up the rest of the wiring in the engine bay, adjust the throttle cable one more time and then get it ready to be shipped to Jason at Enthuzacar for its exhaust.
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05/08/09 UPDATE: Last delay before firing it up. Everything is done, power steering is fabbed and finished and filled, cooling system is done and full of coolant and water wetter, trans has dexron, diff has synthetic 80/90. Wiring is "done", but i'll get to that in a bit. Yesterday we primed the key and got fuel pressure up to the fuel rail. A good sign. A quick fix of a minor fuel leak at the fuel pump and time to debug why no ignition just yet. Apparently the '94 wiring harness on the dash does not mix well with the '95 wiring harness for the engine. I've ordered another '95 wiring harness for the dash and it should be here by wednesday. Another quick rewire and technically it should fire right up. Then it gets aligned, brakes bled and off to Atlanta to Enthuza for the exhaust.
I did have the oil pan modified AGAIN for clearance so I decided to install an oil cooler to help with capacity and cooling. I accomplished this with a simple Hayden cooler connected to a Lingenfelter adaptor just above the filter.
almost done.
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03/31/09 UPDATE: It's go time. We've moved the car from the Georgetown shop to the Round Rock shop for easier access to work/finish. We have a ton of odds and ends to finish up and it's our shop foreman, Ernie Miller, to the rescue. in a 24-hr. timespan, thanks to Ernie, we've now been able to completely mount the radiator and 16" fan, finish the transmission mount, finish the fuel lines and filter with the new fitting, install the throttle cable, install the clutch master cylinder and bleed the system for a good clutch, relocate the front swaybar about a half an inch to clear the crank pulley and start the wiring transformation. *phew* His fab skills are incredible. Of course, he's used to building airplanes, so this is a piece of cake for him.
next: exhaust and wiring!
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03/10/09 UPDATE: More pics! I put in some Dynamat to help with the increase in heat as well as sound :) Yes, it's kinda heavy, but I'm not worried about weight, really. The driveline is here and installed including the CTS diff with 3.42 final drive and beefier axles and driveshaft. Finally got the fuel lines done so now it's just time to lay it all down on the subframes and finish the wiring and attach some hoses, fluids, etc.
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02/06/09 UPDATE: It's been a while since I've updated this page, but since the headers, we have fitted the engine into the bay and it looks fantabulous. We don't want to secure it yet until we get the PS mount from V8Roadsters which will allow us to use the Miata PS pump. We also ordered the driveline kit since the T56 *is* finally here along with our Cadillac CTS-V 3.42 diff. (hey, it's only money, right?) As soon as the mount and the driveline arrives via the big brown truck, it'll be a mad dash effort to put it all together and fire it up.
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01/16/09 UPDATE: Headers are here!
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01/10/09 UPDATE: ok, so the Holidays have had this project on hold for a few weeks but we're slowly getting some things done. We have a new throttlebody, MAF, starter, alternator, clutch hydraulics kit and headers. The framerails are installed which will stiffen up the chassis as well as mount the transmission. The oil pan has been modified beautifully thanks to the incredible work by Andris Laivins http://www.laivins.com (Austin is fortunate to have his skill in our area; and he's a nice guy to boot!) We just need to build the fuel lines and then it all goes into the car. The differential will have to stay stock and we've found a way of doing that by modifying the existing Miata powerplant frame to work with the tranny mount. We may be enlisting the mind of Andris again for that since he's done it for his Lexus V8 Miata. The budget is tight right now, but it's all ready to go in, with the exception of the T56 tranny :( (soon, i hope)
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12/3/08 UPDATE: We finally received the wiring harness from GM and the computer. We need to do some surgery and merge the GM and Mazda harness together so that we have a functioning engine along with the exterior lights, horn, etc. The computer will be sent to Nelson Performance in San Antonio for a little tuning and to get rid of the extra programming garbage from GM that our little monster won't need. (who needs emissions checks anyhow?)
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4 cylinders develop twins.
Chevrolet and Mazda. Two great tastes that taste great together
We decided that a turbo 4-cylinder was fun and giggles and all, but with so many LSx subframe conversion kits out there, and us with an LS6 sitting around doing nothing, it was the natural thing to do.
yes, it maintains 51:49 weight front/rear distribution
yes, it only adds about an additional 140# total
no, we don't plan to race it. yet.
no, we're not upgrading the rubber for better traction. yet.
basically the entire drivetrain will be swapped. Transmission will be a 6-speed T-56 complete with mount and framerail stiffeners, a Cadillac CTS 3.42 rear differential with beefier axles and hubs.
this is just gonna be a street car, completely legal for everyday use and a necessity to keep a smile on my face as I take on the day ahead of me.
