1990 Miata Build by switched

7 minute(s) of a 297 minute read

then I installed the fuel injectors, dual feed fuel rail, fuel lines, injector wiring harness, and intake manifold. I'm not 100% sure where I'm going to mount the section of fuel rail holding the fpr yet



More to come this weekend.

1/14/2009

Nothing new to report on the car just yet, but I thought I'd give an update anyways. I got 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my right hand on New Year's Eve from a big firework exploding accidentially in my hand (long story, no I didn't light it, and no I don't feel like typing it all out ) so I can't do the things I would like to be able to. Ive been taking it easy for a while to let it heal, but I just went last night and picked up the bumpers and fenders and a couple other misc. pieces that I'm going to prep and paint. I'm going nuts from not doing anything productive anymore. I figure I should be able to do this with only 1 hand (i'm left handed so at least I have that going for me). I am planning on starting tongiht after work, so hopefully I will have more to report.

2/2/2009

Very small update:

The car is back on the ground, after being on jack stands for over a year! It will be going right back up on them once I am finished with the lift/axles for my jeep though #-o . I had to move it to make room for my jeep in the garage. I did take a few pics though. This will most likely end up being the ride height. It's a little hard to see without fenders, bumpers, etc., but damn does it look good! Please hold all of the "your tires are too small" comments. Yes I know they are too small and they will be replaced, but not for the time being. When my bank account stops getting beaten I'll replace them.



I fell in love with it all over again seeing it for the first time on the ground with the wheels on it.

Here's a shot showing how wide the rims are



2/17/2009

shot of the engine bay from above...



Still a lot more to do. Still working on my jeep, so progress on the car has come to a screeching halt.

7/6/2009

back from the dead. So the jeep is done, I'm a happily married man and I've been to Hawaii. Time to start focusing on the miata again. I'm a little torn about what to do though. Looking for opinions.

What I have remaining:

1. fab up downpipe, exhaust
2. redo intercooler piping (didn't like the way it turned out)
3. order megasquirt
4. paint/bodywork
5. buy battery
6. misc. ods and ends (oil feed line is too long, route vacuum lines, couple wiring issues, etc)
7. fill with fluids

I'm almost there, but am getting worried about engine break in with all the new stuff. I am toying with the idea of buying an OEM, or dare I say it, one of those crappy ebay headers for the sole purpose of breaking in the engine and making sure all my wiring changes actually work, then once the motor is broken in, put the turbo stuff back on and head to the dyno. I still have the 1.6l injectors and ECU, and I'm sure I could rig up something to get me by for an exhaust. Thoughts?

9/5/2009

I finally have something worth writing down! I recently towed the car to my house so I can start working on it again. Here's it's new home:



I'm still in the unpacking/organizing stage, so it's a bit of a mess in there. I picked up some 17s to use as rollers so when the cars at the exhaust and body shops I won't have to worry about them being damaged/stolen



Anyways, I'm excited to get back into it, it's been far too long!

9/9/2009

Just ordered a Megasquirt from Braineack over on miataturbo with:

-standalone harness
-AFM delete
-4 bar map sensor

Gonna do work this weekend, so I'll have more to update then.

9/12/2009

this weekend made some backward progress:

yanked the tranny back out, cleaned it up and painted it.
yanked the motor back out
took off all the crap in the way of the oil pump and installed a set of billet oil pump gears. 8500 rpm better be worth it! Planning to have the motor back in the car by next weekend.

I was in the zone, so I forgot to take pics. Here are a couple:

I scored a low mileage TII tranny, so since I was pulling it anyways, I decided to go ahead and swap it in and use my current one for a spare. I swapped bellhousings between transmissions because I had to modify it so much to fit with the adapter plate


cleaned, and painted:


and the reason why I ripped everything out of the car- new billet oil pump gears to go in (stock ones are on the white pad):


9/21/2009

Got tired of gathering friends and dead-lifting the motor in and out, so I picked up a new 2 ton engine hoist. Great decision.



Loaded the motor up on it and started putting it all back together:


I finally broke down and stripped and painted the water and crank pulleys too. I used that hand hammered paint


tidied up the injector wiring and fuel lines


motor back together and ready to go in!


and back in the car:


I had some questions too...

what does this hardline go to (I think this was for the charcoal canister), and what does the hose connected to the subframe go to? Can they be looped together??