LS1 Miata Build Thread by fourwhls

4 minute(s) of a 124 minute read

I put the plasma cutter to work today. I gutted the doors in preparation for the cage's nascar bars. I also started the tranny tunnel surgery. I still need to make a few more cuts and then bring out the BFH, but its moving along.

Plasma cutters are too cool. It cuts through the sheet metal like a hot knife through butter.

Here are some pictures from today's progress.

1/3/10

Well today was a productive day. I got the transmission tunnel widened. I took a few shot along the way. It's pretty rough, don't look too hard at my mess. I still need to do a lot of grinding and welding, but I'm not going to do any of that till I test fit the engine.

Lesson learned today: Make the tunnel cuts from the engine side of the firewall. I made the cuts from the interior to try and keep from throwing sparks into the interior. That was a mistake. The cut didn't end up where I would have like it. It took more cutting before I could start widening and folding.

Here's a few shots of my mess. Now I understand why nobody posts these pictures, they look terrible.

When I finished widening the tunnel, I mounted the subframe to the engine. This is where I ran into my first road block. My oil lines for the dry sump will have to be rerouted, as they interfere with the subframe. That is not a big deal.

The road block is my oil pan. I thought it was low enough, but I was mistaken. The subframe clears the pan, but there is not chance for the steering rack. It looks like I need to pull the pan and get it modified.

1/5/10

As noted previously, I ran into some issues with my "perfect" oil pan. It's not as perfect as I had hoped.

There is no steering rack clearance, which didn't seem to be too big of an ordeal till I pulled the pan off the engine. Now I have to modify the pan and come up with a alternative routing for the internal plumbing.

1/10/10

I took the measurements for the 4th time and cranked up the grinder with a cutting wheel.

My initial plan should work, but I am still waiting for the C5 oil pickup tube. It was supposed to be here yesterday, but never showed up. Hopefully Monday.

Here's some pictures: