The recent GRM articles about "How fast can you bail out?" hit home. About a year ago I had an incident where my NB briefly became an external-combustion vehicle. That was fun. Turns out, I can bail out fairly quickly.
It sat for months until I could suss out logistics and space for the rebuild. Well, that and a friend offered to help. We just pulled the engine out today. At first glance the head, block, and rotating assembly look great. Now it needs to be rebuilt and I'm looking at rather a few buckaroos for re-gasketing, fuel injectors, connectors, etc. I have a new FM turbo kit ready to go on but thought I'd see if anyone had A) recommendations on what else to do While I'm In There and B) better parts for track reliability and C) options to save some dollars.
For reference, I'm aiming to get back to the same or similar power level as before the fire (~285whp). However, this car will never see street duty again. It will be purely a track car and I do not mind building it for such but I want it to be reliable on track with all the fire contained on the inside. I'm also on a budget and so would like to not spend huge amounts of simoleans. Does anyone happen to have any discount codes or the like, or hot tips otherwise (no pun intended)?
Also I will need to have a windshield banner made that says FRYIN' MIATA.
Cheers!
Sorry, Flyin' Miata does not do discount codes. We offer the same price to everyone.
I am happy to hear you passed your bailout test, though. It's hard to recommend what else you should do without knowing what you already have and what's damaged.
"What's damaged" is "what's under the hood," more or less. There's a local Miata recycler who I'll be hitting up.
Wiring harness is gone, brake and clutch masters and lines are gone. Fuse block, toast. I suppose the radiator, oil cooler, and intercooler are all salvageable. Trans is good. Intake is garbage. All hoses and lines are done. The oil cap still works, though.
From what I can tell, it looks like the fuel line burst and sprayed fuel on the hot engine and ignited near the firewall on the passenger side.
That looks like a good starting point would be another NB that's been rear ended as a parts car. Finding all the bits and pieces you'll need is potentially very time consuming and expensive otherwise.
BoxheadTim said:
That looks like a good starting point would be another NB that's been rear ended as a parts car. Finding all the bits and pieces you'll need is potentially very time consuming and expensive otherwise.
Given the need to swap the entire wiring harness (which requires removing almost everything in the car), I would probably lean more towards getting another NB and swapping the performance bits over rather than trying to preserve this chassis.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
I'd have a look at the wiring diagrams first. Iirc the NB engine wiring harness may be standalone enough to make Race Car viable.
Or just rewire the whole car to Race Car standard. It's not like you need much stock wiring beyond brake lights and maybe headlights and whatever's involved in the powertrain. And if you're running an aftermarket ECU (obviously at that power), you don't even need stock wiring for that.
It's definitely going "racecar." This isn't an ABS car, so there aren't those bits to contend with. It has a Megasquirt and I will have to replace some of that wiring. I will likely ditch the entire body harness; for brake lights I can just take a pickup off the brake sensor. Headlights I will likely abandon. Ignition, fuel pump, starter, etc. can go to toggle switches. I'll have to sort out gauges but I'm not married to keeping the OEM dash or panel at all.
Mostly I want a gauge that is unobtrusive when the negative condition is met and extremely visible when the positive condition is met: "CAR IS ON FIRE."
Maybe a proper plumbed in extinguisher system with one circuit for the engine bay and one for the cockpit.
