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Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/11/14 12:08 p.m.
EvanB wrote: Is the hood tweaked or is the headlight cover pushed down? If it is the headlight cover just pull up on the back until it is flush.

It's a combination of both. Hood is definitely higher over there, and i'm fairly certain it's from the strut. Not entirely sure what to do about it, but not really worrying about it just yet.

beans
beans Dork
5/12/14 12:10 p.m.

So Whatcha doin with that pretty lookin NB?

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/12/14 12:17 p.m.

It's going away on Sunday, sorry. There's no way in hell the wife would go for owning 3 miatas at once, though she was very surprised at how much she liked the NB when she had to drive it to work because she managed to break the door on the Cherokee.

beans
beans Dork
5/12/14 12:25 p.m.

Damn. I was hoping you'd want an Accord.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/12/14 12:29 p.m.

Probably would have traded it for a nice Cherokee or decent FJ80 LandCruiser, but it got snatched up with a cash offer before i even got it home.

Xceler8x
Xceler8x GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
5/12/14 1:31 p.m.

Challenge price for that NB?! That's a score. I'm sure you turned a profit even lifting all the good parts.

Found out my 99 has an NA rad it this weekend. teh scuk. It cools the motor for now so I'll keep it until/if I decide to go all aluminum and oversized for the next rad.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/12/14 1:33 p.m.
Xceler8x wrote: Challenge price for that NB?! That's a score. I'm sure you turned a profit even lifting all the good parts. Found out my 99 has an NA rad it this weekend. teh scuk. It cools the motor for now so I'll keep it until/if I decide to go all aluminum and oversized for the next rad.

It wasn't quite Challenge-priced as purchased, but it could have been purchased as 3 lots: Car, hardtop, and the enormous amount of spare parts that came with it.

I priced it for a quick sale. We'll just say that we ended up paying a tank of gas or two for the parts i lifted off of it.

codrus
codrus GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
5/12/14 1:39 p.m.
Swank Force One wrote: Either way, the car felt ridiculously slow.

Well, it's a stock Miata, what do you expect? :)

As for the gearing, you can run the numbers here: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/gearing.php

I quite liked the 5-speed/4.3 combo -- with 260 lb-ft of torque. :) Of course, 3rd gear didn't like it quite as much, so the car has a 6-speed/3.636 combo now, which is pretty close to having a 5/4.3 with an extra overdrive 6th gear.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/12/14 1:45 p.m.
codrus wrote:
Swank Force One wrote: Either way, the car felt ridiculously slow.
Well, it's a stock Miata, what do you expect? :) As for the gearing, you can run the numbers here: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/gearing.php I quite liked the 5-speed/4.3 combo -- with 260 lb-ft of torque. :) Of course, 3rd gear didn't like it quite as much, so the car has a 6-speed/3.636 combo now, which is pretty close to having a 5/4.3 with an extra overdrive 6th gear.

It's not stock, though... It's got a Cobalt header, roadstersport midpipe, cobalt exhaust, K&N Typhoon intake, and an FM Happy Meal. I mean, i expected it to feel slow for SURE compared to the other cars we've had, but this was borderline ridiculous.

I'm honestly not entirely sure VICS is functioning properly. It DID get 32mpg over the entire trip back though, so that was nice.

Jack
Jack SuperDork
5/12/14 7:52 p.m.

Some of us love Red cars!

codrus
codrus GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
5/13/14 12:19 a.m.
Swank Force One wrote: It's not stock, though... It's got a Cobalt header, roadstersport midpipe, cobalt exhaust, K&N Typhoon intake, and an FM Happy Meal. I mean, i expected it to feel slow for SURE compared to the other cars we've had, but this was borderline ridiculous. I'm honestly not entirely sure VICS is functioning properly. It DID get 32mpg over the entire trip back though, so that was nice.

IHE without an ECU on a BP adds maybe 10 hp if you're lucky, that's not much different from stock. A broken VICS will easily cost you more than that.

wrongwheeldrive
wrongwheeldrive Reader
5/13/14 10:29 a.m.
Swank Force One wrote: It wasn't quite Challenge-priced as purchased, but it could have been purchased as 3 lots: Car, hardtop, and the enormous amount of spare parts that came with it. I priced it for a quick sale. We'll just say that we ended up paying a tank of gas or two for the parts i lifted off of it.

Ah, I'm glad I was right on my assumption that you would get your money's worth out of it :)

How much of the spares did you manage to take back with you? If you fit it all in the car I am very impressed :)

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
5/13/14 10:48 a.m.
wrongwheeldrive wrote:
Swank Force One wrote: It wasn't quite Challenge-priced as purchased, but it could have been purchased as 3 lots: Car, hardtop, and the enormous amount of spare parts that came with it. I priced it for a quick sale. We'll just say that we ended up paying a tank of gas or two for the parts i lifted off of it.
Ah, I'm glad I was right on my assumption that you would get your money's worth out of it :) How much of the spares did you manage to take back with you? If you fit it all in the car I am very impressed :)

Yep you were! I probably could have made a profit on it all, but i settled for being out a hundo or two for the pile of parts and a quick sale. I like the kid it's going to and he's going to Exocet it eventually.

I did in fact fit all the parts in it. AND stopped off in Glastonbury, CT and got a set of Boundary Engineering frame rails and Boss Frog Frog Arms, both of which also got stuffed in the car.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/22/14 11:44 a.m.

Sooo...

Assuming two motivated individuals reasonably handy with a wrench, how quickly could we take two miatas, one with a beautiful NOT RED body and a blown motor, and the other with a not so beautiful AND RED body and a strong motor, and turn them both into one beautiful NOT RED turbo Miata with all the goodies from the not so beautiful AND RED car?

I'm thinking easy weekend job if we can park them both side by side and red gives up her parts willingly. Yes?

jstein77
jstein77 SuperDork
9/22/14 11:50 a.m.

Sounds like a plan.

bluej
bluej SuperDork
9/22/14 12:20 p.m.

sounds like this needs a webcam to document..

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/22/14 12:22 p.m.
bluej wrote: sounds like this needs a webcam to document..

That's actually a fun idea, but it would probably look like 30 minutes of frantic activity, followed by a 30 minute beer break, followed by 30 minutes of frantic activity, followed by a 30 minute beer break.

Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary.

dculberson
dculberson UberDork
9/22/14 12:26 p.m.

Time lapse combined with video editing!

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
9/22/14 12:52 p.m.
dculberson wrote: Time lapse combined with video editing!

You just want to see a long time lapse clip of me drinking a whole case of beer, don't you?

turboswede
turboswede GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
9/22/14 1:18 p.m.
Swank Force One wrote:
dculberson wrote: Time lapse combined with video editing!
You just want to see a long time lapse clip of me drinking a whole case of beer, don't you?

1) Set to yakity sax.

2) Submit to YouTube annual awards.

3) Win.

4) ??

5) Profit.

turboswede
turboswede GRM+ Memberand UltimaDork
9/22/14 1:19 p.m.
Swank Force One wrote: Sooo... Assuming two motivated individuals reasonably handy with a wrench, how quickly could we take two miatas, one with a beautiful NOT RED body and a blown motor, and the other with a not so beautiful AND RED body and a strong motor, and turn them both into one beautiful NOT RED turbo Miata with all the goodies from the not so beautiful AND RED car? I'm thinking easy weekend job if we can park them both side by side and red gives up her parts willingly. Yes?

bluej
bluej SuperDork
9/22/14 1:21 p.m.

Record/time lapse it and see how it turns out. If it sucks.. DELETE.

Spinout007
Spinout007 GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
9/22/14 1:35 p.m.
Swank Force One wrote: Sooo... Assuming two motivated individuals reasonably handy with a wrench, how quickly could we take two miatas, one with a beautiful NOT RED body and a blown motor, and the other with a not so beautiful AND RED body and a strong motor, and turn them both into one beautiful NOT RED turbo Miata with all the goodies from the not so beautiful AND RED car? I'm thinking easy weekend job if we can park them both side by side and red gives up her parts willingly. Yes?

Easy weekend job, ESPECIALLY if you're already familiar with how they go together/come apart. I mean, IIRC it's what 6 or 8 bolts to remove the body from the subframes? then you have to worry about steering, wiring etc. easy easy weekend project

All else fails, you can pull the ppf, and steering. Undo the bolts for the front subframe, use an engine hoist to lift the front of the car. With the aid of a set of wheel/car dollies pull the subframe out. Now do the same to the receiving car, and just plug one in where the other came out. If we can go from a bare shell to race car in a weeks worth of evenings on top of new kids/full time jobs, a weekend dedicated to it should be an easy go.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla PowerDork
9/22/14 1:38 p.m.

If it helps, we did this with the Swift in one day. Engine, trans in a single day. But then again there were only 3 mounts holding that in.

Swank Force One
Swank Force One MegaDork
11/10/14 10:25 a.m.

Been trying to track down a lean light tip-in condition, spent Saturday tuning it.

Turns out whomever had tuned this thing didn't understand how AE works in Megasquirt, and the car was never using it unless you slammed the E36 M3 out of the throttle, which never happens in normal day to day driving.

After getting the AE dialed in (surprisingly easy, thanks to DIYAT's awesome video from their open house.), car was still going lean in the same situations, i just couldn't get AE to account for a slow 3-5% throttle opening (gradual hill on highway situations, passing a car NOT like an shiny happy person, etc).

Drove a bit watching where i was hanging out on VE table and the target AFR table. (Not being used on a day to day basis, i don't run EGO Correction.)

Turned on AutoTune just to see what would happen, and it looks like there were two columns in the low-load are that just weren't tuned right. Spent about 30 minutes driving around doing exactly what used to go lean, over and over and over again, then did a few high load high gear low rpm hammers to make sure everything else was still good.

Think that cured about 80% of it. Drives much better now. Throttle could stand to be a LITTLE more crisp, so i have some slight clean up work to do on AE, but it's a big improvement.

Seem to have picked up better spool and a little low/midrange punch. You know... because that's what this tiny little turbo needed.

Was trying to get a full gear log, but 2nd gear went up in smoke.

Tried 3rd gear from 20mph. At about 30mph the ass end let go and the car tach'd out, spit a few fireballs, and left some solid black lines on the road.

Figured i should probably park it for winter at that point.

To do over winter:

1) Install Swank Force Racing™ custom Bilstein suspension
2) Install Boss Frog Clearview Rollbar
3) Install matching Autopower harness for passenger
4) Install Boss Frog Fender braces
5) Install 01-05 Sport brake setup
6) Convert from 95-spec CAS ignition trigger to NB1 crank/cam trigger combo
7) Hook up VICS
8) Electronic boost control?
9) Install Singular Motorsports hood vent louvers
10) Install Boundary Engineer frame rails
11) Figure out wheels/tires. (205/50 RS-Rs or 15x9 225/45 RS3s.)
12) Purchase Blackbird Fabworx rear spoiler
13) Rework the garbage BeGi intercooler/intake/bpv with homebrew.
14) ?????
15) In Spring, break all the 2554r power records.

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