ClubRoadster.net banner

OTC Austin's Miata Build (Vancouver, Canada)

10K views 33 replies 12 participants last post by  Deepstriker 
#1 ·
Hi guys,

Awhile back I posted in the newbie introductory thread and some of you may remember this photo:



Anyhow with so many changes happening to my car I thought I'd log progress and show much of it here. I'm using a blog a friend and I have started in which our goal is to bring together some of Northwest car culture. We've had a few posts to start and this is the first time I've blogged about my own car. I plan to take you guys through the progress and troubleshooting I'm sure I'll go through.

Let's start off with what the plan is thus far:

Currently I'm installing my friend Winky's old head (Some of you guys may remember his 1.7L ITB build thread here: http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/89-roadster-projects/18582-winkyls-1990-b6-1-7l-itb-miata-build-updated-may-12-2009-a.html

He had the head shaved and new valve guides put in along with his Chikara Motorsports Stage 2 cam. I had the chance to sit in this setup along with a 6speed gearbox and 4.3FD and it was a memorable moment for me as it was the first time I had ever sat in a Miata with N/A engine mods. From the lumpy idle to the way the car would just love to rev up, I knew I wanted a similar setup from that point.



Anyhow his engine had a lot of blowby and the ports and valves were coated in carbon. Avoiding any sort of mickey mouse on this car I decided it was time to clean everything up and install new valve seals. And this is the current state the head is in now:



You guys can read the full blog post here: http://otcmaterial.com/ast-miata-part-one/

Cheers! :icon_cheers:

Austin
 
See less See more
3
#2 ·
Hi guys!

Well just thought I'd update everyone with the latest progress here. Lately I've been working on a couple of small things on the car. Mainly waiting for some parts to arrive so that I can throw the head back onto the car.



First things first is that I made this integrated digital gauge that reads both PSI in oil pressure and boost. I swamped out the OEM one in place of this digital gauge since I thought it would look much more cleaner than having pods on the tombstone or the a-pillar.

Second thing I've been doing is I've been practising how to weld with my TIG welder. It's been awhile since I've done any sort of welding so I'm trying to get the rhythm and consistency.






I started by practicing doing some passes on some scrap I had lying around, and eventually moved onto joining the pie cuts together to get used to welding around a bend. I'll admit it looks pretty awful but I'm slowly getting the amount of heat and amount that I should be moving the filler that I need for a solid looking stack of dimes.



A lot of people I've seen in industry don't backgas their products and when this happens they get this sugaring effect. I'm still waiting on a second regulator so I have been getting the sugar. It leaves a very rough texture on the backside of the weld and honestly it makes a different to how the exhaust gas flows. One of my friend's says that his exhaust has a slight "hissing" noise because of how the gas passes around these rough edges.



I'll eventually be doing some welding to fix my Maxim Works header which cracked, as well as doing my 3" exhaust system.

Check out the full blog entry here! :)

http://otcmaterial.com/the-evolution-of-ast-garage-part-2-otc-austins-miata-build/
 
#3 ·
So right now I'm waiting for a few things to arrive:

- Cam gears
- Exhaust fabrication parts

I cant degree the cams until the gears arrive so its one of the major things holding me back. The ones I got with the cams had so much slop I didnt feel comfortable putting them on.

Anyhow in the meantime I have been helping my friend Kalson with the install on his Exige.



Its interesting how the two cars compare in terms of install. The Exige (IMO) is waaay easier to work on once the clam is off. Everything is so simple and accessible, it makes working on double wishbone suspension a breeze.



One of the things I've been thinking about is a titanium exhaust system. Its amazing how light these cans are compared to the stainless steel ones. Makes me reconsider my SS choice.

Check out the full post here: http://otcmaterial.com/freezing-winter-garages-part-2-kalson-chans-lotus-exige-s
 
#7 ·



Thanks for the comments guys! It really means a lot to me to get some feedback and hearing that someone appreciates your work :smile:

Ok, so I know it’s not exactly “last year” and totally out of theme with everyone posting highlights for 2012 but 2011 was a special year for me. I started building the AST Miata this year, and it was then that I had decided to do a complete revamp on the cosmetic stuff and try to fix up the ugly body.


So obviously the red Miata seen here is not mine, and you might be wondering who’s it is. Well this is Jeff Ho‘s daily driver (Yes, the same Jeff with the E36 M3 we featured awhile back) and that summer was quite memorable for the local BC guys since it was the first and only year that the triple threat APL Red Miata crew existed. Jeff has since moved on and the car is actually back to stock form, waiting to be sold.




At the time my Miata was still in pieces and the original plan was to finish everything for the Revscene summer meet. Those plans soon fell through due to the sheer amount of work that needed to be done on the car. For those non-local to the Vancouver/ Pacific Northwest scene, Revscene is one of the bigger car meets that happens twice during the year (Once in Spring, once in Summer) and its one of the few larger meets that happen locally since car shows and the like began to die out. A lot of people come together just for this one day since its usually a pretty large event, not to mention the variety of cars you often see. Every club or shop comes with their own clique usually, this particular year we reserved a spot for our group of friends (APL Motorsports) but unfortunately never got to actually park inside the event due to the amount of people who had already filled a lot. Kind of a bummer but the fact that most of our cars brought attention to the street we parked on says something.



I can’t remember why but my friend Jordan was out of town and couldn’t attend that day but we agreed that I would drive his car to the meet. Now to me, I would see this car so frequently that it wasn’t anything new. What really surprised me when we showed up was the amount of attention Jordan’s car got. I guess it’s also because he’s one of the OG Miata guys locally as well so people are always interested in seeing what changes he’s made.

See the rest of the post and photos here! http://otcmaterial.com/revscene201/
 
#11 ·


For those following our Instagram feed, you'll notice that I've been busy working away on the Miata. One of the obstacles that runs right into the path of the Rotrex supercharger is the power steering unit. You can pretty much say that in order to run one, you have to give up the other. In my case it was an easy decision. Get rid of boiling the power steering on track? Yes. Clean up the look of the bay? Yes. More power? HELL YES.



Following the guides/DIYs found here and here it was relatively straight forward. A lot of guys weld up the pinion to reduce the slop found when the pinion twists to allow fluid from one side of the rack to the other. Some people say it's also a waste of time to do but since I had the TIG welder around and wanted to practice my welds I decided to take on the job. If in the end it makes no difference at least I got some practice in!



First thing first was to remove the pinion out of the rack assembly. Reading the on-line tutorials vs. actually doing it, I think it took me longer to read through the articles than it took for me to completely disassemble the rack and clean it. One trick I learned from one of my old jobs maintaining hydraulic cylinders was to angle the cylinder facing into the drain bucket. This came in useful so that all the power steering fluid didn't spill all over my floor. Be warned that once you pull the piston out it wants to rush out.



The hydraulic piston needs to be shaved off so that the air inside the depowered rack doesn't pressurize and add unnecessary effort to the steering resistance. I like aligning my Miata with maximum caster angle after getting my desired cambered angles so reducing the steering resistance as much as possible while maintaining adequate response is important to me so I can rice around on the street easily. I found the easiest way to cut this bad boy off was to use a cutoff disc and go slowly and cut "pie" sections out bit by bit. MotoIQ used a lathe which is nice and clean but I figured why not just hog off the unnecessary metal.



I grabbed a scrap piece I had lying around and practised a few passes before welding up the real thing. This was one of my first "real" projects playing around with the welder doing a full pass so I didn't want to screw it up. A lot of people say that the pinion is going to warp from the heat but honestly the thing is 1 inch thick... I don't really see any warp-age happening.



Here it is all welded up, it's not the prettiest welding but I'm sure it will hold. I used a silicon bronze filler so it's technically not welded together (the process is commonly referred to as "tig brazing") and is supposed to be more ductile due to the properties of the silicon bronze.



After buttoning up all the pieces together I decided to use the plug-kit I bought years ago from MiataRoadster. It's a nice kit that comes with black anodized aluminium plugs which replace the lines and cap off any dust from coming out. Instead of filling the rack with fluid I decided to re-use some of the Redline CV Joint grease I had from repacking my CV joint boots. It's supposed to withstand high temp heat so it should hold up to the see-saw action happening.



To finish things off I decided to install the R-package tie rod ends (Part Number N021-32-280As from Mazda) to reduce bump steer. I'll be running wider tires this year so anything to maintain grip will help IMO. Eventually I'll probably space up the rack too to help reduce bump steer even further.

I've been working on finishing the exhaust as well, it's been taking some time since I had to cut the rebar to fit my centre exit exhaust. Stay tuned for more updates on my car!

(link to blog: OTC's Steering Rack Depower)
 
#12 ·
Maxim Works Meets Maruha Motorsports



Carrying on from the last post about power steering, part of the reason why I bought my TIG welder was because I bought an old Miller unit off my friend who didn't have a need for it any more. My excuse for splurging on equipment vs. outsourcing my exhaust parts to get fabricated is two-fold. One being that I was being itchy and all fancy and had always wanted to buy tools and machines to be more hands-on with my projects. And two being that I've always had a passion for fabrication and making things of lower value into a quality product. What I mean by this is that I like the idea of taking a bunch of metal tubes and welding them into something better (and functional). When I used to build scale models one of my mentors had taught me the saying "make this $5 toy look like a $500 art piece" and I guess it's stuck with me ever since.



I didn't want my work to look like crap but for sure it lies nowhere near pro level welding. I took a few weeks just to practice making passes and trying to get the consistency down and after many many times of grinding my tungsten I was ready to begin on the real stuff. My Maxim Works header actually started to fray at the flex pipe probably due to the abuse of swinging a heavy exhaust around on track. Needless to say it needed to come out and I decided while I'm at it I should try making an anti-reversion chamber (similar to Maruha Motorsport's baller header). I took the time to section one of the mandrel bends I bought to replicate the angle of the original*piece.



Being 2-to-1 transition meant that the pipe shape was not exactly cylindrical. The oval shape of my pipe on the left was the result of hammering and squashing the bend in a vice for a couple of hours. I knew that fitment of this part would be critical especially since welding between gaps is never fun, let alone on a crucial part of the exhaust. I didn't want to disrupt the exhaust flow as much as possible and if the parts weren't aligned properly there would be a "step" in the pipe.



Here is the finished piece with the transition to 3". The anti reversion magic is supposed to happen here where the 2.5" pipe extends past the beginning of the transition. There is where any back pressure is supposed to get trapped in the open space hence anti reversion.



I didn't want to cheap out on quality so I back gassed every weld. It gets really expensive since its like you're literally pumping out money as you let gas from your tank out into the open. I actually went through about two whole bottles and it was painful to have to pay for more gas each time. The benefits are that there is no more "sugaring" on the inside of the weld and according to my friend Chris, the sugaring actually affects the sound when the exhaust gas blows over the rough welds. In hindsight though, whether or not the cost will outweigh the effects of sugaring on any performance is beyond me.



This is how my welding looks close up. It's not the best as you can see inconsistency and the "dimes" could be a little less raised. Overall though I'm pretty happy since it doesn't look 100% pigeon ****.



Side by side comparison between my custom midpipe and my old Magnaflow one. They are almost identical with the exception of the pipe diameter.



Just to give you an idea, this is what a 3" exhaust looks like compared to a 2.25" one. Was it really necessary to go so big? Well, maybe not at this point since I haven't done any bottom end work, but the plan is to build the block next year after the summer. I don't reaaaally feel like making an exhaust again next year.




When it comes to things lining up, I didn't want to take any chances. I needed a cat to swap in and out for emissions testing so that meant that I needed to cut part of the midpipe out to use as a test pipe. The way I had laid everything out, I made the tail section of the header from a straight section of pipe. Less bends = less restriction not to mention it makes things simple instead of snaking an exhaust all around the underbody. Lining things up under a car that's only on jackstands is not fun. If I had a lift I think I'd still do the same thing and make the exhaust as straight as possible. I ended up slipping the flanges onto the pipe with both ends bolted up and tacking them on. After taking I would cut the pipe between the flanges and this would ensure that they were aligned at the correct orientation.

Things are slowly coming together and majority of the stuff left is just bolt on. On my next post I hope to show some changes to the drivetrain for this year.
 
#14 ·
Thanks adamvanxxx!

A few weeks ago my 949 Racing twindisc came in the mail. Since I'll probably see it for a long long time I thought I'd shoot a short video on how it's put together. I've never had a twin disc clutch before so I was curious when the box arrived as to how it would look at operate. Pretty much it works as a normal clutch except the pressure plate has two stacks of friction material (hence the twin disc).

Check out the video below:

 
#17 ·


I do apologize as this thread hasnt been updated for awhile. Nothing updates quite as well as a video so here is a teaser of what to come. Hopefully I can get everyone updated on what's happened in the last while but I'm excited to say my car is almost ready to be tuned :)

Stay tuned! (no pun intended) : 3gears:
 
#20 ·


Decided to insure the car for a shakedown and alignment and pretty much drove everywhere meeting up with my friends to check out the car.

Glad to report no problems yet! With the exception of an oil catch can hose coming off on the highway which scared the crap out of me when it clunked under the body.

My friend Rikaro helped me shoot a short driveby video of the car. Remember to put it on HD!
 
#21 ·


Roughly two weeks ago I booked a tune at Maxwell Power Services(MPS) because I knew I needed to set myself a goal to get this build tied up. It's been way too long since this car has been off the road and by booking my tune before anything had been 'really' completed was just a way to motivate myself and put in the work necessary to get the car to where it should be.



I was fortunate enough to have my friend Arthur come by and check out my ecu settings. In a weird way I'm happy to say that he also couldn't figure out my closed loop idle and I wasn't the only one having troubles. I literally had spent so many nights in my garage trying to tune idle and went in circles chasing down the issue. In the end we decided to turn closed loop idle off, and leave it for another day. I had been tuning most of the cells by doing some light revs and watching the AFRs. One thing I noticed was that I was adding a ton of fuel to each cell I was tuning and I was starting to question if I was doing things right. We took the car for a spin and did some street tuning and oh my god, the difference was phenomenal compared to my stock setup.



You may have seen Arthur's car floating around the interwebs mostly on NASIOC or his Youtube channel.



I picked up one of the older Kraftwerks "Race" kit used locally and the previous owner had everything nicely laid out. I decided to change a few mounting locations to my liking but other than that the install was pretty straight forward. I've been reading a lot about belts slipping or wearing weirdly and I have to say I haven't experienced either. Then again I'm not exactly sure what the differences are.



Fortunately for me most of the intercooler piping was done as I had bought everything used from someone locally. Looking over all the hoses and clamps nothing was of the greatest quality and it was sort of pieced together from mis-matched parts but it would do for now. I ended up welding up one of the intercooler pipes as it was a bit short. First time welding aluminum and it wasnt as bad as I thought!



Boost with blowby wasn't my idea of fun so I decided to make my own catch can. Since everything I had been doing thus far was made of stainless steel and I didn't exactly have time on my side, I decided to make one out of stainless steel. Not the lightest nor was it well thought out but it would be remade later down the road.



After seeing the Chikara Motorsports cars, I followed their catchcan placement. It was a first for me as well doing T joints and I had fun screwing up the first one I made. Hard to control the heat on thinner wall stuff without having it warp.



I insured the car for a day to get an alignment done and also to do a quick shakedown before I would do the "long" trek down to MPS. I took a few of my buddies out for a spin as I'm sure they were as excited as I was to see my car back on the road. Thanks to Matt for taking the video and trying out the sound quality for a RodeMic hooked up to the GoPro.



Initial impressions where that this car was going to be way too much to handle. The difference in power between a stock miata and my car was huge. I've never really driven anything much more powerful than my stock Miata and this was now a very scary car to drive. Part of the reason was just how aggressive the 949Racing Twindisc clutch is. It's almost impossible to slip and its got a grab-n-go kind of feel. Not exactly street friendly but its manageable. I'll definitely need to get used to taking off from stop lights.



Arriving at Maxwell Power Services with a running car was an achievement to me in itself. I put this car together with the help of friends and made the entire system work together nice enough that it would make the trek down. I was nervous and excited to see Dom work his magic with my car.



Although to me this car was somewhat wild, this little guy must've been bored out of my mind. Diesel (the shop dog) was sleeping through majority of the dyno pulls!



Strapped down and ready to go. What would my car make? 150whp? 200whp? Time would tell, assuming it wouldn't blow on the dyno.



Initial pulls showed that it was making over 200whp. This was within 30minutes of having Dom tune and we had hours to go. More on the results on the next post!
 
#24 ·
So, back from the dead.

Fast forward to mid-may and my car gets strapped onto the dyno. I decided to take it to Dominic Acia @ Maxwell Power Services, as a lot of friend's had positive experiences there.

He usually tunes Subarus or American V8's and this was his second Megasquirt tune. Usually he doesn't touch MS stuff due to a lot of people doing DIY the WRONG way, and it ends up being more headache for him to try and fix.

Luckily enough my friend Arthur has taken his STI to get tuned for some crazy power there numerous times so I sort of got a referral to go there. Here's a video of one of his dyno pulls:



Strapped down and ready to go!



Honestly speaking this is the first time I've ever taken my own car to get dyno'd. I've seen lots of friend's cars go in to see what numbers would be put down but being my own personal car it was kind of exciting.



Initial pulls after some small touch ups on my street tune showed some good results. Honestly I was expecting a conservative 200whp, but since the first pull went past that I was more than happy! 217whp and 172wtq not too shabby if I say so myself.



At the end of the day I put down 235whp, 18wtq on a Dynocom roller dyno. This is on a stock 1991 1.6L long nose bottom end, with a refreshed head with new valve guides and a decked head. I also have some regrind cams, and a header but for the most part the engine is stock.
 
#27 ·
Thanks mk1matt! I know those Chikara guys have some pretty sweet rides, it's always nice to go visit and see what projects they have going on :)

A couple of weeks ago I brought my car down to Pacific Raceways in Kent, WA to do a lapping day with Proformance. The Megasquirt DIYPNP managed to die on me part way through a lap in the early morning and I wasn't able to run the rest of the day.

Kind of a real sad bummer since I had been looking to a longer shakedown than that. At least I got a video of the first few laps of the day:



I did a datalog in the pit going through two gears, and things look totally funky. Notice how the MAP signal behaves:



Honestly not happy with my product at all. It cost me a really expensive towing bill, not to mention I missed out on most of the track day.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top