Got a compilation of my runs from last night thrown together for your viewing pleasure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZNzTYX3x3M

Wow this thread needs some updating, my car and my driving have come a long way I'll try to keep this in chronological order as best as I can.

Foam-ectomy of the passenger seat. It's basically just ripping out some of the foam so you sink into the seat a little more giving slightly better head clearance and a little more "race-seat" feel



Water pump pulley with a bunch of holes drilled for lightness then painted green for drifter-ness? I got it for free in a trade so I figured why not?



Decals like every drift car needs




Then I started buying parts to piece together my own turbo kit, since I was not satisfied with any of the off-the-shelf kits, namely because I was trying to save a few bucks. I started off with this:




Tires at the ready



Turn signal intakes and no more A/C, washer bottle, and some other misc. stuff that I consider clutter in the engine bay


DIY alignments, I've gotten pretty good at them now



This post has been edited by 6strngs: Aug 27, 2013 - 11:43 PM

The first turbo I bought, under the impression that it was a t3 50 trim. This was installed on my car for a while and wouldn't even START building boost until 4k rpms. The seals blew out on it in under 2 weeks! Guess that's what I get for ebay turbos. I later found out after dis-assembling it that it was a t3/t4 with a 70 trim wheel...



Ebay cast manifold and the worlds worst fitting downpipe... It hit the frame in several spots and was off by several inches... I eventually hacked it until it sorta fit and used it only for the intial test runs and to drive to the muffler shop.


Some more action shots (still NA at this point)




Let the work begin!


Here's that downpipe rubbing I was talking about... at least it bolted up well...




Adjustable fuel pressure regulator

Car part porn...





Almost there





Custom made heater lines. I went to buy some braided steel line at a nearby specialty hose store but when I told him I wanted something that would be able survive in a prolonged high temperature area he talked me into buying some (expensive) push-loc hose with a fiberglass heat wrap. This is very thick durable hose, I'm sure it'll outlive this car.

Then the modification of the downpipe to get it to fit:


Adjusting the FPR with a fuel pressure gauge


Then the new exhaust I had made. It's as straight through as possible. starts at 2.5" but jumps to 3" as soon as there's room to. I put a high flow cat in, but I had him put v-bands on either side of it so I could swap it for a straight pipe easily. It has a v-band connection at the turbo also.




VDO boost gauge and AEM wideband



Cut the valve cover to expose the cams and had the valve cover powder-coated wrinkle red by a friend. Also added a catch can


Next I took apart my differential because it was not as aggressive as I wanted it to be so I measured all clutches in it and everything was in spec, but the clutches were arranged incorrectly when I took it apart. I was able to re-arrange the clutches so it has a slightly more aggressive grab, but still not enough. I just got a spare open diff I'm going to weld though




This is me discovering that I had the wrong turbo on for the 2 weeks that it lasted

apparently that's all the pictures I have on my photobucket. But long story short, I crashed the car into a cement wall (see video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTJttdpsEPU )



But I didn't care, just rip that crap off and keep going!


A few things have changed since, but I'll get some more pics up later. The miata is currently waiting on me to fix the frame, and it needs a new windsheild (headlight lid flew off on the freeway and cracked it)

Here's a video the night that I crashed it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGTfOSndXTA

And here's a video a few weeks later I took it back out, bent frame and all. If you only watch one video, watch this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_C2v4h3gNY

I've been on and off again thinking about buying a Miata. Can't decide either way at the moment.

>

YOU. NEVER. @##&$O#$. DECIDE.


Nice driving, even nicer modification. Some BEGi parts, I see. What are you expecting to put down with this, 160-190whp?

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Aug 28, 2013 - 7:33 AM

>
LOL I've already posted in at least 3 threads where box was talking about all these cars he couldn't decide on, no offense but seriously just pick something lol.

Yep, BEGI FPR, stock injectors from a 1.8L, walbro 190lph high pressure fuel pump, ebay manifold, cxracing FMIC kit w/ bov, custom downpipe and exhaust, custom oil lines with russell hose, ebay catch can, HAD a tial wastegate but now am using the internal wastegate of the ebay t3 50 trim.

I was shooting for around 6-7 PSI and ~140-150 whp but this wastegate doesn't seem to want to make less than 10 PSI so I would guess I'm somewhere around the 160-180 whp range. It's not running lean at all but I am worried about timing slightly. I have it backed off to 7 degrees, which people say you should run about 6 without an intercooler or about 8 with one but those recommendations are still only meant for low boost set-ups. I plan to get a megasquirt and completely tune the car myself (I'm trying to do pretty much everything on this car myself, the only thing I haven't done so far is the exhaust) but the car has more pressing needs right now, lol. I've been bargain shopping and I got a new passenger fender for $20, a front bumper for free, and a hood and both headlights for $100. I've already bent the frame back mostly where it needs to be using a tow strap and my friend's 4-runner, I just need to get some hood pins, and weld a bar or two between my frame rails so the car doesn't split down the middle And it needs a new windshield. Once I have all that done I'll be back out there, hopefully by the end of next month.

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Aug 28, 2013 - 11:05 AM

IT'S HARD THOUGH!!! It's a very life changing and important decision, I'm allowed to be indecisive. If it wasn't for people like you and their cool Miata with 150+ whp it'd be easier.

>
Just do what I do, get a car, drive it for a year, then sell it and get something else. I've owned 5 celicas, a supra, a wrx, 2 miatas, a 79 amc, and a 69 pontiac in the 8 years I've had my license. Some cars I've already decided I will own within the next 8 years: eg civic/del sol, MKIV supra, FC RX7, eclipse gsx, another alltrac (or convert a FWD celica to AWD and 3sgte swap it...), Mr2, M3, etc.

That's usually what I do and has been my trend, gets old after awhile though. Which is why I've been so indecisive this time, I want to pick a car and stay with it for a few years for once.

I still say you should've kept the LeMans.

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 28, 2013 - 1:56 PM

Allright, allright, enough thread jacking more pics of miata!

Someone stole your fender!!!

well... I "fixed" the frame and got body panels to align fairly well:


Here's a pic that shows what I did to fix it:


It makes me sad to say this, but this car has officially been retired. The chassis is at a point where it's usable, but only barely. So when the engine blew I decided I'm just going to start fresh with a new car. I picked up an 87 rx7 non-turbo to be the new drift car, and I think I'm going to end up selling my 6gc in the near future to get another miata as a daily. I will, however, be keeping the welded diff I have for the miata on hand so if ever the rx7 is too broken to make it to a drift I can just swap diffs in the miata real quick and have a back-up race car

Video of the miata's final moments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3zR8OYUS98

Nice thread read all of it and everything then got to the end to here that it didn't survive.. It's the most heart breaking thing I've ever read haha. Keep up the good diy work

>
*sigh* I just can't bring myself to get rid of it yet, so I bought a new engine last night... I'm still debating on what my plan is, but I'm thinking most likely going to be building it with forged internals and use a megasquirt and bigger injectors and sit around 220-250 whp when I'm done, but I'll just be a bigger turbo and bigger injectors away from 400+ at that point.......