September 2015

FedEx Nooooooo!

My engine arrived last week.  It came while I was at work and my wife didn't really know what to look for when receiving it, not her fault.  Anyway, they somehow flipped it over and spun on the pallet.  How the hell do you do that?

They broke the throttle body, cam sensor, crank sensor, condenser/capacitor, and dipstick handle.  My seller is shipping me replacement parts no charge.  He said it's too big of a pain for him to file a claim against FedEx.

Seat Install

I completed the installation of the Ultra-Shield Rally Sport.  It's mounted to the stock sliders.  I left the rear mounts in tact for now.  I may cut them off later.  I'm pretty happy with the seat position as it is.  I have a 10 degree seat and I like to be pretty upright on the wheel.
I did a full write up on the seat installation.  I know a lot of people have questions on how to mount these to stock sliders.
Direct link: http://96miatabuild.blogspot.com/p/aluma.html

Engine Checkup

I pulled the valve cover in preparation for work. The cams and valve train look great.

I changed the oil, drenching all the cam bearings and added a bit of the Marvel Mystery Oil to each cylinder.  The crank test showed good oil flow to the top end.  The initial compression test was not so great.  A leakdown test revealed a large intake valve leak on #2 and a small exhaust leak an #3.  Visual inspection with a flashlight showed some deposits on both.  I soaked these with some Marvel Mystery Oil for a couple of days and vacuumed the gunk away to keep it out of the cylinders. I re-ran the compression test and the numbers were much better.  Not too worried about leakdown at these numbers.
#1 - 200
#2 - 195
#3 - 197
#4 - 212
all were up around 90 on the first pulse.

I made one dumbass move during the process. I left the VVT oil pipe open when I first started cranking.  I squirted a bunch of oil on the floor.  Time to break out the kitty litter :(

  

VTCS Delete

With the intake manifold off I decided to gut the VTCS.  Whether there's a measurable power increase after removing the butterflies is debatable, My main concern is those little screws vibrating loose and falling into my valve train.  The removal was pretty painless.  After reading up on the forums, I decided to leave the holes between runners open for now, We'll see how that works out.  I'll tap in a plug to fill the exterior hole.

Intake manifold cleaned up, What a slimy mess. I'll be adding an oil catch can in the PCV path.

Autocross Weekend

I went up to Packwood WA with my 02 ES Miata for the final SCCA region events of the year.  It was a blast as usual. 12 runs on Saturday and 6 runs on Sunday.  My 02 is in pretty good shape going into next year.  I'm going to switch tires from the Dunlops to Bridgestones and put Hawk pads on the rear to try and move some bias to the rear.

Timing Belt

I completed the timing belt change. I've actually never done this job before, always paid someone to do it.  New cam and crank seals were also installed.  I decided to go ahead and do the water pump while I was in there, good decision.  The old pump turned out to be a stamped and spot welded impeller and at least one spot weld was almost rusted through.  New cast impeller pump from 949 Racing installed.  I decided to dedicate a full day to focus on this job.  All in all the whole thing was relatively painless.  The new belt is in and tension checks out perfectly.I'm held up waiting on a VVT cam cover gasket.

Tightening the crank bolt was easy after the application of a little hillbilly tech. and the FM crank tool.

I want to replace all the aux hoses and hose clamps.  There are at least 4 maybe 5 different sizes of hose clamps.  I've been trying to pull together a list from Mazdaspeed Motorsport.  It's confusing as shit.

I think I'll mellow out today, drink some beer, and paint the letters on my valve cover.  Maybe fab some EGR cover plates.