Budget turbo miata

My buddies and I have an annual road trip where we all buy a car, (fix it) and then take on the road trip, come home (hopefully) and then sell for profit. This year's theme is "ricer" and we're headed to Mt Washington in NH and then back.
we have a points system so we can decide "winners" based on line items.
see current list for the '17 competition below.


early purchase penalty (buying earlier than 1 month before the trip date takes away penalty points
Cost of purchase + all parts cost (labor and parts found in garage, side of the road, etc are free)
hp increase with mod, 0.5 pts per group agreed believable hp
1 point per $1 fine on tickets received during the trip
Acceleration
Handling
Fuel Economy
Burnout Length
Tofu Delivery Challenge!
Drift competition....?
Rice burner challenge
# of "mad props"
# unassociated cars you can get to race you from a street light
# of breakdowns
# car alarms set off
Pop off the orange targa top on the highway
2JZ no shit!
passing a car in reverse on the highway
wheelie
drive under a semi truck trailer
blowing the welds on your intake
wearing baby oil all over throughout the trip
Terminal failure
# miles driven less than other competitors
lbs of rice carried through entire trip
Sale Price
Sell date

Rules are still in the works, so if you guys have funny suggestions let me know!

so this year I came across this. 94 miata advertised as a "tired engine, probably needs a rebuild soon"

guy told me it had low compression, but never gave me any numbers

no matter, i ended up picking it up.
it wasn't running right but it at least drove up onto the trailer which is always nice


annnd compression check


timing belt was a little loose


normal wiring quality of a sub $1k craigslist purchase


set off the aftermarket alarm 3 times before i pulled it all


leakdown

turns out the PO had the intake cam on advanced one tooth.
fixed that up but still not great


one of the cleanest CL interirors I've had




oh and it smokes a lot


gaskets were installed wrong too


i ran water through the intake before pulling the head, amazing how clean some parts got from it


not so much on the valves though.... how does this happen?
pretty much all valves looked like this


cyl2 had a reason for low compression


picked up a used head for super cheap

slapped it together, crossed my fingers


and good enough for this build


made some oil feed port fittings


law mower batteries are a direct bolt-in and have onle 30less CCA than the dead battery that was in there


we're trying CB radios this year after being annoyed with our cheap walkies for years


got a 16G TD05 for super cheap


got a used shitty log manifold that had exploded at pretty much every weld on the log side to hack apart and use the flange from


conveniently had this shit head to use as a fixture


got a freebie CF look gauge pod for more rice


homemade adjustable fuel pressure regulator

got an email from summit racing
"Part number VPE-13960 which is being shipped directly from the manufacturer is currently out of stock. Based on the most recent information provided by the vendor, this part is expected to ship the week of June 12th."

so


and making log progress




weird twin scroll things


figuring out IC piping routing


downpipe build


no money for real transitions


relocated the wastegate on slotted holes so i can adjust preload


getting things routed


am i doing exhaust pie cuts right?


i made this nearly a decade ago when i did my first 5.3 swap into an s10.


im putting too much effort into this car



relocated the cruise control actuator


backed base timing to about 7 degrees in attempts to not blow this up


"made" a sheet metal brake


for a heat shield


found a small patch of gold foil


used a little photoshop to figure out where to place hood vents

first test drive, no major problems, just need to figure out how to keep AFRs from going to 16 around 5psi




so, "new" NB fuel pump going in


getting the cable actuation


clutch slave is leaky, replacements are $10. why did the PO not replace it?


got a hold of some rx7 460cc injectors (stock is 265cc)


had to extend the shifter so i dont smash the cb

Maybe I missed it..but how much did you pay for the car?

Maybe I missed it..but how much did you pay for the car?

$900

Your buyem-beatem-sellem cars are built quicker and better than any project that I've ever touched.

in case you guys were wondering,

so far in the past years we have had

2012 - 1300 miles in $1300 4x4s and went around lake michigan with offroading in the upper peninsula (of michigan)
    I actually missed out on this one because i had just bought my house and had zero money to spare.


2013 - sports car challenge $1300 budget to the tail of the dragon


2014 - offroad sports car to drummond island and copper harbor offroading.
picture at the most northern tip of michigan overlooking lake superior


2015 - american v8s, canadian takeover to thunder bay (the long way around Lake Huron and superior)


2016 - SBC challenge to virginia bieach and atlantic city



obviously some years we've had a couple cheat cars. it's all just for fun with buddies so we allow pretty much everything. including the contour in the SBC challenge because he literally placed a 305 block in the trunk for the entire trip.

because he literally placed a 305 block in the trunk for the entire trip.

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHH

turns out i didnt really understand the stock FPR too well. i returned the aftermarket one because the stock one works the same (actually more linear according to my bench testing)

anyways, updates

got some stickers


added an o2 bung to add a narrowband. going to attempt to tune in closed loop next.
17mpg in a miata is pretty terrible for street driving only.
my entire exhaust goes back and forth between stainless and mild steel based on what scrap metal bin i got the tubing from.



and decided to go a nice ricer gold color on some wheels i had rolling around in my garage from when i had the FB rx7

Don't tease me with the Audi like that.

Those wheels will indeed have the ricer look, but you definitely need more stickers.

Any plans for suspension mods? Definitely needs to be low with almost 0 travel for that fore/aft teeter totter style. Super camber is good too.

haha the audi made progress. it now has a battery tender hooked up to it - hence why it is now by the garage

i think unless i magically find time to do the rust repairs I'll sticker up all the rust holes.

not sure I'll have time (definitely no budget) for suspension mods.

as I actually have to drive this thing and not die, i can't really stance it or lower it too much unfortunately

being on budget means i can't go out and buy aluminum barb fittings whenever i want.


also im working on improving my abysmal fuel economy



also managed to make a catch can to try to pull nasty blowby out of the crankcase without sooting up the bumper (more)



i've never built a catch can before but hopefully these stainless scrubbies will scrub all the nastiness out before the intake sucks it in.

Borrowed a coworker's lisle spring compressor/keeper remover/installer thingy and wow that works amazing
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/lil-36050/overview/
it's a tool that works exactly as it should for its specific purpose.

anyways, got all the valve seals swapped to new ones last night.
who knew pushing rope would be the hardest part.

i burned through nearly a gallon of oil in the past 2 gas fill ups so hopefully this alleviates some of that.

and while i had the plugs out, anyone want to provide input on how these plugs look?
I have no idea how to "read" plugs unless they are catastrophically bad

I don't have much experience reading plugs but I would say those look like a heat range too "cold" for the level or frequency of boost you're running. I think that black crud should be burning off if the plug is heating up enough. May not be an issue once you start driving the car hard though.

Unless that bottom barb is the drain, don't you want both fittings to be near the top of the can, air in, air out, let the oil fall? Otherwise the oil will eventually reach the level of that bottom barb and start pouring down it.

I don't have much experience reading plugs but I would say those look like a heat range too "cold" for the level or frequency of boost you're running. I think that black crud should be burning off if the plug is heating up enough. May not be an issue once you start driving the car hard though.

I was actually wondering about that too, but going one heat range hotter places me right back at stock, which seems wrong for a 13psi car.
i just ordered a FMU to hopefully get my cruising AFRs somewhat reasonable, i am currently running super rich...

Unless that bottom barb is the drain, don't you want both fittings to be near the top of the can, air in, air out, let the oil fall? Otherwise the oil will eventually reach the level of that bottom barb and start pouring down it.

bottom port you're seeing goes to the valve cover.
I think i thought it through, and decided to keep the in and out at the far ends of eachother to get the flow to go across as much of the scrubbies as they can.
even if the port is submerged it shouldn't really matter much, the vacuum should pull through it?

plus i should empty it often enough that doesnt matter. i plan on adding a ball valve to the drain (not pictured) for easy emptying.

my thought on the aftermarket top-top ported ones is that they won't separate/condense the oil enough, and the ones that have a top port but have a straw going to the bottom will have the same issue as mine.

 surprise rain during the day made me realized that all the glue i've slapped on the worn out roof means nothing if i leave the windows down  :/

I also figured out that the drain holes i thought i cleverly drilled in the rear shelf drained directly into the trunk  :/

I am the dumbz.

anyways I fixed that today by adding tubes to go from the shelf drain holes to outside the trunk.


hopefully this will keep both the interior and the trunk dry.
a wet interior/trunk on a camping road trip will make for a miserable time if it rains.

also the oil burning is getting annoying.

im resorting to snake oil to see if it does anything.


new valve seals did jack shit.



popped an IC line today to verify the turbo isnt leaking oil on the cold side.

not a drop of oil here.

I'll drop the downpipe again soon and see what the turbine area looks like too.