M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

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Fred
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

m2cupcar wrote:I'm sure it was much quicker than when I drove it considering all the parts that were removed. I bet it was nearly 500lbs lighter.
Ha, short memory! You sabotaged my run by reducing the boost and took great pleasure in getting me to say how fast it was before telling me so :-D I wish we could line up the new incarnation and the ute side by side for some testing :-) I guess the answer is to both gather metrics, corner weights, dyno slips, drag slips, datalogs, combined with tyre sizing and gear ratios, you could learn a lot from the above.

Great to see all of these pics for the first time! Nice work.

I do note, however, that you are still running the little cute gearbox... :-) What's the plan for that? No plan? Wait for me (/ever) to figure it out?
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by m2cupcar »

"Short" is relative older man. :mrgreen: I have a ute bellhousing/front section that will give me a bolt-in solution between the FD RX7 gearbox and the FE block. Have you not heard of this? ;) Of course that'll likely require another custom drive shaft and power plant frame modification. As the car sat at 300whp+ I managed to go 3,000 miles (with mechanical empathy) before the transmission was bad to the point that the input shaft was very difficult to turn by hand. At that time I still had two more small transmission sitting on the floor as spares. Now I have one left. But the real kicker is I now drive roughly 1,000 miles per year between three cars. So I have a few options for getting on with the big transmission project: 1) sell spare small transmission for paltry sum of $100 2) drive more OR 3) remove mechanical empathy. Keep in mind #3 could also incur repairs to other components- like my prized 3.63 differential.
90 Miata | 302rwhp @ 6450rpm | 281rwftlbs @ 4800rpm | FE-dohc 2.0L turbo
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

Is your 3.63 a 7/7.5" unit? Should hold up OK in a light car? These Volvos have a similar sized unit, and I've seen people run 9s on them! :-o

Do you have an FD3S or RX8 trans to swap the bell onto? And for you, does it matter which box due to the angle thing? Or are you planning FC3S? The thing with those later boxes is: Longer input shaft and less to mill off of other things/and or make up for. Have you got a spare FE block to play around with for figuring this out? FD and RX8 have the PPF thing going on, though it may be different to yours, I guess. I think mine has 4 big studs in one direction. The bell you have is the van one. I have a spare ute one, though, if it turns out to be wrong. Could be convinced to part company with it at some point...

Drive shaft yolk wise, you can get the correct yolk from B2600, RX8 5 speed, FC3S, FD3S, etc. Would be good to start getting the rest of the pieces together :-)

Anyway, main point: You shouldn't wait to kill the old one, you should prepare it slowly carefully and meticulously on the side so IT can be your spare when you forget your empathy and sympathy and become a ruthless youtube-view-count-owning driveline killer :-D

If you really do need to kill the old one to get on with the new one, there's another option: Import me for a few hours. I bet I can kill it, or myself, or something. :-)
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

Also, if you're planning to track this, and your local course has any long right hand sweepers, you'll want to check out this post: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16&p=41952#p41952
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by m2cupcar »

Yes- 7" ring. And you are correct- they rarely grenade. What will go first in the diff is the torsen gears.

I don't have any spare trans except for the little Miata trans. The RX8 trans is the same Aisan that comes in the Miatas with 6 speeds. I know of one FE3 Miata swap that used the Miata Aisin 6spd. A couple of holes lines up and couple more were drilled. And I do believe he only ran four bolts. Besides that, the 6 speed just isn't that much stronger than the Miata 5spd. Maybe the RX8 got a different transmission in your neighborhood?

My plan is to use an FD trans. They're still relatively affordable here ~$500 used in good working condition. I do have an FE block on the shelf. Same one I used to build my oil pan. Same one I will use to repair my oil pan. ;) I've seen the Miata PPF adapted to several different transmissions. They all same to have adequate bosses on the tailshafts to mount/fab an adapter to mate the two. I've been looking out for an FD part out in hopes of grabbing the trans and drive shaft so I could get a custom shaft built.

I get your point on the transmission. But keep in mind, I am the same person that's speaking of two more FreeEMS installations. :D

I often ponder the possibility of tracking this car. But what usually comes to mind is that my home track has an extremely long straight. A straight long enough to allow a 115rwhp Miata to reach a top speed of 115+ mph. I'm OK with that in a fully caged tiny car, with all my safety gear. Aamof I never even think about it while racing. Then I consider this car that has nearly 3x the power and about a fifth the safety equipment and fear sets in. Can't help it. I'm a calculating person. :D
90 Miata | 302rwhp @ 6450rpm | 281rwftlbs @ 4800rpm | FE-dohc 2.0L turbo
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

m2cupcar wrote:Yes- 7" ring. And you are correct- they rarely grenade. What will go first in the diff is the torsen gears.

Only when launched hard, though, from what I've read. I want one of these for my KP60, but they're not easy to come by over here.
m2cupcar wrote:The RX8 trans is the same Aisan that comes in the Miatas with 6 speeds. <SNIP> Maybe the RX8 got a different transmission in your neighborhood?
Might be JDM only? I thought it was all of the early ones, though. Any 5-speed RX8 is the same basic box.
m2cupcar wrote:I know of one FE3 Miata swap that used the Miata Aisin 6spd. A couple of holes lines up and couple more were drilled. And I do believe he only ran four bolts. Besides that, the 6 speed just isn't that much stronger than the Miata 5spd.
True, I have two of them for my NA 4AGE into 700kg KP60 project, 1.6 litres of torque, less power than the factory engine for the box. Should be tough as nails in that context.
m2cupcar wrote:My plan is to use an FD trans. They're still relatively affordable here ~$500 used in good working condition. <SNIP> I've been looking out for an FD part out in hopes of grabbing the trans and drive shaft so I could get a custom shaft built.
Good! This is what I wanted to hear!
m2cupcar wrote:I've seen the Miata PPF adapted to several different transmissions. They all same to have adequate bosses on the tailshafts to mount/fab an adapter to mate the two.
This is how they look:

Image



m2cupcar wrote:I often ponder the possibility of tracking this car. But what usually comes to mind is that my home track has an extremely long straight. A straight long enough to allow a 115rwhp Miata to reach a top speed of 115+ mph. I'm OK with that in a fully caged tiny car, with all my safety gear. Aamof I never even think about it while racing. Then I consider this car that has nearly 3x the power and about a fifth the safety equipment and fear sets in. Can't help it. I'm a calculating person. :D
I understand the fear. Hampton downs has a straight that's not straight. I felt nervous through the slight right. Very nervous when the brakes faded. Nervous just doing 200kph+ in a ute toward a corner. The ute has a solution, though: Shit ratios. I was able to come out of the sweeper, hit the limiter in 5th @ 210kph ish, brake down to 120 again, then hit the limiter again @ 210, then brake for the corner at the end :-D How long is your straight? Let me see. No, impossible to figure out. And the straight at Hampton looks like a huge radius turn on a map, which is kinda what it is. Not as much fun, but set a speed cut to limit things on the straight? :-D
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by m2cupcar »

Did some stuff: Rspeed lip and deck lid spoiler installs, made/installed turbo heat shield, cleaned up strut tower brace and installed it (because it would fit!). I've driven it twice on a VE table I "fabricated" from running through the revs sitting in the driveway. I have yet to find the time to go out when there's not so much traffic on reasonably flat road. I need to do some clutch adjusting. The entire action happens in about 1/2" of throw and right off the floor. That said- I think this is how it was in the prior car based on videos. I've got something rubbing around 3500 rpm and in off throttle coast in gear. I pulled a shim from oil pump while the engine was out and now in the raging summer heat my idle oil pressure is 5-10psi. I regret doing that as I added a significantly larger oil cooler this time around. Tires are rubbing in the rear on hard compression (pot holes at slow speed). I had a leak at the oil pan and block just to the passenger side of the crank pulley first time out. I was able to tighten that oil pan bolt at the leak without much effort and it appears to have remedied the problem this time out. The cooling system seems to work well. Both trips have been in 97f with heavy traffic and the system rises in temp, fan comes on, brings the temp down 10c and repeat. Found out my "junkyard" 04 Miata AC compressor has a bad bearing, so no AC. That sucks. I'll get to put my coolant hose routing to the rad to the test- tried to make it so the compressor could be removed w/o pulling the rad hose. Failed again at getting a driving video- pulled out of the driveway and the backup camera died.

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90 Miata | 302rwhp @ 6450rpm | 281rwftlbs @ 4800rpm | FE-dohc 2.0L turbo
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

m2cupcar wrote:I pulled a shim from oil pump while the engine was out and now in the raging summer heat my idle oil pressure is 5-10psi. I regret doing that as I added a significantly larger oil cooler this time around.
A shim from the pressure relief spring? Did you have it shimmed up tighter than stock before? What are pressures like at higher engine speeds as is? and before? Excuse my curiosity! An oil cooler is something I really have to add to my ute, but I don't want to until I've hooked up the gauge and seen what it runs like as is.
m2cupcar wrote:I had a leak at the oil pan and block just to the passenger side of the crank pulley first time out. I was able to tighten that oil pan bolt at the leak without much effort and it appears to have remedied the problem this time out.
Good news! I hope it lasts :-D
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by ToxicGumbo »

As much as I'm enjoying this thread and hate to polute it with insignificant banter, the wine I've been drinking compels me to do the opposite: what oil cooler are you running? I, too, have been meaning to get one and trust your scrutinized decision making over picking one up at a junkyard.
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Re: M2cupcar's 1990 Mazda Mx-5 Miata FE3 Turbo (35th)

Post by Fred »

ToxicGumbo wrote:As much as I'm enjoying this thread and hate to polute it with insignificant banter, the wine I've been drinking compels me to do the opposite: what oil cooler are you running? I, too, have been meaning to get one and trust your scrutinized decision making over picking one up at a junkyard.
First post page 2: "Mercedes w123 diesel oil cooler"
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