JCH13 - Turbo Miata Rehab Thread

[JCH13]

Lulz chinachargers. Replace them every day for 10 years and still cheaper than a Garret BB :awe:

:awe: That has been my running philosophy. I've bought/sold 3-ish turbos during this project and made money on them. God I love CL.

 

[thedarkwolf]

:awe: That has been my running philosophy. I've bought/sold 3-ish turbos during this project and made money on them. God I love CL.

No scalping

 

[JCH13]

This weekend I finally got a chance to work on it! Black2NA, Andrew, Andy, and myself worked for 8 hours or so on Sunday and we knocked off the following issues:

-Resealed valve cover baffles (will help with spewing out oil into catch can)
-Replaced valve cover gasket (completely dried out!)
-Replaced camshaft seals
-Realign slipped cam sprocket (alignment pin is MASHED, I reset it with some red loctite)
-Replaced t-stat neck o-ring
-Replaced water pump and associated gaskets (old pump's bearings were not doing so well, coolant was leaking slowly)
-Replaced timing belt tensioning pulleys
-Replaced timing belt
-Discovered that the crank pulley belt was FINGER TIGHT D:
-Discovered that my engine is a SHORT NOSE CRANK D:
-Performed the loctite key fix on the crank pulley
-Torqued the crank nose pulley to 120ft-lbs with medium loctite, hopefully it stays!
-Replaced front main seal, but that did not appear to be the oil leak source, I will be replacing the oil pan gasket next weekend I think
-Removed front fenders, bumper, and hardtop for Black2NA to repair/repaint. The front bumper will be getting a turn-signal to HID conversion and a cool custom bumper refit. Hardtop will be painted black.
-FM frame rails were installed :awe:
-NB suspension conversion was finally finished with the addition of NB rear shock mounts, the ass-end won't be riding high anymore and I'll get 3/4" more suspension travel! Magic. :awe:

All-in-all an insanely productive day, I can't wait to get it back on the road and racing...

Huge props to Bonky for letting me store it in his garage all winter and letting us use all of his tools to work on it! You're the man!

Pics to come soon.

 

[JCH13]

Some bodywork pics from Black2NA. I wanted something unique but inexpensive for a paint job. He's convinced me to let him do a harlequin paint job with 19 different colors. Similar to the harlequin VW Golf series, but with more colors and colors that aren't just glossy primary colors. The pattern is comprised entirely of left-over colors in Black2NA's shop and can be done piece-meal without any color matching effort, thus the low price.

Right Fender Dark Blue (painted 3/20)
Left Fender Maroon (painted 3/20)
Right Door Orange
Left Door Bronze
Right Quarter panel Gunmetal
Left Quarter panel Bright Green
Rear Bumper Dark Green
Front bumper Yellow
License Surround Dark Purple
Window Frame Gloss Black
Hardtop Satin Black (painted 3/20)
HLC LH Gold
HLC RH Beige (Light Gold)
LH MIRROR Light Blue
RH MIRROR Brown (JLee's Bike)
Filler Door Silver
Hood Pearl White
Trunk Bright Blue
Rear Deck Strip Green (Jetta)

I expect a lot of people to hate it. It might even be a sin against nature. But I don't care because race car.

The custom bumper he's working on for me should be put together soon, which will be way cool.

Still waiting on the mechanical build pics from Bonky...

 

[PseudoSport]

Are you sure it's a short nose crank? The car is a 1991 with a VIN number after 209447 and it has the 8 slot crank pulley.

 

[JCH13]

Are you sure it's a short nose crank? The car is a 1991 with a VIN number after 209447 and it has the 8 slot crank pulley.

I hope a picture got taken of it (I wasn't running the camera) but there is a significant portion of the key inside the crank pulley that is unsupported by the crankshaft which lead me to think it was a short-nose.

On a second review of the topic it seems that I have the "big nose" crank, which was a complete redesign.

What I learned: the "short nose" cranks were the ones that would wear and fail. A quick-fix was the "long-nose" crank, same OD as the "short nose" but the key was fully supported. The crank was then redesigned to the "big nose" version, which again left some key unsupported, but the key is at a larger OD, and thus sees less stress. There was virtually no wear on the keyway, so I am not too concerned.

I always thought that there was only the "short nose" and "long nose" cranks, but I guess there is a third type!

 

[JCH13]

From the last couple weekends:

Custom bumper work from Blank2NA

All of the body panels stripped off.

Working on the timing belt and water pump. The connected adjustable wrenches keep the cams from slipping while setting time.

Putting on a new pigtail for the MS to relocate it.

Putting in FM frame rails.

Welding up a race pipe for my FM cat-back. I was very happy with how my welds came out.

 

[JCH13]

Got home not too long ago, Andy and Bonky helped me get the WB O2 bung welded into my new race pipe, cams timed in properly, coolant filled/bled, ignition wiring sorted, and the car started! Glad to be over that hurdle.

 

[JCH13]

This weekend I replaced the brake master cylinder, went very smoothly, brake pedal feels much better now. Andy mounted all of the electronics in the glove box to keep it all out of the way. The MegaView got hooked up and works like a charm, still needs to be mounted. I patched several holes in the rear wheel well/rocker area (classic miata issue). The rear bumper was all sorts of messed up, had to cut every single bolt in it to get it off, but it's apart now, spare bolts and clip nuts are ordered from McMaster. I also got a lot of the removable body panels back on. We took it for a test drive without any doors, which was a blast, and then put the painted doors back on. Crappy cell-phone pics only at this point I'm sad to say. The panles' colors are all great, I can't wait to see it completely together and in the sun. All of the red will be gone from the exterior.

 

[exdeath]

I'm jelly of your welding skills. That or TIG really is just cheating :awe:

 

[JCH13]

I'm jelly of your welding skills. That or TIG really is just cheating :awe:

Haha, thanks. I used to teach TIG welding when I was in college, trust me when I say it is not cheating :awe:

 

[JCH13]

Custom front bumper is painted.

 

[jlee]

:awe:

 

[Ferzerp]

Going for a different color for each body panel/part?

 

[JCH13]

Going for a different color for each body panel/part?

That's the plan. 19 different colors! Black2NA cleans out his leftover paint, and I get it for free! :awe:

 

[Ferzerp]

Woops, I now see that you said that earlier. Sometimes the images make the "go to first new post" link not work properly and I miss a few posts unless I scroll up.

 

[JCH13]

Most of the way put back together, missing a turn signal housing right now and not completely painted, but you get the idea. Front bumper turned out pretty well I think. All the remaining red will be painted over soon.

 

[SearchMaster]

While unique, and that's probably what you are going for, it looks....bad . Any reconsideration on the harlequin paint job?

 

[JCH13]

While unique, and that's probably what you are going for, it looks....bad . Any reconsideration on the harlequin paint job?

Haha, it will likely be tweaked (adding tinted, pearl, or metallic clear to some panels to adjust their color) or maybe repainted later. I am not confident that the rest of the chassis will be solid in 2-3 years, so I didn't want to invest much money in a paint job (in addition to being unique, of course).

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

definitely unique. Maybe a theft deterrent? Nobody would steal such a recognizable car.

 

[manimal]

Dude I think its awesome. Benetton comes to mind!


You guys should open your own shop!

 

[exdeath]

Looks like something a two year old built with legos :awe:

 

[Black2na]

if a two year old built that from legos i would give that kid a metal

 

[JCH13]

Looks like something a two year old built with legos :awe:

Two-year-olds of all ages :biggrin:

 

[manimal]

Take a better picture of the rear of the Car JCH so the haters in here can get used to seeings its butt as it speeds away from them