1990 GM + turbo build thread
 

Hey all,

So here is a quick run down of my build thus far. The car started as an '89 sold in '90. I bought the car 8 years ago, and did some fairly ricey things the first couple of years. At some point I blew a head gasket, and because it blew a head gasket I figured it was a good time to throw a turbo on it. After blowing up the stock 1.6, I did a pretty basic build, Clevite bearings, ARP hardware, Eagle rods, Wiseco pistons, with some goodies in the head. Log manifold, 3" downpipe, ID1000cc injectors, DIYPNP MegaSquirt the car landed at 359 whp before spark blowout. Switched to the D585 coil, added some more boost, never re dyno'd.

Then I got bored, took it up to Buttonwillow one hot summer day, ran the piss out of it until it blew another headgasket. I didn't really care because I was already planning on some more cylinders and more cubic inches. So I ordered some parts from Shandelle at V8Roadsters in Oct. 2014, began tearing the car down around March 2015... and it hasn't progressed much after that. With work, first house, etc... But I have started working on it again, getting ready to send it off for powder coat(striping seam sealer and undercoat is a real PITA) then paint, then I will wire and plumb the car, and figure out what to do with the engine.

Without further yapping, here are some pictures.

Some of the pictures are a little blurry, sorry.

Here is after I striped the car down, before I starting going crazy with things...
https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1454035073
Then I decided to start adding bars :doh: the original rollcage was done at a local shop, but with my new power goals I wanted to add some more protection and to do some extra chassis stiffening. So I got a tubing bender and went to work.
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I wanted to go with an old school NASCAR themed dash board, so I drew this guy up in Photoshop, sent it to my buddy and he whipped me out some panels.
https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1454035073
Sent the car off for sandblasting.
https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1454035073
And started building headers.
https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1454035073

So the plan with this car is somewhat like my last build with the 1.6. Have a fun track car, that will occasionally driven on the street to car shows. I plan on running NASA TTU with the car, not expecting to be too competitive, more or less just go out and have fun and learn the car for a while before trying to be competitive.

Right now I have a 5.3 block I am using for mock up, as well as another complete 5.3 engine I was thinking about using. I picked up a TexRacing (now GForce) 4 speed, McLeod bellhousing, McLeod twin disc clutch, as well as their hydraulic throwout bearing conversion deal. The car will be stopping using the V8Roadsters big brake kit with Wilwoods on all four corners as well as Wilwood master cylinders and pedals that I bought from the very helpful crew at Wilwood. A Ford 8.8 stuffed with Richmond goodies will put the power to the wheels, a Holley HP EFI will be the brains. Tires are 275/35zr15 Hoosier R7, radiator is in the trunk... and yes, there is an 88mm turbo hanging off the right front frame rail :yippee:

Some more pics
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Hey there! I've been following your build on FB and instagram as well. But I've gotta ask, how do you keep the car from flash rusting since you've got it stripped? Or is it grey primer I'm looking at.

Sweet

Steve, the car is still bare metal. There are a few spots where I have gotten some surface rust from me climbing in and out of it doing my seat mounts. But other than that, it has stayed relatively rust free. Which I am as surprised as you, because it has been blasted since August. The guy told me when I picked it up to put primer on it or it would be rusted after a couple weeks... I do try and keep the door to the garage closed as much as possible. But when it gets dropped off for powder coat they are going to reblast it regardless. I thought your screen name looked familiar. I see you have been making some progress with yours as well.

I left some welds bare for a few days while I waited for primer and they rusted. lol Florida is a different beast all together.

Ryan,

It looks like you are going to have a fine chassis when it is done. I am looking forward to seeing the progress. I feel like our builds may have similar goals but totally different paths. I am just wrapping up my motor build. I have yet to touch the car aside from tearing out the old drivetrain/motor. Keep the updates coming!

This build looks awesome!

Thanks guys!

Chris,

I am still very undecided on what to do for my engine. I like the iron blocks for the cost and I feel they will do a little better job in the long run with that much boost compared to an aluminum block. But I don't like the extra weight. I want this engine to last a good amount of time with no major issues. But the aluminum blocks are so so tempting.

Small update, got the master cylinder reservoir mounting bracket made up and welded into place last night. Gonna get the ecu mount done tonight, there will be a 3rd reservoir for the clutch, just hadn't ordered it yet!

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1454616504

I hear you. I decided on the aluminum 5.3 and fitted only 3.80 forged pistons to keep as much meat on the sleeves as possible. The cylinder liners are thick on the later 5.3's. I haven't seen many block failures in these castings and they are relatively cheap.

The sleeves do look pretty thick, my main concern was actually in the crank area of the block. Whether or not the aluminum block is more susceptible to flex than the iron block under a fair amount of boost and for long durations of time. Also, what water pump are you going to be running? I spoke with Meizer enterprises last week, and talked to the guy about mechanical pumps, he pointed me to their high volume pump... But it's $900, is there an alternative or really a need for such an expensive pump?

Also, an update. I got my dash board installed finally, going to order a sheet of aluminum to cut out the top and the sides next week.

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1455292799
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I am going to run a Meziere remote mounted electric 55 GPM to free up some space in the front of the motor.

Sorry for the delay. That is also the pump I was looking at getting, but he told me any mechanical pump will outflow pretty much any electric water pump on the market past 2500 RPM. He also told me for the kind of power I am trying to make and how long the track sessions are to stay away from the electric jobbers because they will get heat soaked really quick and start to burn the motor up. He said for street driving, strip, and shorter track sessions with much less horsepower the electric ones are fine. I am really looking into the Meziere remote mount mechanical pump and drive it off of the rear differential. But that is still undecided. I'm just not too excited about having anything on the front of the engine near the Y pipe.

That is similar to what I have gathered:

"Typically we will recommend mechanical pumps be used for any towing application, any application where turbo boost exceeds 35 PSI, any N/A or boosted engines used for continuous wide open throttle and in excess of 600 HP."

Update,

Car has been dropped off for powder coating. Should have it back around April 20th. I am definitely excited!

Here are some random pictures I took before loading it up on the trailer.

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Car looks sharp, nice work. Is that gas tank opening a requirement for something, or did you just do it? I like it.

It's not a requirement, but eventually I do plan on doing the 25 hours of thunderhill and other endurance races, so having a dry brake will surely speed things up on pit road. Plus I think it looks badass! lol

Pics for the bros

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1466884211
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Pictures are in no particular order. I decided to ditch the idea of using a flashed ECU and modified harness. I went ahead and went with a Holley unit, with its own engine harness. The car is wired for the most part, I need to order a few more things to finish that up. Still waiting to buy the clutch, bellhousing, and hydraulic throw out bearing conversion. Things have been going somewhat well with getting the car put back together. Two of the things that still have me stumped are the downpipe construction/exhaust routing and how to duct the radiator. My original thought was from the top and out the bottom, but after talking to several people I am starting to lean more towards pulling are from the bottom of the car and ducting the hot air out from the finish panel area. That may take a couple of attempts to get the right set up as far as that is concerned. The exhaust will be tackled once I get the clutch and shit that way I won't have to take the engine and trans back out when it shows up.*

Ryan,
This is freaking badass. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the radiator. Ducting from bottom up seems to make sense, but I have no experience with rear mounted cooling......yet. Nice job. Keep the updates coming.

Small update, I redid the passenger side header. I tried building it when I didn't have the transmission in the car. So once I got the engine and transmission in their respective places, the header didn't fit so well. So I went ahead and started building another one last night. I moved the collector back and started on the merge pipe.*

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1477621513

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top notch fabrication. got my attention.

I have an update, the ECU is installed and the harness has been ran to the engine bay. Gauges have been wired for lights and sending units. I ended up going with a AutoMeter GPS sender for the speedo. I also got the diff mounted, got the bellhousing, throwout bearing, 60mm wastegate, a hood, and a new front bumper and door. The car was on the ground on its own wheels and tires for the first time in a long time. I also picked up an expansion tank, shift lever, all of my AN hoses and fittings, Aeromotive A100 fuel pump, Aeromotive regulator, and fuel filter. I also got my alternator bracket, idlers, tensioner, 145 amp alternator, and starter

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1481757658
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I have an update, the ECU is installed and the harness has been ran to the engine bay. Gauges have been wired for lights and sending units. I ended up going with a AutoMeter GPS sender for the speedo. I also got the diff mounted, got the bellhousing, throwout bearing, 60mm wastegate, a hood, and a new front bumper and door. The car was on the ground on its own wheels and tires for the first time in a long time. I also picked up an expansion tank, shift lever, all of my AN hoses and fittings, Aeromotive A100 fuel pump, Aeromotive regulator, and fuel filter. I also got my alternator bracket, idlers, tensioner, 145 amp alternator, and starter

https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1481757673
https://www.v8miata.net/attachment.p...ine=1481757673
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Update... It's done... For the most part anyways

Congratulations that looked like a BLAST!

Car looks like a trip.

What are the tabs with three holes welded to the rear subframe, mounting for a rear lower tie bar? Something else?

That was the idea, I got some 1/2" x 2" rectangle tubing to build them, just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Currently working on getting a lot more tire under the car.

Awesome video.

Any updated engine bay pics?

QQ from your original post - how do you plan on driving this on the street in Cali?

He said I kept taking the bypass road, which I did once in the first session when it over heated. Then when I said there was two cameras on the car he wanted to tell me I was drifting lol

Yes, I will post some

Illegally

Also, went to a 1/2 mile air strip race yesterday. Did 167mph with 15psi. Tried cranking up the boost but I kept popping off the charge pipe


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How is the rear mount radiator setup working out? Any pics of that available?

Its working pretty well, it did over heat at Thunderhill, but that was do a faulty radiator cap. Since I changed that it's been doing okay, granted it hasn't been ran long enough and hard enough to fully know yet. There is no ducting going to the radiator, just the two spal fans and shroud I built. For a street car or a mild drag car it would be fine all day long I think. https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...b284b64ff3.jpg
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Looks like that would move some weight from front to rear.
Have you weighed to see what the weight balance is?

Yes I have, I don't want to give exact details, but the weight is 2327 and the cross has been set to something I am comfortable driving. There are no swaybars on this car yet, so when I fab up some bars, the cross is going to change accordingly

Awesome updates Ryan. Thanks for sharing. How is your cooling system holding up to all of this abuse?

Also, I just noticed......No power assist with that brake pedal setup? How is that working out? Not intending to sound skeptical. I am genuinely curious.

Man... I don’t update the forums any more. Sorry guys! Well we went back after the 200mph 1/2 mile pass and ended up going 7 mph slower than last October. I built a new drag wing for the car, new tires, parachute, lowered the front air dam, turned the power up... then smoked the clutch on pass two. I think one more good effort is required to see if that 200mph is attainable.

After that I started getting the car ready for the Miata reunion. So, it got a new transmission (found some issues with the old transmission, mainly that I never opened the side cover when I bought it and that it wasn’t actually a dog box. Just a glorified T10) so I have a true, proper T101 in the car with a Long shifter, picked up an aluminum 5.3, put in a LS6 cam, I built my own control arms in the front which use adjustable screw in style upper and lower balljoints for changing roll centers now, made a splitter, made a spoiler, made a “Laguna Seca” exhaust, and I’m sure countless other things. Ryan Passey set the Miata track there on Friday before the event at a 1:35.25. I only ran Sunday, but off the trailer (my first time racing there) ran a 1:39 something. So I knew it was gonna be a hot rod. We fiddled with the car a little bit. Went out for the second session just to put some laps on it, then got it ready to give it a solid run on the 3rd session. Lap 2 I ran a 1:37.84, lap 3 it spun a rod bearing 😂 sooo that was the end of that. Car felt great, making a little too much power but I was turned all the way down on spring pressure and I forgot to bring other springs. I think a few more laps and no traffic and a couple other little tweaks and that record might fall 😁 motor is out, another engine going in hopefully tonight or tomorrow in preparation for Global Time Attack at Buttonwillow next month! Installing an accusump on it as a bandaid until I can get a dry sump on it.

Hopefully I’ll get the videos up soon!

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brakes feel great, we are playing around with different pad compounds at the moment. It should most definitely have more brake on it.... I’m sure we’ll cross that road sooner than later

Update on the ride...

Biggest thing, it's not turbo anymore. That being said, it's the most fun I've had with the car in a very long time. The car is fast, set the Laguna Seca Miata chassis record in July at a 1:33.5. I really believe I can get down to sub 30 in it with some chassis adjustment and more seat time. It still has the same aluminum block 5.3, it currently makes 359hp and it runs like a champ. No more overheating, no more melting under the hood, etc.

Things on the to-do list;
install new springs
install new sway bar
build rear subframe for Winters Quick Change
install fuel cell

Then back to more sorting out, then out for some ST1 action in it.

Here is the lap around Laguna as well as a lap around Sonoma. Sonoma had a 3.08 gear in it so it was a dog. Can't wait to go back in November and try and snatch that record as well. Then next year I'll go for Thunderhill East/West, Buttonwillow, and maybe ACC if I can get down there before it goes bye bye

You Tube

You Tube

Late reply, but great update! Glad to hear that your car is doing work and setting records without the turbo. Now you can beat on it all day long!!