ToySnakePMC

Curious as well how the auxiliary, or tender, spring works for ya. The first time I installed my V-Maxx coilovers, I used that spring and the other standard spring that came with the shocks on my V8M..., and as soon as I sat the car on its on weight, those tender springs stayed fully compressed. I then installed the FM V8 optional springs on the fronts that eliminates the tender spring. You may have different results though.

BTW, the exhaust is looking fantabulous!

stng_96

So as most of the big things on this car have come together, my update here will consist of several small things that either needed finished, or done completely. Papabear, to answer your question about modifying the fitting for the power steering, I now have a couple tid-bits of information. First, as it turns out, the high pressure side of my 2002 F-body PS pump uses a 16x1.5mm thread fitting. It is the one that FM recommends you use an inverted flair for, see the picture here, which has the factory GM hose/fitting next to it for comparison.



Here it is by itself, out of the packaging.



The 1991 miata rack that I am using ended up using the exact same thread size,16x1.5mm. I don't really know where the 20x1.5mm number came from on FM's site, but I did not use it. I'll just add those parts to the ever growing pile of mistakenly ordered parts. Now, by another mistake I had received two of the AFCO fittings that were the proper thread pitch, so here comes the modification I made to one of them to fit the miata rack. You saw the inverted flare that it came with, I shaved down the end of it, and used a drill bit to convert it to a concave flare that would match the line that came out of the miata rack. Nothing too exciting, see this picture. It seated very nicely, I think it will be fine.





Now that I have the fittings on, The hose was a thing of beauty. While I was putting it on, I could see the value in possibly having a 90 degree fitting that will make it turn out and down from the pump, but not necessary, my hose tucked right up against the water pump and the length was close to perfect, perhaps just a bit long.





Also got the universal cooler mounted up. It was very straightforward, no issues here, except where I dented a few fins. As far as the lines, the one that goes to the resevoir is pretty straightforward. The one that comes from the rack to the cooler is interesting. It has a large banjo style fitting coming out of it, with a 3/8" tube that on the miata sticks up. I used my handy tubing bender and changed its direction to work better with my setup. Picture is blurry, sorry!





Now it was time to get the exhaust finished up. I changed my mind about six times while I was finishing this portion, I could have cut up the C5 system and had it exit at the sides of the rear, but I ended up leaving it center exit because it fit very nicely as it was, and I like it quite a bit now. Here is a picture of what I will call my midpipe, from right behind the trans mount, to the inlet of the C5 catback.



And on the car, when I bought it it actually had some nice stainless clamps from right in front of the mufflers, but I have misplaced them so I just picked up some basic muffler u-bolt clamps. As you can see, I had to trim the bumper a little bit to make it look right, but all in all I am very happy with how it all turned out. The tips are not perfect right now, I will probably end up cutting them off, and extending them out a little more, but this gives you a good idea at least. Sorry for the poor quality pictures, the wall of my barn is only a few feet from the back of the car, so I couldn't get a great shot.







I did start it once to see what it sounded like, but right against the wall is really hard to gauge. It is definitely tight, but nothing is touching anywhere, fit almost like it was made for it. Tips look to be pointed down in this picture, I will adjust that later. Notice my shop helper in the background, he is mad that he only got to play in the snow for about 3 hours yesterday, instead of the whole day!



While I was under the car I decided to go ahead and install my new one way check valve on the fuel tank vent. I bought a nice little piece on ebay, made by UPR, here is the link:

Upr 10mm Non Return One Way 3 8 inch Air Fuel Oil Check Valve Diesel Gas Black | eBay

And here is the valve, nice little piece if you ask me:



I actually made them a counteroffer and got it for $12. Anyways, I had ran a 3/8" rubber vent line from the vent on the top of the tank when I still had it out. From there, I routed it to the location right in front of the passenger rear wheel. I then took the mounting bracket for the factory miata charcoal canister, modified and painted it, and mounted it at this location in front of the rear passenger wheel. You can see the check valve just in front of the canister inlet. This obviously won't use the PCM management system to regulate, it will just leave the gas tank open to the canister at all times, but that won't cause any trouble. I actually already had all that system turned off on my computer flash.





From there, I cleaned up and painted my stock rear calipers to match the wilwoods up front. I'm not much on really flashy brakes, so flat black is just fine for me. If you haven't changed miata brakes before, I suggest you read about how to do it upfront. I have changed many sets of brakes, on many vehicles, and I set and fought the piston on the rear calipers for at least an hour before I figured broke down and read about them. There is an adjustment screw hidden under a 14mm bolt that you have to manipulate to get the piston to retract......Anyway, got them cleaned up, painted, pads on, stainless lines installed, and then I have a problem. I got FM's adapter brackets to make the standard 1.8 calipers work with sport rotors. The problem is that when I put them on, the ebrake cable is not long enough to work anymore. I'm going to call them today, but as of that point, I decided it was time to hold up for a little while.







And with the wheel in place, the camera flash really shows how dirty everything is!!!




That's about all for this update that has any real substance. I spent a fair amount of time lately fixing small little gremlins, or things I just hadn't finished. For example, wired in the OBDII port, cleaned up the fan wiring, etc. I am getting more and more worried that I will have the car ready to go, and I will have no tires to put on it. I sold the factory 15's, and the only spares I have are 14's which won't fit over my brakes.....May be waiting a bit.

stng_96

So after what I will call a pretty good long streak of no problems, I have run into one.....I was out messing with the car earlier, decided since I had the exhaust on now, everything is wired, etc, I would go ahead and start her up and let run for a while and ensure that the fans kicked on as they should. Started her up for probably the 5th time just as usual, and she ran smoothly for probably a minute or so before dying......Now she has died on me a few times, but I always attributed that to the fact that the cam is a little more then the factory tune can handle. Well this time it just sputtered out suddenly, and I when I went to restart it, it fired and then immediately died. It did it over and over again. Every time, fired just fine, and died. I unhooked the battery to reset it, pulled the fuel rail connection and made sure i was getting plenty of flow, checked grounds, etc., but still the same thing. I am thinking it is a fuel issue, because it runs a little longer with a quick shot of carb cleaner in the TB. Anyone have any ideas? My first instinct is that maybe something in the fuel tank(looked very clean when I installed the pump) knocked loose and is clogging the filter, which is why it fires fine when its primed, but then dies.

charchri4

Pick up a fuel pressure gauge that goes on the fuel rail and see what you have there. That will rule out a whole lot of things right away and for 30 bucks a handy thing to keep around.

stng_96

yeah that was actually my plan tomorrow, tonight was as much of a drink a beer and scratch my head event as it was anything else. Hopefully there is a enough room between the schrader valve and the firewall since I turned the fuel rail around

Good to hear from you Jim, haven't seen much of you lately.

charchri4

LOL I think ever builder has spent his fair share of time starring at the car with a beer in his hand pondering on a dilemma!

Oh I just don't want to plug up this amazing build thread with useless babble because yours is one of the finest builds and certainly best documented to grace these pages in a long time. Well that and all I ever think to say is why didn't I do it that way?!

I about peed in my pants over your CME and am super jealous of it! I looked long and hard for a way to do that and nothing more sexy out back than CMEs. She's probably going to be a bit loud but those boalas are going to have an amazing exhaust note! Not that anyone would ever hear it for long though...

papabear

Glad to see you got your power steering all worked out. I really like the look of how the exhaust is run. It should sound good with the Bolra's. You are really making nice progress with this build.

stng_96

Well, I have a new problem....the car runs fine again....and I don't know why! I was out ready to hook up the fuel pressure gauge yesterday, and I started it beforehand to check.....ran and ran and ran.

Dave Tibbitts

Are you using the Miata relay/wiring to power the fuel pump?

stng_96

Yes I am

Shrimpy59

I really don't think it is cam related because I have run a lot of miles with a stock tune and way not stock cam in mine. But the computer does have to learn and adapt and mine still stumbles at idle after the car has been off battery for a long time. You may be fine. Do pick up a spare main relay or 2 and keep them with you but other than that I'd consider the problem solved. LOL yeah I know... but hey in 20,000 miles I have only walked away from it once and I could have avoided that if it was not such a nice morning for a walk!

stng_96

I don't think its cam either, that has made it sputter a few times, but this was different. I don't think i was the fuel relay either, pump still primed just fine. We will see I guess.

Dave Tibbitts

I had an issue with mine where the factory wiring couldn't carry enough current to supply the new pump. I ended up making a new sub-harness, in the trunk to pull power from the battery and send it to a new 30A relay and then to a 10 gauge wire to the pump.

stng_96

So after a few days of having that problem, it went away completely, and car would run like it should without fault.....now a week later....its back

charchri4

Just shuts off or stumbles? Maybe you want to start a new thread out of the build thread so more guys would see it.

stng_96

Both, has stumbled a bit, has just not even tried. I started a thread on LS1tech in the swap section to see if anyone there had any advice.

ToySnakePMC

For a short time, I suffered through an intermittent problem with a simply bad Mazda elec connector on top of fuel pump. Worked fine most times and sometimes no start with no prime going on. I had previously damaged the Female end with multimeter probe. New/ used female connector was the 100% fix...

stng_96

Yeah I am sure its a bad connection or sensor somewhere, but I don't believe it is before the injectors. I hooked up a fuel pressure gauge and had a solid 60 psi pressure reading before start, through crank/fire and when it died.

charchri4

Did the fuel pressure drop when it died?

stng_96

Nope, if it did it was only for a split second and not notable because the pump primed again. I unhooked the battery over night two nights ago, and it fired up and ran yesterday......I don't know guys. I ordered a Blue tooth OBDII scanner to work with my smartphone this week, hopefully as soon as that comes in I will be able to get some data. If not then I will probably just drag it to the tuner and see what they can tell me. My tires should be in this week, or next. After I get them in I'll get it aligned and make an apt to get it tuned in a couple weeks.

stng_96

Big update coming soon, got my tires yesterday!

ItsAllRigged

Exciting! Youre gonna love it.

stng_96

Still don't have that big update, but I do have a picture from the end of the weekend....

papabear

Car is really coming along. What tires are you running?

stng_96

RS3's, If it was going to be a few more weeks before I was ready to get her out I would have canceled my order and got the new Maxxis VR-1's, but these are already here, and they are pretty well proven at this point. I ordered them two months ago now, tirerack finally has them in again.