jackie

Well from this point forward this build thread is no longer retrospective thus the progress will be slower. I have all of the dings out of the car, it is primed and almost ready for painting. I am at the mercy of my good friend who is going to paint if for materials only. He says we wlll be done in 3 weeks because that is when I am planning a trip to the Ennis Motorplex with my son to see what it will do in the 1/4 mile. Anyway.. I tackled a few projects while waiting. First I installed a pair of tweeters.
They are the fancy kind that cost 7.95 for 2 pair on ebay. They are held in place with a strip of metal wrapped with a bunch of electrical tape. I also ordered a pair of pioneer 8 inch marine speakers. I will wire up the tweeters when the 8 inch ones get in. I can't install the door panels until after the car is painted because they would just have to come off to reinstall the door handles.

jackie

I installed a G5 X1 cam from LG Motorsports then took it to them for tuning. It has much better manners after their tuning session however they were confused as to why it only had 306 hp to the rear wheels. He suggested that I get rid of the single 2 1/2 inch exhaust and rework the intake snorkel. So I started with the intake snorkel...
First I took off the corvette one then put tape over everything that I didn't want the spray foam to get on. Then I sprayed the foam. Remember to go one layer at a time with the foam otherwise it won't cure. That stuff is sticky!!!!

jackie

Here's a pic of it before I started carving it with the Harbor Freight knife shown also in the pic.

jackie

Here's what it looked like after carving on it about 3 mins. with the knife...

jackie

Next I took the foam and all of the tape off the car. Then I proceeded to shape the foam into the exact shape I wanted with...you guessed it... a $19
Harbor Fright orbital sander with 100 grit paper. Once the final shape was obtained, I wrapped it with blue masking tape then covered it with several
layers of fiberglass. It is easy if you cut the fiberglass into 2 inch by 2 inch pieces, use vinyl gloves, mix the resin in red solo cups and use cheap disposable brushes to apply the resin. It took about 3 batches to get it as thick as I wanted. I used the mesh type fiberglass rather than the cloth type. That is just what I had left. After it cured, I took the foam and tape out. Some of the bits of tape would not come out until I got the dremmel after it. Here is a pic of the corvette snorkel and the new one side by side.
I bet the new one flows better!!!

Oh yea... you are probably wondering how it is attached....well the top portion goes inside the rubber boot that the corvette one went into. I had to sand the new one quite a bit to get it to fit and to get the surface of it smooth so that there would be no air leaking around it. I went over the bottom part with some gorilla tape then used hose clamps on top of the tape then painted all of it. I am confident no dirty air will get in.

tbone heller

Looks good, but it appears to block a lot of the radiator's airflow.

jackie

It does appear that way. I spent quite a bit of time this past weekend trying to figure out how to do a ram-air setup in which those air filters were put inside a can and a duct run down to the fog light holes in the bumper cover but bailed out on that idea because of the same concern.

I had this setup (with the corvette snorkel) last
summer and it did not have heating issues even with the AC on in this Texas heat.

I suppose if starts running hot, I could move the filters more laterally.
As it is, the air goes around the filters and the total surface area of the radiator is still more than the air opening in the bumper cover or the two circular areas my stock ls1 fans are moving air thru.

I'm going to use the fog light holes for brake ducts.

Gator Bait

Let me know when you go. I've been wanting to see what mine will do too.

97miatam

So just to be clear, the axle shafts were equal length? But they didn't work because you centered the pinion rather than having the same length from the hubs to the axle input on the diff? I am curious because I ill be making my diff mounts this weekend.

charchri4

THANK YOU! for the post on your intake. I now know how to fix my mess!


PS If you guys go to the strip together PLEASE bring your cameras and post on it!

Gator Bait

I'll get slaughtered. I don't need that documented.

jackie

I'm going 6/26/15 I sure am hoping they aren't picky about tech stuff. NHRA has some pretty picky rules regarding convertibles. My Boss Frog double hoop rollbar won't pass inspection but I have heard from my uncle who races his mustang that they aren't too picky on test and tune nights and the motorplex advertises that if it is street legal and you have a driver license..you can run. We will see...

jackie

We will record action. Jim, you can probably relate to this.. .my son from who is stationed at Virginia Beach in the Navy is coming in. I plan on us taking turns to see who can get the best ET.

jackie

You are correct. I highly suggest you wait to weld your differential mounts to the subframe until you get your axles. Put the axles in and get equal play on each side then tack weld the differential mounts to the subframe. When you do this the pinion shaft will end up 1 inch closer to the passenger side of the car and everything will be great.

jackie

I'm pretty sure I will get slaughtered too. There are tons of mustangs and camaros out there running faster than the 12's. I'm expecting to get around 12.5 but we will see. I have 315 street tires on the back and only running a 2400 stall in my automatic transmission and I still have a single 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe. I'm gonna try to get that changed before I go but I may run out of time. The front fenders, hood, bumper cover, door handles, mirrors and antenna are off the car right now awaiting the paint job.

6/7/15 update... I'm considering a rear mount turbo. It will require a single exhaust inlet so for now I will wait on the dual exhausts. It looks like STS went out of business and had issues but I am considering a 76mm oil cooled turbo that has it's own circulation pump, tank and cooler mounted back where the muffler goes.

Gator Bait

I'd be happy with mid 12's. Mine is a six speed and I'm no wetware launch controlled gate rower. I'm very interested with the trap speeds. We have plans to go to the off road park on the 27th, but I'll try to make it.

jackie

Family comes first! Those offroad parks can be a lot of fun. We went to a music fest at one and I was more amazed looking at the equpment folks showed up with than I was with the bands. The Cody Johnson Band was very good though and I highly recommend seeing them if you like country music and they are in your area.

I attached the motorplex schedule for this year. Just show up on a "Fast Friday" night. I can be the Guinea Pig and see how picky their tech guy is.

Gator Bait

The parks I go to don't typically have bands (that I am aware of). It's a rock crawling thing. Sounds like you are talking the mud pit places (Red Necks with Paychecks?)

But anyway...I'm going to try to make it on the 26th. I'll be taking it especially easy since I won't be able to trailer (Jeep will be loaded). Having to drive home is motivation to not break stuff.

jackie

Yes it was a redneck music festival that had mudpits and lots of trails. We showed up on some trail bikes but most folks were driving 4 wheelers. Some of them had more money in their toys than I have in mine. To each his own...

I'm driving my miata to the track without a trailer... hope it doesn't break.

Scissortails

awesome build Jackie, luv all the fiberglass work... have u painted the rear fenders yet?

jackie

Nope. The front ones are not painted either. The painter and I spent 8 hours on it Saturday getting it ready to paint. Looks like this Sunday is the day for it to happen. It isn't as much fun working on now that the heat index is approaching 100.

Scissortails

i ordered a roll of fiberglass for my fenders but ill work on mine during the night, otherwise the resin will cure before time

charchri4

Now wait just a dog gone minute here you guys! Jackie and Edgar are both talking about fiberglass on fenders yet no photos or threads in the exterior section from either of you. As a person who built his own wide body fenders from nothing (in the most difficult way possible) and documented it, https://www.v8miata.net/v8-miata-whe...1462/#post8530 I call a flag on the play! Come on lets see em boys! https://www.v8miata.net/exterior-mods-37/

jackie

I documented with pictures in this build thread. I'm new to these forums...should I do a separate one for the fenders? Or maybe start a thread there and refer them to this one?

Scissortails

hmm... wonder if i should post mine too... im a noob...