D Prepared Miata Build

Got a little more work done today.
I completely forgot to let the calibration cycle complete on the WBO2, so I did that today.
I also put up a few parts for sale. If you're local and interested, let me know if you want a 1.6L Racing Beat (2nd gen) header, an RB intake, low mile VLSD, NA Magnaflow direct fit cat? I got 'em all!
Then tonight once the boys went down, I cleaned up the little remaining glass on the bottom "seal" from the windshield
I raised the ride height about 1/4" all 'round
And then, to prove my manhood, I made fire!
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I pressed out the center sections of the bushings, then hit them with the Blue Wrench and let them burn for about 20 minutes. And now, it's bedtime :)
 
The goal now is to get the car put together enough to take it around the neighborhood on Saturday. I told Jen, and she immediately demanded a ride in the car. I <3 this girl :D

So basically all I need to do is finish up the intake, put the dash bar in, mount the gauge cluster and switch panel and it should be ready to go.
Once that's done, it'll be getting an oil change and fresh plugs in preparation for dyno time in the upcoming weeks. Very excite! (alright)
 
Got the miata on the ground and did a shake-down run around the neighborhood. She started up great, the WBO2 warmed right up, the car idles a bit high but that's fixable. The car warmed up great, the fan kicked in when expected, etc etc. All systems looked good, so Jen and I put our helmets on and took it for a couple spins around the block. Didn't get it too fast, obv, because I was in my own neighborhood and I kinda like it here haha, but the car feels great. It's got a decent street tune on the ECU now, but will be going to DIY Autotune at the end of the month to get dialed in, and hopefully pull a few more RPM out of it as well. Very excite!

I also put a much cleaner dash bar in and mounted the switch box up, and it looks MUCH better without that big hunk of rust in front of the seats.
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Man, it's so freakin' dirty. Hopefully next week or the week after I can give it a scrub down, because it REALLY needs it. blah.
 
love the touch of wood in the middle of that mess!

lol

(that sounded funny, but perfect for a miata)
 
It's a great shift knob, it's free, and let's admit it: it adds a touch of class. LOL
 
Delrin diff bushings came in. This should help firm things up a bit more than the worn out stockers... Now to finish getting the stock bushings out of the carrier, get these put in, seal up the torsen, mount the carrier back on the diff and swap in the 1.8 junk for the 1.6 junk lol

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Since there were a few folks asking for a semi-how to on the bushing sleeve removal, here's how I did it. Honestly, I think it was the easy way (unless you have a very specific "punch" for your press)

1. Throw out the factory service manual. Because this crap won't work:
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2. Fire. Break out the Blue Wrench and burn out the rubber bushings. Set them ablaze, and they'll burn until there's no rubber left and all you're left with is some sticky goo on the Bushing sleeve.
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3. Power. Get a sawzall. If you really hate life, get a hack saw and assemble it "inside" the diff housing so you can get the blade onto the sleeves. The sleeves are in 2 parts (they're just a ridiculous interference fit). Looking at the housing from the side (perpendicular to the car, were it installed), make a cut where it is nearest you, then another about 1/2" away from that. You can see more or less where that 2nd cut was here:
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4. Force. Get a mini-sledge. Mine is 3lb and got the job done. Drive a "wedge" of some sort (chisel, punch, screwdriver, if you hate your screwdriver) in between the housing and the sleeve and Go. To. Town. Once it starts bending along the cuts you made, it'll eventually not have enough pressure holding it in, and it'll come out. It'll take a few good whacks, but it'll come out. Don't be afraid to break anything, seriously. Picture shows the 1st half punched out. The 2nd half comes out with hardly any effort after that.
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And you're done. Ta-da! 2 sleeve-halves.
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So today, obviously the diff bushings came out, but it was a very productive afternoon (Presidents' Day off ftw!)

-Mounted up my dash cluster with some protection on the back (extra skate board tape I had laying around) to prevent it shorting on the dash bar again. I should have seen that coming... I went through 2 clusters figuring that crap out.
-Installed the correct "thin donut" gasket for the Maxim Works header to replace my old flat gasket that didn't fit right and caused an exhaust leak lol. Side note: AutoZone employees don't like it when you come in and go "I need an exhaust gasket 2.25 inches in diameter." "What's it for?" "No idea... it's not a stock application." Whatever, we worked it out.
-Secured a couple of wires around the car that needed securing.
-Installed some skateboard tape in the driver's side footwell to prevent us tearing up the paint anymore and "polishing" the floorboards, making them slick as hell. Not great for foot control.
-Set up my string alignment rack on the car. FYI for anyone else looking to do something like this: Using Wheel dollies as makeshift grease plates works REMARKABLY well, and gives you a little extra clearance under the car. Ever little change I made you could see the wheel move appropriately. There was no binding whatsoever. That may be one of the better ideas I've ever had.... lol
-And aligned the car to something a bit friendlier to slicks. They don't like nearly the camber that street tires do, so I put the alignment rack to good use :)

And that was pretty much my entire afternoon. Also: The car is 100% ready to go to DIY Autotune for tuning on Wednesday. I should get it back at the beginning of next week, and it'll be good to go for our first event on March 6th. Yeah, I'm SERIOUSLY ready to drive this thing :D
 
Dropped the car off @ DIYAutotune this morning. She'll be there through the beginning of next week. I'm really interested to see what sort of gains we pick up :D
 
I'm putting my "I'll jizz in my pants if..." prediction at 125 whp / 110 wtq. In honesty though, I know that my biggest gains are going to be under the curve. When we did our "Megasquirt for STS" experiment a couple years ago, the car was picking up 20 lb/ft under the curve (with like a 2 or 3 lb/ft gain peak) in the mid-range and up top, just by getting the ignition timing dialed in. And THAT is really the gain I'm looking for. We do have to remember that it is a stock-build 1.6L, so the numbers won't be earth shattering.

However there have been, obviously a couple of mods that I could do in Prepared that I couldn't in STS: The Maximworks header (well, I COULD have done it, I just didn't have one), the cat delete, doing a cold-side intake, and deleting the 1.6L Flapper-valve air-meter. ALL of those things should help the gains along by themselves.

I don't seem to have it uploaded anywhere, but the last dyno pulls I did to base-line the motor we built was 114 WHP and something like 98 WTQ. That was with the stock ECU, stock hot-side intake & air meter, and a high-flow cat. So, we'll see.
 
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Sneak peak:

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How 'bout that torque curve?! It's definitely running out of something up top (at this point: probably fuel), but damn, not bad looking for a stock 1.6L. Goal accomplished, I think: squeezing as much as possible out of what I have at hand :D
 
lol i like the graph title...1990 miata - 0 windsheild

so what are the numbers associated with those graphs?
 

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