I did it again!

4 months later and I just purchased a Hydra, FM2 conversion, plus some cooling upgrades. A 3.63 rear gear, FM flywheel, 15x9 6ULs in bronze are all in the queue and will be ordered soon.
 
Yup, should have it at Mid Ohio and Lime Rock corrals at a minimum. :)

Edited the first post to keep track of stuff.
 
Thanks Bruce!

The 99 developed 3 problems in a week early October (fuel leak, drivetrain buzz, and electrical grounding problem came back) and I said "enough was enough". When the dealer was test driving it for a value, the radiator burst, just to give me the middle finger. VERY happy with the replacement.

It was painful having my RX-8 slowly die at the hands of my wife's really short trips, so I sold it last weekend, and put the money from the sale into the MSM, covering most of the pending list stuff above with annual bonus covering the rest (and more). I got a leftover stock 2012 Mazda2 for her to use instead. It's kind of humorous that of the two cars in our garage, the MSM is the heavier one :)

And a purchase is pending for Mahk's 16x7 RPF1s for daily use. One of my current two 15x6.5 wheel sets will go to my wife's 2 for her summer set. Likely the set I'm using for winter tires right now, and the 99's wheels will be come the winter set.
 
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Sounds like a good plan Mike. Let's hope the engine stays intact for you.

How are you liking the 2??
 
I drove it once, back from the airport the other day. I like it for a small around-town car. It's specs are very close to 1st gen 1.6L Miata and it feels very close, just with a roof, 2 more doors, and 2 more seats. And front wheel drive, and the center of gravity is higher. I wouldn't be happy with it as a commuter, power is just far too low. I'll probably only be driving it on longer trips that we make together that we can't use the MSM for.
 
FM2, Hydra, and Crossflow should be shipping today-ish. They charged my card for the final backordered items in the FM2 kit Friday. The SPAL fans for the crossflow are backordered until May, so I will be using the stock fans in the interim.

Seriously contemplating driving up to Planet Miata (~1hr away from me) without my hood on and buying one of their two NB hoods, installing it on the MSM and driving back. Use the donor hood to cut up for a heat extraction hood for the track. The price is $400, which is quite reasonable. It would be a done deal if one of them was black, but one is red, one green, so there will be some more work involved to either wrap or paint it.

The venting that I'm considering are either a set of reversed NACA ducts like this:
2587L.jpg


Installed where the louvers are in this pic: (which is the points of lowest above hood pressure according to the pressure map that is still behind the radiator)
PostCut%20Pics%20005b.jpg

Each of those openings are 4.x inches wide, so it would be around 8.5-9 inches of total width, which is a bit on the low side, although still would be a clear improvement in venting underhood pressure.

OR, a vent more like this:
57979-evo-extractor-hood-vent-miata-img_20121018_163113-jpg


I prefer the former in looks, the latter might be more functional however. I would expect to only use this hood on the track, and if I liked it enough I'd have a bodyshop professionally re-paint the donor hood to match the MSM.


Still debating. I don't mind some visual appeal reduction while on the track, but I won't give it up on the street :)
 
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i was on to this hood thing as well, the IA temps are just out of control in the summer...i'm looking for a cheap hood too
 
Yeah, it's the shipping that kills most hood prices. I'm fortunate that Planet Miata is so close. No chance that it would fit in the 2, and I'm not strapping it to the rollbar. Only real option is driving up with the current hood off to bring the donor back down in it's place. Technically illegal to drive without a hood in PA, but I'd just drive up there dark and early, emphasis on the 'dark' :) Mostly backroads to get there, which helps.
 
Yeah, it's the shipping that kills most hood prices. I'm fortunate that Planet Miata is so close. No chance that it would fit in the 2, and I'm not strapping it to the rollbar. Only real option is driving up with the current hood off to bring the donor back down in it's place. Technically illegal to drive without a hood in PA, but I'd just drive up there dark and early, emphasis on the 'dark' :) Mostly backroads to get there, which helps.

my p5 hood fit in the hatch...never would have thought it would...ya, i'd drive up, it's not like you're driving around for weeks like that, tell the officer your hood got damaged and you going to go pick it up..
 
Ha!



In other unfortunate news, my order from FM is complete except for the fans, they are going to ship ahead, but there is a backlog of actually shipping stuff out, so it will be another week-ish before everything ships. I might not have time to safely install the Hydra and FM2 before my track event, and have to wait until after :(

I am scheduling a baseline dyno for next friday however. Just to see where I am at right now. The shop will do a health check on the engine and intake as part of it, and I'm adding a more aggressive alignment into the list of stuff to do while I'm there. Make sure everything is good before I start the upgrade installations.
 
Nice to see that you had a FM Stage2 Fan kit also fixed. I did too. Did you have issues of fitting it? My brother complained about fitment issues when he was fixing his. The spacers coming along with FM airflow kit can be shrouded farther and fit it. But he never listens to what I say. (sigh)
 
Nice to see that you had a FM Stage2 Fan kit also fixed. I did too. Did you have issues of fitting it? My brother complained about fitment issues when he was fixing his. The spacers coming along with FM airflow kit can be shrouded farther and fit it. But he never listens to what I say. (sigh)

No, the fan kit is on backorder until May. Not in hand.

sig needs to be updated pronto sir! :)

I meant that it was assembled and ready for shipping at FM, still hasn't shipped yet! No sig updates :(
 
Got a baseline dyno yesterday so I have something good to compare to when my FM2 and Hydra goes in (same shop will be tuning that). The results were lower than expected, until I realized after the pulls were done that the tech setting up the car on the dyno for the tuner disconnected the MBC, so it was running at 8psi instead of 9-9.5 that my MBC is set to. Not a big deal.

Temperature in the shop was ~75 degrees, only had the lift door cracked a bit for the exhaust, and they aren't very far above sea level so not much of an SAE correction applied.

Each pull was higher than the last, about 5 minutes of discussion between each pull. I disconnected the TPS between the 1st and 2nd pull, which didn't make much of a difference for the WOT pulls. Huge driveability difference, but doesn't show on a WOT dyno pull. The AFRs changed a bit for it, richer in some spots, leaner in others.
36msm_dyno_baseline_tq_hp.jpg


AFR and boost graph for the 3rd and highest run, TPS was still disconnected.
36msm_dyno_baseline_afr_boost_small.png
 
I have been all over the board trying to figure out what I want to do for oil cooling, and I think I finally decided on something. (but then again, I've said that before too).

Rejected ideas:
FM oil cooler: I feel the mounting location is far too risky, and I've found some people that have had first hand experience with damage to it
Wheel well cooler: This is only marginally better, and eliminates the chance for good brake ducting in the future
Laminova Oil to water exchanger: Unsure that I have the water cooling overhead. Bill @ FM doesn't think I will.
Custom fabbed brackets to mount so the vents from the closed hood will sit right over it: The space exists, but will cause problems with any work performed, plus semi-requires that I have a vented hood for the street too
Transmission cooler mounted under the car tucked up above any bracing: Simply no room available. I didn't realized how generally flat the MSM is under there. Quite different from the 99.
Mounted immediately behind one of the fans, so the fan is pushing air through it: Same 'no room' story

New idea?
One of these (or one like it) http://www.jegs.com/i/Derale/259/13256/10002/-1?parentProductId=1533912
259-13256.jpg


Mounted here:
23386-oil-cooler-choice-img_9779-jpg

That is an RX-7 oil cooler, and the discussions around mounting it there indicate that it completely works. There is no airflow over it there, but they say it works anyway due to the size. It's just a big heat sink at that point.

So my theory is, using an actual heat sink method, and running a short length of ducting hose on one side to collect some air and send it across the heat sink on the crash bar.

The flaw with this is of course that it becomes the first point of impact on my crash bar. However, if I'm crashing on that, I probably have larger concerns that will prevent me from driving away so I don't think it's a huge concern.
 
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