| MIATA BUILD |
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 | May 16, 2011 - The previous picture of the oil cooler showed the bracket I built to install it in the nose.
It should get a fair bit of airflow here! If it wants to vibrate around, I'll look at installing some braces on the bottom but there's not much to brace to really.
You can also see the amount of damage - I mean "patina" to the nose of the car here. Also, I had some fun with the bolt colors again, copying the Martini colors with a Classic Red, Mariner Blue and a Crystal Blue bolt.
entry 825 - tags: cooling, oil |
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 | May 16, 2011 - Lots of fun with braided oil line!
Bill put a similar oil cooler on Elvis a while back so I knew what collection of pieces I'd need, but I had to make the lines up piece by piece. Somehow, I managed to do this without puncturing my hand too badly. The best tool for cutting the big -10 line was a chop saw.
entry 826 - tags: cooling, oil |
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 | May 16, 2011 - I forgot to take a picture of this earlier, but the fans are in place.
It's an off-the-shelf setup from Flyin' Miata for the V8 cars, and it's really effective at pulling air through the radiator. Cooling should not be a problem.
I'll have the engine out again, so I'll get a better picture then.
entry 827 - tags: cooling |
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 | May 16, 2011 - The front sway bar is a V8-specific part, again from Flyin' Miata.
The big engine needs a bit more room at the front, so the new bar has a kink in it to provide extra clearance.
This is the sort of build I'd expected. All the engineering has been done, I'm mostly just assembling at this point. Well, if "just assembling" means building my own oil cooler lines, brackets, etc...
entry 828 - tags: sway bar |
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 | May 16, 2011 - When I first built the car, I stripped out the wiring harness quite a bit.
And since the V8 uses its own standalone harness, I can strip it out even further. Here's what's left of the usual tangle that runs up the passenger's fender: just the wires for the lights. I'll tidy up the bundles when I'm done, but a clean harness is easier to troubleshoot if something goes wrong!
entry 829 - tags: wiring |
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 | May 17, 2011 - I found a culprit!
I've been having trouble getting the T56 to sit properly - it hasn't been fully bolted in to place yet. Well, it turns out that the pilot bearing was a special one for the T5, which is too thick (and too large a diameter) for the T56 input shaft. Frustrating, but easy enough to fix once Bill helped me find the problem. Once that's replaced, the engine and transmission can go in - and stay there!
entry 830 - tags: drivetrain |
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 | May 20, 2011 - Finally, the drivetrain is all buttoned up and ready to install.
I installed the headers as well as some of the power steering plumbing while I had easy access.
entry 831 - tags: Drivetrain, v8 |
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 | May 20, 2011 - Much better - the engine and transmission snuggled into place.
The V8Roadster rails are laser cut, so the bolt holes were in the exact same location as the studs I'd welded into place earlier. That saved me a lot of drilling! The transmission crossmember location ended up a bit off because I'd aligned the rails for the T5 setup, but that was easy enough to cope with.
entry 832 - tags: Drivetrain, v8 |
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 | May 20, 2011 - With the engine in place, it's time for more wiring.
I started to make the small number of connections between the Miata harness and the GM one. This was made a bit more complex by the fact that the GM setup had already been installed in a 2002 Miata so I had to reverse-engineer the modifications - and of course, the harness in the Targa Miata was heavily changed. Still, it's coming together.
entry 833 - tags: Wiring |
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 | May 20, 2011 - I'm giving both wiring harnesses a checkup as I install them.
This broken knock sensor wire is a good example of why. The GM harness had been used in Elvis, FM's first V8 Miata and had thus been installed/uninstalled quite a bit over the years.
entry 834 - tags: Wiring |
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 | May 25, 2011 - To take a break from wiring, I decided to run the fuel and brake lines.
It didn't take long really, but it feels good to have that done. They're anchored with rivnuts embedded in the frame rails, making it easy to remove them if required. Not the frame rails so much, the rivnuts fasten them to the car's frame at the same time!
entry 835 - tags: conversion |
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 | May 25, 2011 - Long-time followers might remember that I added some custom bracing to my dash support when I built the car.
Well, it had to be cut out when the dash was removed. So I welded it back in! It makes for a very solid steering column mount. The factory adds a big beefy vertical brace but nothing to the firewall.
entry 836 - tags: conversion |
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 | May 25, 2011 - The wiring continues.
I'm getting pretty close, now it's just a matter of identifying the last few wires, replacing a couple of missing connectors and running the wires to the alternator. Then I'll finish anchoring the harnesses in place (I've done a bunch of work in that area already) and start running some current through the car.
I'm pushing to get the car running for a track day on June 4th. I'll have to take a couple of shortcuts such as temporarily hard-wiring the fans, but it's looking very promising.
entry 837 - tags: conversion, wiring |
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 | May 27, 2011 - The wiring is getting close!
It doesn't look like a lot of progress, of course. But wiring a car like this is a series of small jobs - hooking up the reverse lockout solenoid, tracing the oil pressure sensor wire through the harness, etc. But it's close!
entry 838 - tags: wiring, conversion |
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 | May 27, 2011 - The big engine needs a little more power to spin over than the four cylinder did.
The little lightweight PC680 was happy to do the job in 2008, but this year I'm going to run an Optima with more than double the cranking power.
entry 839 - tags: battery |
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 | May 27, 2011 - One of the cool things about GM is that just about anything with a part number can be ordered.
Case in point: this plug for the engine coolant temperature sensor. I don't know why it was removed from the harness by a roving parts scavenger, but a call to the local dealer yielded a replacement on the shelf. Try that with a random Mazda connector!
entry 840 - tags: wiring, conversion |
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 | May 27, 2011 - I found these while unpacking some of the conversion parts.
They're not needed yet (or at all, really) but I couldn't resist sticking them on for a few minutes.
entry 841 - tags: engine |
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 | May 27, 2011 - In preparation for the first noise from the car, I've loosely installed the exhaust system.
I'll have to take it out again after the driveshaft arrives on Tuesday, but it was just too pretty to leave on the floor. Besides, this way I can plug in the O2 sensors.
entry 842 - tags: exhaust, conversion |
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 | May 27, 2011 - Getting closer to that first firing of the engine.
First, I have to make sure there's fluid in everything. The T56 uses ATF for lubrication.
entry 843 - tags: transmission, fluids |
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 | May 27, 2011 - It's alive!
Obviously, the intake system is temporary. But it makes noise!
First, I unplugged the engine computer (PCM in GM-speak) and powered up the electrical system. I then cranked the engine until I had oil pressure. This took a long time because the pump had to fill the oil cooler as well as the completely dry engine. It probably only took about 30 seconds total of intermittent cranking, but it seemed like forever. Finally, the gauge jumped up.
I pressurized the fuel system and checked for leaks. Then it was time to take a deep breath and hit the key. The car tried to stumble into life, but it wasn't happy about it and was acting like it had very low fuel pressure.
I realized I couldn't hear the fuel pump priming when I turned on the key. Checking out the wiring looked good, and hot-wiring the pump woke the engine up on 6 cylinders. I'm guessing the VATS anti-theft program got turned back on in the PCM so it won't run the pump. I'll turn that off again soon, but in the meantime I can run with the pump hotwired.
The exhaust system isn't bolted together and I have no cooling fan wiring yet - but it runs!
entry 844 - tags: conversion |
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