NB Miata for SCCA CSP Autox

[Katya4me]

I thought this forum was a bit dead so figured I would post our build here.
Ended the 2016 autox season with this car:


That's an NA Miata with a NB VVT motor and lots of other go-fast bits, but no ABS. After talking with some other CSP competitors, we decided that swapping to an NB chassis for CSP to get the better ABS brakes might be a good idea to stop killing Hoosiers from brake lockups if we could find the chassis cheap enough. You can't just swap the NB ABS into the NA chassis because the holes are not there to install it and SCCA CSP rules don't allow adding the holes. Back in October, on Shawn's daily checks of Craigslist, he found another crystal blue Miata with close to the same mileage as our 2002 rallyx car (the unicorn) for only $1900. He sent the seller a message asking if it has ABS or if he does not know, can he send an underhood picture so Shawn could tell.
Shawn got back a picture like this:


Yes that is an ABS car, 2001 Miata, 6 speed, VVT motor with leather interior and about 237K miles, so almost a twin to the unicorn. Unfortunately, that means we pretty much need to take the whole driveline/suspension from the black CSP car as well as the dash and put it into the 2001 chassis.

Once we got it home, we put it up on the lift. New car on top, old on the bottom. Quite a lot of work in between.


It sat that way for a while as Shawn whittled away at the parts car to free up space on the other side of the garage:


Finally able to move the cars after Christmas and started dismantling the black car:

[Katya4me]

Step 1: Strip the black car.

A: Front lip, gone!!! I hate that thing....
B: Penske shocks, removed
C: Engine, pulled
D: Hard top, removed
E: Megasquirt, pulled
F: Seats, pulled
G: Diff, pulled
H: Wheels, stacked in the house
I: Exhaust, pulled
J: Front sway bar, removed
K: Momo steering wheel, still need to pull out

NA empty engine bay:


Dead rally tires are great for holding Miata engines and trannies:


Shocks and exhaust waiting to go on the blue car:


Seats and ECU out:


With the hard top off, it's easy to rest things on the back shelf:


Step 2: Strip the blue car.

Open hood, insert hoist:


NB empty engine bay:


Man, that engine bay is dirty:


Getting cleaner:


And the blue engine is out:


So much coolant, so much....

[Katya4me]

While the transmission was out of the car, Shawn took the time to check the clutch and make sure it was good. Everything looked and smelled good, so bolted it back to the engine. While the engine is from a 2001 Miata and is going into a 2001 Miata, he had to swap/modify some parts as the engine has been living in an NA Miata for the last few years. Prior to pulling the engines, Shawn did a compression test and the engine in the black car is much better than the one that came out of the blue car.



We also like the numbers that we got out of that engine when we had it tuned back in 2015:


A/C:


No more A/C:


While the engine bay was empty, we decided to take care of a few housekeeping items. The brake fluid reservoir had leaked and there was paint missing underneath it as well as a couple other spots with some light rust that we wanted to address.



Got out some painters tape and some packing paper to protect the areas that weren't getting painted and sprayed on some primer.


Crystal blue isn't the easiest to match with spray paint, and I had some 10 year old silver paint, so went with that instead.


The front sway bar that we are using doesn't work with the factory brackets. So Shawn had to drill out the spot welds, then I dremeled them smooth and painted over the bare metal, using the same technique.

[Katya4me]

When we pulled the center console to get to the shifter, we had to remove the power window switch. Just like with our other NB, the stupid little tabs broke off in the process. As the switch won't stay flush in the rallyx car, I decided to try and fix this, and Sugrued 2 of the 4 tabs I found back on.


Seats and factory ECU are out now as well:


We pulled the diff off the blue car and have almost installed the other diff. We got the passenger axle to go back into the diff, but the drivers side isn't being quite as cooperative.
Out of the car and connected to the power plant frame:


Almost in:


So, we took a break from that and got the CSP engine installed into the car last weekend. Had to take off the front bumper and hood in order to get the engine back in the car.


Hood is back on and the car is in full on hover mode currently:


This weekend's agenda: finish connecting the engine, install exhaust, front sway bar, re-visit the diff. If we're feeling aggressive, the ECU and fender cutting need to be done as well. Those 15x11 wheels aren't going to fit themselves....

[drwrx]

WOW! That is a massive amount of work, I am really impressed! My mind is overflowing with questions, but I'll keep it to just the top 4:
1. How much time did this take?
2. Who did the tune? The power curves are as smooth as I have ever seen from a DynoJet (even with a level of smoothing above 5).
3. What is the deadline on the project?
4. Is there a rollbar/cage that will need to be swapped as well/

Can't wait to see the completed build.

[Katya4me]

WOW! That is a massive amount of work, I am really impressed! My mind is overflowing with questions, but I'll keep it to just the top 4:
1. How much time did this take?
2. Who did the tune? The power curves are as smooth as I have ever seen from a DynoJet (even with a level of smoothing above 5).
3. What is the deadline on the project?
4. Is there a rollbar/cage that will need to be swapped as well/

Can't wait to see the completed build.

1. How much time did this take?
Initially or the blue car build? The engines came out of the cars New Years weekend, ie. less than a month ago.
2. Who did the tune? The power curves are as smooth as I have ever seen from a DynoJet (even with a level of smoothing above 5).
PFTuning down in Virginia Beach. http://pftuning.com/
Peter specializes in tuning Megasquirt and has set-up nationally winning CSP Miatas so we were very happy he was able to do our tuning. We'll go back when we're reading to switch to E85.
3. What is the deadline on the project?
The guy who did our vinyl on the unicorn (http://www.ssc-tint.com/) said he'd love it if we could try to have this to him by the end of January. That's not looking very likely right now, but obviously the sooner we get this to him the better. Other than that, the first autox is in April and that is the hard deadline.
4. Is there a rollbar/cage that will need to be swapped as well?
Nope, not required for the class. This isn't a street car or a track car, so that is just extra weight.

[Katya4me]

More progress this weekend.

Saturday:
Had to pull the driver's rear shock to get the right angle, but we got the driver's side axle fully in the diff now.


Driveshaft re-connected:


Not a great shot, but we got the new sway bar in and the radiator brackets reattached as well.


Because the car came with A/C, there were 2 fans on the radiator. Removed the extra fan and reinstalled it in the car.


Engine bay looking much better with the header and intake installed as well:


Sunday:
No pictures, but we filled the diff and trans fluids. Need to re-connect 1 hose before putting coolant in.
Per the class rules, we'll be removing the soft top. In place of this, the car will wear a hard top except during competition. By default NBs did not come with bolts for attaching a hardtop, unlike the NAs. So once we were done with the fluids, Shawn installed what are affectionately referred to as "Frankenbolts", which will allow us to put the hard top on down the road.

[Katya4me]

Some mid-week updates. First some pics from Sunday's work.
A Frankenbolt:


And a matched set installed and ready for the soft top to go away:


On to today and removing that soft top.
Unplug the defrost, loosen/remove some trim pieces and then start to take out the upper carpet. The HF trim removal tool and I weren't getting along well, so I called it quits once I broke the 2nd plug. Fortunately, I was able to remove more than just 2 plugs and got out 6 of the 10mm bolts that connect to the soft top frame. In the picture, the plug to the far left is almost at the halfway point.


We weren't sure if the exhaust from the NA was going to work with the NB stock hanger points so we had held off on it while working on other things. Today, we lined it up and were able to find points to hang it from, so that is now installed as well. The exhaust ends just in front of the diff.


Per class rules, the stereo can be removed so Shawn did that this morning. The previous owner had Sirius radio in the car and it looks like they did us a favor and provided the power for the wide band.

[Katya4me]

Only 1 picture from this past weekend, but progress continues to be made. Shawn spent all afternoon on Saturday and continues to work on soldering and wiring the breakout board adapter that provides the interface between the factory wiring harness and the MegaSquirt.

On Sunday, we finished ripping the soft top out of the car, literally. The 16 year old top did not want to come out easily, and we weren't re-using it, so we pulled, it ripped and out it came. We put the carpet back in place but I do need to pick up some more plugs to replace those that broke. We aren't using the factory seat belts, so those did not go back in.



Shawn also connected the final coolant hose and took care of a few other loose items. I'm hoping this weekend is as warm as currently predicted so we can knock out the remaining items to get the car ready for vinyl: fire up and cut fenders.

[Raven]

We also did leak down tests with a sketchy breaker bar.

[moxnix]

Nothing sketchy about it. True Harbor Freight quality thru and thru.

[Katya4me]

Hey now, no mucking up my CSP build thread with non-CSP tangents. Go start your own thread.

[Katya4me]

This weekend was pretty productive. Saturday afternoon, we finished connecting loose lines and fired up the car for the first time. Hooray!!! Unfortunately, it was idling at about 4K RPMs, which indicated a vacuum leak somewhere. Shawn took off the intake manifold, found a loose bolt, adjusted the fuel rail and then buttoned everything back up and it's idling at about 1K now, which is much more reasonable. Now that the car is running, it is time to tidy things up so we can get it off the lift.

Step 1: Put the shifter and boot back in.


Step 2: We won't be needing sun visors and they just get in the way, so they are coming out.


Step 3: We pulled the cruise control out earlier and are re-using the firewall opening for the vacuum hose and another wire to the MS. It's a square hole, but we managed to find a round grommet to fit.

Pre-grommet:


Post-grommet:


Step 4: Re-install underbody bracing.


Step 5: Tucking away the MegaSquirt. The factory ECU location is tucked up above the pedal box. The combination of the BOB and the MS is lager than the factory ECU, so we are looking at options.

BOB and MS hanging out; BOB is connected to the factory wiring harness:


Possible idea is to mount the BOB in the factory ECU location and mount the MS in the dash where the stereo was.


We also bled the clutch but no pics of that.

Moving back to the other requirement before vinyl, fender cutting, we went around and pulled all the fender liners as there is a good chance the mounting points won't exist once the fenders are cut enough to clear the tires.

Front fender liner:


Fender ready for cutting:


And of course, facial protection is advisable when cutting said fenders:


At this point, the lift has been cleared of all misc clutter, and working on clearing in front of the lift and the driveway space outside that side of the garage so the cutting can occur outside.

[Sabre]

Can't wait to see this finished! I so want a ride!!!!

[Katya4me]

Picking up from last week. It was time to swap the the Penskes on to the car, esp. as we had another Miata that wanted the Bilsteins that were currently on the car.

While the front wheel was off, I decided to get a better shot of the Small Fortune Racing front sway bar:


1 shock in:


2 shocks mounted, remote reservoirs ziptied in the engine bay:


Around to the back of the car, passenger side installed:


And 2 more ziptied remote reservoirs:


And now it could escape the confines of the garage:

[Katya4me]

While we were in the trunk taking care of the shocks, we took a minute and pulled out the power antenna. With no stereo, no need for the extra weight and we can always use a spare. The plug from the old car was a perfect fit:


With the soft top removed, we put on the silver hard top that it will now use when it's not being raced.
And now that it's out in the driveway, the cutting could commence.

From reading online, it sounded like we wouldn't have to cut as much from the rears to fit the 15x11s, so I decided to do a test fit to see how they looked and Shawn got started cutting the front fender.


And the passenger side.
I drew a line roughly 1.5" up from the fender edge as a point to start cutting and fitting.


Cutting:


Bigger fender opening:


Today was gorgeous so got a couple things more done.
We'd been meaning to get the drivers seat out of the black rallyx car, so finally did that today. Went to bolt it in, but realized didn't have the seat belts in yet, as they were still in the old CSP car. So, I pulled those out and tossed them into the car as I think it'll be easier to work on with the top off.


I was able to grind down a lot of the rough edges on the cuts and then I gave the car a bath:


We'll probably have to cut more, particularly into the front bumper, but it's a good starting point for now.

[Katya4me]

At this point, we still have to do before the season starts:

-Bolt in seat belts and drivers seat.
-Reinstall center console with power window switch and shift knob.
-Replace broken carpet plugs
-Permanently mount Megasquirt
-Swap over ARP wheel studs
-Order new Hoosiers
-Get vinyl
-Figure out which of the many bolts and nuts in the garage need to be re-attached to the car.

Down the road:
-Swap to the NA dash?
-Swap to the NA brakes?
-More tire?
-E85?

[ElZorro]

Wow, tons of work... looking great folks!

[Katya4me]

Jason, thanks No more updates at present since we took off the past 2 weekends to go rallyxing.

[ElZorro]

Jason, thanks No more updates at present since we took off the past 2 weekends to go rallyxing.

Because given the choice, playing in the dirt is way better than standing on a hot parking lot

[Katya4me]

And by that you mean, it's more fun to freeze one's nether regions rallyxing as opposed to wrenching in a cold garage. Because come summer time, Hoosiers are seriously addictive.

[Katya4me]

So, it's been a while. Let's pick up where I last left off.

Prior to the first autox on April 23, Shawn was able to permanently mount the Megasquirt in the stock ECU area, which is directly up from the pedal box.


Once done the initial fender cutting, we covered the cut edge with door edge protection.

Shawn also swapped over the wheel studs to the NB. We had 3 corded tires on the 11" wide wheels, but only 1 corded on the 10" wheels, so we ran the 10" wheels for the first 2 events.


In the NB Miata, the factory seat belt mount is attached to the seat slider, not to the body. Since we weren't using a slider, we needed to create a new mounting location. We picked up some seat belt mount backing plates from OG Racing, then proceeded to drill into the transmission tunnel. Here is the driver's side, not quite level, but secure enough:

The passenger side backing plate:
and the seat belts installed:

And then the seats went back in:

Once the seats and belts were addressed, it was time to move on to the steering wheel. The factory steering wheel came off easily enough, as did the Momo steering wheel. But then the adapter didn't want to come out of the NA.

Shawn applied a bit of persuasion and it finally came loose:

Installed in the NB, along with re-installing the center console:

The last step was to do an alignment. The settings in the rear were good, but Shawn did need to adjust the front camber.

[Katya4me]

That brought us to here:


At the end of the practice event on 4/23, we swapped runs with another NB CSP competitor and Shawn really liked some of the things that the other car had. One in particular was a larger front sway bar. Going into the event, we were running this:


By the next event on 4/30, we were running this:


We knew that we were going to miss the May autox, so we paused for a bit while focusing on other activities. Another item that is in the near future is switching to E85 and once we do that, we'll get the car re-tuned.

[Katya4me]

All NBs came with power side mirrors but we had noticed that the Kao/Kline CSP Miata's mirrors looked different. Kline said that the NA mirrors are a direct swap and of course, weight savings. So, back to the NA today and off came the side mirrors:

Pop the plastic base up, remove 2 screws and you've got yourself a mirror:



After removing the NB mirror as well, you can see weight savings:

We had to take the door skin off to disconnect the power window. While we were in there, we also took a moment to remove the speakers, which is allowed in CSP.

And voila:

That makes this current and the next autox is June 4, so we'll see what other updates will occur before then.

[Katya4me]

Almost forgot videos. This is from the first points event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTbSk1lXsVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-_ycG-MtX4