boriksh

"girly" car with attitude. Come on i love those great handling, nice looking miatas and was considering one for myself.

Speed Freek

iTrader: (2)

Your doing such a fantastic job on this build Wally, mad props to you for taking the time to document EVERYTHING like you are doing, it is very entertaining to watch you build unfold..it also helps people get ideas on problens they run into during these swaps, god only knows we all have issues doing swaps like this..

BTW I just got my 98 Toyota Tacoma LS1 swap fired off and running for the first time today, I am so happy with the power it has, no more waiting for the big turbo to spool up, instant torque on demand now...now I have to route the wiring to the Toyota relay/fuse box so the wiring is permanent, not a bunch of wires with a wire nut to the ignition like it is at the moment.

Great job Wally. love your thread. Keep up the good work!!!

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Thanks, trying to keep it all straight for the next way-ward soul that thinks this is easy.

Man, wish I had your truck.. my 88 Ford F150 4x4 beater died a few weeks ago.. lost all gears except 4th. Once the weather breaks (and I get time, ha) I guess I'll be swapping a tranny in that pig. Not sure what happened, but every other gear including reverse just sound like a failed throwout bearing, but 4th has no weird noise at all. Fun fun.

Build Update:

Parts Ordered - Energy Suspension 9.5160R greasable sway bar mounts, for a 24mm bar (see E36 bar below). Ordered up some 3.5" sweep 90s too, not sure if they will help but figured it's worth trying out. Might fit nicely in my setup, or look nice in my parts bins.

Parts Refund - ebay junkyard I bought the sways off refunded the full price including shipping for the wrong bar they sent me, and told me to keep it.. sweet! So, I have a spare 24mm E36 sway bar to get rid of.. Think I am going to just proceed with the 24mm for now, and if I stumble across a 25.5mm cheap I'll snap it up later.

Parts Arrival - CAI parts, supplimental. Pair of 3.5" aluminum 45 degree elbows, a 3.5" silicone coupler, a 3.5" to 3/75" silicone coupler (MAF inlet), and a few more T-Bolt straps.

BMW E36 Front Sway Bar - Doing some research on end links and sway mounts. Sway mounts should be easy.... following Shawn's lead, going to use the Energy Suspension 9.5160 greaseable sway bar mounts (for a 24mm bar).

End links, slightly more involved. I need to piece together some adjustable end links (my old Racing Beat ones are pretty tired), have found no less than 15 options from $17.80 to $190.00 (yikes!). My adjustable end links are set at 3.25" center to center on the mount holes, and that seems ok or maybe just a touch long. If anything I might go a tad shorter to lower the bar slightly away from the alternator and AC compressor, so I need to be able to get under 3.25". More to come once I sort it out..

New Tool - Not really build related, but picked up the Harbor Freight sandblast cabinet. It finally went on sale and snapped it up for around $185 or so. Running out of space in the garage, though (seriously) so not sure where it will end up. For now it's shoved over by the woodstove. Have to do some air line plumbing to get it hooked up, which was on the to-do list anyhow.

Marky522

iTrader: (8)

Hey Wally, looking good as always. On a side note your trans failure in the truck is probably the counter shaft, it doesnt effect 4th because its straight through.

Mark

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info, I was already planning on replacing the tranny.

Build Update:

Header Dimples - As requested, photos of the dimples in the driver's header. This was as delivered, and dimples were put in by Flyin Miata for Elvis where these headers came from. I assume it will fit my car as well but time will tell.




Parts Arrived - The 90* elbows came in (no photos tho.. most likely won't be using them anyhow). Photos of the 45* elbows and silicone couplers:



The Energy Suspension sway mounts:



New Tool - Been looking for one of these for a long time... a horizontal band saw! Picked up this 1978 vintage old skool Cummin brand band saw off Craiglist, a steal at $80!



Even came on that fancy wooden cart.

Sway bar mounts, version 2.0 - Mocked up the E36 bar using the 3"w x 4"h x 4"l x 1/8" thich tube. Positioning looks good, but not liking how it would interfere with the CAI.. and the visual isn't quite there for me. I've gone a different route (below) but here's the visual for anyone else trying this path:





Sway bar mounts, verison 3.0 - Decided to do some custom mounts, similar to the stock style. Did a bunch of measurements and whipped this up in AutoCAD:



Yellow = frame rail
Blue = sway bar
Orange = sway mount
Red = sway bushing
Black = steel I need to create

All measurements shown in inches. I cut the pieces using a digital caliper and the band saw per those measurements, and prepared to weld them:





One side tacked together:



Other side tacked:



In place with Energy Suspension mounts:





Leading edge of the steel is 7 3/4" from the stud in the foreground.



The curved sharpie line is the area that has to be cut out for clearnace on the 3.5" CAI I am going to do.. still leaves plenty of metal for support.

First try came out very nice, but I think I may need to tweak it a little to offset them more towards the middle maybe 1/8" to 1/4" each. Need to look at it again tomorrow and decide.

williamkeller23

iTrader: (2)

What a deal on the pullout

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Build Update:

Sway Bar Mounts - Pulled the driver's side unit apart and notched it for the CAI routing.

themachasy

iTrader: (5)

Odd and probably obvious question if I wasn't so lazy to look back. Did you seam weld the car any? I did the inner door seams for a friend and the difference is staggering!

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Not yet, but that is one of the reasons I bought the new MIG. I plan to do some (engine bay too) before it goes together final.

themachasy

iTrader: (5)

I mig'd them, it came out great, was really easy, and made a big difference! Figured I'd let you know =)

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Did you do a continuous bead or a 3" on/3" off style weld?

themachasy

iTrader: (5)

3 on 3 off, then let it cool, and did 3 on 3 off again in the other areas. So a full seam pretty much.

I re read that, does that make sense?

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Sort of. So when you are done is it a continuous bead, or 3" unwelded gaps? I've read you want to leave the gaps for crush zone function.

themachasy

iTrader: (5)

It was for the welds around the passenger cabin, so they're fully welded, no unwelded gaps. I don't want that area to crush

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Good point.. Having been at the wheel of a Miata that *did* crush in that area, I concur. Buckled the floor and pushed the A pillar back about an inch and a half.

I've got some diagrams (Flyin Miata hosted ones) that show the areas in the engine bay to hit, so those and the cabin are the goal. I've seen other builds where they seam welded the rear subframe, I didn't think of it at the time or I would have. Oh well.

Build Update:

Remote Oil Filter Mount - Done! Got a little side-tracked with it, but whatever, it had to be done sometime. Different than the previous mock-up, but super pleased with how it turned out. Just enough space to remove the filter, simple and elegant, and not bulky. Ugly bolts are temporary.









True Cold Air intake - Very close to done.. I think I have the right configuration of pipes and elbows now. Very tricky with all the joints to get things to position perfectly. Will probably pull the old nose out of the attic and make sure it has proper clearance in there prior to final welding of the sway mount. Still need to source a filter.







Trimmed up the TB end elbow to angle the pipe towards the engine and away from the radiator.



Just a bit of clearance at the radiator.



Tight to the sway mount, a little more trimming is required.



Sway Mounts - Once the CAI is good, will finish them up tomorrow.



Total side note, was finally able to sell my old LT1 I had in the first RX7 build.. $80 for a complete long block. Guess they aren't as expensive as they used to be. Whatever, paid for the band saw!

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

Build Update:

Heater Hoses - Finished them up. Heated up the frame rail and bent some additional clearance.





Welded a tab on the passenger strut tower and strapped the hoses down there.



Very pleased with the routing.



The two hoses I used are 63836 and 63936, both are simple elbows with one really long leg... one is a 5/8", the other is a 3/4". I cut and spliced them at the strut tower and converted the 3/4" to 5/8" at that point.

Remote Oil Filter - Heated up the frame rail and bent some additional clearance over there for the hoses.



Started on the hoses, which got me sidetracked into the oil cooler... I am thinking about using it again, just need to get it repaired since one fitting stripped out and the other one is siezed (which means it will strip out too). Going to take it to a radiator shop and see if they can weld a couple of new fittings on it.

Air Conditioning - Started a new thread dealing with the CTS-V accessories and the AC lines and whatnot needed, thread located here. Not sure where I am going to source up the proper blocks, maybe the shop I pick to fix the oil cooler can help with it, who knows.

Irish350

iTrader: (14)

so hows the to do list, wally?

Schitzo

iTrader: (6)

Try docsblocks.com

Wallyman

iTrader: (1)

385 tasks, 200 started (51.95%), 165 done (42.86%).. 220 left. $21,857.39 spent to date.

This fabrication really has slowed me down.. burning hours on the littlest things. I can't wait to get past it to the wiring and paint and whatnot, hopefully it will speed up then. I do feel really good about the detail work, however. The little things are coming out exactly how I envision them and the effect is excatly what I want. Remote oil filter looks trick, TCAI is going to be slick, heater core reloc very much cleans up the engine, sway bar is going to be sweet.. the fuel system should be very subdued/subtle too. So, time well spent just taking (what seems like) forever.

Doesn't help I got sidetracked on Sunday and cleaned the entire garage, put every tool away, sorted everything on the workbench, bought more storage containers and labelled things and put them away... was out there 10 hours, spent 2 on the actual car. But a clean and organized garage is critical to the process (at least at my place!) so while it takes away I think it pays in spades later.

Build Update:

Oil Cooler - Got a Mocal cooler I am going to reuse, but the BSP fittings stripped out. Went to my local speedshop and picked up a pair of aluminum -8AN weld on fittings, and dropped it all off to my local Blacksmith (yes, blacksmith.. Ebling and Sons Blacksmith.. gotta love the name!) so they can weld it up. Should have it back by end of week. In the mean time I plan to buy some fittings for it (aluminum -8AN 90s), so when it is done I can mock it up and get all the oil lines done.

Oil Pressure Gauges - Ordered up some -3AN to 1/8NPT fittings to allow me to remote mount the sending units. Once I get a chance, I'll measure out the lines needed. aforementioned speedshop has premade -3AN stainless lines in stock fairly cheap in various lengths so I can just pop in there and snap something up.

True Cold Air intake - need to order up a 4" t-bolt clamp, a 3.5" metal coupler and a K&N filter (either RU-5114 and CM-4508DK or RX-4140 and RU-1470PK [filter and protective sock]). Once I have those, I should be able to finish the mockup and devise a mount location in the wheel well or something.

Air Conditioning - sent a note to DocsBlocks for some clarification on a couple of parts, waiting on a reply (Thanks Schitzo, already had them picked out!). Did a bunch of research last night, found a lot of useful info and posted it over in this thread. Have a parts list thanks to the Chevy Truck guys, and just need to figure out how to marry GM and Mazda fittings together on the same line.

Schitzo

iTrader: (6)

Guess I should have followed your link. I have been on the phone with Docsblocks since I to Im trying to get my a/c done and need to figure out how to marry the GM parts with BMW parts. I will follow your progress on this.

Looks like I will mostly braze the various fittings together.