Hi, me again, welcome back. I originally intended to publish this post once the car was completed, but I’m now breaking it down into multiple parts. This post has been a long time in the making and is going to be a picture thread. Sit back and enjoy!
Engine specifications: Piston to wall: 0.003” Top ring end gap: 0.018” Middle ring end gap: 0.019” Bottom ring end gap: 0.010” Rod bearing gap: 0.038” Main bearing gap: 0.025” Intake valves: 0.008” Exhaust valves: 0.010” Oil pump: 1 shim @ 66PSI
Parts list for the engine bay refresh: GTX2860r Gen 2 T3 with .63ar Action fabrication 1.25″ runner turbo manifold Full Race turbo blanket Cerakote AZ all hot side parts Tial 38mm MVR wastegate (overhauled with all new Tial parts) Tial 50mm QR blowoff valve RZ crew intake manifold, sike, now an NB6 intake manifold. Ebay B16 68mm throttle body, sike again, Skunk 2 64mm throttle body Injector Dynamics 1050cc injectors Supertech 10.6:1 .040″ pistons Wiesco piston rings Manley H-beam forged connecting rods ACL race bearings ARP 2000 headstuds ARP main studs Supertech maganese valve guides Supertech 70lb dual valve springs Supertech spring seats Supertech titanium spring retainers Supertech +1mm stainless intake and exhaust valves Supertech valve keepers Supertech lash caps Supertech solid lifters Fab 9 reground 264* camshafts Fidanza slide cam gears Toda timing belt Cometic 0.40″ MLS headgasket Boundary billet oil pump gears Boundary 66psi oil pump shim Circuit Sports oil pan baffle Stage 8 turbo hardware G19 coil pack plate Audi R8 coil packs Downstar valve cover hardware Greddy magnetic drain plug Koyo intercooler core Koyo oil coolers (power steering and engine oil) Vibrant lines, fitting, couplings Murray constant tension clamps
I began to mock things up on spare head and block while my parts were at the machine shop.Pat welding up the 90* and adapter.Welded up compressor housing.Turbo hardlines and a Full Race carbon style heat blanket.Turbosmart turbo inline filter.a softline at the rear to make it easier to work on around the firewall. Cleaned and stripped block.Primer. Yay.A nice VHT gloss black.Painted with the old freeze plugs in to keep the sealing surfaces clean. Assembled Supertech 10.6:1 pistons and Manley rods. ARP main studs installed. Oil squirters deleted with Vibrant plugs with crush washers. Rotating assembly instaleld.Rotating assembly installed. Crosshatch from Genes engine services. Chasing the head stud holes. Should have done this before I cleaned and assembled everything. Supertech 70lb dual valve springs.Supertech dual valve spring package with titanium retainers. Supertech stainless +1mm valves and decked head.New exhaust studs and freeze plugs.Wrinkle black water pump, oil pump, and alternator. Wrinkle black alternator. Boundary billet oil pump gears.Boundary 66psi oil pump shim.Circuit Sports oil pan baffle with trap doors. Cerakoate AZ coated all of the hot side parts for me. The Tial 38mm wastegate looks crusty, but was overhauled with all new parts.The Pat Reynolds AN coolant reroute.A fully assembled and mocked up engine. Fidanza slide cam gears and Toda timing belt really pull the look together. I had to pull the engine back apart to have the valve tips ground to obtain the valve clearance with the new solid lifters.
While the head was out getting the valves machined, I also had to replace one of the oil pan gaskets as one had worked its way out while torquing the oil pan. While the pan was off, I decided to safety wire the oil pan baffle bolts. I also decided to wire the oil pan pickup bolts under advice from the Miata cup car guys advice.A dab of RTV ensures that the safety wire will stay in place even if the wire breaks.The head was reworked by S&S machine shop and shimmed.Jeff and Brent helping me drop the engine in. After the engine was finally in, I realized I forgot to install the throwout bearing. Pulled everything out install the throwout bearing. Engine bolted in place!New wastegate hardlines.Drivers side frame rail hardline work. LRB speed undertray/engine undertray and remounting some of the engine bay parts.Joe at Action Fabrication did all of the new aluminum work for the intercooler, intake, BOV, and recirculating piping. I am always beyond happy with the work Joe does for me. Slowly piecing together the engine bay.Rubber mounted V mount to reduce vibrations/cracking.Intake with Vibrant filter and recirculated BOV piping. The cold side also has a vacuum reference fitting for the MAC valve. GM IAT, vacuum port for the BOV, Vibrant couplings, and a Tial QR 50mm BOV recirculated to the intake.Koyo power steering cooler with a Vibrant inline oil filter. The cooler is mounted on the frame rail and pivots in case of a hit. The outside towards the fender will be ziptied to the fender brace to keep it in place. Koyo engine oil cooler which is mounted like the power steering cooler. It is mounted to the frame rail so it can pivot in case of a hit. The side towards the fender will be ziptied to the fender brace to keep it in place. Me engine cooler was mounted this same way before and when I was hit in 2020 it saved the car. The oil cooler folder out of the way. It also reduces the chances of the car leaking oil on the track when hit!At this point I had decided that I didn’t want to deal with the issues of an aftermarket intake manifold especially being that it needed a throttle cable bracket and manifold brace made. I picked up a European NB6 intake manifold and block brace off of eBay for a good price. I made the switch from the LS2 coil packs to Audi R8 coil packs. G19 in Europe makes a coil pack plate that seals to the valve cover with o-rings and then to the OEM R8 coil pack grommet ensuring a waterproof connection. The coil pack plate is intended to be utilized with the OEM valve cover, the 323 valve cover required some trimming along the front edge by the #1 coilpack.Paired the intake manifold with a Skunk 2 309-10-0200 64mm throttle body. I ported the intake manifold to the gasket and to the throttle body. I then removed all of the vacuum barbs and drilled/tapped all of the holes for NPT plugs. The back of the intake manifold will supply vacuum to the vacuum block.LRB speed mounting plate with a Vibrant vacuum block. The mounting plate had to be clearanced to fit around the catch can, but the mounting tabs were in the perfect spots to be reused.Vacuum bulk heads for the ECU map sensor and the Defi boost gauge. Finished off rewiring the chassis harness with the new Milspec connector and Raychems. Progress of the RH mounting plate. Autometer volt and vacuum gauges for easy under the hood diagnostics. Also seen is the vacuum supply from the back of the intake manifold and the hardlines for the ECU and meter.New Vibrant -10 catch can lines. The NB6 intake manifold made it so I had to change the routing of the line near the throttle body to run across the top of the fuel rail.Here’s where we currently are, getting closer little by little. Just a few more forevers and we’ll be back. Until then, party hard.
Team Impulse 