Spyder Build Thread

[DCIV]

Yeah I’m a much more “get things done and deal with it when it’s a problem” type of person. I wish I could slow down like you are, although my own garage has let me do that to some degree.


Coop

[Jeff V.]

For the overflow bottle, the 98-99 cars just have 3 tabs hanging down from the underside of the core support. It's nothing fancy. If it fits, that's all that matters.

[mjannusch]

Fighting with getting the oil cooler on today. Tight fit with the huge side-mount intercooler, but it is on. Now to find some crush washers for the engine side of the connection and I should be good...

Always something.

[mjannusch]

Oil cooler is on, but I ordered a couple of 180 fittings. The 150 is "okay", but very difficult to deal with getting the cooler on and off the car if need be.

Hooked up all the cooling system happiness, filled it with 50/50 antifreeze and water + 1.5 bottles of Purple Ice (Water Wetter, basically). Motor got break-in oil. Hooked up enough power to get it to crank (no ECU) and found that I forgot to tighten the banjo fitting at the rear oil port that feeds the rear turbo. It puked out about 1/4 quart of oil on the floor. Fixed that up (not fun to get at), and everything is good. Oil system is primed, topped off the coolant after it burped out the bubbles, etc.

Test fitted all the intake components and I think I need to adjust my front intake pipe to sit lower at the filters. BOV position is too far forward, but that's my fault. I can probably make it work where it is if I lower the intake pipes a bit. Front intercooler pipe over the header should work with a bit longer coupler.

Need a few odds and ends for the fuel system, but that shouldn't be difficult. I need to make a bracket to hold my FPR and boost solenoid, and then build a harness to plug into the stock MAF connector for the AIT, MAP, and fuel pressure sensors.

Should probably still do a front-mount oil cooler at some point, but right now I just want to get it running and enjoy it this summer.

[DCIV]

I thought water wetter reacted to aluminum and caused crystals to form or something stupid like that? I remember it was a big enough deal that I dumped my whole coolant system and refilled.


Coop

[mjannusch]

I’ve been using the Redline Water Wetter forever in the car and there’s no evidence of a problem. All the coolant passages looked fine before assembly and nothing unusual in the radiator that I could see. It is basically a little bit of soap and some corrosion inhibitors for if you use straight water. Same stuff that is in antifreeze.

[DCIV]

Let’s see this oil cooler.


Coop

[mjannusch]

Oil cooler photo attached. It isn't flat up against the intercooler, but is close. The SMIC is really quite large.

Finished the fuel lines under the hood. Mounted the FPR on a floating bracket where the stock solenoid rack used to be. Boost solenoid will be mounted next to it when I get the right size screws to fit... Fuel pressor sensor is hanging from an adapter off the rear fuel rail before going to the FPR.

Made an injector resistor bypass plug to run peak/hold on the AEM as it should. Swapped in a new IAC, as I was still running the original "brown" one, and sounds like they like to cause problems, so upgraded to the new black version.

Headed back out to make my sensor harness for the AIT, MAP, FP, and ethanol sensors. Fun, fun...

[mjannusch]

Sensor harness complete... Took a lot longer than I expected, but you have to pin your own AEM sensor connectors and I didn't have the right crimping tool so it took a long time to get satisfied with how it was crimped, etc. Couldn't find my ethanol sensor harness, etc. But it is done.

Waiting on an ORB to AN fitting for the FPR, and an AN6 to AN8 expander for the fuel pump fitting. Once I have that stuff, I should be ready to fire it up.

Still have to put the front bumper back on, undertrays, finish up the fuel feed at the pump, hook up all my electrical crap at the ECU patch harness, flash the AEM, etc. But close... I'd think I can get that all done this week while I wait for the other parts to show up.

[vr4]

[quote=""mjannusch""]I’ve been using the Redline Water Wetter forever in the car and there’s no evidence of a problem. All the coolant passages looked fine before assembly and nothing unusual in the radiator that I could see. It is basically a little bit of soap and some corrosion inhibitors for if you use straight water. Same stuff that is in antifreeze.[/quote]


This.


It doesn't provide as much seal lubrication as proper antifreeze so you do run the risk of killing water pumps with it.

[Chris GTO TT]

Yep that's part of the reason I run 70% water 30% antifreeze with some water wetter in the Miata. Better cooling with good lubrication for the water pump.

[vr4]

[quote=""Chris GTO TT""]Yep that's part of the reason I run 70% water 30% antifreeze with some water wetter in the Miata. Better cooling with good lubrication for the water pump.[/quote]

Same. 70/30 year round with no problems. Granted it rarely gets below 20 here and if it does usually only for a few hours

[mjannusch]

Yeah, I’m running 50/50 so there’s plenty of seal lubrication. I’m not concerned about it.

[mjannusch]

ORB fittings arrived, so the FPR is complete. Just need one more fitting for the pump to 8AN line and the fuel system should be done. I forgot what's all in there for the fuel pump hotwire kit - I think it might be stock wiring with just the engine compartment hotwired. I have a high-amp Ninja kit I can drop in if need be. Just running a single Walbro 485, and can add my Boost-a-Pump back in if I push it far enough to need it.

Considering putting the '95 front end back on for now and see if the paint shop is willing to try to paint my '99 front to match my original '95 bumper. I have two '95 fronts because on my original there's a spot where the front license plate bracket deformed the bumper cover a bit behind it, and I typically don't run a front plate so it is very visible. Oh, I also have a CF hood that needs to be painted too. If the paint shop doesn't want to try to do it separate, then I'll probably wait until winter and drop the car off complete for them to do it.

I still kinda want to do some sort of metallic blue though. But I also don't want to risk damaging weatherstripping or breaking some unobtainable part (rear window glass).

[mjannusch]

I spent some more time working on it today...

Ran the AN8 back to the fuel pump, but Amazon sent me a part that's reverse of the description so it is female AN8 to male AN6 which is backwards of what I need. Ordered a different one, but it won't be until late next week that it will arrive. Skillard channel is on with the AN8 hose in it - that turned out nice.

Re-did my fuel pump hotwire so I'll have both pump speeds, battery voltage at the pump when not going through the resistor pack, controlled with the EMS.

Oil cooler now has the tight-radius 180 fitting on it, which fits better. Still a pain to get on/off, but shouldn't be touching it again.

Windshield washer bottle, battery tray, battery are in. Y-pipe clears the battery with the Tial BOV on it, so that's good. I have a strategy for the intake pipes, once some couplers arrive on Monday. They'll fit. I'm changing the routing of the front crossover intercooler pipe a bit - it'll come basically straight across behind the radiator and then use a 90 degree coupling to go up to the Y-pipe and a 150 degree coupler at the Y-pipe. That should get it low enough to not hit the hood or the front header.

Got my LCDBC reflashed to talk to my climate control display, and programmed LCDBC to interface with the AEM EMS and set up the custom parameters for boost, widebands, fuel pressure, oil pressure, ethanol %, etc.

[Jeff V.]

That display is nice. I just wish it was a little bigger.

[mjannusch]

I agree the display could be bigger. But since the concept has been proven, nothing preventing someone from making a wide touch display for the climate control or something along those lines. That’d be nice on an oled display. You could have it display gauges on the majority of the display and have pop-up climate control on a little button. Hmmmm...

[mjannusch]

Finished all the interior wiring. LCDBC is wired in, AEM EMS v2, dual inline widebands, oil pressure sensor, etc. Radio is mounted, LCDBC rotary controller is mounted in the lower DIN opening on the trim panel I have there.

Had to modify the bracket I used to mount the AEM. The legs were too long, so there was no room to stuff the patch harness in front of the AEM so I trimmed 1/2" off the mounting legs and redrilled the mounting holes. That was still kind of tall, so I removed the foam padding that was on the bracket (about 1/4") and put some 1/16" rubber padding I had laying around on there instead. It all fits, though is a little tight.

Flashed the AEM with my map and it looks good. 1st problem: MAP sensor doesn't work for some reason. Not sure why yet, ran out of time to troubleshoot. Other than that, I believe it is ready for the first statup once I get that fuel fitting. I may make my own fitting in the meantime, if I get desperate enough.

Pretty sure I need to upgrade my radio. It has CD/MP3, AM/FM, and an Aux input that I don't have hooked up. I'd love something with CarPlay that's more modern. Now I need to keep it single DIN size, unless I want to move the LCDBC controller knob somewhere else.

[stealthee]

What MAP sensor did you get? If by chance you bought a BWD or similar brand its possible you got a DOA.

[mjannusch]

AEM 3.5 bar stainless body sensor. I must've missed something with my wiring.