300zx's ELX work log

[CODY004WD]

How many cylinders?

[KAinjection]

How many cylinders?

4



Does the exhaust tip look ok or does it need to be changed? looking for other opinions here

[Mazda_Powered]

Dammit, now I'm really curious! lol Exhaust is coming along great btw! I need to get their tubing kit asap as well, my exhaust is really starting to wear out lol....

[CODY004WD]

I think the exhaust looks nice. The only thing I'd change is centering the "tip" in the GT bumper cutout. I'm always picky about that. I am all for tucking the muffler up high! I have pretty much the same setup for the hatch, trubendz 3" kit and vibrant 3" in/out muffler. I still want to pick up a couple 18" long 3" spiral core resonators, and I'll do something similar with my exit.

[KAinjection]

I finished welding it all up, grinding the welds flat, and then painted it with exhaust paint and it looks better. The pipe is actually centered in the cutout, but I purposely angled the tip toward the center a little. I did reduce the side angle a little and added a little more up angle before I finished it up though. I got the idea for the pipe angle from motorcycle racers turning their canister tips slightly in and down (in their case). Supposedly with the exhaust exit pointed in the center of the wake of the vehicle, the vacuum pulling on the back of the vehicle will help extract the exhaust from the pipe at highway speeds.

I am also running a vibrant straight thru resonator and after I get the engine back in, I will have V-bands under where the shifter rods go to swap out stuff easily. Straight pipe, or swap in the cat for emissions testing, or if its too loud, easily add another resonator.

Working on finishing the header heat shield. The top most visible portion will be the OE one, and the bottom will be some sheet metal I had lying around.

[FE3-323]

bump for fresh pictures

[KAinjection]

Sure thing:
The finished tail pipe


The header with upper OE heat shield and lower sheet metal one I threw together. I cut all the heat shield mount tabs off the OE header and welded some of them on the header to make it work. turned out well and the ugly portion will be hidden.


Took the transmission apart today and welded the diff pin, and degreased the case.


Installed the 3" intake pipe into the H-box to remove that bottle neck and have a properly routed IAC hose again. Also tapped my fuel rail to allow me to run a remote mounted fuel pressure gauge.


Got my scale to weight match my pistons and ordered the fixture to balance the connecting rods. After I do mine and the extra miata piston/rod set I have, I may offer this service to members for a small fee if I feel confident in doing it



Dropped the block off today with the oversize pistons. told them to deck the block for cleanup, but I am now thinking to have them shave it a little more to raise the compression a little bit. Maybe .010" since I already had .006" taken off the head. Its supposed to be ready for me by Friday.

The kid at the counter who was writing the slip asked me if I wanted the block honed? I said yes I need the block bored .020" over, he says but do you want it honed also? I said isnt that part of the process when you bore the block? He said yeah a bore and hone. I said yeah bore and hone of course. I cant believe I was asked this stupid question, but the kid had some slammed honda civic outside that fit his intelligence level. I would have been scared from this encounter to have my stuff worked on at this machine shop, but I already know this place well and I know he is new.

[FE3-323]

^ intriged by the balancing situation. keep me posted on that please

[KAinjection]

Got my rod balancing tool today and set it up. Only measured total weights for now and didnt do any balancing yet but here are some weights for anybody curious.
Rod weights are with bolts:
01 Miata rods 549.9, 549.9, 552.5, 549.1
91 EGT rods 545.7, 544.2, 545.1, 545.2

01 miata pistons 303.7, 302.2, 301.6, 301.1
every wrist pin was 79.1

Tomorrow I will start cleaning up the rods of the sharp edges and casting, then weigh them again.
Also got my fuel pressure gauge mounted and a hose made up for it. Cost $16 to have the hose made vs the $45 autometer one.
Made a mold for an air inlet from the front bumper to fender well under the air box and a mold to extend the airbox opening down to the inlet. I will start the fiberglass work in the morning. Also cleaned a bunch of brackets and misc things that were greasy.

[Mazda_Powered]

dear god lol sounds like you've been busy! crazy that the Miata rods are heavier than the FWD BP "equivalent". Are there any noticeable visual differences between the two?

Curious to see this intake setup you're working on though! I was just going to use my VAF adapter and bolt it to that fender pocket (pointing the front), and run a "fresh air" hose from that to the bumper mouth...figure the VAF adapter is 4 bolt so it'd be easy to seal.. and it's 3"...gawd I hope that made sense!

[KAinjection]

There are some subtle differences between the 2.

I like your idea at least it would be cleaner then a big gaping hole like I made with a hole saw. I will get some pics tomorrow of it. Mine will be more of an air guide to the bottom of the air box and not a sealed system. Eventually ITB's will be going on and so I wont spend a whole lot of time on this.

[FE3-323]

definitely want to see some pictures of the fender well intake system. I had initially wanted to go this route too.... but failed miserably by cutting out too much

[KAinjection]

Well here it is, my first attempt at making anything with fiberglass. It is only one layer right now, and needs a couple more but you get the idea.

[DuRWooD]

That's a cool idea. Are you going to run a screen in front of the intake or anything?

Sent from my SGH-I717D using Tapatalk 2

[Mazda_Powered]

amazing! I like it!