Post ZZB Diaries CWP Gen1

Had a good but very late night last night. I kept promising myself I'd be done after every task, and then moved onto the next. I was really dreading getting the axles in because I really just don't like working around the suspension but I was able to do that and get my new rotors in at the same time as well.

Ended up getting all the coolant lines routed except for the coolant overflow, I am not sure where it went, but I am sure I can fudge it just fine. I noticed some cracking in my low pressure power steering line so I'll be picking up a replacement for that today on my way to the garage. Got the transmission all lubed up with some Amsoil gear lube which I hear is some good stuff.


Ended also getting the radiator support on and wired and the crash bar mounted as well. Once the crash bar was mounted, I obviously needed to mount my TR1035 to it for the sake of the photo.


Money shot:


Tonight I'll likely finish my power steering and coolant lines, which should only take 15 minutes tops - then intake, battery, and finish putting in my FMIC piping and go for first start up. The headlights being out should give me a good view into the engine bay so I can see if anything is leaking. If we get the coolant in quickly enough and all goes smoothly I might make it another late night and get my 50 break in miles completed this evening. After that, I got a running car again! I expect her to be very very different to drive as I have never driven a car with an upgraded clutch, but also very smooth with all the new fluids and whatnot.

 

Damn dude this thing has come along nicely. Get a video of the start up!

 

I definitely plan on it! Hopefully I plugged everything in correctly and the start up video is drama free haha
It will be loud though because open downpipe for the time being until I can get my catback extended.

 

She's alive!!!



The biggest issue last night was that I couldn't get any fuel pressure. After 45 minutes we figured out the tank was actually bone dry. I figured with the new in tank fuel pump and all the new fuel lines something had gone wrong so that was the last place I thought to look. We let her idle for about 20 minutes to crack the thermostat open and put in coolant and we've successfully gotten heat from the vents so that's a good start. Thankfully, there were no oil, coolant, or PS fluid leaks as of yet so hopefully it stays that way.

This evening I'll be changing the oil, doing a boost leak test, and performing my first 50 break-in miles. After that I'll just be driving around all over the place to get to the magic 1000 mile number so I can put in synthetic and start to make some power.

 

Congrats man, a trouble free first start, is a good feeling.

 

Noooooooooooooo. 50 miles with limited boost and then all out man.

 

Or 20% ATF fluid in crankcase (with its detergents, it cleans out all the assembly lube), drive it like you stole it for 50 miles, change oil, then break-in is done? Another forum owner swore by that, LOL.

 

There are SO many opinions on break-in lol I guess after my 50 miles of limited boost with tons of engine braking I'll see what @Captain KR wants to do. I always figured the 950 miles after the first 50 were just pretty chill.

 

Word. If it were me, I'd just do what Justin says, since he's my tuner, builds engines, and is a Master Mazda tech too.

You did lots of revs variation with that engine braking in the first 50, right? What I stated above was from "he who shall not be mentioned" (LOL), and says many race engine builders swore by that process.

 

Lord Voldemort himself! I'm not scurred to say it!

But yeah, first 50 will be with a break in additive and hitting medium boost (basically just not cracking gate) and then decel down to idle almost. I'll chat with Will to see what kind of RPMs I should be hitting and basically do whatever he says.

After the first 50 though, I assume we'll be tuning for my MAF cal first off and things like that but I'm not sure when we'll make the big PI balls-out tune on E.

 

The "Voldemort" of the other forum

 

The tuner says we tune at 1000 miles, so we tune at 1000 miles lol

Along with that, at my 50mi, 500mi, and 1000mi oil changes I'll check the compression.

 

BTW, with your turbo selection, you very likely would leave a lot on the table sticking with just 3". If I were you, I'd look into 3.5" custom work. 3.25" would be good too, but it's such a rare size that it's extremely difficult to find piping/mufflers for that diameter. For reference:
http://www.superstreetonline.com/how-to/engine/modp-1102-exhaust-test-tech/
I think these particular numbers are a little low, but the point I'm trying to make is well-illustrated. I personally went from ~360whp to ~395whp on the exact same tune going from full 3" to 2.5" stock axleback to full 3" axleback too on my BNR S3:

 

Yikes you bring even more money spending onto the table. Likely I'll just rock the 3in catback for now since getting it extended by the 2in to fit would be free (beer money) and then go from there. I might just look into an electronic cut-out in time though because I do have a few friends who have had good luck with them.
[doublepost=1473951740][/doublepost]Intake is in and the bumper is on. We ran into a couple issues with my catback and boost leaks so 50 mile break in is scheduled for tomorrow since I have a night class today. We're 99.99% ready to drive out of the garage now, just need to move the wheel chocks out of the way. Here's a money shot:

We ran it through gears 1-3 on jack stands (slowly and carefully) to check for axle leaks, and that was all good. Once we sealed up the boost leaks, the numbers on my AccessPort all looked real good. This car starts up better now on a base tune than my bone stock DD Miata does!

 

First 50 miles done and it feels so right! First impressions were loud (because open downpipe) and that the 6-puck wasn't bad at all. I definitely need to get smoother with my 1-2 shift but my downshifts were buttery smooth by the end of the drive. I wouldn't think twice about using that clutch in a daily if I needed to. Steve (buddy/below pictured MS6 owner) said every time I came to a full stop I let out a big fireball that kissed the ground under my car, so that got me pretty excited.

I hit around 13.5psi about 30 miles in and the car had zero knock whenever under load. There was still kr when just cruising so I might look and just make sure everything under the hood is good and tight. Maybe some piece of IC piping is loose or it was a side effect of running with no hood. I did notice the knock went down though the more I drove.

Here's a nice picture of when me and my buddy stopped for a checkup midway through the drive:

I will probably put my front grill back on because those tabs always have bothered me but that won't be until I have motivation to take the bumper off again.

After my 48.X mile trip I was pulling back into my friend's driveway, clutched in and lost my clutch master cylinder. So, I am stuck waiting until morning when I can pick one up from the dealer. Luckily my friend who helped my build the car gets employee pricing.

Compression was good, although I assume it'll still go up in time. Note, we all know we always test for consistency and this reader generally reads a little low IIRC. This was at 438ft ASL so that probably means something to those more educated than I.

@Captain KR says it's time to start hitting more boost and just cruise around until that magic 1000 mile mark. Hopefully I can fix that master cylinder quick and get these 950 more miles done quick because my balls are already feeling a little blue.

And my buddy said he can get my catback all fixed up Sunday which will make my car a little less deafening to drive around.

 

Are those cold compression results? Also, part-throttle cruising knock is entirely normal. I wouldn't be concerned about it at all. If something were loose and rattling around, it's extremely you'd see it at WOT too; probably even more so. Sucks about the master cylinder. Hope it's a quick fix.

 

Those compression numbers were from a warm engine after my drive last night.

Clutch slave cylinder (I mis-spoke when I said master cylinder) replacement was uneventful (as I'm sure most slave cylinder replacements are).

After swapping that out, I went for a little drive around and then went back home. Once I got back home though, my AFRs were wonky and I smelled fuel so I quickly shut my car off. Turns out my HPFP fuel line to the high pressure rail had cracked. Lucky me had a spare so I swapped that in and am now holding good fuel pressure again.

Tomorrow I'll put some more local miles onto the car and hopefully Monday I'll be good to start driving it to work which is about 45 miles one way. After a week or so of that along with other random drives, hopefully I'll be close to my 1000 mile synthetic fuel change and tune time.
[doublepost=1474166718][/doublepost]Ah, and here she is looking all classy with a hood again.

 

I'm about another 100 miles in with no issues! Filled my tank too today and averaged about 17mpg thus far lol so that just leads me to believe this thing is going to CHUG gas once I have that e85 showing. I'm told too that very often my exhaust just dumps out fire so hopefully I can get my exhaust fixed asap so it isn't dirtying up or melting the bottom of my car.

 

Have you looked at your AFRs? Not that I get much better than 17mpg, but if you are dumping fire that might suggest running super rich.

 

He has open dp. That normal.