Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Miata Parts, Intakes, Superchargers, Headers, Exhausts, Shocks, Springs, Sway Bars, Brake Kits, Autocross and track mods.
BryanH915
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Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2017 8:58 am

Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by BryanH915 »

Thanks Brian, my car is stock, only has 40,000kms on it and no plans at the moment for bigger engine or some kind of boost.

Waiting for a house deal I am in the middle of to get over with before ordering my wishlist!

Cheers
Brian
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

Time for update picture. Project has been on our KONI SPORT and PROGRESS Spring combo for weeks of fun and it just works so well for street fun. But this project has lofty goals of Top Time of Day at local autocross events so we need more spring rate for that. Nonetheless, every choice has tradeoffs and I will miss the comfortable 'sporty touring' character of this combo for the lovely blend of nice ride with great street handling. It's fast yet does not beat you up, perfect sport touring combo and as we change to testing MeisterR coilovers with starting spring rates of 7kg/5kg there is little doubt we will miss the comfort of this Koni/Progress setup even as we gain autocross/track roll resistance we need to reach our goals on competition days.

Heights as you see here about 13.5 front, about 14 inch rear. That's without people in the car and the rake is VERY intentional, add two big adults and some stuff in the trunk and it will be level for driving because we humans are essentially sitting on the rear springs.
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Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
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Brian
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

Time for coilover testing. Let's start with what you get in the box.
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M5.jpg
M3.jpg
0104190934b_HDR.jpg
M1.jpg
Brian Goodwin
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

Install Note. We add a washer at the rear to space out rear connection a bit, and a longer bolt. Why? Rear suspension arc is a bit too much, this change makes it just a hair more linear in response.

Although nice that units come assembled, the resulting heights are slammed, driveway crunch heights down around 12 inches. We are planning big 17x9 wheels, big 255/40/17 tires, so we are starting about 13.5 inches in front height. With spring rates so much higher than we had above with the KONI/Progress combo we don't need as much rake to account for driver weight, will set the rear just .125 higher. These are just starting heights, corner balance will come at some point but these are good starting heights that can get in/out my home driveway and over local speedbumps, etc.
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m4.jpg
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
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DanielS172
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Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 7:09 pm

Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by DanielS172 »

I just installed my MeisterRs on my car last week. I had the same initial heights as you and ended up raising them about as much as you mentioned. I think I'm around 13.25 all around, but continuing to play with it. Interesting note about the washer; I hadn't heard about that before.

Can't wait to see what you think once you have the dialed in! So far I really like mine.
2014 Club | OEM hardtop | GWR HH mid, FM muffler | ZetaCRD | Wilwood LBBK | Blackbird Fabworx GT3 roll bar | TRMotorsports FF10s
Brian
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

And the MOTOR is here! Planned to grab a Ford version this time but local yard had a Mazda 6 2.5 and delivered it, the 'easy button' choice with 54k miles on it. Looks pretty clean, going to pull the pan and check around the details but so far appears to be healthy candidate for our budget swap.
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Donor25.jpg
Brian Goodwin
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Emmett70
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:55 pm

Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Emmett70 »

Nice, let the fun begin!
Brian, for those of us less experienced that might be following this project, is there anything you look for in the donor motor, other than low miles and confirming it came from one of the correct donor vehicles? Along those same lines, what are you looking for when you pull the pan off? Probably not an easy question to answer. A junk yard motor is always going to be a gamble...
2006 MX5 Progress springs and sways, Koni, RPF1
Brian
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

Emmett70 wrote:Nice, let the fun begin!
Brian, for those of us less experienced that might be following this project, is there anything you look for in the donor motor, other than low miles and confirming it came from one of the correct donor vehicles? Along those same lines, what are you looking for when you pull the pan off? Probably not an easy question to answer. A junk yard motor is always going to be a gamble...
We pretty much ALWAYS use a brand new factory 2.5 because the new motors are so reasonably priced, delivered from Mazda for a bit over two grand. But we decided to make exception here because so many customers are rolling the dice with a junkyard motor as part of keeping the budget tight. Will open and look for wear on everything we can see. Since this motor came out of a Mazda6 we assume it led a rather boring and pedestrian existence, but will look at everything we can to confirm that. We do have a brand new 2.5 from Mazda sitting here if we need it.
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
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Emmett70
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:55 pm

Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Emmett70 »

Thanks Brian, that makes sense.
My NC has about 30K less miles on it than the project NC. It seems to be running strong (knock on wood), but I foresee a 2.5 swap in my future. Would love to do the factory new 2.5 but will have to see if that's possible or if I will have to do the budget swap.
2006 MX5 Progress springs and sways, Koni, RPF1
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Re: Budget Street/Autocross/Track 2.5 NC Project!

Post by Brian »

Fun day on the project, we are always preaching about the failure rate of old NC coolant tanks and today while changing just the radiator the nipple snapped on ours. See that dirty yellow color? We barely touched it and it crumbled. If yours looks like this, get our Moroso replacement (CLICK HERE) before yours cracks and the motor overheats.
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NC-Project-cooling.jpg
Brian Goodwin
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