Project Pipsqueak

[JCH13]

While work on Pipsqueak has slowed down a little I'm still making progress.

I started working on the clutch, which would not disengage. I started off by hooking it up to my pressure bleeder to double-check that Adam had bled it properly. Within a few seconds of hooking the pressure bleeder up to the clutch MC the whole reservoir pissed out of line fittings!

Turns out that there are three threaded connections to hook the Wilwood MC up to a SS flex line that goes to the clutch. Some of the fittings seemed to be loose, but one felt really weird, so I took apart all of the fittings to investigate.

You can see that the second thread in this fitting is pretty well screwed up.

So I figured out the thread and pitch (3/8-24) and cleaned off the major burrs from the thread with a special thread file.

Then made sure the threads were good by running them through a die, with a little bit of oil.

Tada! Clean threads!

After reinstalling everything it pressure-bled quite nicely. I adjusted the clutch push-rod under the dash and it works now! Hooray!

Now, those of you who've worked with an LS1/T56 combo know that the clutch slave cylinder is inside the transmission bell housing. Terrible design. Fortunately Adam plumbed the bleeder valve into an external line that winds up in the engine bay, so bleeding is a cinch.

I routed the two lines together, protecting them with some rubber hose where needed.

At the MC I attached a clip to the pressure line so that the bleeder line is out of the way, but can easily be un-clipped and used.

Unrelated - here are some pictures of the copper-nickle rear brake line that I formed earlier this week. I zip-tied the line to the fuel/electrical bundle because a majority of the stock brake line clips were missing. The line can (and probably will) be moved inside the Adel clamps. However, I didn't want to do that when I was still forming the line. Note: there is one union in this line on the firewall in the engine bay.

Down from the firewall union.

Along the frame rail.

Behind the fuel and e-brake lines to the rear brake fitting.

 

[AMCRambler]

This is a cool build. I love the idea of a big old V8 in a pocket rocket Miata. As far as fitment goes, how does the shifter match up to the tranny tunnel? Did you have to cut a new hole for it or does the engine mount kit put it in the same position as the stock shifter?

Sorry if you answered that question in your earlier posts. I skimmed through it but did not see it.

 

[JCH13]

This is a cool build. I love the idea of a big old V8 in a pocket rocket Miata. As far as fitment goes, how does the shifter match up to the tranny tunnel? Did you have to cut a new hole for it or does the engine mount kit put it in the same position as the stock shifter?

Sorry if you answered that question in your earlier posts. I skimmed through it but did not see it.

It matches up perfectly for all intents and purposes. I think the Boss Frog kit puts it just forward of center and the FM Roadster kit puts it just rear of center (the FM kit pulls the engine back an inch further than the boss frog kit).

I think Pipsqueak will reuse the stock boot with a shortened shifter.

No worries, I don't think this was discussed earlier!

It's freaky how nicely some things all fit together... starter wiring hardly changes; LS1 PCM lands near the Miata's main fuse block and main relay for easy powering; LS1 tach is driven off of 4 cyls so the Miata tach works with the LS1 PCM automatically... it's like Mazda made a V8 roadster but then later decided to put an I4 in.

 

[Zadamac]

I started off by hooking it up to my pressure bleeder to double-check that Adam had bled it properly

About that...if memory serves correctly when I re-installed the engine after re-dressing it I neglected to fully tighten the line to the master cylinder. It was maybe finger tight and definitely not bled.

 

[JCH13]

About that...if memory serves correctly when I re-installed the engine after re-dressing it I neglected to fully tighten the line to the master cylinder. It was maybe finger tight and definitely not bled.

That would do it.

 

[JCH13]

Been picking away at the numerous tasks still to go, here are a bunch of updates.

Engine mount heat shields.

Seems funny that Boss Frog leaves you out to dry on this, their headers and their engine mounts don't play nice. I gather that the exhaust heat can melt the engine mounts. So, heat shields must be made!

Prototyped a cardboard form that could be bent to shield both the driver and passenger mounts. I traced the pattern onto some 1/16th copper sheet because that's what scrap I had kicking around.

Sliced them out of the bandsaw, smoothed the edges on a belt sander, and made the big bends on my press brake.

For the smaller bends I just used a bench vise and my hands.

They fit up really well I think.

The driver's side shield, above, just barely touches the header in this picture, but will be bent out of the way.

I've been making used of these neat 'heat shrink and solder' splices. They work well in the right circumstances and are water-tight.

FM even supplies ring terminal versions with their cooling fan wiring kit.

Just be sure that there's nothing behind where the heat gun is aimed! I melted the casing on a connector under the dash a little bit. It's not functionally damaged at least *phew*

Mistakes happen, and we can deal with them. No build goes perfectly, so don't get too frustrated when the occasional mistakes occur.

Back to wiring...

Removed the light green safety interlock wire on the fuel pump relay (it connects to the Miata MAF) and traced the purple trigger wire to the main power block in the engine bay, which will be nicely located to connect to the PCM trigger wire.

(cut purple wire in the above picture)

 

[JCH13]

Started mocking up the PCM mount in cardboard, right next to the Miata's power block.

In diving into the fan wiring I had to make sure I left room for the power steering reservoir. Wires can bend around pretty much anything, plumbing... not so much.

Should clear the hood now!

Rigged up a bracket to mount the 30A breaker and two control relays. I am connecting the 'fast' and 'slow' triggers from the PCM to the two different fans on the radiator. This will reduce the start-up current of turning on two fans at once and give the PCM more resolution to control the engine's temperature.

The nice thing about having the rest of the donor harness on-hand is that I can color-match wires to extend them. This will make debugging in the future suck WAY less.

I ran the two fan trigger wires through the engine harness to the relays and left them long, I'm waiting on terminals to arrive.

I also ripped this hot filthy mess out from under the dash. I think it's an immobilizer, but was only connected to one wire... the rest had been cut.

Also traced, cleaned out, and attached the reverse light connector to the Miata harness.

But...

Yeah... that's a big womp womp...

A lot of other little things going on too, but nothing worth writing up yet. It's coming along, which is nice. Even if I can't carve out much time in a given day, I try to do at least one thing every day. It's the only way to work through a huge project like this!

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

huge womp womp = 1/2 inch too short wiring? gotta be a way to make it up?

And, yes, you do some fantastic work... excluding the stray fireworks... too many wobbly pops on the job?

Tell us more about these heat shrink and solder joints.

 

[JCH13]

huge womp womp = 1/2 inch too short wiring? gotta be a way to make it up?

And, yes, you do some fantastic work... excluding the stray fireworks... too many wobbly pops on the job?

Tell us more about these heat shrink and solder joints.

The wiring is plenty long enough, it's the transmission that's too close to the tunnel that's stopping the connector from going in!

Thank you sir! Not enough wobbly pops if you ask me... I have done some of my best work while having a wonderful time.

Here is the link for the solder sleeves that I got, sent to me by Zadamac: https://www.inventables.com/technologies/solder-sleeves

No idea where FM sources their terminals, but if you search for "solder heat shrink splice/terminal/etc" there are a lot of options out there!

They aren't cheap, but in the right situations they are invaluable. Be very careful when using them though. The wires must be clean and have good insulation. With the 25 year old wires in Pipsqueak I frequently tin the wires with 60/40 solder before putting them in the sleeves. This makes sure that any oxidation or other contamination is cleaned off and is still easier than making a traditional solder joint.

 

[JCH13]

Apologies for the lack of updates. Many other projects have occupied my time recently, but I have gotten back to Pipsqueak.

I terminated the cooling fan wiring with flag-style quick disconnects.

With heat shrink slit and pinched over the ends they clean up nicely (these are the relay control wires from the ECU).

Started to install some SS braided brake lines, when this happened:

Another womp womp...

I triple-checked my torque wrench, and the other three brand new banjo bolts in the kit installed fine. A little scary that one of such low quality was sold!

I re-booted the upper a-arms. A straight-forward process accomplished by carefully chiseling the old boots off of the cup, re-greasing the ball joint, and using a c-clamp with a socked to install the new boot. I can do a more detailed post on this process if people are interested.

 

[JCH13]

I made an ECU/PCM mount from 3003 Aluminum, selected because of it's workability.

I started by scribing the pattern onto the metal and punching hole locations.

Using a combination of a press brake, bench vise, vise grips, and pure manliness, I bent it into a passable mount.

It uses HD velcro straps to secure the PCM.

I modified a block-off fitting on the LS1 oil system to mount the oil pressure sender, as is sometimes done in these swaps. This cast part was solid, and I don't have any before pictures, but this is the result:

Drilled through and tapped for M12x1.5 with a flange surface flattened and polished with 1000 grit sandpaper to seal properly.

Installed a brass adapter to connect the oil sender with a copper crush washer and a thin layer of oil-resistant silicone on the threads.

The adapter uses an 1/8-27 NPT thread and the oil pressure sender uses 1/8-28 BSPT. Not a perfect match, but regarded to work just fine, and finding BSPT adapter is about impossible. Still... makes me a little unhappy.

Now, given that I put some silicone on the threads to help seal things up, I made sure that the sender would still properly ground to the engine block.

Hooray!

Oil pressure sender is installed on the block by inverting the block-off plate.

The coolant temperature sensor installs into a previously plugged port in the LS1 block in a nice position to use the Miata wiring.

 

[JCH13]

Finally, I mounted and wired an inertia kill switch for the fuel pump. Since I've disabled the Miata's original fuel cut fail-safe I wanted a good method of killing fuel in case something goes wrong, i.e. and accident. These switches can also get tripped by a really bad bump, so I put it in an easy-to-access spot for reset.

 

[FuzzyDunlop]

A little inspiration for you. Found at a local car show I attended.

 

[WoodButcher]

Just saw this and had to subscribe, nice work so far JCH.
I did something similar but different, no crossbreeding.
http://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=17922&start=100#p537417

Glad to see I'm not the only one that pulled some hair out while playing with the flaring tools, you don't seem to care for the copper alloy, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Have you flared steel before? I never had any luck with steel line and until I came across the alloy found it easiest to buy straight lines with fittings on and excess length, put a loop in the end to use the extra.
I'm looking forward to your updates and finished product.
:thumbsup:

 

[JCH13]

Dear ATG,

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last 4-6 weeks. I got job, which really cuts into my free time . My new job is as a production tooling engineer at Fujifilm Dimatix. It's a great company to work for and the work is quite interesting. A nice relief to have a job, and a better one at that!

Anyway...

That is pretty silly fuzzy, but no HP numbers? And all of that great powertrain work and it's riding on AGX shocks... makes me die a little inside. AGX shocks are just... the worst. XD Stil, a cool build.

Just saw this and had to subscribe, nice work so far JCH.
I did something similar but different, no crossbreeding.
http://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=17922&start=100#p537417

Glad to see I'm not the only one that pulled some hair out while playing with the flaring tools, you don't seem to care for the copper alloy, I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Have you flared steel before? I never had any luck with steel line and until I came across the alloy found it easiest to buy straight lines with fittings on and excess length, put a loop in the end to use the extra.
I'm looking forward to your updates and finished product.
:thumbsup:

Don't get me wrong, the copper-nickle alloy is great for bending and flaring (I have done steel). That's not to say that flaring is easy though! I learned that 'less is more' when it comes to flaring. I had better luck not completely bottoming the tool out.

Neat little project you've got going!

Pipsqueak updates:

Basically what I've spent the most time on recently is neatening up wiring. The fuel system and the entire engine harness are bot sorted and pipsqueak has started an ran! In fact, he's out of my garage at the moment, getting an exhaust at Lou's Custom Exhaust.

I made the bend for the passenger side. After measuring, I used tape to make a nice square line around the tube and cut it with a hacksaw.

Boss Frog supplied tubes and flanges fit nicely.

Fuse weld around the inside to seal everything up.

The a fillet on the outside for strength.

And Lou's building a crossed-over 2.5in dual exhaust.

So, he's out of my hands at the moment. I apologize for the lack of pictures, like I said my free time has been minimal, and working on Pipsqueak as been flying through everything to get it done quickly and well.

Last Thursday he drove onto a car carrier under his own power with no fluid leaks, functioning brakes, and a nominally happy ECU. LS1 swaps are... well, quite painless all things considered.

He'll likely be back for an alignment, and maybe corner-balancing.

 

[WoodButcher]

Nice.
Congrats on the job, working while it does get in the way make playing with the toys that much more enjoyable.
Thanks for the flaring tip, as I've done all mine I can't say when but I'll give it a shot.

 

[Zadamac]

I've never been one to post on forums (hence the total lack of updates) but I thought people may want to know that Pipsqueak hauls ass.

Many thanks to JCH13 as he played a huge part in making this happen.

 

[Ns1]

thx for the update!