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Flyin' Miata
499 35 Rd
Palisade, CO 81526

Building the Open Track Challenge car


The Red Rat

Back to the Open Track Challenge car page
The drivetrain
This is the heart of the car. We're starting with a Kia block and doing a little work....

In reverse chronological order:

Our test pipe with fittings for two O2 sensors and a venturi for the crankcase scavenger.
Dyno chart! This compares the Track Dog to our 95. The turbo system is the same, but the Dog was running race gas as opposed to 91 octane. The biggest difference is 200cc of displacement. Grande River films the dyno testing. 
The current engine bay. Note the modified valve cover (for clearance with the hood) and the larger air filter.
The torsen (foreground) and clutch pack differentials.
Bill does some surgery on the cam cover.
Working on selecting an air filter.
On the dyno, finally!
The current engine bay and intercooler piping.
Dog food!
The first drive - off to the alignment shop. Those wheels do not flatter the car, but they do have street rubber.
Intercooler roll call! Left to right: BEGI system 4.2, FM II, FM IV prototype 1 (compatible with AC), FM IV prototype 2 (not compatible).
The oil cooler, recycled from one of Bill's race bikes.
The ignition system mounted behind the passenger's seat. Actually, it's a big power amp for the massive stereo.
Bill working on some wiring for the coils.
In the car! Again, you can see the cooling setup.
About to be installed.
A rear view of the engine. You can see the re-routed cooling setup here.
The engine, almost ready to install. All we need to do is fix up the cooling setup.
The oil drain line is nice and short. This is very difficult to do when the engine is in the car.
We're trying some more powerful coils. You can also see the modified oil filter relocation kit with the Accusump feed and the turbo oil feed.
Almost ready to install! The trick cooling setup is about to go on and the throttle body is just getting cleaned.
The parts engine awaits.
On camera! A Grande River Films production crew stops by to document the project for a show. Bill explains why we are mounting the engine upside down.
The old Red Rat engine donated the adjustable cam gears. We're using stock 99 cams.
Bolting down the head. The torque was carefully calculated by ARP, who crunched a lot of numbers...
On goes the head.
The ARP studs in the block.
A 340 hp parts car. We pulled the motor for a spare.
A heavily modified oil filter relocation kit. This will supply the feed from the Accusump and to the turbo.
The Total Seal rings are being prepped for installation.
The main bearing caps are installed. Note the ARP studs - a perfect fit.
Mr Crank, meet Mr Block.
ASF is done with the block and other bottom-end bits.
While awaiting the drivetrain, the new radiator with dual 1975cfm fans goes in.
The polished combustion chamber.
An exhaust port.
Close up on an intake port.
The finished head. This is the intake side, and you can see the thermal dispersal coating as well as the treatment inside the intake ports.
The intake manifold.
The head in progress. The purple is machinist's blue dye, making it easier to see changes and marking.
The combustion chambers, pre-polish.
Replika ports the head.
From Replika, a photo of our head in the middle of work.
The crank! Custom-milled from a 350lb chunk of steel, this will give us 4 mm more stroke.
A transmission cooler. To keep the transmission cool, of course.
Partway through the modification process to mate the 1990 throttle body to the 1995 manifold. We're using an oversize TB, by the way. The head and manifold are now at Replika Maschinen.
Get this: 1990 throttle body on a 1995 intake manifold on a 1999 head, mounted on a 1995 Kia engine installed in a 1990 Miata body. As you might imagine, a bit of fabrication is required.
We have to modify the manifold to mate with the head.
A bit of fabrication later, and we have success.
The wiring, ready to go back in the car. The harness has been edited to remove irrelevant items. It's unlikely we'll miss the headrest speakers, for example.
The first wires back in.
Our 3" test pipe compared to a standard cat.
Here's the intercooler and manifold for the car.
Our Accusump system, to ensure consistent oil delivery under hard cornering. An extra 3 quarts of oil is stored for delivery into the system if the pickup goes dry.
Our 3" exhaust has arrived! That's some big piping.
You all thought we were kidding about that Kia engine, didn't you?
Yuk! Somebody didn't change their oil. Everything was gummed up and a chocolate colour in here.
Doing a test fit of one of the engines we have here. Lots of room to work on it! And with only one cylinder, there's not much to go wrong.
First, we installed our patented Turbodog power.
The Kia engine awaits. Yes, Kia. We have no shame. Hey, we're only going to the use the block and it's a lot cheaper than the identical Mazda part in junkyards...
Out comes the engine.
What a lovely engine bay! This should look a little better later.
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