So I had a friend come over to have a look while I was at work, managed to get this:

IMG_0800_zps9b43c3c5.mp4 Video by sup_dawgTT | Photobucket

Idle is around 1750 RPM I will adjust that tomorrow after work. Took it for a quick drive to see how it would react and its hopeless, the acceleration is terrible and takes pretty much the full 5K RPM to reach 60km/h in second gear. I am not sure what to look at when dealing with poor acceleration but I think the trailing plugs are not firing could that be the cause? You can hear in the video it sounds like its running on the leading plugs only

You need 2 get a REAL tuner,installer,mechanic 2 sort this issue out!You have been dealing with this issue for months and spending your hard earn money and still nothing!Even if trailing is not firing the car will run like nothing in fact some people does not run trailing at all!Here is what you should do............take out the megasquirt and harness get a USED MICROTECH get it install by a professional and enjoy your car.

Honestly that is the option I have already gone through, ECU is on order and the tuner is waiting for it to come down. I want to get this crappy computer running so I can drive the car while waiting for the new ECU. Microtech is on order with new coils, wiring harness and a good tuner :D

Could timing be the problem of no power?

Of course the acceleration is terrible, it's got no power because it sounds like it's running on one rotor! Your tuner is a muppet and he's pulling your leg and taking you for a ride. Either that, or one of your rotors has no compression. Which is it?

Glad to see and hear it running again. Out of curiosity what ended up being the root cause preventing it from firing up?

For the lack of power, I'd look into the fueling side of the house. When the secondaries are kicking in, whats your wideband showing for AFR? Figure stock fueling anticipates the extra air coming from the turbo's on the REW.

I agree the tuner has messed me around a lot so I am going microtech but it's not here yet so just trying to get the car working while it sits. Done compression again after a start up and I have 96psi on front rotor and 100psi on the rear. I think those compression numbers are good? How to check if it's running on one rotor? I will try to set the ecu up today after work.

No idea Wildman923 but I adjusted dwell settings and it fire up mint for a few minutes then dropped down to idling as you hear it on the video. The stock fueling "should" have been tuned to the non turbo engine but knowing my luck the tuner wouldn't have done anything at all since he's a muppet.

crap i cant see the video

Nice!!
 

Congratulations Ash.B :icon_tup:!!! Nice to see you finished your MX5 RE swap and that it is running :nod:!!

Thank you guys very much but I am not out of the woods yet, it runs be it very badly do tuning will commence once I get a old lap top to work with the ECU and try my luck at communicating with it. If I can get it leaned out from being so rich and set timing I am praying it will fix the bogging and power loss

When doing a compression test remember each rotor has three faces. You can have a bad side seal or a bad apex seal and you will still show compression because there is still one or more faces still good. In order to tell if you have a bad apex seal or side seal you have to take the Schroeder valve out of the compression tester and then watch the gauge on the compression tester as you crank the engine. On a good engine you should get three equal needle sweeps. If you get two equal needle sweeps and one low one than you have a bad side seal. If you get one good and two bad than you have a bad apex seal.

Sorry sorry I didnt mention that which is stupid I got 3 even readings at 96-97-96 on the front rotor so I just went with 96psi but I should have been more clear. The rear rotor showed 100psi dead even on all faces, I did remember to take the valve out as I followed the guides online :D

A small update is I cleaned the plugs, adjusted the top and lower idle adjustment screws as the tuner left the bottom fully open and tried to compensate the high idle by adjusting the top screw which just made the throttle cable loose and the car hard to start, I have it idling at 1600RPM but there is no back fire and the mixture is good so I have finally stabalized the idle and back fire/ surging. The cleaned plugs combined with not over fueling on start up has allowed me to get the car back to the normal lovely pulsing :D Only thing now is I need to adjust the fuel table on the ECU which will allow me to add load aka drive the car and not foul the plugs as well as lower the idle by closing the throttle plates more and have it not lean out/over fuel

Sorry for the crap video

IMG_0801_zps5965ff9a.mp4 Video by sup_dawgTT | Photobucket

Ok so I spent the whole day trying to communicate with the ECU and it wouldnt so I just reverted to getting the idle right with cold starting. It doesnt like starting from cold if the idle is adjusted when its warm meaning the two idle screws are wound down closing the throttle plates. So today I worked more and found a trade off between keeping the lower adjustment screw open a fair bit and tightening the throttle cable adjustment so on cold starts there is still enough air going in (I hold the throttle open a touch) and it starts.

I have the rear plugs fouling every now and then but for the most part I can get it running properly almost every start. Now just tune left, I have found it rich on idle to around 2300 RPM and then lean under moderate load (going up my driveway) but not enough to detonate :D

IMG_0804_zpsb4536b6e.mp4 Video by sup_dawgTT | Photobucket

Sounding good, very glad to hear about it running better. Can't wait to see some drive vids. Your build has helped motivate me to get my tail in gear to get mine done . Funny thing is I'm also fighting with a high idle. Did manage to get it down to 1700'ish by fiddling with the IAC duty cycle in the ECU.
Does make me wonder why the ECU on your build isn't allowing a connection though. Granite I have no experience with anything other than my link, but for me it's plug in the USB cable, turn the car on, and push the connect button and it connects showing me all the system parameters.

I am glad you are getting motivated to finish yours as its going to be epic :D I cant wait to see yours running. I am hopefully getting a tune either on the 18th or sooner if the tuner comes back from his wedding :D

no idea why the ECU doesnt communicate with the laptop but it could just be a crap old laptop lol, I have a base map already so I just need to get the dam warm up and start up fuel maps sorted so its not so rich, makes starting hard as it fouls so easily.

k'n electronics!

well, at least your compression is good.

after all this mucking around some guru is probably gonna wander in, stick his head under the bonnet, wiggle a wire and she'll run perfect... hopefully.

I'm actually driving mine to the shop tomorrow for new tires, alignment, and state inspection. If I remember to I'll shoot a quick vid for ya.

YAY I want a video of the car :D Congrats on getting it finished, glad yours is running mint enough to drive ;p

I wouldn't use the word mint, still running pig rich and still a lot of finish work to do. But its getting there. Have to be able to drive it to at least get it tuned for the street, trying to avoid tickets while doing so.

How's your timing look for the new ECU?

Here's a vid of mine I shot today at the shop:

OMG!!! I love that it has the steel wheels...very sleeper. Car sounds very tuff!

WOW :D congrats on getting a super motivational video up, the car sounds great dude top notch

I have an exciting update. Started the car after work today, was warming it up and planning on stopping by the petrol station to fill air in the tyres and some petrol in the tank when the car died. Hmm interesting I though as I had enough petrol so I checked the engine quickly to find....the fuel pressure regulator hose had come off causing the regulator to become stuck closed and pushed all the fuel upwards through the intake and was pouring nicely over my hot engine literally bubbling away. I soaked it up as fast as I could just hoping it didnt cause any engine damage, I have deflooded the engine and alot of fuel came out but I just hope I can dry it all out to start it again and burn everything off.

Guess the vacuum clamps I supplied were not good enough to use for him and nothing securing those hoses was the best option :D

Holy hell, thank goodness you were at home when it happened. That could have been soo much worse.

I am just glad I wasnt driving it when it happened. All is well now, I cleaned everything up and fixed a few more welds that the tuner didnt do properly so now its back to normal. Car goes on the 18th to get tuned fingers crossed.

Tune booked for the 18th of this month so this coming Tuesday over here :D fingers crossed everything goes well. I have to use a start up spray to get the car started so hoping thats a ECU tune fix rather than a engine problem.

I'm on-board with you in hoping it's a tuning issue causing the startup problems.

So got it tuned, drove it back all the way (230KM trip each way) home and just as I reach the last 3-4KM to my house its back to running on one rotor :D Just my luck. The car made a healthy 146HP at the wheels with a beautiful torque curve and everything went great other than now I have the same problem as last time :(

Damn, your just catching Hell with that thing. Was the tuner able to sort out the high idle?

Yup everything was sorted out till I neared home. Anyway I have found the problem as the leading plug but no idea why it failed. Anyway the car runs beautifully despite the leading plug intermittently failing.

Making 180HP at the crank so around 140HP at the wheels which is nice in a light car. Manage to light up 3rd sideways and it carries on the drift with ease which is fun since I have a long sweeping corner on my road that I have fun on now. Loving the rotor and the redline is at 7000 RPM since it falls off after that.

Kind of curious as to what your final weight is being naturally aspirating. Has to feel good being able to go through the gears after having it down from the conversion for so long.

If you still have issues with the leading plug it has 2 be a wiring or ecu issue............a plug wont just fail out of nowhere.

I think wiring since the ECU tuned fine and the leads are new Mazdaspeed ones that were never used so its either wiring or a plug. I might throw on another ground as I have just one ground for the coil packs going from the mounting plate to the chassis.

I will weigh the car soon but yes it feels great. The gearing on the MX5 too be honest is too short to me where a little less revs for more speed/top end/final drive would be perfect. Power wise the car really gets moving around the 3000RPM mark onwards and just keeps on going. Videos soon when I buy a decent camera

IMG_0824_zps2e968ef9.mp4 Video by sup_dawgTT | Photobucket

7000RPM limit

Sounds good. Was that a 5th gear pull?

3rd gear if I remember correctly :D

Definitely sounding great! Gratz!

nice one.

is the 7k redline temporary?

Update time:

Got the one rotor problem fixed by changing the spark plugs again to another new set and its working fine.

The 7000RPM rev limit is set where we saw it dropping power off so if I port the engine maybe it will increase but we saw no point to rev it any higher.

Ah! Sounds like you had more room to rev :nod:.

oh interesting :D so you guys reckon another gear would have given more power and higher rev limit?

Ash, there are several rear end choices for the mx5. If yours is a 1.8 NA, you probably have the 4.1 rear end. A lot of turbo guys swap in a 3.9 torsen for the same reasons you are wanting a little more top end. I believe there are some JDM MX5s that came with a 3.6 as well. But at your power levels I think the 4.1 is a better match.

If you turbo that 13b, your 5spd won't live long above 250 rwhp and you'll want to swap in for the NB 6spd as. Folks start killing miata drivetrains above 250 rwhp.

Thats great news seeing as mine is a 1.6L 5 speed 1990 so I have a viscous differential. I dont plan on turbo'ing this motor as I love the feeling of the NA response as I have the Supra for more power anyway. So far I love the engine set up and fingers crossed it doesnt break on me again I will have some in car footage when I save up for a nice new camera :D

For a 1.6 going to the better rear end is a little more involved. Make sure you get the 1.8 axle halves along with the torsen as the 1.6 uses a smaller axle that wint work with a 1.8 diff. The torsen is also much better than the old viscous diff.

Awesome build btw!

For sure thank you so much Flying_solo. I have looked into that and I am just trying to build the bank balance back up now that the car is streetable :D Next would be a torsen diff with the axels and maybe rebuild with high compression rotors. The gearing is great for drifting as the rev range is awesome and it picks up fast so no complaints there, the only time I wish I had the longer 4th and 5th ratio is when giving it full throttle on the road

I realized there are too many words and no pictures :P

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psefccd492.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps2b9291ed.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps6eda55a4.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps588b64d1.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps2e84a5da.jpg (Jack holding exhaust up so it doesnt rub on the rollers :p )
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps73d95c59.jpg (the second to last run, tune is currently 146HP at the wheels)
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps094182c6.jpg

Completely agree, the 1.6 diffs barely stand up to the stock power of the original 1.6's. The 1.8 rear diff would def be worth the money for the safety margin of the beefier gearset (folks are pushing 300-350hp on that diff with no issues). Believe the 1.6 diffs came with 4.30 gearing, so when you swap it will also increase your gearing to 4.10. I wouldn't go any higher in gearsets than 4.10 at your current power levels or it'll feel like a snail.

Really diggin the looks of the swap! Are you planning on swapping out the stock air inlet and going with a cold air intake of some form?

Thank you Wildman923. I am chasing a torsen since I want the constant lock up rather than the occasional lock from the viscous but too be honest my viscous has been great too me so far :D

I am hunting for a alloy elbow that can be bought for the FD throttle body, once I find that I will attach a ducted pipe to a cold airbox housing a filter, that filter is only there as I needed one for the drive home :D

Why have you removed the pictures???