Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Big Brakes

Some pics from the "big brake" conversion that I did as part of the V8 conversion back in 2007. Initially I used the stock brakes from a '93 Tbird front and rear, with rotors from a 2000 Mustang GT on the front and the stock Tbird rotors on the rear. Fronts are 10.9" with the correct 5@4.5 bolt pattern. The rear rotors were slotted to fit the new hubs, since they were 5@4.25" pattern. Later I found some PBR 2-piston aluminum calipers from the front of a late model Mustang that were a good interchange with the Tbird calipers, and weighed just about the same as the original cast iron Miata calipers, with pretty significant increase in swept area.


Tbird caliper frame with custom bracket

 Not real sure why the skewed looking offset, but it fits. Must have been a good reason

 Same adaptor bracket on PBR caliper. You can see the white marking where the bracket had to be relieved slightly. Obviously the shape could have been somewhat different for the 2-piston caliper

 Size comparison: Original '91 Miata, '93 Tbird, late model Mustang. And the PBR calipers are about the same weight as the original cast iron Mita's



Friday, June 6, 2014

MiataV8 302 Exhaust

A few pictures showing the latest iteration of exhaust routing I used for the 302 Ford and 4R70W transmission.  Not the greatest, but it's only the second system I did after acquiring the exhaust bender. Excuse the rust. It looks a lot worse in the pics than in real life.


 These pics also show the lower arms I made to adapt the Tbird uprights. And the hi-tech subframe  braces.




 This exhaust stuff is harder than it looks. This routing around the trans pan took a few attempts to get it as good as it is. You may notice that the bump in the bottom of the pan appears to be the low point. There's actually another version of the pan that doesn't have that bump.


 Next time I'll put the O2 sensors on the top.



 Not really part of the exhaust, but showing the radiator mount. There's a length of 3/4" X 3/4" angle welded to the top of the mount as a stiffener and to help capture the radiator.