August 2018 Update #2: It Rolls!

Chassis:

Steering column installed. This was a nice and easy job.
Clutch master cylinder installed.
Rear brake calipers, suspension, and axles installed.

NC Miata Brake Master Cylinder and Booster

So the reason behind this is that I wanted to solve the brake issues that many builders complain about with the 818. Most say that the pedal effort is high and very difficult to tune for both feel and brake performance. From everything I’ve seen, I have not found anyone that drives the car hard and is happy with the stock manual brake setup. Some have found success with the Wilwood pedal box but I’m not looking to spend $1500 on that. FFR does claim that you could bolt up the Subaru brake booster, but I’m not sure how exactly they expect you to get it in there…It does not fit in the space provided. This led me to search for other OEM setups from smaller cars that would bolt onto the holes for the Subaru master cylinder. Turns out this was easier said than done because brake booster bolt patterns and dimensions are not widely available on the internet. So I had to narrow my search to small cars that have strong enthusiast followings that may have forum information online. Miata being the small car enthusiast choice I began to dig around to see if I can find some bolt pattern info. Turns out all Miatas also used a 60mm x 80mm brake booster bolt pattern and the booster was single diaphragm and very small. The parts were also cheap on Ebay ($60 for booster and master cylinder) so I decided to buy a Miata brake setup.
I ordered a NC miata setup for the shortness of the master cylinder. Even still, the front port barely clears an 818 frame tube. I’m not sure if the NA/NB master cylinders would work but the booster certainly should and I believe there is more aftermarket master cylinder support for NA/NB.
I’m hoping that in the end my boosted brakes with ABS will help the car feel and stop like a 2100lb car should.

Transmission

FINALLY got the transmission installed! But it continued to put up a fight.
Installed a new lightweight flywheel that matched my pull-style clutch.

Initially forgot to transfer over my new pilot bearing from the oem 2006 flywheel I thought I was going to use. So I got to install my transmission and clutch more than one time…

I broke the speed sensor when installing the second time so I had to order a replacement for that. It’s an expensive sensor too! $70

Engine

Did Wayne’s (Very Cool Parts) cooling mod that involved adding a barbed fitting to the coolant crossover pipe. Very easy to do and people say it significantly helps purge the system.
Repainting the intercooler soon. It looked super ugly when I test fit it and I didn’t like that it looked so bad and was also the first thing you see in the engine bay. I have to repair a thread for the PCV pipe that bolts to it as well since a previous owner snapped a bolt in it.

Future plans

There won’t be a whole ton of new parts being put on this week. Mostly tying up loose ends in preparation for leaving the car for a while. Torquing suspension, installing engine accessories, finishing install of the brake booster, clutch slave cylinder install, and a few other items.