NB MX-5 Hey, it's Minnie!

I guess it was about this time I figured out I was going to have to pull the dash in order to replace the wiring harness that had been hacked up for the narrowband O2 installation. Out came the steering wheel, combination switch, shift lever and radio (and all the various trim pieces around them) to make life easier. Note that I did not pull the e-brake, which I was to later regret. Actually removing the dash was pretty easy, the bolts are all relatively easy to get to. Once that was out I discovered that the heater core would also have to be removed as the wiring harness passes through the firewall behind it. Had to pull the radiator anyway for the intercooler installation, so drained the coolant. I also removed the HVAC fan, it was dirty inside and the sealing foam around the top was breaking down.

Swapped out the harnesses, just took my time and fed the old one back into the cabin a little bit at a time (moving between the engine bay and the interior), the new one went in the reverse of that. The hole in the firewall is slightly behind the A/C condenser so that is what slows things up. Cleaned up the fan unit using Q-tips (only thing I could find that would fit between the blades) and used some household insulation foam to reseal the top (IIRC it was 3/8", available in any hardware store's insulation section).

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So the interior at this point was looking like this:

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with everything that was removed sitting on the garage floor off to one side. The wife walked out and freaked. Asked me if I was doing more than just the supercharger install. I said, well yeah! She was not amused as her perception of the work required was way out of proportion to what was actually needed.
 
Moving ahead I had dropped off the MP62 mounting bracket and intercooler outlet pipe at a local welding shop. The bracket had two standoffs that needed welding back in place, and the outlet pipe required the bung for the IAT sensor welded on (PO had just threaded it into the pipe but I didn't want it blowing off). While I was waiting on that I pulled out the old carpet. Noticed some ringing of the metal so as I put Raammat along the tranny tunnel and beneath both seats for a little sound deadening. While everything was out I also ran the vacuum tubing for the MS from the intake manifold. I was going to use a tap off the top of the manifold and didn't want the tubing running across the firewall, so I located a plug on the passenger's side, put a hole in it and snaked the tubing through. Ran that along the firewall inside the cabin so it was safe and sound out of the way (would suck having a vacuum leak on that and not being able to get to it easily).

Changed the oil filter (easiest one yet!), put the lower intake manifold back on and installed the new 550cc injectors. Found out that it was better to put the injector spacers into the fuel rail before putting the rail on (they were very tight, I lubed the O-rings with a little lithium grease and gently worked them on). I had some problems with the little plastic spacers for the fuel rail hold down bolts falling off so I put a couple of dabs of blue gasket silicone on them to hold them in place.

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New carpet went in, I only replaced the main section and the vertical section on the bulkhead behind the seats. I'll need to get the part for the package shelf cut and sewn up (so it doesn't unravel) to fit around my roll bar.

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Not a very noticeable change from before I know, but it's one of the few pictures I have to share so I'm using it!

Got the dash back in place, scuffed up the e-brake handle some during the attempt. I was able to get the dash out ok with it in place, but really I should have removed it from the start to make everything easier (as I mentioned before). Ended up doing that so I didn't ruin the wood further. Pulled the radiator out of the car. Finally, put the exhaust mani back in. I called it a day at this point as I needed to get in touch with the guy I bought the MP62 from to see if he had any info on the mounting of the intercooler. I had been trying to decipher how the various brackets went but wasn't having much luck.
 
Ran around collecting bits and pieces. Wideband O2 bung was now on the exhaust pipe, IAT bung on the intercooler outlet pipe, and the standoffs on the supercharger bracket. Had to source a female-male reducer in order to connect up the stainless fuel lines, all I could find was brass so that went in for now and I'll see what I can find online. It's easily accessible to change once I get a stainless one. Got a response from the previous owner about installing things, and the intercooler was now in! Turns out I was looking at the bracket completely wrong, because it was shaped like the bottom of the 'cooler I thought the 'cooler rested on it. Turns out the bracket mounts on the back side of the bumper (using the bolts that normally hold on the power steering cooler) and the 'cooler mounts to two ears that hang down. Now I just needed for him to send me pictures of how the relocation brackets for the lower radiator brackets went. I had to make another run to Ace for some more fasteners, got some longer bolts to hold the overlay pulley on but failed to notice that the holes in the pulley aren't big enough for the shoulders on the bolts. Times like that I wish I had a lathe, instead I ended up getting a die nut and threading them all the way to the head. Got the fuel system completely connected up. Alternator was installed, took me a little bit to figure out where the bracket for the wires mounted to the lower intake manifold. EGR valve and pipe were back in, and the COPs in place on the valve cover. Made a gasket for the big throttle body and got that installed on the supercharger. Finally (for now), hung the 'charger in place to see how it was going to look. I was waiting for a power steering tensioner from The Parts Group, as I need to restore that to stock and I don't have all the parts needed due to how the M45 was installed. COPs were wired in, both sets (for cylinders 1/4 and 2/3) share the power and ground wires. I cut off the stock connector plugs, then twisted those two sets of wires together and soldered them. After that they were put into butt splices and crimped, followed by the individual wires for each cylinder set. A little heat shrink tubing went over all the connections. Nice and neat. The instructions provided by Trackspeed were easy to follow. Upper intake manifold went back in place, along with the dummy throttle body. Took some time getting all the wire harness plugs connected, I couldn't find the one for the CAS initially. I also had to properly use the bracket for the plugs on the front of the engine, for some reason it wasn't done right from the M45 install (I don't think it was due to any interference issues). All of that took some time, I mainly wanted to ensure the CAS wires wouldn't snag on anything. Did a few other odds and ends, the passenger side of the engine bay was all done. Just had to wait for the power steering tensioner to arrive so I could finish up with the supercharger itself.
 
I was sure I had some pictures of the intercooler brackets but can't find them. I'll hunt around more so I can post them. Reason for this is that while there are still some BRP kits floating around, trying to find instructions for them is nearly impossible. If I can save someone some searching that is a plus.

In any event I got the intercooler installed and it looked like this:

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With this setup (maybe others as well, I don't know) on an NB you have to bend the brackets holding the A/C drier/receiver away from the condenser in order to have the space for the intercooler. You will also end up slightly bending one of the hard refrigerant lines going to the dryer. This is a case where taking some time and doing it in small steps is the best. Kink that hardline and your A/C isn't going to work too well. Normally the drier sits right in front of the left side of the condenser, if you look at the picture you can see how it's been moved from that position.
 
My power steering pump complete with tensioner bits came in from TPG. Took off what I needed and put that together. Unfortunately the auto-tensioner was resting on the power steering pump adjuster, and I didn't see any way to move things around. A lot of fiddling around and head scratching later, I came across a picture that showed a modified piece that BRP had included with their kits. Since I didn't have that I had to improvise. So what I did was this:

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What I did was source the Allen head bolt for it, then used a drill bit to provide a recess for the head to fit into. I flattened the bottom of the hole as best I could with my Dremel. Not quite as good as using a milling machine, but I thought it would work. It would have, except for having to move the supercharger around later to try and get things aligned. In this picture you can see just how tight things are around the auto tensioner assembly:

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Note the tool marks on the section of pipe to the PS pump, the only thing I could use to bend it was a set of Channellocks. You could leave it as stock, but then your belt wouldn't last long. In the end I removed the PS pump tensioner and tensioned its belt the old fashioned way (this means prying on the pump with a dowel and then tightening the locking bolts).
 
And supercharger was in! What a PITA, there is truly no extra room for anything. The intake is via flex-hose, the plus for that is I won't have to worry about it vibrating on anything. Unfortunately the auto-tensioner was resting on the power steering pump adjuster, I didn't see any way to move things around. Back to another e-mail to the previous owner. Did some other small things, including pulling back the wires for the TPS. For some bizarre reason when the harness was made at the factory, several of the wires were twisted around each other. This affected one of three wires on the plug, it looked like I'd have to cut it to pull it back without having any stress on it, then solder it back together and cover it with heat shrink. However, while searching around on the Moss site for instructions I saw where they said you could use something small to release the tab holding individual wire pins into the connectors. Basically you remove a white plastic lock, then using a small pry tool (jeweler's screwdriver for me) you gently pry up on the locking tab holding each wire plug in place and then pull it out of the connector. The locking tab is located on the side of the connector where the white plastic lock is, if you look inside you can barely see it. The first one was a bit of a fluke, second took a couple of minutes to find the sweet spot, and the third came free in about 30 seconds. Put some wire loom on that from the main harness to the plug, then put the loom on the main harness and taped everything up.

After searching around town and not finding any bolts the right size for the overlay pulley, I bought a M6 die nut. About 5 minutes worth of work, and I had four flanged M6 bolts threaded all the way up...that didn't work. I removed the stock pulley and nested the supercharger pulley on it to see what the problem was. That's when I saw that there was an additional 5mm or so of space between the two pulleys that I hadn't accounted for (I thought the overlay bottomed out on the stocker due to its shape). Back to Ace where I lucked out and found four flanged M6 X 35 bolts that were threaded all the way up. That was what it took to get the overlay pulley in place. Or so I thought at the time...
 
Started putting the gauges in, got the vacuum line for the boost gauge run into the cabin (via an existing hole for a previous installation) and the big line for the wideband. Put that one through the large gray wiring plug on the driver's side, I used some silicone to seal up the slit around the cable. If I were smarter I would have done this before I put the dash back in, would have been a lot easier. Next issue was finding some of the correct size wire to make extensions in order to wire them up to power and lighting, Ace didn't have what I needed and neither did Harbor Freight (although I did get a heat gun for use in the garage as the wife's hairdryer doesn't really cut it).

Without any wire available in my neck of the woods I decided to cut up the stock harness I replaced and use pieces of that. Put some extensions on my gauge wires so they would reach under the dash, twisted/soldered the wires together and put heat shrink over the connections. Painted the bezel of the boost gauge to match the wideband gauge (decided to go with black), once it was dry I had both gauges in just needing the power connections. Got some info from a guy on MT.net night concerning the relocation brackets for the intercooler, had to finally buy WinZip and got tired of waiting for them to send me my registration info so I took a look at the puzzle and put it together. I used the wear and corrosion marks on the brackets (and some common sense) and got it all in. I did have to cut some reliefs in the lower radiator support brackets, after that I was looking at the pictures the guy had sent and there were supposed to be two taper head Allen bolts for the one bracket which would have prevented me from having to do that. BRP truly did make it so you wouldn't have to cut anything up. The hardest part was bending the A/C dryer from in front of the condenser to beside it. I did find out that neither of the intercooler pipes can be in place when putting the radiator in, it's that tight.
 
Got all three new belts, the PS belt was too long (I thought) so I took it back and exchanged it for one that (according to what I read) was the right length. It was too short! I wondered if I just didn't have things set up correctly and the first one was actually the right one.

Cleaned up the bottom of the front subframe and inside the lower splash pan, when I had the oil filter relocation kit installed and it was leaking the oil ended up down there and attracted a lot of grit. Pulled back the IAT wires as the new sensor is located on the intercooler outlet pipe, I tried removing the wires from the supplied connector so I could do a neat job without splicing but I couldn't figure out how to undo the latching pin. Pulled the sparkplugs and gapped them properly, when I had that back in I cleaned the blue marking paint off the tops of the COPs. Mounted both Spal fans on the shroud, when I bought the nylock nuts for that initially Ace only had 7 and I needed 8. When I got it today it turned out the new nut took an 11mm wrench, since I hate having different size fasteners on the same pieces I bought another 7 when I made my second trip. Unfortunately due to the way Mazda made one of the stock fans (with the connector as part of the motor) I can't reuse stock connectors. Nobody local has any automotive connectors so I ended up running to Radio Shack. I did find out I can't install the radiator with the fan shroud on (or at least not easily) so that's a step ahead. It will be a little bit of a PITA getting the weatherstrip foam I have to seal around the edges in, I'll just have to lay on the floor to do the bottom. I did buy the correct flat head Allen screws for the sway bar brackets, at some point I'll source the lower radiator supports and replace the ones I cut up.
 
Got the undertray and front bumper on. Undertray has all the fasteners on it for the first time (some were missing). Zip-tied my boost sensing line in the engine bay. Scouted around town for an air filter but no one had what I needed, so that got ordered. That evening I put the fan back in under the dash (removed it to run the boost sensing line), did the sagging glovebox door fix, and installed new rotors/pads all the way around. I'm happy to report that I had no issues with any of the pins on the calipers, all were clean and had some lube on them. Finally got my gauges hooked up, still needed to figure out where to connect the wires to permit them to dim when the lights are on. I ended up using two of those add-a-circuit pieces for the power, put the one that needed constant power in the hazard slot and the accessory powered wires went into the radio slot. Wideband sensor was calibrated, midpipe put back in (could have actually had the wideband sensor installed a little more to the 12 o-clock position) along with my front subframe brace. Replaced the butterfly brace midsection and then bled the brakes using my Motive unit with the Miata-specific adapter. That was the first time for that, it worked pretty well although I didn't have any air in the system (when I push the pistons back into the calipers I open the bleed screw and then close it before it sucks anything back into the system). Wheels were on and car was on the floor. Now if I could only start the damn thing!
 
Fired her up! Unfortunately the supercharger belt kept jumping off, tried some adjustments but nothing was working. Back to research to figure it out. Nice to know that nothing was leaking or falling off after all I changed.

The next day I had no joy with the 'charger adjustments. If I aligned the pulleys the unit was all the way back in its brackets (towards the firewall) and when the engine was run the belt immediately jumped off two ribs towards the front. If the 'charger was pulled back towards the front the belt only jumped off one rib. Seemed like there might be some sort of vertical misalignment but there is no provision to adjust that. I fabbed up a bracket out of some scrap aluminum I had to hold the MS in place where the stock one sits, but made it wrong with the MS oriented 90 degrees off. When I got back underneath and took another look I realized that I couldn't do what I wanted so that got shelved. Trying to figure out what to do next about the 'charger alignment issues.

Next day I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm on track to get this damned supercharger belt aligned. Took the 'charger and assorted brackets off and took a good look at things. The main plate had a slight bend in it which I fixed, otherwise it was all good. The front and rear supercharger brackets that mount to the main plate were on correctly. Put it all back on and ran it with the belt moving off two ribs. Stood back and peered at it this way and that. It looked again to me as though the nose of the 'charger was cocked. Took it back off again and used one washer between the forward bracket and the main plate for the two bolts. Put it all back together, checked the alignment and the pulleys looked good. Started the car and the belt moved off one rib but it was otherwise fine. When I tried revving it the belt jumped off. On the plus side while it was idling it was steady at 1000 rpm (it had been hunting up and down during my previous starts). I loosened the forward bolts for the 'charger bracket and moved it to see about how much more I needed to shim things. After waiting for it to cool down I put in two additional washers under each bolt and tried it again. The three shimming washers helped a lot, I checked pulley alignment and was able to get it spot-on. However when I ran the car the belt still moved off one rib and I was hearing some unusual noises that sounded like they were coming from the nose of the supercharger. I tried making more adjustments but there was no change. Came inside to cool off, took an afternoon nap (I was thinking about things, honest!). Went back out a little later and checked the horizontal plane of both pulleys. The supercharger appeared to be more level than the crank pulley (remember, the engine is slightly higher in the front) so I removed the two rear bolts and pushed down on the rear of the 'charger. This time when I started it the belt immediately jumped completely off. So, I put the bolts back in again and put the belt back on. Started the car to see how it was, and the belt stayed on and in place! I did start using the belt the guy sent me with the kit which shouldn't have an impact because it's the same as the new one I bought (just has some usage on it). I revved the engine and it was making happy noises and the belt stayed where it was. Hooray!!!! There was a part of me that was annoyed because I didn't know specifically what fixed the problem (still don't for that matter).
 
Kept getting a flashing CEL when I drove it. According to the MS builder, that is an indication of high coolant temperature. I didn't see any increase on the temp gauge, the rad was topped off and there was no leakage from the water pump. Someone else said they had a similar problem and it was their rad, plus they checked their thermostat. My rad was fairly new, and I had the thermo out but didn't test it. I found out my new parts from MS Motorsports weren't due for a few days, so I went to the local dealer to get a thermostat. Unfortunately they didn't have any in stock, so I used the Stant I had bought previously. Initially I thought I was an idiot and put it in backwards, however according to the service manual it was correct and you can only install the stock one in one direction. Couldn't find the gasket I had so made one of those. Put it all together and ran the car, seemed fine until I was pulling out of the drive to go for a run and the CEL started flashing. Back into the garage with her. When I checked the TunerStudio (what I'm using for the MS), the temp was 203. Now I was truly stuck, no idea what might have been causing this.

The next morning I went out and bedded in the new brakes. Took me a couple of tries as I kept getting traffic behind me on the road I use. Didn't they know I needed it clear?!

Another problem reared its head. The wife and I were on our way home from C&C when I noticed an unusual noise. Pulled into a gas station and checked, found the crank overlay pulley had loosened. I shut it off very quickly and called for a tow. Two hours later the truck shows up and took me home. So I then had to try and source an overlay pulley that bottoms on the crank pulley so I wouldn't have it happen again. And I was having so much fun! On the plus side, I can attest that the Ryoku Rob tow hook works as advertised. Good thing I had it too as the PO had removed the baby teeth.
 
When I pulled things apart on the crank pulley, I found that three of the four bolts holding everything together had broken off in the hub.

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Not a pretty sight. I tried drilling them out using a right angle attachment on my drill with no luck. So I ordered a new hub from the local dealer and then pulled the hub off when I got home. Since I had nothing to lose I tried drilling them out from the back side, lo and behold they all came right out. Luckily I was able to cancel my order.

I didn't take a picture but the bolts were slightly protruding from the back of the hub, which means they weren't as tight as they should have been. In the course of my research about the overlay pulley, I found that Mazda used two different crank pulleys from '99 to around '01. One is cast, the other steel. There doesn't seem to be any particular breakdown for which one was used. The cast one has a raised area in the middle while the steel one doesn't. BRP originally included a spacer in their supercharger kits for use with the steel spacer. Apparently the person I bought my kit from had one of the cast pulleys and so didn't have to use the spacer. I called Track Dog Racing to see if they had or knew of a source for the spacers, lucked out again as they had one on hand that I bought.

Here are pictures of the two types of stock NB1 crank pulleys.
Cast:

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Steel:

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The stock steel crank pulley is in the middle.

Here's how the spacer fits on the overlay:

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There is a positioning dowel pin in the hub for the crank pulley, but another one was needed for the spacer to overlay. Off to Ace I went, they didn't have steel rod in the correct size so I bought the next bigger one and then used my angle grinder to reduce the diameter while slowly turning the rod. Worked like a charm. I checked the length of the pulley bolts before putting stuff back to make sure they didn't extend beyond the back of the hub, they were fine. I used the Rennenmetal crank holding tool while torquing the hub nut, you need to either get it or one like it if you are doing anything that requires removal of the hub. Started putting everything back together, when I got to the thermostat cover I heard/felt a snap as I was tightening the bottom nut. I felt around but didn't find anything so thought maybe something had just slipped. That thought went away when I started filling the coolant and it came pouring out of the thermo cover. Took it off to find the hole on the bottom had broken. The thermostat had slipped out of place and I didn't notice it, causing the cover hole to be stressed due to my tightening it over the thermostat. Back to Mazda to order a new cover.
 
Got the thermo cover and got the rest of the car buttoned back up (making doubly sure the thermostat stayed in place this time). I did occasionally get the flashing CEL for coolant temp but otherwise the car ran great. My boost gauge wasn't functioning so I wrote to ProSport, they wrote back saying my connection was bad. Sure enough I hadn't fully seated it even though I thought I had. Now with a functioning boost gauge! My gauge has the peak hold feature so I was able to confirm a max pressure of 10 psi. The car didn't feel as fast as when it had the M45, I think this is because the torque curve is flatter. Took a drive with the laptop hooked up to get some tuning done.

Since I had raised it when I first got home I had the alignment checked, readings weren't too far off so it only cost me $60. Before I went back to work I changed the oil/filter and redid the 3M tape holding my gauge pod on. I just couldn't bring myself to drill holes in the A-pillar trim.
 
While I was out to sea that time, I bought a Koyo radiator cap. The stock one I had seemed to fit ok, but they say you have to use theirs for a proper fit and I wanted to remove a variable from the mix of my temperature issue. I also finally scored a MSM rear spoiler, bought it from Treasure Coast Miata. Ended up cheaper than someone I had been negotiating with on this forum. Since I had that I went ahead and bought a new '99-00 front lip from RSpeed to replace my damaged stocker, as well as a set of Cobalt adjustable end links for the front sway. Picked up some nice leather pieces from Redline, shifter/e-brake boots, console lid cover and seatbelt receiver covers. Scored a set of factory original floor mats off eBay purely by chance, seller had listed them as being for an '01 with brown stitching. Found a used FM 2.5" dual exhaust on CL that I bought. Also got a 180 degree thermostat from TDR and a O2 sensor bung for the new exhaust (turned out I wouldn't need it). Once I got confirmation when I was to be headed home, I ordered a FM Happy Meal with the 13.45 pound flywheel as well as a couple of their specialty tools. This was due to some slippage I noticed with the MP62 when accelerating briskly a few times. Finally, I went ahead and bought a pair of the ProjectG vent windows.

While I was gone the wife went to drive it, I got an e-mail asking me where the battery was so she could charge it. After that was done and she drove it, she wanted to put the hard top on because she went to a friend's house with the top down and when she drove home it was too cold for her to put it up. A buddy of mine helped her get that on.
 
It didn't take me long after getting home the next time to start putting parts on. First thing I did was install the e-brake boot to see how it looked. I am a little torn as the color isn't quite a match for the interior but it does look nice. The day after I got home I tried installing the FM exhaust, removed the butterfly brace center section for access and then swapped things out. Had some trouble though with the slip fitting for the rear piece that goes over the axle, it was crimped from the clamp when installed previously and wouldn't go on properly. Not sure how the PO was able to get it off with that problem. I ended up just leaving the FM muffler on and put the stock midpipe back on. I installed the Redline shift boot, cleaned the interior and had a little fun running errands that was slightly curtailed by some rain. New muffler is louder than the Brainstorm that was on the car but I like it. While out I got a huge thumbs up from two guys in an older Civic hatch, complete with ricer ziptie X's on the rear bumper. At least he didn't try racing me. Did some prep work on the MSM rear spoiler so I could drop it off for painting. Removed the old 3M doublesided tape, that was fun.

Dropped the spoiler, front lip and new emblems off at a local place for painting that I've used before. Bought a cowl guard from the dealer as mine was kind of beat (normal breakage they get). Started the search for the ProjectG vent windows as I found all the rest of my parts but those. Took a little while but they finally turned up by the front door underneath some stuff the wife had piled up.

Got both vent windows installed after a day or two, the cowl guard came in so that went on as well. Vent windows work, they don't move as much as air as the old style (for you youngsters, think of the entire triangular vent window pivoting on hinges) but the effect is noticeable and I think will be nice to have in warmer weather.

Picked up the painted items, just to show that the fasteners for the stock NB spoiler are the same as for the MSM (save two):

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Might answer the question for someone in the future. Note the MSM has two plastic clips that are about halfway between the outermost bolt and the center stud. I removed those. If you look at my trunk lid you will see how the stocker was installed. That strip of double sided tape at the center rear gave me fits, it was still holding tightly. I've seen some sort of tool that aids with removal of the tape, I looked for it the following day. I cleaned up the underside of the MSM spoiler and prepped it with some new tape. I got motivated and went back out to the cold garage and removed the front bumper to put the new lip and emblem on.
 
Got my new front lip installed, there are some small gaps in the same places where the original had them which makes me wonder if my bumper was tweaked at some point. I bought that tool I mentioned for removal of tape residue, it's called an eraser. Round wheel you chuck up in a drill, has about the same consistency as an art gum eraser. It does a good job but the leavings off the wheel go everywhere. Found out whoever installed the factory spoiler was an idiot. They didn't put any sort of tape or other protection down before drilling the holes so the paint got chipped. To top it off they didn't touch up the chips. I'm guessing minimum wage slave who didn't care about cars. I took care of that before putting the MSM spoiler on.

My Happy Meal finally showed up, and I ordered a battery as mine was showing signs of weakness. Best price I found was here: http://www.batteryweb.com/mazda-miata-batteries.cfm. Bought the Westco since it has a higher rating. I saw where some folks got one from O'Reilly's but when I searched their site online for the number, it didn't show up. I also considered getting the Marathon from Battery Mart, the ad says it's an AGM type but the specs show it to be sealed lead-acid. I didn't want to chance it.

Decided that I should just go ahead and do the timing belt/water pump while I'm going to have everything apart, one less thing to worry about while I'm gone. Ordered that off eBay and picked up a tranny jack from Harbor Freight. After a small amount of running I found a local machine shop so dropped off the thermostat spacer to get it machined. I'll be drilling/tapping the holes for the temp sensor and heater connection myself once I get things in place and mocked up. Oh yeah, and I also ordered the female-male adapter in stainless I need to fix up the fuel lines properly.

After some more research and cogitation, I decided to buy the front block off plate for the coolant reroute from BEGi. This is so I can run the two small hoses (from oil heater/throttle body and to the pump) from there. This was after I couldn't find any aluminum in town thick enough to make my own. I figured $20 wasn't too bad, but once shipping was added it came up to $37! Note that they later refunded part of the shipping cost. Received my stainless pipe adapter for the fuel system. Once I got the front plate and a couple of other things (like the hose that will be running from the back of the head to the radiator) I was ready to dive in.
 
Received the battery, timing belt kit and BEGi thermo cover. Spent a couple of hours quality time with the Miata, since it was finally warm enough I didn't have to worry about losing the feeling in my fingertips. Removed the supercharger, drained/removed the radiator, pulled the upper intake mani and alternator. Discovered the nut for the bottom of the PS pump that also holds on the bottom support for the 'charger was missing. Not sure what happened there, but I was sure to use some blue LocTite when I reassembled.

Did some preliminary cleanup on the Kia thermo cover and the square top mani that will be going in. I was thinking about using oven cleaner but it says not to use it on aluminum. Ended up using this degreaser I bought at a local auto parts store along with a brass wire brush. It got the grunge off, I'll disassemble the mani and use a powered wire brush to take off the rest of the crud and make sure it's presentable.

Picked up a flexible rotary brush (not wire) to clean up the manifold. Started on that earlier today, it looks like it will do a good job. Got the lower intake manifold removed along with the fuel rail and injectors. Pulled off the water pump pulley and crank pulleys (all of them). Replaced the brass reducer on the fuel line with the stainless one I bought. Oh yeah, and pulled the COPs.

Decided to become a scofflaw and remove the Miata's EGR. Got a set of blanking plates ordered, now just need to figure out what size cap I need for the exhaust mani.

Picked up the coolant hoses from the dealer and painted the radiator panels. Going to look pretty good if I do say so myself. I didn't fill in a couple of small scrapes in the aluminum, I want to see how well it will hold up painted (and if I will like it) before going all out on it.

Woke up early one morning, I've had some questions about the oil cooler lines for the coolant reroute that I haven't been able to find an answer for so figured I'd search one more time. Good thing too as I found this: http://www.boostedmiata.com/gallery2...l_001/reroute/ That should answer anyone's questions about how to do a reroute.
 
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