What have you done to your Miata today?

On your dime, or theirs?

If I go with them, I buy a new one then they refund me when I send to old one back. Right now though, I'm not sure I want to chance another bad unit. Just looked into a ACT setup. Some of us aren't flush enough to get the baller 949 units...
 
If I go with them, I buy a new one then they refund me when I send to old one back. Right now though, I'm not sure I want to chance another bad unit. Just looked into a ACT setup. Some of us aren't flush enough to get the baller 949 units...

And if you were, I'd tell you never in a million years to put it on your street car. Though you're misrepresenting the maneuvering that had to be done to get it. It basically came out of my nationals fund. I'd saved enough, I just didn't have much wiggle room anymore with needing the clutch. And that parts for it will be cheaper to replace than most aftermarket clutches, which is a nice bonus, and will pay for the added expense down the road.

But cool, I'm glad there's a refund in there, though it's bad they won't just ship a new one.
 
And if you were, I'd tell you never in a million years to put it on your street car. Though you're misrepresenting the maneuvering that had to be done to get it. It basically came out of my nationals fund. I'd saved enough, I just didn't have much wiggle room anymore with needing the clutch. And that parts for it will be cheaper to replace than most aftermarket clutches, which is a nice bonus, and will pay for the added expense down the road.

But cool, I'm glad there's a refund in there, though it's bad they won't just ship a new one.

Wasn't trying to misrepresent anything, I was making a joke minus a smilie. I understand that you work hard and provide for your family. Sorry for getting you riled.

I agree with you on the way FM wants to do it, but I kind of understand. I'm going to ask them if the refund offer still holds if I buy someone else's clutch.
 
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Rain today so didn't do much of anything. Topped off the coolant after letting the silicone on the reroute spacer set up overnight, pulled the front bumper cover and replaced the passenger side foglight that I broke. FYI, you can't adjust the aim of the light by pulling on the housing. It will break, trust me. Just loosen the bolts and do it the right way.

Also removed the XPel film from the headlights that wasn't quite right. I have a new set to put on but didn't want to mess with it tonight.
 
Rear sway is now disconnected on mine. Hoping for less slideways action on Sunday.
 
Rear sway is now disconnected on mine. Hoping for less slideways action on Sunday.

I'd love to borrow your rear bar sometime next year if you still have it disconnected. Some say that the MSM rear bar is the hot ticket with the huge FSB I have.
 
Out driving today and started getting a stutter again. Just got done pulling the plugs, coolant in #4 cylinder. !@#!#$)$^)*&)#$^^&&)@$*@@!!!!!! I have no idea why this is, car was fine, no overheating or anything else that would cause a problem, now this.
 
I'd love to borrow your rear bar sometime next year if you still have it disconnected. Some say that the MSM rear bar is the hot ticket with the huge FSB I have.

anytime man. It's probably going to sit next to my Civic's RSB looking cool while I don't use them
 
I'd love to borrow your rear bar sometime next year if you still have it disconnected. Some say that the MSM rear bar is the hot ticket with the huge FSB I have.

On a road course, maybe. On an autocross? I'd be very surprised, unless you're running a very softly sprung in the rear setup.
 
Three hours and fifteen minutes to pull the head off the Miata. Looks fine with no apparent warpage. The only thing I can think of is the slightly uneven tightening I did due to that little bit of wiring that got trapped at the rear. If that was it, then it means the MLS gaskets can absolutely not be compressed more than once. I'm going to try cleaning the head up with some aluminum polish I saw at Ace, ordering the gasket in the morning.

Helpful tip, an easy way to remove hard-to-reach washers is to use a magnet. My fingers are somewhat long and slender, but just won't reach into the head very well.
 
Well, another auto-x down. The car is soooo much more stable without the rear bar. There were a couple sections where the car got pretty tail happy, but I'm sure more of that was due to transitions, crappy asphalt, and my foot on the gas. Wish I would have borrowed a gopro for this event. Some of those runs would have been entertaining to re-watch.
 
I went through some tires at an autocross today. This was some of my lesser sliding and I probably ended up in the top 5.

 
Got the head gasket ordered, it will be here on Wednesday. Cleaned up the head and block surfaces, due for a root canal tomorrow so I doubt I'll feel like doing much. Replaced the studs/nuts holding the reroute spacer on with socket head cap screws, I couldn't get the one nut tight enough to make me happy due to the machining which restricted access to it. I had put the bottom nuts for the intake manifold on the head so they wouldn't get lost, as I was cleaned it up I noticed one was missing. Looked all over for the damn thing and couldn't find it, right before I came in I moved the head slightly and heard a clink. There it was! Still have no idea where it was hiding.

Pictures of the head before/after cleaning:

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Got her mostly back together, just need to install the belly pan and cowl cover and get some more coolant. Then we'll see if it runs!
 
Thanks.

Got her finished this morning after some tooth work, she fired right up after the fuel system primed. Unfortunately we have rain today and I don't really feel like getting her dirty/dealing with wet roads for the shakedown drive.

Edit: Things cleared up to allow a drive, everything seems fine. Going to check the coolant level once she cools down.
 
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Went out with the wife last night, car was idling high so this morning I checked my rerouting of the throttle cable. I moved it to a slightly different position which seemed like it would improve things. Went to start the car before heading to lunch, crank, crank, crank, start and immediately to redline. Shut her down and checked, the throttle cable had jumped off the bellcrank. Took a look after lunch, I didn't get the holding bracket for the throttle cable oriented correctly which is what caused the problem. FYI, that bracket must be parallel to the ground or slightly higher, otherwise because the throttle body is at an angle the cable will not align properly and will come off the bellcrank. This is a bad thing.

When I got that all back together I noticed there wasn't any slack in the cable, causing the throttle to be held open. A couple of washers on the bolt behind the cable bracket to move it closer to the throttle body fixed that. Took a test drive and all those problems are now solved.
 
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