What have you done to your Miata today?

A race car ain't a race car until it's got numbers. Give Barry over at BDTGFX.com (where you can also get our Mazdas247.com decals) a ring if you ever need any graphics work done :D

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Not up to the heights of Maff's endeavors, but I removed the 'charger belt and fired her up today for the first time in a while. Wanted to do more but the temperatures are still not conducive to that.

As promised, here's a picture of the instrument cluster I bought while away. It doesn't really show the beige faces well, but you get the idea.

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Set a new personal low driving temperature today (around 25 degrees). Decided to go to Fuel for cars & coffee, while it was a little too brisk to travel all the way into Cincy topless I did go to my storage to pick up the hard top. Cold temps, crappy road surfaces, older Toyo T1Rs and a supercharger meant instant wheelspin whenever I wanted it. Fun times.

When I got home I installed the CarbonMiata seat belt extenders. They went in with no problems, however the seat belts don't retract properly now. I'm going to see if having the belts that accessible outweighs the inconvenience of the retraction issue. I then went about getting the wiring harness together for the new radio. Got that all done only to find out I had no output. Looking at the drawings, I no longer have a power input to the Bose amp. I think I can move an unused wire from another connector in order to fix this but I have to do some more research.
 
Got the radio harness figured out. Turns out the wire I needed (blue/white) is in the connector that '99-00 doesn't use. I was able to coax the pin out of the connector and then put it into the correct spot on the connector I use (the blurry picture below, I got the location off Miata.net). Then all I had to do was solder it to the power wire coming out of the radio connector (also blue/white).
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Now all I have to do is figure out how to connect the antenna so it only powers up if the radio is on, and connect the radio to my dimmer circuit. I am also going to make some better side brackets out of steel so the radio is more secure than it is with the plastic brackets included with the kit. Here's how it looks installed:
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Ordered some new parts to hopefully fix the misfire issue the msm was having after the rebuild last year. Looks like it only had 3 of the 4 teeth on the timing wheel, no clue how I missed that one was broken off before I reinstalled it but yeah...
 
Ordered some new parts to hopefully fix the misfire issue the msm was having after the rebuild last year. Looks like it only had 3 of the 4 teeth on the timing wheel, no clue how I missed that one was broken off before I reinstalled it but yeah...

Ouch, yeah, that would be problematic.
 
Ordered some new parts to hopefully fix the misfire issue the msm was having after the rebuild last year. Looks like it only had 3 of the 4 teeth on the timing wheel, no clue how I missed that one was broken off before I reinstalled it but yeah...

I'd be more curious as to how it happened.

Just bought a set of lightly used Ohlins coilovers.
 
Removed the 3m film from the hood. It was starting to crack, the rest of the 3m is fine. Going to try the spray on 3m for the hood.
 
Ouch, yeah, that would be problematic.

Yeah I hope this fixes it so I can get to tuning. I ordered the 36-2 FM timing wheel

I'd be more curious as to how it happened.

I know it fell last summer while I was rebuilding the motor but I didn't see any visible damage then. My guess is that it was damaged at that point and I just didn't look thoroughly enough.
 
I picked up a 4-2-1 header off eBay a little while ago. It looks to be a Cobalt unit, fairly nice stainless construction. It came with header wrap that I removed to find corrosion underneath. I cleaned it off with a wire wheel Saturday, decided against spending too much time working on the discoloration that was left on what would be hidden anyway. I pulled everything off this morning to install it, wanted to check fitment first as the last 4-2-1 I had which was supposed to be for an NB touched the front crossbrace despite a dimple in the pipe (I now think it was for a 1.8 NA). This new one has plenty of clearance there, however someone had added an O2 bung on the #1 cylinder pipe and that caused a problem with the 'charger bracket. I took it over to the local welding shop I use and asked them to remove the bung. I was hoping to have it back today so I could assemble everything but they never called. I'll just have to push her out of the garage (and then back in) tomorrow when my son comes over to do the timing belt/water pump on his Protege.
 
It must be getting close to Springtime as the mods are starting.

Looking good Chief! I have yet to install my aftermarket h/u. I tried a couple of weeks ago but my knee was giving me fits when I tried to get into position under the steering wheel to remove the stock h/u. My seatbelts did the same thing after installing the CarbonMiata extenders. They didn't retract the greatest prior to install but afterwards they wouldn't budge, for me it was worth having the belts more accessible though.

Jealous of ya Nik! Post up some vids and I hope to hear it in person at the Glen. :)

That explains quite a bit Levi, here's to hoping that a fix will cure your issues and you can get that tune.

Bruce, how did that 3m spray work?

Got my Moddiction blue tinted convex mirrors in today and installed them this morning. Haven't driven with them yet but from sitting in the seat to adjust them I def. have a much wider view of the area behind me. All the better to see those tractor trailers! I'm thinking I should get an insurance discount for them. lol

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My son had issues with a tire (potholes are terrible here after all the cold we had) so we postponed working on his car today. I dropped off the wheels after finding out the S-Drives I ordered last week would be in this afternoon. Picked up the header from the welder, they basically just cropped off the top of the bung and welded it shut. There is a little bit of it sticking inside the pipe but I don't have anything right now to get in there and grind it out, so I'm leaving it. Got that installed, it is a proper NB header as there is plenty of clearance around all the chassis bits. I couldn't go any further as the O-ring at the base of the dipstick broke so I have to replace that. While she is in the air I went ahead and installed the Beatrush PPF brace. Pretty easy to do, took me maybe 10 minutes not including pictures. Yes I have some, but I have to get ready for date night so you will have to wait until I can get them dumped out of the camera.
 
Pictures:
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I have to wait until tomorrow to finish assembly, the dipstick tube O-ring broke and the dealer has none on the shelf. I'm getting 4 just to have them on hand since I seem to pull the tube quite a bit.
 
O-rings came in early this morning so I have everything buttoned back up. Only took 1 1/2 hours to put the 'charger back in with all the ancillary bits installed. From some recent research it appears it is now recommended to connect the wideband ground to the power ground wire on the ECU (last place I had it hooked up was on the intake manifold where the ECU base ground is). Can't figure out which of the wires that would be so I've sent a message to Reverant asking him for help.
 
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Looking good Mike and great to hear Levi! Fingers are crossed for you!!!

I finally got around to installing my new h/u. Will have to play with the EQ settings tomorrow as I had it up to three on the drive home and had to turn it down to one when driving through town.
 
Looked at the Ohlins when I got home last night, they sure are pretty. Hope they ride as well as they look. So far this morning I've checked measurements and set them per the instructions. PO had them about 1/2" lower and none of the springs had any preload.
 
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