What have you done to your Miata today?

[aMaff]

Welp, back up to 4 sets of tires for the race car (lol)



1 mostly used set, good for a spare here or there if 1 gets cut down, 1 fresh (not new, fresh... for <$400/set, you can't beat 'em) set, another fresh set mounted on the wheels on the car last week, and the rains, which...we're *PROBABLY* going to need this weekend for Chasing the Dragon. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a repeat of this, for most of the weekend:

 

[bazooka joe]

Welp, back up to 4 sets of tires for the race car (lol)



1 mostly used set, good for a spare here or there if 1 gets cut down, 1 fresh (not new, fresh... for <$400/set, you can't beat 'em) set, another fresh set mounted on the wheels on the car last week, and the rains, which...we're *PROBABLY* going to need this weekend for Chasing the Dragon. I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a repeat of this, for most of the weekend:

Never enough good meat! [emoji6]

 

[chiefmg]

Home Tuesday, took the day off yesterday to rest from our 12 hour drive. I did go to the dealer yesterday to order a new undertray, my old one slipped under the garage door while I was closing it a few months back and got damaged. Today I started off slow by washing the wife's car. While I was doing that the dealer called to say the undertray was in so once the car wash was done I headed up there to pick it up.

Getting home it was time to dive back in. The exhaust camshaft had some surface rusting, probably as a result of some weird weather before I went back to work. I cleaned that up with a brass wire brush, some non-marring Scotchbrite pads, WD-40 and elbow grease. PSA, if you are going to have your camshafts sitting around for any period of time I would recommend coating them with some sort of preservative like grease.

I had made up a sheet with all the shim measurements when I tore things down, and I couldn't find the damn thing. After some frustrated searching I found I had left it inside the factory manual. With that in hand I started in getting the exhaust cam set up. Put the shims in that I calculated needing, installed the cam and then checked the clearance. A couple were a little tight but the rest were fine. Next up was the intake cam. I used more of the new shims here, unfortunately they were all tighter than the exhaust cam shims. I'm going to go ahead and try running it as is, I don't really expect any issues.

Once that was done it was install the new cam seals, cam sprockets and then the timing belt. Put back all the little covers for the timing belt, installed the spark plugs then installed the valve cover with a new gasket. All torqued properly of course (it's really hard feeling the in-lb wrench click when it's on a lower setting). Put the accessory belts on and tensioned those. Routed the intake hose where it needed to go, then installed the supercharger. Radiator was next followed by the location cover up top. At that point I decided to call it a day, I needed to reclaim my battery charger from one of my sons so I can get her started tomorrow. I didn't take any pictures because it's all work I have done before.

Still to go is putting on the lower radiator hose and some fasteners on the bottom, including the new undertray. Front shock brace, cowling cover (I'm going to wait on that until after a test drive) and filling the cooling system. Then, test drive!

 

[chiefmg]

Got back into it today. Finished hooking up the radiator and other bits and pieces. Jacked up the front end and put my nifty filling funnel on the radiator. Had to go to the store for some more antifreeze. Once everything was full I went to start her up, only to find that the battery was low. I had it charging on a low amp setting overnight but when I checked it was only at 8.5 volts. Tried starting her anyway using the "Start" setting on my charger with no luck. I went ahead and set the charger for a higher amp setting to see where that would get me. Tried again a little while ago, still without success but the battery is up to 11.5 volts without the charger connected. Given the battery is 5 years old and my schedule I figure it is done for, so another battery is ordered. The charger is still connected in case I can get it back up enough to get her started to burp the cooling system.

And for all of those who are visually driven, you have seen pictures of what she looked like stripped so here is one as she sits now:

 

[bazooka joe]

Got back into it today. Finished hooking up the radiator and other bits and pieces. Jacked up the front end and put my nifty filling funnel on the radiator. Had to go to the store for some more antifreeze. Once everything was full I went to start her up, only to find that the battery was low. I had it charging on a low amp setting overnight but when I checked it was only at 8.5 volts. Tried starting her anyway using the "Start" setting on my charger with no luck. I went ahead and set the charger for a higher amp setting to see where that would get me. Tried again a little while ago, still without success but the battery is up to 11.5 volts without the charger connected. Given the battery is 5 years old and my schedule I figure it is done for, so another battery is ordered. The charger is still connected in case I can get it back up enough to get her started to burp the cooling system.

And for all of those who are visually driven, you have seen pictures of what she looked like stripped so here is one as she sits now:

It may not be running, but it sure looks awesome!!! [emoji106]

 

[bazooka joe]

Got my front bar on finally, very time consuming for sure...

 

[Reitrof]

Nice Chief.

Looks good Mark.

Installed RE-71R's on Tuesday. Next Autox isn't the beginning of June. RS-4's were toast, no tread left.

 

[bazooka joe]

Nice Chief.

Looks good Mark.

Installed RE-71R's on Tuesday. Next Autox isn't the beginning of June. RS-4's were toast, no tread left.

What was the per tire cost $? I’m thinking of these for the ND. Might be selling the MSM

 

[chiefmg]

It may not be running, but it sure looks awesome!!! [emoji106]

Thanks, I'm pretty partial to it myself.

Nice Chief.

Thank you kindly.

 

[aMaff]

Had an awesome time at the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb this weekend.

The weekend started off damp after some torrential rain on Friday





It then dried the whole day Saturday until right after lunch Sunday. I made my last run right after the lunch break Sunday, where I bested my run from last year by just shy of 2 tenths. During the parade back down the hill, it started to heavy-drizzle enough that the road was not going to be any faster. Rather than risk bending anything, I called it a weekend with a new PB and a new class record.

Even the tow home was relatively uneventful. Barely caught a couple of small rain showers coming home, then got 'er tucked in for the night.

 

[bazooka joe]

Had an awesome time at the Chasing the Dragon Hill Climb this weekend.

The weekend started off damp after some torrential rain on Friday





It then dried the whole day Saturday until right after lunch Sunday. I made my last run right after the lunch break Sunday, where I bested my run from last year by just shy of 2 tenths. During the parade back down the hill, it started to heavy-drizzle enough that the road was not going to be any faster. Rather than risk bending anything, I called it a weekend with a new PB and a new class record.

Even the tow home was relatively uneventful. Barely caught a couple of small rain showers coming home, then got 'er tucked in for the night.

That looks like so much fun!! Good driving Andrew!

 

[JamesCH]

Woo! Nice work Andrew!

I got to bang out 15ish laps in an ND at Canaan Motorsports Club. Such a nice car... had an absolute riot. Helped the car's owner knock almost 4s off his lap time!

I also got to drive an NSX... holy s***... if you ever have the chance, don't pass it up! One of the most visceral cars I've ever had the pleasure to drive.

 

[aMaff]

I'm just gonna leave this here.




(evil)

 

[bazooka joe]

I'm just gonna leave this here.




(evil)

Oh boy......

 

[JamesCH]

And that's right where it should stay, on the ground!

Are you really going from prepared to Xmod?

 

[aMaff]

And that's right where it should stay, on the ground!

Well yeah, until I'm done modding it
(mostly stuff to get the Kmiata swap to work properly. Mostly.)

Are you really going from prepared to Xmod?

X Prepared.

 

[JamesCH]

Right, my bad!

Why the K swap instead of a Mazda engine?

 

[aMaff]

Right, my bad!

Why the K swap instead of a Mazda engine?

Cliff's notes? Because Honda's N/A engines are better and cheaper. They're capable of making way more power for way less money. The BP is fine, but let's be honest, it's a truck motor. Sort of the Nissan K vs an SR. Mazda doesn't really have an "SR". Honda does. In several different flavors.

Full version: Math, really. I did some numbers on what it would take to go faster. If I stayed in DP, I'd be spending $10-15K to have a built 1.8 hand grenade built to make 40-50 WHP more and require rebuilds every year or 2.

The KMiata swap (bumping me to XP) can be done for a little more than half that, and I can make 100+ WHP more than I'm making now retaining a stock-internals, stock reliability engine that can be bought for <$1k to replace should it go pop. And if I do end up, eventually, build a K, it'll be capable of making 300 N/A, or...way, way more than that boosted. Add to that the lighter subframe for the swap, a lighter engine, the ability to easily bolt up stronger transmissions if necessary... there's just so many advantages.

Plus I get to run real aero in XP, which will be more funner for the occasional hill climb and TT. And this won't change my HC/TT classing at all.

 

[JamesCH]

Cliff's notes? Because Honda's N/A engines are better and cheaper. They're capable of making way more power for way less money. The BP is fine, but let's be honest, it's a truck motor. Sort of the Nissan K vs an SR. Mazda doesn't really have an "SR". Honda does. In several different flavors.

Full version: Math, really. I did some numbers on what it would take to go faster. If I stayed in DP, I'd be spending $10-15K to have a built 1.8 hand grenade built to make 40-50 WHP more and require rebuilds every year or 2.

The KMiata swap (bumping me to XP) can be done for a little more than half that, and I can make 100+ WHP more than I'm making now retaining a stock-internals, stock reliability engine that can be bought for <$1k to replace should it go pop. And if I do end up, eventually, build a K, it'll be capable of making 300 N/A, or...way, way more than that boosted. Add to that the lighter subframe for the swap, a lighter engine, the ability to easily bolt up stronger transmissions if necessary... there's just so many advantages.

Plus I get to run real aero in XP, which will be more funner for the occasional hill climb and TT. And this won't change my HC/TT classing at all.

Those are compelling reasons. I look forward to watching your build evolve!

 

[chiefmg]

Maff, going to be a wild ride for sure. I'm trying to figure out a way to transplant the LT1 from the wife's Camaro into the Miata but I suspect she might notice.

After I got the battery for the Miata and installed it, tried starting her but she didn't want to fire. Gave her some gas and she fired, but sounded like she was running on fewer than 4 cylinders. Pulled the plugs and it looked like only firing on one cylinder. After some downtime while I cogitated, I yanked everything down again to see where I had made a mistake. Checked to make sure I hadn't screwed up on the timing belt or left an electrical connector disconnected but everything checked out. After it was all back together fired her up again with the same result. After some more downtime to beat myself up, I bought a set of feeler gauges that went down to 0.0015 (my other set only went to 0.005) and checked the valve lash. Apparently I am an idiot because all but one of the intake lash clearances were very tight, and the exhaust clearances weren't a whole lot better. I am not sure of the cause of this, my caliper did malfunction but I don't think to the degree that would have resulted in this. Anyway, with my new digital caliper and feeler gauge I checked everything and figured out what I would need for new shims to fix it. Got those on order and now just waiting on them to show up so I can see if this will correct the problem.