Toph6888

Sorry guys, I'm keeping the NB to tool around in. Drop top is pretty nice for the daily drive home. I'll let you know once I have things apart. The megasquirt is a PNP for the 90-93 miatas with the 1.6. The extra turbo parts and whatnot are also for the 1.6L.

Give me some time to blow up the 1.8 motor, its not like an LS swap hasn't been thought about :lolguy: I was aware ahead of time the miata life would more or less be a fling. I race a lot at circleville, and while the mustang is fun, after driving it at gingerman/mid ohio and up at different autox like Akron SCC at Dragway 42 where I can actually use the car, the mustang just isn't much fun on a small track like circleville. Hence, miata. Probably run it for a couple years, then like you said get bored/annoyed with it and sell it. I think I will pretty much put the BRG back to stock, sell it, and then sell the aftermarket parts off of it. My brother in law is really interested in it and gave me a great offer, so unless someone could actually match/beat that, I think the decision is pretty much made for me. That will put me into the gray NB miata for about $1600 total after everything is said and done.

Send me a PM if interested. All of that will help me make the decision. Right now I have one other offer on the BRG already.

I thought about this option, but it would require more than just the engine (clutch, wanting to keep the torsen/diff/brakes/wheels/tires) and replacing all that stuff to make a stock NB with a salvage title just isn't worth it. The body is worth more in body panels/parts/scrap than it is as a driver with a salvage title.

TL;DR: I have two miatas. Do I swap the good parts from the "crappy body" NB that isn't so crappy to the really clean NA miata, or do I keep the "crappy body" NB miata and then sell the clean NA once I fix the motor? So over the past couple weeks I have been looking for a second car to just have in case the mustang or mini breaks, as well as have something of a different flavor. I originally was looking at tow rigs/trucks, but then the mustang has been doing so well I'm not really worried about driving it back and forth to track days, plus a one way uhaul/trailer if needed would only end up being around $400-500 (granted, its a lot, but not quite enough to really offset the cost of a truck). Anyways, looked at lots of things and ended up buying my friends 91 BRG (british racing green, apparently a rare color) NA miata (pop up headlights!) Specs/extras: ZERO Body Rust (garaged pretty much its entire life) 1.6L engine (needs crank and cam seals, leaks oil like a MF) upgraded clutch 4.3:1 Torsen differential plug and play megasquirt nice catback exhaust (car is currently naturally aspirated) Matching color hardtop Tan Interior Begi Tubular turbo manifold with GT2554R garrett turbo / turbo back exhaust Log style turbo manifold / TD04 Turbo Intercooler piping/small intercooler ABS Cruise Control AC Factory CD player OK top with plastic window, but plastic window has one or two small cracks. Needs Tires and brakes. Anyways, parts are cheap, and I thought it would be a fun car to daily and maybe occasionally autox at circleville since the mustang is just a bit too big for that track. Then a week later, my other buddy at work decided to sell his track rat 99 NB miata. He had lots of other toys, and just wanted to sell, so I got this car for DIRT CHEAP considering all the parts that are on it. Its a rebuilt salvage title, and it has had some slight frame restraightening in the past. Its plastidipped because he also tapped some tire walls during a drift event, pulled the dent out, bondo'd, then plastidipped so it at least looks one color. (note the hardtop on the NA miata in this photo) Features: 1999 1.8L Engine Flyin Miata Turbo kit with GT2560R garrett turbo with voodoo piggyback Flyin Miata Clutch 4.3:1 Torsen Differential Enkei 15x6.5 Wheels with 205/45R15 Kumho Ecstas (kinda old/worn, not bad) Flyin Miata VMAX coilover suspension Flyin Miata VMAX swaybars Mishimoto Radiator with dual slim fan Harddog rollbar with harness bar Momo Steering wheel/hub adapter 14x6" oem rims with 185/50R14 Dunlop Direzzas (more life left in these) Flyin miata coolant reroute kit (in the box still) Clean black softtop with glass window New HPS brake pads/rotors blown heater core so currently no heat in the passenger compartment So I was under the assumption that this car's body was pretty trashed, and the initial plan was to swap all the gray NB miata parts over to the green NA miata. However, under further inspection of the gray NB miata, its actually really clean. So WWCRD? The car needs to be a semi daily driver and able to drive in the winter (woot!). The NA would be a really clean car, but it would take time to swap in. I have a week off from work next week, so I think I can get a lot of things done. The 1.8 engine is pretty easy to run with the 1.6 PNP Megasquirt, just swap one or two sensors and run it with the 1.6 harness. The main goal of the car is fun daily/occasional circleville autox (anything else I take the mustang, so this car wouldn't ever see a track) and something that I can drive in the winter if I need to. Probably keep it at least 2 years, but its so cheap to maintain/use, it would probably not be sold until we were desperate for the money. Option 1: Swap NB drivetrain into the NA: Pros: Clean NA with matching hardtop Can sell extra 1.6 parts / NB body and odds and ends for what I paid for one of the cars three sets of rims / coilovers for summer and stock suspension for winter I fit a touch better in the NA than I do the NB aftermarket ecu Cons: nice car that needs to be driven during the winter (i could drive the mini if it gets really bad out and I don't want to take the miata) Time cost Time it takes to sell parts Hitting cones with the NA would kinda suck since the paint is in good shape Option 2: Keep NB and fix the NA to sell: Pros: NA only needs a timing belt/seal job, and it runs fine. A couple friends were already potentially interested in the car. Not driving a clean NA in the winter Hit a cone or something, no big deal. I would keep the hardtop for the NB probably unless I got a lot of cash for it NB already runs Could put the NA completely back to stock (stock ecu/injectors, etc) and sell some extra parts It would probably be a bit cheaper in the end to keep the NB as is and sell the NA, but not by a lot (less than $1000 difference) Cons: don't fit in the NB quite as well NB interior is a bit more dodgy, but its fine for what it is. Can't really see the gauges in the NB, but it has an OBD 2 so I can just use my phone with a wifi adapter NB is 100lbs heavier Would either have to keep the piggyback or get a PNP megasquirt for the NB

Drift Garage has some fun builds in it. Otherwise I think what everyone else has listed is pretty solid.

Heres a quick video my buddy stitched together that was behind. He has an RSX and the camera is cheap so its really loud/droney. Still, I'm the silver car in front of him.

Event at Mid ohio yesterday went pretty well. It was really hot out, and in the afternoon the cars were definitley getting taxed. Before the track day I put in a new oil cooler and a thermostat controller (Both Earl's Brand, pretty nice pieces). At gingerman, around 70-75*F ambient, my oil temps were around 240-250*F on the track (damn you dual overhead cams!). Yesterday at Mid ohio, 90*F ambient, my oil temps were 210-220*F. So that cooler was well worth its $500 for the cooler, thermostat, lines and fittings. My coolant temps were around 195-210*F, so looks like all my cooling systems were able to survive the day pretty well. My friend and I finally got a clean run session during the last session of the day, once I get the video from him I will update it. We don't have a nice lap timer, but going from the video it looks like we were running around 1:55.xx average with one or a couple laps around 1:53.xx. We are still pretty new to this (only 3-4 track days under our belts), so we are hoping these times aren't too bad. Our street tires (both using RS3 tires) were getting pretty hot and the track was getting pretty slick by the end of the day, especially the keyhole.

Video from running with Akron SCCA club up at Dragway 42 this weekend. Parents live up by Akron, so it was good to see them for the weekend then race. First time they have been in the car since the v8 swap. The course at dragway 42 is a lot of fun. About twice as wide as what circleville is, and a lot of pavement able to be used for the autocross. I would suggest heading up at some point to check it out. The dragstrip looks awesome too. This is the run I came closest to spinning out and aimed right at the corner workers around 46-48 seconds(one of my faster runs, but I still nipped one cone, bah!)

Spent the weekend with some friends at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan with Autointerests. On Saturday we ran the normal clockwise direction, and on Sunday we ran the counterclockwise direction. I am not sure if I was just more comfortable with the car on Sunday, but the course felt a lot faster and smoother the second day. Overall the car did very well. It responded well, found its neutral point quickly through the switchbacks, and didn't step out or anything unless I asked it to around maybe corner 2 the first day. Tires and brakes were good, but I think I will need a bigger tire in the future to push the car faster (currently on 255 in the front and back). The Hawk HPS pads did feel like they were getting towards the end of their ability towards the end of each session. Engine was amazing, pretty much ran the entire course in 3rd gear unless I wanted to really stretch its legs on the straights when I would touch 4th. Survived both days of racing and the 300+mile one way driving there and back. It even got 26mpg on the way to and back from the track fully loaded with crap. Can't wait for my next even at Mid Ohio on June 12th. Before the June event at midohio I plan to put on at least an oil cooler as I was reaching 240*F by mid session, and would like to keep that down to 200-220*F if possible. Also would like to get a track set of rotors/pads (probably Hawk HP+ for now while I learn the car more and get the pads to last through the session) and then finally a general brake ducting kit to help cool the front brakes off.

We only had ~28-30 cars. It was sprinkling a bit in the am but stopped around 10 or 1030. First run group (Me) had a wet track but it was pretty fun to slide around on. By the second run group the track was pretty much dry. We ran both run groups twice for a total of 11 runs, and were packed up and out by 330 or 4.

Got some new rims for the car so that I can put my Gforce R1S on the current cobra wheels. These are 10th anniversary cobra rims, 17x9 in front and 17x10 in the back for future plans. Also made it to BMC this weekend for its first autox. The power delivery is way better and you can really rotate the car around easier with the throttle compared to the turbo 6. The really noticeable improvement though was with the braking. The car can actually engine brake now with its 5.0L of 11:1 compression on 8 vs the 3.8L of 9:1 compression on 6. So I'm hoping with the tire upgrade for the next event to at least start getting towards some competitive times. Drive mod required though. 'Murica

Spent my early afternoon over on the alignment rack setting up the car. Got the ride height sorted and even, took out the camber bolts I had in the front when I had 275's up front. I used the camber bolts to add positive camber to space the tires from the coilovers, then took it back out up top. Now that I run 255's in front I got rid of them for the OEM replacement bolts. After misc stuff was done, got on to actual adjusting the car. Overall pretty happy with it and should hopefully be better than last year. Last year: Front Camber -2* Front Caster 5.8-6* Front Toe 1/16" toe out Rear Camber -0.8* (Mad IRS Yo!) Rear Toe 1/16" toe in This Year: This year I'm mainly just adding camber to the front and rear, as well as a touch of caster. Once I get my jig made up I will double check the bumpsteer, hence why I didn't make a big change right now. I can probably get up to 10* caster if I really wanted to with my caster camber plates.

Bridgestone RE71R is what all the competitive non slick people are using in SCCA/any other autox. Tread wear can be an issue though. If I didn't already buy some very lightly used slicks last year, this is what I would be buying, and may still buy after I burn through my cheap slicks. Other good 200TW tires are the Hankook RS4, Dunlop Star Specs, and Kumho Ecsta, and BFG Rival S. It will be nice to have another competitive SN95 chassis out there with me.

I did the course 2-3 years ago. They have bikes for you to use, I think they are all 250cc bikes. Super easy to ride around on and learn. I learned a lot of maneuverability with the rear brakes too, its well worth the time/money. When we did the test at the end of the course, we used the same bikes we had been on all weekend. Some guys used their own, but I think they might have a rule that it has to be 500cc or less, not sure how strict they are on it. Our instructors had said they did a couple of the harley training ones too. The only difference is paying more to do it at Harley. The state ohio classes fill up really fast though so I would suggest getting signed up ASAP.

Was able to weigh the car at work today. With a 3/4 tank of gas it weighed 3370lbs, which puts it right at 245whp/ton. Not too bad, especially when you consider that after drivetrain loss the engine is close to 490-500hp. (Assuming 15-17% drivetrain loss) Oem the car weighed 3070lbs with 190hp, so 300lbs for IRS, roll bar, coyote engine, and being up 300hp isn't too bad of a trade off.

Thanks for all the comments. Price is a good question! I stopped adding up all the little things bc it was just depressing and it felt like I was going to jegs every other day to tidy things up. The base costs below: Engine: $6500 Control Pack $1500 T56 Trans/Shifter $1700 Clutch/Flywheel $500 Long Tubes $525 X Pipe $225 Catback $450 T56 Driveshaft $200 PS Pump/Lines $300 AC Compressor/Lines/Condenser $450 Accessory Adapter Brackets $850 JLT Intake $150 Gauges: $1000 Fuel System: $700 (-8 feed, -6 return, regulator, fuel pump, fuel filter, fittings) Wiring $125 (connectors, tape, grounds, starter wire, odds and ends) Swap Parts: $450 (oil filter relocation, accelerator pedal bracket, radiator hoses/adapters, coolant overflow bottle) Odds and Ends $300-500 (all the little hoses/fittings/clamps and whatnot I can't remember) Tune: $550 So that total brings it to around $15k. Not a cheap project by any means, but I also bought everything new (ac, powersteering, etc that racked up about $1000) that most would already have, as well as going all new gauges instead of keeping the stock ones ($1000), as well as getting a brand new engine from Ford instead of getting a used one (typically $4k or so for a used mustang engine if you search long enough, cheaper if you go F150 motor), plus things that I was fixing as I was going through it. So I still think you can do the swap for around $10k if you wanted to. The parts I sold are: Engine $2300 Turbo Kit $3300 Trans $1000 Tuning software $350 T5 Driveshaft $250 Other Wheels/tires $400 Profit from truck engine $400 Old Fuel System $250 Old Shifter $125 Old Climbing gear $800 Which totals to about $9200 of the cost, so I am pretty much in it for $6k, which is about what I spent getting to the better parts / new accessories and whatnot. This is the ultimate benefit though, comparison between what my v6 turbo made on the dyno last spring at dyno tune motorsports compared to the coyote the other day (both had 3.90 rear gears, same wheels/tires, both run in 1:1 transmission gears, both with aluminum driveshafts). The v6 keeps up right at about 3500-3700rpms, but the coyote walks away from it below and above that rpm. For the money I'll take all the extra power, TiVCT 4V vs pushrod 2V, having knock sensors, ability to work on the engine easier, and less heat in the engine bay as well as mostly ford ECU tuning with the tweaking by Brian.

I had a lot of complaints on how dirty those wheels were haha. Damn brake dust! that was after only 1 track day lol

Took the car to Brian today to get it tuned. While he set up the base tune with HP tuners I put on the JLT cold air intake. We adjusted the radiator fan on/off temp too so that the fan isn't always on (thermostat is a 195*F, but the fan would turn on and stay on after 180*F). Once he had the tune set up we got it on the dyno. It spun the wheels a lot since the tires were a bit cold. After some salt bags and whatnot in the back we got the final numbers: 416hp, 375ftlbs at the wheels. Its really loud in that room haha. Bad photo of dyno graph: Made power all the way to 7k rpms, so I was pretty happy with that. Will get the first break in at BMC next weekend, then gingerman track day for memorial day weekend.

Over the weekend I fixed up an annoying but not overly difficult issue. My starter always had trouble firing up after the engine was warm/car ran for more than 5 mins and eventually we came to the solution of running a new dedicated feed from the battery in the trunk to the starter. Ultimately, the original starter wire I was using was 4 gauge, but from the battery it went to a junction box (~15ft) then to a fuse box (another ~8ft) then from the fuse box to the starter (~2ft). We decided that was asking a lot out of 4 gauge wire. I bought some 2 gauge wire (bc I don't want this problem anymore) and ran a dedicated line from the battery up the starter, ~12ft total. So we cut out about half the length and bumped up from 4gauge to 2 gauge. Starts like a champ now when its already hot. Also got an engine cover from Stretch, much appreciated. Spent sunday night test fitting and clearancing to get it to fit, the issue being my strut tower brace. originally was gonna try to fit over the strut brace, but I would have to cut out too much. Decided best thing was to go under, for minimum cutting and to make sure I would be able to close the hood. I'm really happy with how it came out. Drove it into work this morning, drives great. Starting to get on it a bit more here and there and its really working well and pulls great. Only have had it up to about 4-4.5k so far. Gonna get some more break in miles, check the oil filter, then finally take it out for some runs.

I've already been looking at "mufflers" (Turbos) but decided I need to hold off for at least a bit. Honestly if anything the Ford/Roush supercharger would probably be the way I would go, just so much easier to set up with this thing taking up the whole engine bay.

So far its running really great. I haven't really gotten on it yet, only about 70 miles on teh engine now. Transmission is really good and nice and quiet. Engine runs well, only small issue I have is tip in it kinda hunts for AFR for about 0.5s, so I have to probably adjust the fuel pressure regulator or vacuum source. Other than that it drives really well. Ohh, and its loud. Not crazy loud on the highway or anything to where you can't talk/hear music, just its presence is known.

Last week we managed to get the rest of the car together. Got the bumper on, an additional ground ran from the negative terminal on the battery in the trunk to the engine block to help with hot starting issues. Seems to be a thing of the past now so thats good. The only real pain in getting the front end together was the fender well liner, bc of all the wiring/fuel hoses its a bit snug, but we got it all to fit. Car was a bit low too, so we raised it up about 0.5" just to make sure there was no rubbing and gain a bit of clearance for the low oil pan haha. Now it just DESPERATLEY needs a bath. During the week I got my buddies garage cleaned out (been about 5-6 months since that table has been cleared off) And made the short drive home, maybe 8-10 miles Took it out last night and everything is working well, so decided to bring it into work today. Hopefully get a lot more miles on it over the next couple weeks.

Looking for a coyote engine cover. Prefer the 11-14 style, but will also look at 15-17. Let me know what you have and rough price. I figure there have to be some people in columbus who either went to the boss manifold or supercharger and have an engine cover sitting around gathering dust.... What I'm looking for: 11-14 cover http://fn.b5z.net/i/u/10012033/i/MIRRORCoyotestripsECetched__2_.jpg 15-17 cover http://www.gdmjoe.com/gothf150/engine/2015-5Lenginecover-r.jpg

Fixed the leak on the hydrboost, turns out it was the teflon seal on the high pressure out to the steering rack that let go. Pulled it off, cleaned, lots of teflon tape, and tightened up it held like a charm. Drove it around the block and got the speedo calibrated, then managed to just make it back into the garage before running out of gas. Only put about 2.5-3 gallons in it and have had it running off and on for the past 2-3 weeks, so not bad and was expected. No I can calibrate the fuel level gauge and hopefully start getting it out of the development and onto the road. Was getting one check engine light, P0116, which is for the coolant temp sensor. Essentially when ford made the control pack, they didn't add any dwell time into the coolant sensor start up temp so that it tracks coolant temp vs amount of time since last start up. So it sends the code when I turn it off hot and then try to turn it back on again bc it sees the coolant temp is higher than the intake air temp and freaks out. I just have to ship my ecu to Ford and then they send it back to me with a new flash to take care of this. Still, its downtime in the car though. I will probably send it out after the wedding and hopefully get it back when I get back from the honeymoon.