vitamin j

iTrader: (5)

You have a Subie too?

Speaking of snow, how's the mountain?

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

The subie is actually the most current project. It should be running within the next few weeks, just waiting on timing belt and other parts.



Ski hill is looking GREAT. TSV opens on the 28th, and they are already nearing a 40" base. It started snowing again last night and has been all day, I'm so stoked. I've gotten some riding in already though at the local small resort that opens way early.

Jeffbucc

It showed up, awesome! I didn't check the tracking at all to make sure everything worked out. I'm jealous you can still ski/snowboard, 2 torn acl/meniscus/mcl makes teleskiing an impossibility. I miss it so much.

Awesome project on the subie, should be a great daily. Driving home last night after wrenching on the Miata it made me miss my old Outback. Even with aggressive snow tires on the Jetta it isn't as neutral on snow as the Outback was.

Hope the wastegate works out for you, it looks like you won't have the weather to find out anytime soon. That is why I love where I live. Snow@6k elevation at home, and 45 miles South where the Miata is it rarely snows or gets below 50 degrees.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

This morning, it keeps getting deeper! Had some fun in the teg too on a few of the local backroads.



little backyard snowboarding with the pup and gf.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Whelp the snow all melted away and I got to drive the car again. It was a blast in the cold, felt very fast. Especially with the cold ground and all the wheelspin I was getting.

Then this morning I came out to this:



Freshies. Very stoked on riding this weekend.

ALSO, got the old motor out of my scoob. Man, I thought the miata was easy to work on. These old subies are SO easy, you can pull out a motor in less than an hour starting with a running car.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Almost got the forester back together with the new motor. Got the timing **** swapped over and all the sensors swapped on. Motors looking good, here's hoping it runs well too.

Mild update, just going to put some of my thoughts out there moving forward with the miata.

First and foremost, I'm going to focus on getting this thing a bit more comfortable. That includes raising the suspension for more travel and better handling hopefully resulting in a slightly better ride, also going to look into getting a quieter AND better flowing (3") exhaust, adding a stereo, probably just going to do an AMP with a aux in with no head unit.

Of course, getting the motor together as well. The goal for the motor now has been revised, ALL i'm looking for is around 250whp at 7,000 + ft elevation. Should be do-able and whatnot. This will be over 50whp more than I've ever had. Trust me guys, it's hard to make power with air this thin.

Reliability, i'd like to be able to take the woman with me and go cross country in this thing.

Trackdays, at least one next year, maybe more.

Ehh, paint. I've got the resources to paint this thing myself, just need to put in a bunch of work. Not sure if this will get done this year or not, but its on my mind for the car.

Anyways, pretty much a pointless update - but this is what I've been thinking about recently.

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Eh, it's your build thread, update it however you want!

Come to Miatas at MRLS.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

I seriously wish. Maybe next year, the car needs to be tried and true before i attempt a trek like that. We're talking 1,200 miles each way with a rigorous track flogging in the middle, with the GF. lol.

This is part of why my goal is to make the car dead reliable, comfortable, and put it through a few track days locally before i attempt something like that. It IS on my list of things to do though, i will one day make that trip.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Jeffbucc's build thread should have recently inspired you to paint your car...

18psi

iTrader: (76)

haha you guys are nuts, 1200miles to a track event.

I don't even go to the tracks which are 60 miles away because that's "too far"

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

You have no idea. These cars can look so beautiful when their lines are properly accented with good paint. My car REALLY doesn't need much bodywork at all, and my dad has already offered to spray it for me. The last few cars I've seen him spray looked pretty damn good too.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Well, it is laguna seca. Also, it's not just any old track event. It will be the biggest meeting of miatas at a track, probably ever. Would be awesome to go.

I really want to make it there sometime in the next few years. The car has to be ******' SOLID though, so give me some time.

redturbomiata

iTrader: (5)

There's a group coming from Ohio to mrls, 5300miles round trip. A couple of us are talking about driving it straight through so we don't have enough vacation time. ~36hrs in a miata should be interesting.

Jeffbucc

28 hours from Alabama-Utah near broke my will to live, I can't imagine 36. I'm interested to see how the road noise will be after I'm done with the car compared to how it was before.

Chilicharger665

iTrader: (2)

I have to drive 5 hours to get any track now, so why not tack another 10 on that for MRLS?

Jeffbucc

I didn't know it was all the way in September 14'. Maybe I'll be able to make it then!

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Meh, Road Atlanta is 8.5 hrs and I've been a few times lately. Sebring is 1.5, Roebling is 5 and so is Homestead-Miami. If I was 15 to Laguna I would have done It already. It has historical significance.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

So I got my ej25 into my foz, was a bit smokey on startup but i figured it'd clean out somewhat. Kept smoking, made GREAT power. That SOHC ej25 will spin all four on my dirt road in 1st, awesome motor.

Then... headgasket failure. never seen a smokescreen quite like that to be honest. Straight up oil/water dripping out the tailpipe after i shut it down.

I blame myself. I had a gut feeling that I should do those HG's with the engine out, but told myself it'd be okay. Whatever, i've got the parts on order and will fix this thing. It's the pass side HG that's out, drivers is fine. I think I'm going to go down and dirty and replace the pass HG with the engine in the car, and leave the DR side as is for now.

Will this screw me in the end? Maybe. At least it will be a quick experiment, i'm going to check the head on the blown HG side too to make sure there was no warpage.

I still love my subaru, even though I only got to experience it for a few miles of test driving. Damn thing is torquey as **** and is going to kick *** in the snow.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

So you get crap results by doing something half assed and your solution is to do another half *** fix?

No offense.

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Meh, none taken. Lesson learned, if i ever get another mystery subaru motor headgaskets will be done before it goes in the car.

Well, you are certainly right on this one - if the motor was as it was claimed I don't think the initial installation would have been considered half assed, i did the timing belt/waterpump and all that jazz.

As far as doing just one headgasket, that's half-assing it I'll admit. However, i know which HG is blown, and the other one has good leakdown results. Is it really that bad of an idea?