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My wife said I could have a project car and I've always been keen on Miatas (and RX7's but that is for another time)...so I bought this '90 from the second owner this summer. A tree fell on it during a storm and did a fair amount of damage...but it had about 100K original miles, very little rust, and the factory hard top...and the guy let it go for $750 cash. My plans are not nailed down but basically will follow a tight budget and I'll do everything myself. Currently planning a junkyard turbo, MS3PNP or straight MS3. A fair amount of body work. Hoping to pick up some used upgrades along the lines of brakes, suspension, and wheels from you fine folks.
Loading it up in Richmond
uncovering the damage: unibody over the wheels is dropped about 1" of drivers side and 2+ inches on passengers side. The passengers side firewall is smashed along with the wiper motor.
The throttle body took the brunt of the impact. It is clearly no longer round and the linkage is pretty smashed. There was a pretty good crack in the casting.
A roommate! My brother in laws '65 mustang! We will see lots of this car...
Engine ready to come out. Interior pretty well gutted save for the dash. Not sure if I'll pull that before painting.
Engine and tranny are free. Dont mind the creepy guy in the beard. That's not me.
The engine is on the stand as of this afternoon. Looking forward to picking away at it and getting lots of pointers while lurking.
Discovered today that the intake manifold also got toasted by the tree. Now I'm either in the market for a replacement manifold or upgrading to a 1.8. Also dwelling on a junkyard LS1.
I thought my BIL had removed the manifold strut bolt when we pulled the motor.
But it's still in there!
And that crack runs all the way up and over the injector
I remember when this was for sale. Not sure what you paid, but it might have been a decent deal with the hard top. Looks like it'll take some work to get it right though.
I bought an LM4! I won't have it in the garage until next week but i'm pretty stoked. I got a great deal on a running fully dressed motor with 118K miles.
So I will have a complete 1.6 in need of an intake manifold and a 5 speed for sale as soon as I work out why I cant post to classifieds. They only have 101K miles on them...wink wink...nudge nudge...
I picked up the LM4 and traded it out for the 1.6 on the engine stand. I've just barely started tearing it down. I'm starting the process of selling the stock drive train - which hasn't been as easy as I'd hoped. It's been cold here in VA (and I lived in Maine all my life so I know some cold) so I haven't been super motivated to be out in the cold garage.
I've been looking at tranny options. Everywhere from T5, T56, and TR6060 to wacky options like the unit out of a 350/370Z. Since my goal is to primarily use "used" and DIY options I don't really want to drop big $$$ on the Tremec options. So now I'm giving consideration to a 4L60E with a Megashift setup. Those things are in near everything and have really good aftermarket support. While I'd be giving up 1 or 2 shift points the gearing in those is pretty optimized for V8 duty and there's lots of room to play on the rear end ratio. I think steering wheel flappy paddles could be fun as well. We'll see. It comes down to what I can get for cheaps.
The LM4 arrives. Never thought I'd get an aluminum block V8 out of a Buick...
This thing is total truck duty. Massive accessory bracket. Ridiculous truck intake.
Started stripping off the kibbles and bits.
New VS old. I am a little sad to have veered away from the turbo concept - but this is going to be more fun in the long haul and has just as much aftermarket -if more more so.
On the stand and ready for my attention. Maybe when it warms up.
12-04-2016, 09:16 PM
Second Chance '90
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