laguna96

Seriously though, it's more of a complete car... but every time I tell myself that something breaks, or changes in a way that makes me completely waste half a year's pay and what the hell... may as well document my masochism.

What started out as a crunchy fender Montego '96 bone stock with bronze Team Dynamic 1.0's and just about nothing else on a B package is now a really expensive street toy. I kidded myself for a bit thinking eventually it would be a race car, no it's just an occasional autocross Miata with the ability to somehow elude the attention of police and instigate ricers all over orange county.

Car as it sits:

1996 Mazda Miata "B-package"

Exterior:
Hard top
Soft top deleted
BRG respray (original montego)
R-package front lip
R-package truck spoiler
Spare cowl hood
Spare auto-x trunk (multi-purpose)
BSP Low-pro headlamps
"EUNOS" badging
15x8 6UL w/ Dunlop Direzza DZ101 205s
15x9 6UL w/ Nitto NT01 225s (Track alternative set)

Interior:
IL Motorsports console
Lotus Elise probax
Infinit lab seat adapters w/ sliders
Momo Monte Carlo 320mm
NRG Slim hub
NRG 3.0 QR
Voodoo texture shift ****
Short shifter - (unknown brand but very beefy)
Nardi wooden handbrake handle
Clarion FZ501 headunit
Tan dash/door panel swap
Boss Frog twin hoops
Dual A-pillar gauge pod
MTX-L AFR gauge
MTX-D Boost gauge/progressive tach + shift light

Suspension + Brakes:
XIDA CS 700/400 w/ billet mounts
Racing beat front + rear sway bars
949 spherical endlinks
Energy PU bushings
Wilwood BBK front brakes
MSM Sport rear brakes
Wilwood proportioning valve
Stainless brake lines
Manual steering rack swap

Engine + Drivetrain:
1.8 stock motor
5-speed trans
4.1 Torsen type 2
315cc denso injectors
JRSC M45 ~10psi ratio pulleys
6-rib nose from buick M62
6-rib custom machined TDR overlay pulley
eBay FMIC with 2.5" piping
Jackson Racing header
TDR Heatshield
HyTech custom 2.5" cat-back
3" intake w/ K&N on cold-side
A/C delete

ECU/Electrical:
Megasquirt MS2 DIY
Innovate MTX-L Wideband
GM IAT sensor
MAF delete
Narrowband O2 sensors deleted

Not including all the ****-up mods prior to everything above which probably wasted a few months of my life's pay at least... I need to make a log book for the car to remind myself why this is a problem.

The car is open to criticism of course, as it is clearly the more awesome of boosts, supercharged. Okay, I'm not going to lie, if something goes severely explodey on the car with the roots blower it'll probably be a turbo build thread soon after. The choice of the JRSC was purely due to the irresistible sound of a severely overspinning M45 that overpowers the exhaust note and any music I could possibly hope to blare out of the stereo. Not to mention nearly doubling the WHP on a car that was already fun to drive, I really can't complain about the power considering the duty of the car.

Older montego shots:



Newer BRG shots:






Small fleet (ever-changing):

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Sick car man, despite the obvious lack of turbo. Any videos of it in action?

laguna96

I just started getting into using my gopro a bit recently, playing around with mounts and whatnot. I have some over-the-shoulder shots from autocross a couple weeks ago at ACS where those few BRG photos were taken. Super shuffle-steer, but I'm about as amateur as it gets on the track. Definitely need more seat time and some track days in it.

Edit: just a note this was shot just before swaping out Tein FLEX 10k/6k for the XIDA 700/400 (I think translates close to ~13k/8k rates) with a proper alignment by Sonny at 949Racing, and the addition of energy PU bushings. I didn't have time before Auto-x to do the swap since the coils didn't hit the shop until about 3 days prior. The car probably would have picked up a second from the new setup, it drives like a brand new car. Still managed FTD among a group of amateurs lol. I felt proud since one was in an Exige S with R888's. I was on NT01's with ??? tune and ??? alignment.

hi_im_sean

iTrader: (3)

because i told you to. now i can stop posting non s10 crap in your s10 thread lol.


sweet car, we need to get you on turbo though.

laguna96

Hah I forgot I made this by request a short while ago. Well news is the engine was going bad: burning oil. leaking oil. crankcase blowing oil everywhere.

I regret not taking pictures when I was in there... what a nightmare.

Well the story in short mode was I needed a new blower and a new motor. I bought an engine off the shady looking Pit Garage craigslist post. You'd never know it was a company called Pit Garage from their post, nor would you want to buy anything from them, unless you've already have past dealings or word of mouth comforting. The thing looked like it was rescued from the lower class deck of the titanic and dropped into my truck bed for delivery. When he told me I had two weeks to return or exchange I actually laughed a little bit and asked if he was serious.

Little did I know it was one of the cleanest looking motors under the covers and gaskets. Not a sign of oil leakage, and the water neck, jacket, and fittings looked as though if he'd claimed never saw a mile of use I'd likely believe him. It came with a good alternator, water pump, oil pump, real oil pressure sender, and a nifty JDM NA8 manifold which is nothing special other than a convenient EGR delete, or rather lacking EGR provisions entirely. I have to hand it to them, it looked like dirty butthole on the outside but it runs beautifully. 7% 1% 3% 6% leakdown from front to back, cold. They don't keep mileage records but "guarantee" that each engine has 30-60k on them and pulled from running race-car donors in japan. Dat pedigree doe.

In other news I've fitted it with a competition clutch kit on a stock flywheel, since there's no fancy engine build implying good balancing, so it will be a bit happier on a heavy flywheel. It's not a race car just a fun car.

I've come up from 315cc injectors to some custom 550cc for the boost since I was near maxing the 315's at around 8psi. I'm not sure if that's just due to a shitty tune and worn out parts, but the 550's will be fine and gives me a good buffer on fuel.

The M45 is out for a rebuild and will be back in about 2 weeks better than new. I'm playing with a ratio that should make close to 11psi but it's severely beating the hell out of this little M45 so we'll see how that goes....

This is just a couple of teasers to show it's not a lost cause car. I'm juggling two projects at the moment. The other is a 1998 GMC Sonoma with the "Small block V6" 4.3L and a NV3500 5 speed manual transmission. It's basically the Miata of American trucks. She's getting a brand new trans and some long past due maintenance to the steering and oil seals.

The happy family of two-seaters... gladly my wife and I hate children.

laguna96

Oh and on another note... a good Belgian friend of mine Alain Peeri, better known as Ted7 with Ted7 Photography, played around with some "golden hour" evening photos so you can see the car in it's most beautiful state. It's about as clean as it will ever be in these photos so I'll ***** them out a bit:

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

I love it! Everything except for the fuel lid. I know it's personal preference, but i can't help but think about the 7lbs that thing must add, lol :P

turbofan

iTrader: (1)

Wow, really a great-looking car. Love the steering wheel and seats, and everything else.

Nice.

Golferluke

I love the save the stick sticker!

Good looking miata

Yezzir

Great car! Is that a custom phone mount in the cup holder? I like.

cjsafski

iTrader: (2)

Boost is lame. NA for life. Does it at leas make Carrot horsepowers?

laguna96

Thanks, yes it's an anchor. It's also really shitty quality and the spring that should release it is almost too weak to lift it haha. Some days I have to bend it for more preload. But it looks beautiful with the small chrome bits on the rest of the car. I'm not a shiny chrome fanboy but I always loved the polished fuel lids.

Thanks, it's from an online store and I even have the T-shirt of that as well lol. Save The Stick - Red Cross · Gearheart Shirts · Online Store Powered by Storenvy

Yep, I actually just got some shitty cup holder extender from ebay that looked like it fit a 7-11 big gulp, and fixed an aluminum plate to it. machined a hole the shape/size of the ratcheting swivel unit of my phone's hard case and it allows me to mount it vertical or horizontal for MS2 Bluetooth reads, music, gps and whatever. It's especially nice because I can reach it from the shifter without lifting my hand and it's not a permanent mod to the car unlike most ipad/tablet setups. You kind of need an IL motorsports console for this to work like mine, or bolt something to the side of the trans tunnel or dash screws/bolts.

You wish you could carrot this hard. I go from carrot to potato in 2.4 seconds.

laguna96

Car is officially running again, engine seems fine and dandy. I drove it to work this morning on a cold-driven auto tune from about 9pm last night... Rough street driven tune incoming, just to keep it happy/healthy-ish on the street. Meanwhile the blower is getting work done beginning this afternoon with my approval. It's still fun to drive even a crap tuned NA Miata, but I can't wait to have my psychotic noisy blower with slightly less angry noises coming out of it.

Yezzir

I wish I had that console... I've been trying to think of a clean solution for a phone mount that wasn't permanent as well. I have a third gauge hole above the radio that i'm not using and was thinking about modifying a mount with a snake arm to put in it.

laguna96

Honestly... OEM consoles are cheap as hell. I'd just get one that is a little rough, and mold or bolt something to it and see what works. Mock it up until it's awesome then make a clean version of it.

bluegs03

One thing to think about is if you have e85 fuel in your area they are great for superchargers. They lower intake temps enough to make a noticeable difference in power. If you ever plan on doing trackdays they help save motors from an early detonation death.

Check this build thread out his e85 results are post #29
https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...s-76372/page2/

laguna96

Yeah we have some sources but few and far between. I've considered fooling with a flex-fuel module and tuning the MS2 to work with it so I can change back and forth for track vs. street. As it sits I can just run two different tunes and drain the tank if needed... but I am not racing the car any time soon or heavily tracking it yet.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

"Save the Stick." I know what I'm giving for X-mas now.

cjsafski

iTrader: (2)

He is quite aware of the fun involved in making this car run, for a bit, maybe

laguna96

Yeah except you removed the fun machine from your engine bay and now it just burns corn to commute its way around the track....