94 LE VVT Build
 

This past spring I picked up a 94 that was pretty cheap. It was smoking some, and had been in a front end accident, but overall it ran and its body was straight with no rocker rust. It had all the options except for ABS, so I figured I could make a decent DD miata to replace my 92 B&T with 335k miles.

I have been lusting over 93 LE's since I first got into miata's years ago. The black and red color combo just touches me in all the right places. One of the things I have been looking for has either been a red interior for sale, or a cheap ass 93 LE to buy. I finally found one from a guy on here. I picked it up a few weeks ago, well everything but the seats and seat belts. I have a lead on the seats and seat belts and should hopefully be getting them this coming weekend.

The overall plan for the car is to be a nice naturally aspirated DD. For the drive train I am doing the standard 949 supermiata build. Stock VVT motor, flat-top manifold, eBay header for now, stock exhaust and intake, and MS3X. Long term I am planning on swapping in a RB header and building a 2.5" exhaust. Also plan on going with one of the new carbon fiber intakes that are possibly being made. I might eventually swap in a 6 speed and 3.63 rear end if I ever find the 3.63. Interior is getting sound deadening and then the red interior swapped in.

First layer of sound deadening.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

Second layer is some Refletix I got from Lowes. Was recommended by people on m.net
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

Bottom carpet is installed.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

Dash and door cards are installed.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

The rear window on the top installed was bad, the car came with a placement top which was cool. I ended up not using the replacement I got and instead swapped on a spare top where the rear window unzips. I prefer those over the ones where the rear window is fixed in.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

VVT motor and flat top is in. I have done a coolant reroute. I need to install the exhaust section, do all the wiring to NB sensors hook up accessory hoses, install and hook up radiator, hook up fuel lines, and install intake.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1449251629

I hate LE red. Nothing else to add.

:fawk:

Would you hate it even more if I bought a second complete red interior this weekend?

Go to hell lars.

Put both of them in one car.

Honestly if I do pick up the full interior along with the seats this weekend, the second set will go into my track car. Then I will have 2 94's with VVT and red interior swaps. Have I mentioned yet how the black/red combo really gives me a boner.

Its seriously a boner killer. Reminds me of my grandmas 80's Cadillac.

I agree. Not my thing. Other than that the car looks like it'll be awesome.

The 70s caddy we had had a white interior. Went better with the metallic lime green exterior.

Now that is boner material.

The FD had a red interior option as well on a few models. I call it chainsaw death red.

It always reminds me of Fox body Mustangs.

Porno Red was the affectionate name for the Fox body interior. I dig it and the tan two tone but I'm not sure if I want to own it for myself. My Pal built a black car with the red LE interior a while back and I thought it looked great.

Over the past month I have done most of the work to get the car going, I will try to snap some pictures tonight. The interior is completed except for plugging the MS to my boomslang harness. I got the exhaust installed, oils filled and everything in the coolant system hooked up. I went to fill the car with coolant Monday night and it started leaking out of the back of the head at the reroute spacer. Last night I spent time removing the spacer and reinstalling it with all new gaskets and a metric shit ton of RTV. Today I will fill it with water again and see if it still leaks. Then get the MS hooked up and see if it starts and has any other issues.

Thanks Chooofoojoo for hooking me up with a baller JDM manifold.
http://auctions.wing.c.yimg.jp/sim?f...=1&sr.fs=20000

Which reroute spacer do you have on the car? I am really dreading the day mine leaks. It looks like such a pain in the ass to get to with the motor installed. I went with the group buy spacer in the FS section and so far so good.

I have the Skou spacer on my car right now. I have gotten the same leak before with the begi spacer. So I will now always use rtv on them. I just filled the coolant and the rear spacer is no longer leaking, but the fucking hose that attaches to the oil filter warmer is. FML, guess I'm pulling intake manifold to get to it.

I am trying to do some heat insulation on my miata as well. I'm going to the DIY "lizardskin" which consists of house paint and microspheres. We'll see if that's any good. The heat comes mostly from the header too so may be wrapping it would be a good idea.

On my turbo car which has a stripped interior the trans tunnel would get extremely warm. On long drives it was horrible. I wrapped the downpipe in heat wrapping I bought from Amazon, then got some Frost King ducting material from home depot racing. I put the Frost King in the trans tunnel under the car. The next time I went on a long trip the temps on the inside of the trans tunnel were significantly reduced.


I got the second coolant leak fixed. Removing stock IM are PITA compared to my Begi cast manifold. As I was reassembling everything I somehow hit the VVT solenoid connector and broke it off. Stupid ass mistake, luckily since I stock up on VVT parts I have a spare somewhere. I just need to go find it tomorrow.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1452213971

The car attracts pussy.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1452562318

Engine bay.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1452562318

I got the car out of the garage over the weekend. It is still leaking a bit of oil at the oil pressure sender and vvt line. The bigger problem is that last night I was working on burping the coolant. Temps got up to 195 degrees and then the car started stumbling and then shut off. I could not get it to restart after that. Unfortunately I was not logging so don't know exactly what happened. Tomorrow afternoon I am hoping to get some time to mess with it. I will be checking the crank sensor spacing from the trigger wheel, then checking to make sure the timing belt did not snap, then checking fuel and spark.

I just had this issue when I went to 460cc injectors and found that my warm up enrichment was making it shut down/stumble after 185 degrees. I bumped the numbers around a bit until it would maintain decent idle and it's been pretty good since. I still have some very rich hot start conditions that I am working on but it's all part of the MS game.

It is not WUE, I just checked my MSQ. I won't be home tonight while it is light out, so digging in won't be until tomorrow at the soonest. I may try starting it tonight to just see what it does since it will be cool.

plz post msq for ridicule

Here is the msq. It is something Scott made me which was a mix of a 99 and a 94 basemap with some VVT thrown in. I have touched just about nothing in it yet. I have started the car on it and was letting it warm up. Hell I don't even think I have VVT enabled on it yet.

So tonight I got some time to work on the car before it got dark and started raining. The first thing I did was try to start the car and took a video for you guys.


Something timing wise sounded off. I then decided to check for spark. Pulled out a wire and tried to start the car, got nothing. Swapped to a spare coil pack and same result. So I decided to pull off the valve cover to make sure the timing belt was in place, and timing was set correctly. First thing I noticed was oil on the intake cam gear. I figured one of the 10mm bolts was loose. Here is what the cam lobes looked like with the motor at TDC.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1454543295

Intake cam gear is a good bit off.I then pulled off the cover to the 17mm bolt that hold the cam gear on. Lots of oil comes out and I find the bolt is loose. So at this point I figured out what happened. I put this motor together about 2.5 years ago. It was in my other 94 for about 6 months and I put about 1000 miles on it. I then pulled it and it has sat in my garage for about 1.5 years. I never checked that bolt when I dropped it in this car. So I remove the bolt and then gear and take a look at the back.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1454543295

Yep cam gear is fucked. Luckily I have a spare just in case something like this happens. I had let concealer404 borrow it about a year back to test on a car he was working on. I go and dig it out of the box from when he sent it back. I put it on the car and notice something that seems out of the ordinary.


Never seen that before. I pull it off and I can move the inside.


Concealer is mailing me out another one. Hopefully it works and I can get the car back together. I will be making sure that 17mm bolt is torqued to spec.

FYI, if you manage to strip out the torx VVT actuator cover screws (like I did), it's just an M5 .8 10mm screw. I found allen replacements at my local hardware for about 1/4 the price of Mazda screws.

Why does everything torx seem to be made of case-hardened cheddar cheese?

I have stripped out so many of those torx screws that it is not funny. A few years back I ordered 20 or so from Rosenthal just so I would not have to worry about not having them in the future.

I installed Tokico Illumina shocks with FM springs today. My red seats are currently getting new leather covers installed along with seat warmers. Hoping to get those back from my friend on Sunday. Now I just need to swap in a NB throttle cable and install some hood pins and this car. Then time to start tuning it and driving it.

Installed a Momo Corse yesterday. Replaces the crappy knockoff steering wheel that was installed. I can now see the top of my gauge cluster.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1464957335

This car reminds me much of my late '97. Sniff.

Don't worry your LE interior will be going in my other 94. So then I will have 2 matching 94 LEs.

This is going to be a sweet car, there's an LE on my local Craigslist but the guy's asking a fortune.
All the cool build threads make me want a non-DD miata to play with.
Nice work Lars!

At least it's going to a good home.