And another video of the car. It's a bunch of different clips of the car, but the new stuff from this past weekend starts at 1:57.

Holy shit. Do you need new tires yet? LOL

Get some more performance driving videos, all that tire spinning made me want to see the car actually hook up.

Those will come in the spring when I have tires lol. Couple weekends ago raced my friend's e36 m3 which is pretty close to stock, not sure if it was the road we were on or just that my tires are complete garbage, but spun through the first 3 gears. Still pulled on him but it was pretty sketchy.

Sticky tires and brakes are at the top of the list right now so I can enjoy the car to its fullest potential, but for now, roasting the tires is the fun I'll have lol

12.8 on a 5 speed? Wow... lol

I gotta get back to the track.

yes

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1385574081

seems like a good time to put the car away for the winter to me.

Well, it's almost time to start working on this thing again since winter will be over in the next couple months and its tax return time. I've been really trying to think about where I want to go with the car this year. And it pretty much comes down to actually being able to enjoy the car for an entire summer, which I have yet to do. Also, cut down my 1/4 mile time and get out to a couple lapping days.

The main things I'm looking to do are swaybars, brakes, bushings, wheels and tires, raise the boost a bit, and maybe play around with meth.

Ideally I'd like to break out of the 12's into 11's this year but it seems like a long way away, especially with the limitation of a stock motor, but if I did I would be pretty ecstatic.

Looking at going with the Goodwin BBK so I can do it once and do it right for my brakes.

Swaybars I'll likely turn to 949. I'd like to do better coils as well but I'm not sure that's in the budget for this year.

For the 1/4 mile I'll be looking to get either a drag radial or slicks and skinnies, and for the street/fun lapping I'll be getting some 15x9's with a 225/45 (undecided of which ones to go with atm).

The rest of it my plan for the spring involves playing around with the megasquirt some more to get the most out of it, and finally get the car on the dyno for some tuning.

A few other things need to be taken care of, like building the exhaust, customizing an aluminum rad to move the water neck over for my reroute, and just a bunch of other little things that were looked over in the fall.

I'd prioritize suspension over brakes. OEM Mazda brakes are actually pretty darn good -- just use decent fluid + pads + maintenance.

On my '90 Turbo, I run well-maintained 1.8 brakes all around and have never had braking issues. I track, in TX heat, a LOT and run decent times.

My '95 track car had the Goodwin BBK when I bought it. Haven't tracked it yet (still rebuilding/bringing it up to snuff). I'm curious to see what the difference is. I suspect there will be little, if any, difference in braking performance but that pads will last longer.

For brakes I was either going to do the 949racing 11.75" fronts and either 1.8 rears or the FM rear calipers, but after looking around a bunch it doesn't seem many people are bothering with FM's rears since I'm assuming the 1.8 rears with good pads and rotors are getting the job done.

But then I remembered, I have complete front and rear calipers and brackets from when I parted out my '99. They are non-sport calipers, but they would still be an upgrade over my na6 brakes. And with good pads and rotors they should be plenty for this year since I won't be making a tonne of power and will just be doing a few "fun" lapping days. So I think that'll be a smarter way to go for this year, and will free up a lot of money for other parts, such as new coils, swaybars, and all my bushings.

I'm also starting to look at options for seats and harnesses, as well as stiffening up the chassis with some frame rails and the butterfly brace.

When my tax return comes in I will still have a good chunk of change to play around with, so completely redoing the suspension might be a possibility.

door bars. If you really think about it, frame rails provide not much past a strong jacking point. It's strengthening a beam by putting another beam right up against it. Boxing in the car with a door bar provides a much stronger alternative if you can stand the hassle of ingress/egress.

I was considering door bars but hadn't gotten around to looking at different options yet so I didn't post about them. Definitely something I would be willing to do. I'm not too worried about climbing over them to get in and out of the car.

Would you do a butterfly brace/rails and door bars or would they not make much of a difference after doing door bars?

I've never installed or experienced any of them. But everything I've read has said that the frame rails can't be felt very much, but the door bars make a huge difference.

I'm just saying if it were me, I'd skip the price, weight, and time spent on the frame rails and butterfly brace, and install just the door bars.

Do both.

I did both except i didn't do it all at once. Rip the seats and the carpet out only one time, it's a lot easier. I hated having to do it twice.

After installing the frame rails butterfly brace i felt it. Felt much quicker on turn in and weight transferring.

After the door bars though, that made a huge difference. The car creaked over uneven driveways and what not. It actually felt much much more solid. Stock miata chassis is pretty limp.

I do like the idea of having my frame rails reinforced since they have already taken a beating. I'll have to decide if the rails and butterfly brace are really worth the extra weight, since keeping weight down could help me reach my goal for the 1/4 this season, although that isn't he most important thing for the car.

If I get them I'll install everything at the same time and likely put in new seats then too so I'm not constantly pulling the same things apart.

I'd do the frame rails -- not so much for stiffening as for protection. I'd skip the butterfly. Makes everything under the car one huge PITA. Not light either.

For real stiffening, door bars or cage.

Frame rails are VERY worth it. I could literally feel the difference in chassis flex pulling out of the garage. Also, when jacking up the car you can easily tell there is less droop, etc.

And they really don't weigh much at all.

The butterfly comes with slots in the center section now for a wrench... Not sure how new of an option that is. But it sure as hell beats the one without the slots.

Thanks for the input guys. Looks like it'll be frame rails and door bars. I'll skip out on the butterfly brace for now I think.

I'm constantly changing my list of parts I'm ordering as I do more reading and thinking about what my car actually needs. Currently the list looks like this:

FM:
Swaybars
Swaybar endlinks & heavy duty mounts
Frame rails
Master Cylinder Brace & Shock tower brace (any opinions on this? Worth it?

949:
HardDog Door bars
Stage 1 Brakes (1521 compound for the street)

Fab9 Tuning (local to me):
COP Kit
Energy Suspension complete bushing set

Begi:
Meth kit

I'm also looking at slicks and skinnies for the drag strip, wheel and tire options for the street/road course, and different options for seats and harnesses.

All this stuff adds up pretty quick, but I should have some room in my budget for adding other parts that might seem necessary as I come across them.

I know I don't necessarily need the meth kit for my current setup, but I want to learn how to tune for meth this year since I plan to run it for the next part of this build that might happen next winter, and it has always interested me.

I'm just going to put this out there.

I've sat in a car with hard dog door bars and even for my short stature the bar was intrusive to my left leg. Especially when it was sitting on the dead pedal.

That's why i made my choice to use the boss frog ones, while they may not be better, they do not interfere with my leg at all.

Also, i can't stand the price of these master cylinder braces. I'm thinking i may be able to just make one myself. I am thinking of sending revshift a PM (local to me) to see if he can hook it up with some poly bump stops. If successful i may do a couple more.

Do the boss frog bars work with a Hard Dog rollbar? Who's car did you sit in with the HD bars? I'd love to try them out.

I've been assuming this entire time that the door bars will not interfere with a racing seat when I go to put one in, and maybe they'll work a bit better with a proper seat? (as in not be pushing against my leg)

If you are actually doing this let me know, I'd be interested.

It was someone from around here. They actually bought a twin turbo setup off this site i think, i can't remember. I don't think the boss frog ones will work with the HD roll bar. Perhaps your best bet is to just match up products you have and suck it up if it gets in the way of your leg. lol

I'll make one, i just gotta get off my lazy ass.

I kind of figured this is what I'll probably have to do. Thankfully this car isn't a daily driver. If I can't find someone with them installed nearby I'll just go ahead and order them. They can't be that terrible if so many people are willing to run them.

Recommend the RB Hollow front sway from vendor of your choice (949?). Skip the rear sway bar. Hardcore guys with higher HP either run the OEM rear or disconnect it altogether.

949 endlinks are the best choice -- true turnbuckle style -- can be adjusted without disconnecting.

Skip the STB.

Master cylinder brace should be easy to DIY. Look into furniture "elevator bolts" at the Lowes racing department. Not sure it's needed though. Don't have one myself and I'm firm. :D

Get braided lines from vendor of your choice. Check out RockAuto.com. Centric disks + StopTech Street Performance pads ($32). MOT on the StopTechs is 1300F!! Really nice pad for a great price.

I'd skip the bushings on a street car.

Shop around on the meth kit. Just get a basic kit. Sometimes there are sales. I got a stage 1 no reservoir kit from CoolingMist when I did mine -- on sale for about $150. Use my WW bottle as a reservoir and control with my MS. Enough fluid for 25 minute track sessions. Works great. Has been reliable for nearly 30K miles -- although the pump is finally getting weak. Can't complain.

I always use RockAuto for parts on my daily drivers, don't know why I didn't think to check them for Miata brakes. I guess I just didn't think they'd have higher performance parts. Thanks for the heads up.

I'm getting the bushings for the drag strip to help reduce wheel hop. The slicks should take care of a lot of that, but my bushings right now are all dried up and cracking and likely a big part of the problem.

Why? because of the added NVH, or because on a street car you will not notice any benefits?

Curious, because my oem bushings have 170k on them and I've always planned on going with poly + zerks when I do them.

Also curious for the reason you say to skip them hornetball.

I don't find the HD door bars interfere with my left leg at all. Seating preferences probably make a difference.

They do stiffen the chassis.

NVH/maintenance on a street car.

OTOH, if your bushings are shot, then poly is a cheap way to fix it. Bushings on my silver car with 213K miles are still in great shape -- but I think they last a lot longer garaged in TX than in an area with winter and salt.

This car isn't winter driven and has never seen salt. I also imported it, originally coming from California. But my bushings could still use replacing. But like I said, main reason is wheel hop at the drag strip.

I also didn't have a problem with door bars getting in the way of my legs. Don't notice them at all once you are in the car.

As for bushings there is something to be said about the differences in materials. Poly is poly... Hard, unforgiving and depending on the location usually requires maintenance. But all in all, for the miles you'll likely put on your car it's a good solution.

Something that is very often overlooked is Whiteline. Whiteline started out in Australia (as a non-performance company) because apparently it's common during their typical mandatory vehicle inspection procedures to involve bushing inspection. Makes sense, keeping a vehicle controllable should be just as important as it's effect on the environment.

Could you imagine if each time you had to get a smog test done, they also inspected your control arm bushings? Whiteline knows polyurethane isn't a good solution for your average daily driver so they moved forward and developed a "Synthetic Elastomer".

Ride quality of rubber with the strength to keep cornering, braking and acceleration loads feeling firm. Plus all the Whiteline we sell is covered by a lifetime warranty.

Interesting Fab, because I always thought whiteline just sold poly bushings. Now, i must wonder - why aren't whiteline bushings all that popular in the miata crowd? I mean, I know people use them.. it's just the argument on bushing is usually poly vs rubber and never involves "synthetic elastomer" or whiteline bushings.

Your first comment answered your question ;) Product knowledge.

Whiteline, having relatively new roots in the US has taken obvious marketing campaigns that don't involve our 24 year old roadsters. You can't blame them and it doesn't mean it's not a superior solution for our cars too.

So who did they target? Take a look at how well praised Whiteline is in the Subaru/Evo/FRS/BRZ/Mustang communities. The current "Popular Cars" get all the love.

Another key point is the offset in their front control arm bushings. Take a look at the picture on my product page (HERE). The bushings are offset to allow an additional camber adjustment. A bonus for those who have maxed out the range of the factory configuration.

Call me a skeptic.

What I see is a bushing with an inner metal tube that moves with respect to the bushing and requires lubrication, just like any other non-molded rubber bushing.

I would also note that Australia is a benign environment. What might last 15 years there may not last a single set of seasons here. Just ask the Pontiac G8 community how long their front suspensions last in the Rust Belt.

Skepticism is a good.

Lubricating bushings isn't so much the problem. It's when I need to service them regularly, or given the frequency - you could say irregularly.

A couple of things Whiteline has done to combat this:

1. Unlike your standard Poly bushings - most of the bushings and crush tube surfaces you apply lubrication to on Whiteline parts have a crosshatch pattern molded into the inside of the material that does a great job at keeping the lubrication where it should be.
2. Their bushing is more foregiving and acts more as an actual bushing allowing some level of buffer before applying 100% of the load to the lubrication.
3. The lubrication they use is specifically formulated for the bushing material they use and better suited for these high pressure areas giving it better stability. When polyurethane is installed correctly it does a decent job of this, but the lube often ends up being pressed out long before you feel like servicing them.

And as for the G8 - I agree with the poor design but you certainly can't use it as a specific stab to the Aussies. I live an hour from the GM headquarters (located in the heart of the Rust Belt) and I just had to replace both front control arms on my brothers 2010 Chevy Impala because the bushings had broken almost completely free of the shells... You'd think they'd figure out a better solution. :facepalm:

My Whiteline rep just sent this to me. It comments on why their current stuff is superior (textured collars..) and their plan to go grease free!

Wan't meant as an Aussie stab. Just a factual statement, Australia (especially coastal Australia where people live) is a pretty benign place (so is CA for that matter). No matter how much upfront testing you do, nothing replaces real world experience.

I would be SUPER interested in grease free bushings of this type. After they have a bit of real world use that is.

/s An Old Engineer

I have a hard time seeing it unless it is delrin or spherical. I would pine for greaseless bushings too, but I see sand from the desert not playing nice with that. Either that or you have to replace the bushings more frequently.

Not sure. I'm happy to be proven wrong!

So my tax return came in, looks like its time to start ordering parts.

Already ordered EBC solenoid from DIYautotune, clutch line and slave cylinder from ProjectG, as well as some blank rotors. Pads will be coming from rockauto sometime in the next week or two.

More parts are getting ordered meow

needs pics of parts!

I agree!

Parts should start arriving in the next couple weeks in Detroit, it'll just be a matter of making trips across the border to pick everything up.

Was pretty much ready to rage quit on this car after tonight. I'll see how things go tomorrow; if no better than tonight it may just stay on jackstands for a while.

Wrapped things up on the car yesterday around 8:00pm. Made a new IC pipe that would work better with the reroute rather than modifying the aluminum rad. Installed my clutch slave and SS line, bled that. Brake pads and rotors at all 4 corners, and a bunch of other stuff.

Pulled it out of the garage after jump starting it. Drove it around but then went to burn in TunerStudio at which point the car died. Battery was the deadest. Bought a new battery.

It was all going fine until today at 4pm when I noticed I had very little brake pressure and the low brake fluid light came on. Headed home to see what was wrong with it and get more fluid until what I was almost certain was my 5 speed breaking.

To top it off my FM downpipe broke just after the flex portion.

It sounded like marbles coming from the trans in 2nd and 3rd, and a little bit in 1st but I was pretty close to home where I wasn't pushing the car at all. And I realized later that I still had perfectly good driveability in those gears, other than the sound of marbles. Thought I'd drop the trans and have a look except I'm stuck on the two top bolts and decided to walk away from the car for the night before I ruined my back anymore.

If I don't have any luck tomorrow I'll just do the tried and true way of pulling the entire motor/trans together.

I feel like its not my transmission that is blown up but rather maybe a flywheel bolt backed out. I just hope my clutch isn't destroyed.

I'd post pics but I've been too busy and frustrated to even bother taking pictures.

Sorry for the bad luck Paul, I feel you on wanting to rage quit, it is always something.

If your 5 speed is broken I've got two 5 speeds sitting in my garage. I can give you one for very cheap if you'd like.

Well, I would, but you are in Canuckistania, so shipping might hurt yah.

Thanks Jeff! I'll get in touch if it is in fact my 5 speed, I have a shipping address in Michigan for sending parts to. I found one locally for $250 but seeing that I want to TII swap the drivetrain this winter I'd rather not spend that much if possible.

Hopefully tomorrow goes better otherwise I am ready to rage quit for a while and just drive my awesome grand marquis daily, at least it doesn't eat at my wallet as badly lol

Edit: I kind of had this coming for me though since bad things come in threes. Blew the motor on my daily civic last Friday. Then was driving my brother's fusion but didn't realize he hadn't checked his oil in a very long time, turns out it was very low, and rod knock happened, and now this I guess.

I find just walking away from the car for an hour or two helps you sweat the frustration out a little.

I was ready to do that as well today but I pushed through it.

I can do way better than $250 if you do indeed need it, good luck, probably just a bolt that backed out or maybe you pushed the pilot bearing out when you put the trani back on.

I'm leaning towards a flywheel bolt backing out but won't know until I get in there. Nothing has been apart in there since last fall when I put it together with the turbo, and that was about 3-5000 miles ago so I don't think it'd be the pilot.

But first things first, I gotta get the trans out of there to begin with lol

I guess I do have one pic of the car with how it sits now.. well how it sat earlier today before it was broken and back on jack stands

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397449457

Boosted smurfs unite! Together we can rule over the faded pink and chipping white cars.

P.S. your luck is shit.

the most shit lol..

going to make another attempt to get this transmission out now and hopefully see what's going on in there. I'm really not looking forward to reinstalling the trans either. It's so much easier when the motor is out of the car

I'm about to go into the garage, put my engine on the ground (it's on a stand), bolt on the flywheel/clutch, and then the transmission. I am NOT looking forward to it. I had 4-5 people helping me on an engine-still-in-car-tranny-swap once. Never again.

Yea, I'm trying to do this solo. So much rage happens. Especially since my back has been bothering me and I apparently have a hernia according to the doctor. It's really not a good time.

To get to those top two bolts, use a floor jack to tilt the front of the engine upwards. That should get you decent access. Also, get every damn 1/2" extension/wobble adapter that Harbor Freight sells. LOL. Good luck.

Sometimes it's good to walk away for a day or so.

I'm about to go out to buy a couple of impact wobble adaptors and hopefully get the impact on the top two, since those are the only ones left. Already got it off the ppf to tilt it for some access

Got the trans out and the clutch off. Flywheel bolts are still in place so its not that, unfortunately. Impact universal joint extensions are your friend!

Does it make sense that it could be the transmission if I could still go into gear and drive fine? Once I let out the clutch in gear it sounded like marbles, the faster I went the faster/louder they got. Once I pressed the clutch pedal they stopped. But, I could still go in every gear perfectly fine.

Looks like I might have to crack the transmission open to see what's going on in there even though I really don't feel like it lol.

Dammit, was really hoping it'd be flywheel bolts.

How sure are you that the noise was coming from the transmission itself? I read in your earlier post that your downpipe broke, was it not that rattling against something while under load, or something like that?

Sounds almost exactly like your throwout bearing.

Pushing the clutch in eliminating the sound kinda supporting that theory.

I cut off the broken part of the downpipe and pulled the car out and it was still making the noise with the downpipe securely in place. I'll take a pic of how the downpipe broke and you'll be able to see it wouldn't be able to rattle around anymore.

throwout bearing still looks in good shape.

Hold on, going out there with my camera to get some pics of everything that's going on.

I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to opening up the trans so if something else is glaringly obvious before I pop open the trans I'd be pretty happy.

Just making sure, i've overlooked the simple things before and cost myself a ton of extra trouble.

How do the throw out/pilot bearings feel? Did the transmission rattle in every gear, or just some?

I was pretty close to home when it started to "rattle" so I didn't get to try 5th. But it did it a bit in first (not as loud or quick but I figure that's because I was going slower), 2nd, and 3rd. Not really in 4th. It also did it in reverse a bit too.

Also, Saturday night I went to do a burnout but it was all clutch and no tires, so once I realized that I stopped but it burnt the clutch enough that it's noticeable in the picture of the disk, but the clutch still grabbed fine from that point until the car was broken the next day, about 5-6 hours of use later. Total the car was out for maybe 7-8 hours of driving (2 of those dealing with stupid charging issues), so I've really gotten to enjoy it a lot so far :suicide:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397506530
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397506530
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397506530
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397506530
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1397506530

EDIT: anyone have a clutch alignment tool laying around? I'm not sure where mine ended up and I'll need one to throw it all back together whenever that happens.

Oof that flywheel looks a little gnarly. I'd get that resurfaced.

Also your pilot bearing looks to be inserted to far in. Shouldn't it be flush rather than inset like that?