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OOO, thats the metallic blue/green ya? CONGRATS. NEED MOAR PICS of that
Yeah! Montego blue. Same as the miata, Like Zaks car.
Originally Posted by Z_WAAAAAZ
At first it seemed like you were talking about the Econoline being your dream car, which would’ve been acceptable lol!
Dude heck yeah, the rotary project is gonna be super dope. Can’t wait to see more detailed pics of it.
Yeah man, it has a fresh rebuild semi p port motor in it, never ran with it and sat for a while. The p port is too crazy for what I'm looking for, so I'm going to have my local rotary racing bros Rotor REhab rebuild it with a less aggressive port.
It also turns out "no rust" means something different in Ohio than it does in New Mexico lol, but totally not bad just needs a lot of wire wheel action. I paid 2008 prices for it, so I'm not complaining.
Excited to see the FD projects! I said the same thing as Z, and Econoline is a weird dream vehicle, but the paintjob is pretty stellar so I understood why.
Hahaha, what Sim said. I’m a sucker for those late 90s/early 2000s camper van conversion paint schemes.
Thing looks dope dude. Must’ve been a steal if it was worth 3k miles worth of gas to pick it up lol. What’s the plan for it? Restoration? Hotboi drift car build??
I just wanna say, the van is the real MVP here. 12-14MPG towing the whole way, the 5.4 pulled up hills with ease part throttle, and was generally a super stable/easy towing experience. That's my dads Van I've been helping him fix up so we can use it to tow the track car and go on various Van trips, and this was it's maiden voyage. I was super nervous about the van going in, but after that trip can safely say she's cross country certified. It used about ~300 gallons of gas, ~1qt of oil, no coolant or any other fluids (or any leaks to speak of). Transmission shifts great even after towing in the heat up hill. It's a GREAT place to sleep. A few small things to dial in on it (those headlights are terrible), but it's a work horse and I'm psyched to have something to be able to tow the track car with.
Originally Posted by turbofan
As soon as I saw the line about you driving 1500 miles for it I'm like "Yeah, it's an FD."
absurd seller writing that it has no rust lol but hopefully nothing structural.
Congrats dude. So, so cool.
Thanks man. I'll elaborate once I'm done with the title transfer stuff, but the seller was actually local to me and had also never seen the car. The person who said "no rust" was right in a weird east coast way, there's almost no actual chassis rot. But being a desert dweller the surface rust is horrible. I like to imagine that it just came from Japan and I get to clean it up, which will be incredibly satisfying.
Originally Posted by SimBa
Excited to see the FD projects! I said the same thing as Z, and Econoline is a weird dream vehicle, but the paintjob is pretty stellar so I understood why.
Thanks! The van does rule too.
Originally Posted by Z_WAAAAAZ
Hahaha, what Sim said. I’m a sucker for those late 90s/early 2000s camper van conversion paint schemes.
Thing looks dope dude. Must’ve been a steal if it was worth 3k miles worth of gas to pick it up lol. What’s the plan for it? Restoration? Hotboi drift car build??
Once I get it titled I'll spill the beans on what I got it for total. Let's just say that I would be hard pressed to sell my 10AE NB for as much as I've got in it.
Build plans are kinda restomod / OEM+
Chassis cleanup, surface rust cleanup + undercoating. Finding and eliminating any rust.
Stock/mild port rebuild + stock twins
Reliability mods (cooling, spark/coils, OMP delete+premix, etc.)
Modernization mods (ECU, flex fuel, etc.)
Probably a strut + spring setup, not a track car, though don't be surprised when I track it.
Originally Posted by Stock
Right?? I was all "sick van, dude!"
Killer pick up man!
Thanks man. I know we're of similar age, and both grew up watching HotVersion, Best Motoring, etc. It's a bit of an icon car for me. I'm fully prepared for it to be a pain in my *** and take lots of money, but it has been my all time dream car since I was 14 or something.
My neighbors love me (and yes I have a problem 😆 )
Miata update! The car is dialed and not leaking fluid.
The leaking caliper seal was an easy fix. I didn't pull the piston all the way out, but I did block the other 3 non-leaky pistons, and pumped the brakes until the leaky one stuck out almost all the way. Then I cleaned the piston, and pushed it back in slowly while rotating it as I pushed in. Then I re-assembled, and did some brake pressure tests (holding the brakes with 100# of force for 5 mins) and saw no leaks.
The hubs were also fixed, Bronson got me some new adapters that measured .001 runout. With rotors assembled I'm at .004 runout total, which is well within spec (up to .007 according to Ed), so that's dialed as well.
Next track day is March 19th so I should make that, but in the meantime I'm driving the car more to make sure all is well. Car parked at work. I will say the miata is a hell of a car right now, I did a nice canyon run with it yesterday, and I can't imagine anything else ever comparing to the pure driving experience, power, and handling this package puts out. It just begs to be driven in anger, can't wait to feel the new setup on the track!
And got the FD cleaned up and in the garage.. I'll probably fire up a separate thread for this one to keep this thread miata pure.
As promised, a picture of one of the eBay bleeders installed and a side by side with the Afco one it replaced.
The eBay linked one fits great and is virtually identical to the Afco bleeder. It's 1mm longer (30mm vs 29mm) and uses the same 11mm or 7/16" wrench.
Thank you!! I've ordered some. I finally got my stock ones to stop leaking, but they really did take more tq than I'm comfortable with, so next bleed I'm going to try these.
Testing out the new rollbar camera mount that @redursidae printed for me. Going to the track this weekend so I'll get some footie. Its on high boost, 17psi, you can see the boost gauge on the pi dash just below the tach when my hands not covering it.
This is the car’s first time running ALLOFIT on track, yeah? That’s gonna be a blast!
High/low boost are on a toggle switch, if I'm feeling confident in the setup I'll give it a whirl on high boost though! But probably keep it on low boost to feel the car out for the season after all the changes to get a baseline.
Ah yes, forgot you had the switch wired in for boost control. I thought in your previous post you were implying that you were gonna run it on high boost on track this weekend. Never mind me lol.
Stoked to hear the recap from this coming weekend!
Gonna wash it at lunch but it's good to go. No brake fluid leaks and everything feels great. Gonna drive it to/from the track like usual, though I may start trailering soon. Got a big work trip starting early AM monday so hopefully everything goes smooth on raceday since its on Sunday!
I have a question for anyone following along. I have a squeal/squeak that the car makes over 40mph when cold. When hot it goes away. Things I know about it:
Happens even when coasting with the motor off (0 rpm) and in neutral. I -think- this rules out things like idler pulleys, alternator belts, pilot bearing, etc. In my mind coasting in neutral with the engine off the input shaft should not be spinning on the trans, I.E. a pilot bearing squeak, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Is not related to any recent upgrades, happened before replacing hubs (new bearings), brakes, etc. Does not change the sound when you get on the brakes.
I've lubed the clutch slave cylinder where it rests on the fork, I know this is a known "chrip" issue. No change
It sounds like it's coming from under the hood.
It happens when cold, never hear it when hot. It has gotten worse over the years.
Any input is appreciated! It's pretty annoying, and I've been ignoring/diagnosing it for years. Maybe something under the hood that just resonates and moves/squeaks/squeals but I've been under there 100 times wiggling stuff around looking for it. Tightened up the stoppers on my headlight buckets thinking they might be moving enough to make the noise. Nada.
Track day is tomorrow, so today was a health check/maintenance day. The car has always burnt a puff after idling for a long time or long decel. Usage wise I add about 1/2 qt between changes if I go long enough (3k+ miles), it's actually one of my lesser oil consuming vehicles. I assumed it was the turbo seals or intake seals, when the shop did the head they told me I didn't need new valve seats. It was always whatever, because it's not enough oil usage for me to want to tear into it or anything.
Later, after reading many posts from experienced guys on this forum, I'd definitely have replaced them when I had the head serviced. Next time I will for sure!
Anyways I took some boroscope pics for fun. Nothing too bad, all the cylinders looked bout the same. Pistons look slightly wet above the intake valves so I do assume that's my valve leak. I could still see the cross-hatching and there was a little, but minimal, vertical scoring. Overall I'm happy with what I see.
Cyl 1:
Cyl2:
Cyl 3:
Cyl 4:
Also super psyched on the compression results, super even and right where they were after building the motor. Don't freak out about the low numbers, 7200 ft (78kpa atmo today on the MAP) does weird stuff to the numbers. I threw a correction on them for 7k feet and they put me in the 160-170's. The motor was cold as well.
Anyways, the cars been running better than ever and no issues. I just figured I should do a check up on the setup to make sure it's good. This is about 30k miles on it and lots of track use.
04-15-2024, 11:19 PM
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