So its not burning oil? Just needed the correct dipstick?

 

Yep. That was an easy one.

 

Great! Wish this was the case on my NB. :(

 

Holy Smokes Rick! Nice find(aside from all the jerry rigged ****) glad to see this car is in your hands now.

 

Be glad your curly-Q is unsecured. The easy "remove the curly-Q" step when installing a SS line such as TSE's (love mine) becomes quite difficult when you have to break out the impact gun, extensions, and swivel sockets to break a transmission to engine bolt for that stupid bracket.

The FM front shock hats are actually a nice bonus. If they're on all 4 corners you basically just knocked $200 off the buying price. They're $263 new, and don't really wear out...

 

Be looking for it at Harris Hill sometime later this year!

I'm with you. I've now got just about every impact extension and swivel Harbor Freight sells for changing starters, rear mains, the aforementioned clutch line, etc. And a tranny jack too. LOL.

I plan to sell the FM shock hats once the Xidas come in (IAW Emilio's recommendation). I'll also be selling the Koni Sports and various Eibach spring sets I got with the car. Be watching the classifieds. Every little bit helps.

 

Im sure you already thought about this or its already done, but don't forget to pull the pass airbag out. Do you think you may go 1.6 dash instead? I swapped mine and even with out the airbag I notice the 1.6 dash weighed significantly less.

 

What seats are those that were originally in the car? Like the exact seat.

 

RCI 8000. About $50 but not quite worth that much. It would be OK for drag racing though.

Racer's Choice Inc.

I have two for sale now . . . not worth the shipping to Florida though.

 

Wrenched on the car this weekend. Some pics:

PO had added some ducting to the lip spoiler. Good idea, not so good execution. Air directed so that it cools the brake shield, but not the brakes. Hmmmm . . . .

Anyways, pulled. We'll see how it does. If I need ducting, I'll do it right and get the air to the brake discs. Nice Wilwood BBK though.

Also pulled the exhaust. Holy cow was this car running rich! Cat was melted -- no wonder it was falling on its face above 5K! A test pipe is going on because racecar!

Engine pulled. Last time I did this, I pulled the hood. This time around, the hood was held up by gas struts and I had plenty of room. This is a job that gets easier with repetition.


WOW!! Look at all this stuff. It makes the 1.6 in my '90 look like a 1966 383 by comparison (the 383 is under the cover in the background ). My plans for this area are coolant reroute, EGR delete and pull/plug the mini coolant hoses. I will be keeping the VICS solenoid and running from the MSPNP. PO was running from an MSD RPM window switch. Should clean up well.


CAS O-ring anyone? Since the heater hose got oil soaked, it will be replaced. This is what happens when you go to the track with the engine grossly overfilled with oil.

 

Funny seeing the Mitsubishi logo on that cover above the heater hose (I'm assuming that's the CAS cover?).

lol @ brake ducts. You're doing an awesome job... what else would we expect?

 

Wow, that is one basket case. Looks like a good car to clean up though still, so no hate here.

What's up with the FM tophats in the front? That can't be very useful.. lol. Let me know if you want to sell them! I need them for the rear, you know, where they actually do you some good.

 

4G63.

 

The front suspension is bottomed out, I wonder if he was wanting to get lower by using the FM hats? Not sure why he didn't just buy 6" springs, they're most likely 7".

 

That dip stick looks JB Welded lol I bet Trey gave the previous owner a ton of **** about this car. Its only up from here. Cant wait to see more Rick

 

That is probably exactly what he was trying to do. Although, from what I've read FM top hats on the front are a pretty big no-no and will cause the front wheel to contact the fender/chassis.

 

I will be selling the FM tophats, front and rear. I have Xida's on the way and Emilio didn't recommend keeping the tophats. When I pull them, I'll shoot you a PM.

The front fenderliners are rubbed-through in a few spots. Front suspension was bottoming out . . . but not on the bump stops.

That's silicone on the oil tube. I'm guessing the oil level was above that!!!! There are little dabs of silicone and tie wraps all over this car. But it's cleaning up. The actual cause for all the little problems are revealing themselves, and none of them are a big deal. I think it's going to be a great track car.

 

I'll be honest with you guys, at first I found the cludged stuff pretty annoying. But now I just kind of feel bad for the PO. The workmanship wasn't there, but he spent gobs of money on this car. He bought and installed just about everything any vendor thought to sell him. And the records he kept . . . wow . . . like aircraft logbooks (he was a former Navy avionics tech -- I think he said he did a cruise on the Saratoga which was the ship I flew from). But despite it all, the car wasn't reliable for him. With a supercharger and bandaids, he went through 3 engines. In the end he went back to normally aspirated and a MSPNP. I've got reams of E-mails between him and Hustler talking about tuning the MS. He just didn't know where to start.

It's a cautionary tale. First of all, Mazda designed and built a darn fine car. Mod carefully. Take vendor claims with a grain of salt. Don't skimp on the workmanship. JOIN MT.NET!!! This is probably the best Miata site for straight talk on mods from people that actually have a clue.

It's still going to be a great track car!

 

Great job! I really enjoy reading all of your updates.

 

+1, me too. Rick is good people.