Started to get some work done today. I've already started on the weight reduction by removing at least 5 lbs of pine needles. There's still plenty of them left even after this first cleaning session. The list of things that need to be replaced is growing every day. Started under the hood by fixing the timing belt and adding all the other broken stuff to the to fix-it list. I'm not going to really do any thorough cleaning until I pull the engine but it sure does look cluttered right now.

Attachment 193173

After that I moved to the inside and started looking at the wiring. I think a new wiring harness in in my future. Just to see if it would run I taped up all the bare wires and tried to start it. She fired right up and ran like complete shit. Here's what I am working with on the inside.

Attachment 193174

Attachment 193175

That's all for today.

Made some progress today, now there's two Miatas with missing engines.

Attachment 193048
Attachment 193049

You move fast! Is pulling the engine without tranny a lot harder than pulling both out in one piece?

Nice, looks like you are making progress quickly. Subscribed.

It really depends on the car, some of them seem to cooperate a bit more than others. I prefer to pull them together whenever possible, just decided to do it this way yesterday so I didn't have to store it somewhere. I'm still undecided as to which car I want to keep.

Got quite a bit accomplished over the past couple of days. The brakes are now fixed and there's a new clutch/flywheel/pressure plate installed. Engine even went back in without any fuss. Added fluids, checked everything again and she started immediately. Turns out the cat was hollowed out, so that's another thing that needs to get fixed. Set the timing and did a quick test drive. Everything was fine until I turned on the heater. The engine immediately dies and won't start until I turn off the heater and remove the key from the ignition. I'm completely lost as to how these items are related, but apparently they are. The car is a Cali car, but the previous owner ended up running a non-Cal ecu in it and that's why the wiring has been spliced and diced enough to get it to run. I'm thinking there's additional wiring that needs to be changed, a Cali ecu installed or just MS it. Any ideas? I like the idea of getting the car to run in it's stock form prior to making any additional changes to it.

I would MS it

Definitely time for a clean harness.

There's nothing more I hate than wiring issues.

I've thought about that more than once, but if I did this and started to have problems, I'd be wondering if it's the MS or some other wiring issue I have yet to uncover. It's always easier to throw an ecu at a car that already runs good.

While its not generally accepted as a good idea, I msd my car when it had a few problems and they went right away with a good tune. My car had these issues: idle would droop and stall after letting off the throttle at red lights/etc. The car had no throttle response, it would bog when you gave it gas.

MS+AFM delete and my car runs perfect.

Again, not recommending you do this. Just throwing in my :2cents:

^this!

Buy a clean harness from a dismantler and swap it in. I did this on my track car that had a hacked up harness and it only took a few hours. All the electrical gremlins magically disappeared after I did it.

I have a good friend that keeps telling me to do that, but I'm reluctant to believe that it will only take me a couple of hours to accomplish this task. I could easily see this turning in to a nightmare of epic proportions.

The heater issue will be a nightmare... and so will the alternator issue, and the car shutting off issue and the radio issue, and the... (just hypothetical future here)

It's alive, with heat and no it didn't start on fire while running.

good shit, congrats.
whats next?

I'm not sure, yet. Part of me wants to keep it, part of me wants to sell it, part of me wants to put a V8 in it and part of me wants to drive it into a lake. I'm going to spend the next few weeks working on the other Miata so I can make a true back to back comparison.

need help with the back to back comparison? lol. good to hear you found out the heating without engine dying problem. that was really weird.

I'd pay good money to see this.