Bit of context: I grew up reading car magazines & playing games like need for speed. I finally started making some money and was ready for my first project car. I knew I wanted a popular car that would have lots of parts easily available so I chose …. a v6 97 mustang. Terrible decision obviously. I bought an absolute stinker that leaked from every orifice & ran poorly. After a few years of suffering I decided it was time to start fresh & try again.

I always read great things about Miata’s so I set off to find one. Sep 2023 I found the titular “Lil Plum” a 2000 SE with terrible paint, a hard dog rollbar, and 118k on the odo. I’m in Dallas, the seller was in Austin and I had business in Houston so I got a friend to take me to Austin, bought it and drove down to htown.


Lil Plum


About 15 min into the drive, the car started bucking terribly at highway speeds & losing power intermittently. I was regretting my purchase and wondering if the car would give out & let me get smushed by a semi. Eventually I stopped to put more gas (and change my pants). After that, it ran like a top. No more issues just pure enjoyment of the wind in my hair for the next two hours. No notable events on the drive back from Houston either, just pure joy.

 

Of course as soon as things are running well it is time to start making changes. I began by adding padding to the rollbar, installing an LRB gas cover the PO had not done. Previous cover was fully rusted. I gave it a little bit of gentle persuasion and pulled it out in chunks. I totally ruined the seats for the plastic nut inserts but I used rivnuts to replace them which worked great.

The car started having occasional idle issues & was leaking from the valve cover so I figured I’d dip my toe in on the mechanical side. I removed the intake & the valve cover. Cleaned everything up (on the inside, I wasn’t up to the challenge of scrubbing the oil off the valve cover) and buttoned it all back up. Seemed to work well enough.

The aftermarket double din radio was not working well & did not raise the automatic antenna. I replaced that with an alpine Ute 73 single din to make some room for aftermarket gauges. Wiring was a daunting adventure to figure out but I think things turned out ok.

I installed a glow shift boost gauge for more motivation and because it was the simplest gauge.


Boost (just vacuum for now &#128542

The ultimate goal of Lil Plum is to turbo it. To that end after much deliberation I bought an MS3pnp and a complete Kraken turbo kit. After reading a ton I also got a cheapo catch can, an aem wideband, shifter rebuild, glow shift sandwich plate, oil temp & pressure gauge, a new radiator, fluidampr, 949 coolant reroute.

I installed the catch can and was very pleased with myself.


Excuse the shitty photo

After hopping onto MT to read about other’s catch can installs I was quickly humbled. My hose routing was all wrong and I swallowed my pride & redid it following the ultimate catch can guide. (No breather installed for now).

I replaced the torn cream seats with NB2 surfboards that only had a couple split seams .

 

I drove it around for a while and eventually got tired the gauges were so hard to read with the Thompson gauge panel. I switched to an Amazon angled gauge panel & installed my oil pressure & temp sensors. Running the wires through the firewall grommets is one of the most tedious and frustrating tasks I’ve done so far.


Flipped the boost gauge so I can actually see what’s going on


I did the full shifter rebuild & found the stick leaned a bit further from me than I remembered… after a quick search I realized it was backwards & redid it. I went out the next morning for my first auto cross event and it was awesome. I had a great time and got second to last of the novices. I’m good with that though, the car & I made it home in one piece so I’ll take it.

With the auto cross done & feeling a bit bored with no project I decided to tackle the wideband & the MS3. The wideband was surprisingly simple. I had left all the wires ready for installation & the firewall grommet was compliant. Fitting the MS3 in the footwell was a nightmare. I started out with just zip tying it up but after I kicked it when clutching in I figured it might be smart to use the singular motorsports mounting bracket. I got that in and started tuning.


First ms3 start & wideband in

 

Tuned for a few weeks, worked through idle dip & ac idle dip. I’m running closed loop idle. I’ll post my tune when I get to my computer later today if anyone wants to share some MT “constructive” feedback.


Radio back in

I was bored while things were going well so I got a non hazy headlight to replace the passenger side (driver was replaced by PO after a bumper came off at the track). I also painted the letters in the valve cover.


New (old) headlight


Not quite Michaelangelo but I think it’s decent enough

My coolant temp consistently hit 220 especially while I was working on the idle. As I understand that is a bit hot so I’d go take a drive to help things cool down and I started to open the hood when stopped to get a bit of airflow. This leads into my next set of changes and what I’m currently suffering through.

I don’t have a garage of my own but I was able to convince a buddy who doesn’t use theirs to let me in for “a couple days”. I got the car setup on ramps and was about to start when a couple of angry wasps started flying towards me. Wasps aren’t the best roommates (not the worst either) so I called up a pest control guy to take care of them & waited a couple of days.

 

Welcome, man! Nice first few posts to introduce yourself and your project! Subscribed myself and will be following along.

Wasps are no joke. I was at a mountain bike race taking photos once and accidentally kicked my way through a burrowing wasp nest (at the time, I didn't even know that some species of wasps burrowed). Got nipped three times and within 30 minutes I had completely swollen up, lost my voice and had to go to the medic's tent. And I'm not even allergic!

Nice looking car. Excited to see what you've done to it.

 

This brings me to Sunday where I decided to take a great car apart and hope I don’t ruin it all. Figured it was time to do the timing belt so might as well do the water pump, coolant reroute, radiator, and fluidampr.

I dropped this wrench twice when I was removing the intake manifold bracket back when I did the oil gauge. Both times it bounced off the frame into the splash guard and slid right into the oil bucket I had setup. It still leaks a bit every time I flip the switch.


DIY rust proofing




One of many reference photos so I can hopefully put things back together


Radiator and airbox out


Punched something hard while pulling off the coolant hoses


Valve cover removed


The belt guide was stuck so I had to get a puller


Reused the puller to get the sprocket off

I’m currently stuck with the intake cam gear bolt not budging and looking for a way to pull the seal off the crank. Open to any advice. I tried loosening the cam bolt using an adjustable wrench on the cam but it still slipped & rounded a bit off of one of the hexes.

 

I appreciate the welcome! We will see how things turn out haha. I’m hoping to get it fully turboed by the end of the year.

My buddies house has yellow jackets in the floor as well, the pest tech mentioned they hide in the grass and if you disturb them it’s hell to pay. That sounds horrible haha.

Your NC looks awesome as well!

 

Here is my latest tune as it stands as well as a recent log. The tune could use a bit of smoothing on the VE table and I am open to any feedback y'all may have.

 

Was finally able to get the intake cam off. I left it soaking overnight with PB blaster, called a buddy over and had him hold the adjustable wrench while I pulled the wrench on the bolt.


Slight ding from overzealous pulling

The adjustable wrench hit the head but I figure (cross my fingers and pray) it hopefully shouldn’t impact the seal. Now I’m onto pulling the cam caps. I see some evidence of the PO digging around here and marring on the sealing surfaces :(

 

Scratches

Fully apart

Finally got everything done and onto the cleaning phase. There is some buildup on the coolant hard lines. Any ideas on how I can clean that up?


Ew

 

Nice dude, sounds like a solid goal! And thanks, the NC is a work in progress but will hopefully be a ripper by the end of the year as well (engine swap or turbo are both being considered).

PB Blaster is magic. If it were me, I’d probably file down that ding in the head and call it a day. It looks like it’s probably not on the sealing surface, but filing it would help me sleep better at night personally.

I’m lazy and like using my electric polishing wheel for everything. I’d probably take a fine wheel to those heater hoses and try to remove deposits off the hard to reach spots with a high-grit sandpaper. How do the inside of the hoses look?

In reference to your question about the tune, you might have better luck making a separate thread with the specifics you’d like looked over. Just for visibility’s sake.

 

Are the NCs similar in terms of stock internals being strong enough to handle a decent amount of boost?

I think I’ll have to get a wheel or brush in them for sure. I was able to scrape the outside of the hoses but the insides are all gummed up too.

I’ll probably make another thread for the tune once the car is actually running again. Hopefully that is sooner rather than later. Once I can figure out how to get the timing belt on with correct timing should be just about done.

 

Had my first big snag yesterday. In the process of reassembling I over torqued the exhaust cam sprocket bolt and broke it off .


Oopsie

After a few choice words & lots of regret I went to Home Depot & bought a small chisel. I gently tapped it on the edge box the broken bolt and got it to back out enough so I could use pliers to remove it.


Coming out

To replace the bolt I bought a 30mm 10.9 grade bolt and torqued it down to the proper specs this time.


It matches my oil varnish

The large adjustable made my life so much easier. I was originally using a smaller adjustable from a set which kept slipping on the cam hex. Big boy gave me leverage and held the cam perfectly.

Now onto timing…

 

Feeling great right now. Few pictures but I was very productive.

I took a good bit of time getting the timing setup correctly. I crushed my FM ninja tool and kept having the crank rotate but eventually I got it sorted.

Went on putting all the pieces back & reconnecting hoses until it was time to take care of the reroute install.


New radiator & steel toed crocs pictured

Installing the new reroute housing is honestly one of the most unpleasant things I have opted into doing. It was a terrible blind struggle to try to maneuver the large housing in such a tight area. The instructions mention the egr might be in the way and that it can be bent out but that felt almost impossible. I’m not sure what’s going on with mine. I tried to unscrew the egr pipe from the exhaust manifold and it was rust welded shut. The pb blaster didn’t really help much either. I forged on and made ghetto plates to close it off.

Deciding I had had enough and eager to get things moving I slathered rtv all over the housing and shoved it in. I was able to push back the EGR with my pinky knuckle and slide the housing over the stud to get it situated. The provided bolt went in with little fanfare and so I thought I was just about home free. How wrong I was.. the nut for the other side of the housing was damn near impossible to get seated. I tried to reach under, I tried to reach from the passenger side, nothing worked. I was pouring sweat and desperate so I climbed on top of the engine and by perching on the valve cover almost in a fetal position I was able to reach from the back and get the nut threaded. After another agonizing and painful session of turning a ratchet 10 deg at a time I got the nut fully tightened and breathed a sigh of relief


My dirty boy. I managed to get sealant everywhere, currently praying I got enough to stay on to keep things water tight 🤞🏼

After that adventure, I just had to put on the finishing touches & tighten things down. Thankfully it was quick and uneventful.


Engine just about buttoned up

I filled it up with fluids and started it. After a little bit of cranking it fired right up and sounded great. Bled the coolant without a funnel (because the adapters did not fit in the koyo) and then let the car idle for some time. There was an intermittent rattling after a while but I think it’s my EGR pipe wiggling around. Took the car for a spin and it was great. Finally brought it back home.


Made it

Now just need to top off the coolant after some time, add more shielding to the upper radiator hose, and secure some of the wires around the car.

Ill also need to figure out a long term plan for the EGR.

 

With this I should be done with everything on my list to prepare for the turbo kit. I’ll probably drive around for a while to make sure things aren’t falling apart and to actually enjoy some seat time before diving back in.

 

Great thread so far. I appreciate that you are doing all the maintenance and prep work before turboing, well done. Being in TX once you install an IC you'll absolutely want to get some good ducting in the mouth to force air through the heat exchangers, so keep that in mind.

 

What Fire said ^^^. Great job, though! I remember the coolant reroute install being a PITA as well. Both the EGR pipes in my NA8 and my buddy's NB1 weren't long enough to fit around the reroute after install. I ended up having my roommate weld some additional length onto mine but I can't remember what my buddy did for his...

 

Thanks y’all! I’ve been seeing a bunch of ducting in all these build threads so I’m getting the sense it might be just a little bit important haha.

I took care of protecting the new upper rad hose & topped off the coolant again. I haven’t noticed any leaks so far which has me hopeful. The Miata had a slow oil leak previously so I might have actually improved it a bit. Time will tell. I still need to reattach the front sway & add back the splash guard. Once that’s complete I think Lil Plum will be left alone for a bit in terms of performance parts.

I was hopeful about the rattle being the EGR pipe but unfortunately I believe it is from the alternator. It happens intermittently at idle and I can trigger it by using the window switches or by turning on my headlights which makes me lean towards an alternator problem. I had never heard it before I did the timing belt so I’m wondering if I possibly overtightened the alternator belt.

 

What you need is one of these, the Krikit. Although they seem to cost twice what I bought mine for in 2019 or so.
Krikit by Gates
And given the Cam shaft bolt, it is possible you over tightened the belt.
Really nice save on the cam shaft bolt, by the way!

 

Thanks! I was nervous about having ruined things for a bit before I backed the broken bolt out. Got the same advice on the other Miata forum so I bought the krikit it turns out my belts were actually way loose lol. If I can be trusted (which is in the air given my history) things should be at least close to correct now.