pdexta's build: round 3
 

My 10AE was destroyed when tboned by a Camry that ran a stop sign. To replace it I picked up a new to me Miata and this time around I figured I'd try to document it's (hopefully swift) evolution.

I ended up picking up a '94 R-package. The car has a few small dents, a bent fender, faded paint, and the AC is good for droping ambient temps by at least 3 degrees. I feel like I paid way too much for it but there just wasn't much selection locally, I was going nuts with no car, and I really liked the R-package options: torsen, no ABS, power NOTHING (steering, windows, locks, etc), and came with a hardtop. I picked it up bone stock, aside from having the muffler cut off, with 98,676 miles on it, for $4400.

Took a picture of it on the way home. I should be able to clean it up a bit tonight and get some better pictures. God I hate the stupid pin stripes, but I know it's going to look horrible if I pull it off.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1346963155

I always loved those R Miatas.

Can't wait to see the results.

Nice to see you picked another up so quickly. I know that feeling regarding the pinstripes, looks to me we have the exact same ones with classic red and everything.

What will the first mods be ?

I'm actually hoping to swap my suspension on tonight. BC Coilovers and Racing Beat Swaybars/Endlinks.

The thing is so slow, I'm dying to get a turbo on it but it look like it'll be a little while to recouperate my finances and gather supporting mods. I raced my girlfriend in her RSX last night and she put bus lengths on me, later she told me she never went WOT :bang:

I used a 3M stripe-off wheel on a drill to remove pin stripes the other day. Does the work without damaging the paint.

congrats man. so basically your 10AE will be re-incarnated in this thing?

Nice find! Can't you just transfer the engine,drivetrain, etc?

Should have driven up here for more selection. but you'll do well with that.

If it makes you feel better I bought my '99 150K w/ 195/195/200/195 compression for $3000. See "slutbucket rape victim" thread in my signature. It did not have pinstripes but it did have rust. Which I handily took care of.

:fael:
Lol!!!

Congrats man, car looks great. Nothing like a 94R. Is the built motor/6 speed going in this?

What do you think of NA vs NB cars in general. You've had a few now.

Got a few more stock pictures last night.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347029367

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347029367

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347029367

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347029367

I did get the coilovers and sway bars swapped over but by then it was too dark to get any pictures.

I was able to salvage quite a few parts from the 10AE which will eventually find their way onto this one. It doesn't look like I'll be able to save the motor though. There had definitely been an increase in the frequency I was dumping my catch can anyway. I feel like the stock '97 pistons/rings had probably seen better days, but they did see ~20,000 miles over 300whp and another ~20,000 miles around 250whp so it's hard to complain.

As for the NA vs NB question, they're really very similar. It comes down to a few pretty obvious things IMO. NB has better interior and better head, NA has stupid popup headlights, it's cheaper, and weighs marginally less. NB is a better daily, NA is a better racecar.

Wow, looks much better than the first pics now that its in the day. Can't wait to see this progress. What are your plans, just swap the turbo kit onto the stock motor? Mild build? fully built? Subscribed for epic-ness. I loved your last miata, but really my favorite was your light blue N/A. I used to love watching videos of that thing shit on a v8's.

Lol, thanks. I'm hoping this car will be kind of a combination of my previous 2 cars. The first one I went way overboard with getting every ounce of weight out of it and the last one was full weight and then some (adding a lot of sound deadening).

I want to buy a daily driver and rip the AC out of this one since it barely works anyway. The plan for now is to turbo the stock motor and run the typical 220-250hp and then see how the finances fall into place. I'd love to buy a beast of a motor from Savington and push it toward 400whp, but realistically I'll probably end up doing another half-assed built motor and shooting for low 300's.

mow your lawn. you're going to need a machete to get past your front walkway soon.

Make car go faster > mow the lawn

It's southwest Florida. That's probably 6 days worth of growth. It rains hard for about 40 minutes every afternoon in the summer. It's raining right now where I am.

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lolol


..no

yay for red NAs

Gave the car a good wash and wax, the paint cleaned up really nice aside from the hardtop that still looks crappy. Also got my coilovers, swaybars, and 10AE front shock brace are all on and I got the windows tinted.

I ordered an ACT streetlite flywheel, which I wanted to do on my old car but didn't want to pull the tranny out just to do it. Once it's here a 6 speed and the ACT xtreme pressure place and performance disk from my old car will go in with it. Also ordered 2 new RPF1's and Kumho XS's so I'll have a full set and can get these crappy tires off the car.

A few pictures from today:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347216095

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347216095

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347216095

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347216095

Coming along quite nicely.

Just curious: what do you like about a light flywheel on a daily driven car?

^ Never had one, but I'll let you know my thoughts once it's installed, I do like the idea of less rotational mass though.

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Looking great. Keep us updated! I expect boost by next weekend ;)

I hadn't planned on it, but for the right price anything is for sale. Just have to wait on my new wheels and tires to get here. I was hoping they'd be the "hollow spoke" wheels, but looks like they're just plain ole solid spokes.

Thanks man. The big holdup is going to be the megasquirt, once it's here the turbo will go on shortly after. I'm at 98,8xx miles now, hoping to be turbo by 100k.

Not trying to thread jack but I have an 8.5lb one in my car. I did it before I boosted and then when I swapped my clutch(FM1 level1) I didn't bother switching. The difference is negligible in my opinion. I notice no real difference in drivability.

i had the fidanza 8lb and it was noticable over a stock flywheel.

although it did add a little nvh.

I have always run the light flywheel. I liked the improvement in lower gears, and never thought it was a problem on the street. Motor sounds healthier too.

my stock ECU hated my 8lb flywheel and so did I.

Yeah subaru's often tend to flip out with light flywheels and throw random misfire codes too.
I've no personal daily driving experience with a lwfw in a miata, but have driven numerous hondas, subarus, and other cars with them and concluded that they suck for daily driving, which is why I asked the question. I guess it would depend on the clutch (and rest of drivetrain) too, but it was jerky and unpleasant...when trying to drive smoothly I was required to put in extra effort to keep car from not bucking during shifts.

I dd with an 8lb flywheel and a 6 puck ACT 400lbs clutch. No problem, even in DC traffic.
...however it does make it very difficult to drive a "normal" light clutch after


949 twin disk is the hardest one to drive. I was told you basically have to chirp wheels every time.

I went with a ACT Streetlite which is supposed to be 12lbs, so hopefully it won't be much of a problem.

8lbs isnt too light.

see?

(first startup on MAP, not tuned)

it will be nice as 12lb tho.

I like to idle at 800rpm and 15:1; about half what you are for both :).

but ive only tried it on the stock ecu, and it would stall constantly.

like i said, the ECU was not tuned.

It did idle properly after being tuned.

I had just converted the tune there from maf to map... so almost all of the settings were off.

ooooohhh I never realized that this is why my car would stall sometimes at 850rpm idle... like it would dip into 500rpm and stall. Now I'm at ~1000rpm and closed loop idle control - idles like a boss, never stalls.

Haven't checked my idle AFR in a long time but it's like 16:1 or something like it.

you has MS, you can tune it out easily.

I still had a hard time idling at sub-1000rpm :(
I'd like to see any other ECU do that with my setup though, hah.

what's so special about your setup that would make it hard to idle below 1000rpm?

get faster/smaller injectors and lower airflow.

Sometimes it just overshoots and stalls when coming off throttle. I'm sure I can tune out of it.

Mine idles fine... mods in sig.

I made a couple little changes last night.

I managed to acquire a stock NA catback and swap it on in place of the chopped of muffler the previous owner had. The car is a 1000 times better to drive now, so quiet.

Then I hardwired my 9500i radar detector.

Also found an almost empty can of R134 in the garage. The gauge showed it was low on freon so I added what was left in the car, it could still use a little more but the AC blows cold enough I had to turn it down on my drive to work.

I was hoping to swap out my 6 speed, clutch, and flywheel this weekend but couldn't find any 70w-90 gear gl4 gear oil locally so I ended up swapping out the rearend instead. The 3.90 rearend is now in the car so it's even slower than it was before. I got 2 new RPF1s put them on with the 2 good ones off my old car, swapped out the stock motor mounts for a MMR and a mazdacomp mount, and swapped the stock clutch line for a braided line.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347829139

mmr and mazdacomp
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347829139

stock
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347829139

I also received my MSPNP from DIYAutotune and picked up a slightly damaged '99 head to go on my spare block after I build it. Can't wait to get the megasquirt in and running, hopefully I can get it swapped over this week.

Woot, in for more sexy parts.

Let the motor build begin ?!

Geez speedy progress indeed. Good stuff

youll hate those mounts.

I've got the mazdacomp ones and they are the tits.

Not sure about that MMR poly mount though, although he obviously is aware of the rigidity of those and is trying to offset it by using only 1 of them. Which side do you put the MMR mount on?

oh i see what he did.

I started out running 2 MMR mounts which is pretty brutal and makes your rearview mirror useless. I switched to mazdacomp mounts and while they're a great improvement, I didn't feel like they were stiff enough. With one of each you still get some decent vibration but it's nothing ridiculous. I run the MMR on the driver's side, assuming that one is going to see the most stress and flex.

hi bro I've been banging some chick who goes to FGCU, wanna meet up one day when I'm over there? :-)

This threads talking about MMR mounts, not MMF mounting. :bowrofl:

By bang he means felch and by chick he means dude

look, you don't need to comment with something gay on every single one of my posts. We get it, you are a homosex.

Man you 2 fight more than a married couple,

Wwassuuppp withat?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1347934256

Let me know when you're heading over this way.


I mounted and wired my gauges (wideband, boost, water temp) last night. I was going to swap the wideband into the secondary o2 sensor location when I realized there isn't a secondary o2 sensor, lol.

I'm hoping to get the megasquirt in tonight, but a little nervous I'll screw something up and not have a car to drive to work tomorrow. I guess I'll see what happens.

Does the motor not squat to the passenger side? would it not be "best" then to put the solid mount on that side?