:rofl:
Oooo, oooo, do we get to vote for our favorite method?
I vote for the toothpick method, but be sure to use the flat ones if you want it to stay on. ;)

Screw you guys... Im using chopsticks! When the car is first turned on, they'll be cut down to length perfectly.

Howbowdah?

https://www.boltdepot.com/Metric_soc...m_x_1.0mm.aspx

If you want some siqqqq 12.9 bolts. I couldn't find any 12.9 hex bolts on boltdepot.

https://www.lawsonproducts.com/Cap-S...M6:8214:12%2e9

Set of 25 m6 bolts!

Huge thanks to 96morbst for letting me grab parts off his NB2 motor to get my car back up and running over the weekend. His motor has been stored in my garage for a year now and I keep forgetting about it because I hid it under a tarp... that way the temptation to steal the vvt head doesn't lead me to action. Thanks man!

I should be able to start working on stuff when I get home on friday afternoon. Hopefully I'll have a running car on saturday!

Found these guys as well. They look pretty solid with the flange.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#92235a238/=dioxj0

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ff8cfa1d4d.png

I too am in the process of replacing all the bolts in the timing belt, and water pump area. I can get the Mazda part number but now the lengths or bolt size. Any idea how to go about that? I would assume length matters

It really depends on how you use it.

Stick a stick into the holes and measure.

You mean a toothpick.

That makes wayyyyy more sense haha thanks!

Spoon feeding time.
The 4 little bolts that bolt a t3 turbine housing to the center housing just need about an eighth of an inch ground off the end to be perfect. Lots of folks around here probably have some laying around and they're pretty nice bolts.

Thanks man! I ordered a bunch of different bolts from mcmaster carr, bolt depot, and another place in 16mm length which is what I saw being recommended when i searched. Worst case scenario, I can steal the bolts off Chris's motor that's sitting here in the garage, but I think they should be here today or tomorrow.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it!

Edit: Already have delivery confirmation for the bolt depot bolts (thanks bahurd!). Accessory belts and cam/crank angle sensor should all be there by 8 pm (amazon prime!).
If you look at the picture, it looks like the crank angle sensor got hit pretty good. I figured an extra cam angle sensor was a good thing to have around for a car that is driven as much as this.

I didn't think even YOU could create this many posts about crank pulley bolts, mang.

OEM is fine. ACE hardware has bolts that work. All you have to do... is not overtorque them... and use Loctite.

Who knew crank pulley bolts could be so complicated?

Seriously... why didn't you just order 4 of what you needed from one place? Are we going to see a FS ad soon for "custom" balancer bolts.

I ordered 4+ from EACH of the places all at the same time haha. I just wanted to make sure something would get back here by the time I got back.

Haha well looks like 16 mm was the wrong length. Bolts are all way too short. I scavenged some bolts from 96morbsts motor in the garage and from bytevenoms motor as well. Used a torque wrench this time as well as blue loctite.

Battery needed a jump because my trickle charger magically started smoking, but the car is up and running again. Thanks for the help!

I'll measure one of the bolts sitting around downstairs and order a round for the guys here.

Edit: Bolt was 24ish mm.

Thanks to phillymiata for the hookup on my first hardtop.
Don't worry, the shit on the ground is just ATF and diff fluid from my subaru when the transmission decided to commit seppuku. GOOD TIMES!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2e3d3b5335.jpg


Which after some wheeling and dealing, turned into this.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6a258ada70.jpg

It's not perfect, but it'll do just fine. I don't the side strikers on my car so the top rattles a bit. I'll either have to grab some of those, but I might just make/buy bolt in brackets just for a tiny bit of added security.


Thanks again @Philly Miata


I've been DD'ing the car since my subaru is down. Unfortunately it's probably going to run a fair bit more than I had hoped for the repairs on that. I tried doing the AT swap in my garage and it was an ordeal. Had to have the car towed to a garage and I'm letting them figure it out. I'm out the cash for a transmission as well because the guy that I had 'hired' to help pretty much broke the damn thing when he tried to close it up without things lined up properly. Lesson learned, I suppose: don't fuck with the daily. I had originally wanted to just swap the suspension and front control arms at home, but the trans started acting up going back down my driveway.

I think I'll stick to miata things in the future...

On that note... I have a 3.9 diff waiting to go in. I'm on the fence about keeping the 5 speed in the car with that diff just to make things more tolerable on the road, but the five speeds days will be numbered when i finish my motor. On the bright side, atleast the revs will be lower on the highway with a 6 speed and 3.9 vs a 5 speed and a 4.3! After checking the FM calculator, at 80 it'll be ~250 revs less with the 3.9 and 6 speed than my current 4.3 and 5 speed setup. Keeping the 5 speed would net about 130 revs less. Eh.

Looks super nice

Thanks man.
I've since realized that I wasn't just seeing things and that the top is actually montego blue. Heh. Close enough.

I had a bit of an unexpected major expense to get my subaru back on the road. This car is legitimately such a money pit that I honestly don't even know why I still bother....but then it runs super well for a while and gets my hopes up. :/

Pretty much had to pony up built block parts money to get the transmission swapped over for it and ended up out a bunch of money because a mechanic I'd hired to help me do the swap at home sold me his trans and axle and then vanished after he pretty much destroyed the input shaft while forcing it in.

Live and learn...

After a recent thread looking at range from one tank, I decided to see how far I could go when dailying the car. My commute is about a 25 mile round trip and I often do a few errands here and there during the week. Ended up getting 288 miles when I pulled into my garage last night with the needle just at or under E after a trip to Boston. I'm curious how much I'll be able to fill up at this point. I'm guessing that it's going to be in the realm of 11-11.5 gallons, so 1 gallon left in the tank.

As an aside, car was acting funny last night and wasn't really making full boost. Intermittently it would work totally fine. I don't think that the issue is a boost leak right now in the traditional sense. Any advice on how to troubleshoot the BOV? That's what I'm leaning towards because I didn't really hear it let off at all. I got the full 12lbs a few times, but most of the time it would see like 3-5 lbs and it was struggling to do that. I don't think it's the wastegate. I'll try taking apart the BOV and seeing if there's an issue. I need a better BOV anyway...

Subaru is working well now, so I think it's time to spend a bit of time on the miata to catch up on some maintenance and troubleshoot a few things.