Last Friday I held the second annual miata gathering. This year the dealership took active part in the planning and advertisement of the gathering and we got 4 miatas that visited us from the Netherlands.
On the day of the gathering I had been working nightshift until 6AM and got woken up by a friend at 10AM saying : "Óttar, you're not showing up there without the engine at least in the car, I brought the hoist". I dragged my *** out of bed and he threw the engine in with me. once that was done another friend showed up with a trailer and we went to the capital where I picked up a red NB that I was taking to the gathering on behalf of an owner that couldn't make it there.

The weather forecast was awful and there had been little activity on the forums so I was very concerned that we'd have low turnout. When I showed up it was only me and the Dutch people. a couple of cars sowed up and then they just kept coming. I was so relieved and so happy with the final turnout of 14 cars which is the majority of miatas in Iceland.

we had 2 photographers, good turnout and good turnout of both owners and onlookers.-
































-

 

 

thank you

But when I bought the house I kinda put the car on pause. I'll finish the garage in a month or two and then start on the car again. Not that much left really but I'll just spend the winter tinkering with it and be ready for next spring

 

Looks like a good event if you can get people to come so far.

Are you planning on coming to Daytona in November for the Turkey Rod Run?

 

I'm tempted now that you mention it. I'll decide when it gets closer to the event since I might go on a Boeing type course this winter and I don't know exactly when

 

A friend became a dealer for Theretrofitsource.com and I decided to use the chance and do an upgrade I've wanted to do for a long time. The LED bulbs were strong but there was a little bleed from them, not blinding for oncoming traffic but enough to bug me so I went for a full projector retrofit

The projector, opted for a square lens and shroud to make the most of the space inside the slim miata headlight,
quality of parts surprised me. This is an aluminum ballast with the logo machined into the aluminum
all wires well labeled and in braided wire shielding with all ends closed off by glue coated heatshrink
painted the inside of the lights textured black and had to cut the bottom of the reflector to make space for the projector. Had to trim the projector shroud a bit too but it can't be seen
close to finished
A mockup of the final product with a flashlight shining through the lens. well pleased with the look and fitment. Front lens not sealed in yet since I still have leveling and minor adjustments left that has to wait until the car can power the ballasts
If anyone has nb1 headlights with nice lenses and broken tabs I'd love to hear from them since I am not quite happy with the state of these even after polishing. the plastic is all crazed on the inside

 

Switched the electrical system on tonight. No fires and no smoke. That's a win in my book. Now I can kick the final stages into overdive.

fuel, intercooler and engine sensors are all that's left
So I can tinker all winter in small details and not worry about anything big

 

finally some progress again. just minor stuff remains before I can start the car. We're in the home stretch now!


How it looks with the front mount and projector headlights



A 7" touchscreen in the sunvisor controlled by a Raspberry Pi and autoboots into tunerstudio



Installed the fuel rail and FPR tonight. almost pissed off how clean it is because it is almost invisible



Closer View of the FPR, just gotta buy clamps for the hoses and I'm finished



All that remains is to wire up all the sensors and install the tranny. we're getting close to "go time!"

 

Love the sunvisor pi idea. Pretty cool. I've built one that's going to go into my dash as well. What OS are you running, and what method did you use to get it to boot into tunerstudio?

 

Sun visor wouldn't work for me because I've got a full roll cage now, but it might be nice to have in the dash.

Please tell me you are headed to Miatas at the Gap this year finally.

 

I got impatient dealing with raspbian so I bought the premade OS by Pidash. A very convenient solution for a very fair price
https://pidashs.com/products/pidash-os
Guy is super helpful and very fair on his pricing

And sorry Steve. Through August I'll be taking a Boeing Type certification course. So I won't make it. But I've got entire June off work. anything happening then?

 

Possibly. I'll let you know.

 

making the sub harness for the LS1 coils. While being a bit retarded in reading electrical diagrams

My understanding is that the B pin "signal ground to MS3" is the Black wire on the miata harness as per the COP sticky






so where do I get the "power ground to engine?" just wherever or am I mixing these up? it's kinda messing with me since the harness ground also grounds at the intake manifold

Also, I am aware that the rear nb1 and nb2.5 oil pan half moon seals are different, does the same apply to the front seals?

 

Well, I went to a friends shop and we dragged it through the final stretch.

250wheel horsepower and 206 ft/lbs, we tuned it this time without VVT because he believed that would give the transmission a fighting chance since I'm stuck with the 5 speed with no replacements here in Iceland.



She's smooth and daily driveable, gotta finish a couple of things before inspection and then I can just enjoy. But maaaaan she pulls now

And I got to drive her home... FINALLY!

 

Excellent. I know the 5 speed is so much better. If you ever need a 6 speed we can break one down to fit more easily into your flight plans.

Do you have interest in coming to Miatas at the Gap this year?

 

you know. it is during a major holiday in Iceland and everything is closed. I just might. I can tell you more after the weekend

 

Finally found out why my radiator fan refused to work.Turns out I had been a bit too enthusiastic in my wiring cleanup and had split the blu/yel wire behind the left headlight. Easy splice job though and now it works like a charm.

Wired in the xenon projector retrofit and damn that makes a difference in light output. I highly recommend that mod to any daily driven miata.

Finally got some dry weather and did a couple of pulls in the dry and god damn it is scary even if it's just 250hp.



Welding in the new sway bar mounts and installing the racing beat swaybar tomorrow. Inspection on Monday. Can't wait to be able to go out cruising in this

 

No replacements in Iceland? If you blow your 5 speed, i can send you another one from germany. Just looked it up, DHL charges 60,99€ up to 31.5kg. I dunno what a 5 speed weights, but i think its around 25kg?
Just send me a PM if you need it.

 

This is such a great community.

 

Dude, I am so grateful for your offer. I am still deciding if I'll go for a six speed or the kmiata zf bmw swap.

I'll decide this winter. For now I'm happy with 250 and getting used to it