I agree with keeping at least your shell it's a super clean car. I think you should run it one more year and if you still want a change maybe do a built k swap and shoot for 300 non turbo.

I dont know.. you gotta do what you gotta do but this is one of my personal favorites on here do t want to see you give it up.

I might be willing to take the cams off your hands if you dont want them and it keeps you in the car another year.

 

EVERY TIME somebody takes their car apart for more than a couple of months they start to lose the familiarity of the joy of driving it. I always recommend changing one thing at a time and getting it back on the road to enjoy as quickly as possible.

If your girlfriend is hot and dynamite in bed but you haven't had any, or even seen her naked, in 6 months then your eye may wander. It doesn't mean you won't be thrilled when you are stroking her throttle and plowing through her curves again. She's still got the ability to get your rocks off so hard, but you have to take her out on a date or you won't get any.

You are worrying about whether you'd like her better with her hair dyed a new color instead of pulling her close and enjoying the luxuries of what her hot *** is ready to give you. Buy that bitch a purse and take what's yours. Make her moan and squeal.

TL;DR - Get some

 

For what it's worth, if it helps in the motivation department - following your build has been pretty inspirational to those of us getting started on attempting to make power beyond stock block limits. I've enjoyed reading through your build log and seeing one of the few well put together dual duty builds (though I like your car more as a street car) I've come across a fair share of old posts/threads of you looking for information along your journey that has definitely helped me along with mine.

I also agree 100% with six's thoughts - the longer a project stays apart/un-drive-able, the more doubt and lack of motivation starts to set in. I'm sure once everything is back together, you'll fall right back into it. I know I would.

+1 on mechanical empathy. Breaking more **** sounds like it might break you too. Join the 6spd preservation society.

 

I'm a bit tired and sullied of pop-up/small fender life. I kinda want an NB1 shell that I can have prepped, caged, then swap all my suspension bits to and use the nb stuff to roll the NA to its new owner.

That way I don't have to source more parts individually to get rid of parts. It makes better sense in my head, and something about feeling good sleeping on a bed with new sheets. Fresh start.

 

I think this is the path forward, so many things in the pipeline, and of course science is important for future miata brethren/sistren.

I try to empathize as best I can, that's how I've only had one 6 speed this entire time... But I'm curious how far that goes, if things go well

 

Let's work on getting this ready for MATG2019, then you can decide the best way forward. I'm available to help next weekend and onward.

Get those block tester spacer deals made and LET'S GO!

 

This is an idea. I just thing I'd prefer an NB1 shell for that project and not have to deal with all the wiring it took to get my car to where it is. I could strip out the spare car and start anew. Purpose built from the start. Smurfette has been a cumulative project for what... Nearly 5 years, while I was in school building the motor in a storage shed. It had a cobbled start and hadn't had the full attention to detail since it was my daily up until about 1.5 years ago. It'd be nice to start over when I didn't have to rush to get it working the next day for school /work.


yea. It wasn't until just yesterday I felt the nostalgia of MATG2018 and would definitely miss that if I gave the car up in the summer months. It really does ebb and flow but you're right, when it's working, it's usually more fun. I just gotta concentrate on other hobbies to keep stimulated and stop tearing the miata down; breaking things only to fix them.

Amen. Thanks for the words, sometimes it's easy to focus on the failures but I could only get here by standing on the shoulder of giants. It feels nice to have made some form of contribution for the next gen. I think I'm back on the wagon. It also helps that last night the S.O. And I agreed to another project that will take up some time away from messing with the miata. A new weekend driver to simply preserve. She wants to learn a bit about cars and enjoy something with me, whereas my miata is a steep barrier of entry for her... This way we're both learning this new thing together.

Details to come...

 

I cut the stock for the machinist. Hopefully sort that out today or tomorrow.
With your NA crossing the rainbow bridge, how will we ever fly Vlad out here to tune for glory?

 

One more thought: what is it about cars in general, and this Miata in specific, that lights you up? I don't think it's building, because the fact that it's apart has you thinking of parting. Is it the drive? Is it track days? Is it highway pulls in the middle of the night trying to find the fastest cars to beat? Is it highway pulls in the middle of the night trying to get a higher VD #? Is it coming up with new solutions? #science?

For me, I'm not really that into building the car. I can hardly believe I completed my project a couple years ago. I would never have completed my dad's project Miata if it had been for me - I would have backed out. For me it's about driving the car and feeling the connection with it. Hitting some boost.

Whatever will get you fizzing soonest and as much as possible, that's what you ought to do.

 

I'm glad you're leaning back into keeping the car and continuing the project. I 100% agree with sixshooter on project boredom. I haven't been able to drive my car for nearly 3 months due to an injury/surgery and I constantly find myself thinking of different project I could get into. Recently I've been working on a friend's 1.8L swap so he can bring his car to MaTG this year and it has reignited some motivation to finish up some small repairs on my car and maybe finally get it professionally tuned. Hopefully with everything out of the way I can work on some smaller projects I've been want to do.

Based on the fact that you totaled up how much you have spent on this project tells me you really won't want to abandon it. Most people I have known that have abandoned projects won't look at the money they spent because they do not want to know their losses.

 

I have a NB1 shell sitting in my backyard. Just the shell alone, the rest of it was used for a exocet. I will drop it off at your place next Wednesday night. It is already on a trailer so easy to move around, and you get to keep the trailer. Talk to Soviet and have him get team Sputnik to weld in a cage.

 

I can relate to this completely. I remember my last build, it was super fun, a 300+ miata is a blast. But I also had this constant fear of breaking something, or when it did, it cost me. I felt like my relationship was a hyper one with high highs and mighty lows. I felt like I was throwing money at the car more and driving it less. Not to mention the financial aspect of it all. At the end of the day I was forced to sell the car. At the time I was pretty depressed, its hard to throw away 15 years of miata and quit.

However, I set lower goals for myself and purchased the best deal I could find. I've driven my new car more and have had just as much fun. True the highs aren't as high but the lows aren't as low either. While keeping the budget reasonable. I actually find it more fun to work the cost/joy ratio. Yeah its not as fast as what I've had before, but it makes me smile all the same. Being on this forum can pull you towards allofit. Its really easy to get into that. Especially when you see how you could do things different or better and when you know you are capable of it. Now my perspective is much different. There seems to be some peer pressure to keep going for allofit. I'd toss the idea of a back to basics.

 

You absolutely have my attention. I might not be able to accept it just yet due to space limitations. Not sure if a trailer would fit on the narrow driveway. If I am rebuilding this to make it to the Gap, I'd need to stick with the NA for now. But come fall I can get the cage set up, start parting the NA and then save the parts to transfer for a Kswap. This would be awesome if you can hold it for me. Because it was harvested for the exocet, can it still be registered? Exocet gets a new Vin issued or takes over the old one?

Lets hash out the details offline.

 

I hear you completely. I think Vlad hit the nail in the head that I'd probably be a bit sad not to try out the last iteration since it's paid for. But if Lars and I can work something out, I might be able to enjoy Smurfette for one more year, and still retain some parts to transfer over to a new more modest build. I really hope this works out. That way I can finish the science project, but if someone buys my engine/trans/turbo setup whole, I'd even help them swap it into their car and sort out wiring knowing it would live on. That'd be super idealistic, but maybe not outside the realm of possibility.

 

I really do love the assembly and problem solving. I enjoy driving it and the quirk was that it's so unassuming." Oh, it's just a miata. Oh om it has a turbo, still just a miata. Wait, how much pwrrrr? "

It started off as a science project in a time when the efr was still young. It was my first motor, built out if a storage unit. I just wanted to see what the product of my own two hands and efforts could achieve, and brick by brick, it pushed the car higher and higher, the engine usually not being the limitation.

I do like to try to make a contribution if you ever dig through past gs500 forums (swapping gxr forks into a gs with katana wheel). Or on Nasioc having had 3 swapped GC/GM imprezas. And e30 forums swapping the the ///M motor into a 318i. I love to tinker.

, I think I've just hit a point with smurfette where it's exchanging parts but it's not really new. It's the same thing. I've been through three intercooler setups, two motors, two exhausts, two turbos and other little repeat things. It is a joy feeling the hammer drop. But it's reached a point where I can't produce anymore logs for Vlad without asking myself, is it worth going to jail to do these pulls on public roads. I fear its bred too far into the street car life to be a reliable track vehicle, though in reflection given my work schedule/travel and space and tow vehicle limitation since my property is so tiny, I don't think I could seriously pursue tracking outside of basic hpde.

I really think saving my suspension, brakes and diff for a K swapped NB I can start from scratch would yield a higher quality product.




I still enjoy working on cars, but I do think everyone is right that if it where running, it'd be a different story. I've decided to still run the smurf through its golden year, but feel as though after this year I'm ready to move onto something new.

A soft break up if you will.

 

Oh yea, what I do for winter productivity. I had made a cutting board.

 

Awesome finished product. The pattern turned out really good. What did you use as a finish oil?


I made these for Christmas gifts this year

 

Dude. that's beautiful.

Fizz.

 

Yummy! Is that purple heart I see?

I used mineral oil to season, then warm oil+bee's wax for sealing. I need to build a router table to notch some handle grooves in and it would make rounding over easier. I suck at handheld.

 

Late to the party, but don't partout without driving it again.

Everytime I want to part the car out my wife won't let me, reminds me how happy it makes me to drive it on track/autox. Then i take it to the track and the autox and its just so gawdamn fun. Makes it worth it every time.