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I cant believe this car. Its almost everything people say not to do on here.
Ha! Maybe "people" aren't always right?
The car isn't being driven as much since I need a truck on a daily basis. In the past year the only things I've done is remove the a/c compressor and condenser to cut weight in the front and change the oil. It does need maintenance as any 300k+ car does but has been neglected. I will post a proof of life soon as it is coming up on ten years on the original install. Still running the same ebay turbo, stock motor, etc.
You're right. Hundreds of broken cars, and yours holding up disproves all collective knowlege on this forum.
I did the same thing with my subaru 5 speed. For many years. Then when it finally blew, I no longer felt smart and special like you.
I agree. I'm not special. I'm not smart. No arguments there. My car is the polar opposite of special, it's a steaming POS.
My point is that people should think, experiment and be reasonable. That's all. There is a lot of great info on the site, a lot of it is helpful, some of it is limiting.
I applaud guys like you (Pat aka patsmx5 is a prime example) who think outside the box and build, experiment, destroy, rebuild, and know the risks and consequences of using inferior parts and are ready to accept the failure.
But you guys are the exception, not the rule, that's why we're always so skeptical. Don't want some kid to read this, pour his lifes savings of $3.50 into a janky build, and expect the same results.
...know the risks and consequences of using inferior parts and are ready to accept the failure.
I think that's key- knowing and then addressing/fixing. There are cheap parts that are a complete loss, and then there are those with issues that can be fixed with time/skill. The SSA manifold would be a good example here. The addition of the support structure seems to have remedied the prone-to-crack reputation.
A month ago the car sat when the weather dipped into the 20's for a few days. I had added HEET to the water injection tank so that survived. I felt the need to shake the literal cobwebs off so I took it for a drive. The temperature was around 30°. I drove gently, trying to get heat in the motor and cockpit. Neither was really happening even after a couple miles. Turning onto the main highway I used 1/3-1/2 throttle and shifted before 5k. In third gear the motor fell flat and made a subtle low fluttering sound. Glanced at the wideband and saw 13.5 and let off. It was somewhere between 5-8psi. I drove gently and watched the wideband all the way home.
A few days later it was in the 50's. Drove the car and all was fine. My guess is that the fuel pressure regulator had ice sitting on top of the diaphragm. I've driven the car in the teens before with no problems but I guess it's because it sat for a while there was condensation buildup. Still, it made me wonder if I hurt the motor. I've never heard of an E85 fed motor pinging.
No video so I'll use words. A couple days ago while driving to the supermarket, a red Cabriolet Porsche was coming up on me so I moved over to the right lane. I downshifted from 6th to 4th. He went down a gear and slowly accelerated in front of me. When I saw "Carrera S" on the back I put the pedal through the floor at 55mph. I admit, I got the jump on him. When I hit the brakes at 85mph(+) I had put four cars on him and was pulling away. To be fair, he probably needed to go down another gear. To be even more fair, if he wanted to go from the dig, he would have destroyed me with my street tires. After looking up stock specs, I had him covered on a roll due to my 2-3mph higher trap speed. Guess the motor isn't hurt too badly!
I've been really lazy about working on the car. I've done zero repairs or maintenance for years. I've had a pair of M&H slicks mounted up for a few years but don't want to go back to the track before I put on softer springs, adjustable rear upper arms and the Paco alignment bolt locks. No matter how tight or new the alignment bolts are, they slip (loud pop) on acceleration. I was going to tack weld them but the Paco locks are so cute. https://pacomotorsports.com/product/eccentric-locks/
Long story short, the next video will probably be at the dragstrip. Or street.
Speaking of Miatas, dragstrip, slicks and Texas. I met a dude at the GRM Challenge that couldn't stop talking about his pal's dirt cheap indestructible turbo Miata. Of course I have trouble believing anything he says- his yard is filled with over 20 chrysler K cars in various stages of disrepair. Sound familiar? I am intrigued by those camber bolt locks. Though our challenge Miata only weighs 1600lbs and makes about a third the power.
Speaking of Miatas, dragstrip, slicks and Texas. I met a dude at the GRM Challenge that couldn't stop talking about his pal's dirt cheap indestructible turbo Miata. Of course I have trouble believing anything he says- his yard is filled with over 20 chrysler K cars in various stages of disrepair. Sound familiar? I am intrigued by those camber bolt locks. Though our challenge Miata only weighs 1600lbs and makes about a third the power.
Small world! I was going to ask him if he met you after I saw your GRM videos. If I win the lottery I'll be at the challenge. I bet the brakes feel great on your Miata.
You just need to go with him- he's always short on crew. Though it takes a level of crazy to make that trek that most don't have. Our car is so underdeveloped it's ridiculous. But that's the nature of our effort - relax and have fun with the little time we can spend on it. Here it is Feb and we have yet to touch the car since it ran in Oct.
You just need to go with him- he's always short on crew. Though it takes a level of crazy to make that trek that most don't have. Our car is so underdeveloped it's ridiculous. But that's the nature of our effort - relax and have fun with the little time we can spend on it. Here it is Feb and we have yet to touch the car since it ran in Oct.
The smart thing to do would be to just tag along and have fun. I'm not smart so I'd want to do a life destroying 100% effort that would result in a car that would get an instant lifetime ban from the dragstrip. The P&G sucker Vette still amazes me. I have a lot of friends who are WAY smarter and skilled than me so that's covered. Just need time that winning the lotto will give me!
Just read through the whole thread and I am astounded by your results... Just a reminder to others reading this for the first time.
"Your milage may vary."
It's still alive! Drove the car just last week, first time in 6-7 months. Life happens. I was pleasantly surprised that it fired right up and didn't smoke any more than it normally does. Fuel is super old, need to put fresh E85 in it before I get to have some fun.
The car hasn't seen much action in the past few years. Life happens. It has been fired up maybe 5-6 times this year, lately it has run rough/poorly. Thoughts of bad 2-3yo E85, timing belt skip(80k-160k on belt, crank pulley JB Welded on), injector failure, engine failure all came to mind. Luckily, it was one of the relays on the $35 launch control setup. The normally closed contact became ohmic and would get worse with heat in the engine bay. Swapped out the relay and all four injectors were firing instead of just two. While I was at it I changed the oil, added coolant, replaced the sight tubes on the two oil catch cans and changed the spark plugs for the first time since 7/2013.
Tried a different camera angle since I'm in a reflective mood, looking back. Poor video in general (wind noise, smoke signals, pulled out in front of the only car for miles and very little traction thus very little WOT) but the purpose of the video is proof of life. 12 years and 5 months since this Ebay T3/T4 churbo was slapped on the SS Autochrome manifold. It's not pretty but it's alive.
Soon after the above video was shot, there was about a gallon of coolant on the ground. The water pump of unknown age(14+ years) or mileage(could be 70k-200k) no longer had a functioning shaft seal. Didn't have the time or energy to do the job but I figured if I didn't do it relatively quickly, it may never get done. To be a jerk I was just going to swap out the water pump and leave the timing belt(also of unknown age and mileage).
The pulley bearings weren't great so I spent the big bucks on Ebay(of course) and got a Conti belt and pulleys for $22. Since the key/pulley are JB Welded on I decided to not mess with taking it off. The front main seal wasn't leaking so I wasn't about to open that can of worms. I had a GMB water pump that was sitting on the shelf since 2013 when I was planning on building an engine with rods, pistons, ported 99 head, exhintake, etc. - never happened. The old timing belt was stretched about the width of 1/2 tooth. This means my timing was going to advance a bit.
Found a small hole in the hot pipe going to the intercooler where the hacked up undertray was rubbing on it. I'm positive it's been there for a while and definitely the last time I was at the track. No idea how big a difference it would make. Was I going to make the time to swap out the pipe or at least weld in a patch? Nope, I did a 1 cent fix.
Ok, the clamp was relatively expensive.
While things were apart I was going to play with cam timing but decided that I am too lazy/don't have the time to re-tune. I always wonder how much easy power I'm missing by not experimenting with cam timing. With the adjustable cam gears and exhintake cam not touched for ~13 years, I couldn't remember the setup. Glad I put pictures in this thread for reference!
Car runs again, it's snappier though, I can feel the timing bump or the fixed boost leak. I turned the boost down a couple psi to 16, traction in 3rd gear is still difficult, tires are getting old.
So this catastrophic failure is the first time I've had to fix something on it since 2016 when I swapped out the clutch master, slave and flex line.
Not driving it much, just a blast around the neighborhood now and then to keep the battery charged and bearings/seals moving. I put the EWG muffler back on so I can be more stealthy, it makes the exhaust note very quiet. I hope to get back to autox in the next couple years but it's not happening right now. I turned the boost down to 15-16psi from 18-19psi. With the current setup wheelspin in the neighborhood is exactly the same at 15psi vs 18psi so why have it turned up.
After a short drive I popped the hood to see this catastrophic failure: $9 2005 vintage air filter plus 17 years
Time for a new filter? Nah! Unscrewed the clamp, tossed the torn off bit and slapped the filter back on. While the filter was off I decided to tempt fate and see if the wheel still spun.
06-19-2017, 10:14 PM
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https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthrea...=204223&page=2
or preferably a video! When is the next event?
