Motor mounts are easy as pie once you know to take the entire bracket off the engine.

Diff mounts, i haven't done. You're saying you can do it without removing the diff though? Aren't they pressed in?

 

What may be easier on my car, replacing the bushings? Because modz meaning because it's been apart within the last couple years?

I'm not at all excited. I am considering paying someone at the dealership to do it, since I get an employee rate. We shall see.

 

I do work for super cheap...

I'd do engine mounts first, followed by diff mounts.

 

There's some packaging issues with the MSM that make it a ***** on the driver's side in particular. I went at it taking the whole bracket off.

Diff mounts can be done without removing the diff. 3 jaw puller and some creativity. I'm not saying it's FUN, but it's certainly doable. Less than 2 hour job for me on an MSM now, less on an earlier floppy noodle car without all the silly bracing in the back to remove. It may have been easier for me because the underside of our car is/was the cleanest and most rust-free decade old car in the world.




Because modz meaning that you might not have the same sort of clusterfuckery that inhabits a stock MSM.

 

Understood. Curly, I will very possibly take you up on that when the time comes. PM me if you're interested in doing bushings and what you'd charge.

 

Yeah, i'd get it done with curly Vs. a dealership. Knowing Curly, he will even re-do them for you and put the stock ones back in for free if the NVH is unbearable to you, and give you free beer while he installs them, and let you bang his sister...

JK,

 

No, I'll just buy you another miata if you don't like the bushings.

 

I recently swapped from stock rubber to poly's and it was a great change. I did notice a little more whine out of the rear. I just took that as a sign that I probably needed to change the bearings out anyway.

 

I was unaware Mazdacomp and Mazdaspeed mounts were different.

I installed Mazdacomp motor mounts in my car, and was happy with the noise levels. That is what I was really recommending because of my experience with them.

 

No issue either with Mazdacomp mounts either. Only reason I probably noticed and increase in NVH was that the old mounts were toast. Like undo the bolts and lift the motor and the old ones came out in pieces.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. Now that I know about wet weather wheel hop being ubiquitous with Miatas, I'm going to wait til I get other things resolved (bad heater core, get the thing registered) and drive it on dry roads to decide if I'm going to replace the mounts.

thanks again for the help!

 

Funny that I missed this thread. I'm the one who installed the AF turbo setup and ECU in that car, among other things.

Does it still have the insane curly-Q oil drain line?

 

Iono. I haven't even looked under the car yet.

Did you do any of the tuning? There's no boost or A/F gauge which makes me nervous, but the tune does seem solid. Also: I notice a small almost fluttering sound under part throttle acceleration as boost is building. If I didn't know what engine knock sounded like I would think it's that, but it's not... PO said it was the wastegate spring making noise?

Edit: OK I see you did the ECU install as well. So I presume you tuned it?

What else can you tell me about my car? Couple things I've been curious about:

-when was the turbo kit actually installed?
-did you have anything to do with the engine build, or know who did?
-What was your overall impression of the car? Did you see it finished? If you would change anything on it, what would you change?

 

Turbo install was done in 2011. I did the tuning in December 2011 and the car was delivered in January 2012, although I'm not sure what's been altered since the tuning was done. It was originally a Hydra 2.7 car, and after finally diagnosing an intermittent misfire as being caused by the Hydra itself, we scrapped it for an EMS-4. We originally built the motor, but I know he had some problems early on with oil consumption/control and had a different shop rebuild it. I would need to poke around my notes to see whether that motor had a BE pump or ARP mains in it - I suspect it has both but I can't be sure, and I'm not sure whether it retained them when the other shop rebuilt it.

Fluttering under part throttle is either the BOV or compressor surge.

It was a damn nice car. The engine bay is a serious pain in the *** because of the A/C and P/S. I must have spent 40-50 hours fabricating the oil/water lines and IC setup on that car. If it still has the PLX gauge setup, that's the first thing I would dump. Aside from that, it's been 2+ years since I've seen it so I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

I didn't fit in the driver's seat either.

 

Props man, thanks so much for sharing all of that. Perhaps some of his oil consumption issues were because he never ran the thing at operating temp? I found the thermostat housing in the trunk in a box and installed it during my drive up.

Yes the engine bay is a mess, and it seems like whoever re-did the exhaust install messed something up because there's a significant exhaust leak. Sounds to me like it's post-turbo since the turbo spool up is really loud. I'm guessing turbo to DP vband connection, or else somehow a cracked DP. Will need to get under it to be sure.

I'm not sure what the PLX gauge setup is. The only non-factory gauge it has right now is a spa gauge on the steering column which has oil pressure and water temp.

Any other info you happen to have about the car is appreciated, but the info you've provided already is a big help. Thanks again!