hai2u!
 

Hi! So I've been a lurker since 2010 apparently -- so says my account info deal anyway, though I've never introduced myself formally.

Anyway, I'm James, I live in WA, current owner of an 02 LS, 03 Shinsen (looking for a shell for this guy if anyone's got any leads!) and an 04 MSM.

Figured I'd introduce myself without going too far in depth because honestly, I doubt anyone cares too much about what I do for a living or how many pets I have, etc. Rest assured, I have experience with Miatas though I am by no means the end all, be all. I still have *so much* to learn. I perform my own maintenance, modification and general up keep on my cars (when people aren't bashing into me in traffic!) and so on. I've recently installed a boss frog double hoop roll bar on my 04 and I've been gearing up for a clutch job on the same car due to a questionable throw out bearing... I've wanted to install a lightweight flywheel for a while anyway so this pretty much gave me an excuse to spend some money. I've had my 02 since like ... 2009-2010? so I've done damn near everything maintenance wise to that one but that's a story for another time. Surprise water pump deaths suck real bad, I learned the hard way how quickly they can go thanks to that one.

Anyway, I'm primarily here because my MSM is slow and I'm looking for some advice, biased or otherwise. Hopefully between my nub posts and existing threads I can find the answers I'm looking for!

Anyway, hello, hi, hey. Feel free to begin the nub bashing below. =)

What do you do? How many pets do you have? Turbo the VVT motor, use the MSM trans. Put V8 in MSM.

Pictures!

Welcome. I'm in snohomish. What's your wrenching space like? I prefer pulling the engine and trans as one whenever one of them has to come out.

bloody hell. lol. If I could justify that I wouldn't be here! I'd also probably be dead by now. That's too much car for me and definitely something I'm not ready for, at least at the moment. It'd be entirely too difficult to keep my foot outta the gas pedal and I know myself well enough to know that's a problem I don't need at the moment. heh.

Space? What is this "space" you speak of? I've got a 2 car garage that's overwhelmingly full of tools and machines but space is something in short supply. I've got 2 lathes, a good sized bandsaw and a bridgeport mill crammed in there with an assortment of other garage type stuff... Regarding pulling the engine and transmission, you're not the first I've heard say that. Seems to be a pretty popular opinion in fact. Being that I'm doing everything solo and have a transmission jack to work with already though, I think I'm going to just jack the car to the moon and go at it the "traditional" way. I'm petty familiar with the job in concept and hey, if it turns out that it'd be easier to rip the engine and transmission out as a whole unit, at least I'll know why from experience and I'll have time to get a cherry picker for the clutch job that's coming on my 02, one of these days. =)

The funny thing I've found is that pulling them both is easier when you don't have an assistant. If you're working alone and just drop the trans, it's getting the input shaft to line up with the pilot bearing without someone else to wiggle around the taill of the trans that always caught me up. Then again, my working conditions suck, and I don't have a trans jack.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7a5820991f.jpg

Welcome! Sounds like you're fairly afflicted seeing as how you have 3 of these silly things.

Holy crap, no joke man! That's gotta take either dedication or desperation. If I had to guess, I'd say most of your work gets done during the summer? Heh. Still, we've all gotta do what we've gotta do, no?