Kingpin

Hey MT.net - another newb here for you.

Registered a billion million years ago (actually just in 07) as I've always had an interest in buying a Miata. With my vehicles I've typically bounced between track days and off-road weekends, and while I've skewed towards off-road the finances finally aligned to buy a "toy." So now I own a 2001 NB that's built-ish that I got for a good deal-ish and have all the things. Honestly, had been looking at S2Ks and Miatas for a long time and was always balancing spend vs. fun...these days the spend on NAs and S2Ks has gotten crazy so when I found what I perceive as a good deal on a turbo NB I jumped. And to be honest I'm not looking back. Sum of parts is fine and in line with all I'd do anyway, and It's everything I remembered and more from the Miatas I test drove over a decade ago.

Within the few months I've owned the car I've realized it's not without issues (actually, I noticed on the test drive but the price was right). The long and short is that there are some shortcuts and things I'd do differently that need fixing (I'm super ---- about some things and even still, hate short cuts. Especially wiring). And there are some mods that are worn out. But the basics are:

• 2001 NB - silver
• Hard Dog sport roll bar
• Corbeau drivers bucket
• 4 point for the driver but harness bar isn't bolted in properly (did I mention there are things to fix?)
• FM VII kit + a few upgrades
• MS3
• Supporting gauges
• FM springs that are super shot (seems they are early versions that suffered from sag)
• KYB adjustable shocks (hard to tell how good they are bc springs are bad)
• FM(?) sway bars
• Thompson remote mount oil filer (hoses are cracking...see list of things I have to fix)
• Aluminum radiator
• Assume an old FM exhaust (Stromung?)
• Oil pressure gauge mod
• Loose wires all over
• Non-weather tight electrical connections for aftermarket stuff (mostly fixed now)

I've built several vehicles so I'm not scared of a little work. I have been picking away at the things that are generally good to do after purchase. Fluid changes, wiring fixes, checking bolt tq on swapped components, tidying up wiring, etc. Future plans include:

• New top (current one has some tears that I've recently glued patches over)
• Coilover upgrade. Ride height is at least an inch lower than recommended bc the springs are DONE
• The above will fix it, but rear has no bump stops...makes the car fun on choppy pavement though!
• New braided oil line to turbo b/c the current one is cut through where the braiding passes by the heatshield
• New wheels
• New tires
• FM chassis bracing (mainly "frame" rails)
• Eventually would like to update the IC and related piping...original piping was rusted (surface rust now fixed)
• I like my valve covers colorful
• Paint the rest of the charge piping
• Fix tune issues (actually, this is #1)

Speaking of tune issues, here are my burning ones: https://www.miataturbo.net/megasquir...ues-ac-105975/ Unfortunately, tuning is one area I dont have a lot of experience with so I'm hours into YouTube and reading through threads here to try to address issues. Just bought a laptop just to get this stuff sorted.

Ultimately, the car is going to be a fun 3rd vehicle/track ***** but the tune issues are really preventing me from enjoying the car as a true knock around vehicle. I drive it to work 2-3 days/week, and some one the weekends, but can't stop "quickly" anywhere so I'm not driving it enough. Need to fix the tune and the holidays will fix the other big ones (namely, the suspension). Until then I'm just chasing down things that need to be done the right way.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Don't have a lot of great pics because anywhere the car parks it needs to stay for a bit so a "photoshoot" is out of the question for now. But looking forward to doing what I do: being an active member, attending meets/cruises/track days, building a fun car, and enjoying the **** out of it.

Oh, and I'm a dog person.

Nice to meet you all!

Best pics I've got (also note: heater line/brake line insulation has all been redone). Sorry they're terrible.

rleete

iTrader: (21)

KYB are certainly not the best, but lousy springs (I had a set of the early FM ones) really make it suck.

Kingpin

No doubt. Thankfully our roads are generally decent. But after inspecting them I don’t really feel like doing a budget fix (replace springs) as I fear too much else will also have to be replaced, and I don’t want to invest that much in a standard spring on shock set up.

electroCrunch

Hello and welcome. I'm a fellow NB owner. My 2 cents is to cover all of the basic maintenance items first. Then start to address mods and upgrades. Regardless, it looks like you have a decent platform to build from. Nice toy!!

I hear you on the steep learning curve for aftermarket ECUs and "tuning". I think the consensus is you can only tune it yourself pretty far, but a proper tune on a dyno is needed to maximize power, safety and reliability. I'd recommend studying the various videos posted by OGPedXing on YouTube. I've found he has the single best collection of videos for Miata noobs starting out on the MS3. Aside from that, everything is covered in the MegaSquirt manual. I highly suggest having the MS3 manual and OGPedXing links bookmarked.

If you plan to stick around for a while, start a build thread

Kingpin

Thanks man. I'm not going anywhere. I dont generally care to make build threads...most of my vehicles end up with a ton of mods and I generally assume no one really cares and it's a lot of work to stay current. 15-20 years ago? All about it. Too old now. Especially when I'm not reinventing the wheel with anything on this platform at this point.

Thanks for the recommendations on the videos. I'll check them out. I've watched a ton of base tuning vids. The car generally runs well and strong on the tune, even if a bit rich, but I have a few specific instances where it's not quite there. Those aren't generally covered and the advice to fix is kinda specific to the user in the threads I've read. In any case, still watching and learning bc my intent is to not have to outsource things every time there is a small issue. Just need some pointers to get headed in the right direction. Know what I mean?

TBH getting back into a technical forum of sorts is nice. Used to be a big forum guy but FB is killing them. Which sucks, bc this is a much better venue for sharing and solving problems on a record that is around for others. Hope that my experiences may help others when we get to that point.

electroCrunch

I hear you. My build threads are selfishly mostly for me, not other people. I look at it as documentation on what exactly I've done, and when, so I can go back and easily reference. I do appreciate the commenters that stop by my build thread to chat and ask questions though.