I traded my Mustang in to go the Miata life
 

Hi, this is my first post in the forum. My name is Josh I live in Wichita, Kansas and I'm 24. I am a mechanical engineering student here in my junior year at Wichita State. But you aren't here to hear about my life, this is my story. I first started getting into cars about a few years ago, after finding out some nice sports cars were a little more affordable than I thought I jumped in. I got on good ol' reliable craigslist and ended up buying a 5 speed manual 2008 V6 Mustang.
I guess you could say from there my interests really took off with cars I literally started researching what every single part did in my car and that's how I decided I wanted to become a mechanical engineer. As far as the Mustang goes, people give them tons of hate, but that car was PERFECT, it literally had no problems and only had 65 thousand miles when I bought it. The only problem with that is I wanted to go deeper into my car but I was scared of messing up my Mustang.
So the Miata adventure began; about a year ago I picked up a 1990 project Miata for $1700. It was probably the most sketchy thing I have ever done at night, in the rain, with a guy I never met before off the craigslist. I didn't die though, and I drove the thing 2 hours home that night. However, at the time I wasn't aware of the short nose crank problems with the early 1.6 so then I did the research and ended up doing the loctite fix. It worked pretty great and the thing ran mint afterwards. But as time moved on of course like most of you reading this I presume I wanted to go turbo. However, I didn't want to turbo my 1990 because I wanted to start fresh. So I had this crazy, almost instantaneous idea. I was driving on the same highway I picked up my first Miata from for work, by myself, for two hours. I thought, what if I went all out? I could sell my Mustang, and literally build the Miata of my dreams with the money.
That my friends is exactly what I did.. sort of. What actually ended up happening is I listed my Mustang on craigslist and got a call from a dealer that said they wanted to buy my car from me so they could then sell it to a customer. So trusting those pesky dealers I believed them. I drove my car 45 minutes away to this Ford dealership to sell my car. But when I got there they said they already sold a different car to the customer and could only buy my car if I traded it in. I explained I was looking for a very specific year Miata that they probably wouldn't have. But what do you know, they had a 1995 Red Miata with 160k miles. There was only one problem.. it was an automatic, gag. But in my mind I insisted I would swap the transmission out and this would be my turbo monster. I went in on the deal, probably overpaid, but still came out with them paying me $2500.
So basically to sum it up I traded my perfectly good running Mustang for a 20 year old teenage girl's car. Don't get me wrong though, I dont regret my decision. From the moment I started working on my first Miata and started driving it something about it just gripped me. My Mustang was way more nice and for sure faster, but everyone has a Mustang. I found it too boring, too refined, too off the shelf there's 500 more of these everywhere you look. In addition to that, the mustang may not be heavy compared to most cars on the market today. But when stacked up against my Miata, that thing was a tank. Combine 210 horsepower with 3500 pounds and many of you enthusiasts might spit your drink out. Granted, I know my car wasn't a race car, and many say If you are going to own a Mustang you have to have a 5.0 V8. But even so, that would still bring me to the same point, no character.
I digress. After shortly owning my 1995 automatic Miata I then sold my 1990 for a profit. However, after finding major rust in my rocker panels and finding how much work the automatic swap was I was pretty confused on where to go next. Out of curiosity I searched for Miata's on craigslist again. I found what I would consider to be a dream deal. A turboed 1995 Laguna Seca blue Miata. Complete with a full 3" custom exhaust, BC coilovers, MS2 installed, 650cc Injectors, external Tial wastegate, and much more. According to the seller, it made 250hp, 230tq on 14psi.
​ I jumped on this deal and drove 2 hours to meet this guy, found out second gear had a broke syncro, found out it burned a crap ton of oil, and bought it anyways for $4200. Mint. Fast forward 3 weeks later the engine from that car is on a engine stand, I'm waiting for forged rods to come in the mail, I just ordered new main and rod bearings, and I'm looking through the forums for piston rings. I think I'm going with sealed power rings. Now I own 2 Miata's like a freak. I want to sell the automatic one once I get my turbo one back together but for now, I didn't choose the Miata life... The Miata life chose me. Thanks for reading.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1465962975
Miata numero uno
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1465962975
Automatic Miata
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1465962975
Barry
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1465962975

Welcome. Seems like you had the same thought process as me....started out wanting one...got one with rust and "issues" then said screw it and got another....surprise still have some issues. Hopefully the future looks brighter

Use paragraphs, holy shit.

You expect anyone to read that? If all caps is shouting, that is mad meth head.

Here's a visit to a Kansas walmart...

I read what I think was the last paragraph. What forum did you read, that convinced you to run Sealed Power rings? I don't think I've seen them used on any miata build on this site. I guess I haven't read them all though.

Don't forget to upgrade to the 585 coils!

Didn't ready any of that...

But guessing you didn't put the KCDORIFTO banner across the windshield...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1465994515

I love the hand out the window. He was certain that he deserved a D1 license.

I was about to haze for wall of text.
But at least he's making an effort.

2 Miata's? lawl. You're just getting started

@ryansmoneypit I read about the rings from here

https://www.miataturbo.net/engine-pe...options-42803/

@Girz0r No that banner isn't mine, I removed it.

As to everyone else sorry about the wall of text. I lost some formatting when I copied ane pasted, my bad.

The wall of text does make it unreadable. Seriously, edit it for us. You took the time the take pictures and it must have taken some time to write all that stuff. I'm interested, but it hurts to look at.

For an OEM application I guess the sealed power would be ok? :dunno: maybe others can chime in. If you happen to grab supertechs then snag some wiseco xx rings to go with. No complaints here on mine :likecat:

GOOD, that banner was full retard.

I don't remember if sealed power is same as the npr or the rockauto chrom-moly rings, but if it is, then they are perfectly fine and many of us have used them on boosted Miata's.

Was that car for sale on here at somepoint or did i see it on craigslist, i believe there is a build somewhere for this car. Personally i hope your ready for a project it seems you are tho, i know jumping into someone elses build is never fun. Good luck and hope to see more!