Just Another Miata Noob
 

Hey all,
My name is Gary and I live just South of Omaha Nebraska in the big town of Weeping Water. Thanks for the great site with incredible amounts of info! I am not new to small, low, light weight fun cars but I am new to owning a Miata. Just bought a 1992 White NA 1.6 with 5 speed, AC, PS, and no cruise. It is in pretty good pretty stock shape. On the exterior there is some hail damage and paint work that should be easy enough for me to repair. There is no real rust anywhere on the exterior. The interior is in great shape very clean with a newer radio and headrest speakers that work. The motor however has pretty serious rod knock. The previous owner thought oil was a luxury for the car I guess. He also thought cutting up the surround for the headlights and dropping in fleebay cheapo LED bars was a good idea. (at least he kept all the stock parts so I have fixed that already.)
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6a9a9cbb17.jpg


Anyway, I bought a used motor from a "guy I know" and received three additional boxes of goodies. Along with the boxes of goodies was a koyorad, 96 sport brake calipers with SS lines, and a pile of Megasquirt bits and pieces.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1a95c4739d.jpg


Took a couple days to clean up the new motor and today the new seals, timing belt, clutch assembly etc showed up. Looking forward to a busy week with nights filled by the sound of knuckles smacking into metal pieces and blood dripping on the garage floor. I hope that by the end of the week, well by Saturday at least I can take her out for our maiden voyage. Now if it will just keep raining so I can convince the wife I can't go cut the grass.

Thanks for the add to the forum

huauqui

Welcome to the forum. Nebraska is not heavily represented here.

The 1.6 rear differential is weak and will need to be replaced along with 1.8 axles and driveshaft, if you run across any. 94-up are 1.8 cars. They all have larger brakes than the 1.6 cars.

Thanks sixshooter,

I am enjoying reading, reading some more, reading some more and learning much about the Miata platform. For now the marshmallow will stay stock except for better headlights and cooling upgrades (cooling only because I got the koyorad and reroute kit with the motor I bought.) The 1996 sport calipers I received with the motor will also probably lead me down that upgrade path along with appropriate master cylinder and other necessary bits. Intake and exhaust are probably on my radar too but may not if I am thinking seriously about adding boost as that would then be wasted money. Will drive it and enjoy it for a while as is, then set up a way to data log a bit and after that how to tune it in stock form. When I am sure I have a good grasp I will begin the process of turbo. But may look into a 1.8 vvt prior to turbo, we will see. Will need to do some suspension work too as what is on it shows its age.

Thanks for the heads up on the 1.6 dif. I was already considering a LSD of some sort so will make sure I go beefier (read 1.8) at the same time.

huauqui