Hey Everyone,

Just joined up, been reading for a while and finally have a need to post and I understand an introduction is in order first. I live in the Pacific Northwest and my car is a 2001 NB2 6 speed with Torsen diff and sport brakes. I have big goals for this thing and so far I've done a few things starting with a large rust removal and treatment after discovering what happens to a Miata when the PO doesn't have their drains unplugged and water travels into the spare tire well in the trunk. That was a few weeks of grinding, scraping, metal prep, POR15 and re priming and painting. The metal is still solid so it's like new now. The car did come with coilovers, too, but they suck! I moved on to do more fun things like replace a few sensors, get a matching hard top, upgrade the wheels/tires to Work Equip 03 15X8 and 15X9 riding on Toyo R1R, full exhaust with RB header, high flow cat and muffler from Roadstersport, a short shift kit, brakes upgrade with stainless lines and better pads and new rotors, stainless clutch line, a FAB9 Tuning COP kit, tore out the cruise control and added stainless windshield wiper reservoir and coolant reservoir from circuit sports. I have a long list of additional plans and am currently struggling to install my Megasquirt 3 PNP Enhanced, My goal is to get a spare head and have it decked, build it with a Supertech valve train and mild porting for a high compression build with ITB's. It's one step at a time as this is a hobby car and I'm not able to dump tens of thousands in a single go, so it's just a step here and there. Anyway, I love my Miata and after 2 years have had a ton of fun working on it, driving it, and making it better.

 

Welcome. Good looking nb2 you got there!

Any turbo plans?

 

Welcome. Do you plan to k20z3 k20a2 or k24a2 swap

 

Thanks really appreciate that! She's come a long way from a stock NB2 with some very rough paint.

 

I have dabbled with each idea mentioned above. I'd probably be more inclined to K swap it but honestly, I'm very interested in an ITB build with beefed up valve train and cams. My goal is an 8K revving beast but not to change too much of the characteristics of the car. My target is 185WHP with a head shave, stronger valves, springs, etc... and the ITBs but that will require fuel return lines, etc... it's going to be a job. The current project is a new MS3 enhanced that is going in. I kind of wanted to do something unusual, a little unique, challenging and fun. I'll buy a spare head so undoing it all will be a simple head swap back to stock along with changing up the air box setup from ITB back to whatever. I have an AutoEXE intake I'm planning on putting on. Not expecting it to do much but I like how it looks/sounds and maybe I can tune a little better performance with the MS3 out of an increased air flow. We'll see.

 

Welcome. Clean looking car. So did you replace the the coil-overs?

 

Thanks! I haven't replaced the coilovers yet. They are some Korean brand called Klineo. What's funny is the "o" had worn off one of the stickers on the coilover and when I bought the car, it looked like it said "TC Kline" who makes a lot of good coilover setups for E36 BMW's and I was stoked. Then, when I finally got around to playing with ride height after a fender roll, it was discovered it said something Klineo which is a coilover that at one time was sold on Amazon for like $400 a set. The ride isn't that good but at least, for now, it's lowered and runs flatter than stock. I am slowly looking at different options such as Meister, BC, Feal, in that 1200 range. I wish I could afford Ohlins or the stuff from SuperMiata but I can't justify $2k+ on the suspension at this time.

 

It's been said before, but do a budget bilstein setup at that price range or save up your pennies and go for some xidas. Also, welcome from the north!

 

Thanks! Yeah, I will do a ton more research. How low does the Bilstein option allow? I run low but not slammed...

 

Beilstein gets you plenty low. Scaxx has it on one of his cars if I remember right. They are probably 80% as good as xidas until you start pushing hard on the track.

Also scaxx and I are both in WA too.

 

Well you have me intrigued. I had read a little bit about them. Don't you get separate springs and then the Bilstein shocks and do a little assembly? Does the spring size determine ride height or is there any type of adjustability with a collar like a coilover? Not that I need to raise and lower the car or anything, just wondering! Suspension replacement is high on my list of priorities but not at the top currently. However, I may bump it up the list based on the fact that my current setup drives me nuts out here with the Pac NW roads. They're poorly maintained and thus a great challenge for the car. I only drive about 3K miles per year but still, the few times I get out there I don't want to damage anything.

I'm in Ridgefield, WA, by the way, where are you and scaxx at?

 

READ THIS

So it's a long thread but read the whole thing and you should be able to decipher what works for you.

I'm in Burien and Scax is down south a bit. We both work in Kent/Auburn area. Aidan should be close to you in Oregon too. And I know there are a few more in Oregon kinda near you.

 

I built a pretty decent set of DIY bilsteins for about $850 OTD. You can read my build from about page 80. The thread is big, but basically you need a set of shocks, a set of top hats, and this stuff:

 

Nice! thanks for the link to the Bilsteins! Will spend some time this week digesting all of this. My wife lived in Auburn for years and I lived in Seattle prior to moving down to the Vancouver area. I'm from Portland originally. It'll be good to connect with some local folks. I have a neighbor that has a sick FD3 but he's never working on it and never around and other than that, none of my local friends are car people, let alone Miata people, so yeah, it's a lonely life where I usually tell them all about my car and they fall asleep as soon as I begin.

 

This is cool! I'd rather build something anyway than buy it off the shelf. And for under 1K that is impressive! I'll need to learn more about proper spring rates and preload and all that. I love seeing parts lists, they get me all excited to build something new.

 

Just a whole lot of love going on here for washington peeps. Rare to see, but I like it.

 

 

I see a lot of South Sound Miata owners here, too. You guys all know each other? That deal from Treasure Coast looks really good, but I kind of want to build my own. Also tapped out for now. I just did my MS3 Enhanced install, and just wrapping that process up. After that, I'll be doing some tuning, then moving over to installing my new intake and GM IAT and tuning more... then was thinking of a square top or Skunk manifold (though I dread the skunk installation as it seems like a PITA. I'm pretty stoked my innovate wideband wiring went smoothly and I'm about done with wiring for now. thanks again for all of the welcomes and help. Seems like a great forum to be a part of and I'm looking forward to it.

 

I think I know more of the guys from Oregon than I do from Washington. But I see Mat weekly usually.

 

Any megasquirt experts around the area? I'm struggling with mine. Having a hell of a time connecting to it using native serial port, tried a usb to serial adapter and multiple PC's. It won't detect. Only way I can connect to it is remove it from the case and plug in a USB A to B cable and I burned a base map but it misfires so bad at start up.