New guy looking at Miatas
 

Hey guys,

I spent the past few weeks driving a really fun small car, now I really want a Miata. I've been looking for a while, but I think I've finally found a good candidate. It's a 1991, about 1,000 cars too early for the revised crank!! It's cheap though, think I'm just gonna go for it. Low enough miles I think it may just last long enough to get my thrills in :rofl:

I'm liking the 1.6 since it looks like decent iron manifolds are cheaper, the cars themselves are cheaper, and I'm really not looking for stupid crazy power. I've got friends in junkyards, probably end up changing the clutch anyway, and the rear diff doesn't look too expensive. I figure I'll roll with it, then go to a 1.8, or later crank 1.6, if things go bad.

I think I'll pair a cheap T3 with the cast ebay manifold, from a few days of reading it seems like a pretty solid plan to get to ~200whp with room to grow if I feel like it. I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron, and I've been playing with HPtuners and GM's for a while, so a DIYPNP MS setup seems right up my alley. Much easier than reconstructing V8 LS harnesses at least...

I've still got quite a bit more reading to do, on stuff like injectors, what size turbo exactly, oil and water hookups, bunches of other things I'm sure, but figured I'd "check in." May just come back with car pics after this weekend too :drool:

Thanks for documenting everything as well as you all have so far!

cool beans.... welcome!
Check for wobble on the crank. if its all good, it may last you quite a while. Being that it is that early of a miata, and a SNC, hopefully when you say cheap... you mean CHEAP. lol

Thanks for joining, deezums!

Thanks for the welcome guys!

So I have a Miata :noob:

And, from what I can see, it does not have a SNC. It runs nice and true, and the crank bolt sure has one heck of a flange on it. Score!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1399779209

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1399779209

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1399779209

Looking a bit goofy on huge rear tires, plus lots of other little things I hope to have that fixed early next week. Can't go fast, not without worrying about loosing quarter panels!

awesome!!! good buy! the yellow ones are hard to come by nowadays. Those wheels though.... eeeewwwww... .hahaha
Just my opinon though... haha
I bet they are heavy as heck.

Im assuming the PO was trying to create a mini-bumblebee?? haha

Holy racing stripe batman. Congrats on the buy though.

By removing the stupid black accent stripes(which I hope for your sake is vinyl),removing the nasty chrome RS4 replica wheels, and removing the wing(IMO) you could have a really nice start for your eventual money pit.

Welcome and study study before asking questions! I'm in a good mood so I'll give you a link I wish I had when I started rebuilding my car. The rest you can find here. I find typing your query in google search followed by miataturbo (ex. "AFR gauge calibration miataturbo")brings up better results than the site search.

http://www.mellens.net/mazda/index.html

Or a better way to search google is

miataturbo.net: your search here

Using the colon you search only mt.net, which is better than the internal search.

Thanks! I love this car already, it's a blast to drive.

Unfortunately the silly stripes are not vinyl, and the car is not originally yellow. I hope to do something about that mess eventually, but for now I'll just rock it as is. That bra is hiding a slightly ugly front bumper cover, gonna need to find a new one at some point.

I plan to do something with the wheels and tires sooner, probably go to some smaller less gaudy rims. They're actually in halfway decent shape, maybe I can get a few bucks for em!

Still doing a lot of searching, but I think I may have decided what turbo to go with. It's a cheap ebay T3, 50 trim .42/.48ar. I think a few guys here might be using this same one, but I can never tell 100%. If I'm not mistaken, this little guy will liven up the low end where I like to spend most of my time. If it's not enough, I might look more at the t3/t4 turbos.

Anyway, thanks for the welcome guys!

Who-hoo, got some free goodies!

Attachment 184883

I met an older British guy who used to import Eunos roadsters from Japan to Europe, and somehow these parts came with him to the US! So one of my slow windows is completely fixed, and I have a brand new stock shifter, finally! The guy knows the cars inside and out too, which is awesome.

I also got quite tired of the ugly and gaudy wheels, with massive back tires. Instead of using these rims, I decided to spring for some 15x8 +25 Konig wideopens. I hope they come soon, my new tires, hub rings, and lugs are already here!

Attachment 184884

I guess I'll need to roll the fender lip over to run this offset and rim width, so I ordered an imitation of one of those eastwood fender roller kits on amazon. Someone in the reviews said the miata was too small to fit the tool without mods, hope he's wrong :laugh:

What roller did you purchase?

Keith

This guy here, the review describing the "miata mod" is in this listing.


I didn't buy that particular one, but I bought an identical one for a few less dollars that isn't prime eligible. Looks like I'm waiting a little while on my wheels anyway...

So I went crazy and tore my new miata all to hell and back, because racecar.

Excuse the overspray, I hate my PO.

Attachment 184865

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Then I made it low, hehe

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Then I made it right, haha :vash2:

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Scarred up, stupid bumper cover is hard to find. My best friend the PO took a grinder or something to the poor thing. Massive cuts out of the thing near the headlight, for god knows what reason!!

Attachment 184870

Rolled fenders, though I can't tell. No rubbing, and I've made them new tires scream a bit already. Most fun I've ever had in a car, money well spent! Grip for days!

Basically, whole new front end - Balljoints, endlinks, poly bushes (zerks are a beach) Some 1.8 brakes, stainless lines, a strut bar when I figure out what to do with a racing beat...

More pictures, everyone likes those

Attachment 184871

Worn out garbage, loose as a three dollar whore!

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My upper arm had no grooves, but squeaked like a beach, so I did this.

Attachment 184874


Going to Pikes Peak in a few more weeks, gonna be a blaast!

Edit: I didn't have to modify the fender roller either, not sure what the dude on amazon's problem is...