James Hill

Ok, so I'm not a new Miata owner, but I recently "finished" adding FI on my 92 Miata (YES, it's still a stock 1.6! :-D ), my wife now says it sounds like it's sneezing and I can't get it out of my head.

Anyway, I've been on hear for a while but thought I should probably finally get around to filling this out. I'm a 45 year old Brit, living in Ohio for the past 15-16 years. I did live up in Traverse City, MI for a while, which has some excellent roads for Miatas FYI, around here where I am in Ohio, I struggle to find bends.

I actually used to have what I think was a 94 Silver Miata in England, I knew nothing about MX5's back then, I just happened to come across a guy that imports them from Japan and bought one from him. Then spent some time with my girlfriend (now wife) hooning around Devon and Cornwall and loving the backroads of England. Then we moved to the US and I had to leave my little car behind. Finally got to a point where I decided I wanted those times back and began looking for a Miata over here. Everyone I came across was riddled with rust, I really wanted a 1.8, but then I came across this Mariner blue 1992, with something like 60k on the clock, garaged every winter and just babied. I took it out and immediately fell in love all over again.

So that's that! However, with the long straight roads and feeling very small and underpowered for these roads, I decided I wanted to add a little pep to it's step. I went back and forth between whether to SC or Turbo, I loved the idea of keeping the same characteristics with a SC, but I hated the idea that some of the power it makes has to go back into driving the SC. I probably would have been happy either way, but I decided to go turbo and began to research my build.

As far as the 1.6 vs 1.8 argument goes and the usual "you should have done a swap first" comments. That may be true, however the 1.6 was and is in great condition with low miles and it seemed a little silly to just get rid of it. Also, I have never worked on cars before short of changing the oil, so the thought of pulling out the engine was just too much for me to contemplate. I'm sure I could have got it out, but putting one back in and getting it hooked up and running again was just too daunting. With the time I've spent working on the car now though and the learning curve I've gone through, if the 1.6 does eventually let go I'm fairly confident I'd be able to tackle swapping it out.

Alright, the car:
1992 1.6 Miata Mariner Blue
SuperMiata Crossflow radiator
SuperMiata Coolant reroute
Kraken Manifold + 3" DP and exhaust
Garrett 2560r
FM Intercooler + Silicon hoses
3.9 Torsen Diff
Poly Bushings + Sadfab Bronze bushings kit
Xida's V2
15x8" Graphite Grey 6ULs
SuperMiata Hybrid engine mount
Harddog Roll bar
SuperMiata 4 puck sprung Clutch + 8lb aluminium flywheel

And a ton of other things I'm probably forgetting!

Recently just got it tuned, but it was done by a guy that really tunes Corvette's so the tune isn't quite all there yet.

Joseph Conley

Welcome fellow OMO member!

James Hill

Thanks!

Josh CW92

Welcome! Love the car.

James Hill

Thanks!