noob from orange county
 

hi im dominic from orange county. my miata is a 2001 brg #2412 no major upgrades yet. I am planning on making this a DD, weekend track car.
This is where I'm at now after buying it 6 months ago stock to what you see here with the minor upgrades. the front end damage is from a dodge dully that didn't want to wait in line at a in-and-out drive threw...in progress...

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1369429480



Dude.

Can you explain a few things to me, please?

First off, why in the world would you slap that cone filter on there, where it pulls poorly filtered HOT air off the exhaust manifold?

Speaking of exhaust manifold, did you seriously ditch the heat shield on the stock manifold and then wrap it in heat-wrap? Why?? Because Racecar?

And what's the deal with the cam cover? If you don't have adjustable cam gears, why did you hack the front cover off? Again, Because Racecar?

And seriously, Hood Pins? Wait, let me guess: Because Racecar?

Why the remote oil filter?

I won't even go into the "body work" or tattered top.. OK, I will. Why would you spend money on the "upgrades" you've made instead of throwing a few bucks into a new top, or a can of primer to cover the rusting exposed metal on your Bondo And A Beltsander Bodywork??

cool thanks for the replay Pinky first you asked the cone filter? i bought slightly used for 50 with no pipe so i lost the box and bolted it on for now. more to come...

as for the exhaust manifold my heat shield was cracked and rattled so i ditched it and decided on wrapping it to save a little heat. i don't care for the stock stuff because of future 13b swap plans so again...

hood pins i had lying around so i lost the stock latches to save weight. i know those ones are stupid and thanks to a dully that hit me i get a new cf hood might i add only because its free...some new aerocatch locking latches a new turbine paint sprayer and enough cash left over to shoot the whole car over in new brg.

if you work on your miata then you should feel my pain with mazda's stock oil filter location. so i sought a new location plus i have a new oil cooler on the way im just waiting on a thermostat. i put it there because i had plenty of room i know it is not perfect but at least there isnt a mess and it is easy to get to.

im glad you brought up the body work. to cut a long miserable story short. originally, when i got hit i brought the car into the body shop right next to the shop my brother works at. well i had them start to fix the car because the guy who hit me wanted to pay a "professional shop" to fix it fast. plus i wasn't really looking forward to painting yet another vehicle in my garage especially when the H.O.A president lives across the street. well the old guy who hit me was cool and i was feeling lazy so i figured i would cut him a break...so i thought i would give him the "family" deal at the shop my brother worked next to. well needless to say jose the painter and manager could not hold up to his word and craftsman ship hence the shitty body work. now i have redo all of it....so i took my car back after a huge battle and told the old guy i would just take care of it myself and that was it...so here i am now.
the body shop is action detail and they do auto body. i have seen work they have done in the past and thought it looked good. well i was wrong but im glad because now its christmas in may


screw the shitty top its too heavy. i plan on going hardtop but first my ohlins coilovers, new bushings, front sway bar, not neccissarly in that order, and hopefully all in a couple of months. please dont ask me why ohlins its just what my heart desires

and lastly the valve cover again because i dont give a #$%@ ROTARY swap...:fawk:

Welcome, domsmiata!

welcome...
Do you already have the motor and drivetrain for the rotary swap?

Do you have sweet fabrication skills? Rotary swap :giggle:

Because Racecar???

You do know that swap is horrendously stupid, right?

but... it goes "waaapapapapap"!!!!

the rotary swap is in the future after i dial in the suspension first.
i really believe the rotary swap is underestimated. the engine in the NA form with itb is in total: lighter, a smaller package, reeves higher, has more power, and lastly is easier to work...to me this swap is first choice especially when considering the limitations on the stock miata head.

the fab skills involved are almost nonexistent. look its not rocket science. its just some cutting and wielding, ie motor mounts, crossmember, and oil pan haha please. plus there are a ton of others who have done this swap with great success. i believe it is also less complicated then a STUPID V8 SWAP, which kills the miatas balance. i plan on improving this balance by lighting my miata to around 1900 lbs and with the na itb rotary setup this should prove be a nasty combo.


YES this will be a DD weekend track car so you hatters grow up :facepalm:

Hatters gonna hat.

haters gonna hate... masters gonna bate....

Oh boy a rotory swap dd track car. This will totally happen and this definitely won't be the last time we ever hear from it.

Also why the fuck would you buy Ohlins? this is what you are looking for.

The all-aluminum LS1 weighs 80 pounds more than an iron block Miata motor, and in stock form (absolutely box stock) makes 350 horsepower. With a cam swap, headers and a decent tune they make well over 400 horsepower.

I've built several LS1 Miatas and can tell you from experience that the cars balance is not a problem. Indeed, once you swap out the tiny Miata rear end for a beefier Ford 8.8 chunk, the weight distribution of the car is very near that of a stock Miata. Admittedly, in a car that weighs a bit more more overall, but the additional 275+ horsepower more than compensates.

Also, as well designed as the LS1 conversion kits are these days, it's largely a bolt-in deal. I'm sure that's not a big consideration for someone with such obviously amazing fabrication skills as yours, as evidenced by the amazingly sanitary mods you've pulled off already, but it's sure as heck a lot easier than swapping a rotary into the car.

Speaking of sanitary mods, please tell me those aren't self-adhesive stick-on "hood pins". I've looked a few times at their location on the hood and don't see the corresponding pins in your underhood pics.

I thought you guys were too harsh on this guy til I read this post:

Carry on:facepalm:

brrrrrRAAPRBAPBRABRPABRRPBRPBRBRRBRPRBRBPPRBPBRPRB PBRPRRPRRRRRRRRBABPBPRPBRPBRPABRPAPBPRPRPRBPPBPBRP PBPRPPBRPBRPBRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAGRBabrrba

So i see you're making this car worse... not better? I sure hope your rotary swap is better than your current work.

The only thing i see on this car that isnt worse than stock is that coolant reroute but i'm told mazda fixed the flow issues in the vvt motors.

i was gonna ask about the reroute... dont know much about the vvt's, i thought somewhere in my research on here, that i read that they fixed the cooling...

first i really like the xidas those are runner up for sure. a great coilover.

as for a v8 swap i also think those are cool and have there own benefits. however i would prefer the rotary over the v8 swap, even though there are kits available for v8 swaps. i actually don't mind the fabrication that comes with a rotary swap. as for the weight issue, i am going a different approach. i want the free revving, high rpm of the rotary. also the overall package is still lighter then stock and v8...plus i don't have to change the rear end with this swap.

haha stick on "hood pins" they actually make those?...no the shitty ones i threw on were some mr. gasket cheap-o's that sux and were free. they are the 1960's style. have metal backing washers on the hood and pins. anyway they are gone as soon as my hood gets here...aerocatch

as for the reroute- i haven't heard that Mazda had fixed the cooling problem on the vvt's. before deciding on the reroute i did some research and only saw that it had benefitted all na's and nb's. maybe they did but all i know is when i did the reroute my car did run cooler on the temp gauge...and still does

shouldnt run cooler if your thermostat is working properly... should just be a more even temp across all 4 cylinders... not really noticeable on the gauge normally

there was a new thermostat already on the car before i did the reroute and it still ran cooler. its not much cooler but anything in this area should help.

How does running cooler help?

... wow i guess there really are stupid questions out there...

Please school me on how running bellow optimum engine temperature is better.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1369683037

Look Brony, please take this in the spirit of helpfulness with which it's offered.. You're not really setting a good example of how to Make Friends And Influence People here.

First off, you've come to a forum called MiataTURBO, but seem to be disinterested in both the Miata motor and turbocharging.

You've posted pics of not only a really ratty car, but also one which has been subjected to some really awful hack-job "mods" which have only served to detract from both the performance and the appearance of said car. The *only* thing you've done to the car which might make any sense, specifically the coolant re-route is actually unnecessary on your specific engine, as Mazda addressed the cooling issues which necessitated coolant re-routes on earlier engines. Furthermore, you cite having observed "it running cooler" as a result of this mod, which only serves to reinforce the impression that you genuinely Don't Get It. The coolant re-route mod is intended to address a problem that occurred when Mazda repurposed the Miata motors from their original Front Wheel Drive applications to the RWD Miata platform, which resulted in less than optimal cooling in the rearmost cylinders. If your thermostat worked before, the coolant temps being indicated on your incredibly vague stock dash gauge would not have changed an iota.

Beyond that, you've boasted of your ability to handle the "simple" fabrication required to swap a Rotary engine into your Miata, while displaying a serious lack of such skills on the butcher-job "mods" you've performed. Your dismissal of the complexity of the modifications required for the swap you've planned not only shows how woefully clueless and ill-equipped you are to perform such fabrication, but is also a bit of an insult to the folks here who ARE capable of such work. Do you really think you're ready to weld an aluminum oil pan? Have you *ever* TIG welded, or even seen a TIG welder before? On the odd chance you are qualified to do so, where were those skills and knowledge when you hacked up your cam cover, or plumbed your oiling system with 3/8ths fuel line and worm clamps?

Finally, there's the Preposterousness Thing. You appear to financially have neither a pot to piss in, nor a window to throw it out of, as evidenced by the neglect to repair the body-work and ragged top (BTW, "the rag top is too heavy, so you're going with a hard top instead"?? Serious?) and yet you're here spouting off about your plans to pull off a complicated and expensive Rotary swap?

All of these things combined really don't do much to enhance your credibility, which here on MiataTurbo is not only valued, but frankly, required, and that's sort of why you've had a chilly reception. Add to that your generally douchey demeanor, and I don't see your future here being a bright one.

If you're genuinely committed to the Rotary swap you've been talking about, there are probably other forums which will prove to be more helpful to you. On the other hand, if you'd prefer to turn that turd of a car into a stupidly fast and efficient car by following the Forced Induction model which has already been sorted out by perhaps the most knowledgeable and experienced people in the field, then knock off the stupid talk and asshole attitude, acknowledge that you have a lot to learn and then START LEARNING.

Credibility and respect are not things you can just claim, especially when your actions all point squarely in the opposite direction, and definitely not in a crowd full of people who DO know what they're talking about. So knock it off, take a deep breath, consider the possibility that you might not know what you're talking about. Ok? Just consider it.

+1 to everything except the "01 doesn't need a re-route since mazda addressed it" part. They didn't fix the problem or address it, they simply made it less drastic or bad. Ideally all miatas should run the 94-00 head gasket and a proper coolant re-route out the back of the head for even flow and cooling across all 4 cylinders.

Now coming to a garage near you with a rotary engine.


https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1367250982

One last thing-

Note that *I* am technically a "stupid noob" myself, both to this forum and to turbocharging a Miata, and yet I've been treated really kindly here on MT. Why? I'd like to think its because I acknowledge that I DON'T know everything, don't try to front like I do, and try to answer my own questions before asking dumb shit that's been covered before. That's all it takes, a little baseline knowledge, a little research, a little humility, and a sense of humor. The folks who show up here with those same qualities are almost always warmly welcomed, while those without them have a much less positive experience.

I stand corrected. Thanks.

Its pretty funny when u think about it, instead of fixing the problem mazda simply blocked the flow to the first 2 cylinders to increase the flow to the last 2. And then 2 years later they came up with the MSM :fawk:.


Thats because of the pony. :)

im not trying to piss on the bee hive. look you fellas are the ones that came at me. i my be a noob to forums but not to mechanics and fabrication. now i am not claiming to be a professional in either, i just have alot experience in both. i am not claiming to know it all and if i did i sure as hell wouldn't be here talking to you guys. i am just planning on making my "TURD" it into a DD track car and i stand by my decision for the swap. frankly i can care less about all the opinions on this or any other forum. i am here because i respect the builds and tech on this forum more then others and i am not going to let a few hatters change that.

So Mr. not noob to mechanics and fabrics, tell me how running bellow optimum temp is good for performance?

If you did a reroute on a vvt engine without switching out the head gasket for a 94-97 one then you made the problem worse on your engine. Mazda changed the design of the head gasket on 01-05' miatas in order to change the flow of the coolant to improve them cooling issue. It was not a total fix like the reroute but it was better. The problem is that if you do the reroute with the new head gasket it does not perform normally because the coolant path is totally different.

I'm reminded of a famous quote by Alexander Woollcott; "(s)he was like a sinking ship firing on the rescuers."

I suppose you could just disregard what I've said, and just write me off as a "hatter". (I do wear a lot of hats, when you have a shaved head and drive with the top down in Florida it's kind of a must..)

Clearly I've underestimated your mechanics and fabrics skills, and for that I apologize. You know what they say about presuming such things; "when you presume you make a pres of u and me." Or y'know, something like that.

So tell us more about you and your project. Where are you from? What's your native language? What do you do when not improving on the dumb stuff that the factory engineers do, like installing hood latches, not mounting the air filter next to a poorly shielded exhaust manifold, mounting the oil filter down under the car where they also put the oil drain, or specifying ridiculous operating temps on an aluminum-headed motor?

What's the plan for your daily driver/racecar, aside from the simple rotary with ITBs swap? I know that a lot of folks have tried to make a combination daily driver/racecar before, and have found that the resulting car doesn't really excel at either, but you do seem like a different sort of guy, and I think you can pull it off. I mean, you *do* have a slick set of aero-catches already; you're half way there before even starting!

Like I said in my earlier post, I most assuredly don't know everything, especially when it comes to operating temps and stuff. What's the benefit of making the motor run cooler? I genuinely am unclear on this.

Welcome to the forum. Sorry for making a bunch of dumb assumptions based only on a few pics.

Not a fan of rotary but good luck and welcome to the forum

dannng pink. 1 post in and you jumped on the horse. I also thought you got on him a little prematurely but you smoked him out of his hole pretty quickly.

Welcome to mt! stick around and show us the mad tyyyyyyyyyyyyyyte rotery swap. you're all over the place kid. think before you "speak". "STUPID V8" and then flip flopping to saying they are alright is evidence of you letting your asshole speak too much. chilllllll bro.