Some go to great lengths
 

for a couple of years now I have wanted a miata. But school and sparse selection in Iceland have hindered me so far. But now I decided that it was time.

I went online and searched for a while until I found something I wanted to work with. Only one problem, that car is in Germany!

So I finished my nightshift, jumped straight into a plane and flew 3 hours, drove 4 hours and then laid my eyes on this.

Attachment 233359

The guys I'm dealing with barely speak English and my German is poor. We got it inspected at some shaaaady place that got opened up during the night for us.

She's not perfect but mechanically she seems really sturdy. Now on friday I get the temp plates so I can drive it over to Denmark and then take it by ferry to Iceland. Summer will be goooood.

First up will be to get her mechanically to a place where I like her, and then decide which turbo I wanna slap on it.

I love impulse decisions.

Congrats.

Thanks!

And some info since I was way too excited during my first post.

I'm a 28 year old aircraft technician in Iceland and have done all the research for a turbo build. Although I might have questions when it comes to injector sizing and mapping later on. I've had turbo cars in the past and to me boost is the only way to go.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1431571988

The car is a 1998 1.8, with ~85k miles. There is some rust on lower sills but the plan is to fix that first and then find a lip and skirts to put on it.
My intention is to install the megasquirt a month or two before doing any mods and just getting used to tinkering with it. then go to the US on a shopping spree around mid winter to get the majority of the parts since shipping costs will have it's way with my poop chute if I try to have all parts shipped individually to Iceland.

I had the car running and was checking the engine bay when I noticed that the #1 plug lead had some damage on it that looked like a rat had gnawed at it. And in a stroke of genius I decided to have a better look. Grabbed it and ZAP! looks like plug wires are first on the "to-do" list.

Attachment 233357
I actually can't wait to get the engine bay cleaned up and shiny.

Does anyone know if anything was supposed to be here? it looks like something belongs there that clearly isn't there any more
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The original alloy wheels are there too and I'll put them on as soon as I get the temp plates.

I saw the most retarded looking yellow and black 3000gt this morning.

The 'missing' area. Red connector is for the Air Conditioning pressure switch, white connector is for the Aux Fan (which is installed with A/C).

I have a 2000 with the exact same empty space.

What's up with that induction snorkel? It looks really long.

yeah, The 3000gt seems to attract some really tasteless individuals sometimes. Makes me a sad panda.


And barby, I'm just kinda happy it doesn't have AC. one less thing to delete, it's not like there is much need for AC in Iceland :lol:
And I don't know about that snorkel, looking at pictures from other miati I see that it's a lot longer. But why it's like that I have no clue.

This?

Attachment 184104

I'm glad you got a decent 1.8 to build. If you need a base of operations in the winter, it is pretty warm in Florida then, haha! And my lake house near Atlanta is empty most of the winter. Let me know if I can help.

hahah The family was actually contemplating on staying in Florida through December. I'd love to meet some locals and learn from them at least

As soon as I got the title I threw on the stock wheels. So much fresher looking already. and the interior is almost flawless
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Right after that I taped the spark plug wire as a temp fix to avoid shorting anything. The inaugural drive was a 7 hour run on the German autobahn.

Only one question. Is the oil pressure supposed to hang this high?
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It pulls strong and feels solid. And it feels like it has a limited slip diff, but I don't know the cars well enough to swear by it.

That is not a real oil pressure gauge. Mazda determined people were too stupid to have a real gauge. That is essentially an idiot light with a pointer and no light. It points when you have a few pounds of pressure or more (5 or 8psi or something silly like that) and doesn't point at all if your engine has lost all oil pressure and has been destroyed by the time you notice. The 1.6 cars had real gauges. There is a retrofit to use the 1.6 sending unit on the engine and the 1.6 gauge in the NA8 cluster. I'm not sure if it also fits in the NB cluster.

IIRC, the 94s and 95s had real oil pressure gauges too.

The empty spot is there on all NBs, AFAIK. Yes, the connectors go to the AC bits when so equipped, but it's just a couple of wires.

Early FM2 kits used that spot to relocate the power steering reservoir. It's also a decent place to put an aftermarket windshield washer bottle on a car that has ABS and a turbo.

--Ian

Ah okay. So just to worry about it when it doesn't go up. (seems like that can apply to many things in life)

But I decided that it desperately needed an oil change when I found papers that timed the last oil change at five years ago when the car was parked.
So I got to that mission while staying at a friends place in Denmark.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1431795874
I'll most definitely be changing the tranny and diff oil once I get home, the gear shifts are a bit stiff.

I've most likely sold my other car so this one will get rust repairs, hardtop and repaint as soon as I get home.

And I made a friend on the trip
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Looks like it could use some polish on those headlights.

It sure does. Once I get home I can post some proper pics of the small things that are wrong. The exterior needs love

I'm really liking this thread and the way you're making progress "on the road"

Good job

Thank you! I brought my overalls and a tool kit since I was buying a car I had never seen. Haven't gotten into any trouble but it's always a piece of mind to be ready for anything.

Drove the last 4 hours to the ferry, great weather and the top down blasting this


Met up with a friend that is also importing a car to Iceland and we teamed up for the last part of the ride.
Attachment 233353

Now it's just a 3 day boat ride to Iceland. Can't wait to start fixing this bitch up

Smart to move the car in stages.
When i fetched a 98 RS in Glasgow 2011 I drove it home in close to one stretch. 9h in UK, 4h slumber on ferry and 17h home. Last 4 hours in November slush on barley threaded summer tires.
I will not do it again. :)

I still have not decided what I should do with it, a well thought trough purchase...

haha the moving in stages was a result of circumstances but not choice. But it was a nice thing.

But I don't envy you driving a car on summer tires in slush. It can get scaaary

Stopped for a few hours in the Faroese islands. And goddamn that place is beautiful and the roads are incredibly fun to drive

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Aaand now the journey has come to an end. 2200km by road and ferry over the atlantic ocean got me here

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432726572

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432726572

And that awkward moment when a toyota aygo is the big car in the household

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432726572

Lovely scenery.

wow....

Beautiful area & I bet the roads are fun!

Fantastic views

Yeah. The scenery during the last two days is breathtaking.

In all it was a great adventure, and in a way it isn't over.

But today I was almost too tired to stand upright. But I wanted so badly to make her shine. The paint was in horrible condition so I started with a degreaser, clay barred it and the clay bar picked up so much dirt I had to throw it away after that single pass.
Then I went two passes of fine polish by hand and then waxed it. And I'm happy to say that the car I thought I'd have to repaint is quite salvagable

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1432766842

I consider my knowledge of world geography and history to be above average but I had to Google Faroese. Beautiful trip and really good looking car!

yeah, it's a small group of islands and they belong to Denmark. Their language is a weird mix of icelandic and danish but they almost just sing when they talk, it's really amusing.

Alright. So now the shopping begins. But I've got a few questions before I pull the plug.


Motor mounts: Mine are toast. When I had the 3000gt I had polyurethane mounts, vibration was sliiiightly more but the shifter and clutch feel was way better. On planet miata's page I see both normal and MS mounts and it says MS mounts are stiffer. Will those fit the normal NB engine?
Planet-Miata.com - Your #1 source for Mazda Miata new and used parts and accessories.

Also, what's the difference in these two kits?
Planet-Miata.com - Your #1 source for Mazda Miata new and used parts and accessories.

I'll get a t25 from a friend tomorrow, so I'm already starting to gather parts for the turbo setup.

Can you tell from this image if I have LSD? My google-fu did not seem strong enough to find out.
Attachment 233349

Also, why is it that all stores and documents talk about NB's starting in '99 when mine is from mid year '98? Did Europe get the NB before the US?

1) yes
2) just the plugs
3) nope, I believe you'll have to run the vin in one of those decoders or call Mazda

didn't even know VIN decoders existed. And according to the one I used it has LSD. So happy times all around.

Some go to great lengths
 

All NB 1.8 sold in Europe should have a LSD.
NBs started production in jan-feb -98, too late to be called -98 in US.

It looks like you have the sport suspension as well. Are your shocks yellow? If so, happy times. You will also have bigger brakes with the sports option, if my NB knowledge is correct.

My shocks are black. So they may have been swapped out during the cars life. The car really feels smooth over speedbumps.

I'm going to guess that my coolant shouldn't have been this color...

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And what's everyones preferred method of getting oil in the tranny? Pump, long hose?

The pink coolant is a fairly new long-life standard (ASTM D3306 / JIS K2234) which is used by Toyota as the OEM fill and also produced by a number of other companies such as Zerex and Beck-Arnley.

I've never heard of Miata engines being particularly finicky about their coolant- I've seen pretty much every color used in them at some point and not heard any horror stories.


I use this tool, which is available from most auto-parts suppliers: Gear Oil and Fluid Pump

It screws directly into the top of the bottle and lets you just pump it right in.

pump is less messy than long hose

Yeah, the pink is what I put in. The black/brown stuff is what was in it....

Oh, I assumed that was the old transmission oil. :giggle:

I should have moved the car as you did, smart man. I drove 32 hours in 36 hours. Tipped a hotel dude a $20 to let me crash in a room for 4 hours. Never. Again.

Looks like you are making the right choices in terms of what needs to be done, good work, and beautiful scenery.

In NBs, "SPORT S" is the regular suspension, "HARD S" is the Bilsteins.

--Ian

IIRC, legally it could have been a 98, but Mazda decided they'd rather have the first 99 on the market, rather than the last 98.

--Ian

Yeah. I would die on a drive like that. But a simple 4 hour nap can do wonders.

And codrus, good to know about the suspension. Weird though to call the standard option "sport" something :p

aaalright, I've got a question about the turbo rebuild. I checked the turbo and it's got some play both back and forth and to the sides. But the fins are undamaged so it hasn't rubbed anything. Is that alright for a rebuild?

Yes.

Okay. simple question.

My abs light came on the other day. Just as it happened I felt my left front brake vibrate like it was just sliiiightly activating abs. Any known problems I should look for or am I just going to troubleshoot myself?
Also, can a OBDII reader get the code from the ABS computer?

I think you need a specialized ABS scan tool to get the codes out that way. You can do it by flashing the light though -- jumper a couple of the pins in the diag connector and it'll do a self-test procedure and blink them out.

--Ian

FLEH! I love looking up parts, comparing prices, filling my shopping cart and then finding out that the shop doesn't ship outside the US.

I might actually have to go out to get parts...