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

 

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





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

 

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

 

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.


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.

 

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...



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.

 

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.