tfbmiata

I'm fairly new to track days and I am getting a wide range of opinions/information on whats mentioned in the title. I'm doing HPDEs. Enough to be in novice w/ coach or novice solo, but enough pace to be in intermediate as I've done a ton of sim racing and it translated quite well for pace. I'm running an 02 LS w/ a 6 speed completely stock engine but for an intake.

Tires:
I'm running Contenintal Extreme Sports. They have anywhere between 2 and 4/32s on them. I've been told I can run these bald until replacement (so long as I don't care about wet conditions) and I've been told to replace them at the normal 2/32 you are supposed to for street driving.

Brakes:
The DE group I run with says to replace them at 50% of the pad is gone. I have Hawk DCT60s (came with the car). I called them and they said they have folks who run them to the back plate. I'm curious everyone else's opinions. I'm a little less than half pad depth. I just got back from road Atlanta and they didn't have a moment of fade or lack any gripe (still throwing me into the harnesses at T10). So again, I'm curious what other people think. How often to change out fluid assuming it hasn't been boiled?

Engine/Oil/Life expectancy
The motor I have has 219,000 original miles. All the normal stuff done recently like water pump, timing belt. How often do you recommend oil changes and stock weight? My coach at road Atlanta, who is a miata guy as well, said just change the oil and do the normal stuff on interval and the engine is basically bullet proof. I had previously set myself fake redline of 6,000rpm to keep the strain off, but he said that's completely unnecessary. He's done a couple hundred track days in 3 different miatas so it was definitely from his personal experience. I've been thinking about picking up a spare engine as 219k miles seems crazy to me, but thoughts on others on longevity would be great.

Transmission/Differential
Thoughts on how often to change these fluids. A friend of a friend said to do the differential like every 2 track days b/c they love to blow out on the Miatas. Sounded crazy. Thoughts? Also, thoughts on life expectancy in general? A buddy of mine has a 5 speed and while initially I was all high and mighty about my 6 speed, I find myself catching the corner of 5th and reverse AND redlining just before braking points often enough I am definitely reconsidering. Plus used 5 speeds are like what, $200? Should I consider having one of these on hand as well?

Coolant:
I'm running normal mix of coolant and never see temps above 210F. The DE place recommends pure water with some redline stuff for corrosion. I'm in the south so freezing isn't a concern. Is this right/proper/necessary?

I'm sure there are other areas I didn't think of or missed. So feel free to respond back with other items you'd recommend maintenancing a track day style pattern.

I think it'd be a great idea to have a miata track day maintenance guide sticky on this!

thebeerbaron

iTrader: (1)

If you don't care about wet weather performance, run any tire to the cords, or until the flat-spots drive you mad. Just make sure that if you're doing this, you have spare wheels + tires at the track with you so you can swap them on. You don't want to cord an old tire on Saturday morning and be done for the weekend. Until lap times matter, you should only be concerned about tire wear if it's causing your car to be unpredictable.


DE groups say that because they want you to have pad to get home on at the end of the day/weekend. And because novices don't typically think about such things. If you have a spare set of pads with you, and the tools to swap them on, there's no reason not to run them -almost- to the backing plates. I say -almost- mostly to cover nit-picking arguments about that last little bit of pad. You want some buffer so that you never truly reach the backing plate - they don't stop the car and are hell on rotors. And you have to check them regularly enough to know how much you have left.

I have a brake fluid testing doohickey that tells me how much water is in my brake fluid. I test it regularly and replace it if it gets discolored, starts showing signs of containing water, or when I bleed my brakes, which has been too often lately. It's a good wintertime maintenance activity, not something that needs doing every weekend.

The engineering answer to this is to do an oil analysis. The easy answer, until you really start pushing the car or add power, is exactly what your coach said.

Insanity. If you're not redlining it every opportunity, you're wasting your time. As far as a spare, think about your appetite for downtime. How long will it take you to find, purchase, and install an NB engine? If your HPDE schedule has five days between weekends, or you need to drive this car to work on Monday, you'd want one on-hand, ready to swap in. If you've got a month or two between uses, that's probably enough time to shop around a little bit and still get it delivered and installed in time.

Also insanity. I don't know of any failure point of a Miata differential that would be solved by such frequent fluid swaps. The real weak point is the aluminum arm that gets broken with big hits to berms or other cars. You don't need to worry about that yet.

As far as the 5-speed - I think it's a better gearbox. But you don't want to swap one into your LS because your rear end ratio is set for the 6-speed. If you want to go to the 5-speed, you'd need a 5-speed differential.

If you're sure your car will never see freezing temperatures, not only is distilled water + water-wetter better for cooling, but it's much better if you spring a leak on track. Antifreeze is slippery AF and everyone will hate you for spilling it on the track.


At this stage in your driving career, don't overthink things. It's a Miata, it's pretty damn reliable as a track toy. Get seat time, learn how much you don't know, get some more seat time, and worry less about the equipment.

Except safety equipment, spend money on that. But do your homework, buy quality stuff, and install it right. Lots of ways to waste money and be less safe.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

Tires: Run them to cords if you have a second set with you at the track. If not, replace at wear bars which is usually 2/32".

Brakes: Have your next set of pads and rotors on hand at the track, if not, replace at about 20%. I've run plenty down to nearly the backing plate, no issues. Fluid I did on pad changes only as long as you're using something good like RBF660 or Castrol SRF.

Engine Redline: Higher RPM does increase wear but limiting yourself to 6000rpm is on the low side. Shift at 7000 and the engine will last longer than if you are shifting at 7500 though. Also having your backup engine already set to go will decrease downtime if you do have a catastrophic failure.

Engine Oil: Good synthetic like 0w-40 Mobil 1 or 5w-40 Rotella T6 and I would change every 3 track events or 3000 miles, whatever comes first. Cheap insurance but you don't need to swap it like every single event.

Transmission and Diff: I only changed these once a year, Motul is good for these. The 1.8 differentials are pretty bullet proof, consider using a thicker diff oil like a 75w-140. Spare trans would be good to have but they are pretty stout at stock power levels.

Coolant: If it doesn't freeze where you're at, do water and a surfactant like from Amsoil, or water wetter but sometimes that has left weird buildups for me. You can add in like one cup of coolant if you'd still like to be able to smell a leak.



These cars are pretty reliable for track duty. I've had a friend take a stock engine to almost 300k and it was regularly flogged at the track from 230k miles onwards. Just keep up on regular maintenance like belts, spark plugs, wires, etc etc.

Also consider moving to a tire like a Hankook RS4 on some 15x9" wheels when you're ready. Read the forums and see what other people are doing before you buy parts for the car and go from there. Seat time and money for tires and consumables is what is most important. Later on some Xidas and sway bars etc are nice to have as well.

tfbmiata

Anything in that spectrum good enough to also run in the rain? I'm considering whether or not to bring my minivan to events so I can bring a wet set, but would love to find one that is double duty. I'm not looking for all out lap time at the moment but instead to get used to pushing the car to it's limits without pooping myself.

Arca_ex

iTrader: (2)

If you're looking for something that does really well in the wet there's not a lot of options that are better than the Conti Extreme Contact Sports that you already have. The RS4 will survive in the rain but it's not going to be able to make it through standing water as well as the Conti.

rdb138

iTrader: (1)

I think Arca_ex & BeerBaron answered your questions very well. Unfortunately, there is no clear answer on your questions. We all do things a little differently and thus the different opinions you get. Here are a couple additional thoughts.

Brakes - When I had a stockish Miata I bled them every 3-4 events with Motul 600. Not sure if you are self-inspecting your car or going somewhere to have inspected. If you are going somewhere like GTE or RSpeed (guessing you are local to Atlanta), they will ask / want you to bleed before an event if they are to sign off on the car & charge you for a bleed. For what it's worth, I lost my brakes/boiled my fluid at Barber last month. Not a fun experience. Lastly, your brake pads will wear down a lot faster on the last 50% then the first 50% so keep that in mind & watch them a bit more carefully while you run them down past 50%

Transmission/Shifting - You may need new engine mounts. You would be shocked if you had the time to look down at the shifter how much it moves on you if your mounts are bad. Made a big difference with my first Miata when I swapped out the worn out mounts. Also, (ignore this if you already know) not sure if you are downshifting early or not, but you want to wait until right before turn in to do your downshifting. This allows the car to slow down enough that you have less chance of over rev it. I would also just stick with your current 6 speed setup for now.

Cooling - The first upgrades I would do to your car (besides safety stuff / maintenance) is an aluminum radiator (cross flow for extra points) and a coolant reroute if you don't have them already. (Coolant reroute I believe still works for your car, but do your homework). Like Arca mentioned. I also run a cup of antifreeze in my track car that lives in my garage / doesn't see freezing temps, mainly because you can easily smell a coolant leak if you have one that way. If you are parking outside, there is always that 3-4 day cold freeze normally once a year in Atlanta that you will want coolant in your car. You can either drain and fill with some coolant in Dec till March or leave it parked in a garage.

Good Luck with your new addiction. I run with both Jzilla & JTI depending upon schedule, so holler if you are going to an event & want to padock together or just say hello.

Gee Emm

Good advice here.

I'll only add that anti-freeze also acts as a corrosion inhibitor. If you don't need anti-freeze, adding some inhibitor is a good idea.

Thinking back to my early days, one of the tricks of the trade is to suss out who to listen to, for car tips and driving tips. You have made a good start coming here, lots of knowledgeable people keen to help a newbie along his way. As you have already found, some people have a good line of bad advice, it's important to be able to discriminate between those to listen to, and those whose advice you let go through to the keeper. You seem pretty sensible, which is more than I can say for some, and that with a willingness to ask questions of the right people will take you far.

Good luck, and have fun!

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Tires: Run till corded or too heat cycled to be fun

Brakes: Once you find a front and rear pad compound you like, keep a set of 50% worn pads as spares. Never go to the track without spare front pads.
Flush brake fluid once a year. Bleed every 4 track days.

Oil: B series Miatas w/o oil coolers will run 300° oil temps. That kills conventional oil very quickly. They also get oil pressure dips under braking. If no oil cooler, we recommend running slightly higher viscosity, 10w40 synthetic.
Change intervals for 10w40 syn can be 3000-5000 without issue

Coolant: Reduce antifreeze ration down to 10% unless you need the freeze protection.

tfbmiata

Any advice on "cheap" (least expensive, but will work properly) rotors.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

NAPA, Centric. The fancy cryo/slotted/drilled rotors have little or no extra benefit over plain blanks. We use Centric blanks on our cars.

thebeerbaron

iTrader: (1)

<deleted>

^^^^ that.

tfbmiata

Any discount codes for forum members ordering through 949racing?!

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

All orders on our website receive Orange Cash, which is store credit for future orders.