"Project Miata" Update

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 9:14

That's good. Adjusting coilovers with those stupid tools is a pain in the ***. You can only do like a quarter turn at a time and it's tough to keep them even. Glad they're already set at the right height for you.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

erod550 wrote:That's good. Adjusting coilovers with those stupid tools is a pain in the ***. You can only do like a quarter turn at a time and it's tough to keep them even. Glad they're already set at the right height for you.

Yeah, although I might re-adjust them anyway now that I'm thinking about it, as I'm not sure if the previous owner adjusted it based on the spring perch or the shock body length. So, I might just take the wheels off and check to be sure.

I've had coilovers on previous cars, and yeah, I'm not a big fan of adjusting them for the same reason haha. I never care for the "slammed" look, I've always been a function over form guy, only interested in suspension travel while maintaining a low CG.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

UPDATE:

Power steering is now fully functional

Eric and I put all the lines, pump and reservoir back in today, it was really straight forward with no complications. Hooked everything up, no leaks, no squeak from the belt, and it works great!

With that said, BIG thanks to Eric! Seriously, this club is truly fortunate to have someone with his knowledge, insight, skill and resources. Very cool to say the least. That and his garage is EPIC! I will in fact attempt to mimic many of his ideas/design when I build my dream garage in the future

Honestly, so far, with the new uber-sticky tires, brake pads, shifter/bushings and the power steering, this thing doesn't even feel like the same car anymore! However, turn-in is pretty sharp/quick, and while the car handles quick transitions well, coming from my Bimmer and the last couple AWD cars I've owned, I'm feeling pretty sloppy behind the wheel haha! It has a lot of grip, and I know that until I learn to properly pilot this bugger, I'm going to be the biggest limiting factor in this car haha! I foresee myself bashing many-a-cone at autoX events in the near future haha!

Overall, she is starting to come together pretty well, and I think I'm really going to have a lot of fun in this little car.

Dange · Postby **Dange** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

roninsoldier83 wrote: they don't match the fun factor of my old MR2 Turbo.... I was trying to keep the entry price low, but as I'm finding more and more things wrong with the car (i.e. money that needs to be spent), I'm approaching the price I would have paid for another MR2, at which point, while I enjoy Miata's, if price is equal (it's getting pretty close lol), I would rather drive the mid-engined, turbocharged car (read: snap-oversteer, plenty of torque & lots of fun).

come along way from that statement it seems, you're still lacking the torque, but sounds like its starting to make you rethink that statement!

sounds like you got it almost sorted out, and a perfect base for whatever you want to do with it.
but to be honest, id get you a FM butterfly brace. it will basically complete your suspension later miatas come with something similar from the factory and they help ALOT, this coupled with a roll bar and to me it seems like it almost doubles the feel of stability, and becomes more of a gocart than a car.. http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=4538&parentid=0&stocknumber=13-69015%20%201990-97

94mx5 · Postby **94mx5** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

Ditto on the bracing. The 1.8 cars came with extra frame bracing, but nowhere near the butterfly. Also, you can try Frog Arms.
http://www.bossfrog.biz/Miata_Performance.html

The rollbar with add rigidity too. The right mods will make it a COMPLETELY different car!

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

Dange wrote:come along way from that statement it seems, you're still lacking the torque, but sounds like its starting to make you rethink that statement!

to be honest, id get you a FM butterfly brace. later miatas come with something similar from the factory and they help ALOT, this coupled with a roll bar and to me it seems like it almost doubles the feel of stability, and becomes more of a gocart than a car.. http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=4538&parentid=0&stocknumber=13-69015%20%201990-97

LOL, yeah I suppose I have.

Although, I've invested a lot of time, money and effort into the car, so there's an attachment building haha.

I'll look into the brace, but am not sure if I want to run a roll-bar just yet, I've been debating it. Mostly just because I do want to be able to take my kiddo out in the car from time to time, and without a helmet, the roll-bar might be a bit of a safety concern... but, I do have a 2nd car, so it's not a necessity to take the kiddo in the Miata occasionally, but a consideration.

As of now, the chassis feels a lot better, as does the brake pedal feel, and shifter... but the clutch pedal is pretty soft/worn, and I really don't dig the car's on/off switch throttle response. So, I think those will be the next areas I'll be addressing, in order to get the car more balanced overall. As such, for the moment, I'll be sticking with the plan of picking up a standalone ECU and clutch/flywheel combo. I figure I can tune this bugger, pick up a few ponies, and improve throttle response/feel, as well as I'm sure a lighter flywheel will help a bit with getting the motor to be a bit more rev-happy.

Either way, yeah, I'm starting to have a little more fun with the car.

Dange · Postby **Dange** » Sun May 01, 2011 9:14

unless the kid is over say 5'7" atm his head wont come close to the bar
get some cg locks on the stock seatbelts and there should be no worries.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Mon May 02, 2011 9:14

Dange wrote:unless the kid is over say 5'7" atm his head wont come close to the bar
get some cg locks on the stock seatbelts and there should be no worries.

Good point, duly noted.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:14

So, swapped out a few fluids, and got a custom alignment recently.... honestly, after the alignment, the car seems to ride a LOT better! I'm shocked and have no idea why... ride height wasn't adjusted for the alignment, neither was dampening, so I'm a bit perplexed. The only thing I can think of is that on the driver side, caster was at 6.2*, which seems a bit high for a car like this, and my tire was very close to the front of the wheel well, so maybe it was rubbing?!? Either way, with a good alignment, it feels like a whole different car. They also straightened out the wheel while I was there, which is nice.

While I ended up with my kiddo Saturday morning and didn't get to make the autoX this weekend, I did end up taking the Miata up to Lookout Mountain and she's handling pretty well these days! Going to have to head up that way again soon since the alignment.

Also after swapping a few fluids, and driving around, I filled up my tank, and to my surprise calculated that I was able to hit 31.8mpg! Even though I was playing around with the car a good bit! Not bad IMO, and I'm sure new tires on proper inflation helped a bit.

I've been putting in a good amount of work, but I have to say, the car is now immensely more fun to drive than it was when I bought it.

However, I've almost pulled the trigger a couple of times on a turbo kit in the past week or so, as I've ran across a couple good deals over on miataturbo.net. At this point, the car is fun to drive, but I'm thinking she needs another good ~100+whp or so

Project "boost the Miata" may not be as far off as I originally planned

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:14

Argh, making me want to mod my Miata. No, must resist....

zlyricist · Postby **zlyricist** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:14

was skimming through this thread and saw you talking about pnp megasquirt. dunno if you got it yet, but this company offers them on the cheap! http://www.stratifiedauto.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=66&zenid=2ebe5a5eac3b01bc100041275ca350bc

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:14

Those prices are Canadian Dollars, but even with our conversion rate sucking worse than it used to, that would be about $13 cheaper than the original link ronin posted. But it all depends on shipping at that point.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:14

erod550 wrote:Those prices are Canadian Dollars, but even with our conversion rate sucking worse than it used to, that would be about $13 cheaper than the original link ronin posted. But it all depends on shipping at that point.

At that point it would be splitting hairs, and I think if I keep the Miata and went that route eventually, I would pickup the one from the link I posted originally, mostly just based on the fact that if I ran into an issue, support would be more readily available (they post on the Miata forums regularly).

zlyricist · Postby **zlyricist** » Fri May 13, 2011 9:14

diyautotune are definitely on top of their game..... if they only offered pnp's for more than just miata's!!

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 9:14

Just got back from putting an STS-legal 1.6 VLSD in the Miata over at Eric's garage... everything went pretty smooth other than when I somehow managed to get the cap to pop off the axle and the bearings to fly out haha! Eric got them all packed back in there though and everything else went pretty smooth. Seriously, not only does Eric have the ultimate garage & set of tools, but I learn something new from that guy every time I go over there! Hell of a good guy.

As a side note, while we were under the car we noticed one of the exhaust hangers was broken, so before I left Eric MIG welded it back on there for me; which actually took down on the amount of vibration the car has at idle and I think we got it to stop hitting the rear diff haha!

Either way, all in all, another good day. Big thanks to Eric!

"Project Miata" Update

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