My thoughts so far are that it seems to be made very well. Fitment is great except that it I had to shim away my rear subframe brace with some washers so it wouldn't hit there. With the exhaust installed if I grab it by the tailpipe and give it a good shake it will slightly hit the rear subframe near the brace mounts. I think it will be a non issue and if it is an issue, it is easy enough to remove and put a slight dent into it. Sound sounds like stock at idle. at 1400 rpm it sounds deeper and in driving around it sounds to my ears like my stock catback did. I am happy with it so far.
Now I will preface that by saying my header and cat were not stock and I found out today that 1.6 catbacks were non resonated but 1.8's and nb's were. So I went from a non resonated stock catback to a resonated catback. I like it quite a bit so far.
This is using the same timing table and I think the same vvt table but autotuned some ve tables to get fueling better. Overall it made more midrange hp and torque which is a major plus. But I am a bit bummed that I didn't make more top end power. Will investigate that more, could be a combo of ignition timing with vvt map.
Blue was a few days ago a few posts up, and red is tonight with the 2.5 exhaust.
I’ll happily lose out on some power to not do that. The included “swag” was a little bit different than I expected. I didn’t think they’d use anime to try to sell this stuff.
My thoughts so far are that it seems to be made very well. Fitment is great except that it I had to shim away my rear subframe brace with some washers so it wouldn't hit there. With the exhaust installed if I grab it by the tailpipe and give it a good shake it will slightly hit the rear subframe near the brace mounts. I think it will be a non issue and if it is an issue, it is easy enough to remove and put a slight dent into it. Sound sounds like stock at idle. at 1400 rpm it sounds deeper and in driving around it sounds to my ears like my stock catback did. I am happy with it so far.
Now I will preface that by saying my header and cat were not stock and I found out today that 1.6 catbacks were non resonated but 1.8's and nb's were. So I went from a non resonated stock catback to a resonated catback. I like it quite a bit so far.
If you are concerned about the possibility of the exhaust moving around too much, just install a couple of urethane hangers at the rear. They will hold it well enough.
I did my timing belt replacement and my belt was visibly loose. Don’t know why but I put on a new belt and replaced the cam and crank seals and also the water pump. Then i got back to tuning my engine.
Blue line is with play with the vvt some more. Red line was with having vvt almost turned off after 5k. So, having vvt makes a difference even near redline.
I made it back from Miata’s at the gap with only minor issues with my car. My ac still doesn’t work very well. I think it’s my rebuilt compressor at this point so I will see about buying a used compressor off of a Miata that is known to have cold ac.
I found out that the 2 inch diameter test pipe I put on the car robbed me of horsepower so my magnaflow hi flow cat will be going on.
I also brought home some goodies from my road trip that will make my car even more awesome.
Here is a teaser photo on just one thing that is coming up.
While up in North Carolina this year, when I was driving more spirited than usual I noticed that I was having some slight miss shifts where I found myself stuck between gears going through some turns.
I have new ish Mazda competition motor mounts but I know my differential has the original diff mounts to the diff which I think had 135k miles at the time I installed it into my car.
I figured polyurethane was worth a shot and if I didn’t like the results I’d swap in a rubber replacement that is newer than what I had on there.
I bought an extra set of the differential plates so I could scrape off the rubber while my car is still drivable since that seems to be a bear to do. What I did was I bought a heat gun and wood chisels from harbor freight and I heated up the rubber until it just started to smoke. Then I used the chisels and the rubber came off nicely. I’ve still got a tiny bit of clean up to do until the surface is perfectly flat but I think this method is a lot cleaner and better than throwing them in a fire pit or using a propane torch to melt off the rubber.
While on my trip to Washington D.C. to help my girlfriend move into her new apartment, my miata started to overheat mid day. It wasn't a bad overheat, I had my gauge rigged up to flash overheat at 220 degrees fahrenheit so we pulled over and let the car sit. The overheat scenario was with the stock replacement radiator, and both fans on with the ac on at idle or idle ish waiting for cars to pass as we were looking for street parking. We had been sitting there for maybe 10 minutes. It was just so incredibly hot outside and mid day heat in D.C. was just the breaking point for us and the car. Thankfully Payam (Psyber_Optix) was nearby and I had a radiator on reserve with him so that worked out. I had been so mentally out of it from the various misadventures with my girlfriends car and renting a trailer and navigating down some narrow D.C. streets that Payam really came to my rescue with helping me install the radiator at his house. I had to keep walking around the car and play part fetcher to prevent myself from falling asleep. Afterward he gave me a lift to my girlfriends apartment since I was too tired to drive safely.
But, you guys don't want to hear about that. You want to see some shiny parts right? Of course you do. I bought his trackspeed radiator that has his custom made brackets to mount not a 13 inch spal fun but a 14 inch spal fan that hugs right up to the fins so it draws in air straight through the fins and not from the stagnant engine bay air. These new fans require a much bigger relay and their own wiring to work. Payam already figured out the hard parts on Smurfette but essentially it is a 60 amp relay, with a 60 amp fuse connected directly to my alternator with the stock fan wiring acting as a trigger to my fan. Stock chassis wiring gets less stressed and I get full power to this fan. I am very happy I upgraded to that FD alternator when I did my engine swap.
But now, with this huge fan kicking on I need to re tune some megasquirt parameters because at idle, this fans startup can stall the car.
I purchased a new wheel hub so that I can mount wheels besides my motolita. I went with a works bell shorty hub. Fitment is spot on and it installed easily with no issues and my airbag connector passed through just fine so no wires needed to be cut.
I also purchased a nrg 2.0 purple quick release and a 2.1 black quick release. My current plan is to buy a few steering wheels and pre mount the quick release on them so I can easily swap my wheel as I please.
I stumbled upon this today. It was posted online earlier today and I bought it this afternoon. It’s a momo montecarlo steering wheel that is brand new and still in the box. Date code on the steering dates back to March of 89.
I figured it was time to move my projects from my own personal Facebook page to the pages of Club Roadster for everyone to enjoy along with allowing me to archive it in a better fashion than just some personal Facebook posts.
To give some background context, I put out some feelers to some good...
I figured I'd start a thread of my own to catalog my plans for my 2002 Laser Blue, otherwise known as The Tick:
I just paid him off at the beginning of the month and am thinking of mods that I'd like to do to "finish" him off. Of course, I can't just go mod crazy. My philosophy is to make...
Decided to finally start a modification thread on here. I don't post this stuff many places but since I am now here quite a bit I figured why not share?
I came about my gearhead status a little later than some do. Not quite sure what caused it. I did help my dad work on cars when I was...
Well this is my first real build and im doing it with a car I have wanted for a long long time.. .to give a little background I have a 91 red Miata with 87000 miles on it. . no rust got it for a great deal and I see this car becoming something truly amazing one day. .so lets get into it.
I...
I did this to my last NA:
Not gonna do that again.
So I bought another one:
Meet Riley the 97' NA. 77,264 on the ODO when I bought it. 100% bone stock, right down to the factory soft top. AC/PC, power windows, power mirrors and a torsen. AC still works surprisingly. Not a spot of rust...
A forum community dedicated to Mazda Miata MX5 owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about Mazdaspeed performance, modifications, troubleshooting, racing, maintenance, and more!
rlrsk8t · updated 
Bryan · updated 
chiefmg · updated 
Crazyblackman · updated 
Brap-Brap · updated 
