Standard Fare NA Miata

[Zach Thomas]

In addition to my FC 5.0 swap (RX7 project) I now have another Mazda that's draining my bank account, making friends question my choices and making my wife....happy? I recently traded my 04 WRX for this 97 Miata plus a good chunk of cash. My WRX had about 300whp, was lowered just enough to still clear anything you'd typically encounter on the street, looked excellent and was dead reliable. This Miata has plastidip on top of (what I was told) pretty beat up factory black paint and bondo, won't really make it over speed bumps, was running without any o2 sensors hooked up, had a stupid loud catless exhaust on it and has so far been a big headache. But I like it enough to keep it for a bit and try to fix some things

I needed to get the car through emissions, so the EGR "delete" that had been done was reversed, the exhaust was completely replaced with stock (admittedly, I miss the Riceland header ) and the o2 sensors were replaced along with a brand new Magnaflow cat being put on. Actually, the exhaust isn't 100% stock as I have a stock 1.6 catback which apparently lacks a silencer/resonator that the 1.8 exhaust has. Only reason for this was it was local and all I had to do was weld in an o2 bung. I got the title transferred on the 15th day after trading, which is the last day in Washington before they start charging you a late title transfer fee. I was thankful, and frustrated. Especially because on that 15th day my wife and I had just gotten back from a 12 hour road trip (each way) to Reno to visit friends. We did it in her 1990 Miata, good times.

Quick list of mods
- Megan EZ street coilovers
- 15x8 +0 Rota Shakotans with Chinese 195/50R15 tires
- Cut cam cover to expose the timing belt
- Plastidipped exterior, almost a primer red color
- Plaid door panels and console armrest (meh)
- Shifter extension
- Side skirts (from Amazon.com I believe)
- Touge run style rear spoiler
- Front lip
- Stubby antenna (super JDM yo)
- NRG quick release hub and wheel
- Panel wink mirror
- Approximately 12" ride height all around

That just about covers it I think. I just had the tires put on yesterday and had it aligned, I need to clearance the inside of the fender a bit now (previous owner ran 195/45R15). The car rides almost like stock, which I never believed when I read it online from other Miata people. But I mean it, besides the lack of space between the underside of my car and the road it rides like my wife's stock 1990. Except I also have a bit more bump travel which is nice.

So basically all I've done since getting this is try to figure out why I don't regret getting rid of my WRX yet. I also worked like crazy getting the car back to emissions compliance and also raising the inch about a rear and setting the preload on the coilover springs (the collars were almost an inch away from the springs when the car was jacked up....). Plans are to daily it for now. I'd like to get a hardtop for it (we have one for the wife's car, I love them), re gasket the engine and then eventually paint it and possibly in the distant future turbo it. But all this assumes I can balance having both the FC finished and this, because the FC takes priority at this point and this car was supposed to only function as a daily. Not another project

Here's some pics of the car









In the driveway with a friend's bugeye





Right after I got it, all the stickers are gone now haha



And how it looks most recently

[TWM Performance]

Looking rad man!

- Renato

[Zach Thomas]

Picked up a hardtop for the miata last week. $600 and it has the defrost and headliner! Paint on it is awful and there's some over spray on the weatherstripping but still... $600!! Deals, especially once I plastidip it black to match the rest of the car.



After installing took it for a test drive with my sister in laws boxer, who ***** it haha



And fixed my horn to work with the nrg hub using a Honda part

[Skervey]

You have some catching up to do with this thread! Also sweet shifter/shift knob! I love tall shifters! My RX7 has the shifter really close to the steering wheels so fast going from one to the other kinda like the WRC cars setup. Just wish mine was a sequential gearbox!

[Zach Thomas]

You have some catching up to do with this thread! Also sweet shifter/shift knob! I love tall shifters! My RX7 has the shifter really close to the steering wheels so fast going from one to the other kinda like the WRC cars setup. Just wish mine was a sequential gearbox!

Updating now! Since quite a bit has happened over the last few weeks. I love and **** the shifter/knob, I like how it feels but eventually I think I'll switch to no extension and just get a nice knob.

So over the past few weeks I've done some "normal maintenance" on the miata The engine originally in it was blowing oil smoke clouds all the time and burned through a quart every couple hundred miles. That was getting to be an absolute pain, and for me was pretty embarrassing to drive around when it was like that. So because of breaking a friends window on his s10 while trying to get it reattached to the window regulator I had to head to the junkyard. Right next to the s10 that I pulled a replacement window out of was this little gem of a Miata



Smashed all to hell, but I pulled the valve cover and discovered that it looked pretty damn clean inside. The car as a whole (what was left of it anyways, somebody already took the Torsen out of it ) seemed to be in pretty good shape before the crash. Interior was relatively clean, body was decent, overall it seemed like whoever owned it had taken care of it. So despite the impact being bad enough to shear off the crank pulley and shred the timing belt I figured hey, it's only $250 for the entire engine and that included $25 for them to lift it out with a forklift and set it into the bed of my truck. 30 day warranty, why not? So it took two days to pull the engine because my buddy and I had to borrow some cordless sawzalls to cut off the front end.



Chopped off what was needed to get the engine out and headed home with the prize side note, that was literally the hardest time I've ever had pulling an engine. It was stuck IN the firewall from the impact and a lot of bolts were difficult to get it because of the wreck. Anyways, couple photos of getting it out of the truck at home





That's me in the bed of the truck, hoping my wife won't kill me for the unexpected purchase of the engine. Keen observers might note in the second pic that the oil pump and pan were also destroyed in the wreck.

So I wasted no time in getting the old engine pulled, here it is getting ready to be pulled



While prepping it to be pulled I found quite a few bolts that were loose, stripped or just missing. On top of that the ear on the waterpump that the alternator bolts to was broken off, so that meant new waterpump had to be ordered (the junkyard engines waterpump didn't spin true). I dunno how the alternator stayed in place like it did. Also figured out why the car never warmed up, although I was always certain it was just the thermostat





Out it came! Sad FC in the background I haven't ever dealt with an engine or bay as greasy as this one was, I used up so many gloves trying not to track the grease everywhere. Disgusting. Seals leaked everywhere. But started to assemble the junkyard motor, here it is with the new waterpump. I reused the timing belt because non interference motor



Finally got it all together and thrown in. Decided to delete the intake manifold brace, going to make oil changes soooooooo much easier. Got too tired and dirty to take any pics of the engine re-installation process but it was mostly trouble free. With the exception of realigning the PPF to the transmission. Fired it up at 5am after working all night on it and it billowed white smoke everywhere and the lifter tick was worse than an aircooled vw that's out of adjustment. So I got spooked on the lifters and pulled them out and cleaned and oiled them



It sucked pulling it back apart like that. I decided not to touch the head gasket and see if maybe it was just condensation. But I got nervous because after 20 minutes of it idling in the garage it still smoked. Finally decided screw it, I'll drive it around a bit and see what happens. Smoke finally cleared, lifters finally quieted down to normal miata levels and it drives good now I'll take pics later of the semi pressure washed engine bay and the new engine in place all put together.

All in all through this process the car got:
New trans fluid
New input shaft bearing and throwout bearing (cured the squealing I had with clutch out in neutral)
All new OEM gaskets on the engine minus head gasket and valve stem seals
Fresh oil
Fresh coolant
New thermostat
New waterpump

Doesn't seem like much but it was kind of expensive and very time consuming for an experiment that thankfully turned out okay! But because it all worked out, I can now say that it was a small expense for what I got in the end: an engine that runs great with 180-185 psi in all cylinders, a fresh nice shifting trans, no more oil leaks (knock on wood), new waterpump and I got to verify that my clutch was nearly new and also my engine bay is significantly cleaner now.

EDIT: here's the final product. Debating on respraying the valve cover, it looks meh in person because I rushed spraying it. Regardless of if I repaint it or not I need to sand the paint off the lettering and that'll pretty much finish up the bay for now!

[Skervey]

Had to be a ton of work just to swap it over. Looks good and glad it runs good to. Glad you didn't have to drive around with a open thermostat all winter. I did that in a jeep and it sucked!

Also looks like a chevy luv next to the miata in the junk yard! Brings back memories!

[Zach Thomas]

It's one of those deals where while I did all the work I thought nothing of it, but in hindsight it was a lot of hours and work. Full gasket set (minus the head), cleaning EVERYTHING, ordering new parts, verifying old parts, installing the timing belt properly, setting the timing and idle once it was back in the car, tracking a vacuum leak....lots of details to worry about! And I was just about to pull the trigger on fc parts since I was supposed to have the old miata engine sold but that fell through and my garage has a new leak so....fc sits :/ but at least the miata is going.

And it was a luv! Couple guys were drooling over it haha, it was a pretty clean old truck actually

[ExpelI]

Another miata friend. looks awesome!

[Skervey]

Luv the luv! And yes but know you know its mostly new under there and that makes for a much better DD. Don't have to worry about the water pump going bad or something like that. If something does goes bad you will know what it is and where it is because you put it there haha!

[loekaaz]

great progress. Love these kind of builds as I have a similar one

[Zach Thomas]

Thanks for the support guys! It will hopefully evolve into a better DD. It has been doing good so far though as is, the engine project has made me much happier with the car. Before I did it I considered selling this one and finding a cleaner miata to start with, but now I'm committed! Probably won't have many updates on this for a while, working on a friend of a friend of a friends (not quite actually, but basically) e28 fixing all the wonderful german electrical issues. Then after that it's back to the FC.

However, might be picking up a $20 t25 this weekend and might be getting my buddies stock injectors off his WRX,,,,this car is unlikely to see a turbo build anytime soon (if at all) but I can't ignore good deals

[Meeve]

I like it. Paint is a little trash. RATS IT youve already got nice stance and wheels

[DER E30]

Looks good! That looked like a lot of work to swap motors!

[Dremetos]

You mentioned being embarrassed of having a smoking car, I dunno if I'm just weird or something but I love that my car smokes. I love the smell of burnt oil as well. Weird.

[Skervey]

Don't know about a smoking car...

By the way I got a chance to my my RX7 on a set of corner scales last week thought you might like to here how she weighed up.

With no driver and 1/4 tank of gas she came in at 2720lb I also had some other junk in the car so I really think it came in right at 2700lb! Its 55% on the front and 45% on the rear, not as good there but its a FR layout car what more do you want. Im running a carb, power steering, and a full interior. It might give you a really good idea where your car might be when its done.