Opti wants a Miata....just not this one

I sold the Firebird drag car to a buddy and put the ND up for sale. I decided I want to replace the old Dodge pickup with an old GMT400 truck, (which I am still looking for) and for a toy I want a street car not a drag car.

My criteria was A/C and all the amenities, RWD, manual trans, and whistle ponies (Turbo). Price range was between 6-10K. Closer to 6K so I could get it done quicker (buying another house and paying for a wedding leaves little for toys). I initially looked at 5.0 SN95s with an on3 kit but now they say the kit will not work with A/C and then I realized SN95s are incredibly slow when stock, if Im willing to go with something that slow initially I might as well turbo a miata, then Ill have a better suspension. Plus a 200-250whp miata can trap over 100 mph in the 1/4, so they are terribly slow once turboed.

So i started looking for cheap NA miatas. I know everyone says get a 1.8 but I really dont care, I was just looking for a clean red one that was at least 25 years old so its emissions exempt

I find a non running NB for 1200 with 100K miles. Guy says it sounds like it has no compression, paint is rough and there is an elbow sized hole in top. Well its too new for me but maybe I can fix it up and flip it, the cheapest high mileage NB around we was almost 3000. Its a few hours away and Im not available for a few days, but he says if I pay full asking price he will hold it for me. I agree, assuming and hoping its just a broken timing belt, and I can get it running easy.

Here is the car

So paint is beat, maybe a few panels are savable, maybe not, need to clean it up and see what will come back. Top does indeed have an elbow sized hole in it. I asked about the random ass sizing example used and he was happy to oblige by sticking his elbow in it. Seats and floor mats are garbage but the rest of the interior seems passable. Underhood seems much less molested than my old NA. Guy swears up and down everything worked before it died. Just needed to get it up so I could inspect my purchase.

Beauty 

Congrats!

$1200 car from $10k budget, leaves a lot for mods!!!

So first thing I do it put it in the air to inspect my purchase.

Tires look decent

No play in the steering/suspension, so thats good. He said it was a HardS but no bilsteins, and after inspection its a SportS, which Im pretty sure just means normal suspension, but it seems to be in decent shape and none of the shocks are leaking.

Framerails are much straighter than my old NA

Stupid license plate bracket

Definitely some oil/trans/p/s leaks, and a deformed undertray which I was most bummed about. My old undertray was trashed and always dragged and I was hoping for a straight one

No surprises in the oil

At this point I was feeling pretty good about the purchase and all that was left was to find out why it wouldnt start.

Undertrays are an easy fix.

This gave me a laugh.

"Price range was between 6-10K...I was just looking for a clean red one that was at least 25 years old so its emissions exempt."

Buys 20-21 year old car for $1200 that is not running and is not quite clean. But it IS red...

So I hook the battery up to the charger, its only 2 years old so hopefully its savable, and crank it over and it indeed sounds like no compression, at this point I am pretty pleased with myself knowing that almost always thats the sound of a broken timing belt/chain. I pull the oil cap and have a buddy watch while I crank it and he yells out "yah the cam is spinning. Thats good right?" No that's terrible, berkeley you John. "Its not my fault why are you yelling at me?" Because you are currently the only person in my general area. 

I pull the plugs, nothing crazy to report

Now time to pull the V/C to get a look at the belt

E36 M3 its there and I see no obvious failure. Its definitely not new and has some fraying but not break or missing teeth. Ok lets actually check compression and see If it actually has no compression.

Thats the best hole, have one other about 30 and two at 20. So essentially no compression across all cylinders. Lets put some oil in and do a wet test. Same results. Alright lets check the cam timing that would affect all cylinders.

19 teeth between each mark and the lower middle marks line up. I cant see the crank gear so and dont have time to tear it all the way down I used a Screwdriver to find TDC. It may not be right on but Its close and I would expect it to run atleast badly. I dont hear anything weird when I crank it over, but maybe this thing is royally pooched and Ive got a big problem. Lets check the cylinders.

They all look great, at least what I can see with the terrible resolution you get on a modern scope. Alright lets look for something else.

Oh E36 M3. No coolant. Is this an Overheat? Did he cook it? He said he was driving down the road, noticed it had no power. Pushed the clutch in and it died and never started again. He also seemed like a car guy that knew at least a little, I dont think he'd run this thing overheating and cook it. Wait, It has also been sitting for a few years. It's probably just evaporation. Lets fill it up.  Man it sure is low. Whats that noise?

It is dumping out the bottom. Water pump probably. That solves it. The W/P was leaking and he drove it till it nuked itself. Wait, the car has been sitting for years, and those things are prone to leak, this might have developed from sitting. Does that radiator look new to you? Plus a blown headgasket that afftects all cylinders equally would be pretty weird, not unheard of but uncommon, atleast in my experience. Lets do a leak down.

II dont have any pictures but I pretty much had a 100% leak down on all cylinder at all crank positions.

So here is my dilemma. Nothing fits perfect. I dont think the timing is out enough to affect compression that much. I also dont think this guy was one to ignore everything and melt one down, plus having a failed headgasket across all cylinders seems pretty unlikely to me. BUT it does have a coolant leak, and im pretty sure timing is off at least a tooth or two at the crank BUT If it was just timing I would have expected decent leak down results at some point during the stroke since the cams are pretty close.

At that point I ran out of time, and had to quit. I ordered a TB kit with W/P and a Headgasket set from Ebay (this is a flip car, at least at this point) and the current plan is tear it down to see all timing marks, If its out slap a belt on and check compression. If no compression pull head.

Current totals.

Car 1200

Timing Kit 52

Head set 39

Total $1291.

Tomorrow after work I will start tearing it down. Im curious, what yalls opinions are on the failure.

Cam timing is cake to test. Set the ignition timing mark at T, that's TDC. Then look at the marks on the cams - they should be at 12 o'clock. They won't be close, they'll be off by a tooth if they're off. You might have to rotate the crank 360 degrees to get the cams the right way up. In the picture, it looks good so I think you found TDC with your screwdriver. No need to tear anything down.

Miata timing belts don't jump, anyhow. They break or they do not break, all other options are at the time of assembly. 

That little compression in all four cylinders is weird. I think you may have a taco for a head. Did you get pressure in the radiator when trying to do a leakdown? Water pumps leak from the nose when the seals start to go.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The plan for this one is to just fix and flip, then buy a clean NA.

I didn't notice anything coming through the cooling system but it was leaking so fast I couldn't keep any coolant or pressure in it. So not really a no just an inconclusive test.

I am also leaning towards a head/gasket. I found a good machine shop that works on Saturdays, so if need be I can run it over to them Saturday. That doesn't help though if it's trash, so I need to locate a head as a back up. I really want to have this thing running Sunday afternoon, but with my E36 M3 luck that's wishful thinking.

Before I even got to your bit about the coolant leak and radiator being dry I noticed there is evidence of coolant spray below the overflow bottle in the engine bay. I think that he definitely got it hot and nuked the head at least. Maybe it can be cut back to flat.

I couldnt work on it much during the week, but after Keith said I probably had a tacoed head, I went ahead and posted on the old face space looking for a 99 1.8 head, most people wanted 3-400 dollars but someone had one off a running and driving engine and only wanted 100 dollars. Friday afternoon I drove to his house and there was Miata parts all over his garage. The head was laying mating face down on the concrete and he was sliding it around on the floor to show it to me. Like nails on a chalk board. He stressed that I have it resurfaced before using it.

Saturday morning I started tearing into it. She was in time so I kept pressing on. 

A couple of missing/loose bolts and how clean the head was had me wondering if someone had been in here before. Some of the exhaust manifold bolts were loose for seemingly no reason

Got the head off, the pistons/bores looked good. No obvious damage to the gasket. Cooling system was crusty, Ill have to flush the system later on. Wasnt too bad, the only real bad part was lifting the head and intake manifold off. It was heavy and by that time my back was already hurting.

At this point it was time to check the head and see if Keith gets 10 internet points. I dissassembled the head and flipped it over. Using my straight edge (warning its not a machinist square, I have more woodworking/home reno tools than I do automotibe tools. Dont hate me) I checked straightness across head, and diagonally across the head.

Oh thats not good. I was able to slide a random piece of paper i had laying around (not straight ) under the straight edge with room to spare.

At this point I had to go to a drive by birthday party so I had to stop, but on the way back to the shop I grabbed my feeler gauges, so I could check the new (used) head. I almost bird boxed it and just slapped it together without looking. What I dont know cant hurt me right? I did it many years ago when I cam swapped my LT1, and it served me well. My back was really hurting and I realized I didnt want to do the job again so I went ahead and checked it with my crude means. I couldnt slide my thinnest feeler gauge (.010) under the straight edge at any point, if the edge was straight across or diagonal. That was good enough for me and I pressed on. This is the new head. After the picture I hit it with a plastic (wire?) brush on a drill and hit it with some brake cleaner and it looked great (those things are awesome btw). I forgot to take a pic though.

Starting to look like a engine again. 

It was getting pretty late at this point and when I was timing it I noticed the engine was super easy to turn over so I had this sinking feeling that I still had no compression, so I was dreading checking compression and was putting it off and doing everything else. It was time to E36 M3 or get off the pot. I put the compression tester in cylinder 1 and cranked her over and on the 3 crank it acted like it wanted to start, so I stopped and went to check under the hood. It read like 90 psi so I was a little discouraged, but I didnt crank it long and it had sputtered because I had forget to disable to fuel system. I said screw it and put the plug and wire back on and turned the key. It started and made a terrible sound. I shut it off and went home for the day. 

I came back the next day, and buttoned, everything up. I realized I had forgot to tighten the egr pipe into the manifold, so that was likely the sound I was hearing. I tried to do that but its a train wreck, I pretty sure its not in all the way, I also had a bolt in the lower manifold flange break that I couldnt extract. I wish I could just delete the egr without getting a CEL an put a header or something on it. All that was left was to fix the exhaust which I sure as hell wasnt doing today. Lets try and start it again.

I turn the key and it fires right up, I let it run for probably 40 minutes, watching temperature, check the A/C, and listening. In the beginning it was smoking like a chimney, which subsided after seemingly forever. It seemed to idle okay and rev fine. So I went for a drive.

No check engine light. Only a seatbelt warning that never goes away. Gave her the old Italian tune up and after a few pulls the last of the smoking stopped. Brakes probably need to be gone through, I bet I have some sticking slide pins. It stops fine, but I bet I have a corner or two not doing everything they could. Really for sitting for 5 years though it drove much better than expected.

I went ahead and drove it back to the house. It got up to cruising speed fine, and the cruise control even worked. A/C blew ice cold the whole time. I had a little vibration, the tires may be flat spotted but I didnt check the balance so thats first. I got back to the house and let SWMBO drive. She has driven manual before but wasnt very proficient, so I figured it would be good to learn on this. Id much rather put a clutch in this than in the ND if she is going to burn one up. She did a lot better than I expected and I even made her do a 4K RPM launch and pull it through second. She likes it, so all is good.

Back at the house. Ignore my thumb and my terrible yard, I mowed it after this picture. Actually it fits, a E36 M3ty picture for a ratty miata.

Previous total 1291

Plus

Cylinder head 100

Current total 1391.

Not bad for a decent running and driving Miata with only 103K miles on it. Next is to drive it for a few days and shake it down, then detail it and see how much paint I can save

Nice. Let me know when you're ready to sell I might be interested if price is right. All the Miatas here in Austin area are waayyy over priced. Cheapest one I've seen was $3k for a blown head gasket and burnt clutch.

I think you forgot to put the head gasket and timing belt in your budget :) But nice save!

$100 is way under market for a 1999 head. You got lucky there. Nice work.

I think the paint might be a little harder to save than the mechanicals, though.

Love it, enjoying this a bunch. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I ordered cheap stuff from ebay and included it in the first post. 91 Dollars for a head set and timing belt kit with W/P. I was quite skeptical at that price but I was quite suprised with the quality of the kit and gaskets. I have about 60 miles on it since the swap and I havent noticed any leaks yet, although I may have just jinxed myself.

 It seemed to run okay for 5 year old gas, but I still hadnt got around to compression testing it to see how healthy it actually is. I figured an acceleration test may give me a general idea. So I went to the Play store searched 0-60 and downloaded the first app.

While it was downloading, I googled 99 miata test and found a road and track test where they did 7.9 seconds to 60. Okay this thing is 21 years old, has 100K miles, 5 year old gas, and a fat guy driving it that doesnt fit very well. Lets see if we can get within a second. 8.9 is the goal.

I launch at about 4K RPM and hit the limiter in second. I was watching the speedo for 60 and all the sudden it cuts out, I look over and realize im on the limiter for 2nd and thought "What?! I have to go to 3rd for 60?!" So I shift then pull over and check.

8.8 seconds. Im calling that mission accomplished and using that as my mental ammunition to blindly believe everything is fine and healthy.

It has a working LSD

I beat on it mercilessly for another 30 minutes. Occasionally it would stumble at idle, but overall ran quite well. I dont know if its normal but it seems to come on real hard right 4K RPM. I roll back up to the house and as Im parking it...

I check it and its a P0301. I popped the hood, to look for a loose wire or anything obvious, and heard a whistling, and noticed a missing vacuum cap. I found a cap and installed it, It seemed to idle a little better but I doubt it was causing the misfire, I dont see how that would only cause a misfire on 1 cylinder. I pulled the plug and it had quite a bit of oil on it. I dont know if it was from me spilling some and getting it in the spark plug tube or from the cylinder, so I cleaned it and moved it to cylinder 2, and cleared the code. We will see if it comes back. 

I wanted to put some miles on it to see if I could get the code to come back so I drove it to the carwash to clean it up a little. It turned out better than expected. Not good by any means but I think most of the faded stuff I can save. We will see. 

It has been a day or two of driving since I cleared the code. It still stumbles at idle occasionally, but seems to run well otherwise. I checked this morning and no current or pending codes, so still just waiting to see if it returns, and looking for some tan seats

This thing vibrates pretty bad when driving. I assumed because its been sitting so long the tires would be flat spotted. I went ahead and pulled them off and threw them on the balancer to see how bad they were.

This was the best of the 4. They do all have some flat spotting but I was really hoping to not buy tires so for now I just balanced them to see if it helps. Most were 2 to 3 ounces out. For reference tire guys tell me most cars will feel .25 to .50 and most trucks will feel .50 to .75. Something like a miata that real susceptible to tire balance vibration needs to be zeroed on all wheels. I zeroed them all, and put them back on. The seem to be holding air so thats a plus.

Next I noticed when I did my acceleration test I got on the brakes real hard and had some vibration, so I figured I needed to resurface the rotors. When I first checked over the car, it looked like it had a decent amount of pad left. The pedal has also felt terrible since I got I running. I figured it had some slide pins seized. The plan was to resurface rotors, clean the hardware and free and grease the slide pins.

When I got it apart I realized the pads were much thinner than I expected. I dont know if I didnt get a good look originally or I have cooked these things in the last 60 miles of driving. I was really hard on the brakes, trying to knock the rust off and get everything nice and hot see if it would free up. The pedal did get better but still wasnt great. Anyways looks like Ill need pads. I thought well Ive got it up and torn apart might as well resurface and clean and order some pads, then I can just slap the pads on in a few days when they get in.

Fronts came out good. Im pretty sure I did more damage to the rears than I fixed. It was super hard to get them chucked up straight on the brake lathe but after a couple of adjustments I had them as straight as I could get them.  Most of the slide pins moved okay, a couple were a little sticky and one of the rears was frozen solid. I was able to free them all and didnt see any actual damage so they all got cleaned and greased and reinstalled.

Then I went ahead and changed and flushed the brake fluid

Before

After

Also notice the clutch fluid was a little low and super dirty. Its a big deal on the C5s to change it regularly. When in Rome

Before

Wiped out the reservoir when it was empty and it was nasty

After

Then I had a few minutes left and decided to bite the bullet and actually compression test it and see the condition of the motor/head

Dry test on a cold engine

I was happy with this and called it a day.

On the test drive, one of the front brakes makes a ton of noise. I figure its the hardware because it was pretty loose, but will get changed with the pads, or I stuck a pad in backwards because they were so thin and I was in a hurry. As expected I did indeed mess up the rear rotors. I shakes SOOOO bad from the rear when braking. The shaking at cruising speed is improved but not gone. Ill check PPF alignment since its free and ive been told it can cause some shaking, but I expect its the flat spotted tires.

I made a Rock auto order today. 71 dollars for front and rear pads with hardware, rear rotors and went ahead and got fronts since they were like 10 dollars. Hopefully order gets here in a few days and I can get back to driving it. I will probably work on cosmetics this weekend while I wait on brake parts. 

Previous total 1391

Brake stuff 71

Current total 1462.

I think Ill probably pick up that top this weekend if its still availble.

Nice progress so far! Get a bottle of chevron techron fuel system cleaner in there...

In reply to Agent98 :

Ive got to stop and grab some M07 to start on the paint and If I remember Ill grab some. I used it regularly in the C5 to stave off fuel level sender failure, The current plan was to run a few tanks of gas through and then change the fuel filter, but im sure some techron wouldnt hurt

The plan was to grab so M07 to let soak into the paint before I started working it, but on the way home I couldnt find any at the parts houses. I thought Ill just go home and wash and clay bar the car, then throw it in the garage and Ill order some M07 and the car will be ready when it arrives. 

I get home and do that.

Washed and clayed. Im pretty sure everything doors back is single stage and forward is base /clear. Hoping I can save everything but the hood and left fender. BTW this picture makes the  car look way better than it really is. In reality it is pink and has zero reflection. It looks matte pink. Here is a better straight on pic of the trunk lid

Backstory. I am getting married in 30 days. We were way ahead of schedule then the Rona happened and we put everything on hold because we didnt even know if we would be able to have the wedding. I was down 20 lbs, for the wedding, then all the sudden getting my diet food is a pain in the ass, so I quit the diet and put all the weight back on. Then a couple days ago we find out we are on for the wedding, so now the being ahead is out the window and its crunch time. Plus we made an offer on a house built in 1898 which would mean another home renovation, which went to E36 M3 when everything else went to E36 M3, but after the wedding we want to get back into it. I literally just finished one home renovation for a rental property, plus we have to get the main house ready to sell. I just bought a E36 M3ty miata that needs everything, and I decided with my 30 days till the wedding and TX opening back up Id restart my diet.

TLDR; Ive got a lot of E36 M3 going on and I have 1 day left to enjoy beer (no carb diet), so I partake in a little adult beverages while working on the car, and it leads to me singing very loudly in the garage but being very productive.

Time to stop right? Nah there is a good song on, lets just see how bad the paint is. Ill just do it by hand. I dont want to bust out the polisher on dead paint and go too abrasive, doing it by hand couldnt hurt. Lets put some tape down and do a side by side comparo for my friends on GRM. Lay some tape. Find some old rubbing compound, and VOILA.

HOLY E36 M3!! Its working. I mean maybe I should just do the whole trunk lid. I mean why do a quarter of it and stop, Ive still got daylight left. So I keep trucking..and drinking. Pretty soon its dark outside. SWMBO comes outside and tells me she was sweet enough to cook dinner and it is ready and maybe I should come inside and eat. I ask her very sweetly if she would mind if I finish this panel, then Ill come in. She agrees but as she walks off I cant help but think...

A
I see a dad and son walk by and realize they cant hear the super loud music in my ear buds, and I might look like a crazy person dancing in the garage, singing, definitely off ke y.Probably doesnt help that my hands and towel look like I murdered someone from all the paint transfer.

Alright all joking aside I need to hurry up and call it a night. I finish up the right door, make a final pass wiping everything down, and try to take some pictures. The right front fender is base clear. Doors back is single stage. Right front fender has been super shiny from he beginning. Now doors back on the right side almost matches. This is just rubbing compound, by hand, has not been sealed or anything. Also its dark outside so the lighting is very flattering, plus Im a little drunk. I dont know if the car looks as good as it does in the pictures or not. Daytime pictures will come...when daytime comes.

That looks great. Best way to polish a car, worst way to go shopping for a car...a little drunk.

I got home from work and pulled it out of the garage to check it in the light and I was quite surprised. I think it looks pretty good.

Before

After.

Really It just needs spoiler, mirrors, left front fender, and hood done and it will be presentable. Not perfect but presentable.

Im trying to find someone to mix up some Classic red for me in a single stage so I can try it on the spoiler and see how it looks.

I have a bead on a decent red hood, have some feelers out for a fender but nothing concrete yet. Luckily we have a really good miata yard around here, I just need to check their inventory to see if they have a red NB.

I also plan on painting the wheels, just back to silver, a few of them are faded and look pretty rough, and I think I have some duplicolor silver left from my last car reno.

The top I wanted to pick up locally sold. It was already on a frame so It would be easy, but looks like Ill be doing an actual top install. Im not excited about that. Im currently looking at the super cheap ebay tops. Anyone have any experience with them.

That car doesn't suck. 

In reply to Opti :

Looks good! I bought this ebay top about a year ago based on a recommendation from the local Miata group.

I keep the car parked outside and the top has held up really well. The install was a bit of a PITA but it was straightforward enough. The only downside I can think of is the lack of sound deadening. There is an increase in wind noise with the top up at highway speeds compaired to the factory one. 

Best way to lose weight (you not the car)...

Eat only once per day

Eat only meat or fish

In thirty days you 'll be down 20 lbs again.

Alcohol either avoid or go zero carb very low carb types.

In reply to rodknock :

I was going to use that same company. Mine currently has a glass window and Im sure my rain rail is ruined so It will be a little more than that, Glad to hear the quality is decent

Im still waiting on the rest of the brake parts, should be in tomorrow and hopefully I can get them installed Tuesday night.

I was looking for a good source of spray paint in Classic Red, and the guys on M.net said Duplicolors GM Bright Red is almost a perfect match. So I ran down to Oreillys and they had an ancient can. I grabbed it and some primer and came home.

Before (the spoiler is loose at this point)

It was super rough so I started at 400 to get it smooth, then went back over at 800, then shot it with some filler primer.

I put a couple of coats of paint on it, and just set it back on the car to see how good the match was.

Its not that good, I wouldnt even say its close

And on top of that It looks like E36 M3. There are a ton of little bubbles (?) in the paint. I tried to follow the directions and even used the primer that was recommended, and waited the recommended time between coats. Hopefully some of you guys can tell me what caused tiny little bubbles everywhere. In the mean time I will let it cure for a few days then see if I can wet sand some of the texture out then polish it. After that I will decide how bad the color match is.

Here is the stuff

Im surprised so many of the M.net guys say its a good match, it seem way off to me. Im kinda upset I spent way more time trying to paint this by the book. I normally get way better results spray bombing something and just kinda doing whatever I want.