The rallycross/rusty one is for sale. I don't really want to store it another 6 months.
The rallycross/rusty one is for sale. I don't really want to store it another 6 months.
The car that started this thread is scheduled to depart at 5:30 today. Replacement is a mostly rust-free NB that may be able to be zeroed out by challenge budget rules. 
At this time it is too nice to rallycross but by the time rallycross season comes around again in November... I bet I'll get over it. It's currently buried in a field a mile from my house, although I made it start and move under its own power yesterday.
Sounds good, the Unicorn could use another NB to play with. :)
RedGT wrote: At this time it is too nice to rallycross
I'm confused.
I am still eyeing up the national challenge weekend but I'd need to trailer it because there is no way I'll get the 'new car maintenance' done before then.
Paperwork is done and in a couple of hours I'll limp the new car the whopping 2.3 miles home.
1999 with 209k miles. 5spd. Torsen. Cold A/C. Fully loaded as near as I can tell. Power everything, Bose, cruise, etc. 15" wheels. Looks to be completely rust-free except for one perforation of the infamous NB subframe, and surface stuff from sitting on dirt for two years. I'll have to take care of that. Didn't pull the tupperware yet so that could be hiding something. RF fender has a dent, front bumper is a little beat up. Deck lid has a crease and a cracked spoiler. Top is garbage, so seats/interior carpet smell GREAT. Coolant is low. Battery is dead.
Filled up the coolant, connected a battery, checked for critters living in the intake, and then hit the key. It fired right up. Friggin' thing starts quicker than the creampuff STS car does. A/C is ABSOLUTELY FRIGID. Right rear parking brake cable was seized so I popped that off. Seems like all four calipers are working at the moment. If the RR is any indication, the rotors will clean right up.
It comes with:
The tan interior is just...not...my thing. At all. It'll get black seats, and probably the old black floor carpet out of the STS '90 if it fits...and misc additional black trim when I can find it available cheap.
Hmm... Interesting.
BTW - I'm interested in the seats after you take them out. I don't mind having to recover them. I have two Triumphs and one set of Miata seats and can't decide which car will get them.
The top has been leaking on them for a while. Won't have much time to work on it (read: clean it. SO MUCH cleaning is needed) until after Pittsburgh.
It drives REAL nice though, from what I can tell after two miles mostly spent wondering where 'normal' was on the gauge in this particular car and whether it might overheat at any second.
I do like a '99. I so wish buying Thinkker's car back in 2013 would have worked out.
The NB is home and looks mostly like a real car now although I have not washed it yet:
The engine is home too, on a separate day. If you lack an engine hoist, two halves of a quickjack lashed together with hose clamps is totally OSHA approved.
Then the car has been shuffled in and out of the garage to keep it mostly dry, while I also tackle a bunch of things on the other vehicles. Now it is in for a solid two days so I can do the top, kill the mold/mildew, and throw the midpipe + O2 sensor on. Then it's ready to get inspected and begin driving around to see what will break.
Last night I got the seats out and pulled the upper carpet in preparation for the top swap. Only had an hour to work. The nasty rear deck carpet is on the clothesline at this very moment drying out a bit in the sun. I think everything in the interior is going to end up getting a vinegar spray or wipedown as applicable. Since the black cloth NA seats I have do not drop right in due to the NB seatbelt receivers being mounted to the seat pan, I think I'm going to clean up the (fairly nice!) leather seats and keep them. Foamectomy needed on the driver's side. Mold removal needed on the backs of both.
I don't really want to but I think for peace of mind I am going to pull the floor pan carpet too and do the full blown vinegar scrubbing on that too. If this is supposed to be a kid-friendly daily driver, I should do it right.
New top on. This is SO MUCH BETTER.
Than I let the car idle in the driveway for a while. Before the fans kicked on or the cap vented to the overflow, there started being some steam from the center area of the radiator that I couldn't find the source of....and then a few minutes later the top plastic-metal joint popped open and spewed coolant everywhere.
I assume these things are like the NA's where the radiators just let go in their old age? I don't see any reason to suspect other cooing system issues since the temp gauge was rock solid, the overflow wasn't filling or bubbling, the exhaust was not smokey, and there's no evidence of oil/water mixing. Only thing is the radiator was a nice glossy black, not brown/green. But if it was 18 years old it was on borrowed time anyway i assume.
New radiator installed, and so we assume 'the position' to bleed the coolant system. By the way, I love that 3ft LED light. Rather than trying to get consistent lighting in my garage that isn't blocked by an open hood (7ft ceilings), I just hang the light from the hood.
Seemed to get pretty hot without turning on the fans but the temp gauge never moved. Apparently NB temp gauges are damped into being simple idiot lights moreso than the NA ones. Did a little reading and apparently the DS fan should kick on at 207 degrees and they both should kick on with A/C use. Well the DS fan never comes on as high as 220 showing on the scangauge, and activating the A/C system fires up only the PS fan. So I need to try applying 12v to the fan and when it does nothing, replace that. But for now I have no issues driving it with a real temp gauge hooked up. Idling it will actually maintain 191-195 on a cool evening, I had to go and beat on the thing and then park it in order to see temps over 200.
I also installed the new high flow cat and midpipe. Nothing wrong with the old midpipe except that this was a cali emissions car with no O2 port after the cat there. (both O2 sensors were in the engine bay at the pre-cat on the manifold) With the header installed by the PO, the secondary O2 sensor needs to be extended to behind the cat at the location it normally would be on a federal emissions car.
The fit could be better - the hanger is located too far rearward by about an inch and it 'fits' with a looser-than-stock rubber hangar. Sits very close to a flange on the diff, but doesn't seem to actually rub when driving. I am sure it will make horrible noises when rallycrossing. I might pull it back off and clearance with a hammer at a later date.
So, midpipe installed, some research done to figure out that the easiest fully legal solution is to pay Racing Beat $90 for their extended O2 wiring kit. Then I looked at the mileage at last inspection. 207,000. It sits with 209,500 now. In my county under 5,000 miles since last inspection is exempt from emissions checks entirely. It would pass with no cat whatsoever. A fully functioning cat and a CEL would be no problem and no guilt on my part. Oh well, at least the new cat is louder (sarcasm). I'll put off spending the $90 until I actually put 5k miles on this thing in a year. It's fully legal and fully earth friendly as it is anyway.
There was another stored O2 code for the MAP sensor. Applied contact cleaner to that and cleared the codes. Didn't come back yet.
It drives nicely. The torsen works and the tires are awful in the wet. 
Exhaust note is more raspy at 4000+rpm than I would like. The system is a Racing Beat header, RoadsterSport brand midpipe with a magnaflow high-flow cat in it, and a Racing Beat muffler. I expected better given all the love for RB exhausts. Maybe the cat is what is killing it? I never exceeded 3000 rpm and certainly didn't go full throttle with the old midpipe for comparison, unfortunately.
During the radiator swap I found this busted up A/C heat exchanger (which is still working):
That jives with the carfax I got that says it was totaled for a front end collision but I don't think it was ever fixed. Damage is the mangled bracket for the A/C as shown, plus a rub mark on the passenger front fender/bumper, a few obvious impact points that just shattered/flexed the paint on the bumper along with a busted fog light, and a small ding at the leading corner of the hood. Original paint, original equally-faded headlights, no evidence of damage or repaint around the rad support or anywhere else in the front end. I guess a low-speed love tap was enough to total a 175k 1999 in 2012? That sucks.
And now the '99 has a fuel starve condition under full throttle, uphill sustained left handers at the limit of the tires on it. So, you know, very rarely but twice on my commute. I realized I haven't even put gas in this thing since it was stored with 3/4 tank and I have driven it a whole 60 miles. Time for a fillup and some drygas?
Further checking on the EGR situation - looks like I do have a '99 header with a fairly hacked together EGR delete. If I can manage to get the bung on the header unthreaded, I should be able to just pop a '99 EGR tube on there and be up and running. I have no idea why it was deleted in the first place...car was a '99, header is a '99, the pipe was clearly present because it was hacked up to make blockoff plates...
But hey, the STS car got more stickers so it is 10% faster now!
And I washed the 99 as well. Yeah, that is 'clean'. The silver does not exactly pop even when cleaned up.
Minor updates - have been daily driving the NB. Still needs a radiator fan. The second tank of gas went further before it acted like it was starved for fuel, so I put another bottle of HEET in it.
I painted wheels. This is unheard of for me, but the tires were directional and the wheels didn't match front-rear and it was driving me nuts. One can of rustoleum paint+primer in some metallic silver. $5. I am happy with the results. We'll see what brake dust does to it.
Put new tires on. Hankook Ventus Concept2. They were $160 out of pocket after rebates for 4 brand new tires, it beat anything i could find used. They're...tires. Round. Black. Deadly with mold release on them, and 300 hard miles later they are...passable? I don't know how normal people survive on all-seasons. The torsen makes itself evident as the whole car steps sideways on the 1-2 shift, something my VLSD cars won't do on even the worst tires in the world.
I pulled all the rear carpet again and pressure-washed the heck out of it. Now it's mostly tan. It was pretty gross:
The battery is held in with crap I found in the trunk from the previous owner. It's actually very solidly in place but I should remedy this sometime:
In the meantime the STS car went to the NJ Pro. Car did fine. Had the time to win. My driving was 'meh', my codriver beat me for the first time and by over a second at that. As is becoming usual for me, I had a competitive time on one course but was 0.8 sec slow on the other course. I got a trophy, which was cool, except that the top 3 were within 0.2 second, then I was a full second behind them in 4th place, leading the pack of also-rans. Oh well, the car did reasonably well and this marked my first time being involved in a super challenge even though I wasn't the one driving. Coned it away on the first run. Of course.
Last weekend was a local event and codriver coned his fast run, but again put over a second on me and if clean it would have won pax by nearly half a second. The cone was negligible since we have video of it being out of the box in the 'hard' direction as he approached and the worker moseyed out to replace it after he passed. I think it's safe to say he has figured out how to drive RWD momentum cars now. I need to step it up.
EvanB wrote:irish44j wrote: Don't sell the 1.6 short.Don't listen to him, every rallycross Miata needs a turbo. (says the guy who lost to the slow BMW)
Close enough?
I had a wideband and a pile of couplers and clamps I wasn't using on the STS car and I didn't want them to go to waste :p
Fuel starve condition seems gone after one more tank of drygas/heet. Ran it down below 1/4 with no issues and then optimistically filled it up with 93 octane and parked it for the week.
Last night I removed the Racing Beat header (for sale) and replaced with an old stock manifold that fits under the SC. It was a two hour pain-in-the-ass ordeal. Three studs divorced themselves from the head and one of those had some seriously compromised threads from someone cross-threading the head in the past. Luckily they only got the stud about halfway in (...) so i was able to clean everything up, use that stud in a good hole, and use a good stud in the compromised hole to grab the remaining half of the threads. Thread engagement is roughly the diameter of the stud in both cases so I'm calling it good. I tightened everything up and then realized I forgot to install the EGR pipe so it'll all have to be loosened up again I bet.
Ripped the shielding off the stock downpipe, mocked it up and drilled for wideband O2 bung. A guy at work welded that on today. Also replaced all the studs at the stock manifold junction because they were trash when I received it for free. Can't complain. Unthreaded section of new studs is a touch too long but that should be remedied with 2 washers under each nut.
During lunch I ordered spark plugs and a boost gauge. A BOOST GAUGE. This amuses me.
Product Review Time! A nice quality $$ Milwaulkee cordless impact, "650 ft lbs breaking torque", fully charged, would not budge the O2 sensor out of the header in any way shape or form. The good ol' Harbor Freight corded model, advertised at 250 ft lbs, chugged right along and powered that thing out of there.
That fancy impact may make more torks but the Harbor Freight clanks harder! 
I'm excited for the supercharger- if nothing else it should make fun noises.
Funny, I was supposed to make this car quieter. But you can't fix the wind noise in a Miata so what's the point?
Stock manifold and downpipe installed with wideband O2. So we're at about 3 hours of work so far and all I've done is return the car to stock plus a wideband. Hooray! Delays caused by originally being a CA car (unwrap harness to make stock O2 wires reach), E36 M3ty aftermarket parts (exhaust hits rear subframe due to that not-quite-right midpipe, I may put the stock one back on but I want to see if loosening the manifold and yanking everything around helps any first) and poor work by the PO (the entire head-stud issue last post).
Two O2's!
Current state. I ordered the badly-needed valve cover gasket. Still need to re-wrap the exposed sections of the harness and secure the wires better.
The stupid EGR plugs/caps are back in place because I got tired of trying to line up the real tube. Maybe later. I want to get the car running tonight and make sure it's all good before diving into the really stupid stuff.
Plus I want it out of the garage tonight because I am preeeeeeetty sure I'm going to need to roll the fenders no the STS car to fit these monsters:
They're getting mounted at lunch today and I'm pretty sure I should go buy a heat gun and borrow a roller too.
Note to self, there's 60k mile engine mounts hanging off the spare engine, may as well throw the driver side in while there is somewhat access.
Those Nexens are interesting. Let us know what you think of them compared to the Stones.
In reply to cmcgregor:
I don't expect anything earth shattering...reports are looking pretty consistent that they are great on asphalt (but no better than the current top dogs) and a tick off the pace on concrete. We run almost 100% asphalt locally so if nothing else, they should save our RE71's for one more Pro and/or nationals if we go. We will be on asphalt (Pocono infield) this weekend as well.
The width difference is not as profound when mounted but they sure look neat.
No fender roll required yet, I simply made sure the fender liner tabs were well and truly bent out of the way and the fit seems to be good. Took them for a spirited drive and, meh, they're tires. No evident difference on the street. Got the tires good and hot and parked the car (in the air) for today in case they benefit from a heat cycling like certain other street tires...can't hurt.
Got the NB buttoned up - got the exhaust to sit a little better - wires wrapped and secured, and took it for a drive. Boy it's a dog with the stock manifold. Time to work on fixing that! The coupler and handful of clamps I ordered showed up last night, and the wiring harness and boost gauge are due today. Then, if I didn't forget anything, the whole SC kit is ready to install except for some small vacuum/boost hoses and fittings as required to get boost pressure to the two tuning cards and gauge.
Previous owner mentioned there is a time-sert in the head on the #3 spark plug. And that it came out when he changed plugs so he simply threaded it back in. From my research either that time-sert didn't get done right and/or it's not actually a time-sert brand thread repair. I'm not sure if I want to poke at that or just leave it alone...
Is the SC a kit intended for the Miata or are you adapting it from something else?
In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:
It's your standard Jackson Racing M45 kit specifically for an NB Miata. I'm boring like that. It was missing clamps and hoses and the original air filter setup but all the brackets/hardware are there to bolt right on. And there's install and tuning instructions on the internet! It's like a Little Tykes 'My First Boost!' kit which is good because this will be my first boosted car.
Harness checked for basic function, and wired the two fan leads together as suggested. Took the car for a drive and that functionality is correct so I'll finish wiring it tonight. Only had half an hour last night.
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