Two more thoughts after the weekend.
1. I keep forgetting that I need to add knee padding. Mostly my right knee against the center console gets tender after enough drifting. Left knee into the door card is also an annoyance after a while.
2. There is a guy who does a drift school at Evergreen Raceway, I've been thinking about doing a session with him, I think even more so now. Only thing is I'll probably wait until the Motley Miata is stable enough to take it up there to learn in my own car. I think if me and one other person split a day's cost up there with him it would be like $250 each or something. From the videos I've seen it seems worth it.
Got a bit of work done on the Motley Miata Saturday, headers are on, fuel pump screws acquired and mounted, smaller coolant hoses. All the little things slowly coming together.
Yesterday I pulled in the NB, got the welded diff out and the LSD back in. Getting pretty quick at that... Only thing that took a bit was putting in new diff bushings, the old ones can be a pain to get out. Also flipped the front tires on the wheels, running -3* camber up front does in face wear the inside edge of the tread. I think it's about done needing that camber. My buddy have my alignment stands right now, but when I go to setup the NB for winter I'll tweak the camber back to -1* or so. It's going to get a good bit of work done over the winter I think, rust repair, skid plates, etc.
So far there's been one picture of my car from Drift Evergreen September. Always nice to see them, drifting gets some of the best pictures between the entertaining driving and the top notch photographers. Sadly I know that I wasn't the most interesting subject to photograph, so we'll see if any more besides this come through over the next couple weeks. That said, this one is pretty great! (Ratchet Strap Media)
Oh, I also got the engine/trans out of the parts civic Saturday. It's sitting in the gravel so the engine hoist doesn't work very well normally, so I rig it up on the back of my truck. Works like a charm.
Hopefully tonight I can get the welded diff back into the Motley Miata, that will let me get the PPF and driveshaft set, and then all the underside should be good. Mostly have to sort through all electrical plugs and plug everything in. Oh and build a test pipe.
Got some good progress on the Motley Miata last night.
- Diff installed, along with PPF, and driveshaft. Exhaust hung, except for a test pipe. The cat that came with this exhaust isn't even close to fitting. I'll fab up my own test pipe soon.
- Heater Core lines looped.
- Wiring started to be plugged in.
- Need to verify routing for small coolant lines. Should I skip the lines on the throttle body?
- Need to hook up fuel lines, I always forget which goes where.
- Need to order a new hose for the brake booster. :(
It's getting close to firing.
Great shot of the miata sideways. I'm impressed how fast you can swap diffs....
In reply to jfryjfry :
Thanks!
Well, I've done it a time or two now... Street driving the NB with the welded diff isn't that bad actually, but long term as my daily it's not my preference so I swap it for a drift even and swap it back. The lift helps a lot. I can probably do it in about an hour and a half now, but I have all the bolt sizes memorized at this point.
The welded diff will stay in the Motley Miata full time, but it's not going to be a daily, so it's fine. The goal is to have it street legal, but fully setup for drifting so I can just grab some tires and go drift without any prep really.
The Motley Miata is alive! Thanks to some input from Keith Tanner on another thread I made asking about some wiring, a cranking issue was determined to be an intermittent ignition switch, and my fueling issue turned out to be a clogged strainer/sock.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRun5Kut/
Running a little rough at the moment, but I fully expected that for a first start. Currently had open headers, I need to build a test pipe to hook the rest of the exhaust up. Also need to attach the O2 sensor and coolant temp sensor, and I suspect both of those will have it running a lot better.
After that, hooking up clutch hydraulics and the shifter which are both pretty quick and easy, is technically all it needs to be able to move under its own power! Lots of other small things to tidy. Lights, Radiator mount, Steering column mount (factory mount is loose for some reason.), etc, etc.
Aside form the Motley Miata, I have things to do on some of my other vehicles once the Motley Miata can move under its own power.
- Saturday I'm planning to go help Blair/Dave with their challenge build.
- Sunday looks like I'm doing a control arm on a relative's Subaru.
- I need to pull the wiring I need out of the parts civic so that the shell can be scrapped. I could use the space.
- Engine/Trans bushings on Luna (e46). The Poly bushings I put on are too noisy for the street, it makes me not like the car. I got the pink ones from Condor instead, they're supposed to be 30% stiffer than factory, so I can keep the chassis mount shifter, but hopefully be a lot quieter.
- Soon time to pull the Civic Truck in and get it running.
Built a test pipe last night, so the exhaust is hooked up. It's a little hacked, but I'll probably clean it up a bit later on. It'll have to come back off shortly to address the oil leak I seem to have.
This oil leak is slightly concerning actually. It is as the back of the engine, and it only leaks after it's been cranking or running. My first guess is the rear main seal, but I just replaced that... Could be I messed it up, or something else messed it up. But then thinking about it, I recall the car this came out of also leaked a good bit of oil. I think possibly from the same area, though I can't be sure. So now I am slightly worried that the block is cracked or something. Hard to say right now, I'll be pulling the trans to check it out soon, but while it runs and drives I am going to shuffle stuff and knock out a couple of these other items this weekend.
In better news, I also ran my clutch hydraulics and bled them last night, so the clutch is working and it moves under its own power now!
Big update for this post is my neighbor helped me insulate the ceiling of my garage. Don't have any pictures but that should help it stay toasty this winter! I'm also hoping it keeps it cooler in the summer. When I took out the "ceiling" that was the attic floor to make room for the lift, the heat just fell into the garage.
Someone else got some pics from September Drift Evergreen:
Over the weekend I pulled the last of the parts I wanted off the parts Civic and then loaded on the trailer to go to scrap today.
With the parts Civic out of the way I shuffled the Civic Truck. Took a few minutes to clean the trash out of it and get a better look of what I have to work with. This will be getting pulled in soon. I will have to grab a picture, but I think the Civic Truck may need brake lines... I think someone started to "tuck" the engine bay at some point.
Then last night I got some time to do some maintenance on Luna, my E46.
Condor Poly engine/trans bushings out, and put in Condor VIP poly (the pink ones). Hopefully this will have less NVH in the cab. I also cut off the rear muffler because she was too quiet. :) It's been a while since I did some hood rat e36 m3. We'll see if I like it or if I add a different muffler back on.
Yes I know it doesn't line up with the bumper cut out, I don't really care. I did the whole thing in like 15 minutes.
I don't think I mentioned it before, but when I did everything last week I swapped her ECU for a different one. It had been running the original ECU for the car, flashed with an M52B28 tune, and I never had the full rev range, it was almost in limp mode or something. So just to try I put in the 328i ECU from the car the engine is out of. Got full use of the RPMs and I was loving it. Then Wednesday night I went to drive her and on startup she stumbled around a lot and threw a check engine light. I scanned the codes the other day and got all these. Most of those are for the rear O2 sensors which don't exist due to my headers, but the remaining codes are for a Cam Sensor and the TPS. More to come once I feel like messing with it.
Friday night Jacob asked what I was up to... Ended up pulling in his Miata for a head gasket. His car has been overheating so he was pretty sure it needed done. We pulled it in around 9:30, and had it running again about 2am. No, we didn't have the head checked, etc, etc. We just cleaned it up the best we could and looked it over best we could. The block seemed to have a slight crest front to back, but the head had a slight dip so we hoped it would be fine.
Idled for about 30 minutes that night then he drove it 10 minutes home. Then 10 minutes to work in the morning, then went to head to the next job and it didn't make it. Just suddenly got hot and started running terribly. I guess we're figuring cracked head, but I think he's just on the lookout for a new used long block. :/
Since his Miata is going to be down for a while I helped him pickup a beater car over the weekend. 05 Grand Marquis. Interior isn't in the best shape, but overall the car was in good shape, just needed a tire and new brakes, and hopefully just a coils pack for a cylinder 5 misfire. Apparently the air suspension has been replaced within the last 2 years, so it doesn't ride too bad for the boat that it is. For now he'll be able to use it as a daily, and certainly can fit all his tools in there lol. Then eventually he can body swap his Studebaker on top.
Also I just did a thing.
Nothing too crazy, a bit of an experiment actually, but we'll see how it goes.
In reply to AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) :
Oh? I run their rear upper control arms and alignment locks and love both - interested to see what's been ordered!
Oooooo, they've got some fun stuff!
In reply to accordionfolder :
So I ordered the 3" lift kit.
Now, I previously got a 3" lift kit from Paco Motorsports and had it on my first Miata... For about a week. It was a bit scary to drive on the highway. BUT! That is mostly because the alignment wasn't ideal since I had only done the lift kit and did not do the extended lower ball joints or the adjustable rear upper control arms to be able to dial in the alignment. At that time I didn't want to order all that and so I pulled off the lift kit and sold it.
The reason I am doing it now is to try a bit of an experiment. Right now the NB is on FM Lowering Springs and Tokico Shocks. It handles great for a street car, and has been fine for drifting. Last winter I swapped springs for stick NB springs to get some taller ride height. I still have those, but I want just a bit more ride height than they gave, so I figured I could either swap springs and make some top hat spacers that would probably only net me .5-.75" extra, and takes a good bit of time, or I could keep the lowering springs on and do the PACO 3" lift kit which installs pretty quickly, so I can hopefully switch between summer and winter setups faster.
So the hope is FM lowering springs (~-1-1.5") + 3" lift kit, should hopefully wind up with a net 2" lift or so. I already have extended lower ball joints up front, so I'm confident the front alignment will be able to get set properly. And the rear I am hoping will be close since it is not the full lift. Worst case I may modify a RUCA myself to be adjustable. I also have FM sway bars on too, so that should help with handling. May need to space them down a bit though. We shall see.
My box from Paco Motorsports came yesterday morning! Mark even included a T shirt for me! (Not advertising this as a commonplace thing, I built the website a while back.)
As a reminder, here is the before:
No in progress pics because I got in a time crunch from getting called into work...
But here is the after:
Summer Setup: Tokico Shocks / FM Springs. ~4.5" ride height at the pinch welds. 205/50/15 Hankook Ventus V2 tires. (23.1" diameter)
Winter Setup: Tokico Shocks / FM Springs + 3" Paco Shock Spacers. ~9.75" ride height at the pinch welds. 205/60/16 Bridgestone Blizzak tires. (25.7" diameter)
I was able to keep my FM sway bars installed since they have multiple mounting holes. I am glad of this as I'm sure that attributes a lot to it still handling ok.
Overall the install is pretty straightforward. I re-aligned to my "garage spec" alignment with my Paco Motorsports hub stands. I'm sure it's not a perfect alignment, but my method has been working for a couple years now with the Miata. I do have extended lower ball joints up front which were definitely necessary to get proper camber. I did also have to add 1" wheel spacers in the rear so the tire wouldn't rub on the spring. Fortunately I had those already as well.
The Miata has done well in the snow previous years with ~5.5" to the pinch welds and "normal" sized snow tires. Excited to see how it does with this setup.
Initial driving impressions are, not bad. In general the car feels more "mushy" I am assuming mostly due to all the extra sidewall in these tires. I will have to toss my rally tires on and see how it feels with them.
This weekend was primarily busy with a side job. Got asked to do an engine replacement for an 07 Corolla, and the price was right. Apparently it was driven through a river or something with some flooding last year and then locked up.... The carnage is impressive.
Three holes in the block, Cylinder #1 Connecting rod completely broken, tons of chunks in the oil pan. Impressive.
The eBay engine went in smoothly and started up so fast I was shocked. I'm not sure if it cranked 2 rotations and fired right up. They should be picking it up tonight or tomorrow.
Then me and Jacob decided to go hit up some gravel roads late last night. Always a good time. I don't have pictures of his car, but that Lincoln Town Car he just got apparently did very well.
Slightly bummed, I was hoping to pickup a transmission today, but it sold yesterday. Such is life on Facebook Marketplace.
In other news, I think I've decided to be on the lookout for an AR5 transmission and an aluminum 5.3 LS. I think that's the route I'm going to go with Motley Miata eventually. Probably at least a year out realistically, but I'm gathering parts. Since I have the 8.8 rear already I need to keep an eye out for an extra rear subframe and arms so that I can fab the mounts for that without taking the car offline. Once step at a time.
In current stuff, I am bout to dig into wiring for Motley Miata. I have just about everything I need, including some neat goodies I'm excited to try out.
Been slowly working on Motley Miata's wiring. It's been busy recently. I don't have a picture of the rats nest, but I am in the process of thinning the factory harness down to just the ECU/Engine wires.
Saturday I got the cab area ready for the new wiring. Next step is running my main power wires. Yay e46 partouts, I have plenty of thick power wire.
And because why not, a picture of our dog. Katherine got her a neckerchief for Christmas.
Main power wires are ran, though I will still tidy them up more later, everything is somewhat roughly run to start and make sure my plans will work.
With the main power wires run, I am able to crank the engine, and I have some temporary power to the fuel pump, so that means I am clear to finish thinning the engine harness and test. Somewhat slow progress, but it's going well overall.
I really like the switch panel in there and also that's a dang cute dog!
Thanks!
Yeah, hopefully the switch panel holds up. It doesn't really have to do much, but it is off of Amazon, so time will tell.
Hauled a truck home for a friend last night. It was an adventure, but we made it. My truck did fine hauling it, but getting out of the sellers icy driveway took a bit.
Got home and noticed that at some point my exhaust elbow deleted itself. No idea when, I don't know of anything that would have hit it.
Normally I wouldn't care about an exhaust elbow, but apparently the heat of the exhaust melted my taillight. :(
Wiring is far enough on Motley Miata that it can move under its own power again, so I told Jacob we could knock his car out this week.
If you recall, we attempted a quickie head gasket a few weeks ago but the head must have had a crack because it lasted less than a day.
So he got a cheap engine, in theory it's a good engine, fairly low miles, but our friend that sold it to him never heard it run, came in a lot with something else I think.
Old engine out, new engine just about ready to set in place. Should be able to turn the key tonight, hopefully the engine is good. Inside the valve cover looked really clean, I'm hopeful.
In other news, I won an auction last week so we'll be moving soon. Still the same area, just outside of town now with some room to work with.
Since the garage is most important to this thread:
2 car, then to the right is a dirt floor 2 car carport.
As is, there's no spot for the lift. I have a few ideas, but I'm going to get house stuff settled first. It is exciting though!
So Jacob's engine that blew the head gasket we replaced right away? Pulled the head off to see the damage...
Probably going to send that head out to get decked and pressure tested. I wonder if a combo of cheap head gasket and not a decked head is actually was caused it to fail so hard.
New Year's Eve the past few years Jacob, our friend Caleb, and myself usually hang out and build something fun in the garage. I had originally planed something else for this year, but didn't get the main ingredient yet... 2 Stroke Miata will have to wait a bit longer.
So instead we pulled in the Civic Truck!
Step one was fixing the brakes. Previously someone I guess started "tucking" the engine bay and ran the brake lines under the dash so they wouldn't be seen. The brakes were non existent and I didn't trust the lines/flares. So we got them fixed. Jacob did all the bending and flaring, he's got a nice flare tool and a knack for that kind of thing. The brakes will need bled further before road use, but they are good enough for now.
So that's new hard lines from Master to the cross circuit splitters, and new hard lines from the splitters to the front brakes. Rear brake lines are still factory, they are ugly, but I don't care. They work.
We also rolled the engine/trans over and got it test fitted. I didn't really know what mounts I would need.
This has the rear mount in place, then hanging from a ratchet strap and that C channel. Fresh motor mounts are on order. I believe I found what I needed for all of them, and I ordered a weld in bracket for the passenger side/transmission mount. I guess it was missing since the car was previously swapped? I dunno, I'm just pretty sure I have the right stuff on order. Fingers crossed.
Did a bit of a nut/bolt check. At some point a lot of crappy grade 5 bolts will be swapped for fresh grade 8 bolts in the suspension, but technically everything is tight now.
Put on the wheels I plan to run on the car, I REALLY like how much better they make it look.
