James's 99 Miata

[EclipseTurbno93]

Haven't posted about this in a while, a few things have changed. Biggest thing is the new headers are installed. It was a two day ordeal, one to get the old one off and another to get the new one on. Overall it went very smoothly though, not much to complain about.

Here's the old one pulled out and how it looked when we pulled it into Aaron's garage at the end of night 1:



And here's the new ones in and putting the finishing touches on at night 2:



Was definitely worth the time and is a significant upgrade. Butt dyno says somewhere between 5-10 hp and torque comes on way earlier in the revs. Need to look into getting a heat shield though for that nice, stock look. Big thanks to Taylor, Aaron, Chip, Chase, and Scott for their help with this one.

Also ran extension wires for the o2 sensors that I got off ebay for $30 as opposed to the $90 racing beat set. Nice quality and were very easy to run. CEL turned off for a while, then cut back on saying it was the rear o2 heater circuit. But it just turned off again yesterday... so we'll see I guess.

My girlfriend Haliegh also recently picked up a new car, so we are a Mazda family now :thumbup:


The only other thing going on is a bit of winter prep. Decided to paint the steelies bronze for the winter. After staring at them for a while I've decided to clear coat them as well, should get around to that soon.


I also have been wanting to put mudflaps on for winter to keep a bit of the salt off. I was going to get Alex's old ones which are the stock pieces, but that fell through and prices online are silly so I decided to fab my own from a mudflap off an 18 wheeler ($15 at Napa). I first cut it into four pieces and made templates out of cardboard. I then set about trying to find a fitment that I liked and punched holes into the cardboard to line it up. I'm using the stock holes where the fender liner is held on and push on U nuts so it's easily reversible. Here's the mockup:


I then lined it up and marked the rubber and drilled holes. Fitment was perfect besides some tire contact at full turn in. I took it back off and did a bit of cutting on the inside edge to clear the tire. I was a little worried it would be floppy with the overhang, but this material is pretty thick and it seems to hold itself up just fine. Template worked beautifully for both sides. Here's the finished product on the fronts:



Still gotta do the rears, but I am pretty well satisfied with how the fronts turned out.