Really? Another Miata thread....

[rherold9]

Today, I did not work on the radiator. Instead I decided to clean the car, add a few continengency stickers (still need to add Hoosier, NASA, race numbers, and TT stickers), and let a fellow NASA friend, Jake Larson/his Dad rip on my car. We have several dslr shots I'll have to see later this week how they look. For now here are a few phone pictures.

Before:


We went for a simple/clean look. The side Hoosier stickers will go above the Hawk stickers. The large NASA stickers will go above the Hoosier. Rear Hoosier sticker will be on the center of the rear bumper below the license plate. The numbers will go under the side mirrors. The TT stickers will go right under the numbers. Looking forward to how it looks when it's all together.

Of course MM sticker has to go on first. Love the way it looks on white with the stormy blue mica contrast:



Here is a video of Jake's Dad 1st gear clutch ride out lol: http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5b398b3f4996...221291.mp4

Random pictures. I'm lower now too!













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[rherold9]

Full Size: https://imgur.com/5QBbiXm


Cabell snagged a side shot tonight and we fired up Photoshop. Trying to decide on colors for numbers/TT sticker. I'd recommend clicking into the full size and zooming in to get a better look at what everything really looks like. 

1. Gold with white outline for the numbers and white TT stickers (I like this one the best after viewing them back to back)

Full Size: https://imgur.com/XdPnbbl



2. White with gold outline for the number and gold TT stickers

Full Size: https://imgur.com/NSgfuXS

[JPolen01]

My vote is for number 1. And have the MM sticker re-cut in the same color scheme.

[rherold9]

My vote is for number 1. And have the MM sticker re-cut in the same color scheme.

So, the numbers are the same color as the MM sticker but a lower opacity as full opacity made them look cartoonish due to not actually blending with the original picture. 

The yellow/gold numbers will match the MM sticker yellow

[Goodspeed]

So, so pretty. I vote #2 - the (mostly) white numbers help to tie-in & balance out the white top, and the bit of yellow on the top matches well with the bit of yellow on the body.

[Sijray21]

So, so pretty. I vote #2 - the (mostly) white numbers help to tie-in & balance out the white top, and the bit of yellow on the top matches well with the bit of yellow on the body.

This

[JPolen01]

Looking at this on my widescreen monitor at work I am changing my vote to #2.

[V1GiLaNtE]

#2 was my original like. I changed my mind last night tp #1 and now I'm changing back to my original choice. lol.

[Sijray21]

I mean, both look good, to be honest. I think the more white looks more better.

[rherold9]

I'm seeing a theme here. Everyone voting for the white numbers... That's very prejudice of you all.

That's what I told Cabell last night; At least I can't go wrong with either haha.

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[JustinG]

If you are keeping the top white I say go white with the numbers and silver outline to match the wheels.

Get some body colored mm stickers for the top.

I hate yellow, unless it's neon, cause I grew up in the 90s.

[Sully]

Where are you guys living?

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[V1GiLaNtE]

Where are you guys living?

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Rockett's Landing

[rherold9]

Header got here yesterday the 5th. Expected delivery was the 28th. I'm just happy it wasn't lost like it seemed when there were no tracking updates for 5 business. Yeh USPS!







Cabell and I knocked some stuff out on his 4Stunner then moved to my turd. Car was on the ground when we started at 7:30 and finally got it out around 10:45. The removal alone made everything else I've done on this car seem like a cakewalk. It was difficult as they buried and angled that thing in a nice tight area. Mazda was able to fit a full size radiator because of how they placed it but alas it is thin. New one looks double the size. Going to be fun fitting it back in



To get the radiator out involved just about removing everything from the pulley's forward lol.

From above:

• battery + box (I dropped one J-Hook, still looking for this little guy... probably buried deep in the subframe)
  
• intake + bottom cover/shield
  
• ecu + cover
  
• coolant reservoir
  
• a bunch of different clips and hoses
  
• front bumper bolts
  
• cooling ducts for battery/ecu
  
• something else I'm probably forgetting
  

From below:

• front fender liner
  
• front splash shield/flat belly piece (held on by easily 30 fasteners...)
  
• front bumper bolts
  
• a couple of clips and hoses
  
• unbolt PS/AC lines, condenser and other crap that is also mounted/wrapped around the radiator
  
• something else I'm probably forgetting
  

With all that removed you can started jenga'ing the radiator out. As mentioned above the radiator has the AC/PS lines and condensor wrapped around and attached to it. So you have to tilt the radiator up to get it out of the mounting holes while slowly sliding and forcing it around the lines. Then you slowly push it down back around the hard lines. Have to be super careful you don't break those metal lines or there'd be a freon/ps fluid party.



The plan is to do the header tonight as everything is out of the way minus the strut tower bar. Then hopefully we will get the new radiator in if we have time. I will be flushing the old lines out with distilled water some time this weekend. I was told the whole cooling system is 2 gallons with the new radiator. I'll add in a full thing of Water Wetter (12oz), about 15% Mazda FL22 coolant(37oz), and the rest just straight distilled water(207oz). Then I guess I shall burp the system for however long it takes (45 minutes to 1 hour?). This is my first burp/cooling flush in general. Doesn't seem difficult, just crack open a cold one and relax as it does it's thing. I'll be sure to squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses to help move air and such. Time to buy a spill free funnel kit!

[rherold9]

Header swapped yesterday, extended wire for the 02 sensors are now in the mid-pipe cat so no CEL, strut tower brace back on, and everything is buttoned up including that nice heat-shield blanket. Held my hand on the blanket after the car idled for 20 minues and it was luke warm! Yassss. The GWR Street Header that was on there already sold so net cost for header swap = $0. WIN!



Will be posting vids eventually. To sum it up though, it's loud. More on that later.

More progress today as well on the radiator. This time without help. It was much easier to get back in. Not sure why but I guess I kind of figured out how to do it getting it out. Still wasn't trivial as there are just so many things in the way. Hopefully I won't have to remove anything for a bit.



The A/C condensor and lines sit in front of the radiator and mount on the radiator. The metal power steering lines wrap around the front of the condensor all the way across and mount on the opposite side of the radiator. So you get to play jenga to move it around and be very careful to not force anything.



Then the radiator wants to hit the front frame at the top.



The fan and shroud also wants to hit a subframe bar near the bottom.



There are also those tabs at the bottom you have to push the radiator up at just the right angle to not hit the front frame while keeping all the shit together and not putting to much force on the condensor and stuff.

So, you can see why it was a bit of struggle to get it out initially as Cabell and I had no idea how any of this worked. At least I know I can do it myself now if needed and it won't be as bad.

I slowly got everything back in the car, double checked I was not missing anything and everything was all hooked up. I left the bumper/fender liners/plastic splash shield off for now just in case I messed something up. Everything else is back in it. Filled it up with distilled water to do the initial flush. Got the car up to temp and then turned on the defroster for 10 minutes. Ice cold of course due to the air in the system but the fan kicked in and coolant was circulating.

This is when I heard the new header for the first time. I could tell on start-up it was a bit more boomy and louder right away but nothing too bad. Idle is a bit boomier and louder as well. Once the car was warm I did a 3k rpm rev twice and decided that was enough. It was 9pm and I slightly don't want the neighbors to hate us just yet... The header for sure uncorked some noise... lol. I can't wait to rip on it though so everyone in a half mile hears a swarm of bees coming!

I let the car cool off for 30 minutes while I cleaned the garage up. I pulled the drain plug and could see slightly murky/green old coolant initially. It started clearing up at the end. Yeh, the flush is working. I will be doing another tomorrow as I felt like starting the car at 10pm may not be the best idea. I will then burp the system until I see no bubbles, go out for a spin to make some loud noises and monitor coolant temp to see if I need to burp the system more.

Other than that I'm going to call FlimFlam on Monday and set a day to drop it off next week to get the camber bushings done as he has not responded to my second email. Took a phone call to him before he answered my original inquiry. I would say initial customer service by email is not so great

[rherold9]

Second flush today showed about 0 old coolant so I decided to do the burp. Burp went successful and was really simple just took a bit to let it idle (~40 minutes) to reach higher temps. Max temps it saw were 216. Fans kicked in and dropped down to 200s. Let that cycle continue for about 20 minutes as it sucked in more distilled water. Periodically squeezed the upper radiator hose to force air out.

Running one 12oz thing of water wetter, 36oz of FL22 coolant for winter time, and the rest straight distilled water ~170oz.

Roommate and I went for a cruise for a bout 40 miles. Ambient temps were around 82. When beating on it for about 1 minute or 2 I saw max 181F. The rest of the time was 172-175 cruising. Burp is successful I guess? :jump:

On to the full throttle exhaust video. Filmed and performed on a closed course in Mexico.



*at the end of video: Yes, Hawk DTC-60s are too grabby on initial bite for these tires. There was a stop sign even though it was a dead road still wanted to be safe

[ScottyB]

i like it!

[rherold9]

TL;DR: I think I'm ready and want to do racing but my wallet isn't... A couple pics coming soon enough

Well, the past weekend in the car was the most fun I've had. Great Lakes HPDE3 really focuses on drills. We had side-by-side. Leap frog with 2 cars. Leap frog with 3 cars. Then 3 mock race starts. I was able to get super comfortable with the car and other cars around me. This was also the 1st weekend I tried r-comps and 1st new track I have tried in a year. It was totally worth the drive. I honestly hate to say this but I think PittRace is my favorite track I have driven. It's a very driver-centric course. VIR is still amazing and Summit Main is still okay but this takes the cake. 



I stepped to 235/40/17 Maxxis RC-1 as Matt Huffman in his TTD RX8 had new ones for sale for $150 off. They are very similar to NT01s but better all around. They aren't as grippy as RRs but close when new. As they wear off the get similar levels of my old RE-71Rs. They are very consistent and will let you slip around. The steering response on these was the first thing I noticed. It felt so damn good. When they are "cold" they don't yell at you and sort of slip a small amount. After a half lap they are warm and start to become communicate. Fastest laps on these are the first two greens laps. After a few laps they are hot, loud, start to understeer, but stay 100% consistent. If you let off a light amount they drop in temp and start to become fun again. This is different than the RE-71R in many ways. The RE-71R's are basically the same from lap out to lap in and take a lot to cool off. The RE-71R's don't let you have as much fun either they just break away. The RC-1's allow you to toss the car around feel like you are squirming or slipping and just stay gripped up I guess you could call it. Not sure how to describe besides you are slipping but not super oversteering into a slide.

I will never go back to non r-comp tires and really looking forward to Hoosiers/BFG....

A Spec Miata instructor/race asked for a ride and jumped in on Saturday. I was so happy as I wanted to learn how to get faster. He helped me so much and I was super thankful. He commented on the way the car felt, "This car feels really good, really balanced" after a few laps into the session. Everyone person that has ridden along so far has commented on how well the car feels. These MCS dampers really are magic. He also, after I shifted into 5th said, "Oh this is a fast Miata" hahaha.

I started to push a few laps when I started to get some open track it felt so good to push r-comps to the limit for my first time on them without going super far past the limit.






Of course, it wouldn't be HPDE3 without the fun moments/bloopers:



After this weekend and the drills it really made me think hard about TT vs W2W. Those mock race starts were the best thing I have ever done. I can see why so many people say W2W is fun. Racing with car my similar speed would be so much fun. On the other hand $$$. Cage, full fire system, full suit and undergarments, cool suit, Hoosiers, data, etc. My plans are slowly build the car to TT6. Slowly acquire race gear. Eventually run ST6 once the car is ready.

[rherold9]

[JPolen01]

Those photos are so much better than those of NASA MA. Good shots.