Megan the Merlot M edition

[RawrImAMonster]

Yeah if you park downtown in a 10 hour spot after whatever hour they stop checking (7?), you have all night plus 10 hours once they start checking again in the morning.

Or hell you can come park it in my unused garage for the storm if you don't mind a dirt floor.

[ViPER1313]

Car cover; wash the car before. A couple days won't ruin the paint.

[Senor_Taylor]

My lifter noise got really bad for a while, so I decided to check my oil and realized I was losing a good amount around the valve cover. I have oil on the underside I noticed when I was doing the exhaust so hopefully it's just that and not a leaky rear main. Replaced the valve cover and changed the oil (Conventional 10-30 with a mazda filter, hope you're happy, Scott.)

The car has been running very well except for my idle issue coming back now that it's getting colder. Some times if the weather outside is cold enough (Not related to engine temp), the idle will go to 1700 and drop, then back up, and drop, over and over ONLY when I have the brake on. Some times it will only do it if I have the brake pushed and the AC on, some times it will do it without the AC on, but that's more rare. The idle likes to stick at 1500 when it's cold outside which makes working the clutch a completely bitch.

In the series of questionable decisions that is my life, I bought the subwoofer Jake had in his old Miata and wired it up at 10PM Sunday after getting home from Summit which prompted one of my neighbors to yell at me out their window. This thing hits surprisingly hard, which is impressive considering I've had a 10 inch sub 6 inches away from me in the cab of my Tacoma for years now. I thought I would regret it, but it really helps to make driving this car every day a little more enjoyable. The lack of bass really sucked because my exhaust would drone out the music, and all of the noises an old Miata makes would bother me. The car definitely feels more like a "real car" when I drive it now.

The rust spot on my front left fender broke off when I was fiddling with it, but it seems like I can just buy a new fender and then wire wheel the surface rust behind it, then paint and slap the new fender on and be done with it. I'm lucky it's not the rocker rust on the rear that most miatas get. If anyone sees a merlot mica miata being parted out with a good fender, let me know.

Working another weekend with NASA has me planning my next moves. I could save and buy a roll bar and start doing hyperdrives because I'm really really antsy to get out there, but my head will stick above the bar for sure with a helmet on and after listening to the corner workers harp about it all weekend on racenet, I'm not sure if that's the best idea. I could get race seats, but I'd rather not make my fun street car unbearable to drive to class anymore, especially with my back pain and the fact that the only thing that makes my Miata special besides the paint, is the seats.

I think ultimately, since my Tacoma and Miata are now paid off, I'll start looking for an E30 or E36, or possibly another Miata to track so I won't have to worry about banging my head on a roll bar and I'll actually have a roof. This will be a while, and would mean waiting until at least the summer to start tracking.

[SlimKlim]

Do the "foamectomy" to your seats. It's reversible if you keep the pieces of foam you cut out, so you don't have to worry about messing up your special seats. It'll make it so the bolsters actually hold you in corners, and if you do stick a roll bar in it, might be enough to get your head below the bar, maybe.

[Senor_Taylor]

My seats are already way lower than most miata seats since they're special ones. I'm not sure how much is left to even cut out.

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[Scott]

. I could get race seats, but I'd rather not make my fun street car unbearable to drive to class anymore, especially with my back pain and the fact that the only thing that makes my Miata special besides the paint, is the seats.

Swap the race seat in right before the event and back out right after. I did that for years with my old track Miata. It's 4 whole bolts.

[Senor_Taylor]

. I could get race seats, but I'd rather not make my fun street car unbearable to drive to class anymore, especially with my back pain and the fact that the only thing that makes my Miata special besides the paint, is the seats.

Swap the race seat in right before the event and back out right after. I did that for years with my old track Miata. It's 4 whole bolts.

That's a good idea, but I worry about hitting my head on the roll bar with the regular seats. I'm just not a fan of the whole idea.

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[SlimKlim]

Swap out that fender and sell the special snowflake for a minor profit, and then buy yourself a turn-key-E36-or-something track car with all the shit in it that you already need.

I had grand visions of turning my $500 Miata into my dedicated track rat until I realized just how much it takes to go from a worn out street car to a properly prepped track car. I think it'd end up being much, much cheaper in the long run to just buy a car that's already caged and just keep up with maintenance/update safety when necessary.

[Senor_Taylor]

So, the car has been sitting since Thursday, I believe. It's Tuesday now so it's been about 4 days. I started it today and received a huge plume of smoke, much to my dismay. Like an alarming amount to where I thought my HG had let go. It went away after about 30 seconds and made some funny noises, then it went away and hasn't even hinted at burning any oil all day. I ran it hard for a good 20-30 miles and it seems fine.

I don't believe it's the HG, which I know someone will quote my compression numbers and argue for. I'm assuming it was either overfilled with oil (unlikely), or since I changed back to conventional from synthetic, it's seeping past the valve or plug seals. I did find some weird crud on the plug boots when I redid the VCG the other day. I messed that up somehow too. It's leaking a little at the back near the CAS. I guess I didn't do the silicone stuff properly.

I'm starting to think I may need to replace the idle $peed control valve because the idle issue just keeps getting worse as the temperature gets colder.

[ScottyB]

what color smoke? white, grey, bluish, black?

[Senor_Taylor]

what color smoke? white, grey, bluish, black?

Definitely oil.

Might I add that the coolant is the most beautiful new green you can imagine and the oil is nice and fresh. No mixing. I have not once added coolant in 4000 miles, but I did have to add oil once, which I have attributed to my hemorrhaging valve cover.

[ViPER1313]

Valve stem seals.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Valve stem seals.

This man would know what is talking about with bad valve seals :lol:

[Jake]

A Mazda BP motor burning oil? Say it ain't so!

Yeah, they do that as they age. Matt faced the same issue on his Protege, which was just a BP motor turned the wrong way. He and Jason Lineberg replaced 'em pretty easily I think.

[ViPER1313]

Valve stem seals.

This man would know what is talking about with bad valve seals :lol:

IMO they are not bad until a thick fog of blue smoke is enveloping the car at every traffic light and drive through. If you can't taste the oil, just keep driving it.

[Senor_Taylor]

Sounds good, guys. Thanks! I'll keep an eye on it.

[*insertusernamehere*]

A Mazda BP motor burning oil? Say it ain't so!

Yeah, they do that as they age. Matt faced the same issue on his Protege, which was just a BP motor turned the wrong way. He and Jason Lineberg replaced 'em pretty easily I think.

Except it didn't fix the issue and 18 months later of never adding coolant and no signs of mixing...well...I really don't want to wish anything unfavorable on this car.

Fix the valve seals and see what happens. If it doesn't fix it buy a new-used motor to swap in when this one gets too bad, pull out the old one, buy a turbo kit + engine build kit for boost, build the motor and swap the turbo motor back in. I'm full of great ideas, hit my inbox anytime.

[Senor_Taylor]

A Mazda BP motor burning oil? Say it ain't so!

Yeah, they do that as they age. Matt faced the same issue on his Protege, which was just a BP motor turned the wrong way. He and Jason Lineberg replaced 'em pretty easily I think.

Except it didn't fix the issue and 18 months later of never adding coolant and no signs of mixing...well...I really don't want to wish anything unfavorable on this car.

Fix the valve seals and see what happens. If it doesn't fix it buy a new-used motor to swap in when this one gets too bad, pull out the old one, buy a turbo kit + engine build kit for boost, build the motor and swap the turbo motor back in. I'm full of great ideas, hit my inbox anytime.

Sshhhhhh

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[Senor_Taylor]

I replaced the PCV and I haven't noticed any smoke on start up lately, but I'll keep an eye on it. The old one showed no obvious signs of being broken, but who knows. Also replaced the broken dipstick and put a Jackson Racing Drop in filter in. The old one was dirty and this one was $25, so why not.

Today I rebuilt the shifter and wow, what a difference. I never realized NA shifters weren't supposed to be as notchy as all of the ones I've driven. Shifting is a very pleasant and satisfying event. Road noise is severely reduced and hopefully it'll keep the smell of the gear oil from the turret out of the car.

The monsoon the other day absolutely filled my car. Basically standing water in the trunk and the towels I placed in the cabin were completely saturated. I'm not even sure where to begin. I definitely think I need a new roof, preferably a hard top for now, and I'm assuming tail light seals, but it could also be the rain rail being cracked or misaligned, which would be solved by a new top. If I wanted to buy seals for the tailights, it'd be over $100, so at that point, I would just save a buy a new top.

I checked my codes and it's throwing a 12 (I'm assuming because it's one long flash and 2 short ones), which is the throttle position sensor. I checked the TPS and the readings are very close to "ideal", so I don't think it's that, but when I unplug the ISCV it idles just fine. Of course, turning on the AC will make it almost stall because there is nothing o tell it to kick up the idle with the ISCV unplugged, but it seems more drivable now. It's odd, because my exact idle issue doesn't seem to be prominent in my search results. I guess I'll see if I can find another ISCV used unless someone has another idea. It's just really weird that this only happens with the car is at operating temp on a cold day.

[Jake]

Make sure you're reading those codes correctly. There was a while where I thought my NA was trying to produce a code that didn't exist, then I realized I couldn't count.