Project 2000 Miata

[ScottyB]

i love it how maengs posts are for some reason photoshop bait

oh man forgot about the bug, that's awesome

[Maengelito]

i scored a pretty good deal on a set of koni sports and a flyin' miata 1" front sway bar on ebay. the shocks wont go on until i get a set of ground control sleeves and springs, but the front sway should go on this week. i'm teching the car today for this weekend and replacing a few maintenance things. also got a front license plate bracket because the stupid po po gave me a ticket for not displaying the front plate even though i didnt have a bracket. see you guys at the track

[Maengelito]

so most of you saw the little mishap i had with the miata. the car failed inspection because of the broken headlight, so i was gonna replace the headlight and bumper. i had originally thought of doing the 01+ miata front conversion (the 99-00 miatas had a more ovalish headlight, while the 01+ miatas have a longer headlight and i think in general, it looks better). i got the 01 bumper, but the headlights are significantly more expensive. so i found a guy on miata.net that wants to trade his silver 00 bumper and headlight for my 01 bumper i already acquired. hopefully that'll get taken care of soon.

i'm in the middle of replacing the crappy restrictive cast iron exhaust manifold. my miata is the california emissions version, so its got an O2 sensor, precat, O2 sensor then catalytic converter. the exhaust manifold i bought only has one bung for the O2 sensor as the non-cali miatas only have one O2 sensor. evan, RJ and any other guys that know miatas? can i just run with the main O2 sensor and CEL? I think the baker electronics O2 simulator still requires the O2 sensor to be in the exhaust stream. maybe get another hole drilled and a bung welded on?

[.RJ]

If you want to change the exhaust manifold, you're better off changing the whole downpipe/midpipe with one from an 01+ car. They're not too expensive, have a main cat and an O2 sensor bung - if you dont want to extend the wiring yourself, Racing beat sells a plug & play harness for it for $50.

[Maengelito]

well the piece that i bought is an aftermarket stainless steel header. it goes from the block to the main cat as one piece

[.RJ]

O rly... well... zip tie the 2nd o2 sensor out of the way somewhere. It'll get hot, so dont put it next to anything that can catch on fire - there wont be a CEL.

If you want though, search on miata.net there's some instructions on how to wire up your own o2 "simulator".

You could probably have a muffler shop put an o2 bung behind the main cat too.

[Maengelito]

O rly... well... zip tie the 2nd o2 sensor out of the way somewhere. It'll get hot, so dont put it next to anything that can catch on fire.

If you search on miata.net there's some instructions on how to wire up your own o2 "simulator".

yeah, baker electronics sells one, but i think it still requires the O2 sensor to be in the exhaust stream. i could be wrong though. if not, then i'm golden.

[.RJ]

It probably doesnt need to..... besides, you can just leave it hanging and zip tie it somewhere, in clean air it will think the cat is doing a really good job

[Evan]

I dont know nuthin bout no newfangled OBD-II nonsense!

[Maengelito]

I dont know nuthin bout no newfangled OBD-II nonsense!

haha, oh yeah... damn your old miatas

[.RJ]

I dont know nuthin bout no newfangled OBD-II nonsense!

Isnt your black one a '96?

[Evan]

nope.

you suck at reading signatures

ps
<--- check out dd-did-racing.com!!!!

[Maengelito]

i made a little bit of headway yesterday. installed new competition motor mounts (stiffer rubber) and also shifted the motor 1/8" to prevent the new exhaust manifold from vibrating against the steering linkage. also, put in the new tow hook up front (rears have to be welded on, damnit). installed the new mazdaspeed muffler i scored off miata.net for a decent price from a guy that works for mazdaspeed. and for a bit of bling, i bronzed out the valve cover

either monday (MLK holiday) or next weekend (3 day weekend again for me, bitches!) my konis/GC perches and stainless steel brake lines are goin on.

[Nis01]

Nice progress Maeng. Sounds like you got quite a bit taken care of.

[Maengelito]

konis and GC spring perches are on, oil has been changed, brakes are being delivered. i decided to go with axxis ultimates because they are cheap as hell, worked great on my integra which is a heavier car and can be used daily. thats probably it for this car though...

[PDenbigh]

Alison has the ultimates on her Miata. Can't speak any for track time, but going over 33 and general driving they stop great!

[Andy]

I haven't had a very good experience with Ultimates. I coudn't slow down the MR2 at SP MAIN's T5. I couldn't back the brake zone up far enough so I had to lift heading into T4.

[Mike]

ultimates are not enough for the track...

[Maengelito]

i'm really only planning on using the ultimates for the event at VIR in feb. I figure the car is pretty light and it'll be really cold out so hopefully they'll hold up alright. i dont plan on using these pads for the summer events.

[.RJ]

ultimates are not enough for the track...

Maybe on a FWD chitbox, but they work great on a miata, especially at VIR full (2 hard braking zones on the whole track)