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Bought a Miata


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not running?
not running needs a head gasket

 

 

 

 

 

Nice! what are you plans with it?

 

I just picked up a 2013 NC myself.

Fairly basic for now. I just want to get it to run for now maybe some basic suspension mods. I want a street car that I can have fun with on the track too.

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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Nice! Hard to beat a Miata for a track dog, and generally fun 'weekend' car. What year?

 

Miata.net for the general Miata crowd, lots of diversity of purpose, and lots of good tech info

 

Clubroadster.net for the 'stance' and hipster crowd

 

Miataturbo.net for the hardcore crowd (prepare to be abused!)

 

Mine's almost ready for it's first trackday in April. AutoXing it this weekend for the 2nd time.

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/RodanAZ/Miata/Miata10-12-122_zps5fb14405.jpg

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Nice! Hard to beat a Miata for a track dog, and generally fun 'weekend' car. What year?

 

Miata.net for the general Miata crowd, lots of diversity of purpose, and lots of good tech info

 

Clubroadster.net for the 'stance' and hipster crowd

 

Miataturbo.net for the hardcore crowd (prepare to be abused!)

 

Mine's almost ready for it's first trackday in April. AutoXing it this weekend for the 2nd time.

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y185/RodanAZ/Miata/Miata10-12-122_zps5fb14405.jpg

 

Mine is a 1990 with the Option B package. It was originally red but has a half good half bad color change paint job. The trunk, and door jams look fine but under the hood and between bumper and body panels shows some red.

 

I've been browsing Miata.net for awhile and tech info is difficult to find, it also seems to be full of noobs who have never really worked on cars :lol:

 

I'm looking for somewhere that is more like this place is for Legacy's. I don't want to spend money making mistakes that others have made already.

 

I'm going to be pulling the head off this weekend and can't seem to find anything that really is helpful telling me other things to fix/upgrade while i'm in there. My number one goal for now is to just get it up and running so I can fully assess the needs of the car.

 

I'm pretty sure I want to pick up a Boss Frog roll hoop, and a Kee soft top replacement. Suspension Wise i was looking at an NB swap with Bilstein Sports and Eibach's with racing beat sways and endlinks. Brakes I'm thinking go with the biggest stock brakes that just bolt up, but haven't really found a good guide that tells me what I need to buy to make NB brakes work on my NA.

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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You might as well do the timing belt and water pump if you're going to have the head off, and you don't have documentation that they've been done. A 90 could also have crank issues... I honestly haven't paid all that much attention to that since it was only an issue on the 90-91 cars and mine is a '92.

 

Miata.net does have a lot of folks that aren't mechanically inclined, but there's still a lot of info there. Search, and look through the garage section.

 

NB swap is a good idea for the suspension. I'm running VMAXX coilovers from Flyin' Miata, and they've been great for the price. As far as brakes, I'm still running the stock '92 brakes with good pads, and I haven't had any complaints. More HP would probably justify bigger brakes, though. Look into the later 'sport' brakes. There are several conversion setups out there.

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Here's the list I ordered for the head gasket replacement

 

  1. Denso plugs 4 Ct $6.04
  2. Fel-Pro Head Gasket kit (everything you need when you remove the head) $127.79
  3. Gates accessory belt $10.06
  4. Gates Accessory Belt $6.01
  5. Gates Timing Belt kit (includes belt, idler and tensioner) $39.79
  6. NGK Plug Wire Kit $28.79
  7. WIX Oil Filter 2@$4.92

I'm also thinking about the pump, thermostat and coolant hoses too.

 

I did see some about the crank issues, but they seem somewhat isolated but I will inspect the key and the crank pulley which seems to be the causes of the failures from what I've read.

 

What are you running pad wise? I'm pretty sure I'll need to put some on all around on mine.

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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I went with Hawk HPS pads and Centric rotors from TireRack, SS lines from 949 Racing and an O'Reilly master cylinder.

 

Pads work great on the street and for the limited AutoX I've done with it, though I haven't tried them in an open track environment.

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Thanks for the info. I'm checking out miataturbo.net now and it's much more what I am looking for. Good info easy to find and properly technical for me :) Edited by Chris GTO TT

2003 Baja 5MT

2016 Outback 2.5i Premium w/Eyesight

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Swap the oil filter when you have the head off, on that model year it's tricky to reach - at least from above.

 

A lot of folks claim this to be an issue, but I've not found it to be particularly difficult. All those years of changing oil/filter on sportbikes, I guess... ;)

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Nice buy! Check the crank for potential 'short nose crank' issues and repair it if you can.

 

http://www.miata.net/garage/crankshaft.html

 

As for forums-

miata.net is great for searching out an issue. Their garage and articles section is fantastic for how-to's and DIY work. The car is very easy to work on. The members are generally older and pretty friendly.

 

miataturbo.com is great for anything turbo related or if you need something for sale. They have a very active selling and buying section. They are a rough crowd (seems like the age is a bit lower than at m.net), but I've learned that if you demonstrate mechanical knowledge and use decent grammar, you'll be just fine there.

Edited by frapjap
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