My 95 becomes my fun track toy. (WARNING: COLLEGE BUILD, slow progress)

[xjdesertfox]

Hey everybody,

Thought I'd start this here as today marks the beginning of my miatas journey from uncared for DD(Previous Owner) to a Weekend Driven Canyon/Track car.

Just some quick background on me: This is my first car, Ive had tons of trucks/jeeps/motorcycles, but never a car. I work at Oreillys, so a big majority of parts will come from work as I get a decent discount. I go to school for mechanical engineering, and will most likely be building some of the parts myself.

Here is from earlier tonight when I brought him home.


What came with the car:
Shitty fucked up air filter zip tied to the stock air tube
daisys covered in ass tons of brake dust(yea, on a 95)
EBC greenstuff pads and slotted/drilled rotors (will be swapping for brembo blanks with porterfield pads)
Momo Corse seat
No carpet
New headunit
TB/WP recently done

Plans for the car:
maintenance (Fluids, Clutch slave, stainless lines)
Half Cage
High end coilovers(I may have a secret product coming for these)
225 RS3's
Bushings
Weight reduction
etc, etc, cookie cutter, etc.

I havnt done much but driven it so far, I picked it up in santa barbera and drove it down 100 miles to make it home, it performed great for the most part, It took me awhile to learn and get comfortable with the car

I got it home and the first thing i did was swap out the plugs for some NGK 7090's from work. I also need to order some NGK wires for it as the current ones suck.

Well thats it for now, hopefully Ill have some more updates soon!

[stormin'norman]

(will be swapping for brembo blanks with porterfield pads)

Looks like a fun project ahead of you and you're going in the right direction by doing some maintenance first. I will however make a recommendation not to be dooped into buying Brembo blank rotors. Put some money back in your pocket towards driving and get cheap centric/pbr blanks for half the cost.

[xjdesertfox]

Looks like a fun project ahead of you and you're going in the right direction by doing some maintenance first. I will however make a recommendation not to be dooped into buying Brembo blank rotors. Put some money back in your pocket towards driving and get cheap centric/pbr blanks for half the cost.

my cost on brembo blanks is $10 less per rotor than getting the centrics. Hell, regular resale on them through me is about $30/rotor

Afaik you cant get the centrics cheaper than that.

[pmhaddad]

If you get the 10% SM discount on Saferacer you can get 4 carbotech blanks for $90 shipped. I'm not really aware of any blank cheaper than that with shipping. But if you can get the Brembos for $10 less per than then Centric, that's the best deal!

[weeata]

I would like to make a recommendation if you are planning to track your car... don't worry about putting a ton of performance parts on the car at first -- it will be very tempting. Learn to drive the car as it is. Don't let performance upgrades make up for your lack of skill on track. I see it all too often, for example, people try to squeeze more time out of their lap times by putting super wide sticky tires on their car instead of learning to approach/exit the corners better. My NB falls into the CSP category in autocross (I bought it that way), and I am running against guys with 10 or 15 years of experience under their belt, where I only have 2 years and they whip me every time.. and there are racers who put every performance upgrade possible on their car and they can't keep up with the other cars in their class.. just remember, the car is only as good as the person behind the wheel.

I went and bought a bone stock NA and I am only now learning to truly improve my skills as a driver because the car isn't helping compensate for my mistakes. A Miata is an awesome track car as it sits stock. When you find that your skill exceeds the abilities of your car, do an upgrade to match your skill level.

[stormin'norman]

my cost on brembo blanks is $10 less per rotor than getting the centrics. Hell, regular resale on them through me is about $30/rotor

Afaik you cant get the centrics cheaper than that.

$30 per rotor sounds spendy.. 0.o Fair enough, good luck and keep us updated.

[zenit]

$30 per rotor sounds spendy.. 0.o

Rockauto's got rotors for ~20 per for zinc coated and ~13 per for cheapo centrics.

Also, as a guy that seeing light at the end of track/restoration tunnel, don't underestimate the cost of just basic maintenance parts.
You could definitely drop 3-5k in just replacement parts, before all the go-fast bits.
Ask me how I know ;)

Also, factor in the cost of track days. If you only go once a month, it's about 400 per entry after all costs.

Not to dissuade you! Go nuts and don't be afraid to ask questions. Especially with those bushings.

[Schain]

Sounds like you have a good build planned. I look forward to seeing the progress.

[xjdesertfox]

Weeata, I definitely agree with you. Since this build is going to be SLooooooowwww, I figured id be able to afford the parts with more and more experience that i get under my belt. So i guess everything works out great haha.

Definitely the priority at this point is maintenance. Its eating some coolant and spewing it out of the exhaust so im assuming the HG is bad, however at this point its not getting into the oil so i'll probably pick up a Fel-pro HG set next pay day. (assuming books dont rape me in my asshole)

Does anyone know if i need new head studs as well?

Along with the HG, we'll swap all the fluids, planning on:

ATE super blue (since i can get it at work) for brakes and clutch
AMSoil MTG or RL MT-90 in the trans/turret
AMSoil SVG 75w-90 or redline shockproof 75w-90 in the diff.

Today i swapped out the oil, black, cruddy Royal purple 20w-50 the previous owner had in the car for some German Castrol 0w-30 I had in my stash, along with a wix filter. No HLA tick and purrs like a kitten.

Ill try and get into the habit of taking pics of what i'm doing.

[stormin'norman]

Rockauto's got rotors for ~20 per for zinc coated and ~13 per for cheapo centrics.

That's more like it. I pay 12-15 through work for pbr/centric rotors. Never had issues tracking.

[pmhaddad]

I agree with the whole "don't go insane with the go-fast bits" advice that weeata gave, but I would also like to say that if you are doing HPDEs and stuff like that to become a better performance driver (which I think is the whole point for most of us....) then it IS worthwhile to invest some money into stuff that will help you learn how to drive better. Suspension of course in particular - learning on the stock suspension is a must, but if you really are serious about learning to drive better you have to have a setup that is realistic, running good tires on stock suspension is a good start (its what I've been doing for 6-7 months now). I've seen some people do HPDE on their stock pads, and the miata stock pads are pretty good, but when it comes down to it they won't last more than a few laps when you are pushing hard and trying to improve your consistency.

I also think (and some may not agree) that autox is a great way to start getting a feel for a car that you are just starting to drive. It sort of lets you push the limits and get a really good feel for tire pressures and stuff before you take it to the track.

Just my $0.02

[weeata]

^ I totally agree with you. I've just seen so many people buy a car and go completely nuts buying every performance part for it. Not saying that's what OP is going to do, but just wanted to throw that in there to plant that thought seed. Trust me, I'm no expert in these manners, but I know a lot of people who are WAY more experienced with me and that is the general thought process I hear all the time.

[zenit]

Its eating some coolant and spewing it out of the exhaust so im assuming the HG is bad, however at this point its not getting into the oil so i'll probably pick up a Fel-pro HG set next pay day.

Uh oh. Rarely is a head gasket replacement just a head gasket replacement. If it's bad enough to leak, you might need to skim the head flat, which includes dismantling it too. Not good.

I bought my r-package in similar condition only to find that the head was waaay warped and the short block done due to bad oil rings. I attempted to replace the head only to have to pull the entire thing and rebuild it all. Beware.

If you do pull the head- you better be sure that you're scrupulously clean, otherwise you'll contaminate the oil and end up with a knocking engine.
Happened to me, and another guy on CR.

Here's a good set of instructions though:
http://revlimiter.net/blog/2011/04/head-gasket-time/
Revlimiter does an awesome job of being clean with it.

Does anyone know if i need new head studs as well?

Uh huh. ARP's hands down.

Along with the HG, we'll swap all the fluids, planning on:

ATE super blue (since i can get it at work) for brakes and clutch
AMSoil MTG or RL MT-90 in the trans/turret
AMSoil SVG 75w-90 or redline shockproof 75w-90 in the diff.

Look into Motorcraft Fluids, they are probably cheaper, definitely more accessible (any ford parts store and alot of chain auto parts stores) and are all pretty good.

Ill try and get into the habit of taking pics of what i'm doing.

DO IT!

[pmhaddad]

Look into Motorcraft Fluids, they are probably cheaper, definitely more accessible (any ford parts store and alot of chain auto parts stores) and are all pretty good.

I'll second the Motorcraft fluid plug. I'm running that stuff in my trans and diff right now and it feels like a shifter rebuild! It is actually pretty pricey, but I'm not sure how it compares to AMSOil - you can probably get that cheaper since you work at a parts store anyways. I actually had a lot of trouble finding it, but I do hear that Ford dealers should have it. I got mine from some Ford racing shop in Central FL.

[zenit]

The autozone 'round here carries the diff and gear oil from Motorcraft. I have to go to dealer's parts area for the brake fluid.

Speaking of Motorcraft, I'll plug the DOT3 fluid.
Great stuff, probably about 4-5 a bottle.
Carol Shelby endorsed.