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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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.

[xjdesertfox]

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.


Uh huh. ARP's hands down.


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.





DO IT!

Fantastic... guess I should just leave everything stock for now andstart saving for parts/machining...

if I contnue to drive it right now, will it hurt any? I guess it doesn't matter if I'm going to rebuild the whole thing. But id rather only have to do the head if possble.

[zenit]

What evidence do you have that coolant is really getting into the combustion chamber?

Unless you're dead certain, it might be worth doing some more tests before you do any engine surgery.
One of these should give you more information about the problem:

Compression test- If it's leaking, there will be a certain loss of compression

Coolant Pressure Tester- Might be available for rent at an autopart store

Exhaust Gas Analyzer- It'll let you know it you're burning coolant for sure.

Oil Analysis- It's probably also getting into your oil. Wouldn't be a bad idea anyways, just to detect potential problems with an engine that you're personally familiar with.

All of these are cheap things to do that will at least give you real reason to suspect an engine rebuild is in the works. Who knows, maybe it's just some bad valve stems seals and a small coolant leak somewhere?

[xjdesertfox]

What evidence do you have that coolant is really getting into the combustion chamber?

Unless you're dead certain, it might be worth doing some more tests before you do any engine surgery.
One of these should give you more information about the problem:

Compression test- If it's leaking, there will be a certain loss of compression

Coolant Pressure Tester- Might be available for rent at an autopart store

Exhaust Gas Analyzer- It'll let you know it you're burning coolant for sure.

Oil Analysis- It's probably also getting into your oil. Wouldn't be a bad idea anyways, just to detect potential problems with an engine that you're personally familiar with.

All of these are cheap things to do that will at least give you real reason to suspect an engine rebuild is in the works. Who knows, maybe it's just some bad valve stems seals and a small coolant leak somewhere?

On my next day off I'm borrowing a leakdown tester and we'll find out the results.

Ill test the cooling system in the next couple of days when I get some time.

I just threw in some new oil, in about 2k miles ill flush it out and send it to blackstone to see what the fellas have to say