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Thread: It's 1,200 miles to NC, it's dark, it's cold, and the heater isn't working. Hit it.

  1. #1
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    It's 1,200 miles to NC, it's dark, it's cold, and the heater isn't working. Hit it.

    Small disclaimer up front. We ain’t perfect and are human. So we made plenty of mistakes on this trip, One of them was possibly having too high of expectations of the car’s condition. Not to mention being 1,200+ miles from home in an unfamiliar city unsure of how you’re going to get home can add stress that’ll make you think irrationally, yet you’ll rationalize it while in the moment. Also, I assure you the pictures are making the car appear to be in better condition than it really is. We also failed to get some pics of things we really should have gotten. The following story is also quite long. It could be shorter and more to the point, but I feel that if it’s going to be told, it should be told in it’s entirety to the best of my, and Zach’s, memory. I’ve tried to get things in the correct order while including the facts as well. I’m also writing it to the best of my ability, though I’m no writer. Anyways, hope you still enjoy the story. Oh, and there’s a ton of pics.

    So, where to start? The beginning of course, but where is that? You could say it started when my friend first discovered the car for sale on the Houston Miata Club forums and had been lusting after it since. But let me tell you a little background info first. My friend Zach loves Miatas. Nothing really compares for him. Nothing else meets his personal qualifications that a car must have and meet. Two seater, RWD, manual, convertible, good handling, cheap, reliable, fun, easy to work on. One could argue for other cars, but as far as he is concerned, nothing lives up his standards as well as the Miata does. He has had a few over the years, NAs and NBs, and he strongly favors the NB. For him, it’s the hips the NB has, the more aggressive lines overall, tighter chassis, and ever so minor improvement in power. Or, to quote him, “the curves of the NB have me by the short and curlies.” All car guys have a dream car, a grail if you will. Zach’s dream car has been a Velocity Red MazdaSpeed Miata. For him, Velocity Red just does it for him. It’s one of those things that’s hard to describe, but if you know the feeling, you get it. But not just any VR MSM, but one that has been massaged and had the known wrinkles of stock MSMs ironed out. He’s looked for quite some time to find the right car, the perfect car. I learned of the car he wanted about 2 months ago. A car that has history, pedigree, and just about everything he himself would want done to a MSM.

    The car is a 2004 Velocity Red MSM previously owned by Flyin’ Miata, the most well known and respected tuner for Miatas. Not only did FM once own the car, but it would be built for a magazine article in Car & Driver. You may have read about it some time ago, it was in the November 2005 issue and the feature was the Superfour Challenge. Or maybe you read the post about it on Miata.net. It was also a test bed car for parts development for their line of MSM related parts. So there’s a good chance that if you have some MSM related FM bits, they were developed and tested on this car. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll get to more about the car in a moment.

    Right, so, 2 months ago this car was listed on eBay for sale to the highest bidder. I talked to Zach extensively about the car. He told me how the car had been listed previously on the Houston Miata Club forums but got no replies. He went on to tell me everything he knew about the car. That it was a Velocity Red MSM that had only 25,000 miles, a built short block, FM II turbo kit running Hydra 2.5, Afco coilovers, Wilwood big brake kit all around, 5-spd trans, the claim of being FM’s MSM test car and everything that came with that, and many, many more small mods/add-ons. After talking to him several times about it, I told him if it’s what he’s always wanted, he should go for it if it won’t affect him financially. Yet, he can be incredibly indecisive, so the auction ended and he hadn’t bid on it. The car was seemingly gone to a new owner. He had missed out on possibly the best example of a VR MSM. You can imagine that if such a car was your automotive everything and you missed out on it, you’d be a bit heartbroken, possibly lose sleep over it, which he did. But wait, a miracle happened! The car was mysteriously re-listed on eBay by the same seller. The same ad as before, with the same pictures and description. He would not miss out on it twice. We spoke about the car for hours and days. See, the ad only had a few pictures, and they weren’t all that great. And while the description was direct, it lacked detail. He made the decision to contact the seller to get as much info and pictures as he could.

    From contacting the seller he learned that his name was Dan Bond, that he had worked with Flyin’ Miata in the past during development of their turbo manifold and their attempt at building a 200MPH Miata. Dan had owned the car for the past 5 years and it had been sitting for a spell since he hadn’t gotten it to pass Texas’ safety inspection. From what we were told and was our understanding, the stock ECU and injectors had been installed to get it to pass inspection but it had never gotten around to doing so. Passing TX inspection was not a concern for Zach. But what did worry Zach was that because of that, the car’s title had yet to be transferred to Dan. If you’ve ever bought a car with a title that isn’t a simple transfer from the seller to the buyer, you know the headaches that come from even the most minor of extra steps. Well, after getting what extra info and pics Zach could, even though we both felt it wasn’t quite enough (while direct, Dan was also short on answers), he made the decision to have Dan end the auction for the listing cost of $140 and agreed to a purchase price of $12,000 bearing inspection, which would require flying out to TX. I let my friend know that if he needed some help, I’d be glad to go with him. To be honest, I had become curious about this car myself and wanted to see it with my own eyes. We were both convinced the car was going to be the prime example it had been built up to be. So much so, only one-way tickets were purchased. We’d have to fly out to it as it was currently in Galveston, TX and we live in eastern NC, a distance of around 1,200 miles. You may think that’s a bit foolish, and I’d agree with you, but we both thought, “hey, this car only has 25,000 miles on it, it was owned and built by Flyin’ Miata back in the day, THE Miata tuner, what is there to worry about?” Our plan was to fly to TX, inspect the car, Zach would buy it, we’d re-install the 550 injectors and Hydra ECU, change the oil, and be on our way back to NC. It was going to be a road trip neither of us would forget we thought… if we only knew why though.

    OK so it’s the 28th of Dec., a couple of days before the trip, and I get a call from Zach around 7PM. Turns out he got an alert on his phone about a ‘04 Velocity Red MSM in our area that was for sale for $2,000 with a blown head gasket and a bunch of aftermarket bits. The call is to ask if I want to go look at it and help pick it up as him and our friend Kyle are on their way to it and my place is on the way. Huh, sure, why not, “this should be interesting,” I think. What are the chances? Right? ON our way there the closer we get to where the car is at the more we realized it’s in Bumfuck Egypt, more or less, out in the boonies of New Bern, NC. It’s dark, it’s been raining, the two conditions you never look at a car in. But at the asking price, why the hell not? Well, after thoroughly examining the car we come to the conclusion he should offer no more than $1,500. Zach goes over to talk to the guy and then comes back over to us and quietly tells us he offered $1,400 and the guy came back at $1,500. Well damn, talk about a pretty sweet deal. Granted, the car is a complete basket case. For example, it’s been resprayed twice and some fool did a shit job of installing the NB “tupperware” onto the car. While Zach and I were away Kyle began tearing the thing apart and it only got worse as he went. For example, 9 qts of fluid poured out of the engine when he drained the “oil.” And I rather not say what all was found in the carpet. Still, it’s one hell of a deal. I’m sure once that car gets running and driving again it’ll be a $4k car. It’s a ‘04 MSM with a clean title and just 137k miles on it after all. I swear, Zach has some pretty good luck.

    $1,500 ‘04 MSM



    Zach stands with his late night pick up. Unbelievable. Even with it being a long way from running and driving it was a great deal.

    Like a Boss… or a Captain



    Kyle and Zach pose for another picture.

    You can see more pictures of this car here.

    Alright, it’s now Dec. 30th around 11AM and we’re waiting to board the plane to go to TX. This. Is. Happening. Once we get on the plane, there’s no backing out. Maybe we should have been suspicious of the possible omen when it was announced our flight was delayed for a “maintenance issue” (translation, broken plane). No worries from us though, just a typical thing, so we’d get there a little bit later than was planned. We let the Dan know as he was picking us up from the airport. No problem on his end. The flight itself was non-eventful and went smoothly. I actually ended up chatting with one of the flight attendants at the back of the plane about cars and the such. I learned that he enjoyed the weird side of things, that he liked the old Caddy hearses and was looking to get one to drive around in again. You never know who you’ll meet on such trips. 3 hours later, about 4PM, and we had arrived in Houston, TX. Not too much longer we got in contacted with the Dan and he was at the airport to pick us up in a few minutes. For what ever reason, we thought nothing of the red Prius he drove, or it’s condition. At a glance you didn’t notice anything, but the longer we looked at it later, the more we realized how things added up. On the ride to his house we talked about his history as an engineer, what he worked on, what he’s driven, and how he got involved with Flyin’ Miata. It was a semi-informative hour long drive to Galveston, TX. And there we were, after a 3 hour flight and a 1 hour car ride, some 1,200 miles, we were just a moment from seeing the car for the first time.

    The door of the garage the car had been kept in started to rise. And there it sat, the car we had come so far for. The “pristine” car that was going to be epic and the start of grand road trip. But upon first sight, instead of being awed, concern started to set in. The car was absolutely filthy, inside and out as the top had been left down for some time. We knew the car had been sitting for a while, which was roughly 3 years, but surely, we thought, a car of this caliber would be taken care of if it was garaged. Thus, we began to thoroughly look the car over.

    First 3 pics I took of the car



    The top was actually down when we first saw the car, but it's up in this pic as we were inspecting the top's condition.



    Here's how the engine looked at the time. Noticeably different from it's set-up for the Car & Driver feature. Which we knew was the case.



    And the interior. These pictures make the car look better than it actually did. In person it was just filthy, so much so you would think twice before sitting in it.

    Zach’s inspections pics.



    Front lip was pretty chewed up for a 25k mile car.



    One of the worst examples of corrosion in the paint. This one had been touched up.



    Look closely enough and you can see some pitting in the Mazda M logo on the steering wheel. Also, the panel under the steering wheel was gone and no where to be found.



    Well, at least it had the knob from FM’s attempt at building a 200MPH Miata.

    And that’s just a few examples of said pics. Zach took quite a lot of pictures of the car for inspection purposes. So many that it’ll be easier to just post a link to imgur album for them.

    Here’s the link to all those pictures.

    Going from bumper to bumper looking over the condition of the body and paint, examining every inch of the engine bay, and every crevice of the interior. The more we looked, the more disappointing and depressing the car became. Everywhere we looked, there was corrosion either in the form of rust or oxidation of aluminum. From the roll bar to the badges, to the control arms, to the FM aluminum radiator, corrosion was all over the car. And that’s without mentioning the number of small dents/dings we found. Plus, all of the flaws/damage in the paint from deep scratches, paint chips, and complete lack of basic car care. Under the hood we noticed lots of small, minor leaks, mostly what you might expect from a modded car, but we still felt they shouldn’t be present on THIS car. Looking the chassis over we found that the rear shocks of the Afcos had been leaking a bit as well. It was just one thing after another it seemed, the more we picked the car apart the worse it got. But, we pressed on, convincing ourselves that the car would clean up and most of the flaws would buff out. We’d looked at it, now it was time to hear it, and hear it we did. Upon start up the car had us worrying even more. A noticeably loud and consistent ticking that followed the revs was coming from the engine. It sounded like the lifter tick NAs are known to make… but NBs have solid lifters, so…?

    Tick, tick, tick



    Taken after injector & ECU swap.

    Not only that, but the car’s idle was surging and it would be slow to rev and come back down from the revs. But that ticking, that ticking was scaring the hell out of us. Knowing the car should have solid lifters, we started to think of and list the possible reasons for the noise. Regardless, we decided to pull the valve cover for inspection. We couldn’t do much besides look and feel things as we didn’t bring much in the way of tools,. Just the basics of wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, pliers, allens and random assortments. Just enough to fill a small bag just in case something went wrong on the trip back.

    The valve cover was off and we looked over everything and could see nothing that stood out. Everything felt fine, no glaringly obvious problems like a loose valve spring, damaged lifter or lifter shim, wiped out cam lobe, or any other such problem. Then Zach saw it, something that we both looked over after staring at the cams and lifters for 10 minutes or so. We don’t know how it got there, we don’t know why it was there, all we do know is that is was there, Sitting at the base of the head, on the passenger side, next to a valve spring was a steel washer. A steel washer that had likely been inside the engine since it left FM’s hands.

    Quarter for scale



    Took these pics while sitting in Waffle House. We regret not getting one of it while still sitting in the cylinder head. But when Zach saw it he instinctively reached out and picked it up out of the head.







    We believe it to be a cylinder head bolt washer. We looked everything over again and could find no evidence of any damage that the washer could have caused if it had been tossed around inside of the valve cover. As far as we knew, it had been sitting in the same spot for 5+ years. Upon finding the washer we were just at a lost for words. The ticking was bad enough, but a piece of hardware that could have been floating around for all that time? It was getting late and we weren’t sure what we were going to do. We had full intentions of getting there, buying the car and being on our way that same day. But now we knew that wasn’t happening. It was the day before New Year’s Eve, getting plane tickets back home had limited options, but we had come so far. So we decided it best to sleep on things, that we’d get a cheap motel room and talk it over. See how we felt the next morning and at least try seeing how it ran on the 550 injectors and Hydra. We looked up our options and decided on a Super 8 that was a quick walk from a Waffle House. We had no way to get around with exception to Dan giving us a ride. We could have rented a car but we were trying to keep unplanned costs to a minimum. Thankfully Dan didn’t mind at all dropping us off and picking us up the following morning from the Super 8. He was a nice enough fellow the entire time we were there and was as accommodating as one could be. But short on answers to questions about the car. Nice as he was, “I don’t know” was no less frustrating of an answer to questions about the car. That night we grabbed some food from the Waffle House, talked about what we had found and what should be done the following day. One thing was for certain though, if Zach was to still buy the car, he wouldn’t do so at the previous agreed to price.
    Last edited by JamieH; 01-17-2015 at 04:50 AM.

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  3. #2
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Dec. 31st, New Year’s Eve and Zach’s birthday. Neither of us had planned to spend the day in TX. We remained hopeful, that perhaps the car would run much better on the 550 injectors and Hydra. Speaking of, we learned that it was actually the 2.6, not the 2.5 as “2.6“ was written on the unit itself, that was a plus we thought. So, after grabbing some breakfast from Waffle House, we checked out of the motel and called for Dan to pick us up. Arriving at Dan’s we ignored everything we had already discovered and got to work pulling things back apart again to get to the injectors. Once we got them out we were let down again. The lower insulators on the stock injectors had been mangled from being installed incorrectly/out of alignment. We couldn’t believe it, and there was no signs of fuel leaking from how they had been in there for who knows how long. Time was ticking, so we continued to swap the injectors. We then moved on to switching out the MAF for the short tube that would replace it as the Hydra doesn’t run off of the MAF. Zach then climbed under the dash to swap the wiring over to the Hydra. When he did, he discovered one of the wires for the Hydra harness had come out of the connector.

    Hydra Harness



    Close up



    Stock Harness



    Looked a bit messy.

    How does that even happen? We just kept being dumbfounded by the things wrong with the car. OK, so it was all set, ready to run on the Hydra and 550s. We turn the key, it fires up and seems to run better, but sounds like it’s not running on all four and that horrible ticking was still there (we knew it would, but were still blindly hopeful). The throttle response was better, no more surging idle, but it sounded rough now and there was noticeable black smoke coming from the tailpipe. To say we were puzzled is an understatement. Was an injector sticking open? Was a plug not firing? Was it something to do with that one wire? Well, it was running on all four, there was no fuel leaks. We still hadn’t driven the car, and we couldn’t leave without at least driving it once. Maybe it would clear up on it’s own, maybe there was some old gas or something clogging up an injector or something. Doubtful, but at this point, we thought we would be doing a disservice to ourselves and the car itself if we didn’t drive it. So out we went with it, no insurance, no registration, just the tags from Zach’s 10AE NB.

    Stopped at a gas station during 1st test drive.



    Hadn't really seen the car in day light and stopped here to get some pics. Again, it looks better in these pics than it did in person.



    A little birdie said hello.









    So sue me, we weren't in the best of moods at this point.

    Dirty





    Filthy









    Nasty





    Hairy?



    Once we got it out of his driveway and onto the road we heard the most god-awful sound coming from behind us. At first we figured it was just some of the stuff clanking around in the trunk, But it was persistent and was coming from two spots, the rear coilovers. Again, “what the hell?“ We knew there was a bit of oil leaking from them, but had they gone that bad? Even over perfectly smooth roads the clanking was present. It was pretty much constant and incredibly loud, especially over rough sections like potholes and eroded asphalt. Then there was how it ran, which was horribly, it was absolutely awful. It refused to take more than an 1/8 throttle, any more and it would spit and pop. It was running pig rich, throwing black smoke and fuel out the tailpipe like a sorority girl hovering over a toilet after having too much to drink.

    Yeah, just a “tiny” bit rich.





    At 1/8 throttle it seemed like the car itself wanted to run, it wanted to show us what it could do, we could hear the turbo wanting to spool. The brakes worked just fine though, thankfully. A bit loud, but as expected from the pads that were in there, carbotechs. ABS was also functioning, so that was nice. Steering was tight and responsive, no issues there. But the coils clanking as they were and the car running so roughly from being overly rich continued to reminded us there was no way the car would get us home. So we took it back to Dan’s to start looking things over, again, and try to figure out what was going on and talk about our options at that point. And to be honest, once we got back, we couldn’t think of much that could be the problem with how it was running and how the coilovers were acting. We tossed some ideas back and forth but none of them really made much sense. But, one thing to note was that it was running so rich that fuel had seeped past the rings and gotten into the oil as we could then smell it in the oil when we checked the level. This had us concerned that we may have harmed the cat and/or the O2 sensor for the Hydra. So as a distraction and of morbid curiosity, Zach wanted to wash the car. He wanted to see that paint look as good as it could with all the dust, dirt, and grime knocked off of it. We would later continue to talk about how him washing the car was the turning point. That if not for that, we wouldn’t have pushed as hard as we did to get the car running and driving far better as the trip went on. So, with an old bucket, various kitchen cloths, & Dawn dish detergent, all supplied by Dan, the car was washed.

    There it was, after a bit of soap, water and scrubbing, the pretty was showing itself for the first time since we first saw the car.







    We kind of stared at it imagining what could be.

    Sure, dish detergent is a horrible thing to wash a car with, but it’s what was available, and we just wanted to see the car cleaned up a bit. We were kind of astonished really. Up til then, we didn’t have many kind thoughts about the car and were really starting to bank on spending the money to fly back home. It was cold, the sun wasn’t shining, but the car looked great from a few feet away. We just stood there admiring what could be. Now, over the course of time we spent in Galveston, Dan let us work on the car in his garage every time with no qualms, he provided the materials to wash the car, gave us a ride to and from the motel, had picked us up from Houston where we landed, an hour away, and would have taken us back if needed. While we worked he would come and go. Check on us to see if we needed anything, spend a bit of time watching us work, then be gone back inside or off for a family matter or the such. Once the car was clean he came back out for a chat and we asked if we could have a few minutes alone to talk about it. We spent probably about 40 minutes, maybe more, trying to figure out what to do. It was probably around 5:30pm or so and we knew by that time we would be staying the night again. We were also starting to get a bit hungry. After much debate, I believe Zach was ready to make an offer on the car when Dan came back out. A bit of talking about what we were going to do for the night passed back and forth, spending the night at the same Super 8 again, and where and how we were going to get dinner, taking the car out to Whataburger, something neither of us had ate before. Dan had to leave for a matter and we were about to go eat, so it seemed like an opportune time to hit him with an offer. Zach went over everything about the car and how we both felt about it, subtracting how much it was going to take to fix what we thought was wrong with it, then finally, apprehensively, laid it out, $6,500. You may have heard of the saying “if they don’t flinch at your first offer, you should have offered less.” And Dan had on his face the look of a man that had just been stung a bit. Yet, at the same time, he didn’t immediately turn it down, though if he was thinking it, we couldn’t blame him. Zach’s offer was low, you may even consider it a low-ball offer, but after all we had been through up to that point, if you had been in our situation, you’d likely feel the same way we did and think the offer was fair. Anyways, we just asked him to think about it while we were gone to grab some dinner. At last, the ball was finally rolling.

    Now, maybe you’re from TX, maybe Whataburger is one of your favorite places to eat. But we weren’t impressed. The food was fine, but the burgers were dry and the fries weren’t anything to write home about. Maybe other items on the menu would have been better that day, maybe they were off their game that day, either way, it didn’t come off as a “staple of TX.” At the very least we did take advantage of the heat of the restaurant and spent a bit of time talking about the car, what to do from there, again, and how the trip had been so far. To be perfectly honest, we had both felt miserable about it all ever since that garage door first opened on Tuesday. But as I said earlier, washing the car was the turning point. We had been talking ill of it before then, but over dinner we realized that since washing it, we started to say some nice things about it, started to be far more optimistic about it all. Hell, a fellow driving an NB parked by the car and on his way into Whataburger was breaking his neck looking at it. It was an oddly proud moment for Zach considering he didn’t even own the car. Well, we knew we couldn’t spend all night sitting in Whataburger, that we had to take the car back. But, before heading back to Dan’s, we wanted to try something to see if it was gunked up fuel or the such, so we stopped at an Autozone just down the street from Whataburger and grabbed a can of B12 Chemtool. I had personally never heard of it, but Zach said he had read it about it working for others, so at the worst he’d be out the $5 it costs if it did nothing. Half the can was poured into the tank and we drove back to Dan’s to see what he thought about the offer that had been made. He came back to us with all the things the car had, adding things up, and then gave us a number, $9,000. We were both shocked that he came that low, we thought he’d be a bit higher, but we both felt it was still too high. So, Zach hit him again with a slightly higher number, $7,250, and things rested there for a bit. Then Dan asked us if we had any way to get back home, which kind of shocked us and had us wondering if he was more sly than we had originally given him credit for as he said it kind of in a way that soundly like him saying $7,250 wasn’t enough. After which we went inside his home as we were waiting for his SO to return with his car before he could take us to the Super 8. While we waited we sat and talked in his living room. Now, either from fear of thinking Dan wasn’t going to budge, or didn’t like the 2nd number he gave him, Zach spoke up and laid out his cards. Zach told Dan where he was at and the number he felt comfortable at spending no more than, the number he was all in at, $8,000. I was a bit disappointed when he spoke up like that. You’ve likely heard of “the first to speak is the one who loses in a negotiation.“ I even sent him a text to ask him privately what he was thinking. But, no matter, it was done, no taking it back. Dan didn’t say anything to it though, and about that time his SO had arrived so we were off to the motel to spend another night in Galveston. To spend New Year’s Eve just sitting in a motel room. Granted, neither of us put any care into the day, even though it was Zach’s birthday. Overall, it kind of felt like a bad way to end the year.

    Once we were situated into our room that night Zach began writing an email to Bill Cardell in hopes he would be able to help with his knowledge to give us something to work off of to get the car running. He also downloaded the software for the Hydra so that we could see what was going on with it the next day. Besides that, we spent the night hearing fireworks go off and just watching some TV. We were mostly just happy to be somewhere that had heat. As most of our time in Galveston had been spent out in the cold working on the car while racking our brains out over what to do about the car as well. We stayed up quite late that night just talking about it all, as we had that day, the night before, and the day before that. So, we got a bit of a late start to the following day, a late start to the new year if you will.

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  5. #3
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    It’s Jan. 1st 2015, and we are really hoping to start the new year off on a positive note. At this point, the chances of taking the car home with us had improved even though it didn’t seem like the car itself had. It’s amazing how a clean looking car can make one feel and change their thinking. It was 10:30am, so we figured we didn’t have time to eat then check out, thus, we grabbed our belongings, checked out and walked over to the Waffle House to get some breakfast/lunch. While there Zach noticed that he had gotten a response from Mr. Cardell. Talk about great timing! In his reply Mr. Cardell said there was a possibility, depending on a particular parameter, that there was a tune in the Hydra for the stock injectors currently from what Zach had told him about how the car was running. He was surprised about the washer we had found and asked for pictures of it. He also included the tune that he had on file for the car when it was still in their possession for us to try. Once we finished eating, Dan was called to come pick us up so that we could get back to work trying to get the car to run as it should. Ever so slowly, our determination to see the car run smoothly had built up. With the software for the Hydra now on Zach’s laptop, some info, a tip and a tune from Mr. Cardell, we were incredibly hopeful about getting the car to run as it should.

    Once we arrived at Dan’s house we got to work immediately by closing the garage door and jumping in the car to try to keep as much heat in our bodies as we could. Each day we had spent in Galveston felt colder than the last. Who would have thought it could get so cold in TX? Quick question, if you had an aftermarket EMS ECU that cost $2,000 when new, where would you mount it? Would you just plop it into the front of the passenger floorboard and be done there? No? Well that’s where the Hydra was in this car (FM‘s Hydra mounting clip is likely to be added in the future (or some DIY bracket will be made)). We discovered this on the first day when looking the car over, sigh. Sure, not a problem if you never have a passenger, but I assure you it’s constantly on your mind when you know it’s there under your feet just under the floormat. OK, with the laptop out we plugged it into the Hydra and turned the key to the on position and we were met with a communication error. A bit of googling and we discovered we needed to be on the proper commport, and how to do just that. With the software set to Comm1 and the USB set to Comm1 as well, we were in business. We immediately downloaded the tune that was in the Hydra to the laptop and started looking it over. We instantly noticed the massive ramp of the 3D table for the fuel and then check the parameter Mr. Cardell had told us about. Sure enough, it was just as he said it could be, a mapping for the stock injectors in the Hydra. I was quite impressed that he had basically pinpointed the problem after being given the information we could supply him with. We saved that tune to the PC and uploaded the tune he had sent us to the Hydra. Before we tried to start it we looked everything over, checked the plugs for any damage from running so rich the previous day, checked the oil level again, coolant, etc. When we were looking over things, checking for leaks we found that there was a bit of coolant on the floor under the car. After searching we found that the lower rad hose was a bit loose on the engine side and it felt like a small amount had leaked out from there as it was wet under the hose near the connection and what was under it also showed signs of being wet. There wasn’t any indication that the hose itself was bad, so the clamp was tightened up and the rad topped off. Alright, so everything seemed as right as it could be at the moment.

    Finally, it was time to see how it would run. Being impatient, I couldn’t stand it any longer and told Zach I was turning it over, and he gave the go ahead. I grabbed the key, turned it and… the battery was nearly dead and wouldn’t turn the engine over fast enough to fire. We had run the battery down listening to the radio while sorting out the tune in the Hydra, doh! Dan had a small 1Amp charger he used to tend the battery, so we tried using that to bring the battery back up enough to start the car. But, it wasn’t supplying enough of a charge quick enough to have any real affect. We then asked Dan if he had some jumper cables so we could use his Prius to jump start the car. He didn’t, so Dan went out and picked up a set of jumper cables and once he got back we used his Prius to jump the Miata.

    It took a few extra turns, and that’s probably from the car sitting over night with soot covered plugs that were now as cold as we were, but the car came back to life. It was instantly running much smoother and we were anxious as could be to get it out on the road to see how it would now drive. As far as acceleration, it was night and day. We saw actual boost, 10 sweet pounds of it, and the wonderful noises that come with it. For the first time since we laid eyes on the car it was making us grin like maniacs in a horror film. But the fun only lasted but so long, we were cold and wanted some heat. So imagine our disappointment when it didn’t work and we had to start wiping away the condensation off the windows to see out the car. How could this be? We finally got the car running properly and now something else wasn’t working? And to add insult to injury, it was working when the car was running horribly the previous day when we went to Whataburger. Of course, the rear suspension clanking continued to annoy us as well. The day was moving along and we really wanted to get on the road, and we figured we could maybe figure something out about the suspension later. Once we were back in the garage Dan had came out to see how things were. We let him know that the car was running better now and could likely get us home, but the heater wasn’t working. After talking a bit Zach asked Dan how he felt about the $8,000 To our surprise he said that $8,000 would work and that it was OK. Holy. Fucking. Balls. The deal was done and it was just left to money changing hands. Zach had brought a cashiers check for most of the original agreed price and the rest in cash. But being the price was now lower than what the cashier’s check was for he asked Dan if he could just write a check to cover the balance. He did, and the deal was done. The car was now Zach’s. He was the new owner of FM’s old MSM, FM Speed.

    With the car now in Zach’s ownership he decided to go ahead and change the oil. Now, Zach wanted to get as much of the old oil that now had a bit of fuel in it out. After as much oil drained out as it could with the right side of the car in the air, he lowered it and jacked up the left side to get that last little bit out. Took a bit longer, but he was just being cautious as we had a 1,200 or so mile trip ahead of us. The car now had fresh oil since… well, since probably the last 3 years or more. We then moved on to troubleshooting the lack of heat. Being as tired and miserable and paranoid about what the problem could be we began to suspect the pump. We had tried to bleed the system by letting the car run with the rad cap off and heater on, didn’t work, still no heat. I mean, we got it to work for a moment, then it was gone as quick as it came. Being that we were about to travel 1,200 miles or so, we didn’t want to chance such a trip on a water pump we were being paranoid about. So, guess what we did? If you guessed replace the water pump you’re right. If you think we were crazy to do so, yeah, probably so. But not before going to Autozone to grab the replacement pump and some new wiper blades, which were an absolute need. Zach REALLY wanted to get a GMB pump, but only Advance Auto seemed to carry it on only offered it as ship to home. Well, we certainly didn’t have that sort of time. Thus, with our options reduced to who ever had a pump sitting on the shelf, we ended up going back to the same Autozone we grabbed that can of B12 from the day before. And wouldn’t you know it, the box for said water pump looked like it had been used to kick a field goal. Thankfully, the pump itself was alright.

    Now, before going back to attempt the daunting task we had set before us, we went to CiCi’s Pizza for dinner. We needed a pick me up and some cheap pizza would have to do. And to be honest, it really hit the spot. But for whatever reason, CiCi’s was trying to save some money on their electricity bill or their heat was busted, because it was a delightful 55 degrees inside the restaurant. Well, we stuffed our faces with slice after slice of pizza. Probably a bit more than we should have, but without it we would’ve lacked the much needed recharge to get the job of that water pump done. Knowing we were about to make a mess, we grabbed several large handfuls of the napkins they had. I’m pretty sure anyone that saw us grab so many napkins must have thought shenanigans were afoot. No matter, we had to make due with what we could get our hands on. With our bellies full we left CiCi’s and returned to Dan’s to tear the car apart one more time before hitting the road.

    I have to admit, if it wasn’t for Dan’s garage I can’t imagine how miserable and sad we would have been doing all the wrenching we had done over the past 3 days in the bare environment. The lack of light and shelter from the elements would have been grating and just plain out right painful and I rather not think about it. Thinking back on it, we may not have thanked Dan enough for being as gracious as he was with us. We did pick that car apart, yet, we had to. With the distance we traveled and the money that was at stake it would have been foolish not to. Never the less, we had an engine to rip the front end off of.

    At 8:30PM we got to work feverishly yanking things apart. Then it came time to drain the coolant. At this time I’d like to mention that the drain plug on the FM rad had been rounded out by someone or another before we ever laid eyes on the car, let alone hands. Sigh, annoying, but not really a big deal, off came the lower rad hose… which created a mess. It never takes much of a spill to make a large mess does it? We caught most of the coolant and were able to reuse it to at least get home on. Now, we very likely could have gotten this entire job done quicker than we did, but we were working with what tools Zach had brought along and were making due with what we had. So when it came time to pull the lower time belt cover off we had to work around the crank pulley. Talk about having to, ahem, coax a part out from where it had been sitting for quite some time. With great effort, careful prying and gentle hands (or at least as gentle as possible) the lower cover was out. The timing was then set and the idler, tensioner, and belt were removed and pulled out of the way.









    Just did have what we needed to hold the cam gears in place. If we hadn't of found the locking pliars, we were going to hope my Leatherman would get the job done (it's the Crunch model).

    The pump came out at about 10:30. Upon inspection it appeared to be mostly fine with only a small amount of play in the shaft, which was absolutely annoying at the time. Either way, the new pump was going on. If you ever find yourself in a situation such as the one we were in, I pity you if you are by yourself. Having two sets of hands and two minds to get this done made it far more manageable and less stressful, the music being played from my phone may have helped too. Speaking of, our phones were incredibly useful when we needed to know or wrap our heads around something that was giving us trouble. We aren’t idiots, but we sometimes feel as such, and the phones giving us access to the internet helped out tremendously. OK, so back to getting the new pump on. With two pairs of incredibly careful hands, we were able to get the gasket lined up and the bolts started for the pump, then the gasket and bolts for the inlet neck. We were now just over half way there. Now to just get the belt back on, double check the timing, finish buttoning everything back up, and fill and bleed the system. Which went perfectly smoothly… or so I wished. I had gotten the belt back on, the timing was right, everything was in place, all that was left to do was rotate the engine to ensure the engine was indeed timed correctly. I believe we got to the 2nd or 3rd turn of the wrench when the timing belt jumped at the crank. Zach had left the tensioner a bit loose thinking it was just tight enough to stay in position without putting too much tension on the belt yet. So, upon turning things over a couple of times, applying just enough force for the belt to push the tensioner back out, allowing the belt to be just loose enough to jump at the crank.

    Being as tired as I already was at this point, I had to take a moment and stepped away from what had just happened. “Ahh!” I thought internally, “Did that really just happen? Ugh, this can’t be happening.” But Zach stayed positive, sure that we hadn’t gone all that far on the rotation .Very carefully, he got things lined back up and I checked behind him. This time after the belt was on, the both of us made sure the tensioner was bolted down good and tight when we checked for the timing to be proper. It was! Miracles of miracles I tell ya. Now to just get that lower cover back on. Being that the new pump had no play what so ever that we could feel, I had to be even more careful getting the cover back in place. So a bit more massaging was applied, and after a few attempts it finally slipped back under both the pump and crank pulley. At that point we both felt as if all the hard work was done. Now to just slap the rest of it all back together. It was indeed smooth sailing from there on out. In went the coolant and some water to replace what was spilled and then we started the car up. It looked as if the system was going to bleed just fine as we saw air bubbles coming to the top at the cap opening. So when I felt heat coming from the vents I was ecstatic. But it didn’t last, the vents start to push cold air again. What. The. Fuck? That was the correct word, I assure you, at that hour, after 3 days of frustration, misery, un-sureness, and what felt like freezing temperatures. Just for the hell of it I thought to try the A/C. Imagine my surprise when the compressor did absolutely nothing once the A/C button was pressed. I pressed it repeatedly hoping it was just corrosion on the contacts, nope, nothing. Could not freaking believe it. But, we had done everything we could, we were tired, we were cold, and we just wanted to get the hell on the road. Before leaving we washed up inside Dan’s kitchen and just out of curiosities sake Zach asked if there was any chance for a bit of sympathy money. This was in consideration to everything we had gone though, all the work the car needed just to be mostly drivable. I figure you can look at that two ways, either you’re for it or against it, and your reasons can vary for either. Regardless, there was none, and that was it. We said goodbye to Dan and wished him well. At last, the road trip half of our trip would finally begin.

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  7. #4
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    It’s about 2AM in the morning on Jan. 2nd 2015. We are fully packed and ready to roll out. And getting out of Dodge, or in this case Galveston, is high on our priority list. But first we need some go-go juice for the car so we find a Shell station, half of which happened to be a Burger King. After spending 5 hours on that water pump, we figured we both could go for a couple of those flame broiled burgers the King had to offer. I swear to Joe Pesci those cheeseburgers were the finest, most delicious things we ate during the entire trip. And really, I can’t recall a time that I enjoyed a cheeseburger more than sitting in that car at the gas station. If you could hear the noises we were making you’d swear something for more deviant was going on from two men sitting in a Miata with the windows fogged up. Once we finished our late night meal, we plotted a route, wiped down the windows, and got on to the road proper.

    We were not too far out when we came across the Fred Hartman Bridge. We found it to be particularly interesting. At the late hour and in the fog we came across it in, it looked incredible We had to stop and try to get some decent pictures or it and the car. Surprisingly there was still too much traffic on the highway to pull off what Zach wanted to do. He was hoping he could quickly put the car in the middle of the highway sideways, hop out, and snap a pic or two with the bridge surrounding the car. Every time he tried to position the car, we’d see headlights off in the distance and eventually he had driven far enough over the bridge that seeing what was coming became difficult. So, he just took what pics he could with the car on the shoulder.











    We were then on our way. Soon after that small stop Zach decided to pop a few CDs into the Bose multi-disc CD player. Well, well, well, wouldn’t you know it? The damn thing didn’t work. Didn’t matter if it was an official disc or burned MP3 disc. It would recognize that a disc had been inserted, but then wouldn’t play it, and soon shut off after doing nothing. At least the radio worked, and we would find good music as the trip went along. Oh well, for the next couple of hundred miles things were uneventful.

    Until, that is, Zach noticed the oil pressure gauge acting odd. Odd in that it was moving as if it was an actual gauge instead of the dummy gauge all ‘95 and later Miatas are equipped with. He noticed it flickering a bit for a couple of miles, then it suddenly dropped. So he did what anyone who knew the dangers of a sudden lack of oil pressure and cut the ignition off. We coasted to the side of the interstate and proceeded to look things over. We couldn’t find any signs of a loss of oil. The interstate had gotten quite busy by now, and no one was changing lanes or slowing down for us. So we got back into the car, fired it up and the gauge seemed to be indicated oil pressure again. A few more miles down the road and it started to fluctuate again. This time we made our way to an exit and stopped at a gas station to safely inspect just what the hell was going on. Thinking that it was a possibility that the gauge and sending unit had been swapped out for proper units we got to looking at things. Now, it had been raining a bit and the ground was still wet, so we needed something to lay down on to get a good look at the sensor. “No problem, I’ll be right back,” I told Zach. I walked into the gas station and looked around, I quickly noticed it looked like they were going through and stocking the shelves and what not. With my best bit of southern charm I asked the woman behind the counter if they had any boxes they would otherwise throw away and explained the situation. Two small boxes later and we were in business.

    Once the boxes were broken down they supplied enough room for one of us to lay down and stay dry. Zach climbed under the car and got a good look at the sensor. What he saw was unbelievable.

    See it?



    How about now?



    The plug for the sensor was still in the sensor and the wire was just dangling about. It was also just a standard on/off type switch, so no real gauge. We later learned that because of how Mazda wired the faux sending unit the gauge will still read if it’s unplugged. Regardless, that wasn’t going to do, so with the plug in hand I disassembled it and opened up the crimp just enough to re-crimp it to the wire with my trusty Leatherman multi-tool. While I was doing that Zach was under the car stripping the wire. I climbed under the car, re-crimped the wire then traded places with Zach so he could plug it back in. And with that temporary fix, the car gave us no more oil pressure gauge trouble. While under the car during this little repair, Zach noticed something else.

    Anything look out of place?



    How about a missing subframe bolt?



    They were missing on both sides. Come on, what more would we find missing or wrong with the car? Now, I don’t rightly remember what time exactly this little breakdown occurred. Pretty sure it was probably around 8-9am or so. See, we had still been up since the previous day. Both of us not really feeling all that tired and saying “I feel fine, I’m not tired at all, lets keep going.” What a stupid thing to say. We’d feel and pay for our lack of sleep later. Anyways, back onto the road we went.

    At around noon we had been in Mississippi for a bit and decided we’d like to grab a bite to eat and stopped at a Wendy’s for lunch.

    WHO DAT WOODY



    No clue, just something we found funny right before we pulled into the Wendy’s lot.

    Siting at Wendy’s







    While there, we both agreed that we had had it with the noise the rear coilovers were making. About 300 miles of that racket would be enough for anyone. But first, a quick stop in the Wal-Mart next to the Wendy’s. Those that know me know I collect Hot Wheels, and I had hoped to check out some Wal-Marts on the trip back. This would be the only chance I really got since we had lost so much time from staying in Galveston longer than anticipated. I spotted nothing of high note, but I was able to grab three Road Trippin’s (how appropriate) series cars I didn’t have. The NSX, Ford Galaxie, and the Highway Hauler. After that, we moved on to looking for a place to work on the rear suspension. We saw that there was a Winn-Dixie across the road and went over to investigate. To the right side of store itself was a small section of parking completely empty that was out of the way and sight. OK, so now what can be do about these noisy coil overs? Well, we had figured out while still in Galveston that the piston rod of the shocks were not tight against the tophats. We just didn’t know how much. Turned out to be easily at least a half inch of play/slop. No wonder they were clanking and clacking about so loudly. Out came the tools and we got to work, again, to try to sort out the problem.

    Of course, the car’s factory tire iron was useless as the lugs were a different size. But what tools we did have were almost useless too! I’m pretty sure the lugs were 13/16”, and all we had that was even close was a 17mm. Thankfully it held just tight to break them loose and tighten them back up when we were done. At first we tried to tighten things up with the coilovers still in the car. But that didn’t work as we couldn’t get a wrench on the nut under the tophat. So out they came, one side at a time. Remember, all we have to get the car in the air is the stock scissor jack.

    “Track Day, Bro!”





    We ended up having to unscrew the lower spring perch to compress the shocks enough to get them out of the car. As for how we got the ride height back to where it was? Marked the collars/bodies with a sharpie and eyeballed them. We only encountered one issue while “fixing” the rear coils. The driver’s side bolt for the shock body that goes into the lower control arm was a bolt and a nut. Which it should not have been. We figure that at some point the threads/nut that are a part of the lower control arm were damaged/had failed. So, the addition of the nut was required and the slot on the bottom of the control arm was opened up a bit to make slipping a wrench on possible.





    With both rear coilovers likely “fixed” I decided to clean up a bit and use the facilities of the Win-Dixie while Zach got to putting the tools away.

    A couple of days ago it was Zach’s birthday, and I had joked about getting him a cupcake while on this trip. Well, I wasn’t joking, I just wasn’t able to get it done on his birthday. With a quick stop at their bakery I found the perfect batch of cupcakes for a Miata owner, Disney princesses themed cupcakes. I then grabbed pack of candles on my way to the register. Once I was out of the store I jammed a few candles into a couple of cupcakes and went around the corner to give Zach his surprise cupcakes. Wasn’t much, was a bit late, but it was still worth a smile and some giggles. Plus, they were delicious, and who doesn’t like cupcakes?



    Zach also took the time to do a bit of quick reading on adjusting the bound/rebound settings on the shocks and set them to their mid points. They were sitting all over the place before he did so. Alright, so it was done, we could get back on the road. It was also looking just nice enough to put the top down. So wit everything crammed into the trunk we dropped the top and were able to enjoy some top down cruising in the car for the first time. As we were pulling out of the Winn-Dixie parking lot I looked to the right and said, “hey, that road looks interesting, lets try it out, see how the suspension does now.”

    It wasn’t anything too drastic, but just twisty enough to have a bit of fun and maybe get into a little trouble… which we did. To start off, it was amazing to not hear the suspension anymore and to actually feel it working instead. The possibility of trying some mountains roads on the way back was now muych more likely. OK, so after one quick little jaunt down the road was came to a T intersection and I suggested be turn around to head back where we were. One to make it easier to hop back on the interstate, and two, to enjoy that road one more time. Now, it was likely a 35MPH road, and we maybe hit 50MPH, maybe a bit more. And yes, we know the dangers of speeding and the such. But if you’re going to tell me you’ve never did a bit of spirited driving in a Miata, what are you doing owning one? We were about half way back down the road when I heard Zach say, “OH SHIT!” My first thought was something was wrong with the car, but upon looking in the side view mirror, I realized the problem, those familiar flashing blue lights. To say we were flipping out is an understatement. Here we were, in Mississippi, driving a car that wasn’t insured, registered, or yet to have the title transferred with just a handwritten bill of sale to prove ownership, and we were just having a bit too much fun it seemed. Zach turned off the road and pulled over ASAP. To say this officer was upset is putting it lightly, his we royally pissed off to say the least. I’m paraphrasing here, but the officer yelled something along the line of “STEP THE HELL OUT OF THE CAR! WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM, BRO?! (kid you not, he actually said bro) WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN FUCKING RUN UP AND DOWN MY ROAD LIKE THAT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD?!?! WHAT IS YOUR GODDAMN PROBLEM?!?!” To which Zach could only cautiously say, “I - I don’t have a problem, sir.” The officer then must have noticed our out of State plate. “YOU’RE NOT EVEN FROM AROUND HERE! YOU NEED TO GET YOUR ASS BACK TO NORTH CAROLINA!!!!” And with that, he amazingly, miraculously, and with stupendous luck, let us go. Talk about your close calls. I was sitting in the car the whole time this was happening starting to think what my options were if it went south (more so than it already was). I’m guessing that this officer was either just getting on duty or was just getting off, or just simply didn’t want to deal with the hassle of the paper work or what. Or maybe he just wanted to scare the ever living hell out of us, which he did in spades.

    If the officer had been cool headed enough to run the plate, we may have still been OK. The plate on the car at the time was the one off of Zach’s 1999 10th Anniversary NB. The color of the car isn’t listed on the title, and unless the officer knew MazdaSpeed Miatas were only made from ‘04-’05, he’d have to check the VIN to realize the plates were wrong and we were lacking insurance, etc. Zach had even thought to bring the registration for his 10AE/ Funnily enough, back when we took the car out for the first test drive, Zach got a call asking if he still needed the insurance that he had inquired about online. To which he said, “nah, I don’t think I’m going to be needing it.” Ha, oh well. Once we stopped for the day/night he would take care of the lack insurance.

    With that scare over and done with we slowly and cautiously made our way back to the interstate and got ourselves right on out of Mississippi and into Alabama.

    Oh look, a red convertible!



    Spotted this Jag E-Type being trailered to who knows where some where between Mississippi and Alabama. Absolutely beautiful cars.

    At around 5PM the effects of not having been asleep for some 32 hours were really starting to kick in, and kick in hard. We stopped at a gas station to check how the car was doing and started looking for a Hyatt to spend the night at.

    $1.89?!









    Zach said something about using Hyatt points or some such. I have no clue how that works, but OK, I didn’t care. Well, that didn’t happen. I was having trouble staying awake once we were back on the road and I told Zach I didn’t want to leave him on his own since he had already done most of the driving. I did not want to chance our trip coming to a bad end because we tried to push another 20 or 30 miles, or how ever far that Hyatt was. So, we found the nearest place there was, another Super 8. This time it was actually a hotel instead of a motel. Not great mind you, but it was OK.

    Yay. Super 8.





    Once we were checked in I went to the room immediately and within minutes I was out like a light and completely dead to the world. I was done at around 6:30PM, 34 or so hours of being awake, didn‘t even care about eating dinner. Zach had been up just a tad longer. He had woke up an hour or before I did the previous day and I believe he said he went to sleep at about 8:30PM that night and had a left over burger from Wendy’s and a bag of Chex Mix he picked up from one of the gas stops for dinner.

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  9. #5
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    The following morning, Saturday, Jan. 3rd, Zach found a new MSM rear sway bar for sale on MiataTurbo.net by a guy named Zach (I know, right?) in Auburn, AL, which was just off the interstate on our way back home. Nice, not even home yet and he’s buying fun bits for the car. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that didn’t I? The car didn’t have a rear sway bar, not even the mounts for one. We’re guessing that once FM removed the rear sway for the Superfour Challenge the car never had one re-installed and hadn’t had one since. Now we had something to do for the day outside of driving, gassing and eating. Both of us were pretty hungry after waking up so we took advantage of the free continental breakfast. Waffles, toast, OJ, milk, a couple of apples, it was all second rate, but did the job all the same.



    We then each got a much needed shower, got dressed in fresh clothes, grabbed our belongings and got packed and ready for the road.



    Then we noticed that the drains for the top were totally clogged since we were going to start the day with the top down. Damn. We didn’t have anything to clean them out with and were just thankful that the rain had not been heavy when it was coming down. So, a bunch of napkins later and most of the standing water in the drain pockets was sopped up. We also wiped down the backs of the seats and the roll bar padding while we were at it. It was nice to see that things were cleaning up a bit with just water and napkins. But it was still filthy, even though the napkins were pulling some nasty black and brown gunk off the surface. With that done, we got ourselves back on the road once again

    General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge… or known as the Dolly Parton Bridge by the locals.







    A couple of hours rolled by and it was time for a petrol stop and to look things over as we had done so every 100-200 miles or so since we got on the road. While filling the car up Zach struck up a conversation with an old fellow because of the car. He told us that had been in the Air Force quite some time ago. He talked about his days as a pilot, that he flew some of the early jets back in the 1960s, such as the Convair F106 Delta Dart. He made mention of a few others, but foolishly, neither of us can remember what they are. He was 87 years old and still had perfect 20/20 vision, that he was still able to hit targets from 100yards out when he went shooting, as that’s a hobby he still enjoys. Like I said, you never know who you’ll meet on trips like these. With the car fed we wanted to do the same and Zach had been craving some Arby’s. Which worked out as we had passed one on our way to the gas station.

    With the car and ourselves full, we got back to the interstate and on down the road. I was driving for a stint and I noticed a sign for the Hank Williams Museum. “Sure, why not?” I thought, it’ll be something to see. Well, we never got to it actually. Thing is, I thought I followed the sign, but made a wrong turn and ended up at what appeared to be an old train depot or the such.





    The place looked like it had seen better days. There was an old pool hall that was abandoned and falling apart, and looked like a great photo backdrop. Might as well make something out of not finding the museum.

    Taylors Outta Pocket



















    GA-ANA THEATRE



    Then Zach looked over at the four lanes of train tracks and noticed a walkway that went across them.



    Upon closer examination it looked as if we’d be able to get the car onto the walk away and in the middle of the four tracks. There was an old foot bridge that went up and over the tracks as well. So there was the makings for some really cool shots. I got in the car, drove it up onto the tracks, and centered it. Zach then ran over to the bridge to get some pics. Just to be safe, I stayed in the car just in case of the random chance that a train was to come through and we needed to get the car back off the tracks in a hurry. During this we also hoped that the police cruiser we had spotted patrolling the area didn’t come back while we were doing this. Because, really, we didn’t want to have to explain ourselves. We’d already gotten in a bit of trouble and royally pissed off a Mississippi cop, we didn’t want to also upset and annoy an Alabama cop. We got the shots and got the car off the tracks, and right as we were about to turn on to the road to head back to the interstate, we saw that same police cruiser. Well, we had decent timing I’d say.
























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  11. #6
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Aight, so now we were heading towards getting that new MSM rear sway bar. We were about an hour out from Auburn so Zach called… Zach, and agreed to meet him at a McDonalds just off the interstate. Being that Zach was also selling a 2.7 Hydra Zach thought he might be able to pick his brain to try to help get some answers about making changes and adjustments to help alleviate some small issues (such as the revs being slow to drop between shifts). Once we met up with Zach , Zach and Zach got to talking and we learn that Zach also owns a 2004 Velocity Red MSM, “get the hell out of here,” I thought. Zach then started asking about the Hydra and if Zach knew much about tuning it. It just so happened that tuning was Zach’s profession, that he worked at APR, the premier tuner for VW and Audi. Zach said he also had some stock endlinks he’d give Zach at the cost of shipping. Zach asked if we could just go back to his place and pick them up if he didn‘t live far from where we were, which he didn‘t, so we followed Zach back to his place.

    When we got to Zach’s he was cool with looking at things as they were and helping and pointing out where and how to change a few things to get some of the problems the car was having sorted. Such as a check box for fueling on deceleration, which helped to partially fix the hanging revs between shifts (the rest is likely to do with the mapping around idle). Zach also asked if the Hydra had any control over the A/C which led to him temporarily holding that one wire of the Hydra harness that was broken out of the harness back inplace with the A/C switched on while I watched and listened to the A/C compressor. And wouldn’t you know it, that wire was indeed associated with the A/C. The moment he touched the wire to where it should be connected the compressor clutch kicked in and the A/C started to blow cold. Well, hot damn, one more thing figured out to be fixed later. After getting a few tips and learning a few minor things about the Hydra ECU, Zach showed us his VR MSM. His MSM was being prepped for track use at the time. It had a built engine but was still running the stock MSM turbo but still making good power. When we asked him how much boost he had it pushing his response was, “everything.” I then asked him if he was beyond the turbot’s efficiency capabilities, and he was, double it actually. He said after 11psi it’s past it’s efficiency and he had it making 22psi, but that it was also tuned and running on E85, of course. With us gawking at and over Zach’s MSM, Zach took Zach for a ride in his MSM with the laptop connected to the Hydra so he could look at how it was running. This was mostly to get his opinion of the AFR numbers. I just sat and waited next to Zach’s MSM while they were gone for a couple of minutes. They were soon back and everything was looking good. Zach didn’t have to take time out of his night to bother with a couple of goons beyond selling Zach the sway bar, but he did and Zach tried to thank him by tossing $20 his way. But Zach wasn’t having it and said there was no need for that. He wasa nice guy and knew his shit to say the least. But yeah, how about that? We met a guy named Zach who also owned a 2004 Velocity Red MSM that worked at APR as a tuner. Pretty neat little experience you could say.

    With a new MSM rear sway bar stuffed into the trunk and a bit of new knowledge we headed back to the road.

    Passed through Atlanta











    After a few uneventful hours I was getting hungry and I had a craving of my own for some Bojangles. We had made it into Georgia by then and I knew there should be one somewhere right off the interstate, but there wasn’t. Yet, thanks to technology I googled the directions up on my phone and navigated us to some spicy chicken somewhere in the Atlanta area. If you don’t know what Bojangles is, it’s a mostly South East chain of fast food chicken. I personally enjoy and like it quite a bit, it’s a bit of home, you could say, for me. If you’re ever in an area with one, I suggest you try it out. I recommend the Chicken Supremes (basically chicken fingers), my personal favorite, with a side of dirty rice or their seasoned fries. If you like iced sweet tea you’ll like theirs, if you haven’t ever had sweet tea, well, give it a try (though sweet tea is usually too sweet for those unaccustomed to it). Their biscuits are serious business and are made fresh from scratch every day. Catch them when the food is fresh and I think you’ll have a good experience. Anyways, we got there a bit close to closing time so the food wasn’t everything it could be, but those biscuits were still on point. Realizing we were the only people inside the restaurant besides the employees, we thought we should be getting on so they could close on up.

    Sitting back in the car Zach said he was going to try to see if we could stay at a friend of Kyle’s and his that was on up the road a bit. A couple of texts and calls later and we were to be expected at their friend Steven’s, a fellow Z32 owner Kyle (a Z guy) had met on the Z boards. It’s nice when cars brings people together isn’t it? Before we got back on the interstate Zach stopped off at another gas station to fill back up.





    By now you may be thinking we were stopping for gas quite a bit, and we were. On average we were only seeing 21-23MPG from mostly highway driving, which was disappointing as a turbo Miata should easily get 30-33MPG from highway cruising. Just one more thing yet to be sorted out.

    With that done, Zach asked me to take over driving duties, which I had no problem doing as he had easily drove around 80%, or more, of the way so far (and it would be that way all the way home). Now, for the most part, when I was driving I was just scooting along, doing around 5 over the limit if anything. Eventually, along came what appeared to be a 1st gen Lexas ES 250 with a couple of fellows in it that was sitting a bit low. At one point they rolled up next to us and goosed it. Hmm, it looked like they wanted to play. OK, sure, I’m game, lets see what it’s got for us. I think nothing of it and figure staying in 5th will do just fine. The Lexas takes off and I followed suit. Fifth wasn’t the right choice as the Lexas got a small jump on us, but the MSM wasn’t having it and still started to pull on the old Lexas. By the time we got next to it, it let off, so I did as well, not wanting to do a ricer fly-by. OK, so lets not be lazy and use 5th again if they’re up for another run. Turns out they were, so in anticipation I blipped the throttle and shifted down to 4th, waiting for them to go again. It was a different story this time around. From the moment I rolled into the throttle it might as well have been over. The MSM began to instantly pull away from the old Lexas. And with that I felt I should quite while I was ahead and leave them be. I returned to my previous cruising pace and gave them the thumbs up and pointed them to be on their way. At the time we didn’t realize it, but we had a boost leak, quite a large one, and were only operating on 8 lbs of boost. We should have known, but we thought that maybe Dan had used the manual boost controller that was rigged up to reduce the boost levels while he was running the stock injectors. The overly loud air charge noise we heard should have been a big tip off, so should the decrease from 10 to 8 lbs from the first test drive with the car running well to getting on the road after the water pump replacement. We balked the reduction from 10 to 8 lbs to the weather just being so cold in Galveston compared to the rest of our trip. The discovery of the boost leak wouldn’t come until a day after we had gotten home.

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  13. #7
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Probably around a little past midnight we were in Spartanburg, SC and had arrived at Steven’s. Steven came out to meet us and welcome us inside his home. He had a lovely home that was well kept and there seemed to be a small party/gathering of those he knew already going on. Once introductions were over with I had a conversation with another Brother of the Beard about DC Comic’s current offereings. We both agreed that the New 52 had been disappointing and a bit of a clusterfuck. Zach had told me about Steven’s clean Z32 on the way to his home, so I had to get a look at it. Quite the incredible clean and well put together Z32 I‘d have to say.

    Such shine, much pretty











    Steven told me that it had been featured by a few online automotive media outlets as well, impressive. We soon all got settled into Steven’s couch in his living room and the entertainment for the rest of the night was one of Bill Burr’s specials on Netflix.



    Many laughs were had and we got to know Steven’s cat, Effy, I believe named for her being a F-ing cat and a bit of a trouble maker, as well a being a vocal girl. For a man that doesn’t like cats, Zach was something of a cat whisperer with Effy.







    I dozed off at one point and she was curious about my beard.



    She would later be quite inquisitive about me while I slept on Steven’s couch. Once we were up that morning Zach tried to bleed the cooling system again by getting the front of the car as high as possible since Steven had a floor jack. Sadly, we still couldn’t get the air out of the system, and it has still yet to be bled out. It’s been put off until the weather warms up a bit. We thanked Steven for his hospitality and putting us up for the night and were soon off to continue our journey.

    Soon







    Just turbo things






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  15. #8
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    We’re finally on our last day of our trip, Sunday, Jan. 4th, and we had been keeping an eye on the weather, Zach especially so, in hopes to make a side trip to US129, aka The Dragon. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t to be, but there was a back up plan! Highway 80 and 226A near Little Switzerland, NC. It looked like the weather was going to cooperate as well by the time we made it there. Still a bit chilly, but the sun would be out and the roads would have mostly dried. On our way there we stopped in Marion, NC for lunch at a Hardee’s Red Burrito. Weird, a Hardee’s that serves Tacos and the such along with their regular menu. I pigged out a bit and had a 1/4lb bacon burger with a side of chilli cheese fries and a hard shell taco. This was a bit of a mistake I would soon feel in the mountains. The weather really had started to turn nice. For the first time since we landed in Houston the sun was showing itself. We felt the warmth of the sun on our faces and it was so nice. Knowing we would soon be in the mountains on some very sweet roads we prepared for top down roadstering in slightly less than warm conditions.

    So close to the the mountains



    Finally, we were going to be able to enjoy the car, cautiously, on some roads fit for a sports car. We had to be careful as the tires that were on it, BF Goodwich KDWs sized 205/50/15, were of significant age. Three of them were dated back to 2005 with the other one dated to 2007. We knew they were a bit hard from aging and had felt the effects of it somewhat. Not only that, but they were showing the very early signs of dry rot and possible tread separation from the sidewall. It was incredibly frustrating considering the tires still had most of their tread life left. It was unfortunate, but it was what it was, so the spirited driving on 80 and 226A was kept light without being overly slow.

    NC80 Videos











    On the 2nd run back down 80 I started to feel the lunch I just had start to cause a bit of discomfort from being sloshed around. But I said nothing to Zach until we made our way back to the top and were on our way to 226A. I wanted him to enjoy the road without any extra worries. My stomach calmed down between getting from 80 to Little Switzerland and 226A. Zach asked me if I wanted to try 80 out, and I did, but I told him I’d feel more comfortable driving the road for the 1st time in my own car and in better conditions. So it’s definitely a place I plan to return to.

    At an overlook on 80 by the Eastern Continental Divide







    Then at the Black Mountains Overlook





    Nope, not doing what you think I’m doing (I totally am).

















    The views up there were just phenomenal. Absolutely stunning and awe inspiring. Little Switzerland looked absolutely delightful and from the stories Zach told me of what it was like during gatherings there I really hope to stay there for a weekend in the future. We then drove 226A and it was just as great as 80. While up on 226A, Zach asked me what I thought. And I’m sure he meant what I thought of the roads. But to be honest, and I didn’t mean it as a joke then nor now, but I said, “I think it’s good to be alive.” When he asked me what I thought the entirety of our trip up to that point ran through my mind. We had started it being anxious to see the car, having our mood flipped because of the car’s current condition and the headaches we suffered from it. But we had persevered, got the car running well and had had an amazing road trip that only continued to get better as it went on. There we were, up in the mountains of NC, enjoying some roads seemingly perfect and meant for some good driving. And the scenery surrounding them was just breath taking. I can only imagine what it would be like to own and live in one of the houses wrapped by the roads as a car guy/gal. All that added up to my thought of it being nice to be alive. Oh, and yeah, I also thought the roads were fan-fucking-tastic.

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  17. #9
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    NC226A Video



    While stopped at the Little Switzerland resort













    Leaving the mountains as the sun set.



    Having enjoyed some mountain roads as much as the old tires would allow us we made our way back to the interstate via the Blue Ridge Parkway to continue towards home.

    Wild Acres Tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway



    Along I-40 in Greensboro Zach noticed a sign for Steak ’n Shake and commented on how he’d always wondered how it was. Having had it myself I knew we had to stop there for dinner for some of their delicious steak burgers. But right before we did, we thought to walk the lot and peak into the windows of the Ferrari/Maserati/Porsche dealership of Greensboro. So many sweet cars there, and some odd balls too. Like an old 928 sitting in the back of the lot and a Cayenne sitting on one of it’s wheels without a tire. There was also a couple of 308s on the lot as well, one out back and one in the showroom. Saw a ZR1 on the back lot as well. We tried to get some pics of what we liked or thought was interesting, but at the hour we were there there just wasn’t enough light at all.


























    We, of course, played the which-one-would-you-take game. Making a single decision out of all those cars was pretty tough, and neither of us could really settle on any one. There were Astons, Ferraris, Porsches Maseratis, some Audis, and even a couple of Lamborghinis. We both agreed that one Aston or the other wouldn’t make a difference, they’re all more or less the same car and would be fantastic to stare at if not drive. You could say the same about the Porsches, but we’d both have one of the more aggressive 911s with a stick. I can only imagine that for that 308 to be in the showroom it must be one of the finer examples. I said I’d probably have it over the rest of the cars that were there, even that sexy red 458 Italia convertible that was in the showroom. It’s old, has less power, doesn’t handles as well and is lacking in performance when compared to just about everything else that was there. But as long as it stayed in one piece, it looked more fun to me. We couldn’t spend the whole night staring at cars (well, we could have, because we’re idiots like that) we had no chance of owning unless we hit the lottery. Time for steak burgers and shakes!

    I knew what I was having considering I had been to Steak N Shake plenty of times before. I’m a big fan of eggs on my burgers and try to have them made at any place that serves eggs and burgers. Thankfully I don’t have to explain this to the people at Steak ’n Shake as they have the Royale on their menu. I also went for a shake, a strawberry/vanilla half and half with cookie dough bits.

    Step 1, Get Shake.



    Step 2, Enoy Shake!



    It was yummy. Zach, meanwhile, took a bit of time to make his choice but ended up going for the Grilled Portobello & Swiss, almost skipping out on getting a shake the silly bastard. After a bit of convincing he went for a shake and got a vanilla with chocolate & peanut butter cup bits to go. This would be our last stop for food, or anything for that matter, before returning home.

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  19. #10
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    It had been a long 6 days, 1,300 or so miles according to the car’s odometer, but we were finally home, more or less. Before either of us got home we stopped off at our friend Kyle’s home to show him the car as Zach had been sending him texts about the car here and there during the entire trip. This was also where the $1,500 MSM was, and still at, that was picked up a couple of days before we left NC. It was a bit of trading info really. We showed Kyle Zach’s new hotness while he showed us just how bad the cheap MSM was. Before heading out we thought that while the two cars started life the same that they were on completely opposite ends of the spectrum now. But it didn’t turn out like that as the old FM car wasn’t as cherry as we anticipated it to be, but it was still worlds better than what Kyle had been tearing apart while we were gone. I mean, it did get us 1,300 miles across the country, it got us home, and in between all that it was a source of fun and adventure. You ever seen one of Top Gear’s challenge car episodes? That even though Jeremy, Richard and James had cars that weren’t all that great, they had come to love them by journey’s end anyways? Looking back, I think that’s what happened on this trip. Not that we started out with a turd, it’s still a great car even with all the issues/problems, but there’s a particular appreciation for a vehicle that you have an experience with like the road trip we had with this one. Alright, well, I was obviously pooped, as while Zach and Kyle went out to give Kyle a quick ride in the car, I fell a sleep sitting on Kyle’s shop couch waiting for them to return. Once they returned I asked Zach to take me home. I was ready to sleep in my own bed again now that I had missed it greatly.

    In comparison to the trip we just made, driving to my home in Kinston, no more than half an hour away, was a cake walk. But, Zach too, was at the end of his wick, so by the time we made it to my place he asked if staying the night would be OK. Like I was going to tell him, “sorry, man, you can’t stay here, get the hell back to Goldsboro!” I cleared the bed in the spare room, where I keep all the stock and extra parts from my Miata, Betty, and he had a place to comfortably sleep. Besides finally getting back into my own bed, it was nice to see my cat, Bo, again. He may have a missed me a bit while I was gone and was happy when I first walked in the door. So, the story is almost over and there’s just the bit of what happened the next day.

    I’d missed my girl, Betty



    Doesn’t look it, but she needed a wash.









    Before heading home himself, Zach hung around for a bit and we first got to work pulling the old FM decals off the exterior of the car. Nothing against FM, but we felt the car would look better without them. We then ended up putting the car on my lift to get a much better look at the underside and that led to doing a bit of minor resto work. While on the lift was saw that the exhaust had “Elvis” written on it. Which meant it was very likely on FM’s first car they took to Car & Driver’s tuner challenge in 2003, Elvis, interesting. Though we also discovered that while some fabrication was done on one of the braces to give said exhaust more clearance, it was still sitting on one of the braces and rubbing up against the cage/frame for the differential. One more item on the list of things to address at a later date. We also wanted to clean the intercooler up a bit. Again, a lack of logo would look better in our eyes, so out came the intercooler. The inlets/outlets were taped off and it went into my sandblaster. After turning down the working pressure of the blaster to help keep from bending the fins it was quickly and easily cleaned up. Once it was out I got to straightening up any fins that had still managed to get out of whack or were previously bent out of shape. The finished result was pretty slick and really cleaned up the front of the car. We also tossed the aluminum under tray attaching the intercooler and bumper into the blaster just to clean it up. After that, we cleaned up shop and went back up to my house. We chatted for a bit, Zach got packed to head home, and grabbed a beverage for the road. And with that, he was gone and soon home himself.









    Before



    After





    So fresh and so clean.

    Bit of gunk in the intercooler hoses





    Likely from the boost leak that was discovered later.

    Back on the ground, intercooler back in



















    Zach would send me a message the next day to tell me that he and Kyle discovered a boost leak after seeing only 3psi on the gauge while out on a drive. Upon investigation, the charge pipe leading from the turbo to the intercooler was loose on the turbo compressor outlet. Once they got it back on and aligned and tightened as best they could manage the car transformed. It was now making 15 lbs of boost! That hose must have been loose for some time, well before Zach and I ever got to Galveston, TX. Sadly, another problem was discovered, now the clutch was slipping from the extra power of all that boost. There’s hope that after adjusting the clutch, it will be fine, but we’re all thinking no adjustment is going to solve the problem. The car is currently at Zach’s home and he’s starting to work out what gets he’s going to and needs to be fixed/restored/replaced/changed/etc.

    So, there you have it. Hopefully you enjoyed this story and it was a bit of decent entertainment for you.

    TL;DR: A couple of guys flew to Texas to buy a car and drive it back to NC. Things didn’t go as planned, but after 3 days the car was brought back to life and was a vehicle of adventure the following 3 days.


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  21. #11
    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    That's it, that's basically everything. Feel free to post.

  22. #12
    3,000 rpm - starting to feel the power JLBMX5's Avatar
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    Wow thats a long as read but a good one. Some day im sure i will get to see this car in person.

  23. #13
    Admin / Pit Boss / Miataholic Phatmiata's Avatar
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    wow this is a great and funny read!!


    Side note, does your buddy Zach hunt ducks or just shoot birds at you?

  24. #14
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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    Great write up, you should submit it to a few magazines.



    Bill S.
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    Instead of being part of the problem, why not be a part of a successful solution.

  25. #15
    2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here! Golden Stallion's Avatar
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    Saw that car earlier at cars and coffee. It looked really nice but had no idea it had that low of miles and had so much history. Great story also with getting it back here and curious to see if he does anything else with car. funny thing you mention that blown headgasket msm. I saw that thing once it was posted before buying my new shell and debated on buying it but by the sounds of it, I was better off not getting it.

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