Subaru Enthusiasts Car Club of the Sierras - View Single Post

sperry · 2012-12-12, 10:28 AM

Wow, that paint is crazy bad!

But at least the color matches. Mine's touched up with non-matching plain flat white over the factory paint.

Here's the list of everything I've had to do on my Miata since I got it (not including the mods, just maintenance stuff):

Timing belt
Water pump
Oil pump
Oil cooler
CAS o-ring
Valve cover seals
Rear diff seals
Main and cam seals
HLAs replaced
Lubricated window cranks
Clutch slave cylinder
Hawk HP+ brake pads
Motor Rebuild:
- planed the deck
- bored cylinders +0.50mm
- reground crank
- Manly forged H-beam rods
- new OEM pistons/rings
- blueprinted/balanced
- new dash gauge temp sensor
- new OEM head-gasket, etc.
- new OEM bearings
M-Tuned coolant re-route (that's sort of a mod)
Mazdaspeed competition motor mounts
New Exedy Light Flywheel & Stage 1 Clutch & Pressure Plate
Wheel bearings & extended lugs

Does your car have the HLA tick? Mine was really pretty bad. I guess it's actually more of an annoyance than a problem, but since Cory was pulling the top of the motor apart anyway to do seals and the buckets are like $7/ea I figured why not. After the first half of that list, I overheated the motor at RFR and killed a rod bearing and decided to rebuild the motor over picking up a used one. All that work ended up costing about what I paid for the car initially.

But, man does that motor sing now... sure, it still makes no power, but the throttle response is amazing. Or that's just me coming from the turbo lag of a WRX after all those years.

Anyway, double check your motor mounts for sure... they shear in half pretty much once a year if you're racing. I signed up for the Mazda Motorsports Development program... you just submit 2 race results per season for the Miata (autocross counts!), and they give you tons of parts at near-cost. So I was able to get the heavy duty competition motor mounts for like half what they sell for in the wild. When Bob and I pulled the motor, we found the mounts literally torn in two... the only thing keeping my motor in the car was the gearbox and the motor mount cups.

That alone might be the reason my motor seems so much peppier since the rebuild... it's just not slopping around under the hood.

Also, if you need to do the CAS o-ring... (I think the 1.6 and 1.8 use the same gasket)... I've got a handful of the good viton rings. I had to buy a minimum order and used 1 of the 5, so if you want one, LMK. They commonly cause leaks down the back of the head/motor.

2012-12-12, 10:28 AM	#6
sperry The Doink Real Name: Scott Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 20,335 Car: '09 OBXT, '02 WRX, '96 Miata Class: PDX/TT-6 The way out is through	Wow, that paint is crazy bad! But at least the color matches. Mine's touched up with non-matching plain flat white over the factory paint. Here's the list of everything I've had to do on my Miata since I got it (not including the mods, just maintenance stuff): Timing belt Water pump Oil pump Oil cooler CAS o-ring Valve cover seals Rear diff seals Main and cam seals HLAs replaced Lubricated window cranks Clutch slave cylinder Hawk HP+ brake pads Motor Rebuild: - planed the deck - bored cylinders +0.50mm - reground crank - Manly forged H-beam rods - new OEM pistons/rings - blueprinted/balanced - new dash gauge temp sensor - new OEM head-gasket, etc. - new OEM bearings M-Tuned coolant re-route (that's sort of a mod) Mazdaspeed competition motor mounts New Exedy Light Flywheel & Stage 1 Clutch & Pressure Plate Wheel bearings & extended lugs Does your car have the HLA tick? Mine was really pretty bad. I guess it's actually more of an annoyance than a problem, but since Cory was pulling the top of the motor apart anyway to do seals and the buckets are like $7/ea I figured why not. After the first half of that list, I overheated the motor at RFR and killed a rod bearing and decided to rebuild the motor over picking up a used one. All that work ended up costing about what I paid for the car initially. But, man does that motor sing now... sure, it still makes no power, but the throttle response is amazing. Or that's just me coming from the turbo lag of a WRX after all those years. Anyway, double check your motor mounts for sure... they shear in half pretty much once a year if you're racing. I signed up for the Mazda Motorsports Development program... you just submit 2 race results per season for the Miata (autocross counts!), and they give you tons of parts at near-cost. So I was able to get the heavy duty competition motor mounts for like half what they sell for in the wild. When Bob and I pulled the motor, we found the mounts literally torn in two... the only thing keeping my motor in the car was the gearbox and the motor mount cups. That alone might be the reason my motor seems so much peppier since the rebuild... it's just not slopping around under the hood. Also, if you need to do the CAS o-ring... (I think the 1.6 and 1.8 use the same gasket)... I've got a handful of the good viton rings. I had to buy a minimum order and used 1 of the 5, so if you want one, LMK. They commonly cause leaks down the back of the head/motor. __________________ Is you is, or is you ain't, my con-stit-u-ints?