Progression of the Miata thread

[HKBR]

Wow. nice clean miata. I've never been one before w/ flames but they seem to fit in on yours. Have you ever thought of taking the spoiler off? It *might* complement the hardtop better.

I dropped my spare fly wheel off today at JB's to have it lightened. I'm looking forward to having it installed.

On another note, the hard top came off today. My classes ended early so I decided to go for a little drive with the top down. Ended up driving out to 17 mile pub, down gillespie, stopped at becher bay, then took Kangaroo road back to Sooke road. But man, I hadn't really put the new suspension to a test yet until today, and man, you should have seen the smile on my face. I was in car bliss.

Figured I might as well post some pictures up - first topless pics of 2007

[IslandMx3]

im loving the headlights. question though, how do they not leak?

Originally posted by IslandMx3
im loving the headlights. question though, how do they not leak?

Who said anything about them not leaking

Originally posted by aspect
I know it's a nitpicky detail but I think the side profile would flow a bit better if your exhaust pointed straight back instead of down a bit. Yes, that's the first time I've considered the angle of one's muffler tip as it relates to the rest of the car.

I completely agree with you on that one. The actual exhaust is fantastic. It has a good deep sound, is made of stainless steel with perfect welds, and it mounted perfectly. But the rear tip is just hideous beyond words. Several people with the same exhaust have described it as a coffee can.

Anyways, thanks for the comments guys

Question: The bolts holding my valve cover down keep backing out. Any suggestions on what I should use to keep them in (obviously something that isn't permanent).

[m1ataman]

I can't imagine why they're backing out Dustin but maybe it's because they're not torqued evenly. I have a 3/8 drive inch pound torque wrench you can borrow if you'd like.

[4g914d]

You could always try a little Loctite Threadlocker Blue on the threads

Thanks. I'll try some of that lock tight.

In other news, thanks to Cornel for giving me his old transmission


And I picked up my lightened flywheel from JB's today. They did a wicked job.

How the flywheel looked before (Forgot to take a pic of the actual fly wheel, but it looked exactly like this one:



And now the lightened, machined and balanced one:
Back with the weight ring removed:




And the front:


The weight was reduced from 19 lbs to 15. I should definitely notice a difference in that!

Well I've been having this strange issue with the miata the past few years, and I think I just figured it out. When driving the car from a cold start, when the vehicle is finally getting warm, it sometimes gurgles a bunch on me and loses power. Normally if I revved it high it will somewhat fix itself, and the thing becomes drivable again. However, I finally got a check engine light on it when my wife was driving, and apparently it lasted for a few minutes.

So I opened up the diagnostic box, jumpered the ground and ten connect and looked to see what code I got. Turns out my engine coolant sensor that feeds the computer was hosed. My temperature gauge portion works perfectly, so of course I thought the whole thing was fine. I was somewhat surprised to find out I had two different sensors. Anyways research has shown me that a screwed sensor does everything my car was doing, plus it gives horrible fuel mileage because the computer thinks the car is still cold, which I have been having for ages.

We'll see over the next what my mileage is like, but I'm pretty confident the issue has been resolved

Car's running good so far. And now, it sounds even better! For the past 4 years, I've been running a set of 6.5" Blaupunkt Overdrive component speakers. A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a new set of 5.25 SAS Bazooka S525 Euphoria components on ebay. Now, I have always had a special place in my heart for SAS, and I lusted over their components big time when they first came out, but the price tag kept them out of my reach. So just seeing these on ebay, and a brand new set at that got me all excited.

Anyways, I got an INSANE deal on them. And yah, I just finished installing them and oh my god they sound amazing. Incredible even. The fullness of the music is just... unbelievable. They are also a very interesting design (the tweeters anyways). So on to the pics!

Here's a picture of the box and the contents still undisturbed.


Like I said, the tweeters use a very different set up from what I've experienced. They install in three parts - the plastic mount, a circuit board with the speaker wires soddered onto it, and the tweeters. The tweeter just spins onto the plastic mount, and it makes contact with the circuit board. Really cool.

The old speakers:

And the new

Originally posted by aspect
Hey dustin, how much was that flywheel lightening?

$150 plus tax. They did a great job of it too. I hope to have it installed in a couple of weeks and I'll post what kind of difference it made.

[Demosthenes X]

Dustin, I'm not sure if I've said this before (I think I may have), but I love your car. The colour, the mods, and now the stereo? This is why I want a Miata...

Damn you.

Originally posted by Demosthenes X
Dustin, I'm not sure if I've said this before (I think I may have), but I love your car. The colour, the mods, and now the stereo? This is why I want a Miata...

Damn you.

Thanks man It's always nice to get some positive feedback. You should do something about wanting a miata and buy one

[Demosthenes X]

LOL... I'm away at Uni till May, but that hasn't stopped me looking. I'm gonna be in the market when I do get home, and right now the Miata's near the top of my list.

Top-down motoring is just too tempting...

Originally posted by aspect
Do it!

Now that is a crazy hot miata. I had those identical turn signal intakes and Ratsback racing CF air dam.

[RZ350]

Those flares are looooooovely
I didn't really have a thing for the looks of 1st gen miata's until I saw this pic, hot!

Clutch arrived today. To be installed by $$$$$$$$s on April 4th. I'm excited

Clutch and flywheel are installed and it drives fantastic. However I think my new throwout bearing or pilot bearing has issues, because I'm getting some noise every once in a while when the clutch is depressed.

Now onto the main reason for this post. My photography skills really suck. I would like to have some killer photo's of the miata, so I'm hoping someone on here who is good at photography will want to do a photoshoot

[Demosthenes X]

PM metal.

It was such a beautiful today day, I just had to go out and take some pictures. A few of them turned out really well.

Installed stainless heater vent rings and a OBX short height shifter. I'm extremely happy with both. The stainless rings go well with my chrome eye vents, and the shifter shifts amazing. It came with a crazy heavy knob.

[pheonix165]

too clean, needs some time at the track

Originally posted by pheonix165
too clean, needs some time at the track

I'm hoping to get it out for some auto cross this year. It's just a matter of getting a helmet and then scheduling a weekend off.

[pheonix165]

you can barrow mine if need be