22silver

[22Silver]

So, after watching my old man go through several NA's, including a 6, 8, and a 1.8L clubman, and then an NC, I figured I'd go with him to South Australia to drive his second NC back to Melbourne with him, now that I have my license. It's a nice, clean black NC2, less than 15,000 on the clock and beautiful to drive. I'd been driving a 120'000km old Hyundai Getz, so you can only imagine the grin on my face as I blasted out of South Australia.

Less than a month later I had my own, a Sunlight Silver NB8A, 1998, just passed the 100,000km service, bone stock, except for an aftermarket clutch (original owner wanted to charge it, thought the clutch might shred, ended up buying an SE instead because he realized it wasn't like his Torana, and would need some ECU, tuning, and various other things he couldn't do in his garage at home).

Bit scratched, bent antenna, loads of plastic clips missing, plenty of little stone marks, big cigarette burn in the seat, seats ripped down the bottom, where it rubs against some plastic, but mechanically sound, no weird rattles, gears felt good, had oodles of power compared to my sisters getz, and most importantly, RWD!

First thing I did was clean it, and colour the bright yellow foam poking through the black seat holes with some dark ink. Worked a treat, for now.
The next thing I did was enjoy it for 3 months and 4000km.

Then she overheated. I thought it was a head gasket, but it turned out to be a leak in a hose that only leaked under decent pressure, and was hidden under the engine (must have been running to the oil cooler or whatever that white can is). Let me tell you, this hose is the biggest pain in the ass to replace, we almost had to take of the intake manifold to get to it. So, as of now it has a temporary fix (tranny coolant hose), but as soon as I get a new radiator, a full new set of mazda coolant and heater system hoses will be going on, along with a new radiator (most likely ASI)

I also purchased an aftermarket timing wheel off Okibi today, so I'll be bumping her up to something like 14deg BTDC, or maybe I'll just push it till it juuust pings on 91, drop it back 1deg and run 95. I also have a spare air intake pipe to hack away at, and a cone filter. Going to try and engineer a hot side, heat shielded cold air intake, and find a way to get a bit more cool air to it than stock.

In the future I'll upgrade the exhaust system + headers, then shocks + springs + possibly sways, then wider 15inch wheels + tyres and either flares or simply rolling the guards as suited. Once the new exhaust system is in, I'll probably get an adaptronic ECU and/or a tune, but I'm a little uneducated in this aspect. No plans to ever turbo charge or super charge this particular mx5.

Pics to come!

[Kev05]

Welcome again...about time you started a thread.

[22Silver]

21'st birthday today. One of the things I got was a sweet socket set, so I figured me and my old man could install my adjustable timing wheel.
Wasn't too hard, but I bent a bolt in the process, so I ended up wasting 40 minutes buying a new one. $4.50
Took the intake tube off, loosened the 4 bolts on the crank pulley, then took the alternator and power steering+A/C belts off. Marked the pulley with whiteout so I could see it, and then put it all back together. 5X racing wheel (I believe, it's neon green) didn't fit because of a few small burrs on the inside hole, so I sanded it gently until it juuuust fit.

Reassembled and found my first guess was around about 14deg now. Tightened it all up and took my old man for a spin. No apparent pinging! Definataly feels different, quite subtle though. That being said I feel smoother off the mark, with a little more gusto up the revs, but it could be a placebo. I'll dyno everything one day when I've done enough for it to be worthwhile.

Also, I got given some MX-5 floor mats, from mania, so they're hiding my terribly worn floor

[PaulF]

Happy birthday mate.

[KevGoat]

Happy Birthday!!

[Okibi]

Happy Birthday!

[fastfreddygassit]

No plans to ever turbo charge or super charge this particular mx5.

Famous last words?
I think a few people here have said that................

Pics to come!

hanging to see the pics

belated HB as well

[22Silver]

Forgot about this!

Done a whole lot of stuff since I last posted here. Car hit 120,000kms and blew a radiator hose!

Replaced:
radiator hoses
heater hoses
radiator + coolant
oil filter
air filter
fuel filter
engine oil
diff oil
tranny oil
rocker cover gasket
muffler (with mazdaspeed muffler for looks
springs (Mazdaspeed Eibachs, a touch lower)
one of my lower control arms... (learned a lesson in using a torque bar when using a rattle gun...)
Washed everything in the engine bay, probably 2-3kg of dirty grease and muddy junk in there. Filled 3 buckets between the underbody, wheel arches and engine bay.
Put in Sparco sprint Jrs, took them out and sold them, put stockies back in
Replaced shift boots, and the vinyl/leather gaiter
Plastidipped my shockingly chipped mirrors and windscreen surround
Put some new wheels (15x6.5, 5.4kgs, bright orange) on.
New rubber! Kumho KU31
Progressing from Stalling - crashing - fixing - driving without stalling/crashing - driving smoothly. Next step: driving well! Time for an advanced driving course, then I'll join a club and do a few laps.

Plans for the future:
Fit the rest of the SE exhaust
Intake
Powdercoat orange wheels black, (when I get sick of the orange!)
Polish headlights, buff windscreen, buff paint (if it isn't too thin already!)
stiffening the chassis
replacing my absolutely mangled soft top
New head unit, hopefully something very basic, with aux-in, fm/am radio, bluetooth (maybe) and a black plastic OEM looking front, with rounded corners to match the rest of the HVAC and radio controls.
take it to the previous owners house for a beer and let him see what I've done, and check out his SP

[hks_kansei]

re: timing.

I'd recommend investing in a timing light, should only cost about $50-$60

It just means you can then tell what the timing actually is at (assuming the NB has timing marks? never looked on mine since I can't change it anyway)

[22Silver]

I eventually asked my old man, and he had one in his shed!

[TTT]

Put in Sparco sprint Jrs, took them out and sold them, put stockies back in

what happened?

[22Silver]

The fabric drove me to insanity- it grabbed any hair present. And I have hair that's like, over a foot long, so every time I got out there would be 2 or 3 hairs just stuck there. Vacuum didn't get them up, had to pull them off individually. Just could not keep them clean.

Also, not enough lumbar support, and the position was too upright for my taste, couldn't get my feet far enough away from the pedals, else my arms were fully stretched out.

Probably could have made it work with some washers for tilt, and some kind of velcro on lumbar cushion, but I just decided "been there, done that, got the T-shirt" and I'm going to try another set of seats when finances allow, something with a little more "daily driver" usability. (I spend over an hour in my car, every day, with out fail, sometimes up to 3 hours on weekends)

[KevGoat]

The fabric drove me to insanity- it grabbed any hair present. And I have hair that's like, over a foot long, so every time I got out there would be 2 or 3 hairs just stuck there.

You have no idea how much I'd like to have that problem

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk

[22Silver]

Finally made the SE exhaust system fit. Sounds great!
Put about 1kg of sound deadning in the doors.. Speakers are now audible over roadnoise!

[22Silver]

Engine is out of the car, getting new bearings, rings, pistons, seals.
Grinding the Journals, cam regrind, flywheel is out getting lightened today, various other things.