Two 1990 Miatas - STS Autocross, CSP Hillclimb, PR Rallycross

So I have a pretty decent rust-free low mile STS autocross Miata. And I have a beat up bugeye Impreza wagon. One of those will rust at the mere sight of salt, and the other is utterly boring to drive in the snow because it can do anything. The solution is...buy a winter/rallycross Miata. I drove Miatas year-round as an only vehicle for four years and it was fun so...here we go again. Found one on craigslist. $1900. "a few dents" and "runs good". Yeah, sure. But it's the same color as mine that I have kinda fallen in love with. It was sent to auction after 'overheating' because the cursed water plug failed. 180k miles. Exhaust leak that alternates between 'loud' and 'whistling like a banshee' depending on throttle position. Rust at all four corners. First cold start of the day, it dies instantly. Thereafter it idles at 2000rpm until 'warmed up' and then bounces between 1700 and 2000. The top is present but crappy. The interior is pretty beat up with fake wood stuff everywhere. No tombstone / no gauge hood (both pricey). Pass window doesn't go. Battery dead as a doornail. Coolant appears to be only coolant and rust, oil appears to be only oil. So naturally I bought it. My buddy picks me up to go retrieve it on a Saturday morning and I find out that the reason some guy in NJ giving away a great pile of Miata parts never got back to me last week is because said buddy already grabbed the parts. So on one hand he has the free header blanket I was aiming for, on the other hand I now have access to all the other parts that came in the package and I didn't have to enter the state of New Jersey. Settled on $1200 for the car. Seller had replaced water plug and let it idle for 2 hours and called it 'runs good'. I drove it an hour and a half home. It has about as much thrust in 4th gear as the healthy car with bolt-ons does in 5th. Oof. So I got it home, gave it a good wash.

 A shame about all the wrinkles. Behind the driver door is particularly bad - rust, old bondo, 4-5 hard creases. It'll never be a $3000 car again.

Hacked off the exhaust at the cat. Replaced with 54k mile take-off sitting around from the race car. Now it's quiet. On the way home cooling was wacky - at high RPM all was well. At low RPM, like idle or even cruising at 40 mph in 5th gear the temp gauge would climb. Fans on didn't help. Cranking the heat would be warm for a little...then cool quickly. Hmm. I suspected failing water pump not moving coolant at low RPM. Got home and parked it. Tightened hose clamp at t-stat housing because of a pinhole leak. Next morning upper rad hose is sucked shut. Ok, bad radiator cap so it was pushing coolant to the expansion tank but then sucking air in from the pinhole (and now creating vacuum). Put a new cap on and it seems to be good. Water pump still might be making a racket but I can't really tell over the E36 M3ty idle screaming at me. Picked up the following that were busted or missing from the car from friend-with-parts and the-internet, for a grand total of $115: gauge pod hood, center console, tombstone, headlight motor, T-stat housing, Racing Beat intake + K&N filter, Windshield/hood cowl thingy, and a whole bunch of little crap. Have good rally-X tires already (but from 2009, not good in the wet on the street but god-dayum do they move gravel/dirt well) and I picked up a set of true hollow spokes with 1-season general altimax arctic tires for $150 so I do not die in a light drizzle before I've had my morning coffee. So that's where it sits now. Clean, rusty, with a pile of interior parts to put on so it's pleasant to commute in for 4 months. Need to swap some parts with the good car to nail down the idle issue. Water pump on hand if needed, if not the good car needs a TB job over winter anyway. And the reason I bothered to make a thread for 'just another rusty miata' - I will either need to sell this in spring, or stash it in the hard-to-reach storage half of the garage and throw a turbo on it. Because why the hell not. Either just for fun or for 2016 challenge. I have not owned, much less built, a turbo car before, and I would need to do this on the cheap by looking for parts starting now. So. I can find a lot of advice on which $$$ turbo kits work, and lots of people who homebrew them but very little info or writeups on doing it the ghetto way. Where to start? Are any of the chinese/ebay turbos reliable enough to use? Is finding a turbo mazda in the junkyard my best bet? Can this even be done for ~$1000 if I don't already have a pile of turbo parts sitting on the shelf?

Went for a spirited 40 minute drive last night, cooling was good, none of the old hoses blew apart at high RPM, and it pulls about like it should from 4500 to redline. A bit sluggish below that. Haven't checked timing yet since it doesn't idle predictably. Once fully warm, it will occasionally settle into the correct idle when in neutral but most times it is high or hunting. Swapping the ECU tonight...it's the least likely source of the problem but it is the easiest to rule out.

It carried me to work this morning. Wipers work. Total money actually applied to the car at this point is $1354.95. Car, wheels/tires, radiator cap. I think I can sell enough parts to keep the number about there for my own budget but I need to read up more on the specifics of $201x accounting.

Got inspection stickers today.

Returned my $80 Hella 7" H4 conversion kit that I have bought 3 times previously and am giving this one a shot based on a recommendation in the truck-hauler-from-maine-to-florida thread (thanks!): http://www.ebay.com/itm/7-H6024-6014-H4-EURO-CONVERSION-HEADLIGHTS-KIT-/261356123177 Seems silly to return + repurchase for a net savings of $29.51 but I said I was gonna do this on a budget so there you have it. I cannot stand stock Miata lights at night.

And someone is sending me an IACV for the cost of shipping, much appreciated.

Pinhole leak at the t-stat housing returned, I guess I will pony up and actually install the new top hose and thermostat. Should probably do that before the first event on Nov. 21 but I need to empty the garage out in the meantime to put a clutch in my wife's Vibe, apparently 174k miles is the end of the line for the stock unit. First clutch I've killed.

I forgot I had thrown a battery in it, a $19.99 Wal-Mart Lawn Tractor edition plus a pair of terminals I had laying around from a lightweight battery I killed last year. It was being held in by the boxes of parts in the trunk until now, turns out the factory hold down still fits. So does the factory (? It was in there but I have had 4 Miatas and none had it) vent tube setup. Sweet.

 Brings the total up to $1375. Sold the Daisies that came on the car for a whopping $20, back down to $1355...right? At this point I am commuting in it daily and waiting for something else to break. $100 Bilsteins are in fact still available, I just need to find time to go retrieve them. That may push me over the edge towards pursuing $2016 because I can revalve them for essentially free later on, add a set of $50 ebay coilover perches and used springs and be set for autocross suspension. Would leave me about $500 after some more selling off to try to do something about power. I mean, a 50 shot of nitrous will get a stock 1.6 into the 15's in the quarter mile right?

Got the IACV (the one on the intake manifold) and installed it. Fired it up. Instead of idling at 2100 rpm it died instantly and needed throttle to stay running. WTF? Ohhhhh....I forgot I still had diagnostic terminals jumped since that had no affect with the high idle. Pulled that cable back out and it idled normally, warmed up and settled at 850rpm. Yay. Now I can set timing, and the thing drives like a real car now.

Still have that small coolant leak at the upper hose and I think some seepage from the t-stat housing.

$100 R-pack bilsteins / stock springs / top hats

or

$300 KYB AGX adjustables / FM springs / FM rear aluminum top hats

Decisions, decisions. Sure would have more fun on the street with the latter. RallyX, not so much.

So, updates to the most boring 'project' thread.

In preparation for the first rallycross this weekend, I set out to do a handful of little things. My daughter was sick so this happened at 8pm Friday. Here's the list:

-Need new brake pads.

Right front caliper is seized. Reassemble with old pads, one of which is pretty much just backing plate. It's OK, you have to make 5 hard stops in a row to get that caliper to touch the rotor and grind in the first place. Done.

-Fix pinhole leak in upper rad hose

Applied extra hose clamp, packed new hose and OEM style clamps in the spares kit. Put a bottle of coolant in the trunk. Done.

-Swap seats

Foamectomied seat from my nice car swapped into the beater. Done.

-Fix intermittent headlight switch

Pressed button. Headlights came up this time. Left them there. Attached flopping switch to dash with sheet metal screws. Done.

-Install hardtop

E36 M3, no side latches? How did I forget that? After screwing with the brakes this is now 5 minutes before I told my wife I'd be done for the night. Rip out interior trim. Find old hardtop bolt-on brackets, install on one side to make sure they fit. Put other side in passenger seat.

-Fix PS window crank, reinstall door panel and pull handle

Window stays within 1" of closed. Pretty sure this is acceptable for rallyx rules. Dump pile of parts in passenger seat with hardtop bracket. Install at event.

-Exhaust heat shield is rattling like crazy

Add a hose clamp at the cat and replace missing bolt at the OEM clamp near header junction. Done.

-Swap to more mud-friendly tires

Said tires are bolted to the other Miata, across the yard, with a dead battery. Nope. Done.

So, Saturday. Start the car. Exhaust rattle still there. Oh well. Off to the event. Pass tech. 3 drivers, the other two of which are fast autocrossers but have never rallycrossed. Install the rest of the interior parts and brackets. Ready to race. On the recon lap it sounds like the car is goign to fall apart. Thankfully at speed no one notices. The car did fine, I beat a few Subarus, finished 5th of 15 for the session. First 2 runs as the only 2wd car on a muddy course killed me. Oh well. Driver #2 is slower, but having fun. First time in a Miata, first rallycross, first time borrowing a car. Not bad. Oh, yeah, it looks like a damn clown car with the blue, red, orange. Maybe I'll add white fenders or something. Time to work course while the third guy drives the Miata. He's usually a little faster than me, and has a dried out course to work with. I told him to do whatever he wants and don't worry about the car...just don't overheat it. He's flying. He's also using 1st gear for 30 seconds and cranking the heat to keep temps down. It mostly works. He finished 5th for the day at that point. Car is fine. Brakes aren't really being used. I knock some mud off and put my foot right through the fender. berkeley. I knew it was rusty but I was enjoying being in denial.

So that was 15 runs, 5 apiece, for the first half of the day. Second half was run at night, I had to leave due to aforementioned sick offspring. Originally the plan was for us all to leave then but Driver #2 was having a blast and driver #3 was winning PR against a very well prepped Miata on rally tires and sitting 5th of 25 overall. It seemed silly to all bail at that point. Soooo I borrowed Driver #3's WRX (yes, he drove a WRX to a rallycross and raced a Miata) and headed home. Told the other two guys if they blew up the car they had to get it home. Side note: I want a turbo more now. Here's fastest guy's full video including night session starting around the 5 minute mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMljJwXmW4I&feature=youtu.be He ended up 7th overall, lost some time to the AWD cars fighting back on the dried out course. Interestingly, his times for the PM session exactly matched his AM session times despite leaving the car in second gear at my request. Here's 4 of my runs (forgot to start the camera once) on the sloppier morning course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EScM7cpI2M&feature=youtu.be By my last run I was on pace with the afternoon session, wish I had a chance to run the clean course at night but oh well. So the $1200 pile of crap on snow tires finished 7th, 19th and 25th out of 25. (I was on pace for 13th but no evening times = DFL) and won SR and PR. And had a hell of a lot of fun too. From driving it and watching it run, I shocked how well the OEM suspension worked. I'm probably going to be a lot more lazy about upgrading it. Might throw FM springs and KYBs on for the 1.5 months of commuting between now and the next event. Shock swaps are easy enough on a Miata. This was also a pretty gentle site as far as rallycross goes. The parking lot at work is being paved and I had to park here today. Seems fitting.

Action shot:

Question, are those battery terminals something special, or just GM sidepost adapters?

Oh hey, hello from Reddit.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Question, are those battery terminals something special, or just GM sidepost adapters?

They are whatever i bought to adapt the etx9 powersports battery into the STS car 2 years ago prior to killing it. Fairly generic posts from summit or something, $10. They have a recessed allen bolt down the center to bolt onto any flat tab type of terminal.

RedGT wrote: So that was 15 runs, 5 apiece, for the first half of the day. Second half was run at night, I had to leave due to aforementioned sick offspring. Originally the plan was for us all to leave then but Driver #2 was having a blast and driver #3 was winning PR against a very well prepped Miata on rally tires and sitting 5th of 15 overall. It seemed silly to all bail at that point. Soooo I borrowed Driver #3's WRX (yes, he drove a WRX to a rallycross and raced a Miata) and headed home. Told the other two guys if they blew up the car they had to get it home. Side note: I want a turbo more now.

Hopefully you can make it down to some WDCR events. A number of BMR guys do. Looks like severl people at your event are people who run with us as well.

Surprised your buddy beat Shawn (though to be honest, the worn-out gravel tires he usually has tend to suck in the mud, so I wouldn't give him "extra credit" for those maybe). He's a 4-time WDCR champ (at least) in MR/PR classes. He's on here - username Moxnix. That must have been an interesting event - I see Steve Hyatt up near the top of the standings, and he's usually one of the slower cars in our region in Stock FWD (and usually loses to Shawn by like 100 seconds or something). So I'm thinking that BMR event must have been really tire-dependent since Steve usually has nice fresh snows. In any case, congrats on a good day!

Funny no MR cars at that event. It's usually one of the biggest classes at ours. Wish I could make it out for some of the winter events with BMR, but my car is gonna be taken apart to get a cage installed. Maybe I'll bring the WRX, lol.

BTW, I daily drive a WRX and rallycross an e30 ;)

In reply to Kylini:

Oh, hey, hello. I post there sometimes to remind people that you can go out and do something with your car.

In reply to irish44j:

Yeah, I noticed Hyatt, I've only made it to 1 event per year the last few years and still had it in my head that he was slow...surprised to see him at the top. 2nd group had a much much better course and it was pretty tight which probably helped the little mazda 2. There's also a guy with a 2wd Justy that is usually slower (I mean, come on, it's a 2wd Justy) and placed 6th overall. Watching videos of big NY and MD courses, this tired 1.6 Miata would get stomped on. Still hope to get out to more events.

Somehow I did not get around to talking to Shawn after runs very much (and it didn't quite click at the time that we should not have been anywhere near that close to him), but yes I am guessing the gravel tires did not do great in the mud. I think he also said this was only the second event on the new suspension.

I miss Summit Point. Frostburg is 3.5 hours for me and I no longer have family to crash with in Baltimore. From what I hear of the site, plus the distance, I probably want to tow to that. I don't have a truck and won't for some time. Driver #2, however, does...and seemed to be hooked pretty well. Driver #3 has also been toying with buying a truck for a while for national Solo stuff. Potential driver #4 was off drinking Saturday instead of racing, but is between trucks and currently shopping for one. So there's potential to start getting down to the WDCR events.

We never really get MR cars up here, not prepped ones anyway, since Nonack sold his. Even back when Philly region was running more events, MR/M2 was just SR or PR guys adding more drivers to the same car in another class.

Best quote of the day, while working course and watching driver #3 go by, a newer guy asks "so what kind of diff is in that Miata? A locker?" No...it's a stock open unit... (I think he was serious anyway)

lol, nice. Well, maybe Nonack will show up to BMR to test and tune with the new rally RX7 :)

Don't sell the 1.6 short. Frostburg is a momentum venue for sure, so it's not all about power (the only car that beat me this year in a complete event was a Volvo 240 that had LESS power than me. None of the 6cyl e30s did.....it's all about driving. And Shawn on any given day can beat any of the MR cars in that PR Miata.

irish44j wrote: Don't sell the 1.6 short.

Don't listen to him, every rallycross Miata needs a turbo.

(says the guy who lost to the slow BMW)

EvanB wrote:

irish44j wrote: Don't sell the 1.6 short.

Don't listen to him, every rallycross Miata needs a turbo. (says the guy who lost to the slow BMW)

Just in case you forgot, you actually lost to both drivers in the slow bmw ;)

The lesson of this discussion is: Make sure the car doesn't break down at events. Because if it does break down, it doesn't much matter how much Turbo or 1.8 you have...

irish44j wrote:

EvanB wrote:

irish44j wrote: Don't sell the 1.6 short.

Don't listen to him, every rallycross Miata needs a turbo. (says the guy who lost to the slow BMW)

Just in case you forgot, you actually lost to both drivers in the slow bmw ;) The lesson of this discussion is: Make sure the car doesn't break down at events. Because if it does break down, it doesn't much matter how much Turbo or 1.8 you have...

In theory i know that, but then we started this event with one frozen brake, a bad heater hose, a questionable water pump and two other guys with $50 entry fees on the line. Apparently im not too bright.

I'm finding that without prior knowledge of where I can and cannot cut corners, turbo is coming up at a solid $1500+ and that's with me guessing at some stuff. (see also: autocross Miata suspension - the first time through it cost me $1600, if I had to do it again I believe I could accomplish the same thing for $900 or possibly way less depending on used deals) Without that previous experience to know where to cut corners and what to look for on used components and which things that the internet swears by are actually bullE36 M3...I don't think I can make a turbo happen on the budget I would need to keep.

Tonight, new front calipers on the STS car and its takeoffs are going on the rally car soon. They work but there's a front lockup problem and I suspect that the combination of one reman caliper, one new hose, one original caliper, one original hose, and really cheap pads to shift the bias rearwards just results in a mess when trying to threshold brake with good grip. So that car is getting all new calipers, lines and pads and the takeoffs are going on the rally car. We ran the last event with one front brake, it cannot possibly be worse even if a little unbalanced.

So instead of doing the brakes, I decided to finally clean the damn garage. Measured and modeled it and the Miata...stopped at harbor freight for $120 worth of dollies, and tonight I went out and emptied and tore out an old inefficient shelf and achieved this:

So now I have room to work on the rally car inside, and the ability to not repeat some of the fun things I did last winter like replacing a starter, on my back in the snow while it was dark, 4 degrees, with 15 mph winds. Never. Again.

Got both cars in.

 Brakes off the one on the right and replaced with new calipers and pads. Functional calipers from that car are swapped onto the one on the left. Pads were certainly done.

 Here's the RF rotor after the seized caliper decided to become unseized and start trying to work again. Yes the right front shock is blown and leaking. Time to install the free KYB AGX's I have laying around I suppose. Every review of them is so awful, I am honestly curious how bad they can possibly be. The plastic knob adjusters on the bottom of the shock where they will get covered with mud will make it extra fun. Also have a VLSD to put in if I get the time. The aspiring drift kid that bought my old red ES Miata 2.5 years ago wanted to trade his VLSD for an open diff (to weld). So I said, sure, if you can get here, I'll trade. Having taken the diff out of his car and being broke, etc, he needed a ride. Shows up with a friend and we talk for a while, friend mentions he is into drifting his Celica and starts asking about autocrossing as he has just moved to the area. Blah blah blah, 20 minutes later they go to leave, have the hood up, I ask if everything's OK and he says yep, just checking the oil. Then I do a double take. "Hey wait a second, did you buy this from a guy named chris?" 'Uh...Yeah! He replaced it with a pickup with the same drivetrain to haul his motorcycles.' So I was paid a visit from the nonack rallycross celica last night. Small world. This photo is about perfect to make a craigslist ad, yes?

I am enjoying reading of your adventures.

I am enjoying reading of your adventures too and hope you worked on the car instead of doing Christmas stuff. WE ARE YOUR FAMILY NOW.

Brakes are bled and functional. Motive power bleeders are the BEST INVENTION IN THE WORLD. Actually, a recurring theme of my work on the garage and cars for the past year or so has been "life is so much easier when you have the right tools and enough space". I spent around 5 years frustrated with working on cars and only doing the minimum amount to keep stuff running. Kinda pissed I wasted that potential just because the garage was a huge mess and I didn't shell out any money for some 'better' tools. There was an infant involved, but still, most of my work now is 30-60 minutes at a time, that totally could have happened with a baby if I had had my E36 M3 together and was motivated to go outside. Ah well. Lesson learned. Anyway, front shocks on, the front end feels much better with the RF damper actually damping again. The free KYB AGX's I had available are adjustable so this bumps the car to PR class :-/ The only downside to this is trying to run more than 2 drivers in it as the local region usually runs SR in one heat and PR/MR in another. Running out of heat can be a huge deal time-wise as the course changes. On the other hand, I guess I can install the RB intake I have lying around, and look into longer springs, and so on and so forth. Rear shocks hopefully will get done tonight, need to swap stock springs onto them first. Turning the wrenches on my old spring compressors is going to take longer than R & R of the assemblies on the car. I need to grab a modern pair of compressors sometime (so I can use a socket rather than an open end wrench) Hardtop de-redded with grey plastidip. ($14 vs. $26 for 4 cans if I wanted an actual color, turns out I only used 2 cans making it a whole $7 to stop looking at the obnoxious red top) Halfway through I was cursing my cheapness and wishing I ponied up the $12 more for black, but with it dry and on the car I kinda like it. Had a few friends over and texted a few other people pics and the response was 110% positive. It definitely beats red and is kind of similar to the color of a cloth top I guess. After coat one I had some huge runs resulting from figuring out the best way to spray. No problem, subsequent coats covered them right up. It was honestly SO FRIGGIN EASY I wish I had an excuse to do it to a whole car. That was fun. I actually like the process of masking believe it or not, I just hate the 'painting' part.

 Next event is january 10th. It finally got cold here, but the forecast for the weekend is to warm up, thaw everything, rain on Friday and Saturday and then be 35-40 degrees and still raining for the event on Sunday. How fun. I sucked it up and registered.

Have now sold all the other parts of the suspension kit I picked up, making the 4 good KYB AGX shocks a total cost of $12. Still need to put the rears on the car. Last night after half an hour of turning wrenches and re-positioning spring compressors, realized the following:

1) WTF is with the long and massively pre-loaded OEM rear springs, Mazda? Geez. Fronts took like 10 minutes. Rears are LONG relative to the shocks.

2) I still have to get this spring compressed enough for the top hat to go on AND have not yet even started pulling the other OEM spring off the old shock. berkeley this I am going to harbor freight for some compressors I can use a socket on. Not worth the time to continue using the old free set.

OK, harbor freight spring compressors were 100% worth the $16. The inherited ones from 1970 may last forever but they are a royal PITA to use by comparison.

I bet on those AGXs already being blown- and nearly guarantee them being blown after this weekend. We put a set of those on a friend's car years ago and blew them in one AUTOcross