looking at a 91 miata, what to look for

I saw this add on craigslist, and am considering going to look at it. Never looked at a miata before,

Have a '91 Mazda Miata Car does not run right now as it needs a Mass air flow sensor as it is faulty and dies not command the fuel pump also needs a battery. I don't want to put the money in it because I'm gna sell it either way. I have title in hand. This car has a auto cross setup suspension With a Jackson racing header and borla exhaust. It hugs turns like no other!! Great project car. Text me if you'd like to see the car 806-410-0431

how likely is it that the MAF is the problem, how hard are those to fix? what else should I look at, general problem areas? things to know?

When I was Miata shopping, I found lots of good info here: http://www.miata.net/faq/inspection_list.

Not sure specifically about the MAF, but my rule of thumb is anybody who says "just needs a" (insert simple repair here) is usually full of crap. If it were really 100% certain to be an easy repair, they would have done it themselves. As for ease of work, as long as you don't need to change the oil or heater hoses, Miatas are generally pretty easy to work on and, most importantly, one of the best documented cars out there. There's a "how to" for just about every job that needs to be done.

The only way I know of for 90-93 Miatas to lose the MAF is through physical abuse - someone unscrewed the MAF connector rather than simply unplugging it, and pulled the connections off the PCB inside. Now, I don't have the Miata experience of say, Keith, but this is my experience.

The other thing to remember is that the MAF on these 1.6L controls the fuel pump. It may (and Keith is better to weigh in here than I am) be possible to jumper the FP on via the diagnostic connector, but I don't know if that's an acceptable long-term solution.

The Jackson header is CARB approved, and will fit under some superchargers, but has few other redeeming qualities - it's coated mild steel and is notorious for cracking. The Borla is a loud exhaust.

There's a Miata buyer's guide somewhere over on Miata.net. I don't know how good it really is at this stage in the Miata depreciation curve, but the biggest deal-killer for me would be rust anywhere on the body. Too many rust-free examples (I'd guess especially so in Texas) to screw with a rusty one. I don't recall when the short-nose crank issue ended, but you might read up on that.

The fact that it doesn't run should make this one cheap. If it's not, or if there are any signs of rust, walk away.

The short-nose crank was around thru the middle of the'91 model year, I believe.

The vin-cutoff is available at miata.net, as well as other places.

And yeah, rocker-rust is something to watch out for.

+1 on the loud Borla exhaust. I put one on my first 95 and I swear it got louder each time I started the car. There was an exhaust buzz at 62 that would drive you out of the car.

Peter's got it right - it's a fairly common mistake to unscrew the connector from the AFM (the cars didn't get a MAF until 1994) and break the wires inside. Typical symptom is a car that will fire and run for about two seconds, then die. You can indeed put a jumper between FP and GND in the diagnostic box to cheat this and it should solve the problem. Instant identification.

That will be a long-term solution until you crash and the fuel pump keeps pumping even when the engine dies Still, it wouldn't stop me from driving the car until I got a replacement AFM or I soldered the wires back together.

You can identify a short-nose crank visually. Look at the pulley on the crankshaft. Four long slots means short-nose, eight short slots means long-nose. I wouldn't base a buying decision on that alone, though.

Those older Borlas were quite nasty.

i've got a borla on my 94. it sounds a little more like a sport bike than i'd want, but it's a pretty light setup.