Miata runs!

Twas the cam angle sensor. Used one from $250 head worked perfect. Anybody need a complete 1.6 head less the CAS?

One slight niggle, it has a hesitation from idle and seems to have lost power below 3000RPM's. The timing is at 14 degrees. Too much?

Yay!

Each of those notches on the timing scale is 2 degrees. Any chance it's actually set at 18?

Well, I'll go take a look at it. I'm not even sure my timing light works with a Miata...

I use a battery jumper pack to power my timing light when working on a Miata, FYI. I don't have a plug that fits the factory blue plug (behind the driver's headlight) that supplies 12V.

I used a spare battery in the garage. Turns out my "trusted mechanic" bumped the timing down. 1.6 Miata's do NOT like 6 degrees as base timing! I re-set her to 13-14 (it kinda hovers just under the second tick, I didn't want to keep fiddling) and idled it down to 850RPM's. She runs like a top now!

There is still a little hesitation, but I noticed the throttle cable has a lot of slack in it. It's hesitated since we bought it. Could the cable be it? How do I adjust it?

Look for the bracket where the throttle cable housing ends. Adjusting those two nuts will either slacken or tighten the cable, depending which way you go.

The slack will only affect things upon initial throttle application. Some people claim that tightening it up will improve throttle response, but once you've taken up the slack with your foot it won't make any difference at all.

The first touch/initial throttle is what's not doing so great, so tightening that up is what I will do then. It almost feels "drive by wire" to me.

If it is loose, a fun one is determining if full throttle at the pedal is full throttle at the throttle body.

I discovered that our legacy wagon was only getting 7/8ths throttle at full. It woke up quite a bit after fixing that!

Took nearly an inch of slack out of the throttle cable! The adjuster was at full loose, so the cable was literally drooping. I brought that thing 3/4's of the way to full tight, so now there's a nice linear movement to the cable. It's tight but not taut, so it should be just right. The idle changed so I figured what the hell and reset the CAS until I got 14 degrees on the money, adjusted idle to 850, re-checked timing and throttle cable, and went for a test drive. MUCH snappier response now!

My shifter isn't feeling up to par. One of these days (you know, when paychecks start rolling in again) I'll get new boots from FM and do the old pull-and-grease. That reminds me that I need to bleed the brakes as well, fluid's getting cloudy again.

No, we don't have any shifter bushings. Probably should look into that...