Looking to be schooled on NA Miata

[Bobby Beyer]

The team I race with in Lemons is a NA Miata 1.8. Looking to get all the info I can about those car, i.e. parts interchangeability, whats likely to break, what I can cut off, where can I get power, what go fast parts are worth the cost, etc. This is a Lemons car after all so anything requiring big money isn't really doable.

[Brian Kelly]

Start here:
http://www.miata.net/garage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There's a wealth of information there, although some of it is a bit outdated. Also, join the miata.net forums.

To try to answer some of your individual questions, you won't make much more power over what it has stock. You can free up 10-15whp with bolt ons (I/H/E), advance the timing by a few degrees, and maybe a LWFW and lighter wheels if they're in your budget. The "hollow spoke" 14's are the lightest, and can be had for under 150 a set used. Suspension is easy to work on, and choices are plenty. For cheap, Lemon-ey options, try to find a set of R-package or Hard-S Bilsteins. They came on some cars from the factory, and can be had for not too much money.

On any older car, bushings are probably a good idea too, especially if you're able to make your own on the cheap. Delrin and a friend with a lathe are great. Junkyards will have cheap factory parts, and there always seem to be a few people on the forums parting out their project cars. clubroadster.net has a good classefieds section and a lot of people in the area. Good deals on used parts spring up from time to time.

Hope this helps!

[Anthony P.]

If you watch miataturbo forums you might be able to get some cheap turbo parts.... plus a used ms and you might have way more Power. miata net is an excellent resource. Have fun adding lightness.

[Bobby Beyer]

No turbo, car owner doesn't want to risk the motor.

All the bushings are poly, its got the 1.6 open rear diff with the 4.30s and the 1.6 clutch and flywheel. We do get some shoulder wear but I don't think that's something I'm going to be able to fix. Are the S package shocks any good? I would like Bilstein shocks due to how easy they are to rebuild.

We ran the car at buttonwillow a few months back, aside from the blown shocks and the all seasons, and lack of power the car was perfect.

[Michael Heinitz]

The 1.6 R&P is a known weak point.

[Bobby Beyer]

knock on wood, its held up for 220k miles and a season of 24hr races so I'm hoping it stays together.

[Brian Kelly]

Ya the factory Bilsteins are pretty good. If you find a blown set, you can easily get them rebuilt and revalved if you want. If you want to run the NB Bilsteins, I think you need the NB tophats too.

[Jayson Woodruff]

The "hollow spoke" 14's are the lightest, and can be had for under 150 a set used.

There's a set that's been for sale on the San Diego Solo forums FOREVER. He's probably just about ready to give them away.

Mike, R&P --- Rack and Pinion?

Jay W

[Leonard Cachola]

Ya the factory Bilsteins are pretty good. If you find a blown set, you can easily get them rebuilt and revalved if you want. If you want to run the NB Bilsteins, I think you need the NB tophats too.

I have a set of FatCat revalved Bilsteins for an NB lying around if anyone's interested.

[Bobby Beyer]

We have something like 4 sets of daisys on hand. Rims are open but it certainly eats into the racing budget.

[Richard Jung]

- Ram air intake.
- Mill head.
- Weld/clamp angle steel to stock sway bars? Double up stock bars?
- Source some longer junkyard springs, and cut some coils to increase spring rate.
- Widen steel wheels. Use hub adaptors, or redrill lug holes to use cheap wider wheels and tires.
- Cut out fenders to fit wider tires. Increase track width.
- Is there a lower final drive from an automatic, to help use larger tires?
- Lower seat.
Aero
- Remove rear bumper cover.
- Removing windshield legal?
- Plastic/sheet metal air dam, & plywood splitter.
- Dual rear wing with angle alum gurney flap.

Most of things above should be able to be done for free, or from junkyards. Might make the car slower,but it would be fun to try!

[Bobby Beyer]

-It has the steep 90 final drive already, I can put the 4.7 fd from the Kia Sportage, its something we've been considering but with the local tracks I'm not sure it'll help.
-Milling the head is something that might happen with the motor being out right now but with Sonoma\Seca coming up we might now have time to have that finished this season.
-I didn't think of a Ram Air but I don't think it'll be that difficult to make. Good Idea
-It has some JY springs I think they were something in the 350lb/in range but it wasn't exactly an accurate test.
-Tires are sort of a problem right now, since we have so many of the 14" daisy wheels, next season we'll likely move to 15s but its 14 for right now, and there just isn't much in the 14" wheel option.
-Cutting windshield isn't legal nor would it something I'd want to do with some of the desert tracks.
-I have a bunch of SS sheet here at work, making a splitter/spoiler seems like a good idea.

We need to find something like 7-10s at Buttonwillow to be competitive with the A class cars.

[Jayson Woodruff]

Is the motor built up? (doubt it on a lemon's budget). The miatas are inherntly somewhat low compression and strongly built. I.E. perfect canadate for a simple bolt on mild turbo. You could easily pick up 50hp with what I would call no risk to the motor (which are cheap to begin with).

If you have the heads off, might as well DIY port and polish.

Jay W

No turbo, car owner doesn't want to risk the motor.

[Bobby Beyer]

The motor is a junkyard motor so I'm sure its just a stock 1.8. Kinda shocking to think that it lasted a whole season even after 240k miles and abuse.

I've followed what the eyesore guys have done and getting the ECU tuned for the turbo scares me a bit, as far as reliability is concerned. They also have quite a bit more resources available to them than I do.
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... rging.aspx
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... ealed.aspx

[Brian Linn]

knock on wood, its held up for 220k miles and a season of 24hr races so I'm hoping it stays together.

As pointed out, the 1.6 R & P is weaker than the 1.8 version. It is adequate for street driving. Problems start when you're bouncing off curbs and dropping wheels into the dirt. The shock from grip to no-grip to grip again seems to shorten their life. I was told to jack the rear of the car up when adding oil, to allow more oil in the unit. Not sure if it makes a difference, but worth a try. The SCCA F-production 1.6 Miata is now allowed to use the 1.8 set-up, but prior to that people built external reservoirs to carry more oil.

I have an oil cooler that has an electric pump that I removed from my car that I could donate if you are interested. You would need to weld some bungs onto the differential housing for the lines. Let me know.

[Bobby Beyer]

I would gladly like to take you up on that offer, given the nature of lemons, and the fact we're already in a cheater car(Miatas, Porsche, RX7 and newer BMWs are given a harder look by judges) I don't think I could get it to pass the smell test even if I could prove in every way it was free.

[Brian Linn]

I would gladly like to take you up on that offer...

Bobby,
Do you still want the cooler. I dropped the ball a bit and didn't get back to you. After tripping over it a few weeks ago, I recalled this offer. I sent a PM on this site, but not sure if you received it.
Anyways, the offer is still good, but hoping you can pick it up in Hermosa or Huntington Beach. Otherwise it going on ebay...