Maxim Works Header

maxim works header, can't wait to put this in. 11lbs on my scale. many many thanks to Rod at tetsuyagarage!

Shifter Maintenance

turret fluid was low so i sucked as much of it as i could out with a syringe (it was a very dark grey/green color) and put in some Amsoil Manual Transmission & Transaxle Gear Lube 75W-90 which i also plan to use in the trans itself.

and changed the small shift boot as well since mine was torn off basically. learned that there are 2 small boots, the newer one is part no. M513-17-480(A) and the older one is part no. M514-17-480(A). For some reason, it looks like my car came with the older version o_O however, i triple checked the part no. on mazda motorsports since the part i got looked different from what i had, and after a little more digging i found that the newer version can be used on the older NA6 cars all the way up, but you can't use the older part on the newer cars (94+) wonder why mine had the older part...

you can also see some of the short shifter that my car came with. don't know what kind it is. my large boot was torn apart as well but i opted not to change it. as i understand it, the large boot is just to basically keep noise and fumes out of the car

some good reading to get the jobs done:
Miata Maintenance - http://www.miata.net/garage/trans/everything.html
Replacing Miata Shift Boots - http://www.camsmx5.com/Resources/techshift/techshift.html [dead link]
Short Shifter Installation - http://www.miata.net/garage/shortshifter/index.html
Changing Gearlever Seals - http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/t/201.aspx [dead link]

Main Fuse

noticed this the other night, wtf is that?

oh, it's just the main fuse. wait.. wut?

that definitely doesn't look right...

2 nuts holding the box to the chassis on the fender side, 1 bolt on each side of the fuse, one accessible from inside the box and the other on the opposite side of the box there's a plastic flap you need to get behind

Clutch Stopper

after a race a few months back i noticed some light blue plastic bits on my carpet. on the way home i noticed that the clutch pedal was making a clicking noise when released all the way and it would come up a little higher. after some searching i found a thread at mnet (http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=284379)

turns out this clutch stopper is a common failure (part no. B001-43-029, "RUBBER STOPPER"). the new part is black. a white "button" pushes up against this when the clutch is released. i believe i read that it deactivates cruise control, which i don't even have, but the sound and feel of the clutch pedal just didn't feel right without it. really easy install, it just pops right in

A Growing To-Do List

order from mazda motorsports came in today!

Flyin' Miata Little Big Brake Kit

On November 10th, Flyin' Miata held a surprise birthday sale celebrating their 29th year in business by offering up to $25 off shipping, so i finally pulled the trigger on their "Little Big Brake Kit" for 10" rotors which arrived in the mail today!

A Flyin' Miata exclusive! 

We know that Miata owners are always looking for ways to shed weight. Autocrossers in particular. After seeing a custom minimum weight brake system on a National level CSP car, we figured we could come up with something for everyone. So we knocked 4 lbs of unsprung weight off each front wheel by replacing the stock cast iron calipers with aluminum Wilwood parts. Along with the weight loss, we also ended up with a four-piston caliper for nice even pad pressure. And yes, we said 4 pounds of weight per corner. 

The aluminum radial mount Powerlite caliper is a fairly new design from Wilwood that's an excellent match to a quick Miata. It's compact enough to fit around the small Miata discs, but is nice and stiff and gives even pressure across the 5 square inch pad. Since the pistons are properly sized, the stock pedal feel will not change. Porterfield, Hawk, Carbotech, Performance Friction and Wilwood all offer a full range of pads to choose from. We ship them with a set of BP10 Wilwood pads, which are a good street/autocross choice. Brake balance will not be dramatically affected unless you install a different pad type than your previous setup. If you'd like to order the kit without pads so you can source something different, the price is $399. Please note that you will have to use a pad for a Wilwood Powerlite caliper, standard Miata pads will not fit. 

Includes calipers, pads, brackets and stainless steel lines. You will keep your existing rotor. If you're changing rotor size, you'll need to pick up a set of the appropriate rotors as well. This is a two-wheel kit, nothing is changed at the rear. We do offer rear brake lines if you need some.

Teflon Window Guides

picked up some teflon window guides a while back from Miata_B_racing over at mnet. here's a link to his latest kit which is the same as what i got but now he's also including some shin etsu grease, some cable clips, and what appears to be updated instructions which look to be much better than before:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=481662

i actually only installed them on the passenger side of my car so far just because i'm lazy. it's a pretty simple install though. i found this guide to be helpful:
http://www.miata.net/garage/window_guide_replacement_NB.pdf

as well as a couple posts from Scrat's build [dead link] by black roadster:
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/1116809-post857.html [dead link]
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/1118546-post865.html [dead link]

need to open up my door one more time to try and realign some things since i now have a small gap between the window and the door

here's a shot of the original guide next to the new teflon one. when i opened my door up, the guide wasn't even attached to the window anymore, it was just kind of hanging out in the guide rail..

949 Racing Xida-S In Action

a friend slapped his cam on my car for a run. i was surprised to see the tender spring actually working, and even more surprised to see how much the tire deflects

video credit: jon and erin

Hot Brakes?

photo credit: jon and erin

photo credit: jon and erin

Header Thoughts

been doing well in STR as well as PAX in my region, pretty happy w/ the way the car is set up right now

my dreams of a maxim works header have been crushed as i discovered EGR delete is not legal in class and i don't want to deal with making that work. now hunting for a 4-2-1 header that allows me to use the EGR shit... Jackson Racing? Cobalt? something else?

at the same time, i am sort of inclined to go with the flow and get the racing beat header because it is well documented and seems it was designed to beat the brainstorm 4-2-1

Header Comparison Test

4:1 Header Development (4 into 1)

First Race Impressions

first event in the car this past sunday, 1st in STR :)

the car feels awesome, but still has a long way to go. shock is contacting the upper arms up front and the rear passenger shock is contacting the axle so i raised the whole car a little. hope i don't have to go too much higher

once i get to a height where the shocks and arms aren't making contact anymore, i'll have it corner balanced and aligned. still need to iron out the damper settings as well. also, seems i won't be needing the rear sway bar at all so that'll likely come off the car completely.

waiting patiently for a maxim works header for a reasonable price and also looking for a good deal on a spare BP4W 18 881C ecu to send to dynotronics to flash

photo credit: jon and erin

949 Racing 6UL Gen. III + Hankook Ventus R-S3

949 Racing 6UL Gen. III, 15x9 +36, Matte Black
Hankook Ventus R-S3, 225/45/15

thanks Cuda for sponsoring the tires in exchange for driving my car this coming season!

teaser

ta da!

Konig Flatout

new street wheels, Konig Flatout 15x8 +25 Magnesium Blue. left is in the shade, right is in the sun

XXR 501

i love wheels! these are actually only a pair, wanted to see what it'd look like. the other side of the car has the mini cooper wheels on it

XXR 501 15x8 +15

Racing Beat Tubular Front Sway Bar

so tonight Cuda and I installed the front sway bar and supermiata end links and Cuda changed my oil (i helped a little). the sway bar was a huge bitch to install, particularly the reinforcement blocks. i just hope that we did it right. i later found out that i think i got sent the wrong blocks (PS version and I don't have PS), so i hope that doesn't matter. the end links were a bit confusing at first, but i think i got those sorted out ok as well.

first test drive with the sway bar was amazing. from driving the car with no sway bars connected at all, it didn't oversteer as i am used to and have grown fond of. honestly, i was a bit worried that adding such a large front sway bar would make it worse, but it actually drives like it should now, in fact possible a little more oversteer than i'd want for actual racing (i love it for the street though!) this was on old falken tires.

More Xida-S Impressions + Borrowed Varrstoen V1

the springs settled down a bit, i checked the heights this morning and its about 11.25 front 11.5 rear hub to fender (4.25 front, 4 rear at the pinch welds). took off the wheels to check and passenger rear perch was rubbing the axle so i cranked it up 1 turn. both front perches seem to be contacting the control arm on the outside edge. i'll likely raise it instead of lower it =( emilio suggested longer helper springs up front, but i measured it out and looks like i'll run in to the control arms more. i guess i'll just have to accept the fact that these just won't go as low as i want them to without making sacrifices that i dont want to make.

tried on Cuda's new rims, varrstoen 15x9 +15 with 195/50/15. the rims are beautiful and would fit great but definitely would want to be lower if i were to own these

also got my race seat back and reinstalled it, removed the cockpit brace, and Cuda cleaned my engine bay.

949 Racing Xida-S - Initial Impressions

finally got my xida-s and installed them today! also removed the stock strut bar, removed the front sway bar and rear end links. will be installing the new bar and full set of supermiata endlinks once the links arrive and i figure out what to do with the excess material on the sway bar bushings. also, when i removed the stock bilsteins i noticed a kind of pink looking powder coming out of it. turns out my bump stops had basically exploded

these feel quite good so far, just need to play with the damping settings a bit. rates are currently 700/450 and set to full soft, theyre way smoother than my 10/7k tein flex.

unhappy about my height range at the moment. posted a message on the xida thread at mnet, hopefully i'll get an answer soon. my front and rear pinch weld heights are both 4.75" (with 23.2 tires, so this equates to about 4.6" according to emilio's standard 22.9" tire), fender heights were 12" Front and 12.5" Rear. one of the reasons i purchased these was because from all that i've been reading and confirmation with emilio, i was expecting to be in the range of 10.75-11.25 fender height or 3.75-4.25" at the pinch welds. it seemed like people were having trouble even getting to 12 at all. sounds like they're all around the height range i'd like to be but want to be in the range that i got :(

with the fronts at 12", if i lower the perch anymore, at full droop the springs will be completely unseated and even at this height they will rattle

the rears compress the secondary springs a bit at full droop and i can adjust these a little lower, but if i go lower than 11.75", the perch looks to be dangerously close to the axle. if this is normal, i think that my desired height can be reached in the rear, but i wouldn't lower the rear any further until i can figure out why my front is so high. reverse rake doesn't seem like a good idea.


how should i go about figuring out what damping setting i need to be at? one method i believe i read was to start full soft all around, drive it around and increase all settings by one until i arrive at a setting that feels good, but what if the front and rear are not to be the same setting? also, will the both fronts and both rears always be the same as each other, or would it be possible to have all 4 corners set differently?

one of the rear shocks has 13 clicks, the other 3 corners have 12 o_O

aside from that, they're really beautiful, can't wait to get them dialed in :D

they came with eibachs in front and hypercos in the rear. too many colors on the front pair lol.

wish it were a little lower :(

i can't help but wonder if my height is an isolated case since i was banking on being lower than this. at least for the front, the lowest i can go is 12" before the springs completely unseat at full droop and that just doesn't seem right for everyones highest to be at 12 and my lowest is at 12 o_O emilio did say that it is ok for them to be unseated at full droop, but i mean that's kind of the reason i got the dual spring setup in the first place

some pretty charts from 949's website. still don't know what they mean

credit: 949racing.com

credit: 949racing.com

UPDATE: 2012 06 11

well, heard back from emilio on mnet

Originally Posted by emilio700

There is nothing wrong with your kit or the way you installed it. You simply need shorter springs (5") in rear to slam it below what normally works for best handling.

i'm a bit confused because part of the reason i ordered the Xida was because he stated in his thread that ideal handling for these coilovers was around 3.75" to 4.25" at the pinch welds, and now he's saying that im aiming to "slam it below what normally works best for handling." o_O

anyway, based on his response, i lowered the rear to 11.75" and the front to 11.25" and the front springs now will unseat at full droop. hopefully i never get that far while i'm actually driving, but it does still make me nervous so i'm considering longer secondary springs and maybe even the 5" rear springs to have the ability to lower it a little more. hope the 5" springs don't bind

i took the new height for a drive and the ride comfort was still impressive. the turn in wasn't as sharp as when the car was higher though. i should add that when i installed the coilovers, i uninstalled the front sway bar completely as well as the rear end links in preparation for the new RB sway and full set of supermiata endlinks so all of my driving impressions are without any sway bars connected at all.

A New Beginning

the solo season where im at starts in july so i began ordering parts. Xida-S 700/450, RB 1.125" tubular front sway with blocks, supermiata endlinks, and 15x9 6UL in matte black all from emilio at 949. my friend and codriver for the season got some 225/45/15 hankook ventus r-s3 for us from tirerack

weighed the car in "stock" form in my garage on a borrowed set of scales. the real way to do this i hear is to actually level the scales first, but that's too much work and i'm still on stock suspension so I just wanted to get a ball park figure. what I ended up doing was taking some weights with the front in first, then the same weights again with the rear of the car in first, then averaging the 2. if my thinking here is flawed please let me know, but again it wasn't very important to be accurate, just looking for ball park baseline figures. in fact, i've never weighed a car before so if anything is wrong here definitely let me know lol! the total weights seem to still be relevant anyway

so with that in mind as well as other variables not accounted for and forces from the wind and the alignment of the moon blah blah blah, here are the results!

the car was about 2285lbs, a little less than a half tank of gas, the spare tire kit (the spare, the jack, and the board with the tools clipped to it) is about 24-25lbs (i put the main carpet back in to cover up the spare tire well), and i weighed myself on one of the scales at 140lbs

and the averaged corner weights with me in the car, top down, no spare and kit

The End?

decided to sell the car and try something different, wanted to go with a mid engine so had my sights set on an MR2 Spyder. drove my friend's 1st gen MR2 with a silvertop swap in SSM for half a season. loved the car but he decided he needed to sell it. the guy who was supposed to buy my car flaked and i decided i'll keep the car until i can afford an exige

all of the above was been between getting the car in 09 until about a year ago. car was pretty stale since then

the car was parted out (coilovers, roll bar, 13s, gone).

car looks like this now. all it has left is the rb intake, short shifter and bubbly knob, msm axleback, and 15x7 F8F watanabes

some fun with photoshop

Shenanigans

tried putting it all the way down, didn't drive it like this

ssr mk-ii 15x9

just being silly, spare rims to slide on, red hard top from a red NA project that i gave up on. sold that red hard top too

TRM C3 15x9 +36, i liked the C1 better but somehow my friend talked me into selling them to him so i tried these out

Street Duty

on street duty it looked like this