What have you done to your Miata today?

Hey, hey Mike. I might be getting older but Im not Bruce or Mahk age yet. Lol

That said, Ill sit back and wait for the reveal. I read RevLimiter and not Rev9 initially. See, the mind is still sharp but the eyes suck. Lol

Today my wife drove her to work and got hit on, on the way home by two guys on the sidewalk.

Top down at a red light....
2 guys - nice car
Tam - thanks
2 guys - great day to drive top down
Tam - yes it's beautiful
2 guys - you are beautiful
Tam - thank you (impatiently waiting for light to turn green)

Light turned green and she sped off. Our daughter was giving her grief. Said her first answer should have been, "thanks, it's my husband's" and third answer should have been, "thanks, my husband tells me everyday". I just love that kid! Lmao

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Anyone can confirm that the engine from a '93 Protege, VIN "6" is a suitable long block for use in the NA? I understand the requirements for transferring components, but I want to verify this application is the correct engine. I believe it to be, but still unfamiliar with the bp. I've searched a lot, but I didn't find any VIN specifics, just model years basically. Thanks in advance.

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Stretched out the bike rack last night so we could carry this tandem home.
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Removed the head off of the car last night- that took me no time at all. I had the head wrapped up in plastic, stored away, tools and mess cleaned up in two-and-a-half hours. Just looked up book time and R&R is 13.8 hours- no way it would take anywhere near that. Going to travel about an hour south of me to pick up a short block one night this week, install my head to the short block, install new timing components and BAM! my car will be driving! Once I've got the car running, I'm planning on an eBay top and a Maaco/Ecoco paint job after I prep/repair the car myself.
 
I've found a complete top somewhat local and by 'complete' I mean it's the frame assembly and all. With that being said, would this be advantageous to purchase and make my installation time significantly less? In my mind, it most definitely does, but having little Miata experience and even less experience with their convertible tops, I figured I'd ask one of you seasoned pros.
 
Mmm, awww yeah.




Dat suspension articulation doe




And the setup stands stack nicely :D

 
Headed towards home, so I'm just making a no-use post to let you all know I'll have something substance to post soon. (laugh)
 
Made it home, only to have my laptop die the day after due to an accidental phone strike just above the hard drive (not my phone). Since I'm using my wife's POS Apple desktop I have no pictures, but I have one of those fancy non-spilling funnels awaiting use as well as some rubber flaps to put on my fan shroud (what Flyin' Miata uses on their stuff). Today I ordered some new Rival S 1.5s to replace my 5 year old Rivals. Curious to see the difference in grip for that timeframe.

I had to give her a bath the morning after I got home, because there were bird strikes on various spots. At least the weather cooperated and my wife picked me up from the airport in her, so I got a good ride home.
 
The Rivals showed up Thursday. Stupid UPS guy put them directly in front of the door. How difficult is it for someone who delivers packages for a living to understand ingress/egress (rhetorical question)? I haven't had a lot of time to work on the car this week due to preparing for a wedding, but I dropped them off with the wheels for mounting on Thursday. Picked them up Friday morning and had a little spare time so mounted them up. While everything was off I checked the brake pad wear, adjusted the rear calipers and checked all calipers to make sure they were free to move on the pins. There is enough free space to do this with the wheels off, just grab the caliper and try moving it back and forth. If it does great, your pins are lubed. I cleaned the tape residue from the old weights off and then mounted the wheels. When I dropped her down and was checking pressures I found the right front tire was flat. Pumped it up and then was off doing the last of the wedding preps I was assigned. I had my son check the tire later and it was flat again, so I told him to lift the car on the jack (I love that thing!). This morning when I finally got back home, I checked and pressure was zero. Put some air in it and using some Fantastik, I found air was leaking around the aluminum valve stem where it penetrated the wheel. Tightened that up and checked again, all seemed good. The only thing I can think of that caused that was if the tire guy loosened it to let air out of the tire (instead of removing the Schrader valve center like normal). Several hours later she was still holding air. These stems were an eBay purchase, but unlike the silver ones I bought these have worked for several years. Just to be on the safe side I went ahead and ordered a set of bronze 949 stems to replace these with.

Took the wife out to dinner tonight to try out the tires. Didn't push too hard, the wife doesn't like that (and neither does my head when she beats on it) and I need to get some miles on it to get rid of the release agent. Feel was good though. You can always tell when you have new sticky tires on by the sound of the little pebbles hitting the inside of your fenders.
 
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I've heard nothing but good things about the Rival Ss. I imagine they'll take care of you :D
 
I've heard nothing but good things about the Rival Ss. I imagine they'll take care of you :D

I know I've been very happy with the Rivals I've been running for the last 5 (!) years, so hoping these will be more of the same plus. I'm going to be paying attention to the feel once I get some miles on them and the release agent is gone, curious to see if I can tell any difference.
 
Doggone, where is everyone?

So, you may recall that JBP said I could have a problem with the snout pulley that might have caused the seal to leak. When I got home and could measure it, I ordered a replacement from Track Dog Racing. I am running a 60 mm pulley for what it's worth. That showed up today finally after sitting at UPS over the weekend. I just got through swapping those out. If you need to do this you will require a puller (I got a set from Harbor Freight that works just fine). I used my 3/8" impact to remove the nut while holding the pulley with a strap wrench. Put the three-jaw puller on and removed the old pulley, then put the TDR pulley in place. One thing to note, the original (I'm guessing) pulley had lips on both sides of where the belt rides. The TDR does not. After that was buttoned up I put the slightly longer (by 5 mm) belt I bought previously and fired her up. Once running I checked and it looked like the belt had moved one rib on the snout pulley. I revved her up and checked again, nothing flew off. I got a flashlight to check with better lighting and found that it had not moved at all. Alignment is good, which makes me a happy man. I'll find out when I go for a test drive in a bit if it is good. Time for all the boosts!
 
It is really common to have only one flanged pulley in a given pulley system. This prevents shredding/binding if one or more of the pulleys is slightly misaligned. I assume one of the lower pulleys has a flange?

Good luck on the test drive!
 
Well, it's summer her in NE, it lasts like 7 hrs, so we're cramming in all our summer time fun....most of which doesn't include any time for my two loves! [emoji6]
 
Beat up on the XP guys again this weekend, despite driving with my head up my ass on my fastest run. I can't remember the last time I just straight up forgot to shift (rlaugh)

 
May the boosts be with you Mike!

Now that our son is working ive been spending alot more time in the passenger seat as he drives to/from work. Have to say the pops and burbles from the MS muffler are more intoxicating from that seating position. 😁

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May the boosts be with you Mike!

Now that our son is working ive been spending alot more time in the passenger seat as he drives to/from work. Have to say the pops and burbles from the MS muffler are more intoxicating from that seating position. [emoji16]

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+1
 
Boost is all there!

Since I'm still waiting on my laptop (Amazon cancelled my order on the day it was supposed to be delivered and I had to order through a different company), I figured out how to use Robyn's Apple POS to upload a picture. This is the same location as the picture from November sans hard top.

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