What have you done to your Miata today?

all I noticed was the rod linkage... THAT WAS A BRAKE!? (rlaugh)

That you survived speaks volumes about your hard headedness :p

Well, once again car is tucked away for the winter months. Im off to points south after Christmas...next yr Im driving the car to my moms house in FL in October. When I get to her place in Jan. Ill have her to tool around in! [emoji6]
 
Nice. Mine's been put up for the off season. This weekend, I'm pulling the front shocks to send back to Koni and the injectors to be gone through

The front left shock is making some noise, and the front right's adjuster is semi broken. It works, but the end is snapped off it looks like.
And I'm PRETTY sure I've got a stuck injector. For <$100 it doesn't make sense not to get them checked.

After that, I need to get some 50/50 mix to winterize the engine so it doesn't get hurt if it gets properly cold this year (learned my lesson on that one...), and then start making plans to get a lift installed. So, we'll see how that goes.
 
Got the race-car a Black Friday present :D

dannmar-m6-2-post-lift-1375685.jpg


I plan on installing them semi-permanently. Going to have the pump motor off to the side of the shop, and run longer hydraulic lines along the ceiling joists to drop down from above.
 
Another big piece for the KMiata swap came in. Not strictly necessary, but I wanted something that worked more reliably than the wireless tablet stuff I've been working with for the past few years. It works, but is pretty finicky and a lot of tablets don't like being in the full sun for extended periods and overheat.

This will be hard wired in, and like the wireless display stuff, get most of its inputs directly from the ECU. I think the only sensor I'll add is a water pressure sensor, but that's a trivial matter when we're already going to be rewiring the entire car :D

 
More parts for the K-Swap, along with one to sell (because while I'm at it, might as well)(...I'm a poet and didn't even know it)

The KMiata subframe uses NB steering rack mounts, so I needed a new rack. And since with a race car, one is none, I grabbed another to throw on the shelf. When I went to Pull a Part a few weeks back, I found ANOTHER PS rack on a car there, so I pulled it while I was there and now I've got an extra, which is on the market (and already have a buddy talking about buying it haha)



I've done a few of these now, and while it's a lot of work, it's all stuff that's well within my wheelhouse. If anyone wants a *properly* depowered steering rack (ie: ALL seals removed, all fittings welded up to seal the thing, the pinion welded solid, etc) and / or a set of rack stops, let me know.
 
Got the serviced injectors back in (3 days from shipping them out to them back in my mailbox!). They all flow tested within 1cc of each other after cleaning, which is nice. Once I had the intake side of the engine put back together, I winterized the engine with some 50/50 mix (I usually run straight water + water wetter). Now I'm impatiently waiting for my Black Friday lift to arrive :D

Over the winter, I'm going to re-do some of the quick release stuff for the front bumper, and I'd also like to figure out a way to make the bumper beam and upper core support sections bolt on affairs. I'm going to have engines in and out of the car over and over in the coming months, and not having to come all the way up & over would be crazy helpful.
 
Trying to do things right with the new build is a weird change of pace for me (rlaugh)

 
Racing bling!

Yes, but necessary (ish...). There are slightly cheaper options, but the ATI is a known quantity and SFI certified. The big thing is for the KMiata swap, you lose the K24's big, counterbalance shaft oil pump and replace it with a K20 pump. Combine that with revving it passed the stock limit (8250-8500 depending on how the power curve ends up looking), and harmonics starts to become a real problem. And it'll transfer to other engines in the future if a) this one pops, or b) I build an engine. So it's spendy, but it's not generally a consumable unless something catastrophically bad happens.




....is what I tell myself to justify this whole thing (rlaugh)
 
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The first part of the workshop refresh has arrived. This month the electrics are going to be gone through, adding several outlets along the walls and ceiling and LED lights to replace the fluorescent fixtures, and a pair of big concrete slabs cut and poured to support a 2 post lift. The floor in my shop is garbage, just like the electrics, the siding, and everything else I haven't laid hands on yet, so I really don't trust an unsupported 2-post on it. It's cheap (relatively) insurance.



I did a bunch of cleanup of the shop and got the car positioned. Looks like even with the 9' ceiling height, I'll be able to clear everything and use the full stroke of the lift (at least with my race car).
The biggest pain point for positioning is the garage door opener and rail. I've got to have clearance off to the side so that an engine hoist doesn't run into the garage door opener, and wanted to make sure I wouldn't hit any part of the ceiling with the top of the cage. I'm going to take final measurements tomorrow, but it looks like I won't even need to bank on the roll bar fitting between a pair of joists, it should clear regardless (and that's measuring with the car up on wheel-stands, so there's an extra inch or so of clearance there).

 
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It took some doing to get the posts down the hill to the shop...



But we got it done :D

 
It's obviously not set up yet. I've got about a month before I can properly use it because I'll need to wait for concrete to dry, but I do need to mock everything up to make sure it'll fit as expected. I'll get the Outback down there tomorrow or next week, depending on how bad the weather is as well, because I do want to be able to use it to do bigger jobs on the rest of the fleet as well. Smoke 'em if you've got 'em and all that.

 
Hung and wired up new outlets for the LED shop lights, ripped out all the fluorescent fixtures, and wired in a 20 Amp 110v circuit for the lift.



Next week at some point, we'll be cutting out, digging, reinforcing and pouring new footers for the lift. I'll be mounting the pump onto the wall, and then I'll need to get a hydraulic hose made up to run from the pump to the diverter valve, mount the valve on the ceiling, and then I can mount the valve and hoses to the ceiling, to drop straight down to the posts from above.

I've read that bleeding the system with the valve and hoses far overhead is problematic, so I'm going to have everything on the ground to function test & bleed, and then mount everything up top.
 
I really didn't think you'd be able to see the difference on camera, but it's definitely there.

6 x 4 foot, 3 tube and 2 x 4 foot, 2 tube fluorescent fixtures:




10 x 4 foot, 4500 Lumen LED fixtures:

 
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