What have you done to your Miata today?

Maff, going to be a wild ride for sure. I'm trying to figure out a way to transplant the LT1 from the wife's Camaro into the Miata but I suspect she might notice.

What you do is, as Eric (foolish) suggested the other day, and do the FULL swap. You put the LT1 in the Miata, and the Miata drivetrain in the Camaro. She'll never know the difference! (rlaugh)

After I got the battery for the Miata and installed it, tried starting her but she didn't want to fire. Gave her some gas and she fired, but sounded like she was running on fewer than 4 cylinders. Pulled the plugs and it looked like only firing on one cylinder. After some downtime while I cogitated, I yanked everything down again to see where I had made a mistake. Checked to make sure I hadn't screwed up on the timing belt or left an electrical connector disconnected but everything checked out. After it was all back together fired her up again with the same result. After some more downtime to beat myself up, I bought a set of feeler gauges that went down to 0.0015 (my other set only went to 0.005) and checked the valve lash. Apparently I am an idiot because all but one of the intake lash clearances were very tight, and the exhaust clearances weren't a whole lot better. I am not sure of the cause of this, my caliper did malfunction but I don't think to the degree that would have resulted in this. Anyway, with my new digital caliper and feeler gauge I checked everything and figured out what I would need for new shims to fix it. Got those on order and now just waiting on them to show up so I can see if this will correct the problem.

Tight bucket clearances should increase wear, but they shouldn't keep it from running properly...unless they were at 0, holding the valve open so it couldn't make compression. In which case...yeesh.
 
Maff, going to be a wild ride for sure. I'm trying to figure out a way to transplant the LT1 from the wife's Camaro into the Miata but I suspect she might notice.

After I got the battery for the Miata and installed it, tried starting her but she didn't want to fire. Gave her some gas and she fired, but sounded like she was running on fewer than 4 cylinders. Pulled the plugs and it looked like only firing on one cylinder. After some downtime while I cogitated, I yanked everything down again to see where I had made a mistake. Checked to make sure I hadn't screwed up on the timing belt or left an electrical connector disconnected but everything checked out. After it was all back together fired her up again with the same result. After some more downtime to beat myself up, I bought a set of feeler gauges that went down to 0.0015 (my other set only went to 0.005) and checked the valve lash. Apparently I am an idiot because all but one of the intake lash clearances were very tight, and the exhaust clearances weren't a whole lot better. I am not sure of the cause of this, my caliper did malfunction but I don't think to the degree that would have resulted in this. Anyway, with my new digital caliper and feeler gauge I checked everything and figured out what I would need for new shims to fix it. Got those on order and now just waiting on them to show up so I can see if this will correct the problem.

I bet that you have a disconnected MAP sensor. If you open the throttle when idling does it start to sound better?
 
What you do is, as Eric (foolish) suggested the other day, and do the FULL swap. You put the LT1 in the Miata, and the Miata drivetrain in the Camaro. She'll never know the difference! (rlaugh)



Tight bucket clearances should increase wear, but they shouldn't keep it from running properly...unless they were at 0, holding the valve open so it couldn't make compression. In which case...yeesh.

Yeah, she's a little more savvy than that.

That is what I suspect happened given the noises I was hearing when cranking. I honestly have no idea how I could have screwed up that badly, but if she starts when I get the new shims in then it is obvious I did. Terrible senior moment in that case.

I bet that you have a disconnected MAP sensor. If you open the throttle when idling does it start to sound better?

It won't idle, so no. I am pretty sure the valve lash was just so tight that I wasn't getting compression on all cylinders. See above comment.
 
..
Yeah, she's a little more savvy than that.

That is what I suspect happened given the noises I was hearing when cranking. I honestly have no idea how I could have screwed up that badly, but if she starts when I get the new shims in then it is obvious I did. Terrible senior moment in that case.



It won't idle, so no. I am pretty sure the valve lash was just so tight that I wasn't getting compression on all cylinders. See above comment.

I've observed nearly the same symptoms on two different cars: hard time starting, started with cracking the throttle, sounded like they were only running on 1-2 cylinders, mostly wet spark plugs, and they 'came to life' when the throttle was opened (as the intake pressure approached what the disconnected MAP was reading). But you know your car better than I do! Though I do think it'd be worth the sixty seconds to look at the MAP or MAF to make sure that its happy.
 
Put my 04 msm up for sale, sad day for sure.[emoji853]

That does suck, but at least you have a nice ND to comfort you.

..

I've observed nearly the same symptoms on two different cars: hard time starting, started with cracking the throttle, sounded like they were only running on 1-2 cylinders, mostly wet spark plugs, and they 'came to life' when the throttle was opened (as the intake pressure approached what the disconnected MAP was reading). But you know your car better than I do! Though I do think it'd be worth the sixty seconds to look at the MAP or MAF to make sure that its happy.

I appreciate the information. I would never have thought a MAP/MAF problem would cause that sort of issue. Turned out that wasn't my problem.

Stopped by the dealer yesterday on my way to Cars & Coffee in the Camaro to see if the shims had arrived. They had (not sure why I did not receive the promised call) so picked them up. First thing this morning I got busy. Got the shims installed per my last clearance readings, put the cams on and checked them again. There were several off so pulled the cams again and moved things around. Ended up doing this a couple of times but ended up with all the exhaust clearances in spec, and only a couple of the intake clearances off by a little. Assembled everything, turned the key and she basically started right up. Let her run for a bit to warm up, then hoisted the front into the air and ran her some more to make sure all the air was out of the coolant system. At this point everything is back together, unfortunately it's raining so I'm not going to do any test drive until tomorrow.

Takeaway from this is to triple check your valve lash and make sure you have a set of feeler gauges that go nearly to zero. If anyone wants to beat me up over this feel free, it won't be any worse than what I have already done to myself.
 
Well, it was bound to happen eventually, but the law of averages finally caught up with us. I don't know if there was a shift fork that picked that moment to fail, or if 1 of our drivers ham-fisted a shift (no it wasn't me) and kinda rammed it into gear, but something is dickered in the transmission. I haven't pulled anything apart yet so it might be something simple, but we basically had to reef on it just to get it out of the 1st / 2nd gates. It freed up so it could go into 3/4, and after a few more runs (are you guys silly? We're still gonna send it!) 5th freed up, but the shift feel is very strange, and we couldn't reliably find 3rd gear on course. Unfortunately, we NEEDED 3rd on course, otherwise the whole 2nd half of the course was on the rev limiter in 2nd gear. Given that, we did end up packing the car up because just driving it on the rev limiter is a great way to break the motor in addition to the trans, and I didn't want to do that (and neither did the co-drivers). Continuing at that point would just be abuse, really.

I'll start tearing it down. Hopefully it's just the shifter bushing that detonated, but it's delrin and shouldn't shatter like the stock ones, and shouldn't permanently deform like the bronze ones do, so we'll see. Fingers crossed, but I'm pretty sure at this point the trans is junk and needs to come out.
 
Well, it was bound to happen eventually, but the law of averages finally caught up with us. I don't know if there was a shift fork that picked that moment to fail, or if 1 of our drivers ham-fisted a shift (no it wasn't me) and kinda rammed it into gear, but something is dickered in the transmission. I haven't pulled anything apart yet so it might be something simple, but we basically had to reef on it just to get it out of the 1st / 2nd gates. It freed up so it could go into 3/4, and after a few more runs (are you guys silly? We're still gonna send it!) 5th freed up, but the shift feel is very strange, and we couldn't reliably find 3rd gear on course. Unfortunately, we NEEDED 3rd on course, otherwise the whole 2nd half of the course was on the rev limiter in 2nd gear. Given that, we did end up packing the car up because just driving it on the rev limiter is a great way to break the motor in addition to the trans, and I didn't want to do that (and neither did the co-drivers). Continuing at that point would just be abuse, really.

I'll start tearing it down. Hopefully it's just the shifter bushing that detonated, but it's delrin and shouldn't shatter like the stock ones, and shouldn't permanently deform like the bronze ones do, so we'll see. Fingers crossed, but I'm pretty sure at this point the trans is junk and needs to come out.

Well that does bite! If I know you though it will be out and fixed before the autox!! Good luck Andrew
 
Well, it was bound to happen eventually, but the law of averages finally caught up with us. I don't know if there was a shift fork that picked that moment to fail, or if 1 of our drivers ham-fisted a shift (no it wasn't me) and kinda rammed it into gear, but something is dickered in the transmission. I haven't pulled anything apart yet so it might be something simple, but we basically had to reef on it just to get it out of the 1st / 2nd gates. It freed up so it could go into 3/4, and after a few more runs (are you guys silly? We're still gonna send it!) 5th freed up, but the shift feel is very strange, and we couldn't reliably find 3rd gear on course. Unfortunately, we NEEDED 3rd on course, otherwise the whole 2nd half of the course was on the rev limiter in 2nd gear. Given that, we did end up packing the car up because just driving it on the rev limiter is a great way to break the motor in addition to the trans, and I didn't want to do that (and neither did the co-drivers). Continuing at that point would just be abuse, really.

I'll start tearing it down. Hopefully it's just the shifter bushing that detonated, but it's delrin and shouldn't shatter like the stock ones, and shouldn't permanently deform like the bronze ones do, so we'll see. Fingers crossed, but I'm pretty sure at this point the trans is junk and needs to come out.

Maff, I'd say you got your money's worth out of it. Sucks to have it happen, but since you are swapping engines maybe look at putting in one of those new-fangled BMW transmissions all the cool kids are doing?
 
Maff, I'd say you got your money's worth out of it. Sucks to have it happen, but since you are swapping engines maybe look at putting in one of those new-fangled BMW transmissions all the cool kids are doing?

I'm thinking about it, but I'm going to try and get a Miata 6-speed to survive behind it first. The Getrag is a great unit, but the swap is more $$.
 
Got up this morning and despite the threat of rain, pulled her out to give her a bath (first one since September some time). She cleaned up well. Piddled around and checked the normal things (tire pressure, oil/coolant levels etc) once that was done. Just got finished up and sat down to post this, look outside and the rain is pouring down. It looks like no test drive today either. (sad1)

42733845991_131b2ae5f8_b.jpg
 
Well, it was bound to happen eventually, but the law of averages finally caught up with us. I don't know if there was a shift fork that picked that moment to fail, or if 1 of our drivers ham-fisted a shift (no it wasn't me) and kinda rammed it into gear, but something is dickered in the transmission. I haven't pulled anything apart yet so it might be something simple, but we basically had to reef on it just to get it out of the 1st / 2nd gates. It freed up so it could go into 3/4, and after a few more runs (are you guys silly? We're still gonna send it!) 5th freed up, but the shift feel is very strange, and we couldn't reliably find 3rd gear on course. Unfortunately, we NEEDED 3rd on course, otherwise the whole 2nd half of the course was on the rev limiter in 2nd gear. Given that, we did end up packing the car up because just driving it on the rev limiter is a great way to break the motor in addition to the trans, and I didn't want to do that (and neither did the co-drivers). Continuing at that point would just be abuse, really.

I'll start tearing it down. Hopefully it's just the shifter bushing that detonated, but it's delrin and shouldn't shatter like the stock ones, and shouldn't permanently deform like the bronze ones do, so we'll see. Fingers crossed, but I'm pretty sure at this point the trans is junk and needs to come out.

Well... any material is going to yield or crack (ductile vs brittle failure)... so if it failed it likely did at least one of those things! I've seen Delrin do both, depending on the circumstances.

Got up this morning and despite the threat of rain, pulled her out to give her a bath (first one since September some time). She cleaned up well. Piddled around and checked the normal things (tire pressure, oil/coolant levels etc) once that was done. Just got finished up and sat down to post this, look outside and the rain is pouring down. It looks like no test drive today either. (sad1)

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1724/42733845991_131b2ae5f8_b.jpg

Braaap that s*** in the rain son!
 
Does your car not work if it's raining or something? o_O

You never know...

I want to get on it after I am sure it is running well, and prudence dictates that I not do that in the wet (especially since I haven't driven her in so long). Also I really don't want to have to wash her again so soon.

Braaap that s*** in the rain son!

See above. (drive2)
 
Well... any material is going to yield or crack (ductile vs brittle failure)... so if it failed it likely did at least one of those things! I've seen Delrin do both, depending on the circumstances.

Nope, shifter bushing is fine, and everything inside the turret looks clean & pristine. So I'm pretty sure she's dickered :(

I want to get on it after I am sure it is running well, and prudence dictates that I not do that in the wet

Meh.

25519405540_b1ef20f9c0_o.jpg


:D
 
Driving the rain is the best! All your mistakes happen at slower speeds, everything runs cooler, and other drivers are super cautious/slow/still in the trailer. My favorite track driving has always been in the rain.
 
I agree with you both. I enjoy driving in the rain, it demands focus and you can exclude all else. This holds true for me riding motorcycles as well. Unfortunately driving on the street means dealing with other drivers who are more brain-dead than normal. No thanks.

Weather cleared a bit and the roads were dry, so I took her out for a short test. Drove fine, did notice some stuttering at higher engine speeds so I'm going to check and see if any water got into the spark plug wells when I washed her. The new steering wheel feels great, and no airbag light came on. It feels so different from the wife's Camaro which I expected, but I prefer this. Yes, it's hard to argue with a honking-big American V8, but the Miata is so tossable that there is no comparison handling-wise. I can feel the road and it is so much more responsive (some of that is due to the front negative camber I know). It is just a much better balanced package overall, and for my tastes more enjoyable.
 
Wow you guys are busy!! The only things I have to report is that the horn isn't working, fuse is fine, so that's one thing to fix.

The other was my PRHT stopped working, light flashing on the dash. After mulling it over and checking online it was a simple matter of "rebooting the PRHT ECU" by pulling the battery. I'm exhausted.

Sorry to hear about the 2004 for sale Mark. Why? 1 too many Miatas?
 
Wow you guys are busy!! The only things I have to report is that the horn isn't working, fuse is fine, so that's one thing to fix.

The other was my PRHT stopped working, light flashing on the dash. After mulling it over and checking online it was a simple matter of "rebooting the PRHT ECU" by pulling the battery. I'm exhausted.

Sorry to hear about the 2004 for sale Mark. Why? 1 too many Miatas?

Exhaust, haha!
Well it’s hard to justify keeping it for 6 autox and a few track days....I was going to make a strictly race car, but my truck need stupid money to fix it and I’m not buy a truck and trailer....I hate to sell really, and if I can’t get something for I’ll keep it.
If it sells I’ll use the ND for those autox and track days...get some new rims and sticky tires and have at it.
 
Had to take two days off while doing a head gasket job on one of the kids' cars. This morning I pulled the COPS, three of the plug recesses had water in them. Looks like I need to take even more care when I wash down the engine bay. Blew that out with compressed air, initial shot didn't get it all so I put a paper towel into the hole and then blew it again. Left everything open for a while to make sure it was all dry. Also noticed the 'charger belt had walked off one tooth so put that back in place, will monitor to see if I need to adjust the 'charger position.

Then, since it is a nice day, I went for a drive. Took my favorite local backroad. It's amazing the difference between this and my wife's Camaro. Weight does have an impact on handling, if you doubt that then take a modern car with the latest suspension and drive it back to back with an older well-sorted sports car. With the water cleared out of the plug holes she pulled hard to redline. Even small throttle openings provided a push of effortless acceleration. It's sneaky fast compared to the sledgehammer speed of the Camaro's V8. I love this car.
 
Back