What have you done to your Miata today?

With my ride height and factory parts, yes.

Gotcha. Because my car's not Hella Slammed y0, I always forget that it is pretty dang low compared to a stock-ish car. I have no trouble getting way past -3 degrees camber (ie: way more than I need). I have custom offset rear-outer-upper bushings so that I could dial OUT camber to make it work properly (rlaugh)
 
Got the alignment done this morning. I was way off on my estimate of the front camber, it was -3.8/-3.6 left/right. Toe had changed as well, to the point I was very glad I only had a mile or two to drive. She was making all kinds of odd noises and darting around. Just be aware if you install these ball joints you will be looking at weirdness while driving to your favorite shop. I ended up with the -2.5 degrees in the front I wanted, however he had to set caster higher than I specified to get that number which means steering is heavier (it isn't horrible). Driving results? Turn the wheel and she dives into the corner. Stability is great. I'm looking forward to doing an autocross with this alignment.
 
Got the alignment done this morning. I was way off on my estimate of the front camber, it was -3.8/-3.6 left/right. Toe had changed as well, to the point I was very glad I only had a mile or two to drive. She was making all kinds of odd noises and darting around. Just be aware if you install these ball joints you will be looking at weirdness while driving to your favorite shop. I ended up with the -2.5 degrees in the front I wanted, however he had to set caster higher than I specified to get that number which means steering is heavier (it isn't horrible). Driving results? Turn the wheel and she dives into the corner. Stability is great. I'm looking forward to doing an autocross with this alignment.

That's close to what I used to run. I also maxed out caster, which felt really nice in auto-x. You get better force-feedback through the wheel when the front axle's grip start to saturate and the steering gets light.
 
Thanks for the input.

Woke up early this morning and checked my e-mail. Found a message from Rev9 telling me my order has shipped. I'm so excited!
 
Assembled to the point of being able to start the car- exhaust midpipe and radiator aren't yet installed- but I'm getting a crank no-start. Fuel is present- it reeks. Spark is present- jumps from #1 wire to valve cover and spark looks healthy. Removed the front covers and verified my timing is correct. It started piss-pouring rain at that point and hasn't stopped for two days. Going to check fuel pressure and do a compression check today. The car was running before it sent a rod through the pan, so it's likely something of mine, something I've done. Will recheck my harness, grounds, engine management connections.
 
Take the timing covers off the front of the engine and make sure the timing marks are still lined up correctly.
 
Fair warning, picture heavy post so everyone should sit down. :D

The mail lady knocked on the door. I had several packages from overseas that I had to sign for. Here are the big ones:

36357327802_7090590266_c.jpg


One of the boxes had some dings, I documented same just in case:

36357326892_6b8a50bfac_c.jpg


The parts were well packed so I felt a little better about things (note, Japanese cardboard is pretty flimsy compared to ours):

36357325652_655c75e127_c.jpg


Liberated from the boxes, but not yet fully unpacked:

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JDM yo. Any translators in the house?

35690596004_64ae4ac99a_c.jpg


If you want to know if you have an actual real-deal product, look for the manufacturer's mark:

35690594914_4227eb4d7d_c.jpg


Here's the top of the lower piece, can you tell what it is?

35690593014_86bc4bb141_c.jpg


The bottom:

35690592074_56b977468d_c.jpg


And for the grand finale...

35690593754_f5b9a6e29c_c.jpg


That shot has the piece upside-down, just stand on your head to see how it will look. I'll wait while the blood rushes to your head and you pass out.
 
Take the timing covers off the front of the engine and make sure the timing marks are still lined up correctly.


Assembled to the point of being able to start the car- exhaust midpipe and radiator aren't yet installed- but I'm getting a crank no-start. Fuel is present- it reeks. Spark is present- jumps from #1 wire to valve cover and spark looks healthy. Removed the front covers and verified my timing is correct. It started piss-pouring rain at that point and hasn't stopped for two days. Going to check fuel pressure and do a compression check today. The car was running before it sent a rod through the pan, so it's likely something of mine, something I've done. Will recheck my harness, grounds, engine management connections.
 
This is the internet, man. You can't expect people to READ (rlaugh)

But yeah, if that's right, then it may be a sensor or trigger issue somewhere else along the line. Start checking everything one by one. Plug wire order, is the ECU plugged in, the MAF, coil packs, CAS, etc.
 
Fair warning, picture heavy post so everyone should sit down. :D

The mail lady knocked on the door. I had several packages from overseas that I had to sign for. Here are the big ones:

36357327802_7090590266_c.jpg


One of the boxes had some dings, I documented same just in case:

36357326892_6b8a50bfac_c.jpg


The parts were well packed so I felt a little better about things (note, Japanese cardboard is pretty flimsy compared to ours):

36357325652_655c75e127_c.jpg


Liberated from the boxes, but not yet fully unpacked:

35690596944_3d91cf37b6_c.jpg


JDM yo. Any translators in the house?

35690596004_64ae4ac99a_c.jpg


If you want to know if you have an actual real-deal product, look for the manufacturer's mark:

35690594914_4227eb4d7d_c.jpg


Here's the top of the lower piece, can you tell what it is?

35690593014_86bc4bb141_c.jpg


The bottom:

35690592074_56b977468d_c.jpg


And for the grand finale...

35690593754_f5b9a6e29c_c.jpg


That shot has the piece upside-down, just stand on your head to see how it will look. I'll wait while the blood rushes to your head and you pass out.

Oh boy! Christmas come early to the bluegrass state!!! ;)
 
You betcha!

So my inner ricer was screaming to be let out. The upper diffuser piece is going to require quite a bit of cutting, but I figure I could get the lower one on without too much work. I was partly right.

Since I have a double-exit muffler I had to cut an opening on the driver's side of the vertical rib on the diffuser. Here's the opening on the passenger side, and the layout for the other one:

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I made a template from the passenger side opening and transferred that over, the tape was used to prevent chipping of the fiberglass as I was cutting it. As I did with the cuts to my radiator fan shroud, I drilled two holes in the lower corners of the cut to provide for stress relief. I tried a couple of different methods of cutting the fiberglass, ended up using my Dremel with a cut-off disc. Here is the result:

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A little smoothing with a sanding disc and here's the end result:

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Note that after I took this picture I had to do some more removal of material along the bottom of the opening to provide for clearance for the muffler tip pipe.

Installation is pretty easy, there are two holes at the front that use the rearmost bolts holding the subframe bracing on and two holes at the rear that use bolts going through the tow hooks. I put the included fender washer underneath the diffuser at the front holes instead of on top, I figured that would work better with my Beatrush PPF brace (and it did). With the bolts at the rear, you put the nuts on the reverse of what you normally would. This allows the hex to fit inside the tow hook and act as a captive nut. I was very happy to see that my 949 subframe brace cleared the diffuser. A little wiggling and moving things around, torquing of the PPF bolts and this is the final result:

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One thing to note, I will have to remove this any time I get an alignment as it renders a couple of the adjustment bolts inaccessible.
 
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Since I had to remove things this morning, I took some pictures showing how the two bolts that hold the rear of the lower diffuser to the tow hooks are done:

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As you can see, the nut fits right inside when reversed. Nice simple solution for that. I went to Ace and got a couple of fender washers to use between the lower diffuser and the tow hook to spread the force of the bolts out a little more on the fiberglass. No real way to show that with a picture.

In order to mark the left side of the upper diffuser for my dual outlet tip I had to remove the muffler. Once that was out I taped the diffuser in place and then marked it for the cut:

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Once I had the mark I used my Dremel to cut it out and then sand it down:

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PSA, fiberglass is sharp. I managed to cut myself while brushing dust off after cutting it. Imagine slicing yourself with an Exacto knife, it's like that.

Cleaned everything up after making sure my cut was good (looked like it at the time, but once I had it fitted in place I found it was a little off). The top of the upper diffuser is held on the bumper cover with double-sided tape, so I cleaned the mounting surface with denatured alcohol and then put the tape on. Here is where it gets a little tricky. If I were doing it over again I would have put painter's tape on the bumper where the bottom corners of the diffuser would touch. As I was trying to get the piece in place (the bottom edge fits inside the lower diffuser) the tape on the passenger side stuck to the bumper where I had pulled the backing away a little to give me something to grab for mounting. While getting that off and moving the diffuser to where it needed to be, I got some small scrapes on the bumper cover. Not a big deal, they rubbed out, but something to be aware of. Managed to get things in place and then I had to drill 6 holes in the bumper cover. The four screws in the middle go through both upper and lower diffusers and the bumper cover. The two in the middle are really hard to reach to put the nuts in place, even with my long arms I was hard-pressed to get them in there. Once I had a couple started I went ahead and stuck the top edge down with the tape. Once the upper diffuser was mounted I tightened the lower diffuser and that was that. Here is the final result:

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Two things that I am undecided on. The first is if I want to paint any part of the upper diffuser body color, and the second is if I want to cut the bumper cover behind the screen in the middle. I may be missing a couple of red reflectors, there are recesses on the upper diffuser made for this (all the pictures I've seen have them in place) but I did not receive any. I sent Rev9 an e-mail asking about this.
 
It looks awesome, but the solution for holding it on w/ the nuts in the tow hooks seems convenient, but also kinda sketchy. Is there anything preventing them from vibrating loose over time?
 
Assuming my vote counts: I also say "no paint". Looks awesome 2-tone against the Merlot
 
It looks awesome, but the solution for holding it on w/ the nuts in the tow hooks seems convenient, but also kinda sketchy. Is there anything preventing them from vibrating loose over time?

Did you forget what I do for a living? On the bolt side there is a lockwasher on top of the fender washer. I'll be keeping an eye on things, if it's needed I'll add a little Loctite.

No paint and maybe some 3m automotive tape to help keep it tight?

The upper piece has tape on its upper edge. The bottom of both pieces are held together with screws through the bumper cover. This stuff isn't going anywhere.

Thanks for the comments. I really think I'm going to paint the uppermost section (above the upside-down U channel) of the upper diffuser body color. There will still be more than enough black to contrast, and I think it might help tie everything together. Wonder if anyone still does Photoshop?
 
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Looks great sir! Another vote for black. I get what you are saying about painting it but I'd have to see it shopped first.
 
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