Pablo's NA, here we go again...

I've seen it in person, but it was at night and I was probably only concerned with the grumpy cat on the trunk.
 
This gif reminded me of you for some odd reason... ;)

edit- you know, because you have another project car. That will bleed you dry off ALL the monies...

M7MfEP4.gif
 
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The car was bogging down when going full throttle when the engine was cold, it seems the issue was fixed when I replaced the hoses (one of them was cracked) and PCV valve. Stopped by the car wash this morning to use the pressure hose and get some of the bugs off, will start doing a thorough cleaning after work.

Will was helping me do some calculations for the suspension, trying to figure out which way to go. I still need to push the car harder, but so far it feels neutral (the data says it should be fairly loose). Don't want to push it too much till I do the brakes, have to wait for the brake lines to get here on Monday.

Also, does anybody have a good method to align the doors after you've changed the bolts on the hinges? When I did the frog arms on the MSM, it was a b**** to re-align them and I still didn't get it right. I need to install them on this one, but would rather wait till I have a good method to do that, or maybe I need to pay someone to do it for me after I install the frog arms.
 
Miata doors are pretty light so you could probably have one person hold the door while you tighten bolts and test fit until you get it right. On my neighbors '76 Lincoln Town Car we used a 2x4 on a jack to adjust the bottom of the door in place. Just takes a lot patients and an extra set of arms.
 
Cleaned up the inside but still need to vacuum, replaced the shift knob and he head unit. Also checked the timing, it's already advanced so I'll get 91 from now on.

 
Car is clean inside and out, looks much better.

Replaced the fuel filter, was going to try to put the frog arms on but one of the bolts on the top of the fenders was on too tight and it stripped. Bought the bits to drill it out but I was making too much noise so I had to stop, not allowed to work on the car in the garage. Will have to wait till I can use Evan's garage, for now planning to do the brakes on Wednesday to I can autox on Sunday.
 
2 more things done:

- replaced the exhaust hangers with Corksport urethane ones, no more rattles when going over bumps or taking hard right turns (if there is, it's minimal and can't be heard over the exhaust\road noise). The clearance between the exhaust and the brace is minimal, so this definitively helps.

- replaced brake lines (from 949 racing), rotors (NAPA blanks), pads (Carbotech XP10 front and XP8 rear), fluid (motul 600) and greased the pins. Now the car stops like it should, even locked up a tire when bedding the pads (boom03)

things that need to be done:

- replaced clutch hydraulics
- replace fluids: tranny and diff
- install frog arms
- swap suspension (waiting to see if this girl will buy the Konis)

 
Replace ALL THE PARTS!



ps- you mean Wilwood 600 brake fluid. ;)
 
Diff and tranny fluids replaced, still need to check the turret. Clutch hydraulics also replaced: master and slave cylinders and ss line, fresh fluid.

Still need to do frog arms and suspension.

There's an autox tomorrow, we'll see how she does.
 
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so... not entirely happy with the performance of today's event. The FCM calculator says the car should be loose, but today it was either understeering or neutral. Don't know if I should blame the behavior on cold tires and slightly damp pavement or suspension setup. I was not able to get the tires hot, runs were very short, which leads to something else: I tried to do a hard launch (dump clutch @ 5k) on my second run but could not get wheel spin. Instead, it felt like the clutch was slipping. However, the other 2 runs and on the way home the clutch felt completely fine... don't know what to make about that, and don't know if it still has the stock clutch. Both FM sway bars are on full stiff, which makes it feel fine when I push it on the on ramps or dead man's curve.

Any ideas??

 
Replaced the suspension last night, so far the car feels a bit more jumpy on the road (not as smooth\solid) BUT it feels lighter when I turn. Haven't pushed it yet, dropping it off today to get the alignment.
 
Picked her up from the shop, ended up with:

Castor: 6 left and right
Camber: -2.3 front, -2.4 RL, -2.5 RR
Toe: 1/32 out front, 1/32 in rear
Ride height: supposed to be set for my weight

She feels very light and agile, caught me off guard avoiding debris on the freeway, turned quicker than I expected.
 
Installed the frog arms on Saturday, a few bolts broke which is somewhat expected but Evan helped me out, only 1 remained broken. The car doesn't shake as much on the road, you can feel the suspension doing all the work. The autox yesterday went much better, kept understeering in 1 corner but that was my fault for not helping the car rotate (gotta work on that). Really like how it drives now, and no matter how much Tim bugs me I'm not buying his monster miata.





 
Everything is AWESOME! looks good man! keep it up and glad you're having fun with it!
 
Looks good Pablo! So were lining up the doors as bad as you thought?
 
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