Adventures in Miatadom

Did you swap all the eccentric bolts on the car yet? They tend to get old and start to loosen up making that pop noise when they move around.

I had a 1.6 Miata for about 10 years. It will never be a particularly competitive autocross car (as in, it fits somewhere and can be in the top 3 cars in that class) so you might as well have fun with whatever you do with it.

If you want to make more power just build your own turbo kit and hook up a Megasquirt to manage it. That's the cheapest and best way to go to make power. You can find cast off parts on miataturbo.net for sale all the time. That said, the rear VLSD won't hold much more than stock and the clutch will need replacing as well.

None of the naturally aspirated stuff does anything to make the car more powerful. It's all just a waste of money as you found out with that header.

You're much better off overall just putting money into the suspension than trying to make the car more powerful as that is just a never ending money pit (though still a relatively cheap pit on the Miata and well explored). Also the 1.6 is the red headed stepchild of Miatas when it comes to power adders. If you really want to do it then I'd get a 1.8 car to start.

The suspension upgrades though really pay dividends. I'd get the VMAXX coilovers and throw those on and do nothing else if I were you.

I haven't replaced the front eccentrics but I aligned it a few weeks ago and they seemed fine. Maybe they loosened up though. Like I said, I'm reasonably sure it isn't a tie rod or ball joint, which is the main thing I would be worried about. As long as the car isn't going to fail tech this Sunday or damage something then it can wait.

From a power standpoint, I have looked into turbo kits. I never thought of Miataturbo.net, mainly because I try to avoid a lot of forums. I am aware the 1.6L will not ever be an earth-shattering, firebreathing monster, but I wouldn't mind another 40 or so horsepower. Not getting blown off the road by almost every other car out there would be nice. And yes, I already planned on replacing the clutch. I don't really launch the car that hard, so the diff would probably hold up.

I have considered the 1.8L swap but mainly the 1.6L runs so well and is in such good shape that I really hate to yank it out. I have also considered the J-series swap but I just don't have that kind of coin to drop at once.

Being a competitive autocross car has never been a concern. I autocross because I enjoy it, not because I want to win. That I'm tied for first in class is just a weird coincidence. I am building this car to an image I have in my head, not to the SCCA rule book. Technically my car isn't even legal for the class I run in. And even if I built it to the rule, I would always be the bottleneck. Better builder than a driver.

A 1.8L Jackson kit popped up the other day for a reasonable price ($650 I think) and I probably should have jumped on that and then put a 1.8L engine in the car. Before I came to that conclusion it sold though.

Well, the strange suspension noise appears to have been an endlink bolt that loosened up. Easy enough fix.

Also, bought another vehicle to add to the fleet today. My daily driver Subaru Loyale was getting pretty tired, so I managed to pick up a ZJ-chassis Grand Cherokee for $500. It needs an IAC valve, valve cover gasket, trans pan and gasket and a steering dampener but other than that it's pretty nice. Way nicer than the price tag would suggest.

This Sunday was an Enduro event through m SCCA chapter at Cherry Valley and I was really excited for this event. Not only was the weather supposed to be great but this event was supposed to give everyone the most amount of track time. Also upping the ante was the chase for 1st in my class. I needed to show up to get the points to break the tie and really only needed this event. The other guy I was tied with had to show up for this event and the tentative Oct 11th to get the minimum attendance eligibility to qualify for class win.

Numbering my car up with tape like a total plebeian.

We had a pretty good turnout for the event, with 32 cars total. Pretty good for one of the events that's more challenging and harder on the car, and being as late in the season as it is. We had a vote how we wanted to run the event: 3 runs of 5 laps or 2 runs of 7 laps. Everyone voted for the shorter runs for the sake of saving their cars

That's me in the background with the N7 jacket, sunglasses and 1320Video hat.

Run 1 was a slow run at 193 seconds. The track was pretty cold, there was a lot of gravel in the corners from where they had a laid down some cold patch and it was coming up, and I hadn't raced at Cherry Valley in a while and wanted to relearn the track. Cherry Valley is a pretty unforgiving track, especially corner 2. You can carry a lot of speed into corner 2 and it's a sharp, decreasing radius left-hander with a very rough surface and not much runoff room. It's where the C6 hit the wall at the last event there and a blobeye WRX hit the wall there at this event as well.

Run 2, I made a mental note to "not drive like a wimp" and really got on it, pushing the car for all it had. Shaved off 9 seconds, dropping to a 184. This would my fastest time for the day and at this point put me ahead of Davey Thai and his N-STX FR-S (The guy I'm competing for the class against)

Run 3 was not so great. First I managed to bobble the 1-2 shift somehow (I know, I'm just that special) and then headed into turn 3 I discovered I should have dropped the front tire pressure, as they had no grip. Kept it on the track but the car definitely wanted to plow. I gained 2 seconds for a 186 second run.

When all was said and done, I was 3rd out of 5 in class. Davey Thai's FR-S made 2nd and Aaron Bailey made 1st in his E46 sedan. Bailey doesn't have enough events to be eligible for class win, so Davey moved into 1st by 3 points and I hold down 2nd. Which means this class is still anyone's game.

Overall, the car ran great, I had an absolute blast (Favorite event so far) and I finally found the aggression that my driving was lacking. As Scott pointed out when he drove the car at the last event, I have a ton of grip and can flat-foot the car in a lot of spots. I made sure to do that at this event.

That covers my day at the event, but my next post will be some other highlights from the event.

Great thread. Sounds like you've really sorted the car out after purchase.

I second Harvey's recommendation for more power. A turbo kit is about the easiest way to gain more power on the 1.6.

I don't recommend miataturbo.net. It's a bag of shiny happy people. Don't even bother. If you want some help just head over to miata.net. They're much more helpful to new guys and a much kinder place to spend time. You'll get the same data in the forced induction forum there.

Xceler8x wrote: I don't recommend miataturbo.net. It's a bag of shiny happy people. Don't even bother.

Yeah, that's been about my experience with Miataturbo.net. Seems like if you have any questions whatsoever, they crucify you

Some of the other events of the day:

Leo Sawyer's Lotus Sabre 7 set FTD and was absolutely ripping out on track. Sadly he got screwed on PAX and finished 17th on PAX.

Wes Davis debuted his replacment for his old very tired, very smokey 1st-gen RX7 Chump Car, in the form of a new DD Porsche 924. Then on one of his laps, the entire exhaust fell off. An auspicious start

Ted Barbuto's STS Miata was running strong, taking STS by over 8 seconds. And he wants me to work on it this winter to make it even faster. He did thank me for my idea of wrapping his Racing Beat intake with heat wrap

Jim Stewart was a new racer with our group in his gorgeous M-Edition. He was a bit disappointed with his performance though and din't care for the fact that his son's STF Fiesta was beating him.

William Meyer's Cobra was running very fast high 160 second passes all day and had backfires on decel that sounded like cannon shots. He said the engine in it makes so much torque that he was leaving in second, with tons of wheelspin, and never shifting any higher or lower around the whole course.

John Breazzano put his '09 Z51 into the wall the last time we were here. He ended up getting it fixed and drove most of the year with it, but decided to trade up to a '15 Z51. He picked it up Friday and it had 60 miles when he arrived. He had to keep it below 4500RPM but he still logged some very fast runs. Can't wait to see what it does when it gets fully broken in

Davey Thai, my "archnemesis." He skipped a lot of events and I slowly accrued points to tie up the lead with him. He came back for the last 2 events to make himself eligible for class win. Only 3 points seperate us at the moment but he has to show up for the next event without fail. During his absence, his FR-S jumped from C/S to STX.

I was looking forward to seeing this turbocharged Miata make laps...

But it sounded out of sorts when it left the line and coasted 1 lap before shutting off and refusing to restart. The owner wrenched on it, had it running, took it up the street and back and then parked it and had a rollback show up for it. Uh-oh.

Gerrit VanVranken in the infamous Tom Celica was doing it's best tricycle impression again. Him and John Croasdaile were engaged in a fierce fight for H/Street and in the Top 10. With John admitting that Cherry Valley was a weak track for him, Gerrit was hoping this would be the killing blow.

Instead... Yuriy Yatsishin showed up with his 8th-gen Civic Si and proceeded to demolish both of their hopes. He took the win in H/Street, 2nd overall on PAX and moved into 4th overall in the standings. There was much grumbling of the Civic Si being in H/Street

Lynn LaForte managed 3rd overall in her G/Street GTi

And Karl Hughes took 1st place overall in his X-STX E30 Chump Car. He also tied up the lead for the points chase with Chris Gifford (Who skipped this event)

From left to right: Yuriy (2nd), Karl (1st) and Lynn (3rd)

A much more unfortunate event was Kyle Rashford and his blobeye WRX. Kyle and Chris had been having a back-and-forth fight for overall points lead and with Chris skipping the event, the door was wide open for Kyle to take back the lead. He looked strong early on, with the WRX running like an absolute freight train. Then, on the 3rd lap of his last run, he came in hot to Turn 2 and had no brakes and hit the wall, tearing up the RF corner of the bumper, RF headlight, RF fender and RR quarter panel. A rough break.

The car in pre-wrecked condition.

Next event is October 11th, back at Cherry Valley and it's going to be a good one, with a lot of classes still in the air.

An old Sebring supercharger kit has popped up on the one Miata parts group I am part of for $700. It's complete, it just needs the bearings replaced in the supercharger and it comes with the rebuild kit. Very tempting. What say you?

Do it.....

Why would any of us say no?

I'd probably point to a 1.8 swap for that money personally, but $700 for cool noises and a boost gauge is hard to pass up.

Somebody got the jump on me, dammit. If I hadn't just bought the Cheap Jeep and immersed myself in getting that straightened out, I might have been a bit less hesitant and hit the "Buy" button

jimbob_racing wrote: Why would any of us say no?

I know, bunch of bloody enablers

Swank Force One wrote: I'd probably point to a 1.8 swap for that money personally, but $700 for cool noises and a boost gauge is hard to pass up.

Yeah. Although people report 130ish rwhp with the Sebring blower, which is certainly acceptable. And probably a decent low-end punch. I'm more about Area Under The Curve, than Peak Numbers

NickD wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: I'd probably point to a 1.8 swap for that money personally, but $700 for cool noises and a boost gauge is hard to pass up.

Yeah. Although people report 130ish rwhp with the Sebring blower, which is certainly acceptable. And probably a decent low-end punch. I'm more about Area Under The Curve, than Peak Numbers

My 93 had an M45 JR kit on it at one point. It was halfway entertaining the first pull. Then it heat soaked so bad that it was slower than a stock NB after that.

Swank Force One wrote:

NickD wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: I'd probably point to a 1.8 swap for that money personally, but $700 for cool noises and a boost gauge is hard to pass up.

Yeah. Although people report 130ish rwhp with the Sebring blower, which is certainly acceptable. And probably a decent low-end punch. I'm more about Area Under The Curve, than Peak Numbers

My 93 had an M45 JR kit on it at one point. It was halfway entertaining the first pull. Then it heat soaked so bad that it was slower than a stock NB after that.

Yeah, that's the thing I don't like is that the supercharger is hanging over the exhaust manifold. Fast Forward has a coldside MP62 kit coming but $5600 is ridiculous. Could do a J-swap for that much and make more torque and run unleaded. Looked at the Kraftwerks Rotrex kit but I could get an FM Voodoo turbo kit for $800 less and make roughly the same numbers.

Did anyone ever science out putting in the 1.8L VVT engines? I seem to recall engine control was the problem.

FastForward switched from the MP62 to something else... they've had a coldside kit out for a long time. Their "fuel control" hurts my brain, though.

Jackson Racing has a Rotrex kit in the works. Don't expect it to be cheap, though.

Putting in the VVT engine, you have a few options. You CAN run it on stock 1.6 electronics and ignition, just leave the VVT fully retarded and not controlled.

There's a PNP Megasquirt option with VVT specifically for the swap you're asking about, though. Sold through 949Racing. That would be better. A VVT powered NA6 is a nice combo.

Swank Force One wrote: FastForward switched from the MP62 to something else... they've had a coldside kit out for a long time. Their "fuel control" hurts my brain, though.

The coldside kit for the 1.6L wasn't out last I checked, but either way it's stupid expensive. Isn't that "fuel control" the 5th injector that sprays into the supercharger or something? Yeah, it sounded janky but in theory it's like nitrous ahead of a blower or water injection, so on paper it makes sense.

Swank Force One wrote: Putting in the VVT engine, you have a few options. You CAN run it on stock 1.6 electronics and ignition, just leave the VVT fully retarded and not controlled. There's a PNP Megasquirt option with VVT specifically for the swap you're asking about, though. Sold through 949Racing. That would be better. A VVT powered NA6 is a nice combo.

I would rather have VVT functional if I went that route. I recall seeing that Chikara (I think) had an ECU that controlled the VVT for this swap but it was something stupid like $2000.

NickD wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: FastForward switched from the MP62 to something else... they've had a coldside kit out for a long time. Their "fuel control" hurts my brain, though.

The coldside kit for the 1.6L wasn't out last I checked, but either way it's stupid expensive. Isn't that "fuel control" the 5th injector that sprays into the supercharger or something? Yeah, it sounded janky but in theory it's like nitrous ahead of a blower or water injection, so on paper it makes sense.

Swank Force One wrote: Putting in the VVT engine, you have a few options. You CAN run it on stock 1.6 electronics and ignition, just leave the VVT fully retarded and not controlled. There's a PNP Megasquirt option with VVT specifically for the swap you're asking about, though. Sold through 949Racing. That would be better. A VVT powered NA6 is a nice combo.

I would rather have VVT functional if I went that route. I recall seeing that Chikara (I think) had an ECU that controlled the VVT for this swap but it was something stupid like $2000.

Oh right i keep forgetting 1.6, sorry.

Chikara uses that unsupported-in-the-US Freedom ECU last i checked. I wouldn't do that. Megasquirt has been documented for this exact swap dozens of times.

Swank Force One wrote:

NickD wrote:

Swank Force One wrote: FastForward switched from the MP62 to something else... they've had a coldside kit out for a long time. Their "fuel control" hurts my brain, though.

The coldside kit for the 1.6L wasn't out last I checked, but either way it's stupid expensive. Isn't that "fuel control" the 5th injector that sprays into the supercharger or something? Yeah, it sounded janky but in theory it's like nitrous ahead of a blower or water injection, so on paper it makes sense.

Swank Force One wrote: Putting in the VVT engine, you have a few options. You CAN run it on stock 1.6 electronics and ignition, just leave the VVT fully retarded and not controlled. There's a PNP Megasquirt option with VVT specifically for the swap you're asking about, though. Sold through 949Racing. That would be better. A VVT powered NA6 is a nice combo.

I would rather have VVT functional if I went that route. I recall seeing that Chikara (I think) had an ECU that controlled the VVT for this swap but it was something stupid like $2000.

Oh right i keep forgetting 1.6, sorry. Chikara uses that unsupported-in-the-US Freedom ECU last i checked. I wouldn't do that. Megasquirt has been documented for this exact swap dozens of times.

Well, that's cool. Might have to start looking in that direction then. A BP-4W should be fairly cheap

Sorry about the Miataturbo forum recommendation I didn't mean you should actually participate on that forum. It's populated by a bunch of neckbeards whose only interests are in forced induction Miatas and making life miserable for anyone new that shows up there and doesn't conform to their standards. That said, you can use the forum for reference and for buying stuff without enduring the people on there. Also some of the same people post on the Miata.net FI section, but aren't allowed to be a-holes on there so you can get the same sort of info.

Your best bet would be to get a non VVT 1.8, swap that into the car, run it with megasquirt and turbo it, that would give you the best bang for the buck and has the most knowledge already behind it out there on the Internet. The used good parts availability for the 1.8 is massively ahead of the 1.6. The 1.6 is just not a good motor to go with. I really would not waste money supercharging, because once you get 40 more horses you will want more and you won't get it out of the superchargers that are available out there. You can easily get 250whp out of a turbo setup for low buck investment (not counting the rear diff and new clutch you will need to support it).

Dump the 1.6.

Harvey wrote: Sorry about the Miataturbo forum recommendation I didn't mean you should actually participate on that forum. It's populated by a bunch of neckbeards whose only interests are in forced induction Miatas and making life miserable for anyone new that shows up there and doesn't conform to their standards. .... Dump the 1.6.

Yeah, such has been my experience with that site.

And starting to lean in that direction

In reply to NickD:

Bp4w is the 99-00 non-vvt motor. They're actually the most expensive.