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It's time for another update on the deconstruction of my Miata. The original thread was getting a little heavy with photos, so I decided to start another one. Here's a link to the original for reference:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/the-unspecified-miata/4332/page1/
I've made some real progress over the past few days. Sunday began and ended with the two cars looking pretty much the same.
However, over the course of the day, they exchanged exhaust systems. The job went fairly smoothly. The Spec Miata system on the green car came off easily, as I've swapped between the catalytic converter and the race pipe several times over the past few years. I also sprayed the bolts on the black car's stock system with PB Blaster and let it soak for a few days while I worked on other stuff, so everything came right off, even the O2 sensor.
As they say, "Installation is the reverse of removal", with one exception: The Spec Miata system has no provision for the downstream O2 sensor. I don't have a photo of it, but I bolted the sensor to the outside floor of the car with a hose clamp to keep the check engine light from coming on. The upstream sensor works normally and the downstream sensor is fooled into thinking that you have the best catalytic converter in the world , as it is exposed to clean, outside air. It needs to be outside the car as it's a heated sensor and it gets hot enough to burn your flesh badly (ask me how I know), so parking on the grass is no longer an option. At some point, I will remove the cat-back and have a sensor bung welded in there to keep things legal. I do have the stock cats on both cars now; the system is really, really loud with the race pipe in place of the cat.
I spent about two hours on both swaps, so I'll split the time and just charge one hour to the green car project, bringing the total to 19.5. The exhaust swap was a major step, as the car was now quiet enough for some road miles. I took a trip to Home Depot and ran a few other errands with it. It was a lot of fun, in spite of the fact that it still had the stiff springs in it.
I spent some time on the black car as well. Besides the exhaust, I swapped on the bigger sway bars and it grew a chin spoiler in front. That car now goes back into the corner while I finish up the green one.
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