Timing Is Everything

"mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/" (mxxxxxm24)
03/20/2018 at 18:33 • Filed to: Arisu, timing, Miata

Finally got around to replacing the leaky CAS O-Ring today. Had my friend help me because I had never used a timing light before. Turns out it’s really easy. Got the new Vitton O-ring on with some difficulty, as the CAS is so close to the firewall. Advanced the timing to 14 degrees. It’s supposed to increase (if only slightly) the low/mid range torque. We’ll see. What timing are you guys running? Experiences?

Also hopefully my coolant won’t leak anymore after trying to reshape the copper housings against the firewall to the heater core. Some mechanics mangled one of them after my car sprung a leak 4 hours from home at 11pm on Christmas. I had to get a tow to the only shop that was open with in 50 miles on the day after Christmas. Also found out exactly why I need an aluminum radiator as my oem style radiator didn’t like running with a leak on the highway. This was such a fun experience (it wasn’t).

Next project will be replacing my weak alternator with an fd alternator 100 amps. Either that or a Kia alternator 110 amps, but the Kia isn’t quite as easy to bolt on apparently. Then a/c delete... power steering delete... mishimoto radiator... lighter wheels... sway bars... etc.

DISCUSSION (19)

daender > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 18:51

I’d look into the FD RX-7 alternator after reading RevLimiter’s comparison between the original, the Kia, and the FD alternators. There’s some grinding involved to get the RX-7's to fit but http://revlimiter.net/blog/2017/08/non-stock-alternators-that-fit-miatas/

On the Kia’s:

This is a brand new alternator. It’s not rebuilt. That was one of the selling points to me. It was awesome that it was 10 amps stronger than the FD, but the fact that it was NEW? Not a reman? Yes sir. Sign me up. I bought this bad boy from amazon with a smile.

My Kia alt could not regulate its voltage for anything. It would start out at 13.5 when cold and get up to 14.2ish on the freeway. Then it would lower as RPMs got lower. I’d see it putting out anywhere from high 13s to 13.1.

When this alternator was hot, it would only spit out 12.8 volts. And it would nearly kill the engine at idle if a cooling fan turned on.

My tired stock alternator did better than that.

Anger.

Versus the RX-7's:

I’m happy to say, this FD alternator is quite good. It takes it a few seconds to excite, which is odd to me. I’ve never had an alt that didn’t just start spitting power out when the car was turned on. This one needs about 3-5 seconds after ignition.

It puts out a steady 14.1 volts. It puts out about 13.7 volts when hot. I’ve not seen any bad idle behavior when the fans kick on.

And did I mention how nicely the electrical connections plugged in? SO much nicer than that Kia one. Like it was meant to be in there.

I’m down south where it’s humid and muggy all summer, A/C is life here. I see why PS delete might be nice as long as you can keep the PS ratio vs the non-PS ratio where you have to spin the wheel a lot more to turn the car. Maybe keep the A/C and do the Kia Sephia PS delete pulley?

What do you have in mind for wheels and tires? Rather...what is your end goal for your Miata?

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > daender
03/20/2018 at 19:12

That is informative. Looks like FD alternator is def the better of the 2. The a/c on my car has never worked and I’ve not had a/c in a car for about 10 years. I’m straight losing the 30ish lbs of dead weight there. I’ll have to look in to the kia sephia power steering delete pulley... haven’t looked into things that specifically yet on those fronts.

As far as my goal for my car... Man that’s a tough question to answer. As far as wheels go, I am looking for light as possible while still looking like it could have been factory (most importantly light weight and not super expensive). Was thinking new lighter enkei’s (can’t remember the specific ones I like). I guess that’s my goal with my car. Upgrade as many weak points as possible with the goal of keeping things looking somewhat factory installed. This is my daily and only car so I have to keep that in mind. This is a car that will primarily be driven on the road (quickly to very quickly).

daender > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 19:41

Oh, hell, in that case delete the A/C. Judging by your goals on stripping out dead weight, it sounds like you’re building a R-Package car out of a M-Edition, which is pretty sweet. Sounds like it’d be a great car for mountain drives and track days. I’m not sure about local SCCA classing. Deleting the A/C and the PS could be considered class-legal for the base street (aka, stock-ish) class since you could option a ‘96 Miata with cruise and LSD without PS or A/C. Otherwise, see if they have a plain “run what you brought” class if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of classing into an hyper-competitive field.

I’ll recommend buying (or if you can machine your own) Racing Beat sway bar brace blocks for the front sway bar. You place more stress on the factory sway bar mounting tabs when you switch to a stiffer sway bar (even moreso with stiffer suspension and stronger cornering loads).

I always like using these two videos as a good comparison. Here’s what it’s like with the blocks on a modified ‘99:

And without the blocks:

The tabs could shear off after a while due to fatigue and it’s a PITA to replace them since the tabs are actually welded to the uni-body, not bolted.

Oh, if you’re looking to remove weight, consider an aftermarket muffler as you could probably shed 10-20 pounds off the rear with that.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > daender
03/20/2018 at 20:02

I’ll have to watch those videos when I’m on WiFi, but I’m taking your word for it as of now. Is it just the front sway bar mounting points that are weak? Or is it rear too?

As for the exhaust... I have a custom exhaust from enthuzacar. I think it was Jason who makes them. Super nice guy. Great quality work. Has a custom high flow cat, anti drone, and borla muffler. What’s cool about it is that it looks stock from just looking at it, but it is definitely not. And I think it is a good 10-20lbs lighter, like you said. The borla muffler is so much smaller than stock.

Also I’ll have to look into scca rules. Good point. Though that isn’t much of a concern to me. Would be nice to have the option tho

daender > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 20:29

Your Miata will probably make for competitive STR entry once you have the suspension, wheels, and tires installed. It could sneak into E-Street if you don’t mention the aftermarket mid-pipe (I’ve been doing that, my stock one was trash and the used RoadsterSport3 muffler came with a matching mid-pipe).

It’s only the front sway bar mounts that’re weak. I haven’t head anything about the rear and neither has Racing Beat or else they’d probably have a product to sell you for that. I got the full kit used from a wrecked ‘00 which included the front end-links, front bar, blocks, and the additional sway bar mounting tab brace (not class legal but when in Rome...) along with buying some reinforcement tabs for where the end-link attach to the LCA because NBs have a weaker design than NAs for cost-cutting reasons.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > daender
03/20/2018 at 21:02

Thanks for the info man! Good to know I could qualify for those classes if I do choose to compete. Also suspension (and brakes) are on the list when budget allows. Slowly but surely gonna get her to where I want her lol.

AestheticsInMotion > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 21:24

Keep the projects coming! It’s been nice reading more Miata maintenance logs around here. I’m gathering parts to completely redo my mostly stock cooling system in a week or two, unfortunately I think I’ll be sticking with winter tires through the summer to save money for go-fast parts

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > AestheticsInMotion
03/20/2018 at 22:28

Thanks for the good feed back man! I will keep them coming. Keep yours coming too, I enjoy reading them! You seem to know your stuff. Really getting amped for spring/summer. Probably use my whole refund check on Ari. What are your plans for the cooling system? I was initially thinking the coolant reroute, but since I don’t plan to turbo or supercharge I was talked out of it.

And i feel ya... I just run high performance all season tires all year round. Currently toyo proxies. Pretty nice tires. And since this is a fun car I don’t want super sticky summer tires anyways. It’s hard enough to drift/powerslide as it is haha.

AestheticsInMotion > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 22:36

Coolant reroute, Supermiata radiator, hood vents, an aluminum overflow tank... And I’m considering making hardlines for some of it as well. The reroute is easy to do, and will hugely benefit even stock Miatas. Hood vents make for a pretty massive gain as well. I just want the aluminum overflow tank because my plastic one is super brittle at this point and I’m worried it will fail at a bad time. And it’s tricky to see how full it is. Our heads are very poorly cooled due to Mazda screwing up the coolant path when they mounted the BP engine longitudally. Plus.... It never hurts to prepare for possible power gains down the road!

(edit) the qmax Supermiata reroute is easy to do. Spacer style ones are apparently a bit of a pain

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > AestheticsInMotion
03/20/2018 at 22:46

Yeah I’ve seen diagrams on the inefficient cooling path Mazda went with. But after talking to a guy that works at a well respected performance shop hp motors in sc, I was told that it’s not as bad as people make it out to be and that they have to race like that in spec Miata and it isn’t an issue. But yeah still thinking about it.

Which hood vents you looking at? The flyin Miata kit? That would destroy my stock like appearance haha

AestheticsInMotion > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 22:53

Singular motorsports, which.... Might be what Flyin Miata sells.

Kinja'd!!!

I know I know... I’m trying so hard to keep my front end mostly stock looking. I’m going so far as to mount rally lights behind my corner and turn signal covers because I couldn’t stand putting them in the bumper grill. Major pain.

But I think I can handle the vents! They’re growing on me

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 23:03

Another Miata! There are dozens of us! I need to work on my Miata to get it to stop leaking oil. But it’s so much easier to just refill it all the time. Being on travel all the damn time has made me lazy. I just want to drive anytime I’m actually home.

Kinja'd!!!

I also need paint, I need to do track days, and I just need to drive the hell out of this car some more. 200k miles is just getting started!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/20/2018 at 23:09

If you removed stuff like the AC, that puts you in Street Prepared. CSP is the class for NA/NB miatas, I’ve run that class due to 100tw slicks so it’s kind of a crazy class lol. Funny though if you remove the carpet, you get dumped into Prepared class (DP I think?) where spec Miata builds and other race cars go.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > AestheticsInMotion
03/20/2018 at 23:36

Haha just don’t rivet them to the hood even though it’s easiest. And yeah those are the same ones flyin Miata sells. If done right they can look pretty cool. I wonder if you painted them exact color as stock if they would look good and possibly factory installed.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/20/2018 at 23:42

That was my mindset for a while, but it really isn’t easier. You know it isn’t. It became an irritation haha. I also had (hopefully no more) a coolant leak from one place or another for a long while. Irritating.

But I feel your plight lol.

Great to meet another Miata driver on here!

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/20/2018 at 23:46

Hmm looks like I should look into it, but I will do the things I want to my car regardless of if it disqualifies me from scca classing haha

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/21/2018 at 10:46

Of course, building for a class is silly anyways but it is funny the crazy classes you end up in without making any real mods to the car. I have been doing 8-10 events per season so I have at least tried to fit the mold of a class. Although I still end up horribly under prepared for wherever I end up anyways. In the end, its just having fun so I could care less.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
03/21/2018 at 10:54

Well I make sure to fix everything other than oil leaks immediately. I used to have other problems but those have been sorted over time. The problem with oil leaks is it’s a problem over the course of thousands of miles. So if I only drive 1000 miles in a month, it takes like two months before I add any oil. It is annoying because I can find the oil on the bottom of the car, I have fixed all of the obvious items, and I have just needed to troubleshoot further to track down my issue. It’s frustrating because that amount of oil loss is perfectly normal and expected on my Subaru lol.

I am leaking less oil now so I think I had many sources of leakage. I did a whole timing belt job solely for the purpose of solving this leak (the seals associated in there). Replaced the valve cover a couple of times (still might be the problem) and that Cam seal o ring at the back of the engine that always leaks on these cars. Running out of options really! And its not being burnt, since I can clearly find it slathered all over the bottom of the transmission and the floor of my garage in drips from along there. If it is my oil pan gasket, I am better off ignoring the problem forever and just dealing with it but track day tech frowns upon oil leaks. I am hoping doing a valve cover gasket 100% right could help. Its just tricky to get those stupid things to seal and not break any valve cover bolts in the process. Those bolts are friggin toothpicks.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/21/2018 at 11:28

You probably already know, but did you use an oem valve cover gasket? I’ve heard from many people how poor the fit is of an aftermarket gasket. And I’ve bought both to compare (well I bought the aftermarket and then was informed of my mistake lol). The difference is very noticeable. Completely different sizes. Also why are you have such an issue with the bolts? When I did it I bought used chrome bolts from a 1.6, but either way these bolts should be torqued properly or the gasket won’t seal properly and shouldn’t be difficult to get on or off. Also to be sure... you should be using rtv on all the right angles (after cleaning off the old). And if you are having to force anything that isn’t good. It should just pop into place.

If you already know all of that and it’s still leaking then yeah it probably isn’t that lol.