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SO, I bought myself a 93 mx5 last month and thought I'd start up a thread for it so that I keep motivated with the car and log anything that I do!



This is the car in question! The k's are starting to get on the higher side but from what I've heard these engines just keep going and going.

This one came with a hardtop, the rollbar, nb 5sp gearbox and nb brakes which I'm still yet to confirm...

As of right now there are a couple of things I need to fix up before I do anything 'fun':
- that rattle from the rear hardtop mounts caused by the worn gasket which is starting to drive me insane...
-the paint has definitely seen better days, thinking i'll get a cut and polish in the near future
-The softop isn't on properly, I think it just needs to be attached properly at the rear

Until I sort out these things the car will remain simple! Once I have some savings THEN I can make things more interesting

So far, I'm loving driving this thing! It just handles so well and it's an awesome change going from FWD to RWD (my old car was an ek civic). Despite the weight of the car though, I feel like the civic was quicker in a straight line! It was only a stock d16y4 but it just seemed like the power came on so much better. It makes me want to get more power out of this thing down the track!

I'm looking forward to see how this goes

Also If anyone has recommendations on where to get a cut & polish done or where to get the soft top fitted, please let me know!

A little bit about myself...

I'm a 20 year old uni student studying mechanical engineering and have always liked cars. I'm part of a racing team at uni and that is helping me develop my hands on skills and my knowledge about what goes into making a car work well. The team competes in melbourne each year and it gets really competetive. Engine sizes are capped at .6L and the aim is to keep everything simple and effective. So what relevance is this? It makes me want to have a project of my own! I like the feeling it brings when I learn new things and solve any issues so I figured why not get a car where I can do just that.

My old car (the civic) would have been good to learn on but I wanted something with a bit more character.. I have seen a couple of forum member's cars on cruise days when I had the civic and I just loved what they had done with their mx5! This was around April 2012 so since then I have been scouting online for the right one for me! I just had to get the money for it first hah... Which brings me to now! I got back from some work experience in February and was loaded and wanted to throw my money away. I made some simple criteria of what I wanted:

-The car must be red
-The car must have a hardtop

I looked at between 5-10 mx5's, all of which were either na6 or na8. I came accross one na8 that I absolutely loved but the guy just wanted too much for it and was being a real ass I then came accross this 93 LE mx5. Red paint, hardtop, tan leather and a few other extra goodies. When I first saw it it looked like it has been well kept. The test drive was great, it drove well, tracked straight and didn't make any noises a car shouldn't make!

So the paperwork started and I found that there had been a slight mishap in the past... the car had a major prang in 04 and had an economical writeoff. This made me really uneasy about buying. I got my mechanic to check (a family friend) and he couldn't tell their was damage on inspection. His recommendation was to get an allignment done to check if the chassis was repaired properly or something like that. I got this done and... It came back with the all clear!money exchanged hands, and I had a new car.

I've had it for 2 months now and really enjoy driving it. Once I fix up a few small things I have a wishlist which goes something like this...

-wheels- 6ul 15x7.5 or some size close to that
-Torsen diff
-HD clutch
-springs (it sits so high...) or coilovers. I just don't want to wreck the ride because it's my daily.
-more power!

I'm looking through all the options... I've read through the mountains of NA v FI debates and am sick of them hah, It all comes down to how much money you want to spend and what engine characteristics you want. I have read into swaps aswell but because of my lack of resources, that might be out of the question. I think going turbo on the existing engine will be the best option for what I want... I would like to get power into 170-200whp range which should be fairly straight forward and it's something that I could try myself... how scary.

Thats me and the car in a nutshell! I just thought I'd add this because my initial post was a bit plain. now here's some pictures.

Welcome Timbo. Nice looking NA. The tan interior always looks good.

When I purchased my NA, the soft top wasn't fitted properly. It hung down strangely at the rear. Upon checking around the Forums and seeing how they were supposed to be fitted, I discovered the three metal bars that go around the inside base of the roof were missing

Found some bars a couple weeks later and fitted them and all looked so much better.

Enjoy ... they're fantastic cars ...

170-200 rwhp cheapest option is FI, that amount natural aspirated would be very expensive.

Welcome to the obsession!

Cut and polish look for the thread on the detail day at MX5 Plus. Some of he attendees going to the detail day may be able to offer advice on the soft top. Or watch the forum for the next dodgy day and attend this for the help you are looking for.

KevGoat wrote:Welcome Timbo. Nice looking NA. The tan interior always looks good.

When I purchased my NA, the soft top wasn't fitted properly. It hung down strangely at the rear. Upon checking around the Forums and seeing how they were supposed to be fitted, I discovered the three metal bars that go around the inside base of the roof were missing

Found some bars a couple weeks later and fitted them and all looked so much better.

Enjoy ... they're fantastic cars ...

Thanks Kev, I have a big bag of bits for the soft top that are supposed to go on but it comes down to finding the time to read up one what goes where hah... But it's something I'll have to do soon for sure! I'm hoping i can get into some DIY stuff to save money

Magpie wrote:170-200 rwhp cheapest option is FI, that amount natural aspirated would be very expensive.

Welcome to the obsession!

Cut and polish look for the thread on the detail day at MX5 Plus. Some of he attendees going to the detail day may be able to offer advice on the soft top. Or watch the forum for the next dodgy day and attend this for the help you are looking for.

I agree Magpie, I have been looking into pretty much all different routes to go down and its obvious that FI is the way to go for that power.

I think the biggest point is that I need to figure out what I really want from the car... I want to have a look at other peoples cars and see how a turbo feels, how a SC feels, and how a nice N/A engine feels to drive. This should give me a better idea of what I want.

To develop my knowledge with all of this stuff I went in to Automotive plus today and had a long chat about the possibilities in terms of the engine. Initially I asked if he had any experience with the BP S-VT conversion into the na6. He did, but he didn't speak highly of it... He said that the amount of work required to get it running well is alot. From what I gathered, its difficult to get the vvt working smoothly without the nb8b ecu. He mentioned that when they previously tried the conversion, the vvt 'kicked in' at 3500 abruptly. Sounds like vtec hah... But it just sounds like I'll be a guinea pig if I go down that route.

As cool as that would be, I think i want to stay away from the road less travelled due to my finite supply of money... He did speak very highly of the nb6 engine though, mentioning that it's a fairly straightforward swap and that it loves to be turbo'd. At this point I should mention that my current headgasket has a small oil weep suggesting the head is warped. It isn't a problem right now but if I do go FI then it has the potential to go bad. So I figure that I should either a) rebuild or b)swap and rebuild...

Weighing up the costs, an nb6 swap makes sense. It ditches the hla's and has better cams (correct me if I'm wrong..). The cost of this engine plus installation would be in the same ballpark as decking the current head, which will then leave me with 180k motor whereas getting an nb6 motor will add a bit of youth to the car

So as it is right now, I'm considering finding an nb6 engine and getting a rebuild done on it. I know this will be expensive but I'm starting to think about what I want in the long run. I want this to be a reliable daily that I can take to the track on the weekend, thrash the hell out of it, then not have to worry that it'll get me home. I also want more power If I go down this route then there is no way I'll be able to get it all done this year, it'll be something I have to stick with!

The bottom line is, I want to minimise unexpected costs. I want to spend the money the first time so that I don't outlay double the value debugging in the future.

Just to be clear I'm in no rush and may not have a clue what I'm doing (probably obvious...) so if anyone wants to input their 2c I welcome it. I especially want to hear opinions on the nb6 engine, how it has held up for anyone who has had one and whether they are glad they made the swap!


On another note, I ticked off a point on my to-do list!





This should solve the problem. I picked two of them up from Automotive plus for around $35 each. I was fiddling around with the old ones and drying to dampen the rattling with hi tech stuff like folded paper and cardboard pieces but it didn't work out too well. In the end I decided to just for out the money!

One last thing, Saturday was a momentous occasion for me...



It was a happy day, turbos and V8s are no longer out of my reach ;)

I'll keep on researching in to what I want to do until next time! decisions decisions decisions...

Looking good man

where is brisbane are you? should come for a cruise sometime!

I was wondering when you would pop up on the forum.

We'll have to go for a drive soon!

Things to think about with a b6 engine, valves are a choke point and increasing size requires significant de shrouding which really needs a bigger bore.

The stock solid lifters are not full face, when I looked at converting the engine builders all thought it was a bit of a pointless / expensive exercise In a BP and there was nothing wrong with hla and they required less maintenance.

B6 has a better rod ratio which would help revs.

Bp probably is more likely to have after market parts turn up.

Plenty of fast b6 and bp turbos so either way will work. I think your power goals are getting towards the top of what standard rods will hold up too.

Have a look at charlie_91's build thread - he built one of the best NA6's in the country/world and MX5 Plus did a LOT of work on it so they know what does and doesn't work.

It's really worth a read of his thread beforehand so that you can appreciate what's involved and benefit from avoiding some of the pitfalls Charlie encountered along the way as he progressed to building a reliable ass-kicking track beast.

Even if you never plan going to this extreme, you'll pick up some valuable knowledge along the way.

Is this the one that was for sale on here? Around $7k? If so, then very nice pick, and well done on your research and patience.

I've always been a traditionalist and modded my old car (now sailaholic's) without any thought of artificial aspiration because IMO that's a soft way of appeasing your speed urges. I've dríven SC and turbo NA's, turbo NB, and SE's standard and modded, and although prodigious power is obviously very nice, through the twisties it almost becomes negligible.

Come out for a Nebo run with us, next one this Friday, and have a chat.

Andrew

D.A.M wrote:Looking good man

where is brisbane are you? should come for a cruise sometime!

I'm on the south side around mt gravatt, I'm really keen on a cruise! Steampunk mentioned the cruise on Friday which I want to go to but I have work :/

plohl wrote:I was wondering when you would pop up on the forum.

We'll have to go for a drive soon!

For sure!

sailaholic wrote:Things to think about with a b6 engine, valves are a choke point and increasing size requires significant de shrouding which really needs a bigger bore.

The stock solid lifters are not full face, when I looked at converting the engine builders all thought it was a bit of a pointless / expensive exercise In a BP and there was nothing wrong with hla and they required less maintenance.

B6 has a better rod ratio which would help revs.

Bp probably is more likely to have after market parts turn up.

Plenty of fast b6 and bp turbos so either way will work. I think your power goals are getting towards the top of what standard rods will hold up too.

Do you have an idea of what point the valves become the bottleneck for both an FI setup and an NA setup? Thanks for these points, there are some good pro's and cons there

Lokiel wrote:Have a look at charlie_91's build thread - he built one of the best NA6's in the country/world and MX5 Plus did a LOT of work on it so they know what does and doesn't work.

It's really worth a read of his thread beforehand so that you can appreciate what's involved and benefit from avoiding some of the pitfalls Charlie encountered along the way as he progressed to building a reliable ass-kicking track beast.

Even if you never plan going to this extreme, you'll pick up some valuable knowledge along the way.

For sure, I've had a good read through his loooooooooong build thread and the amount of work he has done is unreal. It's a shame the car's gone now.... I don't plan on going so extreme because I want something I'm not overly scared to drive hard hah... it's good info nevertheless!

Steampunk wrote:Is this the one that was for sale on here? Around $7k? If so, then very nice pick, and well done on your research and patience.

I've always been a traditionalist and modded my old car (now sailaholic's) without any thought of artificial aspiration because IMO that's a soft way of appeasing your speed urges. I've dríven SC and turbo NA's, turbo NB, and SE's standard and modded, and although prodigious power is obviously very nice, through the twisties it almost becomes negligible.

Come out for a Nebo run with us, next one this Friday, and have a chat.

Andrew

That's the one! Cheers,

That's a fair point, to be honest I would love a revvy NA car that was just heaps of fun to drive. I think this is where I need to start seeing other people's cars and what everything feels like.

I really want to come on friday but I have work at night.. What time/where is this happening? Even if I can't come for a drive it'd be good to just come along for a chat.

Timbo wrote:...I would love a revvy NA car that was just heaps of fun to drive.

I'll let you know when my engine is finished (about the end of May).

Timbo wrote:...I would love a revvy NA car that was just heaps of fun to drive.

Should have kept the ek and put in a k series Haha

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Howdy,

Over the past couple of weeks I've just been enjoying the 5. I'm starting to want more handling upgrades rather than power right now! I guess I'm starting to get my priorities straight haha. Since last time I haven't done much to the car. Just given it a nice wash and gone on a few drives. I met up with some of the guys and girls on the last friday of the month cruise which was great! I met new people and everyone was friendly and up for a chat about their cars. A few nice piccies came out of it aswell Unfortunately I was only on the run for about 10 mins because I have work on Friday nights. But for those 10 minutes I had heaps of fun!

Last saturday I went up to nebo and glorious for a run and that was awesome. Went up with a VL, impreza, V6 MR2 and a 323i beemer. Through the corners I was keping on everyones tails/losing them but on the straights i was having some trouble keeping up hah.. But you don't need the power going down the glorious side thats for sure. I had a few brown stain moments because of my dodgy tires losing grip on the way down but managed to get to the bottom alive. I guess I'm starting to get used to how the car handles but I'm still a long way from reaching its limits, even in it's stock state!

That was on saturday, problems struck on sunday... I was on my way to lakeside when I started to feel a shudder that was on and off. At first I thought i had been a noob and not put a wheel on properly and pulled over to check, finding nothing. I started the car up and let it idle and realised it was really irratic, going from 900 to 600 and shuddering really bad. Under load it was similar, it sounded like it was misfiring.

I drove back home and decided to check the spark plugs and drop the oil (I know it doesnt sound relevant but seeing as I had just topped the oil up the previous day I wanted to make sure..) The plugs were sparking and looked in good nic, so at that point I didn't know what to look for. I started the car again and it was now idling smoothly but when driving it, it began misfiring again. It was worst when under high load, like going up my driveway (probably 15% incline). It sounded like it wanted to be a subaru :/ I've done heaps of reading through forums and the troubleshooting guide of the gregory's service manual.

So to summarise the problem:

-the car misfires/hesitates to accelerate under high load
-The misfiring isn't consistent(it isn't at a set point/rpm that it starts misfiring)
-I can rev it in neutral and it doesn't play up
-I've noticed that the tacho needle jumps even when at constant rpm (not sure if this is relevant)

So with these points, I think It's either the leads,coilpack or the injectors....

I can test the leads once i borrow someone's multimeter, and possibly the coilpack aswell (might be able to borrow a working one to see if it changes anything). Then if that all fails i'll check everything is grounded properly, then check the fuel stuff. Then if that all fails, I guess i'll be sh*t outta luck hah....

If anyone can recommend anything on this then please let me know!!!! I don't want to have to fork out alot of money I'll try uploading a video of how sh*t it was idling and running soon. I think it may have been running on two cylinders up my driveway... That makes me think its one of the coils :/


On a brighter note, I'm waiting on a new sparco sprint V which is on it's way!!! Pretty excited about that

Couldn't make it up my driveway :/



and this is what it sounded like when it wasn't idling properly




Any input is welcome