22silver
Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 1:39 pm
So, after watching my old man go through several NA's, including a 6, 8, and a 1.8L clubman, and then an NC, I figured I'd go with him to South Australia to drive his second NC back to Melbourne with him, now that I have my license. It's a nice, clean black NC2, less than 15,000 on the clock and beautiful to drive. I'd been driving a 120'000km old Hyundai Getz, so you can only imagine the grin on my face as I blasted out of South Australia.
Less than a month later I had my own, a Sunlight Silver NB8A, 1998, just passed the 100,000km service, bone stock, except for an aftermarket clutch (original owner wanted to charge it, thought the clutch might shred, ended up buying an SE instead because he realized it wasn't like his Torana, and would need some ECU, tuning, and various other things he couldn't do in his garage at home).
Bit scratched, bent antenna, loads of plastic clips missing, plenty of little stone marks, big cigarette burn in the seat, seats ripped down the bottom, where it rubs against some plastic, but mechanically sound, no weird rattles, gears felt good, had oodles of power compared to my sisters getz, and most importantly, RWD!
First thing I did was clean it, and colour the bright yellow foam poking through the black seat holes with some dark ink. Worked a treat, for now.
The next thing I did was enjoy it for 3 months and 4000km.
Then she overheated. I thought it was a head gasket, but it turned out to be a leak in a hose that only leaked under decent pressure, and was hidden under the engine (must have been running to the oil cooler or whatever that white can is). Let me tell you, this hose is the biggest pain in the ass to replace, we almost had to take of the intake manifold to get to it. So, as of now it has a temporary fix (tranny coolant hose), but as soon as I get a new radiator, a full new set of mazda coolant and heater system hoses will be going on, along with a new radiator (most likely ASI)
I also purchased an aftermarket timing wheel off Okibi today, so I'll be bumping her up to something like 14deg BTDC, or maybe I'll just push it till it juuust pings on 91, drop it back 1deg and run 95. I also have a spare air intake pipe to hack away at, and a cone filter. Going to try and engineer a hot side, heat shielded cold air intake, and find a way to get a bit more cool air to it than stock.
In the future I'll upgrade the exhaust system + headers, then shocks + springs + possibly sways, then wider 15inch wheels + tyres and either flares or simply rolling the guards as suited. Once the new exhaust system is in, I'll probably get an adaptronic ECU and/or a tune, but I'm a little uneducated in this aspect. No plans to ever turbo charge or super charge this particular mx5.
Pics to come!
Less than a month later I had my own, a Sunlight Silver NB8A, 1998, just passed the 100,000km service, bone stock, except for an aftermarket clutch (original owner wanted to charge it, thought the clutch might shred, ended up buying an SE instead because he realized it wasn't like his Torana, and would need some ECU, tuning, and various other things he couldn't do in his garage at home).
Bit scratched, bent antenna, loads of plastic clips missing, plenty of little stone marks, big cigarette burn in the seat, seats ripped down the bottom, where it rubs against some plastic, but mechanically sound, no weird rattles, gears felt good, had oodles of power compared to my sisters getz, and most importantly, RWD!
First thing I did was clean it, and colour the bright yellow foam poking through the black seat holes with some dark ink. Worked a treat, for now.
The next thing I did was enjoy it for 3 months and 4000km.
Then she overheated. I thought it was a head gasket, but it turned out to be a leak in a hose that only leaked under decent pressure, and was hidden under the engine (must have been running to the oil cooler or whatever that white can is). Let me tell you, this hose is the biggest pain in the ass to replace, we almost had to take of the intake manifold to get to it. So, as of now it has a temporary fix (tranny coolant hose), but as soon as I get a new radiator, a full new set of mazda coolant and heater system hoses will be going on, along with a new radiator (most likely ASI)
I also purchased an aftermarket timing wheel off Okibi today, so I'll be bumping her up to something like 14deg BTDC, or maybe I'll just push it till it juuust pings on 91, drop it back 1deg and run 95. I also have a spare air intake pipe to hack away at, and a cone filter. Going to try and engineer a hot side, heat shielded cold air intake, and find a way to get a bit more cool air to it than stock.
In the future I'll upgrade the exhaust system + headers, then shocks + springs + possibly sways, then wider 15inch wheels + tyres and either flares or simply rolling the guards as suited. Once the new exhaust system is in, I'll probably get an adaptronic ECU and/or a tune, but I'm a little uneducated in this aspect. No plans to ever turbo charge or super charge this particular mx5.
Pics to come!
what happened?