The budget beater Meowta build
- troyguitar
- Command Chief Master Sirloin
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get the 15x7.5 Heliums, the 7" is status for no reason.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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- Drives: 02 Z06/95 Meowta/05 SilveraDOE
Kerry and Casey are in ES now with a PAX dominating 99 Miata with what I guarantee is $50,000 under the hood.
They're bringing Troy levels of speed to ES.
- goIftdibrad
- Chief Master Soft Brain
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- Drives: straight past the apex
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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Big Brain Bradley wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:25 pmoh. yea....they might call you on that if you get close.
Lol. We won't be getting close. At least the wife won't be. There's another guy and his wife, Steven Skipper I think, that's in ES with a 99ish miata that we can compete with. And the occasional oddballs that show up in the class.
- Barnes93cb
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Those look quite a bit like my Advanti Storm S1's.
Super light and beautiful on the miata.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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Barnes93cb wrote: ↑Fri Nov 09, 2018 11:12 amThose look quite a bit like my Advanti Storm S1's.
Super light and beautiful on the miata.
They're similar, but just different on the edge where the spoke meets the OD of the wheel. Same weight at right under 11lbs.
Wife went to friends house to give them their anniversary gift, and they got her new pedals, and threw in an old ass racing seat that was in an 82 Ferarri. She sent pics and it needs new cloth... I was like "That's great, but I just spent all this money on E-Street parts.... And that seat ain't gonna work for it."
- Acid666
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So, some of the parts came in Saturday. Came late, so I really didn't get to do much to the car. Also, not all the suspension stuff came in, so I didn't want to start on it and then have to hold out waiting for parts. The sway bar, sway reinforcement, bumpstops and exhaust should come in Tuesday.
I decided to strip the front bumper and fenders off more just to clean underneath and assess where it's at, and to clean the leaves from behind the fenders. They were packed with years of neglect. Pressure washing these pieces really helped clean it out.
OMG these things are so f'n light. ALL THE WEIGHT REDUCTIONS!
I've been spending time cleaning up the engine and pistons. I need to bring a friend that rebuilds engines to come give me some advice. From what I'm reading, the light rust on the bore sleeves is ok to be removed and then followed up with a hone to get a good cross hatch back into the bores. I've been using green Scotch pads and it's doing a light scuff job that I read should go away when I do a proper hone. Here's where the block sits now and a few of the cylinders that I've cleaned up.
This cylinder was the absolute worst as far as rust is concerned. I got nearly all of it out with just time and elbow grease.
This is a cylinder that I haven't gotten to yet. It's only about 1/3 as bad as the first.
This is the cleanest one that I haven't touched yet. Only got build up in the combustion area at the top.
I decided to strip the front bumper and fenders off more just to clean underneath and assess where it's at, and to clean the leaves from behind the fenders. They were packed with years of neglect. Pressure washing these pieces really helped clean it out.
OMG these things are so f'n light. ALL THE WEIGHT REDUCTIONS!
I've been spending time cleaning up the engine and pistons. I need to bring a friend that rebuilds engines to come give me some advice. From what I'm reading, the light rust on the bore sleeves is ok to be removed and then followed up with a hone to get a good cross hatch back into the bores. I've been using green Scotch pads and it's doing a light scuff job that I read should go away when I do a proper hone. Here's where the block sits now and a few of the cylinders that I've cleaned up.
This cylinder was the absolute worst as far as rust is concerned. I got nearly all of it out with just time and elbow grease.
This is a cylinder that I haven't gotten to yet. It's only about 1/3 as bad as the first.
This is the cleanest one that I haven't touched yet. Only got build up in the combustion area at the top.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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Got the crank out today. I can finally make some better passes for cleaning the bores now that I was able to get it removed along with the oil squirters below. They were stopping me from cleaning the whole walls.
Did some deep cleaning of the last 2 pistons as well. I got some Seafoam that's good for carbon buildup. Let it soak in the ring areas for a while. Got a good bit of it out but I might let them soak overnight on all 4.
This was probably the worst piston of the bunch. I tried to clean half just to see the difference.
Also did some interneting from work today and looked up my misaligned hood. Turns out I think that it's actually the flip up headlights. The tab for them can be bent forwards and backwards, so I bent it to line the hood back up. Passenger side had this big 1" offset where the hood appeared higher. I'm not sure how the hood lines up with the fender or bumper, but at least I've got a good starting point knowing that the hood and lights are all lined up.
Did some deep cleaning of the last 2 pistons as well. I got some Seafoam that's good for carbon buildup. Let it soak in the ring areas for a while. Got a good bit of it out but I might let them soak overnight on all 4.
This was probably the worst piston of the bunch. I tried to clean half just to see the difference.
Also did some interneting from work today and looked up my misaligned hood. Turns out I think that it's actually the flip up headlights. The tab for them can be bent forwards and backwards, so I bent it to line the hood back up. Passenger side had this big 1" offset where the hood appeared higher. I'm not sure how the hood lines up with the fender or bumper, but at least I've got a good starting point knowing that the hood and lights are all lined up.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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Tried to install the exhaust the other day and was greeted by the wonderful precision work of a $10/hr muffler shop welder. Welded a stud with just enough precision to make it work. And the stud is pretty much rusted in. I've got it soaking in penetrant, but I just can't find the inner strength to turn the easy out past a certain point. So I'm likely going to just drill the whole thing out and go with a bigger bolt and nut.
- goIftdibrad
- Chief Master Soft Brain
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- Drives: straight past the apex
easy outs: never easy, never out.Acid666 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:25 am Tried to install the exhaust the other day and was greeted by the wonderful precision work of a $10/hr muffler shop welder. Welded a stud with just enough precision to make it work. And the stud is pretty much rusted in. I've got it soaking in penetrant, but I just can't find the inner strength to turn the easy out past a certain point. So I'm likely going to just drill the whole thing out and go with a bigger bolt and nut.
brain go brrrrrr
- Acid666
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I got the hole drilled out. Randomly went to a bookmarked website and saw a black Friday sale. $10 off, About $48 shipped.
This is one of the wife's christmas gifts. (she loves purple)
This is one of the wife's christmas gifts. (she loves purple)
- goIftdibrad
- Chief Master Soft Brain
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- Drives: straight past the apex
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:47 am
- Drives: 02 Z06/95 Meowta/05 SilveraDOE
Finally got the exhaust finished tonight. Man, I really like this thing. It's super tuned and not brappy like a shitty honda open exhaust. At first I couldn't tell a difference, but as I drove it I think it kinda of opened up a little or something. It definitely feels like it's got some extra "free-ness" to the throttle above 4K rpms. I've got the insert for it, and I might put it in when I'm in town. It's got a little bit of bassy drone at the lower rpms and if it feels like it's going to be "that annoying car" coming down the street in the neighborhood, then I might throw that insert to see how it sounds. Tomorrow I'll likely throw it on and see how quiet it makes it.
So far, I'm impressed by Good-Win's exhaust.
Sorry for the night video. Just wanted to get the sound clips done. The before was taken a few days ago before I stripped it off.
For the driving clips I suction cupped the camera to the center of the bumper and ran my external mic next to it. Any popping you hear at the end is just the mic, it wasn't that dramatic in person.
So far, I'm impressed by Good-Win's exhaust.
Sorry for the night video. Just wanted to get the sound clips done. The before was taken a few days ago before I stripped it off.
For the driving clips I suction cupped the camera to the center of the bumper and ran my external mic next to it. Any popping you hear at the end is just the mic, it wasn't that dramatic in person.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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Alright, major airboater update today. I spent my entire 4 day Thanksgiving break airboating. I did the full install of the Good-Win racing ES kit, along with the poly bushings, longer bumpr stops, and wheels and tires
So the full kit was the Roadster Sport 3 exhaust ( I love it so far), K&N drop in filter, Koni yellows, front sway bar and sway bar support. I also had to grab some grease zerks and a 1/4-28 tap because my kit only came with a 1/4-20.
The poly bushings easily took the most of my time. I think I spent close to 30 hours total on this job because I encountered nearly every problem you can imagine along the way. 25 year old rusted bolts, removing things that apparently didn't need to come off, needing to take off things I already installed due to things needing clearance to be installed and the new part got in the way (Sway bar reinforcement I'm looking at you). I originally set the Koni perch stopper to be at the lowest setting, only to find out that it had MAD rub in turns. So I had to unhook the sway bar, put my spring compressor on both sides of the coil and smash it down to be able to move the perch while it was still on the car. Did that because I couldn't remove the shock/coil unless I unbolted one of the control arms, something I wasn't going to do because getting a few of those back in was a bitch. I couldn't remove the ball joints, so I had to take the front upper and lower a-arms off as an assembly and had to drill and tap those floppy bitches. Some of the bushings came out easy with a few taps from a dead blow and a giant socket. But some didn't. I contemplated buying a HF press, but didn't want to get something that I'd use once every 2 years. Googled it and saw a good idea to just use some 3 jaw pullers. Worked like a charm with my impact driver. Also, when I reassembled the fenders and bumper I realigned it. Not perfect but it's better than before.
What else. I think that's it. Lots of frustration with trying to take my time with old bolts and nuts full of rust, but the end result is nothing short of amazing. Holy fuck, easily the best money I've ever spent on a car. It's funner to drive than the Z06 because ZERO FUCKS GIVEN into any corner. My god, the wife is gonna love this thing at the next autocross. Next I'm going to look at the spare motor within the next few months, and see if I can polish out some of the body panels.
Also, while I was at Whataburger tonight in the drive thru the cashier asked about my pop up headlights. Then asked if it was a Porsche. LOLOILOLOLAOSDAl. I said the hard top kind of makes it look different and that it's a Miata. She then said "I've never heard of one of those". A fucking Miata? WTF?
Anywho, here's a handful of pics of the process. I enjoyed it, but man.... Replacing a ton of bushings is a bitch. Check the gif of the shock. That's what I was racing on. And shitty 500 treadwear tires. LOL
So the full kit was the Roadster Sport 3 exhaust ( I love it so far), K&N drop in filter, Koni yellows, front sway bar and sway bar support. I also had to grab some grease zerks and a 1/4-28 tap because my kit only came with a 1/4-20.
The poly bushings easily took the most of my time. I think I spent close to 30 hours total on this job because I encountered nearly every problem you can imagine along the way. 25 year old rusted bolts, removing things that apparently didn't need to come off, needing to take off things I already installed due to things needing clearance to be installed and the new part got in the way (Sway bar reinforcement I'm looking at you). I originally set the Koni perch stopper to be at the lowest setting, only to find out that it had MAD rub in turns. So I had to unhook the sway bar, put my spring compressor on both sides of the coil and smash it down to be able to move the perch while it was still on the car. Did that because I couldn't remove the shock/coil unless I unbolted one of the control arms, something I wasn't going to do because getting a few of those back in was a bitch. I couldn't remove the ball joints, so I had to take the front upper and lower a-arms off as an assembly and had to drill and tap those floppy bitches. Some of the bushings came out easy with a few taps from a dead blow and a giant socket. But some didn't. I contemplated buying a HF press, but didn't want to get something that I'd use once every 2 years. Googled it and saw a good idea to just use some 3 jaw pullers. Worked like a charm with my impact driver. Also, when I reassembled the fenders and bumper I realigned it. Not perfect but it's better than before.
What else. I think that's it. Lots of frustration with trying to take my time with old bolts and nuts full of rust, but the end result is nothing short of amazing. Holy fuck, easily the best money I've ever spent on a car. It's funner to drive than the Z06 because ZERO FUCKS GIVEN into any corner. My god, the wife is gonna love this thing at the next autocross. Next I'm going to look at the spare motor within the next few months, and see if I can polish out some of the body panels.
Also, while I was at Whataburger tonight in the drive thru the cashier asked about my pop up headlights. Then asked if it was a Porsche. LOLOILOLOLAOSDAl. I said the hard top kind of makes it look different and that it's a Miata. She then said "I've never heard of one of those". A fucking Miata? WTF?
Anywho, here's a handful of pics of the process. I enjoyed it, but man.... Replacing a ton of bushings is a bitch. Check the gif of the shock. That's what I was racing on. And shitty 500 treadwear tires. LOL
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
- Posts: 3349
- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:47 am
- Drives: 02 Z06/95 Meowta/05 SilveraDOE
Took it on it's first autocross grand voyage this weekend with the new setup. Drove it to Nola to meet the wife for a weekend, speedometer/odometer went out on the way there. So there's the next thing to fix.
Adjusted the Konis a little and you can really get some good responses to handling with the rebound on these. At first I had it backwards where I turned the rebound down in the rear and up in the front. Then I swapped it the other way around to soften the front and stiffen the rear and it started to turn in a little better. Little bit of fender insert rubbing, but nothing major. I may remove the plastic liners. I think it's my offset that's a little outside of the normal OEM wheel setup that's causing it to rub. I wanna say I'm just a hair over the range of what's considered an OEM range.
Times were good. I didn't beat the leader in ES, a guy with a 2001 Miata with just tires and stock everything else, but I think if my motor was a little more up to par I could of likely beaten him. His car is in working order so he probably had a little more oomph at key points where mine just fell flat on its face.
I'll upload video tonight when I get home. I did manage to beat everyone in STS and STR except the local race dominator. I really like this car in autocross, but I had to really rethink my lines to keep my speed up. But it's a completely different animal with this new updated setup. It feels great
Also I ordered a new Flying Miata driveshaft. The noise I'm getting (a clank) sounded like a u-joint. I recognized the sound from my old Blazer when its joints were going bad. Found out you can't replace them on the OEm setup, but the FM one lets you.
In not so fun news, our Assistant Region Executive twisted his BRZ past the finish line into a giant vertical I-beam. Broke several of the anchor bolts.
Adjusted the Konis a little and you can really get some good responses to handling with the rebound on these. At first I had it backwards where I turned the rebound down in the rear and up in the front. Then I swapped it the other way around to soften the front and stiffen the rear and it started to turn in a little better. Little bit of fender insert rubbing, but nothing major. I may remove the plastic liners. I think it's my offset that's a little outside of the normal OEM wheel setup that's causing it to rub. I wanna say I'm just a hair over the range of what's considered an OEM range.
Times were good. I didn't beat the leader in ES, a guy with a 2001 Miata with just tires and stock everything else, but I think if my motor was a little more up to par I could of likely beaten him. His car is in working order so he probably had a little more oomph at key points where mine just fell flat on its face.
I'll upload video tonight when I get home. I did manage to beat everyone in STS and STR except the local race dominator. I really like this car in autocross, but I had to really rethink my lines to keep my speed up. But it's a completely different animal with this new updated setup. It feels great
Also I ordered a new Flying Miata driveshaft. The noise I'm getting (a clank) sounded like a u-joint. I recognized the sound from my old Blazer when its joints were going bad. Found out you can't replace them on the OEm setup, but the FM one lets you.
In not so fun news, our Assistant Region Executive twisted his BRZ past the finish line into a giant vertical I-beam. Broke several of the anchor bolts.
- Acid666
- Senior Chief Patty Officer
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- Drives: 02 Z06/95 Meowta/05 SilveraDOE
Also, I thought I'd post up my Excel tally so far. I'm about $3,500 into the total amount of parts spent, or $6,500 including the car.
Also documenting when things are done on the car. And shit, looks like I need to add the shocks and full suspension to the list.
Also documenting when things are done on the car. And shit, looks like I need to add the shocks and full suspension to the list.
- Huckleberry
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- Location: Hi. I'm in Delaware.
Truth. My success rate with easy outs is not very good.