Brief update: Shandelle at V8Roadsters confirmed this fool (my word, not his!) left off necessary large washers on my tubular lower rear control arms. New parts are on a big brown truck coming to NC via I-95 Northbound. Hope to install this Friday night. Keep you updated.

 

LOL, here's a brief note after 3.5 month absence of build-thread updates! Not that I don't love and visit V8M.net just about every day, but I had lost the cable for downloading pics from an older digital camera into this laptop. So, found a cable that fits, and here we are tonite...

Quick show-n-tell on my missing washers for rear lower control arms: Got the L & R ones both installed in 30-45 minutes way back when...

Jacked her @ss up


Here are some of the components. Steel bushing/insert, a rubber bushing, long Mazda bolt, and synthetic grease


Since the
Good Lord didn’t equip me with a third arm & hand, I invented a way to hold the hub up and away from the work zone. Took large C clamp and pushed the two, new rubber bushings and steel inserts into the V8R tubular A-arms.







Lined up the hub and lower A-arm, put bolt in with new washers (that this fool never originally installed) and torqued everything down with weight applied to suspension so things can get back to normal.





She drives like a champ once again. Have had a blast putting a few miles back on the car this Fall. Believe she’s up to 3,200 miles or so.

Only small concerns are little oil seepage – probably at side or rear of oil pan . Nothing major – just a wet spot or 2 under the car when pulled out of the garage. AND, my poor execution (or something!!) when prepping and painting the engine bay. The paint continues to act like a magnet for attracting dust and dirt – almost like masking tape! I may remove as much as possible under the hood and have professional painter prep and paint the bay with the motor and radiator covered up. Who knows. Most folks wouldn’t notice at a glance, but it bothers me!

 

Next up on the list that day was to toss on my new mud guards from Rok Blokz. Rokblokz Rally Mud Flaps for the 1990-1997 Mazda Miata FREE SHIPPING - rally mud flaps I ordered the shorter set of mud flaps that didn’t hang down too low. I’m guessing the true rally enthusiast may want the longer ones to hang lower for extreme gravel and mud protection. I don’t find those aesthetically pleasing to my eye, so these shorter ones would fit the bill and are supposed to utilize factory mounting points for no drilling (and no rubbing on my painted fenders and bumpers like the Mazda OEM-style mud guards would eventually do…).
Here they are minus the nice package of hardware. Don’t believe any instructions were provided, but it was simple to figure out and utilize the nice stainless steel hardware, spacers, and few small brackets. They are heavy duty and fairly thick with smooth surface facing the tires and textured surface facing the rear… Do like.

IMG 1924

Rears installed:



Notice how dirty it gets on rear bumper and lower 1/4 panel... These mud guards should keep the @ss end a bit cleaner, I hope...



Fronts installed:

 

You know the man has class when the jack and control arms are color coordinated!

 

LOL, I just wish the control arms cost the same as the HF jack! Good eye, Jim...

 

nice looking miata , who makes control arm for miatas? been looking for a while and apparently im looking in wrong place. do you have fronts as well and do they allow for more camber as well thanks in advance

 

You can find them here --- NA/B 90-2005 - Suspension and Drive Train - Tubular Control Arms - V8 Roadsters

They look pretty good, give me a tad more space between rear half shafts and shock absorbers. Extra camber is there if you need it. Cheers.

 

Christmas 2015 has come and gone & I have a few free hours to spend in the shop tonite! The timing is right as I have a new, small project to start on for the Roadster. I did one quick interweb Christmas purchase at Flyin’ Miata on a set of aluminum hood vents and the GarageStar hard plastic door blocks.



So tonite, I take the extra white hood that I purchased about 8 months ago out of storage and proceed to lay out my plan for installing the hood vents in the area with the lowest pressures (according to FM and other hood vent providers.) This extra hood isn’t perfect – far from it – but it gives me the opportunity to see if I like the results without having to cut up the hood on my car. I only will have one shot at cutting up MY hood, and I want to make it RIGHT when that time comes – if I do decide to modify it one day.



Step One is to remove the existing hood latch assembly for the existing Z06 intake. With the fading hope that I can build another V8Miata one day in the future, I saved the previous cut-out latch as my template. That proved to be a winner and saved me considerable time with this task. The Harbor Frt cut-off tool did a pretty nice job on this old Japanese aluminum sheetmetal… Pulled out the latch and filed down all the trimmed edges.



Step Two is laying out the hood vents. Simply used the masking tape to find the horizontal and vertical lines, “split” the hood down the middle, and confirmed my most preferred location for the aluminum vents.





With the vents in place, I traced their shapes onto the masking tape, and decided on how much inner “lip” I needed for riveting these on later.



Step Three is using the HF cut-off tool and slicing out the two rectangle shapes to only reveal how much of the under-hood structure I’ll need to remove or drill holes into for improved air-flow.





Tomorrow, I hope to locate my hole saws, rivet gun/ tool, alum rivets, and finish up this quick project! Keep you posted!!

 

thanks for info on control arms after i reread i realized i should have reread! if that makes sense lol . love the hood vents they will get rid of some of that hot air under there and maybe help keep front end planted at max velocity as well

 

when cutting aluminum with a cut off wheel, coat the blade in ATF. stops the wheel from packing up.

 

Thanks Franko and BeGood for the comments. The small cut-off disc on the Harbor Freight tool didn't seem to gum up at all. It tore through the alum easily and coated the immediate area in aluminum "dust" and small shavings. Just love that HF tool !!!

In-progress update: Spent some time Sunday afternoon on cutting out - swiss cheesing - the under hood structure. Went to a local Ace Hardware store that afternoon for two things: small aluminum rivets with 1/8" diameter and 1/8" grip and an approx. 1" hole saw. I left the hardware store with the rivets and a small 4-1/2" bench vise for my dad's new work bench at their new house. (Remembered the small hole saw after I got back to the shop... I'm old enough now that I should write down everything before making a parts run, or risk coming home with the wrong stuff or forgetting to purchase what I thought I needed.)



So, with only a 2" hole saw and an assortment of drill bits (selected the largest 1/2" one) - I went ahead and drilled out the under bracing as needed.



Somewhat random pattern was decided on, holes were cut, edges were smoothed out with several files, and I'm ready for riveting on the louvered panels. I'll wait until I can get my dad to drop by so we can hang the hood on the car and drill out for the two Sparco hood latches.



Not sure if you can see it real well in the photos, but I thought it was somewhat interesting (and a bit disappointing) that the two aluminum louvered panels from Flyin' Miata were different in appearance and feel. The driver-side panel is rougher finish while the passenger side panel is very smooth and shiny. Since this is the "rough hood", I'm going au-natural and leave them as is for now. I may decide to paint them either satin black or silver. That's for later on, I guess.

 

I should really be more careful with how I manage my spare time off of work this afternoon.., but I found myself checking out FM's V8 conversion items for sale and stumbled upon the AC kit that ties in the CTS-V compressor to everything else Miata - plumbing that is.

https://www.flyinmiata.com/v8-complete-ac-kit.html

After a few clicks, I should have one of these on the way. This will give me the next few months to plumb and wire up the system on my car. I just never have wanted to tackle this endevor, but I know I'll like it this summer! I'll do a step-by-step in the thread later on.

Happy New Year.

 

saw that the other day, that will be a good option if I can't figure it out on my own

 

Yeah, but you have skills! I happened to have some PayPal credit from recent used car part sales on eBay from earlier in the month and just had to spend it!

 

 

Good fun this afternoon in the shop with my Dad. He’s 81 but sure doesn’t seem like it most days, thankfully. I needed his help with swapping out hoods and polishing up this “salvage” second hood that has now been cut and sliced up to some degree.

First order of business was drilling out the 1/8” holes for the rivets and popping them into place.



Here’s the back of vent view…



We next set the hood in roughly the right spot and drilled out the ˝” holes for the two hood pins. Once those were drilled, we had to take a round file and elongate the two holes from front to back so the pins would glide through the hood when lowered and raised.



Now have some breathing room… Plenty of hood understructure is left in place – yet there’s enough openings to allow heat and air to flow out of this thing when shut.





Aligned and riveted on the SPARCO hood pin pieces (for lack of a true technical name, I guess). The only issue I have with this used hood, and it's not a biggie.., but the LH front corner of the hood - just behind the driver-side headlight - sits just a tad high when shut. So I have this slightly larger gap there that I don't think I had with my original hood. I pulled down and did my best to tweak it and minimize the problem. I'll correct it sometime soon.



And now for some obligatory photos of this nasty little thing as I try out the new camera. I’m certainly no photographer, but I look forward to learning how to improve my game and snap better pics at car shows/ events/ races, etc.

 

And this short Christmas break project is now completed. I had an hour or so late this afternoon in 50F temperature to drive the car and exercise it a bit. Obviously, it wasn't warm by any means today and the temp gauge just hovered in that 183-186F range... No changes operationally, but I do like feeling the hot air trickling out when parked now with the hood down.

My goodness this thing is a wicked little brute! Too bad I had to run back home and put it away for the next several days/ weeks/ or whatever... Driving it is ALMOST as fun as building it.

 

Love all the wounderfull work and info!!! When you removed the PCM what did you do with the AC wiring from it? Do you know if the Brown #10 pin in the gm PCM needs power to it? Thanks cant wait to start driving my 96!!!

 

Almost as much fun? wow i would have thought it would be twice the fun driving
that little rocketship! how does it handle? do you have any plans to autocross it later in the season? you have done a fantastic job on this build! I have a 97 if you need another project lol thanks for sharing this with us and happy new year!

 

Hello Randy, apologize for the delay. I'm not going to be much help on the E40 PCM and it's AC wiring. Two things really: 1) I had BP Automotive turn the GTO engine harness into a stand-alone one for me and I can't recall off the top of my head on what was saved or marked for AC. 2) I am going to eventually wire up the AC with Mazda dash switch and relays. I have serious doubts that the small compressor will affect the idle with the GM V8 at all. I'll have the fan(s) come on as well for when it's in AC mode, but I will trigger one or both in some other fashion - not through the GM PCM. That's the plan anyway. I'll document whatever happens this Spring, I guess.

Driving it IS a blast - but building it was even more fun, my thoughts at least! It handles fine. Non PS rack requires more force to crank the wheel, but back roads are fun with good feedback from the suspension, tires, etc. Overall, I think you'll find that these Ford 5.0 and GM LS conversions all can handle very much like their 4 cyl Mazda cousins... No autoX for me. Maybe in my 1.6L BRG... And feel free to ship your 97 and a few credit cards to me& I promise to build you a first-class toy!

 

Thanks for the reply! Keep enjoy driving your toy!!!

 

Great thread. I am currently beginning my journey to an LS Miata. I am over on the coast in NC and wondered if one of these days I might get the opportunity to come check yours out and pick your brain? Lots of fantastic information.

 

Hello JR !! I'd be more than happy to have you drop by, discuss all things V8Miata-related and go for a drive - with some decent weather . Anything I can do to help, just drop me a PM and we can talk on the phone.
I grew up in Kinston - many years ago... Where abouts are you from?

 

Born on Camp Lejeune, raised outside the back gate, grew up and joined the USMC myself and now live over in Newport (between havelock and morehead city).
My husband and I do quite a bit of mechanic work, and he is finishing up his newest version of his LS RX7 FD. Last weekend I drove my turbo Miata one last time before stripping her this week in preparation for her new heart. She went from running/driving happy car to completely naked engine bay and interior in a week. Most of it I think we have figured out, the electrical is my scary point and I've told my husband that I would like to do the majority of the work on this one...so it's truly my build, we shall see how far I get haha (I am, however, intelligent enough to know when I need help...only the best craftsmanship will be used for this endeavor.)
I've been floating around on the forum for a while, but just signed up so I could actually ask questions and such. I appreciate your assistance and can't wait to get some better weather. Stay safe in this nasty weather...we are expected to have all the rain we got yesterday freeze over tonight.

 

Very good! That's quite an interesting story & introductory post, you got there! You should copy and paste that into a new member thread or the start of your build thread - for sure!!

Love the FD/LS, that's pretty wicked, I would guess. Sounds like you 2 have skills and won't have any trouble building YOUR toy your way. Start the build thread and take lots of pics.

Know Newport and JaxVegas fairly well. My parents lived on Hwy 24 close to Cape Carteret. Nice area.