New to the Miata - Allen, TX

[Winston Wulfe]

William,

Thanks. I've read alot of great things about you folks from TDR in the forums prior to my purchase. I will give you a buzz tomorrow to setup a time/day to bring her in.

Thanks,
Winston

[Winston Wulfe]

Haha, I need to get my wife to learn how to drive a 5-speed so I can buy another miata for her. :-P

Edit: I mean me. :-D

I got lucky... the father-in-law taught my wife how to drive a stick before I met her... she still manged to burn up a clutch on her first car though... an Escort GT.

[bnordin]

Welcome... you might talk to Gary @ TrackDog (in Garland) about supercharger kits. He's local and if you have issues it's nice having someone local that can fix it for you (or help you diagnose).

For bodywork, there's Rogue (out west of the metromess) and Greg (can't remember his s/n) who owns a Maaco (find his thread by searching, his work looked pretty good).

I'd recommend a roll bar (hard dog, double diagonal) for safety and to stiffen things up, but that will preclude you from running the glass windowed top... Save money on the top to spend on the roll bar

Check the diff too... a torsen will really make things better.

+1

[Bigsrturbo]

Welcome... you might talk to Gary @ TrackDog (in Garland) about supercharger kits. He's local and if you have issues it's nice having someone local that can fix it for you (or help you diagnose).

For bodywork, there's Rogue (out west of the metromess) and Greg (can't remember his s/n) who owns a Maaco (find his thread by searching, his work looked pretty good).

I'd recommend a roll bar (hard dog, double diagonal) for safety and to stiffen things up, but that will preclude you from running the glass windowed top... Save money on the top to spend on the roll bar

Check the diff too... a torsen will really make things better.

I run a hard dog rollbar, and have a glass rear window soft top, do u can have both...just my 2 cents

[Winston Wulfe]

Well before I had the chance to take the Miata in to William at TDR for an inspection, the water pump bearing began to make that awful noise. After waiting on a back ordered timing kit and water pump from Flyin' Miata, the parts are finally on their way (although delayed by a day due the disastrous weather yesterday -- my heart goes out to those who have been impacted).

I went ahead stripped everything down to just the timing belt and water pump. Antifreeze is dripping from water pump as suspected. Driver side front cam seal appears to be blown as well due to oil being caked up all over the front right of the block, A/C pump, and PS pump. Lots of cleaning to do while I wait on the parts.

Also noticed the lower timing cover was slightly warped and rubbing the idler pulley. Didn't order one of those, so going to try to apply some heat with a heat gun and warp it back into shape.

[Winston Wulfe]

Finally got the timing belt kit and water pump from FM last night. Replaced the brake lines with braided steel lines while I waited on parts. Replaced vacuum hoses with silicone hoses. Assembled everything this morning and then changed the oil using Mobil 1 and a Wix filter. Oil pressure is perfect and the lifter tick at startup is now gone. Still need to replace the fuel filter, but will save that for tomorrow. Definitely going to replace the under panel with aftermarket aluminum version.