I think it supposed to brace the IM! I guess you will know the difference if you can ring out 500HP from that 4-bangers!
Screw braces, I know plenty of people running 500 hp 4 bangers without braces lol. Waste of space they are lol.
'90 is bracket-free. Need to look into that for the '94, which already has more wiring & whatnot in the way. Bleh...
Have read a bit here & there about that brace but nothing conclusive. Most conjecture has it there to deal with harmonics and to keep things from breaking apart at higher revs for extended periods.
Maybe worth seeing if Emilio mentions the brace in reference to the many instances of his throttle body coming apart...
Bracket free here, and have been for well over 4 abusive years at the track. No problems to IM or throttle body. Of course, I'm not running raised rev limits either.
I have used the K&N brand filters with much success on hard to reach type motors. Jetski's and miata's seem to have the worst
locations for you to have to contort your body in. Just to change an oil filter. It's damn shame.
The K&N brand has a 17mm bolt head made into the outer oil filter case. Stick a socket on it or extension or openend or boxend
and you casn loosen it easily. Then when installing go with as tight as you can by hand or 1/2 turn past gasket touching.
Then 4gtabwtit.
jake
I go about a 1/2 turn on all of my oil filters. Never had one leak and it's easy to get them off at the next oil change.