1990 Miata: One Wheel Of Fury

[andrew_j]

Alright so my second car is now in my hands, white 1990 NA. 54k miles I am the third owner. She is not running but for $800 who cares? She needs a top and body work (passenger fender and door) so if any of you have any of that laying around let me know.











Let me know what you guys think!

[Goodspeed]

:thumbup:

Awesome Bim...I mean Miata (thanks for breaking the chain). Looks fairly clean and welcome to the easiest car in the world to work on - I'm sure you'll get it running in no time.

Head over to miata.net if you haven't already and do some searching/reading - its like the size of Wikipedia but just for Miatas for the starting troubles. For the body panels, Flyin Miata, Planet Miata and The Parts Group all have salvageable parts for these cars by the boat loads.

What are your plans? You know, you can turbo the little 1.6 very cheaply :twisted:

[JustinG]

This club needs more turbo......do it

[andrew_j]

I flip flop between ls1 swapping it and turboing it, however as of now the goal is to get her running and on the autocross track stat.

I really want this car to have some power one day later on, I am really tired of going slow. I am leaning towards the ls1 for a variety of reasons...tons of power, cheap, light, sound amazing, 6 speed trans, and the after market support not only for the motor but for the swap into a miata is just crazy. A tiny bit of work on the ls1 and I can have 2100lb car that puts down 300+whp. That's nothing to scoff at. Plus its just plain cool in my opinion. These are long term goals though, right now its get it running, repaired and painted, full suspension (if you've seen my integra in person or on here you know I believe go big or go home on this one), and then power. I know it is a bullet proof platform and I won't have many issues out of her so its the necessities and then drive drive drive. Modify it as I go and or need to.

I found a door local to me at home for $120, and I found a fender for $100 on partsgroup. Jake hooked me up with some spare parts he had to help get me on my feet with this thing. I am really happy to bring a little variety from both of my vehicles to the club.

[DLingenfelter]

:thumbup:
Awesome Bim...I mean Miata (thanks for breaking the chain).

+1!
Sweet man, F the bodywork, rollbar that beast and let the party begin! :wink:
I can't believe you found a 90 with 54k miles...and for $800!? Track down the reason as to why it isn't running?

[andrew_j]

I know its fuel related. It's been sitting since November (thats when I test drove it) and the gas that was in it then was already old, no stabil, and now I am fairly sure its just not getting any fuel. I had to leave it at home but my pops is gonna change the fuel filter, drain the tank, and go from there. He put some Heet and B12 chemtool in the tank and has been letting that sit and is gonna see if it will fire. Its fuel realted tho, gotta be. When they towed it to my house I plopped in cranked her over she fired sputtered and died, which is more than it did Saturday night when I originally went to pick it up for $1200. When I had bought it and all for $1200 and it wouldn't start negotiations were back on and we agreed on $800 and a tow.

The car came from a family friend who knew little about cars and was going to have to tow it to a shop and have all the work it needs done. They knew they were in for a lot of money and hassle so they let her go.

[andrew_j]

There is a shot of the interior in her. She is a little time capsule, untouched and unmolested for 21 years. Her build date is 06/89 per the sticker in the door.

[D_Eclipse9916]

:thumbup:
Awesome Bim...I mean Miata (thanks for breaking the chain).

+1!
Sweet man, F the bodywork, rollbar that beast and let the party begin! :wink:
I can't believe you found a 90 with 54k miles...and for $800!? Track down the reason as to why it isn't running?

+1, roll bar, set of pads, and track the shit outta it.

[Goodspeed]

Parts are so cheap and labor is easy enough that I'd fix those dents, because why not . As others said, a rollbar and a nice set of pads are all you'll need to start.

But since I'm bored at work and you mentioned....... :twisted:

I flip flop between ls1 swapping it and turboing it, however as of now the goal is to get her running and on the autocross track stat.

With a FM (i.e. V8Roadsters) or Boss Frog kit, motor/trans, etc., you'll probably be in for all of $10k without labor, if not more (LS motors are steadily rising in cost as they become more popular for this sort of thing). Awesome, ridiculous results if you don't mind spending that much on a $800 car.

Still doubling or tripling your purchase price, but turbo'ing is going to be a LOT cheaper and easier, especially on the 1.6. These B series motors are built for boost from the original 323 GTX days, and you can scrap together something quite easily - and, for under $5k including the car, you could have a pocket juggernaut on your hands. I know you were looking at doing the same for the Integra, so I won't ramble on, but a few hints/tips...

Miataturbo.net is your friend - their hive mind supports installing Megasquirt on a stock engine to get it sorted and running before doing anything else. The 1.6 strangely has superiority over the 1.8 in terms of cheap parts that are actually decent quality - chief among them being the log manifold sold by Ebay user "ilovetacotaco" (commonly, and awesomely referred to as the TacoTaco manifold) - 120 bucks.

A lot of guys on there are also running chinachargers - either CXRacing or Godspeed T3 framed GT25s or 28s and have had great long-term success with them. BEGi, or Bell Engineering (aka Corky Bell of Maximum Boost) even offers their "Shanghai" turbo systems for under $2k using these turbos. The one-man teams of ARTech or Enthuzacar sell or can custom make great downpipes and exhausts for awesome prices as well.

MT.net user Underdog has an awesome budget 1.6 build thread - he was so cheap he used a 1g DSM ECU :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1g2bMPN...r_embedded

http://miata.turbomirage.com/

And another scrappy 1.6 I'm fond of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNS3I6H9Sk

[DLingenfelter]

Forgive me if you've already done it but when you turn the key can you hear the fuel pump humming over your right shoulder? If not it might be trashed, even my working fuel pump had a good bit o corrosion junk here and there so I can imagine what might build up on a car sitting that long. Also give it some new plugs and wires, miata's are really picky and I've heard of a few guys who picked up cars the owners thought were on deaths door because they ran so rough or didn't run at all and simply threw wires and plugs on them and drove away.

[andrew_j]

I am gonna do cheap things first ie, drain the tank, put fresh gas in with a fresh fuel filter and see if it fires. I will also check the pump when I do this too. Its hard to hear the pump over that annoying ass buzzer when the key is on the third click, so I will pull the cap off and put my ear there and see what I can hear. If the pump is dead I will do that next. If those don't fix it then plugs and wires but that was all done at 44k miles per the receipts I got with the car.

Did I mention that I even have the original window sticker from 1990?

[andrew_j]

The current must have parts list is as follows in the following order:

Paint hood and trunk to prevent further rust
Replace the top so it can sit outside
Kosei k1's and a set of tires (Maybe just tires, havent decided yet)
Stainless brake lines
Stoptech Pads
Replace rotors
ATE Superblue Flushed in
All fluids and filters
Hard dog roll bar
Cold air intake

Phase 2 will be:
Suspension (won't bore you all with that yet)
Power (I will look into boosting the 1.6, and I need an LSD!)
Paint and body work

Thanks for reading!

[V1GiLaNtE]

I approve of this thread

[andrew_j]

Also looking at colors... thinking house of kolor code PBC44.....



Which is a pearl white but I think it would look sooooooo good on the car.

[andrew_j]

SHE RUNS!



That was the culprit right there. Jake and I replaced the fuel pump too and she runs like a champ. So for $870 I know have a running, driving, miata and even a new surround for the radio.

[WRXtranceformed]

What is it

[Goodspeed]

Nice! That is such a steal, you could hardly buy a decent go kart for that much....

[Evan]

shit, I sold* a running 90 miata for $800 to a jackass who acted like that price was just waaay too high



*the term "sold" implies that he has actually given me the money for the car, which hasnt happened yet :roll:

[andrew_j]

That is the fuel pump relay. It resides in a pita to reach place up in the dash. By pita I mean it took me a good bit of ingenuity to get the bolt holding it in loose and removed. I found that 2 of the 4 wires on the fuel pump plug are supposed to read 12 volts with the ignition on and they weren't so I knew this had to be the problem. I replaced the fuel pump for good measure while I was there. Big shout out to Jake for helping me out on her as well. My only concern is that when we replaced the pump we stripped the screw so I drilled it out and used a screw and nut, however idk if they are stainless or not. Considering going back in just to put a stainless on it to assure no problems but I can't decide if its worth the time or not.

I took her and got her inspected today, she passed with flying colors. I have full coverage on her and she is now registered so I will be tooling around for the rest of spring break in her.

I also got these for a steal...



So next up, strip/paint k1's, order lug nuts and tires, replace top, autocross the hell out of her.



A parting picture of where she sits, warm and dry in the garage.

[ScottyB]

nice work...i've gotta say, an old, paint-peeling sub 1 grand miata is prime for track beatdowns. enjoy it!