Project 10AE Miata

[Goodspeed]

Small update, the car has gotten the last few mods I wanted to do to get the right "feel" out of everything.

I had Faul's Garage install some Mazda Comp engine mounts (40% stiffer) and some Energy poly diff bushings, as well as a new clutch master/slave and a 949 Racing stainless clutch line, and while they were in there I had them pour in some Motorcraft Full Synthetic Manual Trans fluid, the much lauded fluid of 6sp guys.

Impressions: the brand new fluid instantly felt better than the 2-3k mile broken in Redline MT90 that I put in prior. Reduced a lot of the crunchiness and general irritability of engaging 2nd gear. From what I've read this will only get better with another 3k or so. The front and rear mounts feel very solid and tight, but thankfully they transmit a lot less NVH than I was expecting; just a little harsher than stock but shifts are much more positive all around.

After that was done I took it upon myself to do the brakes. 949 rotors, Porterfield R4S pads, 949 stainless lines and ATE SuperBlue fluid. This was sort of an adventure...the fronts went fine, but the rears were a real pain. I broke the caliper adjustment gear in the pass. rear caliper (common problem), so I got a hold of some Cardone re-mans, and I was sweating bullets trying to get those little gears to function and not strip. I finally had enough and had the same shop finish the job for me with it ~90% done, it just wasn't worth the aggravation. Turns out (and this I did not know, from the internets nor my Miata performance guidebook), that the shop had no troubles with them once they simultaneously bled the brakes.

BIG thanks to Mark (Natalie's bf) for the help in the garage and Matt Cobr├® (fiveoh2go) for the hookup at JL Fabrication to machine the stock parking cable bracket a bit to fit one of the calipers better :thumbup:

Gross stock setup



Baller new setup



I've also got one of those G2 caliper paint kits (black) that i'll get around to doing at some point. Beyond that, I'll probably leave it alone for a good while, save for some decent tires when I'm able to afford them 8)