Welcome to John from Washington State

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

John dropped by to visit for a couple days and have us install a coldside in his 2002. We had a heck of a time making power until we discovered that it had a stick valve like my 05. He had also used 20W50 oil and the VVT really didn't like that. Even warmed up it the valve was slow to move. With an oil change to 10W30 and a quart of Rislone to help unstick the valve, the quirkyness was all gone and it drove smooth as butter. With the valve still not up to snuff, we left it a bit on the rich side and gave up a few WHP for safety until in gets back to normal. He had just purchased the car and, at almost 5 years old (0102 build) it only had 19K and parked for long winters. In any case, he was a happy camper and off to the races in OK this week.

Good luck at the races, John.

[ThomS]

John let me be one of the first to welcome you to the family. ( FFSC family)
Hope you really enjoy the SC and have lots of safe fun. As you probably already know Tom will be one of the best suppliers to work with. Customer service is top for him. I have an 02 ALSO and it is a great system.
ENJOY.
Thom S

[99mx5]

Welcome to addiction John... ;)
...before you know it, you'll be asking Tom about pulleys! LOL

[ThomS]

Well John now that you have had they SC for while, tell us how it is??

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

He called from Oklahoma yesterday and said it was running great. He is racing this weekend in Oklahoma so I don't think we will here from him for a week or so until he gets back to Washington State and his computer.

He did have a problem you all should keep an eye out for. He had a bad motor mount on the drivers side. It was allowing the engine to tilt pretty bad when he got on it at the dyno. He had a pair drop shipped to his friend in Arkansas and replaced it there Wednesday. I highly recommend the Mazda Speed Competition mounts. Thats what I used in the 99.

[ThomS]

what was the condition of the car when he bought it, was it new or used? You said his car was 2002, dam same year as mine. SO far my engine looks ok and I will be putting it to sleep for the winter this weekend. Still worried on what to do for the SC for the winter. What should I look for? No tilt so far in engine bay?

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

Thom,

It was used. He bought it 4 weeks ago just to drive down and get boosted. It is a duplicate of your 2002 yellow Twetty Bird. It was built 0102. Almost 5 years old and 19K miles. I think it spent a lot of it's time parked.

[ThomS]

Thom,

It was used. He bought it 4 weeks ago just to drive down and get boosted. It is a duplicate of your 2002 yellow Twetty Bird. It was built 0102. Almost 5 years old and 19K miles. I think it spent a lot of it's time parked.


Yees I would say it was parked alot. I hope he enjoyes it alot. John let us know what is going on when you get back home.
ThomS

[Dr Evol]

I installed new motor mounts in my car as well. My old mounts were crushed and worthless. I used a engine torque damper on my evo, some thing like the product I found on eBay for the Miata. I don't know if this one is any good, but I am going to give it a try since the cost is so low.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/MAZDA-MX5-MIATA-90-05-ENGINE-TORQUE-DAMPENER-RODS-MX-5_W0QQitemZ200038741090QQihZ010QQcategoryZ50454QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Kyp J]

When I went to the dyno a week or so ago, I noticed some of the car's engines really twisting during the test. I completely forgot to look at mine to see what it did. I put in the competition mounts during the reinstall. It is really hard to see under normal driving conditions (on ramps and such) unless you can find a small volunteer to observe.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

I also have the competition mounts in mine. I literally tore the drivers side stock mount in half. Check those mounts. John's was so bad the engine would rock over and the tensioner bracket was hitting the AC line. It was more than a half inch away. BTW, not to steal this thread, but I did the diff competition mounts at the same time. Really helped the power shift from 2-3. Before that the trans shifted so much I couldn't pull third speed shifting.

[Kyp J]

I also have the competition mounts in mine. I literally tore the drivers side stock mount in half. Check those mounts. John's was so bad the engine would rock over and the tensioner bracket was hitting the AC line. It was more than a half inch away. BTW, not to steal this thread, but I did the diff competition mounts at the same time. Really helped the power shift from 2-3. Before that the trans shifted so much I couldn't pull third speed shifting.


I don't think I have seen those listed. Probably didn't notice since I already had a $million of parts ordered. I will crawl under to look the next time I have it up for tire changing. I vaugely remember some rubber things when I changed my diff. Are they a difficult project?

By the way, should we ashamed to admit we are speed shifting at our age? Just wondering.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

http://www.miatamania.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=45360&SortOrder=2

I diod all of those as well as some of the frame bracing. The roll bar also stiffened the chassis. Now, with the RB sway bars front and rear and the JICs all around, it is almost stiff enough for street use. :)

PS. Did you all notice our new record went from 12 people on line at one time to 36 people on line at one time. :):)

[Kyp J]

I know you claim it wasn't the other forum, but now I don't get kicked off if I don't stay active for a while.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

I took pity on you. ;)

[Kyp J]

I took pity on you. ;)

What I'ze sayin is, Mr T, that without some a us folks bein' kicked off, they is mo' on at a time, see what I'ze sayin'?

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

i don't think it works like that as the most we had for weeks was 12. the pop, 36. i think it is the S2K crowd from a post I made on their forum. ;)

Besides, I can dream, can't I? :)

[elerner]

Tom, maybe you want to put the competition mounts as a recomenndo in your instructions. I did them as part of the install. I actually had to have the dealer do the driver's side as it was a real bitch. Took them a long time too because I already had the blower on and they were cautious about snapping the EGR valve off when lifting the engine.

[Kyp J]

It would be a better learning experience if everyone removed their entire engine which would make it easier on the SC install, allow changing the clutch, midpipe and mounts with ease and learn where all the parts are. At the same time they could revise the coolant routing. The instruction manual would need a few extra steps.

How come I can't put a smiley where I want it? Just to explain that was a joke.

[Tom @ Fast Forward]

You ;) must be :( hitting the wrong :rolleyes: smilies.

Use the ones at the right. Not the ones at the bottom. I did notice that if you click 'more' on the right and select one, it tends to put it at the beginning. Not sure why?:confused:

[ThomS]

It would be a better learning experience if everyone removed their entire engine which would make it easier on the SC install, allow changing the clutch, midpipe and mounts with ease and learn where all the parts are. At the same time they could revise the coolant routing. The instruction manual would need a few extra steps.

How come I can't put a smiley where I want it? Just to explain that was a joke.
Kyp J you have to change your setting in your profile..
Go to User CP at top of page then click on edit options, then scroll down to MIsc. Options , inside that bin click on the arrow by the box when it opens change from basic to enhanced setting and save that. The smilies will then appear so you can use them where you want them.
Just found that out just now. good luck.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[JMann]

Thanks for the welcome. I really like the cold side SC. It is a clean installation. As Tom has stated above the engine had not many miles on it and there were issues with it that showed up on the dyno. The horse power readings were not consistant and after doing a leak down test found that 1 and 4 had issues. We added some rislone and I drove it to Flagstaff and back and we put it back on the dyno and it was better, but still not quite as good as should be. Well I took off for Ark. to see a friend I hadn't seen in several years who also has a Miata with a hotside SC. We were going to Miatas at Hallett, sponsored by the Ark. miata club.
It was pretty cool event, there were over 100 miatas and 80 were registered to run on the track for 4-25 min. sessions. I ran in advanced intermediate since it had been about 6 yrs since I had done any racing. Out of 20 in the class I was second fastest, but after coming in from the 1 st session the was a tapping noise in the lifters. Well I decided not to run again since I was so far from home. I just want to say i8f you ever get the chance to run at this event, do it, you well never see so many miatas in one place and check out Hallettracing.com or the club section on miata.net and the Ark. miata club site.
Anyway I drove home slowly and left the car at Coop's miata, he does most of the work for the members of our club. He got the head off and found some rather badly burned intake valves on 1 and 4 and broken pistons. Funny thing is the car still ran really good and idled as smooth as could be. It did start using a qt. of oil every 400 mi. Anyway I have found a 03 motor in Col. and it should be here Mon. Coop is goint to remove the head and check it out first, this one has 49,000 so it has been used some, not left sitting around. I am going to install a 55mm Koyo rad. and a real temp, oil pres and oil temp gauge. It was cool that morning at the track, in the 50's and never saw the temp gauge move but I guess the temp has to climb alot before the fact gauge does move so there is no way of reaaly telling what the temp climbed to. I also got the last 100 mm crank pulley Tom has and am going to install it.
I cannot say enough about the service I was given in Phx. by Tom and the guys at the dyno place. I should not have ran the car on the track until removing the head and seeing what the issues were, istalling the proper gauges to keep an eye on things and a bigger rad. I am hoping things work out fine this time, I am still a little worried about running the car hard on the track with the 10 to 1 compression the 01 and up make. I think I am going to save my old engine and maybe build a short blk with 94 to 97 pistons which are 8.8 to 1 comp.
Anyway it is a blast driving a miata with this much getup and go and love opening the hood and seeing that coldside clean setup.:p Well keep you posted, also anyone out there running an 01 or newer with Toms coldsde SC on the track, I would be interested in how you have it set up and if you dropped the compression. John