disregard

I'm going to go with mazda competition parts with j auto pillowball bushings

That sounds like a great plan. I have read good info in the past about the Mazda competition bushings. I may have gone that route myself if I had a mazdacomp account to order them.
Also yes the ball joints are not replaceable without custom work. But, the oem ball joints appear to be a robust design that many people never have any issues with. Just take the opportunity to replace the boots and grease and should be good to go.

Okay so it's finalized.
Speaking with James from Mazda competition has been extremely pleasant. He helped me out multiple times and we together made sure what I needed.

J-auto helped me out for 40 mins on the phone for everything else Mazda competition didn't have. We went over my order from Mazda and created an order over the phone on his Web site to make sure the entire job was complete front to back.
I purchased Mazda competition bushings. They are stiffer rubber oem bushings that are not available in the factory.

I went with j-auto pillow balls with j auto toe links, inner/auto tie rods/ boot covers, ball joint boots, and super pro trailing arm bushing.

After the help here online and to James and j-auto, I feel like I am making the right decision.

Congratulations! I'm glad to see you've gone with a setup that saved you some cash too. Looking forward to updates.

So I got a used exhaust from Pettit racing because there is a giant hole that's unrepairable on top of the oem muffler. It's a 3 inch fart can. Well see how long this will last. I have my eyes on a full titanium cat back.

This sounded cool with the back fire but the rattle noise sucked.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8722/...5ab9b20a_b.jpg20150331_142726 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7600/...8fdacd1e_b.jpg20150331_142729 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

First item to arrive for operation "Suspension Revival"

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8692/...a2b145dc_b.jpg2015-04-02_05-40-31 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

Order came in today and I'm super excited. The bushings may be as important if not more important then coil overs.

Mazda competition bushings front and back. J-Auto pillow balls with oem seals, inner and outer tie rods, tie rod boots, oem ball joint boots, super pro trailing arm bushings,
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8753/...50ea2e01_b.jpg2015-04-03_06-25-39 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8746/...be373344_b.jpg2015-04-03_06-25-13 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

Can't make the 4/11 meet due to work unfortunately. Like the progress so far. Replacing all of the bushings and associated linkage is big on my must do list.

That sucks. Might bring a buddy of mine locally with me to the meet. Are you going the the Rotary Rally ?

Picture of the new exhaust. Gonna try to take a video clip with my sony A7

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8806/...9022fe95_b.jpg2015-04-05_06-50-08 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

I got the car back from the shop. Took some time but everything got done that I asked for. I also had to pick up 2x new differential axle shaft seals because of a small leak on one side.

So, I had drained and replaced the differential fluid again in my ownership and freshen the car up with an oil change before I we head up to Deals Gap Rotary Rally on Wednesday.

The mazda competition differential bushings got installed as well in addition.

Drove the car home for 15 minutes and right away the tailing arm clunking is gone, the car feels stiffer, and I am experiencing a little bit more vibrations.

Prepping the car with blue dodo juice wax kit for Deals Gap Rotary Rally
No filter

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8808/...0a32d252_b.jpg20150414_121503 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7659/...1e028fd8_b.jpg20150414_121456 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

So the car did 332.5 miles on a single tank of non-ethanol 93 premium gas. That is all I try to put in the tank whenever I can locate a station. So it equals about 20.33 miles a gallon driving 83 mph with slight variations in speed.

I got the numbers after filling her up 16.35 gallons.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7612/...dec5fa40_b.jpg2015-04-15_06-44-49 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

that paint looks awesome. how's the rain?

The rain is miserable. Just have to be even more conservative. Foggy, cold, cars in front of you throwing up water, wet roads, raining you know how it goes.
I won't push it even if conditions are favorable. The fiancé is in the car.

nice meeting ya budday

@Ruler Mark,

You too. Ill see you at one of the meets in Palm Bay and visit ya either at the shop or another event.

Are you still hosting the meet at your place? If so I'm there.

i plan to just having a hard time picking a date

So I plan on purchasing ohlin's. So far I've owned tein basic's on a 02 Mazda protege, tein flex on my sold turbo 99 miata, and bc's on my 10ae miata. These will be the best set I've come to own. I can not wait to try them out autocrossing.

You will not be disappionted.

If I could ask for your help, I am replacing the fuel pump because it's 24 years old. Is there anything else I should replace along with the fuel pump?

The injectors were tested and flowed by the original owner in 2006.



I'm also tackling the vacuum hoses and replacing them with new oem lines. I was going to replace it with the solenoids. What should I consider replacing while things are apart? I do have Dale Clarks check valves so we can skip those.

Ohlins have been shipped from sweeden.

Mazda ordered 8 turbo solenoids and all the vacuum hoses for the next job. The solenoids are 70 each and with the peace of mind that they are new comforts me a bit from reading nightmares that people were buying used ones online to fix turbo issues they had and they were malfunctioning. Better to buy new oem from the dealer.*

I also picked up an entire fuel pump assembly kit that Mazda puts together for you with new seals, hardware, and pump.

Last but not least I ordered the PRE/WG duty solenoid at 180.*

Now, I could simplify things with the rats nest but I'd like to keep some things original. I'm not looking for serious hp or even going single turbo. If I upgrade the turbos, I might consider the 99 turbos. I'm still happy with the cars power for now.

don't go oe replacement with the fuel pump get one that is ethanol compatible.

Does 10% ethanol really affect the pump that much? I'll check into that because this is the first I've heard this.

Yes, its also why all the soft lines wear out

I personally haven't seen this on any of the FD's I've worked on. I imagine higher concentrations of Ethanol would be no bueno but E10 seems fine.

If it truly degraded fuel lines I doubt it would be legal for sale. There's a lot of cars out there with "old style" fuel lines.

BTW, Gerald, you're hard core getting OEM vacuum line :).

Dale

Dale

I was contemplating Silicone but if the oem rubber lines lasted this long on the car without my knowledge of knowing they have been replaced by the previous owners receipts when the engine was rebuilt, Whats a decade compared to almost 24 years? A half life? Btw can't wait to hang out.

Its not like it just up and eats it. Over time it will accelerate decay, I think Gerald plans to be buried in his OEM rx7 figured if he made everything ethanol safe he would get a few more years out of the lines and pump.

Awesome build! I think in the end our cars may be twins.

The car will be down an additional day. We needed to order a new heater hose since the one under the manifold is cracking. Hoping for a completion tomorrow.

This is going to be an exciting day. These should feel amazing with the mazda competition bushings.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8691/1...aedc8179_c.jpg2015-05-15_11-07-06 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5346/1...1a4618dd_c.jpg2015-05-15_11-07-53 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5469/1...e2c02c01_c.jpg2015-05-15_11-07-32 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

^Nothing but WIN!

.

Nice! Need a pic of that new exhaust too.... :)

Dale

And I'm super excited for the racingbeat exhaust. It's super clean.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7727/1...859b0c79_c.jpg2015-05-15_06-50-44 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

Just installed the racing beat exhaust. Car feels great especially with the fuel pump replacement. I can actually feel a better throttle response. I'll post pics of the assembly it's pretty much rusted.

Rears... I'll snap the fronts tomorrow. The ohlins are installed thanks to the supervision and help of digicar/marc. It was smooth and eventful. Learned a lot from him.

Btw... the car feels night and day. I just want to drive all night right now.

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7707/1...82e60baf_c.jpg2015-05-16_09-48-29 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

Few more pics of the Key West trip beginning of this week.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5322/1...7fedbec9_c.jpgDSC00449 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr


https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8859/1...c7cfce8a_c.jpgDSC00417 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr


https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8803/1...e9e8b402_c.jpgDSC00566 by rocketeerbandit, on Flickr

For the next maintenance procedure for the

Has anyone used Evans Waterless Coolant first hand? Florida has already had 20+ 90 degree weather and if you thought your turbo miata gets hot??? The rotary is worse. I ha e everything I need to do to keep the car cool like making sure all liners are tight and installed, koyo radiator, 185* thermostat, FC Fan Switch rather then a FD, brand new FD fan motors and blades, and lastly a aftermarket non constricted downpipe to get rid of exhaust gases out of the engine bay.

I don't want a vented hood because I love the smooth oem hood so that's out of the question. So this was another way to keep engine Temps down is the Evans Waterless Coolant.

http://www.evanscooling.com/products...mance-coolant/


http://www.google.com/search?q=evans...17905116729031

A PFC also helps since you can set custom fan on/off speeds. The digi with a frontmount didnt run hot when it was rotary because I was able todo this.

^^Don't buy Evans thinking the car will run "cooler" because that's not the case. It merely allows you to run zero pressure and higher temps. Most guys I know who've used it have switched back to EG.

Thanks RCCAZ_1 for the advice.

Also Mark, One of those fancy tools will be had. Just not sure if it will happen this summer.

IMHO Evans is nice but it's a LOT of hassle. Good ol' 50/50 distilled water and antifreeze is what I run with no problems.

Getting the fans running the way they should is the big trick. Your car isn't going for insane horsepower numbers so you will be just fine. Before I went front mount I ran for YEARS with the stock IC and stock radiator, daily drove the car, and had zero overheating problems. It's all in the fan control. Hot Florida day with AC on, MAYBE it would heat soak to 90 degrees. Did great.

Dale

I'm interested in how hot the car actually gets along with boost numbers. Maybe in a little bit I'll pick up some defi gauges.

Nice meeting you the other day. I've seen your fd in passing and it looked really nice but after looking through this thread, I didn't know it was this nice! Good job, man. How did the autox go this past weekend?

Honestly, save the couple hundred bucks buying Defi water and boost gauges and put it towards a PFC and Commander. It will display (and peak hold) water temp and boost for you. I'm not a fan of guages either and find just the single Commander using the glove box mount to be cleaner than having a couple guages awkwardly mounted someplace.

Who'd you order your masdacomp bushings through? Have the parts list?

@andrew Autocross was fun. I wasn't mentally there until my very last run. It was my 4th event and I had to be recoached and inspired again.
And running on 4 year old all season tires that came on the car didn't help. Though the autocross in Palm bay two Sundays from now will be a different type story. I hope you can come out there either to race or to spectate.
Appreciate the compliments on the car.

@narfle hey, I went ahead and signed up for Mazda competition online. It's a Mazda based oem parts supplier that sells 40% stiffer products then the factory lot equipment at wholesale. They have all of the parts on line to make a quick check out list or ask of they can put the products in the shopping cart for you. It's what I did because I ordered all the bushings which got complicated.

I'm out of town for the week. When I get back home, I will find the saved receipts and try to help you out.

I purchased 245/45/16 RE-11s

I super excited to see how the feel at autocross and during day to day driving.

There weren't a lot of choices in that size.

i run the re11a on my fc in a square 255 and i love them! you will agree im sure of it!

@atli126 they were awesome on the course. I love the wider tire. My rode is quite while grippy. Of course anything would be gripper with the all season tires I had. But man I haven't felt what the car can do until I bought tires since I got the car. Plus stiff suspension doesn't do well without sticky tires.

Here's a video. I do not like my posture and it affects my driving especially when I brace myself on the stick handle.

But I was able to do well