Hey guys, my name is John and I'm finally getting around to this project that has sat for the past couple of years. I lucked out and found a little old woman that originally purchased the car from the dealership, ONLY allowed Mazda to service it, and decided to sell it cheap when she upgraded to a brand new Miata. It was a pleasant surprise to see such a seemingly unassuming woman with so many years to be so passionate and loyal about her sports cars. Add to the fact that the car was born exactly one year after me (Oct 85), and I knew I'd have to keep this one for life. Having suffered the theft loss of my first 88 FC back in 05 after putting several thousands into it, I made a promise to myself to build this one completely and hang on to it to hand down to my first son. Unfortunately, the engine compression was low on both rotors, and even after trying to play with the ATF trick and basic tune up, vaccuum tracing, TPS, etc., it would start every time but die out without keeping the throttle open. Anyway, I decided to start removing all emissions gear, the exhaust, ancillaries, etc., in preparation for something to give her a litttle more oomph. So, I slapped some VA antique tags on her, and she has sat for far too long. Sadly, the savings I had aside for her had to be reapportioned elsewhere, but I'm finally getting back together and am ready to make some investments. I've made acquaintance (online) with a couple of serious rotor-heads, and if money were no option, I'd obviously ship my baby to one of them with a blank check, and count down the days until I could feel a 20b bridgey turbo in my 2600lb rocketship. But, we all live in the real world, and while one day that may still take place, right now I've just got to get her back on the road to enjoy. So, I'd greatly appreciate anyone's advice/experience or suggestions, and any constructive feedback, hence my thread.

 

Good to see you, John. If you've already let the project languish once before, you might want to start off slow and just get it running. It does a lot to keep your motivation up if you can still drive it as you upgrade it gradually. I recommend that you have a look at the cold-start idle system and see if you can get her to idle. Chasing vacuum leaks and replacing the old rubber lines with silicone ones would be a good start too (less likely to leak, and won't crack after a few years).