I'm buying* Canada's cheapest, roadworthy**, 50 mpg*** Mazda Miata MX-5

[Daox]

I look forward to any comparison that would liken them to the legendary RE92s.

[MetroMPG]

samwichse - thanks for that tidbit.

EDIT - here's some more detailed impressions of the Enasave vs. RE92 from Minispeed. Coincidentally, his comparison was done in my old (RIP) 2000 Insight he bought from me:

http://www.insightcentral.net/forums...p-enasave.html

Next summer, I'll do a coastdown comparison of my worn RE92's vs. these "new" Enasaves vs. the very good, original (gasp) Goodyear Invictas that came on my Firefly. A shorter version of this:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...e92-19126.html

[MetroMPG]

All the snow we got at the end of November has since melted, but with the car parked outside for a while longer in various forms of precipitation, I made up this cover for the leaky top:



It's just boat shrink wrap plastic, heat-shrunk to hug the Miata's shapely shapes. Does the job!

My Miata-owning friend offered to loan me his hard top, but mine will be getting an indoor parking spot in the shack before the deep freeze sets in.

Also, I'm going to need something like this cover on the car year round anyway. Unless I replace the top. Which I'm not planning to do.

That's pretty much it for this car for 2016. I will possibly do some repairs/maintenance later this winter (eg. radiator; general going over to prepare for mechanical inspection next year). We shall see.

[AntiochOG]

Ooh yes, I am very excited about this thread! I even got mentioned in the first post. I will come back and read through it all and comment when I am not at work.

[MetroMPG]

AntiochOG, your 50 mpg Miata thread gave me the confidence to dive in!

Nah, I would have bought it anyway.

[Stubby79]

I'd need to do some serious work to mine to get 50mpg. With 300k on the engine, a racing clutch, header, and heavy/wide 15" wheels/tires, it isn't happening. It's great if you want to drive the **** out of it, though!

Good luck with your project. I'll be watching.

[cad68m_m]

Excellent buy at $750. As you you know a very fun car to drive. I will be interested to see what you can take it to MPG wise. I have always said that the early Miata is an English sports car with all the faults rectified.

[Merlyn2220]

As the owner of 3 Miatas and a forum member, I can't imagine why you wouldn't be welcome over there. Many (but not all) drive Miatas for a combination of good (if not great) fuel economy and fun to drive. Some people might think you a heretic for modifying the body, but that's their problem...not yours!

A couple of things that I've found out:
1) If you *do* get the dreaded pulley wobble, you can loctite it (and never be able to remove it again) and you can also weld it. I welded the nose on my wife's 99, since the non-loaded side of the keyway was still in perfect shape. So I carefully MIG welded the loaded side back, and used a narrow die grinder and a file to shape it back square. All while in the car. I'm sure this weakened the front, but it's held from ~135k to 200k miles!

2) The front fender flares will pay you big dividends if you widen them in front of the front wheels. IIRC it was worth several mph of top speed in track testing. The undercarriage (at least in the later cars) is already reasonably flat, so I haven't bothered to modify any of mine.

3) It's good you replaced the radiator, those are notorious for breaking the plastic top/bottom caps. If it starts turning greenish, replace it asap. You can probably safely use a smaller radiator, since that one is designed to handle track racing all day.

4) Make sure you replace the hoses, ALL of them. In the 99 and later NB Miatas, there are several small hoses that go from the rear of the block, around under the intake manifold and to the oil heater/cooler, then up to the throttle body, over to the thermostat housing, and down the right front of the engine. They are hard to see, hard to replace, and will explode without warning. So consider yourself warned!

[kurzer]

the best mod i did to my mx5, was setting the mixture leaner. in open loop the car is so rich, even the power isn´t at its best. inner cooling, i guess.

i opend the black cover at the air flow meter. there is the spring base wich i set now 4 klicks leaner.
Weiterleitungshinweis

now the engine runs at WOT at the richer end of the "optimal" section, at FT or/and high revs it is rich anyway. with no klicks but E60 was WOT lean and FT rich. so using regular gas i tend to give it some more klicks. the middle of "optimal" at WOT maybe...

the best tank ever was 5,84 l/100km, 40,27 mpg with 3 klicks. but its not a commuter car but a track tool. the record was normal backroad driving by my sister. the car is definitly faster than stock, laptimes improved and additional shifts at straigts.

[Casanova]

Love efficiency and MX-5s, but have never combined the two - fascinating project

The number one rust spot for mk1 MX-5s is the back of the sills and the rear arch. Have a very thorough poke around that area. They rust there from the inside out (usually due to blocked hood drain tubes causing water to collect), so rust that becomes evident is already structural.

On the plus side, the engines are very understressed (fairly low compression as it was designed to be turbocharged, apparently) and smallnose crank wear notwithstanding, are extremely tough.