ElDaddyoyoyo

Greetings all,

I am coming here in search of knowledge.

I just recently procured a 1990 NB. It is bone stock and a one owner perfect condition car.

So here is what I am after:
Recommendations on body kits/wheel tire combos

cowl hood/ spoiler

maybe finding a way to run virtual gauges on a 7 " monitor

performance suggestions medium to low budget

maybe other stuff that you guys will get me spun up on.


I plan on sorting through the forums for my answers but if anyone wants to take pity on me and help me work towards the answers it would be much appreciated

-Lee

ElDaddyoyoyo

I was under the impression that my car was a NB but after reading a few posts I am wondering if I have an NA. Anyone?

sixshooter

NA was from 89-97. They had pop-up lights. NB was from 99-2005. They had fixed headlights. NC was from 2006-2015.

Cowl hood= gauge hood?

There are lots of spoiler options. Google is your friend there. I can't remember where I got mine. It mounts with drilling and riveting. There are also ducktail trunklids available.

ElDaddyoyoyo

I really like the look of this cowl hood -> http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0001_large.jpg

I have found a duckbill spoiler that I am going to get but I am going to wait until I have the body kit to make sure it matches

sixshooter

There are no cheap performance upgrades that will really make a huge difference in acceleration. Suspension, brakes, and tires are the low hanging fruit for guys who take Miatas to the track to go faster. Exhaust, intake, and the like are wasted money for 2-3 horsepower but people still do them. Many of the intake setups actually make less power than stock.

A Megasquirt ECU can free up about 10-15 hp between tuning fuel and spark for power rather than economy and the ability to delete the restrictive AFM device. Once you have a Megasquirt you can add a turbo or other fun things. MS Labs, DIY Autotune, and Braineak on Miataturbo.net all make and sell Megasquirts. Don't get one made anywhere else, but you can buy a used one any of them has built.

MKTurbo has good quality hotside turbo parts for a DIY turbo upgrade.

A lightweight flywheel will let the engine rev faster in the lower gears and make it more peppy and fun to drive. If you have air conditioning it can occasionally allow the car to stall easier when the a/c clutch engages, though.

Keep the wheels as light as you can for acceleration and handling. They make a huge difference.

The 1.6 rear differentials fail often at stock power levels. Plan to upgrade to a 1.8 diff and axles at some point.

ElDaddyoyoyo

I was reading that about the exhaust and intake. I plan to only put a K&N in because I hate the paper filters and put a resonating tube in place of the cat because a failing cat can wreck an engine.

as far as the flywheel I was looking at the dual friction flywheel combo. just seems to make sense to me.

I like the idea of the ECU replacement. how hard are these to tune?

do 1.8 rear parts bolt in? any gearing issues?

After our last thread, I have emailed moss for advice on wheels and tires. I want light for sure. I just dont plan on SCCA racing this thing so I dont need 9" wheels. just going to be a play toy to cruise in.

Thanks for all of your advice. I was starting to wonder if this forum was an empty room. I like my miata because you dont see many around here. I like different. the problem with that is that there is little local advice to be had. so in essence..you de man

sixshooter

I'm not familiar with the dual friction flywheel unless you are talking about the twin disc setup from 949Racing.

The rear diff assembly will go in as a unit and then the axles will go into that. It is a bolt in arrangement with all of the same mounting points and hardware. There are different ratios available so get the one you want. Common ones are 4.10, 3.90. The 1.6 cars came with a 4.10 or 4.33, to my recollection.

Moss isn't a good place to buy things unless you want higher prices for the exact same goods. 949 Racing, Good Win Racing, Trackspeed Engineering, and V8 Roadsters are reasonable and have some cool toys.

sixshooter

And check out the build threads at Miataturbo.net for some ideas of what upgrades people may be doing and why. It is always good to learn from their failures, too, so you can see where not to spend money. Just be careful asking questions that have been asked previously instead of searching for the answers. They don't like that. They have a DIY FAQ that will answer some of your questions but it needs to be updated.

ElDaddyoyoyo

Yes that's the unit I was talking about. my bad on not typing the word clutch. sometimes my brain moves faster than my fingers...

I like the idea of beefing up the rear. I will start looking for parts.

good to know about moss. I am new to the mazda game. so its hard not having a direction like jegs or summit like im used to lol.

Thanks again for the advice. I will take all I can get

ElDaddyoyoyo

heading there now...