Category: Import
Status: Salvage

I have a 1990 Mazda Miata for sale, in USA - Texas.

Mileage: 135,000 miles
Engine Size: 1.6 plus turbo


Asking price is $5,000



Hey guys,


I just copied what I posted on my local Miata board:





I don't know if any of you remember this thread: 90 Turbo NA - nevermind but the bottom line is that I started a turbo project, thought about selling part way through, changed my mind and decided to finish the project, I bought thousands of dollars in additional parts, and now I have lost interest in the car and want to sell it. My reputation matters to me, so, per the usual, I offer full disclosure. I'm an open book.




Here's the Cliffs Notes version:

Phase 1 - I have owned the car since 2007 and it came with an old Flyin' Miata turbo kit and a Lin ECU, and I drove it like that for several years. The last owner put a fresh 1.6 in it long before I bought it, so it has 135k on the chassis and less than 100k.
Phase 2 - I then bought a new style Flyin' Miata turbo kit and a Megasquirt ECU, hooked it all up and called my tuner only to find that he doesn't tune Megasquirt. I bought a ton of new parts, thought about installing them for the longest time, then thought about selling the car (and made that old thread accordingly), and the parts just sat there on a shelf in my garage.
Phase 3 - I realized I'd hate myself if I never finished my project, so I bought many more parts (COP ignition, big fuel system, 949 Racing Wheels and Nitto NT01s, tons more) and installed everything. The car is now fully assembled but it is not yet fully tuned.
Phase 4 - I have gone back to school (on top of working full time and being married with a child) and I have, once again, run out of steam. I want to buy a Porsche and forget about modding cars for a while whether it makes me hate myself for not finishing the project or not.

Again, as the car sits, it is not fully tuned but all of the parts are installed.




Elaboration / Problems you need to know about
Over Christmas break, I worked on the car in every spare moment I had and I made a ton of progress. I took the car to get tuned by Tony Palo (read: arguably the most reputable tuner in the South) at T1, he set up all of the base maps for E85 and whatnot but he had to pull the plug on tuning since the car had four issues: it had a fuel leak on the new fuel rail, the TPS wasn't being read by the ECU, one of the cylinders wasn't getting spark, and there was a coolant leak. I took the car home and fixed the coolant leak (I had forgotten to tighten a hose clamp), I fixed the fuel leak (threaded insert needed an O-ring), and I have not addressed the other two issues but I know what the problem is. On the TPS, I did a variable TPS conversion (and I might add that my take on this popular conversion is pretty freaking awesome), only I forgot to swap the pin at the ECU harness. So that's a simple enough fix. The dead spark in one of the cylinders is going to be a bad crimp in the ignition harness. I installed a coil-on-plug setup that is wired into the factory wiring at the ignitor and, against my better judgment, I crimped it using the recommended connectors rather than the connectors I know work better. Again, another simple fix, if I only had time to do any of this.

The car has a salvaged title and is still registered in Florida. There are no complications with the title. It's in my name and I don't owe money on the car or any of that kind of thing. The title is salvaged because I got rearended and pushed into a pickup truck several years. The rear end damage was nominal, but the truck in front of me had a tow hook, so it got me right on the radiator support. Old car plus hood and bumper damage = total loss. I replaced the hood, bumper, and rear finish panel, and fabbed a new radiator support and it was good to go. It didn't affect the alignment or frame rails or anything like that. I've driven it for years since the accident. It's registered in Florida because turbo cars are more welcomed there, if you catch my meaning.

So to summarize, I put it all together, took it in for it's big bad E85 tune, there were four minor issues, and I resolved the two easy ones and haven't gotten around to the other two.




Awesome stuff you need to know about
The car comes with the following parts installed / stuff done:
-nearly new Flyin' Miata turbo kit featuring a GT3071r turbo (read: big turbo)
-nearly new FatCat Motorsports Custom Valved Bilstein coilovers (read: God's gift to Miata suspension enthusiasts)
-nearly new Racing Beat front sway bar
-nearly new 949 Racing End Links SuperMiata End Links
-Corner balanced and aligned per FatCat Motorsports recommendations
-Brand new AEM EMS standalone
-Brand new custom wired sensors, all wrapped in nice woven loom, heat shrunk, the works. The install on all sensors is top notch, if I can be so bold. Sensors include:
-3 Bar Map Sensor
-Boost Solenoid (which is controlled by the ECU so you can boost by gear, etc.)
-Intake Air Temperature Sensor
-Trackspeed Engineering Coil-On-Plug Ignition Trackspeed Engineering
-AEM ECU jumper harness where all wiring changes were made. The factory wiring harness to the ECU is untouched
-Wideband O2 sensor, wired in closed loop with the ECU (read: the ECU tune is dynamic rather than static and can pull timing as necessary)
-Brand new Injector Dynamics 1000cc Injectors / converted to sequential fuel injection with custom harness and corresponding changes at the ECU Trackspeed Engineering
-Brand new Fuel Lab fuel pressure regulator Trackspeed Engineering
-Brand new 949 Racing Big Fuel Line system Hose kit for M-Tuned fuel rail
-Brand new dual feed fuel rail Dual Feed Fuel rail Miata 1.6
-Brand new In tank high volume fuel pump
-used 949 Racing 15x9 6UL wheels with Nitto NT01 tires, kind of like this: http://www.949racing.com/15x9/15x9_6UL_275_NB_8.jpg
-Brand new 949 Racing carbon fiber mirrors
-Powdercoated valve cover
-Powdercoated intake manifold
-Torsen diff
-Rollbar
-God only know how many hundreds of dollars in fittings and hoses and hardware
-Racing beat front bumper
-Brand new battery
-1.8 Miata brakes, nearly new rotors and pads
-ACT clutch

In the above information, I tried to focus mostly on the new stuff that I installed. All of other parts mentioned in the old thread are still there (except, of course, for the parts that were replaced with newer/better parts, such as the wheels or the Megasquirt ECU, etc.). So there are MANY more parts than what's listed above (please see the old thread).





Stating the obvious
This car is not for everyone.

The car itself is in okay, verging on fairly decent, shape. The interior is pretty good. The exterior is all the same color (except the new rear finish panel and mirrors which are black on purpose), and, aside from two small holes in the fender where I had a fender-mounted mirror installed, the body is in pretty darn good shape. I painted it a few years ago and took out all of the noticeable dings and whatnot. However, I'm not a moron, so I understand that the car is something that will only be useful to a buyer who wants a car that they can spend a couple weekends on, get it tuned, and then blow the doors off of Corvettes, as opposed to someone who wants a clean, stock daily driver. With the old turbo setup, the car ran 13s and made 180 whp. The new setup will make an easy 250 whp. Throw in a built motor and you have literally everything else (fuel system, sensors, etc.) to make 400 whp.

I have simply run out of steam and I just want to buy a car that is fast from the factory. Any reasonable offer will be considered, but bear in mind that I don't need to sell the car either. If I can't get an offer that doesn't make me cringe, I'll just give it to my friend who would love to have a track car. I'd like to see it go to someone who will enjoy it.

Also, as I mentioned, my reputation is important to me. I understand the risk associated with buying modified cars, especially modified cars that aren't finished. But I own a home in the area and have worked at the same law firm for nearly seven years since I moved back to Texas. I'm not going anywhere, I'm easy to find, and I'll make myself available to help you understand how to get it up and running. You can't buy anything without incurring some degree of risk, but I'm confident that you'll feel comfortable dealing with me.

Please text me with questions or post in this thread. My name is Cory and I can be reached at: four07 - 2seven2 - 432one. I live in North Dallas.

 

1. If your friend will take the car without paying you a dime, he's not a friend, he's a mooch.

2. You really need to put SOME kind of price, unless you want to receive a bunch of offers for $2k.

I'll give you $2k.

 

Fair enough, but he is my best friend, he's not in a position to buy a toy car but he really wants one, and it would bring me joy to see it get put to good use. Plus, I'd have the added advantage of being able to drive it still.

I'll crunch some numbers, but I'm somewhat afraid to consider exactly how much I have into the car. LOL.

 

Then don't crunch numbers. You have an idea in mind for what offer would make you say "come get it." Just put that on 'paper'.

 

I will give you $2001?

Running perfect it's probably worth 12-15k.

Why not keep it as a toy and get a daily that you don't hate? If you like Porsche (me too). 1999-2001 996 (911) can be had for under 20k in pretty good shape with about 100k miles. I look at them all the time.

You never get your money out of a built car and you are going to miss having a miata. How much can it cost a year to insure and register? You will never regret having an extra car !

 

Ah, no. Lol its a nice car with a lot of good parts but even running well I think it would be tough to get 8-9k for it, at least on here.

 

All the more reason to keep it IMO. If you do sell it you might make more taking off all the upgrades and selling them here selling the stock miata anywhere.

I have gone this route with modified cars in the past. Most people that want what you have also want the build experience. People who don't want to build their own also will be intimidated by your modified car.

 

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don't think that it would be worth that much running.

 

It's more of a mental thing. I plan on getting a Cayman S and I'm just sort of over the Miata. I barely get to see my wife and daughter with my work schedule so my wife is not super enthusiastic about me working on my car. It sucks and maybe it's unfair that she's not more supportive of my hobby, but it's not worth drawing a line in the sand over. I love her too much to argue about it.

Even if I take a couple personal days and finish getting the car squared away and take it in for tuning, modified cars will always require additional tweaks. Even if it's perfectly reliable (which I can definitely say that my boosted Miata is far and away the most reliable car I've ever owned. I drove it halfway across the country a few times on the old turbo setup), I'll still always want to add more stuff to it, which means more time in the garage.

 

I just added an asking price. All this talk about finishing the car is making me want to finish the car. Ugh.

 

"my work schedule so my wife is not super enthusiastic about me working on my car. It sucks and maybe it's unfair that she's not more supportive of my hobby, but it's not worth drawing a line in the sand over. I love her too much to argue about it."

Same boat brother, I love being married too much to do what I want to do automotively. My wife loves Toyota's because she just wants to go from A-B with as little excitment as possible.

I did have a 04 Hemi Ram that made 350 hp at the wheels and had 200 hp more in 2 stage wet nitrous for a couple years. She almost never drove it and hated riding in it. It was a horrible daily driver and something broke every month I would not change it for anything!

 

I sent a PM and a text to the number provided.

 

Haha. Happy wife = happy life.

 

Thank you for your interest in the car.

 

Number texted.

 

Still for sale? I see its been a couple of months since last post. Did your best friend get it and become your best friend for life!? LOL! Anything new done? I'll send you a text if I don't see a reply on here. Selling my STGIII+ Audi B6/A4 and am looking to get back into a Miata if I don't find the right 951. Have a little girl myself but my soon to be new wife has accepted my car fetish(hence "new wife"). Thank you in advance for any info. Cheers for now...
6one5-879-Nine183(text 1st please)
BTW- I'd take care of pick-up/shipping

 

Hello, leopos. Yes, the car is still for sale. A fellow forum user came by to take a look at it a few weeks ago. He expressed interest in buying the car but stated that he had to get the money together.

I haven't exactly been falling all over myself to follow up with him since my fall back plan is just to give the car to my buddy or just let it sit in my garage until one day I do have time to finish it. I think a lot about just keeping it, so I've turned away a handful of offers.

However, I have renewed interest in selling the car since I found the Porsche I want to buy, and I'm a little short on cash to buy the Porsche. As such, I'm feeling more inclined to sell than usual, for today at least. Haha.

Feel free to text me. I'd be happy to chat with you about it.

 

Okay, if I part the car out I will easily make $5k selling everything dirt cheap (which I wouldn't do), so if I lower the price to, say, $3,900, who ever buys it will be getting a steal simply because I have Porsche on the brain.

Any interest in that?

 

So, to confirm understanding... This car is located in North Texas and currently runs and drives, but somewhat poorly due to the tune?

 

Sort of. The car is in the Dallas, yes. The car runs but one of the cylinders is not getting spark. It was getting spark, I took in to get tuned, halfway through (before it got put on the dyno), one of the cylinders stopped firing. There are only three possibilities: One of the coils went bad, the wiring to one of the coils jiggled loose, or one of the fuel injectors stopped spraying.

I'm almost certain that the wiring to one of the coils jiggled loose. The COP kit has no miles on it, but the coils supplied by Track Speed are used coils, and it seems far more likely that when I crimped the wires, one just came loose.

The only other issue is that the TPS needs to be rewired, but I can walk you through it step-by-step. I just didn't relocate the wire at the ECU harness. Now, the TPS not being hooked up properly makes no difference for anything other than fine tuning the trim. The car has a MAP sensor, and that's where the ECU looks first in order to know how much fuel to inject.

And just to be clear, the car isn't poorly tuned, it's just not tuned yet. The tuner uploaded the base maps, made the corrections for E85, set the dwell on the spark timing, and as he was driving it across the room to the dyno, the RPMS fell due a cylinder not firing. He called me and said, "Come fix this so I can tune your car." I didn't have time to leave work and go diagnose it, so I just had it towed to my house.

Despite the fact that it is not tuned, it will still run and be drivable once you get the cylinder to fire. An AEM ECU running a wideband 02 in closed loop will run without being tuned, I just wouldn't recommend anything other than a full tune since the turbo setup will easily put down three times the factory horsepower.

Lastly, I should answer the obvious question: why don't I just go rewire the TPS and diagnose the sparkless cylinder? Because I literally don't have time. Last week, just as an example, I flew to California and Louisiana for work, and clocked almost 70 hours for the week. Then I took my daughter to the zoo and watched her one evening so my wife could go to a function.

Besides, if I had the few hours to spare to do this stuff, I'd just get the car running and tuned and sell it for a ton more money.