Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Bitter]

Mmm 10 year old German plastic cooling system parts, just itching to spring a leak on the next hot day.

[Box]

I know right. Even though I think the E92 isn't supposed to be as bad as the E46 and E36 in that regard. Even if I had the money to buy and maintain one I wouldn't, rather get a Corvette, but I can see the appeal. It's a nice car, at least with the actual leather interior and not the cheaper leatherette. That and the N54 is more or less the German 2JZ for a reason, with 500 hp just barely breaking the surface of what's possible.

[Box]

It has the sport suspension on it already, but that's not low enough apparently. So he's looking at getting ST Suspension coil-overs for it, which apparently are just KW with galvanized steel bodies instead of stainless. That and the only way to get a LSD into one is spend a fortune and go through the headache of getting all the M3 parts and a custom driveshaft or spend $2K on a LSD put into a stock housing, since BMW got cute and welded the ring gear to the carrier so doing it yourself is impossible... Though that probably won't happen until after he sells the Genesis and all of its parts as well as the Audi to recoup some of the money of buying it.

[Box]

Hmm, I wonder how much vinyl you'd need to wrap a Miata... I'm thinking 5'x40' should cover it all, that way if I come across a black NB2 LS for the right price I'll buy it and just wrap it in some form of purple vinyl. The world needs more purple cars. So far I've found these that I really like:
https://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-1080-GP27...-1080-gp278.htm
https://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-1080-GP28...ss1080gp287.htm
https://www.metrorestyling.com/Avery-SW900-...sw900-611-s.htm
https://www.metrorestyling.com/Avery-Color-...sw900-674-s.htm
https://www.metrorestyling.com/KPMF-Gloss-P...ap-p/k75466.htm
https://www.metrorestyling.com/ProductDetai...ductCode=K75465
https://vvividshop.com/collections/automoti...=13069552746549
https://vvividshop.com/collections/automoti...d-psycho-purple

So hard to choose, would just have to get samples of each to see in person. PURPLE.

[Bitter]

How about that chameleon color from the 90's, but like purple to black?

[Box]

That last one on the Metro Restyling site is purple to black colour shift. Which out of all of them it's the most sedate looking I suppose, guess it'd just depend on how they all look in person to me but part of me kind of leans towards it since it is more subtle. Actually the more I think about it I rather get a NB2 in black and then vinyl wrap it, the blues and that one teal are nice enough but really it's just the Strato Blue that I REALLY liked(and only 1,550 of those minus however many automatics) and odds are 14-18 year old paint won't be anywhere near perfect anyway. It has to be black though so then I can open the doors, hood, and trunk without cringing at the colour clash as black is the absence of colour.

[Box]

Hey, if anyone knows anyone looking for a 6-speed F-body you should send them my way before I list it on Car Gurus. As soon as it gets fixed it's going up for sale since I'd like to get it sold and try to find a NB2 Miata while everyone is selling them, as for whatever reason once it's Fall people stop listing them since they think they'll get more money for it in the Spring or Summer. Maybe, but I don't care what season it is I'll pay what it's worth and drive it year round. Or you somehow know someone with a blue, teal, or black NB2 Miata that wants a F-body, could work that out too. It's my goal to have a Miata again by the end of Summer, since I prefer top down driving in the Fall and Winter anyway. My delicate pale skin and severe aversion to heat don't agree with having the top down in Summer anyway.

[ClevelandGaint]

Finally swapped out the oil pan on the 1mz in the vert. Getting my list of parts ready to be powder coated finally. The car has been running flawlessly which is always great. Now debating if I should sell my mkiii turbo targa top or not.

[Box]

It's nice when cars work and don't give you grief. Also woo powdercoating!

So trying to go ahead and plan out what I want to do with the Miata once one is obtained. Suspension is a wild goose chase, I'd like to lower it some to get rid of the horrendous "of the time" wheel gap and some of the rake but I don't want to worsen the ride quality at the expense of doing such. Seems like the forums are no help aside from the $2K Xida or Fox being best, well **** I'd hope so. At least I've figured out wheels though since that's more universal, thinking one of the Konig 15x7.5 will be the way to go for the best overall option in price, weight, strength, traction, and tire availability. With the 15x7.5 wide it'll still be an inch wider and 4 pounds lighter than the NB2 16x6.5, but being 7.5" wide all the 195, 205, and 225 series tires can be used and there's no issues with fitment or clearing suspension. Whereas just going to 8" wide rules out 195 and a lot of options, then 9" wide you're stuck with 225 which are all track and extreme summer tires plus you need aftermarket suspension to clear. Just wish could better figure out suspension as I liked how the NB2 rode and handled stock well enough, just that horrendous gap...

[Box]

Yup definitely will do the Konig 15x7.5, just a matter of deciding between the Freeform, Dekagram, and Hypergram but that's still a ways off. The more pressing matter is the suspension. The cheapest solution with reputable brand parts would be Tein S. Tech springs and KYB AGX shocks for about $450, and the Tein springs remove some of the rake. Cheapest non Taiwanese coil-over is the Tein Flex Z for under $750 at certain vendors, and from what I can gather should be the best in its price range for the street. Most say the Tein springs are too soft for the roughly 1" drop, even though they're 40% stiffer than stock but the Flyin' Miata set is 95% stiffer for the 1" drop. Would just do Flyin' Miata but they're $250 for the springs and you have to use Koni Sport or Bilstein B8 so they're more than the Tein Flex Z, and they don't get rid of the rake at all. The Tein Flex Z recommended max drop is 1.8"(even though they drop up to 3") so would probably do 1.5" in the front and 1.75" in the rear so the wheel center to wheel well opening height should go from F-13.5" R-14" to F-12" R-12.25", and may not even drop that much since I don't want it too low and I like a bit of gap between the tire and wheel opening. At least that's all it should "need" aside from maybe figuring out something for the exhaust since the factory muffler design sucks as usual.

[Bitter]

Go retro, get a twin loop muffler.

[Box]

Do they still even make those? That or go super retro/BMW and do twin pipes on an inline engine. Nah that's ok it'll be end of priorities, but I'm torn between doing a straight through for performance and something baffled in an attempt to make it sound somewhat decent.

[Box]

Found a nice diagram of the NB2 exhaust:

I'll never understand why they curved out to the right side of the car when they could've just gone straight to the left side, oh well. Of course I doubt there's much to be gained performance wise in doing the exhaust, my brother had dropped the muffler on the Shinsen and outside of more noise and rasp really didn't notice anything else. The 4º of timing advance made a much more notable impact, and is a lot cheaper than anything you could do with the exhaust. It's not like the Firebird that actually made a difference in changing the intake and axle back portion of the exhaust, but both were so terribly restrictive stock and even SLP themselves did something similar for the Firehawks that were rated 30-40 horsepower higher with no other changes. Mehhh, need to stop looking at Miatas and stuff since it's just making me want one more.

[Box]

Brother FINALLY started to work on the Firebird, I noticed as I walked down to see how the sub-woofer install on the BMW was going.

[Box]

All the off the shelf exhausts for the Miata sound like ricey garbage, oh well. Guess that's to be expected from a non-turbo inline four, seems like the only ones that don't sound like garbage are in super sport bikes. The 2ZZ-GE is probably the best sounding naturally aspirated inline four in a car though, maybe Honda F20/22C close seconds. Mazda BP, not so much. Nowhere close. I should pioneer the 2ZZ-GE swap into Miatas.

[Box]

Speaking of exhausts, brother had the mufflers on the BMW removed for some straight pipe and put on new tips he had originally planned to put on the Audi. For just removing the mufflers it's a lot louder, seems to sound good for the most part though with a twinge of rasp. Will have to go for a ride later this week to see how it is in the car. Apparently the factory mufflers are very heavy, even though they're straight through even oddly enough. Haven't gone down and looked at them, but I suspect they're louver cored and very packed though I know they're huge. Should help offset the subwoofer he had to put in, since the factory under seat subs weren't enough of course.

Sigh, wish I had a car to drive again. I miss driving and doing stuff to cars.

[Box]

I've become that old stodgy troglodyte that says how everything was better back in the day. Ended up on the subject of vehicle design and what vehicles were ugly, and I genuinely can't think of a vehicle being made today that I think looks good that isn't a two door car. The Wrangler aside, but it's looked the same forever. Everything is so overly aggressive and looks ugly to me, even the cars I do think look good have things I'd change. Which not many non two doors in the past I think look good, but there are some which is a lot more than I can say for what's out there now...

[Bitter]

Did you tell them to get off your lawn after that?

[Box]

I told them to leave my 23 cats alone.

No, not really. One cat is enough.

[SwissFerdi]

All the off the shelf exhausts for the Miata sound like ricey garbage, oh well. Guess that's to be expected from a non-turbo inline four, seems like the only ones that don't sound like garbage are in super sport bikes.

My Racing Beat Sport is offended, because that ish is sweet, sweet music. You'll disagree anyway but it has to be said.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: May 3, 2019 - 12:40 AM