Learned'd VIII: Less Bewbs, Same Nonsense

[frapjap]

f***, its cold out.
At least we don't have the snow that parts of Buffalo do.
4-6 FEET! Insanity.

[Bubba1]

f***, its cold out.
At least we don't have the snow that parts of Buffalo do.
4-6 FEET! Insanity.

That's not more than a dusting for Buffalo. I don't mind this burst of cold air, as it looks like Sun-Mon temps are gonna be in the 60's here. FTW.

[frapjap]

Thats incredibly warm.
Tomorrow tops out at 47ish. The convertible will come out and I'll hope to use it 1-2 more times until Thanksgiving. One of Lindseys relatives has a Camaro (a third gen), that he takes to the family dinner. So unless the weather doesn't cooperate, Turkey Day is usually the last time I drive the fun car until spring.

Something to ponder for the day- if a gas station had a Black Friday sale on fuel for something like $1.50/gallon, do you think they'd even be busy considering the other sales going on? Do you think most people would fail to do the math, wait in line at the pump, and realize that they're only saving $20 on a fill up vs the $100 they could be saving in line at Best Buy?

[Kompresshun]

It's quite cold here today too. It was 17 yesterday, but it was still 23 on the way to work this morning. Cold enough that I made a fire last night. We're supposed to hit the upper 50's or low 60's on Monday but it's only supposed to be warm for a couple of days then go right back to freezing cold again.

I've already got the Miata torn half apart in the garage and about 75% of the paint sanded, so it probably won't get driven again for quite a while.

I started thinking crazy again yesterday about V8 swapping the Miata. I'm just trying to figure out how to justify the expense to pull it off and figure out a plan to get it done. I'll probably talk myself out of it again, but i'm missing V8 power again right now.

I highly doubt a Black Friday fuel sale would see a lot of traffic increase. On Black Friday most people are more concerned about buying gifts, so they probably wouldn't even care if fuel was much higher.

[Bubba1]

Something to ponder for the day- if a gas station had a Black Friday sale on fuel for something like $1.50/gallon, do you think they'd even be busy considering the other sales going on? Do you think most people would fail to do the math, wait in line at the pump, and realize that they're only saving $20 on a fill up vs the $100 they could be saving in line at Best Buy?

You're assuming both sales are mutually exclusive. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to do both.

[frapjap]

Something to ponder for the day- if a gas station had a Black Friday sale on fuel for something like $1.50/gallon, do you think they'd even be busy considering the other sales going on? Do you think most people would fail to do the math, wait in line at the pump, and realize that they're only saving $20 on a fill up vs the $100 they could be saving in line at Best Buy?

You're assuming both sales are mutually exclusive. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one to do both.

Yes, but would you wait in what would likely be a long line when you could be getting the deal on a limited supply of whatever it is that you want at a retail store? This would also assume that gas would be that cheap between the hours of 5am and 9am or something like that. No one is going to lose their profits over an all day fiasco.

[frapjap]

It's quite cold here today too. It was 17 yesterday, but it was still 23 on the way to work this morning. Cold enough that I made a fire last night. We're supposed to hit the upper 50's or low 60's on Monday but it's only supposed to be warm for a couple of days then go right back to freezing cold again.

I've already got the Miata torn half apart in the garage and about 75% of the paint sanded, so it probably won't get driven again for quite a while.

I started thinking crazy again yesterday about V8 swapping the Miata. I'm just trying to figure out how to justify the expense to pull it off and figure out a plan to get it done. I'll probably talk myself out of it again, but i'm missing V8 power again right now.

I highly doubt a Black Friday fuel sale would see a lot of traffic increase. On Black Friday most people are more concerned about buying gifts, so they probably wouldn't even care if fuel was much higher.

Awesome! I've been watching your progress on Bookface. Are you going to take photos of the body work, too?

You could do a V8 fairly cheaply if you grabbed your old favorite 302 from a Mustang. Simplify it with a carb conversion, a little extra cam, and some fresh heads and it'll be the meanest sounding Miata on the block. As long as you don't care about fuel economy anyway.
Also, side pipes are a must if you go that route.

[Bubba1]

I suppose it depends on the line. If the line's reasonable, yeah, Id invest the time to fill up one of our cars plus all the gas cans we own (making the savings more than $20) while my wife scoots over to Best Buy and gets in line there. Then I meet her at the store and either help her load it or send her home and do it myself.

[Kompresshun]

Awesome! I've been watching your progress on Bookface. Are you going to take photos of the body work, too?

You could do a V8 fairly cheaply if you grabbed your old favorite 302 from a Mustang. Simplify it with a carb conversion, a little extra cam, and some fresh heads and it'll be the meanest sounding Miata on the block. As long as you don't care about fuel economy anyway.
Also, side pipes are a must if you go that route.

Yeah i'll probably snap some more photos once I start working with the body filler and fixing dents. I've also decided to go back to the cheap route on the paint for now though.

I'm gonna do the rustoleum paint job to hold it over for a while, because once I started tallying up parts(new trunk lid, bumper cover, emblems, mirrors, ect) and supplies I was getting close to $1,000. I have no issue spending that much on paint, I just don't want to spend that much right now for various reasons. So i'm gonna get the body work done and lay down a $50 paint job on it to improve the appearance for the time being, then go back later and do it right.

The 5.0L swap is the cheapest route to go, but it sure is awfully tempting to go LSx too. I love the sound of a 5.0, but the LSx would make some great power for little money. Plus backed by a 6spd, I should be able to still get decent fuel economy.

[frapjap]

You're in the hole for a good chunk of change for an LSx into that car though. There is a whole subframe kit that needs to be bought (or built, at which is a major time investment), the cost of functional a/c, wiring harness, etc. The engine is the cheapest part about the damned build.

If I were to modify a Miata for speed again, I would stick with a turbo and use a quality manifold. That was my major drawback and the only part I was cheap about. The rest of the engine was well sorted between the right injectors, full standalone, efficient cooling, wide band, etc. However, if I decided to be different with a similar investment to the turbo, it'd be a stock rebuilt carb'd & cam'd 350 with a suitable manual transmission.

[sx moneypit]

Good afternoon folks!

[Kompresshun]

Hi Ben! How's it goin?

You're in the hole for a good chunk of change for an LSx into that car though. There is a whole subframe kit that needs to be bought (or built, at which is a major time investment), the cost of functional a/c, wiring harness, etc. The engine is the cheapest part about the damned build.

If I were to modify a Miata for speed again, I would stick with a turbo and use a quality manifold. That was my major drawback and the only part I was cheap about. The rest of the engine was well sorted between the right injectors, full standalone, efficient cooling, wide band, etc. However, if I decided to be different with a similar investment to the turbo, it'd be a stock rebuilt carb'd & cam'd 350 with a suitable manual transmission.

Yeah it would set me back probably close to $10k. See I told you i'd talk myself out of it again

I think a turbo is the best and cheapest way to make power on them for sure. There is no way i'd go with a carbed V8 though - I DESPISE carbs. If I were to go V8, i'd go all in.

The only reason I come back to it every time i'm thinking about boost is because of what Keith from Flyin' Miata said: The V8 Miata's are truly special(if done right), because there are so few of them out there. They're a completely different animal and it's amazing how well they preform for such a drastic change in drivetrain components.

[numbnuts240]

Good afternoon folks!

hey ben, remember when i asked you about that evap leak code my exploder was throwing? you suggested changing out the gas cap. well, it seems to have worked. i still have to replace the cel bulb, but i plugged in the scanner and i'm not getting any codes. i changed the gas cap a good month ago, so it should have gone through all the cycles after clearing the code. cheers.

I DESPISE carbs

this x10000000000000000.

[sx moneypit]

Glad that it fixed it Tito!

[numbnuts240]

it's been a rough year, i needed a simple win.

[sx moneypit]

I could use a win myself.

[frapjap]

James and I always say, "you can never win."

Granted, that is dependent on what you call a win. This morning I did 90mph (on accident. okay, not really) in the T/A and didn't get caught. I suppose thats a win.

How is the arm, Ben? All healed up? Any new plans to re locate?

[WDRacing]

Some of the newer efi systems that bolt onto carb intake manifolds are rediculously awesome. Completely self learning and auto tuning. There is just no reason to use a carb anymore unless it happens to already be installed.

[sx moneypit]

Like these systems.
http://www.fuelairspark.com/fas/efi-sys ... injection/

[frapjap]

Soooo...what is that? A hyped up TBI system?

[Kompresshun]

Hell no it isn't. It's the best damn EFI conversion out there. You can throw tons of horsepower at it with no issues.

A lot of people use it for an LSx conversions to keep from having to swap over all of the factory wiring, EFI, and ECU. It's very tunable with hardly any fuss. You can get it for about any application though.

[sx moneypit]

This guy (he welded my intercooler piping)can hook you up too.
http://www.hotrodsolutions.net/
Does fantastic work!

[frapjap]

Pretty cool thing. I wonder how many of those they sell a year.

[Kompresshun]

Well I know a lot of the people that work for Hot Rod magazine buy them all the time for their projects. They swear by those things.

Roadkill's "Muscle Truck" i've showed you before has one on it and their LS7 "Crusher" Camaro has one on it too.

Honestly they're a pretty good deal too when you look at other EFI systems on the market.

[WDRacing]

Not to mention the leaps that affordable options like Megasquirt have made recently. I would never have guessed you could have a full standalone for under 500 bucks. A good one at that.

[numbnuts240]

michael got a sandy handy because jenny was out of banana polish.

[frapjap]

jenny shouldn't have polished jimmys knob earlier in the day.

[numbnuts240]

wow, that last short exchange certainly killed the mood in here.

and i NEED this in my life, so long as the frame isn't rotting

https://newhaven.craigslist.org/cto/4775280984.html

[frapjap]

Wow! You do not find them like that anymore!

[numbnuts240]

i already sent an email. if the fenders are the only places rotting (perfect excuse fro fender flares), i'm all over it to replace the exploder. best summer cruiser ever.