The project:

A whole bunch of different car hacks.

The '92 Miata:

The list itself is long, so here are a few highlights:

1.8L engine upgrade:

While doing some routine maintenance, I pulled out a timing gun to make sure that the spark plugs were firing at the right point in the piston's compression stroke (10º BTDC as recommended in the owner's manual). I was surprised to find that one of the mechanics who had worked on the car before I got my hands on it had set the timing to 25º BTDC. To the driver, this meant a much faster ride. To the engine, this meant imminent death. When I realized that the car had been running like this for quite a while, I decided that the engine either needed to be fixed or replaced. I considered my options and came to the conclusion that putting in a junkyard engine myself would be the cheapest route.

The car had originally come with a 1.6 liter engine. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a decent engine of the same size nearby, but I did find several low mileage 1.8 liter engines (these were offered in the newer models). I figured that accommodating a slight increase in size would not be too difficult and the extra power would be nice to have, so I bought a 1.8L engine from a '96 Miata.

The swap was mostly straight forward, though I had to do all of the work alone as my roommates had gone home for the summer. I ordered several parts from the Mazda dealership, including maintenance materials and motor mounts, to get the engine in running condition and to allow it to fit properly in the engine bay. I swapped several sensors and hoses from the 1.6L to the new engine to be able to keep the original ECU (computer) in the car. After days and days of tedious work, the car started perfectly on the first try (thank goodness).

The car with the engine and transmission removed:

And with the new engine installed:

Turbo install:

Unfortunately, I do not have a mill, tig welder, plasma cutter, etc.., nor do I have the knowledge and experience to use them effectively, so I ended up ordering a pre-made turbo kit from a company called Flyin' Miata. The kit is CARB legal and does relatively little damage to the engine. It runs 8 PSI of boost and adds somewhere between 70 to 90 horsepower to the little 4 banger.

Several modifications had to be made to the kit as it was made for a 94-97 car. I had to cut my car's frame in several places to make room for the turbo manifold, cut a few pipes to size, cut some of the hood's reinforcements, and bend several pipes to clear the new parts. The rest of the process was done according to the manual's directions.

The engine bay with the turbo kit installed:

Power inverter:

A downside to owning a convertible is the lack of a dome light. These little 12V bulbs simply don't cut it when it's dark and I need to pull out a map.

So how did I solve the problem? I placed a 120V power inverter in the car and built the outlet into the car's center console.

Then I plugged a 120V halogen lamp into the oulet and mounted it onto the roll bar.

Overkill? Maybe. Impractical? Heck no. This is the only Miata on the block that can power a toaster or a microwave on a long road trip. What's impractical about that?

Garage door remote:

Because of the Miata's small size and my not-so-small size, the car's sun visors blocked my field of view considerably. I had to get rid of them, not realizing at the time that I would no longer have a place to clip my garage door remote.

Fortunately, the good people at Mazda decided to leave spaces in the headrests for extra speakers (the car comes standard with only two door speakers). The size of these spaces is perfect for fitting the guts of a remote.

A pair of wires run from this remote down to a momentary switch mounted next to the parking break.

The headrest unzipped:

The button:

Other projects:

• Swapping out the power steering rack for a manual one
• Swapping in a larger limited slip differential
• Sway bar installation
• Boss Frog roll bar installation
• Timing belt replacement
• Fuel filter replacement
• Water pump replacement
• Cruise control removal
• Exhaust replacement

The '91 4Runner

This car has only undergone two major projects so far: the undercarriage lights and the replacement of both head gaskets.

Head gaskets:

The '91 4Runner is notorious for blowing head gaskets, left and right. Toyota became aware of this and started a campaign where anyone with head gasket trouble would be able to bring their car in to have it repaired free of charge.. the first time. After that, the owner would have to pay the $1000 parts and labor charge every time a head gasket blew. I grew sick of this after the 3rd time, so I decided to tackle the problem myself.

The repair consisted of removing most of the key elements of the engine bay other than the block itself.

The repair itself was a nightmare and took several months to complete after running into a plethora of problems. In the end though, it was a good experience and I learned plenty. I replaced the head bolts with head studs to ensure that there would be no need to repeat this project. Ever.

The engine bay during the process:

The car re-assembled: