Miata Washings

The Week In Review

Destination - Deer Crossing

Stopped on the way over to visit a friend and took this picture. It is worth two points and I’m counting zero miles because we would have passed right by it anyway.

Monday when we got home from work, Donna checked the mail and she came out with a padded envelope, looked at me and asked accusingly, “What did you order from Moss Motors?!?” I thought for a moment, couldn’t come up with anything…..then it dawned on me, it was our prize package for finishing as one of the 50 runners-up in the 2015 Motoring Challenge. Sure enough, that’s what it was, a nice t-shirt, a cool little sticker and our $50 gift certificate.

This year for the Motoring Challenge instead of a T-shirt they are giving everyone who scores 50 points a nifty hat, well last week’s “Slow Children Playing” sign put us over that mark. All they wanted as proof was a photo of your entry sheet with your progress so far marked off. So Wednesday after work I took a picture of ours sitting on the trunk of the Sonata and wrote 52 pts, so far with my finger in the coating of pine pollen. I then spent the next 1-1/2 hours washing the pollen off both the Sonata and the Miata, even though I knew they would be covered again to the same thickness in a couple days.

This morning was the monthly breakfast drive with the MMC and we had a turn out of two cars, us and the folks who were leading it. Maybe some were scared off by the chance of rain, the weather have been promising all week that it would start raining last night, continue through the whole day and not quit until tonight. It was sprinkling lightly when we got ready to leave for the drive, but halfway to the meet up spot we paused on the side of the road and dropped the top. We just returned from grocery shopping and it is still down. Radar is showing a line heading our way, should be here within the hour, but I would not be surprised if it dissipates before it gets here.

In this afternoon’s mail was another padded envelope from Moss Motors. This time, she didn’t ask what I bought because we knew the hat was on its way. Now I have to figure out what I want to spend the fifty bucks on so I can get another padded envelope from them in the mail again.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 153

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 0
Totals So Far: 54 points & 910 miles

Mr. Miata Goes To Mini Tec

Mini Tec Visit

Man, I’m down to blogging once a week anymore, not with a bang but a whimper maybe?

Friday the Emperor got a bath because on Saturday the MMC was going on a day trip. Saturday the Emperor passed through the 163,000 mile barrier somewhere on SC-28 between North Augusta and McCormick.

About a month ago an item popped up in my Google Miata newsfeed about a company that is selling kits to transplant a Honda V6 into the first & second generation Miatas. They were just a hundred miles up the road in the small town of Royston, GA.

Mini Tec has been in business for 13 years hot rodding the original 1959-2000 Mini by stuffing Honda VTEC motors in them and now they have branched out in the Miata. A couple of emails and a phone call later and I arranged a tour of the place for the Masters Miata Club. We had seven cars and a dozen people follow Donna and I to the town that used to be just famous for being the boyhood home of Ty Cobb.

BJ and Norm welcomed us with open arms (and snacks), showed us around their shop and regaled us with tales of daring do. They had a couple of converted cars, an NA and an NB, with their hoods popped up showing those Honda V6 engines. The motor almost looks like it belongs there and as it turn out the the conversion actually is lighter than the stock get up and you end up with about twice as much horsepower.

They offered rides in the NA and only one of our group took them up on it. They zipped off up the road the shop was on and were gone for about 5 minutes. You could hear Dennis hooting a hundred yards down the road on the way back. This looks like big fun, but it would change the whole character of the car in my opinion and is not even on my radar, but if you desire big hp & torque numbers or are a hot rodder at heart, this might your ticket.

Started down, went up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 145

Motoring Challenge Points 6, Approx Miles Driven 300
Totals So Far: 35 points & 740 miles

Cool Vehicles From All Around the World

The title of tonight’s post is a section on this year’s Motoring Challenge. There are ten blanks with the first 6 worth a point each and while 7 & 8 are worth two points, car number 9 is worth three and #10 will be worth four points. It is sub-titled Your car alongside sweet rides from 10 other countries and wins Brian’s prize for the most open for interpretation ever.

Do you need to find cars from ten other countries? Are there even ten countries that make cars?

What country is a car from? Is our Sonata Korean because that is where Hyundai is based or is it American because it was built in Alabama.

And just what does other mean anyway? A country other than the one I’m in? A country other than the country of the car’s origin?

Lastly, who decides what’s cool? If it was up to the folks on Jalopnik I would need to find 10 German or Swedish station wagons preferably brown with manual transmissions…

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 138

Squealing Like A Stuck Pig

Last Friday when we were at the gap, as we left the dam overlook, the Emperor took off with a horrible bit of belt squeal for the first 50 yards or so. Talk about embarrassing, especially as the few cars that were there were tricked out Subaru WRXs and tarted up Nissan Z cars. On Sunday morning we got so early a start for home it was still dark out. Turns out this was a good thing because not many people were awake and those that were couldn’t see which car was emitting that howling banshee squeal for the first 1/4 mile going east on NC 143 out of Robbinsville.

Tuesday evening the Miata got a bath, so Wednesday when we went to back out of the garage, the belt squeal started right up, and if you think this is noisy when driving outside, inside our one-car garage it is ear piercingly loud. I didn’t even let out the clutch and turned the car off.

Have I mentioned that there is still oil accumulating on the garage floor? At first I could explain it away as left over oil from the previous leaks aided by gravity finding its way down, but after wiping up a paper towel’s worth for three Saturdays in a row I’m thinking this is not the case. My best non-mechanically educated guess is that these two things are related. Who knows, maybe wherever the oil is coming from now it is splashing some on one of the accessory belts.

This morning I squirted a little belt dressing on them to prevent scaring little children and setting the neighborhood dogs barking as we left to drive the Emperor back to Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 111

Two Months To Go

Sunday is the first day of November which means that we will only have 61 days left to finish taking photos the 2015 Motoring Challenge. Right now our point total meets the goal of 150 that I set for us this year back in January, but we will probably get a bunch more.

We have all available 15 counties and all the states we are going to get at 22. But we have 5 city letters left (A, J, K, M & R) that we will more than likely get. We need two more Car Shows and a “Famous Work of Architecture” for 4 more points. These four are problematic because the only famous architecture we can come up with that is close by is Rainbow Row in Charleston and with all the leftover flooding from the big rains of a couple weeks ago it is hard to travel in the SC Lowcountry. Our easy Go-To car show is the Augusta Cars & Coffee and there are only two left and we’ll be out of town for one of them.

There are still 15 points left up for grabs in the Destination category and we’ll probably get at least 8 of them. The biggest loss is “Above 8,000 Feet” which is worth 4 points and there is nothing close to that east of the Rockies. I wonder if I could get partial credit (3.3) for getting the highest point available over on this side of the country, Mount Mitchell at 6,683 ft?

We’ll be very pleased with anywhere over 160 points for sure.

I’ve participated in several different Photo Memes on the Internet (Mirror Project, Photo Friday, Enchanted Ceiling, etc.), but here is one I don’t think I’m going to try: Nutscapes. Yikes! I wonder if I submitted one as a Sneak Peek for the Motoring Challenge would I get points or lose some…

The Emperor got a quick bath tonight to wash off any orange over-spray from when I painted the Halloween Pumpkin Mask in the corner of the garage last night.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 102

159,000 Platelets

The Emperor has been back from the Doctor’s Office about a week now and tonight I finally got around to washing off all the dirt and stuff from his 5 nights outside at Panic. I’m hoping that it won’t rain on Saturday so we can do Augusta’s Car & Coffee.

The Miata’s initial diagnosis from the professionals was a leaking exhaust cam seal because of the oil splattering pattern. And of the two cam seals this is the more likely to fail because of the heat factor. They changed exhaust seal and went for a test drive. Unfortunately, turned out that really wasn’t the problem, the crank seal was the big leaker, so they actually did the work twice. But unlike some other shops might have might have, they only charged me labor once.

Yesterday the Emperor eased past the 159,000 mile mark while on my way to get some blood drawn for my doctor’s appointment next week. Lots of top transitions because I missed one the other week, then the day before’s trip up & down and then again today for washing.

Started up, went down, back up, down again, up again, down, up, down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 95

The Emperor Is Acting Like A LBC 1

State - Georgia

He’s got an oil leak. Wednesday when we left Vicksburg, MS in the morning the car clattered a little longer than usual, but I chalked it up to the fact that is was parked nose up at about a 20° because of the slope of the lot. At our first stop of the morning I smelled a little cooked motor oil, but chalked that up to the ratty pickup truck we were next to in the quick stop lot. At the second stop I smelled it again. This time we were all alone in the lot.

I popped the hood and, oh yeah, the smell is coming from there. I checked the oil. The bottom of the dip stick was dry! Added two quarts of oil and it brought it up to full. At least it only needed two…the car only holds four. From then on for the next day and a half and 650 miles we carried around a quart of oil in trunk. Every couple miles I’d add a 1/2 quart or so.

Yesterday I jacked up the car and boy was it oily. I bet half of what I lost was coating the underside of the car. I was more on the right side than the left and it really seemed to be coming from around the oil filter. But when I went to see if it was loose, it wasn’t, it was still tight.

I sprayed Simple Green around the bottom of the car and pressure washed it as best I could using my lame homeowner weekend washer. Changed the oil and filled it up again. Then I washed the car and gave it a quick spray wax. I then laid a towel down in the garage and parked the Miata over it.

This morning we went to breakfast at Steak & Shake in Augusta with the MMC. When I backed out of the garage the towel didn’t look dirty at all. The leak went away? Highly unlikely. On the way to breakfast we stopped on I-520 going into Georgia to get the last State we’ll get for the Motoring Challenge, bringing this year’s tally to 22 (if you count DC as one & they do), this is exactly twice last year’s eleven. When we got home at about 11:00 AM the Emperor got parked back in the garage.

We went out this evening in the Purple Whale to fill it with gas and get an ice cream cone. On returning home I backed the Miata out of the garage and looked at the floor. There was a pool of of about 5 or 6 ounces of clean oil on the floor. I guess the leak is still there. My guess now on the source is near the upper front right, probably the valve cover gasket. It leaks out during operation and falls down on to the plastic under tray and then during that 8 hours of down time drips slowly onto the floor. The dip stick was down a half a quart.

I think it is time for another visit to the Miata Doctors at Panic Motorsports.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 88

Motoring Challenge Points 1, Approx Miles Driven 75
Totals So Far: 143 points & 7640 miles

1. LBC is an acronym for Little British Car.