Hmmm, that is interesting. Weird shit can happen, like when my alternator was overcharging, that was a mess getting diagnosed because it was intermittent.

Not sure how related but is the ESS self aligning?

It's secured with one bolt and I never payed to much attention when putting it back on if it can be adjusted or moved.

Dunno the exact details, since it aint my car ;)

But the original engine fked up, prob the worst motor i have seen.
Spark plug snapped and gutted the rotor and housing, crushed apex/side seals.
The exhaust port was atleast 50% blocked by carbon.... i have a pic somewhere.

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1387324457

Anyways fast forward, new motor was put in, slightly ported/ balanced blah blah.
Drove fine for first 200-300 kms, just before customer came to pick it up, car started developing misfires, Generally first misfire started as soon as car was under load, then it will continuously misfire even at idle. Tried resetting fuel trims/crank sensor, made problem go away overnight.

Customer picked up car, all was good, came back a week later saying misfires... when inspected showed the previously listed problem, frayed wires for the OMP. Once that was fixed the problem never showed.

No idea what happened, but the CEL definately showed Misfire, it would vary between front and rear.

Like i said long shot, but it seems you have looked well into all the other issues, and you never know could be one of these random fiddly issues.

In regards to your compression issue, when i first put ceramic 1 piece into the motor, the car will not even start due to low compression even if it did start it will die. I did use almost new OEM housings that has been treated, however apparently these were still not enough. According to my builder, ceramic 1 piece apex seals requires almost flawless housings, and even brand new parts from Mazda, he needs to send 2 outta 4 back since they will not work with 1 piece ceramics.
Even the ones that work still suffer initial compression issues but will eventually wear in to the housing at or around 2000-3000 kms, and fully set at around 10,000.

In my case i swapped out for metal apex seals from a RX5 cosmo. I am thinking you will need to just wait until 10,000 and see what condition your compression is at. In recent compression test, my car reported back very nice numbers, generally 130+ @ 250rpm but it was lower when the motor was first put in, this is with metal seals.

Does anyone know where I can get the needed hardware to overhaul my suspension components

Front Upper Control Arm
Front Lower Control Arm
Rear Camber Arms
Rear Toe Arms
Rear Lateral Arms
Rear Traction Arms
Rear Trailing Arms

Looking for new bushings for them, found bushings for the front, but cant seem to find anything on the rear or what to do to replace the bolted bushing on the front arms and some of the rear. Kind thinking the only way to do this is gona be to just get all brand new parts which I really don't want to do.

Any thoughts?

Your choices in the front are staying OEM...going with the Energy type Urethane stuff...or going to the Speedsource Delrin/Alum stuff. I think Drop Engineering made some copies of the Speedsource stuff that looked good

I have the Speedsource stuff...and for a street car I would stay OEM. The OEM ones are quite well designed...and the solid stuff is rough

Rear you can get some Urethane stuff for some...but again OEM is likely better...they are not like the '80's rubber.
If you are going to go to Heim stuff you can look at the Megan Racing stuff...but if you can do it...just fabricate them using the OEM arms...I haven't been that impressed with the Megan arms...especially the camber arms...they don't like getting pounded on curbs. I am getting a set made from CrMoly to stop them from bending

From what it looks like, they are non servicable ends on the hub side at least so it defeats the purpose of what I was trying to achieve.

Basically their is nothing wrong with my components but they are fithly, scratched, dented, and just look worse for wear. I wanted to get them coated then install all new bushings and hardware which you can't buy anywhere.

So to get what I want it looks like all Megan components for the rear and SOL for the control arms. Unless someone makes control arms besides OE.

Anyone one here done control arm coatings? Are the ball joints on the front arms removable, any chance of them holding up to the heat?

Not sure what my other options are besides paint :(

Why coat Aluminum :)

A bit of an acid rinse ( wheel cleaner) and they clean up nice

Simply I want them black. I know the miata guys have some threads where people just removed the boot, the grease and taped off the joint for coating and didn't have any problems.

Will have to look at it closer once I have them removed.

you have your own lift? that's nice..

Best investment I ever made!

we will have to meet up whenever you have time for the compression test, so I can introduce myself, since you are local..
steven
I meant, when my car is ready..:)

Mid Winter update,

Finally have everything off except the rear suspension, diff and subframe. Looked threw the service manual for a while and could not find anything about the suspension about marking them for alignment for re installation, I would imaging you just install everything snug it up in place before you tighten everything down then take if for an alignment.

Looks like the front sub-frame is self adjusting, meaning it mounts in one place, the mounting holes are honed to fit snug over the studs so their is virtually no moving it around which was a plus, hope the rear is just as hassle free. Found a shop in PA to do my coating and they advised how to do the control arms which seems like it will work nicely. So now while I am away for the spring I will have to source my other components. Here's my list for this winter, I may be a little overzealous with it but I will get as far as I get.

To-Do

Coat:
Subframes, PPF, Transverse Crossmember, Tunnel Crossmembers, Brake Dust Covers, Battery Tie Down, Wheel Hub Housings, Upper and Lower Control arms, Rear Laterial Arms, Rear Chamber Arm, Rear Toe Arms, Rear Traction Rods, Rear Trailing Arms (I may be replacing the rear components with Megan Racing parts, I have not decided yet but I have heard good and bad hence the decision is not yet made)

Parts:
Upgraded Sway bars (Havent Decided on Brand)
Agency Front and Rear Endlinks
Coilovers (Was going to go with Cusco Zero -2 but I have not heard much talk about them here if anyone has anything good or bad to say about them I would appreciate it).
BHR header w/ midpipe (When it gets released)
65 Shot (BHR)

Lastly, send my injectors out to be flow tested

Will also be going over my block again, looking for anything that may be causing my misfire issue, will be trying out Denso plugs this spring, was going to back to my OE pulleys, and just cleaning everything up.

Progress so far
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/707/6mcb.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/841/ae18.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/822/dbqs.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/40/czu6.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/43/d9y9.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/577/v2ky.jpg

Anyone know what these washer are used for specifically, I saw no reference to them in the service manual? I am assuming for alignment purposes but I don't know exactly in what way.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/18/esvi.jpg

Camber adjustment I think.

They are only on the front lower control arms.

Should be more than a couple. All 10 alignment points should have one (maybe not for front toe? I forget if that one is set with an eccentric bolt or the tie rods). The washer pushes against a lip of metal, which makes the center of the washer the rotational center instead of the center of the bolt. This moves the bolt around within the a-arm and changes whichever alignment measurements are affected by it.

I have not done the rear yet, only noticed these on the front setup.

All in all am I right in my premise of reassemble in that just get everything roughly set up snug then once its all in position to tighten it. Then let a shop worry about the alignment?

Yeah, that's the best course. You can use some of the quick methods to make sure your car doesn't behave radically bad, like using string to check toe in/out, but you will need something more precise to get to what you need.

I'm aiming to never have to purchase an alignment again this spring, with a set of hub stands that have build in angle measurements. At ~$400, the break-even is about 5 normal alignments

Flyin' Miata 1 800 FLY MX5s
Yeah, a Miata site, but they have a range of plates available.

Yeah, I don't care to know or want to be doing suspension alignments. For me its a set it and forget it for my application. Its not something I will constantly be tweaking.

So for me a shop can just put it into spec and that's perfect for me. I just found some reading tho on how those washers work, its a simple little thing just seems like a tedious pain in the ass with all the measurements plus I have no where near a level floor in my garage.

Look under Suspension, specifically the alignment section. It details all of this out in detail.

if you coat the arms black it is just a matter of time before they become pock marked with chips. There is all kinds of rocks, grit, etc. sandblasting everything in that area.



.

Yeah, I did some reading on those washers and playing around with the rear links. Easy enough to understand. I'll just set them all neutral when I reinstall and let a shop finish it up with an alignment.

As far as the black I am really not to worried about it, yeah I know it wont be perfect for long, but the re-coating cost is not to expensive, plus the OE black coating on everything underneath has held up great, just now starting to get some yellowing come through plus I have owned this car for 2 years and have done 5K miles.

Also does anyone have any info on the SR PPF, from what I have read they initially offered a MS PPF but never delivered any of them then came out with the SR branded product. Just never seen or heard anything about people having one and what they think about it.

Supposedly OE is 25-30lbs and the SR is 18.

Been running Cusco Zero II coilovers for five years now, they're a good trackday set up.

I ran them on my old 8, never found a problem with them but it was more of a blew my stock strut needed replacements didn't do any research they where expensive and from a good brand so I bought them :lol: not sure nowadays how the compare to others. I think they are only a 7k/5k setup which seems soft compared to some brands doing 11k/9k

7k/5k makes them far more streetable than some, there's a little more movement than some of the really stiff setups in extremis but I prefer the compliance for a road car.