Miata Mailing List: July 1998, Message #345

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Previously on upgrading, Tim Ignas <ignas@wam.umd.edu> said...

> Upgrading is really an understatement.  I have a 91 with 80K miles on
> it.  It is currently stock.  Honestly, can the car handle an upgrade
> with that much mileage?  I have never had a problem with it, probably
> because I baby it.  What I was thinking about upgrading to isn't that
> extreme.  Basically new headers, an aluminum fly wheel, some kind of air
> intake or induction, and an exhaust...

That's not an understatement, those are upgrades.  Your car will do just fine with
what you have in mind.  The reason you have never had a problem with it is NOT
because you baby it, it's because it is a well built, well designed car that is
tough as nails.  People do things to Miatae on a regular basis which you would
undoubtedly call abuse and they keep coming back for more.  In fact, the biggest
performance upgrade you could do right now is /stop/ babying it, and /drive/ it. 
Hard.

The question comes up regarding turbocharging vs miles every once in awhile, and the
last time it came around the answer I gave is that something that serious will
probably take maybe 10% off the life of the engine.  If the engine would normally go
to 200K miles (and it will), and you turbo it at 80K, you can probably expect to get
another 108K miles out of it as long as everything is installed and operating
properly.  That's not a bad deal.

Trust me, the car won't mind your upgrades at all, in fact it will reward you.  Also
consider that you aren't doing it any favors by driving it gently, it wasn't
designed to be shifted at 3,000 RPM, it was designed to run at 6,500 RPM all day
long.  Push it a little, it's worth it.

	-John

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John Freas (jfreas@earthlink.net)
Red '90 Base-ish #7690
Birmingham, AL
Team LS1, SP...
Team dlralt, PBC, Roebuck, Voodoo...
"I have no idea what those dimple things on the windshield frame are for."
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