Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I kinda blew it with the intro as I intended it to end up in the Intro section - sorry 'bout that but it seemed to have worked out... A bit about me - I grew up in Charlottesville and have been in Annapolis since 1975. I work in Columbia - just off Exit 15 on Rt. 32. I have a wife (who likes the car ((always a plus)) and two daughters and a son (daughters and son like the car too)

I autotossed my Miata with WASCCA and CDC a couple of times last year - great fun...my younger daughter kinda got me into it so when she gets back from vacation, we'll try to come out.

Here are some pics of the car and the "cut". It may be hard to orient yourself - this pic is of the cut on the passenger's side and there's an identical one on the driver's side - note the rust....

 

Welcome. I am in Millersville about 15 minutes east of Columbia and 20 north of Annapolis.

 

I know right where Millersville is...we're building a house in Severna Park...just off Benfield

Anyone got a pic of what a "normal" frame should look like?

 

Not much normal about me or my car, but I just snapped these a minute ago for ya. Welcome aboard! We just added a '99 Miata to our stable.

Perhaps an oversized intercooler was on your car previously.

 

It definitely looks like it was cut by someone..

btw i'm right down the street in Linthicum.

 

Thats the first thing that comes to my mind.

 

Intercooler is the only thing that makes sense there.

Welcome, Wes!

 

Wes,

I was originally thinking the car had a supercharger as you have to mod the front crossmember to give room for the oil line.

Who ever cut that was good and the car was returned to stock cond, you might want to do a compression/leak down test, even adjust the valves.

Your engine may have been putting out a bit more power in the past.

George

 

Makes sense to me..other than that "damage" the car is fairly pristine - hopefully the previous owner kept up on all the maintenance - I didn't have a compression or leak-down test done before purchase - I might now, not that I suspect anything but hey, who knows.

Anything else to look for now that I "know" it was FI'd?

Thanks for all the comments/pics

Wes

 

FI cars run different plugs, fuel pumps and fuel pressure regulators. Most would have been returned to OEM. If you dont smell gas you should be ok.

Change the diff fluid as FI'd diffs can take a beating.