Money Pit goes hands-on in the garage with Zach Jobe as he shows you the fundamental principles of how cars work, and how to apply your DIY knowledge to your very own project car --all using our very own 1994 Mazda Miata.
So you finally decided to get yourself a project car, great! But how exactly do you go about selecting, inspecting, and actually purchasing the right project car? How do you avoid getting ripped off? Chances are you will be going with a used car, so you need to be extra selective in what you decide to go with. First, remember to take your time. Next, watch the vid! We’ll talk about several options like VW, the Mazda Miata, and even a Jaguar XJ12. We also cover how to go about handling a car title and we’ll give you tips on topics like car mileage, how to check a VIN, inspecting a car, negotiating the price of a car, and by the end, you should be able to go out there and get yourself a sweet new ride. Welcome to Money Pit!
Great so you got your first project car, now it’s time to make sure that it is ready for some mods! Before we throw any new bits at our Mazda Miata we want to make sure that it is in good running condition and healthy. So, we will do some basic but very necessary maintenance on our project car and you should do the same. We will talk about and show you how to DIY change your engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid, diff fluid, brake fluid, and transmission fluid. We’ll also cover air filters, fuel filter, belts, and spark plugs. Even if you don’t have a project car these are all routine basic things that you can do yourself to keep your car running for a long time and also save some money!
It’s time for our first mod on the Mazda Miata, we are upgrading wheels and tires! Changing your wheels and tires can completely change the look of your car and also drastically change the handling dynamics. The selection process for wheels and tires is more than just picking what you think looks good, trust us we’ve been there. You really want to make sure that things fit and look the way you want them too. You might want to slam your car and have stretched tires or maybe you want that gt look and want the perfect square fitment. We’ll guide you and show you how to determine what actually fits on your car, and by the end you should be able to find the perfect fitment for your own car and not just a Mazda Miata.
"Are you thinking about how to lower your car? Or maybe just want to replace your springs or shocks? Do you go with coil-overs? Lowering springs? Air ride? What about just cut springs? Let's talk about it! This week, the Miata gets a ride height adjustment and a major handling upgrade with a set of coil-overs! We replace the soft, squishy, comfy stock suspension with some tight and tidy coil-overs geared for grip and handling. Next to tires, this is one of the most value-added DIY car mods out there in terms of handling improvements, especially if your stock suspension is as spongy as our Miata’s was! The car also benefits from a lowered ride height which helps handling and looks so, so good. We’ll show ya how coil-overs work, how to choose a set for yourself, and how to install them. "
This week, we’re getting rid of that big ol’ nasty stock steering wheel for something better. Having the right steering wheel can make all the difference for your driving experience by clearing up some legroom and giving you something nice to hold onto while you drive. But how do you know what to buy? Where do you start? And how do you remove your old airbag without blasting your face off? We’ll show you the way!
Ever since we bought the Miata, it’s needed an alignment. Then we lowered it, and it needed one even more. Come along as Zach explains what an alignment is, why it matters, and even how to do one in the garage! It’s easier than you might think!
Want to hear your engine better and maybe make a few extra ponies in the process? Well, and intake might be just what the doctor ordered. Let that sucker breathe! Come along as Zach talks about the different types of intakes you may come across as well as some pros and cons - all while installing a new high performance intake on the Miata.
In our most satisfying episode yet, the miata gets the deep cleaning it’s so desperately needed from the beginning AND we sanitize those commonly touched areas in order to stay safe and healthy! We’ll show you how to deep clean the Interior, the Engine Bay, and the Exterior while we try to bring our miata back to her former glory.
This week on Money Pit, the Miata gets a new cat-back exhaust while Zach talks us through the pros and cons of an aftermarket exhaust AND how to install one with basic hand tools! Was it worth it??
This week on Money Pit, James and Eddie got to pick the topic - they chose SHOOTING FIRE! Come along for a crazy episode as Zach explores the different ways and reasons that cars shoot fire as he figures out how to meet the challenge of making the miata shoot some big ol’ fireballs.
Our Miata still suffers from quite a bit of body roll, or leaning over in corners. When this happens, the cars’ weight transfers largely to the outside tires, and unloads from the inside tires, which means bad handling and poor grip! This week, Zach installs a set of thicc sway bars and new end-links in hopes to keep the car flatter in the corners and more responsive to steering input. Are they worth the install?
Do aftermarket engine mounts even do anything? Who knows? Today on Money Pit, Zach installs a fancy set of polyurethane engine mounts on the miata as he explores the pros and cons of different types of engine mounts.
Zach was given a clutch and flywheel that look pretty aggressive, but only holds how much torque? This week we’ll install a new clutch and flywheel while we talk about how clutches work, what makes for a more aggressive clutch, and why we want a lightweight flywheel, and then we’ll see if the new clutch is as aggressive as it looks.
The stereo in the miata is an actual piece of trash. This week on Money Pit, Zach decides to test three different 7” touchscreen head units at three very different price points. Whichever fits the bill the best gets to stay!
The front bumper on the miata is so badly oxidized, you might not even believe it’s painted, and the hood is nothing but a large pile of scratches. This week Zach tests 3 different methods of paint correction, from expensive and extensive, to quick, cheap, and…. Minty? Let’s see which method makes the most improvement on the miata’s ratty old paint!
The miata’s power steering rack has been leaking for a while, leaving stains everywhere she goes. My options are: replace the rack, which is a few hundred bucks and not readily available at the moment; buy a used one, which is still gonna cost around $100; or rebuild the seals in the rack myself with a seal kit for $30 dollars. Today, I’m taking the cheap road and we’re going to try to rebuild this old power steering rack. What could go wrong?
One of the most common ways to increase performance on a naturally aspirated engine is to install an exhaust header. They aren’t too expensive, and the install should be pretty easy on the miata. But how much power do they actually make? Today we’re gonna install a set of headers find out!
The driveway at the chateau money pit is a little stained, just like many car guys’ and gals’ driveways all over the world. We’ve all got our methods for trying to clean up oil spills, but which works the best? This week, Zach and his roommates put each of their methods to the test by trying to clean their spills! Loser has to powerwash the whole driveway!
This week on Money Pit, we take a look at answering the age-old question: Is buying someone else’s project car a good idea? It seems like a good way to save some money on aftermarket parts that you would end up buying anyway, but it can definitely be a huge can of worms. Come along as we inspect James’ new project car to see if he made a good move or just flushed his cash down the ol’ money pit!
The Miata was overdue for a roll bar, so this week we’ll install a SICK built-to-order rollbar in the Money Pit Miata. We took the opportunity to compare it against a $65 “roll bar” and do some highly scientific testing with our friends at The BlackOut Garage!
This week on Money Pit, the miata’s floppy body will be stiffened up with a barrage of chassis bracing components. We’ll take a few LASER measurements before and after to see if we’ve stiffened the car up or just lightened our wallet.
This week on Money Pit, we’re taking a look at one of Zach’s other projects, his Nissan S14. We’ll diagnose why his RB powered project won’t start so he can make mo powa babeh!
This week on Money Pit, we’re replacing the 26 year old OEM shifter with a Short Shifter. Along the way we’ll take a look at how short shifters actually make shifts shorter and we’ll see if it’s a worthy mod.
We’ve added a ton of bits to Miata to make it fast, and the only thing we’ve really added for safety on the track has been our roll cage. So today we are looking at aftermarket seats and harnesses. Yes, they look cool BUT does it make sense to add them to your car, should you even be rocking a sweet OMP seat and OMP harnesses? And if so how do you install them? Let’s do this!
It’s time for our first track day in the Money Pit Miata! We’re taking it to Willow Springs for a track day hosted by our friends at EAD Exotics. We’ll see if all the money we’ve dumped in the pit has been worth it or just wasted!
To go fast you've gotta be able to brake fast. Zach gives you the low down on what matters when picking out a new set of brakes.
Thanks to Off The Record for sponsoring this episode! Always Fight Your Tickets! Get 10% off through 2021 at: http://www.offtherecord.com/donut or code Donut on the Off The Record App Our buddies @Chinatown Market are decking out out a 1969 VW Westfalia bus to travel with their new, sick Grateful Dead Collection and we wanted to help! We THOUGHT we could rebuild the air cooled engine in 16 hours... Follow @chinatownmarket on instagram and YT for their video drop on Sept. 18th https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCauM... Big thanks to JBugs.com for getting us the engine rebuild kit in time! We struggled 'cause we're not VW wizards like Rocky over at General Parts in Albuquerque, NM. If you need a hero you can find one there!
This week on Money Pit, we’re doing brain surgery! That’s right, we’re replacing the factory ECU with a Megasquirt Standalone ECU so we can take complete control over the engine and the way it runs. Then we’ll take it to our friends at EF1 Tuning to develop a tune - can we make any more power with our new brain?
Last time we took the Miata to the track we ran into so many cooling issues! So we decided it was time to get rid of the old crappy radiator and old cooling bits in order to stop the overheating problems! We went with all the best bits from Flyin’ Miata, BUT upgrading your radiator with the fanciest thing out there might not be the best move for YOUR car. Today we are revamping the entire cooling system on the Miata and talking how to effectively keep your car cool!
This week on Money Pit, the tables have turned. We’re at Eddie’s house helping him put his engine back together after blowing the head gasket in his MIATA. Along the way we’ll look at what a head gasket is and how to replace one.
This week on Money Pit, we're going with the flow - Air Flow that is. Getting more air into your engine is the key to making power. We're replacing the whole intake system to see how much more power we can make on the dyno!
Cracked Dashboards. We all hate them, but what can you do? This week on Money Pit, we’ll take a CRACK at 3 different options for fixing cracked dashboards.
There are many things that can overheat in a car, BUT trust me when I say that your engine oil should not be one of those things! So what can actually cause your engine oil to overheat, what is a safe range of operating temperatures, and if it is overheating how do you fix it? Today we’re talking oil coolers! They look cool, we all want them, but are they necessary? Just click the play button, what ya doin!
Driving the Miata at night has always been hazardous, because the headlights seem to actually be dim candles. On this episode, we’ll update the headlights and headlight wiring circuit to pull some big watts and actually light up the night road so we can keep driving!
Are you looking to add more BASS to your car? Can you build a subwoofer box that looks and sounds good for cheaper than buying one? How in the world do you go about picking the right sub, amp, and cable combo? Today we’re talking bass baby, and we’re answering all those questions so just hit that play and get ready to get loud!
This week on Money Pit, we’re replacing the stock rubber differential bushings with a set of much stiffer polyurethane bushings. They should make the rear of the car feel much tighter when launching and shifting, but will they be worth the added noise vibration and harshness?
This week on Money Pit, we're giving Eddie's miata an altitude adjustment. But not in the direction you might expect. We're lifting it so we can run over all the new curbs at our new office! Will the added ground clearance be worth the compromises?
James has decided it’s time for the engine to come out of his AE86 - But HE wants to do all the work. Zach will be giving James guidance to make sure things go *relatively* smoothly. How hard can it be?
We finally have a turbo kit!! But before we go bolting a spinny boi up to the miata, we gotta talk about how to even know if your engine is a good candidate for turbocharging! Buckle up, we’re doing turbo stuff for the next 6 weeks!!
Today we are talking all about the hot side of the turbo! How do you get exhaust gases to the turbo so it can spin and suck in all that cool air? Well that’s where a turbo exhaust manifold comes in and while we’re at it we are also adding a downpipe babey. My name is Zach and this is Money Pit Turbo Espectacular!
Today we finally get to throw a turbo in the Money Pit Miata! But how exactly do you pick a turbo, how does it work, what do you need to look out for when buying your own turbo?! Well, we are here to help. Let’s turbo this thing … finally!
Turbo is officially on the Miata! Now it’s time we make sure that all the air being sucked in by our turbo gets cooled down as much as possible. For this our CX Racing turbo kit comes with a brand new intercooler, so we have to talk how exactly an intercooler system works, what you need to know when picking one, and by the end we’ll have nice cool air getting pumped into our engine.
Ok we did it, we slapped a turbo on the ‘ol Miata, GREAT! But with all that air getting jammed into our engine we need to make sure we are squirting the right amount of fuel. Now, it varies by platform but in general there’s a few things you want to keep in mind. So let’s get to it! We are one step closer to Mo Powah Babeh!
The day has come to find out if all of our hard work has paid off, has it been worth it to throw a turbo kit on the Miata in our journey for more power. Today we wrap up what needs to be done in order to get the Miata back down to the Dyno at EF1 Motorsports. Will it explode? Will it even make it down? Will it make more power? So many questions!!! Let’s get to it!
The miata is finally +turbo so it’s time to go back to the racetrack and see if Zach can run a decent lap at Willow Springs. Since last time we were at this track, the cooling system has been upgraded, the brakes have been upgraded, we’ve added an oil cooler, moved to a standalone ECU, and of course, added a turbo kit; to make an overall total of $17,500. Will all this money in mods be worth it or will we have big issues again?
This week on Money Pit, we’re getting to the bottom of all those oil leaks from last week’s track event. We’re going to have to go through our PCV system, and we’ll also install a cool set of catch cans.
We ALL love anything DRIFT at Donut! So this week we decided it’d be the perfect time to talk about an Angle Kit and install one on our good friend Cirone’s E36. He’s been slowly building his 1993 BMW 325i to be his drift missile and we are here to help. Let’s talk drifting, angle kit set ups and go drift this thing!
As the miata gets more and more modified, we need to be able to monitor more and more engine vitals. We’re going to install a digital dash in the miata so we can keep an eye on EVERYTHING, right from the dash! Will it look good or will the clean aesthetics of the dash be ruined? Let’s find out!
Listen we’ve all been there, picking our first mod. Well chances are the first thing you really wanna do is make your car louder! But what are your options? What if you don’t want to be LOUD ALL THE TIME!? Thankfully we have a Nolan, a Mustang, and a pair of exhaust cut outs! Let’s get loud bby … then quiet… then LOUD AGAIN! Stop reading this, go press play and hope you don’t get an ad lol
We are champions of the DIY lifestyle, BUT sometimes it truly pays to have a PRO handle certain jobs. Well, I believe that window tinting is one of those things that you do not want to get involved in. So, to put this to the test we brought a Pro down to the garage and we're about to go toe to toe ... why are you still reading this? Go press play
It’s our 50th episode! For the special occasion, we’re answering YOUR questions!
It was not that long ago that Zach was shredding the S14 on the Los Angeles Crest when all of a sudden he heard a very alarming sound coming from the engine bay… today we are taking a closer look at the S14’s engine and determining what the problem is. Let’s hope it’s not GG for the RB25!!!
For centuries humans have had an unanswered question: ARE TEST PIPES WORTH IT? Well today we’ll teach you how to make your own test pipe and then take it to the Dyno to see exactly how much of a power bump we get it! Let’s do some race car stuff bby.
The day is here! The S14 and it’s RB25 haven’t had the best relationship lately so it’s time we pull the RB25 and prep a game plan to rebuild the engine! Will the S14 survive heart surgery? You should’ve stopped reading this a while back! Enjoy.
So if you’ve been watching Money Pit for a while you already know that we tried to make the Miata shoot fire with some very sketchy methods. However, now we have a turbo which means that we can do all sorts of fire spitting! Headphone users beware, it’s gonna get loud!
The AE86 has been a pretty big paper weight for the past couple months and it’s finally time to give it a new heart! James has been doing a ton of research while Zach has been assembling the engine to what will hopefully be a “smooth” engine swap.
So we opted to go the fancy route and swap our Miata gauge cluster for a supercar-like digital dash! Now the problem is that we can’t read fuel levels or oil pressure! So today we fixed those problems by adding some aftermarket bits to our ECU!
If you’ve been paying attention you’ve probably noticed that the wheels on the S14 look a bit like garbage! And let’s be honest who doesn’t like a brand new set of wheels. However, I actually like the wheels on the S14 and would like to use them for a bit longer while I save for something new in the future. That said, today we are fixing those scuffed wheels and hopefully I don’t potato them in the process.
We are tired of the Miata speakers sounding like our music is playing next to a blender, it sucks! And it’s not fair to our sweet head unit. So we decided it’s time to pair the miata with new speakers and an amp! This is gonna be fun … or will it?
Last time we took the Money Pit Miata to the dyno we kinda realized our fuel system needed upgrading. So today we are changing all things fuel AND hopefully it’s worth our time. AND hopefully I don’t get covered in fuel … that stuff is not a good time!
It’s time we say goodbye to our Miata … it won’t be forever BUT we have a brand spankin new car! We have big plans for our new build so stop reading this and go watch the vid!
So far we’ve beat the absolute crap out of our new e36 BUT the automatic transmission is kinda ruining the party for us. So today we are turning our family automatic sedan into... well still a family sedan with a cooler shift stick. Was it all worth it???
This is weird but for the first time ever on Money Pit we actually want to make a car sit higher! Unlike the Money Pit Miata, we’ll be absolutely thrashing the e36 in the dirt which means rocks, lots of rocks. So in order to avoid as many rocks as possible we need to make the e36 sit taller. Today we’re dropping in a new set of long travel suspension coil-overs and hopefully it’ll be worth all the money and effort we’re throwing into the pit!
So we’ve been testing our rally e36 pretty hard in the desert and recently it took a bit of an L. The cooling system seems to not be too happy being slinged around in the heat and the dirt. However, e36’s are notorious for having cooling system issues so we consider ourselves lucky to have gotten this far. But it’s finally time to revamp the ‘ol cooling bits and see exactly how cheap the factory plastic parts really are!
Rally cars and drift cars have one major thing in common AND that’s that they both use a hydraulic e-brake to initiate skids! Being able to easily slide around has many perks and it def gains you major points in the cool department BUT is it really worth it? Well it’s something we’ve been wanting for the e36 since its inception so guess we’re gonna find out.