1992 Mazda Miata V6 Swap- Build Thread

Intake and Radiator are out.

Header out.

No more transmission.

Here comes the engine.

Engine out.

Subframe?

We don't need no stock subframe!

How low can we go?

A lot easier to tuck with no subframe in the car!

VIP baby!

I can't wait to see how this goes.

This swap is the most appealing to me, on paper at least.

Oh and your car is awesome. I love the wide body loook and the door stripe

Cooper_Tired wrote: I can't wait to see how this goes. This swap is the most appealing to me, on paper at least. Oh and your car is awesome. I love the wide body loook and the door stripe

Thanks! The stripes were one of the first kits from my friend Steve when he had R2-Limited as a side business. I love the way they accentuate the wide body. Steve shut down R2-Limited, but his designs are still available here: http://garagestar.com/shop/door_stripes.html

First task last night was cleaning up the transmission. The car had a rear main seal leak for the last several years, so the transmission was nasty.

A little degreaser, a wire brush, a power washer, and about 90 minutes, and it was 95% better. There are still some crevices that have build up, but it is good enough for me.

Next on the list was cleaning the engine bay. Frankly I didn't get much cleaning done. I kept getting distracted by trying to move stuff in my way, and then ended up adding some lightness.

(Its not like they served a purpose any more given I ditched the stock steering wheel a few years ago.)

Nuts and bolts

One of the things I ordered early on was a timing belt and water pump kit. Given the engine had 80k miles on it, I figured it was just about due. Once I got around to removing the timing belt cover, I found a fairly new Gates timing belt was on the car. Given this, I ended up flipping the TB kit to a friend for a small loss (which I have recorded in my cost log).

But whats important is nuts and bolts. When I was removing the timing belt cover, I noticed that several of the bolts had pretty rusty heads. I ended up soaking them all over night in rust remover and they looked as good as new. The problem though was that about half of them had very poor zinc plating (a few seemed to have none at all on the head) and this was clearly what allowed them to rust. Re-installing them as is was just asking for a repeat of the rust build-up. Replacing them seemed costly at over $3 a bolt plus shipping for over a dozen of them. I considered having them powder coated when I send off the valve covers, but that seemed like overkill. I even briefly considered a zinc coating kit from Eastwood, but as i researched the kit I found myself reading about bolt treatments on a Harley forum. There I discovered the idea of painting them with fingernail polish. Durable, comes with a brush the right size for painting bolt heads, and easy to touch up if it gets scratched. A quick raiding of my daughter's nail polish collection and 30 minutes later, they were all painted black.

From there we go to Accessory bolts. One thing you will find is that most junkyards sell the accessories separate from the engine. I didn't even realize this until a few days after the engine was in the garage. I addressed this and sourced an Alternator and AC Compressor, but then I found I didn't have the bolts to attach them. I needed to order a weird gasket only sold by Honda anyway, so I ordered the 2 Alternator bolts and 4 compressor bolts. About 15 seconds after they were installed, I realized how much time and money in shipping charges my lack of thinking ahead was costing me, as now I needed to order a belt. Belt arrived and went on easy.

nail polish? Brilliant.

Something let go in my Miata's engine this week. I'm keenly interested in seeing how this turns out.

beans wrote: nail polish? Brilliant.

I know, right? Cheap, quick, easy, and effective.

Titus, where are you at and what are you doing with that stock subframe. I mean, just curious.....

Thinkkker wrote: Titus, where are you at and what are you doing with that stock subframe. I mean, just curious.....

I am about 35 miles NE of Dallas. I will probably save the original sub-frame that came out of this car, but I have one out of a 96m I parted out that I would sell for $50 local pickup.

Tonight I finished stripping the engine bay and I got one side clean.

Following closely.

What are you doing with the header from the stock engine?

Brett_Murphy wrote: Following closely. What are you doing with the header from the stock engine?

I have it listed for sale on my local forum HERE.

Friday night saw a break for Furious 7, and most of Saturday was detoured by replacing the house water heater, but I found time Saturday night for dash removal. Probably Not required to complete the swap, but it will make some things easier and allows me to remove the rest of the airbag stuff, install a new heater core, and add some foam strip to the back of the dash to get rid of some old age rattles and creaks.

Today started with removing the brake booster and AC lines, and then finishing the cleaning. Won't be much more action in here until I can get the paint work done.

I then turned my attention to the transmission. You need to cut a notch out for starter clearance. A template is provided with the kit to mark it.

After a little work with the cutoff wheel, it is ready for test fitting.

Today's last task was the throw out bearing bushing. Others have said it was a real pain to get on, but it slid on by hand for me. I may even go back and dimple it to add a little more friction so it doesn't ever move.

No wrenching updates right now as I wait on a few different dependencies, but I did get a new radio surround for the car in the mail today.

The old radio surround was purchased years ago when I needed a place for boost and a/f gauges. It was also stainless steel, as most everything I bought for the car back in those days was shinny.

The new one gets rid of the gauge holes that are no longer needed, and is in matte black to fit in better with the current theme of the car.

Titus wrote:

lv2rev wrote: Love the look of your "stage 5" build. Is that a widebody kit,or custom? If a kit, then whose?

After the accident, I dropped the car off with a close friend who does body work, had AWR ship a widebody kit to him, and Racing Beat shipped him the front and rear bumper. We talked about general goals and tossed around ideas, but for the most part I let him get creative. There are a lot of small custom touches (a few that even hardcore Miata guys have a hard time spotting), but the major ones are the beltline delete, custom hood bulge, and custom trunk lip.

It looks berkeleying awesome. I started drooling a little when I saw the last stage with that wide body. Fantastic.

I love watching people in these threads clean things up, I hate doing it myself.

Hrmm, I might want to relieve you of that old radio surround, if you're interested in selling.

Harvey wrote: I love watching people in these threads clean things up, I hate doing it myself.

That's twisted! It is tedious, but it sure is an easy way to make progress. A lot of the other stuff takes a little build up to get the confidence to do when you haven't done something like it before and don't want to screw it up. If I go out to the shop and don't feel up to tackling something new just yet, I think "Well that needs to be cleaned before it can go back in, I will do that today".

calteg wrote: Hrmm, I might want to relieve you of that old radio surround, if you're interested in selling.

Sorry... it has already been sold. Now if I can just unload the gauges, wideband, 1.6 header, and 1.6 polished valve cover! LOL

Titus wrote:

Harvey wrote: I love watching people in these threads clean things up, I hate doing it myself.

That's twisted! It is tedious, but it sure is an easy way to make progress. A lot of the other stuff takes a little build up to get the confidence to do when you haven't done something like it before and don't want to screw it up. If I go out to the shop and don't feel up to tackling something new just yet, I think "Well that needs to be cleaned before it can go back in, I will do that today".

I think it's pretty par for the course and why we have the forum and why makeover shows are a thing. I just love seeing the transformation from dirty to clean or unpolished to polished.

I just dislike doing it myself as it is very labor intensive, but of course when it comes to labor versus shelling out dough I pick labor in most cases.

calteg wrote: Hrmm, I might want to relieve you of that old radio surround, if you're interested in selling.

I have one (black not polished) that I would sell. Holds 3 gauges and a DIN radio.

bgkast wrote:

calteg wrote: Hrmm, I might want to relieve you of that old radio surround, if you're interested in selling.

I have one (black not polished) that I would sell. Holds 3 gauges and a DIN radio.

Even better. Shoot me and PM and a photo, please.

I didn't think there was anything to do this evening, but then I realized I could swap the headers...

The stock driver's side header does an OK job hugging the block, but it isn't enough to clear the steering.

(Sorry for the out of focus pic)

To give the added clearance needed, A modified OEM header is provided that has been shaved down at an angle.

Here you can see the old and new ones side by side.

With the new one on, you can see that it hugs the block a lot better.

I didn't get a pic of the passenger side, but its stock header is actually angled out away from the block. This won't do, but it turns out that the one that was removed from the drivers side works just fine on the passenger side given there is no steering to deal with.

Why do I get the feeling that this swap is overall more awesome than a V8 swap?