VVT, My Miata Shall Have It.

I guess I'll bore everyone with another Miata thread and document the, hopefully painless, swap of a 2002 BP-Z3 engine into my 1990 NA.

I picked the engine up tonight after stumbling upon it on Craigslist in the wee hours of the morning. The are a few scrapes on the intake manifold, but aside from that it seems to have led an easy life for it's 88,000 miles.

For tonight I only have one E36 M3ty, old picture of the Miata.

Tomorrow the engine bay will get pressure washed and a couple of GRM's sponsors will get my business.

Good snag!

Topic being watched...

My thread about swapping an 04 MSM engine. I would imagine some of the things would be similar but I am dealing with turbo instead of VVT.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/90-mazdaspeed-miata-rallycross-project/43300/page1/

BoxheadTim wrote: Topic being watched...

Let me know when it gets to too boring to stand.

I've never done the build thread thing before, but I enjoyed the nauseating detail of some of the one's on here - the rallycross E30 comes to mind.

Amongst other problems, the 1.6L was spewing oil at an alarming rate. I suppose I should have kept it away from the English cars.

(Pictures will be a combination of those taken with some type of Droid smartphone and a Canon point and shoot I found abandoned at the Baltimore GP; they will suck.)

Grimy:

Cleanish:

Where the magic happens, or something like that:

These have to go:

That MGB GT (?) says, "Help me!"

Cool swap. Keep us updated!

Twin_Cam wrote: That MGB GT (?) says, "Help me!" Cool swap. Keep us updated!

It's a 70 BGT, yeah. It needs a lot of "help" but it's the first car I ever bought entirely on my own and the only one I have, as of this point, that will never get sold. I have a bunch of the stuff that it needs sitting in my bedroom, but haven't had a solid enough block of time to dig into the rust repair. I have a nagging suspicion it's just going to have to go a professional for that, which is fine because I don't care in the least if I have to put more money in it than it's worth.

All I really have to add at this moment is that VVT is fascinating and very ugly. Parts are on order from Flyin' Miata. I need to scrap some copper or sell some old catalytic converters before I buy the VVTuner module from DIYAutoTune.

I can't help but feel like a normal person would have done something to the suspension before bothering with an engine swap. I guess a normal person would be on this forum though.

I'm genuinely surprised to read that anyone thinks this is cool, but it's good motivation. Thanks!

Well, the reason I think it's cool is that it's an idea I'm toying with the same swap for my '95 if/when the engine in that one gives up the ghost.

The trouble is that the suspension on that thing is so shot that I have to replace it, though.

MG Bryan wrote: I can't help but feel like a normal person would have done something to the suspension before bothering with an engine swap.

Nah, a normal person (me) buys a Protege5 with suspension work already done and is just happy to be driving a manual again and only READS about other people doing cool engine swaps!

Bryan, I recently retired and am looking for projects to generate a larger racing budget. I had a body shop/race prep shop for many years and have resurrected many LBC's. If you are interested in having me do the rust repair on the BGT, email me : Don49ataol.com. I am 12 miles west of Gettysburg, Pa.

Does anyone know of a source for the electrical connector that plugs into the OCV on VVT Miata engines? I don't have it and can't find one anywhere.

What does it look like? I have a complete MSM wiring harness, not sure if it would have a plug that would work.

What is OCV?

Oil control valve

Ah ok...

Doesn't look like I have anything like that. Maybe try a Mazda dealer?

EvanB wrote: Doesn't look like I have anything like that. Maybe try a Mazda dealer?

I don't know if it's a product of how horrible the dealer I called is, but I was told I'd have to buy an entire wiring harness. I'll make a berkeleying connector before that happens.

I happen to have a flood car vvt head I snagged off ebay a long time ago to maybe rebuild but my miata died at the hands of a grand mq. Kept the head to practice porting with. Will see if that part is floating around this weekend. If so you can have it to take to the jy to try to match if you want.

In reply to bluej:

If you find any VVT related stuff you don't want, let me know and we'll work something out.

Sounds like a worthwhile project. Keep us posted for sure!

I'll check under the hood of the mx6 tomorrow, there's about 10 unused connectors in there.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: I'll check under the hood of the mx6 tomorrow, there's about 10 unused connectors in there.

If you don't I'm just going to give up and get an engine harness from The Parts Group. The downside to that being that I'll end up with even more E36 M3 cluttering my shelves and workbench.

I'm pretty sure that's the same connector that was used on the factory boost control solenoid on the MSM. Or give FM Salvage a call, we cut the connectors off damaged harnesses.

In that case I'll give my harness another look. I may have missed it.

This looks about right. PM me your address and I'll ship it to you.