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Forrest, you have to realize that thirdgen's been doing this for a decade. He has young kids, work is busy as ****, and he just wants to build something fun that he can drive everyday without worrying about it or tinkering with it and just ******* drive the thing.
That said, I think he's also a pretty huge fan of putting things together haha. I've talked to him quite a bit and I honestly think that he'd be tempted to keep tinkering and tuning with an FI miata if he had one that was DD reliable.
I get that he's a seasoned vet here in the mt.net community. I was just curious why he wanted to go k-series. I can see it now though, this thread is making me consider the K-swap but the price is a big turn off. When it's done the drivability should be amazing!
I'm at that point. I'm done caring. I just want to drive it everyday like a normal car, change oil, put gas in it, and have daily no a/c no p/s hard suspension fun.
Here's the latest of my slow progress update. The Miata is still on jack stands awaiting engine/ harness/ trans pull. The RSX was removed from the 1 garage bay on Sunday, and stripped, cause I sold a pile of parts off of it.
1st) Craigslist is full of "*********". I had people email me and be like "How much we talkin here?" I'm like...well wtf do you want to buy? Or they'll text me "So no motor/ trans/ harness/ ECU...how much do you want?" and I'll be like "$1,300" and they'll be like "damn dog I thought you was gonna be reasonable...I gots this block at the engine shop with over 2k into the bottom end, and I need a car to put it in".
$2,000 in bottom end, but won't spend around a grand for a chassis with MINT interior and a clean title to put it in.
Or they'll be like "**** Son!! I can find em all day on craigslist running and driving for $1200!"
Really? Then why are you bugging me. Go buy that base model that's automatic with the salvage title for $1600 then.
2) I paid $2,500 for this car, and drove it onto the car dolly that was hooked to my truck. I bottomed out the front bumper, so i pulled it off cause it was bashed up anyway. I got the car home and started it up, drove it off the dolly, and backed it into my garage. The odometer reads 260,000. The receipt from the Z1 swap says like 98,000 or something. I sold the trans for $500....just the trans. No linkage, no anything. I sold a motor mount and a few miscellaneous bullshits for $100. I sold a pile of parts last night for $650, so do the math. $1250 worth of parts I sold from a car I paid $2500 for, and I still have a little bit left...I estimate maybe another $400, but let's be generous and say $450. That means I got a running K20Z1, harness, and ECU for $800.
I parted my turbo setup/ megasquirt/ other turbo stuff...got a little over $3,000 for that. The basic K miata swap kit is $3,750.
I figure after I part the rest of my miata stuff, I'll have more than enough money to cover the K swap basic parts.
After Skunk 2 intake/ 70mm throttle body/ race header/ fuel fittings/ K pro V.4/ other misc stuff...Total out of pocket expense should be under $3,000 and I'll have the miata I've dreamt about for almost a decade.
More updates to come...next move is order bell housing adapter/ oil pan/ flywheel. Gotta pull the Miata engine/ trans, and start cleaning up this K20 and putting a RWD trans behind it.
Will this be running by spring time? Probably not. I barely have time to think about this project, but even if it's a slow process, it's still progress.
Have you sold the throttle body? I meant to PM you to buy it, I need a spare for my racecar. If you've already sold it, then no worries.
Are you planning on trying to get to run on the RSX ecu and then do the kpro at a later date? If not, and you plan to just do the kpro from the get go, then I'd recommend you sell the Type-S ecu and buy one of the base model automatic ecus. V4 of the kpro can now use the AT ecu from a base model RSX to install the kpro board onto. Most people aren't aware of this, so the Type-S ecu pulls a premium and the base AT ecu can be found on eBay for $50-70 all day. This should net you another $150+ on your bottom line. This is what I did for my k20 swapped prelude and it's worked absolutely perfectly on the kpro'd AT ecu.
When doing my k-swap on my prelude I had similar luck as you. I bought a wrecked 04 Type-S for basically $2300 all in, had ~150k miles on it. I ended up selling about $1800 in parts off of it, but kept the engine (k20a2), engine and starting harnesses, throttle body and all the accessories for myself. So in the end I had about $500 out of pocket for all those parts.
The downside to it all is dealing with Honda/Acura craigslist people. They literally are the worst. You can make money parting RSXs but you pay for it with your time and sanity.
Getting a low mileage K20Z1 and those other parts for essentially $800 out of pocket is nothing to sneeze at.
Damn, not sure why I didn't see this thread until now. Nice work Todd!
Originally Posted by 18psi
on the flip side: there's a strong possibility of getting bored of your car once you're finally "done" and then not even caring about it anymore. which many can also agree with
I am in this boat. If life was up to me, I'd have a jeep project sitting where the miata is parked. But wifey loves miata (even though she's been in it twice in the last 4 years), so it stays.
Todd, why did you prefer the Z1 instead of the A2? I don't know much about honda engines (or any engines really), but on paper the difference is 10 hp and a couple of lbft of torque. Z1 revs higher. Better AUC/Power delivery or was this deal just too good to pass up?
Todd, why did you prefer the Z1 instead of the A2? I don't know much about honda engines (or any engines really), but on paper the difference is 10 hp and a couple of lbft of torque. Z1 revs higher. Better AUC/Power delivery or was this deal just too good to pass up?
FWIW we're also using a Z1 on the boosted car. They are a bit easier to find with lower miles vs. an a2, and the cams are better so it makes a bit more power. Otherwise its the same thing. a k20a2 works great too though.
__________________ KPower Industries
Home of the original KMiata Swap
The way the radiator support was bent I couldn't see the serial number on the block when I purchased the car. I figured it was an A2 because the car is a 2003 type S. It wasn't until a half an hour after I got the car home and bend the support so I could see the serial number, that I realized it was a Z1.
FWIW we're also using a Z1 on the boosted car. They are a bit easier to find with lower miles vs. an a2, and the cams are better so it makes a bit more power. Otherwise its the same thing. a k20a2 works great too though.
That makes sense.
Originally Posted by thirdgen
The way the radiator support was bent I couldn't see the serial number on the block when I purchased the car. I figured it was an A2 because the car is a 2003 type S. It wasn't until a half an hour after I got the car home and bend the support so I could see the serial number, that I realized it was a Z1.
K20z3 is also a good choice, found in the 2006-2011 Civic Si. They are easier to find with lower miles but they generally are a bit more expensive than an A2 or a Z1. The Z3 came with the best OEM intake manifold, and the manifold alone is worth $200-240 used because the A2 and Z1 guys (and K24) guys all want to upgrade to it. The Z3 did come with balance shafts in the oil pump that trade some horsepowers for smoother running. Swapping on an A2 oil pump is relatively simple and not overly expensive, that frees up the lost hp and it's a good idea to put a new oil pump on anyway when buying a 100k used engine.
All of the K20s (mentioned here) are really good starting points so if doing a k20 swap just find the best condition, lowest miles, best priced one of the three that you can.
Do not buy a k20a3 (even if only a couple hundred $) unless you know what a vtec killer set-up is and you don't care about overall power delivery and drive ability.
Here's the dealio... so I finally got rid of my iPhone 4s after like seven years of fun, and upgraded to an iPhone SE which is an iPhone 5 with 6S internals and 128 GB of memory. So now I can be a part of 2017 again and maybe now Doc Brown can disassemble this infernal contraption.
As far as my Miata, last week I ordered an oil pan, a bellhousing adapter, and flywheel from K Miata. That was like $2243 of parts but I did it because they had a free shipping for like 3 days, and that's actually all that I'm ready for right now. I still have to pull the Miata motor and trans out, and Miata subframe.
Here's the dealio... so I finally got rid of my iPhone 4s after like seven years of fun, and upgraded to an iPhone SE which is an iPhone 5 with 6S internals and 128 GB of memory. So now I can be a part of 2017 again and maybe now Doc Brown can disassemble this infernal contraption.
As far as my Miata, last week I ordered an oil pan, a bellhousing adapter, and flywheel from K Miata. That was like $2243 of parts but I did it because they had a free shipping for like 3 days, and that's actually all that I'm ready for right now. I still have to pull the Miata motor and trans out, and Miata subframe.
I'm 99% certain that you're going to finish before me hahaha.
I delivered the RSX on Wednesday, which was a rollable gutted shell with a bunch of good parts still on it.
I calculated it out that I ended up paying about $500 for a perfectly good running K20Z1, harnesses, and ECU.
I still have to pull the Miata engine/ trans/ harness. I'll most likely sell the Miata engine as a whole, minus Injector harness. I'd like to use that for my jeep project.
Stay tuned for more
I delivered the RSX on Wednesday, which was a rollable gutted shell with a bunch of good parts still on it.
I calculated it out that I ended up paying about $500 for a perfectly good running K20Z1, harnesses, and ECU.
I still have to pull the Miata engine/ trans/ harness. I'll most likely sell the Miata engine as a whole, minus Injector harness. I'd like to use that for my jeep project.
Stay tuned for more
Update!!!!
Uh...I have a box in my garage from K miata for the past few months now which has in it a flywheel, the aluminum oil pan, and the bell housing adapter. The engine is on my engine stand, and my life got busier. BUT...on Sunday, my new daily driver got delivered to my house.
02-16-2017, 10:10 PM
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