Fast Forward to today (kind of)
As mentioned above, sent the engine to a spec miata builder. To tear down what I put together. Had to re-machine it, do the line honing on the mains "again". He did some head-work and smoothed the harsh edges on the cylinder head combustion chamber.

You can see Cylinder 3 up close, still not perfect, but smooth and he said will be fine. <fingers crossed>


Rods Pistons, Head Studs and Head Gasket Installed




Some pics of the long block together





New OEM Water Pump w/ Cast Impeller and Boundary Oil Pump Installed


Plastics Going on, Fluidampr and Gates Belt





Long Block as picked up from the builder. Best shot of the powdercoated Oil Pan. This is an MSM oil pan, I had an AN bung welded on the exhaust side, and plugged the return port on the intake side (used to capture oil blow by)

 

Now the fun stuff.. a little eye candy.

RTheory Water Pump Pulley and FM plate to cover the hole since I have the front water inlet blocked off.


Exhaust Side, Cerakoted Exhaust Manifold with Titanium Studs and RTheory Low Profile Mixing Manifold


Titanium Valve Cover Bolts



On the intake side, still light b/c the Skunk2 Intake Manifold is still on backorder, but I have titanium studs for here too. You can see the sandwich plate for the FM Oil Cooller that will be going in.



Lastly, had my OEM throttle body refurbished. Came out really great. I removed and drilled out the water lines, then tapped the holes so if I ever want to re-plumb coolant to the TB, I can. But for now I just have NPT plugs.
Jason @ VaporHone.com did a great job of making this thing look better than new. Wasnt' cheap, but didn't want to spend money on the Skunk unit only to fight the sticking TB gremlins.

Pics of the TB before refurb:






Pics After Refurb

 

I would not have made that choice.

I have three busted OE TBs sitting on the shelf in my black museum, and my last and current cars have run Skunks TB, no issues. Yes the Skunk requires a preemptive refit prior to fitment, but those issues are well known, simple and documented here. But it isn't going to bust the shaft and send a screw though the combustion chamber, and (hopefully) out the exhaust. For me, a Skunk is preemptive maintenance on any BP engine I come by, immediately on purchase of the car.

 

Engine ****! It looks amazing, glad to see it coming together after all this time.

I have to agree that I'd skip the OEM throttle body on that beautiful built motor. I've never had one come apart but I've seen too many on the internet, though those are mostly track cars.

 

Definitely the nicest looking OEM TB I've ever seen, probably on the planet lol

Restoration is right... Everything about this is mint.

ETA - I'm on an ebay knockoff of the Skunk2. I had to do some fine tuning with the adjustment screws but haven't had any issues after that. It didn't get crazy cold here this winter but I still drove the car on E85 at points and didn't have any issues with the lack of coolant running through it.