Dropped her off last night at her new home for the next few weeks. Driving the Subie back over tonight to start the engine pull and swap process.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1410875222

The speedo gear will be the proper 3.63:1 btw. It just has to be swapped out of my 6sp and into yours.

1st post since you joined in 2011. I feel honored. I guess i will just have to bring cold beer when I show up tonight.

Btw....This setup made 271 whp at 17 psi with 600ccs and pump gas. It should be a blast when we can crank it up on corn.

(have been sick so the photos were delayed)

Got around to pulling my stock 1.6 out of my car on Tuesday night. The process was painless and went pretty fast. I think the only PITA was the Jackson Racing Exhaust bolts. The good news is that the exhaust won't be used with the turbo setup. Instead of putting it back on when I run NA for a few weeks on the built engine, I picked up a OEM exhaust on CL for $30. Picking that up tonight and will follow up with pics. It looked very clean.

Ok onto Tuesday Night's activities.

My cousin's 92' looked badass so I had to snap a pic.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

Moved the 92' back and pulled in my 91' to work on for the night.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

Starting work. We decided to leave on my fenders and bumper for this work.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145


This was the point in the night where my cousin got to work on my Jackson Racing exhausts bolts. They were not friendly. It was also the point in the night where he realized that installing his lift in the garage would make this a lot easier. The exhaust came out, but it was a PITA. I felt it was a good point to take a swig of beer and snap a picture so he could relive this awesomeness forever.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145


Time to get yanking.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

At this point i decided to delay the engine swap a few days. I figure i might as well take a day next week to paint my engine bay. I was going to do it between phase 1 (turbo 1.6) and phase 2 (V8 swap) but I had a change of heart. His engine / turbo setup is so clean, it would be sin to not have an equally clean engine bay. I am going to pick up some paint later today.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

Added something to my wish list. Looking at the difference between my power steering rack and his manual steering rack. I need to pick up a used manual steering rack this winter. I don't have any power steering left in this car, so I might as well swap the rack over too.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

Everything in place for storage. Next week I will start by painting my engine bay. Then we will start swapping parts from the stock 1.6 to the built 1.6. It will be nice to be able to start selling off some parts to fund this project.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411139145

Well I forgot to bring my good camera so we will have to deal with cell phone pics today. I decided to paint my engine bay. I was thinking this would be a one day process... it took a little longer. 1st night was 4 hours of cleaning and removing more parts. 2nd night was 6 hours of cleaning and taping. However, I finally got it prepped and painted.

Before cleaning
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Cleaned
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Taped up
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Wrapped up
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Coat #1
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Coat #2
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Coat #3 - Final Coat
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Rolled back into place to rest until next week when the motor is dropped back in.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1412079683

Damn, almost a month without updates. Life happened.

Did some work last week, but didn't have enough time to drop the motor in. Pulling all that tape was a bitch... but not as bad as doing the actual taping.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414610530

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414610530
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414610530

Putting wires back, trying to make sense of the baggies I put the hardware in... other fun things. Which led me to the decision that once the car is in storage, lots of these parts are getting pulled, painted or replaced.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414610530

And there she sit, waiting for me to put an engine in her tomorrow night.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414610530

freshly sprayed shiny engine bay - awesome

nice job

Thanks, I really miss my car. I need to get it back from my cousin's garage for a few weeks so I can drive it before winter comes. Already in the 40's here.

The clean engine bay really made me realized all the not clean things in my car. The fuse box stuff is going to get painted this winter. I hope to put some SS bolts in place there too. It all depends on how much money my side job (snowboarding) brings this year.

Well got some work done last night. Tonight we are going to get back at it and I hope fire this beast up and start to drive her again. Then it is just 5 to 6 months till nice weather again and the turbo kit going back onto this engine.

On the lift and ready for a clutch
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

I can't get enough of the powerder coat that he picked for this engine. It is just sexy.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

And speaking of sexy, this clutch! I may cheat on my wife with this clutch and it's sexy goodness.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

Transmission on (it made us work for it) and ready to go in my car.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

Engine and transmission in. Time to get under the car and hook up the drive shaft then get those motor mounts cranked down.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

Engine is in. Time to connect stuff
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415104435


Tonight we connect everything else. Had to call it around midnight, with my 45 min drive home + waking up @ 5am (and a few time between with my toddler) it was important to try and get a little sleep before doing it again.

Nice work! I just went through all that myself lol. Hope its running soon!

Thanks! I am really excited to get it on the road again. Now that I sold the subie and picked up a Edge, driving a small car is the best thing in the world! Tonight I hope is the night to fire her up and take her for a spin!!!

I have fresh oil, tranny fluid and diff fluid. Need to pick up coolant and brake fluid .... my brake boost/master cylinder seems to be leaking. My fluid turned dark while it has been sitting. Also the obvious rust coming down from the master cylinder/brake booster connection. So that is top of the list for parts to buy this winter.

I love driving the miata (Especially now that my turbo set-up is in there) But I gotta say... I have an Escape for a daily now and some days its just so nice to jump in that thing and go into auto-pilot mode on the drive to work... No cares about potholes, setting up the laptop for Tunerstudio (This eventually wont be an every day thing but for now I use it every time).. The escape is just so comfortable its insane lol. Also Sync is nice.. I just hit a button if my phone rings and start talking.

My clutch master fluid turns dark almost instantly even after cleaning the reservoir and flushing the fluid out of the lines.. I never understood that but I've heard multiple people say the same thing. I think my brake fluid is clear though...

Yeah I picked up a used 11' Edge Sport. My wife owns a 11" Explorer so I knew the features I was looking for. I wanted the sync like she has. I was lucky to find a sport in my price range with all the bells and whistles. It has been awesome.


I will check this out. Either way, I'll drop $15 on new DOT4 just to freshen it up for the few times I have left to drive this year. It looks like an OEM brake booster and maybe a Flying Miata MC are in my future. Unless someone has a better suggestion for a Master Cylinder.

Flyin' Miata : Chassis : Brakes : 1990-97 brake master cylinder

Once again I forgot my actual camera so here are some iPhone Pics


Engine bay is being put together, more ugly stuff going in next to the clean engine and freshly painted engine bay. I am really going to have to get all JEFF on these parts over the winter.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307


Picked up an OEM exhaust to run while the car is N/A. Took off my Jackson Racing exhaust. Will have it up for sale soon. The previous owner of the OEM exhaust cut it for shipping/selling purposes.... so we had to tack it in place then weld it. (We = My cousin)

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307

Well I am a true believer in AMSoil after pulling apart my WRX engine after 60K. So the miata will be running AMSoil Dominator for the rest of it's life. This stuff is AWESOME! It really feels like I am putting good car blood into this car. That feeling was amplified when I realized the oil was red!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307

My cousin gave me shit for taking this pic vs knuckling down and getting the engine put back together. However, I had to snap a pic of the red oil.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307


Some transmission and diff fluid. Hope to get the transmission sorted out next and then have this beast on the road... for a day... to put in storage.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1415196307


To be continued...... (Next week?)

I like amsoil too, but why 15w50?

Protection. That is all it comes down to. With the build and everything that has gone into this engine I am running what my cousin suggested for oil. This line of AMSoil is pretty great stuff. He was running a similar oil made by castrol for BMW M cars (only available at BWM dealerships). I used to run the castrol in my WRX on track days. The AMSoil is just easier for me to source and costs the same amount of money.

I just have to wait to really get on the car until the oil is up to temp. So another gauge is in my future and winter TOBUY list.

No I was curious about the weight/viscosity, 15w50.

Is there speacial reason to run so thick?

Protection for the internals.

Oh I see. I didn't know thicker oil protects better.