Expect to spend $500-1000 at the machine shop depending on how much work you have them do. At a minimum you will need them to bore and hone the block. Since you sound like you have never been in a motor before, I would highly suggest you have them put together the complete bottom end.

Yea it goes up if they magneflux, linebore, or do ring filing etc. If you weren't already going to do the reassembly yourself, the automotive machinists do this for a living, and may be worth the piece of mind.

I'd say you look pretty handy for a novice, but there are some particulars that come with experience.

Any suggestions on how best to acquire the experience? I've also never opened up a motor, although I've always done all the work on my cars. A compression test appears to indicate my rings are going south so I've been contemplating doing a rebuild. It's something I've always wanted to learn to do, and I would likely grab a spare block to build, or a good engine to swap and build my current one, so I could take my time and not stress about getting the car back on the road. Thoughts? Sorry for the slight threadjack!

If you have time, space and funds:

Option 1: Replace your current motor with a running one for a couple hundred bux. Tear down your old motor and slowly build it up

Option 2: If your engine is fine but you want to replace it eventually, start sourcing parts and piece together a new motor so when yours does fail, you have a backup.

Option 3: Run your motor blissfully into the ground, when shit hits the fan, rebuild your existing motor and get a second car

I did a combination option 2 and 3 as my car catastrophically failed and had to rebuild a completely different motor.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1466172229

:giggle:

There are a lot of little things that will trip you up on building a motor yourself. Things a competent machinist will know, but you being a newb will not. Unless you know someone who has built a few motors I would highly suggest just paying a machine shop to put together the bottom end. Destroying a motor because you did something stupid sucks and is not really a path you want to go down.

For an example on my first motor build a friend and I built it. I installed an oil pump, but did not install the relief valve. So when I got the motor running I had zero oil pressure. I then had to pull the motor again to install it. A machine shop would have caught that and installed the relief valve at the start.

Girz0r, I think we should be friends.

You're telling me. I have progressed like this: initial goals of a nice reasonable 220whp on stock bottom end/5 speed -> engine's bad, need to rebuild, have e85 nearby, why not shoot for 275-300 -> well if I'm gonna have to buy a 6 speed and 3.9 rear anyway might as well buy a whole new low mileage car that already has those pieces attached and build my current motor while I drive that...

All this while I've been waiting for months to install my turbo cause I have 3 little kids and only have time to buy parts and talk about it on the internet, not actually work on my car.

Given the aforementioned lack of time this makes a loooot of sense.

Hey guys, I'm 100% set on doing the work myself. Even though this is my first time in a Miata engine I have done a lot of research. I've been in smaller engines before and I have also watched a lot of videos on the YouTube's. I have kept all my hardware in order based on the order it was disassembled. I also have taken pictures to help me reference things.
However, $500-1000 sounds like a lot to me. I was pretty set on only doing a bore/hone. Based what I've seen in my engine I don't think it needs a line bore, crank polished, ect. But I could be wrong. The only real thing I'm confused about is assuming I go with 83.5mm supertech's do I get the cylinder's bored to the piston+the ring?

:likecat:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1466189625

Yes, have the pistons in hand to give to the machinist first