Your latest photos seem not to show up for me But you've got a mate with mad skills taking the earlier track ones

Your car is very shiny. Is naice.

I haven't quite understood what was going on with your diff bushings... did both of them totally break apart?

 

Thanks for the note about the pictures I forgot that MT.net doesn't play nice with google photos, copying and pasting. Should be working now?

Yep, my friend knows wassup in the detailing dept.

No, they just had a ton of free play that was causing me to think they were the origin of my difficulty shifting into 3rd at speed. The poly bushings did not help...

Last night i finally got around to installing my ugly used header blanket and my proportioning valve. Still need to bleed the brakes but things are looking pretty good for M@LS.

 

Engine building things are happening. Sent the spare BP4W head off with Twibs415 for some porting action when I saw him at M@LS. The original plan was to have him port it, deck it a fair bit and install the BP5a cam I grabbed from mazda motor sports and strap it back onto the stock 2000 bottom end. Unfortunately it looks like Cyl 2 had a house party and did some damage to both head and piston so we are probably going to at least do rods and pistons. TBD.

 

Nice build! Just be careful with that proportioning valve, as your M45 inlet elbow may need to take the same spot. You may have to rotate it 90* or bend the brake lines a bit more.

 

Ordered
Supertech 84mm 9.5:1 Pistons
Ebay Forged Connecting Rods
Boundary Engineering Stage 2 Oil Pump
Sealed Power VS855 Valve Springs

Basically, id like to add some revs for tracks where it doesn't quite make sense to up-shift, and some over-rev protection beyond that.

 

sell the mp45 already to fund your turbo setup.

 

you WOULD like that wouldn't you! Plan for now is to work on getting faster with some additional Naturally Aspirated ponies but with a "built" motor it seems like boost is inevitable, doesn't it? yes. it does.

Also, ordered a squaretop and a Junk2 throttle body.

 

that mp45 is just waste of scrape metal and ruins your build -- youre better off staying n/a than even bothering with it at this point.

 

It's almost as if i had that idea already

 

it is common knowledge i dont read. im here for the pictures.

 

Well here you go! Not really sure why I haven't purchased an engine stand yet...I like to struggle I guess. Engine is FULLY dissembled now and ready for the machine shop (okay the oil coolant ma-jigger is still on, didn't have nearly a big enough Socket to remove it) Injectors, Skunk2 Throttle Body, Rods are arriving today, Pistons tomorrow, Square top is on it's way from Scotland.

Before tearing down this engine, I had not so much as changed a timing belt or had the valve cover off ANY car so...wish me luck!

 

I hope you're clearly labeling everything, where it was removed, and which way it was installed originally or you're gonna have a jolly good time

 

I tried to bag things in "stages" but besides the main caps (which are marked from the factory), what else can really be put in wrong? My buddy did tell me to set aside the Rear Main Bearing bolts, which I did. Ive got no particular timeline to put this all back together so, if there is some trial and error in putting it back, that's okay. I learned a LOT taking it apart. You gotta start somewhere...which is why it's good this is a spare engine

 

So I dropped my block off for re-bore at the worlds iffiest machine shop... the guy was nice but the place looked like a place where engines go to die, definitely could host an episode of hoarders there I think. It was close and cheap though, and he didn't seem real busy (kinda semi retired guy it seemed).

If he screws it up I guess that'll give me a reason to switch to 85mm 11:1 pistons

 

is this in sacramento? performance engines by any chance? or motor-machine?

 

Nope, neither of those places... It's a total mom and pop shop... I sent you a PM.

 

Decided to upgrade my sway bar mounts to the beefy AWR units. Did not realize when I started that I would need to remove the radiator, which is probably for the best, since I probably wouldn't have started if I had known.

They are a tighter fit than I expected, I guess ill need to smack em a little with the ole rubber mallet. Nerd info: The AWR mounts weight about 2 lbs each, the stock mounts weight about 3/4 lb each, the Racing beat brace and blocks weight about 2.5 lbs all together, so net weight gain on my car is basically a wash. These mounts seem like they are probably overkill, but ill be happy to never have to fiddle with those racing beat blocks ever again.

For sale: Racing beat blocks and brace...

 

Prepping for the swap! Picked up my motor from @Twibs415, need to get the oil pump, rear main seal, oil pan on, along with the water pump/timing stuff/valve cover, etc. Plan is to have as much done as possible before I pull the old motor, since I need a few things off of it to complete the swap (coolant reroute, EGR, etc).





BTW a VW Golf makes an excellent Miata motor transport!

 

Making some slow progress on the motor. Got the water, oil pumps on, rear main seal plate and new seal, coolant block off, timing gear, Fluidampr, I went ahead and got a 36-2 timing wheel. Last night after a couple drinks I decided it'd be a good idea to go ahead and paint my valve cover, VHT Wrinkle Grey. Looks okay so far, but I guess we will see once it's cured. The paint seems pretty forgiving anyway.

Bought a Kazespec Baffle after reading Emillios thread about the importance of baffles. Not 100% on it, does anyone else have the Kazespec one? To me it seems like the rear trap doors are impeded by the stock baffling in the pan. *shrug*

Oh and I sold my supercharger, so it's offically no longer a heaton M45 build! Maybe someone can fix the title for me? Probably not tho

 

Congrats on selling the super! I managed to move both of mine, made a tidy profit off them to, which is nice.