Drilling NB return on the car
 

Wait! Don't get out the pitch forks yet!

So, there is tons of documentation on how to tap the pan itself. But, what about getting to the block? However, when Shuiend and I tried to do this today, there was a tonnn of stuff in the way, mainly PS and A/C related. It looked like a tremendous amount of work to remove enough stuff to fit it all.

I know a 90° drill would do this just fine, but with the number of "Fuck off noob. Drill it on the car. Easy shit" posts, surely we overlooked something. Otherwise, it can wait until I do the clutch.

what about unbolting the mounts and lifting it up at least a few inches?
on a phone right now can't really post up pictures illustrating ways to do it.

Major problem is several hoses (read: rubber with rigidity of hard lines) are in the way, and would go up with the motor. So i'm not sure lifting it would help much.

I usually tap behind the ac pump and not under it like fm/begi recommends.

msm has the return in the same exact spot I always tap

With engine in the car? I looked at that, as it makes sense, but saw no way to get to it with the, IIRC, the motor mount.

I suspect it works with these two combined:

Can't speak for hoses etc. though without seeing it.

This is what I had in mind earlier
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414504588

This is where I did it as well:
http://photos.codrus.com/Cars/Parts/...IMG_5561-L.jpg

It sits right between the motor mount and the subframe, a straight downward drain, but there's no way you could drill it on the car.

--Ian

even if you removed the mount and lifted the engine as high as it will go?

You just cannot fit a drill in there to do it in that position. My guess would be that you are hitting the subframe with the drill. When the motor is out of the car, then I think it is a perfect place to install the fitting.

I drilled a couple in the front corner in front of the compressor.

You could probably do it if you took the subframe all the way out of the car, but at that point you might as well just pull the engine out.

--Ian

This didn't require special tools.

Did they have power steering and AC? On the NB the power steering has 2 hard lines that I think are for cooling in the way, they are not there on NA's. Then you still have the normal AC lines and another PS line in the way. With a drill that had a 1/2" chuck it was just to big to fit in around the lines and still be reasonably straight. I will try to get a picture in the next day or so of everything that is in the way.

please post pictures when you can

we haven't had a "tap the pan" discussion in a long time, perhaps people figured out new ways/tricks

The answer is in the first post. That's how I did it. Still was tight and I scarred up the chuck a little. Sorry, I have no pictures of the operation.

Then I used, IIRC, a racheting box wrench to turn the tap, very gingerly.

At Home Depot

oh wow thanks for that link, I was actually looking around the interwebz for super compact right hand drills, and that one looks like its about as good as it gets for tapping the pan.
And I am about 2 minutes away from a Home Depot :party:

That drill chuck unfortunately is not large enough for the correct size drill bit. You need a 1/2" chuck.

I was gonna use a 3/8" fitting....

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1414603134

The drill bit that I received from Begi and the one I just got from JeffBucc both require a 1/2" chuck to fit into. When I am home tomorrow taking pictures of engine bays I will take some pictures of the drill bit and tap and some sizes to go along with them.