96 motor in 94 miata?
 

My motor is toast in my 94, and I can get a 96 longblock with 66k miles on it for 800 shipped. are there any reasons i shouldnt get it? it doesnt come with a harness, so ill be using my original one. anything i will need to modify? Im having trouble finding anything on here or on google about this specific swap. I have until 5pm PST today to make a decision on this motor, so i appreciate any responce. thank you.

It's the same engine. Drop it in.

The only major difference is that the 96+ blocks do not have the usual oil feed port used on for feeding a turbo drilled/tapped. You'll have to find another way to get the oil to the turbo (probably covered else via the search function).

FWIW $800 is way too much for a 96 block. You can get a 100k miles 01+ engine for that.

$800 shipped seems a bit high. I would not pay more then $400-450 at most for a 94-97 motor. I have friends who have bought VVT motors in the $650-800 range off eBay.

wait - what's the "usual oil feed port"?
I'm pulling oil from the oil pressure sensor per FM's FMII instructions.

90-95.5 engine blocks have an oil feed port on the hot side of the block. For those years you can pull from there instead of having to tee off the oil pressure sender.

Oh, neat. I'll have to check if my 95 has that. Or I could just drill and tap it on my 96 block while it's apart.

That has been discussed and I'm pretty sure the consensus is that its a terrible idea/maybe impossible. You'd be drilling quite a few inches and you would have to be perfectly straight, and you'd be introducing unnecessary debris into the oiling system.

Good info. I'll probably end up keeping the Tee off the oil pressure sensor, just because I already have the needed fittings.