A question for people who have built their motor?
 

Realistically how much all in is it going to cost to build a 1.6 miata motor with pistons and rods?
This is if all major work is done by myself.

Is it worth doing anything to the bottom end while everything is apart?

Just trying to work out a budget scheme.

AJB: Kind of depend on how many miles on the engine and what you are using it for. I race a grass roots turbo miata an little bits help. Small gains on polishing and balancing the crank but you can find an unbelievable price rang. Probably most important is the bearings. I was running a turbo setup and after a year of racing my rod bearings were shot on number 3 & 4 - glad I tore it down. Not sure where you live, call around, search the web on Mazda reace sites and talk to racers to find people in your area to do the work. I have some quotes coming in next week to do a lot of work (torque plate/hone the block, deck, balance the crank... Send me a PM and once I get the $ estimates I'll send to you for some perspective.

Jim

Well i have no access to my car for a year really so i thought id go on a money diet and save if possible for a build.

My wish would be 350 whp capable safely and car would be daily driven. Im from the UK so id imagine i will end up importing most of my parts.

You mean like a tank and hone job? You can't do that with wd40 and a Dremel. HAHA, couldn't resist.

For 350whp, you should probably build a motor capable of 400+ and just leave the boost down. A full bottom end, pistons/rods/rings, balanced rotating assembly, oil-pump gears, ARP everything... a couple more things. You're also looking at a complete head-job with fully upgraded valvetrain... probably want to investigate the issues BP motors face with an 8000rpm redline.

If you did the disassembly and paid somebody to do the machine work, and reassembled the thing yourself... probably looking at around $4k with the majority of the non-parts cost going to some guru's hourly rate for quality head-work. But it'd probably only be about $500 more just to let your machinist do all the work.

However, for a reliable motor up to about 350whp, check this thread:
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15045

$2500 max.

Thanks for the link and imformation , one of the best threads ive read.
Well im studying motorsport and they have F1 and the like sitting around so they have every sort of machine on site.

Peice together the parts, learn, and hopefully I can do all the machining ect myself.

You are an idiot who has no idea what it costs to build a motor.


Double to triple that for a realistic figure.

Depends on how serious you go.

$2500 is a reasonable price for a basic pistons and rods (See my Sig for great rods) build with new bearings and head gaskets etc.. Start getting into the head and the price will certainly sky rocket.

I've seen a $600 build using our rods and stock pistons. The motor only had 10,000K and the owner re used everything except Head Gasket. Not saying a agree, but there are vary ways to do the job.

I spent $2k on my build with rods, pistons, bore, mahle everything else, balance, new wear parts and casting clean-up, and assembly. I could have spent another $500 and had the head taken "all the way."