What to do while the motor is out
 

My winter project is to take the motor out of my '02.

It needs all new belts (timing and others), valve cover gasket, some paint, and a good cleaning. I also need to figure out where my coolant is going.
I've never taken a motor out, so I figured it would be a fun project.

What cheap/free things should I do to the car or motor while I have them separated? On my list already:

Paint the valve cover and intake manifold,
Paint (or ceramic coat) manifold and downpipe.
I have toyed with the idea of running hard lines for the coolant, and maybe the oil supply (I haven't looked, is that a bad idea?).
Get the return bung welded into the oil pan, since I think I'm leaking there at the moment.
Clean engine bay and neaten up wires and vacuum hoses.

I thought about building the motor while it was out, but I just can't swing the cost this winter, so the bottom end will stay stock for another year.

So, cheap/free things to increase reliability and image while the motor is out; go!

It's easier to run SS lines wrapped in fire sleeve than do hard-lines. No breakage with vibration, no fab work required, and they looked pretty flossin.

Ok, I like easier, and flossin (I think...). You mean for coolant, right?

I might be wrong but I think he means SS turbo oil drain. To run SS coolant I think -AN fitting need to be welded onto the coolant fitting on the motor. If I'm wrong let me know.

Remember that flexible lines are flexible for a reason. The engine moves on its mounts. The lines need to accomodate the relative movement between the car body/frame and engine.

Rear main seal

...a hard line going from the turbo (engine) connected to the oil pan (engine) and a hard line going from the turbo (engine) to the coolant lines at the front of the head (engine) will not be a big deal. Especially since usually on one end you will have a small bit of hose which is flexible.

On a side-note... is there anything I have to do before I pull the motor out if I'm going to change the timing belt? My only concern is the big bolt on the front of the engine just spinning the engine instead of coming out. Do I need to loosen that before I disconnect the driveshaft?

Would be a good idea:2cents:

Actually no. Put a transmission-motor bolt in one of the top holes I believe, and two in the flywheel itself. Then you can use some sort of breaker bar between the flywheel bolts and resting against the mounting bolt to hold the crank in place. Like this sorta ./' where the slash is the breaker bar and the period and apostrophe are the flywheel bolts.

Edit: to clarify my first statement, you don't need to loosen that big bolt while the engine is in the car, but older guy is probably right in saying its a good idea anyways.

Add a "proper" ground point for a normal sized braided ground strap in the pass fotwell->lower trans bolt.
Maybe it's just my setup that have grounding problems but the OEM small strap sure can get flaky (especially when you try to lift the car in it a couple of times).

I used a low power impact wrench for the crank pulley bolt while holding the flywheel with one of the flywheel bolts. Probably not the "right" way, but it worked.

I'm a rapper 'til I die, drink 'til I faint.

I dunno about in an MSM but older turbo bp's had hard supply/return lines to the turbo, oil drain line was rubber though. PITA to get on and off vs braided but no issues with them.

+1 for rear main, I just did mine.

You can use hardlines with something flexible in the mix, somewhere. However, I'd rather have braided stainless with fire-sleeve on my car, track cars see a lot more vibration than the typical MSM owner's car.

I second braided stainless + sleeve. A rubber line seems shady to me. Although to elaborate on my post above, by hardline I mean not rubber pretty much.

Pulling a motor? You must always clean the ever living ---- out of the engine bay and paint it. I painted mine with the motor in and just wasn't able to do it properly. Eventually I'm going to pull the motor to redo it all.

If you haven't already, start removing unnecessary surrounding elements (air bag junk, washer fluid bottle, evap crap, etc) as well.

I do intend to clean and de-clutter the engine bay. It's my summer DD so the convenience items like washer fluid, air bags, AC, and PS will stay, but I have no attachment to the emissions stuff so that will probably all go if I can figure it all out.

I don't think it needs to be painted, but I will touch up any spots that do.

with the manifolds off gasket matching your head and manifolds might be a good idea... not sure about the actual gains but i have done it on every motor ive owned

I'm not going to lie, I don't really understand what that means and what the benefits are.

put the gasket up to the head/manifold and hit it with some paint to mark where the gasket is. used a grinder or cutter and remove material(no more than an inch in). it makes manifold and port the same size and shape as the gasket. this makes for better/smoother flow.

kinda like this but i use paint so i dont mess up the gasket...kind of a poor execution on this guys part but it gives you a good idea of what im talking about

You can have hard oil feed and oil return lines no problem. Same with water feed and return. If your turbo is moving independently from the motor you have an issue.

While motor is out I would upgrade the rods, pistons, oil pump.

I thought about that, but I don't have the cash for it this winter. Maybe next winter if I'm not in the middle of moving across the country or something.

So would I, hint hint.

I don't know if you're aware, but we have enough harmonic vibration to stretch turbo studs.

Buy the FM Crank Tool, it is worth every penny. Makes doing front crank bolt or flywheel bolts easy to do.

Does firesleeve actually keep heat out or judt slow burn time and contain fluid?

Ever seen a silicone pot holder? It does both, very well from what I understand.

Meh... just another thing to add to the upgrade list. Right now I've got the silver foil DEI crap. me thinks the sleeve is much better looking too

I'm in the same position as OP. Just about to pull the motor to fix some stubborn leaks.

So far this is my list. Compression test the motor before pulling it, if compression is good i will do the following:

Clean the ever living hell out of the engine bay and motor
New front/rear main seal.
New waterpump/timing belt/seals
Paint valve cover, new gasket
New CAS O ring
Pull off and Drill/tap oil pan return line(using ---- tastic stock greddy one), since i'm pulling the pan probably get it welded, reseal oil pan.
Possibly motor mounts, will see how the oem ones are looking
Delete AC, maybe powersteering as well.
New turbo manifold gasket. Have turbo and manifold checked for flatness to run without gasket.


If compression numbers come up shitty I will most likey do one of two things.

1) budget rebuild 1.6, forged rods, stock pistons, new rings, cyclnder hone, head gasket, etc.

2) try and source 1.8l to swap in, keep stock internals for now, build/buy turbo kit for it.


What do you guys think? I'm thinking if i did a budget rebuild on my 1.6 with forged rods it will come out around the same price as sourcing a stock lower mileage 1.8, which would you guys choose in that case? I'm leaning towards my 1.6 with rods if it came down to it because I already have the turbo kit.

I'm really not looking for huge numbers, i've been running this car at around 200whp for ever now and my plan is to tune for 15psi this summer and get around 240whp or so.

Great "motor is out" time to do this:
https://www.miataturbo.net/useful-saved-posts-8/slave-cylinder-uber-clutch-line-dummies-20209/

I can put a piece on my finger and then attempt to light the piece on fire using my gas stove, and I can't feel any heat.

my head

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1326343783

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1326343783

lol @ Savington stuffing his sex organ in a -4 fire-sleeve to test this for Hustler Bear.

Without having head and intake/runners in front if me I can't give exact measurements, but from my memory there is not a big discrepancy between the castings of the ports in the head and the runners, so there is no huge edge to take away to improve flow. If there are some it is much smaller then the gap to the gasket edge.
What do you think you do with the flow if you make a bulb on the effective runner (making the runner/port area bigger just an inch on either side of the gasket)?
If you continue to make the area larger through whole runner you might be on to something, but them you should aim for a continuous taper all the way though.

Or am I just being to ---- and thinking tuned tapered runners for N/A.?

If I do this, how do I keep the metal shavings out of my engine? I don't feel like stuffing some paper towels in the ports would be enough.

tape off any holes that you don't want shavings in. that's what my dude is doing. he's also covered the the top of the head with rags

It's not enough. Porting/gasket matching with the head on the motor is possibly the worst idea in the world.

oh ----, i didn't realize what he was asking.
def take the head off to port it

That is what I figured. I wasn't planning to take the head off as long as there was no evidence of a bad head gasket, so I guess I'll leave the port-matching for another day.

Hrmm good to know. I think I prob should use this for my oil feed line which snakes through my exhaust octopus