preparing to do the head gasket
 

I've tried searching and it seems like all i can find is just threads about people questioning whether they need one. I guess what im looking for is what gasket, there seems to be a few companies i could buy from? The car is turbocharged whether that matters or not im not sure. I also would just like a quick guess on how long, i have the next 3 days open to work on the car from morning to night, how long will it take as im trying to make a racing event on saturday? While everything is off, is there anything else i should do? i think i might do belts as the car is just passing 70k and could use them but is there anything else? money permitting of course. I have the miata enthusiasts shop manual but just checking online in case they missed something. Pictures help too of course.

I just did a 99 head swap on my 95. While I had everything off I :

Replaced all the coolant lines
Took out AC compressor and lines
Put in a new OEM head gasket
Replaced timing belt, water pump and pulleys
Replaced the motor mounts
Put in a real oil pressure sender
and new spark plugs

As far as I have read on most of the Miata forums, the OEM headgasket seems to be more than sufficient with a typical turbo kit.

To add to ArtieParty's thorough list, you may also want to consider adding ARP Head Studs.

It is worthwhile upgrading your 1.6 headgasket to a metal one. The 1.8L one however is already metal.

I love the use of the pronoun "I" here.

Thanks for the info you guys. As i said money is a little tight trying to make this event and such, or i would love to get the arp head studs.

And does anyone have a time estimate? how many hours this might take? im cutting it close to the event because of other things i need to go over on the car.

you don't need to replace the head gasket!!
 

There's this great product you can buy that you just add to the oil and it fixes it for you. There was a discussion on this forum about it recently. Try searching for it....

Is your head gasket blown? If so the head could be warped. How do you plan on dealing with that with your time constraints?

Assuming you are working in a reasonably well-lit and well-organized environment, I'd allocate one solid half-day for teardown (one man) followed by maybe 2 hours to remove and reinstall the head (two men), assuming you take time to clean up all the gunk in the chambers and on the pistons, and then another solid half-day to re-assemble (one man). Ideally, I'd spread it out over two days.

The actual removing and installing of the head itself is fairly simple. There's just a ton of stuff in the way that has to be dealt with first. I would advise one modification to the factory procedure- leave the intake manifold and exhaust manifold on the head. Unbolt the downpipe from the turbo and loosen it down below so it can be pushed out of the way. Removing the manifolds is time-consuming and unnecessary, and the intake manifold in particular is tortuous to remove with the engine in the car. Just pull the diagonal brace from the bottom of the IM, if you haven't already.

Since you're in there with the timing belt off anyway, it's water-pump time. Also a good opportunity to do the front crankshaft seal and the two camshaft seals. Replace the "cursed water plug" at the back of the head- it's a rubber cap of appx 5/16" ID. And the CAS seal, assuming you're still running a CAS for some reason.

You'll want to have new heater hoses on hand, as it's far easier to cut the old ones off than to damage the heater core trying to pry them off.

I'm skeptical on this but more info would be great like a link or something.


And if the head is warped, oh well i'll miss the event. I'm trying to make it but its not for sure i will. Anyway thanks for your help everyone.

Here's a link to the thread jbresee mentioned: https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=21521

By the way, you have the second gayest username in the history of MiataTurbo.net.

Hahahahaha, so, who has the first?

Hustler.

haha oh good, well atleast i dont post that often i guess.

I'm trying the temporary fix stuff right now, if it doesn't work oh well i wont make the event. But it will give me more time to completely overhaul when i take the car apart for the real gasket job.

Uhm, yeah... Wow. We were kinda joking about that. The guy who tried it in the thread we linked to completely destroyed his engine. 'Course he put it in the oil rather than the coolant, but still, there's no way I'd ever pour that shit into my motor.

What about your head gasket, specifically, is wrong?

Well i did it properly and it actually has worked, unfortunately the person i need to weld my 4 point in is unavailable so i will miss the event anyway. Now i guess its time to do the real gasket change. The 4 point is not a bolt in or else i would definitely be doing that.