Silly Question Regarding COP, and Cooling
 

I was out in the snow last weekend and blew a lot of stuff in my 99 Miata. At first it appeared to be the coilpack, but then the car would turn over and die. Finally, after a coil pack (used) and a fuel filter the car would idle, but not well. I replaced the wires, cam sensor, and spark plugs with the cheapest stuff around. The car now runs great. I replaced it with the cheapest parts at O'reillys, because it was such a hassle dealing with the coil pack (thanks to the bottom bolt being stripped) that I am now determined to run a COP conversion. In the process I snapped off my rear coolant temp sensor that relays to the gauge in the cluster.

My question, is I've been reading through some installs and instructions, and am left with a question unanswered. There are two clips that go into the stock coilpack near the firewall. What happens to these with the conversion? After the conversion, is it acceptable to fully remove the original coilpack? I feel like that answer is yes, but it's tough to tell from some of the pics I've seen.

Secondly, and semi-unrelated, I have been dying to do the 949 cooling reroute (I know there are others but I love the orange, and the idea of it). I did the timing belt and water pump about 500 miles ago. It seems like the water pump didn't set all the way and has a very small leak. My timing covers were also shot, and someone had previously left some bolts off. I would like to tear it back down and install all new bolts, get new or used timing covers, and fix the leak. I got to thinking, this may be a good time to do the head gasket and just clean everything. Then I thought, if i pull everything off, I should use ARP hardware when reassembling. So, other then the ARP hardware, cleaning, and head gasket, are there any other consumable I should replace while in there? I thought it would be a good time to install the 5x racing timing wheel, and the 949 reroute so I can block off the thermostat neck. I will also probably take the opportunity to pull out the AC, since this will eventually become strictly a track car.

Thanks!

Forgot to mention I do plan on adding forced induction down the road. That is why I'm considering kind of doing "prep work" now. I won't mention which route I plan to go for good reason :violin:

You're allowed to say rotrex!

That said, make the 300 buried questions in the second half of your post a bit more clear mang.

There's really only one question. The rest is my conductive reasoning. If it helps, I can post pictures on my cats?

"So, other then the ARP hardware, cleaning, and head gasket, are there any other consumable I should replace while in there?"

Reroute?

Coolant?

Timing belt and seals?

I’ll answer the question that I have direct experience with. The wires from those clips need to be spliced into your new COPs. You can try to source new connectors for the COPs to connect directly to your old connectors (https://www.bmotorsports.com/shop/product_info.php/products_id/2285), but I didn’t have luck with that when I ordered mine—they never snapped in correctly and I had ignition problems/misfires with that setup until I spliced the wires directly. Of course, your mileage may vary.

As far as your ’99 coilpack, that should be installed in your trash receptacle once you have COPs.

Thanks! So if I'm getting this correctly, the new COP harness needs to be spliced into the wires which went to the original coil pack? Thus resulting in neither of those two clips remaining? I'm very happy to hear the old pack can be thrown out!

Thanks again!

About 100 miles ago I replaced everything timing belt and coolant related with the exception of a reroute. That's when I noticed some of the timing covers and bolts were either missing or in horrible condition. I also think I may not have seated the o-ring in the water pump. Another odd thing I noticed, was the top edge of the water pump was not flush with the block. I thought maybe it is because the o-ring wouldn't go in right, but I played with it for a while and it made no difference. I later learned that on I believe he said NA8's they had a lip on the upper edge. Maybe the company sent me the pump with the lip.

Anyways, since I would pull everything apart, to get back in there, I figured it would be a good time to do the reroute, AC delete, and take it a step farther and do head gasket. That's why I was gunna do some light prep work for the Rotrex I plan to install next winter. I just want to make sure there aren't any other seals, gaskets, or consumables to do in the vicinity.