Maine NOOB
 

Yup...i've got the Miata Bug...

I've got pieces of my dear miata...left over from when I swapped a 1.8 into it. Sold her and been regretting it ever since. Now I have a gtx motor and another short nose 1.6 disassembled in my garage. I figure I'll piece together a 1.6 motor and turbo setup, sell my 88 Honda CRX SI (awesome shape) next spring and pick up a tired 1.6er (hopefully from somewhere rust free-ish).

GTX 7.8:1 pistons and rods look good...crank does too. My problem now is that the bores on both blocks suffer from sitting (slight surface tarnish or something). Also, the GTX has one cylinder that has very slight pitting. I'm going to head to the machine shop to inspect the blocks, but i'm hoping I'll be able to get away with honing some material away without having to bore for new pistons ($$$).

Has anybody ever removed a slight bit of material from the cylinders while using stock bore pistons?

My goal is to have a small turbo and spool early...I don't like whining the piss out of a vehicle that will be taking me 65 miles/day for 8 months out of the year. I want to line up with stangs and spank'em till I hit 10 over the speed limit.

Welp, that's my story

you want torque and you're starting with a 1.6 and 7.8:1 pistons? uhhhh

welcome

Better sell those pistons and get some 1.8 ones then.

Welcome, angusm. Check out the Miata Gallery and post up some pics!

Dollar for dollar, the best turbocharging mod you can do for a 1.6L engine is a 1.8L engine.

wow, another one of those "get a 1.8 gangs"... everytime someone tries to mod a 1.6, it seems like you guys show up. It's good advice the first, second...maybe even third time...but after that, get out of the way and let the people with 1.6's help each other out.

In my last miata I had a 1.6, I put a low mileage 1.8 in it, and yes I was happy with the increased "torque" (I had a lightened flywheel on the 1.8)
the 1.6 was more fun of an engine, revving more spiritedly ( I noticed a very real difference in fun-factor). if i get get lots of boost early, I'm pretty sure I'll have the type of car I want....I'm not shooting for HP above 200, the main goal is to get boost fast

Oh yeah, I got rid of a Jeep CJ7 with a 401 last fall...so I don't associate a 1.8 or a 1.6 with torque.

On top o that, I said the 7.8 pistons looked good...cause they did...the 9.4 1.6 miata stockers had broken lands on 2 of em'...(previously turbo'd). I came to the conclusion that I need to bore either block for use...$hit

I forgot to add, this is a budget build... I'm a mechanical engineer and I'm doing this on half a worn-out shoestring budget because I just bought a second house. I picked up 2 1.6's (1 is gtx) for $250. $500-600 bucks for new pistons and boring really kills my budget because I was hoping bores and pistons could be good. I'm talking dirt scottish cheap.

I planned on doing the head, 3 angle, p&p BY ME (building a flow bench, with 2 heads to work with). I'm learning to build an engine, and a Miata with a 1.6 and small turbo will beat the pants off the 1.8 na I had.