Big day, engine and transmission are officially in! For the final time (fingers crossed).
Clutch and flywheel installed:
Transmission and engine joined:
Notes on installing engine…
We decided to put the engine and transmission in as one unit because room is tight around the top of the bellhousing to the tunnel and firewall. With the long flywheel/clutch assebly, it didn’t look like it would be possible to get the bellhousing over the clutch with the engine already in place. With the front of the car absent we had more options than usual so with the subframe already in we lifted the whole engine/trans and dropped it in tail-first and then lifted the tail of the trans to align the engine mounts. This would have been very difficult with a front of a car there and was still a good bit of work.
Discussing options after doing it this way, we’re thinking the best method in the future is to assemble the subframe and engine mounts along with the engine and trans out of the car, put that whole assembly on a dolly and then lower the car onto the assembly. We figure this is going to be the easiest method for those with an intact nose as well.
Other notes…
Before they went in I installed the brake booster and brake master cylinder. Here I’m using the wilwood 1″ master cylinder kit with tandem reservoirs which pairs very well with most big brake kits.
Also installed the clutch master cylinder. For this, I forgot to snap a photo but I had to do a little grinding on the clutch pedal itself – the new Wilwood master cylinder’s clevis on the end of the rod works mounts to the Miata clutch pedal, but the wilwood clevis is not as deep as the Miata’s, so the pedal bottoms out in the throat of the clevis’ “U” shape when fully pressed down or not pressed at all. You can easily see it when test fitting the clevis to the pedal. A little grinding on the pedal creates the clearance needed.
Funny, when you get rid of the front of the car the alternator and power steering pump clearances really open up.
