Getting the engine back together and closer to ready for first test-fit. Stripped the wiring harness off of it:
Back of the engine (with thermostat housing removed). Clear shot of the high pressure fuel pump for the direct injection on the back (A measly 1600 psi), with the EFI to AN fitting from the V8R fuel line kit on the end:
Underside of the composite intake manifold while it dries after cleaning:
Got into the motor today, starting to get familiar with it.
Oil pan pulled to swap it for the low-profile one courtesy of V8R. Have to pull the crank pulley to pull the pan, and I had to take a grinder to one of our pulley pullers to narrow the fingers so the would fit the pulley. Also ordered a new crank pulley bolt as it is torque-to-yield, part number 11569873:
Crank trigger wheel is internal and located at the back of the engine. Beefy 6-bolt main bearing caps (4 from the bottom and 1 of each side coming through the block wall). View in this pic is from the back of the motor:
My particular engine came from a Camaro that had flipped in an accident (it wanted to be a Mustang). This meant some extra work for me because the oil cap had been broken (part number 12642516) and some dirt had made its way into the driver’s side valve cover/cam area and that meant more disassembly to clean everything out. Not wanting to risk missing anything, I pulled both the valve covers and the main front cover so I could thoroughly clean everything. To pull the front engine cover you need to remove the power steering pump, and to remove that you need to first remove the pulley on that pump. While I was in there, I also found that one of the four cam position sensors was cracked, so a replacement for that is also on order (part number CSS1909). There are 3 timing chains:
Some sockets that usually lie in the toolbox untouched in a Miata shop are getting some action on this new motor… 1/2″, 15mm , 18mm, 22mm
Slightly more involved tightening sequence than a BP motor!
Tonight I turned attention back to the differential. With a seized axle in the first diff I purchased, I bought another 3.42 limited slip Getrag. This one arrived with both axles already removed (a good sign!).
Just like the transmission, I want to have solid data on what temperatures the differential is seeing under hard use so that I can determine whether or not coolers will be needed. So, my first step is to add a temperature sensor. I’m again using an Accutech SMI oil temp gauge for this as they are super accurate and affordable.
Drained the diff and then flipped it over and scoped the inside through the drain hole. Turns out there’s a perfect spot for the sensor.
Interestingly, that inner circle corresponds to one of two circles in the outside casting. Red “X” marks the spot for drilling on the rear circle. DON’T mix them up and drill into the forward circle as that will put you right into a partition on the inside:
Once again, drill a pilot then drill out with “O” size bit using grease on the bit to catch shavings. Then tap for 1/8-27 NPT threads. Do this with the diff right-side-up so that any shavings that do end up inside fall towards the drain:
Sensor installed (and after cleaning up the diff housing):
About 6 hours of prep work on the engine bay today.
Ahh the un-glamorous parts of the process; busting knuckles stripping seam sealer goo out of every crevice and pulling wire wheel splinters out of your hair at the end of the day
It’s a classic case of the inevitable rabbit hole – because I need to modify the bay for engine clearance anyways, while I’m in there with grinder/welder it’s the right time to strip the thing down entirely and stitch weld the whole thing. It’s the right choice, but makes this portion of the job about 5x longer to complete…
On a related note, when I got tired of cleaning goo out of seams, I tackled the engine bay mod necessary to fit the LFX. V8 swaps do this same mod to the rear corners, but they also require heavy changes to the transmission tunnel/firewall. For the LFX, you only need to cut the rear corners of the bay. (yay!)
These are the offending corners, dotted line shows where they need to be squared off:
First cuts were tentative, just to see what we’re dealing with behind there. The steering column passes through this area on the driver’s side so that had to be removed of course:
After more cutting. The below pics are almost there, but still more to take off the lower shelf. That shelf meets with a layer of sheet metal that comes up from below, so you don’t want to take it out entirely. You want to remove as much as possible without removing that sandwich – basically cut until you see the layers separating and then weld them back together. I’ve added the green lines to show approximately how much is left once you’ve cut it back enough:
I did some searching around for what others have done to weld up this area and bring strength back to compensate for what was removed, and frankly I haven’t liked anything I saw. A lot of methods, including what FM does in-house for V8 stuff is just a small bit of angled steel welded into the corner, with the rest of the exposed sheet metal edges just welded to whatever is nearby.
IMO, the full area where material was cut out should have plates welded in to transfer loads, as well as seal that area up as much as possible.
So, the plates:
Tacked into place, you can see how they tie each “loose end” where something was cut away back together:
After much welding…
Pay no mind to the un-stitched seams nearby, that’s coming next.
Dove into the Camaro gas pedal conversion after work today. (I apologize for the potato quality pics, lighting was low and iPhone tried to compensate)
The first and always lovely step was of course removing the drivers seat and spending what felt like an eternity removing the pedal assembly from the car while being jabbed in the back by harness eye bolts, seat brackets, etc. etc. (I also pulled the steering column while I was down there since that needs to be out of the way later.)
Stock gas/brake pedal assembly clamped to the table with some alignment marks for pivot point and such, and Camaro pedal nearby:
The Camaro pedal is very similar to the Miata’s in some ways such as length, angle and travel. However, the mounting layout is entirely different of course so a custom mount is needed in order to place the new pedal in just the same position as the one it replaces.
Stock pedal removed and unneeded mounting fixture cut off leaves the assembly on the left, plus a new additional mounting plate for the Camaro pedal to be welded on:
The added plate welded on as well as a brace along the top to help keep the mount from flexing and studs added:
New pedal mounted up. Pedal position matches the old setup with identical pivot placement and angle.
Then after sandblasting and powdercoating, the bracket is back:
Car, meet engine. You guys are going to get along.
Spent a while frustrated with the diff today, it came from the salvage yard with the driver’s side axles still in – I figured OK no problem I don’t need that but that’s fine… went to pop the axle out today and that sucker is not coming out with anything we have in the shop including big ol’ prybars and slide hammers. Going to see if Snap On has the special tool for hammering it out through the opposing hole when they drop by tomorrow.. lesson learned: if the salvage yard gives you something strange, there’s probably a reason.
Perhaps the universe is telling me I should just track down a 3.73….
In an effort to do something productive today, I turned my attention to beginning the fuel lines. Dropped the rear subframe and gas tank and pulled the hard lines from under the car. Far from glamorous but at least I did a thing. I got a chance to take a look at the only place on my car I’ve never seen before:
Front subframe is in. It may come out a couple times more before all is done but it’s in for now!
V8R frame rail reinforcements are also in. I had tabs welded to the insides of the frame rails for the flat bottom so I had to cut those off:
Then it was hammer time to straighten the frame rails so the V8R rails could fit over. Here’s the frame rails and transmission crossmember in place. No drilling/bolts yet, I am going to wait until the trans is in the car and I’ve confirmed the crossmember lines up before committing on the frame rail placement:
With that in place, I turned to the transmission. I want to monitor transmission and differential temperatures on the track. This trans is a bit more costly than a Miata 5-speed so I’d like to be sure it’s operating happily, and it would also be great to finally have definitive data on the effects of the flat bottom on drivetrain temperature.
So, I picked up a couple extra Accutech SMI oil temp gauges to use for this. Love these gauges for my engine water/oil temps so it was a no-brainer.
Neither the diff or trans have locations to put the sensors. After draining the trans I stuck a camera in the fill hole and had a peek around to see where there was room to drill and chose a spot just below the fill hole (red mark):
The sensors are 1/8″-27 NPT. Drill hole with size “O” drill bit, then tap. Basically the same process as you would drill/tap an oil pan for a turbo drain while it’s still on the engine; grease the bit and drill slowly so all the shavings are captured by the grease:
Fill trans with more oil and drain to pull out any shavings that got inside. Then a dab of thread sealer on the sensor threads before install and voila, transmission temp sensor done:
Before the engine came out, I put the car on the scales for a final weigh-in.
Notes for its configuration when it was weighed so I can scale it post-swap apples to apples:
No wing
No diffuser
No flat bottom
15×9 6ULs
Side windows removed
Hardtop on, nose on, splitter on
Since the diffuser and wing were off the car in the rear, it’s a tiny bit exaggerated, but it goes to show how nose-heavy a miata with a turbo system can be, particularly one that saves weight wherever possible since there’s a lot of relatively easy weight to pull from the rear and less in the front.
Will be interesting to see what this looks like after the swap. I’ll scale it in the same config to get an accurate comparison.
Car is in the shop! It’s finally happening.
Removed the nose, flat bottom and diffuser as soon as I got the car on the lift and took those home since they won’t be needed for a while.
Today I pulled the entire drivetrain. Pour one out for this motor, today was the last time a BP will be in this car:
And then the old engine went home with its new owner, by way of a very questionable strap job…
Engine, turbo, V-mount setup, and exhaust are all off to a local friend so that turbo setup can live on.
Transmission, clutch/flywheel, differential and ECU will be up for sale soon.
Progress!
