got the car back from my fab guy's shop. lots of cleanup to do. i'm going to remove the water pump and motor mounts again and paint them. it'll be clean and awesome when i'm done i promise :P

subframe reinforcement/skidplate

drivers side mount made of 1/4 steel and a chromoly thickwall tube

passenger mount is made of a big fuckoff piece of steel, my fab guy pressed holes in it then heated it red hot in a vice and bent it


oh and this too. I <3 mandrel bends and tig welding

 

Dude, man. You decimated your subframe and reduced your oil capacity by A LOT. What are your intentions for this car? Had you considered a dry sump? Seems like it would have worked a lot better.

 

lol.

thanks for the thoughtful criticism, but I took all of those things into account. my subframe has five 1/4" pieces of steel that are 2 inches wide welded to the underbody to hold it together, and my fab guy made a rollcage-type U shaped bar to connect the two halves of my subframe to run parallel with my swaybar. I thought it would be overkill and unsightly, but I've still got it if I need it.

I reduced the oil capacity by about 500cc. The oil pan was modified further after the last pic of it. I don't think I'll have any problems since I'm running longer and bigger oil lines than stock, and the stock oil cooler. and yeah sure I'd love to toss on a dry sump, but that would cost more than I spent on the rest of the engine.

 

 

awesome

 

ok guys I ran into a couple of snags and I have a couple questions:

- I hooked up the fuel lines the way I thought was correct and my fuel pump sounded like it was straining and I started leaking fuel from my fuel filter, so I'm assuming I got the feed/return wrong. Here's how I have it right now:
miata feed line is going into the firewall side of the primary fuel rail (the one bolted to the engine) then on the front primary barb the hose goes to the front of the secondary rail, then the firewall side of the secondary is going to the return line. please tell me if this is incorrect.

- the rx7 starter only has one wire going to it, right? The big starter switch line goes to the solenoid, then it grounds itself through the engine, if I understand correctly. I tried to crank it and got nothing. edit: i'm a retard, i didn't have the little signal wire plugged in. is it a spade connector like on a miata starter?

 

ok update to the previous post:

I went back out (in the rain, ugh) and did some quick wire twisting to test that I was using the right wires, and I got the starter to fire up and I got the engine to turn over! It's real close now. Now I need to modify my miata's four cylinder megasquirt for rotary duty.

Still have the same fuel problem though.

 

That's a pretty radical belt setup. You going to be running super high rpms?

 

no offense but with a old school front cover and oil pan is easier to install the motor,no need 2 hack the frame or oil pan and with a little bit if grinding a second gen water pump and housing can be fitted,but if it did work for you this way good luck with the projects and keep the updates coming bro.

 

i really appreciate constructive criticism, but do you really know any of that firsthand?

the oil pan had to be painstakingly modified to clear the steering rack, and the spot where the oil pickup tube bolts was basically resting on the subframe. The main crossmember of the subframe had to be basically cut out and relocated. There's absolutely zero possibility of running anything other than a manual rack in the stock position with the motor mounted like I did it. the steering rack is so close to the motor that I couldn't even fit hydraulic plugs into the power steering rack, I just had to weld them shut.

I went this route because it allowed me to keep everything behind the gearbox 100% stock, but it might actually be a little easier to run a custom driveshaft/ppf and move everything back until it was kissing the firewall, cause then it would give more clearance for the subframe and steering rack and require less fabrication in that area. This would cause the shifter to not line up with the hole in the passenger cabin though.

If I was starting this over from the beginning again, I'd either get a tubular subframe or run a t2 transmission and move everything back as far as possible. it's difficult either way though. It's way cheaper/easier/less of a headache to just rebuild and turbo the stock four banger. but that's no good for me, I need my car projects to remind me that I must hate myself

 

well, I did put hardened stationary gears into the motor. It could probably handle 10,000 rpms, especially with the reduced load on everything with it being in a miata, but I'll make max power with my port probably under 8,000.

I actually set it up that way because:
1. it sounds awesome
2. when I bought my blown motor for the rebuild it didn't come with the stock pullies
3. my miata's alternator belt would squeal all the time no matter how many times I replaced the belt or retightened it. It plagued me for years.

try to slip now, belt.

 

Yep i know about it all,i had a first gen miata years ago with a t2 swap that was all done at home by my brother and dad.

 

please elaborate, how did you mount the ppf? custom driveshaft I assume?

 

shortened T2 trans custom driveshaft,modified sway bar and for steering some toyota component were used,i need 2 talk to my dad to find a specific year and model but i do remember that some toyota parts were used on the front end.

 

no offense dude, but the reason I made this thread is because I hear stuff like what you're saying all the time. You didn't really give any exact details. Everyone always knows someone's cousin that did this swap and it was way easier than the way I did it

 

did you make the thermostats neck and water pump setup to work in AN hose?

 

+1 On the Old School front cover For the mount
Oil pan would still need to be Modded But at least it wouldn't have the FC mount in it taking away Oil capacity

with the Front Mount you'd have to weld Mounts on to the frame rails so it would Sit the same way it is now

But in the end You would still need to take a huge chunk out of the subframe

 

I just thought it would look cleaner to have it mounted in the stock fc spots. it would have removed a little bit of headache to use the 12a mount, but I didn't have one and I liked the idea of having the mounts in the middle of the motor. Doing it all again I would have more seriously considered a 12a front setup.

Then again though it might have gotten in the way of my future turbo setup

yes.

 

justs my 2c
make your oil pick up tube longer and incress pan volume and add a baffle plate no worries for oil issues

 

well, i had to drop the transmission. stupid miata transmission that had been sitting in a garage for five years was seized. got that worked out, today i should be able to put that back in and put everything together and get this car on the ground. then it's just wiring and tracking down a small dripping oil leak, and i'll be set

 

This is how the motor was mounted on my car,this is not my car just 2 let you know.

 

well ive wanted to do this swap for a long time, I like how you used the miata trans and driveline by just using the FC bell housing, but the extent of sub-frame modification makes me wanna try to fab up a tubular cross member like you said

 

what size fittings, adapters and hose did you use for the coolant lines? did you cut and tap the housings or cut and weld the fittings.

 

From what I understand, you use an FB front cover and a GSL-SE Oil pan, but you rotate the oil pan 180 degrees.

I got this first hand from a well known 'Tuna' who has built his fair share of them.

 

not really...witht he muffles in the middle and only going 2inch and then a collector in the back it will be nice and deep...but still get some head turning...you will fine...