Well here she is in the garage and ready for tear down.

Interior

Undercarage from front

And from the rear (not ideal what the green smear is, camera lighting maybe)

The wimpy 1.6L

 

As you can see I'm crazy about a clean car, my first two weekends with her was all about giving her some well needed TLC when it came to cleaning her up. The wife used to complain that I spent more time cleaning the cars than my office. Since I got my own office room and remembered to clean her SUV at least every second month, she's stop complaining. LOL

 

Aug 17th
Well update on build, puchased a remanufactured engine. 92-93 302, was hoping to pick it up this weekend but couldn't find the time, Did get my front hubs replaced as they were starting to squeal. Also decided to give the current build some respect with a short "cold start" video I'll use to help sell the motor, drive train,and other items.

 

Well it looks like the car gods have spoken. Blew my head gasket. Guess the conversion start tomorrow.

 

No loss there. Guys can't seem to give the 1.6's away on Kijiji around here. Will you be using Martins kit?

 

Yup. Got a 92/93 302 ready to go

 

Well worked all day on cleaning the shop, found a lot of lost tools, figured out my tool chests are not big enough to hold them all. So tomorrow I head out to pickup a tool chest. Also the wife has cornered me and guess I'll be also be heading to the dealership to trade in her old SUV for a larger new one.

 

Well after another long day, final got the garage all cleaned up, so at 9:00 the conversion officially started.


First to go was the washbottle and intake. Here's my DIY mechanic in training my 13 year old son Kalib.


Sorry for the blurry pictures, was shaking too much. Here's Kalib doing some parts management of the Intake items.


Well 10:00 came quick and we needed to call it a night. End of day #1 = 1 hour

 

Day #2 More motor tear down. We started with this.


Got to this by lunch


By the end of the day we got this far.

 

The the next day, we decided to make Christmas come early. Engine crane, leveler, holder, and a mig welder.

 

You've taken the fenders and front bumper off but you left on the hood. Take it off before something bad happens.

Good start though,
-Jason

 

What could possible go wrong. Yah Yah I know, just didnt have a spot to store it. I didn't think we would have gotten that much done,

 

LOL famous last words!

 

Nice car, good pics, clean garage... for the hood, I ran wire through two of the holes and hung it from the way up high until I was ready for it. It was out of the way of the kids and I wouldn't trip over it.
My garage is 24'x24' with a 7' ceiling. I get one bay and the wife gets the other. She hasn't parked in it in over 3 years now though because of "Nadine" and now the LSxocet "Natalie".... Her Subie has heated Leather seats and I have a 15 year old that can clean the snow off it! WINNING!

 

Well it's been over 2 weeks. Been busy at work but this last weekend I was able to work on the car for a bit. Got a bit more of the stuff removed from the engine bay,



as well picked up the 302.

 

The great thing about the Miata, and a very clean one at that, is you will be able to remove all of the bolts very easily. Mazda either uses zinc plated bolts, paints over them once installed, or both ad that keeps many of the threads sealed. I think I have run into a handful tat were tough to remove and even fewer that sheared off and I have owned 15 of them. Worst offenders are the rear power plant frame bolts ad the rear sub-frame supports under the diff. Now I clean the off very well with a wire brush and the soak them with a 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF before I go after them. PPF bolts are tough be cause the shank of the bolt is exposed passing through the diff, the crud makes it hard to pull them down not unscrew.
Other than the wings at the rear of the engine compartment this will be a bolt on affair. Enjoy it!

 

Sorry for the delay guys/girls with oil done and our Canadian dollar taking a hit. I've had to shelf the project until money looks a bit better.

 

Don't give up hope just yet.... I had pulled my 1.6 and sold it when I got laid of from a job I held for 12 years. I had already stock piled a bunch of parts and was worried about how I would finish the car. It took e three years to gather the rest of the parts and begin the actual assembly but Nadine was well worth the wait!
There are a lot of deals out there if you have a little cash set aside and are patient. The parts will come to you. Then it just takes a little time to get things bolted up.
In the mean time, this is the perfect excuse to spend some time in our garage disassembling and repainting things like the front and rear sub-frames, getting new bushings installed, and preparing the new power plant for the day you can bolt it into the chassis. A little progress each week (or even month) is better than looking at a shell and doing nothing. Chin up!

 

+1 for sure to what Chris said ^^. There is a lot of labor and putzy work that can be done that are way more time than money. With time to mess around you can make more parts too. A lot of them like the diff mount and trans mount are easy to make and that can save you a bundle. Going off kit with the radiator and other major components can cut a lot of cost too. Are you following Jackies thread? He just got is running and did the entire build for 2 grand. Grab a side job delivering pizzas and you'd have that much in no time!

Keep in mind you are not alone in this. Nowak1981 is in the exact same boat and there are a lot of builds going in slow motion these days due to funds. There is a lot of advantages to taking your time on it and in the big picture it really doesn't make any difference. Even if it takes you 5 years to build it, the car will be no less epic when you are done!

 

nothing more to add other than best of luck and some good advice above.