Greetings! Finally after 6-8 months of lurking, reading build threads, trying to decide what kind of swap to do (decided to go 5.0 due to CARB), and 3 months of looking for the right donor car I've finally begun my journey.

Picked up a clean, 1 owner, 91 BRG, 200k miles:





The engine still has decent compression and only needs about $250 worth of work to replace the radiator, flush fluids, replace oil that hasn't been changed since 2003.

Reason i choose it was mostly due to it being in CA its whole life (no rust whatsoever), owned by the nicest lady in the world for 25 years, and the fact it had a minor previous accident (made me feel that cutting her up for a V8 swap wouldn't be such sacrilege), and the engine won't last much longer on 200k miles.

Paid a little more due to its condition (paint/body/interior is 9.5/10) but I think it was worth it.

I've already found a 5.0 up north that I'm picking up this weekend. Got it for a steal since it needs a mild rebuild (piston rings need replacing) but still holding semi-decent compression.

I'm looking forward to repaying this community for the months i spent learning from you all via your build threads by documenting my own.

One question, does anyone know if McCully Racing Motors- There's no Replacement for Displacement. is still around? I've sent them a couple emails regarding their wiring service to no response.

 

Greetings. Welcome to the V8 Miata world. I bought my wiring from MRM 6 months ago. Great guy to do business with! He is a very busy guy and it took about a month to get a hold of him. Just be patient. But once you do touch base with him, his communication is great and you will love the product.

 

Nice looking car, Can't wait to see your progress!

 

We have engine!



Rebuilding with Cobra manifold.

 

Congrats!

 

Ending up finding a 5.0 pull-out, complete with engine harnesses, ECU, T5 trans, body harness, driveshaft, fuel tank + pump, accessories for $750. Immediately jumped on it. Will likely sell the other engine or may keep it for spare parts.



It even came with 3 black widows hiding around the intake and exhaust manifolds. Score!

Next step is to strip it down, clean/degrease, remove rust, and give it a fresh coat of enamel.

 

Keep in mind the '94-95 ECU is different than the foxbody.

 

Thankfully both are 94/95 so all the parts should be completely interchangeable. I'm planning to remove both AC and PS, still need to figure out belt routing for that.

 

Mine is a sn95 too. Also went no PS and AC. Had to rig up a dummy pulley. See my build blog for pics. The machine shop saved the file for the bracket I needed fabbed. If you end up needing one let me know..... I can get them to make up another one for cheap.
And btw nice car. It's so nice working with a lower mile rust free candidate.

 

The SN95 T5 transmission is longer than a regular Fox-body T5.

 

By how much? I'm hoping it'll still line up with the shifter location.

 

Wow I love it! Don't know how I missed this thread but thank you for doing such a fabulous build thread! What a beautiful car you have and I think an outstanding choice for a swap.

McCully racing is our very own Jason McCully and goes by MRM331 here. He is a great guy but like everyone said has lots on his plate. Shoot him a PM here and he'll respond.

Welcome to the forum!

 

That would be awesome! ill check out your build and PM you.

 

Check out V8miataMike 's build. The issue is the bell. Mike used a fox bell and a spacer with the sn95 T5. I just went fox everything since I only had the engine and no wiring or tranny.

 

The bellhousing is 5/8 inch longer than the Fox bellhousing. The T5 input shaft sticks out 5/8 inch longer than the Fox T5. This moves the shifter further back 5/8 inch as well as the trans cross member.

So shifter alignment is actually better as it gets it closer to the center of the existing Miata shifter hole but you sill still need to open it up much like the Fox version needs.

I did not want to hammer more than I needed to on the trans tunnel and the SN95 bellhousing is larger in various respects around its outside diameter where it bolts to the engine. In the end I went with a Fox bellhousing (Martin's Monster kit clutch pieces work as designed on the Fox) and used a 5/8 inch spacer to accommodate the longer SN95 T5 input shaft. All is working well.

Mike

 

Ah ok, that doesn't sound like a big deal. I'll just replace the input shaft and bellhousing.