Have a 92 miata 1.6 going to do swap over winter im new to this never done one. Ill keep updates of my project build. Ill prob start tear down in few weeks cause car still moves. Gonna be wonter project.
I have a 5.0 bored and cammed i wanna put down in it. If any1 has good used parts that i can use for the build and save money on new parts would be great. Any ideas and help would also be greatly appreciate.

 

Excited for this man. You better post all you can so us v8 swappin newbies can follow learn a little something. Good luck

 

First thing you are going to need to do is raise the car back up to stock height. That dropped chassis will not be conducive to a V8 conversion.


What type of used parts are you looking for?

Do you know how to structurally weld?

What about your fabrication skills?


Bill S.

 

You can't get away with "slammed" but you can get it lower than stock. Mine runs at about 1.5 inches below stock 1994 height which is low enough that the 20mm offset wheels I use on the street don't look out of place.

There are three reasons why you really don't want to go too low with a V8 Miata:

1. The exhaust is low - The exhaust is routed through an area on both sides that was not designed to have two pipes passing through it. You can cut the chassis up and make room but compaired to the next lowest item using the exhaust as a "Skid Plate" is actually not a bad idea...

2. The next lowest items are the radiator (can be corrected pretty easily) and the oil pan/bell housing. The radiator can be raised or replaced with an upgraded Miata one but the drive line components are a bit harder to handle. The crank in a V8 Miata is physically lower in the chassis than in a 4 cylinder and the flywheel is a larger diameter. As a result of both of these the oilpan and lower part of the bell housing hang lower than a stock Miata. A dry sump can reduce the depth of the oilpan but only running a smaller diameter flywheel/clutch and then modifying the bellhousing to suit would give more clearance at that point.

3. Rear Camber - Miatas like rear camber. Spec Miatas run very aggressive settings and power through turns very well as result. "Slammed" Miatas also run a bit of camber and can tolerate it to a certain extent because of the above.
With a V8 Miata you have the addition of massive gobs of torque to the rear wheels. I've found that if I were to run the camber of most "aggressive" settings in the rear I can't get the traction I need to get out of turns. The kind of camber in the picture above will shred rear tires quicker than your budget can replace them.

Hope that helps and good luck with your build,

-Jason

 

Any updates?