FYI on motor R&R

just read the article on the motor pulling session for the evilspeeder, and i have just one comment.

kyle (fwMiata) and i pull about 2 or 3 motors a month- he takes out all the top stuff, i get all the bottom stuff. it takes us right at an hour to have the motor swinging from the hoist and the car outside for engine compartment cleaning.

i kinda think it's unfair to give him a hard time about pulling the connectors, since this is what we do every time. the connectors are color coded for the various plugs (orange, yellow and black inside the connector) and they are each unique. you cannot plug the wrong thing into each connector.

the only thing that will go in the wrong place is the oil pressure sender- just above where it goes is another hole that has the same thread size and everything (for a knock sensor left over from this block being used on the 323 gtx). you'll find out if you have it in the wrong hole, cause it will instantly shoot oil about 10 feet out of the car after it splashes on the inner fender. seen the after math- it ain't pretty.

i'm glad to see a group that plays together, better than a bunch of people who'd rather put it on a credit card than do the work themselves (some supra guys are like that). just wanted to point out that kyle didn't do anything wrong, just not what your were expecting..

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Originally Posted by Thorage327

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I kinda think it's unfair to give him a hard time about pulling the connectors, since this is what we do every time.

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I think he was just giving him a good natured ribbing... I don't think that any of us have pulled Miata motors with frequency you guys have!

I still wish I could have witnessed this... I'm gonna have to do this someday.

I hope to pull mine (for engine #3) sometime in the next 3-4 weeks. Since I'm not on a "normal" schedule at work and school, I usually end up doing these things on my own (engine swap #5, tranny swap #3). Mine will be a little different from the normal Miata swap though.

I'm putting in a Protege motor, so I get to swap over the oil pan, baffle and pick-up tube, take out 1 or 2 freeze plugs out of the head, maybe pull the head and do some port work/gasket-matching, swap over my intake manifold and header (both will be gasket-matched, I may port the runners), mate up a new transmission, Fidanza and clutch (haven't even decided on the clutch yet, probably OEM for now). I've been debating whether or not I should just swap the heads over (easiest for me as I haven't modified a Protege head yet, plus the cam issue w/ lower hp).

All this and I might have to clean up my wiring from the 1.8 conversion. I just hope it won't take me more than 8 hours for all of this, as that's all I really have. Sadly I can't do any of this beforehand as the parts that need to be swapped over are currently on the engine in the car right now. Anybody have a spare oil-pan? :lol:

Would the proceedures be the same for a Turbo? I am guessing that my engine/tranny will be obsolete at some point in the next 40K miles.

The turbo does not take up too much room on the exhaust side.

Pretty close to the same. Some say it's best if you remove the turbo/manifold, but I've seen the whole thing lifted out complete. FWIW, I've ALWAYS removed the header before pulling an engine. It might be risking too much for something that is relatively quick and easy to do by leaving it in there.

if you remove the intermediate pipe from the header, and take the motor out with the header attached- it clears everything by miles, but if the bolts are badly rusted at the intermediate pipe, we just say screw it, and remove the heqader form the motor.

hell, sometimes i leave the header on till i take a head to the machine shop, just to make sure the mating surface doesn't get blemished, or any valves bent.

removing the turbo isn't mandatory for yanking the motor on most kits, but i'd rather take it out before hand anyway.

we've done these motor swaps so many times- we pretty much charge a set fee of $300 for a stock-to-stock swap, and if we get the parts first thing in the morning- we might be driving the car to lunch (unless we're doing timing belt/water pump or compartment detailing)