Hi guys ... first-time poster. Did some trolling yesterday and swapped some e-mails with Mr. Joshua, who suggested I post my question here.
Like Josh (at one point, anyway), I'm in the process of installing a Mazda engine into a Triumph Spitfire. Unlike Josh, I'm going the four-cylinder Miata engine route.
Physical installation is done but my mechanic has run into a wall: Despite several different wiring configurations (he's mated the Miata fuse block to the Spit's ignition circuit), he can't get the engine to run correctly. He says it runs and idles well, but has a nasty off-idle hesitation he can't fathom. (Josh suggested the problem might be that it's running in limp-home mode.) My mechanic's regular stock in trade is mostly doing American V8 conversions on Jaguars, but this is his first job on an LBC. He seems damn good at what he does and I think we're probably just a week or two from having it back on the road if we can just get past this issue.
All that being said, the installation of the motor and tranny looks good: He cut into the firewall and did some innovative notching of the frame and reconfiguring of one of the crossmembers in order to place the engine back to a point where no tweaking of the hood was necessary (the front of the motor is at the same position as the original Triumph mill). Beyond that, he's using the Miata radiator, too, with its twin electric fans and also came up with a creative intake plenum/K/N filter setup.
Meanwhile, he was also inventive in placing/configuring the transmission. He reworked the linkage in such a way that the shifter lever is in the original position -- something I've never seen in a conversion like this. Finally, we're using the Miata driveshaft, which is considerably lighter and narrower than the standard Spitfire componet.
When we finally get everything buttoned up, the interior will look almost completely stock, apart from the newly re-covered Miata seats we'll be plugging in (unfortunately, these weren't the ones with the built-in speakers).
As you can probably imagine, I'm eager to get the car back on the road -- I live in SoCal, so it's actually perfect convertible weather right now. So I'd greatly appreciate any input from you Miata guys, especially if you've done a similar conversion. Thanks in advance and I look forward to meeting you guys.
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