Stimulus Check Miata

Minor update:

I've begun porting the head. There is some very stubborn buildup in the ports that I'm incrementally chipping away at. I'll post pictures when I have something nice to show.

I broke all the lifters down after watching someone successfully do so on the you tubes.

They were then returned to their individual vials of Seafoam. 

Then all the valves got the business. The exhaust are being particularly stubborn, so I'll have to return to them.

Goin' a bit micro on this one. Hope it's helpful to someone, someday.

Exploded view of lifters.

Basically, you have the bucket, the inner piston, with check valve pointing down towards the valve, the spring, then the outer piston, which actually contacts the valve. I found it best to assemble these 4 parts dry, then immerse in ATF (I read oil, but figured the extra detergents couldn't hurt), and pump them up.

Once a jet sprays out of the small lateral hole, you're good to go. Then, they all go back to their individual numbered bottle where they will soak in ATF until reassembly time arrives.

I've also been slowly porting the head. First, I simply gasket matched both the intake and exhaust ports. Then just touched the ports near the valves, only hitting offending casting flash like this:   (apologies for blurry)

I've always heard you can easily go too far with porting, so I kept it mild. I didn't worry about trying to make anything bigger, or really even smoother. Again, the gasket match removed very little material, and the rest was just blending it all together.

Intake:

Exhaust:

The head is in the dishwasher right now. Next up, valve grinding, and head surfacing.

I've got a patio table with a 3/4" glass top that I tried gluing some sandpaper to. When that didn't work, it was time for plan9.

I glued a piece of 24 grit to a piece of high end plywood -poplar, I think?-the flattest thing I had lying around.

I commenced sanding in many directions, straight, angled, in circles-you know, sanding.

You can see the slightly lower section between the cylinders. I basically color sanded that out.

In doing so, I noticed some of the very bottom of the intake ports was being removed, as well.

I used that small shiny bit as a reference, and continued sanding until I noticed "some" difference in its shape. So, that's my very scientific amount of compression bump-"some". I used the same Idea I used porting. Better too mild than too wild.

This is as far as I'm taking it.

First the hose, then back into the dishwasher.

Valves: Ground.

I've been following along (with your house project too!) and I'm enjoying seeing the nitty-gritty engine build.  Nice work!

In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! I know this isn't too exciting, but I'm enjoying giving this car some love.

Today I got as far as valve seals before I got hung up.

I had trouble figuring which seal was which. According to the manual, intake seals have one or no rings on the very top, and exhaust have two or more. 

Anyway, I found over half of my valve springs to be sagged out. The others were right on the ragged edge of in spec, so 16 new ones are on order. The fuel injector gasket kit I ordered didn't include the gasket down at the head, so I've got more on the way. I finally remembered to use my Rock Auto discount code, so I splurged on expedited shipping. It will still be a while before I have parts to move forward. And so it is.

Head reassembled complete with new valve springs , 

and installed.

Since I'm using a Flyin Miata coolant re-route, I chose to eliminate the old thermostat housing. That left a hole in the inner timing cover. Black silicone and a piece of floor mat to the rescue.

To blab just a bit further, one of the things causing my massive budget overrun is poor planning. I shelled out the big bucks for a "Complete Mazda Engine gasket kit." Well, it should be "mostly" Complete. Things like the oil cooler gasket, fuel injector gaskets, and oil filler gasket weren't included. To be fair, I doubted they would be, but all I knew was to get the kit then fill in the blanks. All the underhood rubber is toast, Witness the old oil cap gasket.

 Since I keep failing to get a full inventory of needed parts, I end up paying $10 shipping on an $8 part. I am having terrible luck navigating the FLAPS websites, and am giving Amazon way more money than I'd like. I guess that's engine rebuilding in the times of Covid. Any way you slice it, its still cheap therapy. 

Today I was happily lumbering forward on the rebuild, cleaning and painting parts then assembling them.

I got it timed correctly...

...and was rapidly approaching time to pull it off the stand, but I kept noticing a trickle of oil at the back of the block where it meets the head. 

(hopefully the stream of assembly lube/oil is visible). Rolling the engine on its side confirmed. 

I suspect I managed to put the head gasket on upside down or backwards. A new one is on order.

Looking on the bright side, at least I caught my berk up before I put it in the car

Thread hijack, but I'm very much looking forward to seeing you make some stuff with that English Wheel.  I've never used one and it looks like terrific fun!

When you were done with the head were all the ports shaped like this one I circled in red?

I understand that a smooth short side radius can be a good thing for flow.

In reply to noddaz :

Isn't that the long side of the radius? Edit: You're talking about what would be the floor of the port, as it sits installed. right? No, I didn't do too much with that. The input is appreciated, though.

To answer the question, though, There was some casting flash in those areas (outside walls of adjacent ports in the same cylinder) that I cleaned up a bit.

Before:

After:

In reply to TVR Scott: I've got big dreams. Aluminum motorcycle tanks, long flowing curves...

Have you seen this guy's work?

If you're going to dream of a loaf of bread, might as well dream of a grocery store.

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

No, haven't seen that!  Very cool. More info, please!

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

Oh my.  Would seem I need to buy even more tools...

My new head gasket arrived, so I fixed my shame.

That went well, so I continued getting the mill ready to install. Head on and torqued, Timed, and hopefully oil tight.

What I had done was flip the head gasket front to rear, and maybe upside down. Suffice to say, the ports that let oil drain from the head through the block were not aligned properly. That'll teach me to think I'm on a roll.

Flywheel on, loc-tited and torqued. I put a new pilot in, and re-used the sachs clutch. A new throw out bearing is going in, too.

It looks like crap, but it was in too good shape for me to replace.

I installed the cast pulley, figuring I'd keep the newer one as a spare, and witness marked the crap out of it. Timing marks, a mark to show if the outer ring separates from the inner ring, and a mark to let me know if the bolt moves relative to the pulley. I used a new keyway, a new bolt, and meticulously torqued to spec. All bolts up here got loc-tite blue.

Ready to stab it in.

More observations from a first time Miata re-builder: It's really nice that I didn't have to pull the cams to replace the head gasket. Timing it is no more difficult than any other OHC engine, particularly out of the car. The oil pan is nice and flat, and sits perfectly with a 4X4 under the front. Very convenient all around.

I also bought myself/the car a little treat.

Or four little treats, as the case may be. 

There were things going on in the background while the engine patiently awaited its return to home.

I pulled the carpet and pressure washed the E36 M3 out of it, ripping it a bit like the shiny happy person I am.

This, of course, coincided with the rains setting in, so I've been sewing.

I could bring myself neither to put cheap seat covers in, nor to spend near a grand on the leather M edition deluxe covers I really wanted, so I settled on functionality.

My top came with the vinyl that was cut out for the rear window, so I used that for patches. Still some more sewing to go here.

I used Leather Honey brand rejuvenator(so far, so good) and reinforced where it obviously needed it:

I also determined that the top is leaking at the rain drain, so will have to have a look at that before the interior goes back in.

Inching forward between work and whiskey walks...

Yep, as my runaway budgets careens onward, why not a new AC compressor. Drier, too. 

Then I had to dig around. I knew I had an output seal installation tool somewhere. Yes!

Then fresh fluid for the transmission.

Minor E36 M3, but still important. I'm replacing all vacuum lines with new silicone, all new hoses, and somehow, I haven't replaced the plug wires. New ones are on order. The radiator is quite new, and an auto unit to boot, so it went back in.

After waffling, I'm putting a new extended braided clutch line in. That area is too damn congested for my tastes, and I hope the new one will clean things up a bit. It, too is in the mail. Ever closer to initial start up.

Good to see you saved a few bucks on the installation tool.

I feel like that sometimes - just dumping money into the project and then I'll celebrate some little savings.

Gaaah!

Today was to be the triumphant first start, But No!

I have very methodically put this back together. Checking and re-checking. Taking things apart when they weren't just right. Keeping the battery on a tender.

Well, this afternoon, I tried to turn it over to build oil pressure. Hit the key, nothing. Bled the clutch, thought, tried again, still nothing. Sanded all grounds...nothing. Tested power to starter-both in general, and cranking. Good.

Yep, the perfectly functioning starter I removed is toast. Bridging the gap gets me angry sparks. Anyway, I ordered a new starter and a new alternator simply because this aggression will not stand. 

Since we can't have an update without pictures, here are a couple of my seats. New Clearwater speakers are installed, and they're ready to go.

If I said I was trying for the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman look, would anyone buy it?

In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :

I'd have swapped the covers so that the better one was on the driver's side and the wear would be evened out.

In reply to Stefan (Forum Supporter) :

Bolster is smaller on the tunnel side, plus this way, I didn't have to dismantle two seats. 

Don't know if you have a good auto upholstery shop near you, but I had a couple cracked and worn leather panels replaced on my Tundra's driver's seat.  It wasn't even very expensive.  Really good solution for fixing up a seat that only has certain spots worn out.

Or just rock the homemade repair!  It's all for fun!

double check the polarity of the head rest speakers at the connector under the seat before you bolt them in.  Often they are mis-wired.  Jeff Anderson did our radio years and years ago, and sent a how-to, but it involved a 9V battery and the pairs of speaker wires, watching which way the cone on each speaker moves when voltage is applied.  Any found out-of-phase are simply re-pinned with a paperclip.  Result is proper stereo behind your head.  Which isn't exactly where you want/need it, but it helps when the top is down, for sure.  

In reply to stylngle2003 :

Info appreciated, but my fancy new speakers came with their own harness from radio to headrest(s). I'll give it a shot, and try your way if there are problems.

TLDR; We have a runner.

Yeah, it doesn't look any different, but it runs!

In more agonizing detail: New starter and alternator went on, and it cranked strong. It took a L-O-N-G time to build oil pressure. Once it did, I hooked the fuel lines up just like all the experts told me to. Front to back, and back to front. I did this despite the tag I left on the lines saying front to front, and back to back-just like I pulled them off. 

So, when it would try really hard to start, and even pop or run for a few seconds, then die, I was chasing timing (after confirming spark, of course). I moved the cam sensor all around, getting hits every now and then. I cranked way more than I was comfortable with. For a bit, I thought I got my trigger wheel on backwards. Despite making damn sure, I feared I was a tooth off, or maybe the Cam sensor mysteriously died like the starter. Eventually, I swapped fuel lines, and it fired right up. Someone had bent the rear line until it was in front of the front line-my guess is while removing an engine. Maybe this isn't the original? Who cares, it runs.

Once it started, the lifters made a horrible racket for quite some time, and the exhaust manifold smoked like a freight train. Water also dripped out the tail pipe=maybe I shouldn't have stored the exhaust outside all these months. Anyway, the exhaust steam subsided, and the lifters quieted down, and at the end of the engine's first heat cycle, it sounded really good.

I ordered tires for my 14" NB wheels.

I tallied up my investment up to this point, and including tires, I'm at $3700 and change on top of the $2300 purchase price, and still have a windshield to go in before I'm calling it done, so call it 4 grand into a twenty three hunderd dollar car. Not what I set out to do, but what the hell, it is a sweet little car.