The Miata experience: his and hers.

Saturday was the open house at FM... car show, FM shop cars, seminars, hanging out and BBQ banquet.

The lot was filling up when we arrived... great turnout this year!

We hung out through lunchtime, and then went back to the RV for a couple hours and returned for the banquet.  And that pretty much wrapped things up for us.  There was a group drive over Grand Mesa on Sunday, but I had discovered a small leak from one of the heater hoses on the NB, so we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and stayed in town.

Monday morning we pulled out for home early and here we are.  Another Summer Camp in the books.  Can't wait 'till next year... 

That blue boxster, er miata sure looks nice!  lol

In reply to docwyte :

Yeah... he had just sold his ND Miata.  He put a sign in the window of the Boxter:  "I identify as a puffy Miata" 

After all the scrambling to get ready for the trip to Summer Camp, I told myself I was taking this week off from working on cars (trucks, trailers, rvs, etc.).  But I did break down and wash and wax the E36 this morning.  Forgot how much of a PITA it is polishing and waxing silver paint.

It really needs a good clay-bar and polish, but I didn't want to spend the whole day on it.

Supposed to have tracking info on my K swap crossmember today.  Fingers crossed.  Next week I plan to start prepping to get the NA back in the garage.

I finally got a tracking number on my crossmember... should be here at the end of the week.  

Next I checked inventory for the engine supplier in Phoenix where I planned to source the engine.  There are a couple of variants of the K42A, and I wanted to be sure I got the highest rated stock engine.  They only had one left, so I pulled the trigger online, and will be picking the engine up Thursday...

I also needed to bring my engine hoist and stand home from the storage unit.  Since I'm too old to deal with lifting it into the bed, and both my trailers are currently full of cars, I splurged the $25 to rent a UHaul utility trailer to bring it home.

I can't imagine hauling a car I cared about on a UHaul trailer on any kind of regular basis.  Yikes.

And since I'll have two engines on stands at the same time for a while, I picked up a 2nd stand from HF.

Hope to get the NA back in the garage this weekend, and then the real work will start.

Unscheduled fuel filter change on the Touring this morning...

I've been smelling gas occasionally for a couple of weeks on the Touring, but was never able to track anything down.  This morning I started the car to take the dog to the bark park and smelled gas, so I got out an looked underneath and it was leaking pretty massively from the area of the fuel filter.

I think what was happening was the old, petrified rubber lines where the fuel filter connects were leaking when the car sat for a few days and they dried out.  After running for a few minutes, they'd soften up and seal.

Got it up on stands and took a look, and confirmed the leak to be at the connection at the rear of the inline filter. 

Checked online, and the local auto parts had one in stock... quick trip and I had the new filter, hoses and clamps in hand.  I think I was lucky, because there was a special order sticker on the box for the filter from March... apparently someone ordered it and never picked it up, so it just got dumped in stock.  They normally don't stock this filter.  Weird, as it fits a wide variety of BMW models.

Anyway, got the new filter installed, and everything looks good so far...

At least it was a quick/easy fix.

I can't wait to see how this goes, carry on thanks for sharing!

Started tearing down the engine today in preparation for installing the swap parts...  no leaks, and everything appears in good shape so far.  Cleanup should be pretty quick.  A couple of the harness were cut a little shorter than I'd prefer, but can't do much about that.

Looks pretty typical in the ports for a ~60k engine...

Intake

Exhaust

One last hurrah with the BP engine... local car show this morning to benefit first responders...

When I got home, the front subframe for the K engine had shown up...

More disassembly and cleaning of the K24 today.

Getting a good pile of parts that won't be re-used...

And trying to keep the things that will be re-used in order...

Engine cleaned up nice.

Also brought all the swap parts back from our storage unit.

Waiting for a couple of parts before digging further into the engine, but I did pull the cam cover and things look pretty nice.

Also picked up a trans tunnel heat shield from some other Mazda (CX5, I think?)... NIB and cheap on eBay.  I'll be trying to modify this to work in the Miata trans tunnel.  A few others have used this method pretty effectively.  The material isn't too hard to trim and shape, and it's effective with a small air gap.  Should be easier and cleaner than dealing with paint on, spray on or stick on heat insulation.

Quick update on the K swap...  I have held off tearing down the car because I want to keep it driveable for the moment due to things, but I have been trying to get in some work on the engine.

For the KPower accessory drive setup that eliminates power steering and a/c, you need the USDM water pump housing ("water passage"), and since my motor is JDM, I had to order one - Honda/Acura p/n 19410-RAA-A00. I was able to get it from KPower, who has a reasonable price and had it in stock. You also need the USDM tensioner and alternator, which are pretty widely available either OEM or aftermarket.




I also installed the rear water neck from KPower, with a new Honda gasket.



I also drained what little oil remained in the pan, so the next step is the oil pump/pan swap.

Picked up the header from ceramic coating today....

I was hoping to get most of the oil pump swap done today, but the crank bolt pretty much kicked my ass.  Impacts, weighted impact sockets, pipes on breaker bars... NOPE.   Eventually I had to rummage around until I found my MAPP torch, and then hit it with some heat and I finally got it broken loose, and by that time it was hot enough in the garage that I surrendered for the day.

Made some progress today...

Got the timing chain, guides and tensioner off...



... and the oil pan off.



K24 oil pump/balance shafts come off...



And a K20 pump goes on with the KPower adapter and pickup, and a K20 windage tray.



KPower pan on, ready for timing chain install.

great job

Your attention to detail on this build is impressive.  Can't wait to see this thing fire with K-power. 

Thanks guys!

More progress today...

Got the timing chain re-installed with a fresh tensioner and got the engine timed

Then got everything buttoned back up, the valve cover installed, and a new water pump installed.

In this last pic, you can see where the valve cover has been modified at the front for hood clearance in the NA Miatas.

How does oil pass between the two sections of the sump? 

In reply to DrMikeCSI :

Good observation, and something I hadn't noticed yet.  I don't believe that it does, other than 'sloshing', but the front part is required to clear the pump mechanism and the steering rack goes through the gap...

I inverted this pic to show the fill level, which is above the level of both sumps, but there's no active circulation of the front sump.  Something to think about.... that's a big volume to have not doing anything.   Maybe I'll give KPower a call tomorrow and ask.

I've been a little quiet lately because some big stuff was happening, and the superstitious side of me didn't want to talk about it until it was a done deal.  This was also the reason I stopped the tear down on the NA, and was just working on the new engine.  Long story short, we have been planning to relocate when my wife retires and had been looking for the right place for quite a while.   The stars aligned, and we closed on the new (to us) home today.

Of course, what matters most to this crowd is I will no longer be working in this:

Once I get everything moved, I'll be working in THIS:

More to come when I'm not completely exhausted...

Well, I'm sure you're going to find working in that beautiful, spacious shop, with a lift, absolutely horrible!  Haha!  Congrats!

A little more background...

The little corner of rural AZ where we have lived for the last 30 years has been experiencing incredible growth, especially over the last 5-10 years.  The growth has been very poorly managed, overwhelming the local infrastructure and roads.  Most of the influx has been urban folks, greatly changing the character of the community.  The last 2-3 years has seen an explosion of multi-story high-density (apartments and condos) residential that was unheard of here 10 years ago.  The roads are crowded, services are stressed to the breaking point, there are very few jobs, and the elephant in the room that no-one will talk about is the water supply.  But they won't stop building...

We had decided at least 5 years ago that we would relocate when we retired.  And we started looking for the right place.  To make a long story short, after a lot of research, and several trips to check out some likely spots... we decided to stay in AZ.  However, we will be ~200 miles south, in the Sierra Vista area.

Next step was finding the right home.  Two absolute requirements were:  enough property to store our RV and trailers, and a detached shop large enough for GRM activities.  I started watching the online realty sites about a year ago, and saw a couple good places come and go but we weren't quite ready to buy.  Eventually, we were ready to buy, found the perfect home, closed the deal and took possession Friday.  I used the opportunity of closing to haul down the Capri, and a small load of other stuff.

We now own a very nice house on 4.5 acres, with a great view of the Huachuca Mountains off the back porch, and of course the 40x40 shop.  Now comes the task of moving... ugh.  At least we aren't under a big time pressure...

Sierra Vista is great.  Lived there for three years and loved every minute of it.  I'm back closer to Tucson now, but missing SV for sure.