'97 Miata No Start After Lifter and Timing Belt Change

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Could the cams themselves be installed 180 out? Or is that not possible?

No, the sprockets are keyed on the cams with a pin.

Welp...no compression cylinder #2. 190-195 all others. Leakdown showed issue on intake side.   100% leakage. 

Now I need to dig into this issue. Ugh.

It runs!!!

So it was and wasn't something I did.  It was due to the lifters swap, but two of the lifters were bad.  Swapped out the intake lifters on no. 2 cylinder where the leakdown issue was.  Started right up and sounds great now!

Thank you everyone for your help!  Truly and deeply appreciated!  This is an awesome community and GRM is the best.

Next on list is new radiator (stripped threads on drain) and figure out how to fish the butt connector out of the oil pan. (Can I get the pan off by just lifting the engine a bit?) It needs resealing anyway.

Wow, that's a heckuva problem with new parts!   Nice figuring it out.

They were not new parts.

I was offered a set of lifters out of a blowed up SM engine that were known to be good (engine dropped a valve)

noddaz said:

They were not new parts.

I was offered a set of lifters out of a blowed up SM engine that were known to be good (engine dropped a valve)

Good catch/memory... I forgot that since the thread started :)

PMRacing said:

Next on list is new radiator (stripped threads on drain) and figure out how to fish the butt connector out of the oil pan. (Can I get the pan off by just lifting the engine a bit?) It needs resealing anyway.

You need to drop the subframe as well.  It's possible, but not really any easier than just taking the motor out.

I would try dumping a gallon of mineral spirits down that hole, see if you can flush it out the drain plug.  Realistically, if you can get it into the oil pan (rather than sitting on the windage tray), it seems really unlikely to hurt anything.  It's certainly not going to fit through the oil pickup screen.