Need the brain trusts help with my latest Miata debacle.
i have a 95 Miata I got for 500 bucks after it blew a head gasket. It was a project for my son and I and we tore down the engine, had it machined and we put it back together, with upgraded rods and pistons with the eventual goal of adding boost.
gotnit running naturally aspirated last fall, and put it in the shop for the winter. When bonus hit this spring I ordered the turbo kit from flyin Miata.
took it out for one last spin before it went on the lift for the turbo install and noticed a concerning amount of white smoke from the exhaust. Long story short the head had a crack.
so I start looking for a new head, and by a miracle I found one locally, but it's from an 2004. I jump on it because I'm thinking "great, vvt, better head flow, awesome."
get it home, and then realize I don't have the right valve cover, and that it doesn't have cam gears, vvt actuator, Vic's actuator, etc etc.
I had no idea the vvt cam gear would be $800.
the budget is tight since I still need to buy the megasquirt.
so I have two questions
1. What all parts do I need to get this running with vvt?
2. Can I put my old cam gears on it and run it until I can save up for all the vvt parts?
You'll need the matching intake manifold as well, unless you want to modify your existing manifold. You can use any NB intake manifold. To use an NA intake, you'll need to add some material at the bottom of the flange and redrill the mounting holes. I have pics if you want to go that route.
What do you need to get it running with VVT? Assuming you have the Megasquirt and it's one of the models capable of running VVT, then you need cam gears, vvt actuator, valve cover, etc. "etc" is doing some work here as we don't exactly know what you're missing. You don't need the VICS, you'd actually probably want to remove that and it's on the 2001+ intake manifold anyhow. If you're running EGR, you're also going to need a new EGR pipe - you want a stock 1999-00 one as the 2001-05 won't fit. If you modify your 1995 intake manifold you'll have to tweak the EGR pipe you got with the kit but that's doable.
The nose of the VVT intake camshaft is larger than other BP cams, so your old cam gear almost definitely won't fit - it's been a long time since I messed with this and we never tried. Exhaust cam, no problem. Can you bodge something together? I don't know. You can't put a set of non-VVT cams in, the larger nose means a change in the head.
I think you'd be better off reselling this head and looking for another.
In 20 minutes I get the answer from the man himself. Thanks Keith. One step forward two steps back for us amateurs
I may have a BP05 head sitting around. It's an HLA head but it's been built for boost; I switched to a BP4W head since my newer turbo setup is designed for that head. Let me know if you decide you need something else!
In reply to BennettGo0d :
Keith is one of the owners at Flyin'Miata.....he does have some experience. I think he wrote a book on the cars, too.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
Three of them, actually - and the second edition of one of them is dropping in about a month ;)
