Miata - damaged alt mount?

A friend had a beautiful 2001 Miata until it got smashed by a wayward SUV. Super low miles, great care, etc. I've been thinking about dropping a VVT motor in my 94, so this seemed like a chance for my friend to recoup some value and me to get a good donor motor.

We thought the motor was OK, until these pics came along of the upper mount for the alternator.

Looking at the block, from the passenger side front

A little bit of the mount is still attached to part of the alt bracket

Another view, more straight on.

That, and the thermostat housing neck is "loose". I'm several hundred miles away from this motor, so I can't inspect it myself. I don't really want to futz with trying to weld anything back together, it's not worth the effort.

I haven't looked at this part of my Miata recently, but I could have sworn that the NA alt used a much simpler mount with one big gnarly long bolt as the pivot. Is there any hope that NA parts will easily make this right? Is there any hope for this as a complete engine for me?

Thanks!

I could be wrong but the broken tab in the first pictures I believe is the water pump which would also explain the loose thermostat housing. Would be a good time to replace the water pump and timing belt before it goes in any way. What are you gonna use to control the vvt?

Could always just use the head...

Joey

unk577 wrote: I could be wrong but the broken tab in the first pictures I believe is the water pump which would also explain the loose thermostat housing. Would be a good time to replace the water pump and timing belt before it goes in any way. What are you gonna use to control the vvt?

After looking at several water pump pictures, I'm hoping you're right. This is a subtle bump to see if anyone can confirm.

The thermostat housing, I believe, connects elsewhere. As long as the impact broke the cheap casting and didn't pull the bolt out of the block or damage the mating surface...

I've got a MegaSquirt II running the extra software. A VVTuner module will control the cam.

Joey - If I'm going through this trouble, I'm going whole hog. The compression bump will be nice, and all the sensors and wires are already there.

I think you're right about the top mount being on the water pump, but I'm not 100% sure. Would have to check the car when I get home.

What would worry me is the oil pump -- that's where the bottom mount is, and the clearances in it are both tight and important. If the bottom mount got hit hard enough to break the alternator casting, then how badly tweaked is the oil pump? I don't think I'd reuse it, personally.

I don't think I'm worried about the oil pump. It's bolted solid to the block - unless the oil pump housing shattered from a hit, I don't see how it could be moved or damaged. Also, my friend was able to build oil pressure and later fired the motor for a few seconds. It ran fine, apparently (no coolant, so no extended run).

There's some scuffing on the crank pulley that I haven't illustrated, if I get a chance later today I might post it.

Still hoping for confirmation that upper tab is the water pump...

On the 1.8 engines, the upper alternator mount is indeed on the water pump. If the upper thermostat neck is "loose", I'd do a timing belt change and a new water pump, and be prepared to replace the thermostat neck. It's pretty normal for them to get damaged in a collision.