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Oct/14
I'm working in a small 1 car garage, so space is at a premium.
With the car securely on jackstands, I removed the entire drivetrain myself over the course of a week. It should only take about 6 -8 hrs to do this part, but this was my first time, I was working alone and I was marking every wire and connector as it was being removed. Including removing the rearend I'd estimate about 12hrs actual working time for complete disassembly.
The engine and tranny being pulled out together, and the obligatory "standing in the empty engine bay" shot. I don't look too happy 'cause I can't reach my beer.
Nov/14
I kinda worked backwards on the next part. Since I'm short on space and long on parts, I thought I would get all the rearend stuff done first. I bought Martin's complete rear end kit. It comes with the 7.5" diff rebuilt with an Eaton TruTrack torsen, shortened axles, hubs and mounting components that are part of a kit Martin provides. It all went together pretty easily. I am not confident in my newly acquired welding skills, so I took the rear subframe to a local machine shop to do the important "torque plate" welding on the subframe. The shop also cut down the Energy Suspension bushings to fit the rear diff mount.
After a good scuffing and cleaning I painted the assembly with POR15. I also painted the control arms and calipers with the POR15. Everything looks real good. New rotors and pads finished off the rear end. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of this process.
Around this time all my old drivetrain was delivered to it's new home. This really freed up some much needed space in my garage. I can now move the car around again to start the next stage.
Dec/14
Onto the engine bay. This used to be 2 smaller holes used for factory AC. This car didn't have air and I don't plan on adding it, so I cut to make room for the wiring harness grommet that goes through the firewall. The Ford A9L EEC lives in the passenger compartment. You can see where I've started to make my corner cuts on the firewall.
Next is to cut the rear engine bay gussets. These extend into the engine bay and have to be cut back to make room for the V8. Martin provides tin covers to pretty up the area you cut out, but I decided to go with Flyin' Miata's firewall reinforcements. I'm not sure they really add any strength here as the Miata metal they get welded to is pretty flimsy. Next it will be seam sealed and painted. The rag stuffed into the hole is where the steering shaft comes out. I had to pull the steering column to do the welding here. All the fuel and brake lines will get pushed into the corners for header clearance.
Drivers side.
Passenger side.
All masked off for prime and paint....
....sealed and primed.....
.... and painted. Looking pretty good.
Jan/15
Next up is the wiring. This was a bit intimidating, but slow and steady gets it done. The interior has some wiring that had to be modified to get the Ford EEC to work in the Miata, but overall wiring was straightforward.
Most of the old Miata engine harness can be cut back, but for now I will just leave it until things are running. Then I'll do a good cleanup and wire tuck as much as I can of the new harness.
Here is where I end up until the engine goes in.
Next up is to reassemble the cleaned up and painted front frame, suspension and steering rack, then the engine can go in for a test fit.
Before the rack can be bolted on the steering shaft has to go through the drivers side header. Clearance is pretty tight.
Here you can see the header collector's approximate location. The exhaust has to be routed under the wheel well and pretzeled back along the transmission.
Front and rear suspension got the larger brakes from the '94-'97 Miata's. Also upgraded springs from Monster Miata. These will do for now, but adjustable coil overs are on my "wish list".
Feb/15
Engine going in for it's first test fit.
Beer break. Engine is in. It'll come back out as the oil pan is contacting the steering rack so I will need to adjust the engine mounts.
The next week or so were spent installing the bellhousing and transmission and checking clearances and driveline angles. This is a big engine going into small car. There are issues that need to be worked out as you go along. Common spots that need attention are the clearances between the modified oil pan and the steering rack, the oil pan and the subframe, and the top most part of the engine and the hood. I also encountered some tights spots between the bellhousing and the tranny tunnel.
I had trouble getting that block dowel to line up with the bell. I also had to make a little room on the tunnel for the clutch slave. BFH comes to the rescue.
Transmission installed on the bellhousing here.
All good here.
Mar/15
More cutting and wrecking stuff:
The shift hole has to be opened up a bit asthe T5 trans places the handle a couple inches forward. This is remedied with a small adaptor plate to move the shift lever back to the factory location.
This is where the T5 shifter ends up. The engine and tranny are set slightly to the drivers side, but as long as angles are parallel to the rearend, all is good. An adapter is used to center the shift lever in the stock location.
I had the local machine shop fab me up this sheet metal plate from a template I made.
I trimmed the rubber "shift boot" down a bit and installed the plate over top.
With the shift adaptor in place I double checked for any binding of the boot or plate. Everything works good and should keep the passenger compartment cooler.
All back together, everything fits, works and looks stock.
While things are still in the test fit stage, I wanted to check for hood clearance. There are a few tricks to get hood clearance. The first one is to cut out some of the hood bracing where the upper manifold sits. Here I've marked out where I need to cut with an abrasive cutoff wheel. No shaky hands allowed.
And after.....A little grinding and and touchup paint will be needed after confirming proper fitment.
With the upper manifold in place I can see if the hood will fit.
Well, it's pretty dang close but not quite there. Hood makes contact at the EGR spacer. Luckily there are a couple other things I can do to gain a bit more room.
I ended up fabbing some 3/16" shims to go on the front K member mounts. This effectively raises the body from the subframe by the same amount and will aid with hood clearance. I also bent the EGR coolant tube and Throttle Body air tube down a bit. They were the only real problem areas with hood clearance.
Next up I installed the engine for it's final time (hopefully), got the flywheel, clutch and bellhousing on and managed to get the transmission in without too much effort. Took measurements for the driveshaft and got one made up. Fits perfectly. While under the car I was able to hook up the speedo cable and vehicle speed sensor as well as the reverse lights.
Also got the radiator and fans mounted. Took a while to figure out a good way to mount the fans. Turned out good. Also the coolant lines are plumbed.
Apr/15
Next I had to figure out the vacuum connections coming off the upper intake manifold. Power brakes, fuel pressure regulator and several emissions components are controlled by engine vacuum. The info I needed was easy to find on any of the several Mustang Forums available on the WWW.
Now I have the upper manifold in place. Looks good with fresh paint. We'll see how long it stays clean. All the vacuum lines are run, engine and tranny oils are in- pretty much everything is good to go at this point.
I installed the engine computer (ECU) in it's new home in the passenger footwell, and double checked all my previous wiring work.
The last couple of things to do before a test fire is to prime the oil pump and get some oil pressure in the engine, and hook up the fuel lines. Then install the distributor and plug wires.
There are a couple things I want to test before attempting to fire up the engine. With the battery hooked up and key turned to RUN, I should hear the fuel pump relay and pump for a second or so. I had the fuel line supply run to a small container so I could confirm proper fuel pump operation. All is good here. I also want to make sure I hooked up the cooling fan relay's correctly. A small wire from the fan switch connector completing the circuit to engine ground confirmed that both fans (each on their own relay and fuse) will turn on when needed. It appears that all the wiring is correct. That's good- it's a drag tracking down wiring issues.
Next is to hook up the fuel line to the engine and charge up the battery.
Time to fire her up. Turn the key... Holy crap! It literally roared to life on the first spin. I just about crapped my pants it was so loud. I shut it right off as I don't have coolant in it yet. I need to do the initial engine run outside so I can flush the block out.
My wife opened the door to the garage and said that I was mistaken if I thought I was building a "sleeper". lol
Over the next few days I'll try and get it outside to run, and then I'll have to get it to a good exhaust shop for some custom work. I'm after a throaty sound on throttle and not obnoxiously loud. I really am going for a sleeper here.
I have to work on some clutch adjustments before I drop it off the jackstands. There will be lots of little things to wrap up, but I'm confident it'll run now. More to come. Pics to follow shortly.
And it runs and moves under it's own power. Off to get exhaust next week, then an alignment, then on the road.
Definition of a shit eating grin.
Not bad...just over 6 months working most weekends and some evenings to get to this point.
Off to the exhaust shop tomorrow night. May 6/15. Continue to Build Blog P.2
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