and it begins.... (pics and such, 56k beware)

[Miataracer]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

You're going to love it.

lets hope so!

[Jas_M]

So are you doing the swap yourself or having it done by a shop? Just curious. I just wonder how much a shop would charge to swap an engine, approximately anyway.

[Miataracer]

doing the swap myself. i absolutely HATE to pay other people to work on my car...

as a side note, the d16 is out of the car now, pictures are being taken along the way. i would post some pictures now but i am currently on a crappy 56k modem. when i get back to school after spring break i will post the pictures and give more details about how everything went and what not.

[Miataracer]

tonight I discovered that the timing belt, belt tensioner, spring, and water pump that I bought for the engine are not needed. i don't know why this didn't cross my mind before but the engine has 94,000 miles on it and apparently had its 90,000 maintenance done. i took off the valve cover and upper timing cover to find a nearly new looking honda belt staring back at me.... then i looked down to the water pump to notice it had also been replaced. so now I have like almost $200 of unneeded parts. this is rather annoying!

[Ricochet]

Murphy's law, if you wouldn't have bought them the parts on the engine would have been ragged and nasty. Better safe than sorry

[Miataracer]

very true... then I would have been stuck in the middle of a project with no parts... god I hate that!!

[ghost94]

Originally Posted by Miataracer

lets hope so!

Bro, with out a doubt you'll love it. I've had mine swaped since about Thanksgiving. I try not to remember life without it , so it will probably be the way after the turbo 'this week'

[Miataracer]

well today I found out that the new clutch that came with this swap was for an older integra and would not fit... that was a real pisser. so as soon as I found that out I called and had the correct one sent UPS next day air. it better be here at or before 3 pm tomorrow like it is supposed to be!

other than that things are going reasonably well... I cleaned up the transmission, got the flywheel machined, put the new pilot and throw out bearings on, then did some little tune up stuff on the engine (cap, rotor, plugs, wires)

one thing I have noticed that is rather hard to figure out is how to use my car's current A/C compressor on the B series engine. as the pics I am going to post later will show the A/C mounting brackets not only use different holes to mount to the block but also hold different A/C compressors. first thing tomorrow I am going to call hasport and find out if they have a bracket to mount a D16 A/C compressor to a b series engine... if that doesn't work I will have to just put a B series bracket and compressor on my car. if some of you are wondering why I don't just do that in the first place its really pretty simple... my A/C currently works just fine and if I disconnect my pump to install the other pump I will lose all of my r134a. while this is cheaper to get recharged than r12 is/was it is still not CHEAP.

anyways, that is the update for the night...

[Ricochet]

I noticed that bracket while swapping mine too, and was suddenly glad I don't have a/c

[Miataracer]

a teaser... did a ton of work tonight, it WILL be running tomorrow!

[Jas_M]

Great job so far Miata! The yellow cover looks great, glad you kept it.

[Miataracer]

[~ls/vtec~]

i have a question. what did u do with the wiring and shit? i wanna put a gsr motor in my 97 hatch but im not doing it cuz i dont kow how to deal with the wiring on the driver side. i have the motor and everything just sitting there in my garage waiting to be dropped in my widebody hatch

[Brit6]

what did you end up doing with the a/c ?

[F23A4Racer750IL]

that looks so clean. IMO the yellow valve cover looks a little off wit a red car. but now that i think about it, it looks pretty cool.