10,000 mile update
 

Hope everyone is doing well. I have a little over 10k on my car since I finished my build back in summer 2019 and thought I would give a little update to anyone searching and thinking about a V8 swap. My car is a 94 miata with a 89 mustang 5.0 and 5 speed with a ford 7.5" 3.27 gear limited slip rear. The engine is stock, no power steering and no A/C (for now). I have the heddman mismatched headers and I had them jet-hot coated. I built a dual stainless steel 2.5" into a single 3" exhaust with a stainless steel RV flowmaster muffler. I drive mine everyday spring, summer and fall but I also only work 15 miles round trip from home. With a hard top, no soft top or frame in the car, half tank of gas my car weighs 2606 lbs according to my accuset scales. I run the escort wagon springs in the front and stock front springs in the rear, front BMW sway bar and stock rear sway bar. Last year I found a good used softtop and frame and installed it in the car and put the hardtop on my other car. I have not weighed it since.

First and foremost is the car is an absolute blast to drive, tire shredding donut machine. I've done a few SCCA road rally/driving tours and I've autox it a few times... the car is fun. I can tell from auto crossing it that it would need a brake upgrade before doing any track time.

Second, the things I would do different.
1. Less rear end gear. Definitely do not need 3.27s in my opinion, I feel 2.73 would be a better choice... maybe lower.
2. I bought a spec stage 1 clutch just to have something a little better then stock. It chatters all the time, worst when its hot. When its cold outside, with a passenger in the car and the gas tank is full then it seems fine. Seems to be something to do with weight. Wish I would have just put a stock replacement in.
3. The firewall insulated pad was destroyed on my car when I got it so I left it off. On longer drives you can feel some heat from the firewall, not really bad but noticeable.
4. When I modified the oil pan I wish I would have know that the back would sit lower then the sub frame. I would have cut it down so it wasn't lower then the sub frame and maybe made it wider.
5. I also milled the lower intake where the upper intake bolts on and I didn't need to do that for hood clearance - However now I might be able to raise the entire engine up to get the pan up even with the sub frame. I spent a lot of time getting the engine close to the sub frame and steering rack to get clearance at the hood.
6. I always had plans to install the A/C and wish I would have installed everything right away but was too excited to get it done. I hope I don't have to change much to get everything to fit.

Anyway it was a fun build and its a fun reliable car to drive, the best part is it is super simple and it just works.

BTW, in the fall season with the colors, cool air, top down, on a twisty road... that exhaust rumble, its a shame we only get that for a few weeks out of the year.