Would you be able to post the pinout to the LS7 MAF that worked? What did you end up doing with the open hole in the LS7 intake?

for intake hole i found a plastic pipe cover from something, possibly the wix fuel filter that was a really tight fit.

The pin out that worked was: for a 2000 engine.

ecu - 5pin - color - function
red 31 - a - yellow - maf sensor
red 1 - b - black/white - ground
power - c - pink - power
red 57 - d - black (poss. blue) - iat sensor ground
red 33 - e - tan - iat sensor signal

no reverse
 

i blew a rad hose and had to have my car towed back home. I put everything back together and it started up fine and runs.
BUT, no water is going into the heater and the transmission wont back up. I can shift into reverse fine but releasing the clutch there is nothing. no noise, no engagement. i had the car in neutral to roll onto the tow truck. no indication of damage under the car.

any thoughts? i am hoping i dont have to pull the transmission, but i cant think of anything else.

I have to think they are unrelated. So the rad hose blew off, or blew a hole in it? Did the engine overheat? And you say that you are not getting heat now? I had to backfill the heater lines on mine and then topped off to get mine filled correctly.

And you have forward gears and motion but you can engage reverse but just can't move backwards? No idea there. You could jack the car up and see if in reverse you can rotate the driveshaft. If so, something is stripped in the gearbox it sounds like. Drain the fluid and check for any metals bits.

ya the rad hose blew off. i think there was some sort of air lock in the heater. i took off the tail housing on the transmission and the result is in the pictures. I must say it's a sad day when you open the transmission and pieces fall out. the fluid was burnt.

i'm in the process of removing the transmission now. i'm going to lift the car off the engine and transmission. i'm too old to bench press the transmission.

Sorry to hear about the trans situation. I've had to drop the trans a few times already and a cheap transmission jack has done me well w/out having to muscle it too much. Or a regular jack with the transmission adapter. If you have a lift that will work.

ya, it's a bummer. i suspect a bad reverse gear bearing. it did bad things to the main shaft, so it's going to be spendy.

I've got the engine etal out of the car now. during the build i pivoted the body at the rear jack points and i could lift it by hand. this time i am pivoting it on the rear wheels and i needed a hoist to lift it.

I got bad news today about my transmission. I had taken it to a local rebuilder and he has decided he doesnt want to touch it. He suggested a Dougnash 5sp.

There are several good companies that deal with it. Tick and Hawkes comes to mind.

just got my transmission back from Tick and spent the weekend installing it and rebuilding the exhaust. Should be finished tonight.

Not too bad on the turn around time. What was it, 6 weeks? If you don't mind, what did it end up costing? If my transmission is not nice and smooth I might want to get mine rebuilt.

yes 6weeks, two weeks for shipping and 4 weeks for the rebuild. I used this package and picked new bearings. if i did it again i would have spend the $250 for expedited. So
$1500 for the package + $755 in parts. The shift into second is a bit harsh, but the rest is smooth.

It's all back together and back on the street again. i'll drive it around near home a bit and then check everything for tightness and leaks. hopefully, i've got the exhaust high enough to go over a speed bump this time.

Took the car out to the road for some last pics before tack it off the road.

Please excuse my ignorance, I am on my first Miata and ready to do LS already... What instrument cluster is that ? I am guess a Dakota Digital ? Part number or link

VEI Systems, vei systems custom gauge cluster. i sent them the layout and they built the cluster for me. They were a typical smallish company to work with, a bit slow with custom work and communication was spotty. I really like the result. The only down side is the gas gauge which is a bit prone to sloshing.