2000 Miata V8 conversion with 2000 LS1 & 6 speed & Getrag
 

This car has been sold and is currently in the Dallas metro area.

Like some others here, after seeing the YouTube video series on the Project Thunderbolt I got the itch to get a Miata and drop a V8 drivetrain into it. To that end I purchased a clean 2000 Miata Special Edition for $6000 and drove it for almost a year while researching and deciding on a plan.
After pricing the various Flyin Miata installation parts and looking at the cost of new drivetrain parts, I decided that for me and my budget a used engine and transmission and Getrag differential in combination with most of the Flyin Miata conversion pieces is the way to get it done. I will be using some misc. parts from various sources because a number of threads on here have items that in my opinion are better than the way that Flyin Miata does it.
Hopefully everybody will be able to get a good idea how the conversion works with less than the $30,000+ budget that it takes to do with all new pieces.
The end result was be a sleeper Miata with very little external cues to give away the performance potential for a conversion cost of $17,000 plus $6000 to purchase the car and spending 6 months on and off to complete in my 1 car garage.

First off is the Miata I will be starting from, a clean 2000 Special Edition with 110,900 on the odometer when the teardown began. It already has 16" wheels and new tires that will stay in place for the time being. Bought it early in 2016.
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The engine and transmission I found came from a 2000 Z28 SS with a 6 speed manual transmission with 82,000 on the odometer. The salvage bought the car at auction and claimed they were parting it out because they can make more money that way and they are in the business of parting out cars. I am a bit suspicious because the car looks clean in the pictures.
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Received the engine and transmission with all the wiring harness and hoses and accessories still attached. Everything looks visually clean but inspection and compression test will tell the tale. Paid $5300 for it with the ECU reprogrammed to disable the key interlock function and delete any emission related codes. Will still need to do a final tune after the car gets up and running. At the time of purchase I didn't know exactly what pieces I would be using so I asked for everything I could get.

Edit after the fact;
Engine has been great with no issues.
No vibration or oil burning or clatter or anything else indicating any problem.
Cylinder pressure check was great with all cylinders testing to just a couple of pound variation.
The valve covers were pulled for inspection and the engine looks well maintained with no bent pushrods.
The rear main seal did leak a couple of drops of oil every day or two but replacement of the front and rear seals made that problem go away.
The transmission worked correctly for about a month before the 3rd and 4th gear syncro's went out, which in turn forced a rebuild.
While the engine was out of the car I had the transmission upgraded to Viper specs and blueprinted to supposedly be good for something over 600 ft. pounds of torque.
Way beyond a simple rebuild and worth every penny for the long term peace of mind.
Also replaced the crappy factory shifter with a 5.0 aftermarket shifter for the T56.
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One thing I tried to figure out early on is what can be done to the car in advance of the actual tear down process. The answer is that not a whole lot can be done while still keeping the car in driving condition.
There are a couple of small items.

The hood can be modified to utilize the aftermarket hood latches and add the rods that hold the hood open if the Flyin Miata Corvette style intake will be utilized. If a normal intake tube is utilized the hood needs no modification.
If utilized, the Flyin Miata Corvette style cold air intake modifications could be made to the hood and front plastic but would just be sitting there waiting for the engine. The actual intake cannot be installed due to interference with the Miata radiator cap.
The windshield washer bottle kit can be installed in the firewall location.
The front and rear suspension bushings could be replaced and upgraded but this would require an additional alignment job.
The front fender support braces can be installed.
A shock tower brace could also be bought and installed as long as it would clear the V8 intake.
The upgraded brakes can be installed.
Upgraded shocks can be installed.
Depending on the choice, upgraded tires and wheels can be installed.
If desired, a roll bar can be installed.
If desired a gauge pod could be installed on the windshield pillar but the instruments would probably not be hooked up. I did oil pressure and voltage meter so I could have actually wired everything to work with the 4 cylinder engine if desired.

Beyond that, there is not much that could be done to the car without tearing it down.
Of course the engine and transmission and rear differential could be purchased and have all the little things done to prepare them for the swap so they would be sitting aside and ready to drop in. There are several small sensors to be installed for the final gauges and the wiring harness can be modified, depending on which front accessory drive configuration is utilized.
A used Corvette cold air intake could hopefully be located for a couple of hundred dollars to save a big chunk of change over the brand new piece I bought.

Edit: 2720 pounds on a certified scale is the finished weight after the conversion was completed with a full tank of fuel and nothing in the trunk except the spare tire and about 10 pounds of tools.
Added it here because that seems to be the most common question.

The first thing I spent money on while researching the swap was to get my tiny 1 car garage up to snuff and usable. Space is, and will always be, a problem. You can only do so much with a 1 car garage and no lift capabilities other than a floor jack. That said, I feel I gave my space as much usability as possible.
I gutted the garage back to bare stud walls and wired in 8 outlets and 6 lights. Installed insulation so it will be at least reasonably usable when it is hot or cold. Installed a new garage door with a nice electric door opener so no more hand raising the door when moving the car in or out. The old door was a wooden pivot style from the 50's that was really heavy but still worked. The new one is a nice aluminum insulated model that goes up and down real easy at the push of a button. New sheet rock and paint finished it off real pretty. Last thing was to install a gas heater to keep it warm in the Winter. Still haven't addressed a 110 volt air conditioner for this Summer but that will happen.
For tools I visited Harbor Freight and spent a wad of money. They have a super low profile jack that lifts higher than most that somebody on another thread liked real well so I got one. Bought small and medium sized jack stands and a $200 rolling tool chest that is doing a good job of holding all the tools I bought to do the project. Lots of Metric tools. I "donated" almost of my tools to a thieving former son-in-law so had to start pretty much from scratch. Didn't keep track of the cost but probably spent about $1500 at Harbor Freight and another $500 at Lowe's on tool related stuff.
At least I do have a nice concrete floor and enough light to do the job.
For the garage update and tools I am guessing I am out about $4000-$5000. Not focusing on the money but I do like to keep track of such things and hopefully to give others an idea of where and how money gets spent when doing a project of this magnitude.

The next piece I bought is a Getrag differential.
First, I checked out what Flyin Miata says is the correct differential for the V8 Roadster kit that they sell and utilize. They mention the 2005 to 2008 Cadillac CTS-V differential with 3.73 gears or the same housing is available in other GM models and can be cross shopped.
With that information I used my rather pathetic internet skills to locate a used differential. The place I contacted said "We have a 2007 differential with 3.73 gears that has about 200,000 miles on the car or a 2010 CTS-V differential with about 100,000 miles and a 3.42 gear set.
Me being the smart guy that I am, totally ignored the year recommendation and bought the 2010 CTS-V differential.
BIG mistake because it is not compatible with the differential utilized for the V8 Roadster kit. I received the differential and figured out pretty quick that something was wrong. It does not have the 3 bolt driveshaft connection and the frame connections look all wrong. Called up the salvage and begged to please take back the wrong one. In the mean time they had sold the questionable 200,000 mile differential that would work.
Ended up costing me about $240 total in shipping charges. Hopefully some others can read this and learn from my expensive mistake.
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After that mess I backed off and posted a note on here asking about buying the correct piece and somebody answered and mentioned that I could probably do well by calling LKQ online to see about buying one that would work. A very nice lady helped me out. Originally I asked about a 2007 or 2008 Differential for a Cadillac CTS-V with 3.42 gears. She checked her computer and said that that particular car only comes with 3.73 gears and is available for about $800. Since I really want a different gear set I told her I would continue looking. She stopped me before hanging up and mentioned that she can cross check for compatible parts in her data base. She checked and found a compatible Getrag differential with 3.23 gears and limited slip from some Cadillac SUV with less than 100,000 miles for $250 plus shipping. Even though I want 3.42 I jumped all over that on the presumption that for that price I am not out too much money if I don't like the gearing. Hopefully it will do the trick and I can cruise at about 1600 rpm on the highway. Who knows, I might even be able to get 30 mpg.

Edit after the installation;
In hind sight I should have bought a brand new differential.
Getrag's are known for being sloppy on the lash and mine was no different.
After driving the car for a couple of months I noticed that the internal clutches are slipping more than I would like under hard throttle.
While taking someone for a short "test ride" where I did a roll on full throttle from a first gear rolling start (first time I did it in the car) we noticed that there was some fishtailing.
That told me that the differential clutch was slipping.
A couple of weeks later a leak appeared with one of the axle seals leaking as the car is being driven down the road but not while the cat is sitting in the garage.
I jacked up the rear of the car and removed the differential to replace the seals.
When I drained the fluid the magnetic plug had a lot of small metal grindings which tells me that the generous lash situation is not going to hold up to hard use.
Time to do what I should have done at the start and either buy a new differential or get this one rebuilt.
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While waiting for some of the Flyin Miata kits to show up I went ahead and cleaned up the engine and transmission. Did not do a compression test yet but cleaned up the outside and removed the oil pan and unbolted the transmission and bell housing from the engine and the accessory stuff that will not be re-used.
It all looks nice and clean now and ready for the new accessory parts. As part of the dis-assembly I looked at the clutch plate. Other than having some surface rust from something (I have my suspicion what it is) the clutch looked great and appears to be the factory clutch with some life left in it. I will be switching it out for a new piece anyway because I don't care to be removing the transmission a year down the road to change out a burned up clutch. That (and a few other things) tell me that the car was not thrashed or modified so there is hope that I have gotten a good drivetrain.
Next I removed the transmission drain plug to get the last of the fluid out of it and inspect the fluid for junk. No junk or metal shavings but the little bit of fluid remaining dribbled out looking like Peptol Bismol. A red flag for me. I checked into it and found out the T56 is supposed to use automatic transmission fluid, who would have thought. The pink color tells me that there was some water mixed in with the fluid. Between that and the rust on the outside of the pressure plate ears I am suspicious that the car was involved in a flood. Not sure how to go about inspecting the transmission more carefully. If anybody has any thoughts, please share them with me.
When I removed the oil pan from the engine everything looked pristine with a light coating of clean oil, no shavings or metal bits or engine parts laying around. Hopefully whatever put the moisture into the transmission did not make it into the engine. I have not removed the valve covers yet or done a compression test as I decided to put the engine into my storage building to free up space so I could start tearing apart the Miata.
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You're off to a great start! Thanks for posting the build thread...
By the way, my take-out LS2 and T56 appeared to come out of a low-level flood GTO. I had a water line on the flywheel just below the rear main seal. But zero issues inside both units. I hope you have the same good fortune I did.

Building a V8 Miata is not one huge and complex project taking months but rather a series of small projects that combine into an end product. With that outlook in mind, I decided to do a simple starting project.
Bought the Flyin Miata windshield washer bottle relocation kit because it is something that can be done even before any teardown happens.
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The long necked plastic container on the right side of the picture is the washer bottle and you can see how much real estate is gained by relocating it. Definitely a real worthwhile thing to do.
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Pretty simple. You simply remove the factory washer bottle from the car and remove the fluid pump motor from the bottle to reuse in the new bottle. Once that happens you relocate the new bottle assembly into the open area behind the firewall where the windshield wiper mechanism goes back and forth as the wipers are sweeping.
The package includes wires to extend the power from the right side of the car to the left side of the car but knowing that I would be modifying the wiring in the future, I decided to leave the new bottle unpowered. The bolts and brackets in the package are normal plated bolting and bare steel brackets so I put some flat black paint on them so they would not stand out too badly against the darker engine bay color.
There is enough existing rubber hose to go across the car from left to right and connect into the factory connector but if you want to make the installation look cleaner you can remove the factory hoses and clips and flip them around so the hood mounted hose connection is on the left to make the installation look cleaner.
For those of you interested in saving a few bucks, PJ McGarvey's build threads mentions where you can buy the bottle directly from a Japanese supplier and make your own brackets for half the cost of the kit but I decided to splurge on the kit.

Edit;
After the fact I painted the bottle matte black with just a vertical stripe on the back side to visually see the liquid level.
It disappears into the background and looks much better to me than the white bottle.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...69a60b3d98.png


The kit installed in it's new home.
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Next up was a project that I could do completely separate from any other modification, new shocks, V-MAXX Classic coilovers.
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The old shocks were factory original 17 year old items that were in real bad need of replacement. It tool me three evenings to get them all replaced and another hour to get them adjusted at the ride height I want. One shock was defective and Flyin Miata was out of the particular one's that I had. Took a 2 week wait while more came across the ocean on a slow boat. They sent me a replacement and all ended well. A couple of YouTube video's on replacing Miata shocks were real helpful.
The new shocks made a definite difference in how the car acted over bumps.
When I called them up, the Flyin Miata person recommended a much more expensive shock since I knew at the time that I would be doing a conversion but since I am a road person who will probably never do any heavy duty performance driving I decided to go with the $695 set.

Been buying parts and noticed something odd.
Based on the Flyin Miata parts list I bought a C6 Corvette starter from Rock Auto for about $110.
I specified 2007 when ordering.
All fine and good except it looks different than the 2000 LS1 starter.
Here is a picture of both side by side.
Attachment 8587
Even though the Corvette starter is shorter and will clear the headers, the bolting support areas are different dimensions. Just one thing to know if you are using a LS1 drivetrain with the Flyin Miata instructions and parts list.
There is another thread, P J McGarvey if memory serves correct, where he compares a number of starters to find out which will work. He mentions that there are weaker starters and stronger starters. On the picture you can see the face where the serial number is put on the new starter is probably 3" lg. while the support area for the old starter is only about 1/2". The end result is that you will need a new starter bolt but (hopefully) everything will bolt up correctly and will end up with a better supported starter. From other threads I am doubtful I will be able to utilize the small heat shield.

The connector to the wiring harness is different from the LS1 starter connector but in accordance with another thread, when you remove the covering from the wiring harness, the other end of the starter connection has the correct connecter to work with the Corvette starter.

It took me a couple of days to remove the 4 cylinder engine and 6 speed transmission because I am slow and try to be careful. My original intention was to unbolt the front subframe and raise the body off that to do the removal but after checking out the amount of room in my 1 car garage I came to the conclusion that pulling the engine out in the conventional manner would be more efficient.
Off came the hood, all the various stuff was disconnected and the fluids drained and then the assembly was removed with a cherry picker.
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The final step of that process was to get everything out of the garage so the floor could be cleaned. The non-running car was pushed onto my rather steep driveway and the drivetrain was taken to my storage building until it gets sold. If anybody knows a buyer for the stuff, please have them drop me a note.
Edit: All the drivetrain is sold. Got $750 for the engine with computer and wiring and accessories. Sold the transmission for $500. Got $500 for the rear end with axles but had to drive 150 miles to meet the buyer half way.

Since I am waiting for the front subframe kit from Flyin Miata, I decided to do the fuel tank modification next. When watching the Thunderbolt video series, I noticed that Tom made a little BooBoo in doing the fuel line upgrade after doing the Lizard Skin insulation. He had to back up and grind some of the Lizard Skin in order to install the frame rails and fuel line. Learning from his mistake I will be installing both BEFORE the Lizard Skin stuff is sprayed in place.
The first picture is the Flyin Miata instruction sheet opened to the fuel system modification page and two items that are removed and discarded.
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Flyin Miata sells a real nice fuel upgrade kit but the instructions are really sketchy and had me doing some head scratching before I got it figured out.

First off, the kit includes a pretty red cap that I could not figure where it might possibly go. After doing the entire switch I figured out that it plugs one of the unused lines on the charcoal canister.
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I did not take a picture of the supplied kit but they send a real nice list to cross check against the parts. The list shows the manufacturers part numbers as well as Flyin Miata part numbers so it would be easy for somebody to get the stuff direct and save a couple of bucks if they wanted to do it the hard way. I prefer to push the easy button.
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The instructions tell you what to do to the assembly that unbolts from the fuel tank so I will leave that alone except to mention that you need to look real hard at the wiring harness that needs to be spliced due to the new pump using a different connector. Pay attention to the + and - shown on the old pump. On mine the dark blue wire is + and the black wire is -. On the new pump the + is red, which makes it easier to visually tell which is which. I had to look real hard to make sure which was blue and which was black because in the shadow they both look dark.

The kit includes three braided steel lines, one long and two short. The two short lines go between the tank connections and the filter and you MUST connect specific tank lines to specific filter connection points. Also, the 90 degree end of each line connect to the filter as best I could determine. The instructions gave no guidance. The picture shows how I ended up doing the line. Make note that the central fuel pump line connects to the edge connection on the filter and the return tank connection connects to the center filter connection. It seems backwards but the instructions were very specific in telling which ends connect together.
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The instructions simply say to mount the new filter in the same location as the original. I was not able to utilize the same mounting holes or the old filter bracket so I drilled a small hole and used a self tapping bolt to mount the filter close to where the original sat with the outlet connection pointing down. Might have to move it a bit when connecting the long fuel line but it is good for now.
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As part of the process of doing the fuel upgrade I removed the rear end housing so the fuel tank could be removed. Not necessary in 20/20 hind sight.
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If doing it over I would simply remove three fuel tank bolts and loosen the other so the fuel tank could shift enough to allow the hoses to be fed down beside the tank. The stuff being removed from the tank to allow changing of the pump can be done from inside the passenger compartment. Probably cut the time for the whole project in half and get rid of all the heavy moving and lifting. Live and learn from my mistake.

Since the drivetrain was removed from the Miata I spent about a week of evenings getting the engine compartment ready for surgery and removing almost everything from the passenger compartment.
One thing I noticed on the first couple of builds that Flyin Miata did was that they did not completely remove the wiring harness from the car (with the exception of the engine harness) so I followed suit and zip tied the various harnesses out of the way as much as possible.
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I am thinking it will work if I cover the wiring and fenders with some sort of protection but we will have to see.

Edit: One thing I should have done was to go ahead and remove the fender skins. Got a couple of small scratches during the course of the conversion and the fenders had to come off anyway while installing the fender braces.

Next on the "to do" list was to remove the passenger compartment braces so that the transmission tunnel can be enlarged. In his video Tom used a neat spot weld cutter but I took the old fashioned path and simply drilled out the spot welds. It leaves some rather large holes to be filled but I will put a thin sandwich plate between the two pieces when it comes time to weld them back in place and it should re-weld just fine. All together it took me about 2 hours and half a dozen drill bits. Since somebody on a thread I scanned mentioned getting them switched upon installation I marked them with L and R. Hopefully I can remember which is which, but you can never tell with an old fart like me.
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Congrats on the start of your build, looking good so far.

Thanks for all your help P J.
You answered many of my questions and concerns as I was planning on my build path and I am confident you will help me with many of the hurdles to be overcome as the build progresses.

Hurdles, many there will be. -Yoda

Already have a nice pile of parts, mostly from Flyin Miata, in boxes stacked in my work room but decided to order more stuff on my list so that it would be sitting around when the time comes to install anything that is still needed.

Cross checked Jegs and Summit Racing and found out that the Lizard Skin products are cheaper thru Jegs at this particular moment so I pulled the trigger on 2 gallons of thermal insulation & 2 gallons of sound insulation and a spray gun. (edit: After the fact, 1 gallon of each would have been plenty)
Also got an EGR block-off plate since I have a 2000 model with a nice hole in my intake due to the removal of the useless factory exhaust manifolds.

Purchased the CTS-V accessory drive kit and water pump from Summit but they were out of the necessary balancer so I ordered it from GMPartsDirect.

Bought a clutch kit with flywheel from Rock Auto. Not a real expensive one and I will check it our to see if it works to my satisfaction. If it sucks I will pull it back out and see about spending more money on something better. I had a buddy who bought the same kit for his TransAm and he is happy with it. Edit: After driving the car for a while I can say that the clutch kit I purchased from Rock Auto works extremely well for the 350 HP that the stock engine is putting out. Hooks up great with no slippage under heavy throttle and works smoothly with no chatter.

Something I had overlooked when ordering the subframe kit and rear differential kit from Flyin Miata was the fender braces. Lots of people fabricate their own and I considered going that route since I work in the Engineering department of a fabrication shop and could have them cut out whatever I want on our burning table. Decided to go the easy route and buy the V8 Roadster braces so I called them up since the previously ordered kits had not been delivered yet. Added them to my order and they will package them in with the front subframe kit, which is scheduled to ship out some time in the next week. (edit: shortly after receiving my V8 Roadster braces, I got a flyer from Flyin Miata showing that they sell a style of brace that looks to be substantially stiffer than the V8 Roadster braces. If doing over I would have gone with the Flyin Miata brace)

For major items, I still need to pull the trigger on whatever I will do on the exhaust system and radiator and cold air intake.
The current radiator on my Miata is a Mishimoto high performance replacement single pass with dual fans that might work with the LS if I want to fight thru the hose routing issues.
For the cold air intake I am wobbling between the Corvette snorkel style of intake or the cold air system that has the filter in front of one fender in the dead air space where it can get good cold air thru the front air dam vent hole. The Corvette snorkel sure does look outstanding but I really don't like having to cut the hood and use hood pins rather than a normal latch.
With the exhaust system beyond the headers the Flyin Miata system is sure tempting as being a bolt on system that looks and performs really well, but on the other hand, there is a local muffler shop a few blocks down the road where they will custom bend an exhaust system and use whatever mufflers I supply. They do a real nice job and would probably cost half the price of the Flyin Miata exhaust.
Those are things I will thrash around in my head and see which little voice comes out on top when the time comes to decide.
Edit: When the time came I went with the Flyin Miata cold air intake kit as well as their exhaust system. No regrets on either except that perhaps I could have purchased a used Corvette cold air intake piece and saved some money. The exhaust is outstanding and worth every penny.

Made some progress this evening by starting on the actual body surgery.
"Borrowed" some high temperature flexweave cloth that we use to lay down near welding and cutting and grinding where we need to protect some specific area or part. Since it is not the softest stuff in the world I layered drafting sized paper sheets underneath to protect the paint and glass. In my opinion this method will work better than soft flammable cardboard. Might have gotten lucky with cardboard but now I don't have to take the chance.
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Once the high temperature cloth was in place I proceeded to grind off the lip on each side rail that overhangs the engine bay as I feel it will look cleaner as well as give about 1/2" more room on each side between the engine and side rails. Guess the factory thought sandwiched and spot welded was good enough for the four cylinder. Even though the Flyin Miata instructions say it is not necessary for the 99-05, I added a small cut and bent area at the top of the tunnel. A couple of build threads mentioned doing this on their NB and since there is space available when the heating duct is installed I went ahead and did it. A buddy will MIG weld stuff back together tomorrow. We will be removing the pieces so that the corners of the engine bay can be squared off and we will weld in the Flyin Miata patch plates and do the cutting and beating to enlarge the transmission tunnel.
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Once he welds the frame rails together I will take a look and if I feel the weld quality is not 100% I will get some 1" x 1" angle to weld over the corner to add strength at the joint.

Until the V8 Roadster front subframe kit and rear differential installation kit arrive in a couple of weeks I will probably working some other small projects but I am nearly at a stopping point. Plenty of time for cleaning up everything and double checking to make sure there is nothing else that needs to get on order.

"Forceps please"

Wish I'd done that frame rail mod myself, would make the engine bay look just a bit larger and cleaner.

Lookin' good. WRT the transmission. If you just want a peek inside, and who doesnt, it's pretty easy to remove and replace the tail piece. If you go past that it's more complex, but doable. I can also recommend dropping the car over the engine. it's a lot easier to put the engine in the subframe outside the car.

I looked at several YouTube video's and didn't find any taking off the tail shaft. Anybody have a link, please share it with me.

Back to the surgery, a friend and I spent most of the day cutting and grinding and welding. Got the side rails welded but not completely ground, the two corner braces installed and welded, and the tunnel cut and beat out but not welded back up. Now it is about as far as the surgery can go until the front subframe shows up so I can do a trial fit. After looking at the corner welds on the frame rails I am definitely going to install a couple of 6" lg pieces of angle on each side. That factory sheet metal is just so thin that I don't trust it not to start cracking welds. It is a very fine line between getting the filler burned in and just burning clean thru the sheet metal.

One little thing I need to know is how to raise the windows with the dash removed and the the steering column removed. I tried laying the steering column in the interior and connecting the wires to the ignition then turning on the ignition and using the window switch to get the windows to go up. No luck. So what I need is some way to wire across the window motor to make them go up. The car needs to go outside for a couple of weeks while I clean up the garage and get the LS engine ready to install in the cradle for trial fit so please give me some direction. I can't be the first build to need to raise and lower the windows after. The wiring harness is disconnected.

Here's the manual the tail piece is section 2-1. if you want to button it back up at that point it's at the end section 4.8.1. You'll also be able to see the magnets. i'm kind of surprised you need the dash to raise the windows.you should just be able to plug in the switch and battery and woosh, but i dont have electric windows, so i can test that.

http://www.tremec.com/anexos/TRSM_T56_0711.pdf

Thanks for the transmission information. I will see about using it next week.

My lesson of the day was that I figured out about the power windows by going to the service manual, duuuu.
There are several wires running to the doors from the central wiring harness. Some speaker wires, a connector with 3 wires and a connector with 2 wires. Strangely enough the two wire connector is for the window motor. Plus is one and minus is the other. One polarity makes the window go up and reversing the polarity makes the window go down. About as easy as it can be.

Just now seeing this build as I haven't been around in a couple weeks. Looks like you have a great start so far, love those SE cars. I assume you have figured out how much you can make back by selling those factory parts? The six speed and the torsen in particular.

You should read through a couple of the popular build threads here. I saw several statements in here that have been dealt with in the past, particularly in Toysnakes and my own.

Thanks for checking out my build. I followed your build and printed out your entire build thread to use for reference.

Since my thread is using 75% Flyin Miata kits with the other 25% being used parts or stuff sourced from other places, my intent is to highlight the places where the Flyin Miata instructions are lacking. The further I get into this build the more I am finding that the Flyin Miata instructions for each of their component kits is really sketchy so my intent is to flesh out each one as I get to it in order to help out others down the road.
The Flyin Miata conversion instructions are free and that cost is reflected in the quality of the instructions.

I have had my original drivetrain up for sale over on Miata dot net but not much interest on the differential or engine. I did sell the transmission for $500. The engine has low compression on no. 3 cylinder so I suspect the engine could use a re-ring since it is not burning any oil and it runs just fine. It might come down to he having to hone and re-ring the cylinders in order to sell it but that will be a project for after my V8 project is up and running.

Making some progress in a couple of small areas while waiting for the V8 Roadster front subframe and rear Getrag install kit.

The Flyin Miata oil pan showed up so I did the necessary trimming to the 2000 LS1 oil baffle to make it fit the oil pan. It appears that there are differences in the exact size of the baffle for various LS engines and mine is shorter than the one pictured in the Flyin Miata instructions so I had to trim a bit less than what is shown on the instructions. Also, it is not shown on my picture as I was still in the middle of test fitting when the picture was snapped but I had to trim the two corners from the back of the baffle to fit the shape of the oil pan. You can see on the left side of the picture that the baffle does not fit the shape of the oil pan in the upper left and lower left corners.
Attachment 8572
The Flyin Miata purchased oil pan (Moroso, if memory serves) is the style that has the machined block for a spin on oil filter. You have the option of a remote mount oil filter but I decided to go with the attached style even though the filter is real close to the header collector. Best will be to use some heat wrap on the header near the filter if I decide not to wrap the entire header. The pan does not come with gaskets or bolts and the bolting from the factory pan are too long to work. I used the header bolts that I had previously purchased and will buy more header bolts. The length was correct and they have a build in shoulder to give plenty of support.

Edit: One item that I had to correct has to do with the oil filter mounting bracket. Don't have a picture but it is an aluminum machined bracket that bolts to the underside of the oil pan to allow the use of a spin on filter. The piece that was supplied did not come with a gasket but does have two machined grooves machined with rubber O-rings installed in the grooves. The O-rings isolate the two holes that circulate the oil thru the filter. Originally I mounted the bracket without any gasket (other than the O-rings) because none was supplied. The problem with this showed up as I was driving the car around. My best guess is that the O-rings give enough seal so that no oil leaks when the car is just sitting in the garage but allows a small amount of oil to weep past as the pressure is higher as the car is being driven. It was a difficult thing to figure out because the oil was weeping out very lightly so there was no actual dripping visible when I would inspect under the car other than general oil coating the rear of the oil pan and the front of the bellhousing cover, which made me think it was the rear seal leaking. My fix was to remove the oil filter bracket and do a thin coating of Permatex Form-A -Gasket on the mating surface between the bracket and the oil pan. One other thing this fix brought out was that I should have used studs loctited into the block with nuts rather than using the supplied bolts. Once again, please learn from my mistake.

The next small project I decided to tackle is re-routing the heater core plumbing to move the firewall hole locations from the drivers side to the passenger side in order to keep the engine bay looking as clean as possible and to keep engine bay water hoses far enough away from the hot engine.
Some of the other build threads show the heater core and plumbing as being copper but for my 2000 the core and plumbing is Aluminum.
Attachment 8559

After doing some checking around I found it is common to solder aluminum to copper, which makes me feel comfortable doing a slip joint to connect the two materials and allow me to make a hard line which IMO is the superior long term solution over rubber heater hose. The lines run between the dash and the firewall in the passenger compartment so getting to them to repair a leak down the road would be VERY difficult and probably require removing the dash. A trip to Home Depot got me various fittings and tubing and solder to do the project. One thing of note when measuring the tubing is that the Aluminum tubing is not exactly the same diameter as 1/2" inside diameter copper tubing but it is just slightly larger and I was able to file down the outside diameter of the aluminum to press fit into a copper fitting. Another thing I included is a joint that will unscrew so that the heater core can be replaced pretty easily if needed at some future time. I took the opportunity to install a new heater core even though my old one visually looked excellent. Home Depot has Aluminum weld rod that has a low enough melting temperature to use for the Aluminum to Copper joint and YouTube has several video's on how to do it properly. In the picture I already removed one Aluminum end where it attaches to the heater core. It is the short piece sitting between the two longer pieces. One other item I purchased is a length of black insulation to fit over the copper tubing in order to insulate the passenger compartment from the heat being given off by the hot lines. After purchasing the insulating piece I have been debating if it will work correctly for hot applications as the only place I have seen it utilized is for cold Air Conditioning tubing. My other option would be to get some 3/4" or 7/8" rubber hose to slide over the copper tubing after it is complete. Either should insulate the tubing well enough.
Attachment 8560

Got the dry fit part way done in this picture. You can see the removable compression fittings just above where the aluminum connects to the copper. Need to cut the long ends to length because at the moment they have excess length. Think I have a plan for getting the turns thru the firewall firmly attached in place but need to mock up the air conditioning connections thru the firewall before deciding exactly where to cut the heater hose locations in the firewall. Also, the elbows thru the firewall will be threaded on one side so that I can thread in some stuff to do a pressure test with water. I am thinking 30 pounds should do it since radiator caps have a pressure relief at 30 psi or less.
Attachment 8561

Making more progress on the heater line routing. Got some items to finish up where it goes thru the firewall.
For me, it is important to be able to do a pressurized water test after finishing up all the copper tubing so a couple of elbows that switch to 1/2" pipe threads will be where the copper tubing goes thru the firewall. Bought two that had to be slightly modified.
Attachment 8562
Attachment 8563

Finished the dry fit of the copper tubing and soldered it. Easy to see this is my first try at doing copper tubing. The two long tubes needed some bending to fit close to the firewall.
Attachment 8564
Attachment 8565
Attachment 8566

And finally, where I intend for them to go thru the firewall. It appears to clear engine components and is much easier because it stays to the left of the air conditioner tubing. The big hole where the original Miata wiring harness goes thru the firewall will be plugged with some sheet metal.
Attachment 8567

Now to work up the fittings to be able to pressurize the lines. I am thinking adapting to the quick disconnect on my hose that connects to my compressor. My plan is to fill the entire line and heater core with water, putting the threaded ends of the line as the high points then pressurize it with air. Debating on the pressure. Radiators have caps that pressure relieve between 20 and 30 pounds so a 35 pound hydrotest with minimal air in the system should sufficiently test the system.

The big hole where the original Miata wiring harness goes thru the firewall will be plugged with some sheet metal.


Well, I finally got around to water testing the coil and tubing.
It went well except for the location where the factory clamp attaches the tubing to the heater core.
That seal leaked just from putting water into the system even without pressuring it up. I got some silicon sealer and slathered it around that joint and let it dry for a day.
Refilled the system with water and pressured it up to about 30 pounds by completely draining my compressor then connecting the lines then letting the compressor to 30 PSI before turning it off. The heater assembly is ready to reinstall in the car.
Attachment 8568

Edit to update on trial fit:
During the engine trial fit with all the fittings in place it looks like the firewall connections are simply too close to the rear most coil pack.
Going to do some looking for parts but barring some sort of saving item it looks like I am going to have to redo the tubing and go thru the fire wall on the left of the air conditioner connections. The Yellow Submarine build has the connections going over the air conditioning tubing and being located to the left of them but I thought I had enough clearance.
Teach me to not pay enough attention to clearances.
Attachment 8569


I re-routed the tubing to the passenger side of the air conditioning lines. A tight fit but it works.
Attachment 8570


As you can tell from a picture taken from the engine bay, the heater connections are visually to the left (passenger side) and lower than the air conditioning holes.
Attachment 8571

May want to think about an oil temp sensor in the pan while you have it out. I'll be removing my pan for other reasons and will be doing this. Just weld a bung or similar threaded nut to the pan for whatever sensor you use and run your wiring.

Been debating that very thing.
What size bung are you adding? I purchased a package of five Oxygen sensor bungs to put in the exhaust system and will have an extra or two available.
One thing I definitely intend to do is make use of the factory Miata gauges even though they are just sweep gauges without specific pressure or temperature marks. In order to add extra gauges I purchased one of the windshield pillar gauge pods that hold two gauges. Still debating on exactly what I want to go into them. Was hoping for some multi-function gauges but they don't seem to be available from Summit or Jegs.
If two additional gauges are all that end up being added, my current favorites are Oil Pressure and Voltmeter since the Miata does not have any sort of factory Volt gauge at all. My alternator went out 6 months ago and left me stranded. A voltage gauge would have saved that particular pain in the behind.
At one time I considered putting gauges in the cubby hole in the center console but I really like that for storage, and the Miata doesn't have much in the way of cubbies to put small items.
Another thing I would like very much would be to have a clock but haven't figured out a nice clean way to install one.

Another thing I have been contemplating is buying an aftermarket wiring harness instead of modifying the factory Camaro Harness. Cutting and patching the factory harness give me nightmares about starting the car and having it catch on fire and burn to a cinder. That happened to my 1972 Z28 Camaro about 30 years ago and it sure is a good way to make a grown man cry like a baby.
http://store.custombuiltmotors.com/e...d-oem-ecm.html
$750 and it appears to have long enough computer lead to let the computer mount in a number of places inside the passenger compartment.

Edit: I ended up buying the extended length wiring harness and it worked even better than I could have hoped. Detailed in a later post with pictures.

This is the oil temp sensor I used on the Miata before the swap, it threaded nicely into the oil pan drain plug. That won't work on the LS oil pan so I bought a matching nut and will weld it onto the pan as a bung. Should work nicely

Attachment 8473

Attachment 8474

Still working on small things while waiting for the V8 Roadster front subframe.
Pulled off the factory front subframe and removed the components that will be re-used.
Going with new braided brake lines and new Flyin Miata bushings for the front and rear control arms. Working on the front first.
Attachment 8556

The other thing I will be doing is to do a preliminary engine placement to check the firewall massaging in order to make things go smoother once I do the final fit and massage after the new subframe gets here. The wooden spacers are intended to keep the engine centered in the bay. Didn't take a picture but I also used wood spacers to keep the transmission centered and the shifter in the correct location. Hopefully it is close enough to the final location that no further beating is required. It will be nice to get the engine fit because almost everything else is on hold till that happens.
You can see where the cutting and welding to square up the frame rails cleaned up nicely. As part of the final welding there will be some fabricated angles placed over the corner weld so that everything gets stiffened even further. Don't need any cracking of the frame rail down the road. I will try to get some close up pictures of that gusseting because I have not seen where any other build threads are doing this modification and I feel it gains some valuable real estate and looks much cleaner for the final install.
Attachment 8557
Attachment 8558

i would really recommend test fitting the engine with the subframe if possible. Also, you'll want to have the bell housing bolted up because that's what really needs the clearance

Absolutely, you are correct Steve.
I got interrupted in the middle of my previous post due to a family emergency.

To test fit the engine I raised the body then slid the engine and transmission (on a moving dolly) under the engine bay, positioned it where I expect the subframe will put it, the lowered the body back down and held it in place with wooden spacers.
I also cut some 1 x 2 x 7" lg. pieces of lumber to act as spacers between the bellhousing and transmission tunnel and attached them to the bellhousing with duct tape. In theory this should give me 1" minimum spacing between the enlarged area of the tunnel and the drivetrain.
Attachment 8553

Next, I went into the passenger compartment and whalloped the sheet metal to fit closely.

Once the front subframe shows up I can fit it again with the subframe bolted into the final position. Should happen in the next 2 or 3 days as FedEx says the subframe is in transit.

Update,
Received the necessary parts to get the tunnel changes made.
As noted on the picture above, wood spacers were duct taped onto the bellhousing to give something to fit the tunnel against. The engine / transmission were installed into the car using the V8 Roadster hardware and I tried using a hammer to beat the sheet metal up against the spacers. Doesn't work by simply beating because the sheet metal flexes and bends away from the wood.
After some study and head scratching I made up a little piece to press the sheet metal into position and hold it long enough to tack weld the pieces together.
Attachment 8554
Attachment 8555

It works real good. The tunnel sheet metal gets pressed and held in place long enough to tack weld the metal together. The drive train is in place the entire time so that the fit is just right with no need to beat the tunnel after the fact. It also will (hopefully) allow me to shape the tunnel with just one engine / transmission test fit. Much better than beating and pushing by hand and having the engine in and out several times. It took me about 2 hours to get the left side tacked solidly into the proper shape. Should take about the same time for the right side tunnel so I should have it ready for final welding and sealing up in the next couple of evenings. I will have to remove the engine and transmission in order to do the final welding but in and out twice before being ready for the final paint and sealer is not too bad. Some installs mention being in and out 5 or 6 times.

Decided to tackle the front suspension since it was removed along with the subframe for the engine test fit.
Installed new rubber bushings from Flyin Miata. They are harder than the factory rubber but should not squeak like the real hard high performance stuff. A good compromise.
Used the collar and bolt method to pull the old bushings out and push in the new bushings. Also got factory Miata suspension bolts from Flyin Miata. Replaced the brake lines with new braided steel lines while everything is easy to get at.
Attachment 8551

Two packages are scheduled from V8 Roadsters that should contain the front subframe, transmission cross member pieces, the chassis stiffeners that run the length of the chassis underneath the passenger compartment, and the rear differential install kit.
The first package showed up, and in accordance with Murphy's Law it was the actual front subframe and cross member but the installation pieces must be in the second box that has not shipped yet. Not what I was hoping for but at least I have a pretty subframe to look at while waiting. Tomorrow I will probably test fit the subframe to my chassis to make sure it bolts up with no issues. Since I have the extra time, the best thing is to make sure everything is fitting properly.
Attachment 8552

Finally making more progress.

First, I decided to order a Flyin Miata shift handle that bolts to the T56 and threads on the factory Miata Shifter. $40 seems pretty steep for an allen head bolt welded to a small piece of plate. Could have made it myself for about $2
Attachment 8548

Next, several shipments finally showed up over two days. The biggest is the rest of the V8 Roadster kit to allow me to install the engine & transmission and differential into the Miata. This gives me plenty to work on. Since I have the various rear end parts lined up I decided to focus on that first.
Installed all of the new Flyin Miata rubber bushings so the suspension should be in top shape. The bushings that were removed looked to be fairly new so my guess is the person who owned it two years ago switched out all the bushings. If I was sure they were the harder rubber I would have just left them in and saved myself a day of work but since I have no way to know for sure out came the old and in went the new. If anybody wants the old rubber bushings and adjustment bolts let me know.
After that I welded in the new differential support bracket. It took a call to Flyin Miata since their instructions say to install the bracket at 3" from the support ledge to the center of the bolting hole while the V8 Roadster instructions say to install the bracket so that the differential points 1.5 degrees up from horizontal in the installed position. I went ahead and checked it as I was installing the bracket and in my case the 3" did equal the 1.5 degrees.
Attachment 8549
Attachment 8550

Tomorrow I should be able to mount the rear subframe into the car for the last time and then install the differential and axles.
Edit: After further consideration, I decided to leave the rear end out till after spraying the lizard skin insulation.

Oh yes, one last thing for today.
I decided to order the Painless Wiring harness for the LS1 installation that has an extra 48" of wire for mounting the ECU (Part no. 60905)
My hope is to be able to install the ECU either under the passenger seat or behind the passenger seat. Guess we will see.

You're making some good progress already. Once you drop the LS motor on to the subframe and then test-fit, any areas of concern will show up.
Really enjoy your approach to the heater core plumbing. If I was to do another V8M, I will probably do something similar to yours.
Carry on...

The transmission tunnel shaping went outstanding. In fact, it went well enough that it deserves a more detailed explanation.


I used some pieces of 1 x 2 wood strips tied together with duct tape
Attachment 8542


Attached them tot he outside surface of the transmission tunnel to act as spacers between the bellhousing and the tunnel.
Attachment 8543

Once I received the necessary V8 Roadster pieces to allow test fitting of the drivetrain I made up an adjustable wedge that sits in the footwell and pushes the side of the tunnel against the wooden spacers so that I was able to carefully tackweld the tunnel sheet metal together. The pre-fitting that I had done before the front subframe arrived was actually really close and would probably have done real well but the drivetrain appears to sit a hair towards the passenger side rather than centered between the frame rails.
Attachment 8544


After tack welding several places inside the passenger compartment I used the wedge to push areas of the tunnel and crawled underneath the car and tacked some places from the under side. After all the tack welding was complete I removed the engine and transmission and beat a place on the passenger side of the firewall where the engine was touching a dimple on the firewall. Welded some places that were not accessible while the drivetrain was installed and removed the wood spacers from the bell housing. Then, I put the drivetrain back in to verify everything fits. Now all I need to do is test install the throttle pedal assembly to make sure it has clearance and test fit the three AC/Heater assemblies that bolt to the firewall. Don't expect any problems but you can never tell.
Edit: The interior stuff test fitted really well. Don't see any interference problems.


Since that went so well I proceeded with fitting and welding some plate gussets that I am putting into the engine compartment on the frame rails where I removed the pinch plates that were spot welded. I never liked that area on build pictures I have seen as the pinch plates appear to stick out into the area where the headers pass close to the frame rails. Previously I had removed the pinch plates and welded up the corner joint to keep the box frame pieces strong.
Attachment 8545


After cleaning the paint from the fit-up area I installed some 1/8" x 1" flatbar with plug weld holes drilled along the length to add more strength to the joint.
Attachment 8546
Attachment 8547


It will take a bit of welding but should strengthen the frame rails and look better than the factory pinch plates. Once the plates are welded in place I will grind down the weld so everything looks nice and clean. After some seam sealer and a coat of paint it should look great.

I think I am FINALLY done with the welding in the engine bay and the transmission tunnel.
Went thru 5 pounds of MIG wire.
Unless something even worse comes along, I am going to call that the worst part of the V8 install.

Going to have to do quite a bit of grinding to clean it up because this was my first attempt at welding and it loos like a 6 year old did it in some places. Once it gets cleaned up and covered with seam sealer it should look acceptable.
Attachment 8540
Attachment 8541


One thing I figured out as part of the surgery process is that the Flyin Miata instructions dealing with the cut and shape of the tunnel are quite conservative for my car. My guess is that they are probably accurate for an NA. If you are cutting and shaping an NB, the first time around try to make the cuts about half the length of the instructions and test fit. You might have to enlarge it but it might be enough and save you a whole bunch of welding to close up the tunnel.
I did exactly the opposite and figured if the instructions say to make a 5" lg. cut that 8" would be better. Not a smart move in hind sight.

If I get energetic I might just take some measurements at the bell housing and transmission so that somebody could install those two items with the transmission cross member to get a good trial fit. I do know that the engine sits slightly towards the passenger side but the transmission shift handle appears to be really well centered right/left in the opening. Mine sits slightly rearwards and my passenger head touched the firewall forcing me to beat the right firewall back a bit in the area of the cylinder head, which means mine is about 1" further rearwards than some of the other install pictures I have seen.

One thing to be aware of now is to check for clearance around the throttle pedal. Make sure it has enough range of movement with carpet, etc installed. Easier to modify it now than with dash, console, carpet installed.

I bolted the pedal assembly in place yesterday evening and had about 1" of clearance to the metal. Is that sufficient?
If it is not enough my answer will probably be to heat and bend the pedal rod because the tunnel is right at 1" away from the bell housing in that location.
My method of using wooden spacers between the bell housing and the tunnel gives me the maximum amount of clearance between the pedal and the tunnel and I was very careful in the specific area where I knew the pedal would be situated.

Edit: The method of shaping the transmission tunnel gave me the most clearance possible and 1" was more than enough to clear everything nicely once the interior and carpet was put back in the car.

I would think 1" is plenty.

I like the frame rail solution, looks like you're taking your time to do things right.

Thanks for the kind words.
My opinion is that the build threads on this website have a progression of improvements and I am trying to help out in that respect.
A year or two down the road somebody will figure out improvements and I will be saying to myself, "You dummy. Why did you not think of doing it that way".

The other thin I feel is important is to highlight the things that are missing or incomplete in the Flyin Miata instructions. The instructions are free and it is really great they put them out there rather than charging people to gain from their experience but there is still room for improvement.

Yeah, that sounds more than what the carpet and any side-to-side slop in the pedal would take up. And you can bend the pedal a bit as well.

Yesterday evening was grinding and more grinding on welds. No fun but had to be done.

For a short break from grinding I went ahead and installed the frame stiffeners that run from front to back and bolt to the floor of the passenger compartment. I want these braces in place before spraying the insulation on the car so installing them now is the logical step in the assembly process.
My suspicion is that most would install the bolts with the heads inside the passenger compartment and thread the nuts from the under side of the car. I chose to do it the other way for a couple of reasons.
First, by having the bolt head on the underside of the car, the head can be tack welded to the support brace so it will stay firmly in place with no worry about the bolt loosening up and falling out at some point in the future.
Attachment 8538

Second, by putting the head outside the car in the elements, there is no worry that the threads could rust in the future. I have seen way too many bolts that have the threads so rusted that the bolt has to be drilled out. Not sure it will ever be a potential problem with this car because it has always been a garage queen and should continue to be one in the future but that is no reason to do things the easy way rather than the right way.
Attachment 8539

I will take a cut off wheel and nip the excess bolt length off flush with the top of the nut so it will not intrude into the floor any more than having the bolt head installed. The installation kit comes with nuts that have the nylon lock so hopefully the nuts will not back off in the future. Still might tack the nuts to the floor just to make sure.

Once the Lizard Skin insulation is sprayed in place, both the interior and exterior surfaces will be covered so hopefully no moisture can get into the area.

You mentioned being new at welding, and I'm no expert myself. My swap has been a good learning experience. With regard to the welds of your bolts to your frame rails, I'm not sure what welder you are using, but you may want to try turning up the dial on the thickness of metal just by the look of it to get some more heat into it. Or it might be you need to hold the electrode a bit closer to transfer more heat, or maybe the metal wasn't prepped to bare metal. Just some suggestions. :thumbsup:

You are correct. I had the welder set for doing patch welds to the thin transmission tunnel and used the same settings for tacking on the bolt heads.
They held well enough to tighten down the bracing nuts on the inside of the passenger compartment.
I will take a look this evening and see about setting it a bit hotter and putting in some better weld.

I would leave them be. If the welds were strong enough to successfully torque them, then they're good. The only reason to weld the head of a bolt is to turn it into a stud, but I'd rather leave it a "cold" weld, and not interrupt the material properties of the bolt. If somehow they are welded with a slight gap in between the bolt head and the frame rail, the load is now being taken up by the weld. If the weld is small enough that it's much less stiff than the bolt itselt, then the bolt head will seat properly to the frame rail and provide the proper clamp load, regardless of weld integrity. Worst case is the weld breaks when trying to remove the bolt.

Good enough, I will leave it alone then.
They were snugged in place against the floor of the cab when I tacked them so they were in the right place and tight against the rail flanges so the head should be nice and tight against the steel. The rail piece had the weld area cleaned, which was why I had to put primer over the bare steel areas.
Once I spray on the Lizard skin, the entire area should be nice and protected from whatever small amount of moisture the car sees.

Any thoughts on if I should add some stitch welds to hold the rails against the floor pan in addition to the bolting?

Well, this evening I finished up the welding and grinding and put a coat of primer on the engine bay and tunnel where the surgery was done.
Decided to trial fit the engine and transmission one last time even though everything looked great the last trial fit.
Still looks great.
Attachment 8534

Clearance is tight at about 1/2" on the passenger side firewall. It was hitting before I beat it with a hammer.
Attachment 8535

On the drivers side there is about 1" or more of clearance.
Attachment 8536

The flatbar stiffener angles welded to the engine bay frame rails came out pretty well after a coat of primer. The welds could have looked better but it is tough to get good looking welds when you are just making a bunch of short tacks.
Attachment 8537

Next on the list is to get the engine bay and interior and transmission tunnel nice and clean and ready for the Lizard Skin coating. One thing I just remembered that needs to happen before the insulation is to install the flush screw threads onto the new frame rails that allow for routing of the new fuel line.
Guessing the insulating and sound deadening will take a week or more because I believe it is supposed to dry for a while between coats. Since I work during the day, probably a coat each evening is about all I can expect.

Halfway thru spraying on the Lizard Skin insulation.
Put three coats of the sound insulation under the car and on the engine side of the firewall and inside the passenger compartment.

Makes a pretty good mess but hopefully I have things papered and taped well enough.
Attachment 8532
Attachment 8533

Starting this evening I will begin coating the temperature insulating Lizard Skin over the sound reducer. Too bad they don't have a combined product that would put down both at the same time. The temperature insulating product also mentions sound deadening properties but presumably it gives less sound reduction than the specific sound product.
Should be outstanding when it is all done.
Interior noise has been the biggest annoyance with driving the Miata.
Once it gets running and I get the time to do some drives, hopefully I will be able to report back that the coating is worth the money and time.
Rather than taping up the holes I simply bought some metric bolts and nuts and installed them on everything that has threads.
Two gallons of each is really generous (and expensive).
1 gallon of each would have gotten the job done because the Miata is a really small car.

Edit;
Since the sound reducing coating was sprayed in a whole bunch of locations, my intention is to focus on the potential heat transfer areas to lay down the temperature reducing coating. Specifically, both sides of the firewall and the exterior (underside) of the floor pan where the exhaust system and headers are located. There is also a heat shield bolted to the underside of the trunk that shields the trunk from the muffler heat that will get one coating of just the temperature control coating. I will put one thin coating of the temperature coating everywhere I think there might be some heat soak.

Very nice work and write up. I am following your build.