Nice work on the windshield frame. You saved a Miata from a sad life as a future rust bucket and are turning it into something far nicer than it could have every hoped for! Keep the updates coming...

 

Got my griffin radiator today
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/gri-1-58201-xls
Mounts should be here next week, Sure I could fab something but these come with nice rubber insulators. I'll still have to do some fab work to mount the mounts though. I'm kind of concerned about placement with the sway bar, it just seems to be right in the way of everything.

 

kind of on the fence if I want to try to fit the radiator under the core support or behind it. I'm worried about room for a fan and sway bar clearance, so I'm kind of leaning towards the forward mounting.

 

Nice job Steve. For my build I actually cut the front header and replaced it with 2x2" angle iron. That might have been over kill but it's what I had on hand ;-)
By cutting the part that bumps in toward the engine I was able to get rid of the hood latch, move the rad almost 3" forward and an inch +/- down. I also had a rock solid mount for the top of the rad. I to used a Griffin but I had a 3" core built to Miata specs with the Miata mounts for install and fans. It was a tight fit but I used stock fans and she never overheated.
I'm not sure what you are using for a subframe but with the BF set up they move the sway forward a bit. The front mounting hole becomes the rear and the rear one is used to stabilize the extension to get to the new front hole. A piece of 1x1 angle is all they use so it should work fine for you as well. I will caution you of this though, if you go that route be sure to get the sway bar reinforcement kit to firm up the stock mount. Even in non V8 cars the stock mounts are known for ripping off the frame with an oversized bar.

 

Do you have pictures of how yours is? and I've never seen a sway bar reinforcement kit? do you have a link or something?
Thanks.

 

Finished the seam welding in the engine bay around the strut towers this weekend. Also got the radiator all mounted up. I'm pretty happy with how it came out! Also got all my lizard skin stuff. 1 gallon of ceramic insulation, one gallon sound control, and the application kit with a spray gun and mixer.

 

Well, today had its ups and downs. I welded some small support rods to the bottom of the radiator mounts to give it some more rigidity. Then I decided to do a test fit of the subframe and headers on my spare engine... here's where the downs come in.

The V8R kooks long tube headers DO NOT fit with the bossfrog subframe. Not even close at all. So I'm going to be selling the Boss frog swap kit and will purchase a V8R swap kit so I can use these beautiful headers. I've only got one picture, but both sides had the same fitment issue.

 

Hi
how much are you asking for swap kit ?

thankz

 

Its pending sale at the moment, I'll let you know if it falls through

 

If for some crazy reason you end up selling the headers instead of the subframe then there is a better than average chance I'd take them.

Doubtful, but just throwing it out there.

 

And here I thought this stuff just happens to me! Sorry for the hassle and loss you are facing. You could keep the frame rails and trans mounts and just swap out the subframes.

Really nice welding you have going on there. I am envious at your skills in that department! Thanks again for documenting such a fine build here!

 

Well I finally got the complete Boss frog kit sold and purchased a V8R kit and some motor mount heat shields. It's supposed to be here in the next week or so. Best part about that was free in-state shipping. So while I did have to pay $140 in tax It's getting delivered for free.

As far as the welding, I took a class in college and learned a little but not much. I purchased my little 135 110V welder about a year ago and have been through about 10 spools of wire doing different things. I'm running flux core for now as I'm not trying to make anything too pretty and I don't have the space for a large gas bottle. In my limited experience I'd say Practice, Prep, and patience are the biggest factors. If you lack any of the 3 you're going to get poor quality welds every time.

 

Finally got the V8R kit, motor mount heat shields will be here soon. they were out of stock. Now to re-do my tunnel/firewall metal.

 

Are my pictures working for anyone else. On my end most of them are not working right. UGH really don't want to re-do all those.

 

I see them. V8R parts are sexy.

Now get'em out of your kitchen and into that roadster!

 

Gonna go by those measurements you gave me a while back for the tunnel. then wait till I get a trans and stuff in the engine back finished (painted) before I put the subframe and engine in.

 

None of my pictures were working for me so I went ahead and re hosted them all.

 

Got the NB cluster wired into the dash, had to lengthen 4-5 wires. I just depinned them from the NA harness and stuck the wires into the NB plugs.

 

I'm not sure if your wiring posts make me more or less scared to dive in.

I have a Miata harness sitting on the garage floor right now in a pile. I keep walking past it like it doesn't exist, but I really need to jump on it.

 

The wiring is horrible even to look at

 

I give mad props to those of you who spliced into the mazda harness. Those Mazda engineers jumping wires all over the place drove me nuts!

 

Meh, the Mazda harness is super simple compared to what I deal with at work (mostly high end German). So I wasn't to worried about it, but yes they do have a lot of splices and 't's.

 

seriously do you want to do my wiring too ? lol :wink:

 

Finally got a diff!!

 

SDSteve, awesome progress. I am looking forward to how the L33 works out.