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Figured I'd make a build thread here for my project. I bought my 91 miata a few years ago crashed for 900$. It was red, dented bumper, A shaped hood, real ugly, but it had coils rpf1s, Hard dog double diagnal and a racing wheel, oh and 76,000 warm weather only miles (I changed that).
None of that matters now cause Ive painted it twice, did the whole slammed/camber/stretched/tires/loud pipe.
Now Im on to v8 stuff. I bought a 355 70s truck block for 200$ with forged flat top speedpro pistons and thats about all I kept in it. I got a rebuild kit, flat tap howards cam (488/510 224/234@50 112lsa), Promaxx 200cc aluminum heads, scat steel crank, ported procomp high rise dual plane intake (edlebrock rpm rip off), holley 750 electric choke/vac secondaries, ebay block huggers, parts store waterpump starter alt etc. Broke it in on my stand and it seems good. I covered it up and stored in my garage until i get the car torn apart. Total for my engine build was 1500$
I have a mopar 8.25 live rear out of my 1999 cherokee that I welded the carrier and bought 29 spline 4340 ALLOY USA shafts and 9/16" studs.New wheel cylinders and axles seals. Total axle cost was 350$
I bought 15x10 6.5"bs "vision" racing wheels (weld replicas) they're basically the jegs wheels. and a set of Hoosier QuickTime pros 26/11.5. Total 600$
Matching skinnies up front 15x4 with cheap radials. Total 250$ (all the wheels were 95$ each.)
PLANS
- I will add to the roll bar and make it more of a "full" cage with door bars and a halo I guess its called. I make plans up as I go so time will tell.
- Also will be building a 4 link rear/plate the frame rails.
- Cowl hood scoop
- Gut everything that doesn't make it streetable
- Finish my jeep truggy so i can start tear down on the miata
I understand this sounds like a drag car to most but I have a extra set of wheels for a stock(ish) look and with a good 4 link i don't see why it wont handle. we'll see how that goes. Anyways, I'll post some pics and videos of what I have done now and as soon as i get my jeep on the road the miata goes in the garage and comes out a monster. I'll keep my spendings updated on here too won't be too long.
Before I get flamed, I have lots of diy fab/welding/bodywork experience and I'm not afraid of trial/error.
outside to outside of the tires measures 70" Don't know who's car this is, but I'm gunna copy the cage idea a littleThe mechanical fuel pump was just to run it on a stand, I'll use the feed/return lines on the car with an adjustable holley fpr made for efi fuel pumps to carb fuel pressures, something like ~ 4-7 psi
welded gears to gears and gears to carrier. my girlfriends miata in the back (shes got it slammed and camber and underglow etc.) welded tubes to center chunk, I think I warped the housing a tiny bit on one side. one shaft went in smooth other one needed a rubber mallet. Im not worried about it.
Thanks, I forgot to put in there that I have a Muncie m21 4spd and hurst shifter I got with a bell housing for 500$ so add that price in there. Also will be using stock sub frame and home made mounts for everything.
Last edited by Thereelbiged; 02-28-2018 at 10:53 AM.
got it on solid motor mounts as far back and low as possible. Valve covers are under the cowl and headers clear the subframe and steering. No cutting done to the subframe. Next is tranny mount
F
Finished trans mount, carb hat should fit under a 6 inch cowl exhaust clears steering just fine. Now I’m going to start hanging the rear on the coils and make some ladder bars
Your transmission cross member bolts to stiffener gussets welded to the factory subframe supports.
The factory subframe portion that you are connecting to is known to be a weak area even for 4 cylinder applications.
Presumably you are fabricating some rear ladder attachment points and will be adding strength in that area.
My guess is that when it is all done you will stiffen up both sides of the underneath of the chassis all the way from the rear to the front subframe attachment area.
All that is said to mention that it is my guess you will be stiffening the area where the transmission cross member attaches and so will need to do some modifications to the attachment area.
You may have already done this but it is difficult to tell from the picture.
As part of that I would recommend a couple of plates welded to the inside of the passenger compartment floor with one (and one only per side) bolt sticking thru the floor to clamp the cross member to the bottom of the floor. This will keep your cross member end bolting from being in shear as the engine & transmission tries to move up and down as the engine revs. Shear is a really bad thing for bolting.
The other thing that jumps out at me on the pictures is that it looks like you will need to enlarge the fire wall cutout a lot more to gain clearance to remove the valve covers while the engine is installed. The angle might be bad but from the picture it looks like the valve cover sit past the original fire wall line. Presumably you are planning to box in the offending area once you get to that point in the build.
Only reason I even mention it is because I saw a car once where the guy did a similar set back but he forgot to add valve cover removal clearance. He had to disconnect the engine ad pull it forward a few inches to get enough room to remove the valve covers.
One area that is known to be a bit weak on Miata's is the engine compartment rails that the front suspension and front subframe attaches to.
Flyin Miata adds skip welding at the pinch joint seams in that entire area.
On my build I went a step further and removed the pinch weld area right next to the headers and welded in some stiffener gussets.
This gave me about 3/4" more clearance between the frame rails and the headers and makes access to the spark plugs easier.
You trimmed the pinch area in a couple of places for header clearance but at the least you should go back and do additional strength stuff in that area because the pinch welds are prone to failure.
Thanks, the ladder bars will attach to the 2x2 rails that I added and the cage will also tie to the body where I feel it’s needed. The trans mount will get a plate added to the bottom side of the rail with 2 bolts going up. It’s hard to see but there is a lip hanging below the rail in the pic where the other plate will butt up against so the trans member will have 8 bolts all together. I’m not touching the engine bay until I get the rear end figured out and the turbo mounted, too much to think about at once. But it will be all welded up and strengthened somehow. Trying to keep the car under 2000lbs and over 600 horse
Sorry but forgot, the valve covers do come off that’s the first thing I thought about when I stabbed it in there. And you’re right, I am making a new tunnel/firewall area with removable covers to get to the clutch space and top bell housing bolts, I hate doing those on my back. I will add more pics as I go I just only have time a few hours a week
Made mounting points for front of the ladder bars, directly above the mounts are 6x6 3/16 plates welded to the floor where the cage will tie in, so the ladder bars will be pushing up directly into the cage. I also finished the trans xmember bolts, it now bolts in from the bottom and sides
Glad to see some fabricating going on these days. I don't have a long response, but I do have to ask, it looks like in a couple pictures the engine is tilted slightly toward the drivers side? Camera angle?
Yea just a bad pic I’ll take some better ones tonight. It sits level left to right and trans tilts down 2.5 degrees. Pinion angle is up .5 degree to compensate for poly bushing wrap. 4.75 inches of up travel in rear shocks. Trying to get the back as low as possible with a 26-28 slick
Cool, a solid axle Miata. Curious why you did the lower shock mounts the way you did. It looks like you may have an issue with them binding as the shock compresses.
Cool, a solid axle Miata. Curious why you did the lower shock mounts the way you did. It looks like you may have an issue with them binding as the shock compresses.
yea.. the shocks are killing me, I either cut out the upper mounts and make a hoop, move the axle forward, or do what I did. If I put the lower mounts in front of the axle the wheels would be behind the tubs. If it doesn’t work out I will cut out the trunk floor and build a new x member with mounts, but I’d like to keep the body as stock as I can.
02-27-2018, 05:58 PM
355ci SBC NA with Carb & Straight axle LOW BUDGET
