Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

You know the Colorado 5 speed is the same bolt pattern as the AX5 and it has a reasonably long input shaft, I had to use a 1/4 inch spacer to use with Solstice bell housing to Ecotec. Properly too late to matter but I could measure one in a couple of days, I have a bunch at home in the garage.

Apocalyptic Racing - Occupy Pit Lane racing
Racing the "Toylet" Toyota Celica powered by Chevrolet Ecotec.
24x Loser with the Celica. 16x loser in other fine machines
Overall winner Gingerman 2019

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Brett85p wrote:

You know the Colorado 5 speed is the same bolt pattern as the AX5 and it has a reasonably long input shaft, I had to use a 1/4 inch spacer to use with Solstice bell housing to Ecotec. Properly too late to matter but I could measure one in a couple of days, I have a bunch at home in the garage.

Yea, I was looking at those, but I think the spline count is different.  Supposedly they are about 8.2" long rather than 7.5" like this one, which would have been about right.  We already had this transmission, clutch set up, and driveshaft sitting here, which is why cutting and welding the bell housing to fit seemed much easier and cheaper than starting over.  You'd also have to figure something else out for the clutch, which is doable but not straightforward.

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

egesledder wrote:

The only swap "kit" I've seen for this motor is for the fiero, and is basically just a couple engine mounts and some exhaust, but that is a transverse mounted setup.  There are no longitudinal parts for this motor, and really no aftermarket parts available at all, but that just makes the motors cheaper to find.

Everyone swaps in small block gm or ford motors, but those are expensive to build and far outside of a Lemons budget.  So far, starting with an official $500 car, selling all the Miata parts and getting everything we need to get this motor running, we are at -$53 for the items related to the Lemons budget.  As in, there's technically still $550 that we could spend, but will probably spend it on beer and gas instead of parts.  That's even including all the rear end stuff and the custom flywheel.

We weighed the assembled engine with flywheel, clutch, starter, and alternator last night and it is 85lbs more than the Miata motor with the same stuff.  Not too bad.

why is the caddy 4.9 a bad motor? My buddy has a cherry 93 DeVille and the thing runs nice...

"get up and get your grandma outta here"

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Mr.Yuck wrote:

why is the caddy 4.9 a bad motor? My buddy has a cherry 93 DeVille and the thing runs nice...

Good question, I actually don't have any experience with this motor, so we're probably going to find out why on the track.  I haven't really seen any inherent design issues other than the iron heads/aluminum block and floating cylinders, but its not known for head gasket issues.  I think a big reason that nobody likes these motors is that the power capability is pretty limited due to head and intake layouts and there is no aftermarket support.

In order to keep the oil pressure up on the track, and because we had to cut the oil pan anyway, we decided to give the whole system attention. We added some capacity, baffling, and a windage tray with integrated crank scraper, all made from about $20 in 16 gauge steel from the remnants bin at the local steel supply shop.

The 4.9 came with a remote oil cooler integrated into the radiator.  We're using that system, but plumbing it to a Ford excursion A/T oil cooler.  Pics to come on that setup.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4794/40739145341_0622570ec8_h.jpg
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4778/40696524382_42a4d68cde_h.jpg
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https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4799/38928762010_7e2c187e99_h.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/800/40824442771_bf037f71e9_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Mr.Yuck wrote:
egesledder wrote:

The only swap "kit" I've seen for this motor is for the fiero, and is basically just a couple engine mounts and some exhaust, but that is a transverse mounted setup.  There are no longitudinal parts for this motor, and really no aftermarket parts available at all, but that just makes the motors cheaper to find.

Everyone swaps in small block gm or ford motors, but those are expensive to build and far outside of a Lemons budget.  So far, starting with an official $500 car, selling all the Miata parts and getting everything we need to get this motor running, we are at -$53 for the items related to the Lemons budget.  As in, there's technically still $550 that we could spend, but will probably spend it on beer and gas instead of parts.  That's even including all the rear end stuff and the custom flywheel.

We weighed the assembled engine with flywheel, clutch, starter, and alternator last night and it is 85lbs more than the Miata motor with the same stuff.  Not too bad.

why is the caddy 4.9 a bad motor? My buddy has a cherry 93 DeVille and the thing runs nice...

Because it lives in the shadow of the Evil pre-2000 4.6 Northstar which basically tainted all 90's Cadillac engines with its funk.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

As I mentioned way back in the beginning of this post, I had all kinds of blow uppy type bottom end problems with the HT4100's in limos.  Maybe those problems only occurred because those things were always under load with all that weight and from being underpowered.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Hey you got your PBR what can go wrong?

"get up and get your grandma outta here"

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

So I finally got some time to knock out the exhaust.  Turned out pretty sweet. So as I mentioned earlier, I had machined some header plates and found an old set of long tube headers from an old dodge that would be harvested for the tubing and collector.   Decided to go upwards with them instead of downwards due to space.  It was extremely tight down lower in the engine area because we had pushed the motor so low and rearward, and it would have been a huge pain to install/remove the headers if they were built normally.  They're wrapped in header wrap and there will be heat shields, heat reflective tape, and lots of venting to avoid heating the master cylinders.

I hadn't ever built headers before, but I can weld and I can use the internet.  I built PVC prototypes to get the layout right, and then built jigs with those.  Then used the jigs to build the headers with the old header parts.

Oh, and then made side pipes, because side pipes.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/872/26192684747_a6303ca862_h.jpg
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https://farm1.staticflickr.com/897/40617958084_5df2ca06cc_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Impressive work on the headers!  You're actually going to make this thing work.

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Very impressive work!

Love the side pipes. Welcome to the club smile

#33 Ford Festiva - We Are Not Really From Iran (Retired)
#928 Porsche 928 - West German Pushrodders (Retired)
#3 BMW E36 - The Internet says this is correct

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Awesome solution to a problem that no one else in the world has ever had with a miata/cadillac,  now I feel even lazier. I let welding a couple motor mounts stop my project.

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Dude that is crazy... I hope you go to NJMP in May. I want to see that thing

"get up and get your grandma outta here"

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h4DZeBleLs

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

C4 Corvette Aluminum driveshaft with conversion u-joints just fit right in with no modification necessary.  Sometimes things just work out.  The front flange was from the dodge with a 1330-7290 conversion joint, and has a good 3-4 inches of engagement in the transmission.  The rear flange is from a thunderbird with a 1310-1330 conversion joint.  The driveshaft was literally $30 shipped from ebay.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/785/27509627778_048870120c_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

New serpentine layout using a jeep liberty tensioner, sbc A/C delete pulley, and an alternator from an early 90's camaro.


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/930/41583506472_3439f3c302_h.jpg


Also, found a new steering wheel center, it fit better upside down.  Check out the shifter position, we had to reduce the truck shifter length by about 2.5", but it ended up working out really well:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/884/26755307507_8175401858_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

https://media.giphy.com/media/3oFzmjxbYPfyexRI6Q/giphy.gif

I'm so excited to see this stupid thing.

Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

So after owning an older C4 corvette and a guy at work suggesting it, I decided that an LCD dash from an '85 corvette would be the best option for a gauge cluster.  First, because its cool.  Second, its so futuristic.  Third, that guy at work used to restore them and gave us one all nicely rebuilt.  No can bus interface here, just resistive sensors wired directly to it, so its easy to get everything working on it.  We're using a GPS vss signal generator to run the speedometer, and the tach wires straight to the distributor.

Here's a video of one if you haven't seen one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe6GvvWIIb8

We're running an additional mechanical coolant and oil pressure gauge for when it inevitably stops working mid-race.

The coolest part of it is we get to have a switch to toggle between "English" and "Metric".

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/872/27948851928_79bfd7e503_h.jpg

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/866/26949423097_482bb3a672_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

LOL, 80's corvette dash, that is so comically epic, and fits the Cadillac motor perfectl!
May I suggest you replace English/Metric with English/British  as you know the British use metric..

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

nimblemotorsports wrote:

LOL, 80's corvette dash, that is so comically epic, and fits the Cadillac motor perfectl!
May I suggest you replace English/Metric with English/British  as you know the British use metric..


Is this better?


https://farm1.staticflickr.com/955/40940894185_9de58d9dea_h.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Communism needs to be a momentary switch.

71 (edited by NOPANTSDOUGIE 2018-05-02 11:30 AM)

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

I did the same thing to make a header for my Tercel.  found some rusty old 350 headers for 15$ on cl  Cut em up and made a 4-2-1 long tube.   got ALOT of heat from it during B.S. when i wrapped it in shitty 5$ white exhaust wrap because it looks too good

959 Toyota Tercel   6x Lemons loser

New England Area roll cages send me an email I'm in Central MA

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Finally got the car standing on its own feet. 

We clearanced/flared/bashed the fenders to clear the tires and I'm wondering if I still need to do some sort of fender flare to be Lemons legal.  The front is pretty well covered, but the back is less so.  At ride height, the top of the rear tire is basically even with the body, but as you can see it is more exposed as you go rearward.  Any input?

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/977/41993145992_3fe68210fa_b.jpg

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

I've gotten shit for my tires sticking out about that far (just the rears too) so I'm welding on some cut up trailer fenders to placate the powers that be.

Takata R&D :: 1993 Accord - team captain - rear drum brakes lol
GoPro 360 Heros :: BMW E28  - co-captain

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

Notice the tire exposure on the Rabbit when it passes the camera car.  Seems similar to what you have.  Watch a little further in the video when the eyesore miata tries to pass.

https://youtu.be/ENUXhhV21aU

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

Re: V8 Miata - The Lemony way

cheseroo wrote:

Notice the tire exposure on the Rabbit when it passes the camera car.  Seems similar to what you have.  Watch a little further in the video when the eyesore miata tries to pass.

https://youtu.be/ENUXhhV21aU

Well, looks like we're going to build some flares then.

Petrosexual Racing - 4.9 HT swap/Trashback Miata
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=35746
BFE GP '18 - 1st in C, High Plains Drifter -19 - 1st in B/Overall
Uh oh, Spaghettios...