Well I started my swap the other week but things were slow so I didnt feel like posting anything just yet.

For now all you get is this pic via shitty Iphone camera:



I'll add more later as I have a final in an hour.

-Dean

 

Ok one more pic for now, presenting the shortest ******* oil pan ever made! (half complete atm)

 

Awesome.

**** finals.

 

+1

 

you have ray charles weld your oil pan? :P

Stoked to see this come together!

 

The outside welds will be ground smooth, then everything plasted and powdercoated, should look half decent then lol.

 

so in reality how much "modifying" is required to install this motor?? you have a to-do list at all??

 

that is sexy awesome

 

Intake manifold
Space subframe
Motor mounts
Customize oil pan
Transmission adapter trickery

 

I wish I would have known about these engines before I ordered all my 1.6 parts. Good luck with the build

 

For us non morons, what the eff is an FE3 motor and why do we like it?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_FE-DOHC_engine

 

Short and sweet:
Its the mazda version of the 4g63 (in terms of beefiness)

Stock shortblock that can handle 400hp reliably? Yes please.

 

4G63s have handled around 600Hp on stock internals. Had to rep for old platform

But yeah, a 400WHP Miata on a junkyard shortblock is sorta of the best thing ever.

Windage tray and baffles in one FTW, great stuff OP.

 

Eh?

 

more pics now damint!

what cars did this motor come from in the states? kia? i read up on what cars it came in overseas...curious bout here.

 

Kia Sportage motor, every where for ~$500-700 bucks.

Larger diameter crank and rod bearing journals, head flows like the '99 BP head, and they've actually been pushed to 500-600whp stock.

If you want to forgo a tranny adapter right now you can mate the B2000 bellhousing to a Miata 5spd, just stay under 250whp. The motor mounts are 6 holes in a 1/2" steel plate, and I think mr2cars1cup got away without shimming the subframe by shaving the hood bracing.

This leaves just a few hard parts:

-Custom/Hybrid aluminum intake mani
-Fit optical Miata CAS to distributor setup on FE3 or make custom crank trigger
-clutch/flywheel/PP setup

I had a local guy I found on CL that was goingto sell me an FE3, with both stock manifolds (intake flange useful, and stock exhaust is a nice, but heavy, piece that points in the right direction to go n/a in a miata until turbo setup ironed out), AND a B2000 tranny for $750. I soooo should have taken the plunge.

 

yeah you should have!

thanks for the info.....this could be a possible option for me one day.

 

I want to go there. On a LINK.

I'm going to throw up a build thread since the new chassis will have the FE3 driveline in it this year.

Oh- and I did shim for the sake of getting the car on the road and not dropping the subframe. BUT if "you" remember that Datsun truck with the BP swap- he did a great job of trimming and reinforcing the crossover part of the subframe to gain a good amount of clearance. I think that's all that needs to be done to get the engine under the hood w/o shimming using a similar oil pan depth as above. You'd just need to adjust the motor mounts by "that" about to drop the engine.

 

can i come help?

i want to get some in person experiences with it if i ever deiced to do this swap.