In July of 2016 I acquired this 1990 miata with 145000 miles on the odometer. It is all red with a red hardtop. The engine had spun rod bearings according to previous owner. I didn't even bother trying to turn it in on since the engine was going to come out anyways. It was mostly stock with raceland coilovers. I got it towed from San Jose to my house and soon after the build began.

 

This was the night that it arrived from San Jose.

 

I woke up early the next day and took a picture of all three miatas because well why not :smile:

 

I put it in the garage soon after and I began pulling the stock 1.6 engine with the spun rod bearings.

 

after that, I thought I might as well start cleaning the engine bay since the engine was out so I rolled it into the driveway and started removing headlights and other engine bay goodies. I pressured washed the subframe and controls arms to remove all the grime built up over the past 26 years of it's life.

 

This is what is going in to the miata. It's a JDM 2003 VVT engine that I acquired last year and it had just been waiting for the right miata to get swapped. It included the JDM flat top manifold and the JDM 4-2-1 headers which I guess are somewhat rare here in the states? Also had a 6spd with it.

 

At the same time that I started dissasembling the new project, I also started to return my first miata back to stock. This is the one on the left with the black front end (long story for another time). I planned on reusing and swapping some of the parts onto this new project.





This is my previous miata with the sparcos pulled, rollbar removed, and also steering wheel/hub and starting on the megasquirt removal.

all of that going into this interior..

 

By this point I had removed the borla catback, GV rear panel, and Carbon miata carbon kevlar trunk from my first miata. Everything was just kind of scattered everywhere.


I pulled my 4.10 torsen from my first miata and swapped in the stock rear end from the newest addition to the family.

 

Next was removing my Tein coilovers from my first miata since those were also going to be swapped over to the newer one. The racelands on the newer miata were going to be traded in place for the Teins.


The rears were done first so I could put the wheels back on

 

I had to start filling the garage with all my parts from both cars. It was almost like playing Tetris, but with car parts.



so at this point I was still working on getting one car restored to stock and the other upgraded/swapped

And here's one with all three of them

 

My first miata was mostly all stock now so it was time to focus my attention on the swap. I started pulling the interior to begin cleaning as well.

 

Since the interior was coming out for cleaning. I took that opportunity to put in some sound deadening and heat insulation. I purchased some Raam mat BXT II and also some their ensolite foam. It took a while to cover up the interior, but it was definitely worth it. The cabin is so much quieter and cooler with it.

 

I bought a replacement 15x8 6UL wheel, because I had ruined my front driver side wheel on the first miata (this is also why the front end of it is black)

 

I finished installing the Tein coilovers into the newer miata.

 

I wanted everything inside squeaky clean so I also pressure washed the carpet which turned out pretty good.

 

next up was the torsen differential. I got my hands on a 3.9 torsen last year, but I didn't have a carrier for it so I opened up the 4.10 diff and used the carrier on the 3.9. Gave it a quick cleaning and bolted it up. And in case you're wondering, yes that is a lug nut welded onto the fill plug(also a long story)



While I was down there I also decided to clean the PPF. My OCD wouldn't let me leave it dirty.

 

Getting ready to install the magnaflow turbo exhaust.

 

I got the carpet and dashboard back in. I also started installing the Nakamae interior.

 

I got the sparco seats back in both on planted seat brackets. Driver side uses a PCI seat bracket and the passenger side uses a garage star seat bracket. Also installed more Nakamae on the rear package tray/deck and behind the seats.

 

Next I installed the KG works instrument panel that I had been also saving for the right car.

I installed more of the interior plastic covers as well as my garage star E-brake handle and A pillar gauge pods with an MTX-L AFR guage and autometer boost/vac gauge.