I will try to make this short as possible.

I have a 91 miata that I did a 1.8 swap on, complete swap including complete wiring harness, ecu, and all sensors. SO the car is set up for a 1.8l

The thrust bearings failed and well my bottom end is no good anymore, the head is really a toss up. The bridges for the cams took damage, but with some light sanding I do believe it would hold up just fine. Cams are clean.

I am pretty broke at the moment and I need the car back up and running asap. The best priced engine I can get is $400 and its a 6 hour drive, with $180 in gas.

I know the my local u-pull it yard has 2 or 3 95-97 kia sephias and the engines sell for $200 which is much more affordable for me. I know the engines are the same, and that all external compnenets are different. But given I have a 1.8l miata engine ready to just swap parts over I am considering this to be my best option.

My auestion is really just confirming this info, I wasnt sure if the bp in the kia has the same bolts to mount the engien given the fwd differnece. Also are the heads the same as well? Or would I have to pull the miata head to put on the sephias block?

Thanks a lot for all and any info.

 

Try this:
Solomiata : Engine : BP interchange

bbundy hit a stock Protege 1.8 with 18psi for a while last year and it didn't blow up. Goodness knows he tried!

 

The bottom end in Theseus is based around a 1997 Sephia block/crank. The details are different (pickup tube, windage tray, oil pan, front water neck, etc) but the block itself is the same.

 

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I'm doing a similar swap right now myself... and I thought it would be less annoying if I posted here rather than starting a new thread...

the oil pan is obviously different so I'm using mine from the Miata BP..... so obviously I wanted to use the Miata BP pickup tube so it will reach the front sump....
but the Kia windage tray is thicker and bolted to the mains instead of the flimzy miata one sandwiched between the block and the pan and the overall design of it just seems like it's better .... the problem is there's no place to bolt to pick up tube support.... boltinh into the oil pump seems to put in the right location but don't have the windage tray support....

has anyone done the swap and use the Kia windage tray instead of the mazda?

what having the only point of contact for the pick up to be the old pump cause any problems?

I think there would be a benifit of using the kia tray,....seems to work as a gurdle??

 

K.I.S.S

Keep It Simple Stupid.

What problem does the BP windage tray have that the Kia one will fix? If there isn't one, why do more work to use it?

 

if the 01+ miata mbsp does nearly nothing I highly doubt a "beefier" windage tray does anything at all, so yeah I'd keep it simple

 

I believe the MBSP in the earlier FWD BPs is a bit "beefier," but... meh.


I don't know that i'd call it a girdle, though.

Until you've split open a KL to compare the puny MBSP in a BP vs the legit ******* GIRDLE on a KL.

 

maybe I'm not doing a very good job describing it.... what I have here is not a little beefier.... Its significantly beefier... the Miata bp windage tray is a flimsy piece of metal that is sandwiched between oil pan and the block with no other contact point... and it could be vent with one hand....what I have on the Kia Motor is 1/8 INCH THICK!!! That's over 6x thicker and its steel... not only does sandwich between the oil pan and the block there is also fasteners bolting it into all the mains

 

again, even the MBSP of the 01+ BP hasn't been proven to significantly improve.....anything.

But if you want the placebo effect, just get an 01+ MBSP and oil pan and bolt it up.

 

The MBSP in the 95-97 Sephias is virtually identical to the MBSP in the 01+ Miata. The Sephia is a front-sump, so it lacks the support stud for the Miata oil pickup tube (and god help you if you don't think its necessary). A carefully-located hole, a bolt, and a few washers will let you bolt a Miata pickup tube to a Sephia MBSP and cover it all with a Miata oil pan, though. BTDT

In my opinion, the MBSP isn't worth using. My preferred setup is ARP mains with a '99 windage tray and oil pan. There's no downside to the 01+ MBSP aside from the additional labor to clearance the tray for ARP studs, but no upside either. If you have both setup available, use the '99 hardware.