All great things have a beginning

[Grant Monkhouse]

What engine is going in this?

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Full bridge port  single turbo motor aiming for 500hp eventually

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Nice, thats going to be fun in that chassis


Lähetetty minun G8141 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

Yep, although I'd rather not have it at full power until it has a cage in it

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Yes, thats true, easy way to get your self killed I reckon.
I wonder how much its going to weight tho?

Cause my Vert is going to be deathtrap and yours has better chassis but might be heavier

Lähetetty minun G8141 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

Well I think standard weight is 1150kg, so by the time iv stripped stuff out I might get it to 1000kg, however I'm guessing that a full cage (I really want to get a weld in one but they're £1500} that will add maybe 50 kg back into the chassis but then I can cut all the excess weight out of doors etc which might be a lot. The last time I took a door off a car it was really heavy,

I'm a bit unsure if the engine swap will lose any weight but we shall see.

If it ends up under 1000 kg I will be impressed, when a cage goes in I will have to lose the soft top which will weigh a fair bit, however it would be nice to keep it. As the replacement hard tops aren't cheap, and the racing carbon ones are even more expensive

I had to take the bonnet off the other day and It literally weighs nothing, which reminded me of my FD bonnet, that weighed nothing also, but it got damaged and I replaced it with a carbon fiber one which was actually heavier!

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[Grant Monkhouse]

Just checked and rx8 5 speeds are about 100 to 150 quid, might have to start collecting a few for storage as I will no doubt break the input shaft at some point

I think with using an rx8 gear box Clive told me I have to use a clutch from an FC RX7?

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Yes, FD has different type of clutch than FC and 8 has. Push/pull...

I suggest that you use 8's parts cause they are much cheaper than FCs or FD's

Lähetetty minun G8141 laitteesta Tapatalkilla

I'm sure I will have to swap over but I currently have a twin disc clutch etc, if I swap over to the rx8 gear box I will have to buy another clutch which aren't too cheap

It's funny at the cost of clutches for these mazda when you look at the cost of some clutches available for American v8s etc

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[Grant Monkhouse]

So I thought I'd better have a look at the clutch before I take the knackered block to the scrappers tomorrow.... Nice exedy clutch. Think the flywheel is stock but if its not then it's worth a prety penny! I'm guessing whoever owned this car might have used it on track, which explains the oil starvation and windows in the block mess

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[Paul_13]

That clutch is OEM.

I found the same on mine and thought I found some uprated parts. Not the case unfortunately

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[Grant Monkhouse]

Still they're 250 brand new, might be able to get 100 for it? Looks to have plenty of meat on it. There's a huge amount of clutch dust inside the gear box, so someone has been giving this car some stick for sure

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[Grant Monkhouse]

So a couple lessons learned today.
1. Take gear box oil out of gear before pulling it out

2. You can't just drop the subframe out and leave the other bits like suspension in there, it all has to come out.

3. The suspension bushing need replacing for sure as they fell in bits

4. Engine block is worthless to scrap men but at least its out of my way now

Subframe out and new one in.


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[Jamie R]

  Looks like it grew there

[Grant Monkhouse]

There's literally no difference other than the engine mounts. The lower control arms are a ballache, I managed to snap one of the drop links for the ARBs also.

Need to run a tap down a couple of the threads as they're full of paint.

Next time I get onto the car I will get it all bolted back up and back on its wheels again, the cab bolts need a good cleaning up before going back in too.

I need to look into the rear housing swap for an rx8 gear box onto mine as I have a feel the fd gear box I have is slightly longer than the mx5 one but I will get my tape measure out tomorrow and just measure them

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[Paul_13]

There's literally no difference other than the engine mounts. The lower control arms are a ballache, I managed to snap one of the drop links for the ARBs also.

Need to run a tap down a couple of the threads as they're full of paint.

Next time I get onto the car I will get it all bolted back up and back on its wheels again, the cab bolts need a good cleaning up before going back in too.

I need to look into the rear housing swap for an rx8 gear box onto mine as I have a feel the fd gear box I have is slightly longer than the mx5 one but I will get my tape measure out tomorrow and just measure them

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The 5 & 6 speed rx8 box fits fine on the mx5 power plant frame.
The only issue it the top mounting holes do not line up.

If you're going for a rx8 diff, I would modify a rx8 power plant frame.
The rx8 diff will not fit the mx5 power plant frame as far as I'm aware.



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[Grant Monkhouse]

Yeh I'm sure I will have to modify the ppf completely,

I have an fd gear box and I'm sure the diff on the mx5 won't last long.

What I would prefer to do is just get rud of the ppf all together and just mount the gear box and the diff solid to the chassis, that will get rid of any twist and flex from them

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[Paul_13]

Someone did a ppf delete on a mx5. Cut the ppf short on the diff end and welded on a rose jointed brace to the chassis

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[Grant Monkhouse]

I like that, wonder if they noticed any difference?

I'm going to replace the diff bushings too for something harder.

Engine, gear box and diff are all going to be solid mounted for sure, stop any extra loss of power so that the suspension and tyres can do there things

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[Grant Monkhouse]

Right as you can just make out the mx5 gear box is 735mm to the shift knob, and the fd gear box is 860mm ish. However the fd gear box has a second mounting location which moves it to a better place, the shift knob location doesn't really matter as I could just cut things up but I ideally want the shift knob in the stock location.

If I leave the fd shift knob where it is, essentially it will move the engine forward some 100+mm which is no good as I want it further back to give max space for the turbo and pipes etc

Soooo Clive if you look in here, if I swap the rear housing on my fd gear box for an rx8s will it put my shift knob in the same position as the mx5s/rx8s?

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[re japi]

Someone did a ppf delete on a mx5. Cut the ppf short on the diff end and welded on a rose jointed brace to the chassis

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Hasnt seen that ever done. Quite interesting tho, so thanks for sharing. But why is the question...?

[Paul_13]

Engine transplant.

I think that was a v8 conversion

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