I purchased a fiberglass hardtop for my Miata on this day and I discovered that all hardtops between 1990 and 2005 are interchangeable. Miata.net provided the assurance of that. The next thing I need to do is get the hardtop painted. I was looking at painting the hardtop dark gray – metallic gunmetal-like.

Folks…

A very special advisory about using those FRPP (Ford Racing) heads or SVO heads:

Be SURE to read the information about your heads BEFORE inserting spark plugs. I found out, luckily, that my heads require the AGSF-32C. Here is the reason why (from SPARKPLUGS 101 by A-Train)

CAUTION: If your engine requires an AGSF type spark plug (full thread) and you attempt to install an AWSF type plug (half thread) you will be inserting the unthreaded portion of the spark plug into the threads of the cylinder head prior to the taper seat of the spark plug and the cylinder head comes in contact with it. This would tear up the threads and require a heli-coil to repair them or replacement of the cylinder heads.

Additionally:
CAUTION: DO NOT attempt to install AWSF type spark plugs into SVO/FRPP cylinder heads or damage to the threads can occur.

Also, these plugs are not to be used as a band aid for running lower than required octane rated gasoline’s in your engines. That’s working against yourself. Go as low as you can with the octane rating before it pings then move up a step (RON number). You will make the most power there. Remember, the higher the octane (RON), the less volatile the fuel and the more likely it will resist the initial burn. The lower the octane number the more volatile the fuel and more likely it is to explode when mixed with air and spark is present. Running 100 octane gasoline in your stock ’96 Crown Victoria is a waste of money. If you are running a chip or other means to advance the spark timing, then you may need to run 93 or higher octane. Combine that with the colder plugs and a lower temperature thermostat, you have dramatically reduced the engine from being knock constrained.

Consider yourself warned. Fortunately, I paid attention, imagine the costly damage this would have been to heads that are worth about $600 per.

I got my Motorcraft AGSF-32C spark plugs from a local dealership for $3.95 per. I got 12 in case I have the case of butterfingers or have a temporary lapse of knowledge of my own strength. Although I found the same spark plugs at O’Reilly’s Auto (or formerly known as Checkers Auto Parts to me) for $2.99 per.

Hey folks, I spent about a couple or three hours putting the motor back in the car and re-connecting everything and, damn, this motor is hot.

Check ‘dis.

Yep. A Cobra motor now. How about that? One of the biggest differences between the old motor configuration and this one is that the upper intake does not need a EGR spacer. I had the heater hose’s barb that supplied hot coolant to pass through the EGR spacer TIG welded shut. The EGR basically goes straight onto the upper intake component. I just needed to put the 70mm BBK throttle body that I already have on. Surprisingly, the intake diameter on the upper intake is also 70mm.

Enjoy. The next post will have a video of the engine start-up.

Hey guys, time to build the motor up!

The heads valves. Those valves are huge. You can see the intake

Make sure that you have the cylinder head on the block cleaned. Get that gunk off from the old head gasket. I used some green scrubbing loofah that you use to scrub dishes with. Especially the dishes/pans that have teflon and are sensitive to coarse abrasives like steel wool or that sort of thing. We don’t want to mess up that surface and jeopardize the head gasket’s seal.

I changed out the lifters by taking the “spyder” or “spider” hold down that holds the “dog-bones” in place. Those “dog-bones” are what holds the lifters from rotating. In this picture, you’ll see them better.

Got the head gasket on.

I went ahead and got the heads on. This motor is already starting to look pretty dang sexy.

My gosh, look at the size of those intake ports. Imagine… Oh yeah, I got the new chrome-moly pushrods from TrickFlow put in as well.

I got the first set of roller rockers put on.

Got the rest of them on.

I started placing the seals and the intake gaskets in place and got the lower intake put on. I did a perfect red-RTV seal on this thing.

Here’s how the motor looks now.

Ah… beer time. So fun.