I’m mirroring my build thread here for my hoards of ardent followers (and also in the event miata-turbo goes down). Enjoy!
I finished grad school in December, so naturally my reward to myself is another long term project :D. I’ve wanted a car project for as long as I can remember, but my learning addiction has made it difficult to do much more than maintenance and bolt-ons. I decided on a LFX-swapped Miata because it’s a decent project fab-wise, reasonably priced for the performance, and documented well enough that I won’t be entirely breaking new ground. Enter my chassis: a 102k-mile 2002 SE in Blazing Yellow. It came with a thick stack of service records that almost makes me feel bad about modifying it.
Behind: the reason I can afford this project, my 312k-mile 98 Integra that (I won’t let) die
My goal is to build a car that’s comfortable enough for a 4-hour road trip and is also capable for the occasional track day. I’d like to drive it on a regular basis, and I know if it’s super uncomfortable I’ll only drive it a few times a year (been there, done that. It’s too hot in NC to not have AC). Drivetrain-wise this means AC, power steering, an exhaust system that doesn’t make my ears bleed, and soft-ish engine mounts.
Now that I’ve got a chassis I need to:
1. Pull and sell the engine, transmission, diff, and whatever odds and ends people will buy
2. Source and buy an engine, transmission, and diff
3. Buy a welder
4. Buy the V8R kit, harness, ECM,…
Step 1 is cash positive, whereas the remaining steps require a lot of investment up front. I’m hoping that selling the existing drivetrain will cover most of the cost of the LFX, but I’ll need to save for the welder and V8R kit. While I’m saving, I’ve taken the opposite path of most other builds and started on the wiring first. I’ll make a separate post on that soon. Anyways, I’m planning on documenting the build process here for others (as well as myself for when I forget details in a month) and I wanted to introduce myself!
I’ll try to post my references when they’re useful, below is a list of build threads that were super helpful in researching the process:
It's Better With Arduino 