wait, i thought the 1.8 and 2.o trans are different?
I installed a modified 1.6L Miata Fidenza flywheel on my 2000 ES (with F-type transmission) and it works great. Here's the deal with flywheels/clutches on 1.8 vs 2.0.
The 2.0L flywheel will attach to the 1.8L engine, no problem. However, the F-type transmission has fewer splines, so the 2.0L clutch/pp won't fit. Also the clutch disc size (and the coordinating friction area on the flywheel) are different sizes.
Here's what I did:
Buy the Fidenza 1.6L Miata flywheel and have it machined to fit.
note: the miata flywheel has a smaller bolt pattern, and a smaller "mounting plate" recess on the back side. However, it does have the correct dowel pin locations to fit the Protege 1.8L pressure plate, and the matching sized friction area to match the Protege 1.8L Clutch.
You need to machine the backside so that it matches the diameter of the mounting plate on the FP enigne.
While at the machine shop, you then need to machine/redrill the FP bolt pattern.
Fortunately for me, I have a buddy who works in a machine shop and got the work done for free. Even if you have to pay for it, it was only about an hour worth of work, and should be fairly affordable.
Any other way to get a light flywheel on a 1.8L w/F-type tranny, is going to be alot more expensive and take a lot longer to get.
I had thoguht about a Custom flywheel ($750-$900) or custom clutch with a 2.0L clutch with a F-type splined center so I could just use the FS flywheel and pressureplate.
I always hear alot of crap about the F-type transmission, and I have infact blown the differential while autocrossing (in '03). However, I was just not being carefull about controlling wheel-hop of the starting line, and it turned out I had worn out motormounts too. Since then I haven't had any issues. I have now installed an OPM Limited Slip Differential, the stiffest AWR motor mounts, and stiffer ployurathane shifter bushings. I believe the best thing you can do to protect your transmission (differential) is to control wheel-hop. I imagine with higher horsepower like on a turbo engine, or for higher speed driving (like on a road course) the strength of the actual gears comes into play. For me, just driving around on the street and then competing in Autocross (mostly 1st & 2nd gear), the F-type has been fine.