With most of the work completed on the 1.8, it's time to get down to the grunt work of the swap and make this project come together.
Before I begin, however, I needed to modify the header to accept my wide band EGO in addtion to the narrow band. This really doesn't pertain to the swap, but I'll throw it in for fun.
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Hello, I just started the same conversion, I am have a tough time with the VICS vacuum tubes hook up, if you could explain how you did yours would help greatly
Joe
On to the swap! I began disassembly of the Miater when she was still hot. I drove home from work, pulled into the garage, popped the hood, and began taking things apart.
...and promptly removed the engine. The donor lies in wait (evil) .
The not-so-tired 1.6L is removed.
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With the 1.6L engine removed, I separated the transmission, removed the flywheel and clutch parts. Since I'll be reusing the flywheel (lighter version comes later), I had to have it surfaced before I reassbled everything to the 1.8L. I will be using a 3rd gen 1.8L Protege pressure plate as I was able to land a new one at a lesser cost than the Miata's (second hand). Dimensionally, they are the same, but I have yet to know if it'll work. I'm banking on the only difference between the two being the diaphram pressure (and I hope the Protege's is higher). I am reusing the clutch disk as the measured amount reveals plenty of service life remaining.
And the clutch parts assembled and ready to go:
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With everything assembled, it's time to get down to the crux of the situation. The 1.8L is finally ready to go in!
Insert part A into part B....
Without surprise, it fits (note the water neck).
Beginning of the accessory installation!
Short of a few things, she's ready to fire. Final pics will come this week. Remaining installation includes the catalytic converter, O2 sensors, and a custom intake.