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PostPosted: December 18, 2014, 12:41 pm 
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So a decision has been made and the process has started. My choice was between the Honda K series 4 cylinder engine and the Honda J series 6 cylinder. I finally picked the K series because I think it fits the car better and is actually lighter than the Miata engine it replaces. The fact that the guys making the K series Miata swap kit are about 15 miles from my house was a big factor in my decision.

http://www.kmiata.com/home.html

I don't need most of there parts, just the manifold adapter, engine adapter plate and flywheel. I don't need there sump/oil pump setup as I don't have issues with steering rack clearance.

My plan it to get the engineering done first, so installing the engine, getting the exhaust built, check for hood clearance. Once I have the basic engineering done I will order the flywheel. So I have ordered the S2000 manifold adapter and the engine adapter. I already have the manifold adapter and the engine adapter plate should be here by Xmas.

I spotted the engine for sale locally on Ebay for $1600. A 2007 2.4 Acura TSX engine K24A2 with 70k mikes. It's probably the most desirable of the US supplied engines. 205bhp @ 7k stock. I made an offer and ending up talking to the owner about removing some parts I did not need to reduce the price. We came up with $1350 is he removed the intake system including throttle body, exhaust header, PS pump and AC. I just wanted the alternator, starter and the engine harness and the power harness. When I went to pick the engine up I was surprised to see all the parts still attached. He said he had not had time to remove them and he had a dinner date with his wife he was not going to be late for, so I could have the complete motor for the agreed price of $1350. So I hope be selling of the parts I don't use I can get a couple of hundred dollars back.


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Last edited by FastG on December 18, 2014, 1:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: December 18, 2014, 1:01 pm 
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I picked up a Gen 1 Honda S2000 inlet manifold complete with throttle body (1999-2003) . You need a 1st gen at it uses a cable operated throttle not the fly by wire on the later models. The reason for the S2000 manifold is to make the inlet point forward, as in the stock FWD configuration the inlet would point at the firewall.

So the first job was to mount the engine on a stand and remove everything. Next you modify the manifold quite dramatically. The S2000 has a water passage on the head and an EGR setup that we do not need. I started off with the band saw for the initial cuts, then went to a sawzall and a belt grinder. It needs a little more trimming and cleaning up but it fits.


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PostPosted: December 18, 2014, 4:37 pm 
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Nice I have a stock S2000 AP2 flywheel if you want it, cheap plus shipping. It is heavy though around 23lb.

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PostPosted: December 19, 2014, 1:11 am 
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Subscribed :cheers:

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PostPosted: December 19, 2014, 10:41 am 
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wrightcomputing, Thanks for the offer but you have to use the KMiata flywheel. That is the only part of the setup I am not perfectly happy with. I guess the input shaft on the Miata trans is to short. So they have created a very thick flywheel so they can leave the starter motor on the stock location and move the clutch back so it can engage in the trans input shaft.

http://nebula.wsimg.com/e1cf07d5753ffc3 ... oworigin=1

http://nebula.wsimg.com/09c86c02c8b0ec1 ... oworigin=1

Graham


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PostPosted: December 21, 2014, 6:20 pm 
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The Miata motor is out and I am awaiting the adapter plate, I am hoping I can start test fitting the engine next week. I did a little measuring the Honda and the Miata engine are just about exactly the same length, about 20" from the bell housing flange to the from of the crank pulley. That did surprise me as I expected the Honda to be a longer as it's 2.4l. So with the 3/4" adapter plate I am not dealing with a huge increase in length.

I have attached a pic of the inlet manifold with the water adapter installed.

Graham


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PostPosted: December 22, 2014, 11:51 pm 
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Location: Charlotte, NC
Is this going into a Miata?

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PostPosted: December 23, 2014, 12:42 am 
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No


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PostPosted: December 27, 2014, 6:07 pm 
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More progress today. Dave at K Miata was kind enough to lend me a pre-production adapter plate so I could continue with the mock-up process. The real adapters are delayed over the Xmas holidays. The plates are very nicely made, CNC's and de-burred. This test fitment was just to see how the engine mounts were going to work out. It looks like I will be able to reuse most of the old Miata engine mounts, just weld new plates on the end. As I suspected the front pulley is going to interfere with the cross member, so I will double up the cross member and notch the original. Getting the pulley of was a real pain, we just could not get it to budge. Luckily Napa have the tool on rental, with the correct tool and a couple of breaker bars and the bolt was free.

I have ordered the metal for the engine mounts, so the next time with the pulley off I can get the motor in the right position and get the new engine mounts fabbed.

Graham


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PostPosted: January 2, 2015, 12:16 am 
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Location: Central Coast Cal.
Great pictures and thanks for the progress reports. What is your plan after completion, just road or other plans? Were you running a 1.8 miata with later model trany ? thank you. Ingmar

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PostPosted: January 4, 2015, 1:08 pm 
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twnpipe, I had a late VVT 2002 Miata 1.8 engine. It will be a road/autoX/Track day car.

Well I made so good progress yesterday. Good new and bad news. Luckily more good news than bad:)

Good news: The engine fits and I am going to have to do less modification than I expected. I set the height of the engine to match the sump level the same as with the Miata engine. I can modify the original engine mounts, just make new plates to mount to the Honda block and trim down the arms. The front pulley does clear the frame rail so that is great news. The top of the engine JUST clears the nose cone and hood. But I am going to try and get a little more clearance at the front of the engine under the nose cone. I am going to look at trimming down the valve cover to see if I can get an extra 1/2 an inch of clearance. The inlet manifold fits with just a small clearance issue with the throttle body cable linkage. Maybe I can narrow the cable setup or at worst put a little relief bulge into the hood. So that is all good, I was expecting to have to modify the frame and modify the hood to clear the valve cover. It should be noted that my car has an extra 1" square rail running on top of the frame rail, raising the nose cone, hood and scuttle. This was done to clear the VVT actuator on the 1.8 Miata engine.

Bad news: I was hoping to use the stock Acura header and just make a lower pipe. but no it's going to have to be a custom header. The header also exits the opposite side so it's going to have to be all new. Exiting on the right side is actually good as it will reduce noise to me the driver. Because the K series engine is not used in any RWD cars there are no headers available so it's going to have to be a scratch build. The only home might be the Kmiata header, but theirs is designed to meet up with the stock Miata exhaust, so I am not sure how it will work out, but we will see if it can be modified to work, it looks like a very sophisticated header so it would be good it I could use it. The steering shaft is going to have to be re-routed so get around the water pump, but I think one flex joins and a support will do it.

Next week I will complete the mock-up on the engine mounts.

Graham


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PostPosted: January 4, 2015, 3:58 pm 
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That fits better than it has any right to.

I don't see anything that would cause you to lose sleep over. That is unless it's dreams of how much better your car will be with all that extra power.

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PostPosted: January 4, 2015, 8:10 pm 
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Hey Graham, From the pics, it looks like the front of the new engine is pushed toward the RH side of the car by ~ 2 inches. Have you checked how this might affect the U-joint angle mismatch? Maybe it is just the camera angle is deceiving.

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PostPosted: January 4, 2015, 11:00 pm 
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Chuck you are correct, we did notice that and corrected it before we mocked up the engine mounts, but the picture was taken before we center the crankshaft between the frame rails. The problem in the K series water pump is offset on the side of the front cover. I will be looking into alternator mounts and belt tensioner systems so there might be a way around it. One nice thing about the K series is a huge array of aftermarket parts, far more expensive then the Miata engine. I found these parts I am sure will make the install easier. The high mounted filler neck will be perfect as the engine is the highest part of the engine so now the filler neck will be at the perfect position.

http://k-tuned.3dcartstores.com/K24K20Z ... _p_93.html

http://k-tuned.3dcartstores.com/OEM-The ... p_174.html

http://k-tuned.3dcartstores.com/Swivel- ... p_154.html

Graham


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PostPosted: January 5, 2015, 5:22 pm 
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I got an email from David at KMiata. He said they are working on a modified cam cover because of the clearance issue they are having when putting a K24 engine in a NA (first gen) Miata. The 2.4l (K24) and about 3/4 taller then the 2.0l (K20), and the K24 is having clearance problem in a NA Miata. That is good news as it might save me some time.

Graham


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