Another build thread

[Big Vern]

Originally Posted by spud69

Hi Skov,

That's a shame with the bonnet and clearance, we did a trial fit with the body work a couple of weeks ago and the bonnet cleared the engine and manifold okay. We may have our engine slightly lower but not significantly, didn't realise though that there was a difference between the 2 engine sizes. There are plenty of 1.8 manifolds on ebay from £25 so that is always an option, if you would rather move the engine towards the passenger side the propshaft UJ's will take up the angle okay. After all that's is what they are designed to do.

The engine could always be lowered with the sump shortened as the original sierra installation for the roadster but we were hoping that this could be avoided with the mx5 engine and wide scoop bonnet combination. I think that in most cases it can be avoided plus it would be a shame to modify the mx5 sump as you have a good substantial cast Ali sump.

Congratulations as well by the way.

Regards......AndyH

When changing MX-5 intakes you need to be aware that the 1.6l intake will not fit a 1.8l and the 1.8l will not fit the 1.6l as the cylinder spacings are different.

Regards BV.

[CTWV50]

Oh dear! Can you take a picture so we can see how far out it is? How come the 1.6 is bigger/wider/taller than a 1.8?

[skov]

The 1.6 engine is slightly smaller. The problem is the inlet manifold.
From looking at pictures on the web the plenum chamber appears to sit higher on the 1.6 than the 1.8
I'll take some pictures next time I'm allowed in the garage.

[CTWV50]

Just been trying to compare spuds build images with your's but it's not clear in any of them. Can you drop the engine lower and maybe weld in some sort of sumpguard to the chassis?

[spud69]

The normal scenario with car engine installs into roadsters is to lower the engine and shorten the sump, it was hoped that the Mx5 engine was short enough to avoid this with the larger bonnet scoop. It seems that the 1.8 engine you can but not the 1.6, must say i didn't realise there was such a difference between the two. It is a shame but it does look like the sump can be shortened by 30mm quite easily if required, builders of the Westfield SDV Mazda car have had to do similar after finding they are left with only 30mm of ground clearance to the sump after fitting the engine.

All the Best.........AndyH

[skov]

I was hoping to avoid chopping the sump, but I'll keep that as my back-up plan.
I'll have a play about with the engine position when I've got some more time and decide the best course of action.
Here's some pics for now:

[MarkB]

Looking at the pictures you have no choice but to lower the engine unless you cut away the bonnet where it contacts the intake and then make up another bump once bonnet is sitting in the right place.