1st July 2025
Not quite a single day update, more of a roll-up of the last four days or so. Basically stripping down the engine further ready for paint – and then paint it!
Here are a few pics of the engine prior to final strip down – so I can remember where to put it all when time comes to put it all back together:








BTW, the bolts to connect the engine to the stand are M12x100mm 1.5mm pitch thread. Quite hard to get hold of for a decent price. These folks came up with the goods though – GWR Fasteners.
Cracked on with cleaning and priming the engine block and head, this after a day stripping off all of the ancillary parts and carefully setting the bits aside in take away containers….can’t fail!
I ended up having to remove the oil pump as one of the timing cover bolts sheared off at the head (thankfully) and two cover crush tubes were well and truly rusted into the oil pump too. The covers has been previously removed (judging by the mulitple paint blobs on the camshaft sprockets) and the casings were cracked and damaged around most of the bolt holes. On the plus side it was a lot easier to replace the crank front oil seal with the pump on the bench.
Due to the vagaries of getting spray paint delivered to the island (and perhaps because of the colour I’ve chosen….), the top coat will need to wait until I’ve been across the Solent and collected from a ‘mainland’ address!
So a few more pics of the final prep for spray with VHT paint (well primer for the timebeing):







4th & 5th July 2025
More time spent stripping, cleaning and priming engine parts ready for rebuild. Also fitted a new gearbox output oil seal.




15th – 22nd July 2025
Another brief post about recent build activity. A lot of painting of engine parts ready for fitting, and waiting for various service items to be delivered. New water pump fitted along with new timing belt and idlers. Engine then timed up following watching these two excellent YouTube videos:
A+ Racing’s Miata Cam Timing Tricks and Myths For The Beginner.
Project380 TIMING BELT AND WATER PUMP : MX5 Miata HOW TO.
As usual a few pics here of progress. I hope to get the gearbox, flywheel and clutch installed this coming weekend and finally reunite engine and gearbox. Who knows, they might make it into the car too!






23rd – 28th July 2025
Pretty straightforward few days:
- Renew gearbox input shaft oil seal.
- Hire engine hoist, take engine off of stand.
- Fit new crankshaft rear oil seal, fit oil pick-up, fit sump.
- Fit new lightened flywheel (4.2 kg), modify the clutch fork, fit new standard clutch and thrust bearing (don’t forget the moly grease!)
- Reunite engine and gearbox. This Sally McNulty YouTube video helped with this – good idea to use a ratchet strap as a handle for lifting the front of the gearbox.
- Fit into car with trolley jack to lift gearbox onto its rubber mount as the whole assembly slides in. A two person job as someone does need to feed the propshaft into the output of the gearbox whilst the engine is being lowered and pushed rearwards.
All went pretty well other than having to remove the gearbox again to grease the thrust bearing….doh! Also I’d recommend not fitting the crank angle sensor or alternator to the block before fitting the engine – just makes life a little easier.
Here are some pics:







